Christmas 2013 Continued

    We did it! We spent the holidays on our own in the trailer. I was skeptical of it myself, but we pulled it off! We were lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents visit us during the season, but I was still worried it just wouldn't be the same. It wasn't , but it wasn't bad either, it was a good kind of different. Every phone call I made the week of Christmas I heard people saying" it's just not the same" to which I replied, "that's right, every year is different." We still weren't back in the Clear Creek RV park by Christmas, the evacuation order had been lifted but we hadn't had time to move between Ian's work schedule. This gave us a fortunate opportunity to meet some more line families and what better way to get to know one another, than over Christmas cookies! Christmas eve came and Ian got off work early, we had been watching the Star Wars Saga over the week and we only had two more movies to finish it off, so that's what we did. I made a nice big home made lasagna and we watched Star Wars. It was a very testosterone filled Christmas. Our middle child set out cookies for Santa, and everyone went off to bed. A quiet Christmas, but filled with family bonding. I was kind've in a pickle with the whole Santa thing. One of our boys wrote Santa this year and told him what he wanted. We never did the Santa thing with the oldest, but thanks to our ELF on the shelf, some of the boys over here were expecting Santa. That's great and all except I had already put all the presents under the tree, there was nothing else up my sleeve.... so when my son woke up he got this letter in his stocking...

 

My son was a little confused. He said "what does he mean, I got everything I  asked for?" So I reminded him of what his grandparents, uncles and parents got him. He didn't really ask any more questions after that. We had a really good Christmas , the boys got an xbox 360 with kinnect, this was a huge upgrade from our wii and now everyone has access to netflix. Ian got a new guitar, which was a huge upgrade from the one I bought him 11 years ago and I got some awesome, made in the USA, snow boots by LL Bean. Score!

Christmas day , I made twice baked potatoes we heated up a honey baked ham and watched Tommy Boy. Low key but a great day. 

We've been winding down the holidays, I showed the boys where to put all of their new loot. I asked them to clean their room two days in a row and then I exploded. Anybody else with me on this? I went into their room yesterday morning, to put on a workout video and there was stuff everywhere. I couldn't even pile stuff on their beds, because stuff was already piled there. So another tradition was displayed for my kids. The Italian tradition where mom takes out a hefty bag, and bags up all your stuff that wasn't where it belonged. Believe me we had tears. I felt like a big meanie. But they had so much warning. They even had space to put stuff away, I had thought it out so carefully. Every new present had a spot and it was not under their pillows. So reality has set in and everyone is trying to take care of their belongings and earn back the stuff they lost. I'm sure this seems a bit harsh to some of you. The truth is, I don't want to raise children who think they are entitled to stuff and once they get it,  treat it like crap, because we will replace it. I'm torn because I want to shower them with presents but I want them to be responsible. We, who have so much in this day and age, how do we teach our children that possessions are not a right but a privilege? I know this morning when I woke up, their room was already cleaned and they couldn't wait to show me. I'll keep you posted on the rest of the week.

 

---UPDATE-----   So the boys cleaned their room everyday that week. Everyday , when the room was clean, I let them take out a toy from the trash bag. By the end of the week , I brought it all back and they decided they didn't need all of it anyway. So they tossed some of the clutter. I have to say a month later, their room is a mess. Such a work in progress....

Marathon training, Majors and more cold weather!

          It's been a while since I've written an update. Sorry about that. Lots has been going on over here so I'll just fill you in on the last week or so .

