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I feel guilty about having neglected this blog for so long! I had another blog once before this one, and I abandoned it after discovering I just didn't have the time to keep up with it regularly. I am afraid this blog is heading in that same direcetion... Since I last posted an entry, our family has adopted a cat and a tortoise. We are enjoying our new pets. We Californians had an election several days ago. It was frustrating for me because a local school bond raised our already considerable property taxes another $50 per year. If all of those people who voted yes on this expensive bond measure had voted yes on our $5 tax increase to support the library, I might not have minded. But no, these selfish public school parents won't spend a dime to support something that benefits everyone-- homeschoolers, senior citizens, etc.-- but we're all supposed to pick up the tab to support their kids, and they are so steeped in their sense of entitlement, they don't see any hypocrisy there. I hope things are going well for all you ladies out there in HSB land. Have a lovely week!
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This is the first week of my diet, which is pretty shocking because since my last 3 kids I have really packed on the weight! I have gained 70 pounds in the last 15 years. I can't imagine why I haven't done anything about it before now, but somehow I guess I was stuck in my rut. My husband never seemed to mind, so I didn't feel a lot of pressure. Besides, I REALLY like doughnuts and Cheetos. So this past week I started a diet. I have lost 4 pounds so far! That is the only weight loss I've experienced since having my last baby, 2 1/2 years ago! Yay! |
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My mom, who lives in a second house on our property, is getting a little unpredictable in her "senior moments." Just the other day, she called me and said the thought the Gatorade in her fridge tasted a little strange. Then she realized she didn't have any Gatorade, and that she had accidentally drank the liquid HUMMINGBIRD FOOD! And this woman takes care of my children... kind of scary, huh? |
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Don't you just love that expression? I do. Anyway, this Sunday a very pleasant lady who attends our church whom I do not know personally made a joke during the service, the implication of which was that Democrats are "less Christian" than Republicans. Right off my husband looks at me and silently pleads for me to just let it go. I held my tongue-- I knew I would only come across as humorless if I contradict a joke infront of others. But on the way out the door I made a point of making sure everyone knew I was offended. I don't know the numbers; it may be true that Republicans attend church in higher numbers than Democrats. It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. But to somehow believe that being a Republican makes one a better Christian? Are there people in the world so uneducated and narrow minded as to believe that? It doesn't even matter whether or not I am a Democrat or a Republican. (I vote both ways, often. Neither party represents by beliefs particulary well.) In my Bible, it says the way to Him is through his son, my Lord Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for ALL ours sins (I don't remember Him excluding Democrats) and not through George Bush. Shouldn't a person have the right to believe that? End of soap-box. Anyway, I wasn't all that terribly offended-- just frustrated with something that should be kept out of the service-- and I kind of hope the woman who made the remark (who has very likely heard about my reaction by now) doesn't feel badly about upsetting someone. I haven't had much time to blog lately. I have done my annual "end of the school year" inventory of our progress, and figured out where we have done well, and where I need to step it up to meet our goals. Spanish: we've come very far but there are some gaps that need filling in. Music: we're doing well in piano playing, but our classical studies about the composers has fallen off badly. Math: No problems, ahead of the goal. Science: right on target. Engish: literature got pushed aside, but we did well in writing and penmanship. Geography: we're doing very well, 9 year old now knows and can locate all 50 states, the Great Lakes, and many countries and regions of the world, as well as interpreting population statistics and reading coordinates. One other thing that happened in our schooling: my 6 year old was working in his phonics workbook on adding the "ing" ending to verbs. The book had the sentence: "The mommy was rush to her job." He was supposed to add "ing" to the verb. He stops dead in his tracks, and I asked him what the problem was. He said, "The sentence doesn't make sense. How could a mommy have a job?" I laughed a long time about that one! |
