Hang Out and Post

[Mouseykins]

Not really, I'm just on a mission to get things done lol. It keeps me busy so I don't just end up sitting around home eating chocolate all day lol.

Mostly everything is one me to do since my husband can't really do much. He injured his shoulder in the fall at work. He has a tear in his rotatory cuff and developed what they called frozen shoulder with it so he has very limited mobility on his right side, which of course is his dominant side. Even doing yard work is difficult for him. We had to spend extra money on a battery powered yard trimmer because the gas ones he can't start because they're a pull-start and I certainly can't either.

I'm also trying to get things done before my in-laws come out. I don't have the best relationship with them anymore and on this visit they're already going to be mad that we got a new van and spent another pile of money on it when our other one was just about paid off. But alas none of their business, just don't need to rock the boat too much all at once lol. The less they have to complain about this round the better.

[jellysundae]

Oh man, some people on this planet must have a good relationship with their in-laws, surely? It defies the laws of physics for ALL in-laws to be a pain. >_<

Your hubby's shoulder will get better though, right?

[Mouseykins]

LOL you'd think.

We're not too sure. Recovery is slow unfortunately. It can take up to a year or more before the frozen shoulder goes away and then there's dealing with the actual tear. He's been going to Physio almost every week since December, so we'll see how things go. His therapist is going to talk to his doctor since they're in the same practice and find out what else they can do. He can't even do his normal job so he's on modified duties and bored out of his mind. Doesn't help that it's 10 hour days 8 days in a row, but the 6 days off are nice.

EDIT: And all I did today was go for a walk with my girls, watched Avatar this afternoon together, unloaded & reloaded the dishwasher while I had them on Education.com doing learning games, bathe the baby and get her laundry in the washer. I just went down to check her sleeper she was wearing earlier before her bath and thanks to my quick actions I got the stain out. I pre-washed it with baby soap before washing it and all clean. I'm impressed lol. Usually a stain like that takes at least 2 washes and some stain remover. The girls are all asleep and I'm going to continue my streaming of Hawaii Five-0 before calling it a night.

[jellysundae]

You're giving me flash-backs of when my sister was a baby and not on solids yet...lol Orange poop stains!

Mu mum used cloth nappies (sorry, diapers!) too, with plastic pants over the top. That went all stiff and crackly really rather quickly, no surprise there was leakage!

 

That's a slow recovery D:<

But life works like that, maybe...like the thing with eating fattening food, "moment on the lips - lifetime on the hips"...hmm...[whatever] in haste; repent at leisure...I'm...rambling.

[Mouseykins]

Lol! I use Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive on this little girl. I don't have the time or patience for cloth diapers. The icky leaks don't happen too often. I looked at her while I was cleaning her up on the change mat and I'm like yup you need a bath. Which was actually good that I did give her a bath since she slept very well and wasn't up as much as she has been lately.

It's a very slow recovery and is going to take some time.

Arg today is going to be a very long painful day on my sanity. My oldest has a gigantic attitude, and the middle child is following suit. I'll be a referee for most of the day it looks like. I told my husband I'd trade him spots. He can stay home with Miss Attitude and I'll go to work for him.

In the meantime I've got the robovac cleaning my floors. I love this guy! He can get to places better than I normally can and even polishes the floor too. Hopefully he can get everywhere on his charge.

EDIT: I finally finished cleaning the inside of the living room windows. Tomorrow morning if I'm up early enough I want to start on the outside before it gets too hot out there.

[lakecat]

Mouseykins, how are things at home now? I just replied in the thread about the database (you said how busy you are). 

[Zafie]

Not sure if I've ever posted in this thread of not. o.o

Anyway, I recently bought a new phone, as my current plan for the LG G3 ended on the 4th of this month. I was looking into getting the LG G6 but couldn't see myself paying $90 a month... So, I opted for the Samsung A5 2017. I couldn't have chosen a better phone as it works soo much better! :3

[eloralestrange]

Muffins. :) What's your favorite flavor?

