Show us your Thankfulness...

Halloween was AWESOME!!!  We had an amazing time with friends and family! Spaghetti dinner, trick-or-treating and sitting in our cul-de-sac around a fire pit with our neighbors after the kids all went to bed all added up to a perfect evening!  If you have seen or read The Chronicles of Narnia, then you will recognize our Halloween visitors... Susan Pevency, Queen of Narnia, Peter Pevency, King of Narnia and of course... ASLAN!!    Last year, Peter Pan was HUGE in our house, so we had Tiger Lily (the Indian Princess), a pirate, and Tinker Belle... Since Bailey always wants to be an obscure movie character, does that make her a touch dorky?  After all, Pocahontas is the famous Indian Princess, NOT Tiger Lily.  The girl cracks me up!  She really does know what she wants and for the past two years has gotten her siblings to follow the theme!  Something I can't seem to pull off! I wanted us all to go as The Incredible Family, but she won.  Now if we could just get her to pass the Real Estate Exam, she could sell you that waterfront property in Arizona you never knew you always wanted!! 
In an effort to bring the upcoming holiday/entire season home to our troupe we are creating a "Chain of Thankfulness".  I got the idea from the blogs sited towards the bottom.  Go check them out!  Hopefully I will have the time and inclination to attempt more crafts from other blogs like these!  Stay tuned....

But I digress....

So, back to the chain!  This thankfulness chain will be added to (hopefully) on a daily basis!  It will travel with us to Sedona, Az where my family will gather for Thanksgiving (Thank you Uncle Larry!  I am thankful for you!).  I really hope my extended family will add to our chain as well!  The chain would become so much more rich and meaningful with an entire family of gratefulness captured in one place!  After the tryptophan has worn off and the weather gets a touch bit cooler, the chain will adorn our CHRISTmas tree!  I am super excited about this project!  Since we will host CHRISTmas, the family will be able to revisit their thoughts from Turkey Day!  So family and Friends.... What are you thankful for?!  Comment below so I can add your thoughts to our chain! So far some highlights from the Turner Troupe-

1. Good Snakes, Will
2. Good Spiders the ones that eat Black Widows, Bailey
3. Food, Will
4. My Best Friends Ashley and Jordyn, Bailey

UPDATE!!!!

We (Nate and myself) have started our 30-day challenge!  Our first night of the challenge, after the last Trick-or-Treaters had embarked on their sugar induced comas, WE tackled ALL the dishes!!!!  I swear I slept better that night just knowing I would wake up to a clean, beautiful kitchen!!!   AND Fast Forward to this week (Nov. 8)... We have been dirty dish FREE!!!  We are so excited and happy!  It's amazing!

PICTURE TIME!!!

Our "scarecrows"

 Watch out!  It's the Endangered Two-headed Turner Turtle!

Where every girl belongs... with her daddy!

Love you all!

http://withgreatjoy.blogspot.com/2009/11/thanksgiving-tradition-changing-it-up.html

The Dreaded Accountability Post....

So, since you are reading this you know me and my family.  You also know that I procrastinate like crazy and can justify anything.  And I get frustrated when things don't go perfect (and you are thinking to yourself, "I have seen your house, car, etc... perfect isn't in it Turner!!) and my expectations aren't met, especially if it is because of something I did....  I have found a name for myself, "The Dis-organized Perfectionist."  Get it?!  Disorganized, but I know where everything is.  How does that grab ya?! Now down to the nitty gritty. Are you ready?

I AM GOING TO EMPTY THE DISHWASHER EVERYDAY THIS MONTH.

Some of you are thinking, Good timing since the month is almost over... No sillies, hence my knack for procrastination, I will start this in November.  The other few of you are noticing I stated I will empty the dishwasher.  "Uh Molly, shouldn't you commit to filling it up too?!"  In the words of Maggie, "No, no, no." My husband is starting a 30 day challenge.  He is doing dishes EVERY night before he goes to bed.  Wow what a man!!  All he asked is for me to empty the dishwasher everyday in preparation for his challenge.  My first thought?  "Uhhh, you are doing the dishes, it's your challenge, you can empty the dishwasher."  Second thought... "Well it is pretty awesome that he is committing to this!  I am a blessed lady. (insert procrastination warning alarm)  I guess all I have to do is empty the dishwasher every couple of days (we don't fill it every night!!) and I can do it right before he gets home or just before he starts his task."  And already I am getting stressed because I want to be perfect.  I want to do this every day and can already feel myself dreading the first day I miss.  It is a slippery slope for me.

Anyways, now that it is out in the open, I am hoping you all (all 5 or so of you!) will gently help keep me accountable.  I will do my best to no get bogged down by days I didn't keep up my end of the bargain and to just do it the next day.  And maybe, just maybe, I will start practicing this week, so when we get to November I can hit the ground running.....

