Guess what I'm doing?

I'm posting from my new toy. ZD got me an iPod touch. How cool is that!
And it syncs with my outlook calendar and contacts.
Also very cool.
I've been drug into the 21st century.

By the way.....

I've chosen my "word of the year" for 2009. I'll unveil it on New Year's and I'm trying to start living it now.

I know y'all will be sitting on pins and needles until the 1st. ;)

Getter better

I want you all to know, we survived the Holiday lights/Visit to Santa. It was cold. Way to cold to be on a hay ride but we hay rode anyway. We met a few family members there and had a great albeit cold night. When the guy running the hay ride asked how many people were in our party, I told him we were a small horde. He smiled and replied, "A horde? Like a horde of barbarians?" I told him we were just like the Huns only slightly more peaceful and less tolerant of the cold. He glanced over at one family member, who is quite tall, who wore a pointed knit hat and covered herself with several blankets...one of which was brown and furry looking.

"Some of us are more like the Huns than others," I told him.

One day to go folks. If I don't get all the presents wrapped soon it won't matter. The boys are quietly excited. Which is infinitely better than wildly excited.

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

OMG, I am so cold!
It's finally warmed up to 39 degrees here at 3:30 in the afternoon. I understand that might be practically swimming weather for some of you, but for me....it is freakin' cold!
And to make matters worse, we have to go to Lights of the South tonight and see Santa. I think I'll have to layer the clothes just a bit.
Oh.....you might want to turn down your speakers if you click that link or you'll start your children singing.

Where's the pause button?

Are you all aware that it is FOUR days until Christmas?

FOUR DAYS!

I have wrapped nothing, baked nothing and barely decorated. We have done no Christmas crafts, seen no Christmas plays or concerts, nor visited Santa. I haven't even gone grocery shopping...good thing I don't have to cook Christmas dinner.
I am running out of time.

And what am I planning to do today? ZD and I have to install a new mailbox because ours fell over. I get a new mailbox for Christmas. I think I'll put a bow on it.

Y'all better get ready because Christmas is coming.

Another little hamster grave

My oldest boy's hamster died today. He was suffering from tumors and a bad case of "wet tail" that he just couldn't shake.
My oldest did his very best, even offering him cola lids of water and medicine every hour day and night. But the little fuzzy guy couldn't get well.
It was all so very sad.

Cornflake was probably the sweetest hamster that I've every encountered. His friendliness was a testament to my my oldest son's dedication to him. That little ball of fur loved his owner and thought that his cage or Oldest boy's hands were the be places on earth. His cage was left open one night and he didn't even try to get out. He just sat waiting at the door for the treat that he knew had to be coming. Why else would the door be open?
He never bit or swatted at fingers.
He loved be held and picked up.
He was a good little fuzzy thing and his passing brought my man-child to tears.

I gave him the speech my father always gave me: "He lived a good life and you did right by him. You did every thing that you were supposed to do."

Cornflake was the last of our hamsters and he will probably be the very last hamster. he was worth knowing though.

In which Sheila considers male chastity belts and is thankful for alarm systems

I meant to share this yesterday but I forgot because I spent the day preparing to put up Christmas decorations. (Preparing because the house is currently overfull of all my other stuff and I have to move that stuff out and replace it with all my evergreens, berries, creches, and little trees.)

Tuesday night is pizza night. This was born out of the fact that if I have a meeting or a class to teach or the boys have sports practice or some other obligation....inevitably it will be on Tuesday night. ZD is not a big fan of pizza so I usually swing by his favorite Chinese food place and pick up Hunan Shrimp or Egg Foo Yung. (Both of which Andrew adores. He used to call them "Human" shrimp and Egg "food yum")

I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and send my oldest boy, Jacob, into the store to grab some cokes while I picked up the Hunan shrimp. I left the other three boys in the van to wait. Oh....yes that led to discovering another cool thing about the new van.
Apparently, there is a anti-theft system. If you lock the van with the remote, which I did, the system automatically turns on. I knew this but I forgot until the alarm went off as I walked out with ZD's highly coveted shrimp.
My van has a very loud horn. Seriously loud. So loud that it set off the alarm on the car two spaces away from it. I knew before I opened the door what I would find inside: two laughing boys and one in tears.
It turns out that, while there is no motion sensor in the van, if the alarm system is activated...unlocking any of the doors from the inside will set off the alarm. Which is exactly what my youngest child did. He won't be doing it again, now that he knows that everyone in the parking lot will know what he's up to.