    It was really cold here the weekend before last . One of those arctic blasts where it's below Zero. We were pretty much prepared for it  except, the refrigerator went on strike. My first clue was upon opening the freezer, the usual icicle in the back had thawed and puddled up. It got progressively worse. We had encountered a similar experience last year , so we broke out our blow dryer and tried thawing the canister of ammonia in the back of the fridge. No luck. I called a repair man and he said to keep a light bulb on the ammonia canister which can be found by taking the rear vent off the fridge  (look for the canister like thingy) and keep the refrigerator turned off! Keeping the fridge off is important because the ammonia in the canister can gel up in the cold. As you attempt to thaw it, the unit will try to start its cycle and if it's not completely thawed there will be a bubble in the gel. So turning it off hopefully allows the ammonia to thaw completely before you turn it on. This is the common cure, however it did not work for us.  We were trying to thaw it out for four days but the outside temps we're not about the 40s . From Sat to Friday we had no fridge, so you better believe I called him back on Valentines day to look at the fridge. He decided the bubble was still in there so he took my fridge out of the wall and turned it upside down three times and pop! Bubble burst, fridge works! Apparently we might have been able to fix it by driving around and stopping suddenly. However ,when you're all skirted up and dialed in for the Winter, this didn't seem likely for us. So it was a long week of feeding a family of five out of an ice chest, but we survived. Nothing like having something not work to really appreciate it once it's back again. I think that really sums up living on the road. Everything is dandy until your water freezes or your fridge is on the frits, then it comes back on and you're doing a happy dance for something normal like running water!

      So, what has kept me from writing my blog? Well! I took up a challenge to run 100 miles by Valentines Day and that took some commitment. If you recall I started running last year, you can read about it here .
http://linewife.blogspot.com/2012/11/putting-one-foot-in-front-of-other.html
Well with all the moving around I stopped running from Sept to Dec. There's just to much to do with homeschooling and moving to new neighborhoods. I hate that I never really know if I'm in a bad neighborhood when I run until it's too late. you know what I mean? Our last RV park in Denver had a trail next to it and some parts were nice and others were not. Nothing like catching your breath and realizing you are in a creepy neighborhood with no one normal around. So we moved into probably the best place to run "the city of Golden " but I was just discouraged and busy and I have many more excuses. So, my brother sent me a new pair of running shoes for Christmas and I decided to run 100 miles by Valentines Day. Not an impossible goal. Figure average 2.2 miles a day and you've made it! I also joined the rec center which is a stone throw away and they have an indoor track, perfect! This is how many miles I actually ran by Valentines Day.

 128.  I really wanted to run a half marathon this year , but somewhere along the line I got really motivated and decided to run a whole marathon. I must have been feeling really good about myself that day. So I found this  training program and started and I am on my way to running my first marathon May 18th.

page 2 got cut off but it tapers down in mileage before the marathon on week 15 for more info go here http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51135/Marathon-Training-Guide

This sounds all hunky dory but it is actually mind boggling for me. I am the girl who got a "B" in PE for lack of effort. I love cupcakes, I'm not a typical marathoner. Every Sunday when my mileage increases I get super nervous. So far I haven't passed out, so I'm pressing onward. Also, I bought race insurance for $7 so in the event we get moved before the race I can get my money back, but that would be super disappointing.

In other news, maybe you'll recall that we try to play sports in whatever town we are in. Well baseball season is upon us. Our eldest child loves baseball. Last year we came across a baseball team and asked if we could join. We had missed tryouts for AAA so we played on AA. If you're not familiar with little league it builds up like so ....t-ball, AA , AAA,  Majors then High School ball. We've never been concerned with pushing the kids to be competitive. They either are or they aren't and whatever will be will be. So we've always ended up on AA teams which has been great because he always gets plenty of time to play, which is what we are mostly concerned about. Well we tried out for the Golden Jr Baseball Association. We got a call back from a Majors coach asking us for another tryout and sure enough, he landed on a Majors team this year. He is so excited and I can't help but get that feeling like "what have we gotten ourselves into?" This coach is talking about heading to tournaments and I'll have to keep you posted how that goes. Right now we just need to get to practice, right? Anyway. That's what we're up to. Hope all is well in your neighborhood. Talk to you soon. 

Christmas in the Trailer

Santa snuck up on us in the hotel lobby

  Well, if you're keeping tabs on us, we still haven't been able to move back to Golden. The creek is as high as ever and surprisingly not melted yet! This put a little hitch in our plans this weekend because we had family visiting. We plan on spending this Christmas here in Colorado so our East Coast grandparents came to us and boy did we start the Holiday Festivities with a bang!




We brought them up to see Buffalo Bills Grave
 

The Grandparents took the boys ice skating
 

 

Breakfast in town

We made sugar cookies. This was an all day event!

We finished the evening by stringing popcorn and cranberries. We felt  old school, hope the kids enjoyed it

Go RVing!

