My So-Called Homeschool

Yep, I’m still here, the kids are still great, baby’s still adorable.  I’ll be back to blog some more, but she’s sleeping so I’m going to try to get a little snooze in before she wakes up again!

I’m joining in with Phat Mommy on this one. Basically, they are sneaky jerks who trick you into spamming everyone in your address book! I would like to apologize to everyone I spammed this past week — and everyone else who got spammed by any of my contacts who joined as well. Besides, it’s a really crappy social networking site. If you want in on a good one starting up, I have 5 invites to Cre8buzz, which is in beta right now. Neat communities, NO SPAM! Leave me a comment if you want to join.

I get kind of bored with most memes — you go from post to post reading the same questions, it gets hard to come up with answers sometimes. But this one I saw at Doc’s and Andrea’s is kind of neat — you leave a random comment here, and I’ll ask you 5 questions. Here are Andrea’s questions for me:

1. What culture fascinates you?

The Amish culture has always fascinated me. I loved “Rebecca of the Amish” and “Plain Girl” as a kid. Now, I’ve met people from Amish country who say it’s not as idyllic as it seems, but the ideal sounds so great — a community that trusts and depends upon each other, living simply and basically. Oh, well, nothing’s perfect!

2. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

Scotland or Ireland. I visited Scotland once and if my then-fiance (now dh) weren’t waiting back here I would have stayed!

3. Your life is being made into a movie: What genre is it and who plays you?

Oh, it’s one of those quirky weird comedies that most people don’t really get (but with funny quotes - think Napoleon Dynamite). Hmmm, who could play me, not sure. Let me think on that and come back to it. OK, back. Can’t really think of anyone — maybe Anne Heche a la “Men in Trees”. Of course she’s WAY too skinny!

4. What’s the earliest thing you remember?

Getting left at daycare — there was a miscommunication about who was picking me up, I’ve since found out — I remember sitting on a teacher’s desk and eating grapes.

5. What’s your bestest skill? you know, that one thing, however small, that you can do better than almost anyone else that makes you feel real proud when you’ve done it?

OK, this is sad — I can’t really think of one. I do a lot of things pretty well, but nothing super-outstanding. I’ll have to ask Squid what he thinks it would be.

The Rules of the Meme:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like [the food you hate most in all the world]. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

I sit down at the computer, or at Squid’s laptop and think about logging into HSJ to blog. Then I decide to read blogs instead. After I’ve read my entire Google Reader list, then I go over to GCM or WAH and catch up there, then play some games or surf at BlogSoldiers or BlogExplosion. Sigh. It’s like I’m stalling or something! I need to do at least 3 movie reviews, one book review, and just generally catch you up on my life. Which is interesting, to say the least.

First and foremost, the pregnancy is going great. I over the worst part of morning sickness and exhaustion, although I will say that pregnancy at 39 is WAY more tiring than at 29. I would sleep 8 hrs and take a 2 hr nap daily if I could! Sometimes I even get to. We had our ultrasound in June, which I mentioned briefly here, but I haven’t been able to get the pics scanned. It’s a girl! Her name is Fiona Colleen, but I’ll have to pick a suitable web identity for her here on the blog. I -think- my OB will do a 3-D ultrasound a bit later since it was too early to do one at that time. Those are so fun!!! I’ll find a way to scan that one for sure. I’m doing a lot of reading on midwife births and trying to develop some kind of plan that my OB will go along with. I am finding Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth indispensable at this point. It’s amazing after giving birth to three children what I did not know about it all!!!

Squid’s got a lot going on right now — some stuff I can’t talk about yet. Please keep our future in your prayers. LOTS of decisions to be made which can take our lives in very interesting directions! His job at the TV station is holding steady right now, but with streaming video getting better and better, the day is looming when his technician position could be done by any jerk with computer savvy. Union contract negotiations are going on as we speak, it doesn’t look so good for editors/technicians. He’s trying to make himself as useful as possible — right now he can shoot, edit, work receive, and coordinate the newscast. Not too shabby. AND his boss seems to like him. But that can all go away in a flash with per diem status. So we’ll see. Other fires in the iron, like I said, are not to be shared at this time. Not trying to be mysterious, just prudent. (Did I just type prudent? Why do I hear Dana Carvey in my head?!)

