Family Sunday

Brenda is having such a great time playing tennis. Bret came out with us to make it a family day today. We are all wore out. Even Lily got a chance to toss the ball around. In the end we came home with an extra 4 balls so we will have more to work with next time.



See Bret sporting that new bike? Her new bike from last year got stolen. I told her we can't afford to get her a new bike this year. She pouted and fussed until we came up with a compromise. I told her that desert costs me about $.50 a day. So if she would do without snacks and deserts until it added up to the bike I will buy her the bike. She is at day 2 and swears now that she has the bike she magically has no desire for desert. And I have pumpkin pie...

Spring Break...

Well spring break for the school across the street means sleepovers. So we are busy keeping other people's kids occupied with our fun this week. It is good for my girls to have a busy week of friends. We will go back to normal next week... whatever that means.

Easter...

This year we chose not to go to the community Easter Egg Hunt. We were able to go to the homeschool Easter Egg Hunt this time instead. It is held after Easter to save on candy. Everyone brings some candy to share, Laura brings hundreds of plastic eggs that she saves each year, the teens set out the eggs and random candies, and the kids hunt eggs. There was so much candy to be had that I put a bunch of it away when we got home. Bret remarked after the hunt, "Wow, there was no pushing and shuving. And there was still lots of candy for everyone!" Last year, the girls got ONE egg of candy all together. And someone even stole Brenda's basket with her chocolate Easter bunny in it. :-( Still after all the festive candy for the day, the girls wanted to know what was for desert after dinner. lol.



Lily found a egg with a prize paper in it. She got to choose one of the prize Easter baskets filled with toys. Chalk, bubbles, crayons, playdough, etc. She was estatic. And she even met a friend. What luck for her.



At home we dyed our own eggs. Lily finished quickly, but then realized there was no more fun to be had while the other girls were working dilegently on their colors. So she decided to redye her eggs again several times more to keep the fun going.



Family Fun magazine had a great recipe for devilled eggs that look like little chicks in cracked eggs. The girls got a kick out of eating the devilled eggs when they were done.

Designer-Apprentice

Two dresses, shorts, and cowboy boots. Who would believe this girl woke up and dressed herself? She's a natural!

Martha and George

We (Marley and I) set out to read to bed tonight. I picked up

Martha and George

and asked her if Dad had read her this book yet. She said no because the words were too small. The man needs reading glasses but refuses to admit it. It is an ongoing joke in the house. Anyway, I digress...

We read onto the second chapter when George decided he wanted to be the first of his species to fly. I asked Marley what species Martha and George were. She shrugged, so I added that means what kind of animal are Martha and George? She says, Potosaurus. They were two hippopotomus'. I think she mixed up hippo and dinosaurs to come up with her own new breed.

The plant disaster

When I first saw my day lilies cut off from the tops, I thought there was a cat eating my plant! It was only the one bucket so I just kept an eye out. A day passed and nothing. Then all of a sudden, Marley had a friend over and I came outside to find a bunch of my plants trimmed down to stubs. Marley has been gardening, evidentally... Some day I will smile at these days. Some day. She is not destructive, the word is CREATIVE. Sigh.

New Improved Space...

Our new family room. We got rid of some toys and Bret's two leather chairs. Otherwise, all the furniture still fits! Go figure.



Brittany and Josh's new room... AKA the future play room... or the sewing room depending how long Josh and Brittany stay. LOL. We will install the door in the next week I hope.



We even found space for Lily to have a small play room. It is already a disaster. And I didn't even finish setting up the floor pieces yet. Lily couldn't wait. She invited her friend right over and they went to work turning the room into a whirlwind of toys.

Co Sleeping

He tells us, put her back in the bassinet. She is GOING to get used to sleeping by herself... Famous last words. Tehehehehe.

Oh but to have a family room again...

Today is the day. I will primer and paint my new wall. That paint BETTER match the other walls in the room! lol. Then I am kicking all of Josh's belongings (except Callie of course) out to their new room. Maybe we will have a family movie day on our couches in our new family room... maybe. More to follow.

Brenda's turn

Everyone got a turn to feed the baby, one day at a time. Then suddenly Lily got the idea that this meant each day forever someone would get a turn to feed her. Not so, appearantly. Hahaha. Those little girls can't keep away from that baby's face. They are everywhere she is. I remember when Lily was born. Four year old Bret was SOOOO excited to have a baby in the house. That was all she could think about. Now four year old Lily is the biggest thorn in Bret's butt! Callie will be too before too long. lol.

