Antique mommy, on being carded..not!

Antique mommy has done it again, I am sitting here with tears rolling down my face, laughing so hard. Go read this, about her date night out and being carded...sort of, not...

I was carded a few years ago, I don't drink, but was sitting at the bar in a restaurant due to lack of seating elsewhere. I think I did actually 'skip' out of the restaurant in sheer giddiness. Kind of made up (in a cosmic sort of way) for the time I was asked at the hospital if I was there to "deliver" and had to fess up that my baby was born last week and I was there to visit her in intensive care. That had to be my most humiliating moment ever. hands-down.

go visit Antique mommy...scoot!

Canon in D...with sound effects

I'm trying real hard to tie some kind of spiritual lesson into this, but I just can't...

Today was the annual friends and family recital for Meg. This recital is special, because we get a break from the Suzki playlists, and have the pleasure of seeing our kids play pieces of their own choosing-playing with a friend or family member.

The act that stole the show...The "40weeks +" pregnant mom and her preschooler son, she played the cello (beautifully) while her son played pizzicato (pluck at the strings with a finger) on the violin. They played "Pop goes the weasel". It was so cute, and she was so beautiful, so pregnant...she was glowing. I was kicking myself that I didn't have my video camera to capture it.

Meg played "Turkey in the Straw' a fiddle song with a friend. They were very cute, the little girl's mom accompanied them on the piano.

Demi and Amie have been sick for a few days, Amie had a fever on Thursday but is much improved already, only with a lingering runny nose. Demi had the fever on Friday, and is having some asthma and the runny nose. It is really a big effort to get a sitter for something like this, our sitters are in another city, it turns into a 40 minute deal to go get one...so we decided to take Amie and Demi with us. How bad could it be?? These recitals are always under an hour long (the teacher is a very compassonate person!). How bad could it be? Famous last words.

Amie snuffled and snorted through the whole thing. The scene became particularly grievous during Pachabel's canon in D; Amie's wet, constant snorting was drawing chilly fingers down my spine. I looked over to catch Demi with his finger in his nose..I caught his eye and lifted my eyebrow. In response, Demi grabbed a tiny corner of a torn tissue and jammed it into his nostril. And there it remained, sticking out of his nose... I then looked on horrified as the lady sitting next to him realized he had piled his used tissue onto her chair.
It was truly one of those writhering, sink-thru-the-floor, mom moments.

I guess I have become more of a philosopher through these snapshots of life, and sometimes manage to not cry over spilt milk. I continued on, unruffled..you just have to let go of some things, as they roll down hill, picking up steam and an energy life all their own, you realize you can't really affect the outcome in a meaningful way.

I really cannot come up with something spiritual and profound to wrap this up with, though verses about pride keep running through my mind..

After all, the question of the day remains..."How bad can it be?"

Stepping into the boat

Things are finally slowing down here, so I have the chance again to work through my notes taken during the bible conference on the Gospel of Mark. I thought I would share what I was pondering on today;

"And immediately He compelled His disciples to step into the boat and go before to the other side, toward Bethsaida, while He sent the crowd away. And after He said farewell to them, He went away to the mountain to pray. And when evening fell, the boat was in the midst of the sea and He was alone on the land. And seeing them distressed as they rowed, for the wind was contrary to them, He came toward them...walking on the sea..but when they saw Him..they cried out, For they saw Him and were startled. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid. And He went up unto them into the boat, and the wind ceased."
Mark 6:45-50

Here are the notes on this from the conference...

"Mark 6:45-52 reveals that we need to seek out the journey, the course, that the Lord has ordained for us according to His perfect will and to enjoy Him as our heavenly Minister and Hight Priest, the One who is interceding for us and sustaining us to finish our course in living a heavenly life on earth for the reality of the Body of Christ-Heb.8:1-2, 7:26, Acts 20:24; 2 Tim.4:7-8:
...we need to realize that the journey of faithful believers is one that is "contrary to the wind", and they experience being "distressed" as they "row"; we need to take the Lord into our "boat"..and enjoy peace with Him on the journey of human life-Mark 6:47-51; John 6:21"

this message really outlines God's grace and mercy towards us as we take whatever journey He has ordained for us to further His will.

