Not Much

I've got nothin' today.  Well, except for these pictures...

For several days now this has been an advertisement on my Facebook page for a place in Seattle that does tooth replacement:

I mean, really?  If I had that going on would I be sitting around, chatting on Facebook?  Status:  "You guys are never going to believe what happened to me last night!"  No.  I'd be in hiding.

And this, just because I can relate:

 

Okay, and this, too, because you guys are worth it:

All the Things that Went Wrong Today

• The kids and I were all extremely grouchy to be doing school again after a wonderful Thanksgiving break.
• I moved the school bookcase to the hallway by the bedrooms to make room for the Christmas tree.  Of course, I completely forgot about it over and over, and ended up walking up to the tree about 67 times to get school books and supplies.
• One of the toilets clogged and overflowed after a teenager used it.  Not good.  Not good at all.
• That last one is worth 3 or 4 bullet points.
• I ate a bad frozen diet-food dinner (Michelina's) and spent my entire lunch break in the bathroom.  I should've known something was wrong when the food smelled like fish, but was actually chicken.
• It took me forever to clean the house.
• I forgot to buy spaghetti sauce for our spaghetti dinner.
• I laid down to "rest my eyes" and fell sound asleep at about 6pm.  I slept for an hour and a half, and I dreamed I was being held captive in a messy house.

Tomorrow will be better.

Baylee and Grace

A couple weeks ago Baylee and Grace spent the afternoon dressing up as different things.  Grace's mom sent me these pictures.

Cowgirls...

Zombies...

Christmas tree and ornament...

LOL  Silly girls.

Christmas Decorations

Decorating for Christmas turned out to be a comedy of errors today.  First of all, only about half the lights on the pre-lit tree work this year.  We knew it was coming, as pre-lit trees usually have a lifespan of about two seasons before something goes wrong.  We've had this tree for four seasons now.  To fix the problem we decided to add some lights to it, but, of course, those didn't work well, either.  Argh.  Mike carefully went through bulb by bulb and fixed them.

 
Finally I started putting the lights on the tree, only to discover that I started with the plug-end at the top by the ceiling.  Haha!  Oops.  Mike fired me, then he and Drew unwrapped all my hard work and started over.

 
Now the worst part was finished, and the kids, including Rachel, put up all the ornaments.

And tried on their stockings.

Ta-da!

Also, today Baylee and Rachel decided to pick up where they left off, before the superglue fiasco, with the puppet show.  They worked for a couple hours making all the puppets they'll need for the show out of paper, tape, markers, and shish kabob skewers.

The Wedding

Drew did that wedding recessional tonight.  He was so cute!  They told him during the rehearsal to come up during the prayer, start playing after the kiss and the introduction of the newly married couple, and to patch the song together in such a way that he finished when the wedding party was all the way down the aisle and out the doors.  They also said they wanted some sort of obvious ending...a held-out note or whatever.  I was so proud of him, because he carefully watched and did everything he was supposed to do.  He even gave them...well...a VERY obvious ending to the song.  Nobody, not even Mike and me, knew he was going to do that.

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The Funniest Thing on the Internets

Seriously, this may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on YouTube.  The "Would you look at that!" guy is pranking the other guy, who's a total stranger and has no idea.  I made everyone in my family watch this.  Zach and I laugh cried.

So Thankful

Thanksgiving Eve

I'm starting to get excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow!  We're going to have lots of good food (including prime rib that Mike's making) and lots of relaxed family time.  I even bought a new puzzle for the occasion.

Today Mike and Drew went to the church to work on getting the best sound set-up for Drew's guitar.  (They didn't want to mess with it during the actual wedding rehearsal, since it takes some time and some quiet.)  They were pleased to discover that Drew's effects pedal has a setting where one guitar can sound like two, one playing an octave lower than the real one.  Awesome!  This might work.  The wedding is in two days.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Dolittle

Mike took this last night with his cell phone.  I think he thinks it's pretty funny that the person in the house who complains about the animals the most is surrounded by them all the time.

Marital Irritations

Alternately Titled:  Your stupid dog ate my entire tube of chapstick.

