My name is Tammy and I am a homeschool mom of 4 - two boys and two girls. Welcome to my "Reel" world! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:06:00 -0500 Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:06:00 -0500 We are in the swing of summer now.  The school year ended with not much hoopla.  We just sort of . . . ended.  The little chickens are getting bigger and I think by August 1st we will be able to move them to the coop with the others.  We have officially ended our baseball season.  Last night was round two of Zach's baseball team championship games.  We lost to a very good team.  They had all very good hitters and very good runners.  It was a very nice season as the coaches were all very nice and not over zealous to live vicariously through their boys.  There was cheering and all that, but not to the point of making it drudgery to go to a game.  Our coach is a youth pastor at a local Alliance church which was neat.  Then last night we found out he is going on a mission trip and his group of kids are leaving Saturday.  Well, funny thing is, he is going on the same mission trip Rodger and Josh are leaving for on Friday.  They are going to Trujillo, Peru.  They will be gone till the 16th of July.  There are about 160 people going on this trip.  It is a district wide youth trip to Peru.  I am excited for them and especially for Josh because it will be a wonderful opportunity for him to see another country and the poverty that is prevelant in so many places (not that I am happy others are living in poverty, but to see what others go through will hopefully grow a heart of compassion in him).  I have missed out on my blog, but I have sort of taken a break from it for the summer.  Since I am not making money off of this thing, I don't feel so pressured to keep it going full tilt.  We just are so active and I forget I haven't been here and then "poof", where did that whole month go? One of our ducks thinks she is going to hatch an egg or two.  She is sitting down on her nest all the time.  I am thinking that we will not have any chicks.  This is the year they are to prove their worth.  According to the books I have read the ducks LOVE to eat japanese beetles.  I'm hoping so because we have quite a few of those buggers floating around our property.  They start to eat all the garden foods and then they go for the fruit trees and then the bushes and so it goes.   We just picked 1 1/3 gallons of black raspberries this morning.  I am going to make jam out of these and then with all the other bounty we get we will make cobblers and freeze them.  It was our first pick of the season.  One little funny moment from this morning was when Sophie had her bucket almost full and she tripped over a log and fell a little.  What do you think came out of my mouth first?  Was it, "are you o.k.?"  NO.  Was it, "did you hurt your foot/leg/face?"  Nope.  It was more along the lines of, "did you save the berries?"  Yep.  I am shamefull.  Hey, this season only comes once a year.   One does what one must do. On another note, some books I am reading/have read lately.  Uncle Tom's Cabin has been finished.  Highly recommend it if you have not read it. Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Good book worth a read. Reading "Saddam's Secrets"  by Gen. Georges Sada.  He was a very close person in Saddam's regime.  Mr. Sada just spoke at our church this past week and he shared lots of neat things concerning the wars and being under such a dictator.  Again, highly recommend it. So there is our summer in a nutshell so far.  I am sure I am missing something though.  Maybe that will give me something to write about.  I hope you all are doing well and hopefully I will be able to get around to your sites here soon. Most sincerely, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/554995/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:06:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/554995/ We have sucessfully navigated through one of the busiest months of the year for us.  I thought a few times I would loose my sanity.  Mostly on Tuesdays.  I think all four of our kids had to be somewhere at the same exact time almost every Tuesday.  On opposite ends of the county and into the next county.  It was kind of crazy for a while.  We are now at the bitter-sweet end of it all.  The culmination will be in two weekends when Sophie and Chloe have their spring concert for ballet.  I watched one of the dances last night and it is so good.  I can't wait to see the rest of the ballet and the modern and jazz pieces.  I will be soooo glad when we are done and we can relax a little and not have to be anywhere.  Ahhh, summer. So this past month we have had a lot going on.  Anissa and I took the three older kids (her two and one of mine) to Cincinnati for a major field trip.  We went to the National Underground Railroad Museum.  Highly recommended for a self guided tour.  We had a tour guide and he was very zealous about his job.  Also, we did not think he was going to let us leave!  We went from there over to the Cincinnati Aquarium for a trip.  While it was fun to see all the things they had and it was nice, I have to confess that it paled in comparison to the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach.  