Tuesday

Two funny things I've run across online in the last few days...

 

And here's picture I took...

It's of Paul and Gibbs watching cartoons together.  Paul's cute, of course, but it's the dog that makes me laugh.  Geez, Gibbs.  Make yourself comfortable. 

By the way, Paul usually watches TV a little bit while he's here, like when his brain needs a break or when I need to work with one of the other kids for a few minutes.  Yesterday, though, Beth told me that he had gotten into some trouble at home, so he wasn't allowed to watch any TV until all his schoolwork was finished.  "Oh, okay," I said.  "...Thanks, Beth."

She laughed and answered, "It wasn't me!  It was Robb!  I never use that as a punishment."  We moms understand that sometimes TV is necessary to our sanity.

(Just kidding.  Homeschooling moms wouldn't dream of using the television as a babysitter.  You have to believe me.)

Baylee's birthday present for Drew came in the mail yesterday (his birthday is next week), so she let him have it early.  It's a Cory in the House poster.  It's a long story, but basically Drew loves that show.  He's a weirdo.

Finally, last night Baylee came to me and said, "You have to listen to this!  It took me forty-five minutes to make it!"   She used the Garage Band app on her phone to record herself doing all the parts to "California Dreamin'."

PS:  We're having a thunderstorm right now!  You can hear a bit of it in the background of that video.

Blast from the Past

Recently my mom was going through some of the old books at my parents' house, and she unearthed one that my 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Gole, gave me.  It's still in pretty good shape, so she sent it to me.  I have no memory of being given this book by Mr. Gole...maybe it was prize for something?...but he was one of my favorite teachers, so it's fun to have.

  
Here's what I really wanted to show you, though.

Apparently I wrote my name in it, and...umm...I spelled it wrong!  LOL  That wasn't how to spell my last name.  Who does that in third grade?  Me, that's who!  #special  The funny thing is that I was the 2nd smartest kid in that class.


PS:  I talked about Mr. Gole once before here.    

Sunday

cuddled up and sleeping together...

Last weekend Drew went over to Trevor's house and together they wrote, played, and sang a song that was a spoof on something called "scene music."  Basically it's just overly-emotional junk.  Trevor has recording equipment so they recorded it, then they listened to themselves and laughed for a long time.  Finally, they shared it with their friend Gavin.  Gavin went to the SoR for his lesson the next day, played it for a few people, and they laughed.  Long story short, by the time Drew got to the SoR a few days later he and Trevor were sort of infamous.  Everybody was coming up and saying how funny the song was.  Even Lori, the music director of the school, made a point to find Drew and tell him how much she laughed over it.

All that to say:  I have the song.  I'm not going to subject you to all 3 minutes of it (and you'll see why once you hear it) but I'll show you a few pieces.

It starts out fairly well.  Like I said, they wrote the song themselves, and they do a good job playing the instruments.

But then...umm...they start singing.

And here's the ending.

From the Gig Today

A picture...

And a video...

(Before you watch, there are two little things of note.  1.  That guitar Drew's playing is a cheap beginner instrument that was being displayed at this Bellevue SoR open house.  You can see it in the picture above, too.  See those big colored circles on the neck?  Those are to help kids remember where to put their fingers.  lol   Anyway, Drew picked it up and used it for some of his songs, and, dang, he made it sound good!  And 2.  Drew went to the singer on our left's birthday party a couple weeks ago, and the shirt she's wearing is the present he gave her.)

Saturday

I'm alone in the house!

• Zach is at work.  
• Baylee got a text this morning, asking if she'd be willing to babysit for much of the afternoon.  She quickly calculated the amount of hours multiplied by how much those people usually pay her (they're generous), and she happily agreed.
• Mike and Drew are at a house band gig.  This is the second gig in two days, and Mike has done the driving/attentive audience duties for both of them.  I owe him, big time.

That leaves me here by myself!  It's quiet.

Speaking of house band, there was some anger on Basecamp today.  (Basecamp is a site the school uses to quickly get information out to the kids and parents in all the different groups and shows at the SoR, and it's place where, conversely, kids and parents can ask questions and give pertinent information of their own.)  Anyway, like I said, there was a kerfuffle there this morning.

