Okay, hmmm, let's catch up

The 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 and I drove all day Friday, listening to Anne of Avonlea. We all love that series. On the last trip we listened to Anne of Green Gables. We got to the hotel right at 5 pm, and we mostly took it easy that night. Swimming was on the bill, of course.

Saturday was the 'big' day, lots of going and doing. The only thing that we planned in advance for the day was to visit Legoland, but we ended up having a full and fun day. Sadly, I have no photos for any of our stops yet because the camera didn't care for the cord we have. Picky, picky.

We visited the Old Joliet Prison, which was featured in The Blues Brothers. Beautiful building, almost like a castle rising out of the city. That was just a short drive-by stop, but I think we will go back at some point.

Afterward, we drove to Ikea. Oh, I do believe that my Target love has been eclipsed by Ikea. I could have spent hours in there, but the urchins were waiting patiently for Legoland, so I kept it pretty short. I will return though. Oh yes I will.

Legoland was quite fun, although oddly enough the funnest part was the free play area in the cafe. I think we spent half of our time in that area. The sculpture areas were really cool, but, well, you can't play with those.

We saw Big Bowl, a Chinese/Thai restaurant, as we were walking through the parking lot toward Legoland. We knew the moment that we saw it that we would be eating there for dinner. And we did. We left Legoland around 6:30 -- prime dinner wait -- but the wait wasn't horrid, only about 30 minutes. I am SO glad we waited. The meal was fantastic, but the best thing on the menu for me was the ginger ale made with fresh ginger. Oh. my. word. It was fabulous!

Sunday was less fun and more business. We did neighborhood scouting and a bit of house hunting. We did locate a magic shop though, and Spyder spent a happy hour in there. The magic shop is also a party store, and Skeeter found a great cactus pinata that we will use for this year's 10th annual Christmas Eve fiesta. Ole!

The urchins and I left on Monday morning at 6:45. Spyder is attending meetings of a local IBM ring, and he had a meeting that night. So, bright and early, we were on the way.

And since Tuesday, we've been home sick. I suppose it was good that we had a great weekend!

Unplanned

I 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 2/2/06

Yesterday 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 never happened. After a bit, she decided it would be best for us to sit on the couch for a while. Personally, I wanted to go back to bed, but I could tell that she really did feel sickly.

We went to the living room, put on the Heffalump Movie, and cuddled up on the couch. Surprisingly, she didn't go back to sleep during Heffalump (she usually does when she's tired), and we moved on to Scooby Doo after Heffalump. Sass and Spyder have both become huge fans of the classic Scooby Doo cartoons recently, so Spyder heard Scooby and came running!

Skeeter left for work at 7:30, and the day continued pretty much the same way that it began. Sass took a nap from about 9:30 to 10:30. I was shocked that she didn't sleep longer since she had gotten up so early AND she was so sick. She had started out the day feeling tummy-sick, but it moved into sniffles and coughs. By the time she was up from her little nap, fever was added to the mix.

She and I spent most of the day cuddled together on the couch or in the rocker. And it was actually a pretty good day.

Years ago, before Sass was even born, I read an article in Mothering Magazine called "Mom Medicine: Offering up the Day to a Sick Child." It completely changed my outlook on "sick days." Instead of feeling upset and exasperated and annoyed that my to-dos are still undone, I offer a prayer of thanks that we have so many healthy days, and I welcome the excuse to do nothing except be with my child.

Last night, Spyder said, "Mom, today was a really good day." And his day was essentially the same as usual, so I think HIS day was better because MY day was less hectic. It's food for thought, anyway.

Today is beginning pretty much the same way as yesterday. Skeeter got up at 6:00; I got up at 6:30; Sass got up at 7:00. Skeeter left for work at 7:30. Sass and I are on the couch, watching Scooby Doo. Sadly, there are three errands that MUST be done today, but I think I can make them painless. :o)

Fun in the rain

We 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 like to have wet feet. That annoys me beyond measure.

