An Open Invitation

I'm so tired, but this has been such a nice day!  We all got up at what felt like the crack of dawn (cough...8:30...cough) in order to make sure the house was clean and a big dinner was made for our Christmas with Mike's dad, Danny.  He came about 1:30 or so and we exchanged gifts, ate, talked, laughed, and played some cutthroat games of Mille Bornes.

The Best Part:  Guess what Danny got us for Christmas!  A really beautiful foosball table!!!!!!!!!!!  Actually, it was his, but I guess he realized it would get a lot more use over here, so he's giving it to us.  And it will be used, that's for sure.  Mike and I really love the game, and, of course, the kids will be able to play it with all the friends they have over.  And bonus:  Now if any of my kids decide to attend the same Bible college Mike and I went to, they'll be well on their way to a successful time there.  Foosball was the game of the rec room at school, and I don't mind telling you that I was pretty darn good at it.  Still am.  So please come over and visit.  I'll need victims opponents!

Whew

Okay, so I couldn't just let the "beginner mistakes" go.  I manually went through every single post from the old blog and fixed things I didn't like.  Mainly that amounted to lame-o font choices, giant picture sizes, and my inability to embed anything.  Anyway, it's all pretty nice looking now, and it's seamless.  You'd never know I haven't been here on Blogger the entire time.

Even though it was a ton of work, I really enjoyed reading through all those years.  Of everything, I think these two are my favorites.

Scorched Earth Policy

Homeschooling:  Fantasy vs. Reality

I Did It!!!

Mike told me that even though my first blog looked like it disappeared, it probably still existed.  I logged in over on Homeschoolblogger, and, sure enough, it was there.  What a relief!  I decided to finally figure out once and for all how to import everything from there to here.  It took me hours (not to actually do it, but to figure out how), but it's done.  I'm so happy to have everything in one spot!  If you look in the archives, you'll see several years worth of posts have suddenly appeared.  I should probably go through and fix some beginner mistakes I see in them now, but...eh.

Note to Self for Future Pets: Food Chain=Limit of 2!

The other day I realized that my first blog...the one I spent about 3 years on...is gone.  I guess it was erased because it was obviously not being used and kept current.  I'm so sad.  It's not like I really ever went over there anymore, but just knowing it existed made me feel like that period of our life was safely documented for future reference.  I should've figured out how to transfer it all over when I had the chance.

So many big plans are in the works around here lately.  We're taking another little trip up into the mountains soon to visit our good friends Todd and Kellie and their kids.  We're always excited to spend time with them (no one else on earth is that much fun to play Rook with), but this time I'm also really looking forward to seeing Leavenworth around Christmas time.  I guess the entire Bavarian town is covered in white lights.  It's supposed to be pretty breathtaking.  Plus they  probably have snow up there!

In the more distant future, plans are being nailed down for this summer.  God willing, Baylee and I are going on a mission trip into the mountains with others from our church.  We'll be helping one of our sister churches put on a VBS.  And it looks as though Zach will be going on a 2-week mission trip to Puerto Rico with the high school youth group.  Besides that, there's our own church's VBS, a camping trip that Mike wants to do with Zach and Drew, and my parents are coming!  They're thinking about taking a train out here and maybe getting their own little...I don't know what to call it...sleeper car?  Doesn't that sound fun?

Today Baylee quickly scribbled off a note to "the little people who live in the walls," basically telling them they're welcome to use any of our stuff they might need.  She stuck it on a light switch, because the little people use those as doorways.  Maybe I should mention that she just read The Littles. 

I'm nervous that Rex (Is it weird that I cannot think of that name without automatically thinking "Rex Kwon Do"?) isn't long for this world.  Drew and I are researching and trying to learn all we can about anoles, but dang.  There's just a lot involved in taking care of these things, and I'm afraid we may have rushed into it a bit.  For instance, you have to constantly monitor the temperature and humidity level in the cage, not to mention all the stuff you have to do to make sure the lizard is getting the right vitamins.  You have to feed the crickets (that you feed the anole) a certain special food packed with nutrients, then you have to dust the crickets with calcium powder.  You also have to make sure to have two different types of lamps:  one to imitate sunlight and one that helps the animal absorb calcium.  I swear, my newborn babies weren't this much work.  I think Zach had a very good point when he said, "I'll never own a pet whose food has its own food."