While all this was going on, my oldest was over in the grocery store being preyed upon.
"I'm not going to be able to go in there anymore. I'm developing a reputation," he told me as he got in the van. I asked him what gave him that idea. "The cashier said, 'Oh, I remember you.' when I went through the line."
I'm in this store a lot so I start in my head down the list of cashiers. "Was she young or older?"
"She's 16," he answered and I swear he had a on a poker face.
So that got me wondering why in the world he would know how old the cashier was. He wasn't gone long enough to get into life stories.
"She told me she was 16."
"Did you tell her you were 12?" It was dawning on me what exactly was going on in the Bi-Lo.
"Yeah, and she said 'Well, you don't look 12.'" and then he smiled kind of sheepishly. "I told her that I get that a lot."

The girl was flirting with my boy! Holey smokes! Those girls are bold these days. I would be put out but I know she had to be horrified when she found out that he was only 12. (Even though he's close to 6 feet tall and wears a size 15 shoe.) So that kind of evens it out for me. I knew which cashier he was talking about, a tall pretty blonde that works nights. I don't think you can be a cougar at 16.

I wonder if they make chastity belts with the same alarm features as the one on my van?

Crazy news people

A quote from Matthew as he watched the news with me:
"I don't understand these news people. They talk about something really important then they jump to something that doesn't matter at all. First they talk about the astronomers finding proof of a black hole in the middle of the Milky Way and then they start talking about something Barack Obama is doing.
So they start out with something that could destroy the whole galaxy compared to something we have to put up with for a few years."

I find it funny that he views the President-elect less dangerous than a black hole in the middle of our galaxy. When you look at it that way.... I guess he's right.

Saturday's recap

Today was an insanely busy day for a weekend.

We got in late last night after digging some post holes, stringing some electric fencing, and eating MIL's meatloaf for dinner.
So the plan was to sleep in a little today.

That was the plan until I remembered what I actually had to do today. I hate it when plans interfere with my sleep schedule.
We started the day by getting our (including mine) scout uniforms ready. My Webelos had a tour of the Federal Court house. Very, very cool. Not many people get to see the federal court house and I'm hoping that we'll only go there for field trips and not for legal matters.
Anyway, the court house was built in 1915 and is covered in marble and beautiful hardwoods. The doors to court room are covered with leather.
Gorgeous! But I don't think that most people in the court room are there to admire the architecture.
We got to meet and talk with a Federal judge (they are appointed for life by the POTUS), a county judge (they are elected by us voters), a State Marshall, and a county deputy.
And we were served cookies and hot chocolate by the Federal Court Clerk and given napkins with the court house seal embossed on them.
I'm not making this up.

When I got home it was time to drag out my 700 pounds of Christmas decorations. I'm not kidding about that either. I have 11 totes of decorations. 2 full sized trees and 6 small ones. One of the full sized trees and the 6 small ones went straight into the back of the new van for use later. (new van fact of the day: when I put the van in park, the driver's door unlocks automatically)
And the boys unloaded all that firewood that they cut over Thanksgiving weekend. Including a huge stump of fat lighter. (Woooooooo.....fat lighter!)

After sorting through decorations and cleaning out the garage it was time to take the two cub scouts to decorate the Christmas float. The parade is tomorrow, but we have to get everything set up ahead of time.
We had a great turnout. I think the parents had as much fun as the kids. Our theme is "Christmas camp out." The dads set up a tent and a fake fire with a dutch oven hanging over it. The kids put together my big tree and decorated it with yellow and blue garland and cub scout patches. Then we added the 6 smaller trees as a little forest. (It really is a small forest of little evergreens.)

Once the trailer was festooned with ribbons and garland, and all the little trees had been decorated and nailed down so they wouldn't fall over during the parade...we were off to Wally world where I had to buy more garland for the boys to use in decorating their bikes. They'll ride those in the parade tomorrow and they have to have a festive ride. I bought a pair of blinking reindeer antlers for me to wear. ;)

Then it was home to cook breakfast for dinner. I think I ate a half pound of bacon myself and now I'm feeling a little ucky about it. Bacon remorse is a cruel thing. It's not nearly as bad a Krispy Kreme doughnut remorse.

Tomorrow, we'll get up and decorate bikes then set off on the Christmas parade adventure. 2 vans, 3 bikes, 6 water bottles, 2 mobile phones, and 4 and half hours counting wait time.
It should be a fun, fun, fun day.

Soapbox moment

On a homeschool board I posted the following:

"Yes, homeschooling is better. It is better for the family. It is better for the children. It is a better system of learning that is the standard of human evolution. The school system is a poor mimicry of that standard. (Said by a former school teacher)
I won't apologize for seeing that truth."

