First Day of School 2013

One of the things about living in Washington State is the first day of school is AFTER Labor Day. So in August when all my family and friends are posting First Day of School photos of their kids, mine at still sitting in the pajamas playing X-box or watching movies. And by the time September rolls around they are all in the daily grind and my 1st day photos are a little late. I love getting the comments,:

"Oh you are just getting around to posting these?"  No, today is our 1st day of school....... "Really? Today? You start school in September?"  It isn't just us, most families around here start now too. "Mmmmmmm,"  Trust me people if you lived in a state where the sun shines pretty much only in August, you wouldn't be in a hurry to send them to school either. And on the flip side, my kids don't get out of school until mid-June.

So first day of School Photos:

Starting with Mac:

This is progression of my oldest son: 

Left: Last day of 5th grade

Middle: 1st day of 8th grade

Right: 1st day of 9th grade (or High School)

Next is Garrett:

Left: 1st day of 7th Grade

Right: 1st day of 8th grade

Keegan is up next:

Left: 1st day of 5th Grade

Right: 1st day of 6th grade (or Middle School)

Sullivan is next: 

Left: 1st day of Kindergarten

Right: 1st day of 1st grade

And finally Finn: 

Left: 1st day of School 2012 

Right: 1st day of School 2013

If you remember Finn is NOT starting kindergarten this year. We are waiting until NEXT year. He gets to stay at home and play...

Book Reviews:

I read two books this week. To be honest,  I read four books this week including the last two Harry Potter books; but you don't want to hear about my Harry Potter obsession. If you know anything about Harry Potter, then the name of my blog is clue enough.

The first book was The Immortal Life Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta and her "HeLa" cells were in the news last week. And most articles that I read only made me ask more questions. So I used the overdrive on-line Library from the SnoIsle Library and downloaded the book. I found it to be a very interesting read. The author did a great job describing the Lacks family and Henrietta. Both seemed to leap off the page and and come alive to me. I had no problem understanding the science presented in to the book. I have just a basic understanding  (high school and some college) of science. I had no previous understanding of the way cells were cultured, early 20th century cancer treatments, the history of cancer research, the merging of cells or even the ethics behind this science. I'm not going to post a lot of personal thoughts on HeLa, the Lack family or John Hopkins. I'm not going to turn this blog into an ethical debate about past and current medical practices. I will say that I'm extremely thankful to Henrietta, her family and the doctors that have made good out of HeLa. Henrietta Lacks was an amazing person and after reading this book it should not surprise you that her HeLa cells are amazing too. If you want more information about Henrietta and HeLa than a simple article can contain, then this book would be worth your time.

The second book I read was Rose Harbor in Bloom by Debbie Macomber (pronounced May-Comber, not Mac-Comber like I had always thought.) Rose Harbor in Bloom is the 2nd full length book in Debbie Macomber's Rose Harbor series. (There are also two short stories that accompany this series). I'll be honest, I'm a huge Macomber fan, but her last two books, Starting Now: A Blossom Street Novel and Angels at the Table were less than spectacular. In fact her last book was so bad I was tempted to write a bad review on Amazon. So I was a bit sceptical when starting Rose Harbor in Bloom, I didn't know what to expect,  the Debbie Macomber I adored OR the Debbie Macomber that made think she hired a ghostwriter to finish her novel. I was pleasantly surprised though. Rose Harbor in Bloom brings out what I think is the best part of Macomber's writing, the weaving of several stories together. We start out at the Inn of Rose Harbor, a bread and breakfast, in Cedar Cove, Washington. (BTW: A shout out to the Cedar Cove series on the Hallmark channel, Saturdays evenings. I can't tell you the exact time because we have DirecTv and all the channels but the local channels are set up on eastern time.) This book, like the first book, The Inn at Rose Harbor, follows the story of Jo Marie, a widow who runs the bed and breakfast, and her guests. There at three storylines this time, a cancer patient, a party planner planning her grandparent's 50th anniversary and of course Jo Marie's on going story. I'll be honest this book touched me, one scene in particular moved me to tears. (Ok, single tear running down my face, but the last book that did that was Death at SeaWorld. )

I also managed to read Eloisa James's Once Upon a Tower, since I wrote this post Wednesday afternoon and today. (Friday morning) It was great! I enjoyed it a lot. 

I have no idea what I'm going to be reading next. I've finished my yearly Harry Potter read. (Every July in honor of Harry's birthday.) It is a bit too early to start the Percy Jackson series to prepare for the release of Rick Riordan's House of Hades, October 8. Julia Quinn's new novel, The Sum of All Kisses, doesn't come out until the end of October. Maybe someone can make a suggestion.

