Home Show

After feeling a bit of Cabin Fever,  it seemed like a great idea to get out and visit a local Sports arena that was hosting a Home Show. The event was free so we were able to invite some friends along.

The girls enjoyed a Girl Scout exhibit that featured a craft.

Larry took the boys to climb the rock wall which is two stories tall. The harness system makes this safer than it looks.

The gym was also open and free to use allowing the kids to play basketball, football and volleyball.

G-money loved getting a chance to stretch his legs with the big guys. He was sporting his team's jersey as the excitement for the big game mounted.

We took a tour of the Fitness Room...

and saw this huge hand-painted mural in the stairwell.

There were only a few presenter booths. Each one had a candy dish and a free pencil to help yourself to! These  carved and painted gourds were nice to look at.

It was fun to get out and to see some interesting things on this winter afternoon and all the kids enjoyed the exercise.

Snow Days

It was interesting to notice that during our first big snow of this winter, while 8-9 inches of snow fell during a 4-5 hour period, not one person called it a "Blizzard" despite white-out conditions! That label didn't apply here compared to last year's mammoth snow fall.

Nevertheless, many people experienced trouble getting home from work that night because the storm started at 4pm and  the plows couldn't keep up with a rate of 2 inches per hour.

Jeff left work as the storm began, to drive the 90 miles home. He is literally terrified to get snowed in at his apartment for fear that he could starve to death! He wound up in a couple of ditches, had many close calls, and  took an hour to drive one mile.He wound up spending the night in his car at a gas station. Twelve hours after starting out, he arrived at our subdivision at 6 am and got stuck at the entrance. He hoofed it home, woke up Sam, and together they plowed out the neighborhood with the ATV. The news reported that about 800 cars had been abandoned on the highways in the snow that night.Everyone had a story to tell about how long it took them to get home!

The kids were able to go sledding again.

Everyone enjoyed the week-end being "snowed in" together. It was a great excuse to eat, watch a movie or two and play "Starcraft" until the wee hours. Finally, on Sunday, fresh air and exercise were in order!

Physical Therapy

I am so grateful that John was able to receive physical therapy for his back that has been hurting for a long time. It had been a year since he first hurt it by jumping into a pile of leaves that had some bricks in the bottom of the pile.We were actually able to count up 6 specific injuries over the past year to his lower back.

He hurt it twice sledding, and once jumping over a chair in the yard and hitting the ground. It almost reminded me of "Survival of the Fitest"-  it's not wise to participate in activities that will likely cause an injury!!! I think it was more a case of this being a weak area- some kids will get sore throats, others will show sickness as asthma or frequent earaches.

Although sitting in our dining room chair with a math book in front of him really set his pain off in the beginning, it was becoming more and more frequent. All kidding aside, I felt so helpless and concerned wondering if he would be able to get better.So many back injuries seem to be chronic.The first doctor I had taken him to months before had said that it was a muscle strain and was nothing to worry about. After considering calling a chiropractor, I made an appointment with a new doctor's office. His  X-Ray was normal, but still, Physical Therapy was ordered.

Our therapist specializes in back injuries.Over a period of four or five weeks, through a process of elimination, she was able to determine which exercises helped his back. She could see how concerned I was and was very reassuring and hopeful. John had to do these exercises at home four times per day. We kept a checklist on the counter as a reminder for both of us.

 It was very sad to see him in pain. His back hurt while walking through the grocery store and was hurting while we opened our Christmas presents. I wished that I could take the pain upon myself. One day while doing his exercises on the floor, he felt something "pop" or "break" in his lower back. Then he had the worst pain ever and cried for twenty minutes. Just then it started to snow outside and he was able to finish his set of 15 forward reaches with legs extended, in order to be able to go outside.That pop seemed to have released something that was in the wrong place because he started to make more progress after that.We continued to pray for him to get better.

We finished Physical Therapy after phasing down from two visits per week to one for a few weeks, with much less pain. He needs to continue to do his exercises at home. By God's Grace, I haven't heard him mention his back much at all lately.  The level of his pain has dropped from a "6" to a "3" and now he seems comfortable most of the time. Just writing this reminded me to make another exercise checklist for him to continue so that he can maintain what was accomplished in therapy. Throughout the whole process, I felt so grateful to be able to get some help for my son. In the future, I hope that John will be more careful with activities that could possibly re-injure his back.

