Responding to comments

I never know how to respond to comments. Do you answer in your own comment section? Do people come back and check the comments for a response? Do you go comment on the other person's blog? I don't know the etiquette, not being a frequent commenter myself.

So...

To Summer: William is 8.

To Stacey: The boys miss you too in case you couldn't tell by their response to my yelling "Hi Stacey" last night. They were playing legos in Jarek's room and came running when they heard me so that they could tell you hi too. :)

To Anyone: Feel free to educate me on proper comment-response procedure.

Overheard

William: "You're a pretty good artist. It would be neat if you became famous. Then you could make the whole family famous. Did you know our family is already sort of famous?"
Jarek: "Yeah. From Bryce Canyon!"

William: If you get the yogurts with the pink lids they send 10 cents to these guys who are trying to stop breast cancer. You know why the lids are pink? Because only women get breast cancer. You know why only women get breast cancer? Because only women can make babies. Men can't make babies.
Jarek: Yeaaaaaaa! Whack!
(I can't explain the whack, but that's what he said. I also promise that I explained breast cancer more accurately to William than what he seems to remember.)

Life is never dull around these two.

Busy days

One of the touted advantages of homeschooling is the flexibility of your schedule. You can do school in your pajamas! You can sleep in and start school at noon then stay up late and...I don't know...whatever people do when they stay up late.

One of the purported disadvantages of homeschooling is the lack of "socialization" which I think people use to mean a lack of interaction with people outside of their family, even though in my college anthropology course I was taught that the family is the primary agent of socialization. But that's another story.

Somehow my homeschooling story is turning out be to scripted a bit differently than the sterotype.

The flexibility of my schedule has made it possible for me to sign William up for two gymnastics classes, a flag football class and a boy scouts type group, plus speech therapy. None of which are attended in pajamas. Sadly. And all of which involve interaction with people outside of our family. And all of which significantly reduce the flexibility of my schedule.

But it's good. I like our days. We're out of the house pretty much every single day, and the anti-social part of me gets tired of that sometimes. But I like what we do. I like watching William learn things I don't have the energy or equipment to teach him. I like having deep talks while we drive to activities. I like squeezing in a trip to the library every time we go in that direction.

I think one of the biggest advantages of homeschooling is flexibility. Flexibility to find what works for your kid and your family. Flexibility to change your mind about what works--day to day, or year to year, or on the spur of the moment. Flexibility to make education and learning a continual process that is a part of all aspects of life. Flexibility to make your schedule as busy or laid back as you and your kid need it to be.

Right now, we're choosing busy days.

Not the vegetable

William came and flopped on me today and told me, "You'd make a good balance bean."

An interview with William

This interview is making the rounds on several homeschooling blogs. I thought it would be fun to do with William. I was right, even if I'm not sure what he means by all the answers. :)

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

"I love you infinity infinities. I win."

2. What makes mom happy?

"Being respectful, polite and obedient."

3. What makes mom sad?

"Being unpleasant, being unpolite and being unobedient."

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

"Jokes...you tell some pretty good jokes."

5. What was your mom like as a child?

"I still am a child, mommy."

(I clarified the question.)

"Moving around...you were moving around, right? And you went and visited Christ's tomb."

6. How old is your mom?

"31 years old"

7. How tall is your mom?

"5' 6"...is that right?"

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

"Be on the computer all day...hehe...right? You are on the computer all day, so it must be your favorite thing, right?"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

"Usually cleaning."

10. What is your mom really good at?

"The piano and guitar."

11. What is your mom not very good at?

"Being bossy."

12. What does your mom do for her job?

"Uh...she's an administrator."

13. What is your mom's favorite food?

"Cheese."

14. What makes you proud of your mom?

"Um...she's the best mommy in the world and a good snuggler."

15. What do you and your mom do together?

"Watch movies."

16. How are you and your mom different?

"Um...(long pause)...she plays Astropop and I play Civilization III on the computer."

17. How do you know your mom loves you?

"She does really nice things for me."

Rave review

I tried out a new pancake recipe this morning that I got out of the Amish cookbook I bought during our stay in Ohio. William typically praises things by saying, "That wasn't too bad." or "I sort of liked it." He's all about playing his cards close to his vest, that one. But these pancakes got the following rave reviews:

"These taste like unleavened!"--Uncle Larry's unleavened pancakes that we ate while staying with them for the DUB a couple years ago have been William's standard for pancake excellence ever since.

"If the Days of Unleavened Bread were called the Days of Leavened Bread, I would have the best time of my life eating these pancakes every day!"

"If this was all the food we had in the house, I would still eat these!"--hmm...I'm sure this made sense to him?

"What if the Days of Unleavened Bread were called the Days of Pancakes! Then we could just eat pancakes every day--Amish pancakes!"

So...I guess he liked them. Amish pancakes may replace unleavened ones as the pinnacle of pancake success.

My current earworm.

I have no idea why guava jelly would be rubbed on a belly, but ukeleles make me happy.

Week in review

Sunday
-William and Jarek's first soccer game of the season. They lost. That extends their losing streak to nine since they lost every game in their basketball season. They've now had plenty of practice keeping a good attitude while losing. I hope they get to practice good attitudes when winning sometime.

Monday
-Made an appointment for William to take a free trial gymnastics class at the only local-ish gym I could find that offered boys' classes. The last time he took gymnastics, he got caught in a traffic jam on the balance beam, and in his boredom decided it would be good to pinch the bottom of the little, leotard-clad girl in front of him. He was only three at the time, but still...I'm taking no chances. A boys' class it is. Assuming I like the place. And can afford it.

Tuesday
-I can't remember Tuesday, so it must not have been important.

Wednesday
-Ran at a track with JB, Crystal, Jarek and William. The adults did most of the running, while the boys chased each other through the bleachers. I ran my fastest mile since college, and Jonathan almost made himself puke. Good times.

Thursday
-First real soccer practice for the boys' team--which is the two of them plus four little girls. Their coach is really good. There was no pinching.

Friday
-William enthusiasticlly informed me: "Mom! I know why I don't think of space ships or Star Wars when I sing the Star Wars music! It's because I CAN'T THINK when I'm singing!!" I love his Eureka! moments.
-William complained at dinner that I hadn't cut his hamburger into "steak fingers." Jarek then offered to do it for him, to which William replied, "You're the best friend ever."

Saturday
-We actually left home early for a change, but William informed me in the middle of the downtown Austin traffic jam that he thought he was going to throw up. So we ended up turning around and coming straight back home.
-He started crying on the way home, and I thought it was because he was going to be sick, but he informed me he was crying "because we have to miss church." After I told him that we didn't want to get our friends sick, he said, "Yeah. I don't want to give Indiana a puking disease. He always gets these." Preserving the integrity of Indy's digestive tract seemed to comfort him somewhat about missing church.
-He fell asleep about 2 minutes after that conversation and slept all the way home.
-He's still sleeping.
-I hope he feels better soon.

The Story About the Butterflies

by William

We ordered some caterpillars. There were six of them, and they were half an inch to an inch long. They came in a tiny container with yucky stuff on the bottom, paper on the top and pictures of butterflies on the lid. We had a butterfly house as well. They grew bigger in the container because they ate a lot of the yucky looking stuff. It was a week before they started spinning cocoons. When they became cocoons, we had to drive somewhere in a car for about five hours. One of the cocoons was vibrating while we were driving up there, but it didn't hatch while we were driving up there. We stayed at the place where we were going for three days. The cocoons hatched on the second day and we released them all on the fourth day.

5/2

It seems that I have more than two, but not quite three, audiences. And at least 3/5 of the 5/2 of my readers are not privy to the conversations I have with Crystal.

Perhaps math is my other not strongest asset?

So, William set a new PR for the mile today--8:37. Now I owe him new shoes. He's been asking for new ones for a couple of weeks now, but stingy mommy that I am, I haven't given in. First of all, I just bought these shoes at the Feast. Second, they still fit. Third, the only thing wrong with them is the shoelaces are shredded, and shoelaces are way less expensive than shoes. But I haven't gotten him shoelaces either, just because I'm lazy, and they don't sell them at HEB so I'd have to go to Wal-mart, and that place is dangerous. I went in for an adapter last week and came out with a bunch of clothes. Not sure how that happened, really.

So, William had gotten in the habit of cruising through his mile at 10:15 or so. One of the main lessons I want to teach him with running is to push himself. He has a tendency to cruise through life in general. So last weekend I told him he could have new shoes if he broke 9 minutes. That was not sufficient motivation for him to do it yesterday, but today Jarek was at the park too. I told William he could have an extra 15 minutes of play time with Jarek if he broke 9 minutes and 8:37 was the result. Now I'm wishing I could take back the shoe promise, or exchange it for a sleepover or something, anything, cheaper than a pair of shoes that he will outgrow before they wear out. I'll know better next time.

Speaking of wearing out. It's past my bedtime.

