Winchester Academy

Trophies, Theatre, and my kids

2012-01-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

This morning I read this article I found it from one of my favorite places online here. I have a lot of thoughts about this. I feel very out of practice actually writing anything on my blog, so I'm not sure if any of my thoughts will translate into anything blog-worthy. Let's just see where I go with it. I'm one of the few people that gets annoyed with those emails and facebook posts that talk about if you grew up in the 70s and 80s then you didn't wear seat belts and drank from the water hose and didn't wear bike helmets and played outside and drank koolaid and turned out ok blah blah blah. Those emails often talk about when "not everyone made the team". I'm pretty sure everyone who ever tried to play little league baseball "made the team". Some kids just didn't get as much playing time as others, guess what, that still happens. Now the useless trophies that everyone gets? Those need to go, clearly they don't mean anything. I took dancing lessons from the time I was about 5 until the end of seventh grade. I moved once, switching studios, and then switched studios again when the teacher retired. I never got a trophy because my time at other places didn't count and you needed something like 5 years in one place to get a trophy. This was never a huge deal for me, but it's enough of a point of contention that I remember it. These days kids can play a sport for 6 weeks and come home with a trophy. Those things either end up in the garbage, Goodwill, or the attic. Something that is so easily achieved isn't worth very much. This isn't really supposed to be about trophies as much as it's supposed to be about praise. Today's trophies are empty praise. The article talks about "smart" kids often being unwilling to take risks in fear of losing their "smart" distinction. I've told Jake he's smart before (I mean come on, he is!), I'm going to try to use different descriptions in the future, I can see what they are saying. He's not necessarily very motivated, and he's rarely cooperative, but he is extrememly unique and creative.

Theatre is full of rewards and praise. Rewards in terms of "parts", I admit that I get very excited when my kids get good parts. I love watching them on stage and good parts usually mean more time on stage. I'm proud and happy for them when they get the part they want. You know what though, I'm often even more proud when they get smaller parts and accept them with dignity. We are extremely involved in theatre, the kids perform in at least 5 shows a year, they get a lot of opportunities to accept small parts graciously. In life this may serve them even better than the experiences they get as the lead. We've had opportunites for both. In our theatre crowd there are kids who pretty much always get a lead (they have very little opportunity to grow in "small part grace") there are also kids that are almost always disappointed with their part (often to the point of criticizing others). I didn't think this was going to turn out to be a bragging about my kids kind of post, it was really supposed to be about the negatives of praise, but it's my blog and I'll brag if I want to. Yes sometimes me kids get the lead, but even more importantly, sometimes they don't and I usually end up 'even more prouder' when that happens.

The last point I want to mention in all of this is that praise or lack thereof shouldn't have to be so contrived. I was an early childhood education major once upon a time, so I learned all of things you should and shouldn't say like "I love the colors you used" and not "what a pretty picture" and not "good girl", but "I like the way you are sharing". Have you ever spent much time with a kindergarten teacher? I'm pretty sure kids can pick up on the fakey-ness pretty early. Sometimes, it is just a pretty picture and sometimes your kid is just a good kid. Like everything else in parenting and in life, praise is a balancing act. I'm trying my best to stay on the tightrope. Just in the time that I've bragged about my kids' good sportsmanship in theatre I've also yelled at them for playing video games, not cleaning the kitchen, and doing science without even knowing where the book is. That's how we balance things around here. Now we're heading to church so Jake and Madi can practice singing (Jake is cantoring for the first time this week, Madi is helping him) and Jonathan can program the screens with next week's songs and prayers, from there we will meet Mike for dinner at Five Guys and some cruise shopping, like I said it's all about balance.

And now for the little boy

2012-01-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

Another Monday Daybook

2012-01-23T04:16:00.001-08:00

Around the house...

It is dark and quiet. Mike left a little while ago and the kiddos are still sleeping.

In the school room...

We're going to need to hit it hard this week in preparation for next week's vacation. I'm not sure what the status is on the two virtual school semesters that should be finishing up. Madi listened to Call of the Wild yesterday (on a digital audio device from the library) she actually had to read it this week for Sonlight core 100 and also for mother-daughter bookclub which is Thursday. It is a total coincidence that it worked out that way, don't you love things like that?!

To remember...

Life is to be respected, all life. Fr Robert had a great homily yesterday about this. It is not to take away the importance of unborn life, but sometimes people get so focused on that that they forget that life continues after birth and still needs to be respected. Then I got home from church and saw this picture on facebook. Another coincidence?

On the table...

I'm loving e-mealz! We had sweet and sour meatballs, green beans, and mac and cheese last night. This week we'll have tilapia, some kind of chicken that involves cheese and sour cream, spinach rollups (sorta like stuffed shells), and more yummy stuff.

Next week's table...

No cooking or cleaning and four nights of dressing up and eating fancy meals on the high seas!!

In the plans...

Dentist and Dermatologist appointments this week, plus Bookclub and Home Ec co-op, this is all in addition to the regular busy plans. The kids got their parts for the 80s Follies...Madi got about 4 parts including a teacher and a cheerleader. Jake is a top gun pilot, pacman, and gets to sing Don't Stop Believing! Gotta love the 80s!!!

On the road....

Just back and forth between church choir, theatre, and above appointments and co-ops.

Next week...no road just the deep blue sea!!

Word of the week....

WICKED! We saw the touring performance of WICKED on Saturday. It was the absolute best show I have ever seen. And I think you know I've seen quite a few shows!!

Prayer for the week....

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will...." Jake and I have a little inside joke and chuckle every week when we sing this. One time he made a comment about it being about people from Goodwill (and he doesn't even know about all those people of Walmart things) but every week at that point we smile at each other and then I send a little prayer up for all the people who benefit from Goodwill Industries.

AND...this was in my inbox this morning, it goes well with my thoughts of late...

We cannot delude ourselves: By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need, we will be recognized as true followers of Christ. This will be the criterion by which our Eucharistic celebrations are judged.

Finally...pictures of my big boy!

2012-01-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

Monday Daybook

2012-01-16T10:17:00.001-08:00

Around the house...

I am listening to Jake and Grandma Marge try to figure out a new game. We had a busy (even by our standards) weekend and the laundry that was as caught up as can be on Friday is overwhelming again. There is a puzzle on the table in the front room that hasn't had any new pieces added all week. Jonathan is working on virtual school right now and Madi is in the shower.

In the school room...

The microscope is on the counter and Grandma got to see some leaf and banana cells. Jake, Madi and I started reading Bonanza Girl today. Last week we read Bound for Oregon and loved it. Madi is still enjoying Sonlight core 100 and the co-op finally started back up last week. Madi's science is down to four girls (including her) and is not meeting this week because two of them couldn't come. She is almost done with the first semester of Spanish. Jonathan is currently writing a poem about Jerusalem for History, he will finish the first semester before our cruise in two weeks. He's on semester 2 in Spanish and English, and has a lot of work to do in math and Biology. Jake's done for the day having completed spelling, lanuguage, math, and History (and even a little high school biology aka microscope). We are having a great time enjoying all there is to learn on khanacademy.

To remember...

MLK day we are not "off" from school but will be watching this that I remember from my school days.

On the table...

We introduced Grandma to our homemade donuts this morning. We had leftover pizza and calzone for lunch and will be back to e-mealz for dinner. Potatoes are in the crock pot and chicken is thawing in the sink.

In the plans...

Heading to the verizon store so Grandma (who is on our plan) and Madi can upgrade their phones. I don't think I have enough patience to stick around while they research this so I will opt to take two year old Landon (who will be with us this afternoon) and Jake to Publix while they do their reseach. Yes, shopping with a two year old is really the easier of these two choices!!

Jake and Madi have choir later.

Jake and Madi have audtions for theatre (80's Follies) tomorrow, Jonathan is just doing tech for this show.

Grandma goes home Wednesday, and Jake goes to the orthodontist.

On the road....

We could not get anyone to take our timeshare week for the maintenance fee, so for $50 extra dollars we moved it to March when we will be able to go.

Two weeks from today we'll be on our cruise ship ready to set sail!!

Word of the week....

I'm thinking patience is a good word for this week.

Prayer for the week....

Our priest when I was growing up always prayed for "Patience and for Peace, in our hearts, in our homes, and in the world", that about covers it.

uh oh

2012-01-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

AAAHHHH I just spent an hour composing a very nice post about Jonathan with a bunch of great pics and somehow it has completely disappeared, except for two pictures and one was sideways so this is all I've got!

Daybook-y stuff

2012-01-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

In my house...I am currently the only one. Mike has gone to Publix and to pick Jonathan up from his Theology of the Body class, Madi is babysitting down the street, and Jake is out playing with the neighborhood gang.

Bread... is rising, and I even went to the gym today, clearly it is the beginning of a new year.

Today...is my mother's 63rd birthday!

Tomorrow... we are going to have a productive school day around here.

This week... Mike's mother is coming down for a visit, she gets here on Friday. She flies down with Mike who will be working in NJ for a few days this week.

I finally joined the e-mealz bandwagon, and I am very happy with it. Very soon I will be putting a chicken ranch cornflake yummy meal in the oven. I do e-mealz the same way I homeschool. It is really helpful to have a guide, but I'm just not the type to follow it to the letter (ie there will be no frozen peas as a side dish any time soon {for the record frozen peas are fine in chicken pot pie or shepherd's pie, but by themselves? no thank you} we'll stick to fresh broccoli, carrots, squash, or green beans). The canned peaches mixed with butter and brown sugar though? Yes ma'am I could eat that everyday!!

I still haven't figured out why pictures that I flip right side up won't stay that way on my computer.

I subbed for Jake's CCD class this morning. I learned some interesting things. I told him after class that I'd like him even if he wasn't my kid (there have been times where I've questioned this). It was interesting to watch how he measured up to a bunch of mostly public school kids that I hardly know. He knew considerably more answers (which may just be because he knows the kind of questions I ask), he also can read aloud as well as any of them and better than many of them. He was slow as molasses trying to copy down fill in the blank words that were printed right in his book though. I mentioned this to Madi who had been the helper in Jake's class until this week when her Confirmation class times changed, and she said he's also very slow when they cut things out. Jake pointed out as his teacher it is my responsibility to teach him to do these things well. Guess who will be doing some cutting and copy work this week!

Well now everyone is home and needing me for things like receipts and food prep and to direct people to unload the dishwasher and fold laundry. Time to crack the whip!

Family Pictures

2012-01-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of the pictures that we had taken at church last month for our new parish directory. I still can't get my computer to flip pictures, so these are the only ones I'm going to share for now.

Thoughts on the last night of the year

2011-12-31T18:46:00.000-08:00

2011 will be over in a few hours. In all of the obvious ways it has been a good year for our family. In spite of now having an hour commute to and from work, Mike's had a better work year than he's had in years. The company is doing well even in this abysmal economy, and Mike is beginning to see some of his hard work pay off. Jonathan and Madi, while growing up too fast, are growing into amazing young people, and make us prouder every day. Jake has had the best year of his life. He is much more agreeable than he's ever been. He still doesn't so much care what others think of him, but somehow he has transformed into a pleasant and mostly cooperative little guy. We suspect that starting the year out in a mainstage play was a turning point for him. Having his first lead role helped too. This week someone we didn't know actually recognized him in Publix for his role as Ugly in HONK! We've had a relatively healthy year as well. Mike's bloodsugar had some ups and downs (or should I say some ups that brought us down?), and we've dove into a lot of alternative therapies for Madi's thyroid, but at last check it is going in the right direction. So all in all a good year right? Well, that could be debatable. You see, we don't live in a bubble. Our close knit "family" of friends has been rocked to the core this year. In many ways this topic is not mine to blog about so I will be sure to avoid any names or details. Just as when things were good, it was hard to begin to explain how close our friendship community was, now that things are bad it is even harder. These are the people who put away our Christmas decorations when we were out of town for three weeks, the friends who supported me through Mike's illness four years ago, people who have helped to raise each others children, MY children! They are the "village", MY village! The "new normal" that we are now living is very much like a divorce. A divorce that has left some of us feeling like forlorn children. Don't get me wrong, there are victims in this tragedy and I'm not naive or whiney enough to be calling myself one of them, but it seemed like the time to blog about this because for the rest of my life the last quarter of 2011 will bear a stain. It is the kind of event that warrants a "before that" and "after that" kind of thinking. Let me tell you, life was much easier in the "before" days. I've learned a lot in the last few months. I appreciate my family and my faith more than ever. I've had a front row seat as I've watched God carry people I love through incomprehensible situations. Someday the new normal will just be normal, faith will continue to carry everyone through. I know in my heart that God is a part of this community however torn apart it seems. In the meantime, I will do my best to muddle through this unscripted scene that is life at it's messiest. I will pray that the Holy Spirit continues to guide me as I continue to guide my own children through this uncharted territory. And someday I'll stop wishing for those "before" days.

New computer

2011-12-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted again since Christmas night because

1. I still haven't figured out why I can't seem to flip pictures

and 2. I'm just having too much fun exploring a real working computer!

Is anyone else having an issue with blogs having words with hyper-links and when you click on them it says you've been chosen to participate in a survey?! I can't figure out if it is an issue with blogger or an issue with my computer.

Gotta go now, but I really will be back soon!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T17:18:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning

2011-12-25T17:03:00.000-08:00

I've flipped this tree picture a few times, but it keeps coming up sideways. I will experiment more with this computer tomorrow. Also the pics I have of the boys from this morning are sideways too. It's a work in progress!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

To my loyal few (readers)... I got a laptop for Christmas!!! Prepare yourself for lots of posts!

Just a quick post

2011-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

I got on the computer awhile ago to update (for the first time in over a month!!) and between the slowness of the computer and my desire to search two different counties worth of libraries and read blogs and homeschool forum posts from people I know and don't know, now I have exactly 18 minutes to type before I have to drag Jake away from the neighbors and get in the car. Jake and Madi have choir at 6:00. Why is it that I have to be in the car at 4:00 when church is only 15 minutes away?! Because I have to drive to Downtown Disney to pick Madi up from a really cool birthday party at Disney Quest. Am I insane or Mom of the Year? Actually Mom of the Year probably goes to the mother of the host of the Disney Quest Birthday party. That means I'm probably insane. There was no way I was going to have Madi miss this party for a very good theatre friend (who is very much like a younger though taller brother to her) and there is no way she can miss choir tonight since Christmas Eve the mother of all choir nights is only FIVE days away so what's an insane mom to do but accomodate her daughter by spending two hours in the car. Jake and I have a new Andrew Clements book to listen to on the ride. Jonathan is at the party too, but he gets to stay down there for dinner and will get a ride home since he is not in choir. Interestingly enough one of the options for today was for Jake and I to head down there earlier and spend some time at Downtown Disney, but he chose to stay and play with the neighbors instead (and I chose to wrap Christmas presents and fight with this slow and annoying computer). I'm down to 8 minutes now. When I return hopefully in the next day or two I have all kinds of updates. Since I last posted we've celebrated Thanksgiving and our 17th anniversary, we just finished a weekend of six shows (two of Best Christmas Pageant Ever and four of Bugsy Malone), Jonathan has finished a semester of Spanish 2 and should finish English this week, we have booked a cruise for the end of January beginning of Feb, we've had all kinds of nice pictures taken that need to get on here, the kids performed at around 10 different Christmas tour events, and probably a lot more stuff that I can't even think of right now.

My guinea pig boy

2011-11-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

We have a video tape of our brand new baby Jonathan just before leaving the hospital at 2 days old. He is fresh out of the womb and is laying in one of those clear plastic portable isolet thingamajigs. He is crying his little tiny pink head off and his pathetic mother is patting him lightly saying soothing things like "you're ok" and "be a good boy, Mommy and Daddy are going to take you home soon". In spite of having babysat and worked with kids endlessly for at least 10 years before having Jonathan, I had no idea what I was doing. {Remember this is pre-stroke. By the next evening we would become model parents not setting foot outside of the hospital for a full seven days to be an advocate for our little baby every step of the way. (actually I lie, I walked out one night with my father to move the car...Mike litterally never left the building)}

Jonathan was the guinea pig. Thankfully for his siblings sake he had that stroke at 3 days old and we learned first hand how to put our baby's needs first and how to be the best parents we could possibly be. Putting his (and subsequently Madi and Jake's) needs first included a whole list of family dynamics including co-sleeping, extended nursing, and homeschooling. I can for the most part sit here 16 years later and say I have no regrets. I parented in a way that felt right and made sense in light of almost loosing our little guy, and I've never looked back. I don't question our approach to delayed academics with Jonathan. I don't question the fact that we had to be a "short order cook" type family because of his bloodsugar issues as a toddler and preschooler (though I do wish his siblings weren't so picky because of it). We did what we had to do with what God gave us. I've never questioned our choices for curriculum and our way of learning through life in general.

UNTIL... High School! Now I'm second guessing myself daily. Not about homeschooling. Not even about the materials and classes. Just about when and how and how much and...and... Jonathan sat in front of his computer from about 10 until 4 today with a small break for lunch and a shower. He did three subjects. I'm not hovering over him to make sure he's on task every second, but he can attest to the fact that I certainly lay eyes on him and ask "what are you working on now?" at least a few times an hour. Like I said in my last post, we're playing the game. It's working out ok. Here's the thing though we only have a few more years to homeschool. 'Working out ok' doesn't really cut it for me. Up to this point in his high school career he's taken all the same classes kids in brick and mortar schools are taking. (plus the really important ones like Theatre and Theology of the Body) We're not going to change anything this year (except maybe our attitudes), but next year I'm thinking maybe we should really shake things up a bit. We homeschool, so we can right?! I've never given a lick about whether or not the public schooled 4th graders are learning about state history or world cultures. We don't have to worry about what "they" are doing, we can do what we want to do. Why does all that have to change with high school? Let me digress enough to say, I still think it does have to change with high school, just maybe not all the way. I don't want to 'play the game' if it means losing the love of learning. On the continuum of 'school at home' versus 'whatever floats your boat', when it comes to high school I'm much closer to the school at home way. Here's what I'm proposing though...maybe Jonathan won't take Spanish 3 next year (he really doesn't like flvs Spanish)...maybe he won't even take Chemistry (maybe he'll take Astronomy or some kind of science that he's actually interested). Maybe he'll make it to the gym more than once a week and we can turn that into not only a credit but a healthy habit that will serve him well for the rest of his life. Maybe he'll take a computer class, maybe Psychology. Maybe I'll change my mind 50 more times before we choose classes for next year. One thing is for sure though, by the time Madi and Jake get to this point I'll know what I'm doing. Once again they'll be able to thank him for being the guinea pig.

Tech week

2011-11-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

It's tech week and Mike's out of town. That means I have to stay awake all hours to go get Jonathan from the theatre when he is done. Actually even when Mike is home, I'm generally the one doing that. Why, though, does it seem like I am the most tired when I have to stay awake?! Jonathan is again helping with the lights for the mainstage show that will open this week, that is in addition to the regular kids show (Bugsy Malone), the extra kids show (Best Christmas Pageant Ever), and Christmas tour (performing for all the local light ups, nursing homes etc). Then there's the second stage show that he will be working on as well which opens next weekend.

I've never been a wishy washy homeschooler, but as the trail blazer for homeschooling high school, I'm sometimes second guessing myself. My general thought is that we must play the game and take the typical high school classes. This is working for Jonathan. It's the current emails and phone calls about lack of adequate progress being made in Spanish that gets me stressed out. The progress (or lack of) is in time not grade, his grade is good. My questioning comes in when I try to figure out if it's a time management problem or if it's an unrealistic expectation on all of our parts regarding how much can actually be accomplished in a day. I know I personally have unrealistic expectations about how much I can get done in a day. How much down time is appropriate? If the theatre takes up x-amount of hours, does that mean Jonathan has used up all his down time and should not be allowed to watch Seinfeld (or the netflix documentary on the American Revolution)? When he wants to chat should I send him back to work? When he cleans the kitchen should I send him back to work? Questions questions!

On a different but similar note I read an amazing commentary on homeschooling today. It is especially interesting considering Mike just told me there was an article in USA TODAY about how some doctors are dropping patients because they refuse to vaccinate. AND the Yahoo headline story was about the city of Milwaukee scaring parents into not co-sleeping with their kids. I spend most of my time surrounded by people who know that as the parent it is their decision how to educate their kids, their decision whether or not to vaccinate, their decision where their children will sleep. I am sometimes still shocked and always baffled by parents who don't realize those are their God given rights. The government or the doctor or the teacher should no be making these decisions. I might be struggling over how best to educate my high schooler, but I am certainly glad that I know it is our family's own decision to make.

A collection of phone pics

2011-11-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

My little choristers...

Science in costumes!

Pumpkin decorating at the library. A tradition I realized I've been doing longer than just about all the kids that were there (including Jake) had even been alive!!

Soccer and the playground from another planet...

Jake's "American handcrafts" homemade clay marbles and a felt marble bag.

Homemade clam chowder in bread bowls (no the bread bowls aren't homemade). Incidently, I love fall cooking! I'm getting on a roll with meal planning, now if only we could all be home to eat at a decent hour...

