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I don't know how I missed reading some of the great literature in high school and college. Maybe it was because I dropped out of college to marry my sweetheart? Maybe I was supposed to read them and didn't? For whatever reason, I missed out on some good reading and I have been catching up lately. I was able to read Les Miserables this past summer and Anna Karenina. And that's just as well, because I think they mean so much more to me now. My most recent classic read has been Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. WOW! This is an excellent book that delves into the psyche of a murderer. The reader gets to experience the process of thinking that leads to the murder and the mental struggles that come after, first hand. The writer had an excellent grasp on the psychology of man. As I read the book, I felt as though I commited the murder and suffered the consequences right along with the main character. I also felt the pull of redemption as Sonia, a devout Christian girl whose family situation has driven to prostitution, tells him that the only way to rid himself of the deed is to tell the authorities. The main character is haunted by his guilt, feeling that everyone suspects him until he finally deals with his heart and actions. This is one of those books not to be taken lightly. There are many very deep issues throughout. Also, since it follows the point of view of the murderer, you are often left feeling a bit insane yourself! But the truth is we are all capable of murder and if it were not for the redemption of God and his grace, where would we be? If you are looking for a good classic to read, check this one out. I'd love to discuss it with someone else who has read it!! |
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We recently discovered a new favorite Grammar add-on. We use something called “Language Practice” by Steck-Vaughn publishing for our daily work. I always felt that it was sufficient, but didn't really help the kids apply the grammar skills to their own writing. Then I was reminded by a friend of a curriculum called “Editor in Chief”. When I was first introduced to this curriculum, I wanted to use it right away, but the boys were too young. Now that they were old enough, I had forgotten it: ) I was thrilled that my friend brought this up. We went ahead with the first book in the series, A1. The boys LOVE it! My plan was to do this several times a week, but so far, they ask for it every day.
This is a workbook style curriculum. The student is given a paragraph that contains a given number of errors. Their first paragraph had 6 errors to look for. They are also given a list of editing marks to use as they read through the paragraph. When they have discovered all of the errors, they rewrite the paragraph correctly in a space given below. The paragraphs and accompanying pictures are somewhat entertaining. Of course, my boys are entertained by the pictures in their math books. The boys seem to like knowing exactly how many mistakes they will find. It also helps that this is not their writing, so they don't take the corrections personally. I am hoping that this will help them to begin editing their own writing as they go. Maybe there won't be as many corrections to begin with? If you have older elementary kids, I highly recommend giving this a try. |
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It's raining cats and dogs here. The kids have finished most of their school for the day. (Do they ever actually get everything done that I had planned?) While I am enjoying some down time with a cup of coffee, the kids are building kingdoms out of pillows and sheets in the living room. All four are working together. We have nowhere to go until scouts tonight. This is my kind of home schooling day!
Are any of you enjoying this rainy day? |
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We have been swamped lately. But it's a good thing this time. My husband was able to tear down an old house several months ago. As payment, the owner allowed him to take any wood he wanted. This was exciting because we have always wanted wood flooring. I wanted to get the walls painted before the flooring went in..So this month we have been installing the flooring and painting. It has basically thrown everything out of kilter in our home! Furniture is just now mostly all back in it's normal places. The kids are sitting at the table doing their school work again. One of the kids mentioned that we haven't been sitting at the table together in forever!! We still have baseboards to install and I am actually repainting my living room! The first color I chose was a brown with a tint of pink in it. I didn't notice until it was too late. I have my new color (still brown, but without the pink!), so I'll have to get that done soon. Add selling Girl Scout cookies to that and that is why I haven't been blogging! My poor computer doesn't even seem to know how to get back to homeschoolblogger! I am anxious to get back to normal life, if there is such a thing: ) I miss all of my blogger friends. I will be back with more thoughts and news soon. |
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There are many kinds of blogs on HSB and I love loooking through them. I am often encouraged and uplifted. I visit some of your blogs because I know I will laugh and some because I know where you are in life. Tonight I discovered a blog that was fun for my whole family and I think your families will enjoy it too. Would you like to snack on chicken feet? How many ways can you think of to carry a load? Have you seen the Beijing Olympic mascots? They are all here in photos from a mom who is homeschooling in China. Share it with your kids today. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/272845/Chicken+Feet.html By the way, which is your favorite mascot? I like the swallow.
