Today at the Park

With Gaige off to the beach with a friend and Josh spending the night at a friend's house, the girls and I took this opportunity to hang out with some friends. We started at the library where we spent an hour or two looking at books and playing on the computer. From there we headed to the park for a picnic, some swings, and feet in the creek. All this was good fun. Then we headed home for a much needed family dinner.

It was not my usual library that we went to today. It was a good chance to scan someone else's goods. We rented Babes in Toyland. I have never seen it, so neither have the kids.

Now it is off to bed, because we will be back over in that neck of the woods again to do some gardening.

Busyness at ASL

Well wouldn't you just know that the weather was stormy again. No zoo this week, so we scheduled our end of school year party instead. First everyone played Sign-O. When we ran out of prizes, we turned to just partying. Here is the kids blowing bubbles in the kitchen, one of the prizes at the Sign-O table.

Pink Unicorns

No picture today. That is because Brenda was upset with my last win at Kings Korners. After Brenda's loss, I asked Bret if she would play a card game with me before she went to bed. Then I asked Brenda to take a picture. She was still sore and refused. And believe me, being upset enough to refuse a chance to use the camera is a big deal!! Anyhow, Bret wanted to play Go(ld) Fish. Only she didn't want to call it Gold Fish anymore. She decided to change the name to Pink Unicorns. So it sounded like this... "Bret, do you have a five?" "Nope, Pink Unicorns. Do you have a seven, Mommy?" "Nope, Pink Unicorns..." What fun a small misunderstanding can be!!! For now on, we have changed the name of Go Fish. Spread the word. New name, Pink Unicorns.

The HoliDay

The kids were in the parade this year with their swim team. And the rest of the day is fun in the sun. Well the rain will come again, but for now it is pool side for us.

Crazy Saturday

So we have this birthday party to go to. It is a girl that Bret really likes so we couldn't blow it off and take the easy road of doing nothing today. I keep trying to do that but it doesn't work out for me lately. Anyway so we had this birthday to go to. It was about half an hour drive which already had me a little crabby, and I was headed to the shower to clean up. This crazy thing popped into my mind while I was in the shower. I had been trying to figure out the name of this store that I wanted to go to. I tried to find it on line unsuccessfully. Then this morning in the bathroom the name popped into my head. Evidentally it was the time to go shopping. I was very excited. I had been thinking for a bit about buying some hand drums for the house so that the girls and I could experiment a bit with drumming together. I really get so much out of my drumming circle that I thought I could pull some of that into our homeschooling. And this store advertised just such drums as I was looking for. So I planned out my trip. First we would go to the store to get presents for the birthday girl. Then we would travel the half hour to this store that I wanted to go to. Last we would head over to K's house for her party, yet another half hour. BUT if I took a separate trip to the store, it would be an hour, round and back. Another trip to the birthday party would also be an hour round trip. So really I saved my self half hour of driving this way. Salvaging a bit of gas money was my excuse. I took the girls, who just loved this earthy indianish store. We stayed much longer than I had anticipated because the girls wanted to look around. In the end, we bought two drums and ordered one more smaller one that would fit Bret's size better. Then we were off to the party. Later tonight, we got together, first Bret and me, then Brenda eventually joined up with us. It was a blast. We made up songs that we sang and drummed to. Bret danced around. At first Brenda was a little uncomfortable picking up the drum and doing her own thing, but eventually she gained some confidence. They loved it. But all things must end. I had to put them to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

History Hunters

A mother in our homeschool group has set up a list of trips dedicated to the history of our state. Once a month the kids meet to take a hike, visit a museum, or see a site. Today was the first of many more to come. Don't know how many we will go to, we will see. On one hand it fulfills a requirement... History and Geography of our state. On the other hand, I exert no pressure on the kids to learn anything. Gaige and his friends did the scavanger hunt that went with the museum portion of this trip. Brenda and a friend tried to, but I think they had a goal of finding answers to questions... not the same thing as wanting to learn. Anywho, after the museum we headed for a hike on the grounds. It was very muddy, but all in all, I think the kids had a great time. And really, what more can I ask for?

The girls are preparing their habitats for their Girl Scout patch. Recently, since we quit our troop we doing Girl Scouts on our own when we feel like it. Doing it on our own terms, so to speak. We have some options open that we are considering for next year. We could start a new troop, join another troop, stay independent... we are not sure what to do. Still mulling ideas over in our heads. We are really waiting for camp. That is our big goal. The kids are looking forward to that time.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my Birthday. Happy Birthday to Me!!! Here is Marley smelling my flowers that my kids went to the store themselves to buy. Big Bret tells me that he didn't know anything about it until the kids showed him what they did. Isn't it great? What a bunch of thoughtful sweeties.

