Jul. 23, 2007
A Flash of the Future

• 0 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Jun. 6, 2007
Happy Birthday to my New Chauffeur!

Our oldest is turning 15 today!  Happy Birthday!

With that - we're headed off to the State Patrol offices this morning for him to take his written test to obtain his Learner's Permit.  Will you have a teen driver in Georgia?  HERE's where you find all the info and requirements.

Meanwhile, I've been having great fun teasing him about now being my private chauffeur!  If you have a minute - drop him a happy birthday wish!

As homeschoolers, we are blessed to spend our lives together with our children - AT HOME! - and yet, where has all the time gone?  I have loved every minute of our sons, every stage and every age.

 

 

• 0 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Oct. 1, 2006
Let a Mom Go Fishing With Her Son ~

 

And she’ll hook the BIG one every time!

 

MEET: Bubba Bass!

 

4 pounds!

(and, uh, yes, those are our baby scales - make that WERE our baby scales - now recycled for weighing our fresh catch of the day! woo hoo!)

 

19 ½  inches long!

 

(that's a recycled table, too, from our former Honda CRV - works well, don'tcha think?)

heh ~ heh

 

 

While I caught the big bass and only 2 little bream, Sam caught 14 bream and crappie - definitely the "quantity" of our fishing day.  We had the best day of fishing, just the two of us.  The weather was gorgeous and we really enjoyed our time together.  Tisk, tisk ~ our younger son, Alex, has been dethroned by his momma; I now hold the family record for the biggest bass caught.  Sam is quite the accomplished fisherman, too, he cleaned all our catch and filet'd them up perfecto for our fish fry!  YUM!

Now hurry up and go fishing already, Y'all!

 

Harriette

 

• 1 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Jun. 28, 2006
Birthday's and Burp-a-thons

 

THIS made me laugh out loud just at the thought.  Since I’m a mother to all boys, I truly can’t imagine what it must be like to host girls’ birthday parties – though I do remember a few from my own childhood – it was all about who could stay awake the longest mainly.  I think I held my eyes open so wide trying to stay awake one time, that they nearly dried wide open.

 

After our sons were born, I did, however, feel compelled to be “one of those Moms” who had to “theme” and orchestrate birthday parties for my sons.

 

Why?

 

I’ve yet to figure it out – so let me know if any of you have the earth moving answer – will you?

 

Let me tell you, though, I was very happy to announce that after birthday number 10 – we were done – limiting birthday’s to one friend sleeping over and going somewhere special or a certain restaurant out to eat, an individual field trip of choice – anything but a party!

 

But, hands down, the best birthday memory I have from any of our sons’ birthday parties was the summer our oldest turned ten.  The neighborhood we lived in had the neighborhood pool and picnic house, etc.  I was by that time very ready to be winding down this whole birthday “create-a-circus” business and was easily convinced when our son wanted only to have a pool party with pizza and cake.

 

“CONSIDER IT DONE, my son!” was my immediate response.  This would be great – just a few balloons, order pizza, arrive with a cake and drinks – a no-brainer for this mega-planning mom.  The party was a hit as it was a typical hot, hot summer day.

 

But what went through my mind while the boys were all eating – I have no idea – clearly, it was my alter ego momma-self.  I suddenly burst out with, “Let’s have a burping contest!”

 

Can you hear the deafening roar of burps or what?

 

The looks on the some of the other mothers’ faces were those of, well, horror.

 

Especially when all they could hear was my hysterical laughter over and above the roar of burping from a dozen junior sized professional burpers.

 

This led to armpit pooting of magnamus proportions.

 

Finally, the other mothers’ could hold out no longer and broke into laughter.  My stomach was cramping from laughing so hard.

 

Hey – when in Rome…

 

I truly believe this was the most successful of all our birthday parties – it was definitely the most memorable one!

 

 

Harriette

 

• 2 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

May. 25, 2006
How Will You Use Your 365 Days?

 

As of yesterday, I am officially 45!

 

I'm so excited, too.  I have a whole new year to be 45 and to do 45 year old things.  Well, actually only 364 days since this is day two of being 45.

 

Several years ago, our sons were always so anxious for their birthday's to arrive; they could not wait to get to the next year of age.  Somehow it saddened me to think of them wanting to rush through their childhood.

 

It was the night before our oldest son's 8th birthday and he was nearly beside himself with anticipation and excitement about his birthday party, the friends, the gifts, the fun - the "all about me" day.  As I was tucking him in and saying our goodnight's, I said to him, "Tonight is the last night you will go to sleep as a seven year old."

 

He replied, "What do you mean?"

 

I told my son, "Tomorrow when you wake up, you will be eight years old.  So tonight is officially the last time you will go to sleep as a seven year old.  We only have 365 days to be each age and today was your last day to be seven."

 

I could not have been more surprised by his reaction.  He looked up at me with his big brown eyes full of tears and said, "Oh, Mom, I hope I haven't wasted any of my seven year old days."

 

I hope I didn't waste any of my 44 year old days.

 

Since then, we continue this tradition of reminding each of us to recognize that we only have 365 days for each age - and this not just limited to our children - it's for us adults, too!  Our birthday is our personal New Year.

