A Polish wedding

13 years ago I married my dh a Irish man, I on the other hand have a Polish background. So our wedding was English, but the reception was Polish. One of the things I still remember from all those years ago besides my dad and uncles singing Puff the Magic Dragon. Was the Oczepiny cermony  after this I was really married, my dh got to wear a really fun hat ,and on this hat were all the things wished for him. There were alot of little babies if I remember, along with a house and money

 

 

Rosnie Trawka
The Unveiling Song

As lovely green grass grows, throughout the promised land,
Before the main altar, you've given Don your hand.
You've given Don your hand, he gave a golden band,
Your eyes swelled up with tears, before your friends on hand.
Twelve lovely white petals, attached to this white rose, (I carried a white rose with twelve petals down the aisle )
Twelve heavenly angels, will serve the bride they chose.
The first angel has brought a white candle's brilliance, (I was given a candle from one of my aunts.)
The second angel brought, a lily's full fragrance. (I was given a lily)
The third angel has brought a lovely bouquet to hold, (I was given a small bouquet)
The fourth angel has brought, your wedding band of gold. (we were given some fake gold rings)
The fifth angel has come, with blessings from the Lord, (I was handed a Bible)
The sixth angel has come, with matrimonial accord.  (I was handed a rolling pin )
Remaining six angels, come with a crown so keen, (I was given a white head covering, and it replaced the veil I wore for my wedding.)
They'll place it on your head, as if upon a queen.
You promised to be true, love honor and obey,
In all your days ahead, uphold your vows today.
Remember to be good, and live in wedded bliss.
And in our presence now, honor him with a kiss.
Remember Margery, be true, your right hand on the cross,
You've pledged your life and love, to Don who is the boss.
Oh wedding gown and crown, somehow you make me sad,
You make me feel that I'm losing my mom and dad.
And yet with mom and dad, no longer shall you live,
But only with your Don, to whom your life you give.
Remember to be good, and live a life of prayer,
And in a year or two, present him with an heir.

 

A pile of kids

 

The photo is a little dark, but top to bottom Kathryn,Nolan,Conner,Sarah,and Pat only the baby is missing as I didn't dare place him on top of that pile. We sometimes call the kids stair steps and this picture shows why.Each one just a little smaller then the last.

Superbowl

My oldest two went to the Word of Life Superbowl in our area on Friday night. This is a all night youth event, they started out at a hockey game and then on to lots of other fun. The group they were with went bowling, to a indoor gym full of games and then to a indoor soccer place. By the time they got home at 7:30 am they were tired.

Now the oldest my son Pat went to bed for about 4 hrs and then was up for the day. On the other hand Sarah went to bed at 9am Saturday and slept until 8am Sunday morning. Except for dinner on Sat were she was at the table but half a sleep. I didn't think a person could sleep that long.

I would like to give Word of Life and the local church here that took kids a big thank you for taking the time to think of the youth.

A Saturday at home

I was actually glad that it rained today; I just wanted to stay home. So because of the rain soccer for the little ones was cancelled. I ran Sarah and Patrick to church to help with the pancake breakfast, then came home and made a breakfast for the rest of the kids. I even did Mickey Mouse pancakes for Kathryn.

 I then spent more time cleaning the upstairs and dejunking; I also did loads and loads of laundry. I am trying real hard to get the house working well before my dh gets home on the ninth of November.

It is hard to believe that he has been gone for 15 months. We will be getting a break as he did tell me that they can’t call him to active duty again until March of 2008, and he can retire in July 2008 (I think). If he actually retires of not is another story.

I even got in a nap this afternoon with Aidan on my tummy sitting in "my chair ". And I had a really nice surprise when I woke up; Conner says to me “ Mom check out the kitchen.” My thought oh no what did they do, as Pat and Sarah had also taken naps, so it was Conner, Nolan, and Kathryn awake. Well he cleaned the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, wiping the countertop, sweeping the floor, and writing me a note. The note said Mom could you please pretty please make Taco’s for dinner.

