Decorations

The most dreaded time of the year...putting up Christmas decorations.

Blah!

Thankfully, the girls are old enough to help, which makes a big difference. They even woke up at their usual time of 6 AM and spent the morning cleaning so that everything would be ready for the decorations.

Except this little girl. She was quite sick all day and extremely lethargic. She made it outside her bedroom door to lay down and watch the decorations being set up, but she didn't make it down to help.

Now that they are up, of course we are enjoying the decorations. But, really, this is not a task that we look forward to!

Maybe we should just keep the decorations up all year????

Second Thanksgiving

Today was our turn to go visit my side of the family for Thanksgiving. I have a couple of cousins that live here, and my aunt and uncle came down to visit them, so we all had a nice feast tonight.

Unfortunately, Camille must have a stomach bug because she was up all night throwing up and felt miserable all day, so she and Ben stayed home (Ben wasn't too upset about that).

Audra and Claire just wanted to chase Layla all over.

Now I am very full and doubly grateful for all the blessings in our lives!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving...well, right up until Camille spent the car ride home throwing up, presumably because she ate too much chocolate pie.

We started the day finishing off our food makings- Jell-O (which Claire insisted on doing almost all on her own), rolls, and 3 pies- chocolate mousse, apple, and pumpkin.

We spent the afternoon with Ben's family Ann prepared a wonderful meal- we are truly blessed!

Museum

We had the opportunity to go to the Museum with some friends today. We haven't been for awhile (Camille was in a stroller the last time we went), so it was nice to go back. It really is a great museum, made even better since we went with friends.

They had a huge screen with all these cool things happening- an astronaut, dinosaurs, massive storm- with the kids as well. It was pretty neat, almost like a virtual reality.

Christmas Pics

These are certainly not professional, but we needed pictures for Christmas, so we headed over to Hudson Gardens on a sunny afternoon and got some pictures taken. I think they turned out alright, considering Camille refused to take off the hot pink sweater that doesn't really go with her outfit (but which she was SO proud of), and Camille basically refusing to take pictures the whole time. Oh, and it was really, really cold despite the sun! Oh, well- such is life.

Whew- I'm glad that's over! Christmas cards are ordered- check!

Camille's Cold!

I found Camille in the laundry room snuggled on the floor wrapped in hat, scarf, winter coat, and Audra's boots. I keep telling Ben our house is cold. Maybe he will listen to Camille since he won't listen to me!

Kindie Thanksgiving

Today Camille had a little Thanksgiving party. Well, it really wasn't very Thanksgiving-y- no pilgrims or Indians, but there was food. I guess it was basically a chance to have the parents come in to see what the kids are up to. Camille was happy to show off the classroom to both Ben and me.

Here's a timeline she made about growing up. Which she is doing too quickly:

Claire's Story

Today Claire started writing a story that I thought was quite good. She is doing this all on her own- it isn't an assignment- but I definitely think she has some great writing skills. I find her story quite engaging, even if I am a little concerned about her writing so convincingly about the main character running away from her sisters.

She worked on the stories for several hours today, so I won't type up her whole story, but this is her beginning- which I found captivating:

"The sun was shining, but it still was a very cold day. The wind blew my skirt as I walked. I didn't know where I was going. All I knew was that I was running away- away from home. Away from where I was born. The only home I knew- but it wasn't a nice home. Whenever you swept top to bottom and when you woke up dust an inch high is everywhere. Also, the house is pretty small so I have to sleep in the attic cramped in with all my sisters. Mary always snores so I never really sleep. So now I am away from my home."

Not too shabby for an 8 year old!

Thanksgiving Tree

This year, Claire wanted to draw our Thanksgiving tree, and Audra cut out the leaves. Oh, I love having older kids who help take some of the jobs off of my plate!

Also, this year they were much better at saying what they are grateful for. They came out with some great ideas!

