Saturday, December 19, 2009 - Question of the Week
Mr Music: Mom, is it bad for dogs if they drink root beer?
Me: Why do you ask?
Mr Music: 'Cause Snoopy's always doing it.
Dec. 14, 2009 - Home Spun strip #424
I will hope that this one needs no explanation. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Thirty pictures later and I have something decent for this year.
So tell me, how did your family photo come out?
Monday, December 14, 2009 - The Final Frontier
I do not understand space. Not at all.
How can your brain send signals to muscles and your legs move you and you go from essentially one world to another ~ from your house to the grocery store ~ up and down past fruits that grew on other continents? If I start thinking about it I can hardly function.
I think this is why I am not a confident driver. I start to worry about how close the cars are (I blame this on our textbook in high school driver's ed, which had a section explaining that driving was easy as long as you remembered that "your vehicle should never occupy the same space anything else is occupying at the same time." I find that unhelpful advice, though true.)
Tonight on the way to church I was tired, and glad Devastatingly Handsome was driving. We had a foggy mist going and the cars ahead of us all looked far too close every time we came to a stop. I started worrying, as I sometimes do, about what would happen if the car in front of us were invisible, anyhow, and so we hit it. It occurred to me that this would likely mean the car had a cloaking device, like a Romulan ship. In which case, I realized, probably our biggest problem would not in fact be that we had hit the cloaked car, but the aliens we would be dealing with.
*Sigh* Some of us are just more comfortable with books than with rel life. Though even there, you have to turn the pages and walk to the bookshelf.
Dec. 11, 2009 - Home Spun strip #423
True story: I thought it would be a great idea for us to paint pottery at one of those craft shops one year. I figured some of it would make nice gifts for Christmas. In particular, I wanted something unique for Sierra's godmother. I found a clay plate that I painted a simple angel onto. Just a circle head with halo and a triangle body. Then we would have Sierra (then 1 or 2 years) put hand prints on either side for wings. What kid doesn't like sticking their hands in paint?
Apparently, my kid doesn't.
After the screaming fit we decided to leave and go to a restaurant nearby, hoping she would calm down before the shop closed. After she ate, we returned to the pottery shop. The best we managed were two fist prints. And this from the child who would eventually decorate my wall when she was five (I dug the picture out of my archives for your amusement)...
Dec. 9, 2009 - Home Spun strip #422
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - Fa La La La La, La La, La, La
I am endeavoring to prepare for Christmas. That's why I'm here blogging instead of working on gifts, placing orders, wrapping presents, or correcting Saxon work. Right.
So, I am conducting an informal poll about your favorites in two categories:
#1: Your favorite Christmas cookie-type goodie
and
#2: Your favorite Christmas music
I know both categories can be hard to pick from too many good contenders, so I will blaze the way. If your answers are uncommon, please provide additional information so I can learn something here and justify this post.
My answers are:
#1) the famous peppermint chip cookies. We make them by crushing some candy canes to amount to about three-fourths (hey, there's the Saxon after all) a cup of crumbles which we then add to our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe comes with two advisories: first, remove them from the cookie sheet immediately or they become permanently bonded to it when they cool. Hardened candy cane residue cannot be removed in any way known to Momdom. And secondly: they are seriously good. So if you are lacking in self-restraint, share them. Right away.
#2) "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" I'm none too sure we know it was a midnight clear, or even that the angels actually sang, but I love the emphasis on Christ's coming and bringing redemption to the broken world. The good news. This carol does not sell Christmas short as just a frilly, fun thing, but knows that it is what is needed by those
beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing!
Dec. 7, 2009 - Home Spun Vignette #9
Hmm...It appears I forgot to post this last Friday. I'm thinking I just didn't want to admit that I turned 41. Or I've become forgetful in my old age. :o) Things are going much better now.
It is a blessing that Thanksgiving weekend was so peaceful, because we have been very, very busy this week. Chase has been making some final preparations for his second-degree black belt exam this evening, which included a paper on the history of tae kwon do, several extra classes and a last minute photo session of the poomse he made up, followed by several hours of me fiddling with computer programs to help him put it all together and print it out. And two last minute trips to buy ink cartridges for the printer (the first trip resulted in the wrong cartridge.) All I can say is that homeschooling does not make one immune to the phrase "Oh, and I need it by tomorrow." At least I got a nice thank you card from my son for the help. My husband's car went in for repairs on Tuesday and to coin a phrase, "It's dead, Jim." Our poor little 17 year old Camry is now about as useful as a paperweight. We are back to being a one car family. Oh well, I don't suppose it would be difficult to chauffeur one more person around when he needs me to, and on the bright side, hubby will get a little exercise sprinting for buses. In the midst of all this activity, Sierra has turned vegetarian, which involved a extra long grocery store trip as I tried to figure out what to feed her. Long story. I can't make this stuff up. Oh yeah, and...today's my birthday.
Update: My birthday is now past and Chase did well on his 2 hour test. Check out the video on this post at my other blog.
At some point, I'm hoping to start preparing for Christmas. I'm thinking I should have some free time by the end of the month. Good thing we celebrate Little Christmas!
Update: Hmmm...I still haven't really begun my preparations except for some small things like folding my cards and hanging stockings. I wonder if I have a free day next week...
Dec. 7, 2009 - Home Spun strip #421
Monday, December 7, 2009 - Deflated
Our neighbor decorates with a yard full of those inflatable ornaments. This year, each time I go to the bathroom, I see SpongeBob out my window. Not sure how he fits in with the true meaning of Christmas.
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
A humbling thought. Without Christ I am more worthless than a flat SpongeBob.
~ Keep me from being flat through this Advent season. Make me more than SpongeBob. ~
Thursday, December 3, 2009 - GPS Needed
Miss Dance is a clever, talented girl. And now the BUT. But, she is more than a little geographically challenged.
Today's Notgrass Exploring America lesson concerned the Transcontinental Railroad. We got to the review question: "What was the proposed eastern terminus of a southern-route transcontinental railroad?" (now, do not rabbit trail into your feelings on the worth of knowing the answer to this bit of historic trivia knowledge, anyhow. Just wait to hear the rest of the story. Thank you.)
She burned through any number of answers, from Nebraska to Illinois. She looked through the book but could not find the answer. I told her it was New Orleans.
Her immediate, incredulous reply? "New Orleans isn't even in our country!!" I gave her a blank look and she added, "Or, is it in Florida?"
She then went on to defend her answer by explaining that "everything with an islandy-name is in Florida."
Oh my. I am torn between a desire to give her maps and a globe for Christmas and the assurance that it would be a waste of money and wrapping paper.