 

I couldn’t say no to that, so off to the farmers market for lettuce and tomato’s and because they close for the season on the 31^st I was able to get lettuce for 50 cents a head ,nice ones, and tomatoes for 1.00 a pound. The kids are also finally getting the hang of the new dinner chore system and it went better today. By the time Dad gets home at least dinner chores should be going well.

 

For Sale

Please stop over at homeschoolbuy.com and take a look. I just listed some grade 5 Abeka Science, grade 3 BJU science, A simply grammer book and some other math items. And will have more to list tomorrow. Well I am off to clean out the garage.

Letterboxing

We have a new family activity, and it is letterboxing. This is a great activity for our family as the kids range from 6months to 14 years. We have so far gone on one hike it was a chilly day but sunny. We set off from home to a park not to far away. From there we followed the directions I had gotten off the web on how to get the letterbox. The kids had fun following the clues as we hiked along. But while my 14yo had found the right area, it was dad and his eagle eye that found the rock pile covering the letterbox. After looking at the stamp and journal, we used there stamp to stamp our journals. And then we used our stamps to stamp there book. When we have another nice day we will set off on another hike.

 

Dad stamping our books.

 

 

Some of the kids and me.

Aidan at 6 months

 

Time just flies, it is hard to think that Aidan is 6 months already.

A Baby in the house

 

Yes we added a new baby to our family he was born on Easter Sunday, here is a picture of him at 2 months, today he is 6 months old. His half birthday is on his older sisters 13th birthday. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the two of them. He is such a happy baby, he is almost always smiling and laughing.

 

He already loves books and thinks that they are best when gummed. He is sitting up now and starting to crawl. Of course everything goes right into the mouth.

What a summer- part 1

As I get some time to write as Pat sits next to me doing a book report and baby Aidan take a morning nap. I probely should be doing the wash but, I haven't blogged in a while. Well I guess I will start with the major events outside of our family this summer. The first was the hunt for Bucky an escasped convit, we had to lock our cars and homes, something we do not normally do here. And to get from my home to church we had to pass through 3 check ponits. Were the troopers would stop you and search your car. The kids got to the point were there kept asking did you catch him yet.

 

And we thought this was going to be the biggest thing this summer, well not 3 weeks after Bucky moved on to another area of the state. We had rain ,lots of rain. I am talking lots. We ended up with a 200 year old flood this was after a 100 year old flood the year before. While our home was OK, many had lots of flood damange. Our Church had water up to the celings of the basement. We lost all of our Sunday school ,craft stuff, files,everything but our puppets. Some one had saved them and washed them for us over and over agian.

 

Our town Garage

This is a road the metal at the bottom right corner is a guard rail.

 

It wasn't just the water it was also the fact that it was river water, sewage, mud, fuel oil. It is now October and people are still living in FEMA trailers, which may be ok in the south but are not made to live in through a New York winter. People our still trying to get there heat on. Our church is doing ok, we are doing Sunday school in every nook and corner of the Church. And we do have the basement srubbed down and are deciding on what to do, weather to rebuild or do somthing different.

 

I do have to say that the churches have come through on this one, the local Presbytary has set up a village for workers to live in as they go from house to house repairing and cleaning out.

 

For my family it was the damage to our church and the fact that there was no way out of town for three days as all the roads out were washed out, that affected us the most.

A long time

Well I will be writing more about the past year later, but we did add a new baby.

Nolan's Birthday

This year due to Dh being on active duty we are doing family only birthday parties. When Nolan was asked what he wanted to do for his birthday his answer was rollar skating and Taco Bell.

 

So on Sunday night we headed to Taco Bell were I have to say the kids finished every bite of their meal. Then it was off to the skating ring were the price was right 13.00 for the whole family and this included an extra 1.00 for the younger ones to play in this big indoor playground.

 

I was very surprised with Nolan's skating he usally gives up on gross motor activities that he can't do like riding a bike or tying his shoes. But every time he fell he got right back up and tried agian for over an hour. I was so proud of him and rollar skating is on the list of things to do agian this year.

Reading to the Childern

I have gotten out of practice as the children have all grown to read on there own, but I used to read to them each night and have come to the conclusion I need to find the time to do this again.