Fun-To-Make Potholders

We were recently  inspired to pull out our plastic looms and a large-to-bursting zip-lock bag full of nylon hoops.

Over the course of a week or so, we made twelve of these colorful pot-holders. The kids could easily string the first layer, and I would often help with the second, where the actual weaving takes place.

We don't really use these to pick up hot pots, with the exception of the saucepan filled with water on the wood stove. That handle gets very hot and since the water needs to be replenished daily, a potholder is necesary. Instead, we found that these make beautiful and useful mats to place under a burning candle.We gave some matching sets away as gifts to other candle lovers.

It was a lot of fun to select patterns and to see how they turned out. Even the boys enjoyed it!

These 4x4 squares are also cute as quilted bedspreads in the dollhouse. I hope to be able to find more of these weaving loops in the stores to tuck away for the next time we get creative!

Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes is a fantastic book! I cannot believe, that as much as I read as a youth, I missed this treasure! I have read it aloud with my daughter in the past, and now  I am reading it aloud with my two sons. We own all three copies and each of us holds one to follow along. We take turns reading aloud, usually about two pages each. Homeschoolers often have good reading comprehension, but their pronunciation of large words is not always accurate because many words aren't commonly heard in everyday language. By following along, each with his own book as we read, the words are seen and heard and the story is shared among us.We laugh at the funny parts and are pulled into the drama of the exciting, and tragic portions.

This book has some wonderful characters. Johnny is an arrogant hothead who is a natural born leader until he is severely injured in a cruel intentional stunt. After meeting Rab, a very calm and cool guy who befriends him, he becomes involved in the behind the scenes planning of the American Revolution. He meets the famous men of Boston like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere and participates in the Boston Tea Party. Throughout  the book he learns a lot about pride and emotional passions, and grows into a better young man because of his experiences.

There are many fine books written for young people that I want to share with my boys. Their days of homeschooling will probably be coming to a close at some point, maybe sooner than later. I intend to make it a high priority to continue on with these read-alouds this year. They are an extremely pleasant way for us to spend time together and so far we are having a wonderful time sharing this tale.

Fronier Culture Museum

The last field trip that I organized for our Homeschool group before I got let go for wearing everybody out, took place on a very sunny, early November day. We drove to Staunton to visit the Frontier Culture Museum.This is another one of  my favorite kinds of attractions- Living History. This museum interprets the everyday life of early settlers of the Shenandoah Valley.

Their newest exhibit is a replica of the African Village that they believe was the home of many of the enslaved people who helped to settle this Valley. Our guide said that he had actually been to Africa and saw these huts before they built them out of mud here.

The African people grew yams, which were like atomic "'sweet potatoes". The kids took turns digging up and mounding a hill for their  yams.

This museum is spread out over a great many acres. At one point, everyone walked as if they had been rounded up and taken from their village to a ship. There was no disrespect meant at all. It was a way to have the kids think about what that might have felt like to live through that.

This place has about 6 different "farms" and homes set up. One is a representation of how the German immigrants lived , another the Irish.They have one American Farm from 1820 and another from later in the nineteenth century.

 This is a "schoolteacher" about to lead us up to the one-room schoolhouse on the hill behind him.

We sat on benches with slates. The girls on one side,

and the boys on the other. He lectured on what a typical school day was like and even gave the kids a few problems to do!

One of the best parts of our tour was the American farm where we discussed the foods the early Valley settlers ate and how they obtained, stored and cooked them. This sweet lady had a fire going and allowed the kids to make donuts.

 This cast iron frying pan on three legs sat over hot banked coals to heat up the lard for cooking.

In the room behind the fireplace was this beautiful quilt on a very large frame.

Upstairs was the bedroom with quilted bedding and a pullout trundle bed.

The fall foliage was still in evidence as we picnicked on the grounds before driving home.

  These pictures were in my camera when I dropped it on the pavement, voiding my warranty. I thought long and hard before buying another one, asking myself if I really needed one. I decided that for the amount of enjoyment I had received from the last one, it would be worth spending the money on another!