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We've been watching Jane Eyre on the Masterpiece Theater. A tragically beautiful romance is thwarted by mistakes made in the past. Yet it ends redemptively. Love once again conquering all space and time. It was written by Charlotte Bronte, a home schooler. Of course many children in those days were schooled at home. Interestingly, the Bronte children chose to be schooled at home after giving school a test run. It seems that two sisters and a brother had plenty of time to let their imaginations run wild. There wasn't Co-op in those days. They probably didn't go out for the soccer teams or take ballet. They were surrounded by great reading materials. Their father, a minister, was probably living on a fairly meager salary. But what the Bronte children did have was time. Time to think and time to imagine. As a matter of fact the three children created a world of their own in that free time. They were in the study of their modest home or out in the forest with the sunlight dappling the ground. They were in the places where their imaginations were free to explore. And that is where they developed the skills of telling the great stories that they are famous for. They weren't in a college level writing class entitled, “Tragic Romance Novels101”. I am sure many of you feel the burdens I do to give your children an education that is excellent and well rounded. In our striving, though, we often forget why we home school in the first place. I want my children to have opportunities, but I also want them to have more time. Thirty minutes between ball practice and ballet isn't enough time to stop and think about anything! We need to make sure there is time that doesn't belong to anything in their schedules. Otherwise, when will children have time to explore the geography in their worlds? |
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I am very excited to tell you about a new web site today! My friend and fellow home school mom, Samantha Bell, has been working on creating a user friendly art site for about a year now and she is finally ready to share it with the world! Samantha has been teaching art to my children and many others for as long as I have known her. She also writes and illustrates children's stories. Do you want to help your children grasp the basics of art, but aren't sure where to even begin? Does your drawing ability begin and end with stick figures? (That would be me!) Are you an artist, but don't quite know how to get the principles behind art across to your children? Are you just wondering what some of the best supplies for certain mediums out there are? Then this web site is for you. Samantha gives you everything you need to know to become an artist. She is an excellent artist herself, as you can see in her portfolio. She also posseses the ability to teach those of us who aren't very artistic some of the basics in an easy to grasp manner. Art Made Easy begins with laying the foundation for why we study art. Then, when you are ready to get your hands dirty, you can peruse the sections on drawing and watercolors. If you are just looking for lesson ideas, there is a section of weekly tips. In this section Samantha includes specific project ideas as well as national art contests. You might want to check on that regularly. Finally she has included a section on Kids and Art. Best of all, if you have any questions, she will get back to you as quickly as possible with a good answer. It's like having an artist in your home to help you out! The web site will be growing and changing along the way. Samantha will gradually add more mediums and techniques to her menu. Be sure and check her out first when you are beginning an art project. So check out Art Made Easy : http://www.art-made-easy.com/index.html I will also include the link in my side bar for future reference. Thanks for letting me share!! |
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When my boys were little we had a regular bed time routine. Every night we read stories, said prayers and gave our kisses and hugs. Since they have grown and we have gotten busier, it has become a short affair. It is more like a quick hug and a “Good night, sleep tight” now. I don't like this, but now there are four children and it seems I am always in the middle of something at bedtime. I decided not to be in the middle of something last night. Since they were in bed, they were a captive audience for Bible reading. So I thought it might be a good time to read a restful Psalm. But it didn't end there. After reading the Psalm we talked and talked and talked. To get so much talking from an 11 year old boy and an almost (in March, yikes!!) 13 year old boy was amazing. I loved every minute of it. I heard some of their hopes and dreams and some of their fears. To think that I have missed out on that for the past few years makes me sad. I know I won't have this much time every night, but I do plan on keeping this up a couple of nights a week. When my oldest mentions that he will be driving by 2010, I am jolted by the reality of how little time I have left with them! My girls are always very open and ready to communicate with me anytime of the day. So we often have these conversations 'along the way' of life. I love that about girls. Still, even with them bedtime is a magic time. Hearts open wide in the dark of the night. I suspect that it is another way of putting off bedtime, but to get that glimpse into the hearts of my children I'll do a little putting off every now and then! |
Posted in Letterboxing Madness
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We have really grown to love letterboxing. It didn't take much for me. I am always looking for an adventure and this hobby gives me that in a safe way! I get to hike, I get to hunt and I get to see interesting places that I never even knew existed. And now that I am planting boxes, I get to share interesting places with other people! Letterboxing also gives me an outlet for creativity. I have learned to carve stamps and make hand stitched books. Plus, I get to see other people's stamps and books. Pretty cool!
