Close, But Not Quite

So far for New Testament Survey Zach and I have read all of Matthew and nine chapters of Mark.  (PS:  I LOVE that about this subject!  It has the student really delving into God's Word, learning about the Penman, Period, Place, Peculiarities, Purpose, and Plan of each book.  Then it assigns chapters as they follow an outline.  It's great!)  Today as we read Mark chapter five I was reminded of this story:


Several years ago I was doing children's ministry in our church in Michigan.  Zach was about five at the time, and he happened to be one of my students.  One day I asked the kids if they'd ever heard the story of how Jesus sent some demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs.  Zach popped his hand up.  "I've heard it!  I know that one!"  I asked him to tell the class what he knew.  "Well, there was a guy who had a bunch of demons in him, so Jesus helped him by making the demons leave and go into some pigs.  Then the pigs got all crazy and they chased Jesus right off a cliff!"

Piñatas

I'm tired.  This year having one kid in high school, one in junior high, and one in elementary is kicking my butt.  Don't get me wrong, it's going well.  It's just HARD.  I get up in the morning and, except for an occasional break, I go strong from about 7AM until 8PM.  Often later if it's a church night or if I'm helping one of the kids study for a test.  I'm worn around the edges and it's still September. 


Besides that pervading busyness, today wasn't great because something pretty dumb happened.  Actually, it happened yesterday and sort of bled into today.  Blah.  Anyway, it just boils down to the fact that I got my feelings hurt.  I need to move on, because it doesn't deserve the emotion I've given it.


Sigh.


I gave a devotion to about 20 little girls tonight.  We had a fun Mexican night at Pioneer Girls, so my little talk was on how we should all be like piñatas:  When life takes a swing at us and cracks us open, sweet things like patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control should pour out.  I'm going to work on it, myself.  Even though right now what I'd really like to do is take Life's stick and shove it up It'll be a big job.

Bad Romance

I don't know anything to speak of about Lady Gaga (Really?  Gaga?  That's the best name you could come up with?), but this group of guys from a college A capella choir did one of her songs.  It's really cute!





PS:  I know my YouTube videos always get cut off on the right side, but I don't know what to do about it.  Besides, I figure the good stuff always happens in the middle anyway.

Baylee on Pottery Class

(Run-on sentence and spelling left intact.)


I really like pottery, exept for the fact that there are six potters wheels and eight kids.  So this week we were supposed to use them and the teacher was counting by a b a b to see who would get to use the potters wheels and I was b along with a really nice older girl named Katie so she and I played with clay while all the others used the potters wheels and right when it was our turn it was time to clean up.  I was ok on the outside but on the inside I was screaming it's not fare!!!

Illustrated By

Here's a picture to illustrate my last post.  *smile*  It was taken tonight during Zach's youth group by John, the same guy who took the blob sequence.  He takes pictures of all the different kids in action at many youth events and meetings, which is awesome!

I think Zach looks so much like my brother here.

Hard Worker

I'm really proud of Zach!  I admit, I was a little concerned about how he would do as far as high school level work, but he's really putting in the effort and getting good grades, not to mention learning a lot.  Last week he got an A+ on his first biology test, which was on Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Aves.  In other words, that kid learned a buttload about birds!  Also last week he wrote a short biographical sketch on a man named C.T. Studd.  The suggested topic sentence was,"Does attaining wealth and fame constitute success?"


This week has already started off with a bang.  Zach spent time this afternoon studying for a test in New Testament Survey on the book of Matthew.  He had to learn quite a bit, but I think he's got it down.  The only thing he's having trouble with is the order of events on the night before and day of the Crucifixion:  Betrayal, Before Caiaphas, Before the Sanhedrin, Before Pilate, Before Jerusalem (the Crucifixion), Burial.  We just couldn't think of any fun way to remember those, other than they obviously all start with B.


Coming up soon:  Frog dissection!