It really all started because stuff has been goin' down in house band lately.  First of all, one of the most talented, nicest, most reliable kids up and quit.  It was sad and unexplained.  Because he was so great, he was in about half of the group's songs, so his departure left a huge, gaping hole.

Then this weekend several other kids happened to be out sick.  A couple have cold/fever things, and one is actually in the hospital.  I think she had surgery.

Finally, at the last minute one of the few remaining kids announced that she had other things she needed to do, and she just wouldn't be there.  As you can imagine, that didn't go over well with the directors.  I think they'd had enough all the way around.  Long story short,  they wrote a couple things about how some absences are unacceptable and about responsibility, which I think were justified. Then the angry parent of that girl (the one who decided not to come for what seemed like no good reason) got on there and blasted them.  It was...blah.  I just hope I never become "that mom."  It's not cool.  I mean, yes, there's a time and a place to come to your kid's defense, but there's also something called discretion.  It's a lost art these days. 

Friday

Conversation from last night...

Me:  Vilain chien!
Baylee:  Did you just yell at the dog in French?
Me:  Yeah.
Baylee:  Wow.  [said not in an "I'm impressed" way, but more of a "you need an intervention" way]

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

So get this.  Every time I have to take the SoR kids over to the Bellevue school, I have to cross a toll bridge.  It's the kind of toll where there's no actual booth; instead, a camera takes a picture of your license plate, and then you get a bill in the mail.  Anyway, the other day Mike said to me, "Hey, did you go over the 520 bridge in the carpool lane?"

"Umm...probably," I answered.  "I mean, I do have a car full of kids."

"Yeah, I know, but I just got the bill, and they charged us ten dollars because you did that during peak traffic hours."

Does that make the slightest bit of sense?!  The whole purpose of the car pool lane is to REWARD people for driving with more than one person in the vehicle.  It keeps congestion down on the highway.  So, during the most congested time of the day, I was penalized by having to pay a fortune for doing what they want me to do!  I ask you!

Thursday

I've got something weird to share with you about French.  It's one of the languages with masculine and feminine nouns, and "egg" is masculine!  Think about that.  If there's one thing that should definitely be feminine, it's an egg, am I right?  Who came up with these?

Yesterday a reader of the blog, who shall remain nameless (cough...Craig MacDonald, my Bible professor from college...cough), emailed me with, "Uhm...do you know what ASAP stands for?"  He was talking about my last post, where I said, "As asap as possible."  Tsk.  Of course I know!  It's like casting Michael Scott quotes before swine around here.

 Here's another one just for fun...

 Last night Baylee came home from her rehearsal with the news that she was cast on two more songs, and she told me that in one she gets to play the "congo."  Excitedly, I passed the information on to Mike.  "Guess what!  Baylee gets to play the congo!"

"Did you just say 'congo'?"

"Yeah."

"Congo???"

"Uhh..."  At that point I was starting to think maybe "congo" wasn't the right word.  In fact, maybe it's actually a country in Africa.  "Is that not right?"

"It's 'bongo'!" he finally said, and then he laughed his head off at me.

But the jokes on him, because come to find out the drum Baylee will be playing is called the "conga."  So there!

"Eruption"

I already posted today, but then this happened, so I thought I'd put it up on the blog, too.

Today Drew was messing around, and one of the things he played was something his first teacher David taught him years ago called "Eruption."  It was so fun and crazy-sounding that I asked Drew to do it again so I could video.  Here it is.  (My favorite part is the showy ending.)

If you're interested, here he is playing that same song when he was 13 years old.

Random

I need to get a haircut as asap as possible.  The only problem is that my hairdresser is also my good friend, so whenever she comes over to cut my hair it becomes a 4-hour thing in my kitchen.  I always have to wait for a day when I'm really free.

