tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-187374522024-03-13T12:22:21.113-05:00Thoughts from my noodleNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.comBlogger808125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-23289132907570993322011-08-03T00:01:00.005-05:002011-08-03T01:23:33.922-05:00Lincoln Boyhood National MemorialSassy studied Abraham Lincoln at the end of this past school year, and she was fascinated by him. It was a great study, and I always love it when the children get sincerely interested in history.Because so much of history can be dry facts and long-ago dates, I always try to do hands-on history whenever possible. When the opportunity came to travel south last month, I chose our path to take us by Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-56499186637804789992011-06-08T22:22:00.002-05:002011-06-08T23:07:22.077-05:00FacebookI think I'm over the whole Facebook phenomenon.I have an account, as do (it seems) most people in the electronically gifted world. Checking what other people are saying seems to be almost a necessity, since ... well, I'll get to that in a moment. But as a forum? I think I'm about finished.Lately it seems that most of what I've read is rantings of one thing or another. Personal affronts, politicalNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-8401441499807754772011-03-01T00:18:00.002-06:002011-03-01T00:32:59.129-06:00Radish SaladI got a new recipe last week that is too good not to share! Yes, as the title suggests, it's radish salad. I'm not a great fan of radishes because they are so spicy, but this uses a Daikon radish, which has a much more mild flavor. The recipe actually reminds me of my Memaw's cucumber salad.1 Daikon radish, peeled and sliced very thin1/3 cup diced scallions1/4 cup black olives (whole, sliced, Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-29523986826096446132011-02-17T08:51:00.002-06:002011-02-17T08:54:39.542-06:00Like Mother, Like DaughterThe scene: Mother, walking out of the bathroom after cleaning.Sass: Oh, Mom, you smell good! Can I wear that perfume? What is it?Me: Bleach.I swear, I can't make these things up. I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but my love of bleach is no secret. Seems like Sassy takes after me in that.Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-1992259390905350662011-02-15T09:25:00.002-06:002011-02-15T09:32:56.014-06:00SassyA snippet of a texting conversation with my 9 year old:Me: Do I need to tell Daddy how to rent the Redbox? Me: Just tell him to put in the promo code before he swipes his credit card. Sass: I got you covered, girl.Maybe it's because I could hear her voice in that, but I laughed aloud right in the middle of Spyder's magic meeting. Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-24550914988361463652011-02-11T08:43:00.002-06:002011-02-11T09:26:27.311-06:00FridaysFriday is my least favorite day of the week. By the time Friday comes along, I've usually had a hectic week. Running here and there, schoolwork, messy house because I was busy with everything else. The minutia just catches up to me. I don't like Fridays. For several years, the urchins and I didn't do book work on Fridays to alleviate my Friday Blahs. Instead we did "Friday Fun Time" where we Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-3488529149464517202011-02-09T08:57:00.003-06:002011-02-09T10:25:45.834-06:00MannersSuburbia. I've never truly lived in the suburbs before. We lived in midtown Memphis, then we moved to a suburb of Memphis, but it wasn't The Suburbs as I had seen portrayed in movies. The houses were all older and different from one another, on unevenly spaced plots of land. That was our old neighborhood. Now, we DO live in one of those neighborhoods that looks like a movie set. Every time I Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-73739094268520930502011-02-06T01:03:00.005-06:002011-02-06T11:01:07.020-06:00Car snobI am a car snob. I have no reason for it. My car is a Nissan Versa. This one. Yep, I still have that one. And I still love it.It's really amusing to see my little car next to all of the other Mom Vehicles. SUV, SUV, van, SUV, van, my little car, van, SUV, van. The juxtaposition makes me smile.My first car was a huge boat of a thing, one of those 70s classics. My dad bought it for me the Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-37006429491550079862011-02-03T22:36:00.005-06:002011-02-03T23:07:06.694-06:00In the wake of The BlizzardAs I mentioned yesterday, the blizzard came through in two phases. The first occurred from about 3 pm to 5 am. It never stopped snowing entirely, but it was slow enough that we could shovel. Until about 11 am, that is, when the second phase came through. That lasted until about 4 pm.I should have taken more photos, but I was more worried about being able to open the garage and the front door Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-9264475234551910032011-02-02T20:28:00.005-06:002011-02-03T07:16:07.074-06:00Snowmageddon 2011OH THE SNOW.Spyder had an orthodontist appointment yesterday morning, but we were done before the snow began in earnest. We even had enough time to stop at Wendy's for lunch (doctor or dentist appointment = patient chooses lunch).We were home by 1:30. The snow had started, but it was still in the early stages. Around 3 it really picked up, and by 5 the wind was howling. We even had thunder Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-51385193067777332902011-01-31T21:25:00.000-06:002011-02-01T06:45:22.555-06:00Blizzard WatchI may live in the Great Midwest, but I am a southern gal to the core. Those two little words -- "blizzard watch" -- make me shiver. I've gotten over my fear of plain old snow, sort of. I still don't like it, but it has become somewhat commonplace, so it doesn't really BOTHER me like it did. It also helps tremendously that we don't really get ice here the way we did in the mid-south. It's allNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-73479739201517568052011-01-30T22:07:00.000-06:002011-01-30T22:07:12.440-06:00ChallengerThis year marked the 25th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Like many people, I can remember where I was and who delivered the news (at school, walking down the hill, and the news was delivered by one of my jokester friends, so I didn't believe him). I've tried to explain the impact to the children, probably with little success.When I discovered that the Challenger Learning Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-22975063955941958772011-01-30T00:39:00.002-06:002011-01-30T01:50:12.094-06:00Since