That's funny, I thought we got rid of cable, yet the TV is always on...hmmm. See I knew we wouldn't miss cable. We have enough DVDs to keep us busy for months. How's my Italian coming you say?? Yeah, I'll get right on that. Demand's French is coming along though. Planning is half the fun. The Sloths plus Obscure have been having a blast planning our European adventure. We've been teaching Demand some French phrases as well and she knows her heritage, the girl is flawless in her pronunciation.
Yesterday I came up with the idea to make a scrapbook/treasure hunt for her. I'll put together pages with things we plan on seeing for her to study ahead of time so she'll recognize people/places/things as we go and there will be space for her to add to the book as we go via post cards, coloring, stickers, etc. Think North American Dora meets Europe. Over the weekend she watched "Ratatouille" for the ump-teenth time, and turned to me and asked, "I'm going to see the Eiffel Tower!?".
As you can guess our Europe trip is taking up a good amount of our time. Just prior to the fourth of July fireworks we were talking to Demand about the things she was going to see; Eiffel Tower, Vatican, lots of Churches...Well she had some reservations about the fireworks. As soon as they started she started screaming and clinging to Mr. Sloth. In the midst of screaming she declared "I want to see churches". Sanctuary anyone??
In case anyone is curious this trip is more than a vacation. In the past few years whenever we've discussed the education of our children we've always mentioned traveling. Not only have we learned a lot from traveling but many of the smartest people we know grew up exposed various cultures. The more cultural experiences we can expose our children to (under our supervision) the better. Mr. Sloth and I both love to travel and have new experiences and we love sharing that with our children. That has brought us to our next conclusion. Homeschooling.
Our plan is to homeschool at least preschool and kindergarten and then see where we want to go. And as I jokingly mentioned to Mr. Sloth, "Well we're homeschooling her now, because this trip to Europe is tuition money." Homeschooling will allow us to travel at will and in fact make travel a part of our lessons. How fantastic would it have been if you just drove to Gettysburg in the middle of studying the Civil War? I think it would have been awesome.
Arrivederci!! (See I'm learning something)
The Sloths
Lazywife, Mr. Sloth, Demand, Prophet, Rooster, and King
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Milestones
Some big things have been happening in the Sloth home. Happy REALLY wants to crawl after perfecting rolling over this past weekend. Demand turned the big three and we're finally going to get Mr. Sloth to Rome! (more on that later)
Demand's birthday party was so much fun. Even though I had a blast putting it all together, it was a lot of work and I'm still exhausted. It took over a week to make the cardboard castle, but it was a blast to make. Plus it made giving up cable that week a bit easier. Her castle cake was also fun to make, just a little time consuming. Every cake should be that much fun to make. By far her favorite part of the party was having all her friends there. She keeps talking about how much fun she had with her friends. However, in true Sloth fashion, amidst friends, sweets, fun and laughter, Demand asked if she could watch a show. Next year, no party. ;)
Happy has ridiculous strength, well some of him is strong. He was born with wicked strong neck and legs, and how has outrageously strong abs. His arms however,not so much. The poor kid can roll over and get his legs under him but just face plants. And THAT does not make him happy. Speaking of which, yes, Happy is still happy. When he's in a good mood he'll charm your socks off. However when that kid is mad you better watch out. Ear piercing screams; and he turns bright red which is appropriate since he'll also raise a good 80 degrees in temperature. Moral of the story is keep the kid happy.
Ok, now onto the fun stuff. The Sloth family has decided to head to Europe for a month this coming fall. It was kind of a quick decision but not one made in haste. We currently have college friend who have been living over there for three years. Every summer they come back to the states for a few months and every year they encourage us to come for a visit and every year we say we'll try. Well no time like the present. The money is "there", (looks like we won't be getting a van this month after all) I'm not pregnant and prices to fly are ridiculously low. We're also bringing Obscure to help with the kiddos. Our plan is to fly into Munich and spend a day there before heading to France for ten days. I've been to France and actually been in Paris four time but I haven't actually seen anything. Then we're heading to Austria for about a week. We'll stay with our friends and visit some my old stomping grounds from when I spent a semester there. Then we're joining our friends on a Rome/Assisi pilgrimage that they organize every semester. They have two young kids the same age as ours so it should be fun. Oh, and the price we'll pay for the Rome/Assisi trip is also ridiculous. Then we'll head back to Austria for a day or two before flying home.
See Mr. Sloth flew to Europe once for the purpose of going to Rome but I had "issues" and refused to leave Austria. So he gave up Rome for me. Every since then we've been looking for an opportunity to go there, and it looks like our ship has come in, or in this case, plane.
(more pictures of the family below)
Demand after blowing out her candles.
Happy's first feeding.
Our astute son.
