Fruits of frustration

I wanted to share two new resources I found recently while dealing with two {very minor} frustrations I've had. Thought there might be a few that would be interested in using them, too.
 
The past few years, I've tried to make an attempt at redeeming St. Patrick's Day...at least in our home.  It just sort of boggles my mind how many people "honor" {I use the term loosely} St. Patrick by getting drunk on green beer and sending kids on hunts for leprechauns and pots of gold. I like to remind the kids of who he was and how God used his circumstances for amazing things.  I saw a post somewhere about the idea of honoring St. Patrick through raising awareness of human trafficking, since he was kidnapped and sold into slavery, which is what drew him to the Lord and led him to reach out to the Irish. I love this idea and hope I remember it for next year.

Anyway, as I was looking for a good source to share with the kids about Patrick's life I came across this website that I really like. Here's the link:  http://www.awesomestories.com/ .  It would be great for homeschooling families, I'd like to find a way to use it in my American History course, and I'll definitely be encouraging our kiddos to use it for school projects in the future. I just loved the way the information is presented and the amount of faith based material that doesn't seem too over the top or pushy to be used in the public school setting.

Another frustration that I've had recently is trying to find good books for Ethan to read.  I think I've mentioned before that his reading level is pretty high, so I'm finding that we are quickly exhausting age appropriate books that he finds challenging and interesting. He reads quickly, too.  We just found an author with several series of books, one of them had six 175ish page books in it.  He completed them all in less than a week {while reading his reading group books at school, as well}. 

The other aspect of this issue is that his school participates in an "Accelerated Reader" program...there are books on a list and each is labeled with a certain reading level and number of points.  Once the book is read, the student takes a short quiz to test comprehension and earn points.  In the next few years, the students are required to complete a certain number of quizzes each month and attain a certain number of points for the year.  Being the competitor that he is, Ethan doesn't like to read books during the school year unless they are on the AR list.  Of course, books that I know would be okay for him to read (Frank Peretti, Jerry Jenkins) aren't on the AR list.  I don't have time to read through every book to find out if it's appropriate or not.

I usually just try to google a certain title to see if I can find a good review of the book, but recently I came across a new blog through Tim Challie's blog {on my sidebar} called Redeemed Reader . The authors post Christian based reviews of secular books.  There isn't a huge number of books reviewed yet, since it's a new site, but I'll definitely be using this resource as I try to find books for Ethan...and all the kids, for that matter.  If you have suggestions, I'd LOVE to hear them! 

Shoulda' had some green beer...

This has been one of those weeks {plus a couple of days} that I sort of wish that I actually enjoyed wine or beer or something....or that I lived closer to my mom and sisters...or maybe both.  I don't think a half hour has passed in the last ten days where I have not wiped a nose, taken a temp, administered some form of medication, been whine-ely asked for a tissue, wiped a butt, pressed play on the DVD player, wiped a nose, scooped out bite-size chunks of ice cream, thrown away handfuls of used tissues, passed out snacks that were never eaten, or wiped a nose....and it was only slightly less frequent during the sleeping hours :O).  Yah, there were a few days where it would have been nice to have something to take the edge off.

It all started last Thursday with Ethan waking up in the middle of the night nauseous and fevered.  He was sick all weekend and started to come down with it on Saturday.  I babysat a friend's two kids on Monday (something I'll be doing every MWF for the next month), one of whom was fighting a cold and needed to do breathing treatments every four hours.  Levi got worse Monday night and Natalie woke up at 1:30am Wednesday morning vomiting and fevered. I called off the babysitting on Wednesday and made a double doctor appointment.  I was kind of hoping it was something antibiotic-worthy {even though I hate giving them} since Karis had her surgery scheduled for Friday.  Of course, it was not.  Most likely all three of them have been/are victims of the seasonal flu.  Ethan came home from school Wednesday with a fever and aches again, so he stayed home Thursday, as well.  Thanks to an army of praying friends and family, and a God who answers prayers, Karis did not get sick and she was able to have her surgery.  Of course, the first few hours were rough...a lot of pain and swelling and she was so hungry after not having been able to eat since the night before.  There were many futile attempts to get ice cream, jello, and pudding in her before things got better. 

Ethan seems to have recovered, but the other three are definitely not back to themselves yet. I'm thankful for for one more day of rest and having my helpful hubby home before we get back to the grind of another week. 

Even though we didn't have any green beer on Thursday, we {well, some of us did, anyway} did enjoy some green cupcakes and green kool-aid in hopes of pulling us out of the funk.  I even added some green color to our alfredo sauce for dinner, but that attempt at being festive and fun did not go over so well with the masses. Maybe next year.    

ps...mom, I may actually take you up on your offer to come visit if it's still on the table :O).