Goodnight Crystal, Genna (that just doesn't sound right...can I just call you VA?), Stacy, Annette and Ryan. :)

Woah...dude....

I'm not a very good blogger anymore. I have ideas for posts, but then I just tell them to Crystal, and since she's at least 1/2 of my audience, it doesn't seem worth the typing to post them as well.

But I have to correct the last post. William's new PR for the mile is 9:11. That happened weeks ago. Somewhere in there I got used to his running the mile well, and forgot to be excited about it. He's hit a plateau now though. Which is just as well, because if he continued to shave time off at the same pace he'd be finishing before he starts by summer.

Actually, I'm not sure I was ever a very good blogger. I'm also a bad email-er and letter writer-er. And not very good at phone calls. Apparently communication is not my strongest asset.

Hmm.

10:08

That's how fast my boy ran a mile today. I was impressed. So was he. I said, "You're gonna break 10 minutes." He very solemnly replied, "Yes. Soon." Imagine how fast he could be if he ran in a straight line and with conventional running form instead of wobbling his head and waving his arms. : )

The Trojan Horse

Retold by William

This story is about the Trojans and the Greeks fighting each other because one of the Trojans stole the queen of Sparta--Helen. The Greek commanders had already said that they would protect Helen, and that's what started the war. They couldn't defeat the Trojans and they couldn't get into Troy, so Odysseus decided to sneak into the city of Troy and talk to Helen so she could tell him everything about the city. Then he went back to the Greek camp and told the Greek commanders his plan, and the Greek commanders agreed. So Odysseus took a shipbuilder and another guy with an axe, and they went into the forest and cut down fifty pine trees. With some of the pine trees they built a big wall because they didn't want the Trojans to see them building a wooden horse. That night all of the Greeks took down the wall, packed up and went to a nearby island, but Odysseus and 30 men went inside the horse. At morning the Trojans saw the horse, came to it and pulled it into the city because one of the Greeks dressed up as a beggar said that no one could conquer the city if they got it in. Just then one of the Trojans said, "No! It's a trick!" but no one listened. That night, Odysseus and the other Greeks that were with him got out of the horse and captured the city.

Egypt

by William

Egyptians buried their kings in pyramids and secret chambers so people couldn't steal anything they put in there. They buried treasure with their kings because they thought they had second lives and their spirits could use that treasure in their second lives. They wrapped them up in bandages. The Egyptian's god was the sun--they thought his chariot was the sun. They fished and hunted ducks in the Nile River. They also made canals to water their plants. The Nile River has crocodiles in it. The Egyptians had the Israelites for slaves for a while. The Egyptians wrote in pictures.

(From Sonlight LA 1. Have your child describe the land of Egypt in eight to ten well-formed sentences.)

The Hoary Head

William and I were walking this morning. I put my shoes on without socks and got a blister as a result, then we had this conversation:

Me: I should have listened to my dad.
William: Why?
Me: He always told us to always wear socks or you'll get blisters. That's one thing I've learned about Papa--he's pretty much always right.
William: Yeah. 'Cause he's old. When you live a long time you learn a lot.

Using my words

Sometimes having your kids quote you can be embarrassing. Tonight, William cracked me up. He's a little monkey, and everything's a jungle gym. Just ask the people who've seen him calmly playing on top of the bookshelves. But I've been really working with him to not climb/stand/bounce/insert verb here on the furniture. So tonight when he was hanging upside down over one arm of the couch, all I had to say was:

Me: William...
William: Stop abusing the furniture? Ok.

Followed by a little somersault off the couch.

How to Play "Guess Who"

by William

This is how you play Guess Who. There are cards of different people with their names under them. You pick one, and you have a big board with all the people on it. There's two boards, one for each person. They ask you a question like "Does your guy have white hair?" and if you say "No," they flip down all the guys on their board that have white hair. And then you ask a question like "Does your guy have a moustache?" and if they say "Yes." you flip down everyone else besides the guys that have moustaches. If the other team guy decides that he thinks he's found your one and he says, "Is your guy Chris?" and if you say "No." they flip down Chris. And if you say, "Is your guy Bill?" and if they say, "Yes." you win.

(Homeschool writing assignment. Have your child explain how to play his favorite game in no more than eight sentences.)

The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

by William

"The Tower Treasure" is about detectives. The detectives names are Frank and Joe Hardy. And they're trying to arrest someone who stole the jewels from the tower and who also stole Chet's car. They tried to explore places to try to find the car. The person who stole the car stole the car before the jewels from the tower. The person who stole the treasure and the car was Red Jackley. He always wore red wigs. They found the car and the jewels.

(William's first book summary. The assignment was to condense a book into eight sentences, which was harder than it sounded!)

Eureka!

On our walk today:

William: Mom, you can't walk backwards and forwards at the same time.
Me: Nope. Sure can't.
William: I just discovered that. I'm trying to walk backwards and forwards at the same time, but it takes two legs to go one direction.

Run, Forrest, run!

William ran a mile today. He's run/walked a mile before with me, but this is the first time I've turned him loose at a track to pace himself and get himself through a mile. He didn't exactly make it--started too fast and got discouraged after finishing the first 1 1/2 laps. Of course he started out at an 8 min/mile pace, which is a bit ambitious for his first time. :) So he walked a bit and got a pep talk from me, and ended up finishing in 12:23.

He's actually beginning to take an interest in sports lately. He did a basketball clinic on Sunday with a former Spurs' player, and, while he didn't exactly stun anyone with his skills, he stuck with it all the way through. And he tried ice skating for the first time on Saturday night. Firsts are a big deal for him. He doesn't like trying new stuff, so I'm very "well pleased" that he's giving all these new things a shot. Now if I can just get him to try some vegetables.

Another recollection

by William

Last night I had a boys' night at Chuck E. Cheese's. I did what I was supposed to do--not get upset at my uncle who was taking me. When I was done playing all the games that I played, I had thirty tickets. I made a reciept out of them, and bought three lizards. And then my aunt gave me a receipt that had thirty tickets in it, and I was able to buy three more lizards. I didn't know that there was any lizards there until someone said, "I want three toy lizards." I couldn't find Jarek, so I had to climb up the big playground in there. But then I came down and saw that he was playing a game where he was supposed to be exploding airplanes.

Three couplets

by William


There was a person who had a pet dog,
And there was a lizard in a bog.

There was a pig
And someone said, "He's big."

Dr. Doolittle likes to talk
And take a walk.

(This is William's first foray into poetry. Once he found a formula that worked, I had a hard time trying to get him to mix it up a bit. He wanted to keep starting them all with "There was a person who had a pet..." I guess I've been reading him too many limericks. :) )

The Caldwell Zoo

by William

We went to the Caldwell Zoo. First we checked out birds. There were a few parrots and flamingos and ducks. Then we saw a baby rhino. We saw wildebeests, warthogs, elephants, antelope and zebra too. We saw turtles when we were coming into the reptile house. We saw a cool kind of skink that I like--broadhead skink. And also there were horned lizards, newts and a gila monster. The Caldwell Zoo is cool.

The End

An Unusual Pet by William

If I had a weird pet, it would be a monitor lizard. I would feed it what it likes to eat, and I would walk it every day. I'd keep it in my backyard so it could climb up trees, if it liked that, and swim, if it liked that. I would name it what it acted like. I kind of think a good name would be Sabotage because they like ambushing, and a sabotage is an ambush. If I ever bought a cat, I'd let the monitor chase the cat. To bring the monitor inside, I would fill its bowl up with the fresh food that it liked. I'd bring it to my zoo when I went to work. I would make sure that it didn't get out of its cage and into the building because that would scare someone. If it got out of its cage inside the building, I'd put the monitor inside the place where I keep the other monitors.

The End

(This was a school assignment dictated to me. The prompt was: "Suppose you owned an unusual pet. What would it be? What would you do with it?")

A Trip to the Zoo

There were komodo dragons, rock pythons and rhinos at this zoo. I liked the part where we looked at the komodo dragon and it was coming right at us flicking out its tongue like a pink fork. There was a cute tiger there. I forgot what kind it was.
I really liked seeing the rock python in there. He was big. I liked watching the crocodiles in there. There were some other interesting animals, like otters, the cutest mustelid that likes the water.

by William


A Recollection
Creative Expression week 10.

On a lighter note...

Puppies, babies and...chocolate.

Just had to get the poopy post off the top of my blog.

La la la la life goes on....

Poop.

Had the hearing today. The big one. The result was...well...not what we hoped to say the least. I'm kind of reeling, really, from the sheer lunacy of the ruling. These verses come to mind right now:

Psalm 89:6 -- How long, LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?

Psalm 13:1-4 -- How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

Psalm 22:1-2 -- My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

It's nice to know that it's ok to be upset and to talk to God honestly about it. But I'm so thankful that there are also these verses to go to.

Psalm 27:1-14 -- The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me. Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!