Product Testimonial

Yesterday a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to Starbucks to grab coffee during the Sunday school time at church.  This wasn't the usual friend I go to Starbucks with, but a different Starbucks friend.  (So don't try to guess who it is.)  Anyway, we were getting ready to head over there when a third woman, who neither of us know very well, asked to join.  Well, now we couldn't just take any old car, we had to take a clean one.  While that third woman was making a quick bathroom stop, I took the opportunity to ask my friend if she'd drive:

"Hey, can you drive?  My car is kinda messy."

"Sue, I can't.  My car is terrible.  Trust me."

"Oh, come on.  I've seen your car.  It's not that bad.  Mine has crumbs where the kids sit!"

"No, you don't understand.  We can't take my car.  I've got...something...on the console."

"What?"

"...."

"What is it?!"

"Aww, geez.  A couple days ago I had a cup with a couple inches of coffee left in it, and I didn't want it to spill all over, so I...well...I took an OB out of my purse and stuck it in there.  And I haven't gotten around to throwing it away yet.  It's still there."

I stood there in stunned silence for a second.  "Did it work?"

"Yeah, it soaked up all the coffee."

More stunned silence.  "Did it get really big?"

"It completely filled the cup."

 "Yeah, okay, let's take my car."

2 Down, 1 to Go

The kids got the 2nd big musical thing of the month over with, and they did a good job!  I couldn't take the video myself and neither could Mike, but our friend Dan did it for us.  I didn't explain the camera to him very well, though, so he missed the first tiny bit and then messed with it for awhile in the beginning trying to zoom in (It doesn't let you do that after you start recording.  Isn't that lame?  Ugh.  I need a new camera.), but you get the gist.

PS:  Working with Drew this time my mantra to him was:  Keep it slow.  Keep it slow, keep it slow, keep it slow.  Keep it slow.  Oh, and Drew?  Keep it slow.

PPS:  He kept it slow.

PPPS:  A couple different adults came up to me afterward and said that they got teary during the song.  That still makes me smile to think about.

 

And now we've officially milked dry "As the Deer" and it's going into permanent retirement.

As Per Request

Here's Baylee's new haircut...

Today is going to be a busy, crazy day.  Our peer group, Adolos, is feeding everyone at church Thanksgiving dinner and putting on a little program for them.  Our whole family is involved in one way or another:  Mike is running sound and helping with the kitchen clean up, Zach is running the commercial dishwasher, Drew and Baylee are two of the kids who will be playing and singing in the program, and I'll be standing behind the scenes making sure about 8 kids go out on the stage when it's their turn to do their thing.  *deep breath*  This'll be fun...I hope.

Got a Haircut!

My friend Bethany came over tonight and cut my hair much shorter than I've had it in a long time.  I love it!  Baylee took a picture for me.  (Wow, I'm so pale.  It's always something when you see a picture of yourself, right?)  She cut Baylee's hair, too, up to shoulder length.

8th Grade at Our House

I've been meaning to come back and do another one of these, but life (and laziness) kept getting in the way.  Today's the day, though.  I'm posting this on Saturday, but I'm talking about what Drew did for school on Friday.

Bible:  Drew always starts off the day with "Bible," which for him just means a quick devotional-type reading each morning.  I began the year having him read from a book we have called...err...never mind.  I just went to look for it and I can't find it anywhere.  There is a downside to having a lot of bookcases and no system.  Oh, I found it!  It was in the bookcase in Baylee's room.  It's called 100 Devotions about Boundaries for Teens.  Drew gave it a good try, but after a couple weeks he admitted that he hated it.  Now I have him read from a book we've had around for ages called Hero Tales:  A Family Treasury of True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes.  Today he read about the faith of George Muller.  After he's finished with Hero Tales I think I'll have him read from his Bible every day.  

History:   I mentioned before that we use a public school textbook called Discover Our Heritage.  So far this book has been wonderful.  It's interesting, informative, and filled with colorful pictures.  Today Drew learned more about ancient Greece; specifically, he learned about their poetry and drama, their science and math, and their philosophy. 

Literature and Creative Writing:  This is my favorite of Drew's subjects, and I'm sad because he's almost to the end of what the publisher (ACE) offers in this subject.  It's been such a fun couple years of going through several books together.  Today Drew read another chapter of Treasures of the Snow...well, actually we're reading this one together...

(I know.  I need a haircut. Blah.  I need layers cut into it.  In my partial defense, though, this picture was taken in the morning, so it shouldn't really count completely against me.)

and then he answered a few questions in writing.  We also talked about how to tell where the climax of a story is.  Yesterday we had a good discussion (and he did an assignment) on types of conflict:  man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. nature, and man vs. God.  When we're finished with this course I think I'm just going to have Drew read good books from the library every day and practice what he learned in an online Essay Writing course he took.