Someone took offense that I said that homeschooling was better for the whole family. So I typed up a very rare statement about homeschooling. Rare, because I very seldom preach about the pros of homeschooling. I just live my life and let everyone else live theirs free of my opinions.

But I wanted to post my reply here because this is my soapbox. And since it's a homeschool blog...expect posts on homeschooling.
My repsonse:

I said that and I believe it. Let me tell you why. You might want to get a mug coffee for this post. I think I feel a ramble coming on.

I taught school before and right after my oldest was born. I got up at 6 am, and rushed to get dressed and pack up the baby so he could go to daycare and catch every known disease in the world. Then I spent the day at work worrying that he was being taken care of properly.
After work I rushed to pick him up and then went home to cook, clean, and grade papers. My life was extremely stressful and the kid was only 12 weeks old. I had only a few hours a day with my son and my husband.

I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had to do all that with four children who had homework, projects, sports practice, and therapy on top of that. Plus I met those teachers. I worked with them every day. I knew them well and there weren't many of them that I would even want babysitting my children, much less teaching them day after day.

Sending your children to school is stressful. You are now accountable to someone elses whims. (I tutor PS highschoolers. Some of those whims are are total timewasters.) Your entire family has to follow someone elses schedule, no matter what your family needs. You have limited time with your children. And therefore even more limited time with your spouse.

I have four boys. Two of them have Asperger's syndrome (a form of Autsim for those unfamiliar). They have spent many years going to speech and occupational therapy. If they were in school, they would spend all day in school and the rest of the day either hanging out in the waiting room or going to therapy.
Their father is in the Army. He was deployed for most of 2006 and 2007. And now that he's home, his schedule doesn't exactly mesh with the public school system.

Since we homeschool, we're able to set up our schedule to include him. Our holidays are based on his holidays and not what the public school decides. We were able to spend our full two weeks with him when he came home for R&R.
Our therapy and doctor visits are scheduled when we need them to be. The boys have school school in the van and the waiting rooms. It helps make our days peaceful instead of harried and stressful. And the boys form a bond that I don't see in the siblings of their PS friends.

There is no bus to get up and wait for. They eat breakfast as they do math. They work at their own speed instead of pace of the average learner. I don't have to get permission to take our spring break in March because that's when my husband can take vacation instead of in April when the school system does.

It is better for the family. I'm happy. The boys are happy. And my dear husband is much happy since he actually gets to spend time with us.

Homeschooling is hard. I know this. It consumes your whole life. But it also gives you a freedom that other parents don't have. It gives your the freedom to put family first. It gives you the freedom to make the family the center of your life and not public school calendar. That is an incredible gift.

At noon today, I have to pick up my wonderful husband. Then we are heading down to MIL's farm to help replace the cattle fencing. She needs it done fast before the cows escape. DH is relieved because he can help his mom instead of just worrying about her.And the boys never turn down a chance to go tooling around in the "gator" with Daddy.
We'll be studying electric current today as well as some carpentry skills. They might even get some driving lessons thrown in and I'm hoping to get firewood out of the day.
It's nice that we don't have to ask the principal for permission to do that or wait until after the school bell rings.

Merry Christmas to me

Sure it's a little early. A month early to be exact.
On November 25th, ZD and I signed the papers on my brand new van!

Oh, I love it! I love, love, love, love, love it! Even ZD loves the van. We ride around in it just grinning at what a great van it is.

Every day I find another little thing that makes it such an awesome ride.
Today, I discovered that the windshield wipers slow down when you stop and then speed back up when you start driving again. Now that may not mean anything to you, but I find that brilliant design.
Yesterday, I learned that when you put the van in reverse, the read wiper starts up even if you don't have it on. How stinking cool is that!
I also discovered that those heated seats are the most decadent thing in the world. I wish all my seats were heated. I want a heated couch and heated kitchen chairs, and heated bed.
I can listen to Fox news in the van! ZD is psyched about that. I feel so spoiled.

Y'all should come over and we'll go for a ride.

almost ready, but not quite.

My sweet, darling, and totally self-less sister came over to watch the boys while ZD and I went out. (2 of the boys are sick, hence the self-less part.)

We spent a lovely evening together......... at the car dealership.

It looks like I might get a new van after all. I'm giddy with anticipation but I don't really want to get my hopes up just in case something happens.

I'd be fine with that if it happens. My old van is only 8 years old and it hasn't even hit 100K miles yet. It still looks good even though the inside is currently (ashamedly) trashed. And it has been behaving so I have to praise it when due.

