R has been friends with a girl named Rachel for about 3 years now.  They met at dance school, and we have had her over to play, R has gone to play dates over her house and they have both attended birthday parties for each other. 

Rachel has always been a little hot and cold about the friendship, and R jumps right in and expects to be friends for life.  I noticed a change in Rachel's behavior toward R last year when she switched to the "in-between" school that houses the 4th and 5th graders.  She could act like R's best friend one minute, and completely blow her off the next.  She actually blew off R's birthday party this year because, by her own admission, she had something better to do.

This year, the 2 girls don't actually have a dance class together, but they see each other in  passing between their 2 back-to-back classes.  R has always made a point of saying hello to Rachel when she sees her, but it has become more and more apparent that Rachel wants nothing to do with her.  The last 2 weeks, R has come home from dance school in tears because she tried to talk to Rachel and her friend turned her back and ignored her.  R is so hurt and confused; she has no idea what she did to make Rachel treat her this way.  (My thought is that Rachel is just turning into another little mindless school-clique zombie, who can't decide to be friends with someone without fear of getting booted out of her own comfy little group, but what do I know?) 

I know that this behavior is typical of girls this age, but just because it's typical doesn't make it RIGHT.  It isn't any less hurtful for my little girl that is going to bed sad another night because this little brat thinks that she is better than everyone else. 

So, my dilemma is this, I know it is not my problem to fix, but I don't have any idea how to help R fix it herself.  Rachel's mother is the receptionist at dance school, and R has asked me to talk to her about the situation.  I personally don't think that is a great idea, because, although I like the mom well enough, and she has always been nice to me and my children, I think it may cause bigger problems for R.  What if I say something to the mom, she says something to Rachel, and Rachel takes her frustration out on R?

I don't know what to advise her to do.  I WANT to tell her to cut her losses and just realize that Rachel is not a real friend or she wouldn't be treating her this way to begin with, but I think she needs to discover that for herself.  She knew when she'd taken enough crap from her "friend" Cassidy after she made her cry at her birthday party by telling her it was the worst party she had ever been to.  She decided that she didn't want to be Cassidy's friend anymore, and I was happy to oblige that request.

I can totally sympathize with poor R, I was the kid in school that was picked on mercilessly.  I was little and sensitive and just wanted kids to like me.  R is such a sweet girl and a good friend.  She would never dream of hurting a friend's feelings to help raise herself in the food chain with other friends, so she just cannot fathom why someone else would treat her like this.

I know it is just a life lesson; not all people are nice and thoughtful and care about other people's feelings, but it hurts to watch her hurting so badly.  And people think that homeschoolers are immune to "real" social situations.  This is one that I would have preferred to skip out on...  With friends like these, who needs enemies?

I recieved this in an email from Hubby today and wanted to share it.  It was written by a student in Arizona, but I don't have a name to give credit to.  If anyone out there knows the source, please tell me so I can give credit where it is due.

OK, in a sense, moms do run the world, pretty much from behind the scenes. When you think about it, though, part of Sarah Palin's appeal was that she had the experience and, presumably, common sense that moms approach life with. If someone would approach the presidency with mom-sense, we could straighten up the economy and everything else in no time at all.

For example:

• If you don't share with others, I'm going to take it away from you could apply quite nicely in our current economic crisis. Banks were refusing to lend money to anyone, choosing to hoard their reserves. So what did our government do? Give them more money. If my kid is hoarding his toys and not sharing with others, I'm not about to give him more toys. What if someone put all the bank executives in a "time out" of sorts? Or told them that if they didn't share with others, then they were going to lose their accreditation (or whatever), then I bet they'd behave differently very quickly.
• If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all would certainly change political campaigning, wouldn't it?!
• Be kind to others, especially those less fortunate than yourself. This could take care of the entire debate between "trickle-down" and "middle-class first" economic policies. The great flaw in trickle-down policies (in my opinion) is that it doesn't take into account the power of greed - those who earn more will generally keep more. But what if we changed the tax code to take away tax shelters for the wealthy and instead rewarded them with significant tax breaks for charitable giving? It seems to me that we'd see a lot more charitable foundations set up to help the needy and less need for the government to step in and act like Robin Hood.