Pre-Algebra:   We're using Teaching Textbooks, but the first half the year is a review of arithmetic.  It's not until after Christmas that pre-algebra starts.  Today Drew did a lesson on changing fractions to decimals.  He's good at math, so I usually let him do every other problem.  He's done in about 20 minutes.

Grammar:  Drew has been slowly but surely making his way through the Cozy Grammar program with Marie the Canadian.  She teaches via instant streaming and we buy individual lessons.  Each one is anywhere from 5 to 12 (or so) minutes long and comes with a written assignment.  There are also tests.  Last year Drew did the Basic Punctuation and Basic Grammar courses, and this year he'll do Intermediate Grammar I and II, and Essay Writing.  Today Drew had a test on pronouns, but it included quite a bit.  He had to know about interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite (simple, compound, and phrasal), subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns, and that isn't even all.  The interesting thing is that Marie is such a fun, gentle teacher that the student almost doesn't realize he's learning, and then he does the worksheets and tests and scores very well.  Drew got an A+ today.

Science:  For science this year we're using the second half of Apologia General Science.   The first half, which we did last year, is Earth science, and the second half is life science.  We just started learning about the skeleton, and today was supposed to be an experiment involving a chicken bone. We even had roast chicken for dinner in order to make that happen.  But then when Drew and I sat down together with our bone all ready to go, we found out that the bone was supposed to be uncooked.  Doh!  No science today after all, and I guess we'll have to have chicken for supper again soon.  (Only next time debone first.)

Music:   Drew didn't have a lesson today (It's on Tuesdays and his teacher comes to our home, which is wonderful and we're totally spoiled.), but he does play his guitar every day.  Also, Drew has youth group every Wednesday night, and he plays in the youth group praise band. 

Next semester I'm thinking about adding Typing, seeing as how we already own it for Zach.  We're using a program called Typing Instructor and it's excellent.  I highly recommend it.

It's a great mix of lessons and games, and you, the parent, don't have to do a thing.  You choose the course of study you want your child to follow and the program keeps track of everything:  Which lesson they're on, whether they passed or need to do it again, and which lesson they need to do next.  It will evaluate their progress down to the exact finger.  It even has certificates you can print out as your child reaches certain levels.

And that's it!  So far 8th grade has been pretty darn enjoyable.

Snow!

It snowed this morning, and school stopped for Drew and Baylee while they dreamed of all the fun they were going to have.  Then about one minute later it stopped snowing.  It was fun while it lasted!

 

And here's a blooper video of a song the kids are practicing for an upcoming Thanksgiving event.  First Drew makes a mistake in the introduction and gives me a look that clearly say, "Oh, shoot!"  He keeps going, though, which is exactly what I told him to do in the event of a mess-up.  But then Baylee gets spit caught in her throat and laughs about it, and after that it all falls apart.

Hero

A retired Army paratrooper who fought in the Vietnam War spoke to our Pioneer Girls club last night.  It was totally fascinating.  He goes to our church and I'm never going to be able to look at him again without thinking, "That guy is a hero."  I loved his talk.

One of the things he talked about was an experience he had not during the war, but only a few years ago.  He was working with the Thai army, which he does a couple times a year even now and he's gotta be in his 60s, teaching them things like how to move through the jungle quietly and how to spot enemies.  He said he was at the back of a line of about forty soldiers, watching the leader and evaluating him, when he noticed that the leader stepped over what looked like a tree branch in the middle of the trail.  Suddenly the "branch" reared up...it was a 6-foot cobra.  The man in the lead froze, as did everyone else.  Ken, the man who was talking to us, slowly went forward and grabbed the snake by the neck.  On a normal snake that would've been enough to immobilize it, but a cobra has that hood, so Ken had a really hard time getting a good grip on it.  Also, the snake immediately wrapped its entire body around his arm.  Ken said that the snake started to pull its head down through his fist, and since he was in the jungle and it was about a hundred degrees and he was sweaty, and since he couldn't get a solid grasp because of the hood, the snake was succeeding.  Ken knew that if the head got through his fist it would immediately bite him and he would die, as they were quite a ways from any medical help.  One of the Thai soldiers raised his gun to shoot the snake, but Ken told him "no."  He figured there was too much of a chance that he would end up shot, too.  When the snake's head was halfway through his fist he got an idea.  He bit the snake's back and chewed until he severed its spinal cord.  After that the snake was paralyzed and it was only a matter of unwrapping it, throwing it down on the ground, and killing it.  Ken said he stood there with blood dripping from his mouth and a lot of Thai soldiers just staring at him.  To this day when he goes to Thailand the soldiers ask him what snake tastes like and he laughs and tells them it tastes like chicken.