I do believe that William and I will continue to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Now comes the waiting on the Lord and being of good courage part.

I literally pulled it out of his mouth.

I got tired of the loose but persistent tooth. And his gums were starting to look red. And he got tired of me chanting "Pull the tooth! Pull the tooth!" So...voila! William new's smile.

William gems from this week...

"Every time we ask Uncle Jonathan if we can watch Star Wars, his reply is no." He seems to be harboring some hard feelings here JB. :P

In a voice mail left for Jarek who was sick today: "Hi
Jarek. Just wondering how your fever's going and what the temperature is..."

At dinner tonight when I urged him to pull that super loose front tooth already! The thing's so loose it blows in the wind when he talks: "I'm not going to pull it. I'm going to wait until it's so loose that it literally falls out by itself."

I have to say I was particularly proud of, er, um, well-pleased with this correct usage of literally. For incorrect usages of literally, click here.

Oh the drama!

This conversation took place in the car just now. I lost my patience with William's incessant talk about getting a spotted tree monitor for a pet. I don't even know what it is, but it's a reptile...how good of a pet can it be?

Me: William! Please, babe. Give me a break with the monitor talk!
William: I've only been interested in monitors for a short time now. (Yes, my 7-yr old actually talks like this. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing.)
Me: Yes, but you've been talking about them non-stop for that entire short time. I don't really know anything about monitors, and I don't even like reptiles that much.
William: Because they're ugly looking??
Me: Yeah, that, and they're not very nice.

At this point I glance over at William and his face is turned away from me and he's crying. Feel free to roll your eyes along with me.

William: *whips his head back around, full of righteous indignation* And they're habitat is being destroyed, Mom! You don't have to be so grumpy!

Oh brother! Such drama from a 7 year old! Can't wait to hit those teen years.

I'm officially excited about the Daisy 5K on Sunday. I feel pretty confident that barring catastrophic injury I'll be able to break 40 minutes. I know, I know...the land speed records are in danger. And William is actually, after oooooh....three months of extensive brainwashing, getting excited-ish about the Kids' K portion of the day. I think he'll be really excited when he gets his finishers' medal.

I feel like I've used a disproportionate amount of apostrophes in this post. Which reminds me of this lovely little grammar tidbit I happened upon today while trying to explain dropped quotes to my mom. I especially like the bit about the bird poop.

So yeah...this is me trying to give CPR to my blog. I like the idea of a blog, but don't feel comfortable talking about anything of substance here anymore. So I guess that leaves running fluff and bird poop.

Rainy Days and Mondays

The green van is having problems. Sabbath before last the transmission went out as I was driving home from church. Then this morning I finally got to go pick it up, supposedly fixed, and it didn’t make it 10 miles down the road before it died again. Not the same kind of dead, but dead all the same. Even more dead, in fact. Before, it would at least, with much complaining, move at 20 miles an hour or so, but now it won’t move at all. The dying happened in the middle of a severe thunderstorm, and so suddenly that I didn’t actually make it all the way off of the road. Kind of scary to be partly on I-35 with the traffic whizzing by and the visibility about zero.

In other news, I’m not moving yet. I’ve signed up for 8 more months here. I’m happy.

OK...I've been allowing Crystal to blog the running sagas, but I have to do a blog happy dance here today because I just ran 4 miles!! I know this is not that important to most of the world, but I'm super excited. Sure, I stopped and walked a couple times, but 4 miles!! In 59 minutes. I know...turtles go faster...but still. No knee pain. No cardiac or respiratory arrest and neither of my legs fell off or cramped. So yippee! Of course I'm going to be really really sore tomorrow, I'm sure. But I'm still on that lovely endorphin high right now. :)

EDITED to add that William is the best cheerleader ever. I said, "William, I just ran 4 miles. Can you believe that? Pretty good right?" And he enthusiastically responded, "Not just good. AWESOME!!" :) That's my boy.

Creative Expression by William

Prompt: Suppose you owned an unusual pet. What would it be? What would you do with it? Ten sentences.

The oddest pet anyone has ever owned would be a bull shark. And the most strangest pet in the world would be a bull fish. They have horns. And the strangest pet in the world would be a big eared rabbit. The biggest pet I would get would be a bull shark, and they are cool. And you would have to feed it ten fish every day. And you would have to build an aquarium in your house. I would look at it. I would put it in the bathtub. I'd play with it--like dance with it.

The End

This conversation is brought to you by Captain Literal...

This week we did some early deleavening in the kitchen cabinets because the pest guy came to spray all the apartments in our building. We had to empty the cabinets and wipe them down (sounds like deleavening to me) and then we're not supposed to wipe them down afterward for six months! Does this sound gross to anyone else besides me? I just might have to violate that little injunction. Anyway...William and I had this conversation while putting everything back in the cabinets.

William: Why do we have so many pepper shakers?
Me: People have given them to us.
William: Why?
Me: I guess they're a fairly typical housewarming gift.
William: Pepper warms up your house??

My kid cracks me up.

On the way home from Church tonight William decided we should tell jokes:

Me: Um. Let me think of a joke. Ok. Knock knock.
William: Who's there?
Me: Banana.

(insert several bananas from me and increasingly exasperated banana whos from William)

Me: Knock knock.
William: (heavy sigh) Who's there?
Me: Orange.
William: Orange who?
Me: Orange you glad I didn't say banana.
William: (giggling) Okay. You can come in. (Makes an unlocking and opening the door sound.) My turn. What did the mackerel say to the salmon?
Me: I don't know.
William: Hey, salmon.

When I realized that was his punchline, it cracked me up. Which was unfortunate, because it encouraged him to make up three more jokes: "What did the mackerel say to the mackerel?" "What did the other mackerel say to the other mackerel?" "And what did the mackerel say to all the mackerels?" all with punchlines involving "Hey" and "mackerel." Goofy kid.

Cool field trip.

William and I took a field trip to the San Antonio Zoo today. It's a pretty cool zoo. I was actually surprised. William was sooooo excited when he found out there were rhinos there. Black rhinos even! There was much jumping. :)

Actually, the rhino exhibit ended up being really cool. You could get pretty close to them and I got some good pics. And! we got there just at the right time. The keeper was feeding them and letting them out of their stables, and you could tell she was tickled by William's high-volume enthusiasm. When she got done with her work, she came over to us and asked if we had any questions. She told us about each of the four rhinos they have and was just really nice. William almost exploded. :)

I got quite a few pics before my camera died. Stupid battery. It only lasts like 1 hour now before dying. Unfortunately, my williambear.net picture site is no more. I'm going to transfer all of that over to smbryce.com at some point, but that point is distant in the future. So for the time being, I'll probably just post pics on photobucket or some other such free online place-a-ma-bob.

As soon as we got home, William went to his desk and started drawing a picture of his zoo. That kid is animal crazy! :)

An Explanation by William

How to cook eggs:

1. Get the box of eggs out of the refrigerator.
2. Open the egg box and get some eggs out. Usually I like two.
3. Put the eggs you got out inside a pan with milk and water inside. I think?
4. And then crack the eggs.
5. And then pull them in half above the pan.
6. Then turn on the oven and put the pan on.
7. Then you eat it and enjoy it.

A Description by William

Assignment: Describe your house in eight sentences. (This is part of William's Language Arts curriculum. He is supposed to dictate to me, and I'd rather type than write.)

My house is on the third floor of our apartment. My house is very messy, but my favorite toy is very, very easy to find. I have an elephant and a bear--well, I barely play with any of them. My house has a back porch. In the playroom we're going to make a castle--well, at least sometime. There's five lights in the playroom. My front hallway is a little bit sandy. My bathroom almost always has a light off.

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth. You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and unusual way of speaking How you live your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

I'm not sure that Cookie Monster would edit the spelling errors in a blogthings personality quiz (It originally said "usual way of speaking" and "life your life")...but hey...who am I to argue with science. Besides...I do have slightly crazy eyes and an unusual way of speaking. Not to mention the whole cookie thing. Chocolate chip if you please.

Captain Literal strikes again!

William: Mom, this is annoying me. Everyone says lions are the king of the jungle, but they don't LIVE in the jungle. They live in the SAVANNA. And ELEPHANTS are the king of the savanna, because they're the BIGGEST. It DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

(Those of you who have talked with William will understand the use of caps. My kid doesn't know the meaning of monotone.)

I'm at war.

I am under vicious attack by a mosquito. In my house. In December. This is wrong on so many levels. Where's my flyswatter?

Update: I win.

I thought about doing one of those map thingies that so many people are doing these days, but...decided against it. I know I should post something, and it's just easier to blather than to do cool graphics. Maybe some other more motivated day.

