What Is It? - 4 My Girls

Doggy Treats

Brenda asked me to take this picture today. After my workout we went over to Whole Foods to stock up on some healthy veganesque foods to eat. We found these adorable doggy cupcakes at the bakery area. All of their deserts look like they were made by an artist, Brenda thinks.

Purple Green and Yellow

Marley put the Trouble pieces on her fingers to look like Brigid from Robert Munsch's book Purple, Green and Yellow. Yes... we are all learning. I remember when I was little doing the exact same thing. Well not to coorespond with an actual book. I guess that is how she has improved on me.

What happens after the party...

Brenda and Bret earned enough arcade tickets after skating yesterday to get a couple yoyos. They have been yoyoing for the last day! Bret told them he would buy them a better one to learn some tricks. Brenda went on youtube and checked out a bunch of yoyo maniacs and all their tricks. Learning? Yup I think so.

While we were waiting for Brenda's dance class yesterday, there were some girls there playing with Bret. I guess they asked Bret if she went to the local grade school. She told them she was homeschooled. This one girl (merely curious) started asking Bret questions. What do you do? Do you do homework? "No pretty much I play and watch tv". Do you have to take tests? "No. I just play." Little Bret and I talked later about how she DOES do work, she just doesn't feel like it is work, because there is no pressure on her to do it. She DOES do worksheets, but they are a novelty in our house because they are not required. We made rock candy to learn about crystals this week. She recently learnred to read. We watched Stand By Me then downloaded a bunch of Buddy Holly music to dance to. After that I thought to borrow the Buddy Holly movie or LaBamba from the library to go with their history/music lesson. This is just an example of one of the directions we are heading in this week. She is learning. They are all. How can they not? Everything is a lesson.

Funny.

Upside Down

The girl wanted a picture of her hand stand that she does with her dad. So here it is. She is wearing my pajama top btw. Every night she asks for my pajama top to keep her warm because it is the most warmy thing in the house. Then she brings me my robe and tells me I can wear that instead. She plans ahead, it is good to hone in on that skill early.

Our first homeschool activity in quite a while

Between dance, swim team, open swim, Girl Scouts, and Leaves of Learning, we haven't done much in the way of actual Homeschool activities. Yesterday I remembered that skating was today at a local rink. I didn't tell the girls. Instead I waited to see if I would even feel up to going. In the end I gave them one hour notice and away we went to skate our tails off... so to speak. Anyway we were glad to go out and have a good time.

New Meaningless Schoolboard Quote...

This is the latest quote on the board outside the local school diagnal from my house...

At the end of a spring day you should smell like dirt!!!

At first this just seems like an odd thing to put on a school board as a quote. But then you see the three exclamation marks (which are red on the school board) and you realize that if you use the appropriate emphasis on the sentence to fit the exclamation marks it just sounds kinda manic. I am changing mine now so do look at my new Meaningless Schoolboard Quote on the top of my blog... Just for fun of course.

What is Easter to You?

Before I met my husband I was a single mom. Every year for Easter I would buy a basket and fill it with candy for Gaige and set it on the table for him to wake up and find.

Before Bret and I got married, he was a single dad. He has his Easter basket from when he was a child. He and Josh would put their basket out (the same basket that they keep year to year) and the Easter bunny would fill it with candy and toys and hide it. They would wake up and hunt down their baskets.

So when we got married and started having kids that is what we did. Everyone got their own basket and every year we put it out for the bunny to fill it and hide it.

That's all. No fancy dinner with family, although we did invite the inlaws out to Easter brunch at the Golden Corral once. The neighborhood puts on an Easter egg hunt for the community, which my kids insist on going to year after year, even though they usually don't get more than one egg, and Brenda got 0 eggs two years in a row.

When we were at the mall last week, Brenda couldn't resist pointing out that the Easter bunny was there taking pictures. So we DID get a $16.99 5x7 of Brenda and Marley with the Easter Bunny this year. Do you note my sarcasm with this one? Do you, really?

We did go to church this year for Easter. We haven't ever done that, or so I can remember. There were so many Easter formalities that I think they forgot to be properly inspiring. And since the big church fiasco where I picked the church I wanted to attend even though Bret didn't feel like it was a real church that followed HIS beliefs (and he doesn't go to church mind you), I really go to be inspired instead of going to instill beliefs in my kids. On a side note, this seems to work. The girls enjoy going. I don't know how much they really get out of it, but they enjoy going to church, and that is all that is important to me. Gaige the atheist chooses to stay home.

Brenda and Bret got a late invitation from a friend to hang out at her house where her mom put on an Easter Egg hunt. That was fun for them I am sure.

