Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts. ~Prov. 21:2 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:20:00 -0500 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:20:00 -0500 Yoo hoo, anybody home?  LOL  I know, it has been 18 months since I last posted here.  I didn't realize it had been quite that long until today, when someone asked me for help with her blog on HSB, and I logged into mine.  Wow.  Time flies when you're busy homeschooling four kids -- and in the last 5-6 months, I would also have to admit that I joined Facebook and sometimes am addicted.     Well, let's see.  Guess I should bring you up to speed on how old the kids are now:  oldest DD is 10, my DSs are 8 and 5 1/2, and the youngest DD is 3 1/2.       That's all for now.  Please leave a comment if you read this.    God bless, Lori. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/708553/ Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:20:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/708553/ I was at a stop light, facing a local Tire Discounters store, and they had those words on their sign.  Did you figure it out?  I did, although it took me a a few seconds longer than it did DD9!     If you haven't figured it out yet, try saying with with a Svee-dish accent.    Okay, maybe I will blog again soon, and actually post a picture.  Have I mentioned yet that we did buy a new camera?    Have a great weekend --     -Lori. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/649404/ Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/649404/ As Lepidoptera pointed out, I have not been blogging lately.  Actually, she "tagged" me about two weeks ago (give or take two weeks), and I haven't even looked at her blog to see what I'm supposed to do.  So sorry, dear friend.  It is certainly not that I don't love you dearly; I just can't seem to make time for blogging.    Much is happening for my dear friends in the blogosphere.  Lepidoptera and her family just moved -- much closer to us, but still not as close as I would like.  Next door would be preferable .  But we'll make it work.  Jim and Kelly are rapidly closing in on the arrival of their baby boy.  The other blogger Lori isn't moving or expecting (at least if she is, she hasn't told me), but you should still check out her blog anyway, because she has some really adorable pictures of her twins asleep in various venues.     OH -- I guess I should get around to my subject, as you are thinking, "What does your title mean, anyway?"  That is a common quotation from DD2 around here these days.  You see, she can't just ask me a question one time; she has to ask it two or three or even more times in rapid succession, without waiting for an answer, or even asking it again when I have answered it because she is not listening...so I say to her, "Ask once..." or hold one finger up and she says, "Ax One Sand Weight."   Translation:  Ask once and wait.  She still doesn't really "get it" yet, but maybe someday soon, she will.    There is one more funny floating around in my brain, courtesy of DS4.  Yesterday morning, I was running through the day's agenda with the kids, so I included "and then we'll go to the polls".  Well, a little while later, DS4 asked me, "So when are we going to Kohl's?"  LOL    Alas, I must again depart the blogosphere in search of some clean real estate in the kitchen.  I would not take a picture of my kitchen right now even if my camera were working -- I'd be too embarrassed.  I have determined that I will not go to bed until it is spic and span.  We'll see how long my resolve and the caffeine holds out.    -Lori.        http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/615342/ Wed, 5 Nov 2008 23:31:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/615342/ Our camera is on the frizz (it "eats" two batteries after just a few pictures), and, really, I don't have time to log into my Flickr account and upload photos right now because I'm trying to finish the year's lesson planning before we start school a week today, so a few funny stories will have to do.    Last night, I went to lie down for a few minutes with DS4 at bedtime (because he was Crew Chief yesterday).  I thought I caught a whiff of something, so I asked him, "Did you fluffy?"  He said no, but I asked again, "Are you sure?"  He responded:     "I know when I fluffy because I can feel my bummy cheeks wiggle."      I still chuckle when I think about that!     Then, there was DD2 when I was putting her down for her nap.  I asked her to do something, and her response sounded like, "Donkey odor...not nice".  It took me a few seconds to figure out what she was saying.  She was saying, "Don't give orders; it's not nice."  See, when she tells me to do something without using the word "please", I usually say, "Don't give Mommy orders; it's not nice."  But donkey odor isn't nice, either -- LOL!        [I did explain to her, of course, that it's okay for Mommy to give her orders, but not the other way around.] http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/575010/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:01:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/575010/ Our local school district goes BTS (BTS is what my sisters and sister-in-law, all public school teachers, call Back To School -- they won't say it, LOL!)  in two weeks, "Create Notice of Intent" was at the top of my to-do list last night.  