Shadow Day

So at Girl Scouts this week, I wanted to have my Brownie girls earn their Plants try-it badge. But for some reason my Try-It book skips 20 or so pages of try-its. There is a website online I could go to see the Try-It requirements as well, but that website was down too. So I made up what we would do. We planted marigold and petunia seeds that I had from MY garden last year. We painted empty yogurt cups so we could plant our flowers when they sprout. We learned about trees, the animals that live in them, where trees come from, etc. We went outside and gathered old leaves from last year's fall and tried to identify them. Here is Bret and a friend making shadow buddies while I was cleaning up. What fun!

Time at the park with friends...

Lily and Jamie at the park hanging out together. Every day I listen to, can we call up Jamie, can Jamie come over, can we go see if Jamie can play? And tears every time we head back home again. Poor thing, it is hard to be little.

Last pool night of the school year

A 12 year old boy drowned at the pool last night. It was the last night of the year that the school pool was opened. We left to the locker room early to shower and change when I heard a bunch of commotion. I didn't see it, so I don't know what happened exactly. He is at Children's in critical condition right now, says the news.

Here is what I do know. There are two teen life guards on duty for every family pool night. There are also two pool supervisor adults at every family pool night. An adult swimmer was the first one to see this boy and pull him out of the water. He had been in the water at least a minute floating.

My kids are on swim team. They swim well. But I am always at the pool watching. Don't leave your kids to swim under someone else's supervision. At least not in this town. This is not the first incident of this kind. Who's fault was it that this boy stayed in the water that long? The life guards, who I was told were passing a ball between eachother across the pool? The pool supervisers, who were chatting with eachother? The parent who sent her twelve year old kid off to the pool with his younger brother who seemed to be around 5-7 years old?

Even Marley swims well. She is four and can swim the length of the pool just fine. But that doesn't mean she can't drown. Someone could jump on top of her accidentally. Someone could throw a hard toy and hit her. She could swim to the end of the pool and hit her head on the edge. You can't be everywhere with your kids, I know that... but in this town you better be at the pool with them.

Just Because I love it

I just wanted to post this picture. I don't know who took it. Probably Bret, as she has taken to stealing my phone away from me to take baby pictures at random moments. It captures curious Lily peeking on Josh. She loves the baby, but is trying to figure out how to deal with not being the baby in the house. There are doctor appointments up the butt that the kids need a ride to, I am finishing up cookie sale paperwork, dinners for eight to cook every day, a wall being built, etc. And I find her temporarily acting out on lack of attention.

Bookworm Diner's Last Week

Next week is Bookworm Diner's last week for the year. They will start up again next January. The meal is breakfast, funny enough. So next monday is Pancakes sausage and chocolate malts. Yum yum.

Tennis Courts???

Jamie's mom (Jamie is Lily's friend) invited the girls to play at the park up where there are tennis courts. I didn't even know there were tennis courts there. But Brenda and Jamie's mom played tennis for some crazy amount of hours. So much that the next day (today) Brenda couldn't go to swim team practice because her body was so sore. Yet she cannot wait to go up there to play tennis again. I told the girls I would go to the Thrift Shop to see if they have any tennis rackets for cheap. They usually do. And we can play during the day while kids are in school. What fun!

The new room... kinda

Josh and his dad working together to build a wall through our family room. Soon we will have a small-er family room and Josh will have a room for his new family. Then some day they will move out and I will have a play room like I always wanted!!!!! Bahahahaha!


This is the squished view of our new family room from what will soon be the spare room...

Ever Done Where's George?

I got a couple Where's George dollar bills from our Girl Scout cookie sale this month...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Dollar Bill, Serial# C2784---9A Series: 2006
This bill has travelled 960 Miles in 2 Yrs, 98 Days, 56 Mins at an average of 1.2 Miles per day.
It is now 853 Miles from its starting location.

21-Mar-10 03:21 PM Cincinnati, OH 2 Yrs, 18 Days, 17 Hrs, 16 Mins 906 1.2
User's Note I am a Girl Scout troop leader who received this bill from a cookie sale.
02-Mar-08 09:05 PM Naples, FL 58 Days, 1 Hr, 55 Mins 0.0 n/a
User's Note This bill is moving around Naples Florida as of this date. I will try to pass it to someone from another state to see where it goes.
04-Jan-08 07:09 PM Naples, FL 21 Days, 5 Hrs, 44 Mins 55 2.6
User's Note Crisp bill received in Naples Florida 1/3/08
14-Dec-07 01:24 PM Port Charlotte, FL Initial Entry n/a n/a
User's Note Thank you for entering this bill! Please join Wheres George? (it is free!) and track where YOUR dollars travel after you spend them(23) BILL # 33,510
Click here for Dynamic Google Map (Pop-up)