Now that place rocked.  After being unable to find the Aquarium, we finally got out of Cincinnati and headed south west to Hebron, Kentucky.  We went to the Creation Museum the next day.  We had a lovely nights stay in a hotel with a pool which the boys all loved.  We got up the next morning and zipped over to the Creation Museum.  The planetarium video was so awesome.  Anissa leaned over to me mid way through and said, "I don't know what they are talking about."  Now, lest you think she is ignorant, lets just say myresponse to her was,"blah, blah, blah."  We both got kind of lost in translation somewhere along the way.  Maybe it was when they started getting a little technical.  A little to technical for us.  Then Anissa was all, " look at the pretty light show!"  It was really cool to see all that God has made and how tiny we are compared to his creation.  I personally think it is interesting to note that the same stars I gaze upon in the evenings are the same stars that were in the sky so many years ago when the patriarchs were looking in the sky.  Surely there is some miracle in that. The museum was done 100% professionally.  They really went all out to do a fantastic job.  I highly recommend a trip there if you can.  My favorite was the Flood exhibit.  There was a video of what it could have been like for the earth to burst open and the waters to come over the earth.  Wow.  It really put into pictures what we read all the time and gave a visual.  That works for me.  Seems to have more of an impact. On another note, we bought more baby chicks.  This time around we bought some Barred Rock chickens.  Only hens.  I think one rooster is enough for our family!  The Barred Rocks are in the same family as the Partridge Rocks we already have.  A different color scheme going on.  Josh had his 13th birthday on May 3rd.  We have yet to have a friend party.  I am hoping to do that in the next couple of weeks.  We knew it would not float on his birthday because of all the soccer going on.  He was good with waiting.  He has been milking the whole, "It is my birthday.  My 13th birthday!" thing.  You would think turning 13 was some right of passage or something (chuckle, chuckle)?  I mean we only have three more years till we are looking at a license!  I'm voting for a moped for him.  Better on gas.  I hope you all have a wonderful week and your school year is coming to a close.  We are trying to get through till the end of the year.  No one wants to do anything - especially the mom!  Blessings, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/532036/ Wed, 14 May 2008 08:13:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/532036/ I am not really complaining about my lack of time to come and blog, but more just stating the facts!  We are in the thick of the crazy time and I have rarely been on this blog.  I do hope everyone is well.  We are doing well here.  We have actually had weather in the 70's.  I even have some serious weeds popping up!  You know, those pesky, pokie kind.  The apple trees are getting their leaves, as are the blueberry bushes and the peach/cherry trees!  We are getting our eggs from the little hens like clockwork.  They are so cute.  And that rooster - we call him Rambo, he is still quite feisty.  Although he has not attacked anyone lately.  My friend Lori was attacked by one of her roosters though and he poked a hole in her leg that oozed for 24 hours.  Lets just say that her roosters went to live down the road with someone else who wanted them.  They will probably become fox dinner, as the lady who wanted them said she wanted them because her roosters were taken away by some pesky fox.  By the time Lori was bleeding from the leg in two spots, she was all, "So when do you want them?"  I digress. We are trying to wrap up the school year here soon.  We have our testing next week and the kids are just giddy with excitement (hahahaha).  It is always so hard to do school after testing.  We all seem to just fade away.  Do you know what my consolation package to myself is?  "Well, kids that are in school are having field trips by the droves, field day, movies in class, class parties, help the teacher clean out the room, etc . . .*"  I know some of you must surely do that too?  Right?  *I know this to be true because Josh was in school for first grade and also the second half of his 6th grade year.  Believe me, it happens.  I am not trying to be mean, just stating the facts. We received our two books in the mail, Why Gender Matters, by Dr. Leonard Sax, and The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto.  Really great books.  Rodger is reading Gatto's book right now and I am reading Sax's book.  Wow is all we can say.  Get them for yourselves and give them a good read.  You'll not regret it.  I am still amazed at the amount of physiological differences between boys and girls.  Truly amazed.  I never learned any of this stuff in nursing school.  Let alone the owners manual I got with Josh at the hospital after birth! Another random thought:  two gals at church had babies about a month ago and so I was out getting baby gifts for them.  Can I tell you it makes me want the have like, 10 more kids everytime I go to the Carters store or Children's Place.  