Did you catch the title?  I'm a crafty one like that, sometimes, changing things around... not only does 31 start with the "th" sound like 13, but it's the number 13 in reverse.  And no, I'm not going to make a list of 31 things.  The number 31 has another significance, which I'll get to in a minute.

I have had this project in mind for a while now, and have considered starting a new blog for it, since some of my readers might not be interested in what I'm going to do.  But then I decided that if I had another blog, it would just take up more of my time and I might not keep up with this blog as much.  I'm giving you fair warning so that if you choose, you can skip reading on Thursdays.  I can't promise that I'm going to do this every Thursday, nor that I will ONLY do it on Thursdays and never on a Wednesday or a Friday, but those are the chances you take when reading my blog.  You just never know. 

I'm taking a hiatus from coming up with Thursday Thirteens for a while.  Instead I'm going to have Thursday Thirty-ones... where I'll muse about the Proverbs 31 wife.  I've been giving this a lot of thought, trying to become more of a Proverbs 31 wife and woman in general.  If I blog about one aspect of what she embodies per week, it will give me something to focus and work on for 7 days.  You can join me, too, if you'd like, and we can have a discussion either in the comments section for the post, or privately through email.  Or, if you want to read along quietly, that's fine too.  If you want to just ignore me on Thursdays, that's okay as well... no pressure from me.  The rest of the days will still be filled with pictures of the kids and stories about the happenings and minutae of our lives.

For my first week, I'll go ahead and post Proverbs 31:10-31, which is the description that is given of an excellent wife to King Lemuel by his mother.   In Hebrew, it was written as an acrostic poem, one line for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet.   After this week, I'll take it apart verse by verse, combining some as I feel necessary.

This is from BibleGateway, where you can look it up in other translations as well.  My Bibles that I have at home are NIV, so that's the translation that I'm going to use.

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
       She is worth far more than rubies.

 11 Her husband has full confidence in her
       and lacks nothing of value.

 12 She brings him good, not harm,
       all the days of her life.

 13 She selects wool and flax
       and works with eager hands.

 14 She is like the merchant ships,
       bringing her food from afar.

 15 She gets up while it is still dark;
       she provides food for her family
       and portions for her servant girls.

 16 She considers a field and buys it;
       out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

 17 She sets about her work vigorously;
       her arms are strong for her tasks.

 18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
       and her lamp does not go out at night.

 19 In her hand she holds the distaff
       and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

 20 She opens her arms to the poor
       and extends her hands to the needy.

 21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
       for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

 22 She makes coverings for her bed;
       she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

 23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
       where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

 24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
       and supplies the merchants with sashes.

 25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
       she can laugh at the days to come.

 26 She speaks with wisdom,
       and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

 27 She watches over the affairs of her household
       and does not eat the bread of idleness.

 28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
       her husband also, and he praises her:

 29 "Many women do noble things,
       but you surpass them all."

 30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
       but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

 31 Give her the reward she has earned,
       and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Is this description new to you? 

Or is the Proverbs 31 wife someone whom you have already been convicted to emulate? 

Looking forward to next Thursday!

The kids went to a birthday party for one of their friends this past weekend, and there was a dunk tank.  As you can imagine, it was a huge hit!  J could touch the bottom on his tiptoes, but thankfully I brought R's swimmies, because otherwise she would not have been able to do it.  A great time was had by all.

And all of the kids together... R is right in front, and J is slightly behind her to the right.  Aargh!

I had to call poison control yesterday.  Not for my 7-year-old.  Not for my 5-year-old.  Not for a small child that I was babysitting, and not even for a dog or a cat (or a fish).  I had to call for myself.

We went fishing yesterday, and Dad was kind enough to pick me some lovely flowers.  Some were black-eyed susans, and others were white wildflowers growing near the lake.  He put them in a half-full bottle of water that I had in the car.  When we got home, I transferred them into a vase, and absent-mindedly left the bottle of water sitting on the counter, right near where I usually put my cup.  (I should interrupt to explain that we have a one-cup-per-day-per-person rule here... while it's not strictly enforced, everyone is encouraged to use only ONE cup per day.  Otherwise I have too many cups to wash.)