My life is very boring. It's hard to blog about. Well, it's either boring, or I don't feel comfortable talking about it in detail to an unknown public. I've been rather surprised lately by people who've come here. I really thought I was a fairly unknown, unvisited little corner of the internet but I guess there's no such thing. Soo....I blog a lot about William. Kid anecdotes are almost always acceptable, at least in small doses. With that in mind...a recent William funny:

The scene: Garage, Papa and Grammy's house, Jarek and William screaming and flailing at each other. Jonathan and I separate them and take them to different parts of the house for interrogation.

Me: What's going on out here?
William: (incoherent hysteria)
Me: Calm down. Start at the beginning. What were you doing before you and Jarek started fighting?
William: I was playing wacko with the red hamper on my head running around on the bed.
Me: Ok. What was Jarek doing?
William: He wasn't playing with me at that time.
Me: So how did the fight start?
William: Jarek tackled me on the bed and hit me with the belt and I said "Ouch! That hurt!" and told him to stop but he wouldn't stop. (hysteria creeping back in) And then I said he had to stop because it was my belt, so I was the boss of it and he said I wasn't! (full-blown hysteria achieved)
Me: Calm down. Ok. So what did you do when Jarek wouldn't stop?
William: I bonked him on the head.
Me: With what?
William: With my fist. Then he bonked me back, but he did it harder. I hit him like this (demonstrates) and he hit me like this (demonstrates) and it hurt worser.
Me: Ok. Calm down. So then what did you do?
William: I tried to hit him again, but I kept missing! (said with deep sorrow and hilarious demonstration of him missing his own head) Then I accidentally kicked him in the head because he was laying down, but I didn't mean to get my foot up there.

At this point, I cut straight to the sober exhortation to never hit and come tell a grown-up if there's a problem...blah blah blah...because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to contain my laughter if his explanation continued any longer. The funniest thing is how soon he cools down. He forgives Jarek almost instantly almost every time they fight. He holds a grudge against Crystal or Jonathan for spanking him longer than he does again Jarek for the offense that only moments ago had him in hysterics. I wonder if I kept my parents constantly on the verge of laughter the way this little stinker does me.

I've been enjoying reading various Feast blogs. Seems like everyone had a good Feast, but really...how do you have a bad Feast? I haven't blogged about the Feast yet. It was a good Feast, but not especially blog-worthy. The highlight for me was family. The "lowlight" was injuring my previously good knee. Big bummer. Oh and how could I forget highlight #2--no visitations for an entire month! Yippee! Then we had one yesterday, and I think everyone is getting bored with them. Really. Yesterday's was cut short by the person formerly known as William's dad because William kept saying he wanted to go home.

Post Feast, I'm putting structured homeschool on hold while we work on some attitude and discipline issues (William's not mine) and I work extra hours. I'm interested it what anyone who reads this did to entertain yourselves when you were kids? Also, what kind of chores did you do? I'm trying to come up with structured activities that William can do while I work and also ways that he can help out more around the house. Working from home is easier than working in the office, but it's still quite the balancing act, especially when I add in being the only parent and a homeschooling mom. So we're taking this week to re-establish our balance.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. William seems to have hit another "growth spurt" academically. We've been finishing up homeschool in record time -- 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. His spelling and writing are coming a lot easier, which was our main time consumer. But his math has taken off too. He finished 4 days worth in 15 minutes one day last week!! So we'll be buying some new math supplies soon most likely. He claimed boredom more than once last week, so we're forging ahead as fast as he's willing to go.

I'm still loving Sonlight Core K, but ready to move on to a more structured study of history because that's William's favorite topic. So we're forging ahead there too. Shirlene is finishing up some "new to us" stuff that hopefully we'll be able to start in January. I may be a little prejudiced, but I think my family is the best.

His reading is coming along great. He's becoming a more willing and enthusiastic reader too, even reading on his own time without prompting from me 2 or 3 times last week. This is rare. He'd rather be read to, or watch the history channel and try to build everything he sees with his legos. His current passion is the American Revolution, but I must say I am sick to death of the sounds of battle. He's too young to get what fighting really is, but I'm not. So I've put a moratorium on all playing or watching of anything having to do with fighting. My little lawyer has required me to tag on several addendums to that ("No fighting means no battles or forts or soldiers. Not even retired ones.") because he's in constant search of a loophole. If his math skills ever catch up with his loophole finding, I'll start letting him do the taxes.

I have plans to purchase a piano. But we know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and single moms, and this one hasn't happened yet.

The best part of the past couple of weeks has been William's sunny disposition. He's been at his cheerfullest and most obliging. I don't know why he's suddenly decided to be positive, but I'm loving and reinforcing it. He even didn't whine when I announced the "no fighting" rule! Anyone who knows him, knows this is amazing. There have been "moments," but more of them have been of the sweet and positive variety than the pull my hair out kind. My favorite moment from last week was when I was cuddling him at bedtime one night. I love the fact that at six, he still loves cuddles! I've been know to answer his whining about school with an explanation that "Everything I do is for you." Homeschool is the best option for him right now, and I try to open his eyes to appreciate that as a single mom, I'm making some sacrifices to provide this option to him, with God's help. It's been months since we've had this discussion though. Well, we're cuddling and he comes out with, "You remember how you told me everything you do is for me. That's true. And it's really nice. You're the best mommy in the whole universe." That makes it all worth it, doesn't it?

Coincidence? I think not.

After a particularly crummy day, this is the passage my Bible Study led me to tonight:

So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

It's nice to know.

Bleh...

I just got off the phone...the phone call I've dreaded. The one setting up William's first visitation.

For Sunday.

Bleh.

Last night I had the strangest dream...

I dreamed that Crystal and my mom and I were shopping at the Feast in some mall kind of set up. Crystal and I keep going into this antique book store. The owner is this really nice old lady. We aren't really shopping, just waiting for mom to finish whatever she's doing, but I find this book. I thought it was by a guy from the American Revolution, but according to the owner it is from the crusades. It has all these little bits of stuff pressed in the pages, like gloves and hair and papers. So I'm really interested in it, and ask the lady how much it costs and she says $1400. Then she says "I think you better get a higher-paying job before you buy this one." And I say "Yeah, I think it'll be awhile before I can afford my interest in antique books." So I close it up and walk away and I'm trying to find where it was on the shelf. When I turn around, Crystal's handing me the book. She bought it for me. So I hug the owner and tell her thank you. Then as we're heading out the door, I ask Crystal why she bought it. She says, "I don't know. She kind of made me." I was thinking how I was going to get it on the plane with all the odd bits tucked away in it when I woke up.

Strange. Not quite as strange as the time I dreamed I missed the ice cream at Passover because I left the service to look for a piano bench because I was supposed to play special music....but still strange.

I think I've found a motivation to give up chocolate...

This.

As devoted as I'm sure Mr. Garcia is to his personal hygiene, I'm concerned that the article doesn't mention whether the contents of the vat of chocolate, which were at one time in his hair, ears and mouth, among other places, were thrown out or not.

Chocolate...I'm going to miss you.

Time marches on...

I don't know why I'm so not resigned to William growing up. Crystal's always excited when Jarek reaches a new milestone, and I always feel sad...like I wish I'd done more, remembered more....I don't know. So anyway...I've been instructed not to tell what the milestone is, but let's just say it didn't hurt or bleed as much as he thought it would. And he's SUPER excited. And we put it in a little yogurt cup with a lid, which he's planning on using for all of them. :)

I ran three miles this morning! I ran a 5k a couple months ago, but it was HARD and I just came home and slept most of the day after. Today felt good. This is my 3rd time through Runner's World's 5k training program, so I guess it's finally taking. I know this may not seem like a big deal, but to me....it's huge. Three years ago next month I blew my knee out playing basketball. I didn't have insurance at the time so was never able get it checked or anything. It was months before I could straighten it or bend it....it stank. For over two years I wasn't able to do anything weightbearing...even standing for a long time hurt...without pain and swelling, and I started to wonder if it was ever going to get all the way better. It's only been in the last 9 months or so that that has changed. In that time, I've managed to overdo it and get plantar fascitis and IT band tendonitis. So I finally took JB's advice and checked out the Runner's World website and started following their plan instead of just trying to run as far and fast as I could every day. And it's working! I'm so excited! Of course I'm still slow....but I'm just thankful to be on my feet again.

I have to blog this while I can remember...

A too cute William moment...

Today is one of my "nanny" days when we have baby Lilly here, and when I asked William to ask the blessing on breakfast this morning, this is how it went:

William: Father in heaven, thank you for our blessings. Please bless the food. Please help us to have a good day. Please help baby Lilly to learn 9 new things today. Please help her to learn that when she tries to stand up holding onto something and her head is under it, she'll bonk her head, so she shouldn't do that. Please help her to learn that baby games aren't the most fun thing. Please help her to learn some of my games. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Was that good, mom?

Me: That was good, babe.

William: I asked God to help her learn 3 good things. He can decide the rest 'cause he's in charge of the whole world. And He always has good ideas.


I'm sure God smiled. :)

Wal-Mart is evil

I went to Wal-Mart this morning to get cheese, bread and milk (the staples of life) and those little scrubby sponge things.