      Go RVing! It's a sticker on the back of our friends trailer. We say it whenever things get way too complicated with our fifth wheel. Sometimes people thing we're on a never ending vacation and we say this phrase to ourselves because it makes us laugh. You have to keep your sense of humor when you live on the road...otherwise you'll probably end up in tears in a straight jacket. This was one of those weeks. You turn on the news and they say something like "Good news, it's not negative today." Well yee haw. You know you're insane when you cheer for weather in the teens! Let me back up...
        We knew the temperature was going to drop and that there would be snow. Up to this point, this season, the snow has been minimal and has melted pretty fast. On Sunday, Ian tried to gather some supplies and skirt the trailer for extra insulation. We've had heat tape on our water hose for a while so we were ready enough. I stocked up on groceries because I do not like to drive in the snow. I'm actually a bit afraid of being stranded on the road with three children in a ditch with no family around, so my motto is "it's not worth it." When I woke up on Wednesday morning, the water in the kitchen and the kids bathroom was frozen in the pipes. I was just grateful for the water in our bathroom working. Hooray for hot showers! I did dishes in the bathroom and overall I didn't get my feathers too ruffled. This stuff happens. It would have helped if our whole trailer was skirted, but Ian's been working overtime and well, this stuff just happens. The next day, all of the water was frozen. This was starting to get old. Ian asked me to go to the store and pick up supplies so he could insulate some more when he got home. Keep in mind the weather is negative this whole time. I did not go get the supplies because I was terrified to drive on these roads . So he insulated until bedtime hours and we tried to thaw things out as best we could. By the time our heads hit the pillow we had water in one bathroom. This was a huge success. Lets get some details here. Remember what it's like to go camping ? When you brush your teeth without water. How about using the toilet? You kind of need water for that. We used water bottles and at one time I shoveled snow into the toilet and waited for that to melt. Cooking is challenging without water. You can't wash your hands, dishes are piling up and we only have so many in these tight living conditions....So you can see the tension rising right?
     The next day was Friday. Still only have water in one bathroom, which I'm grateful for but still frustrated about. That's when I started to notice the creek behind the trailer. At first the way the snow accumulated was beautiful. It looked like we were above the clouds, then it started to melt in some areas. It appeared that it was partially frozen so when the water started to thaw it was looking for a path around the "iceberg" the path it chose was covering the sidewalk and creeping closer to the trailers. I was getting a little panicked but the water would rise and then freeze again. When Ian got home that night, he finished insulating and by that night we had water! Success! I made dinner and did dinner in the kitchen, we really lived it up!

This I what it looked like when the snow first fell, like beautiful puffy clouds!

    The next day, everyone was looking at the creek and getting antsy. It was definitely rising but then it would freeze into a slushy like substance. I mean how much can it thaw in 3 degree weather? We went out for frozen yogurt that night because, well we're crazy. We were siting on the couch singing duets while Ian played on the guitar...oh what a perfect life we live....then our neighbor knocked on the door. The water was rising. That was the end of our peaceful night. Ian started helping some of the neighbors that were already getting water creeping up on their rigs. Some people moved forward a few feet, some people didn't and this is what happened  to their trailer.

The jacks were covered in ice. The fire department came, at one point they said evacuate, then they said we were on pre evacuation status. We were told there would be cots for us waiting at the rec center. I did not find this comforting at all. All of my children were asleep. It all happened between 9:30 and midnight. It was one of those should we stay or should we go moments. At one point we were near the creek and we could hear the ice breaking and water flowing. It was so creepy. I packed a few days worth of clothes in my car along with the laptops and school stuff. Grabbed my insurance papers and declared I was leaving. Ian  tried calming me down and we decided to sleep in our clothes and wait for the fire department to come knocking on our door to evacuate us.
    We woke up and were surprised to see no water under our trailer. Again it was that decision, do we wait it out? Will it really happen? It's not super easy packing everything up. It's possible but it's definitely a hassle. Kids bikes and nerf guns are everywhere and we just put the skirting up on the bottom. You also risk all of your pipes freezing up in transport, and we just got our precious water back. So we waited for something to happen until my mommy hormones kicked in again and I declared we were leaving. I just can't wait for something bad to happen , you know? So my husband didn't protest, he packed up everything and we got to a new park. The whole time Ian was helping older couples get their stuff all packed up and moving people rigs for them. He's quite a stud muffin my man. So it's no surprise that Fox news wanted to interview him. He told us about it but we didn't think the clip would be so classic. I don't know if it's because I love pictures so much, or it's my husbands love for facial hair or if it's just that my knight in shining armor got me out of there. I got such a kick of the interview and I'm so proud of my man. Here's the YouTube complete with family commentary in the background. Enjoy.

