Nov. 9, 2009 - "Mom, You're Just Not a Gadget Gal"

     A few months ago, my son intently looked at me and seriously said, "Mom, you're just not a gadget gal."  With my husband's retirement from the USAF and a move from San Antonio, Texas (where I lived most of my life) to the Washington DC area brought about sudden crash courses in my learning how to use....

....a lap top  where the keys must be spaced differently from what I was used to. My fingers usually fly when I type and I rarely made mistakes until I used the lap top. Now I was making nothing but mistakes.  I was making a gazillion typos, bringing up other web pages, and closing down my page by the mere attempts of striking the keys. Then there was a "ghost" feature that mysteriously appeared while I was typing.  I accidentally found a setting to get rid of that ghost and my fingers have finally learned to fly on a lap top!  

...a cell phone which I rarely used in San Antonio. With the move across country I finally learned how to plug in phone numbers so that I could keep in touch with my parents, our real estate agents in San Antonio and Virginia, etc, etc, etc. Then we moved into our house and my phone basically sits in my purse. When a friend of my son's came over, I had to ask the boys how to put in the phone number for the friend's mom.  What can I say...I forget things I don't use all the time.

...a GPS, which I've dubbed Lee because describing him takes a lot of adverbs while we are on the go.  He likes to drive us through downtown Washington DC.  However I've learned to reroute him so he will take me out and about via easier routes. Interesting-lee, he gets lost once we reach our own neighborhood. I'm glad I have that much of the area figured out!  

...television cable which in Northern Virginia apparently requires numerous mega monster electrical cables and three remote controls. That's crazy!  I still haven't figured out how to use the VCR or DVD or any other doo-dad on the machine. My husband says I'll never figure it out.  Hmmmm, that sounds like a challenge.  

... the telephone answering machine which is now more complicated than a simple push of the button.

...learning a new phone number took me months. Numbers aren't as friendly to me as letters.  I tried to give someone my phone number the other day. He thought he remembered the prefix, which was wrong, but since he put the wrong number in my head, for the life of me I could not remember the correct number.  

...the clock on my nightstand is beyond comprehension. I purchased it when we moved into this house because my husband gets up at 4:30am to get ready to arrive at work by 6am.  4:30am is too early for me!  I want to wake up at 6am.  However I couldn't figure out how to set the alarm, so my son set it up for me.   Now my husband turns my alarm off on Friday nights and sets it up again on Sunday night.

...and now a new sewing machine which the moving company recently paid for! I have been busily sewing window treatments, Year 4 Unit 1 costumes, and researching and gathering supplies for new colonial costumes. I want to make my daugter's dress more historic. My son wants me to make a warmer and more accurate Lafayette costume for winter and a gentry outfit for summer.  I've not had much time for sewing, due to lesson planning and studying. We've also been sight seeing, either at historic places or at Lowes, my husband's favorite store. When he runs out of projects, he takes me shopping. I can't complain.  I'm thankful my husband is perking up the house. Alas, my sewing sits on the table during the hours we are at Lowes. The few times I get to sew, I optimistically think I'm going to be extremely productive, but something always happens. 

     I've been sewing on a piece of silk and the tension has been too tight. I thought it was due to the flimsy fabric. Tonight I finally took a look at how to fix that. I'm not great at figuring out tension. Remember I'm not a gadget gal. It appeared that the top tension was too tight, so I decreased the tension but it didn't make any difference, not even at a 1. I tried a piece of cotton and had the same problem. Oh dear, my new machine is broken. I resorted to my old machine which is broken from the move, but at least the tension still works. As I sewed on my silk, the tension problem kept nagging me. I finally sat at the computer to do some googling.