Or OshKosh B'Gosh!  Well, Rodger seemed to think I had tons of blogging fodder, but I might be in the midst of a writers cramp since being away for so long.  Hopefully I will get it all back.  Soon. I'm just closing with the above photo of yours truly.  I took this of myself whilst coming home from MB last October.  You might not be able to see all the frekles up close, but the original is quite apparent.  Meanwhile, after a long vitamin d (sun) deprivation from our long winter I looked in the mirror.  Wow.  I am the embodiement of whiteness.  I was thinking I would get some sun here soon, and low and behold, I was burned just the other day.  Apparently this Ohio sun is quite fierce.  Or maybe I am just to pale.  Well, have a wonderful week and hopefully you are getting some nice weather wherever you are.  Blessings, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/520188/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/520188/ I had a lovely entry earlier that detailed what we have been doing.  Apparently it did not enter?  Sometimes I love the cyberworld!  A Lot!  I had done such a quick entry that I can't even remember what I had written. Oh, yea, it was about how our lives have entered the twilight zone.  Meaning, it is soccer season!  We will see the light of day in a calm way in about a month. We have games for three kids and two kids are doing ballet.  One child is doing soccer and ballet - Chloe.  For all of the craziness that goes on, I do enjoy soccer.  It is good to see the kids get out and play.  I enjoy getting to see moms that have been holed up in their homes all winter.  It is good catch up time.  This week we had a fellow come over and clear about 1/2 an acre of land.  While he was pushing trees over, Rodger was using the chainsaw to chop them up.  Note to chainsaw users:  Always use safety helmet you REQUESTED for Christmas.  Why?  Because sometimes when you are sawing a tree you might hit an area of high tension and get a little kickback reaction.  Translated:  you might almost cut your entire head off!  Yes, that happened to Rodger this week.  He was sawing a tree branch off and the aforementioned tension occured and his saw kicked back on him and knocked him over.  Fortunately his Echo chainsaw has a device that turns the chain off when this occurs.  What was Rodgers reward?  Only a slight knick on his forehead.  Lets just say that he was looking for his safety helmet post-haste.  We are giving thanks to God for watching over him and for keeping his guardian angels on duty that day.  He was pretty sure he cut his head off before he realized that all was still intact. I am now off to finish up some housework.  My lot in life - laundry.  I won't know what to do with myself when there is only Rodger and I left to do laundry for.  Maybe I will offer to go to some tired moms house and do her laundry because I will miss it so much!!  HA! Blessings for your week, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/512091/ Mon, 7 Apr 2008 14:17:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/512091/ *I am in need of some direction on why my links to all my highlighted areas are not working.  What on earth am I doing wrong?  Apparently I missed the memo that I am not doing it correctly.  So PLEASE leave me a little memo as to what I am doing incorrectly.  Thanks, Tammy How does one manage to go to a homeschool conference and miss tons of opportunities to take pictures with a camera?  The camera I took specifically to get some pictures of us at the conference.  But, alas, I managed to forget the camera in the hotel room every single time we went out.   The conference itself was good.  We heard Todd Wilson from Family Man Ministries.  Terrific sense of humor with very encouraging message for wives and husbands.  Andrew Pudewa We heard of Institute for Excellence In Writing.  Again, a very powerful speaker.  He had an excellent session on "Teaching boys and other children who would rather make forts all day."  I am still processing what he said and infact, I bought the cd of that session to listen to again.  He recommended three books to read.  Go to your death $5,000.00 in debt if you have to just to get these books and read them (tongue in cheek)!  #1, a one Dr. Sax.  Don't remember the title to his book, but it is a good description of the boy/girl differences (addendum: Peduwa does not believe/agree with everything that is in this book, but nonetheless, it is an excellent book). #2, John Taylor Gattos book called, The Underground History of Education.  Now, you should probably be willing to go $10,000.00 in debt to add this book to your collection (again, tongue in cheek).  But READ IT.  You will be a better person and definately depressed about the lack of hope of the institution of public school. *editors note: I realize that there are many good teachers in public schools, and in fact, there are some really good schools out there, but that does not mean that there is not an agenda.  There is.  Go here to see what is happening in bigger cities and will be coming to a school near you soon. #4, To round off your reading and to bring you back to the light, finish off your reading of #2 with, "A Thomas Jefferson Education".  