Wow, huh?!  Needless to say, you could hear a pin drop in that room while he was talking.  What an amazing man.

Baylee's Government Lesson

Tonight Baylee and Drew were in the backseat of the car talking about the Bill of Rights.  Baylee was telling Drew as many of the amendments as she could remember.  The conversation went like this:

Baylee:  Number one is the freedom of speech.  Number two is the right to bear arms.  Number three is that you don't have to let soldiers stay in your house if you don't want to.  Number four is that there's no search and seizure.

Drew:  Wait, what's search and seizure?

Baylee:  You can't search for someone who's having a seizure.

Drew:  What?  That doesn't make any sense.

Baylee:  It does, too!  Now where was I...


In other news, tune in tomorrow because I have a truly amazing snake story for you!

Yeah, Okay

I found this fun chart of prayers for the different personality types according to the Myers Briggs test.  (click to enlarge)  Of course, I had to go find and take the personality test online to figure out which one I am.  Turns out I'm an INFP and the prayer that goes with my personality is, "Lord, help me to finish everything I sta..."  LOL  Go find out what you are and report back!

Every Move I Make

Here's a new song Drew and Baylee are working on for fun.  We did it two ways, because they couldn't agree which guitar they wanted to use.  If you watch it, I think it becomes obvious which kid likes which guitar.  Or at least it's obvious which one Drew likes better.

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Lake 22

A little more than a week ago Mike went on a hike with his friend from church, Scott, and Gibbs to a remote lake up in the mountains called Lake 22.  He took the most beautiful pictures (with the camera on his phone no less) that I want to show you a few.

 

Grace

Sometimes it's so hard to be gracious, especially in the face of ignorance or just plain rudeness.  Sometimes I completely fail at it, and sometimes, usually, I just keep my mouth shut and think ungracious thoughts.

A couple days ago, in frustration and anger and sadness, I wrote a post about Zach's dyslexia on a forum I belong to.  Basically I was expressing anger with God and life for the fact that Zach has to struggle with this learning disability.  I feel so badly for him.  Sometimes I'm heartbroken.  (And by the way, this is as good a place as any for me to say that I HATE dyslexia jokes.  They're not funny; they just hurt.)  It was a bad day, needless to say.  Anyway, I received mostly really kind, encouraging comments.  Today, though, I woke up to a response telling me that I'm not the one "dealing" (she put quotes around it like that) with dyslexia, Zach is, and not only that but dyslexia is a gift.  Then she gave me lots of advice.

I'm sure she meant well.  Of course she did.  But, wow, it really brought home to me the whole "walk a mile in my shoes before you criticize" concept.  She has no idea of the time...1000s of hours...and tears and effort and perseverance that have gone into this issue.  And that's just Zach!  If I were to include myself I'd say all those things and I'd also add money to the list.  Nobody understands better than me that it's ultimately his burden.  If I could make it about me by taking it onto myself, I would've done so 10 years ago.  The only way it's about me is in the fact that I'm here trying to help every day, and hurting for him when things are hard.  It's about me in that this is my son, whom I love desperately and dearly.  Oh, and guess what.  I don't care what book is out there (and, yes, I read it a long time ago) telling people that Dyslexia is a Gift.  That's bull.  We live in a world where people need to read and write every single day.  Struggling with it is no gift.

Lord, help me to extend grace to dumb*****.  And to Zach.  And to myself.

I don't have much today.  Just this cartoon, because I can relate:

And a general irritation about some people's reaction to the news that Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 20th child.   On Facebook today one of my friends from high school ranted about it, and then several of her friends jumped in with their own mean comments.  I mean, I get people being concerned for Michelle's health or for the baby's health.  What I don't understand is comments like, "They should name that baby Tax Break!  Or Publicity Stunt!"  I have no patience for that type of argument.  It says, "I know exactly why you did what you did.  I'll tell you how you feel and what you think."  How do you defend yourself against people who assume they know what your motivations are?  You can't.  It's the worst, most unfair way to fight.

