Life, including homeschooling
Mommy (calling out to family): The shepherd’s pie is done, time to set the table.
Monkey Boy (playing playdough at said table): Where’s the shepherd?
Mommy: What? Oh, the shepherd? There is no shepherd, it’s just called shepherd’s pie.
Monkey Boy: No, the man shepherd. Where is he?
Mommy: We don’t have a shepherd honey.
Monkey Boy (still hasn’t looked up from his playdough): Oh.
Sarcasm has got to be my number one humor tool (well, right up there with drama), as well as defensive tool. Take today, for example.
Jasmine: Where’s Daddy?
Gem: He went to get steaks.
Jasmine (drooling and licking lips dramatically): Did he go to the store?
Gem: No! He’s killing the cow right now and cutting the steaks off it’s butt.
Jasmine: MO-OMM!!!!! I meant is he getting it from a food place where they cook it . . .
Gem: You mean a restaurant?
Jasmine: YES!
Gem: No. He’s going to Kroger.
My baby girl turned 7 last weekend. Where does the time go? It seems just yesterday she was colicky and fussy, not letting anyone but Mommy hold her. Oh, wait, that was yesterday! Just kidding!
Her Nana and Papa sent her the perfect birthday present (with MAJOR hints from yours truly) — a mini digital recorder to record all her song ideas on. She’s been annoying us all day with goofy voices, interviews, and playbacks at full volume. But right after bedtime, she ran downstairs, shoved it into my hand, and said “Here, you need to listen to this!” And I did. Need to, that is.
Mom, you’re my good luck charm.
Mom, I love you.
Mom, you love me like gold.
You’re the one that protects me
From everybody out there.
You love me so much, you love me actually more than gold.
You are my supermodel.
You are my role model, I want to be just like you.
I want you, I want you, ’cause you are the best mommy in the world.
You’re the one everybody’s done beggin’ for (not sure of those lyrics)
You’re the one that can set things right-right-right.
You are the one who loves me, momma does,
You are the one who love’s me so, so-ho-ho-ho.
Yeah!
If my technical guru can figure out how, I’m going to try to get it saved on the computer. Then, if I can figure out how to get the silly MP3 player loaded here, I’ll let you hear it!
I’m a little prejudiced, but I’m pretty convinced that all three of my kids are very talented. I’ve shared Monkey Boy’s musical and rhythmic talents here, but haven’t shared much about the girls. Both are dancers, although they haven’t caught the eyes of any talent scouts, and both have some dramatic gifts as well - in my opinion. Pink Pixie, however, has been singing and making up songs since she could speak at all. I just found a way to upload her first recording project to the web, and am working on getting a player for this blog. Right now, when I play the files at Fileden they sound fine, but when I put them into a player they sound like the Chipmunks! So for now I’ll post a link to the files at Fileden. Please click over, I think it will be worth your time. This is what she asked for last year for her 6th birthday — to record her songs on Daddy’s computer. This year, she wants to record an album with Mom and sissy!
Oh, yay! It looks like this WP theme automatically converts links to mp3’s into players! OK, not so yay. She sounds chipmunky here too. I’m not sure how to make the links NOT to be players now. Andrea — HELP!
It’s all still screwed up. I’m still trying to figure out how to post the links!
Whatever else, this will make you think and feel. It made me feel a little defensive, a little guilty, and a little sick at the way we try to spend at Christmas. It also made me think that these boys are obviously scripted — but who cares! They’re so cute! (watch for the nose-picker!)
Last night, Monkey Boy would NOT go to bed. I rocked, let him watch a little CSI with me, let him play with a few toys, and still he would not get tired! He was yawning, but fighting actual sleep with all his might. Normally I would just keep putting him back to bed against his protests, but he was quite vocal with his refusal and Squid had to get up at 2am to go to work this morning. Thus, I caved.
