Hello? Anyone there? It feels a bit strange to start out on a new blog. But starting a homeschool blog is exciting! Blogging regularly provides a great reminder of the daily learning we all do, be we young children or homeschooling parents.
Continue readingMore videos. I hope to find time to write something for you too but not right now. We’ve enjoyed our holiday time with family. Here are some videos of Paul swimming and Caroline doing was she does best, eating bananas.
And sorry, apparently I always try to get her to sing “If you’re happy and you know it!”
It’s been 6 weeks! Yikes, sorry I’m so slow. Hopefully the cuteness of these kids will make up for it.
At Carthage
At Nauvoo School
Cute Kids
Paul’s computer skit is at 28 minutes. Paul’s singing begins at 48 minutes. This is very long, and sorry for the ads, which is what youtube does if it is this long.
I have to say, I am not a fan of the rock-n-roll type of worship service. But at least they called this a “performance” instead of a worship service! Paul enjoys being a part of this co-op, and I know it’s been a good experience for us. I look forward to seeing where we go in the future with this group! There is a lot of potential.
Paul’s assignment was “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” He told me what to write and I wrote it verbatim. Then he read it. (Yes, he actually read my sloppy cursive/print combo writing.) He didn’t want to change anything. He had to draw a few pictures himself because he knew just what he wanted and did not find the picture he liked! I found his picture of the king sitting on his throne telling people to pay taxes to be amusing.
I was proud to hear my son bear his testimony to his primary peers yesterday!
P.S. Yes, there are Nauvoo pictures and videos to show. But with Christmas decorating, working on making Christmas presents, getting sick again, and a failed computer hard drive and the necessary re-install and recovery, it’s been a busy few weeks.
While we were in Nauvoo, Caroline turned 9 months old!
Caroline loves people. She can be surrounded by toys but if there is not a person nearby, she will not be happy. She wants to be with people. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter who it is. If the person is smiling, Caroline is too. When she sees someone new, she’ll stop what she’s doing and wave “hi.” It even sounds like she says “hi” to them! Her big brother is one of her favorite people to watch. Even when she’s just waking up, if she hears her brother’s voice she is very excited and looks around for him. Caroline is a social creature. There is an exception: if Mama is in the room, she wants Mama and no one else! Not even Daddy is desired if she is sleepy: she wants her mama.
Caroline loves music. Caroline laughs and cheers and claps her hands when music begins. I’m begining to notice that she really does want that lullaby before bedtime. She loves to “sing” along during hymns at church, she loves to listen to Paul’s creative songs just for her, and she loves to hear Daddy play the piano. This is child who will treasure music in her life, even more so that Paul did as a baby and now as a child.
Caroline loves moving. Whether she is clapping her hands or army crawling to an attractive item or squirming and dancing to a song, Caroline likes to be a part of things. If she is down on the floor, she wants to stand. If she’s standing, she wants to move around the table and grab that shiny thing over there.
Caroline is petite. She’s in the 30th percentile for height and still 15th-20th percentile for weight. She’s 16 lbs and some odd ounces, and she’s rounding out like a baby should. But she is definitely not a fat baby. She is perfect sized, and I love that she still loves to cuddle. She fits in the corner of my arm just right.
Caroline is awake. She does not want to nap, and never has. But she’s getting better at letting herself fall asleep. Somehow we spoiled her and for a while she would not sleep without being held. She’d scream if she was put down! She wanted to nurse if she woke in the night and it was quite exhausting because she’d scream otherwise. If something was going on around her, she would not fall asleep. She’d stare at the moving TV screen til past 10 p.m., but she would not go to sleep. It was exhausting just watching her droopy eyes.
Caroline likes bling. Glasses, belt buckles, earrings, necklaces, shiny stickers, shiny keys: if an object is shiny or bright, Caroline makes a bee-line for it! It will probably end up in her mouth. The other day at a restaurant, Daddy handed her a few dollar bills. Caroline, amazingly, did not put it in her mouth. She had this look of amazement as she looked at Daddy and looked at the money and turned it over and over, amazed that she was able to hold it. She did the same with his credit card. But that did end up in her mouth. Dangerous! Let’s not love bling and money too much, dear little girl.