It is not just about Thomas Jefferson, but more about he and his contemporaries' education.  More of a classical bent to the book.  If any of you have used the IEW program, drop me a note and give me your opinions.  Before I decide to use this program, I would like to get some feedback from others who have been in the trenches with it.  Thanks in advance for any feedback Oh, when going to a conference of this magnitude, one hopes to be encouraged and refreshed.  Not to mention a small platter of guilt.  Anissa and I knew it was a success when we walked out of one of the sessions and we had guilt! Seriously, there was some conviction about being nice to other peoples' kids but not our own.  Ouch!  A really good reminder that because my kids "know" I love them, it does not mean I get a free license to be a booger-head to them.  Because if the truth were to be told, I am hard on them at times.  Harder than I need to be.  One of the highlights of being there was the vendor hall.  So, Anissa and I prepared ourselves for this overwhelming joy/excitement/nirvanah like experience by having our own paper bag ready.  Last year it was ugly!  We both walked in and BOOM!  It was all there.  LampLighter books, Rainbow Resource(my favorite), Peace Hill Press, Sonlight (which, by the way, as we were pulling out of our driveway, Rodger grabbed the mail and there it was!  My new catalog!), IEW, Memoria Press(not that we actually did  our latin).  And many more.  Check out the website of the convention to see all the vendors.  Indeed, it is an experience to behold.  Jeannie Fulbright was there, but I did not get to hear her speak. Jessie Wise was there, but I did not get to hear her speak either.  Or rather, I chose not to go to her because she had titles that made me think she might just be repeating what the book already says (Susan did that last year).  I have to confess, that last years line up was a little better than this years, but overall it was still wonderful. We had THREE dinners without any children!  The hotel we were at was the "Not so Comfortable Inn".  We had St. Mary's LaCrosse team with us the first night.  They took their fish nets out in the hall at 1/2/3 am and were practicing for the next days big game.  Oh, that was after the NCAA basketball game was over.  How do we know that an NCAA b-ball game was on you might be wondering?  Well, those little morsels were right under us and we heard it all!  Then, last night we had a Detroit Basketball team with us.  They were out till 2/3 am yelling around the hallway area.  So really, it was just like home with all the lack of sleep.  The pillows rocked though!  They were so cozy!  We had another couple from our church who were there without their three littles and they lead us to a fine dining experience of ecclectic Italian.  The restaurant was somewhere in Cincinnati.  We then stopped at Graeters Ice Cream shop across the street to end the night.  Ahhhh, living in non-reality was fun for a few days .  So now we are back home and the kids are still with aunt and uncle for the night.  They will be back tomorrow sometime. Shhh, don't tell Anissa I told you so, but her husband took us to Dayton on the "way" to Cincinnati.  Apparently he was in the midst of such stimulating conversation that he missed his turn. We all had a good chuckle about it.  I mean, it was only 48 miles out of the way.  Really, it is a non-issue.  Just don't tell her I told you!  O.K. here are some of the pictures I said I would get posted:  This is Monty, the "Barrel around the neck" dog.  He is a friends dog. Here are two pictures of the kids doing eggs. Chloe's Opus Magnum. . . Josh.  What else can I say?  I know God has got great plans for this boy! So, we went, we saw, we conquered.  I shopped for a few things, although I am not exactly sure of everything we are doing next year.  I need to finish this year first.  We joined HSLDA for the first time ever.  Gary DeMar spoke and just listening to him makes me want to give him my money.  In the form of a book purchase, of course!  I will probably pull out snippets of the weeks happenings as I process it all.  Hopefully I will not forget everything I heard.  Have a wonderful week and feel free to leave a comment on the IEW  program. Blessings, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/507199/ Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/507199/ I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter Day with your families.  Ours was a very low key day.  My sister-in-law was up for the day with the cousins(brother-in-law could not make it).  The cousins were here on Friday and spent the weekend.  The kids all had fun.  I ended up having ALL 11 cousins at my house on Friday (11 includes my four) for some egg decorating and play time.  They all did well.  Unless you count my youngest male nephew.  He is somewhat of a terrorist and enjoys chasing the ducks/chickens.  Apparently he had visions of Jedi Knighthood and slaying my birds.  He was chasing them with a large stick of sorts and got ahold of one of the ducks.  Josh set him quite straight!  You see, Josh may get chased by the rooster but he is quite fond of the birds and can't stand to see someone chasing/hurting them.  I was pulling for Rambo Rooster to get Caleb.  