Toileting Troubles

Poor Blake. We keep trying to work on his toilet training, but things keep coming along to interrupt. First, he came down with bronchitis. Then I took over the bathroom when I tiled it. Oh, and did I mention the bout of tummy troubles caused by (we later discovered) him drinking all of the juice boxes in our food storage?

So, even though we've been working on his toileting skills for almost two months, we haven't gotten too far. He pees on command, so much so that if he's really got to go and you tell him "Blakie, go pee" it starts dribbling down his legs. Poor kid. I try to tell him to go before that point though. He does usually stays dry for nap time, which is a bonus, but he still won't go number 2 or on his own. Oh well. He's still much easier then his sisters were. So far. Let's hope it stays that way.

How I Spent My Week off of School

A couple weeks ago, we took one of our scheduled breaks from homeschooling, and instead of relaxing, I went into overdrive.

I had discovered, to my chagrin, that my kids had flooded the bathroom one too many times. Luckily nothing was really damaged, but the vinyl floor tiles were pulling up and no longer protecting the places where the old linoleum no longer covered the particle board flooring underneath. Yup. Particle board. Oh, it had some sort of tarpaper like coating on top of it, but that was tearing away in places. So, something had to be done. And soon.

First I had to fix the small are that had been softened by the frequent flooding (no mold, luckily). Wood putty, sanding and sealer did the job. That was all done the week before in preparation for my "big job".

Yup. I tiled the bathroom floor over my week long break. Fun, huh? Well, actually, it kinda was.

Monday, I was pretty sick, so I spent it in bed preparing for the major work I knew I was getting myself into.

Tuesday I took easy and only tore apart the flooring, trim, and heater and washed everything down.

Wednesday is when it kicked into high gear. Seth helped me remove the toilet, then I set about preparing the floor for the backer board. I had to cut it to the right size (the boards are 3'x5') and maneuver them into place (not an easy task in a small room). Then, after dry fitting, I had to get back under them and smear the adhesive all over before laying them back down and screwing them in every eight inches.

Thursday, after taking Sierra to Options, I started working on the tile. There was a lot of cutting, nipping, and dry fitting to do. The nipping took the longest. I think I spent almost an hour alone on the tile that went under the toilet. I also had a lot of tiles that only needed 1/2 to 1 inch cut from the end, and because the rarely cut all the way, I had to nip those as well. By the end of the day, I had given my poor hands a couple of blisters, even though I had been wearing gloves. I was nipping the last pieces as Seth was putting the kids to bed. Once they were out of the way, I started mixing the thin mortar adhesive. Because I already had everything laid out, it didn't take too long to set the tiles, only a little over an hour, I think.

Friday, I was babysitting for a friend of mine who was out of town. Because I had her kids (the youngest only 1) all day, I didn't do too much. I just worked on preparing the baseboards for reattachment. One had to have a notch cut to fit the stop valve to the toilet. Another had to be recut to replace one that had split. I also repainted them while I was at it. Oh, and I finally found my camera. Then, after my friend's kids were picked up and mine were in bed, I grouted the floor. Took maybe half an hour. I was so pleased with myself.

Saturday. The day of caulk. I calked everything! There was the edge along the tub, the area under the heater, the spot under the toilet, and all along the walls and vanity. (We had previously had problems with the flood water dripping through those wall cracks into the basement, and I didn't want that to happen anymore.) Then, later in the day, I put back all of the baseboards.

Sunday, because I was tired of my kids using my bathroom, we put the toilet back. Yay!!!

What a week. But I must say, I'm quite proud of myself.

A Plate of My Own

About three weeks ago while I was at the store with the kids, we saw some of those character dinner wear sets. You know, the ones with Dora, Disney Princesses, Spider Man, Cars, Toy Story, Hello Kitty, etc. Well, my kids REALLY wanted them. Hmm. I actually had to think about that one.