One Dollar Bill, Serial# K0432---5E Series: 2006
This bill has travelled 147 Miles in 260 Days, 17 Hrs, 23 Mins at an average of 0.56 Miles per day.
It is now 147 Miles from its starting location.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21-Mar-10 03:24 PM Cincinnati, OH 260 Days, 17 Hrs, 23 Mins 147 0.56
User's Note I am a Girl Scout troop leader who received this bill from a cookie sale in Cincinnati.
03-Jul-09 10:01 PM London, KY Initial Entry n/a n/a

Movie and Henna Day

There was a movie and Henna day on friday. I wanted to show off our tat's in a picture because they really were cool. But I didn't do it quick enough. We have had to wash our hands so often to even be around the baby that they are wearing off extra quick. Oh well we did have fun. The movie was some inappropriate movie that I think the girls have already seen anyway, so no big deal there. Billy Madison maybe?? I cannot recall. I was too busy doing Henna and chatting with adults. Didn't get to do that much last week!

A new and improved...

Brenda wanted to hair spray Abby with colored hair spray that we have left from Kalahari. I asked her to not because black hair spray makes an aweful mess in the bathtub. She chose markers instead. We are all experimenting with markers these days.

New Art

We are back to coloring on walls again, evidentally. Who is this genius inventor of washable markers? Maybe the same genius who invented semi-gloss paint?

Bookworm Diner

Only a couple weeks left for bookworm diner. The book club book is almost finished. This week... Walking Tacos. Next week... Burgers, hot dogs, and fish sticks. That is a lot of food.

New Aunts and Grand Parents...

After almost two weeks of drama, Bret, Josh, Brittany, and good ol' Callie Mae headed home from their trip. Callie was released from the hospital on Sunday. It took more than 14 hours to get them back to our little town, what with having to stop to feed every 2-3 hours. But after leaving at 5pm, and driving straight through, they arrived at my doorstep yesterday at 7:30am exhausted from the road trip.

We sent Josh straight back to the school to be admitted. The school only gave me a month from the time he was kicked out of Deborah's house to live on the streets and having to drop out of school, for me to get him back here and enrolled. They think he will graduate with his class with a little bit of hard work.

The girls were all excited. No one could sleep except Bret, but who could blame him after the two weeks he had. Everyone is back safe and sound. And life begins again. Hopefully without some of the drama from last time... Knock on wood.

Don't recall that I have ever held a baby as small as this... 5lbs.

Seen this one before??

This old picture goes out to Cyndi, who made matching dresses for me and my sister when we were small. No one got better wear out of this than Marley. She loved to play Holly Hobby's with me. And was disappointed two weeks ago when we unearthed it from a bag of packed-away clothes only to find out it was no longer her size. :-( Maybe some day her daughters will wear the dresses and play Holly Hobby with their mom. lol.

Sweetness...

Josh and Callie Mae holding hands/finger.

Where Was Brenda...

When Bret, Lily and I were at the park, Brenda was at home resting up. This weekend it was Lily throwing up. Now it is Brenda. Where at first we thought it was nerves (they get that honestly from me. When I was younger I was always getting sick and puking whenever I was over excited.)But no, Lily eventually got a fever and she was in bed for two days. Now Brenda is throwing up everything she eats and is pouting around the house miserable. Maybe Bret will be next. All I know is that I had plans to have dinner at a friend's house tomorrow and now I am going to have to COOK. Crappy crap...

The Wonderful Weather

Sometimes when school is about to get out for the day, we head over to the park across the street and play. Then when the kids get out of school everyone heads to the park and the girls get to connect with their friends for 1/2 hour or so. We did that today for the first time in months. The weather was so nice. Still I work a winter coat. I couldn't brave the warm weather without it yet. lol.

Making stuff is a service project

Our Girl Scout Service Unit Meeting was turned into a service project as girls from the troops came together to make blankets for the Ronald McDonald House and animal toys for the SPCA. At the same time we celebrated Girl Scouts Birthday with some cake and pop. It is always great to see the different troops mingling and working together.

...Which brings up an interesting point...

What is my goal. And if I could be so bold as to lump us all together, what is the goal of all us mothers? As a homeschooler I have gotten many opportunities to watch parents parade their children's numbers around like plaques on the wall, "well my daughter's IQ is so and so, I am not even bragging she is just above average. She is in all the advanced classes." "We immediately notice a difference when we are around public school kids. They are not as considerate. They don't pay attention to anything but themselves. They are rough and don't show restraint."

What do we get out of trying to turn our children into what we want them to be? We already know what they get by NOT being what we want, but instead being what they want to be. But why do we work so hard to produce children that "make us proud"? We say we want our children to be independent and make their own choices, until they do and we don't approve. We want them to be head strong and use their own brains,until they do and we don't like what they came up with. In essence our concern isn't how proud we are, but how proud other people are of our parenting.


