Please tell me you know my beloved childhood companions, Buffy and Jody. Oh, I so, so loved them, even more than I loved Eddie's father (and Eddie, secondarily) on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Except for the sadness of Buffy, Jody, and Cissy being orphans, their life was so fabulous in that high-rise in NYC. Come to think of it, didn't Eddie and his father live in a high-rise, too? And what exactly is a high-rise, anyway? Are we talking skyscrapers here or just tall apartment complexes? It all seemed logical back then, even though I personally lived in a house with a big front porch on a shady street, more like Ramona.
Anyway, while I was reading Om-Kas-Toe, the Blackfeet boy, to Laurel and Duncan today, Laurel got out her paper dolls. I loved paper dolls as a girl. I played with them as much as I played with Barbies and baby dolls, so pretty much I spent my whole childhood playing with some kind of doll. Laurel has all of my paper dolls and a few of her own. I love to watch her play with my paper dolls, mostly because I remember each and every outfit so perfectly. But for some reason I've never given her my box with Buffy and Jody and their marvelous wardrobe. These were my absolute favorite paper dolls and the only ones to which I still have the box. They must be worth at least $600, 000, even if Buffy is missing a hand. I think this makes her even more precious.
Just look at these two. Are their outfits not amazing?
And if that's not enough, here's 2-minute clip of the fabulous Family Affair:
I could watch them all day. Oh, but I have my own kids to watch! And I'm getting to them and dinner and all that kind of thing in a minute, but first, a "where are they now" on Buffy and Jody: in case you somehow missed this in the 80s, Buffy died of a drug overdose. Sigh. But Jody is still acting and, appropriately, speaking out against drug abuse. Oh, and there are plenty more episode clips over on YouTube.
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* CurrClick.com is running a Mother's Day Special until May 14. They have 21 free e-books to download! I'm downloading "Successfully Homeschooling the High School Student," "Main Ideas and Details," a solar system unit study, "Fun with Gene," and a couple others.
* I've got a few photos up from the last two weeks in my Project 52 blog.
* And speaking of other blogs, I figured out how to allow anyone to comment on my new SmallWorld Reads blog, so even hoodlums like Neal and Rick can comment. So far everything I have there has been posted here, except this week's Sunday Salon posting. Having a new blog is fun! My mind feels clearer now.
* The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Mom is Teaching.
~I love the post by Janice Campbell about making connections. She says, "As you begin to plan for the next school year, remember the core curriculum, and for your children’s sake, erase the artificial boundaries that are often placed between the disciplines. Use real, living books, including classic literature, rather than dry textbooks, to bring knowledge to life. Education is far more than job training– it’s nourishment for the mind, and necessary for the whole person. Institutional education may have brushed aside those delicate webs of connection, but once you understand their power, I think you’ll be happy to preserve them."
~ Tammy at "Just Enough and Nothing More" has great advice about starting each day new: "We all want our kids to grow. And in order to do that, we have to let go of their past, and our past. We can help our children grow by restarting our homeschool everyday, and meet our kids again and again as they mature."
~Looks like there are some more great posts, but I'm out of time...
* Because we are leaving for vacation in just a couple of hours! We are headed off to Colonial Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown for a few days to top off our year of American History. I really must click into trip-activation mode!
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I've subscribed to Sunday Scribbling for months now but have never actually participated. The idea behind Sunday Scribbling (which must have originally been posted on Sunday) is "to provide inspiration and motivation for anyone who enjoys writing and would like a weekly challenge." Each week provides a different writing prompt. What comes from that prompt varies widely: poetry, essay, memory, flash fiction, slices of life, or just random thoughts.
Today's prompt: telephone.
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To talk on the phone was all there was. In a notebook, the day’s tally: Lisa (llll lllll lll), Ros (lll), Robyn (llll llll llll llll), Janet (llll), Bryan (llll llll llll ll).
“The lake is windy” meant: “”I can’t say right now; my mother is in the room.”
You could only go as far as the cord would stretch. Your fingers play with the spiral of the cord, always your index finger tucked inside, until claustrophobia presses down too heavily. (Someday in the future there will be cordless phones, then cell phones.)