Point of View 2

My friend Kellie has her own blog, and today she wrote an entry and shared some pictures of our visit out there.  She mentioned some stuff I didn't, like the fact that while Kellie and I, and our daughters, Bonnie and Baylee, went shopping in Leavenworth yesterday, Todd and Mike, and our sons Brian, Bryce, Zach, and Drew went on a hike up into the mountains.  The guys had a great time!  They even went fishing and Zach caught a fish.  


So check out Mountain Views!   Kellie is a homeschooling mom, too!  

Trip to Leavenworth!

We spent the past few days visiting some really great friends in Leavenworth, Washington.  We've known Todd and Kellie for ages.  Since college, actually.  And we've been friends all this time, despite the fact that we haven't always lived near each other or even in the same state.  They just moved to Leavenworth, though, because Todd became the pastor of a church out there, so now we're only a few hours apart.


Leavenworth, by the way, is a tourist town.  Its whole schtick is that it's Bavarian and some of the Von Trapp family settled there when they came to America.  Oh my goodness, it's such a gorgeous place!  It's exactly like being on the movie set for The Sound of Music.  Well, except for the store selling this:

And the one selling this:

But other than that, it's just like the movie!  See?

And here's the whole slideshow.  Thank you, Todd and Kellie and kids!  We had a great time!  I especially liked the part where Kellie and I beat Todd and Mike 3 games out of 5 in Rook.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Oh!

I almost forgot to mention that I'm reading a wonderful new book.  Actually, it's three books in one, and it's called Chronicles of Fairacre.

The three books in this compilation, Village School, Village Diary, and Storm in the Village, were written around 50 or 60 years ago, I think, and are set in the English countryside.  The main character of all of them is an unmarried teacher named Miss Read.  She teaches in a tiny schoolhouse, and the stories are mostly her observations of school and village life in general.  Every time I sit down with the people of Fairacre I'm completely charmed, and I want to drink tea and eat plum pudding.  And I don't even know what plum pudding is.  

Oh, Drew. You Make Me Laugh.

Drew:  Mom, did you know that three thousand teens get in a car every year and never come back?  I heard that on a commercial.


Me:  Oh, yeah?  Where do you think they go?


Drew:  I have no idea.  It just said they get on the highway and don't come back.  Hey...Where do they go?


Me:  [choking on my Saltine with peanut butter]


Drew:  Mom!  Stop laughing!  Where do they go?!


Me:  [Still choking]


Drew:  The Burmuda triangle???


Then I told him what that commercial really means, and it wasn't as funny anymore.  But it did lead to a good conversation, in which he was informed that 37 was a perfectly fine age for him to learn to drive. 

Extracurricular

Baylee went to pottery class today!  The teacher talked about what clay really is, how the wheel and kiln work, etc, and then everyone got to make "coil" pots as a beginner project.  The good news is Baylee loved the class!  She said there are both boys and girls of various ages, and the teacher is really nice.  The bad news is any child younger than 13 has to have a parent on the premises.  In other words, I couldn't just drop her off.  It was fine, though.  Zach, Drew, and I packed up a few textbooks and got quite a bit of school done in the little library down the hall.  Zach and Drew's class (I decided to have them both take Lego Robotics) starts mid-October.

Demographics

When it comes to being a target group, is there anything worse in the world than having a family member who sells Mary Kay and is very actively trying to earn that pink Cadillac?


I didn't think so.

Books and Movies

Okay, I know I spoke badly of Pride and Prejudice, but I finally finished the movie last night and ended up LOVING it.  I'm not sure what happened, except I accepted I was going to miss things once in awhile due to their accents...there was no closed captioning...and I settled into the feeling of the film.  Once that happened, it was a lovely story. In fact, I loved it so much I went right on Netflix and ordered another version.  The one I saw had Keira Knightley; the one I'm going to see next has Colin Firth.  You should all go out and watch the Keira Knightley one!  I cried at the ending, it was so nice.  Or, you know, you could read the book.  Or you could read this book, which is probably much the same, except with zombies:

It's another one in that completely bizarre series I stumbled across.  I'm about halfway finished with Jane Slayre, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit I'm enjoying it.  I read the real Jane Eyre back in Junior high, but this one is much more action packed.