     Specifically I googled, "Pfaff Expression 2.0 tension". Oh, no.  I found a lot of comments about the exact same problem I had experienced. They users all sold their Pfaffs and purchased other machines.  I felt awful. I looked through my google search and found another forum (not Pfaff), where the thread was about the Pfaff Expression and opinions of it. Everyone loved it! One lady had a thread gunking problem. She took her machine to the Pfaff dealer and found out she was doing two things wrong.  One, she was threading her machine with the presser foot down.  Hmmm, I thread the machine with the presser foot up, so that's not the problem.  Second, when she inserted the bobbin, she didn't listen for the click when she moved the thread around to different parts of the chamber. Hmmmm, this could be my problem. I've always suspected that I was not putting in the bobbin correctly. The thread was always flowing too freely from the base of the machine. However the insertion method is completely different from any I have worked with and is quite intricate.  I went to the machine, took out the bobbin, moved the thead around the different parts of the chamber until I heard the click. "Click!" Do you know how wonderful that sound is????? I've never heard that before!  I finished threading, replaced the cover, and started sewing. Eureka!  The seam was gorgeous!!!!!! 

      Since Pfaff users sometimes find my blog for information, I wanted to be sure I posted this little tip. Also it will make great reference for me. Since I'm not a gadget gal, I might forget if I am ever away from sewing for months at a time!

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November 8, 2009 - Birthday

My littlest girl and my step-daughter happen to have the same birthday. It's so much fun to celebrate two birthdays on one day. It makes it a little more like Christmas because it's not all about one child. Our girls are so cute about wanting to surprise their sisters and be involved in the party preparations. This year we started having the older ones pay for their own gift out of their piggy bank. It's a wonderful experience for them. They are really thoughtful, yet frugal in their choices. Well, here are some pictures of the celebration.

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Nov. 8, 2009 - Removing Personal Agenda from God's Plans

On last week, I spoke of being stuck in Psalm 27.   My heart and mind has been in so many places that it was, and will still be, hard to articulate.   Though I know the value of writing things down, I haven’t slowed down with my thoughts as school—both with my “big kids” and my own kids—has had me tied down most of the week.   So for today, I don’t think that my thoughts would fit neatly into the usual weekly homeschool wrap-up forum, but for the sake of writing them and later sorting through my self-created visual aid.   I promise no eloquence or tidy conclusions on this one; in fact, I predict that what will be obvious quickly is that I’ve had entirely too much time with my thoughts, which can sometimes be a bad thing.

 

With almost half a school year behind us, it’s not too early for me to begin assessing where we are, and where we might go next year.   I’ll have another year with a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary school student, so I don’t see much changing in terms of my own time commitments.   We’ve had perhaps one of our best years since we began homeschooling seven years ago, and I know this has everything to do with me being humbled enough by last year’s dreadful results to submit myself to much prayer time with the Father.    He’s answered almost all of our plans with a resounding YES!—history/literature, as we teach it here, is seemingly leaping off the page (in spite of the fact that Mom’s ready to check the Iliad off our reading list—only 300 more pages to go!!  LOL), everybody is using the math resources effectively, and we’re in that sweet spot where everyone is learning from everyone else and everything.   As one example, our son has hit a point in his land animal studies that he’s supposedly focusing on spiders.   I say “supposedly” because spiders repulse him.   So I struggle getting him to look at the pages and grasp the concepts.   Almost as if God-sent, his little sister is reading Charlotte’s Web, so guess where he’s learning about the strength of drag lines, the process of egg sac production, etc.?   The coordination of these units was not my planning at all, but everyone is benefiting from keeping their ears glued to what’s happening around them.   Even the oldest is a step ahead in biology as she covers reptiles after interacting—from a safe distance—with Spot, our leopard gecko.

 

I’ve not been one to try and fix what’s not broken, so we’ll continue the same path on next year, for the most part.   I’ll add grammar via English for the Thoughtful Child, to the youngest’s plate.  I wanted to begin this year, but didn’t feel that she was ready for a larger amount of lessons than I remember requiring her to write.   I may place our son on a local homeschool debate group to help him use his propensity to argue effectively.     Because my understanding is that debate requires a lot of research and writing, it would probably replace studying history.   I’m still thinking about reading lists for both he and the oldest, which is, in part, food for thought regarding my current dilemma.