I've been gone ....A great many things have taken place, most notably moving from the Mid-South to the Midwest. Chicago, to be more specific. We seem to have settled into the groove of the area just fine, although I will say that winter here is significantly different from the winter I'm accustomed to experiencing. To be honest, it seems like our old life is ... well ... a lifetime away. I'm not really certain Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-13018222330206759792010-04-17T10:40:00.002-05:002010-04-17T10:47:11.713-05:00Last nightWe watched that 'Secret of the Mountain' movie, sponsored by Wal-Mart and Proctor & Gamble. Wal-Mart did the FUNNIEST series of commercials. Sort of like a series of vignettes about a family. It reminded me of those old Folger's commercials. At the end of each one, there was a little preview about what was coming next. We played a guessing game on what would be the next featured Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-57276765558875378972009-11-20T13:43:00.000-06:002009-11-20T14:13:03.703-06:00Okay, hmmm, let's catch upThe household has been sickly. Thankfully we have avoided the regurgitation form of sickly, but still ... it hasn't been fun. We spent last weekend in Chicago. I can't remember if I have mentioned it here, but we will be moving there soon, and we went for a recon mission. We had a fantastic time. Busy, but fun and productive. And it sure is going to be different than the South.The urchins andNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-7309528586198697052009-11-17T17:05:00.002-06:002009-11-17T17:15:34.788-06:00UnplannedI had planned to write a post about our weekend in the Chicago area, but alas, I have been catering to an icky-feeling Sassy today, so instead a reposting seems more appropriate. I'll tell you about the trip tomorrow. :)Originally posted 2/2/06Yesterday Sass was sick. She woke up at 4:15 am and said she needed to "frow up." We made it into the bathroom and waited for a few moments, but it neverNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-17203640642429425932009-11-16T14:40:00.001-06:002009-11-16T14:40:00.611-06:00Fun in the rainWe have had a rainy autumn. A very rainy autumn. At times we had to sneak visits outside between rain showers.The urchins and I had planned to go to the zoo one day, and, well, we had rain. Of course. It wasn't cold, and it wasn't a huge storm, just rain and more rain. We decided to go anyway -- rain or not.I admit, I was rather skeptical about the whole endeavor. Mostly because I don't likeNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-67511017015866519702009-11-14T09:48:00.000-06:002009-11-14T09:48:00.556-06:00Oh yeahNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-41975950228948738082009-11-13T07:52:00.000-06:002009-11-13T07:52:00.765-06:00GivingThe urchins and I volunteer at our church food pantry at least once a week. And every single time we are there, it is such a humbling experience.Now some of the people are stinky liars who are just there for the free stuff. We know that, and we can pretty much tell who they are before they ever open their stinky, lying mouths. And we do serve those stinky liars if they qualify based on income.Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-34037945666783463012009-11-12T08:32:00.001-06:002009-11-12T08:46:47.536-06:00I am totally stealing thisKris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers has an excellent post about her 30 Days of Gratitude. Nothing unusual; a lot of people do that in November. But read a little further down and look at the Gratitude Tree.We focus on thankfulness at our house quite a bit, and each night at bedtime we all give our Yay of the Day, something excellent that happened that day. More than one is good too. On Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-27198860138164500632009-11-11T10:57:00.001-06:002009-11-11T10:57:00.676-06:00FourteenToday Skeeter and I celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. Well, technically we won't celebrate today because he is away on a business trip. But 14 years ago today, we were married.1. We were married in the church that I had attended since I was 5.2. Everyone made fun of me because I wanted an opera selection as part of the music. I think everyone else hated it, but I loved that piece. Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-52853771504521186472009-11-10T22:44:00.001-06:002009-11-10T22:44:00.293-06:00For no particular reasonThanks for all the welcomes. See, it's easy to forget how much I like doing this, and then once I begin again, I'm all, "I LOVE IT!" What can I say? I'm a complicated soul.An example:I had a few free minutes over the weekend, and I started cleaning out some old bookmarks. One of the bookmarks I found was a blog named I'm Just Sayin'. Shamefully, I don't remember bookmarking it, but of courseNoodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-27245009756802427992009-11-09T23:33:00.000-06:002009-11-09T23:33:21.416-06:00Puddlin'So, yeah, it's been a while. When I "take a break" from blogging, it's easy for me to forget how much I enjoy it. I wonder why that is? Like splashing in puddles ROCKS when you're a young thing and then it's as if you forget eventually. So I'm making myself remember to splash in the bloggy puddles again.
I haven't really been reading OR writing in the last few months.&Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-45173614162688796522009-09-17T23:26:00.002-05:002009-09-17T23:29:41.811-05:00An urchin laughThose children o' mine just make me laugh so much.(Just for reference, we play a game in the car where we call out "JuicyFruit" any time we see a yellow vehicle. It's mindless fun. Try it. You'll never miss a yellow vehicle again. In our version, commercial vehicles don't count.)SASS: That was a man driving that JuicyFruit. SPYDER: How do you know?SASS: Well, he was bald ....SPYDER: That Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18737452.post-27934037617684952042009-09-14T23:49:00.002-05:002009-09-15T00:08:12.019-05:00LascauxWe are reviewing prehistory, mostly for Sass because she was so young when we did it four years ago for Spyder. On Sunday we read a couple of chapters and discussed art in particular, so I went searching for the famous prehistoric art at Lascaux.Oh. My. Word. The French Ministry of Culture has a fantastic website that is absolutely filled with information. It actually allows you a virtual Noodlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06313570354851840693noreply@blogger.com1