Baylee either has the stomach flu or she ate something that didn't sit well (as my mom would say).  She was up last night throwing up, which is horrible for her, but it was also kinda awful for me, because she doesn't quite have whatever it is you need to get through that by yourself.  She wants me there through it all.  Seriously.  She literally wants me sitting in the bathroom with her.  The thing is, I don't do well with other people's vomit.  It makes me vomit.  Last night I was emptying out her bucket, and suddenly I was puking, too.  #momlife

I'm still going strong with French.  In fact, I've come up with a summer plan that I'm excited about.  I'll finish French 1 with the program I'm using now, Learnables, and then I'm going to move into a program called Total French, done by a master language guy named Michel Thomas.

It's set up like this:  He's the teacher, there are two student, and you're the invisible third student.  You listen as he teaches the other two how to speak.  The thing I like about it is that he really focuses on being able to sound like a French person, which is something that the program I'm doing now lacks.  Learnables is awesome, don't get me wrong, but its focus is on listening and reading, not speaking.  (Although Baylee, who's also going through it, is still somehow figuring out how to speak just through listening.  She can make her mouth do those weird things.  I can't.)  Then in the fall I'll continue with Learnables French 2, and maybe I'll also do the next level of Michel Thomas' method, Perfect French.

I had a dentist appointment today...a 6-month checkup...and for the first time in I don't know how long I don't have to go back for fillings!  I'm SO happy about that!

Tomb of Desolation has an album cover for their first batch of songs.  They paid some guy $20 (each chipping in $5) to make it for them.  When Drew showed it to me my response was, "You paid someone to make you a picture of ET behind a tree?"

Monday

What we all wish we could be doing...

PS:  My mom made that quilt for Mike as a wedding gift.  Those black shapes are bowties, you see.  On the back she sewed the name of the quilt, which is "Get me to the chapel on time." 

PPS:  Once we were married the quilt was put away for a long time, because it's twin-sized.  Years later we got it back out for Zach's bed, and now it's on Drew's bed.

PPPS:  The dog isn't allowed up there.

Sunday

Today I had to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes with nothing to do, all because I forgot my phone.  That means I forgot to bring along Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, the card game Spades, 3 books on audio and one in print.  Poor me!  How did I ever get through the 70's, 80's, and 90's?

This morning Baylee and I taught the 4's and 5's at church.  One of the things we try to do is spend about 15 minutes in the church gym playing games.  Today while we were in there I had an epiphany, and it's this:

There's really no way to keep the game "Duck, Duck, Goose" completely under control.  Too many things can go wrong:

1. A kid refuses to choose anyone.  He just keeps going around the circle over and over saying "duck."
2. A kid thinks it's funny to make up other names instead of saying "duck."
3. Once chosen, a kid keeps running around and around the circle, instead of sitting in the empty spot.
4. Once chosen, a kid doesn't run around the circle at all, but instead goes off on his own trajectory.
5. There's a kid no one picks.
6. There's a kid who keeps getting picked.
7. There's a kid who doesn't want to be picked.

In essence, it's possibly the worst game ever.  Actually, I take that back.  It's the 2nd worst game.  The very worst is "Red Rover."    #Clotheslined  #FirstGrade  #ScarredForLife  #PersonalExperience

This and That

Guess what?  Drew made it through to the final stage of the All-Stars audition!  Now he has until April 13 to prepare for it.

Did you know that "parfait" means "perfect" in French?  And "gros" means "fat?"  And "mince" means "thin?"  So many words are connected to words in English that kind of mean the same thing.  It's cool.

I keep forgetting to mention that I'm still doing the Change One diet, and it's going well.  I've made enough changes now that I may start seeing weight loss this week.  If not, then for sure next week.  So far I've changed breakfast and lunch, and this week I'm changing supper.  Next week is snacks, and that's where the rubber is really gonna hit the road for me.

Today was the most beautiful, sunny, warm(ish) spring day!

A picture I took in our front yard yesterday...