I bet you can see how this is going to go.

Some time later, I wandered into the kitchen and saw the bottle of water, and out of habit, assumed it was my water bottle.  I took a big swig and then thought, "hmm, this does not taste very good."  Suddenly I realized what water it was and was horrified!  I had drank the flower water!!

I went outside where Dad was talking to two of his friends and told him the story.  As you can imagine, they all got a good giggle out of it.  One of his friends assured me through peals of laughter that I'd probably be fine.

I went back inside and decided to do some googling.  Black-eyed susans are a member of the daisy family and are not poisonous.  I had to google "white wildflowers in CT" in order to figure out what the other flowers were.  These are the two pictures that I found that looked the most like what we had:

This is Queen Anne's Lace, which is a medicinal plant.  It's also known as wild carrot:

This is Water Hemlock, which is also part of the carrot family.  It is extremely poisonous and can be fatal to cattle and humans if ingested:

Of course at this point I decided that it must have been water hemlock, and that I would probably be dead in 15 minutes to 2 hours.  So I called poison control.  Here's how the gist of it went:

Poison Control:  Hello, this is poison control, can I help you?

Me:  Yes!  I did something really stupid!  (I relayed the story to her.)

Poison Control:  Okay.  Let me see what information I can find.  Please hold.

Me: (silently hoping that she comes back before I start foaming at the mouth and seizing)

Poison Control:  Okay, ma'am.  Even if the plant in question was water hemlock, you should be fine.  You'd need to actually ingest the plant, not just drink the water that it was sitting in.

Me:  Well, I looked online and it said that it was VERY POISONOUS.  I'm not having any symptoms, so you think I will be okay?

Poison Control:  Yes, ma'am.  I would not expect you to have any symptoms, because you did not actually ingest any of the plant itself.

Me: Okay.

Poison Control: I need to ask you for your name, town, and age.

I felt a little sheepish admitting that I was 30, which is rather old for drinking plant water.  I was tempted at first to lie and say that I was 10, but quickly discarded that idea, since I already blamed the contaminated water on my husband, and didn't want her to alert the authorities that there was a 10 year old who was illegally married off to some flower-picking pervert. 

In the end, it all worked out... I survived the night and had no vomiting, foaming at the mouth, dilated pupils, seizures, or sudden death.  And as an added bonus, the poison control people, who are probably usually faced with mundane matters such as toddlers drinking bubble solution or eating toothpaste or ingesting the glowing liquid out of glowsticks (all things for which I've called in the past) probably had a rollicking good time with my phone call once I hung up (and hey, you're probably laughing yourself!).  I threw away the mystery flowers to avoid anyone else accidentally eating them (they did, after all, kind of smell like carrots).

Lessons learned:  1.  Don't put flowers in a water bottle and then leave the water bottle on the counter.  2.  Don't apply the "one cup per day' rule to water bottles, especially if said water bottle has held potentially poisonous plants.  3.  Come up with a plan to not divulge true age if the need to call poison control for myself arises again.  4.  Don't eat any plant that smells like carrot.  Many of them are poisonous.  Just buy carrots at the store.

I wish you a happy and uneventful Labor Day!

We've been quite content with our little family... but the kids have been wanting more.  Adding a member to the family should be a well-thought-out decision, but sometimes decisions are made in the spur of the moment, and alas, someone new comes along!

We have added to our family!  We were in the right place at the right time, and... well, without further ado, I introduce Elliott:

Elliott is a male betta fish.  R wanted to name him "Cinderella," and J was making gagging sounds and asking to name him "Trans," as in Transformers.  I had to run interference, and we tried to think of boyish names that had part of Cinderella's name in them.  When I suggested Elliott, I was picturing Stabler from Law and Order, Special Victim's Unit, but the kids both loved it.  So Stabler Elliott it is.