 

What happened was Nolan found the book Mother West’s Children and said to me “ Mom remember when you read this book to us at night “ then Conner piped in “ yea mom remember when you read that book about King Arthur. “

 

That was only last year but they make me feel as if I haven’t read out loud to them in forever, but from their point of view it has been forever. So I am going to make the time to read to them at least 3 times a week and hopefully every day.

What is Pat currently reading

Our son Pat is a boy who cannot get enough to read, he switches between modern science fiction and the classics. Currently he is reading stories from the Junior Classics published in 1912, as I like to collect older books. He just finished reading a section on Arabian Nights including Ali Baba and the forty thieves, The story of Aladdin, and Sindbad the sailor.

 

He has also just finished the first 6 books of the Pendragon series. This year he has also read Gulliver’s Travels, Robinson Crusoe, and Twenty Leagues under the sea, and a bunch of stories about the Greeks.

 

His other favorite series are all the Redwall Books, each year he cannot wait for the next one to come out.

 

What we did to get him to read the classics was when he was younger he read the children’s version, then when he wanted more detail we handed a harder version of the book, until he could read and understand the unabridged version.

 

Now just to get his younger brother Nolan to read a longer chapter book with out having a panic attack. I am thinking of reading My Father’s Dragon with him, as it was one of Pat’s favorites at that age.

Hands on Spelling ideas

I thought I would share some ideas that I will use for hands on spelling, this summer to help the kids. We will be trying them out Easter week, and I have seen most of them used in my son's 2nd grade classroom.

 

1. Shaving cream - I use a placemat, and shaving cream.( placemat free, shaving cream .99 a can )

 

2. Bumpy Boards - Plastic Canvas (from the craft department), plain paper and crayon. The child writes each word out on the white paper that is on top of the plastic canvas, and then runs their finger over each letter. ( plastic canvas .25 )

 

 

3. Abc order – they have to place the words in ABC order, for those with trouble handwriting they use index cards with their words written on them.

 

4. White board – they write there words 3 x each on a white board (more fun then paper)

 

 

5. Magnetic Letters – I use a clear craft sorter divided into 25 spots, and on top write the letters in sharpie. Then I have about 5 sets of magnetic letters sorted into the container. And they use a cookie sheet from the dollar store to spell their word out on. For the older kids I sometimes use scrabble letter tiles instead. ( total cost to make 5.00 for dollar tree letter, 4.00 for 2 craft sorters, and 1.00 for a cookie sheet)

 

 

6. And lastly I made up a simple game board, and each child has a pile of there own words written on index cards, starting from the beginning and adding as time goes by. They take turns rolling the die and spelling the words from there pile. And for wrong answers they have go back one space. My Kindergarten child sometimes spells the word or I may have her read it to me instead. A great way to review words.( index cards .99, foam board 1.00, stickers 2.00, scrap paper free )

 

Except for the game these are all activities that they can do on their own and must do each activity 1x per week, I will make a check list that they can use to keep track of which ones they have done.

 

I will be using the Spelling Power book to place them on the right lists and using the lists for their words. I will modify it some by giving them 10 words per week, so over a 6 week summer learning period they should do 60 words.

 

Weekend plans

Weekend work list

 

Outdoor work:

 

Small trash pick up along edge of property (driveway, backyard)

Rake trash in large trash area.

Restack un- stacked wood

Van clean out and vacuum

Measure and plan spot for shed

Burn cardboard

 

Indoor work:

 

Dad – paint wall in living room

          Rest of carpet out and bagged

          Fix wiring in kitchen

          Change light bulb in Garage (mom can’t reach)

 

Mom- feed everyone

            Keep kitchen clean

            Supervise kids work indoors

 

Patrick – help dad with outside work

               Keep family room clean

 

Sarah- Help dad with outside work

           Keep living room and dining room clean

 

Conner – Help dad with outside work

                Keep upstairs bathroom clean.

 

Nolan – Help dad with outside work

              Keep stairs swept, and hallway clean

 

Kathryn – Help dad with outside work

                 Help mom with jobs

 

              

Fun stuff –

Saturday – Sarah All- County Chorus – concert at 3pm (Norwich)

Sunday – Church 9-12

               Puppet 12-1

               Nolan Birthday dinner 5-6pm (Taco Bell)

               Family Skate Oneonta – 6- 8:30 (family of 4 – 8.00, 1.00 for each extra) (total cost 11.00)

              Bedtime

 

And hopefully baby won’t decide to be born this weekend, as there just isn’t time to fit it in.

