Winter projects

We had 3 nice-sized storms back to back here in California. We don't get a lot of 'weather'...so the storms were an exciting change of pace. Except for the part where I couldn't find my umbrella...and I was too cheap to go buy another one because who really knows, really- if I will need it again for another year or two?

Today the temp was in the low 70's - so I guess our weather is done now.

Not a whole lot going on today. Teddy had some special education evaluation testing today, so I was reluctant to do any heavy homeschooling because I didn't want him to miss anything. So...I did Math and reading with Amie and Demi, and that was pretty much their school day. Meg and Josie did their usual work, Math, Grammar, History and Literature. I had to take Meg to her high school Science class today, too.

Sky headed out with Amie and Demi for a hockey game, Sky is the coach. How cute is that?
I love my husband, he is amazing and can do just about anything he sets his mind on doing.

I'm about to head out with Josie for her fencing lesson.

About my blog;

don't mind the mess, if you find things a little messy some days- I am currently in the process of having my blog redesigned, so you might notice things out of place some days, or just plan wonky. But, hopefully you won't notice anything till it magically appears.

I'm dancing on the inside, I am so excited about my makeover!

I'm going to have some new things in the margin, like a RSS feed!! Finally, you will be able to subscribe to my feed- if you do that. I will also have buttons for my **facebook fanpage
and twitter...yes, I finally got** a twitter account. I am using it, but only a little,
I still don't quite 'get' it.

How about you? Any winter cleaning/projects or make-overs?

Better Parenting through Electronic Pets

I think I have spotted a new parenting trend: The electronic pet.


After scoring 2 zhu-zhus for Amie,
-{which I knew nothing about because we don't watch commercials...Amazon happened to suggest it when I was shopping, and I thought they were cute, and came with accessories and the original price was okay...and then I saw they were not in stock and what the going price was...yikes!!! Triple yikes!! -so then I realized they were the toy of the season.
Still wanted one.
But not at $50.
And I was not going to stalk Toy
s R Us for them, either.
Instead, I had my BFF pick them up for me in Singapore. Score!!} -

I digress...well, after obtaining- through divine grace, 2 zhu-zhu pets for Amie, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they move, and make cute little noises.

Amie was delighted


She promptly set up a little habitat for them, complete with improvised water bottle and cute little zhu-zhu exercise wheel (I told you they had accessories!!)

I saw her little zhu-zhu world, and cue angels singing,
I had a revelation. Why- oh -why did I ever dare tread into the world of real-life guinea pigs and aquarium fishies?? Why?

Why?

The guinea pigs were real cute, but
Guess who cleaned the cage out every few days because she could not take the stink?

you'd be right.

Enter the electronic pet. No smell.
No bedding to be changed, cleaned. No food to buy. No fresh crickets to buy (that would be for the gecko) no costly end of life decisions (don't ask me how much a vet visit for a guinea pig costs...don't)

Then I remembered C Jane's big revelation about her son's new pet, Mao the cat*

and I knew I was onto a brilliant trend

better parenting through electronic pets...
I'm a convert.

a little creative license

In the car on the way to church meeting: (we are listening to a cd)

Demi:

"Mom, why are they singing "no more Lord Jesus? "

Sky: -surprised laugh,

"no Demi, they are singing 'Come, Lord Jesus', but I am really glad that you thought to ask and clear that up!"

Immediately I thought of a hymn that makes me giggle inside every time we sing it.
... or anytime I think of the title, actually.

It's called "Behold how David swore".
A most unfortunate title and first line, don't you think?

Carnival of Homeschool link fun


The carnival of homeschool is up over at The Homeschool post, click on over to find some interesting posts about homeschooling- you might find a new favorite blog to visit! What is a blog 'carnival', you ask? Well, click on over, the concept is explained over at The Homeschool Post.

*******

I ventured out with the kids to Sea World today. Sea World hosts an 'education day' of sorts, we were able to go for a 1/2 day for a really super-cheap price. Sea World's education days are the only reason we are ever able to take all the kids. I love, love, love Sea World. Photos coming in another post...

So, I get home around 4:30...take two advils and crawl into bed for a nap. Anemia, the gift that keeps on giving...

anyways, I wake up to discover that Sky went out and got pizza for dinner. (had no real dinner planned because Sky was going to Bible Study with Meg and Josie and I was staying home with the littles- we trade weeks for going)

So, I walk into the kitchen and say to Sky,

"cool, I take a nap, wake up and there's pizza for dinner and my kitchen is magically cleaned! My life rocks!"

Sky replies,

"it must be because you have great hair..."