I had the worst dream last night, and it had to do with Mike.  I know this makes no sense, but it took me a little while this morning to get over being vaguely upset with him over it.  LOL

I got an Amazon gift card from my friend Beth.  Every now and then she gives me a little something...flowers, apples from an orchard, a gift card, a free haircut for Baylee...and it's all because I'm working with Paul (her son) a couple mornings a week.   It's always fun when she does that, but honestly I don't expect it.  I love Paul.  More than that, though, it feels like paying it forward.  I got through having a kid with dyslexia, and now I'm in a position to help someone else do the same.  Anyway!  All that to say, she gave me a gift card, and I used it to buy a book called Easy French Step-By-Step.  It got rave reviews as a great way to understand French grammar.  I don't think I'll start going through it, though, until I'm a bit further along.

Thursday

I'm probably about 20 hours behind Drew and Baylee in French, and it shows.  I will say, though, that I'm working hard every day to catch up.  I finished the "listen only" section this morning and moved into the "listen and read" part of the program.  I was expecting it to be comparatively easy, but actually it's a little harder.  Written French is really different than spoken French, so my brain is about 2 beats behind as it tries to do both things at the same time.  Sometimes I have to close my eyes and just listen, and then I immediately understand.

Just as an aside, yesterday I did a lesson that introduced a ton of new words, including a bunch of prepositions.  The way it did it was by having a mother trying to teach her baby to put things on/in/next to/etc. other things.  One of the items the baby was supposed to work with was a raw egg, and, of course, the baby kept breaking it.  Sometimes he even threw it across the room.  The mother kept getting really upset, but she never learned.  She just kept getting out more eggs.  Then today one of my lessons involved a woman who spilled every drink she was served on an airplane, and she was served, like, three different drinks.  Both situations were ridiculous...either that or French people are weird... but they were kind of fun.

Baylee did great at her first rehearsal last night!  She said everyone was friendly, and she even played Metallica Monopoly with some kids during their down time.  Her songs went well, too, considering she just got them a couple days ago.

We're supposed to hear by tomorrow if Drew made it to the next stage of the audition.

Mike is home now by about 3:30 and Zach by 4:30, and it's...well...a little strange, to be honest.  I'm not used to it.  I'm still glad, though.

Wednesday

Today all the stars aligned and we finished school by lunchtime.  That never happens!  What I'm especially loving is that, even though Drew and Baylee could be doing whatever they wanted, they're both working on music right now.  It's great that they're self-motivated.

PS:  That, in a nutshell, is my philosophy on extracurricular activities for my kids.  If they love what they're doing, they're willing to practice without being reminded, and they're motivated to show up, then great.  They can continue.  As soon as I start feeling like I'm the one taking the lessons or whatever, because everything becomes my responsibility, then forget it.  Thus the reason Zach (at age 9) and Baylee (at age 10) both only took a small amount of piano.  Even though they were both good at it, neither of them enjoyed practicing, and it got to where I was standing over them with a whip, figuratively.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

In other news, Baylee has a doctor appointment this afternoon, because I think the stitches site is infected.  It's red and puffy and painful.

She also has her first rehearsal for Roots Rock tonight.  She's nervous.  She's going into a group that's been working together for a couple months now, and she's going in as a completely new kid who's pretty new on the drums.  She's afraid she's going to mess up, and she's afraid she won't make friends.  Hopefully everything will be fine.

New Schedule!

Mike started 1st shift today!  It's been ages and ages.  When he first started at Boeing he was on 3rd shift, and that took some getting used to, and then he was put on 2nd, and he was there for a long time...like about two years.  And of that 2 years, I spent probably a year and half trying to get used to it.  Let me tell you something:  2nd shift is hard.  You might think 3rd is the most difficult to structure your life around, but you'd be wrong.  2nd shift is like being both normal and nocturnal at the same time.  (Especially in Mike's case, because he'd leave for work around 1pm and get home at around 1am.  The commute was a bugger.)  And it affects the whole family.  I was tired pretty much 24/7, because I'd wait up for him at night, but I'd still have to get up early in the morning to homeschool. 

Anyway, all that to say, I'm so glad he's on 1st!  We get to eat supper together again as a family, Mike and I get to go to bed together at the same time, he'll be here in the evenings...it's gonna be great.