Gaige woke up at 2ish found his basket and hid back in his room with his friend for the rest of the day.

Then I texted Josh, who has recently moved out, to tell him I wasn't going to eat my Chocolate Easter Bunny and he could come over and claim it. I would hold it for him. He liked the idea.

This month's green

A few pics from National Geographic for our green month. FYI ahead, next month I am thinking about orange. The frog is on my background right now. But I switch off from week to week.

Isn't this amazing?

I think here is where all the souls sit and wait in their time off. This is where I might be after all.

From a hs group

"Song for a Fifth Child."

Mother, oh Mother,
come shake out your cloth,
empty the dustpan,
poison the moth,
hang out the washing
and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house
is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery,
blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little
Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done
and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing
will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up,
as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep'

~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton~

A Warm Windy Day

We bought kites from the dollar store the other day when the weather was good for it. We went to the park and flew kites. The girls had been bugging me for a few days about flying kites. I am glad we finally got a chance to do it. Maybe we will do it again soon when the weather is right. Today it rains.

The Other Museum

We were off yesterday to meet up with some unschoolers at a museum other than our typical one. My kids demand a good amount of attention from me, so I didn't get to socialize much. But we had a great time anyway. This museum always has this section that has traveling museum exhibits going on for free. That is my favorite part of the museum. I always like to check out what new learning stuff they have going on there. I wonder why our own museum doesn't offer something like this.

OK I got it.

Here it is. Totally this month is Green.
Green
Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.
Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.
Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Green is the color of the Irish, it is the color that represents environmental awareness, it is often associated with sex and sexuality. If you can't bring yourself to change your computer background today, get a plant and bring it to your desk, water it and love it. Buy a green scented candle and light it while you work. Make a change and make it a green one somehow and see if that change makes a difference.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Mother Teresa

Background Color of the month is...

I am not sure. Give me a second to think about it and I will be right back to you on that on...

I will check out what National Geographic has going on this month.

Balloon Mania

I got this website from a homeschool group that I am on. Thought I would pass it along to anyone who (or whose kids) love balloon animals and different twisted balloon sculptures of sorts. Here is the website that these balloon pics came from.

http://phototab.blogspot.com/2008/02/look-at-how-far-twisting-balloons-has.html

Totally check it out.

The Move and other fun stuff

So Gaige moved into the living room, which means I moved the playroom/living room into other rooms of the house. A couple things. I realized that without Josh we don't need the table to be so big. So we took out the middle of the table and made it to fit 6 again. That made room for the piano. The pew fit in the dining room too. So woo hoo to that cool news. Play room, meet family room. :-) But now that Gaige's room is painted, cleaned out, and in order I have to figure out what to do with all this other stuff that used to be in there. Throw it out? Move it? Store it?

Sunday while I was doing some cleaning and organizing, (and helping Gaige move things downstairs into his new room) Bret took Abby (the dog) the girls and their friend Emma to the park. I installed a missing door to Gaige's room for extra privacy, which no doubt he will be needing.

Wow

Things are a changin

The dining room has changed colors and soon the living room will be a bedroom. The weather is warmer so we can get back outside for some fresh air. We caught another mouse... rat... Changes are in the air... I can feel it. Come dance with me.

Yesterday and Today

Bret had a World Fair at her co op yesterday. I was signed up to help out with concessions for a few hours. I do that a couple times a year to help out, or I could choose not to help and pay $25 a month. That wasn't sounding like the workable option this year. Anyway, it is like an art show, and a just basic show of work the kids have been doing. One of the kids had a display showing the kids how to make silly putty (we used to call it goop) with borax and glue. As it turns out I have tons of borax since years ago when Gaige Josh and I made goop together. And we have tons of glue. So we have been making silly putty all day.

i will try to come up with the putty pictures from Josh Gaige and myself from years ago too.

Locks of Love

Every couple years when their hair gets long and they complain about the pain of brushing the snarles through we decide it is time for Locks of Love. Here is Bret with her new haircut and old donatable ponitails.

Swimming

Swim team begins again. This time with Brenda, Bret, and Gaige.

Will you lie down with me??

Brenda asks me a lot if we could just lie down together and snuggle. She just wants to have that special time. So when Dad finally got up in time to take Bret to her co op on the way to work today, and Marley was still sleeping, Brenda seized the opportunity. "Mom, will you lie down with me?" Of couse because I have nothing else to do. We have been trying to finish this book we have been reading together called Witch Catcher, for a while, really. I took that time to grab the book and get some reading in. We finished the book. So I am putting out a book suggestion to the mothers and fathers and teachers of all sorts with children around Brenda's age. She is 9 btw. We both LOVED the book. It is not for people who have religious afflictions to books about fairies, witches, spells, and other crafts of that sort. But if you don't fall into that catagory, this book was fun, adventurous, and the hero was actually a heroINE which I love to see! It is great for the girls to see girls in books doing great things (even if it is a book of fantasy).