Enjoy your three-day weekend!  We went to the Sao Paio festival here in town last night, and we have plans to go fishing at some point.  We also have a Labor Day picnic and a birthday party to attend!  We're enjoying having Dad home (his big project is over, so no more travel plans in the immediate future).  I'll talk to you next week!

I participated in a make-your-home-a-haven swap!  It was hosted by Carrie and Monica.  My swap partner is Tina, and she lives in Alaska.  I didn't take a picture of what I sent her, and I won't talk about it here, because I'm not sure if she received it or not yet. 

Here's what she sent me, though!

The candles smell very yummy... apple pie and clean cotton!  The picture frames will go perfectly with the other frames in the living room.  And I have red white and blue things in the living room, so the candy dish and the cups will help with that theme!  I'm thinking that I might put some flowers in the cups and line them up on our large picture window sill.

Thank you Tina!  And thank you to Carrie and Monica for organizing the swap!

KodakGallery is down for maintenence this morning, so I'm unable to download my DITL pics right now.  I will try to do it tonight!

While we lived in Florida, I was very rarely asked why my children were not in school.  Part of it could have been that they are on the small side and perhaps people didn't realize that they were even school-aged at first, and part of it was probably because there were so many homeschoolers, that it was just assumed that if a child wasn't in school, he must be homeschooled.  There were also several year-round schools with different days off than the traditional public schools, so no one really knew when particular schools were in session (well, except the parents and teachers, of course!).  Add that to the fact that most of the population was well over 60 and probably just did not care, and you have little opportunity to answer questions from nosy people.  On the rare occasion that anyone did ask, my answer was almost always met with "oh, my niece/neighbor/coworker's wife/etc homeschools too!  Good for you!"

Yesterday we encountered TWO people who asked!  One was the karate teacher at a local karate school (I was in getting info to sign J up).  He looked a little surprised, but then said "well, that sounds like fun!"

Then we came home, and the people who live upstairs were eyeing me suspiciously.  The husband finally came over and said "so... how was their first day of school?"  (They were probably wondering why we were not at the bus stop with all of the other moms and kids.)  I said "oh, actually we homeschool."  He looked taken aback.  "Oh.  That's, um... interesting," he said.  I went back to my book.  Then he said "so... does that mean that you don't send them to school?"  I smiled and said "That's right!"  He wanted clarification:  "You mean, not at all?"  I nodded.  His wife was in the garage.  He went in and said "Uh, they homeschool... the kids don't go to school.  Maybe you should do that."  This was followed by some laughter and a comment from her that I did not quite catch. 

Ha, this is going to be a fun year!  :)

In our town, school started today.  I could hear the kids upstairs running downstairs to catch the bus while we were still in bed discussing what to eat for breakfast. 

We're going to go out for lunch today to celebrate!  Both to celebrate that we aren't involved in the pencils/books/teachers'-dirty-looks scene (well, of course they have all of things at home, including occasional dirty looks from mom.... but you know what I mean!), and also to celebrate getting our parks and other places back during the week! 

And yes, we're doing our photos today as well!

School's in!  I'll echo the sentiment spoken by many mothers, schooling and homeschooling alike.... Yippee! 

Today we babysat my 6-year-old niece.  All of the kids behaved wonderfully and kept each other occupied, but I was exhausted just watching their antics!  They played outside for hours, we went to the park, got ice cream at Friendly's, and they wrestled and ran around in the house.  Needless to say, my two kids are sleeping, and I hope that Alyssa is sleeping too!  I am wiped out, and plan on going to bed soon too.

I also plan on doing my DITL pictures tomorrow!  I'm not sure if I'll get them posted tomorrow, but never fear, they will be up soon so long as the camera batteries don't die again, etc. 

Since I don't have much to write, I will post a cool song from YouTube.  If I were more computer literate, I might be able to actually have the video play here on my blog, but the "embed" link does not seem to be working.  If anyone knows how to embed on HSB in particular, please leave me a comment or send me an email! 