Sunday

The reason why Drew is never asked to be the singer in any group he's in:

 

 

I stayed home from church today, because I had to be available to pick Drew up from a birthday sleepover thing that he was invited to.  Mike went, though, and when he got home he told me a great story.  This is something he saw happen with his own eyes:

There's an old lady in our church who has a bad back, so she uses a little pillow when she sits in the pew during the service.  Well, this morning she got to her usual spot in her usual pew, and lo and behold her pillow was missing.  She looked all over, and after some time she determined that another old lady two pews up had taken the pillow and was using it behind her own back.  The first old lady waited until the congregation had to stand for some singing, and then she made her move.  She tapped a 3rd old lady, one who was sitting in the pew in between, and said, "Grab that pillow from [so and so] ahead of you."  The middle old woman nodded and then proceeded to steal the pillow.  Instead of handing it back to old lady #1, though, she stuck it behind her own back and sat with it there for the rest of the service! 

Also, Mike told me that the sermon was on the parable in the gospels where there's a vineyard that people get hired to work in at different points during the day, but everybody gets paid the same thing in the evening.  As Mike was talking, I remembered something that actually happened to us once...something that has to do with that passage of Scripture.

See, for the first several years of our marriage we lived and worked as house parents at a Christian adult foster care home.  It was a wonderful ministry and we loved it there...all the way up until our last year.  At that point the place got a new manager and everything went to hell in a hand basket.  I'm not exaggerating.  So many things went wrong that it's mind-boggling, but I'll just tell about one.

Hmm.  Where do I start?  Well, I guess first it's important to note that the manager hired his own son and his son's wife to be part-time houseparents in the home where Mike and I were the full-time houseparents.  Then the manager told us that he was restructuring the pay system, and that his son and daughter-in-law would be making basically the same pay that we were (even though they did less than half the amount of work).  When I questioned it, I was told to study Matthew 20:1-16.  In other words, this guy was using that parable as a business construct!  LOL  It was so crazy.  Words fail me.

Rehearsal

Tomb of Desolation was here last night.  They're funny, because they're this "heavy metal band,"  but at the same time they're very normal, nice teen boys.  They joke and eat junk food and make themselves comfortable all over the house.  Last night they borrowed my camera to get some video of one of the songs they have that's almost ready, and then they downloaded it on my computer.  After looking at it, laughing at themselves, and arguing a little about whether or not it's any good, they decided not to use it for anything, because Trevor's guitar was a bit flat.  I still have the video on my computer, though.  Do you want to see a little piece of it?  Trevor, the guy on the left, is playing rhythm guitar, Drew is playing lead, Gavin is on bass, and Jack is on drums.

Audition Again

Well, Drew finally finished his audition video.  He changed the one song Zeke wasn't happy with to Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," and, now that it's over, is glad of it.  It's a better choice because it's a more difficult song, for one thing, but also because it shows a nice range of ability when put next to "Trilogy Suite."  Also, we made a few tweaks to the rest of the video while we were at it.  We did a little cutting and splicing on one of his questions so he doesn't repeat himself, and we added a "Thank You For Watching" message at the very end.  Oh, yeah, and we switched the order of the songs, so that "Trilogy" is the first one they hear.  

What I haven't mentioned, partly out of frustration, is that halfway through this audition process the SoR corporate office changed the rules.  They decided that the video audition isn't the last step after all.  Instead, if the video is good, then the kid moves onto a 3rd and final phase, which is a live audition somewhere "near you" in the U.S.  That could actually mean a couple states away, depending on where you live.  Luckily, for this region it happens to be held at the Seattle SoR.   So, if Drew gets to that point, he only has to go to his own school, where he'll talk to and play for some judge in person.  (He won't know the man or woman who judges him.  They'll bring in somebody from somewhere else.)

This whole process has been both educating and irritating.  I'll be happy when it's over, one way or another.

Here's the new song...

PS:  I mentioned before that Drew first learned that song a long time ago when David was his teacher.  Out of curiosity I just looked to see if I ever videoed him playing it back then, and I did!  It's cute!  Click here to see it:  "Little Wing" Played by a Little Guy

Misc.

