Is it Spiderman?

No! It’s Teenager #2 cleaning the living room windows. Turns out, they are supposed to be transparent! Wow, who knew?

So now, I can see outside of my house through these rectangular shaped holes in my walls. I was unaware of their presence until now because they were covered with grime and dust and as such, not transparent.

Okay, I kid, they were not that bad. We do this periodically, but it is always so enlightening (hehehee) when they are cleaned. That dust adds up fast.

So now the blinds are up, the windows are open, the fresh smell of pine and Windex is floating in on the breeze and later this afternoon the girls and I will be adding the smell of gingerbread to the mix.

Sweet.

Something to think about.

I thought I would share an email I received from Compassion International. I was thinking that many families might be looking for something special to do for Christmas this year. Not everyone can commit to a sponsored child indefinitely, but this is a way to help out with no commitment. It is a small price to pay really. But the impact will be huge.

Dear Tricia,

Would you be willing to provide short-term assistance for children who don't yet have sponsors?

More than 150,000 children are on our waiting list right now. They live in abject poverty, and every day is filled with hardship, pain and extreme risks.

Your gift of $30, $60, $90 or more to Compassion's Unsponsored Children's Fund will provide immediate assistance for one or more of these children while they wait for a regular sponsor.

Please donate now. And thank you for your faithfulness to children in need.

Sincerely in Him,

Dr. Wess Stafford
President

P.S. If you would like to sponsor an additional child on a regular basis, click here.

Partially Moronic.

I feel the need to point out that I do realize threw and through are two different words and aught not to be used interchangeably. In fact, they are homophones (one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling as the words to, too, and two. So says Merriam-Webster)

I have no excuse for yesterdays egregious error, but, well I do have an explanation.

See, I’d been on the computer for hours looking at pictures and it was 10:45, and it’d been a really long day. Just so we’re clear. I am not a total moron, just a partial one. And usually, only after 10 at night.

You are now free to roam about the Internet.

Isn't she cute?

I was flipping (electronically of coarse) threw a few pictures and came across this one of Ann.



I love this photo. This is her with the Kit doll. I think she looks just like the Kit doll.

You need to eat this.

I feel the need to point you over here, to this. I made it for dinner tonight. It was exceedingly yummy!

Though the consensus was; way fewer raisins and way more sausage. But that's just my family. They really love sausage.

Demolition

I thought you might like to see what my boys are doing today.

They are working on a demolition project at their Uncle’s house.







The girls and I are cleaning up this pigsty and the boys are destroying things elsewhere. Seems about right.

No one is getting any school done.

Oh well, I guess if all else fails my girls can get a job as maids and they boys can do something in the construction\demolition field.

And now that things are starting to get a little less pigsty-ish around here, I’m starting to get a little less grumpy.

By the way, if you click on the first photo, you can see Bob crouched in the back watching, and you can see Will driving. Their faces are glowing, they are positively gleeful! What is it about abject destruction that makes boys giddy?

Crap!

I have a confession to make. Mess makes me grumpy. Really grumpy. For me mess is a little like PMS. I start to feel a little tense, a little snappish, a little off. I don’t really know why. Everything on the outside is okay so why am I so uncomfortable, like my skin is crawling? OH, now I know, PMS.

Mess works the same way for me. Life gets busy; we end up driving down to Houston a few times in a week. We are all a bit preoccupied with SDB, etc. Then Sir D gets a head cold. Then I get a head cold. Then I start to get better, but I’m grumpy. Something’s not right. My skin is crawling a little. What’s the deal?

Then I look around. There are three baskets of clean laundry in the living room waiting to be folded and put away. The living room floor needs to be vacuumed. The girls room is messy, the boys room is messy, the back room is messy. The hall has baskets of dirty laundry in it because the place where the baskets go in the laundry room on the shelf has other stuff on that shelf that is not supposed to be there and needs to be put away in its proper place. My room is messy and my desk is cluttered, and now my skin is crawling. Then I grab the ringing phone and my finger sticks to a smear of honey. THAT’S IT! I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE THIS PLACE IS A PIGSTY!

So what to do? We had a pretty unproductive week last week since I was sick. The kids still did some school, but I was not on it, and as my good friend who has been homeschooling forever says…You don’t get what you expect, you get what you inspect. I did not inspect much last week.

Really I should just cancel school for a few days and clean this place up. We’d all be happier for it, but how? We didn’t get much done last week. Next week all the public schools are off and the kids have youth group and church activities planned, not to mention I’ll be busy baking. I really don’t feel like we can afford to take any more time off.

That’s always the rub. I know that homeschooling is more than the academics, they need to know how to cook and clean and live with other people. But they need to know how to read, write, add and subtract too. If I were reading this on anyone else’s blog I’d tell them to relax. Clean the house. The academics will always be there, there will always be more to learn. Get things back on track at home and everything will run smother.

Great in theory, but now that one of mine is taking college classes in highschool and the other is about to enter highschool and there are two more trailing ever so closely behind them, I realize I don’t have all the time in the world anymore. 8 more years. That is all I have to teach them. And that is Ann. The others will be done sooner. 8 more years. I don’t know how this happened. I used to make myself not even think about how many years I’d be homeschooling when Ann was a baby, the number was just too overwhelming. But now? Now it just freaks me out.

I have 8 years or less to teach these kids what they need to know before they fly away from my nest! And my house is a wreck.

Crap!

(Told you I was grumpy.)

One Word

Here's a fun little Discribe Yourself In One Word Meme for this Saturday morning. I saw it on Amanda's Blog and thought I'd try it.

If you want to do it, just grab it from my blog and link back to me so I can see what you wrote.


Where is your mobile phone? Purse
Your hair color? Brown
Your mother? Unique
Your father? Recovered
Your favourite thing? Chocolate
Your dream last night? Absent
Your dream goal? Author
The room you're in? Living
Your hobby (hobbies)? Writing
Your fear? Unknown
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Published
Where were you last night? Family
What you're not? Mathematician
One of your wish-list items? Kindle
Where you grew up? Kansas
The last thing you did? Drank (coffee)
What are you wearing? Robe
Your TV? Off
Your pet? nonexistent
Your computer? Laptop
Your mood? calm
Missing someone? always
Your car? Excursion
Something you're not wearing? Makeup
Favorite shop? bookstore
Your summer? Hot
Love someone? Sir D
Your favourite colour? Green
When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
When was the last time you cried? here

Book Review

I have a new review up on my Homeschool Review blog. It is a book series, so even if you don't homeschool you might be interested.

Lead By Example, Anyone?

I find this unbelievable. Dallas ISD is Giving Out Fake Social Numbers to Foreign Born Teachers. This has been going on for several years.

This was not some stray teacher who made a bad judgment call. This is a practice that was ongoing by the administrators. An illegal practice.

The district is trying to educate students. Trying to get them to be respectful in class, to work hard, to learn the material and not cheat, yet the administrators can do this?

I’m just incredulous! Cheating is an epidemic problem among our students and yet DISD does this? Why on earth would a student study hard for that Biology test? Why would he not just cheat? Cheating is way easier and everyone, even the top brass at DISD is doing it!

Unbelievable.

Very badly done, DISD.