"You therefore, my child, be empowered in the grace which is in Christ Jesus;.." 2 Timothy 2:1

This picture of "stepping into the boat"is a result of our love and relationship with the Lord compelling us to step into the boat. This stepping can be a decisive thing, a step beyond our comfort, a step that stretches us and challenges us. A step that sometimes plain and simple goes against our soulishness, our love of self, comfort, things and situations that please us.

How sweet that once we are compelled by Him to step into the boat, finding ourselves in a long night in the midst of the sea, that He will come to us, get into the boat with us, and extend His peace to us on this journey.

I know that I often find myself being called out to step into the boat, and I panic, question, become afraid...sometimes wish to go back to what was comfortable. His peace really does pass understanding and I have always found that I have gained much more than I lost in undertaking the journey with Him.

Philippians 4:7 "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on you, Because he trusts in You."

*Music has always been a big backdrop to my life, this song really touched me at a time in my life when I was struggling with stepping into the boat, the boat of running after Christ for a closer/more constraining relationship with Him. I had the feeling that the family I love just didn't understand...
anyways, here is the song if you would like to hear it. Enjoy.

Lately

Well, I really don't have anything profound to post on today. Frankly, today finds me trying to play catch up with things, homeschool-wise, and I just haven't had much time to think deep thoughts. We homeschool through a charter school, Friday was our meeting day to look over our progress for the month. I am not your most organized person, at all! -But this month was particularly ugly, after all the upset of guests during the winter training, and Sky's dad dying. Somehow I managed to pull our papers and books together for Friday, but I still had to put it all into some-kind of readable format this weekend and send it in. Whew, as of tonight, that is done! Now, I am left with a pile of papers, workbooks, and library books scattered. It really mirrors the state of my brain right now. Note to self, be more organized! yeah, yeah...blah, blah.. "I'm not listening!"

So, here is a random picture of us today:

Ran to the store cause we were out of a lot. Came home and couldn't fit anything into the freezer. I decided then and there to clean it out. Oh, my sainted aunts!! I am embarrassed to say that I had an entire kitchen bag full of tired, old, who-knows-how-long-that-was-in-there meat and veggies. But, wow-there is so much room in my freezer now! I can actually see what we have! Happy thought!!

Sky and the kids spent the afternoon in the backyard working on the garden. The new, bigger, improved garden plot, thank-you-very-much. Sky enlarged the plot, worked in the compost he has been cooking on this year, and installed bird netting all around it. The hens were seriously displeased.

we had a power outage today, and the funniest sight of the week was seeing Sky, all four kids, the cat, the guinea pigs (out for a cage cleaning) and the hens all scatter for cover when the sprinklers all went on.

I made BLT's for the kids for dinner, because I felt guilty that we were leaving them at home while hubby and I went to P.F. Chang's china bistro for dinner. I don't know why I have this guilt, growing up I seldom went places, didin't expect too, didn't think much of it. So, they got BLT's which they all love...rounded it out with brocolli and cherry tomatoes. And a vitamin. I am all about nutrition.

P.F. Chang's was awesome, we shared won-ton soup and orange-peel beef. The beef was on the spicy side, but oh so good. We have to get the beef, because we are in agreement about not spoiling the orange peel chicken we get at trader joes. Don't want to have a good thing pale by comparison.

We went to Barnes and Nobles afterward, hubby looked at, what-else?, gardening books and I did some heavy, serious reading through magazines. And a chai latte, good stuff!