I came out with cheese, bread, milk (the staples of life), those little scrubby sponge things, a Thomas the Train comforter, pillow, throw and set of sheets (for William), Buzz Lightyear pajamas (also for William--I can read your mind Crystal), 2 frozen pizzas, an electric pencil sharpener, a mini 3-drawer plastic thingamajig (hopefully to be used to keep William's art supplies from being liberally dispersed around the house where I step on them and break them, then we have to go back to Wal-Mart and get more...and Wal-Mart is evil), a Pepsi, a Dasani and 4 chocolate bars.

If it weren't for the little scrubby things, I would have just gone to HEB. I can get out of HEB with only 4 things. But not Wal-Mart...oh no...there's something in the air there. Consider yourself warned.

William wants me to start a letter campaign

We went to see Cars a couple weekends ago and one of the previews that was shown was for Monster House. My poor kid has been unable to get the scary images out of his head in all this time. He wants me to write letters to the makers of the movie and the theatre complaining. He asks some very good questions and makes some legitimate requests, such as:

--Why do people want to make a scary movie anyway? No kids like to be scared.
--Why do they show scary commercials before funny movies? People who go to funny movies don't want to see scary stuff.
--Tell them to stop showing Monster House on TV and stop showing scary commercials in kid movies.
--Tell them that they scared me and you don't like people to scare your little boy.
--Tell them to make 3 new movies that aren't scary, that are funny.

I'm touched that he thinks I have such power to affect change in the entertainment industry. I'm also more than a little ticked that I'm having to deal with this. After all, we did go to see a funny movie not a scary one (see point #2 above). It's amazing the power that images have over little kids. It's really made me rethink what I let him see, even on accident. He remembers the whole preview in vivid detail, while I barely remember it at all. Whether this is because he has a better memory than me, or because I was absorbed in getting all the buttered popcorn off the top before sharing it, I don't know. All I know is it's making bedtime a really sad time for my little boy, and I don't like it.

Lock up your daughters, dads!

William: "When I get a girl I love, I'm just going to take her places and get to know her better, but I'm not going to call that dating. I'm going to call it going to get something to eat."

William: "And you can come too."

William: "And if anything goes wrong there, we can just leave."

Me: "You mean leave her there, or take her home?"

William: "We can take her home if we want to, but if something goes wrong with her, we can leave her there."

I think I win the encouraging mother of the day award.

Me: If you'll calm down for a sec, I can show you how to really swim. I'm a pretty good swimmer.
William: I already know how to swim. (thrashes violently and sinks)
Me: No. You know how to drown reluctantly.

Good book

I just got through reading a good book: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. Really really (like my double really's JB?) interesting book about...well...what the world eats. Basically they traveled to 20-something countries and bought 20-something families a typical week's worth of groceries, then took a picture of the family with all the food. There are also some telling essays on nutrition and eating habits and how they are changing around the world. My favorite family was from Bhutan (yeah I'd never heard of it either). 13 people in one house spent just over $5.00 for a week's worth of groceries. But it was just interesting all around. Next up, the same couple's book Material World which involves taking pictures of similar families around the world standing in their front yards with all their worldly possesions. I wonder how many generations it would take before Americans could get used to living like most of the rest of the world?

A William tidbit...

William: Mommy, I just discovered something. Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings are the same.

Me: How so?

William: Well in Chronicles of Narnia there are 2 armies at the beginning, a good one and a bad one. And in Lord of the Rings there are 2 armies too. And at the end there's a big battle in both of them. And in Chronicles of Narnia the good guys were losing and the guys that were statues had to get unfrozen and come help them and then the good guys won. And in Lord of the Rings the good guys were losing too, and do you know what saved them?

Me: What?

William: The spearmen appeared with the wizard and charged down the hill and the good guys won. So see? Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings are the same. Am I right?

Me: You're right. Everything you just said is right...

William: ...and true.

Me: Yes, and true.

Update on my picnic w/the legal system.

Ok, first off...I know it's not cool to ask for prayers then not update. Sorry about that.

Second, I know people were praying because I've definitely had an upsurge of peace about this whole situation. Plus, I've yet to crack a head. I've even managed to avoid biting sarcasm.

Now, the upshot is William's dad hasn't been in contact w/him for almost 4 years. This includes no child support. His mother has been in contact, but he hasn't. So with him out of the picture I wanted to stabilize William's custody situation so that if anything ever happened to me, he'd be able to stay with my family. Well, his dad resurfaced when this petition was filed, full of righteous indignation, accusing me of "orchestrating" the lack of contact. How many of you out there would wait until a petition to terminate your parental rights was filed before complaining about lack of visitation? Sadly, the courts don't see it that way. The petition is being put on hold and he's being given a "last chance" (his 3rd or 4th by my reckoning). We'll embark on a 6 month trial period in which he must pay child support and have visitation. This probably doesn't sound so bad to most people, but this is not a person I want influencing my child in any way. I have already stipulated William's not going anywhere without me, so I get the wonderful privilege of spending every other Sunday for the next 6 months with this person. He's not going to be nice. He's really angry with me right now. And I'm going to have to really watch my step because every little thing I do, I'm sure he's going to be looking for a way to use it against me.

So to sum up...prayers are still appreciated. My motto for the next 6 months is going to be "wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove." :) I know God will get us through this trial, but I'm reminded that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to go INTO the furnace before God delivered them out of it. Whatever it takes though....I'm in this for the long haul.

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

retold by William Bryce

Once there was a farmer and he had a goose and one day when he woke up and came to see his goose's eggs and he figured out that they were golden.
Then the farmer became rich by selling all of the golden eggs. Then he wanted every single golden egg at one time.
One day he came outside and cut his goose open and saw nothing but an empty belly.

THE END

Moral: Don't be greedy. 'Cause the farmer was greedy wanting all the eggs at one time and he ended up not having ANY at one time. And THAT taught him HIS lesson!

Anybody in a praying mood...

William and I have hit a road bump in the custody situation. Anybody who reads this, if you could just pray for God to deliver my son. It's the season for deliverance, and the 5 year anniversary this month of our initial deliverance from this mess...my mess. Please pray that God will complete that deliverance now, so that William and I can keep moving forward, so that he won't be harmed any more than he already has been. Oh, and peace and strength and the ability to control myself and not crack heads would be good too. I appreciate it.

Sad...but true.

I'm watching the Suns and the Clippers right now on ESPN. The Suns are winning 88-60 with just under 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. The game is so lopsided that the commentators are having trouble coming up with comments. After a lull just now Tom Tolbert said, "How fast-acting is the Ebola virus?" There was a confused silence from his counterpart before Tolbert continued, "The entire Suns team would have to come down with the Ebola virus for the Clippers to have a chance at this game."

This amused me, so I thought I'd share. :) Seriously, though, 28 pts is a good quarter's worth of points. This is what's called in East Texas a "skunking."

Good stuff...

When I was pregnant with William, I suddenly became hyper-aware of all the germs out there. Public restrooms especially freak me out. Here is the best plan I've ever seen for getting out of a restroom clean:

Here is the procedure for being germ-free:

1. Flush toilet with shoe bottom. Sometimes I look like a Kung-Foo master.
   
2. When washing hands, dispense the towel BEFORE you wash your hands. Do not remove it yet.
3. Turn on the water and wash hands with soap for at least 30 seconds. DO NOT TURN OFF WATER. (You will recontaminate yourself.)
   
4. Tear papertowel, with towel turn off the water.
5. With towel, get more paper towel if necessary. DO NOT THROW PAPER TOWEL AWAY YET.
   
6. Use paper towel to open door. If there is not a trash bin by the door and not one easily accessible (like at a McDonalds), throw the paper on the floor. Sound terrible? It is the establishment's own durn fault that there is no sanitary way to exit the bathroom. Especially in a restaurant, you can be sure that your food is being touched by contaminated hands if a trash bin is not near the bathroom door out because the worker must touch the door with a bare hand if he or she also throws away the papertowel. If you find throwing paper on the floor beneath you, at least use part of your shirt to open the door. If you touch the door handle, you might as well have not washed your hands.

The whole post is here.

Now that I've finished reading "The Hobbit" to William...

I'm starting him in on "Watership Down" by Richard Adams. Yes, it's more fantasy. I remember the first time I read this book in high school. This kid in my physics class (which was kind of like a study hall) asked what I was reading.

Me: Watership Down.
Him: What's it about?
Me: These rabbits are looking for a new place to live, and...
Him: Bunnies?
Me: What?
Him: You're reading a book about bunnies?
Me: Well, yeah, but it's this adventure, and their old home is poisoned and they're looking for a new...
Him: Aw, the poor wittle bunnies have no pwace to wive...
Me: Shut up. It's on the college recommended reading list.

