Parlez vouz francais?

If it's Tuesday it must be french day. Well our wonderful teacher really likes the children and thinks they are doing well but feels we should try to add more time. Now we will have him come over on Thursday afternoon as well. I think this will last for only a few weeks and then we take a break! I enjoy the freedoms of homeschooling and while I like having the children learning fun and exciting things that a brick and mortar would limit, I hate being tied to schedules. That seems to go against all my ideas about bringing the kids back home. Anyway, I will try the second day.

Wicked

Wicked the broadway musical!!! What a great wonderful time. Back in March my younger cousin wanted to give her aunt (my cousin) a ticket to Wicked for her birthday (April). She asked around who might be interested in purchasing a ticket so we could all go as a group. The best available she was able to book was today (9/26). We had a wonderful time. It really was a beautiful day. We had wonderful weather - the rain held off until we were on the train ride home. Beautiful sunshine all day. Timing of the trains and getting to the theater as well as our seats - dead center in the balcony all went swimmingly. We arrived early for our dinner but they still seated our party. Then when we walked back to the train station to go home. We were able to board onto our train without any wait. The only wait time occurred en route home when they had to slow down due to some type of accident. so we arrived 10 minutes later in the station. Bill and the young ones were waiting for us. Drove back to apartment where my Dad was just arriving to drive my Mom back home. They even took the young ones back home with them for a sleep over!!!

Times Square during the day.

Gershwin Theater

Black Licorice Martini = delicious

At dinner. Me, Jill, Miranda, Emily, Tracy,

Mom, and JeanMarie.

Times square at night.

Smooth(ie) Day

Another phase of the root canal occurred this morning. I actually prefer to have these appointments early so that I can get home and we can start our day. Have the temporary crown in while I wait for the permanent one to be made. I go back in 2 1/2 weeks for that. Meanwhile I need to be cautious and careful about what I eat. No hard candies or sticky food should be consumed lest the temporary come out. I decided on making myself a smoothie to ease my hunger and also prevent myself from eating something wrong. (Plus my gums are sensitive!) I made a banana granola smoothie. YUMMY!!!! Oh so simple here goes:

1. some ice cubes

2. banana

3. milk

4. yogurt (vanilla) 1 cup

5. buzz granola (no sugar) 1 cup

All ingredients are organic and purchased at Whole Foods. Very delicious and very filling. Enjoy!!!

Brace Yourself

Ahhhhhhh! Today we finally got to have our consultation with the orthodontist for both Abigail and Stephen and yes they both will need some type of braces. We go back next week for the records day - which involves xrays and molds of the teeth. Once they have those we will be able to see when and what will be needed to begin our next few years of ortho appointments.

Where are we Wednesday

We began our school day at home. Since we have been having trouble with one of our computers again, I called apple to have them help fix. We tried over the phone but no luck. They set up an in-house look in Bridgewater, about 45 minutes away. Took us over an hour. The only positive was the work that was completed inside the car. Spent an hour in the store. Then left there to travel to Titusville, again 45 minutes from there. Again took over an hour. After dropping of the young ones for their nature club, my eldest and I ventured out to find some much needed afternoon caffeine and snack. About 20 minutes away we were in New Hope, PA. Located a Starbucks and enjoyed a nice cup of afternoon tea - for me, a frappucino for him and some pastries. Then it was back to NJ to get the young ones. Then we drove home. What a whirlwind!!!

Nature club pictures!

Progress

What a very productive day we had today. So hard to believe yesterday was just yesterday. Today was a completely different day with different attitudes to go along with. We were able to finish all our work and then some. We started our new writing. Very enjoyable and funny. How I hope that the humor does continue. I have all the children sitting down and doing the program even though it is geared for 4th grade and up. I just assist Joshua. Not that he needed much help. The most difficult is him keeping up with the writing while the teacher is teaching from the DVD. Good ol' pause comes in handy. There were tears but we were able to eradicate that quickly. The humor helped us to forget our tears!!!

French was good. Lots of new words. But we did not practice so much last week and boy did it show. They had a very hard time remembering the words or even what Monsieur Placide was saying. I also left for a little walk while it was going on so I am at a little bit of a loss as to what they should be studying. That is where I will have to ask Ste for his assistance. Overall a very good day!!!

