icatlin.com

Well I made the great adventure across 5 states...Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and into Alabama, with my 4 little girls.  I think I deserve some kind of mommy award for traveling alone with my kids like that.  So right now I am sitting in my mom and dad's house in Harvest, AL,  with Jon and Kate plus 8 playing silently in the back ground as my 4 little angels snooze away a hard day's play in their beds.  My folks have spent many years living on a military salary.  My dad has been retired for 8 or 9 years now and they finally can see the fruits of their labor.  Their home is beautiful and there is plenty of room for me and my brother to come at Christmas with our families.  Together we have 6 kids plus his wife and my husband.  It will be a bustling house full, but I am really looking forward to it.  Our babies our just three weeks apart and his 7 year old is 8 weeks older than my 7 year old.  So they are great friends.  

Our friends Tom and Shannan have 2 month old triplets.  They live in Independence, MO, so we don't see them as often as we would like.  The babies are all home and doing well.  We stayed for only about 3 hours and I have to tell you it was pretty non stop baby care for them.  Shannan even said it was a calm 3 hours.  I think they are doing a great job.  They seem to be very calm and in control.  I can't even begin to fathom what it would be like to care for 3 little people 24 hours a day, but they seem to be pros at it already.  The babies are all adorable.  I am so excited to watch them grow.  It will be really cool to get to know their personalities and find out who they really are!

DSCN1029.JPG

DSCN1021.JPG

DSCN1023.JPG

DSCN1020.JPG

DSCN1016.JPG

DSCN1015.JPG

I am excited to say that we will be starting Lawrence Virtual School on August 11th.  I am both excited and nervous about the school.  I am excited because I will know the kids are doing every thing they need to and then some.  They will be doing more lessons each day.  The curriculum sets its pace with the child.  Though we will have to finish the entirety of each subject in order to be accepted into the next grade, mastery is the key.  They must master each individual lesson to go to the next.  I am nervous because I am not famous for being a good time manager.  I know we can do it, but teaching kids at home is a full time job.  Some hard core home schoolers say that virtual school students aren't being home schooled.  I don't think they know that you have to teach every lesson.  I will still view myself as a home school mom.  I am just choosing a high tech curriculum that happens to be provided by a public school.  

When ever I don't have any thing to say.  I like to say what I had for breakfast.  Yes, it is stupid, but you learn so much about people when they post what they had for breakfast.  So consider this like one of those "get to know your friends" emails.  Just optional.   You know you chose to look at my blog.  I didn't forward this to your email.  

We made these shirts yesterday.  The kids had a great time.  Today we went to breakfast at our favorite local place, bought some appliances on sale at Lowe's, went to see WALL-E and stayed up really late watching fire works down town.  I love spending time with just the 6 of us.  It is so sweet!

DSCN0918.JPG

1 comment

DSCN0927.JPG

DSCN0928.JPG

DSCN0925.JPG

DSCN0924.JPG

DSCN0942.JPG

Well it seems that we will be home bound for a few days.  My vaccinated children came in contact with an unvaccinated child who had shingles.  (Isn't this why we have modern medicine?)  So now they have a mild case of the chicken pox.  So though they, at this point, feel fine, they have to stay home.  They have the pox, little to no itching, just the actual pox.  So we have to stay home so not to spread it to other non-suspecting families.  That is how you do it you know.  When you are aware you have an infectious disease you stay home.  If your children do (or could possibly still be contagious,) you don't let them...ahh lets say SPEND THE NIGHT with other children.  I had no idea that shingles could lead to chicken pox.  I know, I know, not that big of a deal.  My kids will be fine.  Would you want to stay in the same house for 5-7 days with four children.  That is the time frame if the other two don't get it.  I wish people would be considerate of others and keep their diseases to themselves.

1.  I never share dairy products.  This comes from something my brother once said when I was maybe 12.  I had gotten up one morning and made myself a glass of chocolate milk.  I made too much.  When I asked him if he would like the rest, her responded "not after you woke up and slobbered in it."  Ever since then the idea of some one's slobber in milk, ice cream, yogurt or any dairy food just grosses me out. 

Ok, well I have to do this again.  Today's breakfast was especially funny.  I woke up LATE this morning.  I guess that would be expected when I went to bed at 1:00, got up with the baby at 2:00 then let her stay in my bed for the rest of the, errr morning.  So I was in the bathroom groggily pulling my hair back into a pony tail when Gloria comes in and asks if I would like to share her cereal.  She proudly announced that she poured her own cereal, with milk, but it was "a little too much."  I came down stairs to find an overflowing bowl of fruit loops waiting my arrival.  Being the proud member of the Clean Your Plate generation that I am, I poured half the mushy mess into a second bowl and ate it.  Now this may not seem a big deal to most but I have very strict food sharing rules.  One being I never share a dairy product. I can't believe I ate that.