But seriously, it's a good book. I think William will like it. And instead of talking about dragons and goblins, he'll be talking about bunnies. :)

I'm copying Desiree, who's copying Jon...

so it's just as well that "original" is not on the list.

Describe me in 6 words or less.

My name is Michelle and I'm addicted to curling.

I've heard that admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery. I couldn't find a group here in San Antonio, so I'm confessing in the (insert sarcasm here) oh-so-public spotlight (end sarcasm) of my blog that I am using, and influencing my son, an innocent minor, to use terms such as "spot rock" and "the hammer." I delayed starting homeschool today because I wanted to see if the US women's team could win their first match today after losing some heartbreakers. My only consolation is that 2 weeks from now, curling will fade back into obscurity and my addiction should return to dormancy. I only hope William won't be scarred for life by then.

In other news...I finished reading "The Mauritius Command", the fourth book in Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander" series, today. Good book. Good series. I'm also a huge fan of the Horatio Hornblower books. And books in general. I'm almost finished reading "The Hobbit" to William. We read the part today where Smaug flies out to attack Lake Town. Then I had to stop because the baby (did I mention that I'm nannying two days a week?) respectfully requested a bottle. While I was feeding her, William got out his legos and bristle blocks and made a big dragon and a small town and enacted what he thought the rest of the story would look like. He was uncannily accurate in his prediction. I'm kind of wishing I'd waited to read it to him, though. It makes me nervous when he talks about dragons and goblins and stuff around other people. Or maybe it's just my guilty conscience.

Now I'm guilty of corrupting my son on two counts! First fantasy and now curling.

Hibernation is sounding really appealing...

You know bears are pretty smart. Spring, summer, fall--the really enjoyable seasons of the year--they wander around pigging out and generally being bears. Then when winter comes--the harsh and stressfull season--they find a snug hole and go nappy nap. Since moving to Texas in September I've been pursuing legal action to stabilize my custody of William. I'm so tired now of the persistent stress. It's just one thing after another. God has intervened so many times already, so I really shouldn't worry; it seems kind of ungrateful. But I would dearly love to just be able to hibernate until it's all over. Which hopefully will be March 29th, unless that gets postponed for a third time. It's really hard to compose a light and airy blog post when my son's future and well-being are hanging in the balance...although I know they're not really. He'll be taken care of by his real Father. Still...a nice snug hole sounds really nice right about now.

So...I took a picture of the cardboard jungle that is my bedroom....but I can't find my cord to upload it to my computer. So by the time I actually have it online, it will probably be outdated. Instead, in this post, I will include a months old picture showing how glad Jonathan and Crystal were to have me living with them.

See below.



Feel the love.

Anyway, moving went well, but unpacking stinks. It's hard to unpack and continue with life at the same time. I mean, my day was already pretty full between working, homeschooling and occasionally sleeping. Where do I fit in the hours needed to get all this stuff I haven't seen in 5 years sorted and put away? Well, I haven't found hours yet. Just minutes daily. Every little bit helps, but the chaos is getting old.

You know...it's much easier to start a blog post than it is to come up with a nice pithy ending for it. I'm pretty much done for tonight.

More moving day!

I now have a key to an apartment! Yea! Although my happiness is dampened somewhat by the amount of money I had to part with to get said key. Living with relatives will spoil you. Ok...off to scarf some lunch and pack up a few odds and ends. I think I'm actually going to end up with quite a few pieces of furniture. I'll try to take pics sometime.

Moving Day!

In honor of moving day I want to post a tidbit of an article on a completely unrelated subject...parenting.

And just a few weeks ago, everyone was talking (mostly approvingly) about the N.Y. Times feature on a Chicago coffee shop owner who'd posted signs warning that customers' small children were expected to use "indoor voices" and refrain from running around banging into things.

Predictably, some shocked parents are now boycotting the shop. (The money quote from one: "What are we supposed to do, not enjoy ourselves at a café?" Yes, yes! If you can't control your kids, that's exactly what you're supposed to do!) Not so predictably, there was an outpouring of support for the coffee shop owner on the Times letters page a few days later, with one suggesting he be nominated for the Nobel Prize.

I thought that was beautiful. Here's the whole thing.

Ok...so I'm mooching off of Dr. M again. But I really like a lot of what she says including this bit on so-called "Christian rock."

I just wanted to post this from a blog I read sometimes.

T minus 9 hrs and counting...

until we leave for the Ben Folds concert. I've never been to a concert before...well that's not exactly true. I've been to symphony concerts before. So I guess I've basically never been to a concert with lyrics before. And I'm hoping that Ben sticks to his "appropriate for all ages" show tonight, as advertised, since we're taking the boys. Other than that slight trepidation, I'm really excited!

Wow! Look at me! Blogging two times in the same week! Yeah...that's all I wanted to say.

Ok. Not really.

I got the apartment! Yea! I am homeless no more. Of course I have no furniture, but who needs furniture? I have three computers. I'm sure William and I can sleep on one of them. :) Actually, I already have offers of furniture cast-offs pouring in. At least from Crystal. :) I'm just looking forward to having a space in which to unpack all of those boxes I haven't opened for four years. I'm sure I'll find some wonderful things in there that I missed a lot without knowing it. And I'm looking forward to doing some interior decorating...with a cardboard box motif until I get furniture. And I'm looking forward to getting up at an ungodly hour like I normally do, and turning on all the lights! Yes. I am not looking forward to getting all my bookshelves and boxes upon boxes of books up three flights of stairs. But I am looking forward to unpacking those books. See there's something I've definitely missed! William's looking forward to unpacking his toys. Oh...yeah. And being the ultimate authority when controversies arise over the remote. That'll be good too. I think this list could go on indefinitely. I'm very grateful to all the family who've roomed and boarded me over the past 4 1/2 years, but I'm also very grateful to have a place to call my own. As of December 11th. Yea!

So...it's been a month since the Feast. Or at least, there's a full moon tonight. I really had an awesome Feast in every way. It was one of my best, without a doubt and I came home really recharged and ready to go. Then I started having to deal with all the stuff that was waiting for me...ugh. Not fun. But oh well. That's life.

William and I are in the midst of apartment hunting. Hopefully, we're actually nearer the end of apartment hunting. There's really only one place in this area that's nice, so we put in an application there and it's like trying to get into Harvard! Today I had to go get a statement (if you can call 2 sentences saying in a nutshell, "I work. Honest." a statement) notarized. And the goofy apartment nazi kept saying they needed this as proof of my income and that when I got my tax return they'd need that too to collaborate what my "affadavit" said. Collaborate. Yeah. But I bit my tongue and jumped through the hoop and hopefully will now get this apartment.

Also new since the Feast is the homeschool curriculum we started. We're really loving it. For one thing, it takes less time than what we were doing before the Feast. For another, it's got a really detailed schedule and instructor's guide...basically an in depth lesson plan for every day that I don't have to make up myself. And for another thing, it covers more subjects. Science is definitely William's favorite. We already have done 4 experiments and it's only our 6th day of classes. How cool is that? Way. (Hi Jonathan!)

(My son is laying here in bed singing, "Most people in Africa have no food." Hmm. Did I mention we're studying Africa in geography right now?)

Since we got back we've been running too. I love running. It's the easiest way to exercise ever. The running itself isn't easy, but the preparation is nothing and you can do it whenever and you can make your kid run with you so you don't have to worry about childcare. :) Actually, William and I walk to the park, where they have a track. I make him jog/walk with me (alternating in 1 minute intervals) for 15 minutes, then he can go play while I jog/walk for 15 more minutes. We've been doing 2 miles that way and today I just ran the whole last 15 minutes, and it felt super. I love that my knee doesn't hurt when I use it anymore. It's such a relief to be whole again.

On than note....I'm going to do some yoga and get some sleep.

I know I should blog...

but I don't want to. I'm tired and irritable. I want to go back to Canmore.

I'll blog after Ryan does. :D

I'm finding reading the news pretty interesting these days, which is a new development for me. I think there are two main contributing factors for this phenomonon:

1. Bloglines is really cool.
2. Stuff's happening.

Take this article about internet controls. Having just written a series of knowledge base articles on DNS, this was particularly interesting to me. And then there's this one about the WTO. I especially like the part in that one (it's written from the EU's perspective) where "the European Commission...is still hopeful of reaching an agreement with global trade partners despite obstacles from the US." It just seems to me that the EU is increasingly setting itself in opposition to and competition with the US. And not a "friendly game of horse in the driveway" competition. This is a "Cain vs Abel" kind of competition--the kind that's fueled by a deap-seated hatred.

The EU still has a long way to go. It's government is a messy, very unwieldy bureaucracy. Right now it's mainly about economics. But now some of the leadership is starting to push for more political unity as well. First economy, then government to direct the economy, next is a military force to defend the government. This article shows that the groundwork is already being laid for "battle groups" acting "in the EU's name." Still a long way to go, but it's on its way up. And the US is on its way down.