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My husband and I had the chance to leave the kiddos behind today and attend church alone. I hate to say it, but it is so much easier to relax and really hear the message when I'm not carrying a toddler around. I really got a lot out of it this time! Our pastor read from Philemon, and I learned a lot. (One thing I learned, was that I was pronouncing "Philemon" incorrectly all this time.) We put our littlest child on the scale today... 36 pounds! Not so little! Our kindergarten science lesson has hatched... 5 painted lady butterflies! I've been giving them orange slices, and I meant to let them go outside but we're having a cold snap. That might be releasing them to their deaths. I don't think I'll be blogging much this week. I've been trying to make the time to write, and I would rather put the effort there than in blogging. I've been working on the same unfinished novel forever! I was making good progress on it for a while, then... whammo! Another baby. I didn't write another word for about 2 years. So now I refer to it in my head as the "Neverending Story." It's ridiculously long. Needs work. As you moms know, our spare moments are precious! |
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I've seen that slogan on other women's blogs, but today I'm feeling it! Things are working out really well for my husband and I at the moment, in a variety of ways. For now, our finances are strong, the kids are healthy, and we'll be actually getting our master bathroom repaired and remodled before too long! My husband told me to go ahead and buy that expensive set of Latin readers I want for the kids. The dog is even behaving himself, leaving the chickens alone. (Saying so makes me feel like knocking on wood. It's a silly, nonsensical superstition-- no, I don't belive it works-- but I feel compelled to do it when I talk about how wonderful things can be!) Anyhow, the sun is even starting to break out a little... According to the weatherman, I shouldn't get used to it. I can't help but wonder when things seem to be going so well, "Why me?" I feel so amazingly blessed, and I find myself looking over my shoulder a lot, wondering why. A person's first instinct is to ask, "What did I do to deserve this?" And of course, the answer is, "nothing." I'm a lazy sinner who has a tendency to be judgemental of others, swears too much, eats junkfood like a glutton, and doesn't pay the attention to the Lord that He deserves. There are so many people on this earth who are better human beings, better Christians, than I am. Lots of them have lives full of difficulties and pain. So why do the good things keep happening to me? First, He dies on the cross for my sins as much as anyone elses'. Then, I have a life that is also very "lucky," if you'll excuse the term. It is very difficult to understand. On a lighter note, our first caterpillar has emerged from its chrysalis, and we have a butterfly! There are 4 more waiting to hatch, so hopefully, this will just be the first... |
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Yay! The chairs in our schoolroom are reupholstered. I wish I could claim I did it, actually my husband, master of the staple-gun, did it. It sure makes a big difference! I bought our set of table and chairs last summer from a small local Christian school which was moving to a new location, so they had a big yardsale. I paid $10 for the table and four chairs. The chair seats & backs were covered in an off white, waffle grain fabric, that was dirty when we got it. After months of use with my young kids, it was beyond filthy-- until this weekend. Our school room chairs are now recovered in a natty canvas with pinstripe, two are blue striped, two are red striped. The fabric cost me $12.75 for 3 yards, more than the furniture cost me in the first place! It looks great! I love that feeling you get on Sunday evening when you realize the dishes are done, the kitchen is clean, your lesson plan is finished, the carpet is vacuumed, all the toys and video games are put away and you really are ready for Monday morning! |
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Can you ladies believe March is almost over? It feels like just last week was Christmas... Today the sun was shining but there was a wind with a cold bite to it. I had errands to run in town, so the kids and I drove into town in the minivan. I hit two potholes, hard. And that was in our driveway! Our driveway is getting rough. Any worse and I'll need a 4x4 to go anywhere! Once I pulled onto the road, I had to stop for a coyote, who made a point of crossing very leisurely and giving me the eye as he went. I've heard them howling a lot lately. Our bloodhound, Jacky, has had to be put in the garage every night for nearly a week, or the coyotes get him worked up and he howls all night. My 9 year old soon took his test today to move up from being a white belt (lowest rank) in his karate class, to a yellow belt (lowest rank plus one). We won't learn if he passed until the next class meeting on Monday. Have a lovely week everyone! |
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I finally decided to get on board with menu planning a couple of weeks ago after reading about how many ladies do it... I am so glad I did! The kids are eating healthier-- they haven't had cup'a'noodles for dinner once since I started I have two penpals now-- and it is so exciting for me! One from Australia, one from Texas. Yay! I'm also corresponding with my 96 year old great aunt who still lives on our family ranch. So now I have plenty of friends to write to, also! By the way, I have discovered you CAN make nice Easter eggs from brown eggs. I was a little hesitant, but didn't want to go to the store to buy white ones since our fridge is exploding with eggs already. Have a great week everyone! |
-- and I am much less stressed out every day at 4:45!
• Mar. 22, 2008 - Would you like to win the NEW Rosetta Stone?