We did skip the planned picnic, but other than that, it was exactly as we had intended. And we had a blast. In fact, it was probably our funnest time going through Cat Country. The normally lazing cats were up and ... frolicking. That's the best word I can use to describe it. We stood and watched JUST the tigers for nearly 45 minutes. They came into the water, right up to the viewing area and stared at the urchins, who were just behind the window. It truly was a bit disconcerting.

It rained pretty steadily for the first 20 minutes or so, then it tapered to a drizzle, then just to damp. If it had been cold, we would have skipped altogether, but we were all glad to be outside that day, rain and all. Sometimes it really is just as easy as taking the plunge and doing it anyway.

Oh yeah

Giving

The 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. But most don't fall into the stinky liar category. Most of them are there because they simply don't have another option.

Skeeter was unemployed for several months about 5 years ago. We went almost 6 months without a paycheck or insurance. We used our church food pantry twice during that time, and let me tell you, it was a tremendous blessing. The pantry challenge may be a game for me now, but at that time it was a necessity.

Recently our church's pantry has seen a significant increase in younger people, families with young children, who are there because of unemployment. And I have been there. I know how it feels to humble yourself and ask for help when you'd rather do anything but. And yet the rational part of you knows that if you've got food in the pantry, you can use food money to pay for other, just-as-important things like electricity and water and a place to live.

We also have the older people who are now getting by, barely, on Social Security. Some of those people have to ask me to write their special requests because they aren't even functionally literate. Some of them are just doing the best they can to take care of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

As I said, it's humbling. It's one thing to hear about people who are struggling; it's another to see it. And because of that, I do think it's important for us to be there, the urchins included. Learning to show caring to others is just as important as history or math -- and arguably more so.

Many food pantries are now overwhelmed with requests, ours included. During the upcoming holidays, I encourage you to think about setting aside an amount to give to a food pantry, even a small amount. You would be astonished at the amount of food that $5 can purchase from the food bank. You will be making a difference in someone's life. And you just might be showing God's grace to the stinky liars.

I am totally stealing this

Kris 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 those really craptastic days where you want to throw in the towel, it's a good reminder to look for the little things that really DO matter. On the good days, it's easy to see how blessed we really are.

I love the added visual of the Gratitude Tree. The trio of hearing/reading/writing will plant that gratitude a little more firmly in their hearts. I am shamelessly stealing it for our house. Thanks, Kris!

Fourteen

Today 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. Still do.

3. It rained horribly the night before, and I just knew, KNEW, that it was going to be a terrible mess at the church. The rain stopped in the early morning hours, and one of the men of the church was thoughtful enough to clear the tree debris from the parking lot. That was an incredible kindness that I have never forgotten.

4. I quit my job a week before the wedding. I moved from my city to stay with my parents, then after the wedding, I moved to Skeeter's city. It was a scary time for me.

5. Skeeter and I went to England for our honeymoon. It was fabulous.

6. One of Skeeter's groomsmen couldn't come to the wedding because his wife went into labor. I can always remember his son's birthday because of it.

7. The Michael saved the day and stepped in for the missing groomsman.

8. Skeeter was nervous and made one of the candles shoot into the air at the ceremony. Everyone in the church laughed, but he borrowed and lighter, relit the candle and we moved on. It's a great memory.

9. I wish my Nana had still been alive to be there.

10. Skeeter's cake had Mickey Mouse and equations that I still have no idea what they meant.

11. Skeeter's nephew was the ring bearer. The nephew is now in college.

12. I bought the gifts for the attendants at antique shops. My hometown's downtown area is filled with little antique shops, and I had fun looking for individual gifts.

13. I still think that potluck wedding receptions taste far better than catered. They may not be as pretty, but you can't argue with the flavor.

14. I would happily do it all over again.


Happy anniversary, honey!

For no particular reason

Thanks 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 course I had to check it out, if only because Skeeter has been enamored of that phrase lately.

On the first page, I ran across this little jewel. Skim on past the rude peeps and get to the awesomeness of the dog. I laughed so hard that I woke MY dogs who were snoring nearby.