[Mouseykins]

On 8/31/2017 at 11:52 PM, lakecat said:

Mouseykins, how are things at home now? I just replied in the thread about the database (you said how busy you are). 

Very very busy lol! Thanks for asking!

My husband and i have made the decision to home school our oldest this year so I'm doing her school work most of the day. On my husbands days off he helps. This is our second week now and the first week was mostly getting everything set up. We're going into town today to get some more lesson materials for her. So far she's enjoying it and we've seen a lot of improvement.

(sorry I just seen this!)

[lakecat]

It's OK, MK. You are busy and I don't mind the delay. Good luck with the home schooling! 

[balloongal247]

13 minutes ago, Mouseykins said:

Very very busy lol! Thanks for asking!

My husband and i have made the decision to home school our oldest this year so I'm doing her school work most of the day. On my husbands days off he helps. This is our second week now and the first week was mostly getting everything set up. We're going into town today to get some more lesson materials for her. So far she's enjoying it and we've seen a lot of improvement.

(sorry I just seen this!)

For your homeschooling, make sure you take advantage of the many free online teaching programs out there.  Even if you don't have a free virtual school in your area that's run like a regular school, you could use the "self teach" type ones to supplement instruction in the topics that public schools tend to overlook that will be most valuable to her.  Things like foreign languages and coding.

[Mouseykins]

58 minutes ago, lakecat said:

It's OK, MK. You are busy and I don't mind the delay. Good luck with the home schooling! 

Thanks! So far it's going good!

49 minutes ago, balloongal247 said:

For your homeschooling, make sure you take advantage of the many free online teaching programs out there.  Even if you don't have a free virtual school in your area that's run like a regular school, you could use the "self teach" type ones to supplement instruction in the topics that public schools tend to overlook that will be most valuable to her.  Things like foreign languages and coding.

Thanks, we plan on using everything we can! She's only 6 so languages and such would be a bit complex for her right now. We are planning on teaching her music. She wants to learn the piano. In the school she was going to they don't have a proper music room or anything which is very disappointing.

[balloongal247]

Ah, programming skills for that age would be more drag and drop based teaching the logic flows of "how do I actually do this" and making animations, games, movies.  ScratchJr is a good resource for that. It's an MIT designed free program for programming, designed for teaching programming mindset, that doesn't even require literacy.  I've used Scratch to teach programming to elementary students in outreach programs.  ScratchJr is the one designed for kindergarten aged kids, I guess, or it's an iPad app?  Look for Scratch/ScratchJr.  It is the one that is geared toward the youngest children.  Goldieblox is a toy company that teaches engineering skills to kids, especially girls, as young as 4, coupled with a story to keep it interesting for them.  They do have one app building option as well.

There are many indications that it's easier to teach children foreign languages from very young ages, because all languages are foreign to them then.  You are just teaching multiple first languages.  That's why there are several kids shows all or part in other languages.  Apparently when my sister was a baby she started "talking" in ASL because she went to a preschool that also had deaf preschoolers.  If you can find foreign kids shows of the kind that point and repeat a lot, that can teach them foreign languages.  When I was little, my mom made us watch movies of some creepy bear speaking Spanish?

 

Honestly, I'm not sure what children learn/should learn at given ages.  One time I asked for a group of non-advanced 6th graders to teach algebra to, we also made them learn a little geometry.  I was thinking that was the age at which I'd learned it, but later realized that in my *advanced* 6th grade classes, I was learning "pre-algebra" math.  At least we were starting from scratch and could demonstrate that the program we were using taught them anything they did know by the end?  The pretest freaked them out though.  But, it's always good to teach the type of logic/critical thinking skills required by programmers.

[Mouseykins]

I'll look into that. I usually have her on her Asus tablet doing lessons on Education.com to supplement what she's being taught. During study time my 3 year old is on my iPad watching goofy videos on youtube kids. They drive me BONKERS! I'll look into something like that for her too. She's smart and already learning some of the things her big sister is just by copying.