Getting the family on board has been a little slower. I have maintained from the beginning that this is my hobby and if any one else doesn't want to participate, I will not force them to. I can always save it for my personal time (haha!!). So, at first, I did do a few hunts on my own. My husband enjoyed carving stamps and boxes that are hidden on hiking trails, so he stayed out of the city finds. I tried not to keep the kids out looking past their limit when they did come. Then I got them their own logbooks and let them carve their own stamps. That changed everything! They love coming along and can't stand to miss out on a stamp. Then we went to a gathering where we met other families who do the same thing. They really enjoyed seeing all the stamps and logbooks.They got to put faces with the names of people who had hidden boxes we were finding. They got 'cooties'! (These are small stamps kids sneak into grown-ups or other kids possesions. The idea is to pass them along as quickly as possible!) They gave Green Tortuga 'cooties'! (He is the founder of the atlasquest website where we get our clues.) We went all over downtown Asheville finding boxes that only letterboxers knew were there. It was really fun! Now all of the kids have almost filled their first logbooks and one of mine has even made his own stamp and planted it at a local lake. I know all of you will not want to devote the time and energy that we do to letterboxing, but if you get a chance you should give it a try. It is a wonderful home schooling activity. Many letterboxers hide their boxes in unique historic or scenic areas. If you are going on a trip, it is a good way to find some of the hidden treasures in the area you visit.
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Posted in Letterboxing Madness
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Letterboxing has been consuming a lot of our free time and we are having many fun adventures doing it. I thought some of you might like to hear about them. I will give brief highlights on our adventures thus far and add as we go.
Our most recent letterboxing hunt took us to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Due to the generosity of a fellow letterboxer, we got a ticket for me for $10 and all the children were free (that is a January special)! Amazing when you consider that for our family to go here during regular season for full price would be upwards of $120!! Anyways, we had a great time seeing the house. It was definitely more like a castle to the girls. The boys enjoyed the indoor bowling alley and swimming pool. I let each of the kids take a few photos with my camera and they took some great ones! I will post one when my camera gets mailed back to me. (Yes, I did lose it there and yes, miraculously, some honest soul turned it in to Guest Services!) But we weren't really there to see the house, we were there to letterbox! There are 11 boxes hidden on Biltmore Estate, with permission from them, of course. They have been there quite a while, so when we found some of them we saw people logged in from all over the US and some international finders! We were able to find 6 of the 11. They are scattered around the hiking trails on the property and we were limited by time and at least one small-legged hiker. The ones we found were really neat, though. Among them were a hand-carved stamp of George Vanderbilt and one of Cornelia Vanderbilt. It is always such a treat to open a letterbox and see what treasure it might hold. On our hunt, one of the girls layed down in a nest of fire ants that was hidden under fluffy grass and the other got a huge splinter. There used to be a letterbox you could get mailed to you if you got hurt on the trail with a stamp of a band-aid in it. It has been discontinued, so we are going to make our own band-aid stamp to keep with us. The kids can look back in their logbook and remember those little cuts and scrapes along the way. The idea of getting the boo-boo stamp immediately cheered the girls. We left the Biltmore Estate worn and weary, but happy. We had a full day of walking and, honestly the only time they complained was when I got them lost, oops! I quickly go them un-lost and we were back on our way, though. Life is an adventure with me!
