More Beach

This week was the semi-annual consignment sale, Boutique for a Week, in which I participate.  There is a lot of prep involved because you have to tag all your own stuff which means picking a price, entering into the computer, printing the tag, and attaching it to the item.  If clothes are involved, than you have to hang them up and iron them. Duncan gives me a hard time because it is rather time consuming (as in, I didn't do anything in the evenings but that for a week plus).  I was relaying to him how when I took all the stuff to the car on Sunday that I had gotten a blister on my foot and I had sweat pouring down my back.  He wanted to know if it was worth it for a few hundred bucks or so.  I told him, "First of all, last time I made $350 and second of all, don't you know me?? I love anything that has to do with selling something, handling money, tracking what I sell, etc."  That's just me...the accountant in me no doubt.  I love buying something at a yard sale for $1 and then selling it two weeks later for $6.  What can I say, it give me a thrill!

I had to drop my stuff at the sale on Sunday afternoon and then I was scheduled to volunteer doing set up at the sale with Jennifer and Katrina from 5:00 - 9:00 pm.  I told Duncan he would be on duty during that time.  So Saturday night he says to me, "How would you like to have a Corey day tomorrow?  I'm going to go on a bike ride and then I'll take the kids to the beach and then on to my parents' after that for supper."  Gee, I don't know.  I guess that would work.  Ha!  He left about 10:30 am and I was very excited to have time around the house to get stuff done.  Unfortunately, pretty much the whole time was spent getting my stuff completely ready for the sale but it was still nice to work without having to break to make food, etc.

This picture doesn't do it justice but the guest room has been my staging room for several weeks.

Daddy made sure to keep hats, sunglasses, and sunblock on after our last beach fiasco.

I only had one little snafu and that was that I had forgotten that the Patriots had their season opener that evening at 8:30 pm.  Of course, we always tape the games anyway, which I did, but I knew the kids would want to watch at least the beginning and now we wouldn't be able to start it until at least 9:30 pm when I got home.  Oops.  It was funny because I saw at least three or four Patriots fans dropping off their stuff so I chitchatted with them and they all were certain the Patriots were going to win the game even though Brady was out with his suspension, Gronk wasn't playing, and they were playing a great team in the Cardinals.  Guess I should have listened to them.

The three youngest were already asleep by the time I got home but Calleigh was there to greet me, all ready to get the game started!  She watched the first quarter and a half with me (which was good, so far) but by then it was like 10:30 pm and I told her she needed to get to bed.  She VERY begrudgingly went up so I told her that if in 20 minutes she was still awake, she could come back down.  Well, on the dot, there she came.  Duncan ended up going to bed himself not too long after so it was just my girl and I watching the very exciting conclusion in which the Cardinals tried to kick a 47-field goal to win the game with about 40 seconds left.  They missed!  Calleigh and I were very excited and I was indeed happy I had a companion to watch the game with. By now it was 11:30 pm but I thought, "This is why we homeschool.  She can sleep as late as she wants in the morning."  That turned out to be 9:00 am which is when she got up to tell the other three about the missed field goal.  Of course, Aubree and Brady were very upset that they didn't get to watch the game so every night this week Brady would tell me he wanted Calleigh to go to bed while he got to stay up and watch football.  It didn't compute with him that there isn't a game ON every night.

Kind of dimly lit but you get the point.

As far as the sale, I was quite pleased as I sold 192 out of 325 items for a gross total of $695 of which I get $451.  Or, I get most of it.  The kids think they should get some of the money for things that were theirs that they had paid for themselves or gotten as gifts.  We went to the sale to shop on Thursday night (I also went on Monday) when most things were 50% off and the kids had a good time looking at everything.  Brady found a black Build-A-Bear which he claimed he had always wanted and declared, as we were at the register checking out that it was "The best day ever!"  I guess he had already forgotten his excitement on Monday night when I had purchased him some boxer briefs.  He immediately put them on and started prancing around and saying he was just like Daddy.  He wore them the next day in which we had ice skating.  I was chitchatting there with my friend Amy R. (not to be confused with Amy Z.) and Brady came up to me as free skating was ending.  He whispers to me, "Did you remember to tell Amy that I'm wearing boxers?" So of course, I had to tell Amy right then that he was wearing his boxers and she congratulated him and he just had this cute smirk on his face like he was the cat's meow.