But he didn't.  By the way, we now call our rooster Rambo.  We were swaying between Rambo and Terminator.  Rambo has won.  Anyway, we decorated eggs and had cookies and wreaked havoc on my home.  The pics. will come but I have not gotten them on the computer yet.  We went to the dollar theater on Saturday night and saw National Treasure part two.  Way good show.  And it was P.G.  If you liked part one you will like part two.  Of course Rodger, being the eternal realist, did not like it that Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) could figure stuff out so quickly.  It just is not real.  But who goes to the movies for a reality check?  Not me.  The world needs realists like him though.  Tonight we had our kids Talent Show with our homeschool group.  Zach played piano and Sophie did a little skit with her friend Mackenzie.  Rodger looked at me after the first song and said in a VERY quiet whisper, "This is going to be a loooong night."  Yep.  I have to say that overall it was a good night and so many of the kids got up and did something in front of a lot of people!  I could not have sang a song in front of all those people!  I would have sweat bullets and turned like, 20 shades of red.  I can talk in front of people, but don't ask me to sing! It was cute to see them showing off their talents.  Hey, an update on Jenny.  Today her incision on her head began leaking fluid and her husband took her to the dr.  She has to go in tomorrow for another surgery to place a shunt in her brain to re-route the spinal fluid that is going into her brain area.  If the Lord reminds you, please continue to pray for her and her family.  She will also be seeing an Oncologist who is known to be very upfront and not the most positive.  He tends to give you all the negatives and then hope for the best.  I do not think this is all a bad thing for them.  Her husband is still in a kind of denial (I do not begrudge him what he is going through, just stating where he is emotionally).  Thanks for praying for them.  Well, have a great week.  I will be off to the Midwest Homeschool Conference in TWO DAYS.  Of course I will miss my children.  I will probably loose sleep and need to come home early.  I know it is time for a little get-a-way when my "rose colored glasses" came off and Rodger actually bothered me.  Hmph. See ya on the other side of the conference.  God Bless, Tammy  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/504908/ Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/504908/ Me:  Josh, would you please go and feed/water and collect eggs from the chickens. Josh:  Sure. *fast forward a little bit* Josh, bursting in the house.  Obviously disgruntled and/or other fuming emotions spilling forth Me:  What on earth is the matter?  Josh:  I want that rooster dead!  Me:  Well what happened (I confess to my desire to know when the rooster attacks.  I have to blog about something.  And when I'm irritated it gives me a vision of something to laugh at)? Josh:  He ruffled his feathers at me!!! Me: Hahahahahahahahahahaha. end conversation Seriously.  The rooster ruffled his feathers at Josh!  My nearing 100 pound child is upset because the rooster ruffled his feathers at him.  Rooster - ll        Josh - 0.  I think I'll post this on our dry erase board. *Please be in prayer for a family in our homeschool group.  They have 3 children in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grades and also the mom's teenage sister lives with them because the mother/younger sisters mom died a few years back.  The mom in this family was just diagnosed with brain cancer and had surgery to remove it last week.  Her family is reeling with shock and they are very scared.  The mom, Jenny, is paralyzed on her right side (don't know if it is permanent or just a temporary thing).  The 8th grader is trying to care for the mom right now.  They also are disconnected from a church right now. God bless, Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/501971/ Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:32:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/501971/ Well, we went from this: To this: To this: And now we are all back to this: And Duchess want to wish you all a wonderful week! Here are some of our past week happenings: 1.  We almost ran over a deer in our driveway. 2.  We had a three legged deer in our yard.  I have no clue what happened to the fourth leg.  3.  Brutus had a possum in his mouth.  The possum was playing dead and when Rodger got the dog to drop the possum it laid there for about 5 minutes and then got up and trotted off.  Rodger had gotten a shovel to dispose of the "dead" possum and when he nudged it with aforementioned shovel, off it went.  It was all like, "wow.  thanks dude for getting that mangey pooch off of me.  I thought I was toast." 4.  Rooster attacked Brutus.  Brutus deserved it since he was going after Rambo's harem.  5.  Rooster attacked Josh.  Josh attacked Rooster.  Rooster won!  6.  Chloe pushed the emergency call button in the mall bathroom.  We had to wait and tell the guy on the intercom that oops!  My little daughter "accidentally" pushed the button.  No sir, there is not an emergency in the womens bathroom.  