The language idea is a good one and it would be nice for her to be able to speak another language. Right now we just don't have the time with the rest of the course work we need to get through. That may be a summer project though. I've been thinking about Spanish, because I know a little bit and there's a show called Handy Manny that the girls love to watch when it's on. The beauty of the internet is I'm sure I can find the episodes somewhere to stream.

Or I could sneakily teach  her German so when her Grandparents speak it she can report back to me what they're saying. Lol but I kind of have my husband for that.

I just bought a bunch of different paints and brushes for us to use. Including glitter and metallic watercolors! I think I'm more excited to try them then the kids are!

I'm actually starting a tumblr to record our homeschool journey. I have to work on some posts tomorrow and I'll put in the haul I got from Staples.

https://www.tumblr.com/blog_auth/homeschooled-littles

[balloongal247]

Handy Manny was an awesome show.  It's probably not in new episodes anymore, since the actor who played Manny has been on NCIS for the last year.  He's awesome. 

Glitter and Metallic watercolors sound fun to play with.. 

[Mouseykins]

My husband and I quite enjoyed watching it when it was on. Sadly they took it off of Disney Junior and put on other goofy shows.

I'll post pics when we play with the watercolors!

[balloongal247]

Miles from Tomorrowland is really good, though I think they may have completely changed it and made it a short, Mission Force One?  If so, I'm upset.  Sofia the First is also excellent.  And Elena of Avalor. I used to like Imagination Movers, but haven't watched that in a long time.

Milo Murphy's Law is really good, but it's on Disney XD, not Disney Junior.  If you watched Phineas and Ferb, Milo is the same creators and has a similar vibe.  If you haven't, you should.

[Mouseykins]

Miles, Sofia, Elena, Lion Guard and Doc McStuffins are the most popular ones in my house right now.

Imagination Movers was alright, they should bring that one back.

We do have Disney XD for the sole purpose of Star Wars Rebels and once season 4 is over I'll be getting rid of the channel if possible. As long as it doesn't get rid of Disney Junior lol.

In other news, I'm busy cleaning, doing laundry and tending to children tonight. Kind of in rush mode unfortunately. We got a call Thursday night at 9pm from my husband's parents asking if we're coming out this round while he's on days off. Since we're not, they were thinking they should come out to our place before the weather turns. Friday we weren't home so we could get groceries and I needed to pick up more school books for our daughter. Get a call at 10am this morning "We're coming out tomorrow". I got up late today so trying to get as much done and get ready for this week of school. They're bringing Thanksgiving dinner with them so have to make sure the kitchen is mostly cleaned and tidied. I hate short notice for things.

 

[balloongal247]

Watch Milo Murphy's Law.  It's SOOOO good.  The premise is basically that he's of the family after which "Murphy's Law" was named.  And so, anything that can go wrong, will--around him (or his father, but not his sister.  I guess it's passed down in the Y gene ).  They have all the episodes up on the Watch XD app.   And it's only like a dozen episodes, though it looks like more because most of them are 2 in 1, and the app has them listed as 2, but each one is only 11 min long, except for one that was a full half hour on it's own, and one that was an hour.

I think XD and Junior are usually on the same level of tv service.

[Zafie]

On 29/09/2017 at 11:09 AM, eloralestrange said:

Muffins. :) What's your favorite flavor?

My favorite flavor is chocolate chip! How about yours? :3

 

On 30/09/2017 at 8:02 AM, balloongal247 said:

Handy Manny was an awesome show.  It's probably not in new episodes anymore, since the actor who played Manny has been on NCIS for the last year.  He's awesome. 

Glitter and Metallic watercolors sound fun to play with.. 