And then, for some unknown reason, I decided that I needed to get back to blogging. Because of a flatulent dog that I don't even know. Perhaps 'complicated' is an understatement.

Puddlin'

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.  Um, should I be ashamed to mention that it's been so long that I didn't realize that Blogger had changed?  It's not a lack of things to mention, that's for certain.  I just don't take the time.  And in fact, I am making myself write now because it was a busy day and I'm just worn out.

Tonight we went to a farewell celebration.  The urchins take fencing, and their instructor's dog is dying.  The dog is 16 years old, and he has had a wonderful life.  He has been a real companion for his owner.  So fencing classes were canceled for this evening and the instructor hosted a celebration instead.  It was lovely. 

Afterward, we met The Michael at the pizza cafe for dinner, which is slightly amusing because last week at this time I was swearing that I didn't want to eat pizza again for a year.  We had been in Chicago for a week, and I think we ate pizza every day for that entire week.  Next time, I am going to have to make sure to branch out a bit.

And perhaps tomorrow I will schedule time to write a post before the day has gotten the better of me.

An urchin laugh

Those 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 doesn't mean it was a man. It could just be a REALLY UGLY woman.

Lascaux

We 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 walk through the cave itself, with detailed information on the individual paintings and engravings.

The site map gives the visitor direct links to information about the geology of the region, the discovery itself, the research on the artworks, and much more.

Even if your students aren't studying the era, the website is well worth a visit.

The new school year

It is amazing how time gets filled. And the best laid plans often have to change. So it is with our school year.

I had hoped to manage a three day week this year, with Spyder working (mostly) independently. That hasn't happened, either one. We are continuing with the four day week, and I am doing direct teaching for both 6th grade and 2nd grade. We are managing, and it's better to continue with the same-old since I know that it will all get done that way. Perhaps we can move into more independent learning as the year progresses.

Add the extra activities -- fencing (twice a week), music class, volunteering at the food pantry, church, art class (twice a month), plus a couple of field trips every month -- and we are always busy and often running like mad. It is a treat to stay home for an entire day, and it seldom happens.

Sass is especially enjoying her studies this year. She hasn't said that she has a favorite. She likes them all. Math is her current #1, but I think that's only because we've been doing hands-on activities for the last week.

Spyder has read every book that I've assigned for this semester. Yes. He has already read all 16 of them. And he read two extra ones that were on the list for NEXT semester. Thankfully, he still needs to write the papers for most of them. I suppose that buys me a little extra time on deciding on more books for him.

His best girl

(via text)

SKEETER: I came home to surprise you. You aren't here.

ME: We are @ Target, but we will be home soon.

SKEETER: We need trash bags and chocolate.

ME: We are buying the trash bags.

SKEETER: And chocolate. I haven't seen Little Debbie in some time. I kind of miss her.

SKEETER: She is my not-so-secret crush. Even though she is Michael's girl.

Christmas Carol train tour

Next stop: Dickens' London.



To promote the new Christmas Carol movie, Disney has a train tour that is traveling throughout the US.


First, this was marketing genius. Seriously. It's just a movie. But the promotional tour that they are doing is great!

But before we get to the tour, let's talk about the line to get in.

OH YEAH. There was a two hour wait. There was a worker dude at the end of the line asking everyone, "You made sure to notice that there is a TWO HOUR wait from this point, right? TWO HOURS." It was as if he was even surprised that we were staying. I know I was.

But wait we did. For two hours. It was 92 degrees.

OH PEOPLE. The things that I do for my children. I should have taken a photo of the guy in front of us. He had this cool little camping belt with two canteens hooked to it. And a pocket for snacks. The woman two families behind us had a folding camp chair. I felt thoroughly unprepared.

But we stood in line like troopers, minus water and snacks and camp chairs. We did a lot of standing in line.

But, as usual, we made friends with the people near us. (Not with Mr. Prepared with Camping Gear though. He was a little snooty, as if we were beneath him because we didn't anticipate the two hour wait.) (I didn't. I was pretty shocked by the wait time.)