Pink Pixie went to church camp the first of this month and came home with a note of apology from her counselor — a girl from her cabin went home the first day with chicken pox. No big deal, I thought, she’s had the vaccine AND a very light case of chicken pox. WRONG!!! Exactly 14 days later (the incubation period for CP), she had a sore throat, upset tummy and . . . spots! So far, no one else has gotten it, including Turkey Butt who spends 3-5 days a week here and the 11-month-old cutie I babysit as well. We’re just about out of the woods for their incubation period. Get this — TB’s great-aunt who just got home from a round of chemo AND has had shingles before was upset that his mom wanted to me to watch him instead of his going over there for a couple of days a week while Pink Pixie was spotty, then for the extra two weeks incubation!!! ‘Milinda‘ was just floored that they thought she was keeping him from them — me too!!! You just can’t tell some people anything.

Well, I think I’ll end this post for now and get to work on those movie reviews. You know, deep thoughts on Hanna Montana, High School Musical, and Beatrix Potter are just churning around in here waiting to be put on paper. NOT!

. . . over at The Common Room. Sign in to mine, then get one of your own!

I got it to work in my sidebar. It’s right under Hoops and Yoyo (aren’t those guys cute?!). Please sign in there? I’d like to see where you all are from!

Also, please leave a comment here and let me know what browser you use — and whether my blog freezes your computer up!  A couple of my friends on IE are reporting that my blog takes forever to load and even freezes them up.  I think it’s just an IE problem, and am trying to figure out what element is doing it.  I think it’s something on my sidebar.

AAARGH! WP is stripping the code out, I think. Andrea, help! (like you’re not busy enough!) For now, you can go on over to The Common Room and see what it’s supposed to look like. Sign in while you’re there!

Well, it’s still funky, but you can go over to my guestbook and sign it there if you want!

YES! Hubby finally started his own blog. And wouldncha know, he’s funny and thoughtful. Please disregard the header, we’re working on that. If I have any readers who like to play with that kind of stuff — he doesn’t have a clue, and I only have a hint of one — please feel free to drop a comment and let me know if you’d like to build one for us. We’re thinking something with Squidward in it, maybe combined with a real picture of Squid.

Love you sweetie, keep up the great writing!

(Air Buddies was provided to me free of charge by Disney for the purpose of review.)

I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve seen any of the Air Bud movies all the way through. I saw bits of the first one, and it seemed cute enough, but it didn’t particularly grab me. That could be because I didn’t have kids yet. Who knows. This movie, however, is adorable. If you hate cute, this wouldn’t be for you. Just look at those mugs!!!

Sitting down with my kids, I immediately asked “The dogs didn’t talk in the other movies, did they?” Nope, that’s a new thing. The voices for all the animals were perfect — especially Don Knotts as Sniffer, the sherriff’s dog. I wasn’t sure if it would work , but it did. Maybe not seeing the other movies helped with that.

It was a typical kids movie — predictable plot, advantage taken of every cuteness, cliche characters — but who cares? The kids loved it, I enjoyed it, what’s the problem? I wasn’t expecting Apocalypto! Anyway, I would recommend this movie without any caveats. No innuendo, very little gratuitous gross humor (one pup has a slight intestinal problem, but it’s limited to one ‘pull my finger’ bit and one ‘farting as a method of propulsion’ bit). The only think I didn’t really get was the bad guy character. Why a vintner/big game hunter? Anyone can hire two boobs to capture pups, why the far-out character?

Overall, a great kid’s movie for any age, definitely worth buying!  I think it would make a great gift for any kid on your list that you’re not quite sure what to get — or to keep on hand for a just-in-case gift.