I swear his ribs are only showing because of how he has his arms.  He may not eat vegetables but I DO feed him other food!!

On Monday the kids had a dentist appointment.  This would have been Colby's initial visit but since he had his "emergency" visit from his tooth problem a few months ago, it was his second visit BUT, it was his first visit where he went back by himself with his siblings.  Sort of surreal to be sitting in a waiting room all by myself!  Before long, the hygienist called me in to review everyone's status and she broke the news to me that Aubree had a small cavity.  At this point, Aubree broke into major tears.  None of the kids has had a cavity before so it was a pretty big deal.  The dentist came in a few minutes later and he calmed her down by telling her it was actually really the START of a cavity and not a full blown cavity and that he was fine with waiting six months to see if it might go away. So now we are sure to brush that area very carefully.  He also told me that the person with the teeth in the best shape is Calleigh who is the only one who brushes her own.  I told Calleigh that I apparently needed to hire her to brush the other kids!  Don't I wish.  I think brushing teeth is one of my very least favorite activities ever.

This week we've started studying ancient Egypt and I am reminded why I love homeschooling.  I love to learn right along with the kids.  I'm sure at some point I learned a good portion of this stuff when I was in school but let's be honest, how much does anyone remember?  Now I get to sit down at the dinner table and ask Duncan "Where were Upper and Lower Egypt situated in relation to each other??" And when Duncan pauses for a second to think, I say "Upper Egypt was actually SOUTH of lower Egypt because the Nile River runs from south to north."  Duncan says "Someone just warned me that this was going to happen.  You're going to learn all this stuff and think you're smarter than I!!"  Ahhh, it's all in good fun but I do find it so interesting.  The one frustrating thing is not knowing how to pronounce the names.  The king of Upper Egypt was King Menes and I wasn't sure if it was pronounced "Means" or what.  I decided to just go with that.  We were instructed to act out the "battle" between King Menes and the king of Lower Egypt with Aubree playing the part of King Menes and Calleigh the king of Lower Egypt.  When I said we were going to be doing a play, they both ran and got their KIND (Kids IN Drama from our church) shirts to put on.  That's when Aubree started laughing because her shirt said "KIND" and she was pretending to be King Menes.  Of course, later in the day we were watching a documentary for kids on Ancient Egypt and discovered that it's actually pronounced "Men-es."  Oh well!  It gave us a good laugh at the time.  King Menes won, by the way.  Now you can be as smart as I.  This is where a smiley face emoji would be good but I don't think you can do that on Blogger.

You can't study Egypt without learning about pyramids!

Making a shofar for Rosh Hashanah

Using sugar cookies to practice our cuneiform writing like the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia.

Another thing we are working on is learning all the books of the New Testament (although we already had learned it in first or second grade - - a brush up is always good).  To aid in that endeavor, our curriculum included a books of the NT song including the piano accompaniment.  The girls have been learning to play the song and I find them at all times of the day, tapping the song out on the keys.  It's not a fancy song - - you just play with one hand - - but it sure sticks in your mind and now I even hear Brady singing it randomly.  And it is in my head now.  I'm glad you can't hear me singing it out loud.  Speaking of the piano, Calleigh has now progressed to Book 4 (of the Simply Music "curriculum") which means she is starting to read music.  Up to this point, they've just been learning to play songs without any music which I have really loved because they haven't been bogged down in learning to read notes - - just learning to play songs.  But now it's time to step it up.

Thursday night as I was putting the yard sales into my GPS as I usually do on Thursday nights, I realized there were basically no yard sales at all for Friday.  I think it was because earlier in the week there was a big tropical depression threatening to come our way but then it ended up turning towards Georgia.  The yard sale damage had been done though as people were probably afraid to plan anything for this weekend or at least today.  Now we had a whole free day with nothing going on.  I came up with the idea of riding the SunRail which is a commuter train system that was launched here in Central Florida over two years ago but we had yet to ride on it.  After hitting two measly yard sales, we arrived at the Altamonte Springs Station to catch the 10:23 am train.  As the kids stood there peering down the track waiting for the train's arrival, I honestly felt the same excitement they did.  There is something about waiting for a train...and then seeing that first glimpse of it coming around the corner.  "It's coming! It's coming!" The kids might have said yelled something too, I don't remember! The SunRail is two floors so, of course, I'm sure you know where we ended up.  The train wasn't very crowded because of the time of day, no doubt, so there were plenty of seats.  Some people take the train to the Florida Hospital stop to go to the Science Center but that was only three stops away and I wanted to go farther so my plan was to ride it to Church Street and then we would walk a few blocks from there to get to the big library downtown.  The kids had never been so it was perfect.

