My So-Called Homeschool

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Transformers Aniimated: Transform & Roll Out by Click Communications for the purpose of review.

Growing up on the 80’s, even as a girl, the Transformers cartoon was a part of life. Waaaay back when cartoons were only on Saturday morning, you took what you could get. I was an odd girl, I actually enjoyed the Transformers story, as much as I can remember of it, and was excited in a totally geeky way when the live-action movie came out. Like it’s live-action counterpart, the new Transformers animated series does not disappoint. The storyline doesn’t relate at all to the previous stories. The Autobots have defeated the Decepticons and are tootling around space, bored out of their gourds on trash detail. One trash bot in particular, Optimus Prime, is fascinated by old vids of the Decepticon Wars, while the others can’t see why he’d be interested in that stuffy old history stuff. While working on a desolate moon out in the middle of nowhere, the trash detail happens upon a small box. An older war veteran recognizes the All Spark right away, and they try to check back in to headquarters about the same time as the Decepticons show up. No one back home believes that Megatron is still alive, so the Autobots are on their own! With mutiny from his own team and under attack by the Autobots, Megatron opens a portal just as his ship blows up. Optimus Prime follows close behind, and they are all sucked through into the atmosphere of a little green planet called Earth. Fast forward 20 years, Detroit is the center of manufacturing — but robots now instead of cars. There are some funny moments as the ‘bots try to talk to our inanimate machines, not realizing that the ‘pets’ are the sentient species of the planet. Anyway, I guess that’s enough spoilers for now. It’s quick-moving, with some development of the different characters. It’s typical Japanese animation, but fun nonetheless. I was sucked right into the first episode and left wanting for more story. Our cable company has had some of the episodes On Demand, but not enough and not in order. I can’t wait to buy more — for Duncan, of course. He’s watched this one so much, I’ve nearly got it memorized! I probably wouldn’t buy this episode as a single DVD, but I would buy it in a set of the entire season.

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Yes, I blogged this at work.

The Procrastination Flowchart 2

That summer hasn’t even started yet!!!

Edited to add:  How ironic is it that I got comment spam on a Holy Grail post? 

What does this say about me?  This quote came up today on my Facebook Monty Python and the Holy Grail quotes and reminded me how much I love it.

Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, ‘First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.’

That, and “Big, sharp, pointy teeth”.  That actually gets used around here quite often.

Is it Mother’s or Mothers’? Anyway, happy day to all you moms out there! Not too much going on at the So-Called household. The kids and Jim got gifts and gave them to me yesterday since he had to work this afternoon. I got a very pretty silver locket inscribed with “Mom” and a rose on it that the girls picked out and an iTunes gift card. They also went to our favorite Chinese buffet and picked up sushi for lunch yesterday (yeah sushi at the Chinese place, go figure!). YUMMY! I was a little down today because we didn’t do anything special, but then I got to thinking. I’d rather have my sweet kids and hubby every day than have them go all-out only one day per year. Any given day Moira will offer to make me a glass orf Dr. Pepper or a bowl of popcorn. Jim is great at bringing home little random gifts — some chocolate, a little bouquet of flowers from the grocery store, some promotional item they had a the station he knew I’d like. Taeryn is AWESOME at making cards and always seems to give me one when I’m feeling particularly down or under appreciated. And Duncan is the best for sudden “run-hugs” and power-kisses. Who needs Mother’s Day when you’ve got an awesome family 24/7/365? It really rocks!!!

On my right-hand sidebar, under the ads, you’ll see a new button. RME has been around a little while, so I’m getting in on the tail-end of the Revolution, but i f you sign up within the next five days you’ll get $25, no strings attached, and I’ll get $10. Not a bad deal, eh? I got my $25 and have already spent it on cloth diapers, cute ones too, so it is the real McCoy. RME is setting itself up as THE Paypal alternative, and I’ve found a few places that take it, although they are mostly WAHM sites. Check around and see what you can find!