Next - Fox and the Hound 2, then that should be it for the reviews for a while.

Oh where, oh where can they be?

The latest report from my stat keeper:

My So-Called Homeschool                   

                    -- Site Summary ---
          Visits

            Total ........................ 5,509
            Average per Day .................. 1
            Average Visit Length .......... 0:00
            This Week ........................ 4            

          Page Views

            Total ........................ 7,221
            Average per Day .................. 1
            Average per Visit .............. 1.0
            This Week ........................ 4            

    


                  — Visits this Week —
       Day
Hour 11/21  11/22  11/23  11/24  11/25  11/26  11/27   Total
—- —– —— —— —— —— —— —— ——-
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24       0      0      0      0      0      0      0       0
    —— —— —— —— —— —— —— ——-
         2      0      1      0      1      0      0       4

                — Page Views this Week —
       Day
Hour 11/21  11/22  11/23  11/24  11/25  11/26  11/27   Total
—- —– —— —— —— —— —— —— ——-
 1       1      0      0      0      0      0      0       1
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    —— —— —— —— —— —— —— ——-
         2      0      1      0      1      0      0       4

Come out, come out, wherever you are!!!

Yeah, I got bored and started messing around. I like the clean lines of this theme, but I’m not sure if the cutesy white flowers are really me. We’ll see.

UPDATE:  Yeah, not so much.  I switched to another theme called “Water”, and I really like all the customization available on this one.  I may be switching colors and/or headers, but will probably stay with this layout.

You know, I haven’t posted in over a week - but it’s not for lack of material. I get so many ideas, I just can’t focus my thoughts down to one post! Here’s some of the things running through my brain:

• How can I get Monkey Boy to do his vocal percussion in front of the camera so I can post it?
• Should we be doing more structured lessons?
• Is my new laundry routine really working?
• When we ever get the renovations done? What shall we do next? When will we be able to afford the next step?
• I’ve got to get some bulbs planted before the ground freezes. Probably should get it done before we leave on vacation.
• We’re leaving on vacation next Thursday. AAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK so much to do!!!
• Squid’s hours may be cut to 3 days per week for a while. What are we going to do?
• The washer won’t spin out the clothes. I tried to fool it by running another spin cycle - 3 times - but ended up wringing out the bottom half of the load by hand. We can’t get a new one til after vacation — and then probably not for a while. It’s probably at least 30 years old, does anyone repair these things?
• I have got to start doing my Bible study every day. There’s just too much good stuff in there to wait until the afternoon of the study. Of course, I’d have time if I weren’t on the computer so much or if I’d get up when I need to (6:30 am) instead of when my body wants to (8:30 am).
• Why does God need us to pray? Doesn’t He have a plan already? If He is all-knowing and omnipotent, what difference do our prayers make? Are we going to change His mind? I know we’re commanded to pray, so I do, but I wonder about these things.
• Bunches of stuff going on with Sis. Should I blog it or would it be exposing more than she would want. She could use the prayers and well-wishes.
• Is this urge to sleep all the time depression or a thyroid problem?  Just no energy for anything.
• I’ve got to lose some weight, need to exercise.  I really shouldn’t be gasping for breath after running Monkey Boy on his trike for 5 minutes.  Oh, how I hate exercising.

See how it goes? Round and round and round, with little or no lag time between thoughts. That’s actually just a little more organized than my brain is, I just put it in bullets for reading clarity. Sigh. Maybe one of these days I can find time to expand some of these things into posts.

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail yesterday saying she would have left a comment but my Jesus Camp ad was blocking the post. I’ve viewed it in Firefox and IE, but it looks fine to me in both browsers. Anyone else having trouble?

Happy BlogDay 2006!

