Random Five...on Saturday

What a crazy week!

1. The Great Declutter continues.  I'm making progress, though.  I've finally finished one corner of the school room, and the boys have a new reading nook.  They managed to share seven whole minutes before they began bickering over whose turn it was.

2.  Speaking of reading, isn't it awesome when kids want to read more?  This week, Damien finished My Father's Dragon and asked for the sequels.  Jude is expected to read for half an hour a day, and was partway through when he finished the Magic Tree House series book he was reading.  He jumped up and yelled, "STOP THE TIMER!!!  I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!" and ran for the next volume!

3.  Matthew has been on KP duty this week. We've been working on recipes from MyFreezEasy for a future review.  So far, we've made four recipes and they're all keepers.  It's also nice having a few nights off.

4.  Jude also had a turn in the kitchen.  He made comfits almost like the ones in Alice's pocket when she fell into the hole. Hers had currants, but since we didn't have any in the cupboard, we swapped mini-chocolate chips.

5.  I'm hopeful that next week I'll get further on my to-do list.  One of the things is to start editing my pictures from our summer trip so I can start sorting them into blog posts.



©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 on Friday Sept. 23

1. I am going to get organized if it's the last thing I do.  If you've seen my house lately, it could very well be.  The first thing I did was attempt to get the school room back under control.  We had two old chairs that were beyond my repair skills, so the big boys and I hauled them out.  The boys decided the chairs needed one last sit-in on our "redneck back porch."

2.  For the past two weeks, I've been working on decluttering.  One bag or box a day is my goal until I've purged all the excess.  I've sent some outgrown things to my nephews, and Neal took several bags to the donation box this week.  The good news is I've made progress on closets and dressers, clearing out things that don't fit very well or are unwearably old (you know, the shirts that are faded and misshapen but you keep them anyway). The bad news is one more round and I'll be naked.

3. I finally remembered to call the piano tuner.  He raised the pitch and assessed the major work, and has to come back to fine tune it and fix the one broken key.  It sounds so much better already.

4.  I've started trying a new (to me) organizing system called a bullet journal.  I've been in search of the "perfect" planner for a long time, but I haven't found one.  Maybe making my own will be the ticket!  It's only been a week, but I've gotten more accomplished than ever.  That's probably because I've remembered to do things because I'm writing them down in one spot.  I'm also enjoying the creative aspect of it -- yesterday, I tried drawing a mandala while I waited for Jude to finish his math test.

5.   Jude asked me today when are we putting our fall decorations out.  Hopefully, that will happen this weekend, and not only will we be really ready for fall, but another corner will be cleaned out and tidied up!

Have a great week!

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 on Friday - October 9

I rarely write about Neal here...usually I'm so busy focusing on the boys and school that I forget that we are a homeschool family.  Since it's our 18th wedding anniversary this weekend, I thought I'd share a bit about how our family began.

1.  Neal and I met at Temple University.  We met over the then new-fangled school intranet.  When you registered for a school account, you got to pick a screen name. Mine was super-creative.  I chose "meg" -- you'd think an arts major would have a little more creativity.  He chose "spawn", the name of a less-popular comic book series. I happened to know it because a high school friend collected those.  I impressed him with my knowledge, virtually introducing myself and saying "Is that Spawn, like the comic book?" That was about all I knew, so thankfully he didn't ask me detailed questions about the series!

2.  Our first date was on May 11, 1995. The next day, he came to a family party.  After meeting him, my grandmother embarrassed the daylights out of my by saying I should marry him.  Gram must have had inside information -- May 11 was her wedding anniversary.

3.  We took only one class together in college.  He was a business major, and I studied Theater and English.  There was only one writing class that both of us could take as an elective.  I wish I could say it was a super-interesting class, but in reality...I think we wrote more wedding planning notes than class notes.  We both got As though. 

4. Neal's mom is a convert to Catholicism from Judaism. When we decided on a wedding date, we originally wanted to get married in September 1997. Unfortunately, my church was booked every Saturday, unless we wanted a 10 am wedding.  We definitely wanted late afternoon (his family was coming from about an hour away), so we pushed it back to October 11. It wasn't until about three months before the wedding that I realized we had chosen the afternoon of Yom Kippur to get married.  His family loves him...we had quite a few Jewish relatives attend the Mass.

5. We both love theater, especially musicals.  Sometimes we even converse in song lyrics.   Although we didn't take the class together, we both took the same Theater class. We're also both big Billy Joel fans.  Someday, we'll make it to a concert and he'll play our wedding dance song, "To Make You Feel My Love." 

Happy anniversary, honey!  I love you!


©2012- 2015 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 on Friday - Spring Break Edition

The kids thought "Spring Break" meant no school.  NOPE!  Not when you're a homeschooler!  Even vacation becomes a giant field trip.