Rex 2

"Rex"

Christmas Dinner

Baylee on the phone with my mom this morning:

Grandma:  What are you guys going to have for Christmas dinner?

Baylee:  Well, my dad's gonna try to make a ham.

My mom got a kick out of that.  Despite Baylee's misgivings, Mike did make a ham and it was delicious!  I made mashed potatoes and gravy, and Patty made corn casserole and salad.

Other than that we hung out, watched a movie, read, and played with Christmas stuff.  At about 5PM Mike and Patty took the dogs on a walk and I got a call from my sis.  We talked for a long time and it was just what I needed.  It's been a very good day.

Merry Christmas!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Christmas Eve

Today was nice!  Mike and I slept in, then he went off to work for a few hours and I cleaned the house.  Zach hung out (and deep cleaned his bedroom) and Baylee and Drew argued quite a bit.  Just about the point where they were starting to drive me crazy, Patty showed up and they bugged her instead.  At some point we took pictures of the kids in front of the tree.

At 5PM we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, then we headed over to the parsonage, where our really good friends, Kevin and Candace, live.  (He's the youth pastor, but we've actually known them for about 20 years.  We all went to college together.)  They ended up having...man...over 20 people over.  It was crowded and noisy and completely fun!  A lot of laughing was done.  I didn't think to take any pictures until we'd been there well over 3 hours and it was almost time to go home.  Here's what I got.

Can't wait until morning!

Tomorrow: Lifesize Reindeer Jello Molds!

Just kidding.  Today I did something almost as stupid, though.  I made a cheese ball igloo and olive penguins.  How can I put this?  The whole undertaking was like a cross between Cake Boss and Toddlers and Tiaras.  That is, I built something amazing with food, while simultaneously obsessing like a crazed mother over it.  I'm tired now.  The good news is we'll be taking these to the Christmas Eve party, along with those chocolate cherry mice.  The bad news is I'm not sure if I can bear to let anybody eat any of it.

First I stuffed olives and cleaned off the excess.  This is the part where I realized it was gonna be a long night.  I was like, "I'm wiping olives.  This is not a good sign."

Then I cut penguin feet and beaks out of a carrot, put the body on the feet, and the beak in smaller olive heads.

Then I put it all together.

Finally I made a cheese ball and turned it into an igloo.

Tomorrow, when we get to the party, I'll put the little penguins all around the cheese ball igloo, and we'll serve it with crackers.  And then I'll stand there and say, "Don't touch the food sculptures and nobody has to get hurt."

Maybe this is why I'm always told to just bring the pop.

Sue

PS:  I got these recipes from Smockity Frocks, too.  It's a great blog by a homeschooling mother of many children.  You should check it out!

Parenting Advice

This is why it's not a good idea for your kid to know what he's getting before Christmas:

Drew:  Mom!  You want me to read you this list of equipment I'll need for my new lizards?

Me:  No.

Drew:  Please?

Me:  That sounds boring.

Drew:  Come on!

Me:  *siiiiiiiigh*  Fine.

I guess that's my karmic punishment for saying, "I just hope the lizards don't die before you get a chance to open that box." 

PS:  We're buying the lizards later.

Not a Creature was Stirring

Look what Baylee and I made tonight!  They're chocolate cherry mice!  Aren't they adorable?  We got the instructions from a blog called Smockity Frocks.  We're gonna bring them to the Christmas Eve shindig.

As of tonight we have all our presents wrapped and under the tree.  We have a "look but don't touch" rule.

Chicken a la King

When Mike and I worked as full-time houseparents at a Christian adult foster care home for 6 years, we had a woman named Aunt Shirley come in once a week to help with the cooking.  She didn't do the day to day cooking...that was my job.  But what she did was some of the things I didn't always have time for, like baking pies and cakes for the guys, or cooking special recipes.  Another thing she did was taught me, a newlywed, a lot of what I know today.  She was in her eighties at that time, I think.  She was such a firecracker, though, I bet she's still going strong.

Here's something Aunt Shirley taught me to make.  It was a hit with our guys at the foster care home, and last night it was a hit with my family:

Chicken a la King

4 cups cooked chicken

1/2 an onion, chopped

1/2 a green pepper, chopped

8 ounces sliced, fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup chicken broth

2 cups half-n-half

1/2 cup (or little jar) of pimentos

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Saute onion, mushrooms, and green pepper in the butter until soft.  Add flour to make a paste.  Add broth and half-n-half.  Add rest of ingredients.  Heat and stir until thickens.  Serve over toast or biscuits.