BUSY BAGS

I homeschool 4 of my 5 boys. And that is an adventure! I grew up thinking homeschool was a bad idea, after three years of homeschooling my boys I don't want things to change. I do admit it is NOT for everyone. And it can be hard! Very hard! Very, very hard! People always talk about teenaged girls and their hormones and mood swings and not much is said about teenage boys. Well boys have their mood swings and hormones fluxs too, it is just different than girls.

So my only homeschool hold out is my "baby" Finn. (and Finn wants me to let everyone know he is NOT a baby.) Finn just turned 5 in July and is a bit of a free spirit. He thinks he is Batman (at least part of the time.) and loves to play with his Imaginext Batman/Super Hero toys and cars. He could care less about schooling UNLESS I'm trying to get school done with the other 4. Last year when Sully was "in" kindergarten, Finn would often sit with us and "do" the activities too. He wanted to write on the dry erase board, count out the tally sticks in Math, work on his own Explode the Fish (Get Ready for the Code book 1) workbook and play ABCMouse.com. This year I have the choice of starting him in kindergarten or letting him have 1 last year of play. When I compare Finn to his older brothers, he is somewhere between McCrea, Garrett, and Sully, who each have their own kindergarten story. This time last year Sully (1 years and 2 weeks older than Finn) could write his name, name all the letters and most of their sounds and was counting nonstop.(Finn has no interest in doing any of the above.) We felt that Sully was ready for kindergarten, however we were wrong. Sully went through this super clingy stage and plateaued out of learning. Only now a year later, is Sully making any progress reading and will go to the "Elementary Classroom" at church. If I could do things over, I would give Sully his extra year of play. So Finn won't start kindergarten this year. There will be no lunch box, no rain coat, or backpack and  no climbing onto the big yellow bus and riding to school. (All things Finn says he wants to do. Finn tells me he doesn't want to be homeschooled, he is going to school on the bus.) However Finn does need some activities to keep him busy (and semi quiet) while his brothers work. If I left it up to Finn, he would watch Batman and play the Ipad all day long, which doesn't work for me.

So I searched Pinterest for "Quiet Bags", "Busy Bags" and "Preschool Boxes". And I got a LOT of results. My first stop was at allofourdays blog. And I was impressed! These bags seems simple enough and fun. I'll be honest, I paid the $3.00 for the download. (Which puts all the ideas at your fingertips for easy access.) After I get done making the bags, I'll figure out how much per bag, it cost. (but if you make all 16 bags it comes out to about 19 cents a bag.) After reading and trying to figure things out, I started printing. (Bad idea.). The first bag is a bean sorting bag, looks pretty easy.(I recruit all my boys to help.) I look at all the supplies and I have them. I send one boys to get the beans and an egg carton and get to work. I get the egg carton with no problems, but he can't find the beans. (I know I have Bean soup in the pantry.) I send another kid down and still no beans. I have finished all the instructions except for the beans and the kids are still looking. I go downstairs and NO beans. (The bag must have walked off.) Project 2 is cute but looking at the instructions, I know I don't have all the supplies. (Most importantly little foam blocks that the blogger says I can get at dollar tree.) So I keep on working. I cut the label and tape it to the bag and go on to the "Shape Cards".  It turns out SOME of these cards and supplies need to be printed on card stock and others on regular paper. (I just printed the first three bag files.) Then it is suggested I laminate many of the cards, so they last longer. So I placed an order at Amazon for a laminator and laminate bags. (about $35.00 with Amazon Prime). I go back to the instructions and get to work.  So we go on to project 3, a rainbow in a bag. I need rainbow colored felt, I don't have rainbow colored felt. I do have mostly rainbow colored foam, so I use that and start cutting out the pattern pieces and foam. I'm missing orange and purple, so we paint those two pieces and my 3rd busy bag is looking good. After all of this I do actually look at the rest of the directions for the other 13 bags. I'm going to need card stock and my laminator, plus a few other supplies. I also look for a few other ideas and I make a shopping list and load up all five boys (because they are sneaking video games while I'm gone) and head to Monroe. We hit Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree, Lowes, Staples and Goodwill. (and my boys can't ALL behave at any one store.) I have to drag Finn out of Goodwill kicking and screaming because I won't buy him a toy. Sully nearly knocks me down at Staples, because he is ready to go. And my Dollar Tree does NOT have little foam blocks! After this trip I needed some chocolate and advil before I could finish.