Ahem. Back to the friends. We actually found out that the family behind us was just starting homeschooling, and we had a mutual acquaintance. That was unexpected.

Anyway, the chatting made the wait much more bearable. And about an hour into our wait, Christmas carolers showed up! Sass sang Christmas carols all day after that.


But alas, even with the carolers, we had more waiting. A little closer to the train itself, there were three of these cooling fans set up. My children thoroughly enjoyed the mist generated by the fans. But it really looked more like a spray once they were finished.

Finally! The wait was over! And once we got inside ... WOW! The first car was set up with period costumes and portraits of characters from the film. Plus it had three cases full of books and letters on loan from the Dickens Museum. I could have stayed there longer reading the letters.

Aside: Did you know that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were friends? And even wrote a book together? I didn't until reading some of the information in the cases.

But alas, the two hour wait seriously cut into the "seeing" time because Spyder had to get to fencing class afterward. So we moved on to the models.

The movie uses computer generated animation, but they used models in some of the process. This model of Big Ben was amazing.

We weren't allowed to use flash photography, and so this photo was the best I could manage.

Next came the ... I'm not sure what it's called. The actors wore suits like in the photo and acted out the scenes, then they were animated in a later process. It was pretty interesting, and there were screens set up along the wall that gave the information about how it was filmed that way.

I loved the way they used the mirror to make the train car seem much bigger than it actually was.

On the way out we visited the interactive car, where the favorite activity was taking photos of ourselves and morphing them into the movie characters. That was really fun. But let me mention here -- that particular car was hotter than waiting in the sun outside. I felt like I was about to faint when we got out of there.

And finally, the end of the train cars. A happy ending, of course.

We also got to see a 10 minute preview of the movie in 3-D. My children were in awe. And YUP, 3-D still gives me a headache, even with all of the improvements since the 1970s.

The bottom line: If the tour is coming to your city, it's worth going. Just make sure to bring a camp chair and a cooler.

One week

School starts in one week.

The last of our materials are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I will spend the next few days going through and organizing, but I am afraid that I might have to hide them. The urchins are really excited about digging into their new studies. (Let's hope that continues for quite some time AFTER we have begun.) Truly, I think that I am just as excited as they are. We have some fun and interesting things this year.

This year we have scheduled for three bookwork days and two non-bookwork days. I am a little nervous about that, and we might end up changing. We have never had two non-bookwork days each week. We are attempting it this year because we work at the food pantry for four hours one day per week, and it can be tiring work. Friday is generally set aside as a free day for museum or zoo visits, but it can be used as a catch-up, catch-all day if necessary.

As always, it's a work in progress. I am sure that things will get rearranged during the first couple of weeks to see how it works best for us.

Couponing, an update of sorts

This is EXACTLY where I am. Skeeter and I changed over to a cash-only system for grocery shopping last month.

Anything pertaining to food or toiletries comes out of our grocery budget. That includes any eating out and food for the dogs. I spend $10-$15 a week for coupons, so I subtract that from what I take out of the bank. Oh, and I toss my change into our Disney fund every night. I do SPEND the change when I'm out though -- if I haven't dumped it yet -- so it's usually less than $1. I am all about change management.

Changing over to the cash system made it evident that I was going over budget regularly -- sometimes not by much, but regularly -- in search of that elusive deal. Not good. That has stopped due to the cash-only constraint. If the money isn't there, I can't buy it, no matter how good the deal is. I can also honestly say that I've learned to choose the deals I buy more carefully. I was moving there before, but changing the way we handled grocery money is making it a reality.

When I first began couponing, I was really overwhelmed with all of the information available. I spent hours finding deals and even more time getting the coupons together to do them. But deals will come around again! If I miss it, no big. I will get it on the next go if it's something we need.