In the end, I decided to buy the sets-Dora for Bailey, Hello Kitty for Sierra, and Toy Story for Blake. We made the deal, however, that they would have to take care of their own dishes, or I'd take them away. Sierra readily agreed. Bailey was a little more lukewarm to the idea of taking care of her stuff, but if it got her what she wanted. . . Blake, well, I didn't really expect him to wash his own.

Surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the better purchases I've made. In the past three weeks, our dish load has decreased by more then half. My kids, because they now know exactly who's cup is who's, only use one cup a day instead of three. Same goes for bowls and plates. We used to go through all of our cups and bowls in about two days. Now, we still have an almost full cupboard after three days with barely enough dishes to fill the dish washer. Very nice! And if my kids leave their stuff on the table, I know who to make clean it up. Oh, I help out a bit here and there, but even Blake cleans out his dishes as best he can. It's gotten to the point where I've decided to claim a cup, bowl, and plate of my own, and I'm even contemplating getting individual silverware sets for everyone as well (we go through spoons like mad).

I guess there's truth to the saying that sometime more is actually less.

Multiplication Sensation

It's late in coming, but I promised to tell you what I thought about the Multiplication Sensation CD and Book by Kid Clever. I found their Listen In Addition set at our local library and was so impressed that I bought both sets, hoping that the multiplication one would help Sierra in math.

Well, it's helped. A lot! We started listening to the CD in our car about two weeks before Sierra's math program introduced multiplication. I'm so glad we did! Sierra, instead of having a complete mental breakdown on being introduced to something new (her standard reaction), found herself only mildly uncomfortable. That feeling went away quickly, and in the three weeks since, I've yet to hear a complaint out of her as she does multiplication work. It really is amazing.

As a bonus, Bailey's become proficient at counting her nickels and dimes, something she'd been struggling with earlier.

What's even better is that both of my girls like showing off what they know. They can now do skip counting with 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 9s, 10s, 11s, and 12s, multiply by 0s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 11s without much thinking, and figure out their other times tables with a little thought. Not bad at all for 5 and 7 year olds.

And only one of the songs drives me crazy. It talks about a dragon dentist who likes to pull teeth. . . squirm.

It's been an absolutely wonderful find. Highly recommended.

Bon Appétit

I was exhausted today. So exhausted, in fact, that I took a long nap on the couch after school and woke up much too late to cook the dinner I had been planning on (stuffed green peppers and rolls). Eesh!!

But what else could I make for dinner? I wracked my brain for something quick and easy. Hamburgers? Sure, but that would still take some work on my part. Spaghetti? No. That didn't appeal to me either. Hmm. OK. Fish sticks. Yes! We had some in the freezer. Oh, and there was also a bag of salad in the fridge too! Sigh. That was easy enough, but I still didn't want to move. My body felt like lead.

Then I had a wonderful idea!

"Sierra," I called from the couch.

"Yes?" She peeked around through the kitchen door at me.

"Do you want to make dinner?"

She got really excited, chittering with her hands up by her face like a squirrel . "Uh huh. What can I make?"

"Fish sticks and salad."

"OK!" Then she stopped and thought for a second, her eyebrows furrowed. "But how do I open the oven?"

So, from my comfortable spot on the couch, I told her how to turn the oven to the right temperature, which she proudly did. Then, on her own, she busied herself getting the fish sticks from the freezer, spraying a pan, and laying them out. I told her that she had to wait for the second light to turn on before putting them in the oven, so while she waited, she set to work on the salad.

Sierra got out a bowl and the bag of salad, pulled down a can of olives, and went down stairs to get a can of mandarin oranges. She needed a little help with the can opener, but other then that, she did it all herself. And during the middle of this, she put the fish sticks in the oven and set the timer.

Well, the food was cooking and the salad was ready, so my almost eight year old then decided to set the table. That's when Bailey came in to help. They chattered away as they got enough plates for everyone.

And there I was still lying on the couch. Pathetic, I know. But the girls were happy. I did eventually get up to pull the pan out of the oven though.

Then, when everything was ready, I had Bailey go and tell her Daddy it was time for dinner. It was a good dinner. Especially when you consider it was made by an almost eight year old.