Love you all!  Thanks for your help!

  

 Grandma Lisa, Bailey and a duck

 Mags and Daddy's hand

Our notes from the apple taste test.  And of course... Honey Crisp win!!  We were all pretty much sick after this!!  An apple a  day keeps the doctor away, but 75 apples, well....

Moon Unit, Dweezil and Diva Zappa

Bet you couldn't have named ALL the Zappa kids!  Anyways... the Unit Study on the Moon is over and Bailey was overjoyed to not only learn that her Great Grandpa Don was friends with Buzz Aldrin, but that he is indeed STILL alive!  Will just liked learning about the real Buzz Lightyear!

Let see... Leaf Unit.  Yada, Yada, Grandma Lisa bought us a beautiful plant and a Venus Fly Trap (which is now dead), Yada, Mommy didn't really prepare, Yada, Yada and so there aren't any pictures, because we didn't do much*! (*read: anything)

In all this craziness, Bailey has lost her first tooth!  When it came out she apologized to me, not realizing that was supposed to happen!  I think she thought she broke herself, I don't know!  Crazy kid!  She was in another wedding as "Program Attendant".  So cute!  She greeted everyone (she literally only knew 10 of the guest out of 100) and passed out the programs.  And people are so worried that she isn't being socialized!! 

Will is Will.  I think I need to start carrying a notebook around with me to record all of the "Will-isms".  There are so many and the are HILARIOUS, but I just can't always recall them!  But I will let you ponder this one...

Will + a Sword and a Knight's Helmet + walking around Little Italy in San Diego = lots of strange looks and only 3 goosings of random passer-bys!

And Maggie is growing!!!  And learning the fine art of temper tantrums.  She throws herself down at my feet... I don't respond.  She goes to her dad, does the same thing... he doesn't respond.  Picks herself up walks outside to my truck and throws herself against it, making a nice thud.  We still don't respond, so she gives up.  The other one she tried didn't end so peacefully.  While at my feet, she decided to throw her head down for emphasis... too bad she was on concrete.  Mommy responded to the bloody, fat lip that resulted.

Our house is warm and cozy.  I love having my babies about me on the couch in the morning to read or watch movies together.  They are so sweet and squishy and warm and loving in the morning.  We have decorated for Halloween, and tonight might finish up with our pumpkins.  We have a surplus of as Bailey says, "Fresh Apples!"  Then Nate follows up with, "Couldn't be anymore fresh if we picked them ourselves!"  And by the way... We did pick them ourselves.... I am now sick of everything apple.

Love you all!  Next up.... A-a Apples and N-n Nests!

 

Crazy kids!!

Yeah!  She's riding her bike....

...into the bushes!!

We were our own sundials! 

Bailey made hers too close to the sprinklers and it got washed away!

A New Song!!

Poops!

... He did it again!

Pooped in his pants

At the Library...

Oh, Willie, Willie

Poops!

You made me believe

it wouldn't happen again!

You're not that innocent!!

Yeah... well.... Apparently neither of us is trained in the potty arena.  If he was trained, a foul odor would not have wafted towards me, as I sat thumbing through books about Neil Armstrong and Apollo 13. And if I were potty trained, I would have marched his little behind to the bathroom BEFORE I got so engrossed by afore mentioned books.  Instead I was "en-grossed" by poo in the chonies!  We promptly left the library, before the stench permeated the entire juvenile section of the Escondido Library.

Then he fell asleep on the way home... AWESOME. (she says sarcastically) The poo monster has fallen asleep in my car and I need to get him out of my hot car.  Just let your imagination run wild with that whole endeavor (getting sleeping child out of the car, into a pull-up and into bed, all without waking him up or getting fecal matter on me or the car.).  Did I accomplish my mission.... Not really.

Ahhh but I digress.....  It is S-s-sun week folks!!!  We made sun bread, tried to make raisins (more on the "tried" later), documented our shadows at different parts of the day and played A TON outside in God's sun.  Our attempt to make raisins out of grapes hit two snags! #1 Not a whole lot of sun this week, with today being the exception. But that didn't matter because, snag #2... We lost the grapes.  Anyways... the Sun Bread was good!

Have a great weekend and week!  Next we are going to the M-m-moon!!  If you have any good books we should read, any activities or crafts or any other suggestions I would love to hear them!

Love you all!

Ta Da!!

It is week #2 and voila... just like that, here is post #2!!!

This picture just melts my heart. They are why Nate and I have chosen this path. Look at those faces! I may be going out on a limb, but I think they are pretty awesome kids! I want to hang out with them!! And look! The Dude is actually wearing clothes!! This was taken at Kit Carson Park last Friday at the monthly CFS Escondido (Christian Family School) Park Day. The high school age kids were there to play games with the little ones, make sure they didn't kamikaze off the slide and (our families personal favorite) make snow cones while the moms could relax (stare blankly at each other), enjoy the beautiful day that God gave us (without sweating to death because of the monkeys that insist on being carried or sitting on you in hot, Escondido weather) and encourage each other in our shared journey(make plans for the next "Mom's Night Out"!!).