This was Friday morning when the water started to thaw. Who knows how this weeks weather will affect it.

I admit I'm horrible at this!

I have to tell you, I have such blogger guilt. There are so many times when I'm taking out the trash or folding laundry and I write up a post in  my head. The thing is I never sit down in front of my computer anymore. Our little guy doesn't take 2 naps anymore so that has cut down on my free time. The other thing is our oldest boy uses this computer for school. He's reading right now so I am bringing you an update in the 15 minutes that I have! We're getting ready to spend Christmas in the trailer. Last year we went to see family on the East Coast but this year we plan on staying put. Can't wait to see how that goes. We had a really fun November, Here are some of our highlights...

Halloween! Okay it wasn't November but I love this picture , so I'm including it. It was so cold and windy Halloween. We trick or treated from 6 to 7:30. Everyone looked at us like we were  loony because we were the first ones out in the neighborhood but it was so flipping cold that I'm glad we started early! The boys mocked me for bringing gloves but soon they each had one of my gloves on each hand...So silly these Californians!

Then we had a visit from our California Grandparents! It was so fun to have family visit us and show them how we do things in the trailerhood. We went to red rocks amphitheater and explored and of course we had to take them to our favorite ice cream spot. We didn't realize how much we missed home until they brought a little bit of home to us.

I took the boys to Garden of the Gods. I would love to spend more time there. It really wasn't what I expected. If you didn't know, it is an amazing free National Natural Landmark. It was free because at one time it was owned by a private citizen and he gifted it to Colorado Springs on a condition that it would remain a free park. How cool is that. We took a picnic and did a little exploring. It was amazing to be looking up a crazy narrow red rock jutting out of the earth and then realize there's a person rock climbing up at the top. It gave my boys wild ideas.

This would bring us to Thanksgiving. We decided to smoke a turkey on our Weber. Ian did and amazing job. It was a huge turkey and not a small task. He spent hours outside basting it with butter. In the end it had an amazing smokey flavor and we had enough food to feed a small army. Which we did. WE had our friends over which meant 6 kids and 4 adults in our trailer. It worked out perfectly , it was a memory I will always treasure. Oh yeah! Also, the day before Thanksgiving I got my act together and we cut out hand prints and wrote down things we were grateful for and made a Thankful Tree. I'm keeping it up for a while. We're working on teaching our kids to be grateful for what we have. It's probably going to take us their whole childhood to drive in that point, but with Christmas coming, its worth trying to reiterate it. Also, I really like our thankful tree.

Okay I know this was short and sweet, but that's a bit more practical for me. I'm going to try to work on a home school resources page. I would love to get that going. Our homeschooling takes up most of my time these days. Its a lot of work but it's also very rewarding. Hope all is well in your hood. P.S We are getting tons of snow today.

We also made snowflakes out of coffee filters, so it's snowing outside and inside.

Accidental Home Schooling Momma

    

     Hey all ! I know I've been MIA for a while. It's hard to keep anything routine when we are constantly making changes ourselves. That and having a toddler keeps me with minimal if any free time. One of the changes we made was moving to a new park. That in itself is quite a story, but since I have so much to tell you and so little time to write, I'll just say that there were only 20 or so spots for the winter and in order to secure one of them I found myself and the children on the front porch of the RV park office at 5 am on a Wednesday. So to make that long story short, we are now in Golden Colorado. It's a quaint town with a really cool downtown area that is in walking distance of our park. There is also a park , rec center  and library down the street. We are on Clear Creek so there is a walking path right behind u. Which is cool, unless Ian's barbecuing, in that case we have many people trying to invite themselves to dinner , which annoys Ian, but oh well. A small price to pay for the comforts of this beautiful little town. It feels good to be further away from the big city too.
     
