The Mac Family Update Part Four (Mr. McLoughlin)

MR. MCLOUGHLIN

Aron just finished Callie’s room (a.k.a. “The Girls’ Room”). He is such a perfectionist, which is a mixed blessing. It’s nice to have everything just so, but it takes the poor guy a long time to get everything done since he kept encountering issues, like outlets being wired wrong. Then he had the whole thing painted (3 walls turquoise, 1 wall purple, then let the kids fingerpaint on the purple wall, God bless him) and Eva took a screwdriver to one of the small walls. Grrr. Such is life with naughty children. Then the bunk bed was too LONG for the mattress, which drove him nuts so he had to fix that.

Anyway, now he can move on to his 500 other projects. It’s really not funny, but there are about 20 things that need to be done or are broken in our house. No big deal … you learn to live with them and move on. So this winter here’s his short list (honey, feel free to print this out):

Finish making medicine cabinet for main bathroom so we can finally put all the medicines up after 10 years

Make another medicine cabinet for the other bathroom

Build or buy a swingset before someone gets Tetanus on ours and sues us

Type up a waiver for guests to sign before getting on swingset

Fix my garage door so I can lazily use the remote opener again

Fix the blinds in our bedroom that we just bought and are already jacked up

Re-hang the shelf/hooks by the garage door

Fix the huge FAMILY picture frame that fell off the wall when some kid was playing ball in the family room

Fix pedals on Michael’s bike

Fix the front storm door so our tinier of kids can't escape

OR ... he can just forget about most of that and just hang out with us ... we'll make do with all the broken stuff as long as we have our favorite guy around!

He celebrated his 44th birthday recently by playing at the park with the kids over his (long) lunch hour, working and going to Papa Keno’s for dinner, followed by a nice brownie sundae at home. He got a bunch of small gifts from the kids and lots of cards.

And good news:  he got the patches all sewn on the Scouts uniforms (with help from his mom) ... this is a pic of him sewing ... right after I took this picture he showed me with one of his fingers that I'm "number one" ... if you can read between the lines (or fingers).

Next update after Wordless Wednesday on the 8th: A ROUTINE?!?!?!?!?! What is that?!

The Mac Family Update Part Two (Homeschooling)

HOMESCHOOLING A BIG FAMILY

Nope, not tired of homeschooling yet, and the kids still love it, too. Joel’s doing his multiplication, cursive, English, history and more plus earning his Scouts religious emblem, helping out at Harvester’s, and earning badges, pins and loops for Scouts in things like Swimming, Traveler, Fitness, Forester, Good Manners, Fishing, Reading and Writing, and Gymnastics. He’s crazy about Black Beauty right now (TV show on DVD and the book).

Michael is always making something out of all sorts of materials and comes up with games and puzzles of his own. He’s reading Flat Stanley and getting ready for his First Communion in May.

Callie is doing typical kindergarten stuff at a slow pace, which is how we like to take things sometimes. She’s doing great with her numbers and I read to her all the time. She writes letters all the time and is starting to see how they go together to make words. Sometimes she’ll read a word out of the blue and freak me out!

Eva and Sam putter around and make messes while we do school.

Homeschooling also includes things like days at the zoo, Lego Robotics for Michael, gymnastics for the boys, Religious Ed class for the boys, trips to the grocery store, and magazine deliveries. We’re big on life skills learning around here. They do their chores, and learn how to cook (who learns how to make a chocolate raspberry torte with their dad at SCHOOL?). Sure, homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but it seems to somehow be God’s perfect plan for us so far. Working on an ebook about homeschooling, so ask me any questions you like!

Next update: Writing

The Mac Family Update Part One (The Kids)

THE KIDS

This is why you haven’t heard from me in a while. I’m hardly ever online because we’re either homeschooling or running around or hanging with friends/family or … maintaining the every-messy household.

Joel is Mr. Social like always and loves hanging out with all his friends. He rides his bike all over the place. Michael has been doing great with his OCD … he has therapy once a week and hasn’t had a bad day in a few weeks, thank God. Callie has been sleeping in her newly remodeled bedroom the last few nights like a big girl. Eva is into everything all the time and I would need a full-time housekeeper to keep up with her messes. She’s also potty training. Sam is following in her footsteps and is running all over the house with his little temper and huge smile. He loves to say Mom and Up.

Somebody at church the other day saw Sam running around and said to me, “You don’t have any babies anymore.” I smiled sweetly and thought, “Shut up, Lady! Don’t remind me that my FIFTH child is growing away from me every single day!”

Bloggy shout-out to Kay from church for the AWESOME Halloween sugar cookies! If you saw me walking home from church that day it was because I partook of many, many of the cookies and needed to get rid of some calories!

And please write me in the Comments section so I know what YOU have been up to. If you have a blog, shamelessly plug it with a link so I can come see you in CyberWorld!

Oh, crap, gotta go. Sam just got into the wax paper, foil and Saran Wrap drawer and I’m sure you can imagine the rest.

Next update: Homeschooling

Mama's Got a J.O.B.

Last week the idea came to me to check out doing magazine deliveries around town on a monthly basis like we used to do in 2007. So I made some phone calls and miraculously got hooked up with a great guy from a great company and now we start our new delivery job TOMORROW! Maybe I'm just lucky or something, but it's stuff like this that happens to/for me that makes me roll my eyes at whiners who sit around crying about money but do nothing to go out and make any. If I can get a good-paying job in my neighborhood that I can take my kids along on (no sitter costs) with flexible hours only a few days a month, then surely more moms like me can find something to do that is similar.

Women, I am empowering you to stop whining and start earning. My income sources include babysitting at my house, magazine delivery, ebooks and articles. And all with no college degree!  And if you do happen to be a writer, don't forget about my ebook (Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines) to earn some extra income.

Stairs, Thinking Outside the Box and My Kids

Isn't it sad how the space under stairs is so often wasted? Some people get creative and build cool little play or storage nooks under their stairs if they are able, but a lot of times this space is just empty.

I think we need to make stairs like doors ... you can lift them and store things under them and then close them. I understand there may be some structural problems with this concept, but I'm sure my kid Michael would be able to figure this out.

I thought I was pretty open-minded, but since having a think-outside-the-box kid like Michael, I think of things in new terms. I invent things in my mind that I think should be invented, even though I don't have the time or the money or the patent to put them into action.

Don't tell my kids, but they are homeschooling me more than I am homeschooling them.

4/17/12 obviously someone read this post because I saw this idea on Pinterest, only the drawer handles seemed to stick out, which could be a little dicey!