He mocks me.
But it's true, I just had my hair done, and it is great. So there.

the steel-toed boots stumped them

I like scented candles.

I am addicted to the small votive kind, and an easy way to cheer me up, specially if we are kind of broke...is to pop into the candle store at the mall and buy 3 or 4: instant happiness! :)

My candle supplies were seriously low...so Sky, being the supreme sweetheart that he is, happened to be at the mall this week and decided to pop in and get me a few.

I'll set the scene for ya,....it's lunch time, so Sky is sporting usual construction-man attire; jeans,(dusty) tee-shirt and steel-toed boots.

The ladies working the counter at the candle store didn't quite know what to do with him.

Finally, one approaches him with one of those quart-sized jar candles and says, "This Autumn leaves scent is very popular" and then her voice kind of loses volume and trails off limply as she finishes with..."...if you're into that sort of thing...."

Sky got my candles and skiddaddled out of there, to everyone's relief, I'm sure.

I squealed when I saw the Yankee Candle bag,

he's my sugar-daddy, indeed!

and then I laughed at him when I pictured him walking into that store without me, and he told me the above, and I laughed till I cried. He's sweet and amusing.

Catch up post break

It's a crazy, crazy world here at home. I'll catch you up on all that is causing my head to spin and the root of my sleep-less nights... oh, actually the dog is the root of my sleepless nights- and the college age people at my house who stay up talking till 2 a.m....but I digress,

First, we just finished up a church week-long Bible Conference. We had 7 or 8 college-age kids stay at our house. Somewhere around that number...I never did sit down and count! Well, one goes, another arrives..kind of hard to keep track of. Bible Conference week is a whirl-wind, it goes by soo fast, and leaves us exhausted. The meetings were really, really good. Sky and I take turns going, one of us stays home with the kids and the other goes and then we switch. The topic this year was "The Gospel of Grace". The conference ended Saturday night, we now have only 4 people still staying with us, a few leave tomorrow.

Our traditional Lord of the Rings marathon started last night. We do this after the Summer Training (what the conference is called) every year. We had the college kids and some friends stop by for this. My friend Stephanie had never seen Lord of the Rings, if you can imagine that! She was hooked, and will be back tonight for the next disc.

Conference week is such a hectic time, we don't even try to do any summer home-school. Today we picked back up with our math and language arts work. It's nice to be back to a routine.

Our puppy Emma is doing just awesome, she is a great dog, almost perfect. The last few nights she has had tummy issues and had gotten me up out of bed several times to let her out. I'm going to ban peanut butter in her kong toys and see if that helps...next I will ban all treats. It's a little heart-breaking to be up with the dog at 3 a.m. -for the 3rd time, when you have been getting to bed around midnight every night and hubby needs to get up and take someone to the airport at 5 a.m. It was an exercise in love, patience, forebearance...something like that. I think there is a deep, deep reason why the Lord made puppies so darn cute.

It's so we will let them live.
The cherry on top was how Emma ended her 3 a.m trip with chowing down on a cockroach outside and then gagging in the bedroom about it.
I prayed, half delirous in sleep, half-hoping she would not up-chuck in Sky's shoes, but too tired to do anything about it.

We were called in to meet with the director for the homeschool private school (an umbrella school) we are looking at for Meg's high school years. Meg is very, very excited. They have a yearbook and prom! She was excited about this, in that order. I was excited about the science classes...!

I recieved an email this weekend about a **Classical Conversations group starting up this fall very near to us. I knew about this course in a vague sort of way, but hadn't given it much thought. Well, I checked out the website and asked around at the homeschool boards, and suddenly I did not know how I had lived so long, homeschooling without this group. I want to sign the younger 4 kids up...but it was not at all in our already stretched budget for the new school year, and it is kind of pricey. We are working on what to do...I'll update you.

Meg is still Irish dancing, she competed at the Irish Fair in May.

She did really well. look! those curls are her own!


Check out the fancy Irish dance dresses. Also, not in our budget...we will figure something out!
Got the shoes...I think we are doing pretty good!! And the socks!! I did not know before that there were special Irish dance socks.

that is all that is news here...
how is your summer?

Cinderella, a perspective

I love this..

Cinderella hits the skids, Dina Goldstein Photography

it reminded me of the time I was Cinderella for a night.

This was at my sister's wedding. A little girl came up to me, very wide-eyed and asked me if I was Cinderella. I struggled with the moral delimma of lying, and so I told her 'no', I was not Cinderella.

I've always regretted that. I should have said 'yes', and shared a bit of magic.
Childhood should be a state of being, where anything is possible!