1.  Juan Poncé de Leon sailed from Cuba to Florida and landed on April 3, 1513.   He was actually in search of the island of Bimini and the Fountain of Youth.  We learned that he claimed "all the land" between the Rio Grande and Labrador for Spain, naming it "La Florida" in honor of the Easter festival.  That means New Jersey is technically "Central Florida." Based on our weather...I don't think so.

This statue of Poncé de Leon is larger than life.  In stocking feet, he was only 4' 11" tall; his boots and hat made him a still-not-imposing 5'3". 


2.  We learned that St. Augustine is celebrating its 450th anniversary this year.  It's this country's oldest continuously occupied settlement.  It was settled by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, and historians are fairly certain of where he and his crew made landfall, due to several carefully drawn maps.  The 208 foot cross - the tallest in the world -  that marks their landing was a gift to the city from the Vatican for the city's 400th anniversary in 1966.

3.  We've seen several musket firings in our travels, including at Fort Necessity (PA) and Fort Erie (Canada).  However, they are practically a whisper compared to this cannon demonstration at the Castillo de San Marco.  Boom!

4.  After our visit at St. Augustine, we drove over to Disney World.  Luke is studying church architecture, and compared the Stavkirke (Stave Church) in Epcot's Norway with the ones in his lecture.  His verdict: allowing for things like local building codes, it's a pretty close match to the originals.  (Look for his post about stave churches soon!)

5.  Jude got lots of reading practice.  He read menus, he read the destinations on bus signs, and he had lots of opportunity to read details in stand-by queues.   This one is from Muppet Vision 3-D.

Kermit isn't joking...there really is a key under the mat.

Back home and back to work next week - heading down the home stretch to summer!

Random 5 - February 6

It's FRIDAY!!  Is everybody doing the Happy Dance?  I sure am!

5 gems overheard in our house this week:

1. Nice try, buddy...but it didn't work.

Jude: I can't do this. I'm just a child.
Me: Who is smart.
Jude: I'm just pretending to be smart. I'm fake smart.


2.  Some holidays deserve more respect:
 
Jude: I can't do schoolwork! It's Groundhog Day! It's a holiday!

 Yes, he still had to do work.

3. Neal had back surgery about 10 days ago, and is recuperating mostly in bed because that's where he can get into a comfortable position.   Overheard at dinnertime:

Me to Luke: Can you babysit the (cooking) hamburgers while I run a tray up to dad?
Damien: I'll babysit the potato chips!

4.  I was trying to explain Social Security and the shortfall to Luke using examples a teen boy would understand:

Say everyone at the Warehouse pays into a kitty for birthday parties, and one person shops for cake. The guarantee is you get cake now on your birthday (the "disability-when-you-qualify" angle), plus if you retire, you still get cake for life ("retirement benefit"). Pop pays his $10/month for years, then retires. You still have to buy him cake (because you promised), but you're now short his $10 every month. How will you make it up? Buy him a cheaper cake, or everybody say, "OK, there are 6 of us still here, everybody chip in another 2 bucks."

5.  Jude's been doing a lot of sensory seeking this week.   He's been running in circles, and jumping on the mini-trampoline in the basement.  For something different, I hooked up his net swing.

"It was a dark and stimmy night."

Come on over to The Pebble Pond  and join the party!


©2012- 2015 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 - September 26

This week's Random 5:

1.   Two more weeks until our Fall break!  I think we can, I think we can... We skipped a summer break in order to take off in October when dear friends come to visit, and we're now playing "beat the clock."  Can we finish this unit?  What else can we squash in, so we hit a good stopping point? This is the farthest out I've ever planned lessons, because I want to make sure it all lines up right.

2.  This is post no. 3 for this week, so I've met my blogging goal for the week.  YAY!!  I want to get into the habit of posting three days each week.  We'll see if I can keep it going, but hey, baby steps!

3. Do boys ever stop eating?  The last three Fridays, I've gone grocery shopping after Jude's PT appointment.  I bring it home, put it away, and we can't budge in the fridge.  By Tuesday there are gaping holes.

4.   Tomorrow is my mom's family's reunion.  I'm excited to go and catch up with everyone!  Many of us are friends on Facebook, but there's nothing like seeing people in person!  We should try to figure out just how many Danks descendents there are these days...I don't even know where to begin guessing how many cousins there are!




5. I'm so proud of Jude.  Today was his first phonics test, and he aced it!  He wants to read, and he's really trying.  Things are starting to click!

 Come join the party at the Pebble Pond!




©2012- 2014 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 on Friday - September 5th

Normally on Fridays I pull all the random things from our week together to share.  This go-around, Jude totally preempts with the insightful but crazy things he's said this week.   I love this kid!

