Wordless Wednesday….Saying Goodbye

My children made a great friend this summer. His name is Alex. Alex is now a freshman at West Virgina U…Go WV!!!!

He was the lifeguard at the pool we went to. Alex was great with the boys. He felt they all needed an older brother and took it upon himself to be the older brother. Of course he was just as goofy as the rest of the kids. He gave the boys nicknames. Charlie became “Little John” and Robbie became “Traveling Monk.” He helped the boys work on their swimming strokes for competition swimming. He wrestled them in the pool. He tossed them all over the pool. They will never forget Alex. I seriously doubt Alex will ever forget them.

He has a love for history that he shared with the boys. We hope he does well at school. He should pass his PT with flying colors after lugging the boys up and down the length of the pool….

Ode to Alex…….

These are his shoes…..LOL

Good luck Alex…..Don’t forget us……

August 19th…..Oh boy……

I can not believe that August is flying by so quickly.  I wanted to start schooling with the kids the first of August but ended up with family members here and that just does not work.

My husband has offered to take over some of the subjects for me.  He has offered to teach at least math and science. I may allow him to do this….once we get started and see how things go.

Other than that life is the same old around here.

I am getting ready to head downstairs and see what I can throw away……oops, I mean donate.

I finally convinced my husband that we don’t need two pianos and he will never get time to refurbish the other piano.  It is heart wrenching to me to have to destroy this beautiful piece of craftsmanship. It was built in the 1800’s and still has some of the original ivory on the keys.  It is a large upright grand.  It is taking up so much space though.

My husband put it on the piano recycling group, did you you even know there was one?  No takers and it has been a month now. If we have to destroy it, I am taking several pieces from the piano to keep.

The front piece that opens up has a large panel with carved oak leaves and acorns on the raised relief.  I was thinking of converting that into a head board for the bed.  Right now my headboard is a piece of plywood covered with batting and a velvet throw with a flower pattern woven into the material. Opening the top lid reveals a bar that the hammers are attached to, on that bar is a gold relief of the Chicago World’s Fair circa 1880-1890?  I am trying to picture this in  my head so my dates are off.  It is in pristine condition.

When the piano is opened all the way, it is interesting to view how the makers made and upright grand.

My only problem with doing anything right now is that I can not put any weight on my left hand.  Sorting laundry is a killer.  I have two little girls visiting and braiding their hair left my hand throbbing.

In case I never mentioned it…..the doctor had to cancel my appointment that was supposed to be August 18th and reschedule for Sept 10th. He had an emergency.

Stuffing and wrapping 640 hot dogs on Saturday probably did not help the matter either.  Our local Rescue Squad has a special back to school bingo every year.  They purchase book bags and school supplies and stuff the bags according to grades.  This is to help the poorer communities in our area. Well, this year they had 600 children show up……some had to be turned away due to the building capacity.  They didn’t leave empty handed though.  The EMS crew gave them lunch and still handed them a back pack.

Since the Rescue Chief’s family live on our street, his wife always grabs back packs for the kids in her neighborhood.  She know we home school and still includes the kids. I felt I should help her out hence me volunteering to work the kitchen.  I am just glad I didn’t get my kids up to go….that place was a mad house. They got to spend time with Daddy.

I am considering getting a part time job in the evenings.  My husband is not for this idea and I understand his reservations.  I have gone back to counseling and it is not cheap when you pay out of pocket. I would rather pay for it myself.

I am sitting on the application.  I have not turned it in yet.  I am still trying to decide.  Life goes on…..

Schoolhouse Planner Giveaway….

I stumbled across in my friend Elaine’s blog. It is a planner give away from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. This is a magazine for home schoolers. If you do not all ready have a subscription, I highly recommend it!!!

Here is the article on the Planner give away, in case you want to put your name in the hat. Today is the deadline…..sorry.

“I was so excited to have the opportunity to review the new Schoolhouse Planner. If you’re anything like me, you’ve worked your way through a variety of planners, but may have had a difficult time finding one that encompasses all you’d like. The people at The Old Schoolhouse sought out ideas and suggestions from the homeschool community, to find out exactly what homeschool families need to better organize and plan their lives. The result is a well-thought out and comprehensive planner.

The Schoolhouse Planner starts out with full-page 2008 and 2009 calendars for the broad overview of your year. Then it moves into the individual monthly calendar pages. Instead of sticking to “just the facts, ma’am,” each month includes helpful tips (teaching writing, chore training, unit studies, and more), useful reference information (7 Wonders of the Ancient and Modern World, famous composers, important US documents from the National Archives, to name a few), a resource list (links for products at The Schoolhouse Store that correspond to each month), and recipes (Amish breakfast casserole, chalupas, easy chicken casserole, anyone?). Much of this will be of great value long after the school year ends.

The second section contains all the Homeschool Forms you might need, and then some. The beauty of this planner is that you can easily print the specific forms you need, based upon the number of children you have and your homeschool. Because of the number of forms available, I might not print the entire Forms section. Instead, I would print the list of forms, so I know what’s available and then print just those that I want, as I need them.

Here’s just a taste of available forms:
Planning sheets – annual, curriculum, twelve-year, weekly, field trips, and more
Record keeping – grades, report cards, high school hours, books read, science lab, nature journal, and much more
Other information – extracurricular, website and vendor list, co-ops, support groups, etc.

Following this is the Household Forms section. There are forms for housekeeping, chores (varying ages of children), menu planning, contact and phone number information, financial and budget records, Bible reading plans, and even garden plans. As with the previous section, there’s much more in addition to these.