The kids after a delightful afternoon of "German Festing"
Demand's birthday party was so much fun. Even though I had a blast putting it all together, it was a lot of work and I'm still exhausted. It took over a week to make the cardboard castle, but it was a blast to make. Plus it made giving up cable that week a bit easier. Her castle cake was also fun to make, just a little time consuming. Every cake should be that much fun to make. By far her favorite part of the party was having all her friends there. She keeps talking about how much fun she had with her friends. However, in true Sloth fashion, amidst friends, sweets, fun and laughter, Demand asked if she could watch a show. Next year, no party. ;)
Happy has ridiculous strength, well some of him is strong. He was born with wicked strong neck and legs, and how has outrageously strong abs. His arms however,not so much. The poor kid can roll over and get his legs under him but just face plants. And THAT does not make him happy. Speaking of which, yes, Happy is still happy. When he's in a good mood he'll charm your socks off. However when that kid is mad you better watch out. Ear piercing screams; and he turns bright red which is appropriate since he'll also raise a good 80 degrees in temperature. Moral of the story is keep the kid happy.
Ok, now onto the fun stuff. The Sloth family has decided to head to Europe for a month this coming fall. It was kind of a quick decision but not one made in haste. We currently have college friend who have been living over there for three years. Every summer they come back to the states for a few months and every year they encourage us to come for a visit and every year we say we'll try. Well no time like the present. The money is "there", (looks like we won't be getting a van this month after all) I'm not pregnant and prices to fly are ridiculously low. We're also bringing Obscure to help with the kiddos. Our plan is to fly into Munich and spend a day there before heading to France for ten days. I've been to France and actually been in Paris four time but I haven't actually seen anything. Then we're heading to Austria for about a week. We'll stay with our friends and visit some my old stomping grounds from when I spent a semester there. Then we're joining our friends on a Rome/Assisi pilgrimage that they organize every semester. They have two young kids the same age as ours so it should be fun. Oh, and the price we'll pay for the Rome/Assisi trip is also ridiculous. Then we'll head back to Austria for a day or two before flying home.
See Mr. Sloth flew to Europe once for the purpose of going to Rome but I had "issues" and refused to leave Austria. So he gave up Rome for me. Every since then we've been looking for an opportunity to go there, and it looks like our ship has come in, or in this case, plane.
(more pictures of the family below)
Demand after blowing out her candles.
Happy's first feeding.
Our astute son.
The kids after a delightful afternoon of "German Festing"
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Things we did yesterday
1-baked four boxes of cake
2-folded two baskets of laundry
3-changed at least 20 diapers
4-bought groceries
5-went to the post office
6-bought four plane tickets to Europe
7-ordered new checks at the bank
8-bought two birthday balloons and a tablecloth at the dollar store
9-cleaned the kitchen (three times)
10-canceled cable
11-and Mr. Sloth kegged beer
Busy day. And expensive, I think the trip to the Dollar Tree is what really set us over the edge.
2-folded two baskets of laundry
3-changed at least 20 diapers
4-bought groceries
5-went to the post office
6-bought four plane tickets to Europe
7-ordered new checks at the bank
8-bought two birthday balloons and a tablecloth at the dollar store
9-cleaned the kitchen (three times)
10-canceled cable
11-and Mr. Sloth kegged beer
Busy day. And expensive, I think the trip to the Dollar Tree is what really set us over the edge.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Nature's Cable
I called to cancel cable two days ago. We still have it until we drop off the box which is Mr. Sloths job, I had the joy of calling to cancel. I was so busy just prior to calling that it wasn't until I was dialing the phone that I realized what run-around I was about to encounter. First off I had to press 1 for upgrades, 2 for downgrades. (Jeepers,creepers they have a whole department for this??) Sure enough the guy answers the phone, I tell him I would like to cancel my cable. With words covered in butter he asks, "Now why would you want to do a thing like that?" I wasn't about to play his game so I didn't say a word. The awkward silence worked because he moved on. At one point he asked if I was going to "the darkside" (meaning satellite), I said no we're getting rid of it altogether. He was shocked.
Anyway, as soon as Mr. Sloth drops off the box we'll be completely without TV as we don't get a signal here without it. We only plan on giving it up for the summer so we'll survive and while it's true that a lot off shows are online now, my favorites are not. (Oh, Duggars, how I will miss thee!!)
However, pre-empitve of being cable free last night we had some good old fashion fun. The four of us (Mr. Sloth, Sidekick, Obscure and I) lined our lawn chairs up on the sidewalk and watched the most amazing lighting storm as it swept towards us. Honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Constant lighting, somtimes even blinding and it was so far away we never heard thunder. It was great, except for, well....we knew the sprinklers would go off at sometime, but we usually hear a clicking sound (think Princess Bride) before they go off. Well we heard a clicking sound at the East end of the yard, but before we could move, a sprinkler right in front of us went off that was pointed directly at Mr. Sloth's.... lap. (Ahh, that was funny)
Nature's Cable. Fantastic.