At one point, I looked down from my computer chair and saw this sweet face:
(click for ultimate cuteness)
I was a little irked that he had those geometry shapes out AGAIN! He is constantly playing with them and leaving them all over the room. It’s not so bad when it’s the sphere or hemisphere, but those pyramids can hurt the tootsies! Then I looked closer at what he was doing with them:
(click to see a closeup of the page)
I swear, we have never worked on shapes at all. This unschooling thing just might work, after all!
(Andrea, why do pictures do this in this template? They simply refuse to left-align.)
(Nancy Drew and the Creature of Kapu Cave was provided to me free of charge by Special Ops Media for the purpose of review.)
I devoured Nancy Drew books as a kid. I remember they were kept upstairs at our little library, with the YA books. As a 3rd or 4th-grader, I felt so sneaky, creeping up the stairs to find books from the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigator series. The librarian always kept an eye on me, even through junior high, to make sure I wasn’t roaming into the Cherry Ames section — those nurse romances were preeeeettty racy! How times have changes!
Nancy Drew and the Creature of Kapu Cave is a computer game based on the Nancy Drew character I grew up loving. She has definitely moved into the 21st Century, as a cell phone and a vehicle complete with GPS are two of her main sleuthing tools in this game! She teams up with the Hardy Boys early in the game, with the player switching back and forth between Nancy and the teen detective duo.
Nancy is heading to Hawaii to intern with famous entomologist when the mystery begins. As she arrives in Hawaii, we see the researcher’s camp being trashed — but is it man or beast tearing the place apart? Before Nancy can start on that mystery, she has some tasks to accomplish. She has to make a shell necklace to exchange for the keys to her jeep. Once she gets to the campsite, she has to figure out where the good doctor is, how to get her stuck jeep out of the campsite, and what to do next. Luckily, she’s got her handy-dandy cellphone and can get some info from Ned and the Hardy Boys. All conversations are captioned, which makes this game great for my 6- and 7-year-olds even though the game is rated for 10 and up, since it works their reading skills as they play. Each conversation has multiple replies the player can choose from and the course of the game can really change depending on the reply chosen. We found we got better results if we chose replies more in Nancy’s ‘girl next door’ character than some of the more smart-off replies.
When she calls the Hardy Boys, the game switches to their pint of view and the mystery they’re solving, which coincidentally involves getting the same information Nancy needs. Instead of shell necklaces, the HB have to go fishing to barter for their clues. We haven’t gotten far enough in the game to find out about the monster of the cave. Yes, I said we. As I mentioned, the game is rated 10 to Adult. You can play as a Junior or Senior detective. I stayed up quite late one evening playing and didn’t get as far as the girls have on their own! Of course, on Junior level, there is a running checklist which helps the player find the clues necessary to move on in the game. In Senior level, you basically wander around going “Hmmm, what does THIS do?”. It’s a blast!
The first day we got the game, the girls played most of the afternoon. The next morning, the first thing out of Jasmine’s mouth was “Can we play Nancy Drew?” They played from 9am until around 1 or so, when I kicked them out of the house — it was the last nice day until the snow hit and they were going out like it or not!
OK, so this is a bit more rambling than your average professional review. But that’s why they ask bloggers to review, so it’s more personal, right? Overall, we all really enjoyed this game. I have told all of my real-life friends and family about it, including Nana who is getting Jasmine another in the series for her birthday. I just can’t say enough about them! The Creature of Kapu Cave is 15th in a series, with the first 10 of the series based on classic Nancy Drew stories from the books.
If you’d like a little preview of the game, there’s a mini-game over at Her Interactive. You can check out some of the others in the series, too.
Here’s one Squid made a while back, just pictures of the kids to a really touching song. We need more recent pictures in it, but these are from before I blogged, so you can see how cute they’ve always been (was there any doubt?)