Thoroughly Modern Baylee

In which Baylee describes her thoughts upon reaching the chapter of Little House on the Prairie entitled "Indians in the House"...

Misc Pics

Oh, thank you, Lord, for Fridays.  I can't wait until the weekend starts officially.  This week has draaaaaaged.  In the meantime, here's a build-up of pictures and videos. 

Chief Bottle Washers Potato Peelers

Gibbs actually learned something!!!

Drew bought poker chips at a garage sale down the road, so he asked Mike to teach him how to play poker.  See?  Home schooling dads DO get involved in the education process!

Speaking of education, this is our Parts of Speech Wall.  Why buy a colorful and fun poster when you have sticky notes?

Baylee got to do two experiments.  The first one showed that air has weight.  She blew up two balloons and we attached them to the ends of a stick.  Then we hung the stick from the ceiling, making a sort of scale.  When she popped the balloon on one side, it made the other side hang way down.

The second experiment showed that air takes up space.  She put a little cloth in the bottom of a cup, then pushed the cup into a bucket of water.  When she took it back out, the cloth was still dry.

And here's Zach doing Etymology and drinking coffee. I made him laugh, then took the picture.  He has such a friendly laugh.

End of the Day Meanderings

Today was kinda crazy.  We did school and it wasn't great (It wasn't terrible.  It just wasn't one of our finer specimens.), I cleaned the house, then we went to church and had supper at the "Save the Day Cafe".  We've been doing Wednesday night church activities there for three years now, and I've never taken advantage of the fact that they serve a cheap, kid-friendly meal every week to help parents not stress out over having to cook before rushing out the door.  Tonight it was macaroni and cheese, hotdogs or corndogs, salad, a brownie, and punch.  I don't know about saving the day, but it was definitely helpful!  After supper Baylee, Rachel, and I went to Pioneer Girls and Drew went to Jr. high youth group.  (Zach goes to Sr. high youth group on Sunday nights.)

So.  Wow, this is gonna be a long year.  I'm one of the leaders of the 5th and 6th grade girls, and they're all VERY quiet and reserved.  Maybe they'll come out of their shells as time goes by.  I hope so, because right now I look like a 3-ring circus up there, pumping energy into a dead room.

Drew is planning to play his guitar with the Jr high praise band this year.  He's been excited to do this for ages.

Baylee is reading the second Little House book right now, Little House on the Prairie.  She just got out of bed to ask me where they went to the bathroom while they were traveling across the country in a covered wagon, and what they used for toilet paper.  I said they used gopher holes as toilets, and the gophers themselves to wipe.

Sometimes when I'm watching a movie with actors using English accents, I can't understand a word they're saying.  For instance, Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley.  When all those sisters are talking together, what in the world is going on?  It sounds like dolphins.

Okay, it's bedtime.

Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today ~ September 14, 2010

Outside my window...it's been warm, sunny, and mild for days.  I'm kind of excited for rain and fallish weather now.  LOL

I am thinking...about my grandma today.  My mom called early this morning and filled me in with the latest news.  My grandma is getting a tiny bit better every day, which is both good and bad.  It's good because in some ways she's coming back to her old self.  She talks a (very) little and smiles.  She pats her hair to see if it's in place.  ("She's such a lady," my mom says.)  But it's bad in a way, too, because she's starting to understand something very terrible happened to her.  That part...her knowing and being scared and upset...makes me feel ill with sadness.

From the learning room...today was a good day!  We did school and then Drew's guitar teach came over, taught him more of the Star Spangled Banner (Jimi Hendrix style, which Zach says sounds like something he could do on a guitar, and he doesn't know how to play), and worked with him on music reading.  All the kids were done with school by about 2:30.  So far my favorite part of what we're using this year is Zach's biology.  It's excellent.

I am thankful for...Pandora.

