Thinking Outloud - Homeschool Blogger

Lessons Learned

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:29:00 -0500

We just heard that those ridiculous pictures that we did last week, under the gun; the pictures that were crazy hard that took A LOT of thought and had us all thinking we should NEVER do another contest again in our lives, the contest that started my 3day migraine headache, that we turned in with the paint just barely dry, 10 minutes before the deadline,
well......
My two older sons BOTH got 2nd place!!!!!!!! My 7th grader won $125 and my 5th grader will receive $50 --- oh man I wish I could spend their money LOL And even though my youngest didn't place, when I asked him what he learned from this, he said, "I learned that G-d has given me gifts and talents and I need to use them more often" --- lessons learned and as the commercial goes... PRICELESS!
The pictures had the theme "Our Destiny, Our Culture for Now and the Future" and these are the what they submitted:

TDay could be Dday

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:53:00 -0600

Well, I’m getting hit with a double whammy but I guess it could be worse. Aunt Flo arrived this morning kicking and screaming and she is being a real pain. I really need to just have a “Free Be Me Day” but I’ve already taken my allotment of those this month with being sick. Mine and dh's cold have settled in our chest so we sound like rickety old rat-a-tat cars that sputter and wheeze. plus it hurts. I’m thinking about doing a chest plaster but it is soooo hard to take care of your own self when Aunt Flo just wants someone to take care of her and when your kids don't seem to be effected by any of it. in anyway. Man, I truly don’t have time to be feeling rotten even though I know the best thing for me to do is rest. It is hard to let things go knowing that Thanksgiving is nipping at my heels and Christmas is right around the corner. I am starting to feel like taffy with everyone pulling on me. Thinking Christmas in the Bahamas sounds like a nice way of dismissing the whole event at the moment. Heck let's just go for the whole winter.

Okay so the good news is that (we *think -- it is not official at the moment) the 12-7p shift that dh thought he is working is actually the shift he is getting on Christmas day (I don’t mind that because then he will here in the morning and be home for a late dinner) and he will be off on Thanksgiving all day which is good and bad. Good because now we can celebrate Thanksgiving but bad because now I can’t host -- all the hosting jobs are already taken. Now most would think not hosting Tday would be a good thing but remember the vent I didn’t send about divorcing our immediate family? Well, that seriously comes into play here and dh working on Tday gave me the excuse to host either lunch or dinner and that would have put some barriers on that day that our families wouldn’t be able to cross. I know holidays are supposed to be about family but I think I am just sick of defending my every thought at every moment and being criticized for everything I do on both sides. And honestly if they really thought about it they would all know why I don’t want to spend Thanksgiving with any of them -- sad isn't it! Now it will just be another battle so yep… be careful what you wish for because you *might have Thanksgiving off -- "jezz, there is no pleasing some people", she said to her self who is probably just stressed out.

National Bible Bee

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 21:37:00 -0600

Today we spent the day watching the National Bible Bee Finals online. This competition will forever have a soft spot for us since we got to participate back in September on the local level. All my boys did very well with my oldest taking 3rd place in his age group. It was thrilling and exciting and because of the way this contest is scored we were fairly certain that we had no chance of him being chosen as one of the top 100 of the nation. Honestly, we were ecstatic with his 3rd place showing just because of how extremely difficult this contest was and we were honored to have the opportunity to participate. So naturally we would want to see how the finalist did and boy! These kids were amazing! So many verses and Bible knowledge tucked into their heads; it was enough to make you spin and this was ONLY the final Bible memory portion. They also had a previous written test and a prior Bible recitation that they had to get through in order to compete at this final level. If you watch the re-broadcast for even a moment I am sure your heart will be blessed, amazed, humbled and astonished. I commend and congratulate ALL those students who competed but especially those who went to nationals.
You can watch here:
http://www.biblebee.org/nationals2009/webcast.php

Thankful Leaves

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 23:43:00 -0600

About this time every year I tinge at the pretty fall garland that is for sale in the store, thinking how lovely that would look around my mantel or around our front door but knowing that there are more important things to buy -- I covet until I pull our own homemade family garland and then all is right in the world again. For the last ten years or so, we would cut fall leaves out of colored construction paper or brown bags. Then daily everybody writes down what they are thankful for; when they were younger I would write down what they said then I would fix them to a ribbon and hang them around the mantel or window to decorate the house. In years past the kids always wanted to do our leaves but to me it just felt like my feeble attempt to decorate in a way we could afford and I thought it just looked tacky until this year. This year I actually took some time to read back through some of those thankful leaves remembering some of the events that were taking place, remembering how much things have changed and realizing that time is moving through the universe at such a rapid pace that I am almost out of breath. If I blink it will all be gone! And then something hit me -- what if this were the last holiday that I got with any one of the people in my home? Now don't get me wrong -- everyone is healthy & happy and I am not such a pessimist that I think that the sky is falling but looking back at those Thankful leaves I realized that anything can change with the direction of the wind and that no matter how many "traditions" I put in place that this time, this place and this year will NEVER be this way again and really this is how I need to look at every second of my life. And how many times even this year I have also complained about those "traditions" that needed cooking and prepping and preparing and planning -- shame on me! This time is fleeting and while there are extended family situations that I'm not looking forward to, there are traditions and memorable family times that I want to create and cherish inside my own four walls. So I am thankful that G-d gave me the vision to start this tradition of tacky thankful leaves long ago and that He gave me the wisdom to see what I truly am thankful for but especially that He gave me the insight to relax a bit and enjoy this moment of time because this moment is but a wink.

