Wednesday

I've become a terrible blogger. I'm sorry. A couple days ago I even gave some serious thought to throwing in the towel, because I know I'm getting so bad at consistency. Blah. I'm not sure what to do. Part of me still loves this place, and I think I'd be a little lost without it, but maybe it's run its course.

Baylee has had a couple exciting things happen since last we talked. First, she passed her written driver's exam. First try! And second, she had a cool opportunity to be on a radio talk show with her band.  Here's a picture and video of that.

Speaking of Baylee, at this moment she's deep in discussion with Mike over something she's learning in her Economics class. She didn't understand it, and Mike, who happens to be home right now, was more than happy (re: giddy) to explain it to her. He LOVES that stuff, whereas I'm over here feeling like I dodged a bullet.

PS:  Mike just came over to me with a big smile on his face and said, "Alright, she gets it now! I graphed a downward-sloping demand curve to help her understand the concept of marginal utility."

[blink]

Guess what! I'm starting language school on February 21! I'm so excited!!

My Future...Maybe? Hopefully?

What do you call it when a couple makes friends with another couple? Couple friends? Whatever it's called, Mike and I did it. We went to the home of another couple for a dinner-and-game night about a month ago, and it turned out to be really fun. (In fact, they're having us over again this weekend, so I guess they enjoyed it, too. We really need to invite them over to our house soon. Doh.) Anyway, something interesting about that evening with Len and Monique, which I didn't mention when I blogged about it before, is that Monique and I got into a conversation about my future after homeschooling. See, she's a therapist, and one of the things she does is career counseling, so she's into that sort of thing. Actually, she was so into our talk that I sort of felt like I needed to go out and get a job ASAP, just to make her happy. LOL

All that to say, ever since then I've been mulling over what I'm going to do with myself once Baylee graduates, and I've come up with something I'm excited about.  I want to teach English as a second language. There are multiple online platforms to do that, so I'm pretty sure I can get a job.

Here's why I think it's a good fit for me:

• I've been teaching for the last 20 years, so I know how to help people learn.
• I'm good at English, especially grammar.
• I'm learning a second language myself, so to some extent I understand what works and what's frustrating.
• If I can get my French up to a level of fluency, then I could specialize. In other words, I could teach English to French speakers.

Mike has been helping me think this through...especially the French specialization part of it...and one of the things he encouraged me to do is to take classes from a language school, rather than continue to teach myself. That way I'll know that I'm hitting all the bases, including speaking, which I haven't been able to do much of yet. To that end, I found a really cool place that has rave reviews. It's an online school, but it's live. (It's exactly like the program Mike is going through with Syracuse University in that way.) Using Skype (or something like it) I'll be in a "classroom" with around 3 or 4 other students and a native teacher. Over time (I'm talking months) the teacher(s) will take me through the different levels of fluency, certifying me in each level using a world-recognized standard called the Common European Framework of Reference for languages, or CEFR.

I don't have it all ironed out yet, but I'm excited to see what comes of this!


PS: There are six levels of fluency. This Wikipedia article describes them clearly, if you're interested.

Sunday

Mike woke up with a plan to do a bunch of schoolwork this morning, but instead he discovered that our dryer was broken. He's been able to bring it back to life in the past, so he spent quite awhile trying to do that again today, but in the end he had to admit that it's truly dead this time. To be fair, that dryer was from the '90s, so it put in its time. Anyway, we talked about it and decided to use our emergency fund to buy a scratch-and-dent floor model, and, long story short, we ended up getting both a dryer and a washing machine! I'm so happy about it, because our washing machine was awful, too. If you think a dryer from the '90s sounds bad, get this: The washing machine was from the '70s. For real. It worked...sort of...as long as you didn't like your clothes very much.