Omg Handy Manny was awesome! My parents and I had argument over Manny's friend Mr. Lopart. I thought his name was Mr. Lopar but they insisted it was Mr. Lopart, so I had to google it and it turns out they were right. I think I miss-pronounced it because of the way Manny said it xD

[balloongal247]

10 minutes ago, Zafie said:

My favorite flavor is chocolate chip! How about yours? :3

Omg Handy Manny was awesome! My parents and I had argument over Manny's friend Mr. Lopart. I thought his name was Mr. Lopar but they insisted it was Mr. Lopart, so I had to google it and it turns out they were right. I think I miss-pronounced it because of the way Manny said it xD

I like all kinds of muffins. I actually like taking cake-type breads (like banana bread) and baking them in muffin tins instead of a bread pan.  It makes it a lot easier to eat, and a lot easier to freeze and take out portions if you can't eat a whole batch at once (or shouldn't)

Yeah, in Spanish, the t is pronounced with more subtlety than in English.  It's pronounced more like a d, rather than with the projection of the air puff (the kind that might make you accidentally spit, ya know?) that it is in English.  (I was a Spanish minor, and took a Spanish Phonetics class where I had to learn the details like that)

Wilmer's accent would be Venezuelan, so even if you are used to listening to Spanish, you might be more used to Mexican or Cuban accents (I feel like those are probably the two most common groups in the US), or maybe Spanish from classes.  And each region does pronounce some sounds slightly differently.  It's been several years, so I can't remember what linguistic characteristics Venezuela is known for.

[Mouseykins]

5 hours ago, balloongal247 said:

Watch Milo Murphy's Law.  It's SOOOO good.  The premise is basically that he's of the family after which "Murphy's Law" was named.  And so, anything that can go wrong, will--around him (or his father, but not his sister.  I guess it's passed down in the Y gene ).  They have all the episodes up on the Watch XD app.   And it's only like a dozen episodes, though it looks like more because most of them are 2 in 1, and the app has them listed as 2, but each one is only 11 min long, except for one that was a full half hour on it's own, and one that was an hour.

I think XD and Junior are usually on the same level of tv service.

I'll have to check it out. I may not like it, but my girls might.

I think they're in the same package, I'm not sure anymore lol.

4 hours ago, Zafie said:

My favorite flavor is chocolate chip! How about yours? :3

 

Omg Handy Manny was awesome! My parents and I had argument over Manny's friend Mr. Lopart. I thought his name was Mr. Lopar but they insisted it was Mr. Lopart, so I had to google it and it turns out they were right. I think I miss-pronounced it because of the way Manny said it xD

I miss Handy Manny! Awe I can see how that would happen. We always thought it was funny how clumsy Mr. Lopart was and he never wanted to ask for help.

 

[balloongal247]

On 9/29/2017 at 10:09 AM, eloralestrange said:

Muffins. :) What's your favorite flavor?

I'm making coconut pumpkin nut bread and muffins now.  The recipe made two loaves, so I used half the batter in a muffin tin.  I really like doing that.  It gives nice convenient portions, takes less than half the time to cook.  You don't have to try to cut a loaf into equal portions of the correct number of portions--especially important to people who are trying to accurately count calories.  Easier to freeze and defrost certain portions.  Easier portability; in the past I've made a couple batches of muffins before going camping, and brought them along for breakfasts and snacks, they were great since they didn't require cooler space, and you didn't have to try to cook them over a campfire.

[Mouseykins]

That sounds really yummy!

I enjoy making banana chocolate chip muffins for my family. It's a great way to use up the soft bananas that no one will eat. Plus it's healthy. My 3 year old isn't much of a muffin girl and will only eat little bits, so I'll sometimes make little mini ones.

This year for Halloween we bought a pumpkin for the girls and I to carve up. I want to make some desserts with them and probably some pumpkin spice muffins. I'm wanting to roast the pumpkin seeds too for a healthy snack.

Oh tonight the girls got to use the new watercolor glitter paints tonight and it took a bit to get the glitter in the paint, but they look really nice! I'll post a picture later tonight on my blog. My husband is playing Battlefield and our internet connection cannot handle me taking a picture and uploading it over wi-fi which it automatically does.

EDIT: Picture is now posted on my blog.

[Zafie]

On 01/10/2017 at 2:44 PM, Mouseykins said:

I miss Handy Manny! Awe I can see how that would happen. We always thought it was funny how clumsy Mr. Lopart was and he never wanted to ask for help.

Yes it was a great show. I use to watch it with my little sister and at times I think I enjoyed cartoons more than her. I wonder why he never asked Manny for help... Maybe he was embarrassed?