Patten for Thankful leaves to cutout for your own garland:
http://kids.creativity-portal.com/images/projects/autumn/pdf/leaf-white1.pdf

As You Like It

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 23:35:00 -0600

This morning we went to the school performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It performed by the Aquila theater group and I have to say that we were well entertained and quite impressed with this show even though this is one of my less favorite plays by William. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it and even wanted to stay after the performance for the Q/A of the actors. Can you believe that out of the 250 or so kids sitting in the audience listening to the Q/A session only us and maybe 6 others had read the book before coming to the show? Who knows how many were in the theater that morning who had already left but didn't stay for the Q/A and they hadn't read the book either! No wonder these (mostly high school) kids act the way they do at these performances -- very juvenile, disrespectful and ignorant of what they are seeing. Either way my boys loved the show and even asked pertaining questions of the actors during the Q/A.

If you ask any one of my boys what their favorite school subject is, they will usually say Shakespeare. Quite frankly, I think public school is doing a complete injustice by waiting until high school to present this literature, partially because of the behavior that I see from these students at these performances; they just do not appreciate the literary genius that is Shakespeare. I truly have to thank Ambleside Online for putting it into their curriculum otherwise I might also have fallen into the same trap and not started Shakespeare early. This is now the 6th or 7th play we have done of Shakespeare and I am seeing where my boys are picking up bits of Shakespeare's style in his speech, in his vocabulary, in his wording and this time even purposely memorizing favorite parts of the play. My youngest even specifically looked for a copy at the library to read along with when we got to the audio. I hope their love of this never dies and that they continue to appreciate Shakespeare's work.

If you can make it to this performance it was very cleverly done and stayed true to Shakespeare's language yet throwing some artistic twists into scenes and characters that it made this quite a wonderful performance.

It is a constant fight

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:06:00 -0600

How the phone conversation went:

Mom: Hi! How you doing? ~ cheerfully

Me: Good how are you? ~ cheerfully

Mom: Fine. How was last night? (last night being Halloween)

Me: Fine ~ cautious but still cheerful

Mom: Well, what did you do?

Me: Not a lot. I flubbed up the popcorn balls because I read the recipe wrong but the kids still liked it and we watched a movie.

Mom: You didn't go out? (out meaning trick or treating) ~ now she's cautious but cheerful

Me: No, we stayed in. The kids carved their pumpkins, ate flat popcorn balls <giggle> and watched a sweet Hallmark movie called Loves Abiding Joy - it is a Christian movie.

Mom: And you didn't take the boys out? (out meaning trick or treating) ~ now in a more questioning tone ignoring the Christian movie bit

Me: Well, no mom. We really don't celebrate Halloween.

~ brief silence

Mom: Well, you carved pumpkins didn't you - that is celebrating Halloween isn't it? (carved meaning into Jack o' Lanterns) ~ now sarcastic

Me: well, yes mom, we carved our pumpkins but we basically only took all the seeds out to cook them because I stuff them with a filling and then we ate them... for dinner... stuffed... that is our tradition. ~ polite

Mom: well, then if all your doing is eating pumpkins and then that is no different than celebrating Thanksgiving! ~ judgmental

Me: well then I guess we celebrated Thanksgiving ~ polite trying to be cheery but failing miserably

Mom: and you didn't let the boys put on costumes? (costumes meaning costumes and out trick or treating)

Me: mom these boys put on costumes every day. Just yesterday I had a jester and a knight doing pre-algebra. I'm not sure a day goes by when they don't wear a costume. Mom, they really didn't want to go out ~ trying to be lighthearted and cheerful

Mom: well then I guess you celebrate Thanksgiving

~ long silence and then

Mom: okay well I need to go. goodbye!

Some days it is just hard

Not a Martha holiday

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:59:00 -0600

With Christmas music in the stores, Halloween slashed at 50-75% off and Thanksgiving in the turkey wings (so to speak LOL) I thought this was a provocative reminder that my holiday preparations do not have to look like a spread from Better Homes and nor does it need to be scrutinized by anyone (especially my mother) except those who I am thankful to spend it with. As you prepare may you also be reminded...

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm
telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes as follows:

Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries.
After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.

Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated
with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration
hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.

We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you
while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice
comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey
hotline.

Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds. As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the
start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional
method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When
the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where
you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at

a separate table.