ASL

It is coming upon summer already. We have two classes left. We have spent the last two weeks learning (and reviewing) foods in sign language. Here they are following orders from their deaf teacher, Steve. He tells them the food and the color and they color the right food on their paper with the right color. That is to review both colors AND foods. Then we are off to the family room where I have a kitchen and restaurant prepared for the kids. The parents sit around at the Deaf Restaurant while the kids take orders, tell the kitchen what they want, the kitchen "cooks and prepares" the food and the servers serve the food to the "customers". They want to keep playing this game even when the class is over.

Well two weeks left. Steve really wants to get the kids to the zoo to review animals. It is a great field trip for the kids, plus review at the same time! The last class is the Sign-O party. It is like Bingo only with signs. And of course the end of the year party with food and fun.

I am revamping for next year. Steve and I have talked about some issues we both have. I am considering setting the classes up next year as private lessons with Steve as the teacher. My kids were not focused on the class very well. This is because their friends were here and they wanted to play. I would like to try them having special time with Steve to learn their signs. I got the idea because, Brenda, who is 8 and loves to sign won't even go to the classes anymore. She sits it out. Then after the class she comes to sit with Steve on her own and practices with him. This is what she needs. And also it takes a lot of work for me to set up these classes that are not working for my kids. I want a better way for them. I am considering a group every other week instead or once a month. The other parents may or may not be on board, but I need to do what is best for MY kids and myself. Going to school, myself, my time is precious. I don't want to focus MY energy on activities that don't work for my kids. So I am working on that right now.

The First Day

Here is my first blog at blogger. I have had a couple years at 360 but I am having issues and it seems to be time for a change. C thinks that blogger might be the place for me to make the big leap out of yahoo... we will see. First why the visings?? Because that was the word I had to type out in order to get this account. Isn't that funny? What is a vising? I googled the word and came up with nothing. Remember when you were younger and certain words just had a ring to them? Or maybe you see your kids rolling a word off their tongue multiple times to see how the word tastes, or thinking about whether or not they like the feel of the word. That is what vising did to me. I just liked the feel of it. I liked the sound it made. So I am making a meaning for this word that I cannot find a meaning for, but should be a word because it sounds like one. Visings are the ramblings of a person who has something of interest to say. But I digress. Why am I here...

I will start with my first story. Marley dropped the ice cream cone that we brought home for her yesterday. Well it started when we went out to eat. We have learned a little trick for the kids. We are allowed to bring home an ice cream cone from the buffet that we frequent. So if we fill a cone with gummy bears and take it home to the kids, that is allowed. That is what we do when we leave. We each fill a cone with gummy bears, a big favorite in our house. I usually eat my cone and most of my bears before we reach the house, but H saves the other one for the kids, particularly Marley. So anyway she stepped on it right in front of us. We heard it crunch and looked down at her. H looked shocked... I don't know why, after all he lives with her too. He knows what she is all about: creative distruction and tornadic excitement. This girl lives like the wind, swooping down and destroying whatever she wants, only to sit peacefully and quietly a moment later as if nothing just happened. She loves life and cannot bring herself to live it with less than the full enthusiasm of a volcanic eruption. Anyway, so she crunched this ice cream cone with her bare foot, the little King Kong. H told her to pick it up. This, to her, was a challange of control. She said "no" in her little worried voice, that told me she wanted to pick it up to keep from the wrath that she knew would follow, but she couldn't bring herself to say "yes". He repeated the command adding that he was going to whoop her butt. Butt is my word, not his. I was nearby, typing my English assignment on the computer, watching the whole thing enfold. The poor little thing said "no" again in that same mousy voice. He did give her a smallest of taps on her little two year old butt. That was enough for her. I could see her eyes starting to well up. He repeated it again, this time adding "you little sh!t" Now, he was not angry. He was more ammused than anything, and it showed in his voice. The man just swears a lot, be it good or bad, it is what it is. But still that little thing couldn't take it. She buried her head in my lap. "I am NOT a sh!t, I am not." I consoled her and told her that H knows she is not a sh!t. She is not really a sh!t. I reminded her that if she didn't clean up the mess, she would sit in her room until I could get to cleaning it up so that I knew she wasn't making more messes for me to clean up. She agreed that the best thing to do would be to clean it up herself, so she didn't have to go wait in her room for my school work to be done. She cleaned it up. A couple points here to make, she has a mind of her own. This one will do what she wants no matter what. It is painful now, but it will be good later. Second, is my friend C who is teaching me, and I am a slow student no doubt, that there are better ways, and third that we will learn and grow from everything hopefully, even being bemusingly being called a sh!t. She really is a sh!t right now, but it is so much fun. Every time I get frustrated and overwhelmed with her shanagans, I try to remember that this will to pass. I will miss it, then.