Amy made my heart glad today with this remark, "Boy, I'm happy I don't have to go to school!"  It's the kind of remark that encourages an insecure homeschooling mother to just keep plugging along. 

The girls have been wanting to play tennis for some long while.  Upon hearing of this the other night, a friend from church generously loaned us a couple of rackets and a can of balls. He said, "Just go to the fire station and ask the fire chief for the key to the tennis courts.  I do it all the time."  Just to be sure we weren't going to be chasing a wild goose, I called the fire station this morning.  I had four girls all dressed for the courts and ready to go.  "No... we haven't had the keys for the tennis courts for three years.  You'll have to call the high school."  Aha!  Just as I suspected!  A goose was loose.

After learning that I would have to bravely send my girls on to the high school campus, I gave them $5 for a key deposit plus a walkie-talkie.  In fifteen minutes my radio bleeped.   I could hear a bit of resentment in my daughter's voice.  They needed to have an adult signature. Why don't adults trust kids?   I had to brush my teeth and make my hair look presentable, but my girls waited patiently.  Borrowing my daughter's bike I pedaled three or four blocks to the high school.

No one accosted us when we entered the gate, but the girls had been questioned the first time they went in.  "Do you have ID?  What are you doing here?"  As if they look dangerous.  But I can understand the school having security.  They might have weirdos off the street, four little Baptist girls in skirts, for example, come in shooting or something.  Scary.  Funny thing is, to me it looked a lot scarier on the inside that it does on the outside!

We made our way to the administrative office building and down the hall to the bookstore.  We could feel eyes turning to stare from all directions. Frankly I was happy to be an unusual attraction -- a  happy mother with orderly children, none of whom were dressed like street-walkers in training.  I signed for the tennis court key. 

As we exited the building we met the one teacher we know there, and we stopped to chat for a minute.  He's a good man trying to make a difference in this place. Truly, it's a mission field. His family homeschools, too. 

Going around the outside corner of the building I was thinking maybe we could get off the campus through a back gate and avoid walking all the way around.  I noticed a security guard leaving the building right behind us, and observant woman that I am, I did not notice until I had asked him for directions, that he was actually a police officer, and in front of him was a male student in handcuffs! 

On our way to the rear gate, which we found locked, one of the younger girls excitedly pointed out the little playground equipment, and commented that she didn't know high schools had playgrounds.  I explained that that was play stuff for the school's day care... 

Finally making our way back to the front gate, Alison said, "I don't like the way these kids look at me.  They probably think I don't know anything!"  I told her they probably know a lot of things she doesn't know, and to be glad for that! 

And after all that, the tennis courts were full.  But it wasn't a wasted trip.  We now have a key.  We learned first hand that school is like prison.  And I now have four kids who are glad to be homeschooling.

It's that time again!  Past that time.  If I don't hurry up and post this it will be the November month in review post.  Looking back through my photos, I can't believe October went so fast.  We had a fun and busy month with twelve days of special company -- there went almost half the month! 

We are well into school for the year, but we about to make a curriculum change in math.  I do love Teaching Textbooks, but I have at least two children who would benefit greatly from some Charlotte Mason-type learning.  I am having a hard time breaking out of my box, but thanks to my dear friend, PlainJane, we are getting some very practical math and taking a break from TT for a bit.  Introducing Your Business Math Series.  Amy and Elisabeth will be bookstore and pet store owners, respectively.  They will be responsible for ordering stock, selling product, recording sales and figuring sales tax, and calculating their monthly profit.  But first things first!  Each girl will have to come up with a name  and a logo for her business!  They are going to love this, and I think I will, too. (Please, God, let us have only happy faces at math time from now on!)    But wait, that is what is going to be happening THIS month.  Back up!

October started with lots of creative play. I love this stuff!  Elisabeth contructed a covered wagon and roped a horse to pull it.

On a whim I stopped at the Salvation Army to find a pair of kids' boots.  No cowboy boots, but look what they did have, in unopened boxes:

This was such a fun find, because while some people are always in the right place at the right time, I am almost never in the right place at the right time. I'm in church at the right time, of course, which is the right place to be at church time.  But I rarely get in on a deal.  This time I did, and I am thanking the Lord.  For a song, we are now the happy owners of a Lego train station, cavalry soldiers, bandits, horses, garbage truck, and even a bicyclist -- that one's for Daddy, you know -- and lots of extras!  There you have it.  That's what the little girls have been busy with the entire month.

In the few moments when no one was Lego-ing, we had a couple of birthdays...

Some of you dear friends are dying to know how my couponing is going.  Well, it isn't.  But that doesn't mean we haven't been talking about it around here.  For evidence, I submit Amy's school assignment for today, in which she was to write a paragraph using five of her vocabulary words:

Well done.  She went above and beyond the call of duty and used eleven of her words. 

I am not doing as well.  I can't get the hang of the schedule.  Grocery ads out on Wednesdays, drug store ads out on Saturdays, right? No. Wait. That would be Sundays.  Before I get my act together the next ad is out. And all those expiry dates. I have a hard enough time getting my church letter out on time once every other month! 

A friend sent me this link today. This one.  Some smart woman back east only buys what she can get for free or near free.  She spends, on average, $4 a week on groceries for her family of six. !!! We have six.  How does she do this?  How does she get anything free, coupons or no?  Say you have a coupon for 25¢ off spaghetti.  Even on triple coupon day that spaghetti is still going to cost about 25¢.  The manufacturers of the cheapo brands don't print coupons, and the way normal people (that's me -- I'm normal, right?) use coupons, it is cheaper to buy the off brand with NO coupon than it is to buy the name brand with.  I don't get it. 

And THEN, this woman has a members-only website where you can see all the deals, plus a forum with more deals.  It's only $1 a year, but how much money do you think she makes in one year just from this?  She's an enterprising soul.  Why didn't I think of that?  I'll tell you why.  It's because the inside of my brain looks like this:


Honest.

...Most of the items on sale at CVS/Walgreens/RiteAid/Target are things I never buy.  Guess if I figured out how to get it for free, I'd buy it.  Okay, I'm not a complete dummy.  I did okay in college, and I did pretty well in math.  Maybe I'm only text-book smart, and not real life smart.  Is that it?  Don't answer that. Maybe I'm not even textbook smart anymore.

I never used to care much about coupons.  I thought they were kind of a bother, and not worth the trouble. But lately I have been praying for a way to add to the household income without leaving the house. Is the Lord showing me that the answer is not to get more, but to spend less?  I can go for that if he'll fix my wiring.

Maybe I need to start a local couponing club.  Anyone interested?  We could help each other figure this thing out.  Come on, friends, move on out here to the desert where it's nice and warm all winter, and we'll all get rich on couponing. Merlynn Randall, you are appointed president of our new club. We'll call it Cactus Clippers, or something like that.   (Help.)