So we looked at new fancy schmancy vans. Fancy schmancy vans that cost about the same as my old one did 8 years ago. Man, we got ripped off!

The van I test drove is absolutely decadent.
power side doors and rear hatch door.
DVD entertainment center with wire less head phones and 6 disc CD player
XM radio and a dock for my ipod
a rear camera for backing up. (Holey smokes!)
leather seats for 8 (woohoo) that slide and come out and do all kinds of things I didn't know van seats could do.
second row windows that roll down and have little sun screens to protect my light sensitive boys.
a plug for the boys video games. They can play game cube in the van on trips!
all kinds of little secret compartments for legos, Star Wars figures and baseball gear.
heated front seats
eleventy-billion cup holders
and the cherry on top..... a moon roof.

OMG!!!!! A MOON ROOF!

It's so stinking wonderful that I can't imagine taking it home with me. It has everything I could dream of and they have the color I want for exterior and interior.

My dream car with no concessions at all in any way. No "well, it's a good enough color." Or "I don't mind this interior." Or "I guess this feature is a bit excessive we could save money without it."

Nope.

Now, I just have to let myself deserve it.
Oh, and I also have to check out the other dealership to see if I like the other van better.

I don't know when I got so fickle.

They are fine

I just got a phone call from ZD and Matthew. They are on their way home albeit through a route that was not on their travel plans.
Matthew started the conversation, "Hi Mom. Dad thinks we're lost." Turns out they were. I, however, who spent many a weekend in my Grandmother's station wagon wandering around a four state area, knew exactly where they were.

I relayed directions to ZD so he could relax a bit. (I guess this seals the deal for the new van I want. It has voice activate GPS mapping.) They will be home in a hour or so.
Now I can relax.

Worried sick....literally

ZD and Matthew are camping this weekend at a Webelos-ree. If this was normal November weather, they would be sitting pretty.

But it's not.

We are having record cold this week. For those of you in colder areas, lows in the 20's is no big deal. But our normal lows for November are in the 50's. February might get in the 20's but we don't go outside in February other than the amount of time it takes to go from building to car and back again.

We certainly don't go camping.

But that's where they are....camping beside a lake in a park north (colder) of where we live. I'm sure the temps were around 20 degrees last night. And the winds are 10 to 15 mph.

They have a propane heater, but you can't run that while you are sleeping. They have sleeping bags and tons of blankets including old wool Army blankets. They also have jackets, coats, hats, and gloves.
What they don't have is cell phone coverage, so I haven't heard from them today. I know they got there safely and were doing fine at 7:30 pm.

I have been immobilized with worry today. My only comfort is that if they had died of hypothermia or carbon monoxide poisoning....someone would have certainly called me by now.

So ZD must be taking good care of our little "Eeyore" son and they are just too busy earning those 7 Webelos activity badges to get somewhere with cell phone coverage.

Right?

cold feet, cold hands, warm hearts

ZD and I are cold weather wimps.
Really.
We both hail from deep in the South where the coldest nights are in the high 20's. And believe me...we are miserable for both nights.

I am the worse of the two of us. I can't seem to keep my extremities warm, my feet especially. ZD teases that I could get a job at Gitmo. Forget water boarding. All I'd have to do is put my ice cold dogs on them and those folks would confess to anything.
Woolen knitted socks are my dearest friends.

This evening the current temperature is 43 and ZD and I are fretting because he just let the fire burn out so we could go to bed. I know the people who live near here are thinking, "You had a fire going today? It was barely chilly."
Why yes we did. My oldest boy made the fire about 7 am and we kept it going all day long. It was so nice and warm in the house, that I actually went barefoot.

Thankfully, we have access to lots of free firewood. MIL had a clear cut on a few dozen acres. There are lots of little leftover trees that will make great firewood. ZD and the boys will spend Thanksgiving weekend cutting and splitting several cords of firewood.
I'm sure glad of that. My feet will be quite thankful.

Now I just need a fireplace insert like our first house and I will be the happiest warm footed gal in the state.

Sim City

My 10-year-old just walked in to tell me about his current game on Sim City.
I tried my very best to maintain a straight face until he left the room. The basic conversation was this:
"I built this city with lots of parks and nice stores. Then all these robbers and hippies showed up. The robbers stole things and the hippies wouldn't let anybody else use the park. Everybody in the city was mad at me and complaining about getting robbed all the time and the hippies using everything up. So I built some SWAT team buildings ant they took care of the robbers and hippies.
Now all my people are happy. Those hippies are worse than hobos."