From the kitchen...tonight for supper we're having pork chops, rice, broccoli, and watermelon.

I am going...to help teach 5th and 6th grade girls for our church's Pioneer Girl Club.  It starts tomorrow.  Baylee is excited to go back again this year, and she'll be bringing Rachel from down the road. 

I am reading...A book which is a cross between Jane Eyre and a monster story.  It's called Jane Slayre, by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin.  It's the exact story of Jane Eyre, except besides being an orphan who's sent to school and who then goes to work for a guy with a crazy lady locked in the attic, she also slays vampires.

 

 
I am hearing...kids playing.

Around the house...the cat is sleeping on Zach's bed, and he looks a little beat up.  We think he got into a fight with another cat outside.  Poor Cooper.

One of my favorite things...Mike coming home from work.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

Baylee and Patty on Memorial Day, 2007

To read the Daybooks of others, please visit here.

Yeah, They're Kinda Hippies

But in a good way.  The school is very cute.  It's an old elementary building, but they've got it decorated and all the classrooms look great.  They've got a science lab and a library and regular school rooms and a commons room and I don't know what all.  It had a very friendly feel to it.

The only thing is, at least for Zach, I don't like it as a high school option.  It's too intrusive.  I might change my mind when it comes to the other kids, but for now I'm really happy with the private Christian high school program we're using.

That said, I'm signing all the kids up for the "part time student" option, which means they can take whatever classes they want, but beyond that the Center isn't in charge of their education at all; I still am.  As long as there are still openings in these classes, starting next week Baylee with take pottery and Mexican/Central American Cultures, Drew will take robotics, and Zach will take computer gaming.  At home they'll still do all the regular subjects. 

Big News? Maybe?

In everything that's been going on with my grandma, I haven't mentioned something potentially big that's happening in our homeschool.  We might be joining Seattle's HomeSchool Resource Center, which is a place where homeschooled kids can go to take classes.  Even though it's run by homeschoolers, it's affiliated with the Seattle public school system, so Zach could get his diploma from there.

The hoops are as follows:  You can take as many or as few classes as you want from them, but you have to get the curricula you use at home okayed by one of their advisers, and your children have to be tested yearly by them.  Oh, and they give you a significant amount of money per child toward secular curricula and/or lessons (like music lessons).

So.  I'm going to a meeting over there this afternoon and we'll see if this is something we want to be a part of.  We did look over their schedule of classes for this semester, and there's some good stuff.  Baylee's interested in pottery (They have a real wheel and kiln!) and a class called Cultures of Mexico and Central America (Okay, she thinks that one sounds "boring and for boys," but I want her to take it.), Drew is interested in Lego Robotics, and Zach likes the looks of something called Creating Computer Games.

I picture this place being run by kindly hippies.  I'll get back to you and let you know if I'm right. 

I Just Can't Help But Like Freddie

I Love You.

 A couple days have gone by.  I haven't cried today...yet...and I think I won't.  I cried quite a bit yesterday, but today I feel more...accepting.  Also hopeful.

Thursday my sister called and told me the news about my grandma.  This is the grandma who...

• I loved to visit as a child, because she'd always have my favorite things, like Velveeta cheese squares.  (When my cousin, Cara, spent the night it was Cool Whip.)

• lived on a farm along with my grandpa, so there were lots of farm animals to see at their house.  I loved the barn kittens.

• would let me stay up at night long enough to watch Fantasy Island with her, which was something I wasn't allowed to watch at home.

• lived with my family (along with my grandpa) for several years.  We moved into the farmhouse when I was in high school, and an addition was built onto it for my grandparents.

• over the last couple years has been writing me a lot of letters, basically saying goodbye.  Not morbidly or anything, but just "I'm not going to be around forever, and I want you to know..."