Audra wrote: Mom, because she is the best mom and makes life a lot happier.
Audra also wrote: Claire, she is the best 8 year old sister!

Camille insisted on writing out each leaf instead of drawing pictures.. She put: Camille. Family.

Claire did a picture for each of hers along with words: Friends that help you be happy (smiley face) and flowers (with flowers).

We definitely have so much to be grateful for!

Marathon Finish Line

I really am not sure how to feel, but last night we FINALLY took back our school district! It has been EIGHT YEARS of fighting, and taken hundreds of teachers leaving, increases in class sizes, decreases in test scores...before this started, not one school was on any kind of improvement plan (as dictated by the state). Now, ELEVEN are on plans. So, basically, it took for our schools to be in ruins (which is exactly what they wanted), but finally the community beat the special interest groups.

PHEW.

All of you know, this was the hill I was willing to die on. And 4 years ago, after all the hard work I put into it (and there's not a person who knew me then who can say I didn't do everything in my power to win 4 years ago), it pretty well broke me. I had to build a wall around myself and my family. I no longer felt that we had, nor wanted to be a part of, a community. I have completely built an island with my family. This 8 year fight has been a marathon (and it isn't over yet, but this was the most important and hardest part), and 4 years ago after doing all that I could, I handed the baton off to others who still had fight in them. And, thankfully, they took it and ran to victory!

I'm not quite sure how to feel- it's so bizarre. For so long I have hated this community for voting to hurt kids, but now they totally stepped up and won BIG. We won by 20%! It was a total landslide! I had completely braced myself for a loss, and fully expected to get a loss. The Koch Brothers donated over a million dollars, but it didn't work. (if you take out all special interest money- the Koch Brothers, the union- who donated about 300K-, etc., our candidates brought in more money from just the community at a 10:1 ratio. Without any special interest groups, it was obvious who the community wanted, so it is wonderful that the candidates who the community wanted to win actually did!)

It gives me so much hope! For years I have been so discouraged as it seemed like we no longer even had a say in our local elections as special interest groups hijacked them, but the theme across Colorado was, "Voters REJECT Special Interest Big Money."

The older I get the more I realize politics is just a pendulum- you win some, you lose some. Four years ago I was completely devastated that we lost, now I am thrilled that we won. But there is still so much to be done to undo the damage and to move forward.

Anyway, hopefully we can start rebuilding our community. I am so glad I get to like where I live now! It's all so new and wonderful! I really am not sure how to feel about this new way of thinking of my community!

The next question: Will I send my kids back to school? The short answer: No. We like this homeschooling world too much, but at least if they decide they want to go, I can now feel like it is a viable option.

Yay for beating a national agenda that hurts kids!!! Truly, this was a huge win for KIDS yesterday! YAHOO!!!!!!

Hopefully this means the Koch Brothers will now leave us alone- with 20% margins one would think they heard our message loud and clear and will be gone. The district next to us was taken over by the Koch's 4 years ago, but they had a recall election and got rid of them, and the Koch's didn't do anything to them this year. Here's hoping we are now in this boat!

Froggies!

For 4H this year, both girls really, really want to do stuffed animals. They finished their first ones yesterday: Pink frogs. They love them.

Co-Ops

We have been having a lot of fun amidst our school days- it's not all just work over here.

We had a really fun co-op where the kids learned some mapping skills and then got to make treasure maps. They had a blast with this!

I think these are both ones that Claire made. I guess I didn't get a picture of Audra's map. Oops!

Here is Camille's map:

 

Then we had a totem pole co-op, which is perfect since we just finished learning about the Native Americans.

This was a blast, the kids really had a good time with this. Of course, Claire had to have Piggy at the top of her pole.

Toward the end of the co-op, Camille had a total meltdown. This is VERY unusual for her- she pretty much never has meltdowns. I attribute it to kindie. By the end of the week, she is often really tired, and my suspicions were confirmed when she fell asleep on the drive home.