1.  He's very concerned that he won't be able to learn everything because his brain isn't big enough.  I told him the more he learned, the more his head would grow.  After every activity, he asked "Is it bigger yet?  Mommy, you must be a genius because your head is like a giant, only you don't live up a beanstalk."

2.  Upon seeing a donation jar with a few "starter" coins: "Hey!  I have some of those at home in my money collection." 

3. Working on phonics, listening for ending sounds.  The sound was /v/, the word was love.  Jude's commentary: "Love is gross. And it hurts."

4. When called to the table to start his work: "You made me stop playing video games to do schoolwork. I wish you would stop doing that."

5.  Going to bed after a frustrating evening: "I'm a stupid genius."


Come join the party over at The Pebble Pond!

Random 5 on Friday - August 29

It's Friday, it's Friday...are you doing the "Holiday Weekend Happy Dance" too?   Five Random thoughts on our week...

1.  I'm in the middle of organizing another giant "field trip."  My maid of honor and her husband are coming from Australia to visit in October - I'm so excited because we haven't seen each other in 14 years!! We've been doing schoolwork all summer so we can take the three weeks they are here off and cram in as much sightseeing as we can.  Jo and I were trying to figure out our routes, and Brendan kept adding new places to the itinerary.  When we figured out a Niagara Falls-Cleveland-Gettysburg loop, he yelled "What about the groundhog?  Can we go see Phil?"  I'm not sure we will see the Prognosticator of Prognosticators, but yes, we're going to detour and drive through Punxsutawney. 

2.  Jude went to the eye doctor, and needs a major prescription change. He was disappointed the eyeglass shop didn't have the same red, white, and blue "Captain America" frames.  (They're not really "official" ones - just how we sold them to him last winter when his favorite "just blue" were not available.)  He is very happy with the black-framed "Clark Kent" glasses we ordered.  Once he starts wearing them, nobody will know he's really Superman. 

3.  I am so looking forward to Celia going back to school.  She needs her friends, and we all need a routine.  I'm such a fly-by-my pants girl that it's crazy to me that I'm craving organization.  It's been chaos since June. 

4. Neal sometimes bring produce home from work - usually it's stuff that is perfect for eating but too ripe to sell to market. He texted me and said somebody gave them some pineapple.  I didn't realize New Jersey switched places with Hawaii, but I'm OK with that!  (It's not local, but it's still yummy!)

5.  A conversation in our house:

Damien: I'm out of underwear.
Me: I know it's been washed!  Check with Jude - maybe your stuff is in his drawer.
Damien: Jude! Give me your underwear!
Jude: Mom, do I have to? I'm not giving him my favorite Power Ranger underpants. 

Happy Friday!  Come join the fun at The Pebble Pond!




©2012- 2014 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 - July 25

It's Friday! My Random 5 thoughts for this week...

1. We had a fantastic time last week on our big history trip. Highlights include Fort McHenry, South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, Fort Necessity, and the Flight 93 Memorial. We even hiked several sections of the Appalachian Trail. I feel like a time traveler!

Fort McHenry, Baltimore MD

Washington Monument, South Mountain MD

Cunningham Falls Park, Cactotin Mountains, MD

Gettysburg Battlefield, PA

Flight 93 Crash Zone, PA

2. PT is paying off for Matthew. This week at Karate he had perfect form for push ups (no sagging belly) and "Supermans." His stamina is increasing too. For a reward, his therapist let him try the much-anticipated climbing tread wall, and he did a whole minute on his first time!

3. I loathe when the hospital alarms go off. Praying for the child and family involved in the Code Blue called as I write this.

4. Thursday was Damien's 4th birthday! I can't believe my baby is so big! 

5. I feel like a sailor on shore leave, crashing my way though the internet ordering bits and pieces if curriculum. I think we are almost done! The great thing about unit studies is you can pick-and-choose the resources you want; the flip side is they never seem to be all at one site! 

How was your week? 

PS - Merry Christmas! 

Random 5 - June 27

I keep trying to join up with the Random 5 link-up, but I never realize Friday has happened until Saturday morning.  This time...I remembered in time!

Seeing Wicked with Luke/2012

1.  We're still celebrating Christmas! This weekend we are making good on our IOU for Matthew's big Christmas gift -- tickets to see Wicked on Broadway.  He's wanted to see it since Luke came home from his 8th grade trip singing it, so we're finally going.  It was supposed to be just "One Short Day in the Emerald City" with Matthew, Dad, and Mom, but one of Neal's suppliers gave us Yankees-Red Sox tickets so Luke is going, too.  Mimie (Neal's mom) will be the interim chief ketchup-reacher.  Celia is planning a Monopoly marathon.

2.  This was our first week of homeschooling Matthew.  I know the shiny will eventually wear off, but I'm really impressed with his motivated attitude!  On Monday, he was looking for his work before I was even awake.  Luke and Jude explained the Golden Ground Rule: Don't ask mom for anything before she's had coffee!