Ugh, not even 5 1/2 weeks yet, only 5 weeks and one day.

Warning:  Blatant whining and moping ahead.  Don't say you weren't warned!

Dad's company put him on a 6-week project in the middle of July (it started the same week we moved into this apartment).  The last day of the project is this Friday.  For the past 5 weeks and one day, he's been gone several nights per week.  Sometimes it's only been one or two nights, and other times it's a 6-day week with one night home.  It's getting old.  Really old.  I've forgotten what it's like to be a normal household with two parents and children sitting around the dinner table.  I was thinking today that we haven't seen him in MONTHS, and then I realized that it's only been 5 weeks!  He's gone tonight and then two more nights this week, and that's it!  It will be so weird (in a nice way) to have him around every night!

I have to say that I'm in awe of the single moms out there, and the wives whose husbands are deployed, and wives whose husbands travel often.  I don't know how you do it.  This is hard work!  (I will say that I cheat at dinnertime and mostly make pasta or pancakes or something else easy that I know the kids will eat without question.)

It's 10:00 and I'm bored and lonely.  The kids are sleeping (thank God) and I'm not tired enough to go to bed and actually fall asleep.  Yes, I know I'm whining and that many people have it worse than me, but this is my blog and I'll whine if I want to.

Tomorrow we're babysitting my brother's daughter, who gets along great with J and R, so that will be fun.  Hopefully she tires them out and they go to bed early tomorrow!  Wishful thinking, right?

As long as I remember, I'll take the pictures for the Day in the Life Party (of which I might be the only guest???) on Wednesday. 

TTYL.

Next week I'm going to chronicle another "Day in the Life" with pictures!  Our life has changed a bit from the last time.  If you missed them, you can see one from last June here, and  January here. 

I invite you to do the same!  I'd love to see what other homeschoolers (and non-homeschoolers) do all day.  If you decide to do it, please leave a comment with your DITL blog entry on this post.  Also, put a link in your own blog back to this entry so that your readers can see all of the DITLs, and maybe (hopefully!) post one of their own.

If you don't have a blog, you can still participate!  Simply leave a link in your comment to your slideshow. 

If you need help figuring out what to do to make your own slideshow, send me an email and I'll explain it to you.  I'm not the most computer-savvy gal out there, so if I can do it, you can too!

Hope to spend a day with you soon!

We went up to Maine this weekend to visit my friend Paula and her family.  Two of her children have birthdays in August, so she has a combined party for them.  We stayed over one night, and all 6 kids got along marvelously!  There was only one non-injury incident that ended in tears, which is great for any group of kids, but especially for our group, because each of us has one child who is particularly spirited.  The birthday party went well, and the weather cooperated for most of the day.  They grow mosquitos extra big in Maine, apparently, and their bites turn into huge dime-sized welts!  J had one on his forehead and a few on the back of his neck and his legs.  I don't think that R or I got any... but we seem fairly immune to bugbites anyway. 

We contemplated spending a second night in Maine, but I decided I'd rather muddle through the drive on a Saturday afternoon than waste half of my Sunday driving, so we came home last night.  Besides, there is a children's program at the church we've been visiting on the 3rd Sunday of each month, and I knew the kids would want to go.  We did get stuck in some traffic and thunderstorms on the way home, so it took 5 hours with two extra-quick stops.  When I saw that it was close to 7:00 pm as I entered Connecticut, I had a bit of a lead foot until we got into Hartford (bleh, driving through Hartford is the worst part of the trip!).... and I made it home before dark.

At 6:00 or so this morning, J came into my room and said "Mom, there's some water in the hall, should I get a towel?"  Seeing as how I was asleep, I did not consider any reasons as to why there should be water in the hallway, so I said "sure."  A few minutes later, I realized that not only had he taken the towels out of the bathroom, but was rummaging through the two baskets of clean laundry in my bedroom to look for more towels.  I asked what he was doing, and he said "it's a lot of water." 