Ironically, Calleigh was reading a book about a train.

Why the long face, Aubs?

Thankfully I had the foresight to bring the stroller (which we don't do much anymore) because it was a bit of a hike in the hot sun.  It wasn't far by adult standards but for two little boys who get tired out easily it seems, it was definitely needed.  The kids were very impressed with the library (FOUR floors!) and the huge children's section, especially Calleigh.  She has been reading books like crazy the last few weeks and the branches near us didn't have any more of the books she was looking for (A to Z Mysteries).  Of course, we can always order them to be delivered but she wanted to have some immediately.  She found three she hadn't read but we also found some other series for her to start on including one that is good for Sabbath reading.  That was a major win!

It's so nice when the older siblings can read books to the younger siblings.

We stayed there about an hour and then everyone got hungry so we stopped at Pita Pit along the route back to the train which was to depart at 1:25 pm.  I had been wanting to try Pita Pit out for years and finally got the chance!  I had a really good Falafel pita and then the girls each had a veggie one for only $2.99/each which was a fantastic deal especially since it was the same size as an adult one ($6.19).  Highly recommend the place.

We made it back to the station with plenty of time to spare.  It wasn't very crowded but there were two ladies sitting near us and one of them made my day by telling me, "If you ever teach a class about how to get your kids to sit and wait quietly, I'd love to attend." Simple words but it meant a lot. Thankfully once we were on the train, she wasn't sitting near us so she didn't see the kids arguing about who was sitting where and who got to look at a particular library book first.  I quickly came back down to earth!

Brady, of course, wouldn't eat anything at the Pita Pit so we stopped elsewhere to get him a slice of pizza. 

This morning we shook up our usual Sabbath routine by going to a big church service at a rented church in Winter Park.  AHS/Florida Hospital hosted a church program for the area to celebrate 150 years of Adventist health care.  Not to be confused with Adventist Health System (AHS).  The first Adventist medical institution, Battle Creek Sanitarium, was established in 1866 and from there, many other sanitariums and institutions sprouted up including Florida Sanitarium in 1908...which later became Florida Hospital.  The service was full of stories about how it all started, music, and a short sermon from the North American President of Seventh-Day Adventist, Dan Jackson.  There were several thousand people in attendance and I was really blessed although it did get a little difficult towards the end to keep the boys occupied.  They aren't accustomed to sitting in a church service for an hour and forty minutes (no Sabbath School).  I guess I need to host a class on "How to get your kids to sit quietly and wait!"

The stage which included an orchestra and singers.

This exact painting hung in the lobby of New England Memorial Hospital...the hospital where I was born and my grandfather was chief of staff for many years.  When the hospital closed, Florida Hospital purchased it and it hangs now at Celebration.  It really speaks to my heart for many reasons.

A different bench but we still got our weekly Sabbath photo.

This evening we celebrated the Biblical feast of Rosh Hosanna, also known as "A Day of Blowing" or "The Feast of Trumpets."  This wasn't quite as involved as our Sabbath celebration but still meaningful.

The kids blowing their home-made shofars to signify the beginning of the feast. 

Home-made honey loaf cake.

The ladder symbolizes that we understand our prayers are directed to God on high although I'm not clear on how a ladder symbolizes that!

A few other pictures...

I saw this message posted in a Facebook group for our curriculum and I felt like it was directed right to us.  A girl pen pal from Nova Scotia looking for one in Florida?  Check! So now Aubree has a pen pal and she's very excited.

Board Week at work means Cory Reeves in town so we met him for supper at the newly opened Zoe's Kitchen after ice skating Tuesday night.  Love their food!

This was Colby all upset Friday morning because we didn't do our usual morning snuggle on the floor in his room.  He does love it so (and so do I).

Have a great week!