One of the shows that the school is doing right now, Roots Rock, needs another drummer, and Baylee was recommended by her teacher!  She agreed to do it, and now she's pretty excited.  (By the way, "roots rock" is like Johnny Cash.)  Within the next week or so she'll get to start doing the 3-hour rehearsals.  Maybe she'll make some new friends there!

Having Baylee tell me that silly little story in French the other day got me interested in starting up my own lessons again.  I understood a lot of what she said, but she's far enough ahead of me now that there was a lot I didn't get and had to ask for a translation.  To that end I've spent the last couple days trying to catch up to where I was before I took an extended break.  I'm almost back on track.  I really want to finish the whole French 1 program along with Drew and Baylee this year, so that I can move to French 2 next school year.  My ultimate goal is to go through all 4 levels (and make Baylee do the same), and then keep working on my own until I'm fluent, at least in hearing and reading.  By "keep working on my own" I mean watching French TV and movies, and reading books in French.  That seems like a good way to do it, don't you think?  Even if I have to start out at the Sesame Street level, that's okay.

Warning: Gross Pictures Ahead

We had some unexpected excitement here last night.  Baylee cut her hand pretty deeply on a tin can of green beans.  Apparently she lost the earplugs that she used when she drummed, so she had an idea:  Why not solve the problem by making a pair of noise-canceling headphone-type things out of a couple empty cans?  She figured she could clean the cans out and somehow attach them to her head with headbands.  (Yay, homeschooling!  Sigh.)  Anyway, she cut herself and we ended up in the ER, where, after a few hours, she got 4 stitches.

On the bright side, Baylee and I chatted and laughed together for the several hours we sat there.  It was a fun bonding time.  She even spoke in French to me a little bit.  She told me a story about a baby who was fast asleep under the dinner table, while the family dog was sitting in a chair pulled up to that table, and how the mother of the family was having a hard time comprehending this.  Baylee did the "alarmed French lady" accent perfectly.  LOL

[scroll down if you want to see kinda gross pictures]

Running Away and a Book Recommendation

Today Paul's mom, my friend Beth, came into the house to pick him up, and she saw that I had a bag of dried split peas out on the counter.  "Are you making pea soup today?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"I hate pea soup."

LOL  She went on to say that she's always hated it, and that once when she was a kid she ran away from home because of it.   She ran as far as the home of one of her little neighbor friends, who made a bed of blankets in a closet and hid her in there.  Of course, Beth was soon discovered and taken back to the pea soup at her own house.

It reminded me of a time when I was six or seven, and I got mad about something and decided I was going to run away.  I even got out a suitcase and started jamming clothes into it and everything.  Then my mom called, "Time for supper!  We're having hotdogs!" and my plan went out the window.  I liked hotdogs.

I'm rereading a book right now called Daddy Long Legs, by Jean Webster, and when I'm done I'm going to read the sequel, Dear Enemy.  ( I haven't read Dear Enemy yet, but I hope it's as good as the first.)  I highly recommend Daddy Long Legs!  It's so excellent!  It's set in the early 1900's, and it's about a girl who lived in an orphanage her whole life, but who is being sent to college for four years by an anonymous male benefactor.  Without having any idea of who he is...including looks, age, personality, or motivation...she's required to write him at least one letter a month keeping him up to date on how she's doing in school.  The book is her letters. 


PS:  I just reread my description of Daddy Long Legs, and I realized that it makes it all sound sort of tawdry.  It's not, I promise.  The book is actually an old classic, written around a hundred years ago.  It's a fun, light-hearted read, and the benefactor isn't a weirdo. 

Change One

I want to talk about something I'm feeling pretty good about:  I started a new diet.  I know what you're thinking, but this is different than anything I've ever done before.  In fact, it's not even really a diet; it's more like a class.  It's a 12-week program that teaches you how to eat in a healthy way, and it's called Change One.