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Well January has come and almost gone. During the busyness of the Holidays, I was looking forward to a quiet January, but it hasn't been very quiet. Although, it has been a happy January. We have gotten back into school work with very little complaint, which must be some kind of small miracle. I think they are just happy to be back in our routine. I temporarily unable to use my camera, but as soon as I get it, I will post a picture of the now, full grown chick! He/She is flying and developing it's own little personality. It has a beautiful white and blue coloration. Because it has been handled so much, it is extremely tame and sweet. Sadly, the littler one died. We had named him Mustard because his coloration was yellow. He had splayed legs, a condition where the legs each point directly out, instead of under. It was probably caused by being nested in the bottom of a slippery cage. If the mother has to sit too tightly on the chick, this can happen. He would not have been able to perch, which is necessary for eating. We tried to bind his legs together. This is said to be very helpful when they are young. We had a very hard time getting his tiny legs bandaged. With the help of my sister-in-law, an orthotist by trade, we did get his legs together safely. He seemd to be improving. But the mother was feeding it less and less. Then we were gone for a whole day. The weather had turned chilly and I had not turned on the heat. When we returned home, Mustard was shivering. We tried to warm him and feed him, but he was beyond help. I think he was so mal-nutritioned that he couldn't keep himself warm. We learned from this and hope to build some nesting boxes, with concave nesting spots. We are not going to keep any males and females together until we can get good nesting places. I think we will wait until spring to finish our outdoor aviary and put the birds outside. We already have two more birds that will be coming to live with us when we get it built! Yes, jugglingpaynes DID send us some New York bagels And WOW were they good!! I can't understand how a chewy bagel could melt in my mouth, but it did. Due to shipping troubles, the first batch she sent arrived moldy. The smell was so delicious, we came very close to eating them anyways. We kept the box close by for a few days just to imagine that we could eat them. Then, sweet jugglingpaynes had great mercy on us and sent us a whole NEW box, which arrived fresh and beautiful. We ate them within two days. We had bagels for breakfast, bagels for lunch and bagels for just about any reason we could think of to eat a bagel! Thanks again jugglingpaynes. My children now see the benefits of blogging! We are actually making a lot of long distance friends this year. I think this is a good thing. One day (in my dreams) we are going to be traveling the country in a camper and we will want reasons to go places. I hope all of my friends will let us come and visit with them: ) I would like to have a friend in every state, any volunteers? ; )
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OK, I was beginning to feel that I should not have stepped out on my little editorial limb. Usually any comments on my blog are sent to my email. I was experiencing an eerie silence from my fellow compadres here. But I guess when the homeschoolblogger site was updated that feature didn't carry over. I actually came to see my blog in person and saw all of your comments: ) I feel better now. The chicks are doing so well. I know the pictures don't do them much justice, but keep your eyes out on the album. I am constantly updating it. The chicks are like babies, always changing, except it happens even faster with them! W eended up with two babies, out of three viable eggs. (The father had pecked holes in two of the five eggs.) Not too bad for a first time mom. We just celebrate my youngest daughter's 6th birthday. She has a tea party each year on her birthday. We have it in the am and this allows most of her busy friends to attend. This year's theme was snowmen! It was lots of fun. Now we are gearing up for Christmas. One of my good friends asked me what I thought the meaning of Christmas really was. We had a great discussion on how gifts tie into that. My response and our family's vision is that we will give out of the joy and generosity of our hearts that we have because Jesus came to this earth. Because God gave such a precious gift, we want to give precious gifts to our children. The amount isn't that important, it is the thought and heart that goes into the gift. Each family has its own unique way of expressing this. In our case, however, we usually limit our gifts to 3 per child, but this year we had a budget that made that impossible, especially for our older sons, so we are giving them each one very special gift. This part of Christmas is easy for us. It is the extended family part that feels more like giving just because we are supposed to have something to give. I quickly feel stressed over this and I wish we could draw names or something so I didn't feel pressure to cover each person. My husband and I both come from larger families so that can get difficult. Next year I think I am getting them all socks! |
I could even get creative with that and it would be a joy to shop. What do you think?|
My sister-in-law had the right idea when her children were born. She made a point of NOT reading parenting books or looking to the experts for parenting advice. To this day, she avoids such sources. I, on the other hand, am always looking for more information. I read magazines and parenting advice until I was crossing my eyes with my first child. Then my second came along and proved them all wrong. Finally, I relaized that it was all pretty much useless and that if I listened to my instincts, tempered by the Holy Spirit, I would actually, sort-of know what to do.However, I am going crazy watching a new parent in my home. Our parakeet laid her first eggs several weeks ago. I tried to help her be a better mother. For goodness sakes, she laid her eggs on the floor of her cage!! First, I put one of her eggs in a little tupperware container lined with a washcloth. She pushed the egg out! Then, I bought her a nest and some nesting material. She refused. Turns out, in my research I found out this is the natural way for parakeets. They usually lay their eggs in a wooden cavity in a tree, with little to no nesting materials. What did I know? Now, she has this little, helpless, naked baby that has hatched on the hard floor of her cage. I wonder if she would know how to feed it without my help? Or if she would know when it was too cold? It all seems so wrong to me. But this mama- who has never read a parenting book or watched a talk show about baby parakeets gone bad or listened to the latest parakeet expert chirp on and on about the 'right' way to feed those babies- knows just what to do and she is doing it well! One of my sons told me to quit worrying. He said, "You knew what to do with us when we were born didn't you?" You know, I did. I am just amazed at that God given ability we mothers have to parent! All of those experts out there can make us feel pretty discouraged if we let them. But God has given us everything we need to love our children better than anyone else can. So trust your instinct today. And shut that parenting book for long enough to pursue the hearts of your children!