Sure enough, the carpet was under a half-inch of water.  The kitchen was surprisingly dry (as was the ceiling), and at first I could not figure out where it was coming from, so I woke up Dad.  He immediately checked the utility room, and sure enough, one of the water heaters was dripping water.  Since he went to bed around 1:00 am, it had emptied itself of its contents within the past 5 hours, all over the back entry of the house (linoleum) and seeped through into the hallway and part of the living room! 

So, long story short, it's now 8:45 and the water to the house has been shut off.  The hallway was shop-vacced (it didn't do a bad job), the plumber is on his way, and it looks like we're going to be missing church in 2 hours, since none of us has showered.  Oh well, the kids are spending some quality time with Dad playing with the new XBox 360 (see what happens when I go out of town for a day??), and we have an excuse to just lounge around all morning (though I admit I wish I were just waking up!).

Have a great Sunday!

R is learning to read!  It's so exciting for her and for me when she sounds out "see.  me.  sat.  rat.  sam.  ram."  Yay!  Of course I remember the same feeling with Justin.  It's wonderful to watch your child learn to read... as great as watching them learn to walk! 

Tonight I got a bit of a break, and I went to the library alone.  Yes, I think that this was the highlight of my day, LOL.  We also went to the last free movie of the summer, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, which is a VeggieTales movie.  It was actually a secular movie, which surprised me.  I thought the moral would be that God gives you what you need in any situation, but it wasn't, really... it was that the king gave the "heroes" what they needed... real, tangible items.  (For those who don't know, VeggieTales are Christian cartoons, and are Bible based... at least, most of the time!)

We're getting together with some friends tomorrow.  I'm not sure what we're doing Thursday, but we're leaving Friday morning for Maine (we'll be home Saturday evening), so that will be fun.  If I do'nt update before then, have a great weekend!

Today was a beautiful Sunday!  It was cool, not humid, and just a few clouds were in the sky this morning.  We decided to try again to go to the Bronx Zoo.

It wasn't too crowded, and it wasn't too hot.  We had a great time!   But you don't want to hear all that, you want to see pictures, I know.

Here are the kids leaning over a rail looking at turtles:

And here they are learning about what birds eat.  The glass jars show what different birds eat in a week... owls eat the mice, robins the worms, seagulls eat the fish, and I forgot what was in the second jar and who ate it.

Here are the kids on the bug carousel (J is on a praying mantis and R is on a ladybug):

They both fell asleep on the ride home, so I'd say the day was a success!

First, I just posted some pictures and then I read an article that I wanted to post, so scroll down to see the entry directly below this one.

Go ahead, I'll wait.

You probably already know that a California court ruled that homeschooling was not quite legal in that state.  Well, there has been a victory for homeschoolers!  If you don't want to click on my link and only want the bare-bones update:

In a unanimous decision, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District today ruled that “California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education.”

Today’s decision stands in stark contrast to the opinion this same three-judge panel issued in February, which would have made California the only state in the union to outlaw home education had it remained in effect.

“It is unusual for an appellate court to grant a petition for rehearing as this court did in March,” said HSLDA Chairman Mike Farris, “but it is truly remarkable for a court to completely reverse its own earlier opinion. We thank you for your prayers and give God the glory for this great victory.”

Yay!  I'm sure the California homeschoolers are relieved at this turn of events, as are homeschoolers in the other states!

Today my mom took us shopping for Back-to-Homeschool clothes for the kids.  They had a great time.  R especially was thrilled to get new clothes, and had to put on a lengthy fashion show once we got home.  She got some polka-dot sneakers that she was refusing to take off, but I managed to convince her that they don't go with her Dora-and-stars pajamas.   J's favorite item is his new camouflage pants.  He has been obsessed with all things camo since he was about 4, and before today he had no camo pants that fit him. 

My camera's batteries are still not charged, so I have no pics of my models on the runway.  We did, however, meet up with my brother and his family while dropping off my mom at her house, so here are some pictures of my kids and their cousins in my parents' front yard that my brother took:

I'm not sure what we're doing with the rest of our weekend... we might try to go to the Bronx Zoo again tomorrow.

