The Case of the Missing Cheerios: September 2014

Saturday, September 13, 2014

So long, farewell, Au Wiedersehen, goodbye. I leave and heave a sigh ...

Well, it has been a wonderful time writing. I have shared this blog with great friends, and we have had some great readers!
Thank you all so much for sticking with us through this blogs ups and downs.
However, we have come to a point where this blog is at a stop.
For me personally I just don't have the time to dedicate to update regularly. I will still be blogging when I can on my own personal blog, as well as writing book/product reviews. If you would like to visit my blog it's: http://the-edge-of-the-sky.blogspot.com.
So sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone, we just aren't at the right place right now to commit to this with everything else we all have going on.
I'm wishing you all the best, and keep being wonderful parents.

Goodbye.

~Tori

Farewell

Bad news bears, everyone: our blog has reached a stopping point. I've had a great time sharing and blogging, but I don't have the commitment to keep it up like I once did. I'm still going to be blogging, but not here on The Case of the Missing Cheerios. If you'd like to check out my new blog, which is up and running, scope it out at http://reasonsforwaking.blogspot.com/

I'm also going to be spending a lot more time on my novel. Hopefully you can look forward to that getting published eventually, but I have to finish it first!

Again, thanks for your support and thanks for reading! Keep on being rocking parents and people, and I hope to hear from you all on my new blog. Toodles!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mom hobbies~priddymomma

Me as McGonagall

Hey guys! I’m getting totally excited about Halloween coming up. We’re having a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Halloween party on Halloween this year. I have BIG PLANS, DUDES!! I’ll share a picture or two afterwards. My husband and I also got the chance to begin putting in some trails on our property. I’m crazy excited to get to work on them. Now we can enjoy so much more of our place! Aahhh! I’m crazy. You can say it.

The Great Hall at the Halloween feast, complete with "live" bats

This week, I’m discussing mom hobbies. Actually, I really want to cross off the mom and just call it “hobbies”. The issue is that you won’t have the same kind of hobbies as a mom that you did when you were not a mom, so I guess the mom stays. And at this point, I’m sure you can tell I am completely hyped up on caffeine while typing like a psycho. IT’S TRUE!! YAY! (I’m running in circles only a little)

So…what was I talking about? Oh. Hobbies. You need hobbies. Going through life not excited about doing anything is super lame. I’m excited about this party, for instance. It is sort of a hobby of mine to throw elaborate parties. Weird, but it makes me happy to see people surprised at the steps I took to set something up (and on a budget too!).

I also like to sew. I don’t make time for it often, but I always make time around Halloween. I make my kiddos’ costumes (they want to be Elsa and Superman this year). Not only do they turn out better than anything you can pick up in the store, but they are often times much cheaper. And again, I have the excuse of sewing, which is great. I sometimes make time before Christmas as well if one of the gifts is hand made.

Confession: No sew! Princess Cheerio was 1, and I procrastinated. Still not purchased costumes though (except the wings, because ain't nobody got time for that).

Singing is the hobby I make the most time for, but mostly because I can multi task as I sing. I can sing while washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, and of course the old stand-by of singing in the shower. I love to dance, so I try to make time for Zumba once a week.

I love working in the yard, so I make sure I have time to do outside chores on nice days. I like to read, so I plan my day around my book if it happens to be really good. More than once I have turned down invites or activities because a book I have been itching to get my hands on is released that day or the day before. IF THEY ARE TRULY YOUR FRIEND, THEY WILL UNDERSTAND! I have no idea why I’m shouting. Must be the coffee.

OH NO! My coffee is gone! The horror! Time for a refill.

Drat! Hubby turned off the coffee maker. He will pay for this! (I won’t remember by the time he gets home)

Crap. Microwaved old coffee and burned my tongue. Why doesn’t spell check recognize “microwaved”. That’s a term, right? Or maybe we can just call it “nuked”? It recognizes that, but only because it is morbid. Is there another term you use? WHAT IS THE PROPER TERM??!

