This evening, Simon was telling Oliver what he learned today about President Wilson.
Simon: He was a professor and then president at a college, and then Governor, and then President of the United States.
Oliver: That's right, and what did he teach? If I recall correctly, it was Political Science.
Simon: Yep, it was. And he got really sick while he was President.
Oliver: Oh yeah? Did he die while in office?
Simon: No, he was in bed.
Monday, February 22, 2010
A quiet moment
The days really fly by, and the few times I have to sit down and actually think about something don't come around that often. I get nostalgic when I look through old photos and I think "wow, Max was so little" or "aww, I remember when Emma did that" and can barely remember that time period. Sometimes I wish I could just slow it all down and file away more memories. Today I was holding Elliot and thinking how big he is already. I squeezed him and smelled him, and instantly remembered my other babies and their smells, and realized 'this is why we have so many kids'!! :) No more for us, though - we took care of that in December!
Today we spent the majority of the morning cleaning/organizing and vacuuming. Emma and Simon worked over his room while I did some of the same on the main floor. So many days I just fly through things and put this or that aside for another time to take care of it. I guess sometimes you have to actually take some time to do that. After lunch, we buckled down and went through some school work (including writing letters to Grandma, Grandpa, and Bert as practice for the proper way to do so), and now I'm preparing dinner and trying to keep things picked up!
I love the accomplishment of days like this - getting so much done is cathartic - but now I'm thinking about all the other stuff I really should be doing, like transferring information from calendars (I have 7 years of calendars set aside) to baby books, and more importantly, writing entries in the kids' memory books, which I haven't done in way too many months. I feel like I'm on a speeding train with my head hanging out the window!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Warm fuzzies
The high for today is -4 here in Nebraska. This photo makes me feel a little cozier! :) This is Elliot, 2 months old.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Elliot
We welcomed Elliot Jonas to our family on October 20th at 8:42pm. He was 8lbs 15ozs and 21" in length. We are all doing great, although very busy!! Here are some photos I took this morning: http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ElliotJonas#
More 'soon'! :)
More 'soon'! :)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
I was so excited last night. Haven't I said 'it's the little things'? We cleaned out the garage, wall to wall, and it looks so much better. It was totally a spur-of-the moment decision on my part - I started while Oly was taking Max for a bike ride to the coffee store, because I was completely sick and tired of stepping over everything and having to weave through things to get through the garage. And also, never being able to find anything!!
When Oly came home, he said two things: "whoa" to all the stuff in the driveway, and "it rained on my bikes" to the three bikes I had put out, and the 4 minute rain shower we had. He didn't even change out of his cycling clothes before he jumped in to help, though, and it went pretty quickly from there! We had several people slow down while driving by, or ask if we were having a garage sale. It did look like a completely unorganized "I threw all this crap on the driveway" sale, I guess. Someone even tried in earnest to buy Oly's motorcycle.
I will take photos when we are completely done, but one stall is completely his bike storage/work shop, which is what he has wanted for a couple of years. The other side is inevitable storage (you know, that stuff that gets shoved out to the garage when you don't have a dedicated storage castle), various non-bicycle tools, and the kids' bikes and other play stuff. Yeah, we haven't been able to park in there for a while, so I've kind of given up on that idea. Plus, our new van (when we finally get it) won't fit in there anyway.
We also moved several things out to the tool shed in the back yard, which, for 4 years has been the home of the lawnmower and the occasional rake/shovel. We put two plastic shelving units (that used to be in the garage) in the shed, and made use of a lot of space that had been wasted. We also moved the snowblower and the seed spreader out there, and even IT looks nice.
After we did most of the work, we took a break and sat in the hot tub for awhile while Sam slept and the kids played. We did a bit more off and on (mostly me putting away some of the stuff I'd brought in to be placed elsewhere, like our DVD collection and some baby stuff), and when Sam, Gus and Max went to bed, I cleaned out the wall units and finished up most of what I needed to do. When we had to move the wall units, it became apparent that there was no way I'd be able to help lift them, so I suggested we use an upside down rug on my side, and I'd drag it while Oly manuvered the other side. He said "I don't think that's going to work" and I said "can we just try it?" I'm so smart.
