Christmas on the Farm, Snippets, and a Maggie update

We went to Paradise for a visit. Jan had made her Christmas lasagna. Yummy!!! She also gave Maggie a bag full of clothes passed down from Jan's best friend's daughter, who is a couple of years older than Maggie. Thank the Lord, Maggie actually liked a couple of items. Including the pink knitted poncho below. Maggie also got Fur Real Bootsie. 

Ruby got the most adorable coat ever. She gets so quiet sometimes in new places or people she's not too used to. She goes from 11 to like 2. It's a trip.

She's obsessed with her belly button. And mine. Every time I'm on the floor exercising, she runs over, and rips my shirt up, like, ha, I knew it, you have one too! She found Maggie's the other day and she was beyond excited.

Hmmm. . . um, just a picture of Spot. Remember when all I did was take pictures of my pets. Now, I'm like what's this doing in here???

We went somewhere and everything was fine. We came home, I put Ruby to bed, and Maggie went into her room to play. She came out 15 to 20 minutes later and her eye looked like this:

Ugh. She has the weirdest medical stuff. It didn't hurt. It didn't itch. Nothing. But can I have some candy since I'm hurt? No!

Ruby in her cabinet. 

Maggie is doing so well. I have tried very hard to have a very consistent schedule. We get up and go to bed at the same time. We eat at the same time. We have the exact same morning routine and do the same set of school work every morning. She has the same chores. I update her list daily. She has just thrived. The girls are almost never in the car because our babysitter comes here. She's at home most of the time. It's such a relief to see her so happy and content. I'm working more than I'd like to (I need the money) but both girls love our babysitter and she is also a homeschooling mom so they do a lot of activities and I leave work for Maggie as well.

Maggie got her yellow and white belt in karate. Very exciting. She is still in comedy, which she still loves. I'm hoping we pick swimming back up this semester (I just couldn't afford it last time). We are going to do a PE/homeschool group thing, starting this week. Our neighbor, Cari, who homeschools told us about it. Small world. We try to have people over for dinner once a week. I try to get Laurie to come every week. Ella and Maggie get along better now than ever. We spent New Years' Day at their house and I don't remember hearing or even noticing the big girls all day. I would occasionally see them or hear them running around or heading outside, but that's it. And Maggie was devastated when we had to leave. She plays with our neighbor, Dessie, quite a lot as well. She is a sweet girl.

I'm thinking about doing something different with piano. I never really liked lessons. I felt like the majority of her learning was supposed to be in daily practice, but I know NOTHING about music so I felt quite ill-equipped to be supervising them. So! I thought I would find an online program and do it with her. If we're learning the same thing at the same time, perhaps that would be better. We'll see.

School is great. Let's see. We read a ton. I download books on her kindle that she can listen to. She still is very insecure about reading herself but she loves being read to. I want to encourage that love of reading so I try to read to her a lot. The confidence for reading on her own will come eventually. We've started watching CNN's Student News. It's 10 minutes long and covers major things without getting too nitty gritty or graphic. We added some science books. They are an adventure series that run through various areas in science. Right now, we are learning about zoology, classifications, predators vs. prey, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, etc. Maggie loves the stories. We also have started a critical thinking, logic book. Right now, it's pretty basic: sequencing, relationships. She loves it, which is great. I love puzzles and I think she will love them too.

I did something I have thought about doing a long time. I set up some independent work for her. Well, she doesn't always do it independently but the idea is that she could. Also, it's completely set up: no prep work. I got a little rolling cart with drawers and I put all the materials in there. Then I printed up a sheet to go with it that I write down instructions (if needed). There's a couple with books in there. I put a junior sudoku. Then I have three art draws. I just put the supplies in. No instructions beyond that. She can use them however she wants. Make whatever she wants. I love the results. She's been doing even more art than usual. I also put Lego sets in there. She finally tried them and, surprise, she loved it. I'm thinking about doing what Laurie does and getting the Lego subscription.

I have a million materials for things I can put in there and I'm excited for her to use it more and more.

Hmmmm. . . I think that's it. Oh she told me last week, she's decided she's sticking at 9. She likes 9 but she's going to stay there. So, good news.