    At the same time as our move, I was starting to have some problems with our school situation. You may or may not know that I have been using a charter school through California. It was completely online which I felt comfortable with. It was a great transition for us last year. I was able to see how my kids classes were organized and I felt they would be in sync with the California school system if we were to go back suddenly. Remember we had struck out on the road as a trial. We knew Ian would have to be on the road for a few more years and we didn't want him to miss out on our youngest first year of life. Once we got the hang of it, we felt it wasn't as much of a sacrifice to be on the road as it would be to be a family split up across the country. So we finished our first school year but I had noticed some hiccups along the way. Last year my first grader finished his school day in record time and while he was doing well at school I thought maybe he needed to be more challenged. Another issue I had was that he did not do as much writing as I thought he should, so I supplemented his writing and practiced on his form which I thought needed MUCH improvement.  Last year went fairly smooth for my 5th grader but 6th grade was a whole new beast. If you have an organized teacher online, everything is fairly smooth. Dropboxes are in place to submit your work, worksheets are where they are suppose to be. In 6th grade we had five different teachers, some of them new to the online program themselves. Throw in some technical difficulties and I felt like we were spending most of our times trying to find the work or get on the correct web page or email the teacher to see where the dropboxes were. I was getting very frustrated while  emailing 3 to 4 teachers a day. Then there was the art projects. Those were enough for me to pull my hair out. I like art and I think it's a great way to let creativity bloom but these art projects were tied to history and I often found myself trying to make an impossible project like constructing a castle out of cardboard boxes, which is near impossible when you have the space limitation of  a fifth wheel and I thought it was unfair that we should lose points or have our grade effected for something like that.
     So all of this really pushed me to thinking  that maybe I could find a curriculum that would  work better for us. I never in a million years thought of being a homeschool mom. To be honest I've been quite the opposite. I am terrified that my kids will be behind or lacking in a certain are and it will be all my fault. This is a serious issue for me, but with that kind of thinking I have been very critical of other programs and I have seen what my kids have and haven't learned and who knows more about what skills my kids are lacking other than me? So I have been researching curriculum's and methods of teaching. I plan on adding a section to this blog for homeschooling information, so I can pass along the things I have found. You never know what will help someone else who might find themselves in a situation like ours. Of course I realize that what works for one child or family for that matter doesn't always work for another, but it seems like the thing one home school mom says to another "you just have to do your research." Well, I will post for you what I have looked into and my thoughts on it.
      I would like to conclude from this post that I am NOT in any way an over achiever. You may remember my amazing idea to keep my toddler occupied, while we do school, from my last post. Yeah, that has really fell by the wayside. My boxes are all mixed together, we have a puzzle here and an instrument there. I haven't purchased any special snacks for him and he is currently watching Sesame Street. We are going to the library in a bit so I don't feel too terrible about it. I would also like to urge my friends to not be too concerned about me, although it might appear that I've lost my mind, I assure you I will not start telling you to pull your kids out of school, start wearing flowing skirts and  tye dyes or stop wearing make up. In fact I felt like after talking to a friend yesterday I had to wear a cheetah print sweater just so I knew I was anything but a stereo typical homeschooling momma. Not that there's a darn thing wrong with the pioneers of homeschooling , I sure have a lot to learn. It's just I feel like such an unlikely candidate. In fact I'm quite an accidental home schooling momma.

Disclaimer--I am quite aware that there are many run on sentences in my blogs. I assure you I do know how to write a proper sentence, however I read somewhere that you should blog as if you were talking to a good friend. Apparently, it makes a much more interesting reading experience. So there you have it, never fear, my kids are in good hands! ~Kristina