TTYL!

Today I have two guest writers on my blog.  See if you can guess who they are:

I like to paint.  How do they make paints?  What are they made out of?  My favorite colors are red and blue and green and yellow and pink and black.  That's it.  I like to paint pictures of ponies, unihorses, people, and actually nothing else.  I like to use the paints what come in a bottle and what squeeze out.  This is the end.  That was a lot of words.  That's it.

How do they make Transformers?  I like playing with Transformers.  I wonder when I'm going to get Starscream.  Transformers are my favorite toys in the whole world.  I like the movies, too.  I wonder when the movie number two is going to come out.  What else is there to say?  Transformers can fly.  They fight the whole time.  Megatron was an autobot until he turned into a decepticon, and a couple of other ones into decepticons.  Megatron was the evilest decepticon ever.  He transforms into a gun.  But now, he transforms into this big giant flying robot thing.  Transformers run and then they start shooting.  That's it.

Well, to be consistent, I'll just end with That's it.

Some of my friends on an online board that I'm on are taking photos of their homes and posting them on their blogs.  I wanted to jump on that bandwagon (what can I say?  I'm a joiner.), but alas, the batteries in my camera only had enough juice for one picture.  So without further ado, here is our kitchen:

(We do actually have four chairs at the table normally, but the missing chair was (well, still is!) in my bedroom at the computer.)  (Also, there are usually blue seat cushions on the chairs, but they are sitting on top of the dryer, covered in dryer dust.  I washed them and dried them, and have not yet bought one of those little lint brushes to brush the lint off.  So we are all forced to sit on cushionless chairs.)

Please note the bowl on the counter to the far right.  It is full of things that need to be returned to other people.  If you are missing a New York Giants hat that mysteriously appeared at my mother-in-law's house after a 4th of July cookout, please remind me to give it to you next time I see you.  Also, a certain three-year-old needs to come retrieve her pink purse before R confiscates it from the bowl and adopts it as her own.  Mom, that book on the table is the one you sent, thanks! 

Happy Wednesday!

Or, Today Was the First Day of School! 

We got everything on my list done in less time than I'd allotted, so I'm happy.  We had ice cream cones after lunch, so the kids are happy.

This afternoon we're going to go to the library, and I think we have plans every day this week!

I guess that's all I really have to say about that, LOL. 

Happy Monday!

Today started off fairly promising.  Dad was finally able to take a few hours to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and take a test to get his CDL license, which he needs for work.  (He passed, by the way.)

When he came home, it was a little overcast, and aol weather said that there would be scattered thunderstorms.  We decided that scattered thunderstorms or not, we were going to take advantage of the cool weather and go to the Bronx Zoo.

We got everyone packed up, lunch made, and started a DVD in the car (always a big hit because they're only rarely allowed to watch movies while we drive).  We drove for about 45 minutes before hitting a huge thunderstorm.  Suddenly, the Bronx Zoo did not seem terribly appealing, so we got off the exit for the Maritime Center, which is a large aquarium.

After navigating through all 5 levels of the parking garage and not seeing any parking spots, we decided that perhaps a rainy Saturday was not the optimal time to visit the sharks and turtles.  By this time, the rain had ended, so we thought we could try heading out towards the Bronx again. 

Within 15 minutes, the sky was a grayish green and the rain was coming down sideways.  I called the zoo, and the woman I spoke to told me that the sky was black and it looked like rain. 

We ended up getting off the highway so we could go to the bathroom, and we also stopped at a Lindt store and bought some chocolates.

Then we drove back towards home and went grocery shopping.  When we were done, the sun was shining brightly.   

Anyway, we went home and put away groceries, I cleaned out the fridge (we had no clean tupperware, so I knew it was time), and Dad and the kids watched Ant Bully.  Granted, we could have done all that without driving 90 miles round-trip, but at least we got some chocolate out of the deal! 

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!