Trust me.  This is really good comfort food!

On a totally different note, all Drew's Christmas presents this year revolve around lizards.  He wants a couple anoles, and, while that type of lizard isn't very expensive, the set up for them sort of is.  Still, it should be fun for him and worthwhile.  Luckily, he's old enough to take care of them completely by himself, since they eat live bugs.  Ugh.

Oh, and my friend Kellie's family was at the tubing thing the other day, and she got some fun pictures.  Go here to see a montage!  Drew's the kid in the black and camouflage coat, with the red sweatshirt hood peeking out the top.  

Pummelo: The Fruit that's Fun to Say

I think we're in the closing stretch (Wait.  Is "closing stretch" a thing?  Okay, I just googled it.  It is.) of Christmas present buying.  Yay! 

On the way home from doing some of that Christmas shopping Baylee started peppering me with questions regarding tampons.  Isn't it interesting how certain topics make you feel like a trapped rabbit?  Poor, poor Drew was in the car, too.

Speaking of Drew, he begged me to buy this GIANT grapefruit.  He loves grapefruit and would eat it everyday if we had it.  It's called a pummelo, and Drew said it was delicious.

 (Yes, he badly needs a haircut.)

Oh, here's another fact about Drew.  Last night at 8 o'clock he got home from the sledding trip, took a hot bath, laid down on Baylee's bed, and was sound asleep within minutes.  I had to get him up and shuffle him off to his own bed.  He had a great time sledding, by the way.  It was a big tubing hill, and here's the best part:  There was a rope tow that took the kids and their tubes back to the top.  Now that's what I call service.

The rest of today is about cleaning the house, making chicken ala king for supper, wrapping a few more gifts, and enjoying  allowing putting up with suffering through Baylee's sleepover.  She's having a friend spend the night, and they have big plans involving the movie Ramona and Beezus, red vines, gummy bears, and not actually getting any sleep.

I Heart Christmas Break

I got up early today to help Drew get his stuff together for a sledding trip up into the mountains with the Jr. High youth group, only to discover that he'd been up for hours and was completely ready to go, including wearing his coat and snow pants.

Baylee and I braved the rain to run errands this morning, then came back home and baked homemade Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies.  (The best kind in the world.) 

One of our errands was to the library.  I found a whole nest of Miss Read books!  I checked every one of them out.

Now it's pretty quiet here.  Zach is messing around on his computer.  Cooper is sleeping on someone's bed.  Gibbs is watching the rain out the French doors.  Ginger the gerbil is making new tunnels in her bedding.  The fish is thinking seriously about going belly up.  (I did change its water today, though, so maybe that'll give it a new lease on life.) And Baylee is playing with a couple friends in the TV room.  They dragged several blankets and chairs in there, and they're pretending to camp.

Chudier (Rachel's cousin), Baylee, and Rachel

Mike will be home for supper, which I decided will be quiche.  I'm always much happier about quiche than he is.  Why is that?

Christmas at Church

This morning was our children's Christmas program at church.  They played the video we made and all the kids sang three songs together up in front.  It was wonderful!  Man, Craig the Camera Guy really cleaned up that movie from the rough cut that I showed here to what was shown today.  The sound was crystal clear, as was the picture, and he added to the overall effect by putting soft background noises in certain places.  Like when Mary and Joseph were walking around, looking for a place to stay, he put quiet night noises like crickets.  And when everyone was in the stable, there were faint farm animal sounds, like sheep bleating.  Anyway, I couldn't be happier with it.  For as much work as it was to make, the final product gave a heartwarming, simple, clear message about why Christ came to earth as a baby in a manger.  (And, Professor, from where I was sitting I didn't see a single parent and/or relative crowding to the front with a video camera. *grin*)

Afterward our pastor gave a Christmas sermon from the perspective of Joseph.  It was interesting!  I'd never thought about it that way before.  As Pastor Jim was talking through the Christmas story, though, he said something about the baby being called Immanuel, and it reminded me of a little argument Zach and Drew got into years ago, when Zach was around 8 and Drew was about 5.

They were playing together, using some little toys to act out the story of Christ's birth.  Zach, who was narrating, said something like, "And they named the baby Immanuel."

Drew replied, "No, they didn't!  They named him Jesus!"