“Call me.”
“Call me.”
“Call me later.”
Later.
Lisa: colostomy, this summer.
Ros: 10 years or more, no word.
Robyn: turned into a swan
Janet: sending daughter off to college
Bryan: dead, 20 years, 7 months.
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The Cates at Why Homeschool host the weekly Good News Thursday, and I have good news about things people do. So yesterday and today I've been totaling up volunteer hours for some of our American Heritage Girls who would like to receive the Presidential Service Award. Anyone with 50 hours or more of service per year is eligible for this award, so I asked girls who had more than 50 hours to send me their detailed lists. So far eleven girls have sent me their lists, and I've counted up 784 hours among those girls. I know of four more girls who are sending me between 75-150 hours each tomorrow. These girls, mostly ages 12-17, are learning the art of servant-leadership. The mission of AHG is to build women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. These girls are taking that mission seriously. And that is good news for all of us.
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The Cates at Why Homeschool started Good News Thursday a few weeks ago. As they say, "Much of the news today is depressing. Newspaper headlines tell us about awful things happening in our neighborhood, at the national level, and around the world." I notice that even homeschooling bloggers sometimes like to focus on the really bad parts of public school rather than elevating the good that's going on in the homeschooling community.
The purpose of Good News Thursday is to focus on, well, the good news. As Cate says, "This can be as local as you have planted your garden, or something earth shaking like life discovered on other planets."
Want to share something good? Check out Why Homeschool. You don't even have to do it on a Thursday.
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So today I want to report on a few students that I think are really great in our own homeschooling community. We've had a string of pretty big honors bestowed upon some of our support group's students. Several of our members participated in or were honored at Tennessee Home Education Association’s (THEA) annual Capitol Hill Rally and Reception Day in Nashville. Christopher Goggans was presented at Rally Day with an Outstanding Student of the Year Award. Tyler Walker and Ryan Smith were chosen to play in the 2008 Honor Band. Both are members of the Knoxville Christian Youth Band.
Earlier this spring, Jonathan Walker, who is a member of the 4-H Homespun Kids group, was selected, based on his award-winning essay, to serve as a senator from Blount County at the Tennessee State 4-H Congress in Nashville. And for the first time in our support group's history, we have a member who was accepted in our local youth leadership group, Youth Leadership Blount. Jonathan Walker was also chose for this spectacular honor.
So, yes. Good things are happening. Got any good to elevate?
And I'll end with this. Wow.
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* I've got my Project 52 up here. This has been a birthday week: Jesse turned 15, and Abigail Rhapsody (yes, you're reading that right) was born to my niece, Esther.
* When I have tons of work to do and think I'm about to crack, I have a tendency to do completely ridiculous things like pick flowers and decorate. I think Heidi will be proud of me for this one:
* My mind is so cluttered because I've had so much on the docket. Saturday we had our annual Homeschooling 101, which has become my baby these past couple of years. And tomorrow Caroline and I are leaving for Cincinnati for the American Heritage Girls Leadership Conference. We are co-presenting two workshops and have had a flurry of outlines and handouts to prepare for that. I am very much looking forward to this conference, but it does take a lot of preparation. I've had to get all my lesson plans done for Monday's co-op classes, as we won't return until Sunday evening. How in the world will I manage for four whole days without blogging?
* While I'm gone, be sure to find a poem for my In just-Spring Mudluscious Poetry Contest!
* I'm bummed that I haven't had time to participate in the Home Education Week at Principled Discovery. Be sure to visit there for lots of great reading material, or write a post and contribute. And for even more reading material, the latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Why Homeschool.
If I don't get a chance to
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* I made The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever for our parenting class last night, and I was right: it is truly unbelievable. I had two pieces. Isn't that revolting? I ate two (2) entire pieces of chocolate cake. I was absolutely correct about the dangers of making this cake.
* Speaking of parenting class, I haven't yet absorbed this yet, but we are done! For six months--since the first week of September!--Dr. H. and I have been facilitating a 2-hour parenting class at our church. Last night was our very last class! I can't even imagine yet what it means to have Wednesday evenings free again, if even just for awhile until something else comes along.