I scanned the kids' Iowa test results and printed copies, quickly changed the dates in last year's letter to the local school district, and zipped through the intended curriculum/resource lists for both DD9 and DS7.  We are not making any curriculum changes this year, really, and I didn't go over it with a fine-toothed comb like I am normally inclined to do, so I was finished in record time.      Seeing the bulging envelope sitting on my planner stand, addressed and ready to go, was exciting.  Am I the only one that feels this way? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/571775/ Thu, 7 Aug 2008 22:57:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/571775/ I just checked Lepidoptera's blog to catch up on her family (and read about the tadpoles, but I didn't quite get to that entry yet), when I noticed that her link to my blog shows the timeframe of my last entry:  1 month.  OH MY.  Has it really been that long?    Well, it is already late, so I am just going to cut-paste-and-quickly-edit an e-mail I sent to my extended family members three weeks ago, when one of my sisters asked for an update on what the nieces and nephews are doing these days (mine are the only ones that haven't graduated high school!).    Saturday night, DD9, DS7, DS4 and DD2 went to Midsummer at the Meadows (accompanied by their parents, of course) and enjoyed riding the rides, eating smoothies, hot dogs, popcorn, and Italian ices (not simultaneously), and playing on the playground.  DD9 particularly liked the “Fear Factory”, although she wondered why they called it that because it didn’t make her fearful.  DS4, on the other hand, looked very serious on the kiddie roller coaster.  DH thought DD2 was too short for the kiddie rides, but Mommy wasn’t so sure, so I stood her up at the measuring spot and sure enough, she just made it!  She got to ride the cars and jump around in the little blow-up house with her big brother DS4.       DS7, when I was making fruit dip earlier that afternoon for lunch at church Sunday, asked, “Next time we have lunch at church, can you make Chocolate Mountain Dew again?”  My reaction was a combination of confusion (knowing I have never made that before and wondering what he was really talking about) and disgust (thinking about what chocolate + MD would taste like together – blecchhhhh).  We quickly realized that he really meant to say “Chocolate Fondue”.       Yesterday afternoon, DD2 grabbed a bowl of cereal that had been sitting for a while, and started to eat it.  I grabbed it away from her and said, “Don’t eat that; it’s gross.”  She replied, “I want gwoss, Mama.  I want gwoss.”      This morning, I took the kids for pictures.  DD2 woke up first, and before she even found me, she found a red marker and decorated both palms and one forearm with it.  What is it about a pending portrait appointment that makes my daughters want to give themselves a makeover?  [For those of you who haven't heard this story, it goes like this:  when DD9 was 5, our next-door neighbor A (then 6) gave her a haircut a day or two before our family portrait…her bangs were cut down to the roots and her shoulder-length hair was roughly chin-length by the time the little beautician was finished.]  The good news is, all the marker came off.  If it hadn’t, I would have taken them anyway.  J     Just a little while ago, DD4 came up to me to whisper in my ear, like I do to him about every day (“Who’s my favorite four-year-old, loving, handsome…[etc. etc.]…man?).  He got a little confused about my age, though. He remembered there was a 9 in there somewhere, so he said, “Who’s my favorite 90-year-old, loving, beautiful Mom?”      On that note, this old woman's up waaaay past her bedtime...     G'night, all --    -L. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/570095/ Tue, 5 Aug 2008 00:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/570095/ In an attempt to keep our identity anonymous from strangers, I have not been using my children's real names, nor pictures of them.  In the process, I have created The World's Most Boring Blog because I only have images of things like burned-out cars and fixer-upper ones -- and very few pictures, period.  So here goes: Above this text, there should be a picture of "the bunch" (sans DD2, who was inside visiting with Grandma) from DD9's birthday party.  The first time I inserted it, I couldn't remember how to resize it, but now I think I've got it.     I will probably add more party pics later.     At least I finally "bit the bullet".  -L. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/551751/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:39:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/551751/ DH and I thought he was going to be finished with our broken-down car on Sunday, but he had an accident and hurt his right middle finger (perhaps a relevant point here is that he is left-handed).  His mother, sister and niece [I wasn't there and he hadn't even called me yet] were trying to talk him into going to get it x-rayed, but to no avail.  He said it really wasn't that painful; mostly it felt "stretched" from the swelling.  