* copied from email. Unknown author,

HUMAN BODY FACTS

The human body is a machine that is full of wonder. This collection of human body facts will leave you wondering why in the heck we were designed the way we are.

1... Scientists say the higher your I.Q. The more you dream.

2...The largest cell in the human body is the female egg.

3...The smallest is the male sperm.

4... You use 200 muscles to take one step.

5... The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.

6... Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.

7... A pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands.

8... A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.

9... The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades.

10..The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as
the Encyclopedia Britannica.

11.. It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to
your stomach.

12.. The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds.

13.. Men without hair on their chests are more likely to get
cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair.

14.. At the moment of conception, you spent about half an hour
as a single cell.

15.. There is about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

16.. Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half
a gallon of water to a boil.

17.. The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substance in your
body.

18.. Your teeth start developing (in your gums) 6 months before
you are born.

19.. When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils
dilate, they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate.

20.. Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people.

21... Your thumb is the same length as your nose.

22.. At this very moment, I know full well you are putting this
last fact to the test ..now remove your thumb from your nose and pass this
on to the friends you think might be interested in comparing their thumbs
to their noses as well.

You did it -- I KNOW you did !!!!!
:

    Can I do this? 

    I've been reading everything I can get my hands on or get a link to about the many, many, ways to homeschool for nearly three years now.  Wow.  It's hard to believe it's been that long.  My spouse always wanted to homeschool but I fought that concept as I knew it would fall to me to handle it.  Lol, in getting copies of my son's medical records, even the pediatrian had documented this fact back prior to my son being of school age! (That was an interesting and unexpected tidbit to stumble over.)

    I fought homeschooling as I had to work.  I didn't even work normal hours so I needed the kids to be at school so I could sleep as I worked the midnight shift.  So we put the youngest in school and it was terrible.  My youngest was pulled out in Kindergarten, then first grade gifted, then the final straw was a private Christian school.  I was being sleep deprived anyway so I'd just have to figure out how to deal with this, too, as the 'system' wasn't working.

    Why wasn't the system working?  Our older girls weren't having these problems.  They had some, but nothing like what the littlest was going through.  I've spent many hours pondering this and have come to the conclusion that girls are just wired different then boys.  It also didn't help that my son was way beyond grade level.  He was reading at an eighth grade level and doing math above a fourth grade level in first grade.  Facts I didn't learn until I pulled him from the school and demanded his records.

    We tried school at home using the kitchen table.  My son was a silly little boy and did his math as he hung upside down.  He did oral spelling tests while hopping around the room.  Then Grandma had a stroke and the silly little boy had to stop being so bouncy in the dining room since Grandma was now there. 

   We moved into unschooling and it's something that I will never regret.  I learned more and more about the way kids learn and I am always searching for more and more interesting things to strew about the house.  I think the most powerful resource for learning has been in simple conversations.  Yes, that's right, as a family, we discuss a wide and varied range of topics.  I find myself constantly learning so I can answer the questions with knowledge.

    But can I really keep this up?  I've raised my kids to be free thinkers.  I don't tell them their thoughts are wrong.  I do ask them to explain and back up their thoughts.  I do give them the right to choose what they would like to explore.  I don't really test them.  I say 'really' because sometimes that need to know if they really know does slip back in and I find myself giving an oral pop quiz of sorts.

    An example of this was in discussing with my youngest what topics are normally covered in fourth grade.  As we unschooled the normal fourth grade year, I was curious if he had actually learned any of the things that would have been covered had we have done a curriculum.  Well the answer is yes!  That really tripped me out as he had in fact learned all that he would have even though we never touched curriculum!

    So here we are at the end of August.  Back to school is being blared everywhere.  Worse.  Now I have to work 8-4 what most people consider the normal learning hours.   I've been feeling so like a failure.  Like I need to be home so I can make sure I can enrich my kids world.  The homeschoolers are gathering at co-ops and parkdays while I'm at the office.  Some days dad is home.  Some days the kids are home alone with grandma.  (Note: my kids are 10, 16 & 18 so not too young to be home without me.)

    I feel so pulled. Then a wonderful thing happens and the Lord provides encouragement.  I read a comment made on another friend's blog.  It cheered me up even though it wasn't directed at me.  Simple words of encouragement.  Then another email slips into my inbox 'Are you qualified to homeschool?' Actually, at the moment, I'm feeling that I'm 'qualified' but not doing a bang up job at it so I go to read the article and my spirit is lifted up a bit more.  I check my inbox again, (I'm waiting on a response about an order placed for stage makeup....) and a dear friend has sent me the 'I Will Survive (Homeschooling Parody)'.  Wow! The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.

    Can I do this? Yes I can.

Tropical Storm Fay is gone and as far as tropical storms go, she wasn't too bad to us.  (She was down right mean to the people south of us as many got flooded out of their homes.  Here's a few pictures from around my world

Our gate

Canal's full!

Only one tree down so far 

Did I mention we have a cypress swamp?

Outside my office

The young ones having fun.  (Yes, they do have shelter but they preferred playing in the rain.)

Going home

 The road is flooded but not too bad.  Just need to watch out for wash outs.

More and more water (I think I counted about eight wash outs total.)

Wanna come visit?

As TS Fay approaches, I feel less inclined to care much about her and find myself more wrapped up in how life has shaped my views.  As far as Tropical Storms go, it's not that I've become complacent, it's just that I know the routine.  My spouse is an Emergency Responder so he may get deployed.  This means that when he left for work this morning, he may be gone for more then his normal shift.  I'm not worried about him as he is quite smart and has a bright engineering mind and can handle most anything.

