I never thought it would happen...

Join in over at Peanuts are Evil.

So, we decided to be daring tonight.

We ventured into Chuck E Cheese.

And we enjoyed ourselves.

A new one opened up about 10-15 minutes away a few months back and we decided to try it tonight.  It was remarkably clean, the staff was polite and fun, there's no creepy characters on stage that always creeped Cute Boy out.  The food was decent, and we all had a ball!

We're *probably* going to surprise Sweet Nut with a trip there in a few weeks for his birthday.  Probably.

I'm still getting over the shock of enjoying myself though.

Let there be laundry!

Day 3 in the blog challenge being hosted by Peanuts are Evil.  It's simple.  Just blog each day during June!

So, we've been without a washing machine and dryer since April 2008.  And it sucked.

At first the house we moved into, the landlord wouldn't allow them.

We moved into this house in November, and while the landlord said ok, there was no hookups.

We scored some off of freecycle a few months back, and finally had someone out to hook them up today.  I never thought I'd be excited about being able to do LAUNDRY!  

But I am.  It's going to save us alot of money each week not having to go to the laundromat, and I can was things right away, if need be.  I'm very VERY excited!

So explain to me...

Day 2 of Peanuts are Evil's blog challenge.  It's simple really.  Just blog once a day every day in June.  

So.  Inquiring minds (mine) want to know.

Is it really that difficult to reach under the bathroom sink and grab another roll of toilet paper?

Is it just because I'm the only girl in the house, and I need it every time I'm in there, that I understand the importance of having toilet paper within reach?

I guess I can't complain too much.  They do put the seat back down.

(But, I think it's only because Cute Boy is attempting to be like the big boys and go on the potty, that they do it so he doesn't fall in.  He did once.  Totally threw off our plans for potty training for awhile.)

Boys.

June Blogging Challenge...

So I decided bravely to enter a blog challenge.  It's a pretty simple one.  Just to blog every day in June.  Head on over to Peanuts are EVIL if you want to join in!

So I know...I'm writing this at the last minute, coming in under the wire, and it'll probably be after midnight when this posts...but I tried, so I get points for that right?  LOL.

I'm still adjusting to being home during the day.  I haven't been home during the day normally for a LOOONG time.  But I'm enjoying it!

We jumped into homeschooling for preschool for Sweet Nut and Cute Boy today with both feet.  We kind of played around with it last week, but today we hunkered down and got some learnin' done.

The big goobers were gone all day (one with Dad, one at school) and so that left me and Cute Boy all alone.  We watched some dark clouds roll in, watched the rain and talked a little bit about how the rain gets in the clouds.  We also talked about trees and how they drink the rain and they make air for us to breathe and they make good homes for birds.  I was pleasantly surprised because he REMEMBERED it and when we picked up Chef at work, the Chef quizzed him (I hinted about our day) and he remembered most of what we talked about!  I guess at 3 I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.

After dinner we worked on our letter for this week which is B.  Sweet Nut did a word search left over from the letter A, and then did some B writing practice and a B word search.  We're making an ice cream cone to help us remember our colors that we're going to put on the wall so he worked hard on cutting that out (with some help from Spawn.)  Cute Boy got the Chef in on the action.  They worked on a B coloring sheet and attempted to trace some B's, and then Chef worked with him on cutting.  He holds the scissors weird (which we're trying to correct) but he cuts pretty well for a goober.

I decided tonight to make a box for Sweet Nut with some letter and writing worksheets in there.  He really likes doing them, and this way he can grab one if he wants to do it outside of school time and do it if he'd like.  He loved the idea, so we'll see how that goes.

We're also working on a letter train to put on our wall.  The Goobers love trains, so this is a very fun project for them.

Anyways, I'm off to bed, night y'all!

So it's been an interesting May.

Let's see.

We found out at the beginning of the month that I was pregnant.  Unfortunately, we lost the baby last week.  We go for a follow up appointment next week, and then we'll see what happens from there.

Spawn has been getting into fights on the school bus with some 4th graders.  So he has been avoiding the bus, not that I blame him.

Sweet Nut went for his kindergarten screening and did really good on everything but letter recognition.

They've all been enjoying the weather we've been having and spending ALOT of time outside.

In other news, we're still debating whether or not to homeschool.  The ex wants Spawn to continue with public school, but with the problems he's having, between kids in his grade, older kids, not paying attention in class, having problems getting concepts down, it's a struggle.  He doesn't get it, because he doesn't see it.  I agreed to let him go until December.  If we're still having issues, we're pulling him out and starting to homeschool.  I need to do what's best for my child, and maybe public school isn't it.

Sweet Nut will also be starting public school in September (tentatively).