I know that I'm being insufferable with talking about French lately, but I'm so excited about it. I can feel my understanding growing, and I'm kind of in awe. Like, holy cow, it's working! I think it's happening because of the sheer amount of French I'm exposing myself to every day. I go through vocab flashcards first thing in the morning. Then as I clean the house I listen to an audio book in French. At some point in the day I listen to a 5-minute conversation a few times. And finally in the evening I try to watch an episode or read a chapter of something. Oh, yeah, and every 3 or 4 days I add an episode of Coffee Break French into the mix, because that's where I get my grammar study. I guess it sounds like a lot, but it doesn't feel overwhelming, because it's spread out, and also because some of it is stuff I would've been doing anyway, like listening to audio books and watching TV. It's just that now I'm doing it in French.

One more thing: A few weeks ago I signed up for something Coffee Break French offers called "Reading Club." All that really means is that once a week they email me something interesting to read. Here's what they sent me this week:

Victor Hugo est l'un des écrivains français plus populaires dans le monde aujourd'hui ! Et, même si vous ne connaissez pas tous ses livres, vous connaissez surement "Les Misérables" et "Notre-Dame-de-Paris". En plus de ces deux romans, il a écrit de nombreuses œuvres qui traitent de la pauvreté en France et de l'injustice que vivaient les citoyens les plus pauvres à son époque.

Saviez-vous que l'auteur a également joué un grand rôle dans l'histoire de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris ? En effet, après la publication de son livre les citoyens ont enfin commencé à s'intéresser à la cathédrale. À l'époque, celle-ci était en ruines mais grâce à Victor Hugo elle a été complètement rénovée ! D'ailleurs, ce roman a connu un tel succès que beaucoup d'adaptations ont vu le jour. Vous ne les connaissez peut-être pas toutes mais vous avez probablement déjà vu le film animé de Walt Disney : "Le bossu de Notre-Dame" !

Depuis sa mort, en 1885, Victor Hugo reste dans le cœur et la tête des Français qui continuent de lui rendre hommage en donnant son nom à de nombreuses rues et places partout en France. Si vous aussi vous souhaitez lui rendre hommage, vous pouvez même visiter sa tombe au Panthéon de Paris, où il est enterré aux côtés de beaucoup d'éminents citoyens français.

It's about Victor Hugo, and I have two things I want to say about it:

1. I read that!!! Like I said, I can't quite get over the fact that I can do that now.
2. It gave some interesting information about Notre Dame cathedral. Apparently the place was in ruins until Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Then the citizens of Paris became really interested in it and completely renovated it.

Of course, no post would be complete without a cat pic, so...

Friday

I figured I'd better get back on here when my own husband asked me if I quit the blog. lol Tsk. Trust me: After writing this thing for 13 years, I would never walk away from it without posting some sort of goodbye first.

The reason I was MIA is because I was sick last week. It started as a nasty head cold, then it turned into one of those violent coughs that sometimes doesn't end until you throw up, then it became a weird ear thing. My ear tubes are clogged, which creates pressure, kinda like being on an airplane. Anyway, I'm getting better.

You know what's cool? In English we have only one word for time, and we use it for everything having to do with that.  The French, on the other hand, have several words for time.

• temps:  A measurable length on a clock. It's what you would use to say, "It's time to go to the store."
• fois:  This one is more abstract and means something like "instances." Like "sometimes" or "one time."  
• epoch: Time period. "Dr. Who went back 200 years to a different epoch." 

Ironically, when you're asking what time it is in French, you don't use the word "time." You use the word "heure," which means "hour." You say, "What hour is it?"

TMA got a new permanent guitarist! His name is Emmett, and he's the nicest guy in the world. We've actually known him for several years, because he was in the SoR at the same time as both Drew and Baylee. Both of them were in shows and house band with him, in fact. Anyway, he auditioned with TMA, the girls loved what he brought to the table, and that was that. Here they are as a new group.

PS: I have a cute video of Emmett helping Baylee out during her very first show at the SoR. She barely knew how to play the drums at that point, since she'd only been doing it for a couple months, and she didn't know anything about being on stage. She didn't have herself situated by a microphone, and Emmett noticed and helped Baylee move forward to where she was supposed to be. Go here and click on the song called "Down in Mexico" to see it.