Monday Mayhem

OHHHHHH! Monday mornings may just be the demise of me! I prepared all the things needed for this morning, as we are out the door by 10:30 for 2 1/2 hours thanks to art class, Sunday evening, yet I still had troubles. My sweet daughter (sarcasm) was not happy with the work she needed to do prior to leaving. Then at the place we attend for class, I made her sit at the back of the building to do her work as she not only had todays work but she had to correct some work from Friday as well. I know, mean Mommy! I am really considering sending her back to school in January. I know it would only transfer our problems but I think how happy and joyous and smooth my day would be without her. Okay enough said!!! Just pray for us!!! It is so hard to stay angry at her when she shares her thoughts and ideas with you!! I like to be reminded of how special they really are even though at times it is very difficult to do what I do!

We were suppose to begin our new writing program today. Did not happen as we did not finish school until 5 pm. Ugh!! That really urks me!! Perhaps Tuesday will be better, hopefully, maybe, prayerfully!

Josh's Day

Joshua had a packed day today. He began his day by house hunting with Bill and me. We were out for 2 hours and saw 4 houses. He was very good considering all the driving and walking and looking that is involved. He was cute and wanted to know which room would be his. He also felt the need to express his opinion in some of the homes. It was fun to just have him accompany us! After the houses we stopped for a little snack as he was to go out to a birthday party for 3 hours with his friends. After the party he had a friend come back with him for a sleepover. He is feeling super special as this is his second sleepover in a few short weeks. I think he is getting ready to venture out to someone's home for a sleepover all by himself. His latest one involved his sister! All a good start but I do see how he is thinking it would be great to be able to be at one all by himself. Soon, very soon!!!

Doctor part two!

The boys had their doctor visit today. All went swimmingly. Stephen is doing great. His BMI even went down!!!! I cannot tell you how wonderful that was to hear. He has been concerned lately about his weight. So what a piece of mind for him to see that he is doing a good job. He stopped running about a month and ago and the doctor said that if he could get back to that all would be even better. Goooooo Stephen!!!

Joshua is doing great also. He is your average kid. Everything being in the 50th percentile! The doctor especially likes his food choices and wants him to keep that up. He was well pleased with our schedule for homeschooling. Which is so nice to hear. It is great to get support from professionals in your area. Although I do what I do because I am being obedient to the Lord, it is nice to hear positive responses when we go out and about.

Doctors visit part un

Today was Abigail's check up. She is doing smashingly. Has grown 2 1/2 inches and gained 11 lbs. She is in the 50-75% for both. She is also right on par for the BMI, under the 80% is good! She also needed to have her blood drawn to check for a food allergy. This was her first time ever having blood drawn. She was amazing. I must remind you that a few years ago during one of the immunizations the nurse approached and did not tell her what was happening and she moved and now has a nasty scar on her arm because of it. Ever since then she has been very apprehensive about getting any type of needles. The technician was a pro. She was very comforting and spoke to Abigail and explained everything as she was doing it!! Abs did feel a little pinch but was unaware of the needle staying in to get the three vials needed.

Notice the use of the french word for one - that is because lesson number two took place today. I get to listen in and I hope to "pick up" some words too. Monsieur Placide left us a great french-english dictionary for us to use throughout the week. I will be looking into purchasing that for our own personal use! The children have been very excited about french class. All is good. Au revoir.

Out the door for Art!