 

I am convinced that as homeschooling parents, we teach according to who we are.   Our passions become the areas that we teach best, and the place where we bring the most to the classroom experience.   The corollary is that there are other areas that we either don’t like or don’t understand (like poetry for me) that become hits and misses—perhaps less hits and more misses—in our school.  Incidentally, I think that traditional school teachers do the same thing, but at older ages, they don’t cover the full gamut of subjects the way that many of us do, so the results might not be as recognizable.   Because of this factor, we have to stay before the Lord regarding agenda.   What do I mean by agenda?    I mean those plans that have more to do with you, or other factors not germane to academic wisdom.    One example might be when you’re determined to prove to the in-laws that homeschooling is a valid alternative to a traditional school, and so you overwhelm a small one to create a “genius” who can parrot information, but has limited knowledge and understanding.     It might not be where you are, but I have had two years—this year and last year—of revelations.   This is after a whole-hearted desire to subjugate academic wisdom to spiritual wisdom.   How humble do I need to be, Lord?    I could detail all the places where my own borderline obsession with producing intellectuals got in the way, as well as all the consequential moments that I could have spent gingerly teaching and encouraging instead of panicking and frowning.   But I won’t.   I’ll speak instead about where we are now.   In the midst of a great year, as I mentioned before, is a high school science class that I don’t think is working.    I mentioned that she didn’t perform well on the first test.    The second was better, and her score was actually above the class average.   Her third test is this week, and she claims to be ready for it. But for a number of reasons that aren’t entirely her fault, this class has become her life.   The pursuit of a good grade means that she is having to study every day for several hours a day and doesn’t get to do hardly anything else.    That was not the plan.    I placed her in a virtual class in part to nurture a budding interest in a science career, and the amount of material thrown at her each week has all but squelched any affection for this subject area.   As I contemplated options over this past week, I had to come face-to-face, yet again, with agenda.    In the midst of our horrendous year last year, I bought into this class in order to give the oldest a peek into how a teacher would treat her that didn’t love her enough to put up with all the crap I did.   I thought it’d be one less thing on my plate.    Instead, I’m having to spend as much time with her on this, if not more, than I did before, and now we’re both dancing to the beat of someone else’s drum.   Spanking received, Lord.   I’ve considered just cutting our losses and going back to our Apologia studies, and I’ve still not shut the door totally on that option.   Yet, my husband, yin to my yang, verbalized the same concern regarding wasting money, which, with the year we’ve had, is almost unthinkable.    I’m more concerned at this point about what messages we’d teach regarding quitting every time something isn’t as we desire.   I’m also sorting through whether there’s another issue with me and agenda:  Do I struggle with releasing some control?   The high school years, at least if your kid plans to leave home, require that you begin to let go.   Am I ready for that?   I talked ad nauseum to her on last year about the calendar spinning on how many days she’d be “safe at home with Mommy” (inclusive of being able to push Mommy’s buttons, knowing just how much or how little to accomplish for Mommy not to fuss).   Maybe she’s not the only one who’s struggling with someone else in the driver’s seat?     Anyway, as I said, the reason this class has had mixed results as far as I’m concerned are multi-faceted.    So as I wait on answers that are beyond yes or no—answers that reveal God’s greater truths and more perfect plans for all of us—I am meditating on these words:

 

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek [4] my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.” [5]
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path…

13 I believe [6] that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, November 7, 2009 - Party Post III: The Grand Event

 

Kaira was a very excited princess when the big day finally arrived.  We were were joined by Lady Beverly, Sir Richard, the Bowman James, Lady Lorelle, the beautiful princess Kaitlyn, and the delightful jester Sirhc!  The games were underway when the Royal executioner showed up, escorting a servant girl he had found fleeing the Manor of Lord S and Lady K. 

The servant girl threw herself to the ground and begged the princess for mercy, and the executioner inquired what should be done with the servant, who was no doubt an accomplice in helping the Lord and Lady escape.  Kaira looked upon the groveling servant girl in mercy and answered the executioner emphatically, "Let her have fun!" 

And so, have fun we did.  The games included a quest for the grail, tests of archery, musical chairs, and tiara and shield making.  James the Bowman provided a demonstration of his skill, putting arrows through our bales with such force that we found broken shafts the next day!  The Lady Lorelle even brought along her pet draglet, whom Kaira took to immediately. 