You know it's not going to be good when

 

Your teenage son calls your cell phone to tell you that there is a skunk in the front yard. This is at 2 in the afternoon not normal skunk behavior.

And in his next sentence he asks if he can shoot it, that was a big loud no on my part. I tell him to stay in the house and to keep every one else in the house to. I will be home in 10 min.

So I arrive home after my DR. appointment to a skunk holding my driveway and house hostage. So I have to park up at the top of the driveway and walk no waddle down the driveway to the house. DD is armed with the frebrezze spraying the windows and doors to help keep that wonderful odor out. The dog and cat want outside so that they can attack the skunk and all I really wanted was a 30 min nap.

Dear son asks again if he can shoot it, I told him when our neighbor gets home he can supervise you, but not until then. And of course yesterday was nice enough outside to play and my children and dog and cat were all stuck in the house.

Well the skunk died a natural death in my driveway, now I just need to get the nerve up to dispose of it in the nearby woods.

And I wonder why do these things never happen when DH is home.

It's not an insect Mom.

Well Nolan woke up with a spider bite on this big toe, when he showed it to me I said that it was an insect bite. So he asks what kind of insect because he had decided that he is not going to like any insect that bites him. Well I replied it was a spider, a little hungry at getting woken up at night, but after one bite decided you did not taste as good as a fly.

 

That resulted in a whole lecture from Nolan that spider's have eight legs and insects have six. So he was not bite by an insect but a spider, and mom spiders are not insects. And the look on his face was like mom don't you know anything.

The new kitchen is done!

Well the contractor came last night and installed the last piece of countertop. So here are the finished pictures.

 

Dh has to finish painting when he comes home this weekend.

 

 

I did add a small tin for mail, and some birdhouse and chicken decoration.

 

 

The island top just finishes it off so nicely and there are plugs under the island so I can plug in crockpots for big dinners.

 

What a week !

Well this time a year I usally avoid the Mcdonald's Play place as to the number of germs there. Well Saturday my friend took my childern for that I could have a day to myself to rest, with the baby due in 5 weeks and dh gone on active duty. They went rollar skating, lunch at Mc Donald's, and then the free science museum at the local collage.

 

Then on Sunday after church we went to Lowe's and I treated them to McDonald's, were the three youngest played in a very croweded play place.

 

Monday morning Nolan was sick to his tummy and Conner had a fever. Tuesday was met with Nolan still sick and Conner a little better. But a phone call to come pick him up from class and he slept the rest of the day. And today was met with Conner climbing in my bed at 4 am hot, and then Kathryn throwing up in my bed at 4:30.

 

Conner did go back to class today and Kathryn stayed home. I hope tomorrow is back to normal.

 

Pat is outside right now clearing a spot for the dumpster that will be coming on Friday, the dumpster is 22 ft long and 8 ft wide and 4 feet tall. I will be having fun over the next 3 months filling that dumpster with not only the contents of the old kitchen but a major clean out of the garage and house.

 

This weekend looks to be busy to, with the contractor coming to install the last piece of countertop, and Nolan going to his gifted science program on Saturday too.

 

And I still have to pick up the badges my troop earned before Monday night.

Please help me judge

The kids are always building lego's and wanting me to judge, which always result in you love him more problems. So this thime I said I would post them on my blog and others could help me judge.

 

Photo #1

 

 

This is a jet with side magents for digging for lode stones.

 

Photo # 2

 

 

This is a picture of giant bunny, in front of a secert tomb.

 

Picture # 3

 

 

This a picture of dragon training, the man is training the new dragon, while the big dragon in back helps.

 

Thank you for your help in judging these new creations of theirs.

Pat's Guitar

 

Our son Pat received an electric guitar for Christmas, and has been practicing playing it. So far he has taught himself a Chris Rice song and some others.