My van is packed with stuff to take to a friend's house for her garage sale next weekend, and we have filled our trash tote and two additional garbage cans, not including the 20some cans of latex paint that need to be dealt with. Hopefully Oly will get his bike storage stuff assembled today, too. Gotta keep the productivity flowing!
When Oly came home, he said two things: "whoa" to all the stuff in the driveway, and "it rained on my bikes" to the three bikes I had put out, and the 4 minute rain shower we had. He didn't even change out of his cycling clothes before he jumped in to help, though, and it went pretty quickly from there! We had several people slow down while driving by, or ask if we were having a garage sale. It did look like a completely unorganized "I threw all this crap on the driveway" sale, I guess. Someone even tried in earnest to buy Oly's motorcycle.
I will take photos when we are completely done, but one stall is completely his bike storage/work shop, which is what he has wanted for a couple of years. The other side is inevitable storage (you know, that stuff that gets shoved out to the garage when you don't have a dedicated storage castle), various non-bicycle tools, and the kids' bikes and other play stuff. Yeah, we haven't been able to park in there for a while, so I've kind of given up on that idea. Plus, our new van (when we finally get it) won't fit in there anyway.
We also moved several things out to the tool shed in the back yard, which, for 4 years has been the home of the lawnmower and the occasional rake/shovel. We put two plastic shelving units (that used to be in the garage) in the shed, and made use of a lot of space that had been wasted. We also moved the snowblower and the seed spreader out there, and even IT looks nice.
After we did most of the work, we took a break and sat in the hot tub for awhile while Sam slept and the kids played. We did a bit more off and on (mostly me putting away some of the stuff I'd brought in to be placed elsewhere, like our DVD collection and some baby stuff), and when Sam, Gus and Max went to bed, I cleaned out the wall units and finished up most of what I needed to do. When we had to move the wall units, it became apparent that there was no way I'd be able to help lift them, so I suggested we use an upside down rug on my side, and I'd drag it while Oly manuvered the other side. He said "I don't think that's going to work" and I said "can we just try it?" I'm so smart.
My van is packed with stuff to take to a friend's house for her garage sale next weekend, and we have filled our trash tote and two additional garbage cans, not including the 20some cans of latex paint that need to be dealt with. Hopefully Oly will get his bike storage stuff assembled today, too. Gotta keep the productivity flowing!
Friday, August 7, 2009
OCM
New photos are up! :) These are from today's field trip.
http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ChildrenSMuseumAugust2009#
http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ChildrenSMuseumAugust2009#
Our first week of homeschooling!
Wow. I can hardly believe how much fun I'm having, and how great Emma and Simon are doing. I was really worried that I'd have trouble getting them to accomplish things without a negative attitude. Not that either of them are particularly negative by any means, but the "aww, do I have to?" stuff I'd get, or putting it off, instead of the just sucking it up and doing it, which they'd do for a teacher.