Kaira's cousins attempted to present her with her very own prince, (who had journeyed all the way from Prague) but alas, her mischievous cousin, the wee jester Sirhc had enchanted the poor fellow and turned the Prague Prince into a Frog Prince.  The counter enchantment required she recite "Prairie Frog Fairy Prince" seven times in succession before kissing him three times.  (Seven plus three adding up to ten--her age, of course!)  Poor Kaira failed to recite it properly each time, and he remained amphibious.  Fortunately the fellow seems content to remain a pet.  (She's too young for a real prince anyway, so I'm secretly relieved.)

"Kenneth O'Laughlan" read the Fools Prayer, and the wee jester Sirhc did a Sirhcus act for us!  We feasted on shish kabob and raspberry cream filled cake. 

I should have required a few guests stand still for a quick photo op.  I didn't manage to capture my niece and nephew's beautiful costumes as fully as I'd like, and somehow the Lady Beverly managed to avoid the camera lens.  I also neglected to capture my own wee knights, Sir Keegan and Sir Kieran before they shed their armor.  (And, I was behind the camera instead of in front of it.  Which is all very good and well.)

A good time was had by all!  Huzzah!

 

 

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Saturday, November 7, 2009 - Party Post II: Attendants Respond

After mailing out the invitations, Kaira was delighted to see her courtiers respond.  Here are a couple of the more interesting replies:

To the Attention of Princess Kaira,

It is my grievous duty to bring a matter of utmost importance to your attention. Reliable sources have informed me that the party invitees of (Lastname) Manor are planning to be late for the festivities. Such blatant disrespect for the royal Princess needs to be dealt with quickly and harshly to keep order in the kindgdom.  Therefore, on the appointed date, I will personally apprehend the culprits and bring them in haste for you to make a ruling on their punishment. I pray this will not cause too much disruption in the roayl festivities.

Signed in my own hand

X

His Majesty's Royal Executioner

And a little later, from her Aunt:

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Nov. 7, 2009 - Dreft, Dryers, and Daughters

My living room smells like Dreft.  My mind immediately equates the smell of Dreft with babies.  Not baby lotion, not baby powder, not any other baby detergent.  Dreft.  Dreft = babies.  I'm going to have a baby in my house very soon. 

Even stranger, there are little pink things dancing around my dryer.  Not little blue things.  Little pink things.  With ruffles and bows and flowers.  Not trucks and trains and airplanes.  Not only am I going to have a baby in my house very soon; I'm going to have a girl baby in my house very soon.

Now, you may be thinking, "DUH, Jennifer, you've known this for a while," and you'd be right.  However, there's something about doing her laundry that's making it much more real than it has felt up to this point.

I'm very happy.  Don't misunderstand me, but I'm also terrified.  

1. We're not ready.  Her room is still only primed.  We haven't gotten a lot of the stuff we need.  My bag isn't packed.  Her bag isn't packed, and the house is not baby clean.  (Check the ticker in the side bar to see why I'm freaking out about this.)

2.  I know almost nothing about little girls.  I was not typical by any stretch of the imagination, or at least, I never felt typical.  I had all brothers.  I went to a mostly male university.  I have 3 boys.  In fact, I have never had the opportunity to even observe the raising of a Christian daughter in real life.  This is scarey to me.

I've spent the last 10 years focusing on the mixed up, wrong messages that are being sent to our boys and men (ie "The problem with boys is that they aren't girls.") and trying to figure out how to counteract them, and now I'm remembering all the mixed up, wrong messages that are being sent to our girls and women (ie "Girls should grow up to be large breasted, tiny waisted, centerfolds who think and respond just like men and make lots of money," or "Girls should grow up to hate their feminity and treat men like idiots who are to blame for all the world's ills.")

AAACCKKK!  Help!  Do those of you who are raising princesses of the King have any advice? 

For now, I'm going to get those fuzzy pink things out of the dryer, fold them, and put them away in her temporary dresser.  (Her real one still needs to be painted.  Poor hubby!) 

OK, God, let's get that lamp glowing unto my feet, huh? :) I just wish it showed more than one step at a time.

Jennifer

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November 6, 2009 - Medical Day

It was a medical day today.