So my sister called and told me that my grandma had a stroke.  It's weird how you think one thing about your own ability to process bad news, then you hear some and find out you're terrible at it.  I couldn't seem to grasp what she was saying.  I asked her to repeat herself over the course of the conversation about five times.  It was all so shocking, yes, even though my grandma is ninety and logically something had to happen at some point.  Then I was rude and told my sister I had to be done.  I had to hang up.  And then I cried for a long time sitting at the dining room table.

Since then the news has gone up and down.  First that Grandma isn't so bad.  Then that Grandma's really bad and a decision has to be made whether to put in a feeding tube or let her go.  Finally Grandma might be able to be rehabilitated.  My family is there, aunts and uncles and cousins gathered around her hospital bed, hearing these things.  I'm here, waiting for calls.

It's hard.

Grandma

My grandma in MI had a stroke yesterday.  Things don't look good.  Please pray as my extended family has to make heartbreaking quality-of-life decisions.  

Lunch Break Musings

 Bible Related Stuff

Yesterday Zach and I were reading about the Apollo 8 mission in one of his schoolbooks.  There were a lot of quotes by the astronauts in the book, plus there was a long passage about how the astronauts passed around a Bible and read Genesis 1:1-10 over the radio to the people on earth.  Millions of people all over the globe heard them.  The textbook had those Bible verses right in there, and while I was reading it to Zach I choked up thinking of all those people hearing it.  It must have been so moving.

Today Zach and I were talking about times in history when God has broken the natural laws He set up, and one of the things we talked about (and read in the Bible) was the story of Balaam.  Something struck me and I pointed it out to Zach:  To me it's not really much of a stretch to imagine a donkey speaking.  I mean, God made that happen.  What's totally weird is that Balaam responded to it so matter of factly, carrying on a whole conversation like it was no big thing.  I mean, who does that?! 

Betty Crocker.....'s Brother

Mike picked blackberries yesterday out on a stretch of the Interurban trail, then came home and...drumroll please...made a pie!  It was really good, too!  I'm lucky to be married to a guy who knows his way around a kitchen.

Yeah, We Home School

This morning Baylee was digging through the basket of clean laundry looking for socks.  She found a white one and a purple one, and she was like, "Oh, whatever.  This works."  And I was like, "Oh, whatever.  That works."  

Last night Drew was doing his homework while taking a bath, when he accidentally dropped his schoolbook in the water.  Now he has a warped, crunchy book to read and so will Baylee when she gets a little older.  Great.  Just great.

After I wrote that account of our day for my last post I worried that I made us sound totally disorganized and out of control.  So today I'm making it worse by sharing about the socks and soggy books.  I don't know why.  I'm just compelled. 

Just Kinda Crazy Like That

About a week ago I stumbled upon a group of blogs written by home schooling moms with many children.    One of the topics they covered was "What is a typical day like?" and the way they approached it was to each write a detailed minute-by-minute post.  I thought it was pretty darn interesting, not to mention it reminded me of one of my favorite home schooling books, A Patchwork of Days.  Anyway, it inspired me, so now for your enjoyment (or maybe total boredom), I'm going to do an entry like that myself!

8AM:  I had good intentions of getting up at 6:30, but...ahem...eight o'clock it is.  The first thing I do is go into the kids' rooms to get them up, too.  Baylee asks for five more minutes, Zach mumbles, and Drew is already awake and has been for a good, long time.  He's sitting on the floor of his bedroom quietly putting new strings on his guitar.  I tell all the kids to quickly eat breakfast, get dressed, and get cleaned up, then I hop in the shower.

8:30AM:  I'm out of the shower and dressed, and now I'm in "Come on!  Let's go!" mode. I  hurry kids along with nagging, start a load of laundry, take a load out of the dryer and dump it in my room to deal with later, start the tea kettle to make myself a cup of my favorite General Mills coffee, listen to Drew tell me about his future plans to put a movie projector in his room, remind him to wash his face, and try to empty the dishwasher.

9AM:  Time to start school!  Both Baylee and Drew decide to do creative writing and literature first.  Baylee's assignment is to answer several questions about chapter one of the book she read for homework last night.