Friday

Recently I stumbled on a podcast called I Will Teach You a Language, by Olly Richards. I listened to a lot of what he has to say about language learning, and I realized that he's right about a ton of stuff. Then I bought a book of his called Short Stories in French.  It's got 8 short stories (each 3 chapters long), and its purpose is to give French learners something to read that's not horribly boring. It was great! I also got it on audio book, so now I'm "reading" it a second time by listening while I clean the house.

Then yesterday I bought a product of his called French Conversations.  It's 20 5-minute conversations between French people at regular speed...which means fast. It gives you tons of practice hearing and processing the language quickly.  What's helpful is that Olly tells you a specific way to use the product for maximum benefit. He says that each conversation should take you about a week to get through, and each day of that week you're to do something specific with it.

• Day 1: Listen to the conversation 5 or 6 times throughout the day. When you're listening don't pause the recording or stop it. Just let it flow over you.
• Day 2:  Same as day 1.
• Day 3:  Listen to the conversation one more time again, only now read the transcript in French at the same time. Don't pause it or stop it, but quickly mark words you don't know on the transcript as you go. Afterward look up those words.
•  Day 4:  Read the English translation of the conversation. That'll fill in any little gaps in understanding that might be left. Then put that away and listen to the conversation in French again several times.
• Day 5-7:  Listen to the conversation in French several times more.

 By the time you're done with all that, the conversation, which at first seemed so fast and difficult, will be crystal clear. You've trained your brain to hear it perfectly. Olly (and customers who bought and reviewed the product) say that by around conversation 7 you start understanding much more on day 1.

PS:  I'm on day 2 of conversation 1, and so  far it's interesting to go through this process. At first it was uncomfortable to hear that much French, spoken that quickly. (Five minutes is a long time if you don't understand what's going on.) Then I listened again...and again...and again...and again and again and again and again. And now, halfway through day 2, I'm getting probably 70% of the conversation. And that's without looking at any French transcription or English translation (because those things don't happen until days 3 and 4).  My brain is teasing out bits of it at a time on its own. It's weird and cool!

Thursday

Last night Mike and I were both asleep in bed, when suddenly he woke up and then gently shook me. "Are you awake?" he asked.

I woke up, too. "Yeah, what's happening?"

"I just wanted to tell you I love you."

"I love you, too. But why did you need to say it right now?"

He scooted over and wrapped me in a tight hug. "Because I just had a dream that you wanted to kill yourself."

"Oh, no, don't worry. I'm fine. I don't want to kill myself."

"Okay, good."

"I am kinda hot, though."

"Oh! Alright, sorry about that." Then he moved back over onto his side of the bed and fell asleep again.


PS: I asked him about it today, and the only part of the conversation he remembers is the part where I said I was hot.  lol

PPS: In case you're wondering, I really am totally fine. That dream of his came out of nowhere.

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Speaking of Mike, he just got back from a 5-day trip to Syracuse University in New York. He has to make 3 trips there over the course of getting his Master's degree (4 if you include the graduation ceremony), and this was his second one. While he was there he tested to become an Excel Specialist and passed!

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I've got the worst cold, given to me a few days ago by Baylee. My head is stuffed with snot, I've got a cough, and in the morning I wake up feeling like a swamp creature. Blah.

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Apparently our landlords were randomly selected by the city to have their rental property (our house) inspected to make sure it's up to code. Because Dan and Marcie are actually our friends, Mike told them to give him the list of things to check, and he'd go through it. He had to do a couple little things, like replace some smoke detectors that were too old and check the temperature of the water heater, but other than that all is well.

Funny story about the water heater, though: Mike read the list wrong at first. He thought it said that the water temperature wasn't supposed to be above 100 degrees, so he turned ours way down. In fact, it was so low that our showers were lukewarm, bordering on cool, and we were all grouchy about it. (Bad head colds and cold showers don't mix.) Then last night he looked at it again and realized it said that it wasn't supposed to be below 100 degrees. Doh.