All Saints Day Parade Jake was St Gregory the Great patron saint of choir boys...

Field trip at the Rep

an attempt at picture catch up

2011-11-01T05:09:00.001-07:00

Some science... (in case you were wondering, when you soak an egg in vinegar and it gets all rubbery...it still doesn't bounce on the counter!)

NOVEMBER!

2011-11-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

For today...November 1st

Outside My Open Window...it is cool and feels so good.

I am thinking...that there is so much to catch up on, I'm pretty sure it'll never happen. This means on the blog and in real life. On the heals of that thought is the thought that I'll probably start to catch up in about nine years and then that really stresses me out. Not that I will be caught up then, but that I'll have the potential to be. Never mind, I'm not ready for anyone to grow up, I'm going to embrace this not being caught up with all I've got!

I am hearing...not much. The big kids are still snoozing after a night of sugar, Jake is downstairs on the wii, but I can't hear it from here.

We are listening to...Felicity the American Girl on CD. Mostly Jake and I are, but the others have listened some too.

To Be Fit and Healthy...UGH! October was probably my worst month at the gym in a year and a half. So far I'm not making plans for November to be much better. Today is supposed to be the start of the fattest two months of the year and I got a jump on that early this year.

I am thankful for...Jonathan's quick healing with his wisdon teeth and so much more!

I am reading...the latest Nicholas Sparks book, the name of it escapes me right now.

From the Kitchen...Yesterday I made buffalo chicken dip for a Halloween event, that translates in to more chicken for Mugga's chicken soup today.

From the learning rooms...Jake and Madi still seem to be on the same pace, both finishing up the Revolution and starting the brand new nation. I'm trying to decide how long I'm going to take with Jake's. We may slow down here and spend a lot of time on each president and state. If so we may take two years to do this curriculum. I'm thinking next he'll do Exploring Countries and Cultures. At whatever point he does that I think Disney passes are a must, so the question is Disney next year or the year after? The year after is an awful long time to wait!! On a side note we are getting into EPCOT for free on Saturday, it pays to have friends in high places. Jonathan and Madi actually have a youth group event there where we will explore the Catholic aspects of the EPCOT countries. (not to mention sampling food {and maybe even wine} from around the world!)

I am Praying...lets just leave it at that, I am praying and praying and praying!

I am going... to Mass for the solemnity of All Saints this morning.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week...just plugging along, trying to accomplish as much as humanly possible while still appreciating every single moment.

What else is new?
I just touched the bottom of the computer desk and felt a dried boogie..... Yuck!JJJJAAAAKKKKEEE!!!!!!!!!

stream of consciousness

2011-10-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

I had a little bit of a blogging run and then I crashed. I was thinking about this last night along with a huge assortment of other things that were cluttering my mind.
Things like Jonathan has done essentially no school work this week because he got his wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. He is healing really well except for waking up in pain each morning because he's slept well all night and the evening's medication has long since worn off. No school all week for a 3rd grader? OK! (Jake actually has done school this week though) No school all week for a 10th grader? Not so OK. Especially since next week is as full of a week as one can imagine including 2 Dr appointments, a craft day, a book club, a youth group trip, and a trip to the Florida Theatre Convention. Two of these things don't involve Jonathan at all (the craft day and book club, if you were wondering), but still it's a lot for any family. This doesn't include theatre and more and more theatre, and soccer, and choir, and whatever else I'm forgetting right now. Ugh! It's exhausting! Starting tomorrow we also have a week filled with things we will miss because we still haven't perfected the art of being in two places at one time. There's a carwash for the theatre (to raise funds for said convention), but we are walking in a walk-a-thon that is raising money for the local St Vincent de Paul food pantry that feeds 700 hundred families a month in our area alone (and fed 900 families last month!!) Then the rest of the week will continue with having to miss one or more scheduled activity in lieu of another and that kind of thing totally stresses me out. I'm the kind of person that generally feels the need to say yes to anything that I don't absolutely have to say no to. Like if someone says can you come let my cat out at 3am and I know I have nothing else going on, then I feel like I have to say yes. I hate having to take my kids away from one activity (where I'm worried people will be annoyed because we left early) to get them to another activity (where I'm worried people will be annoyed because we're showing up late). The positive side of needing to be at two places at once though is that we really can't, so to that end there is less on the proverbial schedule then there otherwise would be. I like to look for the silver lining! We finished three books today! All three kids and I finished listening to Sign of the Beaver (I liked it even more than I expected), then Madi and I finished the third (of ten or eleven) of her core history books, and Indian Captive. We've gotten into this good routine of taking turns reading her history aloud while the other of us folds laundry or cleans the kitchen. Madi started out doing her history on her own, but I'm too big of an American History fan to not be a part of it, so this is working. Jonathan likes to sit in too. It's slightly harder to do Spanish or Biology while listening to History though so it sometimes poses a problem. Jake's History has been lining up with Madi's quite nicely, but it's looking like hers is going to start cruising ahead, she's past the Constitution now and he's still lingering in Colonial Days. His book has a section each week about an area of the country which tends to slow things down a little. Today's was about Chesapeake Bay which is really cool because we went on (in) the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel this summer on our way to Delaware. I really like how his curriculum brings in science and geography (and Bible and literature and more), it's a hit! Speaking of Jake, remember his song from Honk!? "I'm just different, I'm just different from the rest..." Well he really truly is. Today alone he was creating his Veggie Tales Silly Song Countdown posters completely color-coded and everything and not five minutes later he was playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire by himself (they dug out the old board game the other day) and he could genuinely answer a lot of the questions! Usually by the time a person knows an excessive amount of trivia, they have outgrown Veggie Tales have they not? He's also brought back some other old favorites this week and is in the middle of another Berenstain Bears kick. Jake turned nine on Wednesday and I didn't even post about it. All Jonathan got was his card on here too. What can I say, I'm in a little bit of a slump. Some years there are huge birthday blog posts, others not so much. There's always plenty of cake though, so don't worry about that!

Yummola Granola Bars

2011-10-12T04:42:00.001-07:00

Go here to find a link to some really good homemade granola bars. There are all kinds of ideas there.

Here is the original recipe that the link links to.

1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats (if gluten-free, be sure to use gluten-free oats)
1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (use more for a sweetness akin to most purchased bars; use less for a mildly sweet bar)
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (total of 10 to 15 ounces)*
1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (I used almond butter) (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, namely because I was not convinced that the flavor came through)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (see Note above)
1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ pan in one direction with parchment paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the parchment paper and the exposed pan, or coat with a non-stick spray.

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, liquid sweeteners and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry (and peanut butter, if you’re using it) until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, pressing them in firmly to ensure they are molded to the shape of the pan. (A piece of plastic wrap can help with this, as you press down on the back of it.)

Bake the bars for 30 to 40 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges — don’t be afraid to get a little color on the tops too. They’ll still seem soft and almost underbaked when you press into the center of the pan but do not worry, they’ll set completely once completely cool.

I've only made these once so far and now I'm going to tell you how I tweaked the recipe to my own liking and pantry. Let me just say these were the yummiest granola bars ever!

I used...
1 2/3 cups of oats
1/2 cup sucanat
1/3 cup freshly ground wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon (maybe 1/2)
about a cup of chocolate chips
1/3 cup dark chocolate almond butter
6 Tbls melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbls water

I also didn't have parchment paper. I sprayed the pan and they came out fine.

This recipe is not for precise people, you have to be willing to experiment and toss in things (like chocolate chips and more chocolate chips) as you see fit.

More schooly thoughts

2011-10-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

For the last few years I've been a little envious of people with younger kids. "Don't do school," I'll think, "Go to the park, bake brownies, play a game!" Last week I had a brainstorm...I can still do those things too. Yes Jonathan has a heavy high school workload (and an even busier extra-curricular/social/theatre calendar) and Madi is right behind him, but you know what? They're here now. Well technically they aren't here NOW, in a twist of fate Madi is at the theatre watching Dracula and Jonathan is not. Jonathan is at a high school youth group life rally. Mike and Jake are at the mall, and I am enjoying some quiet on a rainy Saturday evening. The best part is everyone is getting a ride home and I don't have to go out to get anyone! (Thank you ladies who have my big kids and coincidentally are two of my handful of readers!) But I digress. Friday we went to a play in the big city. Then we met Mike for a yummy pizza lunch. Then we went to the big city library. It was like the old days. Jonathan did (at least part of) an Algebra 2 test in the car, but otherwise no SCHOOL got done. We all enjoyed listening to Sign of the Beaver on CD and got through more than half of it in just that one day. Yes, Jonathan will have some stuff to catch up on. Madi too. I'm really going to make a point of continuing to do those things like lunch out and the big city library. And park days, and games, and the beach, etc etc... I still can! You know that poem about leaving the dust and cobwebs because "I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep?" The same is true for homeschoolers. We homeschool in part so we can do these things, so ya know what? We're going to keep doing them! Yes I'll still yell, "get back to work" nine out of ten times, but that tenth time, you can be sure we'll drop everything and do something fun! That's what homeschooling and parenting in general, is supposed to be about!

School talk and growing up

2011-10-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

At least twice a week I cry about how quickly my kids are growing up. I think I cried twice yesterday alone. I mean my first baby is 16! SIXTEEN!! Sixteen years ago today, he had seizures and a stroke. That's when we really became parents. The first three days were just practice, that day was the real thing. Before that day my standard goal in life was to make a difference in the lives of children in the world. That day I realized it was in raising my own child (and subsequent children) that I was going to channel my difference making. We've definitely done things differently along the way, although at some point a lot of the "different" became normal. Many mothers in our country have to first let go at 6 weeks when they go back to work and the baby goes to day care. Many more have to let go at 5 for kindergarten. Here I am hanging on for dear life to my 16 year old. I'm so not ready to let go. And yet, I've been letting go gradually for the last 16 years. No matter how this sounds I'm really not codependent. I'm not a helicopter parent either. As I type this my 8 year old is out playing in the street with some kids I don't even know, I hold my breath when I hear a car coming, but I let him go. I give my kids a pretty good about of space and opportunity to make their own decisions. They're doing pretty well. If we don't trust our kids, how will they ever become trustworthy? (that's from Footloose and my kids are allowed to watch that). Without responsibility how will they ever become responsible? (I made that one up myself). Even though we homeschool, the kids (especially the bigger two) are responsible for their own work. If Jonathan weren't responsible, the theatre would be dark much of the time. If Madi weren't responsible, a lot of local parents would be missing out on a lot of date nights. She babysat, spur of the moment, last Friday until midnight for a young family who had never had a babysitter before. When I say young family, I mean the parents were much closer to Madi's age than they were to my own...talk about growing old!! Last night we had a father of four here who was STARTING high school the year Jonathan was born!! Seriously!! When did I get so old?! Where is the time going? Which brings me right back to crying about how fast time is flying. How fast the kids are growing! I'm really making a point to appreciate every little thing because little things become big things way too quickly!

I got off on a tangent, I was actually going to talk about schooly stuff here. I'm not sure if it has to do with being in my forties, or if it's because I've actually been homeschooling for over 10 years, but I'm much more vocal about my opinions than I used to be. Hang around me for a while and you're bound to hear it. When we started homeschooling all we were doing was continuing early childhood at home. Well, more like at the park, at the library, and on business trips with Daddy. I knew even then that education didn't need to look like school at home. (Guess what even in high school it doesn't look like school) We took on the labels of unschoolers or child led learners or delayed academics people. Those labels conjure up different things in people's minds. Often people think it means not doing enough. Once, long ago, a friend "defended" what I did to another friend by saying "Julie does a lot more with her kids then she lets on". Basically in these people's minds unschooling meant doing nothing. She was right in the sense that we've never done nothing! Someday I hope to do nothing at least for a little while, but I've never come close to that. I just wasn't doing what some people would call school. Maybe we're still not. Even yesterday I used my standard, "We're always doing school or we never do school" it just depends on how you look at it. Are we always learning? Absolutely! Anyway, this is my round about way about getting to my latest opinion. You wouldn't believe the number of times people talk to me about grade levels of things. For some reason people think if something is written at a fourth grade level, it can't be educational to anyone older than fourth grade. This way of thinking is crazy to me! I encounter it all the time though. Why people think something has to be full of challenging words to be noteworthy I'll never understand. I had a big rant yesterday about a popular history series that I love being educational to even the smartest people even though it is written at an easy reading level. Guess what else... your kid can still learn things even if they listen to a book on CD, they don't have to physically READ it for it to sink in. I was getting so worked up about this that I even started saying things I hate to hear like "I graduated cum laude from a prestigious university and I still learn a lot from reading these books" (and even JUST listening to them on CD). UGH! The moral here is don't get me started on this! The thing is no one really knows what goes on in other people's homes and homeschools. I'll fill you in on something though, around here we talk all! the! time!! So we might read the simplest thing, but we might have a college worthy discussion about it. We might have even done that back in the day when people called us unschoolers and thought we weren't doing enough.

Facebook status style

2011-10-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

This is the card I gave Jonathan on Sunday.

18 years ago today Mike and I got engaged. I had pink eye.

I closed the kitchen window last night and am happy to report we don't have dead blind mosquitoes all over the stove...I guess we figured out how they're getting in.

If you don't know what blind mosquitoes are, you don't live in the same town I live in.

Madi had soccer practice last night and Jake and I played on the strangest playground ever. It is actually really cool, and very futuristic. Everything is sort of tilted so it spins on its own. I felt like I was on another planet or something.

Come see my kids in Cinderella next weekend! Their parts are Friday the 14th at 7 and Sunday the 16th at 2.

Come get your car washed this Saturday at Sonic between 9 and 12 to support my kids in all their theatre endeavors!!

Jonathan's last behind the wheel driving class is this Saturday (he won't be at the car wash). Yes five weeks have gone by LIKETHAT! Actually sixteen years have!

I've got a lot of blog posts in my head, but for now that's where they'll stay.

Homeschool Resources

2011-09-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

Can you even believe it, I'm posting two days in a row. Kirsten
tagged me on this days and days ago, and I'm going to attempt to answer the questions while also blogging about my own recent homeschool thoughts.

One homeschooling book you have enjoyed...

Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss

There are lots more, but after homeschooling for over 10 years I've really been out of the how and why to homeschool kind of books for quite some time. Also I am not going to take the time to link to any of these so you'll just have to do it the old fashioned way and google it if you are curious.

One resource you wouldn't be without....

I have to include my two favorites here...the public library and the internet! We are fortunate enough to live in a county where we can take books out of any of the (about 10) county libraries. It is very easy to order any books you need via my other favorite, the internet, and they will be delivered to the library of your choice. I'm a library glutton though and I don't stop there. I happen to live in the one town in the county whose library isn't part of the county system. I make quick use of that place as well. They are a little stricter there and their fines and policies will kill you, but there's something endearing as well. It is so quiet and comfy in there and it really feels like you're stepping back in time when you we go there (which is at least weekly). But wait there's more. That's still not enough for me. We also have a card (and large fines) to the neighboring larger big city county. I currently owe then over $5 for a book that would cost only $3.99 in the store. it was lost under Madi's bed for weeks and no one even read it (Jake checked it out). I might spend a fair amount at all these libraries over the course of a year, but I get sooo sooo much more in return and in the end I'm saving a bundle.

Now for the internet (and let's include my ipod in this)... just today we spend some time watching the animaniacs state capitals song and video and their presidents one too. This was on you tube, so we can add you tube to the list of resources I wouldn't be without. Yesterday Jake and I watched the Pilgrim part of EPCOT'S American Adventure on you tube. ("There's a land cross this ocean I'm waiting to see, a land for these people who dream to be free......") For that matter I can add Disney to the list of resources. We're missing not having passes right now. I'm thinking next year Jake will probably do Exploring Countries and Cultures and we'll spend a lot of school at EPCOT.

Khanacademy is another website that I've only begun to tap the riches of.

One resource you wish you'd never bought...

I'm not sure that I have an answer for this one. Maybe some of the more "pro-reformation" stuff from My Father's World, oh and the one History book that bashed FDR. Even things we don't agree with I've been able to use as a lesson in the author's perspective etc. I'm pretty sure of stuff before I buy it though so I generally don't buy anything until I check it out first. I might have a few things laying around that we haven't used yet, but they'll be used eventually.

One resource you enjoyed last year...

This kind of goes with the last question. I generally don't use a resource until I'm pretty sure of it, so everything we've ever used I've enjoyed. That might sound a little obnoxious, but for the most part I think it's accurate. Jake used Catholic Heritage 2nd grade last year and I really liked it. I did find that I didn't get my money's worth out of the whole lesson plan packet though, so this year for 3rd he's just doing their spelling and language and other stuff for the rest. Some of my favorite all time resources are Five in a Row, Singapore Math, Teaching Textbooks, Apologia Science, Story of the World, and this year Notgrass's America the Beautiful and Hakim's A History of US.

One resource you wished existed...

I wish Netflix didn't drastically up their prices. We will be receiving our last DVD in the mail today (the second part Colonial House which I highly recommend). After that we'll be streaming only. We can't justify the cost of the DVDs, but now I'll have to barter with someone to let us watch some of their American History ones.

One resource you would like to have...

Hmmm this might require more brain power than I have right now to figure out. We really have so much at our disposal, it's sometimes hard to imagine more.

One homeschool catalog you enjoy reading...

This is probably the easiest question. Until this year none of my kids have ever done Sonlight (Madi is doing Core 100 this year), but it has been BY FAR my favorite homeschool catalog for years and years. We have used it to get many great book recommendations. LOVE! IT!!! (Madi and I are loving the whole curriculum this year too!!)

So here's my homeschooling thought of the week (it doesn't apply to homeschooling only, it's about all school and learning in general). What percentage of school would you say is learned for the information and what percentage is done for the sake of brain development, learning to learn, etc... Like for example I think most people can agree a lot of higher math is done for brain development and not because anyone really needs to know if two trains are traveling toward each other, one having left from Boston at 9am at a speed of 85 mph and the other left New York at 9:10 blah blah blah, you get my point. Here's what I've been pondering lately. Jake's spelling for example... Jonathan and Madi never really did spelling at Jake's age (and thus it might not really be necessary...shhh don't tell him that). So I wonder, am I having him do it so he'll really learn to spell the words (which I am convinced he'll learn someday anyway), or so he'll learn that he has to do some things even if they're not always that much fun? I do believe that the activities in the book are good for his brain development too. Also spelling has a nice rhythm to it to Monday the first page of the lesson, Tuesday the second, Wednesday write the words in your neatest handwriting, Thursday quiz (often oral and frequently while he's in the bathtub), Friday test (unless he gets them all right on Thursday). Rhythm is good. Two of the things that Jake is "into" currently are Veggie Tales and the game Top Trumps. He's especially hooked on playing the Star Wars one, but we also have some about dinosaurs, animals, boats, and planes. The way the game works is you pick a category from your card (like fighting skill) and you compete with the other person for their card's fighting skill (or whatever). Well last weekend Jake enlisted Madi and I to help him to create a Veggie Tales Top Trumps. So we made pictures (the pic is at the top) of Bob and Larry and all their buddies and they can compete on the basis of funniest, tallest, best silly song etc. He definitely learned more doing this than he probably did with any of his school work last week. It reminds me of the long ago question when someone asked what Jonathan was learning in second grade. I said he had been present for the birth of his baby brother. The retort was, "That's not in the second grade scope and sequence." I went to public school my whole life and I know I learned far more on our two week vacation to California when I was in 6th grade than anything else the WHOLE REST OF THE SCHOOLYEAR! I can, to this day, tell you about most of the trip in great detail (as can my brother who was in second grade at the time). So here's the thing, we are playing the high school game complete with credits and transcripts etc. I know Jonathan is learning a lot and for the most part enjoying it. He's definitely enjoying Algebra 2 after a year of Geometry, and he's liking Biology. He's not in love with Spanish and English, but he's doing it and getting A's. His History class hasn't started yet and the virtual school people will be hearing from us today. BUT I know that he is getting much more educated and prepared for his future at the theatre. I have many more thoughts, but my time was up a long time ago. There may be more to come...

I was going to call this 'thinking about blogging', but I just called a post that a few times ago

2011-09-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

I just can't seem to post much anymore. Years ago in the peek of my blogging, I'd get asked by people, "How do you find/make time to blog?" In those days that was a joke, blogging essentially came before everything except eating! Now...not so much. Those were the days when I "thought in blog", these are the days where I have resorted to writing things in a planner because I seriously CAN. NOT. KEEP. IT. ALL. IN. MY. HEAD!! All three kids are in the thick of Cinderella rehearsals. Jonathan is Herbert (the Prince's Dad), Madi is Fifi (one of the step-sisters), and Jake is a Newsboy (the same part Jonathan was when they did this show five years ago). Jonathan and Madi auditioned on Tuesday for two extra shows. One is the Florida Theatre Conference. The other is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Both of these were audition only and everyone isn't necessarily in. They both got into both! They will each be in a scene of LOCKERS for the conference (this is a competition and something they've never done before), and Madi is Beth (her first lead in two years) and Jonathan is the harried Reverend in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This doesn't count the two adult shows that Jonathan is currently doing lights for until all hours of the night. Jake has joined Madi in church choir. In addition to the children's choir, Madi, will still be cantoring (ie THE choir) for other Masses frequently. Jonathan and Madi have pretty active Youth Group schedules this year and since Middle School and High School are mostly separate this year that means a lot more driving for me! Oh and Madi has had a bee in her bonnet about playing soccer lately, so she's doing that too! Somehow all of these things and Jonathan's five hours of driving every Saturday for five weeks (and whatever else I am forgetting at the moment) do not interfere with each other. Crazy huh!?

Then there's schooling besides! They all pretty much have heavier loads than ever before. They're keeping up pretty well too and still able to find plenty of down time to hang out with friends and still sneak in too much TV.

Speaking of TV, I'm considering not watching Dancing with the Stars this season. The first week has been recorded on the DVR, but I might not watch it. It's one way to find some more hours in my overflowing week. It's gotten a little old lately. I do like a lot of the dancers, but they seem to have run out of "STARS". And here's the other thing. When I was little I actually thought Sonny and Cher were my parents' friends. Because of that Chastity was my BFF. I now feel a little betrayed by her (him?) There's also the question of the X FACTOR, that has also been recorded, but thus far not watched. I'm a big fan of the singing and dancing kind of entertainment, but if I'm not hooked now, why get hooked ya know?!

Madi's math teacher (AKA Mr Teaching Textbooks) is now talking in my ear and distracting me, so I think it's time to get back to my planner and figure out who's supposed to be where when.

Last one

2011-09-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

DISNEY!!

2011-09-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Our family is camping at Fort Wilderness for Night of Joy this weekend. I am home right now, however, because Jonathan is doing this...

Yesterday we did this...

...

Tonight we're going back for more!

note: this is Jake's first year going to Night of Joy and he did great! This picture was taken after midnight and he rallied one more time after this to walk (on his own two feet) out of the park and on to the boat, bus, and finally camper!

More Frannie...

2011-09-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

Francesca Batistelli at Night of Joy

2011-09-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

St Augustine and other homeschooly pics

2011-09-10T07:44:00.001-07:00

Homeschool {Disney} bus stop...

Navajo Flatbread

There's no school like homeschool and there's no candy like homemade peanut butter cups!

An Iroquoian Longhouse and a Woodland Wigwam...

MICROSCOPE!

I was trying to capture my children walking up to the largest stone fort in America build on the sight of the oldest permanent European settlement in the New World, and yet I couldn't take my focus off of the chocolate and caramel dipped rice crispy treat that I was eating!

part 2...maybe not

2011-09-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

I'm overdue on the continuation of my last post. I'm not really feeling it right now though, and I'm 'longer' overdue on the book post from about 2 months ago. We'll start with that and see where this leads.

In the last few weeks I've read some really good books like The Help, I really loved it and the movie too. I felt like the movie was really close to the book and the characters were very much how I pictured them. I had just finished the book too and it still was close. Often because I read so many books by the time I see the movie I've forgotten enough of the book to make it seem similar enough, but this time I remembered it all and it was still really close. I'm not the first one to have said that either. I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I liked it. I didn't love it though, this book is written as a series of letters and I just skimmed some of the letters. Then I read Stink Alley. This is a kid/young adult, historical fiction book about when the Pilgrims went to Holland before they came to America. It is part of Madi's History curriculum for this year (she hasn't read it yet). It was a quick easy read and I really enjoyed it. Two days ago I finished my favorite of all of these Miles to Go, I LLOOOVVVEEEEDDDD it!! It is the second in The Walk series. I read The Walk sometime in the last year. I don't remember when, but I do remember that I read a lot of it on the bike at the gym. I just found out from amazon that the third book in the series isn't coming out until April...I don't wanna wait that long! Go read these books! I am fighting a little bit of a sore throat and after some really busy days and a busy morning introducing a couple friends to the 'fine art of wheat grinding' (haha), {and supervising a little schoolwork}, I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening reading most of The Duggars 20 and Counting, not great literature of course, but it's keeping me interested. Jake and I are still reading Farmer Boy, which is as slow (but nice) as it was the last two times I read it aloud. We are all reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School aloud because we are going to see the play in a few weeks. The best word to describe this book is lame (but kinda funny). It is no where near as good as Holes which is also by Louis Sachar.

Ok all those links wore me out! We're schooling like usual around here, fitting in virtual school, high school level classes, and spelling tests around beach days and visits with out of town friends. Next week Mike is off of work and in additon to school we'll be doing some rental house work (yuck!) and some camping at Fort Wilderness (yeah!). We are going to Night of Joy at Disney Friday and Saturday nights next week (though we didn't get our tickets yet, do they sell out?!). Next Saturday in the day though, Jonathan and I will have to leave Fort Wilderness so he can begin 5 weeks of "behind the wheel driver training". I am NOT ready for this!!

Rumor has it that the PSAT is being given on October 15. By Rumor I mean the College Board website. I called the local highschool again YESTERDAY (Sept 1) to register Jonathan and the GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT still didn't know a thing about it!! UGh!! The lady took my number and said she'll call me back...we'll see. I have to say I'm glad I'm not trusing my child's education to those people. (It's my blog and I can say that!)

the blogging tightrope

2011-08-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

There's a fine line between tooting your own horn and airing your dirty laundry. That's my thought for the day. I'll try to elaborate, but I'll be honest, the ideas that reside comfortably in my brain may not make much sense when written out. The fine line I speak of is balanced every day by mom bloggers everywhere. Some lean a little more toward the "we never have any trouble getting kids to eat their vegetable around here", "my kids always say yes ma'am and no ma'am and are in bed every night by 8 (with a bath and prayers)", these are the Mary Poppins 'practically perfect in every way' types. I'm generally not a fan of those. I'm more the type that if you tell me how perfect you and your kids are, you can be sure I'm going to be watching every minute so I can find the way you aren't perfect (because you're not, none of us are!) I've been a fan of 'keeping it real blogs' for a long time. I have to admit though some "real" is personal and TMI. So where's the balance? Often I tread that line by tossing in some dirty laundry stories when I have the urge to brag about my kids. Like I said I don't want to hear too much bragging and I'm pretty sure you don't either. BUT...I am proud of my kids and if I don't share that here, then where? Quite the conundrum!

I've been a parent for a pretty long time now, almost 16 years. I've been doing it 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, and for about the first 10 or 11 of those years I did it with almost no break EVER! Now that I'm not with my kids 24 hours a day every single day (but still close), I know that even when you aren't with them, the job doesn't end, I'm just saying all this to say I have some experience. We've also been homeschooling essentially that long, or figuring conservatively, at least for the last 10 years. I often get parenting and homeschooling questions from people. I'm no expert in this field and I don't claim to be, but I do have experience enough to know what's worked for me. Often I get questions about what I did for school when my kids were younger. Depending on the time allotted or my mood I might talk about living life as learning, or going to the park, playing with friends and reading books. Very often if pressed to recommend a curriculum, I recommend Five in a Row. I'm pressed for time right now, so I won't include a link (go ahead you can google it yourself if you want). Almost every time I get a response that implies that isn't enough "work". This seems to indicate that I really let my kids slack off when they were younger. This may be debatable, but the thing is they are doing pretty well right now. So maybe there is something about the "less work" that "works". I really have a lot more to say about this, but I have plans to leave my almost grown kids home while I go do a very grown up thing and meet a friend for coffee (I probably won't drink coffee), but I have a lot more to say on this subject, so I'll be back with more...

Thinking about a blog post

2011-08-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm on the actual computer, what do you think of that?! Those of you who are my facebook friends or who regularly email me are thinking, "Isn't Julie always on the computer?" Those of you who've been paying attention would know the truth, "No, Julie is always on her ipod!" Not going on the computer keeps me at least semi-accomplishing life while I am also wasting time in cyber-world. It's a win win for everybody. Well except the person who sends me an email that is too complicated to reply to on the ipod. Then all of a sudden two weeks go by and I've yet to reply to an urgent request. Oh well, maybe it's more of a win some lose some scenario. Either way, I'm here now.

Well, I'm here on the computer smack dab in the middle of the organized chaos that is school around here. Jake just finished a spelling test, Jonathan is working on math, and Madi history. She just escaped to a calmer room though in the hopes of actually accomplishing something. You see we talk too much around here. We're all guilty. I'll tell everyone to be quiet and get to work, and two minutes later I'll be telling Jonathan about his scheduled "behind the wheel" driving classes. Then we'll just get back to work and he'll have the need to let us all know about the new Disney monorail that is up and running. Then Jake will chime in with "What are your three favorite silly songs?" I think you get the picture.

Jake is back on a Veggie Tales kick. I just recently noticed that Barney and Blue never show up around here anymore ( :( ), but Bob and Larry still come around fairly often.

Jake had an interesting observation the other day. He said he feels sorry for Adam and Eve because they never got to be children. I found his insight very profound. After he thought about it a little more, he realized he might just be a little jealous of them though because of "parents and rules". Not that he's the type to let rules (or parents) stop him anyway, so I'm not sure what he was thinking.

We are winding down a good week of school. Everyone is happy with their new classes, as the novelty hasn't worn off yet. Virtual School has had some changes that are taking a little getting used to, but it seems pretty good so far. Jonathan is thrilled to be back in Algebra (2), since he is much more of an Algebra guy than a Geometry guy. Madi is loving her new History (she is part of a co-op). It's quite a work load, but she's enjoying it and what I've read of the books (and there's a lot of them) I'm loving it too. For example who knew that corn was genetically modified to begin with?! I mean it's been fairly common knowledge of late that genetically modified corn is something to be avoided right? Well according to Charles Mann corn was genetically engineered by the native Americans from the get go. Of course, the book also talks about how the Natives knew how to combine corn with things like beans and lime so they could be nutritiously digested (and in the case of beans so they could grow better and help the soil too). I guess it's the nutritious part that's left out of the equation today. Jake's History is also making a big hit with both of us. Because he and Madi are both doing American History, he's spent the week learning about native Americans as well. To continue on the corn train of thought he's learned that corn, beans, and squash were known as the sister crops to the Indians of the South east Woodlands. Today he is potentially going to make a wigwam with cardboard, paper and glue. This is something Jonathan and Madi did a few years ago. Upon hearing about it they (the two teenagers) jumped at the chance to make one again. Jake on the other hand was much more excited about his multiple choice quiz this morning. He also has the opportunity to make an Indian longhouse out of gumdrops and tooth picks. Maid was all over that idea too. Jake, not so much! He's an oddity.

We made the yummiest thing the other day...homemade peanut butter cups!! I was desperately in the mood for a chocolate peanut butter treat (I was thinking buckeyes), but I only had about a cup of powdered sugar and buckeyes call for about 6 cups (a little excessive even for me). Well these peanut butter cups only need 3 cups of chocolate chips, one cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and a tsp vanilla. These are staples around here! Melt the chips, spread them in cup cake papers (I'm thinking a silicone muffin pan would probably work well too) mix up the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla, plop some on the chocolate and put more chocolate on top, cool, and eat! You could probably be careful and neat about the whole process, but I made them quick and sloppy (and extra delicious). They are long gone now, but after typing this, that is the next thing on my mental to do list!

We also had an extra yummy (and on sale at Publix) dinner last night. Phillycheesesteak wraps. First melt a little butter (or a lot) and saute the onion {that had been sitting in the pantry for months} with the peppers [that were rotting away that a nice lady from church gave us weeks ago] (we had eaten plenty, but she gave us a ton). Then throw in some Publix Roast beef that is on sale this week, and top with provolone also on sale. Then put it all on a BOGO flatbread. Now I want that too, but the rotting onion and never-ending peppers are no more:(.

Speaking of wraps, I was blog hopping yesterday and saw a picture of a greek salad wrap! You can bet that is on my mental meal plan for next week. There wasn't even a recipe or anything, just a picture, but I'm smart enough to figure this out for myself. It will have a lot of lettuce and ham and feta cheese, a little bit of tomato and some Greek dressing that was on sale a few weeks ago, and more BOGO flatbread to hold it all together. Everybody loves a chance to eat salad without a fork!

Honk! pics

2011-08-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Jake's fan club

HONK!

Look at him

2011-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Greylag the Goose, Ugly, and cast

2011-08-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

more fun...

2011-08-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Fun!

2011-08-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Random Rambling

2011-08-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

We are slowly easing back into school/reality over the next month. Our Foreign Exchange students left yesterday and we're missing them! We didn't necessarily talk all that much, and we had to run them around to an awful lot of places (this reminded me of how glad I am that all three of my kids are involved in the same activities), but they were still a joy to have around. The smell of Mathilde's perfume has already faded from the bathroom and Jake's bedroom (it was sweet smelling and quite heavy). I just got word from each of them via facebook that they are home safe and sound. {Another reason I am a facebook fan, without it, I know we wouldn't be able to keep in touch as much as we are/do/will}.

This week is the week break from Theatre before the fall session starts (Cinderella). Jonathan was supposed to have five days away from there as well between the last showing of Gutenberg on Sunday and setting/ programming lights for Dracula on Saturday. Alas, it was not meant to be... he was back there yesterday striking the Honk set and he's there again today. I'm not sure which is stronger, his love for the Theatre or the Theatre's love for him! He is getting free lunch, and rumor has it there may even be some money in (some of) it for him come October.

As you have hopefully seen from the video, Jake had his turn in the spotlight and did not disappoint. I could be wrong, but I don't think I've yelled at Jake since before the show on Thursday (and I really wasn't yelling at him for the three weeks before that so as not to give him reason to want to quit the show (which he only said once and even he knew he wasn't serious)). I feel like I have a new found respect for Jake, but I also think he might have a new found respect for himself. Any kid who can learn all those lines (120 I think he said) in basically 2 weeks (he got the part on a Wednesday and performed 15 days later) and perform flawlessly in front of an almost sold out crowd, should be able to hold it together for simple things like saying hello to people and making it through Mass without constantly asking how much longer. I think Jake is just now realizing this. Of course I also realized probably part of why I haven't yelled much is because we had two extra people living here for the last 2 1/2 weeks. By the same token though, Jake was unable to sleep in (or even go into) his own room for the whole time he was rehearsing and performing the show because that's where the girls were staying.

So about school... I have big plans of being more scheduled in the coming year. I don't think we'll be able to fit it all in without that. We aren't jumping right into the schedule though because there is currently still too much life going on. We are adding back a few subjects/ classes at a time though so that by mid Sept we should be on a real schedule. Perhaps by mid October, we'll be off it again, but as long as we can get a good jump start, it should be fine. The hope is for a family trip to California in late May and school will need to be done by then. Jonathan specifically works best with a deadline, so that's the plan.

I was thinking about the whole "life is too busy for school" thing yesterday while I was having a physical. The PA was asking about homeschooling. Her son is about 9 months old and she's already getting cold feet about sending him to school. She was asking me some of the basic questions like "how long does homeschooling take?" (I think my new answer to this is going to be "about 18 years") It made me realize how impossible those questions are to answer. It's kind of like "in 25 words or less tell me what it's like to be a parent" or to be married, or anything about life that cannot be reduced down to a few simple words while you are wearing a nothing but a paper gown.

Essentially my kids have taken the whole summer off of school. Jonathan and Madi have gone on a mission trip, we had two European teenagers stay with us for 2 1/2 weeks, we had a family reunion trip to Delaware, Jonathan continues to spend countless hours at the Theatre and now has his name on two plaques in the lobby to show for it, Madi cantors at church in the adult rotation and on the days she sings, she IS the choir, Jake had his first lead, yada yada yada. This doesn't even take into account books they've read and listened to, games played, time at the beach, babysitting, petsitting, and so much more. In our early days of homeschooling, life was school. Being present at the birth of his baby brother taught Jonathan a whole lot more than any second grade curriculum could have. Now the stakes are a little higher and we have to play the college prep game. So while we know that Jonathan has been very well educated this summer, he still has to ease back into a life of textbooks and virtual school classes. The microscope that arrived by UPS yesterday is a testament to the fact that we know how to play this game. I think we are all looking forward to getting back into the school-swing, but we don't think for a minute we're going to turn on some kind of a learning switch that's been off for the last few months. We don't let schooling get in the way of our education around here.

A mother's pride

2011-08-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Stolen pics

2011-08-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

When Jonathan won his awards the other night he gave two very good and impromptu speeches. I was too "bursting" and too far away to get any pictures or video, but thankfully Tiffany got some pics!

A Preview of Honk! Jr

2011-08-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

Tickets are still available...

The Many Moods of Miss Madi

2011-08-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Dolly Awards

2011-08-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we got all dolled up for the second time last week for the "Dolly" Awards at the Theatre. These awards are the closest we'll ever get to the Tony's, and it was a very fancy and grown up evening. I felt like a grown up anyway. All three kids got called on stage and received a certificate and a "star" Tshirt. Jonathan also received the Young People's Student of the Year Award and the Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award. The hundreds of hours that he's put in there over the last few months have really paid off! He got two engraved gold star trophies and his name is engraved on two different plaques in the lobby of the theatre. When I have more time (like that's going to happen), I have a whole post about how proud my kids make me (don't worry there are plenty of real life humbling anecdotes that will be thrown in for good measure).

The Girls

2011-08-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

We are loving being a host family for two foreign exchange students. Mathilde (the blond {I looked that word up because I wasn't sure if it had an e or not apparently it can be written either way just like grey and gray...I've never been blond, someday I'll be grey!}) is 15 and from France. Her English is quite good, and she and Madi are really hitting it off. Cristina is from Spain and is almost 17. She made us the yummiest dessert last night (truly the yummiest without chocolate thing ever and super easy too) {5 lemon yogurts, a can of sweetened condensed milk [she called it "condensable milk"], and the juice of three lemons, put it all in the blender then refrigerate...that's it, sooo good!!}.

We introduced the girls to s'mores last weekend. They only drink milk in the morning and don't eat breakfast (some days Mathilde will eat a strawberry or two). I did get them to each eat a donut (can also be spelled doughnut:)) this morning. They (especially Cristina) are generally running late in the morning, so milk works. It's amazing how calm I can be with kids that are not my own even when I am freaking out about how late we are. I have to drive them to a bus pick up location at 7:30 each morning. They have "school" most mornings and then trips in the afternoon. They are on a Disney trip this weekend and will be back Sunday night. Then they leave Monday the 15th. I'm going to miss them. Dropping them off this morning I realized how hard it is going to be to say goodbye to them for real. We will definitely be doing this again.

Early this week was an annual tradeshow that Mike goes to. Tuesday was a semi formal dinner reception. We all went, that's what those fancy pictures are of. Yesterday they had a car wash for Give Kids the World. Jonathan and Madi worked at it too. I didn't take any pictures, but a friend did, so maybe we'll see some eventually. Last night all four teenagers went out at 9:30 for karaoke. I cannot believe I have kids old enough to be going out at 9:30 (yes I know this is debatable), at least for now we still have to drive them! Although Jonathan did do some driving yesterday.

Speaking of teenagers, I have about 25 other blog posts in my head and this is supposed to be about the girls and not about everything else, but women are like spaghetti (every thing touches everything else as opposed to men who are more compartmentalized like waffles) and one thought goes right into the next. Having two more teenagers here makes me realize even more how much my own kids are growing up. As I'm typing this I'm listening to Pandora Taylor Swift Radio (go ahead judge me) and I've heard two songs about kids growing up...it's killing me!

Here are some pics of our five kids...

August 3rd

2011-08-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

Once there were two people...

Then there were two more...

43 years later, now there are eleven of us!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

{note...technology has advanced significantly in the last 43 years!}

The Stuff Christmas Letters are Made of

2011-07-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

I originally started blogging almost 4 years ago as a kind of continuous Christmas letter. It was becoming the "thing to do" and it was a good way to document the goings on in the family; the good the bad and the ugly. For about three years I literally "thought in blog". Everything was fodder for a blog post. Now blogging, mine and everyone else's, is not always a top priority. We are, however, knee deep in the middle of some exciting (and a few not so exciting) things that are all "Christmas letter worthy", just in the last few days!

*Jake got his first lead role! He is "Ugly" in the summer camp production of HONK! (a musical version of The Ugly Duckling) He got the part yesterday and opening night is in two weeks. Today on the way to Theatre he told us the "one bad thing about having a lead", "since you have lines on almost every page, you are much more likely to get a paper cut!"

*Our family size will increase temporarily today when we pick up two foreign exchange students who will be with us for 2 1/2 weeks, a 15 year old girl from France and a 16 year old girl from Spain. This will be an intersting opportunity for us.

*Mike had a wake up call regarding his bloodsugar, and yesterday at his doctor's appointment his A1C told us just how important it is to watch what he eats. He is back on the right track thankfully!

*Jonathan and Madi's mission trip. It was two weeks ago, but they are still reveling in it. They had "the best time ever"! On Sunday after Mass there will be a reception for the kids who went on the trip to share some information and pictures with the rest of the parish and those who made the trip possible. Madi will be speaking at it.

*We went to the American Idol 2011 Top 11 concert on Sunday. It rocked!!

*We got a new car on Saturday.

*Got the results today that two spot (one was a mole and the other a weird growth) that I had removed from my arm last week are A OK.

I now have approximately 15 minutes of quiet left in my day (and during that time I have to shower), then I have to get the kids at Theatre, take them to a meeting at church, pick up books at the library, swing by Walmart, get Jonathan back to the Theatre, pick up "our girls", and go out to dinner at Chili's where we are having a Theatre fundraiser.

Bread recipe

2011-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Enough people have asked me for my bread recipe lately that it makes sense to put in on here so it is easy to point people to it in the future. Let me be perfectly clear though, it is not MY bread recipe, it comes from Bread Beckers.

1 1/2 cups hot water
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp salt
1 egg (optional, I always use it)
2 Tbsp Lecithin
1 tsp gluten (optional, I always use it)
4- 4 1/2 cups freshly milled flour
1/2 cup ground flax seed (optional, I usually use it)
1 Tbsp Yeast

Combine water, oil, honey, salt, and egg. Add Lechithin, gluten, half the flour, and flax. Mix thoroughly. Add yeast and the rest of the flour, enough to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5-6 minutes). I do this in my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook. Cover and let rise for about an hour. Spray bread pans, shape into pans, cover, and let rise again (about another hour). Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Books

2011-07-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about posting about some health issues because health issues are on my mind, but that's not fun. Strange (and sometimes not so strange) health issues tend to be a cross our family has to bear. I'm glad I'm not superstitious (knock on wood--hahah) because often when I write about health issues, they tend to blow up right before my eyes. SOOO... I'm not writing about health issues, if you want to pray for us though that would be great!

I am going to write about the books we are reading and listening too. I think I am the biggest fan of audio books in the whole world. I love them so much! Audio books are truly a multi-taskers best friend. Don't think I 'm just talking about getting stuff done like housework either. They are also amazing for doing 1000 piece puzzles like the one that is taking up residence on our dining room table right now. Not to mention the car thing! Mike and I have currently traded cars and I now have the one with a 6 CD changer (and temorary XM satellite radio). For years I drove the other vehicle, the one in which 1 year old Jake inserted coins into the CD player. I'm making up for lost time by having a CD player now! Madi and I had appointments an hour away yesterday and we had a few minutes to browse in a library first. This is a library from the neighboring county, one that I have a card for too. I am a glutton in the library. Sometimes I think it's worse than chocolate. Sometimes I think I spend more time just aquiring library books and CDs than I actually do reading or listening to them. Yesterday I checked out Gossamer by Lois Lowry. She is the author of one of my favorite books of all time. So I'm waiting for Madi to be ready to listen some more (while I work on the puzzle). Jake and I are currently listening to Henry Huggins. We are listening in English, I think that link was in Spanish. Jake is also listening to Harry Potter 4, I can't say enough about how Jim Dale is the best audio book reader ever (well, and Jim Weiss). He is also listening to all ove the A to Z Mysteries all over again (no link this time, getting lazy). Meanwhile Jake is reading this.. Together we are reading Farmer Boy. I'm also still trying to read every good picture book that's out there (perhaps a tad too lofty of a goal) before he gets too old. The current library picks are The Hickory Chair and The Hatmaker's Sign. I remember reading these with Jonathan and Madi, but they are even better than I remembered. I am reading The Penderwicks. I'm not sure how I missed this before now. I'm on the second one right now and should be on the third by tomorrow. Madi is reading this series and loving it as much as I did. We also both read Three Willows this summer and loved that too. A few weeks ago I read the book about the original sisterhood ten years later. It was a very good book, but it didn't go the way I would've written it. Now I'm patiently waiting for other people to read it because it definitely needs to be discussed. Another book that I read this summer that needs to be discussed is ROOM, I LOOOVVVED it!! Jonathan, the light master, is reading scripts, that is when he's not making movies. I've got a huge backlog of library books checked out and on hold, so

TO BE CONTINUED...

Math games

2011-07-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

I just found this link and it looks pretty cool. We're all about games around here!

Harry Potter

2011-07-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

It seems that the Vatican and I have the same beliefs with regard to Harry Potter too!

Schooly stuff

2011-07-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

I was going to go on facebook and post something like, "after 10 years of homeschooling I'm actually going to do some lesson planning," then I thought better of it. Not the lesson planning, but the posting of it. It doesn't really sound right and it definitely doesn't convey truth very accurately. So I came here where I can babble and it doesn't matter if I make sense or not.

Today is the last full day that Jonathan and Madi will be away on their mission trip. They have had a great experience. I'm so thankful for texting because without it I wouldn't know much! I've only spoken to Jonathan twice and to Madi only once (and if she didn't happen to walk by Jonathan while he was talking to me, I might not have talked to her at all). This post isn't supposed to be about them and their trip though. It's supposed to be about me and lesson planning. Wait a minute, isn't lesson planning about them anyway? The lines between "me" and "them" are so blurred, I can't tell what's what. Ere go my point about lesson planning. My whole life (well the last 16 years of it anyway) has been about planning for the kids, until today I just never used term "lesson planning" to describe it. So my quiet week at home is coming to an end (I had no Jake either on Monday and Tuesday), and I'd really wanted to come up with some sort of a schedule, lesson plan, whatever, to lay out the year ahead. I haven't done much of that yet. I'm not much of a scheduler. I feel like I've said all this before, but we tend to accomplish a fair-to-good amount of stuff around here each day and it's all happened without a schedule. We eat and sleep every single day. We do a lot of reading, playing, visiting, learning, even exercising most days. The house is no show place, but it is generally passable. We get stuff done. This makes it harder to follow a schedule. It's sort of the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mentality. Every year, I want a schedule though. Every year at this time I read Managers of their Homes. For years I borrowed it and recently I bought a used copy of my own. I don't even like that book, but I read it every year. I want school work to get done (and chores etc) without the reminders (nagging, yelling). Maybe this will be the year that we'll figure that out (I think that every year). So today, in addition to reading that book, I'm attempting to organize, make lists, and mentally prepare for the year ahead.

I'm too lazy to put the links in, but this is what the school year is looking like so far.

Jake 3rd grade
American History- lots of it. We are more or less using two or three different curriculums that we are altering to fit our needs. There will be a lot of reading (aloud and silent) of a lot of real books. We could very well burrow into certain time periods and get buried there for weeks at a time, so I am tentatively thinking we may do this for two years.

Science- I just decided this morning that he will use God's Design for Life: The Animal Kingdom for Science. He told the homeschool evaluator that he want to do more science in the coming year.

Math- same as always Singapore (3A & 3B). 3A is missing somewhere in our house right now.

He will use Catholic Heritage Curriculum for Spelling, Language, and Faith/ Reading.

Madi 8th grade
American History and Literature- Sonlight Core 100

Math- Teaching Textbooks, she started Pre-Algebra in January and at the time wanted to finish before September so she could do Algebra 1 in 8th grade. I'm not sure how far she's gotten, but I'm quite sure he hasn't touched it in over two months. So she'll do that until she's done then she'll move to Algebra 1.

Science- Apologia General Science

Spanish 1- FLVS

Faith- Confirmation preparation

This doesn't look like very many "classes", but there is an excessive amount of reading (and writing) with the History and Literature, so for now, this is the plan.

Jonathan 10th grade

Science- Apologia Biology

Math- Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 AND Alpha Omega Consumer Math. Is it crazy to do two "maths" in one year? Probably, but it is weird how in (building) schools college bound kids don't have any classes on balancing checkbooks, doing taxes, budgeting etc. Our homeschooled college bound kid will!

English 2
Spanish 2
World History
(all with Florida Virtual School)

He will need to make the gym more of a priority this year and assuming that is the case will get a PE credit (possibly in conjunction with another FLVS class).

College Prep Genius SAT prep (which I think is a half credit course)

I'd also like him to do that Understanding the Scriptures class that we bought last year, but I'm not sure where the extra hours in the day are going to come from. He will definitely do this class someday, just not sure when.

I'm still not completely sure what we're calling Theatre for Jonathan. He spends more time there than he does sleeping on a lot of days. His official transcript (which I officially haven't started on yet) will have 1 credit for Theatre this past year. From February 1st through April 30th he had spent 279 at the theatre. It hasn't really slowed down since then. Some of it can be "volunteer hours", but he's not really lacking in those either because of ushering at church and the mission trip. At some point in the next year he's going to have to let them know that he won't be able to "work" there as much and will need to get a part time job. Maybe they could start paying him and kill two birds with one stone, we'll see.

Some of what's been floating around in my brain is now here in black and white, but the scheduling part of it is still a mystery. I imagine when I revisit this type of post next year at this time most of this will have been accoplished and the scheduling will remain a mystery.

Chit chat

2011-07-09T18:36:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here trying to decided if I'm going to have a bowl of ice cream or not (cookies n cream) and I figured I might as well blog while I decide.

Ok change of plans, the reason I was sitting around trying to decide about ice cream is that I thought I had to be up for another hour and a half waiting to pick up Mr Lightman Jonathan at the theatre, but I had barely started typing when I got a text from him saying I could get him now. My very wise son decided to leave during intermission because A-he wasn't actually running the lightboard tonight, B-he needed to finish packing for the mission trip tomorrow, and C-sleep might not be such a bad idea either since on said mission trip they have to get up every morning at 6:15.

Did you ever answer the phone and feel like the person on the other end was already in the middle of the conversation before you could even register who they were or what they were saying? Sometimes I think my blog is like that. I'm going along talking about lightboards and mission trips assuming you the reader already know about the current focal points in our family right now. Since I'm pretty sure I've not picked up a new reader in the last few years and most of you (all?) of you know us in real life, I think I've made a pretty safe assumption (is there a p in that word? {yes there is because I just spell-checked it}).

So here I am still no ice cream, but now no need to stay up because the little chicks are in for the night. Well the big chicks are. The little chick is staying at Meme and Grampa Carlie's house for a few days. Yes, so if you've been following along (on my conversation that I jumped right into before you even answered the virtual phone), Jonathan and Madi leave for their mission trip tomorrow and Jake is at "camp Meme and Grampa Carlie". This means I will have some quiet time at the beginning of the week (and Mike and I will have quiet time tomorrow). I'm not sure what I will do with myself. I have a lot of things I'd like to accomplish like possibly actually making a pseudo-lesson plan for the first time in over a decade of homeschooling, but I also have a good amount of books to read and some puzzles to do. I just today finished a really great baseball puzzle (and it is available for loan).

The kids had their homeschool evaluations today so we officially have a 10th, 8th and 3rd grader around here. Jake went last, and he was a little nervous. Keep in mind this evaluation is basically just talking to a woman we've known since before Jake was born and showing her some of last year's work. He likes to play the shy card. He's not really shy per se, just uncomfortable talking to people one on one. When you combine that with the fact that he doesn't care a lick about what other people think, it can make Mommy a little nervous too. Well I kind of hung near the room where they were when it was Jake's turn and I heard him first talk about how he is more comforatble on stage than he is one on one with people. Then I listened to him go on to describe his favorite book "in which Dink, the main character, invites his favorite author to speak at the library. When the author doesn't show up, Dink and his friends must find out what happened to him...."

Sometimes I conjure up worries that are unfounded.

Time for some ice cream!

Fenwick Island, Delaware June 2011

2011-06-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm baaack!

2011-06-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

I think I had a really good blog post in my head the other day, and now I have no idea what it was even about. I don't generally talk about hormones on my blog (which is pretty challenging since our family has two teenagers and a 41 year old mom), but for some reason I am constantly feeling hot and no one else in my family is! Ugh, I'm not ready for this!!

I'm also very frustrated because I'm here on the real computer so I can upload and post vacation pictures, and the computer is not cooperating! This is only making me sweat more! It's not pretty!! I thought I could at least do the ones from my phone since the computer can't seem to read my memory card right now, but that's not working either. The phone ones are in my email, but I'm having a very difficult time trying to open them!

So no pictures, no good blog post, what's the point right? I bet you're disappointed you even clicked on this!

I guess the best I can do is a "random thoughts" kind of post, so here goes...

I have never had the people at Publix help me out with my groceries. I am more than capable of doing it, and I don't think anyone needs to serve me in that way. I do however tend to look down on people who let the Publix people do that... not the elderly people or the mom with 4 kids, but the regular able bodied adults. In my convoluted brain this goes along with my thoughts about not judging others. I do a pretty good job or not judging people based on how they look or dress etc, with one exception, I judge judgers very harshly. I think I've blogged about this before. I really go wild inside my own head thinking bad things about people who I presume judge others. How's that for irony?!

There are times when my blog feels like a Seinfeld episode. Well, except that it isn't nearly as funny or well written. It is sometimes about NOTHING though. In case you hadn't noticed, this is one of those times.

Jonathan and Madi's mission trip is coming up in just over a week. I'm getting really excited about it. For one thing I'm not the one who's going to be outside working in the heat or sleeping on a classroom floor. But truly it is going to be a great experience for them. There were so many times where it looked like it might not be happening and now it is and it's almost here. I've tended to sound apologetic when I tell people they are going on a mission trip to the city that is an hour away from here. Really though, where better to start than your own backyard? Speaking of backyard, the rainy season is finally upon us and some sod is going to be delivered on Friday. We came up with a good game plan in between doing it ourselves and paying actual lawn people to do it. It is called paying and feeding Jonathan and some of his friends to get it all done on Saturday morning! I'm pretty happy with this idea. I can make a lot of pancakes and hot dogs and hamburgers when it means not having to lay sod. I will be sweating anyway, I can pretty much guarantee that!

We have a free trial of xm satellite radio in the car right now. We also have an opportunity to extend it for a while for a small fee. I'm loving it! Especially the 80s station. Yesterday I heard this song, that I had almost forgotten about. Anyone else remember it?! (well I know one of you will:)!) How cool is it that we now have the technology to pull up any song we want any time we want to hear it?! Gone are those high school days when we just had to surf the radio dial trying to find a good song!

Well my persistence with the computer paid off and I was able to eek out these three pictures of our vacation. Now the computer and I both need to cool off and then maybe some time in the next month the rest of the pictures will be on here.

Aye yie yie!

2011-06-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

It's been one of those days.

I purchased my first ever deal from Living Social ($60 tile and grout cleaning), only to find out that my zip code is not included in the promotion (and we really really need our grout cleaned!!). I was able to get my credit card credited relatively painlessly, but that totaled about 20 minutes of frustration, time that could've been better spent. (Jonathan says he'll do it for $30 and that sort of makes sense because I imagine he'll do about HALF as well as the professionals would have, I'm a littled concerned his job might be HALF-@$$ed).

The next thing was that we purchased American Idol tickets last month for the show that is next month. I've been watching the mail for the tickets that have not come. Dealing with this included contacting (and waiting on hold with) the credit card company and ticketmaster. In the end I got the tickets emailed to me and a $5 credit on my card, but I spend tons more time and frustration on this.

Then I corrected Jonathan's last Geometry test, which culminated in an A in the class. Technically he has four more extra assignments to do, but his tests and thus his grade are completed. This was perfect timing since their homeschool evaluation is scheduled for tomorrow. Oh except that while we were going over the test the evaluator called to reschedule, so now this won't be finalized until after our impending 10 days away. Will this school year ever end?

Then I removed a tick from Mickey. It's taken 12 years of us living here for ticks to have migrated from Connecticut. They've officially arrived!! Just in time for us to have a dog!

Now I'm itching all over thinking about the tick. I burned it to death and I'm not ashamed to say I enjoyed every minute of it!

All of this since lunch.

While I am happy that I've gotten my money back, and my tickets, and Geometry is essentially done, and Mickey is safe and the tick is dead, I really wish I could get my afternoon back.

Oh and it's 6:00 and we don't yet know if we are meeting out of state friends at their Disney hotel tonight. It's looking like the evening may go a lot like my afternoon did. Good thing we know how to enjoy at Disney hotel pool even if we never end up hearing from our friends.

Update...

2011-06-10T05:27:00.000-07:00

The problem with blogging is that you then have to go back and update. For example, the date Mike and I were going to have became a trio after Jake got stung by a bee! This was his first bee sting ever. We went to Chili's and Jake actually fell asleep on the 5 minute ride home (Benedryl). The good news is, before yesterday, Jake was pretty sure if he ever got stung by a bee it would kill him. He definitely played it up pretty well last night, but he now knows it's not the end of the world to get stung.

He is currently outside with his baseball glove and hat waiting for his "building school" neighbor to come out and play on this first day of "building school summer vacation". I was going to facebook that, but then I thought it might look a little too stereotypical that the poor homeschooled kid has been waiting all year for his friend to be home. The truth of it is the sweet building school friend has only ever had his cousin and Jake over to play in the six years that we've lived here. Jake on the other hand, has a homeschooled bff coming over later today. Part of why he's so eager to play baseball is that the game was cut short last night by the bee sting (and the trip to Chili's). When we got home with sleeping Jake, said neighbor and cousin were hoping he'd be ready to play some more, but instead, he needed to be carried up to bed.

In other news, I downloaded two books to my e-reader. This could get to be an expensive habit because it is so easy! With one click (and a registered credit card) you can be reading in seconds!! DAN-GER-OUS!!

More thoughts

2011-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

I finally got back on here and corrected most of yesterday's post's mistakes.

I had my first acupuncture treatment today. This is mostly for general wellness. It's been working so good for Madi, I decided to give it a try.

I successfully defeated our first algae infestation in our new pool. I'm not sure how, with two able bodied teenagers in the house, I became the one to keep the pool functioning properly. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have far more schoolwork to do than I do (and they've got a pretty hefty chore-load besides). I have also spent considerably more time in the pool than they have. Jake and I are the ones that go in just about every day.

I'm doing really well avoiding watching the news, specifically the Casey Anthony trial. Today, however, Madi and I got pedicures at the mall (we came home the long way from acupuncture) and there I was in the massage chair, with my feet alternating between the soaking bubbler and the warming lotion and hot towel, and there in front of me was Casey Anthony on the big screen TV. Way to ruin a relaxing moment huh?

We went camping last weekend with friends that we've been talking about camping with for the last year and a half. We went to a really cool spring and enjoyed the natural Florida. We will definitely be going back there!

For the better part of two days last week my ipod would not turn on. It was a sad scene around here. Exactly 24 hours later, it came back no worse for the wear.

We will be on vacation one week from today. We are all looking forward to it. Mike's office has moved from 10 minutes away to a full hour away (have I even blogged that?), this means he is basically gone during almost all of his waking hours each day (another reason why I'm in charge of the pool). It will be nice to spend some time together!! Actually he and I are going on a date as soon as he gets home, so it's not like we don't spend time together, it's just that the days of playing skipbo before he goes to work, having him home for lunch, and then back home by 6 are long gone:(.

I got an e-reader for my birthday in February, and have done very little with it. Really, I've been waiting for Jonathan to figure it out for me. It seems like buying books for it is fairly easy. The thing is, usually I don't BUY books, I check them out of the library. It will be great for trips though because instead of taking 100 books in the car with us, we can narrow that down to about 50. Madi is doing an American History co-op next year that will require a lot of reading and I'm hopeful that we can get some of the books on the e-reader. It is not a nook or a kindle, it is the Radio Shack version, called pandigital.

Speaking of books, I've been going to town on the Karen Kingsbury Baxter Family books. The first series has six books that all start with re (like remember and reunion), then I read the next series which is the firstborn series (and those all start with f like family and found). Then I took a short break and read two really good books in 3 days, Three Willows by Ann Brashares (which Madi read as soon as I finished) and ROOM (which I absolutely LOVED!!!). Now I'm back with the Baxters, and I'm on the second in this series (they all start with s like sunrise and sunset). They aren't the best books in the world, but I'm really going to miss these people when I finish!

Madi is reading like crazy as well.

Jake and I finished Homer Price last night. It got me in the mood to watch Andy Griffith because it has that Mayberry feel to it. Andy Griffith is an instant watch on Netflix, but we haven't gotten to it yet. Jake and I started reading Farmer Boy last night. We had an interesting discussion about how Homer Price is from "the old days", but Farmer Boy is the "even older days". Jake is reading the Ron Roy Calendar Mysteries, but he's not as into them as he was the A to Z Mysteries.

We had a scare last week when it looked like there was a chance that Jonathan and Madi's mission trip might be cancelled. It is back on, and we are praying it stays that way. Join us please? (in praying I mean, not on the trip... although if you want to be a chaperone that might be good:)!)

Well, my date should be here any minute, so I'll stop now.

Thinking thinking always thinking

2011-06-08T15:51:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it really feels like my brain is going to explode! I've said before that with our first baby having seizures and a stroke at 3 days old, I've never been one to like the old adage "When they are little they have little problems, when they are big they have big problems." Sometimes they can be really really little and have some pretty big problems. That being said, that saying seems to hold a little more water when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooling high school is a whole new ballgame. Actually the "schooling" part gets easier, less of the teaching falls on me. I have a new answer when asked if we are done with school this year or if we are schooling through the summer, "I'M done...Jonathan on the other hand has some more work to do". (Madi too if she wants to get ahead in math.) I am spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to document all of this high school stuff. Not only that, I'm trying to figure it out in a way that I can describe it to others because I am continually asked about this. Incidentally it's the same feeling I get when I am asked about my Catholic faith, I know what I believe, I just have a hard time getting it from my brain (and heart) to my mouth. At the convention, I learned that it is really a good idea to sign up for the PSATs in the spring. (this test is given once a year in October and you register for it at your local high school) {not to be confused with the SATs which are given multiple times a year and you register with collegeboard.com}. Contrary to popular belief the PSAT is not just a practice for the SAT, but when taken in your junior year it can qualify you for the National Merit Scholarship... it is actually called PSAT/NMSQT. Anyway, it is recommended that 10th (and even 9th) graders take it too, in which case it sort of is practice. Well I called the local school today and you'd think I asked the lady if anyone there had three heads. "THE PSAT ISN'T GIVEN UNTIL THE FALL!!" Yes I know, I explained, but I was told it was a good idea to sign up early. "Well maybe try back in August," was the best advice she could give me. This was the guidance counselor that I was talking to, the person paid to know this kind of thing. It seems like I know at least as much as she does. I guess I'm keeping up in that regard. Another session that I went to at the convention was about getting high school credit for internships. The first 35 minutes of the 50 minute session were about finding out what your 11th or 12th grader might be interested in. There wasn't a ton of information there for parents of a 9th grader who has spend 300 hours at the theatre since February. I think we've pretty much narrowed down his interest!

I'm going to go eat now because everyone is home and supper is ready. This blog post isn't finished yet, but since I can't seem to finish a conversation or a thought anymore anyway, it seems rather fitting.

I really came on here to link to this book list that I want to explore.

Jake wants tests

2011-05-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight is is the night in between the two day homeschool convention and some of us are getting fired up for next year. Jake has been waiting eagerly to do American History and I am going to put together my own plan using the best parts form a handful of literature based curriculums. I bought a little American History book today, and Jake is eagerly reading it. He's wondering where the tests are though. I googled American History tests for Elementary students and will copy and paste some sites here. I was going to do it the old fashioned way and just write it down on a piece of paper, but I will probably lose the paper. If I just book mark it, it might not be long for this world because of our computer struggles. If blogger ever loses this, I'll have much bigger concerns than where my tests went. In other words this is probably the safest place we've got!!

This is actually and AP American History test, but that is in Jonathan's future and was fun for me to look at. http://www.historyteacher.net/USProjects/USQuizzes/AmericanRevol1.htm

Looks like all kinds of History quizzes here.http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/history/us_history.html

The above and others can be found at http://ushistorysite.com/quizzes.php

There's also...

http://www.ask.com/web?q=American+History+Tests&qsrc=6&o=15734&l=dir

http://www.education.com/worksheets/third-grade/social-studies/

http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edhist.htm

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/4thSocSt.htm

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/index.html

http://www.cstone.net/~bcp/4/4DHistory.htm

http://www.usconstitution.net/constkids4.html

http://www.nps.gov/wori/forteachers/upload/4thGradePre&Post-2.pdf

That's enough for tonight!

Perspective

2011-05-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

I've got 4 kids here clamoring to get to Islands of Adventure, but I've had this post brewing in my head all morning and I have to get it out of there. First of all, yes 4 kids, our long distance "daughter", Anjali, who we took care of from when she was a toddler until she and her mom moved to New Mexico 7 years ago is here for the week. Madi had put on facebook that she was at the airport picking up her sister, and I was quick to point out she is not her actual sister. I'm not sure why I'm so concerned people will think Mike or I had other children (we didn't, we don't), but anyway I digress.

This post is about perspective. Sunday morning before Mass I was chatting with a woman whose oldest child is Jake's age. She was asking me about curriculum. My first thought when presented with this question is always to talk about Jonathan and Madi. I had to first remind myself that her oldest child is eight. So I got around to talking about Jake using Catholic Heritage this year, and then talked about Five in a Row. She was curious about that so I did the same spiel I've been doing for the past 10 years. "You read the same classic children's book for five days in a row and each day you discuss a different topic. So if you're doing Madeleine you might talk about 12 little girls in two straight lines and you might give the child 12 pennies and have them line them up in two straight lines, blah blah blah. Or if you're doing Mike Mulligan you might talk about how the author gave Maryanne (the steam shovel) personal feelings and that is called personification. At this point the woman pretty much freaks out on me. "Oh my that is way more advanced than what I am doing, I've never even mentioned personification", and assorted other kids of freak out talk. Then she says, all I do is have my daughter (second grade) read a book of my choosing and write an essay on it every day. Ummm, my high school and middle school kids don't do that very regularly. So I try to explain she doesn't HAVE to teach her 8 year old about personification, and the actual five in a row lessons can generally last as long as it just took you to read about them. Then I continue with, "I must be explaining it wrong because it is not too advanced at all, it is made to meet children of all ages and levels wherever they are while at the same time introducing them to great books". It's all about perspective!

There's also the "high school diploma" talk which seems to come up at least weekly these days. "If you're registered with the county, aren't you concerned that your child will not get a diploma?" I'm attempting my spiel for this one too, but it doesn't seem to flow as easily as the five in a row one, and as you can see even the five in a row one can get misinterpreted. First of all a high school diploma can be printed just as easily from our home computer as it can from the school down the street. Secondly, a high school diploma is not the end of the road. The plan thus far is that my kids will go to college, but even for kids without that plan, hairdressing school, firefighter school, mother of ten, all of these paths have their own training (well the mom one is on the job training). I sometimes go into my lecture about how I raised my kids without cribs and baby bottles and big yellow school buses, so I can raise them without a high school diploma too. This often freaks people out and they get caught up in the no crib thing (not to mention the bottles). All of this might sound to some like my not caring so much about a diploma (a piece of paper) means that I don't care about their education, or worse that my kids won't be educated at all. If anyone thinks that, they really haven't been paying attention because our whole life is education. More specifically, MY whole life is my kids' education! The point is, colleges are eager to admit homeschoolers, they are generally well educated, well rounded, more mature, self starters, well spoken, with a myriad of other positive characteristics. A complete and well written transcript, letters of recommendation, an interview, and test scores are things that colleges look for, not the piece of paper. Perspective again!

Now back to our "4th child for the week". Anjali has been here since Friday night. Saturday morning I made donuts and had the girls cut up watermelon. I'm not sure that the kids ate lunch Saturday because we had an early dinner of homemade pizza before heading to the theatre. Sunday morning the kids had to fend for themselves for breakfast and then we put out some leftovers and cheese and chips and salsa and hummus for lunch between church and the Sunday matinee of Camp Rock. For dinner we had rotisserie chicken from Publix and salad and corn. Yesterday they were on their own for both breakfast and lunch and then we had leftover chicken and corn and a "bag meal" from the freezer. This morning while I was making waffles, Anjali said to me, "It is so nice that you make all of the meals for your family, I love that!" PERSEPECTIVE!!

Sort of like a daybook

2011-05-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

As anyone who knows me knows, I'm all about the ipod. I can do quick checks and even quick responses to anything that needs immediate attention. I can check blogs, facebook, email, and listen to the daily Mass readings, without leaving the comfort of my bed, or while standing at the kitchen counter making waffles. I can't so much post on my blog though. Well I can, but it's generally more work than I want to deal with. This afternoon I'm here on the regular computer because a bunch of needs have piled up... printing information about our vacation next month, finding the exact times of an event at theatre tomorrow (where they will be getting a potentially sizable grant delievered to the theatre kids by Mickey Mouse himself), and when a friend's flight lands on Friday night, and attempting to renew books from the town library (as opposed to the county ones){you can't if they're overdue...and they are}, and looking at the professional photos of First Communion {not surprisingly they're the kind of pics that you can't just save onto the computer} Anyway, I had things to do on the computer and here I am!

I was going to do a daybook kind of post, but don't feel like copying and pasting the prompts, so I'll do my own.

Outside my window...we are getting more and more birds all the time. I'm loving it. The first five years that we lived in Florida, we were right behind two strip malls and yet we had tons and tons of birds and even an ocassional duck ot turtle. Plus we cannot ever forget the snake that showed up for Madi's 4th birthday party! For the last six years we've lived a little more "out of town" with a bigger yard, but since our neighborhood was new (including the trees) we had almost no birds. Now they are finally coming! The best part is the window is still wide open, even as we approach the end of May! We have had three different cool fronts over the past few weeks and each time I open the windows I am well aware that it could be the last cool air we have until October, but then we get another gift of cool perfection. Apparently this is it though and in two days we should be back in the
90s, very likely that will last until I am the mom of a 16 year old.

From the school room... there is no true school room around here. We learn and read and grow and play all over the place. But metaphorically speaking, from the school room, we are winding down. This year is definitely different from others in that the kids are finishing up different subjects at different rates. At this point I would say that everyone is done with about half of their subjects. This is supposed to make the rest go faster, but with days like yesterday where we left the house at 9 and returned at 7, it's hard to tell if that's working. To be honest I returned home at 4, but was babysitting a one year old, which can hardly count as being home, and the kids didn't return home until 7.

All three kids took standardized tests this year. They all did well, but one of them really excelled. To the tune of 97th percentile excelled. Yes, this is the first you've heard about it because I'm trying not to brag (I know that in itself is bragging, I get the irony). The real irony is that I'm not talking about it because this is the kid who really keeps me humble. The one who I just learned is teaching his friends bad words. Yeah, that's the kid who I've been saying I was glad he didn't know bad words because he'd definitely use them. Remember last year when one of my kids earned a really major award at an end of the year banquet and then the other kid got an award and the whole time he was up on stage in front of all the people, he was balancing plastic cups on his head...that's the one! The one who doesn't say hi to people, and has a real hard time with please and thank you. The kid who still has two suitcases in the front room because he was going to run away when he was displeased with last week's American Idol results. I think you get the picture. Well anyway, the tests showed us the things we need to work on. It showed where two of the kids might be deficient and where I am deficient for not expecting much more from the third one!

Well open windows and school progress, what else is there?

Camp Rock opens tomorrow night. I think this is going to be a really fun show. I have not seen a minute of the acting, but I got to hear some of the songs when the kids performed at chick fil a the other night.

The kids and I just finished listening the another really good Andrew Clements audiobook, Things Hoped For. He is really a great author. Even though everyone had other perhaps more pressing work to do, we just kept listening this morning until we were done. It was that good! Somehow we never seem to have the downtime we crave, but so far this summer looks a little less busy than usual (that might just be because I still haven't gotten the hang of filling out the calendar), and I'd really like to spend some lazy-ish days with the kids listening to books on CD and doing puzzles.

Well instead of talking about what is from the kitchen, I better get down there and make the enchiladas (thanks Tiffany for the cheese!).

The First Communicants Singing

2011-05-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Jake's up there somewhere, from where we were sitting his was the only face I couldn't see.

Jake's First Holy Communion May 15, 2011

2011-05-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Homeschooly stuff

2011-05-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is really for my own interest, but if you want to click on it be my guest. I just found an interesting post about homeschooling high school with living books and it intrigued me. I also found a thread about historical movies and copied down a whole bunch of American History ones on a piece of scap paper that was sitting by the computer and then I realized I could just link to it here.

It is May and in our homeschooling world that means two things. One is thinking about next year's curriculum (and the upcoming convention). There's something about next year's work that just seems so much more exciting than this year's still unfinished work. It helps that next year will involve American History for both Jake and Madi (and World History that will culminate in American History for Jonathan). The other is as busy as life is all year, May seems to be at least ten times more. May is like December, or as I like to call it life on steroids. On that note, break time is over, time to get back at it!

I love this picture!

2011-05-09T14:09:00.001-07:00

Easter Pictures

2011-05-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Good thing the Easter season is fifty days because it took me almost that long to get the pictures on here!!

What's new?

2011-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well, first I'll start with what's old... here are a bunch of pictures of things that we've been doing and not blogging about.

What's new? I guess it depends on your perspective. Nothing is really NEW, but there's always so much going on that I'm not finding (making) the time to blog about much of it. I was in the library the other day perusing the new arrivals and spotted two books about making the most of your time/ getting more out of each day. I didn't check them out though because I really want to try to figure out how to get less out of each day. Well not really "get" less out of each day, but "do" less each day. Time management is a good thing and one of my current goals is to work on that more around here. The thing is though, generally speaking we really get a lot done on a daily basis and are professionals when it comes to squeezing more out of every day. I just want to continue to do that and still find huge chunks of time left over for reading, relaxing, etc. I think the summer will help. As homeschoolers we are often asked if we school though the summer. I have a hard time answering that one (it is kind of like how many hours do you school each day-- generally somewhere between 1-24 hours depending on the day and the person asking the question). At the start of last summer Jonathan's math wasn't yet complete. When he finally finished that in July, he began two of his virtual school classes. So in that sense he definitely did school last summer. But I'm one of those peole that believes that learning happens all the time, so no matter what we decide for classes, my kids will continue their education this summer. My word of the year "HOME" has somehow gotten lost in the shuffle of what seems to be a never ending commute between home and theatre, home and church, theatre and church, the library, the gym, theatre again, and an ocassional drive down to Universal (if I were blogging more I'd have a whole post about how we are so much more Disney people than Universal people, but since I'm not blogging much, you'll have to take my word for it). Anyway, in keeping with the "HOME" theme we are most likely not doing two big acitivites that have been a part of our summers for the last few years. One is kids' college (not just because we're trying to stay home more, but also because it doesn't fit with our schedule this summer-- one session overlaps with our family trip to Delaware, one session overlaps with Jonathan and Madi's mission trip, and one session overlaps with the only Theatre summer camp the kids are doing this summer... this is all good because around here we sometimes need to be forced to say NO). The other thing we are probably sitting out is the free golf clinic and tournaments that Jonathan has done for the last 4 years and Madi for the last 2. We probably could squeeze it in, but we're trying not to not do as much squeezing at the moment. I'm also thinking that posting this here will keep my from changing my mind on this, sort of keep me accountable.

More things that are coming up in our future that may or may not get some "air time" on the blog include...

1. Mother's Day tomorrow (Happy Mother's Day everyone!!)
2. Jake's First Holy Communion next Sunday the 15th (he's really getting himself ready for this, he's asked to go to daily Mass quite a bit this week {and we made it there twice} and he's been praying the Rosary every night. His CCD class had a retreat last Sunday and it's gotten him really excited for his big day.
3. Friends that moved away last summer will be in town this week and we're hoping to spend a lot of time with them!
4. One of Madi's first friends who moved away about 6 years ago will be spending about 10 days with us later on in the month.
5. Camp Rock performance in 2 weeks.
6. Jonathan and Madi are part of "Senior tour" at theatre, this involved writing a play about Conservation and performing it at area elementary schools. They have had two full days of performances so far and have one more coming up this week.
7. Homeschool Convention at the end of the month.
8. Getting new sod (again) at the end of the month.

Facebook

2011-04-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a blog post hits you at 5:30 in the morning, and the only thing you can do is drag yourself out of the comfy bed and go with it. Facebook gets a bad rap (or is it wrap?), and believe me as a mom of two teenagers, I know you have to be vigilant about it. I, however, am a facebook fan, if facebook were a page, I'd "like" it. I think there is nothing like it when it comes to keeping in touch, and aren't relationships what life is all about anyway?! Currently I have dozens of facebook friends in need of prayers. I'm doing my best to hold up my end of the bargain and keep them all in my prayers and close to my heart. There's my lifelong friend whose sister-in-law passed away suddenly. A college friend whose 12 year old son is recovering from what sounds like a bad accident. A local friend whose baby nephew is in the hospital in desperate need of prayers. An elementary school friend whose mother is fighting for her life. In most of these cases, I don't even know the whole story, but God does, and I can pray. Through facebook this morning, I found out that one of my father's old bosses just passed away. I'll always remember him as the man relatives made me invite to my parents' surprise 25th anniversary party. Without facebook, I wouldn't know a lot of these things (and the rest I probably wouldn't have found out about until way after the fact). Without knowing, I wouldn't be praying. Twitter is another one. I don't know much about twitter, I don't tweet, but Mike (who doesn't tweet either) just told me this story about a kidney transplant that will take place thanks to the wonders of social media. There is plenty of bad stuff out there, I know that, but I prefer to look at the social media glass as half full. I think when technology is used correctly it can help a lot of people, it can save lives, bring people together, encourage prayer, and maybe even bring people to God. Not bad for something that is free and easy.

Pretty Happy Funny Real

2011-04-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Pretty

Pretty faces and pretty costumes.

Happy

Our theatre won a trophy for their performance at the George Washington's Birthday Parade.

Funny

Real

Basketball was a real long time ago and finally here are some pictures!

To participate go here.

How about a daybook?

2011-04-21T13:42:00.001-07:00

Last week I was on a roll with three posts, now I'm back to slacking again. That's the funny thing about blogs though, the less you post, the more you're actually living (maybe).

Outside My Window:

We have a huge pile of sand in our driveway. Jake and the neighbors have had a lot of fun with it.

I am Listening to:

Jake talk about the scripts he is writing for his A to Z Mysteries plays that "Jake Acts" will be performing.

I am Wearing:

A bathing suit and cover-up because we just got back from the beach.

I'm Reading:

Rejoice by Karen Kingsbury it is the 4th in a series of 5.

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

We're listening to:

Story of the World Volume 1 after about a four month hiatus. Oh the things we homeschoolers get away with!

I am Thinking:

About school plans for next year.

On my iPod:

About 95% of what I do online is on my ipod!

Towards a Real Education:

Jonathan finished his 9th grade English class this week!! Hooray! He has only one more chapter of Physical Science left. He's got quite a bit of Spanish and Geometry left but with two classes out of the way those will go a lot faster.

Madi is going to be a part of an American History and Literature co-op next year that I am thrilled about. She is just days away from finishing her science and then Career Education will go faster. She is on a major reading kick right now.

Jake is looking forward to American History next year too. He only has a few more weeks of math and spelling left for this year, and he's reading A to Z Mysteries like there's no tomorrow.

To Live the Liturgy...

Holy Thursday Mass tonight. Tomorrow is Good Friday and we will watch The Passion of the Christ which has been our tradition for quite a few years now. Madi is singing on Easter Sunday, and we will celebrate with lots of chocolate!!

I am Hoping and Praying:

For Jake as he prepares for his First Communion.

In the Yard:

We now have an above ground pool!!! (hence the sand) It is great!!

In the House:

I just got a teething toddler dropped off to me and he is sitting calmly on my lap as I type this.

From the Kitchen:

Chicken and Rice last night. Baked stuffed shrimp tonight. Clam Chowder tomorrow.

One of My Favorite Things:

Chocolate!!

A Few Plans for the Week:

I can only handle looking one day at a time at this point. The major business of the spring is upon us.

A picture thought:

pretty, happy, funny, real

2011-04-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

I saw this this morning on Kirsten's blog. To participate or see more you can go here.

PRETTY

Madi and the St Pat's choir paricipated in a music festival with lots of other children's choirs a few weeks ago, it was beautiful. Because I'm working on a pride issue, I won't even tell you who the only kid to have a solo was.

HAPPY

Jake and I got free tickets to the last Yankee spring training game of the season. I might add, the tickets were free, but the gas, parking, and multiple snacks...not so much!

FUNNY

I finally got someone to send me this pic from Phantom. I'm wayy behind on updating pics, but there will be more eventually.

REAL

From Relay for Life.

Good news!

2011-04-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it... I'm posting two days in a row!! Since I just posted yesterday, could that really only have been yesterday (?), I had to give you the updates...

#1 Madi's thyroid is improving!!!! This make's me unbelievably happy and tremendously thankful!! It's not perfect yet, but better is good enough for today!!

#2 All three kids got great parts in Camp Rock!! Madi is Caitlyn which is who she wanted to be. Jonathan is Jason who is one of the "JoBros" (Jonas Brothers), and Jake is a Camp Rocker with lines, Camp Rocker 4 to be exact. They all had an extra rehearsal today. They are all very happy. Happy kids are a joy!

Back to Madi's thyroid, let me just say for the 100th time, our pediatrician is the greatest! She's not warm and fuzzy or anything, but she is brilliant and very knowledgeable about the common problems with western medicine. She's not your typical Dr. We've been driving the hour each way to see her for the last 11 years or so and it is totally worth it. Worth it because we only go down there twice a year anyway once for the boys well check in the fall (which actually ended up being January this year) and once in the spring for Madi's. A bonus is that in the last 11years the highway system has grown and improved, so it's not as far away as it used to be. Our doctor knows us, and we have some really good talks. I always feel good away our choices when we leave there. This brings me to a blog post I've been thinking about for a while. We are a very loyal family. This is a trait that in the past I've tended to frown upon. Not loyalty exactly but I used to think of it as lack of change or stagnation when people stuck to the the same thing all the time. For example Mike and I met at the UCONN CO-OP the campus bookstore when we were in college. We both worked there. There are people who to this day, 20 years later STILL work there! That to me seems like stagnation. Maybe, however, they are just loyal. We have lived in the same community for 12 years and have the same friends we've had since Jonathan was 3 and Madi was 1. We've added new friends of course, and an awful lot of our earliest friends have moved away (we are still friends with them though), but Jonathan has invited at least 5 of the same kids to every birthday party since his 4th. We have always homeschooled. When we find a curriculum or style we like, we generally stick to it. Things have evolved since they've gotten older, but our philosophies haven't changed. We've gone to the same dentist since we moved here, and love him. I've gone to the same dermatologist too, and love him even more. We've stayed very happily loyal to the same theatre directors since they started, four venues ago. We wouldn't dream of changing churches. We know a good thing when we see it. I used to think this kind of thing was for people who just didn't want to take the time to try something new. Now I know lack of change doesn't always mean laziness or stagnation. Maybe it means putting a lot of thought into making the right choices to begin with and continuing to be happy with them a decade later.

Considering a post

2011-04-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Just this morning I thought about how I hadn't blogged in a long time and then one of my last remaining readers told me that it was time to get bloggin', so here I am. As for what to say though I haven't got a clue. I have so many thoughts, but they are all a little too muddled to come out right. For one thing since most of my real life friends seem to be blogging far less frequently, I've taken to reading blogs written by actual writers like her and her. Since I am only a pretend writer my posts can't compete with theirs. Obviously I know this is not a competition, but still...

My most prominent thoughts right now revolve around how fast time is flying and therefore how much older the kids are getting everyday. We seem to be in a little bit of an in between stage currently and this is both good and bad. Good because they are old enough to take care of themselves and their responsibilities for the most part (well 2/3 of them are old enough), but they are still kids for a little while longer. They aren't taking the car or applying to college yet thankfully. The downside is that while they are making plans and lives for themselves outside of the family cocoon they are just as bad as I am about writing things down and far worse than I am about keeping track in their heads. This has lead to an excess of double booking recently. Madi cannot for example be home babysitting a one year old and participating in Living Stations of the Cross at church at the exact same time, not to mention her potential desire to have a friend or two sleep over that very night. Somehow I have to be the one to have this lightbulb moment at 6:30am. All of my years of multitasking seems to have rubbed off on the kids and most of the time it's not that pretty! I'm still trying to train myself to write down plans in my planner and the closest I've come so far is that I do now own a planner. Already we now have to attempt to be one of those families where everyone has a different ink color so we can display who needs to be where when. The funny thing is they all go to school in the same place...HOME and they all go to the same church (obviously) AND they are all involved in the same extracurricular activity...Theatre. The thing is though most of their schoolwork is individualized, they are all in different classes and activities at church that meet at different times, and while they are all in the same kids' class at theatre, Jonathan and Madi are in an additional class on Thursdays, and Jonathan is light man extroidinaire and is basically at the theatre any time the doors are open. I'm not sure how it happened but suddenly we went from being together almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, to it being a rare treat. I'm not sure how families with separate agendas from a much earlier age function. I miss my kids!!

On Friday our family participated in Relay for Life. It was kind of a double event because we got a small contingent of our church's youth group to form a team as well as getting some of the theatre kids (including Madi) to perform. The preparations were a little stressful, but in the end it was a huge success. I'm pretty sure we'll do it again next year. It was extra fitting because it fell on the 3rd anniversary of Memere's death from cancer. We continued our celebrate Mem that day by going out to Red Lobster with Meme and Grampa Carlie, we were minus our overbooked 15 year old, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Incidently, my driven daughter walked 13 miles during Relay (a lot of them without shoes on). After that she joined another group of friends for some rousing games of musical chairs and red light green light. All this while most of the kids sat around our makeshift unallowed campfire and talked. This is the girl who supposedly has a sluggish thyroid! (We go for her 13 year old check up tomorrow where we will find out her latest bloodtest results, I am in no rush to start any treatment other than the natural Chinese tea we are currently doing because my gut tells me to treat the patient and the "patient" is not sick!)

Jake is all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/ Willy Wonka right now. Because of this our front room is decorated with Hershey's Kisses...and can you believe I still haven't had as much as a smidge of chocolate in over a month?! No, I can't believe it either!

The kids are currently at theatre audtioning for Camp Rock as I write this. I really want them to get good parts. The boys have been singing their audition songs all day. Last show we had a little disappointment over parts because Madi actually got the part that Jake wanted (Chip). I was a proud mom though when Jake was really more concerned for Madi than he was for himself because he thought she should've gotten a bigger part. Madi wasn't even really upset though just confused. In the end it was a great show and when Hannah, one of Madi's BFFs, got sick on opening night and couldn't be Cogsworth and Jonathan the other Cogsworth had to stick with his first love "the lightboard" Madi had an opportunity to play that part with only a few hours notice. (It was the part she played 2 years ago.)

Someday, maybe even today, I'll catch up on pictures and other updates. Writing about auditions from the last show is showing me how little I seem to keep up with this thing these days. I guess what they say is true facebook may really have killed the blog.

More Chances

2011-04-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Aren't you so glad, you get to start fresh every morning? Every week? Every year? I know I am! I am doing remarkably well on the "no chocolate", but I'm not sure what happened to my 40 bag challenge (well, I'm pretty sure I got rid of the bulk of our junk before Lent started actually). As far as more prayer time goes, don't ask! I'm so glad I get to try again each day. The way I look at it is when you have a particularly bad day or week (or month or year), there's no where to go but up right? Not that I'm having a bad year or even a bad week, but the days just seem to fly by with not nearly enough time to do all that I could/ would/ should do! The Florida homeschooling law states that kids must "show progress commensurrate with their ability". I love this law. It applies really well to adults too. If I dusted a few surfaces today, that's progress right? So what if my house will never pass the white glove test, it's the effort that counts. This is what I know in my heart. It's not so much what I think in my head though. In my head I want the house to be spotless, the kids to be spotless, schoolwork to be all caught up, laundry to be all caught up, etc etc. Since we always wear clothes, I know that the laundry thing is a logisical impossibility, but still I dream. I think I need to lower my expectations. I was going to say that I am making progress in this area as illustrated by the fact that I've done almost nothing so far today. Then I remembered what I had actually done today, gotten up very early to say goodbye to Mike and Madi who are heading to the northeast for a few days. Madi has her big thirteenth birthday New York City event with Grandpa Sal tomorrow. Talked and cuddled with Jake, read some of my book, dozed a little, made a good breakfast for myself and the boys (bagels and bacon), took Jonathan to the theatre where he is hanging lights, did some laundry, cleaned up a little in Madi's room (including the dusting of a few surfaces that I mentioned earlier), went to the gym, and helped Jake write his first article for the locally run online magazine for kids by kids, all this I did before noon! This is my problem, in my mind it looks like I haven't done much today. Looking back at me from the computer screen, I guess my mind is wrong. I need to make progress on not needing to make progress. I think I'll take the rest of the day off!

Madi is 13!!

2011-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

Seasons

2011-03-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Years ago I remember telling people that Florida does indeed have a change of seasons; there's hurricane season, lovebug season, orange blossom season, etc...people weren't buying it. That's my story though and I'm sticking to it! I do, however, have a few amendments to the original story. The first one being that over the past two years we really have a had "winter" which is very distinct from our other seasons. Anytime you have to have the windows closed because it is too cold, that's winter! When you find yourself outside in biting wind attempting to cover plants that will ultimately die anyway...winter! Now it is time to prune away the dead branches as the new buds are beginning to bloom. The current weather is definitely different from the weather 2 months ago and the weather 2 months from now. There is no question that Florida has a really long summer (like 6 months long), but in the other six months there are definitely changes, you just have to know where to look. This post isn't about weather though. It's not even about new flowers blooming. It's really more about the pruning away of the dead branches. It's about Lent. I've always been a big holiday decorator. I've always said Florida had a change of seasons. I've always been aware that a homeschooling mother's perspective is very different in September than it is in March. I've always been very attuned to the "feel" of different seasons, the "feel" of Christmas, the "feel" of summer. I've always been Catholic. Until a few years ago though I'd never appreciated the Liturgical Seasons. It seems to me it is human nature to long for subtle changes, to long for seasons. If it weren't then wouldn't everyone live in Florida? Isn't it so cool that the Church gives us the opportunity to make these subtle changes? People prepare for big events in their life don't they? Moving into a new home, having a baby, even a birthday party, all of these events require preparation. Just like Advent is a time to prepare for the joy of Christmas, Lent is a time for us to prepare to celebrate the joy of Easter. I will very much enjoy eating a bunch of chocolate eggs on Easter morning after 40 days without chocolate. More importantly though, I'm trying to prepare my heart for the realization of Easter. The small sacrifices that I am attempting are nothing like Jesus' sacrifice. They aren't easy though and they are real reminders for me. If I didn't have this opportunity that is build into the Church year, would I take the time to make sacrifices on my own? Maybe, maybe not. I do generally try to improve myself fairly often, that's what comes with being friends with a bunch over overachievers (also known as homeschooling moms). A new school year is often a time when I try to impliment new ideas. January 1st is another time where I might try to make things better. Every Monday or even every morning can be a time to try again. There are always so many different things to improve though, eating habits, workout habits, housekeeping, patience, etc etc. I really appreciate that the Church gives me and my family this season of Lent to really focus on the most important preparations of all.

No title

2011-03-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

I have too many thoughts, not enough time, and even less of a functioning computer, sooo I have no idea where this post is going to lead. (or if it is even going to get off the ground) Our regular computer seems to be completely shot. A lot of pictures are on there and they may or may not be lost for good, who knows, ugh! This "second" computer is only slightly better, but it seems to be living on borrowed time as well. Jonathan's laptop, you know the one he spent his life's savings on when he was 12 years old, well it's seen better days as well! The charger doesn't work at all and his the wireless internet isn't working either. He can charge it with Mike's work laptop charger, but Mike was out of town all week. I'm sure some of you are thinking you see me on facebook and commenting on blogs an awful lot for a person with 1/2 a working computer. All I can say to that is my ipod and I are pretty much joined at the hip. Needless to say this computer situation doesn't bode well for kids taking online classes though! What a pain! We're really trying to make a conscious effort to "schedule" who is going to do virtual school when on this only slightly functioning computer. They're inching along, but it would be so much easier with the right tools. Especially because Jonathan seems to have moved in to the theatre. Yeah, I know Phantom ended so he should be home more right? Wrong! He's there ALL THE TIME!! I miss him! He is basically the second in command light guy in the whole theatre at this point. I'm not sure when it happened, but my kids who always seemed to be underfoot are now very busy with things that have very little to do with me. It's crazy! My word for the year, HOME, is working OK for me, but I forgot to give the kids the memo! Especially the older two! What was I thinking trying to raise them to be competent, contributing members of society? Now everyone wants them for something: lighting, sound, babysitting, nevermind just hanging out with friends.

Along the same lines as my general theme of "the kids are growing up too fast", I am trying to read every great children's book that there is to read with Jake because before I know it he'll be out running a theatre too! Some new ones we've discovered recently are The Purple Coat, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Climbing Kansas Mountains, and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. Some old favorites I've resurrected include Clown of God, Mrs Katz and Tush, Daniel's Duck, and The Salamander Room. I'm pretty spoiled because often Jonathan and Madi still enjoy listening to these kinds of books too (especially instead of doing dishes or geometry), but I really want to make sure we've left no pages of any great books unturned because like I said before time is marching on. I often find myself in conversations with people where they say things like "it's just important that they know how to read well" or "I just want her to read on grade level". Since this is my blog let me boldly state... I don't really care what grade level my kids read at and while I LOVE to see them reading, what is infinitely more important to me is that they love good stories. So far so good!

I substituted today today at the preschool Jake went to. After Disney, that just might be the happiest place on earth! I love it there. Everyone who has ever gone in there loves it there. More than once I've been offered a job there. I am so tempted every time. I was a preschool teacher in my former life and may just grow up to be one again, but like I said I'm spoiled. I want to stay home with my own babies (even though they are now 15, days away from 13, and 8 they are still my babies!) I liken it to Toy Story 3. When the day care toys are telling Andy's toys about how when the kids grow up new ones come. There will always be preschoolers somewhere, but my own kids are getting older by the second and I don't want to miss a thing.

Speaking of that, I'm loving American Idol this year!! (did anyone follow my train of though there or did I lose you?) There is some amazing talent this year! I loved last year's top ten, but so far (they're down to 12 right now) these people are even better. Especially the guys! They are all so different and soo good. I was going to link to you tube videos of some of them, but low and behold it's not working on this, our one working computer! Do yourself a favor check out James Durbin. If you have some more time try Scotty McCreary and Casey Abrams too. Then there's Jacob Lusk and Paul McDonald, good stuff!!

Well, I'm on my third day of being chocolate free. I think about it a lot, but I'm getting by by the grace of God. I am thinking all of the pre-Lent cleanout is making it harder for me to rummage up 40 more bags of stuff to get rid of though. I did clean under the hutch yesterday. I threw away some wedding and shower favors from couples who have been divorced for years. I was going to say something derogatory here because it is my blog, but it is also Lent and I'm going to try to hold my tongue more. I'm noticing this is getting to be an issue for me. The ashes were still fresh on my forehead, when I said a snide comment to a 12 year old girl Wednesday after church. I could give you an excuse that she was in my CCD class last year and was a trouble maker, but there really is no excuse for a grown up still in church to be annoyed with a child just because she said to Madi in a whiney 12 year old way, "I didn't know you had a little brother, I thought you only had an older brother." I mean we have gone to church with this girl for all of Jake's 8 years, and oh did I mention she did a theatre summer camp where my family is generally pretty visible. I have a problem with ignorance. I guess she must be so focused on the Gospel and Homily during Mass that she doesn't pay attention to families around her. Still I know, no excuse!

There's often a lot of talk in real life and in blog world about how much is appropriate to share about our families. On the one hand I often try not to share too too much of the good stuff because no one wants to hear all that. On the other hand in trying to keep it real, I don't want to go too far airing my family's dirty laundry. (Like I did with myself in the above paragraph) Mothers are such a funny bunch. Homeschooling mothers in particular. This week I made a lot of people feel good in real life when I shared a big "losing it" moment that I had. There are a few things that I've learned over the years regarding this. The first one is we are comparing all of our own yucky insides to the neat and pretty outsides that other people choose to share. We know our own deep dark secrets, we only know the cute crafts and yummy recipes that mommyoftheyear at blogspot chooses to share with us. I mention this a few times a year, but I distinctly remember a conversation with a friend who wished she had the energy or this mom, the patience of that mom, and the creativity of the other mom. She was taking the best qualities of many different people and beating herself up because she, one person, didn't have all of those! We all do that to some extent. Blogs make that kind of thing even easier (harder?). I never want my blog to be the one that makes people feel bad. Real life is pretty messy, we're living a real life over here.

Ready for Lent and other morning thoughts

2011-03-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

Lent is very late this year. I'm ready for it. I actually started some of my Lenten plans already because I just couldn't wait. I got this book last week and there was no way I was going to wait until next Wednesday to start reading it, it is so beautiful! Also I am knee deep in cleaning out. This process seems to never end around here. Last week Jonathan and I took 9 bags to Goodwill and yesterday I easily filled 5 more out of Jake's room. When Lent officially starts, I will probably be able to be down to getting rid of one bag a day like this challenge from last year. Where did we get all this stuff from?! I'm tired of stuff!! One of my all time favorite speakers, Matthew Kelly has a quote about how we were made to love people and use things, but so often people love things and use people. Here's my dilemma. I know I love people more than things. My challenge is getting rid of THINGS that were given to us by PEOPLE we love! Especially relatives who have passed away. Sometimes I just close my eyes and throw the Moosehead Lake shirt in the donation bag. Other times I think, I really need to keep this Valentine card. Help me, I'm getting buried over here! I pride myself on being frugal, this is another problem. Random playing cards, buttons, marbles, crayons (and more and more crayons!), not to mention aluminum pie tins, it seems inappropriate to throw this stuff away. Saving them is not very appropriate either...ugh! I imagine we'll get to Easter with still more than we'll ever need or use in this house, but like I've said before, I'm a work in progress. So besides the reading for spiritual growth and trying to rid the house of everything that doesn't breathe, I am also prayerfully considering giving up chocolate for Lent. I've never done this before. I'd been thinking over possibilites like no sweets, but then realized I'd quickly rationalize my way out of that one. Chocolate chip pancakes, scones, and banana bread are BREAKFASTS not SWEETS. I could see myself going down the slippery slope long before it started. Then Madi mentioned she was thinking about giving up chocolate. We could do this together. Of course it will basically mean the whole family giving up chocolate because we really couldn't have it in the house. This would mean hot chocolate and dark chocolate peanut butter too, everything with the word chocolate in it. It would not mean peanut butter cookies or cinnamon chip scones or lemon bars or or or... Again, I am merely a work in progress.

Matthew Kelly, who I just mentioned, also speaks often of the genius of the Catholic Church. This genius was blatently obvious to me on Sunday morning. After a 14 hour day of performing Saturday (parade at 9 am followed by two performances of Phantom), Jonathan was in no shape to go to Mass at 9:30 am on Sunday. For one thing he was fighting a cold (or allergies) and had taken Benadryl at midnight, he was not only coughing and sniffly but in a serious Benadryl fog. He had a commitment to be in the last show at 12:30 followed by his commitment to run sound for another show in the evening. It would be another long day (thankfully the last really long one on the calendar). My mothering instinct told him he could stay home and go back to sleep. He did, and slept until I called him to get up at 11:45! He needed it badly, God understood! Not only did He understand, He hit me over the head with understanding!! Because now here I was, leaving my first baby at home while the rest of us went to church. Worrying if he would be alright, worrying if I'd done the right thing, worrying that maybe it wasn't just the Benadryl and he was coming down with mono or something. Worrying Worrying Worrying!! What was Sunday's Gospel? Matthew:

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

Just what I needed. Now maybe I'm thinking I might also be able to give up worrying for Lent. If I can do chocolate, trusting should be a piece of (vanilla) cake!

Schooly stuff

2011-02-28T06:08:00.000-08:00

Well we're finally starting to come up for air after the huge commitment for the boys in the adult theatre. A few pictures will be up here eventually. They are both very sad for it to be over, Jake especially. He's been playing the CD and singing the songs since he got up this morning. I have mixed feelings about the end of it. I'm sad to see it end for them, it was a huge opportunity. I'm glad that they don't have to be out until 11 half the week any more though. It's going to take us a while to catch up on sleep, chores, schoolwork, etc. Tiffany posted on her blog and our homeschool yahoo group asking people to describe what they are doing for school this year. I love this kind of thing, but it took me about a week to get myself together enough to post mine. Below is roughly what I posted although I've tried to leave out some of the names and locations for blog safety purposes. Also for some reason some of the lines are short, but oh well! Most of this I've said on here before because this is first and foremost a homeschool blog anyway, but like I said recently sometimes I forget to preach what I practice, so here it is again.

Hi Ladies,
I, like many of you, really love hearing about what other people are doing for
school. My kids are Jonathan 15, Madi almost 13, and Jake 8 and we have always
homeschooled. We started out in the delayed academics, somewhat unschooly, camp
and have grown and changed as the kids have grown and changed. I guess you
could call us flexibly structured. Currently my 8 year old does Singapore Math
2B, we have been big fans of Singapore Math for years and I highly recommend it.
He does Catholic Heritage Curriculum for spelling, language arts, reading, and
faith. We've not found a real groove for science this year, but he and I are
currently reading through the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Science. For
History he is listening to Story of the World volume 1 along with his siblings.
He also is very interested in the US presidents so we've done a lot with that
this year as well. Let me stop here and say, when the other two were this age
we didn't do this much "curriculum" we did a lot of reading (we're huge Five in
a Row fans), playing outside, field trips etc, but he is a different kid and our
lives are different now. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor it
to your individual children and individual family circumstances. Madi is in 7th
grade and for the first time this year is taking some classes with FLVS, we are
very happy with them. She completed Art in the fall, and is currently taking
Science and Career Education. She uses Catholic Heritage for spelling,
language, and reading comprehension (she is 13 and this is the first year she
has EVER used a spelling book or a language arts workbook). She's used
Singapore Math since she was in 3rd grade and after finishing 6A (it goes to 6B)
last month, she begged to switch to Teaching Textbooks, so she just began
teaching Textbooks pre-algebra. Jonathan (15) finished Singapore 6B when he was
in 7th and went right to TT Algebra 1 for 8th. Madi probably could've done that
too, but she was getting increasingly frustrated with math (Singapore is very
heavy in word problems and doesn't explain a lot which gets harder in the later
years...it's worked great for all my kids in the early years) and is loving
Teaching Textbooks she'd love to finish pre-algebra before the fall then go
right into Algebra for 8th grade, but again with homeschooling it doesn't have
to be started or completed in any specific timeframe, so we'll see how it goes.
Jonathan... this is our first year homeschooling high school, and so far it's
going really well. Not nearly as scary as I and a lot of people would think.
We are and always have been registered with the county (we are big proponents of
that). For high school we just have to keep track of credits for his transcipt.
He is taking English and Spanish with FLVS, so those are easy credits to keep
track of. He also took Driver's Ed with FLVS in the fall and got 1/2 of a
credit for that. He is now doing TT Geometry. You can carry over three high
school credits from 8th grade, so he got a credit last year for Algebra also.
For Science he is doing Apologia Physical Science. I'm in the process of trying
to figure a credit (or 1/2 credit) for Theatre. All of my kids are very
involved with Theatre. Jonathan (and Jake) just yesterday finished an 18 show run of Phantom
with the mainstage adult theatre. Jonathan was very involved
behind the scenes as well as being in the ensamble. He also does lighting or
sound for many of the other shows. He had the opportunity this
past fall to be a production assistant for an independent movie that was filming
locally (Ryann Watters and the King's Sword)...yes I need to count all this as
something! Until this year History has always been our biggest focus with
school. This year we are doing Ancient History with SOTW vol 1, but it really
been taking a backseat lately. Jonathan has read or listened on audio to some
of the Henty books from this time period as well as Homer, to beef it up for
high school, but even then we don't seem to get to it as often as we should. I
just decided recently that we are just going to call it 1/2 a credit for History
this year, we will still finish the whole book with some (not much) writing,
tests, extra reading and activities, but I won't stress so much about making it
a "true" full credit high school class...again it's our homeschool and we can do
what we want! Next year Jonathan plans to take World History with FLVS, as well
as continuing with 10th grade English and Spanish 2. As I'm reading this it
sounds like a lot, but we definitely aren't getting to everything every day and
my kids are older, please please please if your kids are younger (like 6th grade
and under) just enjoy them, read a lot, talk a lot, be with friends a lot, spend
a lot of time outside. Jonathan never did a Language Arts curriculum in his
life and is easily getting an A in 9th grade English with FLVS. He is also taking a Theology of the Body class at church that I hope to count as 1/2 a credit.
People often
put so much pressure on themselves and their kids to get the curriculum done and
I personally think all that busy work is a waste of time. What we've always
done (relaxed) and what they are doing now (real big kid classes) seems to be a
good example of what I've always believed. I love to talk about homeschooling,
and am enjoying the our new experiences homeschooling high school so it any of
you want to talk about any of that please feel free to contact me.

Enjoy your day!
Enjoy your kids!

misc pics and recipes

2011-02-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

I have been in the food mood lately! This week I made a yummy yummy Artichoke Chicken that I found online somewhere, but I'd had it saved on my ipod for so long I completely forgot where, so I'll just have to take the credit for it myself since I cannot give credit where credit is due.

1 can (15 oz) artichoke hearts cut up and drained
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup mayo
1 pinch garlic powder
4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

-mix the first four ingredients
-pour over the chicken
(I've taken to pounding chicken breasts first with a meat tenderizer...this makes a big delicious difference)
-bake on 375 for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked

soo soo good!!!

Tonight we had this pizza.

Every time I make pizza (almost every week) I seem to use a different pizza dough recipe. Sometimes we find a really good one, then I forget where I got it from. Today I used this one and it was EXCELLENT!!

Tomorrow would've been my "Mugga's" 94th birthday. Madi and I decided last month that on all our deceased loved one's birthdays and anniversaries of their deaths, we will have foods (or treats) that remind us of them. Last week we had Kielbasa in honor of what would've been Papa's 91st birthday. Tonight for Mugga we had butterscotch oatmeal cookies (actually we made them into bars). She would've loved them!!

In a few minutes Mike and I are heading back to the theatre, no Phantom tonight it was this afternoon. This time it is to see Rabbit Hole. This is going to be a sad show, Jonathan is doing tech. I think Jonathan has had only one night off in about 3 weeks!

Here are a few pics before I go...

Phantom is about 3/4 over. There are 5 more shows, so far we have no real pictures or any video to show for it. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get any video, this is just one more way in which adult theatre is very different from kids' theatre. I keep asking Jonathan to bring a camera and take some pics back stage of him and Jake in their costumes. His response "it's not like we're having a party back there!" So no pics yet of Jonathan in his Renaissance looking outfit (complete with tights) or in his demonish black hooded garb. No no pic of Jake in his young phantom wig or mask. Here are a few quick shots taken with my phone post show.

24 hour update

2011-02-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

Good morning! Now that we are on this side of yesterday, I have some good information in favor of the "fly by the seat of your pants" life that we lead. Madi got woken up to an oral exam phone call from her Career Education teacher at 9:45 yesterday morning. The call was actually scheduled for 9:00 (we had both forgotten about it), she was able to go from a sound sleep to having a very mature conversation about her skill set and career interests with a virtual stranger (pun intended) in seconds. This ability of hers could very well be attributed to our fairly consistent lack of planning and the practice that we've all developed of changing gears when at a moment's notice. Jake, while waiting for his siblings to get up, watched the first episode of The Cosby Show on netfilx. This is probably the best episode ever of that series. It's the one where Theo tells his Dad he just wants to be "regular people". I definitely remembered watching it and enjoyed sharing it with my son (that's a memory right?) I'm really not such a huge fan of TV inspite of the fact that I've mentioned a different sitcom in the last three posts, I'm just playing the devil's advocate of "it isn't necessarily the root of all evil" either. Everyone got a reasonable amount of schoolwork done. Slight progress was made on the new desks. My never consulting my calendar (whether or not I actually write down what is scheduled is another blog post) was highlighted again when I had forgotten that I'd agreed to keep everyone's favorite 1 year old not just for the regularly scheduled 3:30-6:30 tim slot, but well into the night so his parents could go out for a belated Valentine dinner (as opposed to the belated Christmas dinner we plan to take them out for). Even though, I had forgotten, it was easy for me to keep him longer, he's so snuggly and cute! We had tacos for dinner, a family favorite. Jonathan and Jake got to the Theatre in plenty of time. Madi was only 10 minutes late for CCD. Most importantly, yesterday we had some very good conversations and about friendships and growning up. This could never have been scheduled on a calendar, I'm so glad we had the chance and choice to do this because this is what life is all about.

AND when the kids and I pulled into the driveway at 11pm, my loving husband who had been out of town was home, awake, and waiting for us!!

Just for fun, here's what I found on the computer this morning... (keep in mind while not inappropriate for children, this is definitely an adult show). This is a glimpse into the mind of the quirky eight year old that I'm raising...

The Phantom……………………………Jake S
Christine Daeé………………………………...Sara G
Gerard Carriere…………………….....Brandon W
Phillipe, The Count De Chandon………......Joe P
Alain Cholet……………………………..…...Wyatt G
La Carlotta……………………………..…Olivia F
Inspector Ledoux………………………… Tyler A
Joseph Buquet………………………….….…Josh B
Jean-Claude……………………………….….Jarred H

Spring Cleaning a work in progress

2011-02-16T05:05:00.000-08:00

With the windows open for maybe only the second or third time since Thanksgiving (don't tell me we don't have a change of seasons here!), I think it's time for some spring cleaning. I started with my blog. I finally learned how to do a collage picture--thanks for the link Kirsten! It's not exactly how I wanted it, but I've already spent more than a reasonable amount of time on it, so as with everything else for me right now it's a work in progress. At least it is farther along on the work in progress continuum than my house! I've got it into my head that I want to get rid of TONS of stuff. I've started on the Lenten purge about a month early, but it is slow going. The home in my mind and the one that we work, play, live, and love in everyday look very different. I think I just answered my own question. We LIVE in this house everyday. Four of the five of us probably spend an average of 20 hours a day in here maybe more. Remember HOME was my word of the year afterall. There's a fine line between making the house look nice and homeschooling three dynamic children. I'm in the throes of walking that line right now. Last fall I had the idea to switch around the two downstairs rooms (in the process we removed all the bookshelves from the room that we called the library). It worked. Now I am happy with both of those rooms. Our current focus is the loft. This room has never looked like I've wanted it to. This weekend we got rid of the huge falling apart particle board computer desk. I had been throwing away pieces as they fell off anyway, so it was surely a lost cause. We are now in the process of putting together two new adult looking (although still particle board...remember we are not rich!) desks up here. The consensus so far is that it "looks like a hotel"... this is a compliment. Well, it reminds Jonathan of the hotel business center where he did some schoolwork this fall when we were in Atlanta. Jonathan's neatness standards are not on the same level as mine and his periferal vision isn't that good either. If I close one eye and squint I see what Jonathan means, unfortunately I also see piles of books and stacks of paper, baskets of miscellaneous cr@p that has to be gone through, and all of the "nonessential" parts to the desks that have to be dealt with (like the drawers). Work in progress!

The new chore system is still a work in progress as well. When two of my kids are out performing until 11pm three nights a week (four this week for Phantom, plus Jonathan was involved with tech for two other shows this week, so last night was his only "night off" in about 2 weeks), schooling and chores bright and early in the morning isn't on their agenda. I want to make sure that they get the sleep they need and yet we need to get something accomplished each day...another fine line I am walking.

In the last few days I've come across suggestions about "unplugging" the TV etc. Jake's reading book had a cutesy sweet story about this adorable fake family who watches no TV. They have so much time for other noble pursuits. The story even mentions how memories come from people and not TV. While this is certainly more true than not, I have to say that when Madi was watching Family Ties yesterday morning and it was the one where Alex and Ellen first met (it has that Billy Vera and the Beaters song in it), it brought back memories for me...memories of myself at Madi's age, memories of my old friend and sometimes blog reader Bonnie, memories of young love. I know in this age of "courtship" young love is frowned upon, but call me "old fashioned" (hahaha) I still have a fondness for it. Not to mention in real life "Alex and Ellen" have been happily married for about 25 years and have four kids, where would they be without TV?!

Sometimes I think I'd like to be more structured, more black and white. Things like no TV and knowing what we're going to have for dinner every night of the week sound appealing to me. The thing is, I'm not very structured and I'm definitely more grey than black and white. In the book The Giver the characters aren't allowed choices because they might make the wrong one. This would certainly take some of the stress out of life. The thing is though it also took the LIFE out of life. So there, that's my excuse for why my kids are still in bed at almost 9 and my house is not a showplace. I'm not sure who's going to do what schoolwork today and I have absolutely no idea what we are having for dinner. I'll call em as I see em, stuff will get done today, we'll live a lot of life, and we'll make a lot of choices. We are works in progress.

Frustration

2011-02-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

The kids and I were pulling into the parking lot of the gym today, when I saw it...the big red bus! The last time I gave blood was Halloween, it was easy to remember because the Tshirt has vampire teeth with dripping blood on it, and I happened to put that shirt on to go to the gym today. I figured it could be a new tradition for me to give blood on holidays. Last time Halloween, this time Valentine's Day, maybe I'd do it again on Memorial Day...no such luck! My iron tends to hover right around the threshold of being able to donate blood. Usually if I know in advance the bus will be somewhere (usually church) I make a mental note and take iron supplements for about a week in advance. It does the trick. So today, I sent Jonathan and Madi into the gym and went into the bus with my usual, "let's check my iron first just in case." There must be a lot of iron in all of the chocolate I've been eating today because it was fine. So went I went through the usual checklist, yes I have been pregnant, I have three kids, I had basal cell carcinoma and it was successfully removed, no I've never done any of the illegal and immoral things they ask about, blah, blah, blah. Let me back up a little, on Halloween when I gave blood, I found out that starting last fall if you go to Cozumel, you can't give blood for a year. While my most recent cruise was a surprise present for me, I knew Mike had been looking into another one and I specifically requested that we not go to Cozumel again because of the donating blood thing. No problem we went to Labadee and Jamaica. Anyone who has talked to me about the cruise knows my guilt over going to Labadee (which is in Haiti) and just basking in the sunshine (actually in the shade, remember I have had skin cancer more than once) and not doing something tangible to help the people there (we did spend a little money and supposedly Royal Caribbean does a lot of good for the Haitian people, so I tried to let it go). Well now I have a whole new reason to feel guilty about Haiti... I can't give blood for a year!!! UGH!!! This really frustrates me. There is so little that one person can do to improve the world and donating blood has been a no-brainer for me. I am eligible, unlike a lot of people, and it is easy for me to do. It really bothers me how few people are eligible to give blood AND it bothers me even more how many fewer people are willing to give blood! So here in my tiny piece of cyber space, I make this plea. If you are able to donate blood, would you consider giving it a try? If I can't, the least I can do is try to encourage others to, I'll watch your kids or bake a bread for you or something. Give it a try, it's not as bad as you might think. Also it will make you feel good to know you're doing your part to help someone in need. Since I didn't give blood, I did at least spend a little time on the elyptical at the gym (not very long because the kids had already been in there for a long time). At they gym, my new "playaway" (digital audio book) from the library wasn't working (not my day so far huh?), so I had sometime to ponder my frustration over the blood thing. I kept coming back to an episode of FRIENDS where Joey and Phoebe debate whether there is such a thing as a selfless good deed. Like I said I didn't workout very long, so I didn't really come to any conclusion on this one, but the bottom line is, it does make you feel good to do good deeds. Likewise, it makes you feel pretty stinky when you can't do the good deed that you want to do, and therein lies the frustration!

stuff

2011-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

I know it's time to change my "header" picture, I'm just not ready yet, I love that pic! While we're on the subject, how can I get more than one picture in my header? I tried once and couldn't figure out a way, anyone want to talk me through it?

I'm cold! I have pants and a sweater and fuzzy slipper socks and other slippers on top of those on and I'm still cold. I've been drinking hot tea all afternoon. Madi put on shorts and a tshirt to wear today, I had a few things to say about that and made her at least wear a sweatshirt too. On the way home from dropping the big kids at theatre ("senior tour" where they are writing a play about conservation that they will perform at local schools this spring), I saw a boy outside wearing shorts and no shirt. It's about 58 degrees outside and cloudy! Florida kids are crazy! This confirms my suspicion that at the same temperature, northern kids dress more appropriately than southern kids. Here's why... our shorts aren't packed away, so they think they can wear them whenever they want. Also my kids have not worn their winter coats all year, even though we've had plenty of cold enough days. They aren't in the habit. That and they still think long sleeves and coats are the same thing!

Madi and I had bookclub yesterday and we discussed one of my all time favorite books The Giver. I could've talked about that book for another few hours, it went by way too fast and all of a sudden it was time to go and pick up our cute little (already one year old) buddy Landon. You've gotta love babysitting when your own kids are capable enough to run the show and you can run out to the gym for a quick workout. Don't worry I #1 arranged it with his mom ahead of time and #2 had plenty of time with him just to myself later in the evening when everyone else went to their various activities.

Madi started a different math curriculum today. Actually it was "in the plan" for us we just opted to start it ahead of schedule. She was doing Singapore Math, which I love, but she was in the last book and she was not retaining a lot of stuff like she should've/could've been. Singapore has a lot of mental math, it's almost all word problems, and there isn't a lot of practice or explanation. She was going to be moving to Teaching Textbooks next year anyway and we were on the fence about if she was ready for Algebra 1 or Pre-Algebra. We decided to just go with Pre-Algebra and start right now. She's loving it and did two lessons today. She hasn't loved math in a long time, so this is a very good thing. She plans to finish it all before the fall so she can do Algebra 1 in 8th grade. If she continues to want to do this, there's no doubt in my mind she'll be able to, when she sets her mind to something she's very self motivated.

Homeschooling high school is not as complicated as most people think. Our virtual school opportunites certainly help with this, but even with that aside, it's not really rocket science. The hardest part is having kids who are performing in plays until all hours of the night and then have a very hard time getting up and moving in the morning! Seriously though, it's not bad. I know a lot of people who are going to be entering this arena in the next year or two and I hope that I can be helpful to them. This might be another one of those areas where I'm not preaching enough about what I'm practicing. A lot of people get caught up in things like "grade level" and diplomas and I think they are wasting a lot of valuable time and energy worrying. Jonathan is going to have way more than enough "credits" the complicated part is going to be figuring out which ones to "count" and which ones not to worry about for now. Besides his Geometry, Physical Science, Ancient History, English and Spanish. He's completed 1/2 a credit in Drivers' Ed, will have 1/2 a credit in Theology of the Body (a class he is taking at church and we will add to it with supplemental reading and writing at home), we were planning on 1/2 a credit for cooking/home ec, 1/2 a credit for phys ed (at the gym) and he spends enough time working and performing at the Theatre to have many many credits there. This is only his first year, there are three more to go. Also he carried over one credit from 8th grade (Algebra) -- you can carry over up to 3 credtis from 8th grade. So here's my soapbox for the day, don't think you can't homeschool high school...you can!

Jonathan just "butt dialed" me from Theatre. Madi did on Tuesday. A mom can't help but get anxious when their kid is calling home when they are supposed to be occupied somewhere else. Everytime I see one of their numbers, I get this "oh no!" feeling, but everytime there's just some quiet talking in the background. They just like to get my heart pumping.

We officially have unlimited texting. It didn't start out that way, and it's costing more than we'd like (the kids are paying their own), but I have to say I've quickly become a big fan of texting! For future reference though, when the verizon guy says the $5 plan includes unlimited verizon to verizon, don't believe him, he's lying!

Gotta go round Jake up from playing with the neighbors and get him something to eat. Then I need to drop him off at Theatre and pick Madi up. Jonathan just has to go from one building to the other and he's got a sandwich to eat on the way. Then I get to come home and eat with Mike and Madi before Mike and I head back to Theatre to usher for tonight's show. No wonder homeschooling high school doesn't seem that complicated just figuring out who needs to be where when is far more complicated than that.

Preaching what we Practice

2011-02-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

I'm fairly good at practicing what I preach...except of course when it comes to screaming things like "why do you have to yell like that?" at my kids. I'm around enough people to know that this is common so I don't worry too much about it. I have just recently been challenged to preach what I practice. This is a little more challenging. I'm not much of a "preach-er", actually I try not to be "preach-y". Sometimes, however, I just assume that people know what I know and I'm finding out that is not always the case. I'm quite good at "preach-ing" in the case of homeschooling and socialization. "Oh my kids are too social to homeschool" someone might say. That person can then expect to hear an earful from me about their misconceptions regarding homeschooling. Theatre is an area where I'm not as skilled in the "preach-ing". Up until last month when our children's theatre joined ranks with a local community theatre, we were the best children's theatre in the area performing in a very poor rented location. The directors were paying an arm and a leg for the rights to the shows and more than an arm and a leg for the less than ideal space and they were barely breaking even. I would find myself getting extremely annoyed with people who complained incessantly about ticket prices etc. I just ASSUMED people knew how much it was costing them. Often I'd find out later that people had no idea about the costs involved in running a successful children's theatre. I spent an awful lot of time frustrated with people who simply didn't have all of the information I had. Church is another where I have trouble "preach-ing". The Catholic Church is probably the most misunderstood organizational body in the world. It is certainly misunderstood in my corner of the world, by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. I've been Catholic my whole life, but I've only begun to scratch the surface of what that really means. I tend to clam up or walk away when I hear about these misconceptions because I feel unqualified or unworthy to attempt to explain them. If somebody misunderstands my point about homeschooling or theatre it's not really all that crucial. If I somehow misrepresent THE CHURCH, there's too much at stake...too much pressure. The problem is, by doing and saying nothing, I am making a statement and I've come to realize it is not a good one. There's a saying "you might be the only cathedral someone sees today." This applies not only to trying to be gracious and considerate to everyone you meet, but also in explaining why I go to the Church with the Eucharist instead of the one with the best jelly donuts or the most welcoming people.

The computer is going to explode...

2011-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

...and so is my head!

I just typed this post and the computer officially crashed, thankfully blogger saved this. The problem is I'm now attempting to finish and edit this on my iPod, and I can't get to the bottom of the post. I think it's considerably scattered and might end right in the middle of a sentence. I guess it really is a good representation of my muddled brain and our dysfunctional computer situation.

Our computer is doing some crazy things. I think it's a ticking time bomb. Just before our cruise, crazy spyware stuff kept popping up. Miraculously, when we got home it was working just fine. I think it was happy to have had a rest. Now it's back in full force and doing all kinds of kooky things. I came home this evening after a very very long week and was heading for a hot bubble bath. After needing to print one quick (well, if you call 25 minutes of fighting with the computer quick) thing for my religious ed class tomorrow, I somehow got this crazy idea to blog about the dumb computer and thus spend more time getting completely irritated by it. The reason, I think, is that the computer is reminding me of my brain. They both seem to be in overload mode. Since my blog is the best way I know to unload my brain (I wish I had a pensive like Dumbledore) it forces me to spend more time on the computer and then my head hurts even more having to deal with it. Do you see the irony here?

Anyway, you know the saying about when you have kids your heart walks around in another body? Well, obviously after 15 years I'm fairly used to that. The thing is the majority of these last 15 years the other hearts have been walking around in fairly close proximity to mine. They still are really, but this adult theatre (that phrase always sounds so wrong to me) experience is a new dynamic for our family. Jake and Jonathan have been out most nights until after 11, actually I think it's been every night since we got back from the cruise. They are involved in something pretty large that has almost nothing to do with me. It's strange. Last night was opening night (which I didn't attend...more on that in a sec) and afterwards there was a reception at the coffeehouse nextdoor to the theatre. Jake and Jonathan were walking around and everyone there was talking to them, and taking pictures with them, and hugging them, etc. Jake was even fairly gracious to them. My kids are growing up! The night before last was "friends and family night", it was actually a dress rehersal open to the public. {It was a great show, I highly recommend it and tickets are selling out fast} I have been to EVERY SINGLE childrens' theatre performance my kids have been in. Not just every show, every performance of EVERY SHOW! This is different, this is mainstage theatre. This show is going to run about 20 times. I don't "work for" the adult theatre (althought we will be ushering a few times). The show is going on right now and I'm not there. We weren't at opening night (Madi was). Last night waiting for the show to end a man who knew we had two kids in it came up to us saying, "you do plan to see your kids in this show don't you?" I had a really hard time with his tone and implication. I asked Mike if it bothered him, and it didn't. "Who is that guys anyway?" Mike asked. "I don't know," I said. "So why would it bother you?" was Mike's reply. Because I'm the mom! Because I am the homeschooling, over-involved mom! Because my "hearts" are a part of something that I am really not a part of. All of this is good and healthy and natural and normal and overwhelming. We've been doing such an all encompassing job of giving them roots, it's a little strange to wake up and realize they are starting to use their wings too. It's not like

Snippets from the first of the month

2011-02-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

Mike and I got back from our cruise on Saturday. It was A-mA-ZING!!! It was so reasonably priced too! I always feel the need to mention that. $199 per person, this includes TONS of food, great shows every night, and of course the little itty bitty but very cute room for 5 nights! Growing up my parents owned a small grocery store. It was the only store in a very small town. Everyone thought we were rich. We weren't! To this day I have trouble with people thinking I'm rich (I'm not!-- well I am very rich, but not financially). Currently, I worry that people will think we're rich because we live in a pretty big house. We got a very good deal on it, just like the cruise. We're not rich, we know how to find a bargain! But I digress. We are definitely becoming "cruise people", even if it means people will think we're rich. It is such a great way to vacation. Extremely cost effective (did I mention $199 a person for 5 nights?!), so relaxing, and you are treated like kings and queens. Interestingly enough, I have no problem being treated like I'm rich, I just don't want people to THINK I am (cause I'm not). We're looking into options for the next one. This time we really will bring the kids and my parents.

We just finished the first month of our new chore system. It was a success, though definitely a work in progress. I'm going to miss Jonathan being "kitchen boy", now Jake is "kitchen boy" which really means Mommy's kitchen helper. Jonathan pretty much did all the kitchen clean up all month. I do feel the need to mention however, that while Jake is definitely a large part of that "work in progress" that I mentioned, he is far more involved in clean up that Jonathan was at his age. The moral of this story is that you don't have to "train" your kids when they are tiny for them to be very competent housekeepers in their teen/ preteen years. There is not a limited window of opportunity as some people would lead you to believe. It's never too late, take my word for it! Anyway, Jake is now kitchen helper, Madi is laundry (so while I will be doing much more kitchen work this month, I won't spend much (if any) time on laundry, and Jonathan is front room and family room (dust vacuum etc). Today Jake was "helping" in the kitchen and he noticed that Jonathan had organized the plastic container cabinet. Jonathan really did do a great job on this. Jake's comment was, "our house isn't fancy enough for this cabinet to look like this!" The kids get $5 a week each if all of this work is done to satisfaction and their rooms are clean, and they do any other menial tasks we might assign to them without a huge amount of griping and complaining. This might sound like a lot of money to some people (and now you're probably thinking we're rich), but the thing is our kids have to pay their own way for most of what they do (they have had to even before we started paying them). This includes T-shirts and other costume related stuff for theatre, plays, movies and other entertainment like Disney or Universal passes, certainly anything they want to buy and often most things they need like sneakers etc. Either way it's fairly cheap labor for us and very good experience for them. A couple times this week a kid didn't get paid, I won't mention names, but it involved two of the three kids. Today we added a new amendment, if you don't earn your money you also get basically no "screen time" for the following week (obviously there are some exceptions to this rule like virtual school). Not to mention you are still responsible for the work. The month long system is working well because it really gives a kid a chance to learn the jobs involved and also enough time to keep it up. Last year we did a similar thing and rotated each week, that wasn't enough time to get a job done and was often left for the next in line to deal with.

Jake and Jonathan got home at 11:30 last night! This being a part of the adult theatre is a big commitment!! It is really good for them though. Jake seems to be maturing daily. He's taking this very seriously. Yesterday I was taking down the snowmen decorations (more on that in a minute), and I was standing very precariously on the piano bench. At the same time, Jake was standing on a very small rocking chair. I suggested he get down because I didn't want both of us to fall and break our necks at the same time (we were the only ones home). I said I needed him to call Daddy and 911 if I fell and broke my neck. He got right down and said, "Mom, it would be bad if you broke your neck but it would be worse if I did...I'm not replaceable in Phantom!" (apparently as a homeschooling mom, I am fairly replaceable!). Both Jonathan and Jake seem to be impressing some adults some of whom don't even like kids. Yesterday someone told Jonathan if he was ever going to have kids he'd pick him. Jake even seems to be able to hold actual conversations with people when I'm not there to stand behind. He's gotten people to take them out to dinner and even buy him dessert! It is interesting to just let them go and see how they fly.

Today is the nicest day of the year so far (well, here I mean, not counting the cruise). All of the windows are open. AAAhhh, it's about time. Some far away readers aren't going to like hearing this as half the country is in the middle of a blizzard right now. My two best friends growing up both facebooked that their kids have a snowday today. They live 1500 miles apart! So anyway, we're enjoying the springlike weather here and the last of the winter decorations are in the process of getting shoved under the stairs.

As I am putting away the snowmen etc, I am once again reminded that we have far too much stuff. Even though it seems like we are always in the process of cleaning out, I am gearing up for a major purge! Last year in blogworld there was a lot of talk about purging 40 bags of stuff in 40 days of Lent. I am definitely up for this challenge! There is no way I'm going to be able to wait another month to do this though, maybe I'll make it a year of purging a bag a day. Sometimes I think I could get rid of 365 bags of stuff and hardly miss any of it. And we're not even rich, imagine how much stuff we'd have if we were!

This week there is a mission going on at my church. This means three days of talks in the morning and different talks at night. The priest doing it is really a fantastic speaker. Yesterday's morning topic was "every pearl began as a pain in the shell". Each talk could (and maybe will someday) be a blog post of it's own. For now let me just say that this quote immediately made me think of Jake. I came upon an interesting picture recently (on Tiffany's blog) that might shed some light on why Jake is generally the most challenging of my kids. I hope you enjoy analyzing this picture as much as I have...

What's new?

2011-01-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

So soo much! Not the least of which is Mike and I are going on a CRUISE on Monday morning!! (and for any of you bad guy lurkers, this does not necessarily mean our house will be empty, as the kids will be staying with my parents and part of that time they'll be at our house...and you don't know where we live AND you don't even know our last name so nananananana!!)

Jake and Jonathan are in a main stage adult show at the new theatre. They needed an 8 year old who could sing a little and Jake got the part! Jonathan has a few different parts to play, not the least of which is being there to keep and eye on Jake and call or text me when they need to get picked up. Yes after holding out for what Madi for one considers to be far too long, we've now joined the millenium and have a texting plan. It is very handy. Just today for example Mike and I had a memorial service to go to (more on that later) and Madi was at the conference for middle school girls and Jake and Jonathan had rehersal for the better part of the day. They were going to have a break for a couple hours, but with the timing of the memorial service, they were on their own to hang out around town, possibly at the park or getting pizza until it was time to go back to the theatre. Turns out they ended up getting treated to dinner and chocolate cake by the director of the show. This isn't our regular director either, this is the artistic director of the whole theatre! I'm a little concerned about this whole major production depending on Jake to perform on demand, but mostly I'm really excited for it! (in light of keeping the aformentioned bad guy lurkers in the dark, I'm avoiding saying the name of the show at least until after I get back from the cruise).

A really nice man passed away this week. Actually, I'm sure a lot of really nice men passed away, but only one that we knew. He was a loving husband and father to four kids. The memorial service was packed. The theme of the service was basically that if they only talked about the man, that would only be half of the story, the day was also about celebrating God. The family seems to be holding up pretty well and I know it's their faith that is getting them through this, but to even think about what they are going through makes me ill.

Almost a month later, it seems pretty clear that the most useful Christmas present of the year (aside from the cruise and maybe Jonathan's ipod) is the donut maker Madi got. They are sooo good! If you are local expect to be invited over for a breakfast of donuts in the near future (but not this week, did I mention we are going on a cruise?!). The donuts (made with freshly ground wheat-read healthy-) go really good with coffee from the Keurig coffee maker (another very useful item!).

Madi is cantoring (singing the responsorial psalm) at church tomorrow. This is the second time she's done this.

Jake's now had two basketball games. He's a pretty good ball handler. He was more or less the point guard today, as much as there is a point guard in a game of 2nd and 3rd graders. He's a good passer and had a few good assists.

School is really good this year. Every year until now, we've had many of those typical homeschool days where the mom screams, "go get your shoes, I'm bringing you to school right now!" This hasn't even happened once this year, not even with Jake! I think after all these years we've really found our groove. We hardly even took time off during Christmas, this is in contrast to every other year when we essentially did no "schoolwork" between Thanksgiving (or maybe Veteran's Day) and New Years (or maybe Valentine's Day). Part of the commitment for this year has come from the older two and their virtual school classes. There's something about a teacher that is not mom that brings out a different level of commitment in kids. This is not to say that teachers other than mom are better for kids because I definitely don't think that, I just like what we are doing now. I also like that our laizee faire approach in the early years has really served us well. Everytime I mention to anyone with kids younger than Madi that my kids need to be doing school (as in we need to leave Chick fil a now to get some school done) I'm always quick to point out that they don't need to, not all the time. LIFE is school in the early years! It's also school in the later years, but will all the life experiences my kids had in the early years they are able to now handle their middle school and high school classes really well. They know that these classes (especially high school) are a stepping stone to college and the future not just for what they are learning, though they are learning, but because they are "credits" that they will need for graduation on college. I still think they are learning a lot more in their real life with theatre, church, theme parks, and conversations with people of all ages, but they can play the school game pretty well too.

Tonight Mike and I went to a ministry appreciation dinner at church. This is because I teach fifith grade religious ed. I've been meaning to say here that I got three presents for Christmas from my students and a couple of cards too. I've wanted to point that out because last year I complained that no one in my class gave me a present except for my own daughter. My complaint wasn't in the materialistic I want something sense as much as it was in the all my parenting life, I've always scrambled to give every teacher, coach, director, etc something for Christmas and the end of the year and it was a little disheartening to know other parents didn't feel the same way (especially about volunteer teachers!). So my faith in people was renewed this year! The yummy, free, catered Italian dinner tonight helped too!

Gotta finish packing, I'm not sure if I told you, but we're going on a cruise!

7 quick takes

2011-01-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

1. I can't seem to get myself in gear as far as a creative blog post is concerned, so how about seven quick takes? There, one down!

2. The kids are going to Theatre in a few minutes. Auditions for Beauty and the Beast are next Tuesday. Jake wants to be Chip. Madi wants Belle or Mrs. Potts. I'm not sure what Jonathan wants, I don't think he's sure either.

3. The bad news is the yummy and inexpensive ice cream place that is right next to the "new theatre" just went out of business! The worse news is that we just got a $40 gift certificate from there for Christmas! The better news is, the lady gave me $40 in cash when I went in there to dispute the whole thing.

4. Mike's brother is here for the weekend. After Jake's basketball game tomorrow, we are heading to Universal Studios and Harry Potter World.

5. My word of the year (HOME) seems to be working out pretty well for me so far. We're having a fairly lazy month. Actually we are on our second out of state visitor and the kids are doing well with chores and schoolwork, so compared to a lot of families that may not be considered lazy. We are however sleeping later than normal (or even socially acceptable) a lot of mornings and we are far far more laid back than our "December run around like chickens with our heads cut off selves".

6. Jonathan got his Learner's Permit on Tuesday! I can't believe it either!! I have no idea where the time is going. For some reason his first 15 years have gone by about 10 times faster than my first 15 years did! This is why we are attempting to slow time down by slowing ourselves down.

7. The car just pulled up that will take my three kids to theatre and leave me with a cute baby to play with for a few hours so I better run!

Daybook for January 8th (my mother's birthday)

2011-01-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

Outside my window~ blue skies and cool temperatures.

I am listening to~ not much and it sounds great!

I am wearing~ white silky jammies, getting ready to put on sweats and go to the gym momentarily.

I am grateful for~ my self proclaimed word of the year HOME!!!

I am pondering~ this thought from Deacon Paul yesterday, "we can't solve the problems of the world, but we can make a dent"

I am reading~ blogs.

I am creating~ helpful kids with our new chore routine.

From the learning room~ I had this realization yesterday, we do school all over the place. The loft is supposed to be the "schoolroom" and it is the computer (ie virtual school) room. But I finally realized how to be sure to include the history that we all do together and that is to do it in the kitchen during breakfast or lunch). Jake likes to pick the place to do his work, sometimes his room, sometimes the family room, often the front room (my new favorite room in the house), sometimes outside, almost never the loft. Madi got her much desired "lap desk" for Christmas and she is a mobile schooling unit as well, often choosing a different couch. I'm still not happy with the look and set up of the loft and I'm enjoying the other, prettier rooms much more.

To live the liturgy~ I'm mourning the end of the Christmas season.

Around the house~ the kids have done great with their chores. We are using a month long "zone plan" this month Jonathan is zone 1- kitchen. Now I'm not only not loading and unloading the dishwasher, I'm also not picking out kids at random to do it. He knows it's his job, I know it's his job, we're all loving it! Jonathan even said even though it's a lot of work, he likes it because he knows what to expect! Madi is zone 2- front room and family room vacuuming, dusting etc, also looking good. Jake is zone 3- feed Mickey, downstairs bathroom, and laundry. He's got Mickey covered just fine, but he's "in training" on the other jobs. On the first day he so helpfully threw down all of the dirty laundry and inadvertantly dumped down the stairs two huge baskets of clean laundry as well. After lots of yelling and tears (from me) and lots and lots of appologizing (also from me), we got it all sorted and worked out. We just got a new washer, so I'm enjoying laundry and not ready for anyone to touch the new machine. By the end of the month, I'll be ready to pass the torch, I think Madi is up next for laundry.

From the kitchen~ in addition to cleaning the kitchen, Jonathan and I are in the planning phase of a 1/2 credit "cooking/ home ec" course for him. The fun thing about homeschooling high school is all the real life learning stuff that homeschoolers do naturally with their kids finally "counts" for something. I've been googling different home ec course descriptions, but basically we really are running a home here, so we don't need to duplicate what they do in school which is TRY to duplicate what people do at home. Anyway, by the spring Jonathan will know how to bake the bread and make tons of meals and baked goods all on his own.

From Netfilx this week~ Nativity Story...very good and It's Complicated...very funny!

On my ipod~ a year later, I am still loving this thing, from all my music on shuffle at the gym (each song is a fun surprise!) to the audio-rosary when I'm driving to quick email checks... this thing is the best!

Theatre~ starts this week. They are doing Beauty and the Beast auditions are the
18th.

One of my favorite things~ homeschooling. This week there were a lot of facebook posts about "yeah, it's back to school for the kids", I'm so glad that's not us!

A few plans~ going to Outback tomorrow night to celebrate my mother's birthday. getting Universal passes next week when Mike's brother comes for a visit. Harry Potter World here we come! Basketball practice started for Jake this week, his first game is next Saturday.

Choosing HOME whenever we can!

New Year's Eve Daybook

2010-12-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

Outside my window~ It finally feels like Florida again, I wonder how long this will last. It looks a lot browner than I'd like though (especially in the backyard!)

I am listening to~ Jake hic-upping.

I am wearing~ jeans and a green sweater, no socks or slippers (which have been constantly on my feet for about a month and a half!)

I am grateful for~ Mike who is home today.

I am pondering~ ways to slow down and do less. A lot of people are talking about naming their year and I've seen thoughts on a year of "yes" (as in Mom, will you play with me? yes and Mom, will you read to me? yes) Those are ultimately great ideas, but for myself I need to turn it around and say no to some of the other things that might ask for (or demand) my attention so that I will be able to say yes to the best things. Just because something is free or fun or even educational doesn't mean we have to do it. This is going to be my year of "no"!

I am reading~Lunch Money by Andrew Clements (yes, it's a kid book and I'm reading it all by myself) We love Andrew Clements around here some favorites are School Story, Frindle, Things that Are, Room One, and The Report Card.

I am creating~ A huge laundry pile for the new washer that will be delivered this afternoon. Our old one died earlier in the week.

From the learning room~ We'll be back at it on Monday. My last post was all about this so I'll spare you anymore details. (Although I did want to add, I realized that I might've come across a little braggy about all the kids' A's. Maybe I am a little braggy actually, but the thing is we've never done grades before, they've never even taken "real" classes before so it is just nice to know that our little "homeschooling experiment", delayed academics and all is really turning out just fine).

To live the liturgy~ I got this book and this planner so I'm ready!!

Around the house~ Most of "Christmas" will get packed away on Sunday ;(! We'll try to keep some of it out in our home and in our hearts all year though!

From the kitchen~ might make some more cookies today. We are drinking a lot of coffee over here with this new Keurig! As long as I have flavored creamer (and mostly decaf coffee) I'm loving it! Madi is too!

One of my favorite things~ Christmas!

A few plans~ Trying to keep the slower pace of this past week, when we ease back into reality next week. Jonathan and Jake have well visit Dr appointments on Wed (they were postponed from Nov) and we should find out the results of Madi's latest bloodwork. We've still doing all we can to "treat" her thyroid without medication and would love to see that it is working. Actual Theatre doesn't start until the following week, but there is a "meet and greet" at the new theatre on Tuesday.

Here's a pic of Mickey enjoying his Christmas rawhide bone!

This is a homeschooling blog afterall...

2010-12-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

I think I've posted more today than I have in about 2 months. One reason is because I've spent the better part of the day on the real computer (as opposed to quick checks ipod!) The kids are on here all the time because of their virtual classes, but since this is more or less a week off, I've had some time on here. What am I researching? School! More virtual classes, book lists, and (dare I say) even college admission requirements. So since we are half way through the school year and the computer is in my possession, here's a quick (or maybe not quick, we'll see) review of the year...

Jake is cruising through math like there is no tomorrow. Today we were discussing our soon to be implemented chore plan, and I was saying a part of that will also involve less screen time and consistent silent reading time. His quick reply was, "I read my math!" He is a good reader for a second grader, he just doesn't, at this point, choose silent reading as an activity (it isn't very active afterall). He will be done with his Language Arts Curriculum well before the end of the school year, and may move right into the third grade book before summer.

Jonathan and Madi got all A's on all of their virtual school classes. Madi's Art class is done and she got 100%. She will continue with her science class next week and may pick up another half year virtual class. I'm thinking Career Education. I had Career Education in 7th grade. I remember it well because it involved a lot of field trips. Madi's will be a little different because it will mostly involve sitting at the computer, but since her whole life is field trips, I think it'll be OK. I googled a lot about virtual classes offered by other states and came to the conclusion that our state definitely offers the best and brightest virtual schooling option. My current outline for Jonathan's sophomore year is heavily weighted in the virtual school direction (like to the tune of 5 virtual classes and one computer based math class). I may change my mind on this (and he will have some say too), but these classes just make perfect sense for high school homeschoolers. Jonathan's Spanish teacher was taking a while to post his final grade and come to find out the reason was that he was thisclose to an A, so she had him resubmit a few assignments and there came the A!

Our History is a little lagging this year. For one thing it's Ancients, we're more of an American History family. The other reason is all of us are doing it together and getting me and the three kids all in the same place at the same time is a little challenging. Also, the idea of a "real" teacher on the other side of the computer tends to put more pressure on the kids (and me) to focus more on those subjects. Lastly, for the last 4 or 5 years History has been our main focus, so it's fallen down a peg or two to give us a little more focus on other stuff.

Jonathan is exactly at the half way point in his Physical Science class, and I have to say he and I are both liking it a lot more than the Apologia General Science we did last year. Madi is taking a pretty good virtual general science class this year, so I think she'll go right into Physical next year. Jonathan was cruising like Jake in his math (Geometry) and somewhere around Thanksgiving that seemed to take a backseat. He'll still be done in plenty of time to get a summer break though. And the good news is this is the first year that everything didn't come to a screeching halt at Thanksgiving, so I think we're doing pretty well. His Driver's Ed is done (I think he got 100% in that) and we will be heading to the DMV in the next week or so....aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!