I apologize for neglecting this blog.  Not that it was the most riveting piece of literature around, but it certainly helped me keep track of my adventures in motherhood.  Gummi Bear is now 6.5yrs old, has short hair and wears eyeglasses.  A lot has happened since my last entry, and I will attempt to update you all now...

As for our chickens, we have lost one to heat and two to predators, since my last entry.  We are now down to 4 hens.  They seem content in their old age, but the egg production has slowed and I have recently begun to think about replacing our dearly departed feather babies with a younger lot (bringing us back up to 10 hens).  We shall see.

Gymnastics was a big hit...until Gummi Bear fractured her ankle the day after her 5th birthday (during her birthday party, no less).  She took a little over a year off from any physical classes, and has now been doing Tae Kwon Do and Singer's Company since the summer.  She loves kicking butt and performing on stage.

As for home school or public school, my husband and I totally chose to continue to home school.  Gummi Bear is super smart and super social, and we have found ourselves a handful of great home school groups in the area.  She has more friends than I did, at this age...and I went to public school & daycare.  Ha-ha!  She is also part of a home school Co-Op.  She takes science, history and art in this Co-Op, and 1/2 of the classes she is in do not have me in them.  She loves the opportunity to come tell me what she did in class, or what homework she had been assigned.  And I love it too!

Well...that is what has happened to us since I last posted...more or less.  It is a little after Midnight, and I think I'd better decide if I am going to stay up and get some laundry done, or head for bed.

Now that I have rediscovered my own blog, I intend on writing much more often...stay tuned.  :)

- Angel

The most talented kid I know!

Maybe I am biased, being her mother and all, but Gummi Bear has got to be the most talented kid I know.  She loves to act, sing, dance, draw/paint/sculpt/photograph, and she is interested in martial arts so she can "become a ninja".  How awesome is that?!?  I could write an entire novel about how incredible my daughter is...as, I'm sure, most parents could...but I won't (right now).  Heh!

Aside from one short season of little-kid soccer, and a funtastic Santa writer's workshop (taught by my friend Ashley), she really hasn't experienced organized learning outside of the home (aka: classes).  Most of that is my/our fault for not looking into these things sooner and signing her up for anything and everything possible.  While in soccer, Gummi Bear preferred goofing off with her teammates on the sidelines over being on the field, and back then I found that to be more discouraging than it should have been.  Just how much interest/focus is a 3yr-old (at the time) supposed to have for organized sports anyway?  I didn't know, but I had hoped it was more than it was.  Now I look back and I'm quite impressed with how much interest/focus she really did have.

2015, the year Gummi Bear will turn 5, will be a full year for sure.  My husband and I are still considering our options regarding her scholastic future.  Do we home school?  Do we send her to school?  Either way, we both agree that Kindergarten (5yrs-old) is a little too early to be putting our child into "the system"...so, unless something changes between now and then, I don't believe she will be starting school next year.  That being said, how else is this incredibly talented and curious child going to get her "kid fix" (and a little extra special learning) if we don't find some classes to sign her up in ASAP?  Well...I think I've found a solution.  One of Gummi Bear's friends takes gymnastics, and the company offers a trial class so you can try it before you "buy" it.  I would like to coordinate her trial class with her friend's regular class, so she can experience it for the first time with a friend by her side.  And, if it is something she enjoys, then we're in business!  I also looked up acting classes, and found a company that's been teaching acting to kids of all ages for nearly 35 years.  They have excellent reviews, and they even have former students who are now grown and working their as adults (which, in my mind, says a lot about the company).  Since my daughter LOVES to direct scenes when you're playing with her, and she even mimics a clap-board before she narrates scenarios she sets up with her toys, I think acting classes might be right up her alley.  Those classes don't start until February, so in the meantime I was thinking we could set up little plays/scenes here at home that we can perform for one another and guests/family.  I can't wait to see how it all works out.

I love the idea of her becoming a ninja, but I'm hesitant to sign her up for martial arts.  First of all, my dad is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and he is qualified to be a teacher...unfortunately, my folks live about an hour away, so regular lessons with him aren't very reasonable right now.  They do plan on moving closer soon, and maybe then Gummi Bear can begin Tae Kwon Do lessons with her Papa.  Secondly, she has always been tall for her age which kind of makes her a little clumsy.  Gymnastics could help her learn how to move her body and prepare her for the physical control needed for any kind of martial arts.  And lastly...we're just not ready for her to become a ninja yet.  We might have to take martial arts lessons with her, so we can defend ourselves if she ever decides to attack.  Heh!

The night time is my time to do my sneaky mom stuff...and I think I've planned and researched enough for tonight.  I even managed to post this blog and get a lot of my ideas out of my head and on to the screen.  This *should* help me quiet my brain enough to get some sleep soon.  Thanks for listening...

- Angel

Chores for Pay (part 2)

I had hoped to be farther along with our Family Job Chart by now, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with slow progress...as long as you're still moving forward.  Right?

I am lucky to have a handful of pocket charts at my disposal (thank you Craigslist!), and I think my Smiley/Happy pocket chart is the right one for the task at hand.  Not only is it large enough to put everything I need in it, it's also cheerful and encouraging to look at.  Yay!

While drawing with Gummi Bear, this afternoon, I came up with a little doodle version of the three of us.

She liked them so much she asked me to cut them out and "make them dolls to play with".  Despite their delicate nature, they survived a brief romp in her Kinetic Sand box, and when she was done with them she stuck them in the pocket chart.  Seeing them in the chart inspired me to use them for our Family Job Chart.