The premise is that diets can be overwhelming for people, because they're such a lifestyle overhaul.  One day you're doing whatever you want and the next you're expected to adhere to a bunch of rules.  That works fine for some people...it even worked for me a couple different times in my life...but for many it's just too much and they quit.  This program only has you making one change a week.  That way it feels doable long enough to get some momentum going.  It's like getting into a cold lake inch by inch, instead of jumping off the dock.

I'm on week one, which has me learning about and changing the way I do breakfast.  It even says something like, "Don't get overwhelmed.  Remember that this week you only have to learn to do this one thing right, and then the rest of the day you can do what you want."  And then it explains in simple terms, without having to count calories, how to put a healthy breakfast together.  Basically, it has you thinking in terms of servings: 1 grain, 1 dairy, 1 fruit, and 1 optional protein.  And it tells you about how big a serving should be.   That's it!  It's so easy, and yet I've never come across this way of thinking in all of the years I've dieted.  Or if I have it hasn't been so plain.

Anyway, that's my news.  One thing that's really encouraging to me is that I went out for coffee with a friend of mine who works at a counseling center for people with addictions, and while we were talking I described this program to her.  She was all for it!  That's truly something coming from her, because we've been friends for about 20 years, and I've told her about all kinds of diet plans I've had, including the normal ones like Weight Watchers, and she's NEVER been on board with any of them before this.  LOL  She said this one sounds like how they help people at the center.

I'll let you know how it goes each week!  I don't expect any weight loss right off the bat, but that's okay.  I need to get probably about three changes under my belt before it'll translate to the scale.

Don't Pull That

A couple days ago in junior high youth group the youth pastor (who's doing a series on the Fruits of the Spirit) did a lesson on, I think, kindness.  Anyway, he asked the kids about things that bother them or hurt their feelings, and Baylee raised her hand.  She said it bugs her when people point out how skinny she is and say that she looks like she needs to gain a few pounds.  Another girl in the group piped up with, "Yeah!  I've been told I look anorexic!  I'm not!"  And even Kevin, the youth pastor, added, "I know what you mean.  When I was a kid they used to say that if I turned sideways I'd disappear." 

After youth group a girl came up to Baylee, obviously angry.  "Do NOT," she sputtered, "pull the f***ing skinny card!"  (Yes, it was at church, and, yes, the girl said the F word.)  She went on to berate Baylee until she felt pretty bad.  In the car on the way home Baylee told me about it, we talked (I told her my story of being in Acts class at college and having somebody turn around in their seat just to tell me I looked gaunt.) and that helped a little, but do you know what's helped the most?  The fact that we've been teasing her for days...

Baylee:  "Hey, do you wanna play guitar and drums together?"
Drew:  "Don't pull that skinny card with me."

Baylee:  "I need to put this in the dishwasher."
Sue:  "Really?  You're gonna play the skinny card right now???"

Mike:  "So I heard you pulled the skinny card, Baylee."
Baylee:  "Don't start with me, Dad!"  

Hey, helping you learn to laugh at yourself and your situation is what family is for!

School Lately

I haven't talked about homeschooling much lately.  I guess that's mostly because it's just going along as usual, and I don't think of it as particularly newsworthy.  I'll say this:

Baylee is doing wonderfully.  She decided she wants to be completely done with everything by the end of May, so she's doubling up on some stuff and working ahead in others.  She's so self-motivated that if she were my only child, I'd think I was an absolute genius at this gig.  Being as she's my third, I know that it has almost nothing to do with me.  It's just her personality.

One thing that's going especially well right now for Baylee is French.  Now that we're 3/4 of the way through the year, I can see the logic behind the way the Learnables program is put together.  For half the year it has the learner doing nothing but hearing French spoken by native speakers.  Pictures are flashed on the screen that go along with what is heard, and over time the learner begins to understand and follow along.  Then the second part of the program is listening and simultaneously reading (while still seeing the pictures).  Finally, the last part is called "fast response."  We're not up to that yet, but I'm sure it's about listening and being able to understand quickly.  What I've come to realize is that this program forces you to think in French.  There's no "Okay, I'm translating this into English in my mind" middle step.  At first that could be frustrating, but now Baylee is to the point where she just gets it.  It's awesome!  I'm excited for her to move through all four levels of this curriculum over the course of her time in high school.  The next level, French II, is when grammar is introduced.