What else? I bet some of you moms have great ideas about how to change the world and would do a better job running the country than most of the people in charge now. But we're all pretty busy running our own households after all!

I told my hubby the other day that I think I want to switch jobs with Barack Obama.

We're looking into refinancing our house to get a low enough payment that we might be able to replace my car. With all the driving back and forth to Oklahoma I expect in the next year to help my parents, I'd like a reliable car with significantly less than 137,000 miles on it. But part of the refi process is having a complete inside & outside appraisal. If we're to make the value of the house we need, the house needs to be perfect. Right now it's a cluttered mess. So I need to motivate my kids to help me get this house from cluttered disaster zone to immaculate in less than a week.

I think I'd rather straighten out the economic mess.

Time DOES fly...all too quickly.  Here it is November - I've not blogged for almost 3 months - and the holidays will be here in a blink.  In talking with a friend today after church service, we both were sharing about how much "chauffering" it seems we do with the children.  She told me that some days when her husband returns home from work and asks her what she did all day, she states matter of factly: "I drove"!  How much time do you spend in your vehicle in a week's time?  This past Wednesday I put 80 miles on my car.  Praise the Lord that the fuel prices have maintained a steady downward descent!

In addition to running hither and yon, we HAVE been busy with school at home.  We are enjoying using Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 with another home school family.  Together we made ant habitats- and since doing that last Monday, my kids have been watching in awe as the busy, red ants move sand, make tunnels and even carry the dead bodies of some of their habitat mates - to where, I'm not sure.  Mom (that's me) has gotten to be the official ant feeder, as no one else in the family seems to be brave enough to lift the cheese cloth cover and and drop the apple pieces in.  It's been an interesting endeavor, and we have had fun watching the ants.  I just pray that they don't get loose in the house.

The mama deer and her twins have been frequent visitors to our home.  One morning last week, they were camped out under our crab apple tree for the longest time.  A four-point buck was with them (which is quite an unusual sight for daylight hours) and he appeared to be "standing guard" and not doing much eating.  Soon the crab apples will be nothing but rotting mush in the lawn and on the drive, and I suspect we won't see our deer family so much.  We'll look forward to more babies next Spring!  Back to my lesson planning.

More updates later.

Happy Trails!

Consider this:

• Americans spend about $450 billion a year on Christmas, including gifts, food, & decorations.
• $10 billion would provide fresh water for every person in the world.

According to the website charity : water, "Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war."

Only $20 will provide fresh water for one person for 20 years. Why not consider dropping an item off your wish list, scaling back on a meal or not buying some of the new decorations this year and instead donate $20 to help build deep wells for fresh, clean water for African communities?

Watch the video at charity : water. Imagine being a mother who can only give your children filthy water to drink and bathe in. It's heartbreaking. I'd rather help one of those mothers than get an extra thing in my stocking.

The catchphrase for this year is "I want water for Christmas."

My hubby is the numbers guy. He lives with numbers day after day - as an optical engineer, he uses calculus in his job all the time. So, as you would expect, he loves the Sudoku puzzles in the newspaper (when he has the time).

I'm the words girl. I write, I blog, I teach ... so, of course, I love crossword puzzles. I really enjoy the New York Times puzzle, even though it can sometimes take me all week to get through the Sunday puzzle. Sudoku? No, it just frustrates me. When I make one mistake, I practically have to start the whole thing over to find out where I went wrong.

It's funny, though, that today he stayed home sick, and instead of picking up a book to read, he picked up the last couple days' papers and has been doing the crossword puzzles. But it has been fun for me to help him. Numbers guys don't always get the nuances of meanings in the crossword clues.

What about you - words or numbers?

This morning as I finished up my shower, I stood praying for my mom and dad. I prayed for healing - with our without a doctor's aid - and for mom to have another 20 or more years to watch her grandchildren grow. I prayed that Mom will not have to make the same kinds of choices that her mother had to make at the same age about how to spend the last months of her life.