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Here's me, out in my pajamas (not exactly looking my best) playing with one of my hens. I call her Henny, but my son insists her name is Pecks. She's a good layer, a R. I. Red of course. Based on her "facial expression," I'm not exactly her type:
This goat is finishing off a pan of spinach lasagne on the patio. Her name is Jar-Jar Binks. (NOT my fault!) Inspite of the fearsome looking horns, she is actually a very gentle creature: |
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Here's an interesting article about chess in the public schools: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/us/20chess.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin I'm including it because my "back-to-the-books-next-week goal" is get the chessboard out where it will be used! The real reason I never got around to playing with the kids as much as I intended is because of the progression of toddlers, who chew/throw/misplace any boardgame pieces... My youngest is 2 1/2 now and is old enough to be discipled about grabbing what she shouldn't... Speaking of my beautiful youngest, here's a picture:
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It is a little hard to imagine, when you take time to think about it, that life could be going on so normally for people like myself not very far from where the tradgedy I posted about yesterday took place, knowing that mother must be beside herself with grief... It makes my own problems seem so trivial in comparison. But for us, things are very calm and peaceful. We're taking a "Spring Break" this year. I rarely take any breaks at all, for the simple reason that when we don't follow our school schedule, the kids hang around and bicker with each other. Well, that's pretty much what's going on right now. I was (only half) joking with my mom on the phone this morning when I said, "That's it. We're never taking vacation again." So I have the rest of the week of not quite knowing what to do with myself, and the kids whining about why they can't play video games if it isn't a school day. EEEEEKKK! Since our pasture fence is down, we have a goat loose, and because of that I can't leave the driveway gate open, or the goat will wander over to the neighbor's and ruin their garden. It's frustrating, because I'm expecting UPS and they won't open gates.... Now what? Isn't that a mundane, trivial problem to have? (See paragraph #1.) |
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A horrible tradgedy has happened in a small town not far from us. A father attacked his wife with an ax (she is in the hospital) and left with their 2 year old. After a 3 county chase the father was captured, but the son was not found until later that evening. He has been killed and left behind a Kmart. I had seen this on the news and of course felt terrible, but I received an email this morning from a homeschooling friend of ours, asking for prayers for the boy's mother as she is a close friend of hers whom she had been trying to bring to Jesus. My friend knew the family intimately for years and never expected this sort of thing might happen. I hope she won't mind me posting about this situation on my blog-- I have mixed feelings about doing so, because it is a very sensational incident around here (of course). On the other hand, the case has been very publicized and anyone who may recognize what I'm writing about won't learn anything new from this. I am hoping your prayers for this grieving mother will justify the invasion of their privacy, and the fact that I am not close enough to the people involved (I don't know them at all, actually) to have any right to write about them. But it may help to have as many prayers as humanly possible, so if you can remember this family to our good Lord that would be a help, I'm sure. |
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We are definately experiencing spring weather! Sun one moment, hail the next. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the first meeting of the playgroup I'm trying to get going, due to showers... I have read today about a plan to open public BOARDING schools in Chicago, for kids who need "more structure" at home. We homeschoolers knew this was coming, it was only a matter of time... Our newspaper had an article about Ann Rice, the author of a series of books about vampires and others about witches (I've even read some of them) and also some "adult" literature under a pseudonym (no, I have never read any of those), that she has returned to the faith she had lost when she was younger and is no longer writing material she feels isn't appropriate for a Christian. I was so pleasantly suprised to hear that! That is wonderful, and I admire public figures who change the path they're on. It's a lot harder for them than us "regular" people, since they have so much more scrutiny from a public which isn't all that tolerant of Christianity anymore... Today I told my husband I'd need him for the day, because my friend up the road wanted to get rid of some furniture that I thought would look great in our daughter's room. She's outgrowing some of her toddler things. So my husband went over there and together with her husband, loaded up his truck with a bed with a bunk bed above and a playhouse below, with a slide and shelves attatched, and a dresser for our 6 year old (his old one was barely usable.) I feel really good about what we accomplished, because my daughter's bedroom looks terrific! I hadn't planned to take much time off for spring break, but I'm finding I really need it! I was feeling more tired of our school schedule than I had realized!
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I seem to have hurt my good friend's feelings, although I'm not sure how I could have avoided it, so I'm feeling... whatever goes along with that. I've been trying to start up a playgroup for homeschoolers, and my friend wants to come to be involved because she lives out in the middle of nowhere and is home all day with her 5 really little kids which she homeschools. She was involved in a “Christian” homeschool support group (I use the term lightly) and was made to feel unwelcome, she wouldn't accuse them of anything, but some other things lead me to believe it was because her family is Catholic. (I don't particularly like those people, they're cliquish as highschool girls. The support group, that is-- not Catholics.) So my friend has called to ask me-- two days in a row now-- why we can't meet at a different park where she could be included. I feel awful. The whole POINT of the playgroup was to meet at a park out here so those of us in the south part of the county would have some way to meet up without driving so far. That was the whole raison d'etre of the thing! My friend lives way up in the north part of the county. (In our county, the population is in the center, and the north and south ends are the boondocks.) From the park we want to meet at, it's a good hour of driving, on winding, narrow roads, one lane bridges and logging trucks. Not fun. So now I don't know what to do. If I was willing to drive the 35 minutes further to the next park, there wouldn't have been any need for me to try to start up this playgroup! But I know how she feels. We're pretty isolated out here, and it gets really hard to see your kids alone day after day, even if they have each other for best friends... |
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Well, it's all over for 35... today I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30! It's my 36th birthday. It was a very nice day, actually. My husband baked me a cake. He let our 6 year old son stick Junior Mints all over the top... delicious! We have been having beautiful, warm weather. My daffodils blooming, and my hens are really popping out the eggs! I even like seeing bees buzzing around the rosemary. So far, though, the nights have been too cold for the crickets to sing. On the other hand, the California court ruling against homeschooling is causing a lot of fear and anxiety among my friends... I'm praying for the HSLDA's efforts here to be successful. It is difficult not to feel somehow threatened, although the ruling wouldn't actually apply to us. It's been a very relaxing weekend. I think my batteries are recharged enough for another week of geography lessons and long division!