PS_Look for the Picasa album to come with pics of the chick! Be sure and look at them in slideshow or it will just look like a little pink blob. |
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In the middle of the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, I have managed to have some good laughs. I though you might enjoy some of them. 1- We have three chickens that we let free range during the day. At night we like to get them put up so that they don't roost on our front porch. That can be really messy. The other night when my husband got home, the chickens had not been put up. He works second shift type hours, so it was dark. He grabbed the chickens and shoved them in their coop. The next morning he went out to get firewood and saw a sight! Our cat must've been enjoying the chicken's hay while they were away and when he put the chickens in, my husband also shut the cat in! So there was our fluffly calico cat shrinking back in the corner of the chicken coop meowing and waiting for someone to rescue her. She'd been stuck with them all night. All the funnier because she is terrified of our chickens! 2-My youngest daughter has had a hard life. This might be why she doth protest so loudly so often! It doesn't help when I do things like I do to her purely by accident. Yesterday it was bonking her on the head with a pot. I swear it was an accident!! I had a pot of leftover beans and rice in my hand and she jumpe towards it at the same time I turned. Luckily the pot was not hot. And I did not laugh at the moment. I made sure she was OK. Then I laughed! Things like this have happened to her more than I can count. I think she is probably sure I have it out for her and she would have plenty of evidence to bak her theory up, if she thought about it. Last week she informed me that I never feed her. That was the day I had somehow gotten everyone in the car after a quick lunch of pb&j. And on the way, she says she's hungry. It turns out she had been skipped in lunch preparations. Probably because she didn't want pb&j and probably because I forgot to make her a pb&h(honey). But it didn't stop us all from laughing when we heard that little voice sincerely cry, Why don't you ever feed me?. Don't worry, she is fed and eats well. But being the youngest can be tough. On the more serious side... I am trying to think of some gifts for my children from my husband and I that are homemade, clutter free and meaningful. I know, that's a lot of criteria. The main thing I have done so far is to make some coupons. In a family where one-on-one parent time is extra valuable, we have made coupons for time to spend with us. The key is the kids are only allowed to redeem one a month. The coupons include outings such as, watching the stars with a thermos of hot chocolate and going to a bookstore together. I've tried to customize some of them to meet the child's interests. For example, a hike for my outdoorsy one and a spa time for one of my girls. I remember once my mom made animal shaped pillows for my sister and I and we thought they were great! Do any of you do anything like this or have any ideas? Please share. |
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This seems to be a theme in the lives of those around me lately. Recently a father in our church flipped off of his bicycle while riding with his sons. He suffered a brain injury that has left him in a hospital bed with little brain function. No one knows what the future will hold for him. Then I read of the home school mother who passed away from breast cancer on Thanksgiving Day. At one time, both of these parents were expecting to be here to watch their children grow up. Yet God had different plans. We all read about these stories and think What if I knew I wouldn't have tomorrow with those I love? What would I do differently, then? I find myself searching my heart. Would I spend this time on the internet writing a blog? Proabaly not. Would my husband be at work today? Probably not. So how do