* My Project 52 is up. I'm feeling the itch to dig in the dirt.
* One Child Policy Homeschool shared this fantastic site today: Lapbook Lessons. This is especially timely because our support group is having a lapbooking roundtable on Monday, and I'm compiling a list of resources. I am not a lapbooking expert by any form or fashion (we've completely exactly two), but I'm hoping that we can all learn from each other.
* Happy Birthday today to my wonderful, amazing, fabulous friend Sheila. I simply cannot imagine my life without her.
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What is going through everyone's mind on this day? My oldest brother, James, looks cool and composed behind my grandmother, but he was about to move across the country just a month before his senior year of high school. By all reports, he was not happy. John and Peter, at 10 and nearly 14, look as if they are ready for adventure. Stephen, at 3, was squirming as always. And my grandmother is holding me, not quite 18 months old.
I know what my grandparents were thinking: do you have to take them away from us? They had to have been thinking that. When Stephen was born, my grandfather is quoted as saying, "There's nothing in this world but tow-headed boys." I don't know that I've ever heard what he said when I was born.
In my childhood there were two completely separate places: there was New York--my home--and there was Southern Illinois, the home of the rest of my family. This, then, is clear evidence that I was part of that midwestern world, even if for a short time. My grandfather may have held me over his shoulder and smoothed back my hair. I may have teethed on my grandmother's pearls.
I think my time with them was too short.
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* Today is one of those fabulous days when everyone in my house deserves a button that says, "Plays well with others."
* Better late than never: here's last week of my Project 52.
* I haven't had time yet to read this week's Carnival of Homeschooling, but it's up here at Palm Tree Pundit.
* I love what Timothy Power has to say about "that case" at Sometimes I'm Actually Coherent. His calm and rational reasoning is well worth reading.
* Tonight is our annual Mother/Daughter Sleepover for our American Heritage Girls troop. I love this night. I understand that is somewhat warped, that I should be dramatic and say, "Pray for me!" with a grimace and roll of the eyes; but honestly, I love a good slumber party. How often do moms get to spend the night with their girlfriends, talking for hours on end? Of course I'll be tired and maybe somewhat grumpy tomorrow, but that's pretty much how I always am anyway.
* I'm going to have another contest here soon. This one is going to be about cooking...
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I have about a zillion things to blog about (or rather, "about which to blog" but whatever). But oh, man. Mondays so totally wipe me out. I am pretty sure that a Monday never goes by that I am not tremendously, absurdly, completely grateful that Mondays do not represent my life.
On Mondays we have to be out of the house by 9:15 a.m. OK, we really should be out of the house by 9:10 a.m., but no one is going to fire us or put us in detention if we are a few minutes tardy.
We go to our enrichment classes (AKA, co-op) until about 2 p.m. I load up my entourage (I usually accumulate three extra children at this point) and am home by 2:30. At 3:15 we have to head back into town to drop off an extra child at dance. We then spend an hour at the library, until it's time to take Laurel to Show Choir. Duncan and I head back home, fix supper, eat supper, and then I head back out to pick Laurel up at 6:30. On many evenings, Jesse has an activity at 7 p.m., from which we would have to pick him up at 9 p.m.
By 9:30 p.m., I am a zombie with outstretched arms and bloodshot eyes. OK, I'm really a zombie by 2:15 p.m., but I have to keep going.
And that's when I get the energy to keep going, because invariably I realize: I only have to do this once a week. Millions of families do this and much more every single day. Millions of women get their kids out the door an hour or two before we leave, get themselves to work, get home at 6 p.m. or later, shuttle the kids here and there--every single day.
I am a total crybaby wimp. But a very, very thankful one. To have this life of freedom--this luxury of relative relaxation and flexibility--is an amazing gift. How can I possibly grumble, how can I possibly complain, when each moment is a living, breathing testimony to this joyful journey? In His infinite wisdom, God knew what life I needed, and for that I can only clasp my hands together and marvel that I should be so blessed.
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