So TOP PIC for Brenda and myself. If you haven't already read it... Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn is a must read.

Because we were in need of Spoons

We were out of spoons. I don't know if they were getting thrown in the garbage or if some day we will come across a little crevice in our house where our spoons and nail clippers and brushes are all being hidden by elves or what the deal is. I digress. We needed spoons. That is how this all started. We have needed spoons for a while. The thrift shop that I love and frequent most doesn't sell silver ware. They have everything else but no silver ware. The Goodwill I used to go to before we moved here had silver ware, but it was a half hour drive to get there. It seemed to be a waste of money to go half an hour out of my way to save a few bucks on silver ware. So one of the moms in Brenda's Girl Scout troop directed me to this thrift shop nearby that I didn't know about. I thought I would check it out and see if there were spoons there.

So we went. That was Tuesday. I remember because Bret was at her friend's house. Brenda didn't feel up to going to dance class, and we ended up going to the thrift shop instead. AND THEY HAD SPOONS!! I bought Where in the World Is Carmen SanDiego? the game because Marley lost the cards, and Bret loved that game.

I also bought this preschool Boggle Jr game where there are flash cards with simple three and four letter words alongside their picture. The object is to use the 8 letter dice to make the word before the timer goes out. Bret fell in love with the game and played it for a day. She then decided that she was a great speller and reader. We went to the library and checked out 4 basic reader books. She read each twice with my help. Then yesterday we went back to the library (she begged me throughout the day to get her there before it closed) and she checked out ten more, which she proudly told me this morning that she read them all. All she can talk about is how excited she is that she can read so well, and how she loves to read.

All this because we needed spoons...

The Circus and other stuff

So we went to the circus yesterday. I had never been, the girls neither. It was a fun time. The whole thing cost us $25.00. ($10 for parking, that was bad planning really and not being early enough to find parking farther away and walk the distance like we should have done; $15.00 for one popcorn, one nachos, and one pop.) Not a bad deal since we got in free. But with just a phone camera, the pictures held something to be desired. Sigh. The girls were excited to go, and they had a great time. Marley thought it was too loud and wanted to go home from the beginning. She often has issues with things being too loud. In the end she fell asleep.

Now today might just be my last cookie booth. Cookie sales are ALMOST over. Girl Scouts is almost out of cookies and we are just about done. Time to add everything up and move on to other things!! For that I am truely thankful. And rest assured that the whole family is too.

Hope you are all doing well. Hope to see you all soon somewhere or other.

Park Time

The weather was good. At first we signed up for a Homeschool Girl Scout event. It was a dog whisperer program. But we didn't hear back soon enough, so we planned to attend an outing park program. We dropped Bret off at her co op program and headed over to the park. It was about shelters and safety. When we got there the park person was sick throwing up in the portolet. So obviously the program didn't go on, but we had hours before we would pick up Bret, so everyone who came for the program stayed at the park to hang out and make a day of it. Brenda made a bunch more friends. Lily and I made a cake out of twigs, pine needles, rocks, and leaves, we took a walk, played in our "house" and just had a great day outdoors. The lady who set up the dog whisperer program up called me to tell me she did score a bunch of tickets to the circus. We are off to pick them up soon. What a great day.

Good News!!

If you are not aware of my recent camera problems, here is the quick version. Bret was trying to find a plug that worked for something and ended up losing my camera to computer hook-up. Then we thought he accidentally gave it to Scotty, and took Scotty's plug. So I bought a new device that would take my camera card and download onto the computer that way. That device lasted one use until my computer had a problem and stopped allowing that software to work. I thought I would never have pictures again!! Then I saw that Gaige was emailing himself pics from his phone, which was a no no. I called Verizon to see what the charge was for that, only to find out with our new plan it is free. SOOOO Now I can get pictures again through my phone. What good news and luck!

Making Lip Balm

The girls got a Lip Balm making kit for Christmas this year. We made lip balm today. BUT the kit was only given to Brenda and Bret, and they were not willing to share it with Marley. We went online to come up with a homemade recipe that we could whip up to let Marley in on the fun. Here is Bret making some homemade Lip Balm for Marley, Honey Cherry Flavor.

Been a While

Josh turned 18 the other day.