The bags I made:

Bag # 1:  Bean Sorting :

  Supplies
1.Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2.1/2 bag 16 Bean Soup ($0.65),
3. Container for beans ($0.50)
4. Egg Carton (free)
5. Project Sheet (.20)

total cost: $1.55

Bag # 2: Block puzzles

Bag #3: Rainbow in a Bag:

Supplies:
1. Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2.Foam (I had it left over so Free)
3. Paint (Again left over.)
4. Background
5.Project Sheet (.20)
total cost:

Bag #4: Paint Chip Color shades

Supplies:
1. Paint Chips (Free!)
2. Background:
3.Project Sheet (.20)
total cost:

Bag #5: Color Sorting

Supplies:
1.Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2.  50 Counting Bears with 5 Cups  ($8.80)
3.Project Sheet (.20)
total: $9.20

 Bag #6: Pattern Tower

Supplies: 

1. Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2.Math Link Cubes (100) (We are only using half for this bag so $6.34)
3. Pattern Cards (?)
4.Project Sheet (.20)
Total:

Bag #7: Pom-pom Stuffing:

Supplies:
1. Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2. Pompoms: ($.50)
3. Parmesan Cheese Container (free)
4.Project Sheet (.20)
Total:  $0.90

Bag #8:Tower counting:

Supplies:
1. Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2. Jenga blocks (I get mine at Goodwill on Mondays for 1.29. It took 1 whole box plus 1 extra block for 55 blocks. so $1.35)
3. Counting Cards
4.Project Sheet (.20)

Bag #9: Noodle Strings 

Supplies:
1. Gallon ZipLock Bag ($0.20)
2. 1 package of Rotini Noodles ($0.69)
3. Bottle of Alcohol ($.97)
4. Box of Food Color ($1.29) (Though there is food color left over)
5. Yarn  (free)
total: $3.15
However this made enough for 2 quart Ziplock Bags so I'm halving the total: $1.58



A Really Cool Idea for "Storing" your Busy Bags : Busy Bag Hangers


I also have idea for other busy bags: Geoboards, Pattern Bears, Balance Bucket, Lacing Shapes, Lacing Beads, Pattern Blocks and Boards, Alphabet Soup Scrabble, and Counting Cans. I can't afford to spend any more money on this project. So I hope to either come up with my own DIY projects or I will purchase the supplies every couple of weeks to keep things fresh. (Or if I can find them at Goodwill)

I'll update as I get in more supplies and finish my bags.

Welcome to My Crazy Life

Hi,

I'm Marta Black and this blog is about me and my family and all our crazy adventures. We live in Sultan, Washington (State). I have 1 wonderful husband, David, 5 happy and healthy boys, 1 fat orange tabby cat, Kit Cat, and 1 little white puppy (ish) dog, Sassy.

Today I thought I'd tell you a little about myself:

One of the funniest things about me is that I have five boys. It is so funny to watch people's expressions when I say I have 5 boys. Their eyes widen with shock, their mouth falls open and normally one of a couple questions pops out before they think about it:
1. "Are they ALL boys?" : Yes! They are all boys. Active, healthy, sarcastic, sports playing boys.
2. "How many?": That would be 5, and yes I know that makes my own basketball team. Or at least would IF my boys were taller and closer together in age.
3. "How do you do it?": Well, by the grace of God! I couldn't do it without him.
4. "Well at least you get a couple hours off while they are at school.": Yeah, we homeschool. I homeschooled 4 of the 5 last year because the youngest is 4 and not ready for school. There are no breaks in homeschooling.
5. "Wow you must have a lot of laundry! ": Yeah, you have NO idea!
6. "How do you feed them all?": I'm still working on that! We went camping recently and I cooked 3 meals a day and did dishes. That took up about 1/3 of our time, and sleeping took up about 1/3 of the time, so that only left 1/3 of my time for all the fun stuff! Eating is super important at our house. We plan our days around it. I clean up after one meal, only to be asked what's for the next meal. My two "littles", Sully and Finn, often ask for second and third breakfast. (I'm raising Hobbits) And snacks and treats don't last an afternoon.
7. "Do you have twins?": We get asked this all the time and finally my oldest boys are taking it in stride. It used to hurt their feeling. My 2 oldest boys are 20 months apart. However #2, Garrett, has always been tall for his age and #1, McCrea, has always been average height, so to the casual observer they look close in size. Then to make things worse, there is Sully and Finn, my littles or #4 and #5. They are 1 year and 15 days apart. People just don't like to think sane people have kids that close together. (And I don't think sane people do have kids that close together.) And it doesn't help that all my kids look alike, a lot alike. I have baby pictures and I can't always tell who is who. (Backgrounds help a lot!) I'm guessing that's because all 5 of my boys have the same mom and dad.