 

 Today we found out that his yet to be born brother really likes Another One Bites the Dust, as every time he played the song Aidan began to move. I had to ask him to stop and play something else as the stretching was hurting me.

 

 

Sarah's new glasses

Miss Sarah is the first of our childern to get full time glasses, she had me drive through the beginning of a snow storm to pick them up. So that today when she went to see the play Cats she would see everything.

 

 I had felt a little guilty about her glasses as she had an eye exam in August and everything was ok, well in November she began to complain about not being able to see as well. So I had waited until now to take her in, and yes her eyes had changed alot. I found out that when they hit the teenage years, there eyes can change very quickly.

 

A new Printer

My dh said I could buy a new printer, and for us it is the first laser printer we have ever had. Well we had arrived home late and I put the kids to bed and hit the sack my self.

My 14 y son Pat on the other hand couldn't sleep, so he decided to surprise me by setting up the printer and the software. I think that like most men and men to be the idea of a piece of computer stuff sitting in a box waiting for morning was to much to bear.

 I am really thankful for Patrick as with dh out of town any computer thing that needs to be fixed can be done. For while dh tries to explain to me over the phone what to do to fix something it sounds greek to me and I get mad at the computer . While he can give the same insrutions to Pat and it works. I also think that this is good for my son as it gives him a way to help the family that mom is not able to.

New school supplies

Well I love new types of school supplies and recently saw two new ones I like. The first is Twistables from Crayola, they are like the coolest crayons for adults. Well I guess kids will like them to. They are crayons in a pen-type case, so while you can't use the whole side of the crayon, you do get a nice point and it doesn't melt in your hand. And for some reason maybe because they are bigger they don't disappear to werever crayons go along with the socks when you are not looking.

 

The second school supply is index cards that are sticky on the back like a post it. These cards really stick well and because they index cards, they don't tear or get lost. My current use for them has to do with chores, I write what needs to be done in a room and stick the card on the door and when done I get the card back. But I am very sure I will think of many more jobs for them.

Kitchen Cleaning

DH bought me a new kitchen, and this cleaning list is how I plan on keeping it clean and nice looking.

 

Kitchen Cleaning

 

Yearly

 

Polish cupboards

 

 

Bi- Yearly – January and July

 

1. Move fridge clean underneath


2. Move stove clean underneath


3. Wash curtains


4. Dust top of pantry


5. Clean oven


6. Clean under stove top

 

Every 3 Months (Feb., May, Aug, November)

 

1. Clean top of fridge

2. Clean and wipe out pantry

 

Weekly

 

1. Wash floor (Monday)


2. Clean one cupboard or drawer out (every cupboard and drawer will done 1x every 17 weeks) (Tuesday)


3. Clean out trash can (Wednesday)


4. Clean out fridge and wipe front (Monday)

 

Daily

1.       Am

a.     Unload dishwasher

b.    Breakfast prep

c.     Load dishwasher

d.     Wash pots

e.     Wipe counters

f.     Light candle

2.     Lunch

a.     Lunch prep

b.    Clean-up

c.     Wipe counters

d.     Wash pots

3.     Dinner (see detailed list on fridge also applies to weekend lunch)

a.     Set Table – Nolan

b.    Clear table – Sarah

c.     Dishes – Kathryn w/ Mom (Set dishwasher to run in 6 hrs)

d.     Sweep floor and empty trash – Conner

e.     Wipe stove, microwave, counters – Patrick

f.     Everyone – clear own spot, scrape plate

4.     Before bed

a.     Put away pot and pans

Last minute tidy

Pickles

Kathryn my 5 yo who always makes me laugh, is laying in her bed next to the computer. With pickles on her eyes, and telling me all about how only girls can rest with pickles on there eyes. I don't have the heart to tell her you are to use cucumbers. I guess she is close as a pickle was once a cucumber, as once I was a little girl.

 

Today is my birthday and I am another year older, I hope I am not turning into a pickle.

Praying with one eye closed

Today in church I wondered if I will ever pray with both eyes closed. My 5 year old has gotten to the stage were I can pray with both closed, except she gets a little wiggly toward the end. And the boys always wonder how did mom see me bump my brother if her eyes were closed. With the new baby coming soon, I will be back to full -time praying with one eye open. I guess what I am trying to say that this makes it even more important that I take time in the morning or when it doesn't matter if the kids are loud and wiggly to pray.