you balance knowing that you most likely have tomorrow with the knowledge that there is a small chance you don't? How do you live every day life in a way that would leave you no regrets should it be your last? Today I schooled my children. I dropped them off at music and ballet. I helped my five year old learn to ride her bike with no training wheels. I hugged my seven year old really tight. I fixed my husband a good dinner and a pot of coffee. I will read to them and pray with them tonight. If something were to happen to me right now and today was their last memory of me, that would be wonderful. But what about those days when I nitpicked all day and we had cereal for dinner? I wish I could put a sign upon my forehead to remind me when I am in the middle of those moments that I am not promised tomorrow. It probably won't make the frustrations of every day life go away, but maybe it would help me to keep them in perspective. Maybe when the kids were fighting nonstop, instead of sending them to their rooms so I could experience a moment of peace, I would stop what I was doing and read to them or play a game with them. Maybe when school wasn't going well, I would just stop and take them all out for a nature walk or play frisbee in the front yard. Maybe I would remember the reason I am correcting errant behavior is not so that the behavior will stop bothering me, but so my child will be the best they can possibly be. Maybe I would stop worrying about embarrassing behaviors and start worrying about souls longing to know God? I guess we all have to face the brevity of life. I am especially prone to looking at all of the exicting things going on outside my window and forgetting to see the wonder in my own home. I pray that I will take the time out to live life here today. |
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I've added three new links to my side bar. FIrst you will see Atlas Quest. This is the site I use to track all of the letterboxes we find and to list the ones we hide. The "Letterboxing" link is a good information and introduction site, where the "Atlas Quest" is for when you are really ready to dig in. I am excited this week because I have discovered that there are night letterboxes, hidden only to be dicovered in the dark. They use reflectors on the path or glow in the dark paint to guide you to your destination. Also, I read about metal letterboxes that have magnets in them and are attached to metal surfaces. How ingenious! The possibilities are seemingly endless.
The next link I have placed is an online computer game link, like no other you have ever seen. These games are non-violent (unless you consider squashing spiders violent) and many are backed up by pleasant, relaxing music. They all are fairly simple. For instance in one you are a mouse shooting acorns at the Chrysalides that hang from the trees. If you hit them, a butterfly hatches. Although I must warn you about the CATS game. If you have several children, it will feel all too familiar. Your job is to either have all of the cats stay seated at the same time or keep all of them walking at the same time, depending on the leader. I always feel like I am trying to get all of my children to sit still when I play that one. The games are clean, fun and worth a look.
The last new link is prbably one you are all familiar with, but if not I think EVERY mom should be! Enachanted Learning is a printable online resource. There are all kinds of great activities and craft ideas. Mostly it is geared towards preschool to elementary, but there are some useful biology and geography pages for older children. You can print many things with no membership. But after a few years of doing that, I finally broke down and got the membership. It is only $20 and it is well worth it!! So if you haven't already checked this one out, go now before you do anything else!!!
Now that I am sure many of you think we do nothing but play around here, I am going to go spend some time educating the flock.