Something else you should know is I'm not from the Northwest, I'm from Texas. So how did a 7th generation Texan end up living Northeast of Seattle? Love! My husband is from Redmond, WA. (You know home of Nintendo.) You see, David was in the Army and stationed at Ft. Hood, TX. One wild night out in Austin changed both our lives forever. We spent the first 10 of our marriage in Texas, before he decided to move back to Washington State. (I'm still working on forgiving him.) It was shaky at first. I mean talk about culture shock! The Northwest is nothing like Texas. First it rains 300 days a year. Which is fine, I like rain. However with rain comes clouds and clouds mean you can't see the sky or the Sun. You can go 300 straight days without seeing the sun in this part of the world. And when it comes out, you are blinded by the brilliance of what seems like a thousand suns. All of this 40 degrees and drizzling makes the people up here a little crazy too.  So when the Sun finally does peek out from behind that thick layer of grayness, people emerge from their houses and the streets fill up with loud children and men with no shirts. And we aren't talking about "good looking cowboys" with no shirts. No the men up here are 1 of 2 types: office workers or rednecks. Neither which you particularly want to see shirtless.  And since 40 degrees and drizzling is the weather for 300 days a year, the houses don't have air conditioning, well at least most of them. And they are built to capture and maintain any heat, which is great in the winter. However when it  85 degrees (which is not hot outside BTW.) my house is 85 degrees too. 85 degrees, no air movement, and sticky. (85 degrees in your house is HOT!) I've googled and bing'ed keeping your house cool without air conditioning and tried 312 ways without success! Luckily for me, the front of my house faces the West, so my backyard and patio are nicely shaded and cool in the afternoon. With the BBQ smoking and a kiddie pool, it makes it almost tolerable here in the heat. (An a/c would make it tolerable, and I mean tolerable.)

Another thing that make people shake their heads at me is I'm a doll collector. (Gasp!)  You can imagine with 5 boys my life is filled with trucks, robots, animals, funny smells, and other "boys" things. Honestly I love boys! I love sports! I'm a huge football fan. If you come to my house and even mention football in a tiny whisper, I will talk your ear off about it. However I'm not a boy, and I can't do boys things 24/7. So I have my hobby: collecting and creating One-Of-A-Kind dolls. (I have a blog about that too. It is sadly out of date though. Homeschooling 4 boys doesn't leave a lot of time for creating dolls or taking pictures of dolls.) My dolls are mine, trust me, little boys run in fear at Barbies and closet full of pretty dresses. Nothing ruins their day more then when a huge package arrives full of "stinky doll stuff". So I have something that is just my own. I don't have to share or explain. I get to just sit down for a few hours a year (exaggerating slightly here) and do something that doesn't involve sweat, dirt, smells, or anything else related to boys. I collect Barbie dolls, Silkstones and DOTW, Fashion Royalty dolls and  my newest obsession, Monster High Dolls.

I'm also a HUGE reader. I love to read and so do my 3 oldest boys. (My littles love to be read to.) We have 5 kindles and 9 bookcases and several boxes full of books. (And that doesn't include ebooks). I read every night before I go to sleep.  I only re-read books at night now, because I've been known to stay up all night reading.  And since I have 5 boys (though to be honest 3 boys and 1 white puppy dog, because teenagers don't like to get up,) all bright eyed and bushy tailed waiting for their 3 breakfasts and school to start, I can't stay up all night. So you can expect to see book lists and reviews from to to time.

David and I have also been attempting at decorating our house. Before we purchased our current home, our decorating style was "little boy" chic. For mother with small children, I'm sure you know the style: toys everywhere, juice spilled on the carpet, laundry thrown in every which corner and crumbs everywhere. Five boys in a small space never seemed to work. I have tried and tried, however I can't not keep up with the destruction, it takes the full time job of 2 adults to keep up with our house and chores. (Which I found out when David was out of work for a few months.) With the help of a neighbor and a few decorating magazines, I finally figured out my decorating style: Country, almost Primitive. Being frugal and without much money, I have learned to search second hand stores for items that I can refinish or repurpose to fit into my decor.