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Today the insurance agent was coming by to audit a damage claim we filed during a severe windstorm in early January. I knew someone was going to see me, so I wore my "formal sweats." When I mentioned to my mom that I was wearing them, she laughed like crazy. She thinks I'm the only person on earth to have "formal sweats." By the way, the insurance auditor found out we had been paid an incorrect amount-- and cut us a check for nearly $500, right on the spot! We've had some pretty rough times financially recently, and I expect we're going to have some more coming up, so it was pretty nice to get a break! |
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I don't know if I'm 7 degrees from Kevin Bacon or not, but I do know some people who (almost) know some people. So here is some bizarre trivia about me and my nearest & dearest: 1. My mother was just missed by an inch in a close call pedestrian vs. vehicle car accident. Guess who was driving the car? Vladimir Putin! (No kidding!) 2. My cousin was, for quite a while, one of Chelsea Clinton's Secret Service agents. He also guarded Dick Cheney's mailbox, before he quit the Secret Service to become a Christian missionary. 3. My husband drove in a race against Nascar driver Tony Stewart. (That was when they were driving sprint cars.) 4. When I was young and wild, I played guitar in a rock band. (No one then would have predicted I would have had an "aha!" moment with the Lord, and become a stay-at-home homeschooling mom!) In those days I had a date with a guy who's claim to fame was that he got drunk and crashed into Les Paul's fence. I also was friends with a guy who played studio keyboards on a Smashing Pumpkins album, and my music teacher was the college room-mate of one of the members of the 90s band Mr. Big. I have a dozen oddball stories like that about flash-in-the-pan bands...
On to more serious stuff... there have been some recent decisions against homeschooling in the courts. Very few things scare me as much as the thought I might someday have to put my kids in public school. It is something I seriously lose sleep over, which is something I should forget about entirely, as I really run no risk of that. For one thing, we are currently homeschooling under the umbrella of a public charter school. I meet with the teacher twice a month, and she lets me do my own thing, including use Christian textbooks. So far it has been very convenient, although I know other people who find charter schools too restrictive. (Even other people who have used this one have had problems. It all depends on who your "case teacher" is.) Another reason I wouldn't run into trouble is because my mom lives with us, and she's a credentialed teacher who helps out with our schooling sometimes. She told me if I ever decide to go it alone, she'd be happy to put her official "credential" on our little schoolroom. So really I shouldn't worry. But I am worried, as it seems like our rights are eroding. I can't imagine living in a country with so little freedom we couldn't even educate our own children. Scary, isn't it? |
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What a frustrating day! My 9 year old went to take our state achievement tests, just the essay writing portion. Only 4th and 7th graders take it. I dropped him off, and went grocery shopping (alone! A rare treat.) I picked him up after the test, as parents aren't allowed in there with the kids during the testing period. I asked him how many paragraphs he wrote, and he says “about a quarter.” I asked, “What do you mean?” and he said, “I only wrote one sentence.” He shrugged and said, “That was all I could think of.” I asked him how he felt about the test, and he told me he didn't really want to take it, because it was boring. On the drive home, he tells me all about the Ancient Greek's perceptions on the nature of matter, and gives me a long speech on the Platonic solids. He quit the test and wandered off into the library section to read about Plato. But the kid won't write more than a sentence, so he looks like a dunce to the school authorities. I told my mom, who was at home with the younger ones while we were gone, how upset I was and she made me feel a little bit better just because she understood how I feel. It seems like I work so hard to give him a superior education. We're not the kind of family that slacks off and doesn't put in the work, and when I have the chance to be validated a little, he doesn't bother to make the effort. Not that I expect perfect test scores, but a kid could atleast put himself out a little... I kind of see this as a parenting failure. Maybe I didn't properly prepare him. I didn't explain that tests are important and he needs to try to do his best. He made it clear to me he didn't see much point in putting himself out! |