Cute Boy will be starting preschool at home this year.  We've done alot of thinking and praying about it, and he's just not the type of kid that I can drop off with strangers and walk away.  He'll be a mess, and we want him to like school, not be scared of it.  He really doesn't do well in new situations, but even in them, he's always at least had one of his brothers.

We actually started with a Letter of the Week program for both little goobers yesterday.  Sweet Nut is more interested in it than Cute Boy, but he'll color and read as well.  We're kind of using the internet and combining different books, projects and worksheets from different sources right now for them.

We're looking into different curriculums for the boys.  So far my favorite seems to be Sonlight.  The Core program interests me because Spawn and Sweet Nut can be doing some of the things together (history etc) and other things like reading and math they do seperate.  It's not a Catholic program, but it does use the Bible for lessons, and I've talked to people that have made it work for Catholic families.  I also like that it's literary based, and uses alot of "classic" books to teach.

We're not set on Sonlight yet, and are still looking at others to see if there's something that would be a better fit for our family.

Any one have any suggestions??

So, it's been awhile...

And we've been busy...

I was knocked down by headaches/migranes this week.  Spent quite a bit of time at my neurologists and the eye doctor.  They believe that part of my headaches are from eye muscle strain.  I need to save up some money to get the glasses they want me to have since they don't accept my insurance for lenses.

I've also had alot weighing on my mind.  Spawn has been having issues with school for awhile now.  First grade has been more difficult socially than kindergarten was.  This past week we had some major problems with other kids, and we've been looking at our options for educating our boys.  At 7, you should love school, and right now Spawn is hating school.

We're exploring the option to homeschool right now, and talking to others to see if this could be the right choice for our boys.  We're looking into different curriculum and the regulations here in NY.  So any computer time I've had has gone to homeschool research.  It's not a foreign concept to us, Spawn has been working on his religion education work at home, and Sweet Nut has been working on prek concepts since January.  We have been praying about it and discussing it to see if this is something we want to go after full time.  Our other option would be running us almost $10K next year if we pull out of the elementary school (which we're 90% sure we're doing) and then even more than that when Cute Boy enters school.

In good news, though, we have had the excitement of watching a bird's nest.  We had a mommy and daddy bird build a nest on our porch.  We've been extra cautious to avoid our front door as much as we can and been using the back.  We've been watching out our front door and seeing them build the nest, and the daddy bird bringing bugs to mommy bird to eat.  The boys have watched Mommy Bird fly to either the tree near their room or the electric wire if someone spooks her, close enough to keep an eye on her eggs.  Sweet Nut was saying earlier this week that the baby birds hatched, and we all thought he was crazy since noone else saw or heard them, but yesterday both mommy and daddy bird were at the nest and we saw at least 2 baby birds!  The littles were sooo excited!  I'm going to try and get some pictures when Cute Boy goes down for a nap today.

Never a dull moment in the Goober house.

Our First Giveaway!!!!!

So, here in the goober household, we're attempting to go green.  It's all about baby steps.

One of the first changes we made is using reusuable bags to shop with.  But, I have a hard time with it, because there's alot of the time I'll stop off at the store for just a few things on my way home from work, and I never remember to keep bags in my car.  That and there's not alot of place to toss a bunch of bulky folded up bags.

But then I found these.

Flip and Tumble shopping bags.

Love them.

I just got my order in the mail today.  And the Chef and I have been playing with them.

I mean, c'mon.  They are fun!

I got 12 of them, plus 5 produce bags.  There's 2 different bags.  One is called the 24-7 bag, and I think it's my favorite.  The other is the shopping bag.

Both types of bags come in a rainbow of colors, and can hold up to 25 pounds.

Both bags come in a ball.  It's easy to open the bags (just simply unwrap) and simple to close them, they just tuck back into the back the pocket.  I'm going to toss them all in the back of my jeep in the cargo hold and we'll see how I do remembering them :D.

The produce bags come in a set of 5.  They are mesh drawstring bags.  I think these will be sooo much better than trying to find those plastic bags theat never open when you need them to at the supermarket.

How would you like to win these 2 Shopping Bags for yourself?

First, go to flip and tumble's website and tell me what color bags you would buy.

This must be done first for any entires to count.

Additional Entries:

-Purchase anything from their website, come back and tell me what you bought, and receive 3 extra entries.

-Become a follower of this blog

-Become a follower of mjtsmami on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway.

(leave the permalink of your tweet in your comment)

-Post about this giveaway on your blog.
-Comment on any other post 

Giveaway will close on May 2nd.

This is a giveaway sponsored by me only.  I purchased the bags myself, and am offering the giveaway.  Flip and Tumble will appreciate your business if you decide to buy bags, but it wouldn't matter to them if I disappeared into thin air.  Just so you know.