How can sitting at a desk all day make me so exhausted? Jim’s doing most of the housework, chasing the kids, making dinner; I’m just trying to keep up on the laundry. Weird!

Sunday, April 27, my oldest child Moira was baptized into Christ!!! Jim and I got to baptize her. Of course we didn’t get pictures since we were in the baptistry with her, but hopefully the video came out. Jim has to digitize it, then I’ll put it on YouTube for friends and family. I couldn’t be more happy!!!

Taeryn (Pink Pixie) and I got new haircuts 2 weeks ago. She had 9.5 inches to donate this time. I think it was only a year ago she donated it last time!

They’re phone pictures, so not the best quality, but you get the idea!

OK, I really should go to bed, but want to keep posting even though I’m crazy busy! New since last we met (or last I blogged):

• New Job — I threw my hat in the ring a couple of weeks ago for our church secretary position, thinking it a longshot. I got the job and the interim secretary quit, so I ended up starting last Monday. Still working out childcare issues we thought we had covered.
• New haircut — got a new ‘do, and it is cute if I do say so myself. Pink Pixie got the same cut, she is adorable as usual. (will update with pictures tomorrow)
• Squid will be taking over the homeschooling as soon as we can get his schedule nailed down. Of course as soon as I need him to have a stable schedule it gets changed up after several months of being steady. At least he’s not working himself to the bone at 2-3 jobs anymore.

I’ll post more details on the above topics and hopefully more! Miss you all, have been in a bit of a funk lately. I think I’m wading out of it — this job is keeping me on my toes. Now, off to bed so I’m not a grump tomorrow morning!!!

Well, once again, I have neglected this little blog. Lots of new things are happening at the So-Called household, and I am going to tell you all about them. I just found Scribefire, a blogging extension for Firefox, and it is super-easy to use! Hopefully, this will help me to blog a little more often, lol! More later!!!
Monkey-boy luv!!!

Had family here over Easter, will blog more about it when I actually make some time to blog. In the meanwhile, pictures!

Wow, I’ve been bit by the sewing bug as well as the cloth diaper bug. So, what have I been sewing? Fitted diapers and baby leggings, of course!!! My first attempt at diaper creation was a little dismal. On first glance, it’s cute enough, but wow, I need some practice with topstitching and sewing straight. Oh, and the tension knob and I are going to have it out one of these days, and it’s going to lose!!! I really need a new machine, but this is the one I have so I’ll do with what’s on hand. This diaper was made completely with repurposed items — the liner layer is an old fleece blanket, the outer is a layer of a Carter’s blanket, and the inner soaker is made of layers of Squid’s worn-out t-shirts. I did one more from the other layer of the Carter’s blanket as the outside, trying the t-shirt fabric as the liner, but didn’t like the looks of that one very well. Neither one is beautiful, but they catch pee and poo just fine!!!

My other sewing project, baby leggings, are an off-shoot project from the diapers.  Because when your baby is wearing adorable diapers, who wants to cover them up with pants?!  And here in MI, as in much of the world this time of year, there must be leg coverage.  Now, you can buy Babylegs or Hugalugs at $12 a pair plus shipping, but if you got into this cloth gig as much to save money as save the environment like I did, that’s a bit much for glorified knee socks.  So I found this tutorial on Flickr and some $1 socks at Walmart and went to work.   30 minutes work (minus time for nursing baby, re-threading machine, making meals, spelling words for kids, etc.), not shabby:

I made two more pairs out of these:

And more gratuitous cuteness:

(that’s what we all think of Pink Pixie’s bunny ears!)

Jasmine wanted to make something for Pink Pixie’s birthday so we decided to make a mp3 player case, and she did a great job. It had to be pink, of course, so we used an old fleece blanket, drew up a pattern and away we went!

Cutting the pattern

Sewed into a pouch

Zig-zagged the flap

Sewed on the snaps

Added straps

Turned right-side out

Finished mp3 case!!!

OK, I promise one of these days I’ll actually WRITE a post, but really how can I resist?