School, Emergency Room, & a Tiny Bit of Sewing!

Has it really been 2 1/2 weeks since I last posted?  I didn't mean for so much time to slip by, and I don't really have a good excuse.  However, now that I think about it, we did start up our home school again, so I suppose that has kept me busier than I remember.  This is now my 18th consecutive year of teaching my children at home.

My oldest three have already graduated and my youngest is only three, so that leaves the four in the middle as my pupils this year.

They really are a bunch of smart kids!  (And I'm not just saying that because I'm their mother!)  They each tackle Math, Language, History, Science, Reading/Literature, Bible, Journaling, and Cursive Writing every day, and Art is sprinkled in here and there.

Our daily goal is to start school by 9:00, and all morning chores must be finished ahead of time.  We generally finish up around noon.  I love how schooling can be accomplished much faster at home than in the public school setting; there is so much less wasted time.

This one is learning how to read.   I won't lie and say that homeschooling is easy, because it's not!  Sometimes (okay, a LOT of times) I fantasize about how much more I could get done at home if they were all gone at public school during the day.  But then I remember why we're doing this, and the benefits we're reaping, and it makes it all worthwhile.

When we're not schooling, and the weather is still summer-like, you can find any number of my kids on the backyard trampoline.  Which is also why we ended up at the emergency room this weekend.

 

This little guy had a much bigger child (a neighborhood friend) accidentally land on his leg.  The other children present said they heard a "snap".  That's never good, at least not when it applies to kids and trampolines.

Several hours at the hospital and one x-ray later, it was finally determined that his little leg was indeed broken--the tibia, half-way between the knee and the ankle.

During all those boring hours of waiting, we watched the movie "Cars".  My husband was really getting into it, since he'd never seen it before!

Here we are, waiting for my husband to bring the car around.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of our reflections.  My little man was so brave.  He never made a peep.  Even the doctor and nurses all commented how calm he was.  He is wearing a temporary cast for now, until the swelling goes down, and then he'll get his permanent cast tomorrow.  I'm glad this all happened at the end of summer, rather than the beginning.  Most 6 year olds are balls of energy, and this one is no exception.  I know it's killing him to lay on the couch all day while his siblings run and play.  However, the Xbox has been a nice consolation prize.  And the trampoline?  We've had it for 9 years with no injuries until now.  I still love it; it was one of the best purchases we ever made.   But there's a new rule:  Only two jumpers allowed at any one time.  The seven kids bouncing when the accident occurred was just way too many.

I haven't been sewing, although I've done a lot of thinking about sewing.  My bed quilt is still waiting to be finished, mocking me from the ironing board where it's been languishing for the past several weeks.  Shame on me.  I've been feeling so guilty for my lack of sewing, that I decided to crank out a little project today, just to get back into the groove.  I've been wanting a camera strap cover for forever, and I figured, how hard could it be?  It wasn't.  It took me more time to figure out the dimensions that to actually sew it.  Once it was finished, I realized that I couldn't get a good picture of it since it's attached to the only camera I own.  But I think you can get the idea.  I won't show you how I did it because I didn't take any pictures, and seriously, there are about a million tutorials online if you're interested in making one.  It's simply a long rectangle, folded in half, with batting inside.  I used a double layer of batting for extra padding.  Turning it right side out was the most difficult thing, but it just took some time.  I love how it turned out.  And how I'll instantly be able to pick it out at family functions when there are several other cameras just like mine laying around!  I think these could make some nice Christmas gifts...