"Drew, I just learned about this in Sunday school. He was named Immanuel."

"Jesus!"

"Immanuel!"

"Jesus!"

"Immanuel!"

Drew thought about this for a minute, then finally said, "Fine!  But his nickname was Jesus!"

Tired Rambling

Drew and Baylee started another season of basketball today.  They had "basketball clinic" this morning, which just means they were rotated through various stations where they had to do different basketball-related things, and they were watched.  Now they'll be put on teams based on skill level. (The people in charge try to mix the levels up so no one team is too stacked with great players.)  This year Drew graduated from the elementary league and moved up to the the Junior/Senior high league.  He'll be playing with some really big boys, but from what I hear the older boys are kind and helpful to the little guys.

Baylee and Drew switched rooms yesterday.  Now Drew has officially lived in every bedroom in this house, except the master.  I think this might be a good change, though.  Drew set things up so most of his guitar stuff fits under that bed that's built into the wall in the back room, and Baylee has the big, front, carpeted bedroom.  Since she's the one who still plays with toys, it's nice for her to have a comfortable floor to play on.  Plus she never, ever liked being so far away (in her mind) from Mom and Dad at night.  Now she's right next door.

I went out today and Christmas shopped!  The way we've been doing it for the last 2 or 3 years is that Mike does all the shopping for the boys, and I do Baylee.  This works well, because I'm not great at picking out presents for Zach and Drew anymore.  A lot of the time I don't even fully grasp what electronic thing they're saying they want.  Baylee, on the other hand, I get.

We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with good friends this year.  We'll go to the candlelight service at church, then head over for dinner and a game night.  It'll be us and Patty, our friends, and another family that we're also friends with.  I'm excited!  Hmm.  I wonder if we'll be playing Cranium, since just recently I was bragging that when Mike and I play as a team in that game, we're unbeatable.  Where one of us is dumb, the other is smart, and vice versa.

Baylee came up to me a couple minutes ago and asked for a bear hug, and I kinda gave her a quick, perfunctory squeeze.  She said, "That wasn't a bear hug!  That was a penguin hug!"  LOL  I corrected my mistake, then we gave each other several different animal hugs...whale, shark, tyrannosaurus rex...and giggled. 

Fried Chicken Fear

I almost forgot to tell you guys about the scary thing that happened a few days ago.  I was holding down the fort here with the three kids while Mike was working late.  Because I hate making supper when Mike's not here to appreciate it, the kids and I went to Safeway to pick up something from the deli.  They chose fried chicken, rolls, and something called "JoJos" (spicy potato wedges).  We brought the meal home and started eating, when all of a sudden Drew freaked out, saying a piece of the chicken was stuck in his throat.  I was pretty calm...'cause, you know...that happens sometimes.  I just told him to drink some milk.  It didn't work.  Then I said to eat some bread.  That didn't work, either.  In fact, at this point Drew was crying and saying it hurt terribly.  This went on for another minute or so before I got up and hovered over the phone, not quite sure what to do or whom to call.  He was still breathing fine, but he was obviously in a lot of distress.  Finally I said, "Where is it stuck, Drew?  Point with your finger."  He pointed to a spot on his neck right below the back of his throat, so I told him to try to reach in and pull out whatever was in there.  (Gosh, that's probably the wrong thing to do, but I was starting to get a little panicky.)  He reached into his throat and pulled/gagged out a relatively huge chicken bone!  Seriously!  Anyway, all's well that ends well.  I gave him an ibuprofen and watched him carefully for hours to make sure his throat didn't end up swelling and obstructing his airway.  (I learned about that possibility years ago in a first aid class.)

Sheesh.  This kid is going to give me a heart attack.  It's always him with the foreign, lodged particles.  He's the one who stuck a popcorn kernel waaaaay up his nose when he was three and had to be brought to the doctor to have it taken out.  Then not long after that he put a tiny Playmobile coin up his nostril.  I was on my way out the door to take the kid back to the pediatrician, when Drew sneezed and the coin went flying across the kitchen.  It was all snotty.  I remember I was like, "No more!" and I threw that whole pirate chest full of tiny money in the garbage.

I've got a lot more gray hair than you might think.