Drew's assignment is to write a paragraph of contrast.  Oh, shoot, Zach is still in the shower.    I make a mental note that we need to start earlier.  Once Drew and Baylee are busy I go back to my dishwasher job, occasionally answering their called out questions.

(I should add that Mike is on vacation this week, so he's here at home with us today.  Normally he's gone to work by this time.  At this point, though, he's still in bed.)

9:15AM:  Zach's out of the shower.  He decides to do algebra first, so he and I sit at the dining room table to do a lesson on "order of operation".  Meanwhile, Baylee finishes creative writing and literature and moves on to math.  She manages to interrupt my lesson with Zach about 317 times with questions about multiplication.  Apparently she forgot the entire times table over the summer.  Argh.

9:30AM:  All the kids are working quietly and alone.  I go back to try to finish my job emptying the dishwasher.  I also realize I never did have that cup of coffee.

10:15AM:  Zach finishes algebra and starts etymology.  Today he's focusing on the Latin root "tract".  Drew finally finishes writing his contrast paragraph (He did a good job!) and he takes a break to play his guitar in his room.  At some point I realize Baylee has finished math, gone on to spelling, finished that, and started English.  That's how school is with her.  She's extremely independent most of the time.  My job with her is to teach the occasional new concept and to correct the finished schoolwork I find scattered around the house.  English is going to take her awhile today, though.  It's dictionary work.  Blah.

10:30AM:  I try again to finish unloading the dishwasher.  The whole coffee thing never happened, either.

11AM:  Baylee completes English and decides to save her last two subjects, science and social studies, for after lunch.  She wanders off to create a card for someone using art supplies, including pastel chalk.  Drew puts his guitar away and does grammar.  I've got him using two different grammar books this year, so he does a lesson in the first book now, and he'll do one in the second book after lunch.  Zach finishes etymology and starts biology.  I finally get my coffee (Yay!) and Mike, who got up awhile back, sees how things are and empties the dishwasher.  Then he and I talk about our plans for the day while he makes a rub for the steak he's going to grill for supper.

11:15AM:  Mike tracks down Baylee and sets her to work doing a few chores around the house.  Drew starts his math lesson.  I do my hair and make-up.

11:30AM:  Miraculously nobody needs me, so I check the laundry and realize Mike has taken over there, too.  Awesome!  I take a minute to look at my email for the first time today.  I got a lot of junk and one from someone at church wanting to know if I'd be interested in teaching Sunday school.  I decline because I'm already helping with Pioneer Girls this year.  In fact, I've got a planning meeting for that tonight.

11:45AM:  Zach finishes biology, so the two of us sit on my bed for a few minutes to do a quick overview of what he's learned about birds so far.  We do this for every subject every day, so that when the tests come he'll be ready.  Unbeknownst to me, Drew finishes math and decides to make himself macaroni and cheese for lunch.  He pours the noodles in cold water and then thinks maybe something's not quite right, so he calls me.  Yes, he did it wrong.  Sigh.  I take him to task a bit for not waiting for the water to boil, he assures me he knows what he's doing, and I tell him he obviously doesn't.  Still, maybe it won't taste too bad, so I turn up the heat and walk away.  Mike and Baylee run an errand to the drugstore to get a few little things for a science experiment that I forgot about.

12PM:  Everything's quiet and I'm on Facebook.  Suddenly, cutting through the peace, comes, "Hey, guys!  The macaroni and cheese is boiling over!"  I say a medium-bad word, run into the kitchen, clean up the mess, and decide to make and serve the mushy mac and cheese anyway, betting the boys won't care.  They don't.  They also eat some plums.  I go back on the computer to IM with my friend Melissa, thinking that Mike will give Baylee lunch when they get back.  

12:20PM:  Baylee and Mike are back, Drew's practicing Jimi Hendrix's version of the "Star Spangled Banner" in his bedroom while lying flat on his back, and I'm not sure what Zach is doing.

12:30PM: While they were out Mike and Baylee stopped at PetCo and bought gerbil bedding.  They also got Ginger a new toy, which Ginger neither understands nor likes.