I enrolled Joshua and Abigail in two different art classes. One called Explorers for Joshua. I did this in hopes of boosting his confidence in art and social settings. Just the other day he called himself "very shy". Abigail is in the class called art concepts. I think she will thoroughly enjoy this art class. Today they were sketching cakes and then got to have a piece! Anyway, I got that nudge last night that told me I should make the lunches (the classes are at 11 and 12:40) and pack up the snacks and drinks. I told myself that I had time in the morning to accomplish that. HAHAHAHAHAHA! I did have time but I also did not get any school work together for them to each do while the other was in class. Boy did that 2 hours go by soooooo quickly in the morning. I also need to make sure Stephen is set up with work as he stays behind at home. Note to self for next week - PLAN BETTER!!! It was a beautiful day outside and we enjoyed all that we could. I schooled Abigail outside she did great considering my little outdoor lover was highly distracted. I was sooo proud of all that she did to accomplish her school work today! Joshua's class is first and then we break for lunch then Abigail goes inside to work. There were soooooo many children running around outside playing, like 15, that I was so proud of Joshua sitting down and finishing his math!!! Oh the wonders and joys of having children actually work when we need them too. They even came home after 2 pm and finished what they had left. Abs was done by 4 pm and then had to do her piano homework. Again, one proud momma over here!!!! And Stephen even did all the work he was left with!!! Oh happy homeschooling day!!!

I promise to have my camera with me and take loads of photos next week. We are enrolled for the entire school year!!! So lots of pictures can still be had. I also never know how other families react when you are taking pictures of the kids.

Did you catch the time we arrived back home not until after 2 pm. And that is only 1 class we are enrolled for! I can't believe how much goes on for just one class, my heart goes out to all those that are out ALL day long! Whew!!

Reconnecting

Today marked a day for us that brought back such wonderful memories of when we lived in PA. Our friends the Rodgriguezes invited us and another family, The Bennett's, over for a nice little reunion of sorts. They have Julia and Frank respectively that Stephen palled around with when we lived here. It was so great to see them reconnect and have a wonderful time. Stephen is now saying that we really need to move to Yardley (PA). It can be an option as it is just over the bridge from NJ and Ewing (where church and other friends are). At first you could see the awkwardness amongst the children but once they broke away from the adults I guess they felt they could open up and talk more. Then when it was time to go, Stephen asked to be able to stay longer. Which of course we did. We were minus Abs as she was invited to a birthday party so our good friends The Cherrys kept her all day for us. They even took her last night to make it real easy on us today. Boy do I owe them big!! I really feel blessed to have such friends in Christ and be able to pick right back up. We were all shocked that it really has been 6 years. It feels as though it was only 2 or so. That is the wonder of it all! What a wonderful God I serve. He is faithful!

Ho Hum Days

Thursday and Friday around here were routine, well as routine as beginning the school year. I feel good as we finally got two solid days down. The children are surprised at all the work they need to do for each subject. I guess taking the last school year easier was not such a bright idea on my part. When I suggest that each subject and take anywhere from 45-90 minutes the facial expressions and attitudes that come forth are amazing. I keep trying to remind them that inside a brick and mortar not anymore fun. Actually less fun as you have to do what the teacher says when the teacher says it. Here there is waaaaay more freedom. I know that the smallness of the apartment is a problem as I see it starting to rear its ugly head but we must persevere through until we can find a better home that suits our needs.

The rain here has stopped us from venturing out and about. We did have a field trip planned for Friday afternoon but with gale force winds I did not even want to go. Then the other families also backed out it just made sense to stay around home. On the other hand it was a nice way to end the week. I like it when we can end on a light note!

Next week should be challenging as we will begin a full week of work.

Drilling away!

This morning began my root canal work on tooth number 13 to be exact. This will be about a 3-4 week process. Today is stage one. Which thankfully went smoothly. The dentist actually told me it was "a routine root canal." Those were wonderful words to my ears. Remember how I said this makes number 4, well in the past I usually had some sort of "problem" arise during the procedure. So today was a blessing! As I write this I am still numbed up to the nose! So there is not much pain. However, I perceive some discomfort in my near future. More along the lines of a lot of throbbing inside my mouth. They suggested I stay away from hard food and avoid chewing on that side as much as possible. I am thinking liquid diet over the next few days!! I don't want anything going wrong.

Bon Jour!

This afternoon was our first french lesson. We have the privilege and honor of having a man from Congo available to us to learn french. It has been very fun and interesting to listen to the lesson. He does a great job of using both french and english to speak and teach the kids. I hear that Joshua seems to understand what he is saying first. Stephen has the better ear and Abigail has been saying it the best. It will be very interesting to see how the year unfolds.

Stephen's 1st sleepover here... in the apartment!