And I am feeling uncomfortable. That is just one of the reasons why. If you are a friend, feel free to drop me a line and say hi. I could use it this week.

The End of your Rainbow...

After such a great time at the waterpark. From one or two times I was a little peeved that my husband didn't want to join us. Number one it would have made this experience I wanted the kids to have easier on me. Number two it would have improved the quality of time I could spend with the kids. Number 3 we could have spent some good time together as well. But then I remember what I am learning, that I do what I want for my reasons, and I really cannot be happy if I don't let him do the same. And so that makes me happy to remember that. After all he didn't want me to go at all. But I went because it was important to me. Anyway this trip was a good opportunity to remind myself what are my goals and is what I am doing right now helping me achieve them? I didn't get to do all the things I wanted to do. I didn't get to hear all the speeches that I wanted to hear and attend all the funshops. But one night Brenda couldn't go to sleep and we stayed up together watching tv and eating chips and dip. The next day we laughed about it. Once a friend offered to play with Marley so I could go to the waterpark with the girls to go on some water rides with them. We talked about how for now on every year, no matter where we go, we should take a girls trip like this for the fun of it. We really did have a great time together, even though we weren't always together.

So that brings me to the rainbows in the pictures. These, of course, are brought to us by National Geographic. Where are you when you see you rainbow? Where are you when you get to the end? And what is there waiting for you? Those are my unschooling thoughts for the day.

PS my camera is being held hostage by the fact that my family lost or maybe accidentally threw away the plug in to the computer. Bret promises that he will buy a new one this week, but I don't suppose he will. So I will no doubt bug him until he takes me out to get one some time in the near future. I hope for more pictures of us soon.

Is Kroger being left behind? What do YOU think?

Funny story. If you don't know we are getting ready to leave today for the big unschoolers winter waterpark gathering. We are all excited. My girls are in the bathroom washing and brushing and primping as we speak. Getting ready for the ride. Well that is a subtopic for what I want to talk about today. An interesting thing happened when I was at a supermarket yesterday getting the food for the trip. Usually I frequent Aldi as a favorite grocery store. So of course I am used to bringing my own bags and bagging my own groceries. When I am at Aldi and people complain that the line is too long, I smile, because I know we are all standing in that line to save a few bucks. And also come on man, you know darn well the lines are longer sometimes at Kroger!! You know they are. Why are you grumbling?? Anyway, I digress.

So I am at Kroger yesterday with my own bags and Kroger is a mad house. First of all it is Sunday. Plus it is the first Sunday of the month (I think this might have something to do with foodstamps.) PLUS it is superbowl Sunday. So right away I have three things working against me, but I plow through anyway. When I get to the cashier she is snotty with me and implies that I am not getting my things on the conveyer fast enough for her taste. I grumble, forgetting that I can choose to keep a happy mood inspite of my surroundings. She is either too busy or she doesn't like "something" about me. I won't go into details with this one, other than to say sometimes in the town I live in, discrimination and prejudice is spewed from all colors, shapes and sizes. So I get up there with my bags and put them by where the food will eventually be dumped after it is scanned. The bagger begins fumbling unsuccessfully, trying to figure out how to bag my groceries without his plastic bags. I ask multiple times for him to not fill a bag with lots of 2 liter pops or I will not be able to carry it. It will just be too heavy. He doesn't seem to understand. The cashier leaves her station to help the bagger open my bags in the cart and put the groceries in that way, in an attempt to help him find a better way. In the end she tells me that I don't have enough bags for all my groceries and I will need to put some of them in plastic bags. They do that and I leave. When I get to my car, I find one of MY BIG bags has only a couple bags of chips in it and is half full. I find another one of my big bags with only two boxes of cookies. AND all the groceries that they bagged in their plastic bags were DOUBLE BAGGED! Probably I didn't save a single plastic bag from being used by bringing my own bags. Could it be that Kroger is too BUSY to take the extra minute to bag my groceries with my bags? They don't CARE to save the extra garbage of those plastic bags I must throw away?? Aldi has figured it out. Whole foods does it with ease. Why are you being left behind Kroger?

Wallpaper

I think I have said that this month is blue month for computer wallpaper, didn't I? Well jump aboard if you haven't already. Here is another great pic from the big exciting world of National Geographic, where their photographers get to travel all over the world to send us images of all the things we don't see staying at home in our lives.



Antarctica's perennially ice-covered Lake Hoare bears the scars of sand and dirt that have worked their way from the surface down into the ice. Soil blows onto the lake from a nearby dry valley, warms in the sun, and melts downward, leaving a bubble column in its trail.

Photograph by Maria Stenzel