It all makes for some interesting reading over my morning oatmeal, which has gotten cold while I typed all this.

William quotes...

I was tucking William in last night. Getting him to bed can be such a pain sometimes. So last night I just lay in bed with him until he fell asleep. Before he did, we had the following conversation:

William: (stretching arms out) Can we hug each other while we sleep?
Me: (how can I say no to that) Sure. (big hug) It's too bad we have to get up early tomorrow so you can go to daycare and I can go to the office.
William: You're just picking on me about daycare.
Me: No. I'm teasing you. You aren't going to daycare and I'm not going to the office. And you wouldn't even be in daycare anymore, you'd be in kindergarten. But we do kindergarten at the kitchen table. How cool is that? What a blessing!
William: That's the bestest blessing I ever had!

Then this morning, as usual, his mouth woke up before his brain. Yesterday he'd been playing with his chess set and he lost one of the black pawns. The first words out of his mouth as he stumbled into the livingroom this morning were:

William: I'm gonna see if that tricky pawn is back in it's box. That tricky pawn that was missing.
Me: You think it crawled back in the box?
William: I think it grew legs and walked away yesterday and crawled back in the box while we were sleeping.

If IQ stood for Imagination Quotient, he'd be off the charts. :)

I had a tiny epiphany this evening. We had just finished having delicious grilled bacon cheeseburgers. The boys were giggling in the bedroom where they have created a castle with all kinds of secret passageways out of some boxes. Crystal and Jonathan were talking smack to each other at the the iMac. I was playing some David Lanz on the piano. And the thought occurred to me that with everything that's going on, I really need to enjoy these moments. The simple pleasures of life. Family, music, good food. How many of our brethren tonight are eating fast food and spending their Sabbath in a hotel, hoping that they'll have a house to go back to next week? How much longer before there isn't enough food, and we can't feel safe in our own houses? It's very exciting, and yet very sobering to see how prophecy is speeding up. All of my life I've heard of what is to come, but I guess I got kind of numb to the reality of it. We're not in the tribulation yet, but every day more of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I really need to redeem the time--to prepare for Christ's return, to finish the Work, to raise a Godly son and just to enjoy the abundant life that God has blessed me with.

Dueling bloggers...

Crystal is currently trying to blog (on her new iMac, big whoopdedoo), but is being slowed down by spell-checking which I skip. So I'm typing furiously...because I'm inherently competitive. And here's a contest. Of course she doesn't know we're racing, so it's not really fair. But competitiveness isn't about fairness, now is it?

My favorite recent quotes:

William: Mom, I saw Copper's pee-pee system. (Copper's got a bit of a problem keeping his plumbing where it belongs. Crystal says this means he's happy. Go figure.)

Me: William, do you need to ask Jarek to slice your buns off? That's not very nice, is it?

Me: What do you guys play with the legos?
William: You are so stinky and selfish!
Jarek: And then we hit them with a toy.
William: Then we beat them up.
Crystal: Can we really hit girls?
Jarek: No. Just lego girls.
Both boys: Let's go beat the girls up. (something tells me I shouldn't be laughing at this....)

Drat...Crystal beat me.

I guess I can stop now then.

Warning: Long, boring post ahead.

In keeping with the title of my blog, I should probably give some news from time to time. The thing about news is that it's really about perceptions. And perceptions are about emotions and reactions and how I really feel and all that good stuff I try my best to keep from public view. Not that this blog is that publicly viewed (hi Crystal and Jonathan). But still...I tried keeping a diary-type blog in which to vent and say what I really feel in the honest belief that no one else could see it, but I didn't actually set it up right, and Jonathan and Crystal enjoyed it immensely, but I felt really bad. I mean, I named names and wrote all the things that were in my head but really shouldn't have been...and then put it on a blog (yeah...I'm a genius). While I admire Charles' ability to completely bare his soul on his blog, however infrequently, I'm afraid of the repercussions of saying what I really think about people...you know...on the off chance that someone cares. That said...

My life's been no bed of roses for the past 5 years or so. Being a single parent is no fun. I discovered that, contrary to what it may have seemed like when I was in college, there are much worse things than being single and having no prospect of changing that. For example, being in a bad marriage....much worse. And raising a kid on your own is no picnic. My family is so helpful, that's true, but when it all comes down to it, it's on me. The absolute worst thing is not being able to be there for him. I'm so thankful for my mom and my sister and the times that they've kept him while I work. But I also hate that, during those times, they have been the "mommy" figure in his life, and I've been more of a daddy. Having a wonderful, loving, imaginative little boy, and then only getting to spend 3 hrs a day with him...and spending those 3 hrs feeding him breakfast, getting him dressed, feeding him dinner, bathing him and putting him to bed...is torture. So I've kind of felt like I've been in the twilight zone for several years. I went from having my whole future out in front of me and having a plan for my life, to just basically surviving from day to day. And living with my family, which basically makes me feel like a loser. And having no idea what to do next and how to fix the whole mess.

And that's why I'm so excited right now. I'm still living with family, but I have HOPE of maybe actually someday being an adult...having a house, and a car and taking care of my son without impersonating a sponge. Basically the biggest news in the life of me and William is that we are so happy and thankful right now. I'm working from home and homeschooling and getting to spend so much time with William! He's such a cool kid (ok...so he also has some infuriatingly annoying habits) and it's a huge blessing not to drop him off with anyone. I'm actually the one raising him right now...not a daycare, not my sister, not my mother...I love it. So does William. :P I don't actually have full-time work at this point, but having been fully unemployed before, being partially employed is not so bad. I still have to sponge, but I can also buy new underwear without borrowing money. And there are prospects. For the first time since William and I struck out on our own, I can see how I could make a living from home. When I found out we were moving from Charlotte, I made the determination that I was going to be a mommy first and a breadwinner second. And I'm leaving the breadwinning in God's hands. I'm asking him to provide me with a way to provide for William and myself from home. And I believe that He will.

Newsflash--Right now, life is GOOD!

Michelle says:
I'm chanting silently to myself "OpenOffice is not the devil, OpenOffice is not the devil"
Michelle says:
but it's not working
Michelle says:
how do I change the font color
Michelle says:
it suddenly decided that I should type in maroon
cbelle says:
lol
cbelle says:
maybe you should
Michelle says:
and now it won't let me go back to black
cbelle says:
open office is not the devil
Michelle says:
I see the button that in NORMAL word processors provides you with a pallet to choose from
Michelle says:
but in this one (the devil word processor, that is) it only provides you with the means to make other random chunks of your text a hideous color
cbelle saysa:
well- mine is on the Tool Bar
cbelle says:
well- there's got to be a way to put it up on your tool bar, too
cbelle says:
i'll look around
Michelle says:
I have the A on my tool bar
Michelle says:
but when I click on it it says "Font Color"
Michelle says:
and that's it
cbelle says:
?
cbelle says:
do you have an old version or something?
Michelle says:
it doesn't give me colors to choose from
Michelle says:
I would hope not, since I only downloaded it last week
cbelle says:
oh
cbelle says:
click on it & kinda drag down at the same time
Michelle says:
great
Michelle says:
now I turned it blue
cbelle says:
click on the arrow right beside it
cbelle says:
and drag down a hair
Michelle says:
ok...the draggy thing worked
cbelle says:
good
cbelle says:
anything else?
Michelle says:
yes
Michelle says:
one more thing
Michelle says:
Open Office is the devil
cbelle says:
NO IT'S NOT
Michelle says:
good and evil mixed you know...it's free, but it sucks
cbelle says:
you just don't like it b/c it looks different
Michelle says:
no...I don't like it b/c it doesn't do what I want it to do
Michelle says:
for example...it keeps bulleting everything
cbelle says:
you have to be SMARTER than the program
Michelle says:
and it won't stop
Michelle says:
see...that's the thing
Michelle says:
I don't want to be smarter than the program...I want it to be smarter than me so I don't have work so hard.
Michelle says:
If I wanted to be smarter than the program, I'd use a typewriter.

Computers...modern miracle or mental health menace? You decide.

So, I bought a nice new laptop with my tax return this year in hopes of someday using it to make a living from home. Now that I'm actually in the position of making a living from home using said laptop...it's NOT WORKING!!! Well, it's mostly working. The wireless internet part of it isn't working. Which means I'm on a leash in this little front room, while all the fun exciting things are happening in the back of the house.



I guess I should be thankful that at least my monitor is working, which is more than Jonathan can say. And I can still work...which is good. So basically I'm just being a big baby. But really, is it too much to ask that a $2000 piece of technology be fully functional for longer than 6 months after the date of purchase???

End of whine.

All about moving...

Not.

I'm tired of moving. So I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about football. The original football. What we yanks call soccer. On Sunday I was lamenting to myself the lack of people I know who'll talk soccer with me. Then I figured since I was already talking to myself, I might as well talk to myself about soccer.

