• Dec. 9, 2009 - Dreidel Game Symbols

I added these dreidel symbols to the "Celebrating Hanukkah" post below! Take a look, give it a try and have fun! My children love it when I buy the chocolate coin candies for this game!

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• Dec. 9, 2009 - Shalom

In Hebrew each letter is a word picture. Shalom means so much more than peace.  Sheen teeth, destroy  Lamed staff, authority Vav hook, nail, establish Mem water, chaos  Put it all together: Destroy the authority that establishes chaos! This is why I often say Shalom instead of OR in additon to saying the word PEACE!

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• Dec. 8, 2009 - Home Spun strip #422

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• Dec. 8, 2009 - Another reason why to homeschool

• Dec. 7, 2009 - A Blast from the Past

In my effort to find things to blog about, I decided to dig out this old picture of me. I'm 7 years old and my sister and I were part of the Wilson High School Christmas program in 1960. My dad taught math at the new Tacoma high school and was also senior class adviser. I guess they needed a couple of little kids to be in the manger scene. My sister Alana was an angel and I was Mary. I just had to sit real still in a prayerful pose all during the program, which consisted of a REAL Christmas program with REAL Christmas carols and blatant real meaning of Christmas! It's real scary to see how quickly things have changed.

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• Dec. 6, 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...

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• Dec. 6, 2009 - Home Spun strip #421

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• Dec. 5, 2009 - I've been playing . . .

Two days in a row of blogging. I must be on a roll. I heard (sadly) that Mary's S&T is no more. It was my favorite day of the week not that many months ago. But life and other commitments put blogging on the WAY back burner. (You have no idea what being an author in the 21st century is like. I think I do about 90% marketing (getting the word out) and about 10% writing. I found this very fun place where you can design ANYTHING to go on T-shirts, buttons, stickers, cards, hats, and so on. It's Zazzle.com So I played around and made these buttons. What they are good for, I haven't yet figured out. But I might give some away as time goes by. We shall see. Anyway, I thought I'd show the button off:

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• Dec. 4, 2009 - No excuse

There's no excuse for my absence from HSB, but a quick "Hi, how are you?" comment from Jenn really got me thinking. How hard is it to say a few words and keep in touch with dear sisters I've met and grown to love the past two years I've been on HSB? Mary's S&T was one of my first "howdies" and I was so clueless! She really helped me feel part of the homeschool blogging group, and from there . . .  well, take a look at my friends list . . . I've made some good friends who seem like they've moved away. But really, it's I who has moved away! I'm on Facebook, but honestly! I didn't even know what it was until a "fan" set up some kind of "group page" over there. I looked at it and said, "O . . K . . . so what's this for?" Then, when my publicist set up a "Fan Page" for me on Facebook, I felt compelled to at least explore what this FB stuff was all about. Honestly, I do like it, although it's not the same as blogging. But your friends are all in one place and every time you write something they can all see it, rather than surfing and looking for your friends' blogs. But FB lacks the "closeness" that HSB gives, I admit. And I have a hard time coming up with things to say over there. I thought I'd have a hard time finding things to say for THIS entry, but I guess it's all coming back. I hopefully will even do a Show and Tell tomorrow!

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• Dec. 3, 2009 - Movies for Your Holidays