When I asked him if he could move it, he said he could bend it in the middle but the tip was pretty swollen, so he couldn't bend the first joint.    Once he was home later that day, I asked him some set of questions that led him to say he was not experiencing much pain, but the nail bed was still throbbing.  I chuckled and said, "For the record, most people consider 'throbbing' to be pain -- just so you know for future reference."  LOL      Well, today, the swelling spread toward his palm, the pain picked up just a little bit, and one of his co-workers, Dave, thought he really should have it checked.  Since Dave has been in both farming and the Navy, DH assumes he is familiar with injury and just "grinning and bearing it" most of the time, so Dave's reaction is what finally motivated him to call his doctor.  He went for xrays about 10:00 this morning, but then had to wait all day to hear the results.  He and his friend looked at the xrays and didn't see anything.    He finally received a call tonight:  it's broken in AT LEAST two places!     I have always teased my husband about being insensitive (that is, not empathetic toward the pain and discomfort of other people), but now we have "empirical" proof!  LOL     Please don't misunderstand me:  I do sympathize with him, although I do find it curious that he feels so little pain relative to the magnitude of his injury.  I think both of us are just blessed right now to be focusing on the fact that things could be so much worse, and kind of taking this in stride -- even finding whatever humor that can be found in it.    -L.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/548708/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/548708/ Well, I was thinking I might not post this because it might just be a boring "laundry list" of <yawn> household chores, but it looks like Lori2 double-dog dared me, so here goes:     First, I overslept, because I accidentally set the alarm for PM (DH says I'm good at that).  If memory serves me correctly, (although I did wake up at about 7:30 and look at the clock, I rolled back over, fell asleep, and) I finally got out of bed at 9:45 a.m.  My DH and I have a derogatory term for ourselves when we sleep in that late, but it's not PC so I'm not going to blog it.      I made myself two fried eggs for breakfast, along with a piece of toast -- more like half a piece of toast, because I had sent most of the whole wheat bread with the rest of the family.     I ground three batches of wheat.  I have a Grain Mill attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer (mine is an older version than the one in this picture; I like the looks of mine better because it has actually has a "picture" of a mill cast in the iron on the front, although this one may beat mine for efficiency, I don't know), so I can only grind 6 c. of wheat berries at a time.  Then I have to wait 45 min. before I can run another batch.  I pre-measured two or three loaves' worth into quart-size Ziploc freezer bags, dumped the rest into two gallon-sized bags, and placed all of them in the freezer.     I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker.     I ran a towel and a hand towel through our faux front-loader washing machine with a cup of Clorox.  I know, something is wrong with this picture, having to clean a washing machine.  But that is what I do, usually about every six days, to keep our clean laundry smelling like clean laundry should smell.     Somewhere in this timeframe, I seem to recall unloading the dishwasher and emptying the dish drainer as well, maybe handwashing some things, and straightening the kitchen somewhat.  Maybe I should go back and read my first post to see where I was...       Okay, true confessions here.  I hadn't cleaned up the eat-in area of the kitchen from the day before when the kids had played with Play-Doh in there.   So I still had to sweep the kitchen floor.  I moved the table and chairs out of the way, and even swept adjacent areas in the family room, dining room, hallway and foyer closet just for sport.  You should have seen the piles of Play-doh, crumbs, etc., that I collected -- er, no, you shouldn't have seen them.  I probably would have been embarrassed.      I also spent more time in the playroom, but not nearly as much as the day before.  Maybe 45 minutes on the playroom and the schoolroom.      I think I started cleaning myself up for the wedding at 1:45, so the above is supposedly 4 hours' worth of work.  I know, once it's there in black and white (or white and purple, in the case of this blog), it doesn't seem like much.  My 85-year-old mother probably could have shaved 1:15 off my time.  Just call me Slacker Mom -- oh, wait, that's Lori2's old blog.  Guess you have to call me Coaster Mom.  LOL      God bless, Lori. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/547582/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/547582/ Okay, I think I need to rewind to last Saturday morning at 9:20, so you know why I am joking that I am on summer vacation tonight.  Bear with me, as I am probably going to "chase a few rabbits" before I actually get to tonight.      Last Saturday morning, DH left early to run some errands and I was home with the kids.  He called at 9:20 a.m. to say "the Big Burg" (our nickname for the car he was driving) had broken down.  