Yes, that is my face completely red from embarrasment.  Yes, I know you can't see my face, but it is still red.  And by the way, it is way to hot in this bathroom. 7.  Two minutes later Chloe managed to make the alarm go off in the next store we were in.  She was clutching a webkinz to her chest!  8.  Rodger filled out Zach's summer baseball form.  checked off female?  What?  "I guess I read it wrong."  9.  They say the third time is a charm, so we got Josh's passport after driving downtown for the third time with all our proper paperwork etc. . . All in all, it was a good week.  God is indeed good because I still have my sanity! We are going through Benjamin's Box and the Resurection Eggs this week. Our church cantata was yesterday.  We are going to make the traditional easter egg coloring day this week.  Hopefully we will be able to do an egg hunt for them this week.  I think we are supposed to get a lot of rain.   Blessings for your week, Tammy  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/499731/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/499731/ Well, we have lived through a mild snow storm to an ice storm to a blizzard and I am going to bet (but only if I were a "bettin'" kind of woman) that by Thursday/Friday we will be well into a flood!  We just experienced a good, hearty blizzard.  Small in comparison to the Blizzard of '78, but a blizzard none-the-less.  We had about 14" of snow from Friday morning till Saturday night.  It was so much fun.  Rodger was having a blast on his baby, the Kubota.  He picked up a drag blade from a neighbor who can't use it and he is in plowing heaven.  The city was pretty much shut down.  Even the plow trucks weren't out because they could not keep up with all of the falling snow.  Every church was closed on Sunday.  The kids did some kind of happy dance because they did not have to get up early for church.  Is that good? or bad?  We ventured out on Friday night to go down the road to go skiing.  Not to bad getting there.  A little slow, but fun.  Saturday when we went out I knew that we probably would not get back up.  Except with our two legs.  We ended up sliding down the driveway sideways for a good 10 - 15 feet.  Wow, was that fun.  But Rodger is the man.  He righted that ole' Durango and off we went.   So today was almost 40 deg. outside with sun and clouds. We had a death in the family this past week.  Thursday night our sweet doggie of 10 years died. This is what he did best.  Sit.  Oh, he had a big bark too!  Here is the obituary that Rodger wrote.    Duke died last night after a short unknown illness. Just coughed a few times in the kennel and that was it. He just turned 10 on Valentine's day. Duke loved to eat and bark for more food. He is survived by his loving family Tammy, Josh, Sophie, Zach, Chloe, Rodger, grandpas, grandmas, and fellow kennel mates Brutus and Duchess. He had no children (no thanks to his loving family). He is proceeded in death by his mother Hershey who was hit by a car on SR309. Funeral services to be announced. I think it should be said to all that my DH is NOT the life of the party.  In fact, he is not a real laugher.  Don't get me wrong, he is not grumpy or unlovable/unlikable.  It just takes a lot to get him to laugh.  He is more of a serious minded person.  I, on the other hand, could talk to the wall and I laugh a lot.  Seriously.  A. LOT.  This whole obituary is so out of character for Rodger to have written.  It really made me laugh.  Even putting it on here  made me laugh again looking at it.  It is a funny, creative work of art from Rodg.  We really did love our dog though.  I miss him because he was the only one who wouldn't jump on you.  Althoug he did that aplenty in his more youthful days.    Rose colored glasses.  Other than the crazy weekend, there is not much new going on here.  We had a really great day of productivity today.  We are going to be going to the Cincy Homeschool Conference on the 28th.  Grandma and Grandpa will be here with the kids.  And the Smith & Wesson Anissa and I are going on an overnight to Cinci in May to go to the Creation Museum/Planetarium, Underground Railroad Museum and the Cincy Aquarium.  We are going to take the older kids only.  They will enjoy it so much more and we will get more out of it.  So that is what is going on and what is coming up.  I am looking forward to spring getting here.  Enjoy your week! Tammy     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/496387/ Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/496387/ We had a very nice weekend.  We cleaned up the house pretty well on Saturday and went to a movie by 12:45p.m.  I did end up taking the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks.  I think it was cute overall.  I am realllllly glad we did not spend money for the big theatre.  There aren't to many movies that I can say I am glad I spent the full amount for.  On Saturday night we had the Anissa clan over to have a little impromtu party for Tylers 12th birthday.  Mass chaos ensued when it was the opening of the gifts time.  The "BIG ONE" was a Nintendo Ds and you should have seen the excitement.  New Yorks Power grid had nothin' on the excitement in our house.  Then of course we took a picture with all the children lined up with their ds's.  