Zach cleans up from lunch at Mike's request.

12:40PM:  Back to the grindstone.  I ask Baylee to finish her schoolwork and she informs me that she never had lunch.  (Calgon...)  I make her crackers and cheese, which she takes to the table and eats while she does science and social studies.  Drew does his second grammar book and then starts on career studies.  Zach starts geography.

 

1:30PM: Baylee is done with school.  She gets out Mike's laptop and plays kids' games.

Mike takes the dog on a long walk (to get away from the chaos?) and I take a minute to set up Drew's science experiment.  It'll be ready when he is.

1:45PM:  Drew and I do an experiment on chemical reactions while Baylee looks on. 

Now Drew is finished with school, too.

2PM:  Zach starts English.

2:30PM: Mike returns from walking the dog and asks which kids would like to go out with him to pick blackberries.  He's got one taker:  Baylee.  I eat lunch.

3PM:  Zach does his last subject, New Testament Survey, and now he's done for the day.  Whew!

3:45PM:  I finish typing this out and then pick up the house.  Mike is making supper tonight (I could get used to him being home like this!), and I've got a meeting at church at 7PM.  Zach's got algebra homework and Drew has to read two chapters in his book for creative writing and lit.

-------------------------------

Writing all this out was fun, but it made me realize I have some work to do in getting things more organized around here.  Luckily it's still early in the school year and there's plenty of time to smooth everything out.  And to be completely honest, to some extent home schooling is just kinda crazy like that.

Ragtag Topics

The new picture in the header is what 7th grade looks like in this house.  Or at least that's how it looked today while Drew was doing his new subject, Career Studies.

This evening our neighbor, Kelli, from a few houses down called.  She and her husband have two young boys, a 2-year-old and a newborn.  Kelli is a stay-at-home mom, but just for one year.  She told me she's on sabbatical from her job teaching high school Spanish in order to do some research (I guess for a higher degree?) and also to be home with the kids.  Anyway, she called because she really likes Baylee (Actually, she likes both Baylee and Rachel, as both girls are often over there entertaining Conner, the 2-year-old.) and she wanted to know if Baylee would be willing to come over after lunch once a week to play with Conner so she can get some of that research done.  Since Baylee is home schooled and can easily finish her work by noon if she applies herself, she was both willing and able.  In fact, she was thrilled.  She's been walking around saying, "I've got a job!  I've got a job!" ever since.

The boys had been talking about trading bedrooms for awhile.  They discussed terms for days on end and finally came up with this:   Drew could have the bigger room with the better bed, but  Zach would have the TV (It's a little TV the kids got from their grandpa.  We have it connected to our Direct TV, but we've got really heavy parental controls on it, and it turns itself off every night at 10pm.)  and the game system.  Today was the day they made the switch.  They did it almost totally by themselves, and you know what?  Both those bedrooms look a ton better now!  The big room suits Drew because he's got so many bulky guitar things, and the smaller room suits Zach because his stuff looks great in there.  He's turned it into a really cozy little area.   It's like it's taken all of us five months to figure out how best to live in this house.

Drew was playing a Jimi Hendrix song called "Little Wing" today, and it made me think about how far he's come over the last year in his music.  Here's a link to a video of him playing that same song in November of 2009.

Then

And here he is playing it today.  He's really come a long way in his facial expression and power stance skills as well.  *grin*

Ouch, Continued

Well, I spent 99% of the weekend on the couch because of a really bad (like can't stand up straight, can barely walk, had one period of about 5 minutes where I sobbed and poor Mike didn't know what to do) back.  It wasn't as fun as I imagined to laze around being waited on for two days in a row.  At all.  It was so boring!  I'm up now...pretty much.  My big goal today?  Clean the house.  Most likely I won't be able to accomplish it, but a girl can dream.