 

Likewise, we have 365 days for each homeschool year - what a blessing to have our sons at home!

 

So how will you use your 365 days?

 

 

Happy New Year, Y'all!

Harriette

 

• 1 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Apr. 11, 2006
Successful Homeschooling?

 

Could the following conversation be defined as successful homeschooling?

 

During the course of cleaning the basement and school room area a few weeks back, the following conversation took place:

 

Son #1:  "Mom, you know you and Dad have always said that one of the reasons we chose to move here to the farm was so if Alex and me wanted, we could live here by y'all."

 

Me:  "That's right, Honey.  You and Alex will always have a place to build and raise your family in the event it's something that y'all want to do.  Y'all know that I want to you live where the Lord leads you to be - His will for your lives and if it's here - that would just tickle me to death to have our grandchildren so close.  But if y'all decide to live somewhere else, that's fine, too - "

 

Son #1:  "Well, Mom, I've always told you I want to live here on the farm.  But I've decided that I just want to live here.  In this house.  The house we live in now."

 

Me:  "What exactly do you mean?  Forever?"

 

Son #1:  "Well, after I finish college and all, I want this house."

 

We are all sweeping, mopping, moving stuff around.  Son #2 is listening "intently"....

 

Me:  "So what happens to me and Dad?  Where do we live?"

 

Son #1:  "Well, first of all, you need to understand, I LOVE this house.  THIS is home.  Why would I want to live anywhere else?  But you and Dad can live here, too.  Somewhere.  If for some reason Dad isn't still with us, well, you can live in the garage."

 

Me (trying to breathe):  "You mean like a large one room apartment out in the garage?"

 

Son #1:  "Yeah, I guess we could fix it up for you."

 

Son #2:  "Well, Mom, I've decided that I'm going to buy the pasture across the road.  I hope you don't mind that I want to live in a separate house - is that okay with you?  I don't want to hurt your feelings."

 

Me:  "No, Honey, that won't hurt my feelings a bit."

 

Son #2:  "And, well, I've decided that I'm going to build the same exact house as this one - I love this house, too, and, well, I already know where everything is - so if I build the same house then I'll already know my way around it when I move in."

 

Me:  "Sounds like a good plan to me."

 

Son #2:  "But, Mom, I hope this won't hurt your feelings - I'm not going to paint my house the same colors that you painted this one in.  I like the colors you have - but I think I'll have mostly blue paint in my house.  You know I like the color blue and all since it's my favorite color.  I'm probably gonna have blue shag carpet, too."

 

Me:  "Well, Honey, that's the luxury you have when you build your own house, you can pick all the colors you want.  Doesn't hurt my feelings a bit - and I hope it all works out the way you see it.....but both of y'all shouldn't be surprised if you change your mind more than once.......or twice........."

 

One momma can only hope.................

 

;-)

hkj

 

• 2 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link

Aug. 8, 2005
Pavlov Would Be Proud

 

The Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov would be so proud today, in a quirky sense of humor way, but proud nonetheless.  Today, like so many others, we had baseball practice.  And today, we also had our standard question and answer session over grabbing something to eat both before and after practice (notwithstanding the sub sandwiches they had about an hour before we left for said practice….).  As a mom who continues to seek out survival methods in my parenting melodrama, I continue to prove Pavlov’s theory of “conditioned response” correct over and over again.   When we first had our precious sons, installing them in their car seats was trial enough, however, actually successfully driving  somewhere with them beyond our driveway, harnessed in these apparatuses without hair raising screams was yet the greater challenge.  After exhausting musical means to entertain my infant and toddler sons, I moved on to, what else?  Food, of course.   We started out with the basic Cheerios collection, graduating to Goldfish crackers and a variety of other small finger foods.  By the time they were full-blown preschoolers, we were easily up to a four course meal!  But if it meant getting from point A to points B, C & D and back home again with some measure of sanity remaining, then a four course meal and then some it would be!  Family visits and vacations via car travel could compare to a cruise ship’s all-you-can eat just to survive (advanced planning was a MUST) and, here’s the kicker: they both have always been in the lower fifty percentile of their age group for weight and height…………..you know, that CHART the pediatrician is constantly connecting the dots on.  I gained weight over the years just watching them eat!   Fast forward several years to current day: we are on the go as every normal and busy family is today: errands that “require” my sons go (unwillingly I might add), field trips and primarily to and from the ball park.  I repeat, we travel to and from the ball park.  Granted, they are growing boys ~ I’ll give you that.  However, I try to be a responsible mother and feed them regularly, though regularly these days is defined on an hour by hour basis.  Most especially I feed them before we head to the ball field; before we leave the house.  But within moments of entering the vehicle, seat belts fastened and regardless of how much food either have consumed prior to exiting the house, I hear, “Mom, can we stop at the gas station and get something to eat?”  I check the rearview mirror and to my horror (insert Psycho movie knife stabbing music here), my sons are drooling!   I am raising Pavlov’s dogs!   Play Pavlov’s Dogs game:   http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/pavlov/index.html   Learn more about Ivan Pavlov:  http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/pavlov/readmore.html     Copyright Harriette K. Jacobs All Rights Reserved.  2005.

• 0 Comments • Post a Comment • Permanent Link