I've changed to choosing the stuff we need that week (bread, milk, produce ...), then finding the deals on items that we already use, then finding deep, deep deals for things to stockpile or donate. I have certain sites that I check, and that's about it for the searching. I use the time that we are waiting for Spyder at fencing class to sort coupons so that I have to spend less time doing it at home.

The deal sites that I use have become more of a launching point than anything, looking for what others already know is available. Some of the best I have found simply by looking at the clearance sections to see what is there.

Last week, I lucked upon half gallons of organic milk discounted to $.99. I bought two of them, but I should have bought at least three. I should have known that we would use them before the expiration date. (We did. They all had a July 31 date. I had to go back and buy more milk -- full price -- on July 30. My urchins love milk.)

Kroger has a fantastic clearance area. Absolutely fantastic. I never know what I am going to find there. A few weeks ago I bought dental floss for $.19 a package after coupons. I found Pull-Ups for a friend for $2 a package.

Target also has fantastic clearance sales. I've been shopping those for years; I'm just using coupons to make them better now!

So it has only taken me a year (!!), but I think I finally have a handle on how it works best for us. Changing over to the cash system was just another piece in the puzzle.

Science quiz?

My 11 year old took this Science Knowledge Quiz. My 11 year old. And he scored better than 90% of the people who have taken it? Considering the questions, that worries me.

In all truth, he did ask me about one question, so I suppose technically we collectively scored 12 out of 12. But still, he would have gotten 11 of the 12 correct without me.

(H/T to The Common Room)

Flight of the Bumblebee

Accordion style. Pretty amazing, actually.



Sass and I were talking about musical instruments, which led to listening to some in our collection, which led to looking them up on the internet, which led to this. Isn't that always the way it is?

Grumble, grumble

I have been rockin' the coupon thing lately. People are getting tired conversations containing "Hey, do you need barbecue sauce? How about some A1? Please take it. Please."

Tonight I made a stop in the Kroger for a few things -- using coupons, of course -- and my total actually ended up being in the negatives after I used all of the coupons. I didn't really want to add anything, so I had the cashier take a couple of them off, and I paid my $2.03.

After I was in the car and on the interstate, I realized that I had left the change from my $10 bill in the little change dispenser in the self-checkout.

ARGH!!

How's that for negating all of the self-congratulatory thoughts on the couponing?

I just hope that whomever found my $7 felt blessed by it.

Something right

So much of parenting is a trial and error. At least for me. I'm sure that many (most?) parents will disagree, but I often find myself thinking, "Oh, I could have done so much better if I had ________." It's nice to actually SEE where something turned out well.

Sass and Spyder went to a Vacation Bible School this week, at a different church where they knew no one. Despite what non-homeschoolers might think, this was not a problem for them. Not at all. They are always ready to meet new people. The other children at the VBS? Not so much. At least not unless they look/act/talk like everyone else.

For those who don't know, Spyder has long hair.


This isn't exactly common around here, but obviously he isn't the first male to have long hair. And yet, all of the children at the church could NOT let it go. They teased him about it all week.

All. Week.

I can understand it being a topic of conversation the first day, as he was the only one in his class with long hair. But to go on day after day with it? Excessive, to say the least. And it wasn't just talking about it. The others were really mean about it. So mean that the day after VBS ended, he asked to get it cut.

Spyder is actually growing it to donate to Locks of Love. I think he said that at first so that I would let him grow it out, but now it has become truth. Little did he realize that I would have let him grow it long any old way. My only rules were to keep it brushed and out of his face.

We went to the salon and the stylist measured it. He is at 9 inches. It has to be 10 inches to donate. He mulled it over silently. I went to pay for Sass' trim because it was his decision. After a few minutes, he said, "No, I'm keeping it. I'm almost there. Doesn't matter that other people don't get it. I'm still me, and I know why I'm doing it."

Why am I pleased? Spyder navigated an entire week

a) with people he didn't know
b) in a completely new place
c) with those people who were determined not to like him,
d) ultimately deciding to continue with his plan
e) despite the raging disapproval of the children in his age group.

That is the kind of child that I was hoping to raise.