They were a little too floppy for the shallow pockets on the Smiley/Happy chart, so I decided to reinforce them with popsicle sticks.  Once they are dry, I will start putting together our 1st ever Family Job Chart...then we can begin our journey of paying our child for the labor we once got for free.  Hee-hee!

- Angel

Chores for Pay...

It's me again, Margaret.  Another late-night blog entry...I hope ya'll don't mind.

Gummi Bear (my 4.5yr-old) has been talking a lot, lately, about getting a job and making money, so my husband and I have decided to give her an allowance.  She does not like the word "chores", so we'll call them "jobs" instead...she will have a handful of paid jobs to do daily/weekly, and she will have complete control over her money (save, possibly, for an imposed 10% savings rule).  I am so excited by this that I am up way past my bedtime searching chore chart ideas, current allowance wages and age appropriate chores.  Right now my biggest issue with whether to use the Star pocket chart or the Smiley pocket chart.  Heh!

I will be sure to keep everyone posted as things progress.  I have a feeling this will be a work in progress for a while before we have our method down pat.  As with all things concerning our children, things change/grow/become something unexpected...and that is perfectly okay.

I don't have much else to say at this point in time.  I will write more when I have more to write about.  Hang in there folks...I am still here.

- Angel

While I'm Thinking About It...

It's 2am and I really should be in bed, but it dawned on me I haven't posted anything new here in quite a while, and I just wanted everyone (if anyone) know I am still around.  So I felt compelled to write a little bit, while I'm thinking about it.

Update on the ducks and chickens:

We have long since sold the ducks to a family who already had, and are much more familiar with, water fowl...and even they have had to re-home a couple of our former ducks due to behavioral issues.  I maintain contact with the woman we sold our ducks to, and yesterday she informed me of the untimely passing of one of the ducks.  Apparently an unspecified animal attacked her just outside of her coop, and that was that.  Poor thing.  Speaking of the dearly departed, we recently lost one of our chickens to an unknown illness.  Well...the illness didn't take her, but after a week of not eating/drinking we couldn't help but put her out of her misery (with the help of some experienced chicken-owning neighbors).  Before the passing of our chicken, we had added 5 more to our flock.  Originally we had 5 pullets (fancy name for young female chicken), and once we'd felt more confident in our chicken-raising abilities we thought we would try and raise 10 chickens.  We picked the number 10 because when we first started out we had 5 chickens and 5 ducks...so, since we knew we had space/time/energy for 10 birds, we thought that was a good limit to place upon ourselves.  Since the passing of our chicken, we have 9 birds...with no immediate plans to replace the one we've buried in our back yard.  Gummi Bear took our chicken's passing quite well, and we are still in the process of designing a gravestone to mark where her first dead pet is buried.

We've been in our house a little over a year now, and we are quickly coming up on our 2nd Halloween here.  I only hope we can decorate better than we did last year...and that, perhaps, there will be more kids trick-or-treating (and more houses participating in the candy-giving) this year.  If not, we may have to resort to our old plan of haunting my sister-in-law's neighborhood.  They really get into the Halloween spirit there.

I am not sure I have much else I can think to write about.  I guess this'll have to do...until next time, faithful readers.

- Angel

Quick Update!

Now that Gummi Bear is down for a nap, I have some time to touch upon the countless notable events since my last post.

My husband & I fought the good fight, and our daughter was born at 42-weeks of pregnancy, weighing 7lbs, 6oz & 21.5in long.  A healthy weight for any child...and a low weight for a baby delivered by a Gestational Diabetic mother.  Come delivery time, neither OB could be found (they were conveniently busy with other deliveries, or not on call), and so my daughter was delivered by a doctor we'd never met before.  Oddly enough, I preferred that over having to deal with the nastiness our OBs would most likely have brought into the delivery room.  Which reminds me of the time when one of our OBs, while performing a sonogram on me, said the most inappropriate thing I've ever heard a medical professional tell their patient.  The OB said, "just because THIS is okay" (pointing to the sonogram monitor, showing our perfectly healthy baby), "doesn't mean THIS is okay" (gesturing to us and then herself...as if to say, "we're not friends").  Not that we had anything to do with this, but the last time I checked their website, that particular OB no longer works there.  Also...after only one post-partum visit, they gave us most of our deductible back and asked that we go somewhere else for my future gynecological needs.  Done & done, ladies!  Good riddance!

Since then, Gummi Bear has been growing like a weed.  I swear, every morning she is taller, smarter, funnier, more talented, more beautiful than the day before.  We are so very proud of our not-so-little little one.  She will be 4yrs-old next month, but she is the size of a 6yr-old.  Our Amazon child.

Last summer we three adventurers bought a house!  Though we've been here almost a year, I still find it hard to believe we're not just staying with someone else & someday we'll have to return to that sad little duplex we once lived in.  Our daughter sometimes asks when we can move back there, because she misses it...but my husband & I lived there for 10yrs & we are glad to be gone.  This house is perfect, the area is amazing (especially for families), and the schools (should we decide not to home-school her) are highly ranked & well reviewed.  So much to enjoy & look forward to...that's for sure.

A week ago we became proud owners of a flock of chickens and ducks.  Gummi Bear loves to help care for the birds, and we are all learning as we go.  Our dog & cat don't seem to mind the new addition...as long as we don't let the birds come sleep in our bed too (which, believe me, we don't).  Ha-ha!

I think that's a good general update.  I will write more when I have time.

- Angel

My Crazy Life!

Not that many of you missed me, but...I'M BACK!  It's been an amazing ride since my last post, and I will do my best to catch you up on what's been going on since then.  For now, just enjoy the fact that I plan on posting on here quite regularly.  And, that I have TONS of things to write about.  Are you ready?

- Angel

PS: Gummi Bear will be 4yrs-old next month!