Yes, Stephen is in the midst of his first sleepover to occur here in the apartment and it is with 2, not 1, boys who are 14 and 16!!! This small apartment just got smaller! They are having fun though. NO trouble at all as they can fend for themselves and do.

They played some computer games, xbox games, and even a board game. It is amazing to see how very fast the time does go by. It was less than 24 hours and with sleep time in there it flies by. They all want to do it again. I guess that means we have success.

Park Sunday

With it being such beautiful weather here I wanted to get out and enjoy this fine weather day. Really felt like an autumn day! So I asked Bill if he would come with me to the park to be able to take some photos. Trying to use some of the techniques I learned back in June at Nikon School. We asked if Abs wanted to come along as the park we were going to, Washington Crossing State Park, is her favorite.

We left the boys at home so they could have some boy bonding time and out the door we went. Well the park was very crowded and we needed to cross the bridge to the PA side and park over there. I actually think that side is prettier and has more of the historic buildings. We did walk back across the bridge as Abigail wanted to get close to the river. She loves doing that too!

It was a perfect way to end a great day. Here are some photos:

This is the bridge we walk over.

She is itching to go in!

More than I asked for!

I must start out by saying that God is so good. Since we have been back in the area for over a year now, he has really made for this transition to be smooth. We really had a network of friends here before we even knew it. Bill went to college with a lot of the folks we attend church with and they warmingly and lovingly accepted us into the group. Last night was a reminder of that. We haven't been able to get together with the Cherry Family for all of the summer and Jenn and I talked earlier in the week to perhaps get together on Friday. The original plans were to meet at the beach. That did not happen. Then it was to meet for lunch. That did not happen. Then it was how about we go over there for dinner?. That did not happen so we made it dessert!!! We arrived at 8 pm and left by 11 pm. It is so very nice to have these families that work the way we do!! What a good evening! I had a new ice cream flavor I never had before!

Dentist part 2

Stephen is doing great! He has healthy teeth. He will need to see the ortho as he does have a bite issue. No doubt will need some type of braces, but all in all very good. I on the other hand am in need of some serious work. Ugh!!!! I have very poor quality teeth. Not sure what it is from other than bad genes! I will need yet another root canal. This will make my fourth. Then I will need to have about 3 full crowns put into my mouth as well as some fillings fixed. Yep, I have the old silver fillings and they are wearing down! Oh boy! My mouth aches just writing it! Bill's pocketbook will hurt even more! ;)

The Dentist

Today began our dentist visits. Sadly it has been over a year since our last visit. And Joshua has never gone!!! So today that began to change. Abigail and Joshua went today. Joshua was very hesitant. I know this is because Abigail does not like going. She always vomited at the office in Ohio. But today she did very well and actually came out smiling!!! :). This made it very easy for Josh to go inside. He actually was hopping and skipping on his way in. The dental hygienist loved it! He did have some trouble with the x-rays - his mouth was too small and it hurt him so tears developed. They hygienist was so sweet and told him not too worry we will try next visit. He was happy with his bag o' stuff too! Toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss. He also got some stickers too!!!

Tomorrow it is Stephen's and my turn.

Let the year begin!

Yes, school has begun here in the Shea household. We did start off very very slowly. Only two subjects per child and let me just say how unorganized the teacher was!!!

I felt all frazzled running from kid to kid to kid with all the little questions they needed answered. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. You go here, another over here, and you there. Okay I'll see in a couple of hours. HAHAHAHAHA! I think I just walked away from one over to another when I got called back again. There were also several phone call interruptions that I felt I had to take. Definitely need to change that approach. People do forget what goes on inside this home during the school year.

Plus Stephen had a really cool science experiment that everyone wanted to see so that took them away from their own work. I must say it was cool!!! But it was sooooo great to see all of them happy and involved. Josh did give a little bit of a face but I squashed that attitude real quick. And yes, there were tears from Abigail. Yep, actually tears. All was okay in the end.

I am praying for a more successful year this year. We did have some major bumps last year and I don't want that for this year. I pray that I am able to handle all the chaos (because this is the best way to describe it) this year. I don't function well in chaos. I like my ducks in a row. We shall see. Could this be the last year? Maybe!?!