It’s 11:47, so if I type fast, I can just make it. Of course, picking only 5 blogs out of my mondo list will take the whole 13 minutes I have left! If you’re reading tonight, right now, here’s what you do (or you could probably do it belatedly as I usually would!):
Here’s how you can participate:

1. Find five new blogs that you find interesting.

2. Notify the five bloggers that you’re recommending them on BlogDay 2006.

3. Write a BlogDay post today with a short description of each blog, and a link back to each one.

4. Add a “BlogDay 2006″ Technorati tag and/or link back to Technorati BlogDay 2006 page.

I think I’ll do an IRL list

First is A Bibliomane Amidst Butterflies. I met her via a local FLYlady e-mail group, she is an awesome inspiration to me as a fellow FLYer, a homeschooler, and a Christian mom.

Next is What Was I Thinking. She hasn’t been blogging long, and we haven’t really known each other long, but she was actually over to dinner this evening. Her son and Monkey Boy are fast friends now, he can’t wait til J comes over again!

Now for Meanderings. Our preacher has so much awesome insight, I’m glad he’s blogging. Even if he doesn’t know what Firefox is.

OK, I’m running out of real-life friends who blog. Oh, yeah, Pharkus. This is the dude who named my hubby Squid. He’s warped and isn’t ashamed to show it. He is working on his Masters so sometimes it’s a while between posts, but they’re worth the wait. Oh, and he’s a fellow home-educating parent too.

Last but not least is Al at Zeteo. He’s another guy from my congregation, he’s a deep thinker and all-around cool guy. He hasn’t posted in a while either, but he runs a bike shop so things have probably been a little busy. Check him out, put him on your RSS feed, and you won’t miss his great insight!

So, those are my 5 picks for Blog Day 2006. Oh crap, it’s 12:01. Oh, well I’m posting it anyway. Have fun reading!

Yikes, has it been over a week already?!  I did survive VBS, in case you were wondering.  It was great, although our numbers were down from the last couple of years.  Still, we had around 350 including workers, not too bad.  It was called Trading Places, and was about  how different countries worship and how Jesus is a name of power and salvation in any language.  The girls got so many compliments on their singing with the VBS praise team, and we got so many nice comments on how it gave it just the right “VBS sound”.  Of course, there were several kids who wondered “Why do THOSE girls get to be on stage and I don’t!”.  I told Squid — I guess it’s just the law of performing very early on — it’s not about how good you are, it’s who you know!  Actually, if other kids had volunteered and put in the rehearsal time, we would have tried to include them as well (we only have so many microphones).  Now that it’s been done, I guess maybe some will ask for next year too.  But that will be up to the leader for next year, as Squid has already told them he won’t be heading up the music next time.

The girls also went to the Lutheran church’s VBS, so they got double the lessons.  That one was really cute too — it was called FruitWorks and was on the fruits of the Spirit (that’s actually fruit, isn’t it?).  There was a really catchy tune they sang listing all the fruit — I’ve implemented it in our everyday dealings.  Say Jasmine starts to get bossy or ugly with Pink Pixie.  Mommy starts quietly singing “I’m talking ’bout Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control”.  It usually stops them in their tracks.  If necessary, I’ll remind them “Which of those do you think you should be using now?”  Or if I miss the confrontation and just get the back end of it, I’ll ask them which one they should have used and which one is needed now.   It’s been fairly effective, although I get lots of eye-rolling along with the response.  I’m really working hard at pro-active parenting instead of reactive (yelling).  I’ll keep you updated my progress — I usually regress into yelling at least a couple of times a day, but I’m getting better.

Well, that was about it for this week.  August is pretty busy, but at least we don’t have to deal with a “get it all done before school starts” rush.  I’ll post later about our homeschooling plans for this year — this IS an hs blog after all, lol!

Check out His Girl in Tampere, the adventures of my friend Leanne in Finland. She went with a mission team from our church and is staying an extra month by herself to carry on the work there until another member of our church can return. I kept reading her e-mails, thinking “Wow, this is great stuff, she should blog it!”, so I e-mailed her and got permission to set up a blog for her. She feels like she’s computer-illiterate, so I set it all up for her and am copying her e-mails to the blog. Please check back often to see what she’s up to!