Oh, but it wasn't over yet. Sierra, elated by her success, decided to put all of the dishes away from the dish washer. Wow! Maybe I should have her cook more often.

Merry Christmas

Oh Christmas Tree

This year, because we were sticking around for the holidays and Blake was supposedly old enough to not nock it over, we decided to get a real Christmas tree. We thought it would be fun to make an event of it, so I started looking around for different options. There were tree farms, tree lots, the over abundant parking lot lots, and even the store lots. Well, OK. Nothing too exciting there. Then I stumbled upon the National Forest Christmas tree cutting program.

Every year, the National Forests give out permits for people to come and cut down their own Christmas trees during the first full week of December.

To do so, you have to have either 4 wheel drive or snow chains, and you can only cut down trees in designated areas with trunks less then 6 inches in diameter. Oh, and chainsaws aren't allowed. But it's quite inexpensive (only $10 per tree), and you can feel good about helping to thin the forests to a healthier level.

I was thrilled. I knew we probably wouldn't get that wonderful of a tree. After all, it would be natural, not pruned to grow a certain way like all of the farmed ones (though I did hope for something better then the Charlie Brown variety). Still, to go into the mountains, cut our own tree, haul it home, and set it up as a reminder of our trip was something that seemed totally worth it. Besides, you couldn't beet the freshness.

So, the first Saturday of December, we all got dressed in thermals, snow pants, snow boots, hats, gloves, and coats, loaded a couple sleds, water bottles, lunch, saw, ax, rope, a book on CD, and ourselves into our SUV, and headed off for the mountains. The site we were going to was north of Fort Collins near the Boy Scout Camp, a good hour and a half drive.

Our kids are good travelers, so there wan't much hassle on the drive. They even let us listen to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me program for the first half. Then we listened to Listen In Addition until we got there, eating lunch the last ten minutes or so of the drive.

At the "entrance" we were given a map of the cutting site, an activity book for the kids, and a chance to use the johns. Then we headed along the one way, snow packed road to find a likely spot for tree hunting.

There were a lot of people there, taking advantage of the warmer weather break between two ice storms. Site A was really crowded, and so was site B. We kept going to site C, where cars more spread out, found a small shoulder, and parked.

The kids were really excited. Once out of the car, they ran all over the place through the two foot deep snow. Bailey liked to be pulled on the sled I was dragging, but it was hard to maneuver due to all of the fallen logs and brush scattered all over. Eventually I just made her stay off. Blake and SIerra were running all over the place, getting stuck on occasion and having the time of their lives. It quickly became apparent that One of us would have to look for the tree while the other watched the kids. Guess who got which job.

Seth came back ten to fifteen minutes later with a few possible trees in mind, so we gathered up the kids and took a look. Most of the options were very bare on one side or more, or the wrong height. One had two trees growing from one trunk, which I really liked, but the base was too large to fit into our tree stand at home. There was one, however, that, though not perfect, we rather liked. It was about nine feet tall, relatively uniform in shape, and a softer pine variety. The kids were also starting to get tired and whiney, so we decided to claim it.

Seth took the ax to the base, which was only about two inches in diameter, and quickly cut it down while the kids sat close by to watch. Minutes later we were back at the car stripping off boots, coats, hats, and gloves, tying the tree to the the top of the car, and getting everyone situated. Then we followed the road to the exit where we once agin took a pit stop and payed for our tree.

Because it was our drowsy time of day, we put in a book on CD, The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker. Blake fell asleep quickly, but the book kept the rest of us suitably awake for the return drive.

We stopped at the McDonald's drive through in Fort Collins for an early dinner (Blake barely even twitching) and made it home close to 4pm.

We set up our tree soon after. After the lights and string of beads, we hung pine cones on it and simple plastic ornaments (though not too many). It's a bit sparse and has a bit of a figure 8 shape to it, but I like it a lot. I think it's grown on me. Now, if only I can remember to water it every day. . .