Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Homeschooling on facebook

I have an overactive imagination. This is why I think the worst when I hear an ambulance when anyone in my immediate family is not in my immediate sight, and why I have very vivid and realistic dreams and wake up tired. Today, leap day, I posted a comment from Jake on facebook. He was wondering why he had to do school on a day that only comes once every four years. Just before he said that I was thinking about posting something like, 'here's that extra day we've been waiting for, let's make the most of it'. Jake's sentiment was cuter so I posted that (I'm not one of those multiple post in one day people so I didn't put both) {if I were a multiple post person I could've also put something Jonathan just said..."for being instant breakfast it certainly takes a lot of work to prepare it"... but I digress}. So back to what I hope is my point. I got a comment from a high school friend who lives in New York. She said her kids have an early dismissal today because of an impending storm, but since because I homeschool and live in Florida this wouldn't apply to me. She included that homeschool part. This got me thinking. #1 I haven't seen this girl in 24 years (well maybe she was at the 10 year reunion, I honestly don't remember...{Cindy I'm losing my edge in the memory department}, so I have no idea about her thoughts on homeschooling. Part of me knows it doesn't matter, but another part of me always wants to make a good impression. And #2 my train of imagination went even farther, maybe facebook friends of hers would see on her wall that she recently posted something to a lady who homeschools her kids. I pictured these imagined people calling her up saying "you actually know one of those lunatics?!" etc... etc... Yes these are all thoughts that I had this morning. The funny thing is in real life I almost never even think about these things anymore and in our entire homeschooling career I can count on one hand (yes we use our fingers for counting around here) the number of times people have even questioned our decision to homeschool or given a negative comment. My thoughts are often more about how we are pretty mainstream, we dvr American Idol and we can quote Seinfeld better than Jerry himself. In the eyes of the critics we are much more like "normal people" than their imagined view of homeschoolers. This stereotype works for me because we are normal people. Anyone who knows us knows that. My thoughts this morning arose because these people don't know us. This made me think about what my facebook posts say about us for those people who don't really know us. This is what I've come up with... we homeschool, we're Catholic, I love my kids, I love my husband (but I never use the word hubby), my kids perform in shows ALL THE TIME, Jonathan runs lights for shows even more than ALL THE TIME, and we tend to burn the candle at both ends. This is an amazingly astutute description of us. If people that I may or may not even know think we're weird, it doesn't really matter does it?

That might be a good place to end, but my overactive imagination is not done yet. If anyone searched further into facebook they might find out even more from my kids' pages (yes 'gasp' my teenagers have facebook... we really are more like public schooler than homeschoolers). Jonathan's profile picture is always the show he is currently running lights for (except for right now it's the symbol for an upcoming movie based on a book that he hasn't even read yet, but he plans to read the book and see the movie and he feels he's going to like both), Madi has tons of friends and posts pictures with them all the time. Her cute little face is often in other friends' profile pictures. This makes me smile. Both of my teenagers are passionate about what is important to them, their friends, their faith, and theatre. This is very clear on their facebook pages. I'm really good with that.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Things I wonder...

...why I go in and out of blogging kicks, sometimes I have so much to say. Sometimes I have not much to say. And sometimes, like now, I have so much to say, but not the time, energy, eloquence, or patience to say it.


...when kids use the word "prolly" on facebook, do they know that the word is really "probably"?


...why do people use an apostrophe when they are refering to a family, the correct way to say it is "praying for the Browns" Not "praying for the Brown's" (unless you are praying for the Brown's cow or something) I see very smart people do this all the time.


...why do I keep reaching for the mouse even though it is unhooked?


...why don't I just hook up the mouse? (I just did)


...why did my husband have to go out of town on his birthday?


...how did I get to be 42 years old already?!


...why does time have to go by so fast?


...why am I even posting this because it isn't really even a post.


...why does it seem like the priest is talking right to you at church and do the other 1000 people feel the same way?


...why have I been working on this #2 Sodoku for 2 days and can't seem to be getting anywhere.


...why am I also in the middle of three different books (this is not counting schoolbooks) and can't seems to be getting anywhere.


...why can't my house clean itself?


...why am I wasting time when it already goes so fast?