Pink Pixie has been suffering from Middle Child Syndrome lately — too much attention for older sister and younger brother, not enough for PP. I was mentioning this to my friend whose son I babysit and she said “Maybe you should spend some one-on-one time with her.” Duh! I would have given this advice to anyone else having this issue, but did I think of it for myself? Noooooooo. So yesterday when I went for a haircut, PP went along. She decided on the spot that she needed a haircut as well. It turned out adorable (as if there were any other possible outcome!) and mine turned out OK too. We ran out of time last night, so today we continued the special attention time and went to Target. She’s so sweet — she decided we’d go to Target for ‘our’ time to look at possible gifts for Jasmine’s upcoming birthday. They might bicker like cats and dogs, but underneath there they really do love each other! Pink Pixie had a Bubble Yum Icee (blech!) and I had a Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha with Rasberry (Yum!).
This boy! He certainly has talent, even if I do say so myself. I am actually considering getting him a trap set for Christmas. Not something any normal mom would do - - but he is CONSTANT rhythm. Whether it’s vocal percussion, seen here, or banging out a rhythm with part of a wooden hanger, he has rhythm in his head that must come out! They have a really cute drum set at Target for $99.99 that just might work. I’ll have to clear a special place in the playroom for it, and he’ll have to learn that there are times for drumming and times for not drumming, but I think I have to encourage a talent when I see it. I’m totally crazy, right?
P.S. Yes, I realize that M.B. is nearly nekkid in both videos. It’s next to impossible to catch him with his clothes on around here! He’ll wear them for 10-15 minutes, then it’s “I need to be nekkid, Mom!” Sigh.
Yeah, I’m behind, what’s new?
I didn’t get actual Halloween pictures — of course my batteries were dying in the camera and I couldn’t find the charger! But our church has an Autumn Fest celebration the Friday before Halloween and this year all three kids wore the exact same costumes for both events. I did get one picture on Halloween night — the loot!!!
I can’t get the rich text editor to stop stripping out my code (and can’t remember how to disable it), so please click here to see the most adorable Do-Re-Mi you’ve ever seen or heard!
Today is October 24. That was our 4th baby’s due date, the one we lost in April. I’ve been a little melancholy all day. I hugged all my babies extra close today and thanked God for them, but I should have been holding a newborn today. I’ve been numb about it for a long time, but a little sadness broke through today. Tomorrow’s a new day.
Ok, I sure hope this doesn’t blow my data allotment for this blog! In a nutshell: Vacation was awesome, the reunion was fun — very casual, just a cook-out with about 15 of the 23 members of my graduating class, time with Mom was WAAAAY too short, time with my in-laws even shorter. Driving was WAAAAAY too long — even Squid said we should fly next time and he was the main “let’s drive, flying is too expensive” proponent. Now, on to the pictures.
As I mentioned, we drove aaaalll the way to Kansas. The first leg of the trip was 12 hours, to Kansas City. One of the rest stops had a cute little play area, with a super-wide teeter-totter, swings, and a climbing area. You’ll notice a theme in all the pictures — I’m usually taking them so you won’t see me much!
After staying the night in Kansas City, we had a late breakfast, trip to Walmart for things we forgot, and a leisurely trip to Stafford. There is no hotel in Stafford except for the establishment affectionately known to the natives as The Roach Motel. No thanks! But a few years ago a former resident bought up several old Victorians and has opened 4 bed-and-breakfasts. The one we stayed in was probably the most recent acquisition and still has a lot of renovations to be done.
See those stairs? Those go up to the ‘Gentlemen’s Suite’, which was where we were staying. It was a very interesting suite of rooms, two bedrooms with two beds each, a strange little hallway and a private bath. With three children (one potty training), a shared bathroom would have been asking for disaster!
Now, I didn’t take any pictures of the Oktoberfest parade float — it was very elaborate: Hay bales and a sign that said “20th Reunion Class of 1986″. Yeah, we’re not one of the super school-spirit classes, we just wanted to hang out! There were pictures taken, but I seem to have deleted the e-mail. As soon as I get it again, I’ll post the uber-float here!
OK, this is getting long — I think I’ll post part 2 later!
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:
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.
Hello! I'm a mom to 4 great kids, wife to an awesome man, secretary to some incredible ministers. Homeschooling, housewife, working mom, I bring home the bacon and teach the kids to cook it!!! Couldn't do any of it without God and my (did I say awesome already?) husband.