Home EC and Homeschool tricks

   Hello, from Denver! I'm so sorry I haven't written. I had such a great summer. The boys and I went to visit family that we hadn't seen in a while and that took us to North Carolina, Maryland and a few states in between! We came back refreshed and ready to take on the school year. I also did a lot of reading this summer. I have been totally sucked into the Voyager series by Diana Gabaldon and I'm still trying to extract myself. So that's where I've been in my free time. Last week we started kicking our butts in gear, getting ready for school . I was trying to organize myself for weeks in order to make our home schooling go as smooth as possible. So when I asked the boys to tidy up their room last week, they obliged me by throwing everything into the closet and then I exploded. In my haste, I grounded them from all electronics for the rest of the day. I don't know where you are but here in Denver it has been in the 90's and all of the public pools, mini golf's etc are closed down because Denver has already started school. So I had to think of something to keep them busy.
    This led to our day of cooking. We started off making meatballs. This was a big deal because I have a child who doesn't like to get his hands dirty. I made these boys chop garlic, measure oregano, cracking eggs, crumbling crackers (we ran out of breadcrumbs.) I admit, this day was much more hands on for me then I had anticipated, but we went with it. I had to make dinner anyways. After I made my children slave over the stove ...OK I fried them up, but they did roll the balls, we threw our meatballs into the crock pot and I let them choose a dessert to make. My oldest chose a chocolate pie out of our family's favorite Hershey cookbook. This was extremely exciting for them. Our toddler especially. One of the boys showed him how to pull up his chair to the counter. I am really regretting that they did this. He helps with dinner every night now, but the pie making was great fun. He took every task very seriously. I was trying to sneak him chocolate and he kept putting it  in the bowl. He was in a rare mood. Around 4 in the afternoon , we started the laborious task of making home made noodles. I tried this out with my mom this summer and we loved it. It took forever to make but fresh noodles are the best.

     If you didn't know, I am an extreme Master Chef fan. It is my favorite show. The boys watch it with me every week and they had an episode where they made noodles in the wilderness with nothing but egg , flour and a rock. Very impressive, so we were convinced we could manage. If you didn't know, Master Chef is coming out with a kid version of it's show in September and we are really excited for it. I'm grooming my children to become chefs. I feel confident that I can get at least one to cook professionally. My personal goal is to have them duel it out in the kitchen over the holidays and I can reap the rewards of their labors. Of course this is a long term plan....ANYWAYS!
    They were so impressed with themselves. I was equally impressed by how many dishes we dirtied and how exhausted I was afterwards. I think it took me a week to recover. I went back to reading, it was much less tiring, but I kept thinking of back in the day, when there was settlers in the colonies and parents taught their kids everything and every one was so self sufficient. Can you imagine teaching your child to survive in a world without so many conveniences? There's a pin on pinterest, that haunts me. It has ages that your child should have learned tasks by different ages. It overwhelms me, thinking of the things they still haven't mastered. Maybe not the best frame of mind to start home schooling but maybe it is. I don't know.

 
 I remember starting home school last year and after the first week, I drove by the public schools in the area to see what my other options were. I was so overwhelmed but I feel pretty strongly that having my kids switch schools several times during a school year is unfair to them. I have no way of telling when or how often we move. So homeschooling works for us. I am happy to say that this week has gone very smoothly. The programs with our online school are very familiar to us and I planned crock pot meals this week so I wouldn't have to juggle it all. My biggest concern was what Waylon was going to do, while my attention was on the older boys. Last year he was crawling on the ground attempting to get at the computer wires. Now a toddler, I didn't think he would care for all of us ignoring him all day. I received a brilliant idea from a friend. I do not take credit in any way for this but am so excited about it. She instructed me to come up with several different boxes of activities to occupy his time. I came up with three. These items are not to be brought out until it is school time. They are put away after school and I give him each item one at a time. So he doesn't get a box of new stuff in the morning, I dole out a new toy which is expected to keep him busy for about 15 minutes. So in essence I have my own little preschool boxes for him and it trains him to be in the mind set of school when we are. I have things like a puzzle, a special school snack, a new book, a tambourine, play food, an educational DVD, a hammer and foam board or Crayola's color wonder pages and markers and a cool superhero costume. On a side note I scored a slew of incredibly cool Halloween costumes at a second hand store! This approach has really helped keep him busy. Yes he still is coming up to me every 15 minutes or so when he is bored of whatever he's got, but I feel like he's staying active and at least I have something to give him instead of sitting him in front of PBS until nap time. Which, on occasion,  I've totally done, who hasn't? So day three of homeschooling has gone quite well, I'll keep you posted.