I guess we should all keep a look out for the robbers and hippies.

A situation in which the ants win.

ZD comes in the kitchen to talk to me:
"We may have to get you a new car soon."
That perked me up, "Really?" Linda Blair, my oddly behaving van, is close to 8 years old. She looks good even though she's been hit three times. And currently, she's behaving except for one door that won't unlock. (No reason why. It just won't.)

"Yeah, with the economy the way it is....we should get a good price. Plus since we have good credit and actually have money for a down payment, we'll get a good interest rate too."
Not to mention that ZD has a pretty secure job. Wow, I wasn't expecting a new car right now. We tend to drive our vehicles until the break down permanently. And I'm not going to get my hopes up, just in case ZD comes to his senses.

"But it will have to be your Christmas present. You're not getting a new car and a PDA."
I guess I'll have to make do with my paper calendar. I'm not holding my breath though. If I end up with the PDA, I'll still be thrilled.

Some days, it's good to be an ant.

BWa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha

I am wolf den leader.
I have 17 wolf cubs.

That's 17 second graders!

Thankfully, I have an incredible assistant den leader and 15 sets of the most wonderful parents in the scouting community.

And I have 17 great little wolf cubs who make it all worth it.

But I can't be happy with that. Nooooooooo

Guess what I may be doing come February.

There's a large chance that I won't be a den leader anymore. I'm looking into being Cubmaster.

Yeah.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha (wipes tears)

Time and Math

So we've made it through the first quarter of the school year and I thought I'd post a little about what's bugging me so far.

First of all, I'm not happy with my schedule. Things are just too busy for me. Mondays are science classes and tutoring. (And soon, Boy Scouts) Tuesdays are speech at school and then tutoring another child after school. Wednesday is two hours of OT and another hour of tutoring. Thursdays are speech at school and the PE for the boys. Fridays, thank heaven, are free. Saturdays are scouts, sports, and whatever else comes up.
I wish I could drop all the tutoring but two of the afternoon are family/close friend obligations. Science classes, PE, scouts, and sports all benefit the boys so I feel a need to continue those. Speech and OT are non-negotiable.
Then add in seasonal sports practices, parties, social events, play practice, camp outs, family obligations, and my hospital board position.
But I guess we'd be running around as much or more if the boys were in school and I worked. So i should not complain.
Still.....I'm homebody at heart.

As far as school goes, everything is unchanged with the exception of my oldest math program. I had planned to use Lial's math program and Jacob's Algebra.
But I hate the Lial's Basic College Math book. Really hate it. Words can not express the loathing I feel towards this book.
So he's using Dolicani pre-algebra now and both of us enjoy it. I went ahead and bought the Algebra 1 and 2 texts and TE's. Surprisingly enough, I used that same Algebra 1 text when I was in 8th grade.

Hmm...... I had a great text book. Looking at it now, I see the level of math required and that it is a very intensive program. I had the Teacher of the Year for SC as my instructor. I worked with her as an adult, so I know she is serious about math education and is an excellent instructor.

However, even with a great teacher and a great textbook....I really struggled through algebra 1 and subsequently every other math with the exception of geometry.
I want better for my sons. I want them to understand math. I want them to feel confident in their abilities.
I want them to be better than me.

Which is going to be hard when I'm teaching out of the same books that I barely squeaked through as a student. (In my household a "C" was unacceptable. In high school, I got 5 "C's" and "B" one quarter and I seriously considered running away. I cried all day, scared to death to go home. So when I say "squeaked" I mean I got a "B" or "C" for the year.)

Thankfully, I have four incredibly math minded boys, the TE's, a lot more math experience, and ZD to encourage me. (And the fact that ZD uses all that complicated math on a daily basis.)

"I always thought my math teachers were smart," he told me when the package of books arrived. "It turns out they just had all the answers."

Well, at least it's over.

I voted yesterday without having to wait at all. In fact, when I walked in, ever poll worker looked up expectantly. One even asked, "Did you bring the crowd with you?"
I had not.

I'm glad it's over even though I'm not happy with the results. Oddly enough, I'm not depressed like I was after Pres. Clinton's election. I guess I'm better prepared.
And maybe I'm curious to see what happens when you give people exactly what they asked for.
In my head, I liken it to my grandmother who was finally annoyed to frustration by my repeated requests to eat the apples from our tree, even though they weren't ripe.

"Go ahead, child. Eat all the little green apples that you'd like."

I hope our country fares better than I did.