Anyway…um…I have no idea where I was. Have a hobby! Right. I don’t even know where I was going with this whole concept. That’s a lot like life. Stop. Breathe. Okay. New paragraph. Maybe just ignore this one. Of course, now you can’t because you read the whole thing. Ha ha! Sucks to be you.

If you don’t make time for your favorite activities, you will end up hating everyone and being bored out of your mind. That is an opinion, obviously. When you were a kid, you were probably pretty happy most of the time. I believe kids are happy, because they spend large amounts of time doing exactly what interests them and not worrying about what they should be doing most of the time. If they want to spend hours building legos, by gum they will! And should something like hygiene or chores get in their way, a meltdown will occur. Grumpy adults are just the grown up versions of these kids, meltdown included (hence the grumpy). We would all feel a lot better if we took time to play our legos.

See ya next week, Cheerios Parents! Peace!

P.S. Please take a moment of silence for 9/11. Take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what happened that day. God bless.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Life update for Sept 2014~priddymomma

Hey guys! Welcome back to yet another fantastic post about me! Life update time. You must be so thrilled.

I have exciting news:

I’M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding. But now I have your attention. Bwahaha!

I’m still in the process of getting Cheerio Champ evaluated for Asperger’s/autism. We have another appointment on October 2^nd, so we should know more then. Princess Cheerio is as smart and adorable as ever. My husband has been really interested in conspiracy theories lately (IT'S A CONSPIRACY!), and I’ve been writing a novel. Yes, a novel. How novel!

The biggest thing going on this week for us is the start of school. We home school and love it. I will share with you what we covered our first couple of days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). If you have any questions, feel free to ask. We are eclectic homeschoolers and quite proud of that. :)

Curriculum

Cheerio Champ (6) has a curriculum (created by me) based entirely on volcanoes. There are so many subjects related to or concerning volcanoes that I can’t even list them all. It is plenty for one school year! He’s in “first grade”, though he is participating in some of Princess Cheerio’s projects and can do some 2^nd grade work. He also reads at a 6^th grade level.

Princess Cheerio (2) has her curriculum based on a book called, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen. She really adores the book. In case you aren’t familiar, the book tells the story of a family going on a bear hunt to catch a big bear. On their journey, they find obstacles that they can not go over or under. They realize to their dismay that they must go through them. They include such things as caves, snowstorms, and grasses. The book allows us to talk about weather, bears, environments, etc. I'm even planning to set up a bear hunt obstacle course. I haven’t figured out how I want to replicate “snowstorm” yet, but I’ll figure it out! Princess Cheerio will also participate in some of the experiments and such with Cheerio Champ’s studies.

Structure

Our school week is not Monday to Friday. Instead, it is Tuesday to Saturday. My husband is off on Sundays and Mondays, so our "weekend" is different. Also, if there is a sick day or what not, we are able to flex the school week into the weekend or wrap into the next week. We don't take time off for holidays. We usually complete more than 180 days of school in a year.

Here is a "typical" school day schedule:

7:30 a.m.-wake kids, hygiene, writing practice (vocab words for Cheerio Champ, drawing for Princess Cheerio), chores

breakfast

9 a.m.-reading and discussion; any brief lectures on topics we're covering that day

9:30 a.m.-yoga and meditation

10:00 a.m.-short educational video for the day and brief recap

10:30 a.m. -quiet time/nap time (provides chill time, nap time, and play time)

12:30 p.m.- worksheets, playing, chores, lunch

after lunch until 2:30 p.m. - buckle down learning/projects (For example: Wednesday we baked GF apple crisp and drew an orca)

2:30 p.m.- dad gets home; go outside (sometimes outdoor learning for no more than 10 minutes); play and explore

3:30 p.m. -school day over

Only about 3 hours of material taught over the course of 8 hours. They learn plenty, don't get frustrated, burnt out, or bored, and sleep hard each night.