Anyway, as soon as Mr. Sloth drops off the box we'll be completely without TV as we don't get a signal here without it. We only plan on giving it up for the summer so we'll survive and while it's true that a lot off shows are online now, my favorites are not. (Oh, Duggars, how I will miss thee!!)
However, pre-empitve of being cable free last night we had some good old fashion fun. The four of us (Mr. Sloth, Sidekick, Obscure and I) lined our lawn chairs up on the sidewalk and watched the most amazing lighting storm as it swept towards us. Honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Constant lighting, somtimes even blinding and it was so far away we never heard thunder. It was great, except for, well....we knew the sprinklers would go off at sometime, but we usually hear a clicking sound (think Princess Bride) before they go off. Well we heard a clicking sound at the East end of the yard, but before we could move, a sprinkler right in front of us went off that was pointed directly at Mr. Sloth's.... lap. (Ahh, that was funny)
Nature's Cable. Fantastic.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Rearranging Things
In an attempt to pretend like we have more space we've been rearranging furniture (and we aren't done yet). As mentioned before, Happy is ginormous. He's growing out of his mini-pack'n'play much faster than anticipated. Our had always assumed he could be in that bed until around seven months just like Demand had done. We assumed we'd have a new house by then. So our deliema was that Happy is too young to share a room with Demand and our room is too crowded to have the crib in there (like we did with Demand).
After praying for a week that Happy finds a room God finally provided me with an answer. He's always more creative than me so I find his answers fascinating. What is the answer, you ask? Well Mr. Sloth is finally furnishing his office after a year of living out of paper bags. So I realized if he takes the buffet from the dining room we can move my armoire desk down from the bedroom giving us room for a crib in our room. How did I not think of this before? I've always wanted my desk downstairs anyway and he was thinking about taking the buffet for months. Plus, he was going to to get one of the same bookshelves that we have in the playroom. I realized that if he got the bigger version of the shelf that could go in our playroom and he could take smaller version of the shelves from the playroom. He doesn't need that much storage at the office anyway. This would actually give us even more storage in the playroom.
So while I only asked God for Happy to have a room His answer gave us 1. a safe place for Happy to sleep 2. me an actual functioning office. 3. Mr. Sloth more storage and 4. more storage for the playroom (which we desperately needed)
Pretty cool, huh? Sometimes God gives us what we want and need.
So I guess we can squeeze a few more months out of this place afterall. We're trying really hard to be patient about buying a new house and just waiting for God's cue. Looks like fall might be a better time to buy anyway so we'll just make the summer work and concentrate on saving for a possible move in the fall. Speaking of which I believe we'll be canceling cable at the end of the month. It's going to hurt, but it IS summertime and we'll save a lot of money over the next few months. Besides, I need a break from TLC. I need to stop watching people live their lives and maybe live one myself. Maybe mine will be more exciting...
After praying for a week that Happy finds a room God finally provided me with an answer. He's always more creative than me so I find his answers fascinating. What is the answer, you ask? Well Mr. Sloth is finally furnishing his office after a year of living out of paper bags. So I realized if he takes the buffet from the dining room we can move my armoire desk down from the bedroom giving us room for a crib in our room. How did I not think of this before? I've always wanted my desk downstairs anyway and he was thinking about taking the buffet for months. Plus, he was going to to get one of the same bookshelves that we have in the playroom. I realized that if he got the bigger version of the shelf that could go in our playroom and he could take smaller version of the shelves from the playroom. He doesn't need that much storage at the office anyway. This would actually give us even more storage in the playroom.
So while I only asked God for Happy to have a room His answer gave us 1. a safe place for Happy to sleep 2. me an actual functioning office. 3. Mr. Sloth more storage and 4. more storage for the playroom (which we desperately needed)
Pretty cool, huh? Sometimes God gives us what we want and need.
So I guess we can squeeze a few more months out of this place afterall. We're trying really hard to be patient about buying a new house and just waiting for God's cue. Looks like fall might be a better time to buy anyway so we'll just make the summer work and concentrate on saving for a possible move in the fall. Speaking of which I believe we'll be canceling cable at the end of the month. It's going to hurt, but it IS summertime and we'll save a lot of money over the next few months. Besides, I need a break from TLC. I need to stop watching people live their lives and maybe live one myself. Maybe mine will be more exciting...
Monday, June 1, 2009
Big Day
I'm 99% sure Happy rolled over (on a flat, hard surface) for the first time today. I put him on a blanket while I brushed my teeth (big day for me too). He was on his belly, then he was on his side playing with Demand. Next time I looked at him he was on his back. I asked Demand if he rolled over and she said yes, a part of me wonders if she "helped" him along but I'm going with --HE ROLLED OVER!!!
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