“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” ― Mark Twain

   Daughter has been in hospital the last couple days. Her fever got to 103.6 and since she is only a couple months old we took her in. Normally, if it were Husband or I we wait it out, because I am not for the over medicating that happens now a days. Son doesn't usually go to the doctor either, but he is so very rarely sick, and hasn't needed to go in several years. Daughter is doing better now, it was a UTI and they wanted to treat with IV antibiotics, which had the fever down within an hour or so and hasn't come back.

   Son got to go stay with my sister. He always has a blast there. I am thankful we are homeschooling because he wouldn't have been able to go to regular school this week, as Husband sleeps in the evenings and works nights and I was at the hospital.

    So glad to be home though. I have a few loose ends to tie up for school, which we will start next Monday. I also need to clean the house really well so I don't have to worry about it so much,

“You cannot open a book without learning something.” ― Confucius

I am not just a teacher, but a student as well. 

Things I am learning:

Cross-stitch- While it may not be "that hard" I was looking for something to do while breastfeeding.

Ham radio- Husband has his license and I need to get mine, this is going kind of slow... maybe because I hate my voice? eh I guess I could always just do Morse code the entire time. 

Blogging- Okay, okay, this is a blog that will likely never be seen by anyone else but maybe someday long in the future someone will come across this and find what I have to say and share interesting?

Things I want to learn:

Doll making- Daughter is no where near old enough for dolls yet, but she will be at some point. I am a fan of the Waldorf doll style, and who knows if I enjoy it and make them good enough maybe sell a few?

Refinishing furniture- I have gotten a few things from Craigslist and have plans to repaint and possibly decoupage. A couple of dressers, an office chair that needs new foam in the seat and reupholstered, and recovering the pillows on the couch.

Cooking- I am by no means a domestic goddess, I keep my house reasonably clean (I have no clue how my mother managed to keep a spotless house with seven kids EEP!), I make sure everyone is fed, but I am tired of our boring meals plans, and ready to try new things! 

I am always on the look out for new books to read, and have more books than I will ever be able to read (luckily most of them are on my Kindle or on the computer, otherwise we would have books in every open inch of the house.) 

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” ― Phil Collins

   So, we are nearly at the beginning of a new school year. Son will be doing First and Second grade work. Last year was a bit of a mess, I will admit it was mostly my fault. Too loose with the planning, procrastination was commonplace, add in some pregnancy hormones. Son did learn a lot last year, and we got all of the work completed that I had envisioned for his Kindergarten year. But the headache and rush of much of the year  left both of us exhausted. My motto this year round is "Plan it, Do it, STAY ORGANIZED!" All of this is made easier by two things: a dedicated school room (we were bouncing between the living room and his way over packed bedroom) and we are trying out the Workbox system this year. We are hoping the Workboxes will help Son to be able to self-start more, and to show him the exact expectations of the day(and end "Are we done yet?" all the time). I was able to get ten magazine organizers for two dollars at a yard sale, and we have one set up for each subject (plus a few extra). I have a paper lesson planner and a journal as well, last year most of that was just winged as he was technically young enough to not be required by the state to be in school yet (though I did keep a grade book of what he had done, after he was done with the work).

 Here are some pictures!

 Work boxes for the core lessons, they are sitting on the drawers each one for a separate subject (and my planner and journal.)

 My big ugly chair (it is really comfy), I got from a craigslist free section ad. Son's school desk (considering getting a separated arrangement but this works okay for now.)

 Opposite from the chairs we have the drawers/work boxes, whiteboard, various wall bits.

Art type desk, we didn't use it much last year as it was shoved in an inconvenient spot but this year we will get more use out of it.

I am in the market for a bookcase, but, as with most everything we have, I intend to get a really good deal on a used one.