Caroline loves to nurse, and food is okay sometimes too. Some days, Caroline could not care less about food. She just wants to nurse. And now she does not even want a bottle anymore. But she is starting to expect food more and more. Yesterday she was very excited to eat food.
I love my darling girl. I can’t believe she’s nearly a year old already. I hope we can treasure these baby days a little longer … and that she does not start walking quite yet! She’s so cuddly and adorable, I love her.
Note: all videos recorded by big brother Paul during our Thanksgiving road trip.
We have decided to run down to Nauvoo for the holiday. But we do want to wish you a happy holiday. Paul made a video about the pilgrims based on some things we learned together. Enjoy watching his video here.
It’s a very long video because there was a lot to learn! Caroline makes a cameo appearance at about 6 minutes in.
In Grandma’s acknowledgements page of her personal history book (written and printed in 2001), she says, “Write your own book in rebuttal, but not while I’m still around to read it.”
Well, she has not been around for almost two years now, so it’s time we started mentioning the things we know now that Grandma didn’t know. No disrespect to Grandma intended: I know she’s cheering me on up above as she sits and chats with Margaret and her mother Ann Dunlope about life, family, and the gospel.
As I’ve mentioned before, when Grandma passed away, I felt a strong need to pursue a specific line of family history. Frank and I were successful in finding a few different family lines related to James and Margaret (Shields) Simon (pages 25-28 in Grandma’s book). With my baby being born I’ve not focused on the family for more than a year now, but I’m feeling the spirit of Elijah very strongly again, so expect more of these posts in the next few days and weeks.
Here are some general corrections to the story of James Simon as found in Grandma’s book. More detailed information to come, with links to the records we’ve found.
On page 26, Grandma was unable to find a birth record for Grandpa Simon but knew that he told Greenfield cousins about “when he was a little boy in Dublin.” We do not know for certain when he was born, that is true. However, chances are nearly 100% that he was born and raised in Manchester, England. Certainly not Dublin, since his family came from Galway County, Ireland in 1847.Grandpa Simon was born between 1847 and 1850.
On page 27, Grandma says the family tradition stated that James’ father Thomas died at sea on the way to America, but she states it was not true since they could not find record of it. With closer inspection of the ship manifest, we know it is true. Thomas Simon died of apoplexy literally one day before the ship arrived at Castle Garden, New York City.The manifest transcribes his age as 12 1/2 years old. But it seems clearly a misread of the sloppy writing, which has been crossed out at his death.
As for Grandma’s further thoughts on Maggie and the baby Edwin, we have not yet found them in America or even found any evidence of Edwin’s birth, but we are not finished searching yet. There may be an Edwin somewhere, and Margaret probably did not disappear in to thin air.
There is lots more to learn about Margaret (Shields) Simon another day, for her story is far more complicated than Grandma’s book suggests. Note that on page 26 of Grandma’s book, she says they were married in 1867 and James D was born in 1866…notice any thing about those dates?!
Bottom line is, there was a first marriage, and James Delaney was the son of Denis Delaney. I’m still working on details of this, and we don’t yet know what happened to Denis. More info to come. In 2012, the Catholic Family History Society finished digitizing baptismal and marriage records for St. Wilfrid’s Catholic church, which is the church where Margaret and James were married. I have ordered a copy of that (a CD-ROM; it is not online), because I found evidence that a James Delany was baptized there, with Thomas Simmons as his godfather.
I’m working on a write up about the two families (the Shields and the Simons) for those who may be interested in the sources and so forth. Watch this page for more information! You can also log in to New Family Search and see what Temple work has been done.
I’m only 13 days late, right?
Cake Walk Time
He stayed at the cake walk until he won, 10+ minutes.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight!!
This wasn’t Halloween. But it was Caroline’s first ride on a horse!! Hooray for the free ride at the supermarket!
My kids are so happy in the mornings, and before church they are just adorable!
By the time I wanted a picture with Caroline, though, she was ready to be done. “Stop holding me! I want to crawl around!”
Note to self: I must try to get a picture of me with my kids more often.
And Paul wanted to show off his singing in anticipation of his primary program.
Caroline wants to show off her newly acquired skills too.
All pictures and videos taken Sunday, October 21, 2012