Wow.  They know how to get that "glazed" look in their eyes on command.  Anissa tells the kids to look kind of zoned out and BAM, they were there.  That was kind of scary! Sunday we went to Malabar Farm where there was a Maple Syrup Festival going on.  Upon arrival we got into a very long line to wait the get on a horse drawn wagon.  The wagon was to take us on a nostalgic producing ride up the lane to a sugar shack.  There were demonstrations and such at the destination.  Meanwhile I have some hyperactive child screaming in my ear on my "nostalgic" ride up the lane.  Oh, and the driver behind us with his horse and buggy caught up to us and let his horses come right up to our back end seats.  Lets just say that horses do sneeze and it ain't pretty!  When we got to the top of the hill and exited the nostalgic wagon ride we went directly to the first demo. spot.  It was a demo. by some true native americans on how their ancestors would make syrup.  Quite a neat process.  Apparently Native Americans died more from periodontal diseases than any other form of death.  They were pretty unhygenic (according to Mr. Indian).  This particular gentelman (not the one pictured though) was an actor in the Johnny Appleseed production we had in our local area.  He also has been on several documentaries portraying the indian in the 1700's.  He is a very nice fellow to chat with.  The guy we got a photo of gave Sophie a buckeye nut/seed.  He did think to tell her that she should not eat it since she was not a squirrel.  Hmmmm. By the time we got to the modern day sugar shack Rodger realized that his dream of having a maple syrup farm was fading quickly.  You need to have 43 gallons of sap to equal one gallon of syrup.  You can only have three taps per tree and your trees need to be at least a 14" diameter.  On ten acres of land we will be hard pressed to find the right amount of trees.  Since about half of our trees are pine that leaves approximately, oh say 12 maples left!  So, scratch the syrup farm idea.  Next.  While we were there we purchased two bags of maple flavored cotton candy and one stick of maple beef jerky(Josh).  We were able to watch four older men (read: as old as the hills) play in their bluegrass band.  That is so much fun for me to watch.  The kids like it too.  They played all kinds of music with their guitars and banjo's and violins.  They are just so darn cute!  Plus they are clearly having a good time.  The Anissa clan came trooping in after us and then it all went down from there.  Not that it was Anissas fault.  Somehow, our boys have this fine art of loosing things.  Namely inhalers for their asthma.  Like one minute it is packed in their overnight bag and the next - it just "disappeared".  That would be Zach's gift.  The child loves to loose his inhalers.  So all is good and fun until we realize that Zach can't breath.  Nice.  We are 10 minutes by walking from the car where the inhaler is supposedly packed in their bag from having spent the night with the boys.  So the men trot off to get the inhaler and we hitch a ride with yet another nostalgic horse drawn wagon.  Meanwhile Zach is stressing out just because he can't breath.  I mean, really!  We're all trying to encourage  him to just hang on b/c we are only going 2.2 mph and surely we will be there before the trees bud in May.  So we get to our drop off point and go off to the car where the men are getting the inhaler.  Funny thing is - it is not there.  No where to be found.  Josh had it packed up and ready for departure from the spendover.  Zach decided he needed to use it and he laid it on the counter and then it just "disappeared".  It was the ghost of "Not Me".  Somehow it showed up in the schoolroom at Anissas house.  Things that make ya go hmmm.  So now we are only about 7 minutes from home and we decided to just go ahead and go.  Poor Anissa woke up in the middle of the night dreaming that Zach was dying from not being able to breath.  We were all a little stressed/concerned for the poor little critter.  Then you have the older brother whispering sweet words of comfort to Zach.  "You are fine Zach.  You don't need the inhaler."  This is coming from the boy who also has asthma and knows full well how awful it feels to not have the relief of an inhaler.  All ended well as we flew home and zipped in and got the inhaler.  Did I actually sign up for this stuff when we decided to have kids? So here are the pictures of our drama filled weekend.  Sophie took the pictures.     So there is our weekend in review.  We had a nice weekend and all the snow has melted in our area.  We are now on to ice storms coming in.  Yea!  When you want different weather in Ohio just wait a few minutes.  It will change.  I hope you all had nice weekends and have a great week. P.S.  While I was writing this post Josh was the first to go on the maiden voyage of eating one of our duck eggs.  He said it was fine, but he did almost throw up because he got a raw spot where he had not cooked it enough.  HAHAHAHAHA!  O.K. it kind of made me giggle a little.  Tammy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/491958/ Mon, 3 Mar 2008 21:52:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/6reelpeople/491958/