 

I also have to remind myself that God hears my prayers weather my eyes are closed or if they are wide open. And of course I could concentrae on prayer more in church if the childern were not there. But I think God would rather they be with us learning together, then to have my full attention during prayer. This is only a brief time in our lives and someday I will be able to pray with both eyes closed and all of my mind on the prayer. But right now I am bringing up a new generation of belivers for him.

 

 

family photo

My dh asked me to add a family photo, well this is the only one I have right now. And our oldest son is missing from the photo. It was taken at the family picnic for the base last year, right around when my dh went on active duty. All the childern are taller now and my belly is the size of a basketball with baby # 6.

 

 

Looking at this picture they have grown alot in 6 mos. my oldest daughter looks me in the eye now. Maybe this weekend we will try to get another photo taken. Well I am off to get a nap in before the crowd comes home.

Why build a snowman

My kids have always been a little differnet when it comes to their ideas. For example they had to make a drawing of a dragon doing something and include background. Conner draws a dragon in a cave with a whole bunch of bones around him, Sarah on the other hand draws hers sitting by a campfire roasting marshmellows with his dragon breath. And then Nolan draws his sitting in a boat in the ocean fishing, and frying the fish with dragon flames before eating it.

 

So it should have come to no surpise when instead of a snowman my childern build a snow catapillar that you can ride.

 

The Start of the new Kitchen

Well they came bright and early Saturday morning, and by noon had the wall and the old cupboards out.

 

 

This is the wall were the fridge was, they took it down to a knee wall, and it is open between the kitchen and the dining room.

 

 

This picture was taken at night so things are a little dark but they have some of the new cupboards in.

 

 

And this was the end of day 1 of the remodel. I will post day 2 tomorrow.

The old kitchen

Here are some photo's of the old kitchen before it all came down.

 

The reason for the space were a ref. would normally go, is last year the fridge died and the big question was do we go with the fridge that fits the spot or the fridge that we wanted. We went with the bigger fridge it is all fridge no frezzer, and I love it.

 

 

This is going around the room the other side of the sink and yes that is the dishwasher hose hanging over the sink. As while we were able to hook up the hotwater for the dishwasher the drain was not able to be contected. So for 3 years it has drained into the sink.

 

 

This is once agian going around the room. The thing I did love about this set up was that I had a baking center, with a spot for a mixer and all the baking items.

 

 

And this is the wall were the fridge is, and that is Kathryn in the picture. This is opposite the wall were the stove is, and on the other side of this wall is the dining room. At one time when a smaller family lived here this was the eating area in the kitchen.

 

Well I will post some of the new kitchen a little later, so come on back for a look.

The New Kitchen - the delivery

My dh this year decided to bless me with a new kitchen, I do belive this was a attempt to keep me from remodling anything else on my own. Well they had called and said that they could deliver the cabiets. The only room we had to store them in was the living room as the dining room was full of the stuff from the kitchen. It is rather amazing as to the amount of stuff you can fit into a kitchen and not know it. I was rather surprised as to the amount of boxes there was I didn't think they would all fit, but they did. The kids were so happy they saw all these boxes and all they could think about were the forts that they could build. So for a little under a week we lived in the family room and bedrooms.

Keeping a Schedule Morning of Day 1

With the one child I homeschool off to visit his grandparents for the month of January, I think this a great time to work on a schedule for me and the rest of the family. Things got a little out of control over the Christmas holidays with travel and such. So I started today and so far I managed the flowing so far.

 

6am -Wake, shower, my bathroom, and started a load of wash

6:30- woke Sarah, unloaded the dishwasher, put away the pot and pans, and made sausage, grape juice and French toast for breakfast

7- woke the boys, and supervised eating, dressing, teeth.

7:30- Cleaned up the kitchen, checked what was for dinner, nothing to pull out today, and picked up and vacuumed the living room.

8 – took a break, ate breakfast, and got the children on the bus

8:30- I am typing this and then off to change the wash.

 

I will post more later on how today goes