While I was down I used Mike's laptop to watch Masterpiece Theatre's Wuthering Heights on Netflix.  Even though my mom always encouraged me to read all those old classics, I never read this one.  It just never looked all that interesting.  I admit, I was wrong.  It is interesting, but not as a love story.  It's fascinating more in the way you can't turn away from a car accident.  The two main characters, Cathy and Heathcliff, are horribly selfish.  Heathcliff is, I think, certifiably insane.  Basically, things couldn't go more wrong for either of them, and it's all because of really dumb, incredibly self-centered choices.  They were good-looking, though, so there was that.


We were going to take a trip to Mount Rainier today to see the Grove of the Patriarchs.  My dumb back ruined the plans.  Oh well.  Mike's home all week on vacation, so maybe we'll go later. 

Most Memorable Thing Said By Drew's Teacher at Rock Band Camp

"Come on, you guys!  Get it together!  You sound like a set of drums falling down a staircase!"


Drew came home on the second day of camp, laughing about that.  He said his teacher was frustrated because the boys weren't playing together.  They were all kinda keeping their own beat and reaching the end of the song at slightly different times.  LOL  I've been meaning to share the quote for awhile now, but I kept forgetting. 

Week One...Check

We finished with our first week of school!  Man, am I happy.  Today each kid did 4 subjects (out of 6 total)  without (much) complaint.  I'm pretty proud that we all persevered, even though technically we didn't have to start until next week.  Oh, how I wanted to give up, too, because of my back.  And now, as the icing on the cake, we get a 3-day holiday weekend!


In this picture from this morning Baylee is working on alphabetizing.  She has several lists of words, and she has to pick out the one word in each list that's out of alphabetical order.  On the other side of the table Drew is doing Creative Writing and Literature.  His homework last night was to read two chapters of the book The Fugitive King, so that today he could answer questions on what he read and then do a related logic puzzle.

After Drew finished school he started playing my old black guitar.  He's given it new life.  This song is called "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You."




And here it is being played by Led Zeppelin.




Sue


PS:  Last night I finished an incredible book called The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  Run to the bookstore and buy it.  Seriously, it's that good.  It'll make you laugh, it'll horrify you, it'll make you cry.  It'll change the way you see the world.

Ouch

This button describes my last two days.  Why?  Because I have a super bad lower backache.  Earlier today I was desperate and took 4 (!!!) Ibuprofen at the same time, and all it did was give me nausea to go with my back agony.  I've turned into an 117 year old shuffling, groaning, slightly stooped woman.  And EVERYBODY is irritating me.  Zach took his life into his hands by asking if we're "having casserole...again."    He's hiding in his room now.  If I don't start feeling better soon I'm gonna do something drastic.  Like lie in bed and cry.

Pretty Atoms Experiment

Today Drew did a science experiment on atoms.  We poured goopy things in a glass until we had layers of maple syrup, water, and oil.  Then we dropped objects in to see where they would come to rest.  In the end we had a rock on the bottom of the glass, a grape floating on top of the maple syrup, an ice cube floating on top of the water, and a cork floating on the oil.  

For some reason it didn't turn out as pretty as when Zach did it two years ago:

I'm not sure if that's because Zach was more careful or if it's because the glass was narrower.

Edited to Add:  Oh, I know!  It's because the oil was more colorful.  And because when we took the picture he hadn't yet gunked the works up with the grape and rock and stuff.  

School. Slowly.

One of the best decisions I ever made as far as home schooling was to start things off slowly this year.  We're taking this week to eeeeeease into it, and because of that there haven't been any meltdowns or blowups or tears.  And the kids are doing fine, too!

Here are a couple pictures of Drew doing science and math this morning.  He watched an introductory video in science and then we talked a bit about what science is and how it's important to begin at the beginning.  That is, by taking a little time to study its history.

 

Notice I've got a mug of coffee and a glass of Coke going at the same time.  It's the secret of my success.

Here's a picture of Drew doing math.  He didn't make a single mistake today in his lesson on Roman numerals.  He's cute and smart!

Finally, here's the dog.  Just because.