What if I didn't tell the kids to help me clean the house? And what if then people came over and my house was a big mess? What if I didn't ask the kids to be polite, and they always said what they meant? What if they yelled when they were mad, like I do sometimes? And they said "damn it" when they weren't happy. (Yes, I know Marley does anyway, thanks for pointing THAT one out to me.) Would people look down on me and say I was less of a parent? And what if people DID look down on me... which no doubt a percentage of the popultaion does anyway; I always like to "feel" as if they don't I suppose. What then? When people think I am wrong? And they reject me?

What if I raise my kids and do what I think is right even when people reject me and my parenting? What if my kids grown up to do what I don't want them to? What if they choose the path that I think is wrong and reject ME? What if they ask us for help and we cannot produce? What if they don't trust us so they never ask for the help they want? I want my kids to be strong, yet I am afraid that their truth is not the same as mine. I want them to feel invincible, yet understand caution. And they cannot even have both of those at once.

When I die and go to Heaven, will I be judged on my parenting? Will the wrath of God come down upon me because everyone else thought I was wrong and I didn't listen to them? I hope not. I hope that doesn't happen to my kids either. Because life is so full of I TOLD YOU SO's. And sometimes the experience is in the path.

And then she changed...

You know who this beauty cat is. No questions, please. I like to think of this as self explanitory.

It has come to my attention that my girls have been called out by someone who thinks she has the authority to call anyone out, for bad spelling and poor written grammar. As well, it has been noted that my children will be unable to function in the grown up world, because I am not giving them the skills they will need.

I submit this up to that person and anyone else who questions my children and their "skills": When Josh (who I homeschooled) started public school in his junior year, he was in high honor roll from the first quarter, passed the OGT's on his first try, and was president of his class after only being at the school two months. Gaige, as a freshman, (who I also homeschooled) has straight A's (except for the B+ in gym, go figure) and is currently, as I type, attending a regional science fair competition with his science fair project that won him first place, competing against all grades in his school.

And all of this means nothing when they get in the grown-up world. No one will ask them about their OGT's or science fair projects. No one will suggest to them that they didn't work hard enough in gym.

Children won't learn how to be scientists by attending science class in school. They will learn what other scientists did. That's all. They won't learn to use their minds to make their own predictions. And even if they do, when their results are other than what the teacher expects, they will be marked wrong. Most likely no one will take the time to tell them that the path is just as important as the outcome. And sometimes failure is the process that takes one toward success.

I want my kids to be the experimenters, not the people who just examine what other scientists do. That is not life.I want my kids to make a million grammer mistakes, but learn to fix them at their pace. I want my children to love stories. And if they don't want to read until they are 10, I want to read to them so their love of stories doesn't cease.

What if my girls NEVER hone in on amazing grammar skills? CAN you survive in the real world without amazing grammar skills? I like to think, yes. And if they cannot spell every word in the dictionary, I will still love them. There are plenty of jobs that will hire them. Or maybe they will own their business. My husband is not a great speller. He uses spell check. Before spell check, I suppose there was the dictionary. He is still employable. And he usually beats my butt at scrabble and quiddler. Go figure.

We will all survive... So mind your business, you buttinskys of the world that want to correct everyone else's problems. Most likely you have enough of your own to focus on. Don't think we can't see that.

First thing in the morning

Since we are up early to get Gaige to his science fair competion, I decided to do the haircuts my girls have been begging for. They are all a little lighter today.

New Baby Mung Bean Plants

My sprouts are starting to... sprout. So in the picure we have one of the seeds, with a root on one end and a leaf starting to pop out of the other side. What fun science for the kids... And food too. Not great clarity in the picture but I think you can see what we see. Marley was so excited to see the leaf.

In the News

Our Bookworm Diner was in the news this week for the amazing program that the church sets up in Feb and March. This picture came from the Online news. It will be in the paper next week. Here is Lily getting food from the line, and my Girl Scouts (Brenda is nearest) in the background. Thought I would post this because I love the program. The kids love it. And it is our Girl Scout service project this year too.

Bi-Okoto Dancers

And drummers. Every year they perform our Kwanza ceremony at my Unity Spiritual Center. Every year people flock to be there on that Sunday because they are so amazing. So when Gaige's dean, who I put volunteer time in with regularily at his school, invited me and my girls to come to their school assembly where Bi-Okoto was performing, I couldn't pass it up. And even better to see them involving the kids in the school with the drumming and the dancing. Yet it was a history lesson, geography lesson and language lesson at the same time. Amazing experience, agree my girls who were a bit uncomfortable being there at the school in the beginning.

Girl Scout Cookies Anyone??

This year I saved all the case boxes for our troop's girl scout sales. I intend to reglue them and spraypaint them. Then viola! We have huge stackable blocks. What fun we are already having with them!