Loving These Guys

Today is a different sort of day.  Only two of the kids are doing school.  I allowed Zach to take the day off today, because he was up late last night getting that video game and then playing it for awhile at home.  It works out, since there's a holiday this week on Friday.  Drew and Baylee will take that day off, and everything will come out in the wash.  Anyway, things are more relaxed and I've had quite a bit of time to mess around.  I like it!

Speaking of Zach, last night he got home from karate and came to where I was in the TV room.  He plopped down next to me on the couch and talked for a long time about this and that.  One of the things he told me was that a couple new people joined his karate class.  Zach said that it was nice, because before that he was the newest and lowest ranking member of the class.  Having those people there, who were so new that they didn't even have uniforms yet, brought home to him how much he's learned and how far he's come.  Just sitting there listening to him, interjecting comments here and there and laughing with him about different things, was so nice.  I love that kid.  I love that he's a 16 year old who's kind, sensitive, fun, and who still likes to talk to his mom sometimes.

I love that Drew was taking a science test while eating green olives this morning.  I mean, what?  Who does that???  A homeschooler, that's who.

 Oh, another thing I'm loving right now about Drew...well...let me start at the beginning:  One of the things about Drew and his guitar is that he can be a bit...unteachable.  I hate to say that and it's not true across the board, because he listens to his teacher and to other older guitar players, but he won't listen very well to Mike or me.  It's an issue.  Anyway, I was talking to my mom on the phone and she said, and I already knew this, that Drew played too fast at church the other night.  I knew he rushed that song; I knew it as soon as I watched the video.  I also knew he was rushing the Wedding March when he practiced it.  Still, handling it with, God bless him, my all-knowing, sometimes moody 13 year old was going to take some finesse.  Yesterday he was practicing the thing for the wedding, and I "casually" mentioned that the pace he was setting was so fast that the poor married couple was going to have to run down the aisle.  He laughed and actually listened when I sang to him how slow it should probably go.  And then later in the evening, as he and Baylee were practicing "As the Deer," which they're going to do for a Thanksgiving dinner thing, he listened again when I explained upbeats and downbeats and how something he was playing wasn't quite right.  He understood and fixed it!  I love that he's staying open and hearing.

Baylee was invited to a birthday party for a 7 year old boy.  Just in case you forgot, she's 10.  And a girl.  And she's going to be the only girl there, besides the little boy's sister.  This kid, JoJo (Josiah), has been "in love" with Baylee for at least a couple years now.  In fact, he openly tells people that someday he's going to marry her.  When he asked his mom to invite Baylee, he said, "Tell her she doesn't even need to bring me a present.  Just a kiss will be enough."  Baylee's response was, "Umm...no.  He'll be getting Legos."

Baylee asked for an alarm clock, and now she gets herself up every morning and starts school on her own.  This is what I found when I came out of my room this morning:

I'm loving that inititive!  Later, though, she dressed up the dog, probably just to let us know she's not getting too mature.

And the final thing I'm loving?  My friend Jodi from college is coming for a visit in March!  I'm so excited to see her!  Here's part of the conversation we had about it this morning:

"Just got bumped and scored a free round trip ticket!! I AM COMING TO SEE YOU!!!"

"Holy cow, that would be awesome!!!!! Yay!!!!!  Mike said to tell you that you coming to see us will be a nice birthday present for him, since his birthday is in March. LOL Remember, you and me are going to Underground Seattle. Rain or shine. Homeless people or no homeless people peeing in alcoves. I want to see it and I decided you're coming with me on the tour."

"I will go with you wherever you lead! I am up for anything!  I might have to bring Evy with me.  Of course, I would much rather come by myself, but if the only way I can come is to bring her, I'll do it! She will be almost 3 by then, so it wouldn't be too bad.Oh my goodness, I am SOOOOOOOOO excited! Tell Mike I am ready to sample Seattle's finest microbrews with him!"

"Okay, I'll let him know. You guys can be lushes together. And bring Evy! Are you kidding, Baylee would LOVE that. She'd take care of her the entire time."

So it's settled!  This is my friend whom I wrote about here.  Love her.

PS:  I was just teasing about the "lushes" part.