This Day and a Painful Recollection

It's 20 minutes to 10PM and I'm finally able to sit down long enough to blog.  Woo hoo!  We had a productive day of school.  Baylee learned about different types of clouds.  Drew did an experiment on block-and-tackle pulley systems using two broom handles and some rope.  And Zach studied hard for a Biology test on things like squid, jellyfish, and mussels.  Since I'm helping him cram, I now know the yucky brownish-red gunk that was inside the starfish's leg (see yesterday's picture) is its reproductive organ.  That gives one pause, doesn't it?  

Baylee did her usual Wednesday afternoon job, being a "mother's helper" for the little family down the street.  When she got there they surprised her with a nice Christmas present and told her how much they appreciate her.  (heart!)

We had Grace over for the kid exchange.  Baylee, Grace, and Drew made things with beads, which kept them wondrously quiet for a long time.

And finally we all went to church for youth group and Pioneer Girls.  I'm shocked that I'm halfway finished being a Pioneer Girl leader for this year already!  Time has really flown by, and I've come to enjoy the girls in my group a ton. Tonight we finished the drama badge, and I have to say the girls have been LOVING the activities in this particular unit.  We learned the names of the different parts of a stage, played directing games, did pantomime, learned acting skills, and did a few impromptu skits.  Tonight's skit was one the girls have been excited about for weeks.  It's called "Coffee Shop Table".  Here's a description from the book:

Cast:  server, cook, waitress, diners

Setting:  restaurant

A volunteer comes onstage and gets down on hands and knees to become the table during the skit.  The hostess shows diners to their seats around this table.  Waitress sets the table with plates, cups, utensils and a pitcher of water, then takes orders.  When the diners are served, they get into an argument about the food, which climaxes with much shouting and the diners stalking out of restaurant.  Cook, waitress, and server are upset and storm out, too.  The "table" is left onstage alone with place settings and a pitcher of water on her back.  Audience now waits to see how the volunteer will get out of this predicament.

I mean, it's cute.  It's a nice little practical joke, the girls thought it was the greatest thing ever, and it turned out fine.  But what the girls didn't realize was how carefully Heather (the other leader) and I chose the person we pulled the prank on.  I know from painful experience that these types of things can go south fast if your victim doesn't have a good sense of humor.  Just as we suspected, Penny handled it beautifully.  The girls asked me to get it on video, so I did.

Oh, yeah, and here's my painful recollection:

The summer between my sophomore and junior years of college I worked as a counselor at a Bible camp for about 8 weeks.  It was wonderful and I loved almost every second of it.  One week, though, I had a group of girls in my cabin who desperately wanted to pull a prank.  I told them I'd allow it as long as the prank was safe, didn't break any rules, and didn't destroy property.  They came to me again and again over the next couple days with their ideas, and again and again I said, "Nope, go back to the drawing board."  Finally they came up with something I thought couldn't possibly go wrong, so I gave the go-ahead.  We waited until nightfall, then snuck out and tied all the girl campers' clothes (the ones that were hanging on the clotheslines behind the cabins) together.  We even did our own clothes, to throw everyone off the scent.

The next morning my girls were really excited to see what the reaction of the other cabins was going to be.  Unfortunately, we were shocked to discover that one of the cabins had a terrible response.  They got very upset, but made sure to tell us that since they were the bigger people, they weren't going to take their anger out on us.  Instead they were going to pray for us, asking God to help us with our bad attitudes.  (It's kinda funny now.  Not so much at the time.)  That would've been mortifying enough, but then the counselor of that cabin complained to the head counselor, and I had to spend time that day in a meeting between the three of us, discussing how wrong it was for me to allow my girls to do such a thing.  I remember sitting there beyond furious, but saying nothing and schooling my face into a very contrite, understanding expression,  because I knew the moment I opened my mouth I'd start to cry.  In fact, one of my eyes totally betrayed me and teared up anyway.  (Only one, though.  Isn't that weird?  It's like I had iron control over every part of my body except that one eye.)  The worst part was I knew that other counselor fairly well.  We went to college together and we were in the same year.  Ugh.  To this day whenever I see her on Facebook I can't help but remember that moment.

But, you know.  I've let it go.  