Bailey finished her first project, book about Creation! She is so very eager to read to everyone! She is our little evangelist! Kinda freaks me out sometimes! She is also catching on to this whole reading thing! Talk about cool!!! She read the babies their naptime books on Thursday! She is having sooo much fun reading signs as we drive! Pretty soon she will be a better (or worse, depends on how you look at it) backseat driver than anyone I know! Scary!

Next week starts our unit studies, it is S-s-sun. The best week is L-l-weaf. Yup. The dude strikes again! He hasn't quite gotten the "L" sound down yet. So "Grandma Weesa works at Wowes" and he really likes "sitting on your waf" (lap!) while you read him stories! Yeeeah... not really sure where the "P" goes in that one!

But really, I should be going! We went to the library today and left with 14 books and 2 DVDs. I need to look through the "sun" books to get prepared for next week. The joke in all this is really on me! I never much prepared for school and NEVER read an entire book (Cliff's Notes were always sufficient). And no! I am not going overkill with 14 books and 2 DVDs on the sun. Who do you think I am?! We have Fancy Nancy, lots of trains books and a few really cool picture books for Mags.

So TTFN, I am off the read about the sun... or maybe I will nap, since that is what they are all doing!! And oh yeah... I almost forgot the best part!!

IT'S DATE NIGHT TONIGHT!!!

"You are doing WHAT??!! Are you CRAZY?!"

We have chosen to Homeschool and yes, we are crazy. But you probably already knew the answer to that one. And on top of that, yes we cloth diaper and serve as many preservative-less, artificial-less, natural, organic food to our kids as we can. Do not worry... I am still shaving my legs and as for my arm pickles... yes, it has been awhile, I will get to those soon. Promise. This new addition to our blog serves only to let you all know what we have been up to. And... well, yes, you are right! That is what this blog has always been about. Just what we (The Turner's) are doing. Nothing more. Nothing less. We do not aim to convert you, judge you or be judged ourselves (especially if we have typos!!). As family and friends, we just thought you might like to know how we are doing!! And on a selfish note, we are hoping that in the years to come, we can look back at these posts and say, "Wow, we have done something in our kid's lives. Wow! Remember that?! Oh! And that! That was so much fun!" Or even, "Ohhh man. Let's not ever do that AGAIN!! That is fodder for their future therapy sessions!" So after all the disclaimers... finally on to the craziness that is our life. We had a great summer! Lots of beach trips, picnics, days at Sea World, etc! The excitement for school in our house was palpable! Finally the time came to purchase some much needed school supplies! Lucky for us, we started school late (or ontime, traditionally school always starts AFTER Labor Day!), and thus were able to take advantage of Target's clearance sale of all things school! This means, when the Dude wanted everything Bailey was getting, Mommy could say, "Why the heck not!!" And good thing too, because when Tuesday, September... (hold on let me turn around to check our super cute, polka dot bulletin board/calendar...) 7th rolled around, guess who bellied up to the table?! The Dude. And right about now, I bet you are hoping to see some pictures of "Our First Day!", but alas... we are HOMEschooling afterall and well.... we didn't have to leave the house... therefore... yeah, the boy was naked. On the second day we instituted a new rule. "School can't start until everyone is wearing underwear and we have prayed." So far, so good! In case anyone was curious about the particulars (if you are not, just skip this section) here they are: We are doing Traditional Christian Family Homeschooling. We picked out My Father's World, Kindergarten, for our curriculum. We are spicing it up with some other things and are considering a separate math curriculum for Bailey, as she is so hungry for more. But, we will take our time on that decision. Don't really want to overwhelm her or us. Our family has decided to join Christian Life Academy, rather than filing our own affidavit with the state. It is called a Private School Satellite Program. Basically, we make all our own decisions, etc and they turn in all the required record keeping and turn in to the state for us. THey also offer encouragement, parent seminars, basically just a community of people doing the exact same thing we are! Plus, when our kids are in High School, they will have the opportunity to participate in CIF High School Athletics. Nate is the coach of CLA's Boy Basketball and Boys Volleyball teams and I have been asked to coach the Softball team this Spring. Okay! Sorry to take so much of your time! Thanks for reading! I will try to keep everyone updated more regularly! If you even have any questions, concerns, comments, etc about things we are doing never hesitate to let us know! We welcome it all! Love you all a ton!!

The pictures are from Bailey's 5th Birthday party in March. It was her first friend party! My great friend, Jennifer Williamson took the photos!!