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Have any of you played Monopoly with your kids lately? I was celebrating because most of mine are finally old enough to play now. I had visions of colorful money, properties, houses and hotels, Free Parking and community chest and moving my little car along Connecticut Avenue. So the kids and I went out and purchased a Monopoly game. Only we got the "new" version. This has Disneyland and Fenway Park as properties. You get 2 MILLION dollars when you pass Go and best of all the new playing pieces include a cup of Starbucks coffee!! Wow, I was psyched!! We got home and tore open the box. First thing, everyone grabbed for the coveted Starbucks cup of coffee playing piece. Wait a minute! They don't even drink coffee!!! That was MY piece! After we settled that, then the grabbing ensued for the Motorola cell phone and the laptop. When the dust settled each child had their own piece and my five year old teammate sat sadly holding the labradoodle, which she had hoped to use. We decided to time share the labradoodle and the cup of coffee. So for half of the game each piece got playing time. NOW we could start playing the game. We had a great time at first. Then someone went to jail. The pleading eyes turned my way and said "Mom, please don't make me go to jail..." I had no mercy and off they went. Then somone landed on my property (which by this time had three houses). "Mom, please don't make me pay that much rent..." I almost hesitated, since my rent was 9 million dollars, but I was strong. After all, I wasn't going to win being wimpy. Then the kids would say,"It's not fair, he can't keep buying stuff, he's not leaving anything for me!" and "It's not fair, I just paid taxes last time!"(Boy, do I know that one!) Overall, this game seemed to be doing a very good job preparing them for real life. Finally, after several long hours of play, my "sweet" child (the one who is genuinely nice to everyone they meet and loves their family above all), who had gotten all of the bad Chance cards and been to jail about 10 times and landed on my hotels was going bankrupt. Tears began to quietly flow down her face. My motherly heart could take her defeat no longer and I declared the game was over for me too. You know, I seem to remember those fights over playing pieces from my childhood. We all wanted the Rolls Royce. I usually got the thimble. And definitely the feelings of unfairness as my siblings got ahead of me. Or the feeling of smugness as I got ahead of them. I most assuredly remember counting my money and lining it up in order. I also remember quitting after too many hours of play. Yes, they are finally old enough for Mompoly, but I think I will only bring it out about once a year for now. |
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Yes! Candyland is complete and out of our hands. We drove up to Asheville, NC yesterday and dropped off our creation. I left a photo on our DT Fambly Digest blog. I am not sure how well you can the details on it, but you'll get the idea. We were all so proud of our creation. Everyone worked hard and had a good time building it together. And because us adults couldn't keep our hands off of it (mainly me: ) we had to enter it in the adult category. I knew we would not really be competetive, but when I saw some of the adult entries yesterday, my jaw dropped!!! They were amazingly beautiful. But I wouldn't trade our good time spent togeher for an amazingly beautiful home built by me alone! So,our little entry sits humbly at the Grove Park Inn. We are still very proud of our what we accomplished! And when we get it home we are going to play a few games of Candyland on it.
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I saw this on jugglingpaynes and it certainly seemed appropriate for my blog, so here goes!
1- I grew up in the Florida Keys but I am very afraid of swimming with fish!!! I also never ate fish until recently. And I cannot seem to keep pet fish alive very long. However, I do like fishing.
2- I am afraid of cows. When I was little we lived in Northern Michigan for a year. The school bus would drop me off at the end of the road. One day the cows were close to the road (in their fence, of course) and I stood there for an hour crying. I was not going to walk past those cows!
3- I get more work done in an hour wearing my pajamas than I seem to be able to get done in three while dressed. At least this is my excuse for wearing pajamas as long as I can each day.
4- I have been rapelling off of a fire tower once. It was very exciting. I would love to do more of that!
5- I took theater in college and briefly considered majoring in it.
6- I lived in England for 9 months when I was very young. I clearly remember that this was the place where I first tasted dirt! I was used to the sand and rocks in the Keys and then I saw this beautiful dark brown soil. I was sure it must taste like chocolate. It didn't.
7- As a teenager I used to have Emily Dickinson days where I would lock my bedroom door, dress in all white and sit on a ladder in my room (part of my decor) and think. I even had one friend who sent me candles through my window. I sure hope none of my kids are like me when they are teenagers.
8- One of my favorite things to look for on nature walks is scat. I am not in the least opposed to looking through it to see what the animal last ate. Fascinating really!
9- I have also had a fervent desire to stop at road kills, especially certain good ones, like foxes, and take the animal home for further investigation/preservation. A forest ranger from the mountains of WNC told me that he did this often for some of his biology classes. I just think it would be really cool to have a collection of skulls, skeletons and skins.
10- I love good pranks. Once I brought a petrified cat home (after having been out of town at a dairy farm for several days) and snuck it on my brother in law's porch. I then went to his front door and asked him if he had taken care of my cat while I was out of town. When he said "What cat?", I reminded him that I had left our cat on his back porch. His face when he saw that cat was priceless! That was a fun one!
And to think I thought I would have trouble thinking of anything weird about myself! OK, now my weirdness has left me feeling totally exposed.
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I hope I haven't lost some of you for good! Now it's your turn. If you are reading this, TAG, you're it. Post 10 weird things about yourself on your blog and then let me know in my comments.