Tuesday's News

So this week on Sarah Palin's Alaska, Kate Gosslin (from Jon and Kate Plus Eight) and her kids visited Sarah's family in order to go on a 2 day, 1 night camping trip with them.  They even got to ride in a seaplane to the campsite, since it was so remote.  Now, granted, it was cold and rainy outside, but you know what?  Suck it up.  If someone gives you something (which, in a very real way, is exactly what happened.  Sarah's family gave their time and effort to Kate's family, doing everything humanly possible to make the experience a good one.) you act like you love it, even if you're having the worst time ever.  Any good Dutch person knows that.  That's Dutch 101.  Besides, Kate's kids were actually having a blast.  But, no.  Kate could only think of herself, whining and crying (literally) nonstop.  At one point, with tears streaming down her face, she yelled, "I'm cold, I'm tired, and I'm hungry!"  She lasted until just after lunch on the first day before she loaded all her kids back onto the plane and took off.  I was so embarrassed for her that I had to keep pausing the show and taking little breaks to pet and talk to Gibbs, who was sitting next to me on the couch.  "Did you see her, Gibby?  You'd never do that, would you?  No, you wouldn't.  You're a nice guy."

Snapshots of high school at home:

 Yesterday's Biology

Today's Algebra

10 Things

1.  Yesterday I spent several hours working on an editing job I'm doing for someone.  Come to find out, editing is fussy work.  I think it's where the saying "going over it with a fine tooth comb" came from.   Okay, it probably came from a case of head lice, but whatever. Editing is painstaking.  It's punctilious!  And I did it for a long time! Then I needed a break, so I went in search of Mike.  As soon as he saw me he started laughing, because I guess the front of my hair was standing straight up from where I'd been clutching it in my fist as I read. 

2.  The 3 C's to my heart are as follows:  chocolate, coffee, and Coke.

3. It's been raining for days on end.  There's a puddle the size of a small pond in our backyard.
 

4.  I'm reading another Miss Read book!  This one is called Summer in Fairacre.  I love this series.   Awhile back I sent The Fairacre Chronicles  to my mom, and she told me she enjoyed it so much she's been ordering more Miss Read books from interlibrary loan.  She's on book 5 already.

5.  The kids are all very ready for Christmas break.  I could barely keep them on task today.

6.  Tonight Zach will be dissecting two more specimens.   He's sick of dissecting, but I encouraged him by saying that soon we'll be done studying animals and we'll begin learning about humans.  At that point he doesn't have to do any more dissecting,  because they don't sell cadavers at Home Science Tools.

7.  Drew asked me to find Sweet Home Alabama in our iTunes list, then he ran and got my old, black acoustic guitar and he played along.  It made me smile.  He was pretty darn good!  Plus, how can you not smile when you hear that song?

8.  Weirdly, both Zach and Drew studied verb tenses in English today, even though they use two completely different programs.  All I know is if I spend one more second on past, present, and future perfect tenses, I shall have to scream.  (Haha!  Nerdy grammar humor.)

9.  Baylee learned long multiplication last week.

10.  I like my haircut now.   

The Christmas Play!

This is the Christmas play!!!  Well, it's the "rough cut" that I was sent today to look over.  It needs to be tweaked a bit for some sound issues and for picture resolution, but basically this is it.  I'm so proud of it and the kids in it!  It's funny that it took us 4 weeks, about an hour and a half each week, to make something that's only a touch over six minutes long.  LOL

Anyway...yay!   

Haircut

I got my hair highlighted and cut last night, and my eyebrows waxed.  It's much shorter.  (Not my eyebrows, my hair.)  There's a powerful combination of causes that has led to the haircut I have right now.

1) My hairdresser friend who comes to my home and does this for me is good at her craft and has confidence in herself.

2) I'm pretty indifferent when it comes to style.  "Yeah, sure, that sounds fine," is my standard operating procedure.

3) I let way too much time go by between cuts, so by the time I have it done I'm so sick of it I'm ready to chop it off myself.

Put all those together and you get my new 'do that I know I didn't ask for and am not sure I like.  I keep looking at it in the mirror and saying things like, "Mike, my hair is so short."

And he helpfully answers, "It's cute!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, it looks pixie-ish."

(Did I marry a good man or what?)

On the bright side, the color is nice.  And my eyebrows are pretty.

In other news, I'm going to a Christmas party tonight.  It's for the women in my peer group at church, and it's being held at my friend Beth's house.  We're all supposed to bring food.  I'm bringing pumpkin rolls, I think, because they're bound to impress.  Also, they might throw people off looking at my hair too much.  "Hey, did you get a new....Oooo, pumpkin rolls!"

Haha!