As I finished drying off and stepped out of the shower, the phone rang. Hearing the "long-distance" ring, I hurried to the phone expecting a call from my parents. Instead I heard a recorded voice saying:

For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

God loves you!

Wow! At a moment when I was vulnerable yet trusting, God "called" to remind me of His love. Not only did Jesus love me enough to give His life so that I can have eternal life in Him, but He loved me enough to arrange that robo-call at that moment. Yes, Jesus loves me, and He loves you, too.

I don't typically talk about politics on my blog, or in real life for that matter.  I purposely avoided writing a whole lot about the election because I feel like it is really no one else's business how I choose to vote, and I don't really care about who anyone else picked either.  I'm not one of those wild fanatics that'll try to convince you that my candidate is the best, and calls you a moron for disagreeing.  I may THINK you're a moron, but I don't usually resort to calling people that to their face.

Ahhh, I digress...  Since I only have about 4 faithful readers left, you will have to just bear with me and feel free to skip this entry if you rather not feel your blood boil....

I voted for John McCain.  Now, I TOTALLY don't agree with him on all of the issues, and I think Sarah Palin was a piss-poor choice as VP, but my vote was fueled by his stance on the issues that are most important to me.  I had to vote with where my morals lie and his views lined up the closest to the points that are close to my heart. 

Of major concern to me, and what made my decision a no-brainer, is that Obama's stance on education states that everyone should be entitled to equal opportunity in education.  He is against vouchers, and although his own children go to one of the most expensive and "best" private schools in the country, he wants regulations on education so that no one child has better opportunities than anyone else.  That severely effects homeschoolers!

So, on top of the fact that we have a Democrat heading to the White House, we also brilliantly elected a heavily Democratic Senate and Congress last night.  This can only spell trouble for us homeschoolers!  Democrats = No choice in education. 

How long will it be until our new government officials come up with more regulations for us homeschoolers, more laws?  Will they be able to come in to check up on us at anytime, they deem necessary and interfere in our lives in ways that threaten our status as parents?  Will we be forced to choose between going to jail or losing our children or complying with these new, stricter laws?  What if these law makers decide that since homeschoolers have too much of an unfair advantage over common public schoolers, that homeschooling should be illegal altogether?  We all watched in horror at what happened in California.  What if that threat becomes nation wide?

I am no political expert, but I can read between the lines with the best of them.  When Barak Obama says that he wants an equal education plan for all children, what he is saying is that no one will be able to be the best or receive the best.  It doesn't matter how poor our nation's education facilities become, as long as everyone is subjected to them.  Heaven help us!

As a friend of mine so aptly stated recently, if the Democratic party wants me to keep my nose out of my neighbor's uterus and bedroom, what gives them the right to interfere at the goings-on at my kitchen table?  I see scary times ahead for us homeschoolers in the next few years. 

For all of you out there that helped to vote this man in to his new position, I hope the "change" that he brings about in YOUR home is worth it!

For the second year, we are participating in Operation Christmas Child. Last year we just went to the store with another family and bought a bunch of stuff, filled our boxes and dropped them off at a collection center.

This year several families from our homeschool group got together to do the shoeboxes. Each family brought enough of one type of item to fill all the boxes, and we did 23 boxes. Before stuffing time, we had the kids watch a short video about how OCC impacts the children who receive the boxes. I expect it was hard for our kids to imagine that some of what they saw - kids in rag clothing, cardboard houses, even very young children scratching out a living on the streets - is how many children in the world really live. But the moms who watched it were really moved. After that, we had our kids fill the empty boxes that were sitting on a table, and it was amazing to watch all of our kids willingly and joyfully sharing these gifts with children they don't know. And in a few weeks, we'll be taking a field trip together to the distribution center in Denver to see what happens with all the boxes.

In the past we never participated because I couldn't remember until after the collection dates. So if you're interested in participating, this year the collection dates are 11/17 to 11/24. Don't miss this chance to share God's love with needy children!