We jumped into the first week with very eager attitudes and vigor! We (I) decided to take a 'unit studies' approach at first, to determine how organized (or not) we could be. Unit studies just seemed like the easiest way to figure things out, for me. So this week's topic was the human body (intentionally a ridiculously broad topic). I should mention that, a few weeks ago, I had them make a list of topics they'd like to focus on, as well as a list of things they want to learn about that might not be deep enough for a whole week (at grade school level). Simon's list of the latter consisted of: how bikes are made, how mocha machines are made, and how video games are made/written. Do you think he has much of an interest in his father? :)
So all week we've been doing various lessons/activites pertaining to various body parts/systems. We also checked out some Bill Nye videos (and tons of books) from the library, and they watched a few of those. We did a taste bud experiment, and a circulatory system experiment (learned to take their own pulses, and did resting heart rate, moderate exercise heart rate, and heavy exercise heart rate, and analyzed our findings). We did an experiment in the dark to see how much light affected how wide our pupils got, and how quickly they changed. They also had to write a report on any body part/system, and have me proofread it, and then re-copy it in their best handwriting. They both did an awesome job. Can you tell I'm so happy with our decision to homeschool? I know every week won't be this amazing, but I have to gush while I've got the steam. :)
We wrapped up this morning with a spelling test, and are going to take a field trip to the Omaha Children's Museum this afternoon, as they have an exhibit on how the body works. The spelling test was interesting to me, because they picked their own words, based on books they were reading on Monday, and the words were all difficult, especially for a 7 and 8 year old. They each made a list of 10-15 words and we scaled it down to a combined list of 16 (6 from each and 4 from me) and practiced them each day. On Wednesday we looked up definitions and made up sentences to go with them, and I quizzed them periodically throughout the week. Emma got 100% on the test today and Simon got 9/16. I thought he did a great job trying, and most of the words he missed were inverted letters or leaving one out, so really, not any worse than the average adult. :) Emma just has that ingrained desire and need to conquer (she totally gets that from Oliver), and Simon is like "eh, I did as good as I thought I should", which may or may not be from me. :)
Our list:
focus
biology
virus
available
immunity
energy
bacteria
fetus
tongue
process
progress
disease
infectious
development
substances
behavior
So, for those of you who have been asking, things are going great. And they're only getting better. (Sorry, couldn't resist!) I think, selfishly, one of my favorite parts about it is that I'm learning things again. I have to constantly look things up that I don't remember or I'm not sure about, and it feels really good to be gaining that knowledge back.
So anyway - happy weekend everyone! :)
We jumped into the first week with very eager attitudes and vigor! We (I) decided to take a 'unit studies' approach at first, to determine how organized (or not) we could be. Unit studies just seemed like the easiest way to figure things out, for me. So this week's topic was the human body (intentionally a ridiculously broad topic). I should mention that, a few weeks ago, I had them make a list of topics they'd like to focus on, as well as a list of things they want to learn about that might not be deep enough for a whole week (at grade school level). Simon's list of the latter consisted of: how bikes are made, how mocha machines are made, and how video games are made/written. Do you think he has much of an interest in his father? :)
So all week we've been doing various lessons/activites pertaining to various body parts/systems. We also checked out some Bill Nye videos (and tons of books) from the library, and they watched a few of those. We did a taste bud experiment, and a circulatory system experiment (learned to take their own pulses, and did resting heart rate, moderate exercise heart rate, and heavy exercise heart rate, and analyzed our findings). We did an experiment in the dark to see how much light affected how wide our pupils got, and how quickly they changed. They also had to write a report on any body part/system, and have me proofread it, and then re-copy it in their best handwriting. They both did an awesome job. Can you tell I'm so happy with our decision to homeschool? I know every week won't be this amazing, but I have to gush while I've got the steam. :)
We wrapped up this morning with a spelling test, and are going to take a field trip to the Omaha Children's Museum this afternoon, as they have an exhibit on how the body works. The spelling test was interesting to me, because they picked their own words, based on books they were reading on Monday, and the words were all difficult, especially for a 7 and 8 year old. They each made a list of 10-15 words and we scaled it down to a combined list of 16 (6 from each and 4 from me) and practiced them each day. On Wednesday we looked up definitions and made up sentences to go with them, and I quizzed them periodically throughout the week. Emma got 100% on the test today and Simon got 9/16. I thought he did a great job trying, and most of the words he missed were inverted letters or leaving one out, so really, not any worse than the average adult. :) Emma just has that ingrained desire and need to conquer (she totally gets that from Oliver), and Simon is like "eh, I did as good as I thought I should", which may or may not be from me. :)
Our list:
focus
biology
virus
available
immunity
energy
bacteria
fetus
tongue
process
progress
disease
infectious
development
substances
behavior
So, for those of you who have been asking, things are going great. And they're only getting better. (Sorry, couldn't resist!) I think, selfishly, one of my favorite parts about it is that I'm learning things again. I have to constantly look things up that I don't remember or I'm not sure about, and it feels really good to be gaining that knowledge back.
So anyway - happy weekend everyone! :)
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