Thursday, February 23, 2012

A PRAYER FOR LENT

Let us pray, all tens of thousands of us (I copied this from somewhere else, but for my blog purposes I should probably say all SIX of us, since that seems like a fair guestimate of my number of readers:) ), together...

"O my God, we are heartfully sorry for having offended thee, and we detest
all our sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because we have
offended Thee our God, Who is all good and deserving of all our love. We
firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the
near occasion of sin. Amen."

Fish recipe

I'm putting this here so I can find it when I'm looking for it. Doesn't this sound good?

PAN-FRIED WHITEFISH RECIPE FOR LENT
The following works with any skinless whitefish. You will need three spices:
Old Bay seasoning, onion powder, and grated parmesan cheese. Heat a frying
pan to just below the highest setting, using an equal combination of butter
and olive oil. Lay the fillets onto the pan, and immediately sprinkle them
evenly with a moderate amount of onion powder, Old Bay, and finally, grated
parmesan. "Seal" the spice combination onto the fillet with a spray cooking
oil. Add chopped onions and sliced red peppers (or fry separately). You can
substitute green peppers or even jalopenos according to your preference. Pay
attention, as fillets fry much more quickly than burgers. Flip the fillets,
then lay on thin slices of mozzarella, Monteray jack, or provolone cheese on
the now-cooked side. When the cheese melts, remove fillets and dump the
onion and peppers onto the fish, and enjoy.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ash Wednesday

The Lenten Prayer



O Lord and Ruler of Life, take from me the spirit of idleness, despair, cupidity, and empty talking. Yea, O Lord grant that I may see my own sins and not judge my brother. For thou art blessed forever and ever. Amen.


Clearly my blogging comes and goes, and lately it's gone. I found this prayer today and I pretty much think it says it all much better than I can. If you want to read more about it go here where I found it.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 2/ Formal night














Cruise day 1

Normally these days time goes by at lightning speed, except that is, on nights like this when the seconds seem like hours when I'm waiting for the call from the two big kids that the show is over and I can go get them at the theatre and go to sleep. With the remaining 10 minutes before my text tone should ring, I'll share with you day 1 cruise pics. These aren't the best because they were only taken with my phone...




Monday, February 6, 2012

Daybook...back on land

(Cruise pictures will come eventually, in the meantime, you can see the first three days on facebook!)

Around the house...
Madi is right next to me doing some schoolwork, Jake is outside playing with the neighbors, and Jonathan managed to convince me to let him go to the theatre at 4:30, where he will most likely remain until close to midnight. There could be worse hobbies, right?

We are almost caught up with the disaster that is laundry after a cruise (a cruise where every one of us seemed to find the need to change clothes almost as much as we ate).



In the school room...
Madi and the "science girls" finished a whole module today, they are cruising! Madi's history is moving right along as well, and we are coming up on WW1 already!! Jonathan is "caught up" in his virtual school classes, but needs to spend some serious time on math and biology. It is so much easier to get stuff done when you are accountable to someone other than mom! Jake did his "on his own work today", but the aforementioned mom was too busy to make time for history and science, there's always tomorrow!




To remember...
That as hard as it was to come back to reality after a perfect vacation, I really do have a wonderful life!



On the table...
Well it's not the four course meals that we'd gotten accustomed to, but yummy nonetheless... E-Mealz "upside down pizza" tonight, tacos on Tuesday, chicken, pumpkin pancakes, and a shrimp pasta thing later in the week.

Jake had a beautiful fruit cup every night on the cruise, I've already purchased some cute little ice cream/ fruit cups so we can continue that tradition at home (yes, we'll continue with the ice cream too!) {we've already weened ourselves off of the 10:45pm pizzas though!}



In the plans...
Trying to desperately to figure out how to get the same child in two places at once. We are only REALLY involved in two things, church and theatre, yet no matter what we do all of the important things seem to happen at the same time. This is before we figure out how having two kids play soccer is going to fit into the spring schedule



On the road....
It's all local...theatre, church, theatre, theatre, church, theatre... rinse, repeat...





Word of the week....
Reality...it's still feeling slightly over-rated.



Prayer for the week....
Praying for my mother's friend Joanne, who is in the hospital.