As for my job, as I'm the Supervisor, I've had to oversee 'plans' for our continued operation.  We, also, can not just 'close up shop' and go home should the storm come our way.  We are, also, considered mandatory staff.  The beautiful part to this, is my employees are all great people who live for weather and what else does a Tropical Storm provide?  They are all thrilled to have a job that pays them to do what they love to do.

That leaves the home front.  Once again, I'm blessed.  I've got great kids.  My oldest is one of the most reliable people I've ever met.  The other two, learning from her example.  Where we live, we are pretty much safe from weather events.  That doesn't mean I wouldn't want to run from a catagory five (maybe even a four) hurricane, but it does mean that I don't have to fear a tropical storm or a lesser hurricane.

Should a tree fall down and block the road, or destroy a section of fence, we know how to use a chainsaw and mend said fence.  The biggest issue is losing power.  That would mean no water as we have a pump.  But even that is only a minor nussaince as we can hook up a generator and we're back in business. 

Being a resident of Florida for over thirty years now, sure has prepared us for the natural events that occur here.  I've lost count of how many storms I've weathered.  Anyway, this isn't what I started out to write and that doesn't mean that all others are or will be prepared.  Keep South Florida in your prayers (the island nations, too.)

God bless.

Vicki

Caylee, eighteen,  just graduated the Firefighting/EMT College and will be pursuing her Firefighting career as she also pursues her Paramedic Certificate. (And probably B.S. degree)

Next is Melissa, sixteen, and enrolled in Florida Virtual School  . 

Then there's George (and Rex), ten, unschooling. 

Here's our new computer center.  These two love sitting side by side as they work and play.

Melissa and Caylee are pursuing their Pilot's license.  George says he has no interest as he is currently afraid of heights.  George is pursuing computer game design and biology.

I don't know if George will ever do FLVS or not as he is so hard to place per grade which seems to be needed for these types of education.  Sometimes I wonder just where he has picked up his learning styles but I figure some are unique to him and his DNA, some he learns from his older sisters.  He's my only 'unschooler' and he loves it.  (The girls love format to their education.)

Sometimes, second guessing yourself can become an issue.

Unschooling is soooo differant then the main stream thought towards education most of us have been raised with. Myself and my spouse included.  It implies that the same way a child learns till age five, then contunies to learn after the "schooling years", doesn't need to have this twelve year blip.  The learning happens naturally and continuously, through those twelve years without 'forced learning' being inflicted on the child.  If you looked at George for an example, well, one would say unschooling works.  He is well ahead of his age level of learning even though he still has his silly 'boy' moments, lol.

When doubt or questions enter my head, I look up Curriculum Standards.  It helps me know what is considered the average learning and subjects that George should have a grasp of.  So far, so good.  George is way ahead of these, so I'm just going to keep feeding his interests and see where it leads.

Vicki

JoAnn suggested I post a few of the healthy meals we've been making lately.  So here's what we had for dinner tonight.

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry and Fresh baked Salmon with Creole Seasoning over Brown Rice

Melissa started the rice first as it takes so long to cook.  I prefer Minute Rice but since we are working towards changing habits to the more healthy options, we went for the long cooking brown rice. Caylee and I started chopping the veggies.  Here's the recipe. (We usually ad-lib it to suit our taste each time we make it and what we're in the mood for.)

1 can (14 oz) light coconut milk (we used fresh)

2 cloves of garlic chopped up

dash of lemon peel to taste

dash of lime peel to taste

1 cup sliced mushrooms (we skipped these tonight but not every time we make this)

2 cups asparagus tips

1 can baby corn

1 red pepper sliced

1 small head of bok choy stems sliced & leaves left whole

1/4 cup unsalted peanuts (Caylee doesn't like so she skips these)

red pepper flakes per taste buds

1 tbs light low sodium soy sauce

1 tbs fresh lime juice

1 tbs fresh lemon juice

fresh basil slivered

We throw the coconut milk, garlic, lemon and lime into a large wok and add heat. Then we add the veggies, peanuts (if I'm cooking, lol), and red pepper flakes.  Simmer for ten minutes or so.  Add the soy sauce, lime juice, lemon juice and basil, simmer while stirring constantly for a few minutes.  Skip the red pepper flakes if you don't like spice.

After the veggies were chopped, I prepared the fresh salmon by rinsing and patting it dry then lightly coating it with olive oil.  Tonight's choice of spice was creole seasoning so I sprinkled it on the fish then slipped the salmon into the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes.  You know it's ready when it flakes nicely.

I served this on my small retangular Oriental plates. A small portion of Salmon next to a small portion of rice covered in the Thai Vegetables dribbled with the coconut sauce.  Yum! George ate his with a side of fresh Sushi.  Caylee just wanted the Thai Vegetables with a small nibble of salmon. Melissa doesn't eat fish or anything else that sounds Oriental, so she had a chicken breast with baked beans cooked with pineapple. Grandma ate a heaping normal dinner plate loaded with everything.  ( I mention this as Grandma isn't holding weight yet she eats huge amounts. I'm just the opposite.) And for those who are wondering, my spouse is on duty so he gets leftovers tomorrow if he wants to try it.  I didn't think about pictures till after the kitchen was all cleaned up.