Drew is, I won't lie, driving me crazy this school year.  He's so interested in other things...music, girls, friends...that schoolwork is falling by the wayside.  And then when I get angry and start enforcing consequences, he gets surly.  It can be a vicious cycle.  I know I went through this with Zach, and I know we were able to come out the other side, so I'm praying for that to happen again.

Paul...I both love dearly and am exhausted by this boy every Monday and Tuesday.  He brings a lot of joy and laughter into our home, but he's also the epitome of ADD.  To that end, I've come up with lots of little tricks and games to help him stay on task.  For instance, when he's working through math problems, he gets a point for every problem he gets right and another for focusing all the way through it.  For every one he gets wrong or doesn't focus through, I get points.  He's very competitive, so this works well.  What he hasn't figured out is that when he wins, I secretly win. 

I was so proud of Paul on Monday, because he read an entire little article called "The Right to Vote."  If you could hear the difference between where he was at the beginning of this school year and where he is now, reading-wise, you'd be amazed.  It's like a miracle.  I give all the credit to the program we're going through, Saxon Phonics.  (This is probably more than you want to know, but Saxon Phonics uses something called the Orton-Gillingham approach, which has been proven to help people with dyslexia learn to read.) The same thing happened to Zach when he was a little guy and went through that program, and I used the same word to describe it then:  miraculous.

So that's everybody!

  

Really Random Stuff

That moment when your house is a mess, but all you really want to do is watch old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.   < ------------- me right now  (I'll clean it.  I just won't enjoy it.)

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Sometimes school looks like this:

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Over in Michigan my parents have 4 feet of snow on the ground, while here in Washington we really need to cut the grass.

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I'm always making my way through at least two books, one in print and one on audio.  Right now the print book I'm reading is called A Spoonful of Poison, and it's the 20th book in the Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series.  There are 25 books in all, which means I'm coming up on the end.  I'll miss Agatha.  The audio book I'm listening to right now is called Fit2Fat2Fit.  It's the true story of a personal trainer who feels like he's not connecting with his clients, so he decides to forgo all of his health-related pursuits for 6 months and get fat.  Then he attempts to get back in shape in the next 6 months.  Spoiler:  He succeeds.  He gains 75 pounds, then loses it again.  Honestly?  The book was better in the "Fit2Fat" half.  Now that I'm in the second half, "Fat2Fit," it's a little preachy.  For instance, he's telling me I'm supposed to shop around the perimeter of the store.  First, that's not new information.  I've heard it a million times.  Second, how am I supposed to buy my beloved General Foods International Coffee without going down an aisle??? 

Sunday

I wrote that post yesterday, then, in the process of trying to get the video to attach and work, deleted half of what I had said.  It was a Chris Farley "Argh!  I'm so stupid!" moment.  Anyway, I rewrote it and hit send, but then today I realized that I left out the part where I told you what awards Baylee and Rachel won at the awards ceremony for basketball last night.  Rachel got "Best On-Court Awareness" and Baylee got "Best Attitude."  In other words, Rachel's a naturally good basketball player and Baylee's a naturally good cheerleader.  LOL

So Tomb of Desolation took a picture of themselves for a Facebook page they started.  They used my computer to set it all up, so I have the picture sitting here on my desktop.  Do you want to see it?

The kid on our far left is the brains of the operation and he kinda calls the shots.  His name is Trevor and he plays guitar.  The next one is named Gavin (I'm not sure why he's doing that with his face) and he plays bass and drums.  After him is Jack, and he plays guitar and sings.  And then, of course, there's Drew.

Today I got to sit through the sermon for first time in months.  I left for that part of the service (and eventually the entire service) to go help with the children's choir the whole time they were practicing for that play, and then last week I had to teach the 4's and 5's.  It was nice to finally be up in church again!