Each Forms section also includes some basic instructions for each. I came across useful some ideas here that I hadn’t thought of, which will help me in my own school planning.

With The Schoolhouse Planner, a binder, and your printer, you’ll be set for organizing and planning everything in life. I’m excited to put this planner into use and I will definitely recommend this to other homeschool families!”

(Quoted from Home School Blog Awards)

Go register!!!!

Wordless Wednesday……slightly delayed.

A single picture can speak volumes. Four pictures can tell a story or two. Look at the four pictures and tell the story. If you wish to know if you are spot on, click on the read more and you will have the story.

The players from left to right are Charlie (son, soon to be 13), Cherokee (niece, soon to be 15), Robbie (son, just turned 11), Colleen (daughter, soon to be 15) and last but not least, Randy (husband,just turned 40 and yes I had to get that one in….. ).

I, am behind the camera.

Do you have it? They are the silliest bunch……

Concrete Stain….

I was asked to post some pictures of the process we went through staining our concrete in the basement. This was not difficult but it was a lot of work on our end just for the prep.

I cannot stress enough the prep time. If you want the floor to turn out beautifully, take the extra time to prep the floor properly. If you are having to pull up carpeting from concrete do not be surprised if the concrete is stained with drywall mud and paint. This will need to be taken off. Scrub brush, drill with scrubbing disc’s, however you want to do it….take it up. Now there are chemical etching solutions that can do it for you, but the product we used needed to be safe for our environment. We wanted something that was friendly to our children, pets and grass. We found it in this product from…..Mason’s Select Transparent Concrete Stain.

The first step was to empty the room. This was a monumental task!! What could be stored outside under the patio was placed there and covered with several large tarpes. That consisted of all the desks, book shelves, metal art shelf, chairs etc. The weather sensitive material was stored in anther room off the hallway that wasn’t being stained. We emptied an area approximately 500 square feet. This is also a great time to purge….

I have a friend who has 8 children. They range from 18 down to 12. They had a blast doing the demo. They helped us pull up all the carpeting, take down two small walls located at the bottom of the steps and pull and patch all the holes from the tack strips where the carpeting had been laid.

Once all the carpeting was removed, the floor was swept several times and mopped. My husband went through and patched all the holes in the concrete using concrete patching material. You need to allow that to cure.

Once the floor had been cleaned of all the drywall mud, paint, holes patched and cured we taped up the walls. This was to prevent the walls from getting wet from the water hose and possible spray from the stain.

Next, you will use the etching solution that cleans the floor and etches the concrete to take the stain. This is the most important step. When we do this again, which we will if we ever move. We will probably triple the amount of etching solution we use. We really could have used more than what the product said we would need. Our floor was really in a mess. It would be a good idea to get one of those brooms or floor squeegies. You will need it to help contain the water. After the solution sits for the required amount of time (you will also be scrubbing the floor with the etching solution) you will take the water hose and hose the floor off. We had the kids in front with the floor squeegies keeping the water from running under the baseboards. This also helps pull the water out. We also used the wet/dry vac and placed several fans in the basement to help the floor dry.

We wanted to disguise the areas with the patched holes so we taped a diamond pattern on the floor. My husband’s idea…..borrow, beg, rent a mechanic’s creeper. It is a flat thing padded with wheels that mechanics use to crawl under a car that is not on a lift. It will save your back and knees. If not, buy a pair of volleyball or soccer knee pads. I found those more comfortable than the mason’s knee pads. You will need this while taping the floor.

After the floor was taped we applied the first color. We used the terra cotta as the first coat. We wanted th diamond pattern to stand out so that section was given an additional coating of stain.  This is why it appears darker in the later pictures. When that was dry, we pulled all that tape that we just put down, up! Then painted over the entire floor with the sandstone. You will also need a decent pump sprayer. Buy a couple back up nozzles. The stain will clog the nozzle if you go cheap. I know this for a reason…..

After all of that has dried you add your clear coat sealer. Once it is done you have a gorgeous looking floor. The stain picks up the swirl patterns in the concrete and using the two colors gave it a marble looking effect.

My husband sat and laughed at me when the floor was finally finished. I would just go downstairs and stare at the floor. I hated bringing anything back in. I didn’t want to cover up all that hard work we had done. That is the area we homeschool in. The entire downstairs is set up for schooling. It is divided into different areas and we are blessed to be able to have a room we can dedicate to home schooling.

I have since painted the walls in the one area with a brick looking pattern. It is bright. I also painted one wall using magnetic paint. We took two of the book shelves and covered the back of the shelf with drywall mud. It was then sealed and painted over with black board paint. I now have 2 3′wx6′h chalk boards.

When I finish organizing the room and getting all the new material up I will add some pictures of the entire basement with all the furniture in place.

Now for the pictures…..the person in the pictures is one of my friends who came over to help us with the floor.

These two pictures show the floor before it had been cleaned along with the wall that had been removed and our dog who was really enjoying the coolness of the concrete.

This is looking down the hallway and the rest of the rooms. There are two more rooms off to the left and a full bathroom on the right and laundry room. The stairs that lead to the upstairs part of the house which is laid out along the same floor plan.

Here you can see the pattern that was taped on the floor. The plastic taped up to the wall and the beginning spraying. This part goes very quickly.

The first coat has been sprayed on the floor. After it dried we removed the tape from the floor exposing the diamond pattern.

The above pictures show the entire floor when it is completed. The sandstone went on and then the clear coat. The area at the bottom of the steps got a different pattern due to the amount of patching that was done in that section. We had taken down two small walls and removed some tile from that part of the floor.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.