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Pics from lately:

I'm a little over halfway finished with season 2 of Coffee Break French, and it's hard enough now that I have to treat it like a class. I sit at the table and take notes as I listen, and I'm learning a ton.

Look at this beautiful guy sitting in the chair like a person. (Yeah, I admit I've gone full weird cat lady.)

Tuesday

Drew's in French 2 now, so we were talking about it this afternoon...

Him:  I'm going to need to learn a lot more vocabulary this quarter, I think.

Me:  Oh, you should download an app called Cleverdeck! It helps you learn the 3,000 most used words in the French language. I'm doing it, and it's super helpful.

Him:  Why 3,000, though?

Me:  Because the experts say you need between 3,000 and 4,000 words to be able to carry on a somewhat fluent conversation.

Him:  I don't believe that. If someone doesn't know a word, they can just act it out until people figure out what they mean.

Me:  I watched a video on YouTube that was made by a woman who visited France. In the video she told the story about how, while she was there, she got her period.  Now, even though she had a pretty good French vocabulary, she realized in that moment that she didn't know the word for "tampon," and she needed to buy some. She went to the store, hoping she could just find them on her own, but she couldn't. So what was she supposed to do? There's no playing charades with that one.

Him:  [laughs] Okay, I see what you mean.

Me:  And the most ironic thing about it? The word for "tampon" in French is "tampon."

Success

I've been listening to a podcast called "I Will Teach You a Language," by a polyglot named Olly Richards. I discovered his work recently, and I have a lot to say about it, because it's been sort of game-changing for me in terms of breaking through to the next level. For today, though, I want to tell you his thoughts on making time for what matters to you.

In a nutshell, Olly says that if you want to make significant improvements in your language learning, you need to dedicate an hour a day to it. Anything less than that isn't enough to make real headway. He talks about how people download apps like Duolingo, spend 10 or 15 minutes a day on them, and then wonder why they're not working...at least beyond a beginner level. It's because it's not enough.

This is interesting to me for a couple reasons. Of course, I always like to hear people's thoughts on language learning, since I'm doing it myself, but I'm also interested because it's making Drew's success in music more clear to me. He's successful not necessarily because he's musically gifted, but because he puts in the time.

I can't remember if I mentioned this here before, but Drew said something very telling awhile back. He was talking to Mike about how busy he was between work and school, and about how he didn't have enough time to practice. Then he said, "I mean, this only-practicing-two-hours-a-day stuff isn't cutting it!" He was dead serious.

Another thing that happened recently is that Mike went into Drew's room really early in the morning to tell him something, and he found Drew asleep with his acoustic guitar propped against the bed right next to him. When Mike asked about it Drew said, "Oh, I always sleep with it next to me, in case I have any ideas during the night."

Sheesh, if it's largely a matter of just carving out the time, how can this kid not succeed?? And we can, too, at the things we're interested in. We don't even have to be as crazy about it as Drew is.

Friday

Zach went back to school for this quarter yesterday, and Drew starts again next week. Zach's taking 4 classes, all having to do with architecture in some way, and Drew's taking 3: French 2, Multicultural Studies (a required course for everyone in college in WA apparently), and Music Conducting.

Baylee started her new job and really likes it. She said that it's going to be a lot more laid back than Taco Bell was. On an unrelated note, after a year and a half of being blonde, she went back to brown. It looks nice.

While Wayne was here he had our TV permanently set to the Hallmark channel, which was airing sappy Christmas-related romance movies literally nonstop. Wayne loves those things, I guess, because he watched a buttload of them. What's weird, though, is that he's been gone for days, yet none of us have changed the channel. And it's STILL playing those same movies.

Little tidbit:  You don't say "I miss you" in French. You say, "Tu me manques," which means "You're missing from me."

Pics from lately:

When you're trying to guard some garbage that you got into, but you also need a nap.

Drew bought himself these shoes at the second-hand store where he works. I can't decide if he looks cool or crazy in them.

Look what I got for Christmas! I'm an excited geek.

 Last day of Christmas break vibes.

 If there's one thing that's true about this cat, it's that he knows how to make himself comfortable.