3.  Our dishwasher is broken.  Again.  *sigh*  I called for the warranty people to send someone out, and we were scheduled for Saturday with a request for our regular tech, Randy.  (I figure he's already taken it apart and put it back together at least eight times...might as well keep him busy.)   Around 3 pm, a different tech called and said he was on his way to fix our refrigerator.  Refrigerator?  Several phone calls and another day of waiting later, we had a dishwasher tech out.  I had to go to an appointment with Neal, so Mimie came to let him in.  I said to Luke, "Was it Randy?"  He had no idea.  I asked Celia, and she didn't know.  Finally, I went to my ace reporter Jude, "Jude, did Mr. Randy fix the dishwasher?"  "No, but he came to visit and said he'd come back and see me soon."

4. We had an interview with a reporter, and then photographer from the local paper came to visit this week. There's going to be an article about the cost of feeding food allergic children, and we were asked to take part.  I always forget that the costs are so shocking -- by now, my FA friends and I are numb to them.  I thought the reporter was going to have a stroke when she heard what our grocery bill was.
 

 5.  Did you see my post earlier this week about a Fundraiser I'm hosting?  Freida is an awesome little girl who is trying to raise money for a service dog.  The sale is over, but the fundraiser party is still going, so if you'd like to purchase a Lilla Rose clip for a good cause, then please come over!  (Note: The purchase link is an affilliate link.  Come help a good cause, AND give Luke homework - our business is his microeconomics course!)



©2012- 2014 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random 5 on Friday - May 16

 Note: This post contains affiliate links.  Every Lilla Rose purchase from our business gives Luke more economics homework -- pile it on!


Happy Friday! It's the weekend!!

1.  I didn't get a chance to share last week, so my first random sharing is actually from last week.  Matthew & Celia's school sponsored a Coach Bag Bingo, and we donated a basket with Lilla Rose products.  We included Flexis, a scarf, and a gift certificate.  Jude wanted to help with the cellophane wrap -- he's a mean hairdryer wielder!

Mom and I also went to play.  We brought our little "good luck" charms (the bear on the left is hers, Stuffy (from Doc McStuffins) was mine, but they weren't for sharing luck.  Oh well -- but we had a great time anyway! 

2. For Mother's Day, we went plant shopping!  I decided I wanted to go to one of Neal's farmers' markets.  We headed up to Tabernacle, NJ and came home with a trunk full of tomato, green bean, melon, and herb plants.

I spent the rest of the day playing in the dirt, and got everything planted.  My bean plants are already double the size they were last week! I really hope I get some great stuff this summer -- and enough tomatoes to put up.  Neal will probably have to buy me a couple of cases from farmers, but we're almost out of the tomatoes I put up last year!

3. Our strawberry plants have started producing berries!  Damien helped himself to the first one of the season!

 4.  Neal and the big kids went to the Phillies-Angels game this week.  They got to see Mike Trout play.  He's a local guy who plays for the Angels, and has really done a lot to help support our school.  Recently he came to the school and the students got to meet him -- he's such a nice guy! The Phils lost (again!) but they had a good time at the game.  There was also a Home & School meeting the same night that I had to miss.  Judging by how many ECA students were at the game, I think maybe the meeting should have been held there!

5.  Jude has a new bedtime "stall."  It goes like this.

Tell joke:  "What do you call a cow with no legs?  Ground beef!!"
Collapse into giggles.
Compose himself.
Repeat.

Luke's response:

"What do you call a cow with no legs?  Nothing -- he's not going to come when he's called anyway."


Thank you!  We'll be here all week!  Try the veal...the chicken still has his feet and crossed the road, so that's all we got!








©2012- 2014 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Random Five - April 4

The best part of this week is having had Tuesday to stay home from the hospital!  Jude was discharged from PT and OT for the summer (he's made some fantastic progress), so we only had to go to therapy on Thursday.  That alone made it a great week, but we still had other fun!

1.  Celia had her BFF for a sleepover on Friday night.  On Saturday afternoon, Neal and I took them out to lunch.  On the way home, we thought it was awful quiet in the back.  I saw this:

2. Karate class whooped Matthew this week.

3.  Jude spilled a little juice.  Waste not, want not?

 4.  This was week 6 of the little boys' pool group.  The instructor is also our Physical Therapist.  She said she should have made Luke a certificate, too - one to celebrate Damien didn't drown!

5.  Neal, Luke & Matthew went to see Captain America.  Jude was disappointed he was too little, so instead we made popcorn and watched a movie at home.  He got to choose which one, and opted for Toy Story 3. 

(Yes, that's a colander/strainer instead of a lid.  This way the popcorn stays in, but steam comes out and doesn't make it soggy)!

What random things happened in your week? Come share at The Pebble Pond!



©2012- 2014 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com