Well, the car is only 12 years old with about 150,000 miles on it, so I was not surprised -- I expect it to happen periodically, and just pray that it won't happen at 65 mph on the highway.  When he told me where to come pick him up, I immediately said, "Thank you, Lord," because he was in a parking lot about seven minutes from home!     He was cutting through two rows of parking spaces in between a Panera Bread and mobile phone store, lining himself up for the drive-thru ATM at the bank next door, when the ball joint on the front driver's side of the car suddenly gave out.  The car just went SLAM!, right down on the left front tire.  The slightly funny part of the story is that there was a guy washing the windows of the mobile phone place, and the loud THUD directly behind him, just about made the poor guy jump out of his skin!    So, the kids and I hopped in our other car and headed over to pick him up.  I almost cried when I saw the car sitting diagonally in the middle of a bank of empty parking spaces, again thanking God that he was safe.  Several hours later, the car was towed to my MIL's house about 45 min. away.  She has a barn and DH keeps a lot of tools out there, so it's easier to work on cars there than it is here.   Soooo....DH has been at his mom's much of his free time since then, working on the car.     Tomorrow night, DH and I have a wedding and reception to attend, so we had already asked his mom and sister to keep the kids overnight.  Since the car is still not finished, he decided to spend the night out there, so he worked on the car tonight and will continue to work on it tomorrow.  While he was going to be there, he figured he might as well take the kids out tonight, too.  Soooo...that leaves me with the house to myself tonight and most of the day tomorrow, which -- as you might imagine -- doesn't happen very often.     So what did I do?  First, I took a nap.  An hour-and-a-half nap with about 30 minutes of hitting the snooze.    I stayed up late last night, so that I take full responsibility for, but then as I was going to bed, DD2 woke up.  She kept scratching her wrist (she has eczema), she wanted "muk" [milk], she was a bit poofy so I changed her diaper...she finally yawned...then eventually she turned over on her left side, which is usually a sign she will fall asleep shortly...but every time I would think she was back asleep and I would make one small move to get up, she would roll onto her back again and say, "Mommy..."  About two hours after she awakened, she did go back to sleep.  So I had roughly half a normal night's sleep, and I was very tired by the afternoon.  I decided I would be more productive later if I took a nap.       Second, I drank a lot of water because I felt dehydrated after my nap.  I probably ate something then, too.  I don't remember for sure, but I eat practically all the time, so it's a good guess -- LOL.  The pickin's are rather slim in our kitchen right now since I have been without a car all week (DH had to take the other car to work, of course) and we have not made a full grocery run, so I probably ate twice as much as I actually needed because things that I wanted were not here.  Then, with having drunk so much water, you can guess where else I was a few times .  I also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.     Third and foremost, I put away and threw away things in the basement where the playroom, schoolroom, and storage room are.  I am ashamed to say that things had gotten so out of hand down there, I'm not finished yet.  Unfortunately, DH and I have never managed to make the "one thing out at a time" rule, stick.  Hopefully that will be our resolution for this summer, to better train the kids in this regard.     I was throwing away spilled peanuts (one of the older kids took a practically brand-new jar down there, but let DD2 get ahold of it and she spilled it ) and chunks of Play-Doh (now, I don't let the kids play with Play-Doh in the carpeted playroom, so why someone took red Play-Doh down there and left it on the navy blue carpet, I haven't the foggiest idea, and two pieces are firmly stuck ) and broken crayons and scraps of paper and string cheese wrappers, sorting Legos and Lincoln Logs and Lauri puzzles and Little People and Pop-Onz and Gears into their proper containers (why was there a large pile of little Legos waaaay across the room from the Lego table??), tossing plastic plates and fake food in the general direction of the toy kitchen, rewinding VHS tapes, deciding we can finally get rid of the wooden and plastic blocks...     The fun part was, I had my iPod on, so I was free to belt out my favorite tunes at the top of my lungs.    With other people in the house, of course, I don't do that; every once in a while, I will hum or sing verrrry softly.  I love to sing, so it was nice to be able to cut loose!  LOL         I also spent a little time reading e-mail and a little bit of news, and blogging (obviously).      Maybe tomorrow there will be a Part II to my essay.  Hopefully I will get a good night's rest and hit it hard again tomorrow.         G'night, Lori.               http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/547432/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/PBHeartSchool/547432/