A Calgon Moment

Today Drew and I read a chapter on Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma, from Drew's book, Christians with Courage.  I loved the story, but Drew made me angry because he barely listened.  Oh, he looked like he was paying attention, but afterward, when it came time to answer questions, he totally choked, getting about half of them wrong.

Later I was thinking about this and feeling irritated all over again, when I remembered something from my childhood.  When I was about 12 years old and my brother was around 9, my mom decided to read us a "devotions for kids" type book every night after supper.  I recall she was very gung-ho that first time as she got out the book and read us a story about a family doing home repair.  There was a moral lesson, of course, probably having to do with working nicely together or some such thing.  Whatever it was, I was able to summarize it perfectly afterward.  My brother, on the other hand, was not.  When my mom asked him what it was about, he said, "...Windows?"  From what I remember, that was the first and last time we did devotions out of that book.

Mom, I feel your pain. 

Fun!

Teens...

Today in New Testament Survey there was a question about who was emperor of Rome when Paul wrote the book of Romans.  That led to a rabbit trail discussion about how awful Nero was, and about how he supposedly played the fiddle while he watched Rome burn.  Zach thought about that for a minute, then said, "I wonder what song he played.  I bet it was Camptown Ladies."

I knew there was a reason I haven't shipped him off to Siberia yet. 

Monday

I was up late last night watching Sarah Palin's Alaska.  Mike recorded it, so there were a couple episodes in the queue, waiting.  I was never one of those people who either rabidly liked or disliked Sarah Palin politically.  I've always been sort of...eh.  But now that I've seen her in her own home with her family, just living her life, I'm drawn to her.  I think she's a good mom and a good wife, and she loves her surroundings.  She's also a great people person.  She's one of those women who could show up at your family get-together and just make herself right at home.  She'd pick up a dish towel and help you dry dishes while she made conversation.  I like her.  All that to say, now I'm really tired.  It was too much Alaska too late at night.  Not to mention I had weird dreams having to do with the Palins and Watership Down.

Oh, I should do my review of the Prince of Persia since I've got TV, books, and movies on the brain.  Prince of Persia:  Sands of Time was a really fun, action-packed flick!  The family enjoyed it.  (Wow, was that worth the wait, or what?)

In Social Studies Baylee's been studying England, and today she learned about Queen Elizabeth II.  Afterward she told me she wants to go meet the queen as soon as possible.  I explained that's probably not going to happen, but we did have a good time looking at pictures of the royal family online.  Baylee was especially taken with Princess Di.

Do you have any earthly idea how boring mollusks are?  In fact, this whole chapter of Zach's biology is just dry as dust.  Turns out there's no way to make snails exciting.

Mike's work, for different reasons, has gotten extremely busy for him.  He's gone pretty much all the time....well..all day for sure, and then often usually  always very late into the night. He's exhausted and getting sick, and I'm tired, too.  It's draining in its own way to be here alone day and night.  Is it bad to admit that, when so many people out there don't even have a job?  Probably. 

Cookies!

I baked cookies, and Baylee dipped them in an almond glaze and then in colored sugar.  She had a lot of fun and nobody could accuse her of being stingy with that sugar.  My goodness.

Saturday Stuff

Mike and Drew are spending the night at Mike's dad's house in order to watch something called the Apple Bowl.  I guess it's football?  To me it sounds like a nice dessert to eat with whipped cream.  Since they're gone, though, Zach, Baylee, and I are gonna have a movie night.  I picked up Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.  Review to follow (eventually).

Zach's book for English I came in the mail today from Amazon.  It's Swiss Family Robinson.  I could've sworn I read that book when I was a kid, but now that I've taken a look at it I'm pretty sure I got "read it" mixed up with "saw the Disney movie".  Visions of people racing around on ostriches come to mind.  The actual book is sort of a difficult slog.  Anyway, Zach will be reading it over the next few weeks as a part of his course, and the way we're making it work for him is we bought two versions.  We have this hard copy for class work, but we also downloaded it as an audio file, which he'll put on his iPod.  He can listen to chapters at night.

We got a Christmas package in the mail yesterday from my mom and dad.  It was a big, flat box and we were all really curious what could possibly be in it.  It was a wreath!  And not just any wreath, but one that my dad made on his own!  He used vines from my grandma's farm and greenery from my mom and dad's yard.  This picture doesn't really do justice to how nice it is.  Thanks, Dad!

Gibby seems to have made a full recovery.  I can tell because he's bugging me again. *smile*