With the World Cup coming up next summer in Germany, there's lots happening with US soccer. So far so good with qualifying. We're pretty much a lock to qualify. Next up is Mexico, the only team that's beaten us so far in qualifying...but that was in Mexico and this game is in the US of A. Different story. (I hope.) One of the really cool things happening in US soccer is the re-imemergence of Bobby Convey. He was the Freddy Adu before Freddy Adu. He went pro at 16 (also drafted by DC United, ironically enough), but at that time, no one cared. For one thing, he didn't bring down nearly the salary Freddy got as of last year.

Anyway...last year Bobby got transferred to an English team that is competing for promotion to the premiership. He did absolutely abysmally there. Just rotten. He had a hamstring injury when the move happened, and then he got a few national team call-ups, and just never got into the swing of things over there. But this spring, he was able to do the full pre-season in Reading and it has made all the difference in the world. His confidence is back. His speed is back. He's crossing like a magician and he's got his scoring touch back as of 2 goals this past weekend. This is good news because Convey is a natural left-footed player, so he provides a balance to their attack. Lately we've been kind of in a down the center rut on offense because Landon Donovan's playing in the middle. He's been having a great year, but really needs support when the world cup comes.

Oh and Taylor Twellman and Clint Dempsey are a couple of good additions to the national team camp. Twellman is money in front of the goal. He's a little bitty guy, but he out-jumps, out-hustles, out-works the defenders and makes some really awesome goals. Dempsey's called the Texas Tornado (he's from Nacogdoches) and it's a really appropriate nickname. He's everwhere. He's fearless. And he's dangerous. He'll get the ball or die trying...or kill trying...doesn't really matter to him. Last year he got his jaw broken when he dived to head a ball at the same time someone went to kick the ball. He stayed in the game. He played the next game a week later. It wasn't until 12 days later when they even found out his jaw was broken. Then he missed a lot of time, but still came back and produced enough to when the rookie of the year award.

So...American soccer is pretty exciting right now. Sadly, I'm the only person I know who cares.

William said...

Every Friday night I allow William to sleep all night in my bed. This is a big deal for him, since he wants to sleep in my bed all night every night. He calls this tradition "Sabbath night snuggles." Tonight my dad told him, "There's a new rule in this house. From now on there will be no more snuggling on Sabbath nights." William came running to me with a scandalized and worried look on his face. I said, "Can Papa do that?!?" William went running back to Papa, placed his fists on his hips and said, "You can't make that rule! You're not in charge of our snuggles!" :p The boy likes his snuggles....

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

William: Girls scream and boys don't.
Me: Yep. What do boys do?
William: Pretend they're dinosaurs.

Ok....so long time, no blog. But really, what's to blog. I'm really tired and busy and I'm getting ready to move. Now you're officially updated.

More Solomon gems...

While bringing Oreos, Mint Oreos, Mint Milanos and other assorted cookies and candies into the livingroom to eat while watching Wimbledon:

Charles: Now Andy Roddick has to win. Otherwise we'll be fat AND sad.

(He lost. Badly.)

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

The commentator gem: Watch that replay. Most of us humans struggle mightily to control our limbs, trunk and torso, but Federer is the very picture of synchronicity.

(I think he'd been saving that word ever since he covered the national spelling bee 2 months ago.)

Charles has sucked me into the bottomless vortex that is televised coverage of the NBA draft. It's amazing to me that people watch this....and yet, here I am watching it. And not only watching the tv coverage but also surfing ESPN's online coverage. Ok...yeah...the spell was just broken. They asked Stephen A. Smith a question. He's so annoying. I'm going to bed.

The Solomons are here!!

Some of today's gems

Charles: These stupid chocolate chips keep clogging up my straw.

--------

Papa: Brian, I can tell you're smart. How'd you get to be so smart? Do you have brains?
Brian: Sure. (taps forhead) Right here.
Papa: (taps the top of his head) What about here?
Brian: (scoffs)Nooooo. That's your hair.
Papa: If I look in this ear, can I see all the way through out that ear?
Brian: (throws head back and laughs)
Papa: Is there something in there?
Brian: Yeeeeeees. Eardrums!

I like my new clubs!

A lot!

We went to the driving range last night for about an hour and I actually got the ball to go high and far on more than one occasion. It was great! For me anyway...

Scott was absolutely creaming them... they had various markers, but I don't know the distances they were marking...anyway, Scott was landing his about half-way between the 3rd and 4th markers every time.

I hit it past the first marker several times, so maybe they start at 100 yds and go up from there by 50s? Anyway...he was killing them.

So...that was fun! And the Solomon's are coming in tonight so that'll be more fun! And I'm taking off work Wednesday and Thursday and the office is closed on Friday and Monday...so I'm going to be having a fun overdose! Yea for fun!

William said...

We're doing a YES lesson and I'm introducing the new Bible memory to him, which is the last 1/3 of the books of the Old Testament.

Me: "You've already learned the first part--Genesis through II Chronicles, and the second part--Ezra through Daniel, so you just have to learn one more part and then you'll..."

William interrupts: "Be a grown up?"

Our trip to France

So night before last, William decided that, since we now have pretend passports, we should take an imaginary trip. He was careful to reassure Papa and Grammy that we wouldn't be gone long, it was just an imaginary trip. He decided that we should go to Paris, France to see the Eiffel Tower and we should ride the Concord to get there because it's the fastest passenger plane. So we got on my bed (the Concord), after presenting our pretend passports to invisible people and took our imaginary trip to France. It was great! I even got pictures! :)

btw....how many 5 yr olds know the following: 1) there's such a thing as an Eiffel Tower, 2) it's in Paris, 3) there's such a plane as a Concord, 4) it's the fastest passenger plane, 5) it flies to Paris. Ok, so they don't fly to Paris anymore, but he associates Concords with London and Paris b/c of the news coverage when they retired them...but that brings up another one--6)that there are cities called Paris and London and 7) that you need passports to get there.

So this is what I love about homeschool. Just by talking to my son and answering his questions with real answers, not baby answers, he knows lots of stuff! Real stuff! And he knows that there's a big world out there beyond his little house, and he thinks it would be cool to go see some of it. You don't have to use a curriculum to educate your kids. Just talk to them.

William and I made passports today.

We're not likely to get in trouble for that since they're not even remotely realistic in appearance. We're working our way through an art book--"Art & Activities Around the World" which is pretty much what the title would indicate. That's the first and only project we've done, but William and I are both excited about the book. Looks like fun. William was so excited about his passport that he slid it under the door of Mom and Pap's room so that Papa would find it when he got out of the shower. :)

Tulsa trip--the rest

So...I didn't do this the way I intended exactly. Here's the summary of the remaining days we spent in Tulsa. Friday we baked a lot...okay, Shirlene baked a lot, I helped some, then took a nap. Friday night was Passover. Saturday we were in OK City for the Sabbath and the Night to be Remembered. A relative of one of the members there catered the meal and it was goooood! Barbecue chicken to rival Uncle Vinyard's. And of course all of Shirlene's desserts. Sunday we were in Tulsa for the Holy Day. Monday was Monique's track meet. She can really fly! Just like her mother. :)

She did really well, getting 2nd in her individual events (high jump and 400), and first in her relays (4 X 2 and 4 X 4). Her fastest 400 on the day was a 64, which was really good considering it was a very blustery day (and the fact that she's 14). Tuesday was homeschool PE day, which was really cool. William was a little shy about getting involved, but Shirlene did a good job with it. I can see how something like that would be good for him. Wednesday we went to Build a Bear, which was fun.

Those are 3 satisfied customers. Blake and Brian took choosing the right name very seriously, asking for advice and looking through the book of names. William was absolute and swift in his decision--his brown horse was named....Brown Horse. Brown Horse the Firefighter after his clothes were purchased. :) Thursday we went house hunting in Joplin and partook of really bad Chinese food. Friday...? I don't think we had specific activities on these days. I think I spent the better part of each day playing Age of Empires while the little boys devised various squirrel traps in the back yard.

"Squirrel cake", homemade with care on the picnic table, was the means for attracting squirrels. Saturday was the last Holy Day. I did "A Path With Heart". Saturday night a bunch of people came over and we pigged out on pizza and played some games. There was some resentment over the communication skills that Shirlene and I had in Taboo which propelled us to a handy win. Sunday morning me and the big kids got up early to go golfing. Fun! :)

Monique hit the golf shot of the century! There were a lot of water hazards and there were fences that we couldn't get through. As a result, we lost a record number of balls--26 in 9 holes! But on the third hole, after both Charles and I sunk our balls in the water, Monique stepped up. After a few misses :P she hit the ball and it skipped--5 times--all the way across the water hazard before trickling up onto the grass and safety. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.

This wasn't a small water hazard. I literally fell down laughing. Craziness. Then it was off to Sonic for some cheese sticks (yum) and a strawberry limeade (mmm...good) and a crash bash packing session before heading to the airport. Fun trip. I can't wait 'til next year. :)