In a separate room.

Next door.

Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey
in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be
happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that
"passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to
bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread. Oh, and one
reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and especially
while in the presence of you diners, we will refer to the giblet gravy
by its lesser known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you
regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance. Cheese Sauce stains.

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice among 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the
traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small
fingerprints. You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. She
probably won't come next year either.

I am thankful.

Rosh Hashanah

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:51:00 -0500

Boy, what a whirlwind we have been in but I thought I would update you.

We finally had our Rosh Hashanah meal on Friday night and it was nice but didn't go at all as planned (starting to think that maybe I should stop planning anything due to dh's crazy job and even crazier schedule LOL). Dh had gone early that morning to BIL's to build the stilts for the boys beds and he thought he would be back by 3pm finished. Well, BIL got very elaborate and they weren't even slightly ready at 6p and dh was completely frustrated. His brother just belittles him so much and my dh buys into it so he comes home feeling defeated - big brothers can be really mean. I was expecting dh home for a nice evening so I had started preparing our Rosh Hashanah meal since this was the first evening that he had off but my girlfriend stopped by to drop off some things that they had forgotten for the pool table. That ended up being a longer visit than expected and so I was rushed to prepare the meal and then it didn't seem right not to invite the BIL since it was dinner time and he was here and he had been working all day on our stuff but I already know that he doesn't understand why we celebrate the feast days so I wasn't at all comfortable doing the prayers and everything that I planned for the meal (mostly because I feel like I should be able to explain it all and G-d has already shown me that I don't need to understand it completely to do it but BIL would need an explanation). I am kinda grateful that we ended up not because at one point my BIL makes the comment (to my oldest son mind you), "so y'all are Old Testament folks and you don't believe in the New Testament" -- I just hate having to justify EVERYTHING we do! Luckily that didn't turn into a confrontation, my oldest son explained enough and I am still trying to blow the comment off. Thankfully a girlfriend reminded me that, "Our celebrations of the feasts and Shabbot are not supposed to look like everyone else [I believe]. This is something personal between us and God. We, too, can fall into legalism/traditions of man when we mimic too closely the Jews or others keeping the feast/sabbaths. Know that He is pleased with what you are doing. You are remembering His Feasts and honoring His Sabbaths!" It is so nice to have like minded friends.

The meal was nice even though I have discovered that my oven is no longer closing properly so my whole wheat challah had a very hard crust. I wanted to have a whole fish this year (the fish with a head represents that we should be as a head, and not a tail in the new year) but the only whole fish I could find were lots of whole Tilapia's which were VERY bony and their spines did not pull out nice (possibly because my oven is cooking so badly). I tried to make the most of it but my dh HATES picking out bones and my kids get extremely frustrated with it so that wasn't nice at the table listening to everyone complain however the fish tasted fine (funny story - I didn't know how to cook the Tilapia's and the Fish cookbook I had didn't give a recipe and recommended NOT buying or cooking this fish because it supposedly tasted like mud!!! ours didn't but my expectations for the evening were pretty much shot at that point). We also had orange glazed carrots & beets, saffron rice and zucchini with of course apples & honey. I ran out time to make a honey cake so ended up making an upside down apple cake instead -- BIL hates cooked apples <rolling eyes> and because it was a change to the menu I had no ice cream to go with the apple upside down cake (though having ice cream would have not made it kosher so I guess it turned out all good. BIL had left over German Chocolate bday cake <rolling eyes again>).

In the end these were all minor difficulties that I just needed to get over and it turned out nice just not at all like I had hoped but it still honored G-d. The cool thing was that the next day at Flamenco my 2ds was talking to a family who celebrate the Jewish feasts (I don't know if they are Jewish or not) and the mom wants to meet me (I haven't done that yet) and she even explained a few more things to my ds who was even more excited that we had done it so G-d confirmed that even though "I" felt like I did a "half" job it was still good that I did it and we honored G-d.

LOL now on to the next event which btw is also delayed-- but what's new?

10/31/1517

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:14:00 -0500

How this day truly should be celebrated:

Tea Trays

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:16:00 -0500

I just had to share how cuuuuutie my mom's tea tray turned out. Dh found these picture frames in the trash -- nothing wrong with them but one needed glass. Then when the kids were decorating for fall they found all the pressed leaves from an excursion we went on last year and I remembered that I wanted to make this tray but at the time I didn't have a frame (figured I'd look for one at a garage sale and then promptly forgot about it until now). Well, the leaf one turned out so cute I thought I would do a tray for my mom's birthday but I thought she would appreciate pictures instead so I had some copied sepia colored and I think it turned out so nice. The best thing about this is my tray only cost $3 for the door handles. Mom's was a little more because of the pictures, the new glass and we bought a little more expensive door handles but still only totaled to $7. Might make a cute Christmas present if you are in the need for an idea and super easy:

Here is Mom's Tray

And here is my tray: