Greed

The Canon PowerShot A570IS has been on sale at Amazon for a while, and I told Jeff that it was all I wanted for Christmas. It's rather out of budget for what we usually spend on each other, but I told him that I'd use some of my leftover birthday funds to make up the rest.

It's a definite upgrade over my current camera, which is ok but not great. It's more megapixels (more than I really need, in fact), and has higher zoom, which I'm looking forward to. I'm also looking forward to hopefully doing better in low light situations, and being able to play more with the settings.

But then. Then I saw the Canon PowerShot A720IS. It has 8 megapixels instead of 7, but what really has me drooling is the 6X zoom. I love being able to zoom in from a distance and get in really close. It's also about $50 more. Much as I want that extra zoom, I can't justify the extra money. But I still covet it.

Free Passes

I hereby declare that 2008 will be The Year of the Museum. Our library is participating in the Detroit Adventure Pass, where you can "check out" free passes to 25 different local museums. Some passes are for two people, some for four, but since I can use Sarah's and Lauren's cards, as well as my own, to check out passes, it shouldn't be an issue. The passes are only good for one week, but we can go again and again. This is going to be awesome!

Home Ec

Home Ec is once a week, alternating between Cooking and Sewing. I've tried to tie the lessons in with Geography. The first week, we made a couple recipes from Amish Cooking for Kids, with moderate success. I'm a little skeptical of an Amish cookbook that calls for the microwave, you know?

Last week's project was Bandana Bonnets, keeping with the Pennsylvania theme. I made one for Lauren (she chose a very bright print, with "Love" written all over it), and Sarah made her own (from a more sedate blue/green). They turned out cute, but if I were to make them again, I would make the front part narrower. The proportions seem a little awkward. Also, I used fabric glue instead of fuseable web to attach the ribbon. I didn't want to do any more ironing, and I think glue holds better. She did a good job with it (sewing a seam, running elastic through the casing), and says that she likes the finished product, but not as much as she thought she would.

Tomorrow, she's going to make Pineapple Casserole to take to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. We got the recipe about a year ago from a woman at church, and have made it a couple times. It's kind of like a pineapple bread pudding.

I know, that doesn't tie in with Geography too much. We've been doing Arizona and Oklahoma last week and this (next week is Texas), and she's so not a fan of southwestern food. I'm going to look around for a Native American type sewing project for next week, unless I come up with something else. Oh, and I'll probably also show her how to make (not sew) a chiton, which I found in The Daring Book for Girls, to tie in to Ancient Rome.

Ultimate Resource

Holy cow, am I drooling. I just got Best books for children : preschool through grade 6 from the library. I thought it would be another nice list of fiction, like The Read-Aloud Handbook. What I got was an incredible reference book. It lists over 25,000 children's books, arranged by theme. It also has an author list and a subject index. Each book only has a one-line summary, but it's enough to get me to investigate more through Amazon.

Sadly, it costs $80, so I guess I'll be checking it out of the library periodically and getting ideas for books to last a few months.

And again

I should have mentioned that one of the reasons I got up so early yesterday is that Lauren again found her way into our bed in the middle of the night. I don't mind so much if it's early in the morning, but in the middle of the night, it really does interfere with my sleep.

So before bed last night, I told her that she needed to stay in her bed all night. And that I would make pancakes in the morning. Yes, I use bribery. Gonna make somethin' of it?

Sadly, the little cookie has gotten herself quite a cold. It can be hard to tell a cold with her, because she frequently has the runny nose due to allergies. She was really stuffed up last night, though. Even though I gave her some medicine, she was obviously having difficulty breathing through her nose. She was miserable, so I finally had Jeff bring her to bed. Laying down with me seems to help, although the mention that we had strawberries & whipped cream for the pancakes might have also had something to do with that.

Today, I am totally taking a nap.

Not much today

I had another one of those "wake up at 4, can't get back to sleep until 6:30, have to be to church by 8:45" mornings. So I'll probably be going to bed right after the kids tonight.

Last night, I had yet another "fall down go boom" incident. Luckily, all I did was skin my knee. It's moderately ugly, but not too painful.

In-Freaking-Credible

Beowulf. IMAX. 3D. AWESOME. Story? There was a story? Yeah, the story was ok, and some of the characters' faces were a little flat at times (the queen was the worst example), but that's not why you go. You go for the effects. And the effects rocked.

What we chose

For our anniversary this year (which actually isn't for another five weeks), we are going to dinner (Mongolian BBQ) and a movie (Beowulf at IMAX), which is typical. We're also going back to the hotel where we spent our wedding night, which we haven't done since our wedding. It's a little more special than usual, but still not a big trip or expense, which is exactly what I wanted at this point. My awesome in-laws will be here in about an hour to get the kids, wheeee!

Project Runway's Back!

Yay! Thoughts on last night:

Elisa--I thought it was interesting when she started rubbing grass stains onto the fabric, talking about using natural dye mediums like tea. I thought the blue dress she made was really pretty. Not wanting to finish the edges? OK, say you're going for "deconstructed," but know that it will get you kicked off eventually. Crazy will only take you so far. That train on the dress? Crazy. And you knew it. When you don't edit, you come off looking lazy. So step it up, and stop being such a Daniel Franco/Guadalupe.

Simone--boring and poor execution will trump crazy any day, and I wasn't surprised when she was sent home.

Rami--when I first saw him draping that gray fabric, I loved it. Then when I saw that he had changed it around, I was disappointed until I realized that I loved that version as well. When I saw the third incarnation on the runway, I really liked that, too. Man knows how to drape some fabric! I was glad he won.

Christian--I was expecting to be annoyed as hell at him, but I kind of liked his dress.

Jillian--I made the mistake of watching her submission video. She is annoying. Her voice drives me nuts. I seriously want to stick firecrackers in my ears every time I hear her. Luckily, she wasn't on much tonight, but I fear we'll be stuck with her a good long time.

The Pioneer Woman

I first discovered The Pioneer Woman Cooks, though I don't remember how I found it. But as soon as I did, I was hooked. Oh, the food! The pictures! The witty repartee! I want to cook it all.

Then I found the original. Ree sounds even more fun here than when cooking, and the story of how she met and fell in love with her husband, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, has me checking her page compulsively. Now I know how people in the 1800's felt while waiting for the next installment from Charles Dickens. Well, ok, not exactly. But now that Miss Doxie is posting very sporadically, this is my new favorite "voice." Enjoy!

3rd Grade Spelling

We're using this list, which I think has reasonable words. I like the way they're grouped, and that the choices are spelled out--ou or ow make the "ow" sound for this week.

Last year, I made an effort to make spelling interesting and fun. We'd do something different with her words every day: crossword puzzles, word searches, Scrabble tiles, secrete codes, etc.

Not this year. This year, I write the words on Monday and she has to copy them twice for handwriting practice. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, she writes them on the white board, and I help her if she has trouble. If she has a lot of trouble, she then copies them five times on a separate piece of paper. If she has a little trouble, it's only two or three times.

Spelling is easily her most difficult area. She really has a hard time with it. I don't know that this year's boring, repetitive approach is better--she's still barely getting a 7/10 average. It frustrates me a bit because I'm generally a pretty good speller. We'll see how the rest of the year goes.

Sewing

Sew, Mama, Sew Handmade Holidays-- 30 Days of Gifts to Sew!

Can you imagine how excited I was about this? Incredibly excited. Most of the tutorials haven't been earth-shattering (though I still want to try making some totes), but some of them could prove very useful.

One of the links took me to a tut about making a kid's belt out of fabric & a couple D-rings. Some of you might know that I have some skinny girls here, who constantly complain about the droopiness of their drawers. It appears to be very quick and easy; I'll post results once I get to it.

Geography--United States

For Geography, we're slowly making our way through the United States.

For each state, we read one of the alphabet series (M is for Mitten, L is for Last Frontier, G is for Grand Canyon). I also like the Welcome to the USA series, Portraits of the States, and Rookie Read About Geography. The Rookie series is a pretty easy level for Sarah; I like mixing it up a little, and a lot of the other books are considerably more difficult. We also used the Enchanted Learning site regularly.

I'm also trying to get as much fiction that relates to the state as I can. I came across a list from Scholastic last year, of books that "go with" each state, broken down by grades. It was a great find, but some of the books leave something to be desired. See the Yak Yak is a fun book, but I don't see what it has to do with Alabama. So I'm adding to the list as I go. Last week, for Pennsylvania, it was Shoo-Fly Girl by Lois Lensky. We're almost done with it. With longer chapter books like that, I'll usually read her a chapter at night, and then she'll go and read some more before she goes to sleep. I got Brighty of the Grand Canyon for Arizona this week, and that is a long book! We'll be doing Oklahoma next week, and I doubt we'll be done with Brighty by then, so we'll skip a long book for that one. I try to get more short/picture books that she can read to Lauren.

For each state, she

1. fills in a blank map, and draws the flag, describing it a little.
   
2. does a spider graph with basic information: capital city, climate, resources, landmarks, etc.
   
3. answers ten questions that came from the non-fiction books we've used. She's allowed to look at the books for the answers.
   

After we've done some more writing practice, we'll start including a paragraph for each one as well.

Last week, we also tied Home Ec into Pennsylvania. I found Amish Cooking for Kids, so we made a couple of recipes. We did have some limitations, though. The oven is still unreliable, so that let out making bread. There were several other recipes that called for using the microwave--not so Amish, methinks. We ended up making Vanilla Pudding on the stove. It tasted ok, but sadly, was not as smooth as it should have been.

I'm going to start making extra credit available as well. I borrowed a book called Geography Challenge, which has 190 questions. I've copied about 45 of them so far, and am going to print them on little slips of paper, then put them all in a container. She can pull one out and try to figure out the answer. Some of the questions require map work, but others will let her try some internet research skills.

It's a rather superficial study (just sounds really complicated), but I think it's fine for this year.

History--Ancient Rome

I was only going to give Ancient Rome a month, then move on to other ancient cultures before the end of the year, but I found a really good resource from the BBC. It's a little heavy on the "Rome in England" end, not surprisingly. I'd rather it have a little more about Roman life, and Julius Caesar (rather than so much about Hadrian's Wall and Boudicca), but it has a lot of materials for us to work with, and I think it'll do just fine. Actually, I was relieved to find something that had so much of the work already done.

If we do History twice a week, we'll be done with this unit in about two months. In addition to that site, I have a bunch of books from the library. The one I like best for this is My Best Book of Ancient Rome. For fiction, we'll read Galen: My life in Imperial Rome. We already read The Roman Twins, which was cute (and tied in nicely with our Poetry unit, since it's written in couplets). I also found a cool Construct an Aqueduct site. I'd like to try some recipes, but I don't know that they're feasible. As a final activity, we'll do a Venn diagram comparing life then and now, and a time line--that'll probably be the hardest part.

Changing a Tradition

For the past few years, I've been making photo albums as Christmas gifts. They started small, and have gradually grown. This year's album looks like it might have 29 pages in it (I might edit). I make them for our parents and grandparents, as well as one to keep for myself. In the past, the digital albums have been in addition to traditional scrapbooks. Lately, I've had less and less interest in traditional scrapping. The digital version is simply more appealing to me, and I've pretty much decided that I'll be doing that exclusively.

The only problem with the digital albums (other than not being able to incorporate actual physical objects, but I can deal with that), is that, in order to have them back by Christmas, I have to submit them by the middle of November. That means that Christmas photos have no place to go. I've always intended to do a "Christmas over the years" album (even when I was doing the hard copy scrapping, I kept Christmas separate), but it's not really the same.

So this year, I've decided that I'm going to go back to a "Year's Highlights" format for the gift albums, and I'm going to wait until January to submit my own album. That way, I'll be able to include all the end-of-year activities. This is going to be more expensive; in addition to not getting the discount for buying in bulk, my personal album is going to have a lot more pages (I'm predicting close to 40 for this year). Don't care!

To Grade or Not to Grade

This year, Sarah got a progress report, her first one. I started keeping track of her stuff fairly recently, but now the whole grades thing has really taken off. I've been keeping track of certain things for a long time: her Book Adventure points last year, her Math Magician scores practically since we started. But for the other stuff, I didn't assign grade values.

In some ways, homeschooling can be anti-grades. True understanding of the work is more important than a grade, right? Well, yeah, of course. That's true in any situation. But grading has had a few effects.

1. It's made me more accountable. I'm keeping better track of what we're doing, and I'm forcing myself to come up with concrete, objective, "grade-able" assignments.
   
2. Sarah seems more invested in how she's doing. Time will tell if that continues.
3. It's giving me a new place to go crazy with Excel. Seriously, I love setting up the formulas and formats so that all I have to do is plug in the numbers, and I get instant results.
   

I don't think every family needs to use grades, be they letter or number. In fact, they're kind of a crutch for me. Like the schedule I use that some of my homeschool friends really admire. Ha--I use that because I have to. If I didn't, nothing would get done.

As for Chicago, I love Chicago. Jeff suggested it early on, and I jumped on it. Then he reminded me that it will be cold there in late December/early January; I hate the cold. That makes Chicago a lot less appealing. It's still a possibility, but a slim one.

Suggestions?

Our tenth anniversary is coming up, and we'd like to do something special outside of our usual "dinner and a movie." We want to go some place for the weekend. We want to be able to drive for a day or less. Actually, the top contender right now is the Great Bear Lodge. It's reasonably close, and it's self-contained, so we wouldn't have to go out in the cold. There aren't any other "sights," though, and it would be fun to go someplace new. We've thought about Nashville or Kansas City, but I have no idea what there is to do in those places.

Any suggestions?

Story Time

Lauren is still young enough for Story Time at the library, but not for too much longer. I'm going to be sorry when that's over, because she really likes it. A few weeks ago, we started Story Time here at home, too. For about half an hour before lunch, Sarah reads out loud to Lauren. We have a bin of books from the library, and they choose from those. Sarah gets practice reading out loud, and they both really enjoy it. Sometimes they surprise me--in the second week, I had the adventures of Hercules for Sarah, but Lauren ended up requesting it pretty frequently.

Story Time also has historic precedent. When I was a kid, my brother was diagnosed as "hyperactive." My parents decided to forgo the Ritalin and do some other things instead. I vaguely remember some dietary changes (a different milk), and half an hour before bed every night, we would have Quiet Time. I'd get to do funny voices for the different characters, and he'd mellow out before it was time to sleep. It was a great bonding experience. When I found one of our favorites at a garage sale a few years ago (The Monster at the End of This Book, with lovable furry old Grover), the rush of memory that came flooding back was amazing. Those are the kind of memories I hope my kids will have.

I just got a poster for "100 Picture Books to Read in Kindergarten," along with stickers so that you can mark off the title when you're done with it. That'll give us fodder for quite a while! I'm so glad that I can reserve and renew books on-line. I love letting the librarians do most of the work for me! Sometimes it's a little embarrassing when I have over 15 books to pick up, though!

Lauren's current favorite is Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse--it came with an audio CD, and she is in heaven. I really need to start making more use of that medium.

Homeschooling: This Year

I really like The Well Trained Mind's attitude toward homeschooling. The general idea is to delve very deeply into subjects--really take your time with them and be thorough. Another concept is that History is the framework for most other learning, including Geography, Literature, and Science. They also advocate a cyclical pattern.

• First grade covers "the ancients" (science is about things the ancients could see: animals, plants, and the human body)
  
• Second grade is medieval/Renaissance (science is the earth and sky observations--thank you, Copernicus!)
  
• Third is 1600 - 1850 (time for basic chemistry: atoms, molecules, elements)
  
• Fourth is modern times (beginning physics)

The idea is that "these divisions correspond to the child's growing ability to think abstractly." The cyclic part is that when you get to fifth grade, you go back to the ancients, but start dealing with it more in depth, as better fits the child's capabilities.

I like this book and its ideas a lot. They make sense to me. I haven't followed them exactly, though. I've used it more as inspiration. For one thing, Sarah's already in third grade. I don't want to start in the middle, so I'm compressing things a bit. We did Greeks last month, Romans this month. Next month we'll cruise on toward the medieval period, and in the spring we'll get to the "correct" time period. This has an added benefit for Lauren. She'll be starting the ancients next year (and we will take the whole year to do it), but she already has some background, thanks to Sarah. Also, it'll be good review for Sarah next year.

I am using the Usborne Book of World History quite a bit. So far, I keep getting it from the library, but I really need to break down and buy it. I'm also trying to get lots of literature from those time periods.

We are doing different things for Geography and Science, but that's for another post.

A Typical Occurence

In which Lauren acts out of turn, but gets rewarded for it anyway. This is from a page that's going into the Christmas album, with a few edits.

We went to the symphony last week, and the conductor did an amazing job really engaging the audience. Little did we know that he would engage Lauren most of all!

He was talking to us about each piece, how the composer was creating imagery with the music, such as “Waltzing Cat,” and “Painted Desert.” After one rollicking piece, he asked some of the high schoolers what they thought the characters in that piece were doing. None of them had much of an answer, so Lauren yelled out, “Riding a horse!” He looked around and asked who had said that. He got her name and age, then teased the older kids that they had been “owned by a five-year-old.” Then he came back over and asked Lauren if she would marry him. She just smiled while everyone laughed. Later, he asked her about another piece, which she said made her think of God.

After the performance, he said, “I want three things: I want everyone to wait to be escorted out by an usher, I want to meet Lauren, and I want a big hand for our world class symphony!” After a big round of applause, we waited a little bit, and he did indeed come out to talk with all of us, which really made our day. We’re definitely looking forward to making the symphony a regular excursion!

So here's the thing. When I originally wrote this all down, I thought that Lauren had raised her hand and waited for him to notice her and call on her. Why I thought that, I'll never know, because Lauren is apparently incapable of waiting for much of anything, much less to be noticed. So while other kids were waiting, doing the right thing, Lauren did what you're always told not to do. And got to be the belle of the ball. I wonder if she were in public school, if she'd learn to restrain herself better. I really should ask her co-op teachers how that aspect of things goes, but I think I know the answer already. I do realize that she's only five, and I don't want to stifle that exuberance and enthusiasm, but I would like her to have better manners.

Obligatory Halloween Picture

That's Daphne (although she usually said "Daph-a-ne," which sounded like "Stephanie," so it was a little confusing at times), and the biker chick. The daylight savings threw me for a minute ("Isn't it usually darker when we go out?"), but I liked being able to see them for the first hour or so.

That didn't take long.

When Sarah had her first loose tooth, I swear it took weeks for it to come out. Lauren pulled hers out tonight while I was at work. Jeff said that the thought of the money the tooth fairy would bring her was very motivating!

Fun

you are lightskyblue #87CEFA

Your dominant hues are cyan and blue. You like people and enjoy making friends. You're conservative and like to make sure things make sense before you step into them, especially in relationships. You are curious but respected for your opinions by people who you sometimes wouldn't even suspect. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Oh, Cruel Fate!

Guess who lost a tooth this morning? Hint: not Lauren.

Patience

Lauren has her first loose tooth, and it's so hard for her to understand that although she'll lose it soon, she probably won't lose it today. Actually, both the front bottom ones are loose, but the one on the left is really on its way.

Sniff.

Fun at the Park

Love those sound effects!

And no, that isn't me pushing them.

What I'm Reading

One of the other moms at dance recommended My Sister's Keeper, so I got it from the library and started it yesterday. Holy crap, what a tear-fest. It's good so far, but really, I don't have time right now to spend half the day sobbing. And since I heard the ending is an even bigger heartbreak, I think it might go back to the library unfinished. Maybe not, because I do think it's a good book.

So instead I'm going to pick up Microtrends, which I heard about on NPR and sounds really interesting.

I also reserved The Other Boleyn Girl. I don't know where I heard about that, but I tend to like chick historical fiction, so I'm looking forward to that.

Of course, I also have a huge stack of school books, but those aren't "fun." I do plan to do a lot of school-related blogging next month, though.

Follow that pumpkin

According to the general plan I had going, we weren't going to cover physics at all until the spring, but yesterday at the pumpkin patch, while rolling pumpkins down the hill, we started talking about inertia. Here's a nice starter site for dealing with Newton's three laws of motion.

Newton's Three Laws of Motion

New Fall Shows

I've succumbed to the lure of a fair bit of new fall programming. I've managed to avoid Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Kid Nation, and Journeyman, but there are 4 or 5 new shows that I'm recording. None of them have the obsession of first-season Lost, but some of them are fun.

First, Chuck and Reaper. They have similar plot lines--slacker guy gets in over his head with a new job that he can't tell anyone about, there's a cute wannabe girlfriend, and an annoying sidekick--but so far, I like Chuck better. First, I think the character of Chuck is nicer than Sam, who whines a lot. Also, the actor playing Chuck is cuter (that has nothing at all to do with my husband having dark, mildly curly hair, and working on computers all day, either!). I laughed harder than anything else this week when one of the characters got trapped in a cage, and they started playing the opera music from Shawshank Redemption. Gorgeous. Although Ray Wise really works as the Devil, I like Adam Baldwin better as a semi-antagonist.

Pushing Daisies. I like it, but it's really verging on twee for me. It's very cute, very clever, and very aware of that. Certainly unique, but we'll see how it holds up.

Bionic Woman. If I had to give up one new show, this would probably be it. It takes itself pretty seriously, and doesn't have the fun of, say, Alias (which I sadly didn't discover until it was almost over).

I'm also watching the final episodes of Queer Eye, which is still fun, but not as fun as it was when it first came out. I'm really looking forward to November 14--Season 4 of Project Runway!

Hello, Mother Nature?

Michigan calling here. We'd like October back, please.

Remember October? It's the best month here. A month of chilly nights, and days that are made for sweaters. A month of going to the apple orchard, picking the perfect pumpkin, and getting great fall color on film.

It is NOT a month to go swimming, so last week's 90 degree temps were rather uncalled for. Our church had a soup lunch for www.bread.org, and while everything was tasty, the air conditioning was a little incongruous.

According to the weather channel, you're only giving us one nice day this week--tomorrow. After that, the temps are going to be in the high 50's. None of the previously mentioned activities are as much fun if you have to do them in a parka. True, it will probably warm up again, but the leaves will probably be gone by then, the apples will be iffy, and my Dad insists that THIS is the week to get a pumpkin (we always go with him), even though Halloween is still three weeks away.

So, Mother Nature, how about it? Can we get back to a regular old glorious October? Please?

Homeschool Holes

Apparently, there are some things home schooled kids are less likely to learn. My stepsister has recently put her kids back in public school, after homeschooling for about five years.

The first week, she realized that her kids haven't learned how to keep track of their assignments and homework. Last week, she realized that her kids (or at least one) didn't know that you can't "help" someone else during a test. Oops.

Hearing about this is interesting to me, and makes me think about whether my own kids would also have these issues. I asked Sarah if you could help someone during a test, and she dismissively told me that of course you couldn't. As for the keeping track of assignments, I'm sure that would prove difficult at the public school level, although she does have some co-op assignments to keep track of.

She's also discovered how much homework her kids have, which makes me wonder if we do enough sheer volume of work.

HomeTeam

Today was our second homeschool co-op day, and it went pretty well. I was overwhelmed again, but not nearly as overwhelmed as before.

Lauren was in Arts & Crafts, but when it got merged with Bible Stories, we switched her to Gym. She gets Story Time at the library, and Bible Stories at church, and it's good for her to be able to run around in a directed way, so it's a good switch.

The Yearbook is still a behemoth, but at least now I can see what most of it looks like. I had no idea when I said I'd do it that I'd be in charge of the Pizza lunch fundraiser, and getting class picture day set up in addition to doing the actual book itself. Luckily, the woman who did the class last year is still around, and still does most of the pizza stuff, and is good for lots of ideas. We have lots of ideas for other fundraisers, and hopefully the final cost of the yearbooks will be small.

I'm still trying to figure out how we'll be able to do layouts, since we don't have access to the computer ourselves. We can do hard copy layouts, but then we'd have to have prints of all the pictures, which would be kind of a waste. Still working on that. At least now I have a plan and a goal, though, so I feel a lot better about it.

Aw!

Better Perspective

I need to not blog about stuff the same day it happens. I'm a lot more sanguine about yesterday this morning. Apparently, I need to be kicked out of my comfort zone harder than I realized in order to make something new happen. Will post progress later!

Groan

I had lots of different things I wanted to blog about: our new school schedule, my enormous Yearbook task for the co-op, an article I read about "haves and have-nots," a super cool article & website about hypercars, and whether Kwame Kilpatrick or Jenny and the Lansing Losers is a bigger black eye to Michigan right now.

Instead, I'm going to be miserable & panicky because one of my ESL students, the one who got me the most hours per month, has told my company that it's not working out and she (apparently) wants another tutor. I hate rejection, even for something like this.

The worst part is that I feel surprised, but not surprised. I knew she wanted more formal, grammar-based, more challenging lessons, but I thought she was happy with the more relaxed focus we had going. We'd been reading a book, "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office," and going over terms & concepts she didn't get. We'd also been going through a grammar book and a book of business slang, but she didn't seem as interested in those. We also spent a lot of time in conversation, which I thought was helpful (my other ESL student and I do the same thing, but now I'm starting to second guess that as well), but I guess was not as professional.

So that's about twelve hours a month for the rest of the year that I've lost, and it really sucks.

Back in the Groove

Or hopefully, finding the groove. I've had a lot of trouble getting us into a school routine this month. I need a regular routine--without one, not much gets done. Part of this is because I'm approaching things differently. I'm basing a lot of what we do is from The Well Trained Mind. I realized over the weekend that I was using that as a textbook instead of a guideline. I don't have to do everything exactly as they say. So this week, I'm planning to find my groove.

Last week, my mom & stepdad stayed with us, which was nice, even though that also contributed to the lack of routine.

We also had a busy weekend. I went over to Canada for the burial of my grandparents' ashes--the bagpipes post.

Saturday, my stepbrother & sister-in-law had their annual fall party. There were easily a hundred people there, and he went all out for the kids. In addition to the pinata, one of his cousins brought her two horses and gave the kids rides, he rented a bounce house, and once it got dark enough, he projected a movie on a canvas hung on the side of the barn/shed. We didn't get home until 10 (didn't stay for the whole movie), and we were all dragging.

Sunday, we drove out to see my great aunt (she invited us to dinner after the funeral). It was nice to see her, but she is so typical Old Country (even though I think she was born in Canada). "Eat, eat! You eat like a bird." This to my stepdad, who was really polite.

I'll post about the co-op stuff tomorrow (it's not bad, but typically overwhelming).

Wrenching

What is it about bagpipes that cuts right through to your soul?

My grandparents' ashes were interred today, and my aunts found a piper (my great grandfather was from Scotland, and great grandmother was of Irish heritage). It was a nice touch, though it's impossible for me to tell if he was any good or not.

Tired now; been a long week. Will write/gripe about the homeschool co-op later.

So. Frustrated.

When I checked Quicken this morning, our mortgage payment had cleared. But the amount was over a hundred dollars more than usual. Huh? I asked Jeff, and after a moment of looking perplexed, he realized that it's probably homeowner's insurance.

Yes, we have homeowner's insurance through a separate company. The mortgage company has repeatedly asked for proof of this, and I've repeatedly asked the insurance company to provide it. They've repeatedly said that they've done so. I'm thinking it hasn't happened.

So now I get to call the mortgage company to see if this is the case, then call the insurance company to get the damn proof myself and mail or fax it, since they obviously never will, then try to get our money refunded from the mortgage company.

I also have to find out if I have a class tonight, since no one has gotten back to me on that.

I'd also like to make an appointment for a haircut, since I haven't had one since January and now officially hate my hair enough to be willing for them to shave it all off, if need be.

I was planning on leaving the house by 9 so that we can go visit my Dad and have one last day on the boat, too. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I seriously want to scream at the insurance company. How hard is it to provide proof of insurance to a company that asks for it? Isn't that part of the job description?

(feel like I'm about to cry from frustration)

Does this work?

Yes!!! FTR, that's me at the end, yelling, "Swim!"

Now I'm Really in Trouble

I know what I want to do. The job/money thing. I know what I want, and that is a terrible thing, because now I really need to act on it. That will require work, effort. It will not fall into my lap like a ripe plum. It's also going to take time, and may never pay off. But this is it. This is my thing, and I can't believe I didn't come up with it earlier, when I was kicking around other ideas (Etsy store, Ebay, making Photo Books for people). The German classes, I'm still going to move forward with, because that is relatively easy, I do have (hopefully) something of a market for it, and it can move fairly quickly once I get rolling.

I had my dreadful epiphany Monday morning, while looking through this WHAM-IT! document. (I still haven't finished reading the whole thing, such as the part about actually getting traffic to your site, but I'm still a little overwhelmed by all of it.) I was thinking about what kind of content I could put on a site that would draw people in. What do I know; what am I good at? Well, last November I did a fair bit of blogging about homeschooling, and that seemed to interest a few people, even those that don't home school their own kids. Hey, we all want extra ways to enhance the kids' learning, right?

I also remembered a conversation I had with a homeschooling friend on the way home from a co-op meeting (we joined a co-op, and although the drive will suck, I think the experience is going to be fun). She said that she loved looking at my lesson plans--she's a lot more relaxed about schedules and such. I told her that my schedule was my crutch: without it, nothing would get done. But I do like lesson planning, and even writing materials. Well, mostly. Sometimes I am hugely relieved to get lesson plans that are complete with little to no extra input from me. Since I don't buy a pre-made curriculum, I put the bits and pieces together myself. Generally, I like that flexibility, but sometimes, it's a lot of work.

When I was in college, one of my jobs (my best job ever, in fact) was working at a private reading clinic. One of my jobs was to write new content for the students to work from. I loved it. I loved planning it, writing it, creating the attendant worksheets, etc. We had big dreams of publishing our materials, although that never came to fruition.

But now. The world is a different place now. I can write and publish my own materials online. I've seen other unit studies available, though I've never bought them (I'm way too cheap). This is something that has enormous potential. It is also a potentially huge amount of work. Of course, it doesn't all have to be done right away. It's the sort of thing I can build slowly and accumulate over time. I'm nervous about it, because it means putting myself "out there," and taking a risk. Like I said, it's also going to be effort, and my plate is pretty full already. But I can't help it. This is my thing.

I'm going to make it happen.

Good News/Bad News

Sometimes, it's the same news. In spite of keeping me quite busy last spring, my computer classes have dried up recently. I was hoping that they'd pick back up again next month. When I talked to my friend at the office yesterday (she'd been in training all week and couldn't call me back sooner), she told me that she'd gotten a phone call from the owner. When she paused, I knew it was bad news. They're planning to sell all the equipment. Essentially, they'll no longer be in the computer class business. This is no big surprise to me--they haven't been actively advertising classes in quite some time, and have let things slide a lot. They're taking their time and resources in a different direction, so I knew this was possible.

So the bad news is that my income potential has now been razored. I'm not devastated by this, though--note I said income potential. Classes from them have always been somewhat spotty & unreliable.

As it stands now, I have a couple ongoing classes I think I can count on for about four to six hours a week (a pre-existing computer class that I hope will continue, and a couple ESL students). That isn't enough, though. I've been thinking about selling last year's dance costumes on Ebay, and maybe starting an Etsy store to use up some of my fabric stash ideas (taggie blankets, tooth fairy pillows). It's also hopefully the kick in the ass I need in order to really get German classes going. My goal is to get something posted somewhere for an 8 week session starting October 2nd. Any amount will be a big help, but my goal is to get at least eight students, distributed over three classes.

I've complained a lot about my computer class company. I've gotten frustrated enough to want to leave, and looked at other options more than once. But I never did anything concrete, because it was too easy, too convenient, to stay. Now, I don't have a choice, and I'm hoping this ends up being good news instead of bad.

Jinkies, an imposter!

I know it's only August, but my kids are already talking about their Halloween costumes. I still can't get them to go for the mermaids, sigh. Sarah has wanted a Chinese costume ever since she saw the kimono & cheongsam dresses at an import store at the mall. She says that she'd rather have a jacket and pants than either of those, though. I could buy her something for about $30, and they have the tai chi slippers, as well. I'll have to price out brocade to see if I could do it for cheaper, and it would be easy to do.

Lauren, who has been in love with all things Scooby Do this year, decided she wanted to be Daphne. (I didn't help matters by taping the Scooby marathon from a few weeks ago. We finally got through the last one yesterday.) I know Daphne costumes are available, so I checked them out on line.

This? This is Daphne? I don't think so. Daphne's dress had sleeves, for one thing. She didn't wear go-go boots, either. Her dress was dark purple, with lavender bands at the cuffs, dropped waist, and hem. Her scarf was a big poufy thing, not some skinny band that went down to her hem. The hair is the only thing they got right. Luckily, a true Daphne costume will be pretty easy to make, especially if I do a skirt & top instead of a dress. The hardest part is going to be choosing the fabric. Fleece would be easy, but too hot for the indoor party, I think. Knit is probably the best way to go, even though it still intimidates me a bit.

More Pool Progress

At the pool last week, Lauren started swimming underwater. Not deep, but with her face submerged for several seconds. That was big progress for her. She's been "swimming" in the shallow in for a few weeks, but it's hard to tell how often she puts her feet down.

This week, we had some other friends over (cousins are on vacation), and the middle child is a girl two months younger than Lauren, although she seems more mature to me. Anyway, she was swimming like a fish in the deep end, which surprised me a little.

So I had Lauren stand on the "deep" side of the rope (there's still enough of the shallow end for her to stand) to see if she could swim to me a few feet away, and she did it easily! I moved farther back, and she still could. Eventually, she swam all the way to the diving board! It still makes my toes curl a little to think of her doing it, and her dog paddling isn't the most graceful thing I've ever seen, but she did it! She also did a lot of jumping off the edge and swimming parallel to the rope, which I was better with, because I could touch bottom and knew I could grab her if need be. I never did, though.

Now I have to work up the courage to let her go off the diving board without a ring. Really not sure about that one, though.

The Search is Over

Remember the search for a bed for Lauren? The saga continued, on and on. For a while, I decided that we would use the headboard from the day bed, until I realized that the cost of a full size mattress & box spring is a lot more than a twin size. It also takes up a lot more space in a fairly small room.

So I went back to looking at twin beds. We'd already been to the store where my Dad used to work, and spent at least an hour looking at kid's beds there, before deciding they were just too much money. We looked online, and Saturday decided to go down to a local store. The only option that was remotely within the budget wasn't appealing at all. Just didn't look well made. So we went to the store where my Dad used to work. Very limited selection, and higher prices (although by that time I was willing to finance part of it), but I didn't like the quality. We finally realized that we had to go full circle, back to the first store.

Again, we spent a lot of time looking, but in the end it came down to the one we originally liked. When we asked Lauren if she liked it (they'd been playing in the "Kid's Castle" before--fabulous concept!!!) and she immediately fixated on the pillows & comforter, for all our telling her that she'd have different sheets, etc. Went right over her head, of course.

We ended up paying about $250 then, and will pay the other $300 over the next three months. I can live with that. The mattress was out of stock, so it should be delivered sometime this week.

Now comes the hardest part: making room. I have to clean off and get rid of the treadmill in our room, then I can bring in the hope chest from Lauren's room. Doing that will also give me room for a TV stand, where I can keep all my sewing stuff. It'll be a much better result in the end, but a pain to accomplish.

Dance Decisions

It's almost that time of year again. Time to sign up for extra curricular activities. Those fun things that not only eat into our budget, but also our time. Brownies (and this year, maybe Daisies), dance, music, sports, and various other potential classes that I'd love to over schedule my kids with.

My big decision right now is dance. The girls have been in dance through our Rec Center for two years now. If they make it to five years, they get a nice little trophy. We love the teacher, and the cost is very good: $160 per kid for September through June. Our other choice is through the local homeschool group: $75 per kid for September through November. The Rec Center is cheaper per hour, but the HS group doesn't have the associated costs: t-shirts, costumes, recital tickets, pictures, video. It easily comes to another $150 - $200. I think the HS group does some little demo of their dance at the end of the class, but no big recital.

Don't get me wrong, I like the recital. It's cute as all get out, and seeing what the other classes have done is fun. I like getting t-shirts for the girls as mementos, and the costumes are reasonably priced. But it does all add up.

Also, the Rec Center doesn't offer Irish Step dancing, which I think the girls would really like. The HS group does, and the class is ages 4 - 10, so both girls would be in the same class. One class means one day of driving instead of two. It's a considerably farther drive, though--at least half an hour, compared to less than ten minutes for the Rec Center.

I'd like to stay at the Rec Center, but feel like the HS group is the smarter choice. I think I went through this whole thing last year as well, now that I think of it. :/

Totally worth the $

I don't think I raved enough about the Aquapac enough last time. I'm a complete convert. It's going to be so hard to pick pictures for this year's album . . .

As Time Goes By

2005

2006

2007

Vacation Bible School

This is my third year at VBS; the first year, I was a crew leader. Too much "sit down on the floor, stand up to dance, sit down for a craft, get up to go to another station, etc."

Last year, I did the video station, which featured a goofy chipmunk. That was ok, but this year, I offered to take pictures and put them in an album. As it turns out, there is even a specific photographer's job this year! Not to take pictures for an album, but to take posed pictures in the morning that relate to the Bible Story and drop them into a Power Point presentation to see at the end of the day.

Either of these jobs would be fine. Both of them together are a pain. I'm hoping that tomorrow, I'll be able to get more of the pictures I need early, before the regular stuff starts. It's fun, but I'm tired.

No Meatballs For You!

The crib we got before Sarah was born converted to a day bed, then to the headboard of (I thought) a twin sized bed. I realized a few months ago that there's no way that was the width of a twin--it was easily a full, and when I measure it, I was right. Lauren really doesn't fit in it anymore, and we told her she'd get a new bed this summer. We could just get a full sized frame & mattress, but then I'd have to get new bedding to go with it, and I'd need to keep her linens distinct from Sarah's, and everyone knows I'm way too lazy for that.

My Dad (who worked in a furniture store for most of my life) suggested we check out IKEA. We got an IKEA store here last year, to great fanfare and madness, but I hadn't had a chance to check it out. Also, when I looked on their website, I saw a bed I knew Lauren would go crazy for.

It's got that loft/bunk bed feel, but it's not as high as one of those. The tent would just be gilding the lily, and she'd probably never leave her room. Sadly, they didn't have it at our local store, and you can't order it online, but we went to check out the store itself anyway.

We dropped the kids off in the play area (Sarah is just shy of being too tall), and started to look around. We saw some kid's beds that looked like they had potential, but then I noticed the size. When I asked, the sales person told me that it was "European Youth" size. Um, yeah. That's not going to work. (I think the bed above is a standard twin size, but I'm not positive) Then we went to look at other beds, that came in the size we wanted. We found a couple things that would work, but come on--it's IKEA. It's all very plain. I could get some boards and cinder blocks and make something comparable. I think that's fine if you choose that style as an adult, but I know Lauren would like something a little "more." Not necessarily frilly, but not just a plain box. So the search continues.

As for the famous meatballs, we glanced over at the cafeteria, but didn't stop to get anything. Also, I could drag Jeff through housewares to save my life. I'm going to have to go back sometime (maybe I'll take my mom when she comes for her September visit) and have a good long browse.

I forgot how much I like steak

I have a freezer full of meat. My stepsister and I split a quarter of a cow from a guy my stepbrother gets meat from. He gets a lot more meat than we did, although he has to feed a lot more people--he has an assisted living facility, and his mom & grandparents live right next door. He'd mentioned it before, but I balked at the price. $400 for meat at one shot? That's hard to budget. But when my sis offered to split it, I decided to try it out.

So last weekend, we took three coolers up to his house (only needed two), and brought home 46 pounds of meat--boneless--26 pounds of it very lean ground beef. Seriously, when I made Sloppy Joes the other day, I had to add a couple pieces of bacon!

There are a couple of roasts, and quite a few steaks. I rarely buy steaks. When we grilled a couple of strip steaks last night, and I couldn't believe how good they were. It was cooked exactly the way I like it, although I think it might have been a little rare for Jeff. Lauren ate it up (gave her mostly from the outer edges, so cooked more), and Sarah had some tilapia, which she likes. There's only one strip steak left, but that means that I'll make a chicken dinner for me and the girls, and Jeff can have the steak. For me, that will be a treat in and of itself. I just have to try and remember some good chicken recipes!

I still need to go and price out steaks/roasts to see how much I would have spent if I'd bought them individually, but it's diffucult. Do I check the sale price at the mega mart, or the regular price at a butcher shop? I'm pretty sure that a $4.80 price per pound average is pretty good, especially when you consider that the ground beef is so lean, but I'd like some more specific numbers.

Results

Today, Purple Heart gets three bags of kids' clothes, one bag of adult clothes, one box of books, one box of toys, and a computer monitor that may or may not be working. It's not much, and it hasn't made a dent in the basement, but it's a start. The three biggest things right now are organizing my sewing stuff, organizing the kids' clothes, and throwing lots of stuff away.

Sarah had a hard time getting rid of stuff--she snuck a few things out of the toy box, and when I told her she had to replace it with an equal volume (she tried putting a tiny toy back in place of a big one--no luck, sister!), she ended up putting at least one of the toys that I'd originally had in there back.

New Toy

Last year, I tried putting my camera in a zip lock bag in order to protect it in the pool. Didn't work so well! I also got a disposable underwater camera, but was very disappointed with the results. When I saw the Aquapac, I thought it might be a good solution. I ordered it a week ago, and when it arrived Friday, I was really excited. I finally got to give it a test run today.

Overall, I'm glad I got it. Definitely worth the $35. However, it's not perfect. Getting good underwater pictures is incredibly difficult, although that isn't because of the bag, really. You can't really look through the viewfinder, so it's hard to see if your subject is in the frame. I got at least 5 pictures of Sarah's body--no head. And even if you do get the subject reasonably centered, chances are good it will look distorted.
If I only wanted to be able to get underwater pictures, I'd be somewhat disappointed. But the other aspect to taking the camera in the pool is that I can get closer to the kids, and get different angles. Last year, I was really limited by being on the sides, even with the zoom.
I could never have gotten this shot last year. I also got some close ups that I like.

It was almost impossible to see if I'd gotten a shot or not--the bag combined with the sunshine made it hard to see the LCD screen. Taking the camera in and out of the bag was a little unwieldy, but not too difficult. I did leave it open on the table for a while, because even though I had a bag of silica gel desiccant in there, I did get some condensation, which I was trying to avoid.

Overall, I'm glad I got it, and I'll keep using it at the pool. It's going to be hard to narrow down the swim pictures for this year's Christmas album!

Synchronicity

Last night, I got a call from Purple Heart. "We'll be out on x day, do you have anything to donate?" "Absolutely!"

Also last night, I watched the super-sized Clean House, "Messiest House in America." Holy moly, what a dump. Not one, not two, not three, but FIVE dumpsters. Yeah, it was a good sized house, but when you have more dumpsters than bedrooms (four), that's a problem.

My house is not nearly that bad, but it has inspired me to make my Purple Heart Goal:

• 1 box of books
• 2 boxes of toys
• 1 bag of kids' clothes
• 1 bag of adults' clothes

What would be really great is if I could throw out an equivalent amount of garbage.

The Happiness Budget

Whoever says money can't buy happiness doesn't know where to shop, right? Yeah, ha ha ha, the best things in life are free, etc.

For the most part, I'm quite the tightwad. Some of this is out of necessity, some of it is out of habit.

Yesterday, I went to a local farmer's market, with naught but $14 in my pocket (the amount left from what we gave Sarah to take to the water park with her Brownie troop last weekend). The first thing to catch my eye was a basil plant. I love basil, and try to grow it, but don't use it as much as I like. And since I seriously procrastinated on the garden, I hadn't been able to find any. I also got some red leaf lettuce, and small containers of blueberries and black raspberries. All for the low price of $11. I thought about getting some flowers, too, but the gladiolas were $4, and the bouquets I really liked were $5. "Next week!" I thought. While I was driving home, the smell of basil filled the car, and it made me so happy, I couldn't believe it. I've already added some of the bigger leaves to pasta & garlic, yum.

I realized that I like being able to splurge on things like fresh flowers. When I was doing my au pair thing, the mom always had fresh flowers in the house. She had a huge shelf devoted just to vases. I loved that. I rarely have fresh flowers around now, because most of the time, I find crappy bouquets or overpriced arrangements.

I'm going to set aside $10 or $15 a week to splurge on little things like that. I'm not going to include it in the grocery budget, and it's going to be for little things that I really like. Jeff gets $12/week for his lunch out with work buddies. I did have a twinge of, "Crap, that's almost $100 a month!" I try to have our budget down to the bone as much as possible, but I think that investing in happy little luxuries is worthwhile.

Not Overworked Anymore

I've been working very steadily since the middle of January. It hasn't been a lot--generally between eight and fourteen hours a week--but it's kept me busy. And the steady stream of paychecks has made our lives a lot easier. We've been able to get our savings account reasonably well built up, and haven't had to worry about our purchases too much.

For the first time in 23 weeks, I don't have any classed scheduled. I will have a one-day class in a few weeks, but there are no new packages set to start. (A package generally lasts five weeks, two days a week.) I'm going to have a lot more free time, but a lot less money. I knew this day was coming; in fact, I'm surprised it didn't come sooner. My job has never been steady, which is one of the things that frustrates me about it.

I'm going to feel obligated to get back to stuff that I've been putting off, using work as an excuse:

• the basement
• sewing projects
• making freezer jam from the sour cherries I've had in the freezer for almost a year now,
  
• getting the German class fully planned out (I've got lots of ideas, but haven't written out my objectives and lessons yet)

And of course I'm already getting concerned about money. I'm also starting to think about other avenues of revenue:

• photobooks for other people
  
• Ebay (Pley, I wish you were here to help me!)
• creating websites
  
• other classes I could teach
  

Reviews

I enjoyed this year's recital a lot more than last year's. Last year, by the last few acts, I just wanted to get done and get home. This year, I liked watching everything right up to the end.

I attribute this to two factors:

1. I sat in the audience, instead of volunteering to sit with the kids. Last year, I got to see most of the show, but not all of it, and I had to police kids.
2. I sat with Jeff, who stayed for the whole thing, instead of going home at intermission. I didn't worry about how he was feeling, or think about getting home ASAP.
   

The show itself was a lot of fun. Wide variety of music; Sarah looked like she was enjoying herself; Lauren stole her scene, if not the whole show; the finale, "Time Warp," was super cute. I'm glad I sprang for the video this time.

Shoe Shopping

I got a gift certificate for a shoe store last Christmas, and since I'm getting a pedicure tomorrow (also from a Christmas gift cert, and that's a story in and of itself), I decided I needed new shoes, something to show off pretty polish.

I happily went into a store the size of a warehouse and started walking the aisles. The hundreds of options dwindled rapidly.

Criteria #1: size 10. I'm tall, and I have feet to match.
Criteria #2: no or low heels--see above.
Criteria #3: summery, preferably sandals, to show off pedicure.
Criteria #4: casual, but still nice enough to wear to work or church
Criteria #5: Nothing that goes between my toes--no flip flop/thong styles.

Out of the whole store, I ended up finding about half a dozen that I could try on.

#5 was really killing me. At least three fourths of the cute, summery, moderately casual sandals were flip flop style. I hate feeling something between my toes. It's downright painful. All the other shoes that fit the size and style requirements were dreadfully plain. I actually considered one set of flip flops, just because they had some decoration. In the end, though, I couldn't. I couldn't get something that I knew would hurt and make me crazy. The ones I ended up getting are some plain slides--I shall have to get some very vibrant polish to make up for the lack of ornamentation.

Mean Mom

I feel for Sarah, honestly. She really is the only kid in the neighborhood who isn't allowed to ride her bike in the street. It's got to be frustrating and hard to keep up with everyone.

Today, while my Dad was babysitting, she rode home from a neighbor's, and tried telling him she wasn't in the street. "I was on the edge" of the street, and "I'm not a little kid, you know."

It would appear that she's also one of the few (if not the only one) who has to wear a helmet, although she doesn't seem to balk at that.

It is a quiet street, at least most of the time. That's not the point. It doesn't change anything.

I hate being Mean Mom.

Not that I'm Biased

Seriously, my kids knew their dance routines better than anyone else in their respective classes. True, Lauren is the oldest in her class, and the only one who took dance last year, which makes a big difference.

Walking

I've started walking again, although not yet regularly. I actually like to get up early, before everyone else, and go out while it's cool and quiet. If I'm by myself, I don't have to worry about one kid going too far ahead, and the other complaining about being "hot and sweaty and tired." I need better shoes, though.

Not What You Want to Hear

"You do seem kind of on edge." My mom said that to me yesterday, while in the course of discussing various things. Sadly, she's right. I am too busy, too stressed out.

I don't know what I can do to cut back (although I have trimmed my admittedly over-ambitious summer school plans--no piano right now, thanks!), but I am trying to not be so snappish with the kids. It breaks my heart a little when Sarah asks if I'm mad. I'm generally not, not really, but I can see why she might think so. That's not good for anyone, so I'm going to try to be a little less tense.

Walking in the mornings would probably help with this. I've only gone out a couple times so far, but if I dig my alarm clock out, I'd like to go more often.

Wish List

We went to my stepbrother's house on Memorial Day for a barbecue. It was a nice day, nice for the kids to be able to play together, etc. The high point was when they got out the dune buggy and took all the kids for rides (my stepsister drove). She didn't like the noise at first, but then we could hear her laughing like crazy, even over the noise of the engine. All the kids loved it, and all day Tuesday Lauren was telling me she wanted a buggy for her birthday.

That is, until we went to the end of the year Brownie party, and she saw their trampoline . . .

Bleep

We have a critter in the attic again. It's mostly in the area over and to the left of the computer, and every time I hear it, it makes me want to tear my hair out. I don't even remember what we did last time, but I remember that it involved repairing the roof vent.

Also, regarding the shower surround: it's gorgeous. Shiny, clean, awesome--it makes the rest of the bathroom look like crap. One tiny issue--he forgot the shower curtain rod. We probably won't get it until the weekend. Taking a shower with no curtain is interesting.

Or Maybe I'm a Masochist

Last night at Sarah's Brownie meeting, the co-leader mentioned that there was no one to lead a Daisy troop next year. Hm. Lauren will be ready for Daisies next year, though I wasn't thoroughly committed to signing her up. Extra time commitment, extra $, etc. So why did I say I would "consider" being the leader?

Obviously, I have a brain tumor. Or something.

I mentioned it to Jeff this morning and he just looked at me. "Don't bite off more than you can chew." I do tend to try to do too much. His next comment was, "What are you going to give up so you have time for this?" Give something up? Huh? How does that work?

So I'm still thinking about it. I'm also thinking about the garden, sewing, baking, this summer's school schedule, the grocery list, and a garage sale.

The Countdown's On!

Only five more days! Woo hoo!

On Sunday, we're having the new shower surround installed. Although it should look better and be easier to keep clean, the surround itself is not the cause for the celebration. In addition to installing the surround, they are also going to fix the pipes. The pipes that leak so badly that the bathtub faucet was a constant dripping stream. It was so bad that we generally leave the hot water to the bathroom turned off. When we want to take a shower or bath, someone has to go down to the basement and pull a lever to turn the water on. When finished, the lever has to be put back, so that we don't end up paying a ginormous water bill from the waste.

It is really pathetic, how excited I am that as of next week, all I'll have to do to take a shower is step in and turn a handle, without the pilgrimage to the basement. I'll post pictures!

I changed my mind

I want a rototiller for Mother's Day. Funny, Jeff laughed when I said that.

I got some Tiger Lilies from a freecycler this afternoon, and planted them about an hour ago. They only take up a row about six feet long or so, but I'm still beat. I would like to put a lot more plants and flowers around the house, though. Hence, the rototiller.

And the bunnies are back in force. Even a dog doesn't keep the bunnies out of the neighbor's yard, so how am I going to keep them out of ours?

Sad, I Know

Jeff asked me the other day what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. "Huh? Oh. It's May, really?" I couldn't come up with anything in particular I wanted to do (except maybe mini-golf, and that's just because I want pictures for the annual album), but while I was making dinner last night, I realized I really need a new can opener and vegetable peeler. Somehow, though, I don't think Mother's Day should celebrate culinary drudgery.

I also told him that even if I don't get this as a gift, I'll be getting it for myself sometime before it gets too hot. Last year, I alternately coveted a friend's underwater camera and tried putting my own camera in a zip loc bag. Neither had very good results. I'm really hoping this does the trick, and I'm willing to drop $30 to find out. Obviously, the quality of the picture depends mostly on the camera itself, but as long as the plastic is clear enough, I think it will do ok. I'll post results once I get them.

Drawing the Line

We have a neighbor girl (about a year older than Lauren and two years younger than Sarah) who frequently comes over to play with Sarah. She only plays with Lauren because she "has" to. To give her credit, sometimes she is nice and encouraging to Lauren, and Lauren has more than her share of the whines. But she's frequently bratty & manipulative. She threatens to go home, or not be friends any more, and pouts when she doesn't get her way.

I'm torn between how much involvement I should have. I'm a firm believer in letting kids work stuff out themselves, without a lot of "fixing" from parents. In spite of that, I tend to remind her (and sometimes the other kids who come over to play) that they have to play nicely. Heh, Jeff is more likely to just kick her out. He has a lot less patience for her.

Once it warms up this summer, I anticipate more activity over here. I got this yesterday:
I'm picturing myself, sitting on the back porch (with a book, probably) every time we have kids over, insisting that they play decently. I'm torn between letting them deal with it themselves or saying "No Brattiness Allowed." Do I want to be the neighborhood hard ass, the Enforcer? Yeah, I'm already on my way to that--last week, I had to say, "No back flips from the top of the fence, guys."

Time to dig

It looks like it's almost time to start digging. Digging in the garden, and digging out the summer clothes.

It's only 71 right now, and supposed to go back to a more April-ish 50's & 60's for the rest of the week, but I'm thinking spring. I'm thinking about planting tomatoes and green beans. I'm thinking about those denim skirts for the girls. I'm thinking about garage sales and going to the zoo. I'm thinking about walks after dinner. And I think I see a lot of trees putting out green leaves!

My Downfall

I am going to waste sooooo much time at these places.

The Newspaper Clipping Generator

The Movie Clapper Board Generator

Wanted Poster Generator

Dollar Bill, Hollywood Sign, many others

I am already planning to use the first one to write a "review" of the dance recital in a couple months, to put in the annual album.

Guess the Show

You know the drill--which shows are these, based on their IMDB keywords?

1. Sexual Tension/FBI/Conspiracy
2. Mountain/Medical/Surreal
3. Cooking/Food History/Science
4. Comedy/Mystery/Best Friends
5. Japanese/Cheerleader/New York City
6. Detective/Strong Woman/Quirky (I had to make these up--IMDB lists no keywords for this show!)
7. White Trash/Flashback/Mustache
8. Model/Judge/Fashion
9. Father Son Relationship/Survival/Beach
10. Backstage/Sketch Comedy/Spoof

Don Imus

I don't listen to Don Imus. I don't listen to Howard Stern. I listen to locals Drew & Mike about once a year, but only if the kids aren't in the car, and even then I usually only make it about five minutes before I can't roll my eyes at their idiocy any more and look for something else.

I admit it. I'm not edgy. I thought that comment betrayed what an asshole he was, but I'm pretty sure he made that apparent long ago.

If Imus had called a bunch of California women's basketball players "bleached-blonde hos," would there have been any comment?

While listening to the radio last night, I heard a commenter call this a "cash veto," which I thought was very apt. If people don't like what they hear or see, they can choose to not support it. Money goes away, support goes away.

New Dinner

I try to find new meals (particularly new things to make with ground beef or boneless pork chops), on a fairly regular basis. Last night, I saw African Safari Pilaf and decided to give it a try. It came out ok. The kids said they liked it, but then didn't really eat that much of it. Jeff & I thought it was ok, but I have to admit, it didn't look all that appetizing. With the peanut butter & curry powder, it looked a little . . . "sludgy." Anyway, it was different, but I doubt it will make it into the standard rotation here.

Now, what to make tonight . . .

Quote of the Day

Actually from Monday morning . . .

"Mom, I don't like peace and quiet."
- Sarah, said on the way to pick Lauren up from her solo sleepover at Gran'mama & Gran'papa's house on Sunday night.

Current Thoughts

. . . about the pool vs. swings.
Jeff's mom made a couple good comments yesterday. She said that she thought the novelty of swings in our own back yard would wear off fairly quickly. I could see that. She also mentioned that when they had a pool when Jeff & his brother were kids, she made it a rule that if kids came over to swim, a parent had to be with them, and stay in the yard while the kid was in the pool. I think that is a great rule, although I bet it would deter a lot of kids from coming over (or parents from letting their kids come over). Part of me would really like to have the backyard that is always full of kids. Part of me realizes that wouldn't necessarily be so idyllic.

. . . about sewing.
I heard that Hancock Fabrics is closing all their MI stores.
This is bad, because I won't have a fabric store nearby anymore.
This is good, because they'll be having big sales.
This is bad, because I neither need nor can afford to buy more fabric right now.

I currently have three sewing projects in the works: Christmas pajamas (yes, from Christmas '06, shut up), napkins, and ruffly jeans skirts (have to go back to Katie's tutorial for a refresher).

The Easter dresses turned out cute. I love patterns that only use 4 pieces. Next year, I'd like to do something with a chiffon overlay. I think I finally "get" putting in zippers.

I really need to sign up for that Serger class this summer.

Swings vs. Pool

Jeff & I have been talking about putting up a swingset for a couple years, but (like so many things) never got to it. This year, I'm trying to kick us into gear.

My Dad keeps telling us that we should get a quickset pool instead. Our neighbor has one, and the girls went over frequently last summer, but the parents supervise them from inside the house, and that doesn't cut it for me, so every time they went over, I went over unless I knew they would be outside with the kids. I was more concerned for Lauren, because Sarah can swim reasonably well, and she's tall enough to have her head and shoulders above the water. Lauren was barely tall enough to touch the bottom comfortably.

Anyway, my Dad tells us that a swingset will only get about 4 more years of use before Sarah gets too old to play on it, and that it costs easily twice as much. Related to that, my stepsister said that her oldest son, who will be 10 in August, has already started to lose interest in their swingset, and that she wishes they'd gotten something bigger.

My counterpoint is that a pool can only be used three months of the year. Also, you have to mess with chemicals & such. True, it would be a great way to cool off in the summer, but I don't think it's as practical.

At this point, I'm not even sure we'll put anything in the backyard. Any money we spend would probably be better spent on landscaping the front or something.

The View in My Backyard

When we first looked at this house, I loved that the back yard was like a private meadow. On all three sides, there were so many plants that you couldn't see the neighbors at all. Since then, the people behind us cut down all the scrub trees that had grown up along their side of the fence. The neighbors on our right pulled out all the overgrowth from their back yard as well (their entire yard was jungle). So then we could see to the street on one side, and to the pool & house behind us.

This week, the neighbors on the right had their huge oak tree taken down, as well as a few other, smaller trees along the fence. We had the same guys take down our dead ash as well, at a reasonable price. Then the neighbor on the left decided he wanted his oak down, too. They also took out all the lilacs along the back of the fence.

My back yard is going to get a lot more sun this summer. Jeff keeps telling me it's going to be great for the garden, but I know he's happiest that there are going to be so many fewer leaves to rake now. I'm going to miss the lilacs, but they'd gotten badly overgrown, and didn't bloom much anyway.

We're trying to decide if we want to put some kind of kid-themed contraption in the back yard, but I'll write about that tomorrow.

Of course, the real reason the view in my backyard is different right now is because there is SNOW in it.

Library Time

Sadly, Story Time is done for right now, so although we still go to the library every week, Lauren spends most of her time looking at the movies. Then, right before we leave, she grabs one of the mini Beatrix Potter books, insists on checking it out herself. She looks at it in the car on the way home, then ignores it.

Since I've discovered the joys of managing my library account online, and can place holds on books from my computer, I usually have at least 15 books to pick up each time we go, from various local libraries. They're books for Sarah to quiz on, cookbooks, resources for school, and books for me to read. It's a gazillion times more efficient, and I don't have to limit myself to book in our local library. The main drawbacks are that I now spend less time browsing in the stacks (although if the kids are hungry, that isn't so much a drawback), and that sometimes we get books that I realize won't work for us after all.

Unfortunately, three of the books we turned in last week still show as being checked out to me. I know I returned them--Sarah & I went through them as we stuffed them in the bag before we left the house. They've done shelf searches, but no luck. I've renewed them (again, online), so I'll have more time to work out an option, but I'm worried that I'm on the hook for these books; if they don't find them, I have to pay for them.

The book I'm reading right now is Looking for God in Harry Potter. My mom said once that she wouldn't read the HP books and thought they were anti-Christian, because they showed witchcraft & the occult in a positive light. Well, yeah, some of the witches & wizards are good guys, so I can't much argue with her on that point. I don't know her views on Lewis & Tolkien, although I know a lot of fundamentalist Christians have fewer problems with them than with Rowling.

At any rate, I've just started this new book, and it's interesting, though so full of stuff that makes me think that I can't read it for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. After that, I find myself putting it down and wandering around the house, letting it all ferment in my head for a little while.

Miss Emotional

Poor Lauren--she's been really emotional lately. At choir practice yesterday, she was practically in tears because she got the plain wooden sandpaper blocks (cool noise) instead of the blue ones. "But blue's my favorite color!" The choir director told me it was kind of funny/cute, because the song they were singing started with the words, "Why me?" She really looked the part (pathos), but by the time they sang during church, she was fine.

More interesting is that she's started crying at happy endings of movies. I got home from work one night about a week ago, and Jeff said that she'd cried at the end of 101 Dalmations (live action version). "What? Why? None of the dogs died, did they?" He told me that all she would say was that she was happy. Last night, we watched Spirited Away. Although Lauren left the room during one rather intense part (we read a book in my room for a few minutes), she came back for the end and again, cried, because it all turned out OK.

The interesting thing is that although I can certainly sympathize (I'm also a big sappy crybaby), I didn't expect this from her, at least not at this age. She's never seemed that invested in things like this before. I wonder if she saw either of those again, if she'd have the same reaction, or be more "prepared."

For the record, when she was younger, Sarah cried at Stuart Little when Stuart was being taken away from his human family, and at Lilo & Stitch when Lilo was being taken by the big bad alien guy. She seems to have matured past that, though.

There is no way we're going to watch Charlotte's Web for a long, long time.