The Shots

I gave in and got the H1N1 vaccine for two of my daughters (my oldest and youngest) and for me, complete with Thermisol (mercury) for my older daughter and me. I have very well-managed asthma that has occasionally gone totally South on me in the past. Real misery.  30-40% reading on my peak flow meter kind of stuff. And my eight year old has CVS, which she has gotten sick before from a cold and it causes her to not be able to keep things down at all, once for almost a week. So, despite my misgivings, and outrage at them STILL putting things like Thermisol in our vaccines, I got the vaccine. My littlest daughter got the one without thermisol, but it was "unavailable" to us who are older. We even had a flu like thing come through our house, but not everyone got it and it wasn't that strong or long-lasting, so I'm figuring it wasn't H1N1.

In the end I just figured I was going to worry about which was the right decision and I'd just get the vaccine and then put the worry behind me.

Abigail was cute as can be. Kids were there screaming before they even got the shot, just in anticipation. She, at first didn't know what was going on. Then I got a shot and Natalie (8) got a shot and then I picked up Abigail (2) to hold her. What a smarty she is. I pulled her sleeve down to bare it and she immediately grabbed her upper arm muscle to cover it. So smart. We all feel alright so far.

Dentist

Jon went to the dentist. We belong to an HMO. He called for a dental cleaning and they told him it was three months or today. So, he took today. In customary fashion, nothing wrong with his teeth. I tell you, he brushes his teeth so fast and only once a day and isn't consistent about flossing. But, never any cavities or any other problems. He tells them about the difference between him and I. I don't know why Jon tells me these things, but he tells me he says they say it's just how you take care of your teeth. He tells them about how many cavities I have gotten when pregnant. They tell him that extra cavities associated with pregnancy have only to do with being distracted. You have got to be kidding??? These people just frost me! (Am I not supposed to say that on a blog?) I brush my teeth like a maniac when I'm pregnant. They tell Jon there is no nutritional basis for cavities and that teeth cannot have minerals leached from them. What are they smoking??? (Am I not supposed to say that either?) I suppose weak teeth have no possible connection with weak bones either...as in how badly I broke my wrist... Oh...my, I do need to brush my teeth like crazy. That's true. But, it is my belief that I have some genetic thing going on with both my teeth and my bones and my moods that I best do something about. The medical community can be so narrow minded sometimes. Medicine + a thoughtful (rather than bureaucratic) look at nutrition = powerful. Medicine the way it is = unhelpful.

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Friday, November 6, 2009 - Party Post Part I: The Invitations

She sent invitations: sealed in wax, and delivered by national courior:



Most PrairieFrog birthdays are quiet affairs, with just our own little family.  Every ten years, however, for the entire duration of their childhood, we'll treat each child to a party with other guests! 

This year, as Kaira celebrated the completion of her first decade,  we hosted our first such event! 

I'll confess that the date gave me pause.  Although we do give a nod to Reformation day, the 31st of October is typically just another day for us.  We don't recognize the event our neighbors celebrate, or do any "alternatives".  But, with Kaira's birthday falling on Sunday, the day prior became a perfect choice.  (I think we've celebrated Ken's birthday on that date as well--He was born on October 29th--but it was a quiet family affair.)  Hosting a costume party on the 31st was new for me!

Stay tuned, for the courtiers' responses!

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Thursday, November 5, 2009 - Double Decker Week and a Decade Declared

My blogging has been sporadic lately.  Last week consisted of beautiful snow storms that kept my sweetie home by my side.  We were delightfully derailed by family time, and I was blissfully kept from the computer by snug, homey delights!

This week another phenomenon has kept me busy.  Although we are typically home-bodies, it seems we've had more going on lately.  When extreme weather shut down the city, last week became rescheduled to this week.  This week, however insisted on continuing a forward march of its own, and the two are rather superimposed atop each other!

Busy as the week may be, an important update is in order!  After pressing "post" on this blog entry, I will make a subtle but important change to my blog sidebar.  Kaira's age requires updating!  She refused to remain a nine year old, and has now accomplished a decade!  She had lovely medieval-themed party which shall be blogged as soon as I finish sorting through pictures. 

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - Wordless Wednesday ~ Story With Grandma

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