Perused through Martha Stewart's magazine, I think she has finally lost it folks...first article was all about cutting out and assembling your own valentine's chocolate box. I mean, come on...who is going to sit down and do that?? Truly, it didn't stop with making your own truffles...harvesting and grinding your own cocoa beans, finding the exotic madagascar vanilla to blend it with, dusting them with freshly hand ground powdered sugar and then wrapping them in your own homemade eucalyptus paper-mulch tissue paper...but she had to hand cut and assemble the box too. It's just too, too much...KWIM??

I came home, read a story to my two little ones, and then spent the rest of the night typing up our learning record. I am so glad that is done! Done, done!

A window into my day.
How was yours?

Priceless 5 meme

I've been tagged! (sort of) Factor 10 at Did you ever get the feeling? did this meme and mentioned she wanted to tag me, but thought I had a full plate right now. She's so sweet like that...it's got to be because of her name... So here goes, since I was just wishing for a fun meme,

The priceless 5

5- The number of years hubby and I dated before getting married

4 - houses we put offers on in Oceanside, Ca but for several weird reasons did not buy. We figured finally that we were supposed to stay in Orange County, so we did.

3- years we have lived in our current house. (in OC, in case you missed that part-and not in a cool, ocean-y sounding city like we imagined)

2- The number of c-sections I have had

1 - pair of very funky shoes residing in my closet. All my others are boring.

priceless: the way my husband does so many nice things to make me feel loved and cared for, like buying me an ipod because I mentioned I would like one, like making sure I have a diet coke in the fridge for breakfast, like warming my cold hands in his, finally-like the way he puts my picture on his phone and palm pilot as wallpaper.

I am going to tag Lindsey, Cyndi, Tas, and Susanne to play along. Tag-you're it!!

Homeschool fun with Little House in the big woods

A few years ago, we were reading through the Little House books with my two eldest girls.
I thought I would share a fun project we did with the book.

One of the chapters described maple sugaring time, so one morning I made up a batch of blueberry pancakes and we did a little taste test. I put out several different types of syrup, all the imitation variety-and a bottle of real maple syrup. The kids made a bar graph and we tracked the preferences of everyone over that day. We were actually doing the little house books with another family that year, so that mom and her 4 kids were over for this.
I was very much surprised that all of the children, but one preferred the imitation syrup to the real thing. I guess it made sense, they had all been brought up using imitation and to them, that was what syrup was supposed to taste like.

For science, we also traced drawings of maple leaves and studied the purpose of sap in a tree. For anyone out there in areas where maple trees used for syrup are, you could go out and identify the trees.

Another fun project with this unit study would be the maple candy on snow recipe I mentioned in another post,-Wondertime magazine had a recipe for those of us lacking snow.

To wrap it up, find a poem about syrup time, or maple trees and have the children use it for copywork.
For geography, look on your bottle of real maple syrup and see where it was made, then look up the state on a map. Research which areas produce maple syrup and color those areas on a map.

Thursday Thirteen #15...places

Thursday Thirteen #15
13 places I would like to visit

1. Jerusalem (though it seems so dangerous, I will probably never go)

2. Greece (ancient ruins, seat of civilization, all that good stuff)

3. Ireland ( we saw mostly Dublin when we were there, would like to see the rest)

4. Prince Edward Island (have to walk the bridge over the lake of shining water... and see all things Anne, of course!)

5. Moscow (but not in the winter)

6. Alaska (ditto #5.., and I have never seen the aurora borealis)

7. Australia (would love to see flocks of cockatoos flying about)

8. England (have to see all the places mentioned in Jane Austin's novels)

9. Hawaii (have this idea it would be the perfect climate for me, So. Ca is close...but still too cold sometimes)

10. The Netherlands (we have friends there, might be our next big trip)

11. Washington D.C. and the New England states (our historical roots, cherry trees in bloom, all things Benjamin Franklin, Plymouth plantation, clam chowder...I could go on and on)

12. Egypt (would like to see the pyramids, the nile, and it would be warm...)

13. Austria (you know it's got to be beautiful! And the history!!)

Thursday thirteen is a weekly meme, go to the huge Thursday Thirteen hub to see more.