I went to Ben's work yesterday morning to get the annual flu vaccine that they provide for employees and spouses.
Supposedly the vaccine is made of only killed virus, right? Then how come yesterday evening, about 6 or 7 hours after I got the shot I came down with body aches and a fever?
I've been dosing myself with Tylenol ever since, but I still feel pretty miserable.
Seems like an awfully big coincidence to get the flu shot, and then come down with flu-like symptoms a few hours later...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Hilarium
The boys and I went to HEB tonight for dog food and frozen blueberries and other essentials that never made it onto my Saturday night shopping list (I just love it when, the morning after a big shopping trip I hear, "Oh, by the way, we're out of____..."). The check-out person gave the boys helium balloons and when we got home, I carefully untied the balloons so the boys could inhale the helium and sound like chipmunks. It was very funny. Mosey said, "It's not helium, mom, it's hilarium!" It was also a good opportunity for a little physics lesson on why helium makes your voice sound so funny.
There were tons of big black crickets hopping around the parking lot of HEB tonight. Periodically these creatures will experience a surge in population around here, and apparently now is one of those times. They were everywhere! Joseph and Mosey got a plastic produce bag and caught several to take home to Spots. They make me a little squeamish, personally (they're just too big and too black-- too reminiscent of cockroaches...), but Joseph was very excited. He wants to drive to the HEB parking lot every night to catch more of them. He is such a Dr. Doolittle. He caught a frog taking a dip in the Anderson Mill pool this afternoon at swimming lessons!
Speaking of which, Joseph did great today!! We had a little family devotional/lecture by mom and dad last night on "doing hard things," and Joseph really stepped up. Of course, the promise of getting to go to HEB and pick up a donut of his choice also sweetened the deal a little. :-)
The first cool front of the season came upon us sometime last night. What a welcome relief! It was in the 50's this morning, and only warmed up to the low 80's this afternoon. I know it will warm up again before it cools down for good, but wow, was it ever nice to catch a whiff of fall around here. My brother sent a video clip of his cute little boy hiking up a mountain in New Hampshire, in the midst of the New England fall foliage. I was almost jealous until I remembered that their winter lasts until May. I don't think so! I sure would love to visit, though. Ben and I are tentatively planning a New England trip next September. We'll see if our budget allows for another big road trip this next year. Those vacations are amazing, but not cheap.
Nothing much to report for today. Lessons went well--I got good attitudes from the boys on just about everything! Happy day.
I'm very annoyed with Adobe right now. Photoshop was giving me issues (wouldn't open up my RAW files), so I uninstalled it, thinking that if I reinstalled it the problem would resolve itself. Well, now my computer refuses to reinstall the program. This is not good! I waited all weekend to contact Adobe customer support which was closed for something or other until this morning. Then when I finally got a hold of a real person, I was informed that they are "not trained" to help me with my problem, and I should take it to the user forums where maybe someone else would be able to help me. That sucks, Adobe, it really does. I paid big bucks for the program, and that is the customer support you offer? I'm disgusted. So I posted the question, but I have no answers yet. I have no idea who even reads those things and answers them. Not Adobe employees, anyhow. So I can't edit any of my pictures which is really bugging me. I took family pictures for some friends a few weeks ago and they're waiting for them, but I can't even open my RAW files, let alone edit them! I'm very frustrated.
Other than that, however, it was a pretty good Monday.
There were tons of big black crickets hopping around the parking lot of HEB tonight. Periodically these creatures will experience a surge in population around here, and apparently now is one of those times. They were everywhere! Joseph and Mosey got a plastic produce bag and caught several to take home to Spots. They make me a little squeamish, personally (they're just too big and too black-- too reminiscent of cockroaches...), but Joseph was very excited. He wants to drive to the HEB parking lot every night to catch more of them. He is such a Dr. Doolittle. He caught a frog taking a dip in the Anderson Mill pool this afternoon at swimming lessons!
Speaking of which, Joseph did great today!! We had a little family devotional/lecture by mom and dad last night on "doing hard things," and Joseph really stepped up. Of course, the promise of getting to go to HEB and pick up a donut of his choice also sweetened the deal a little. :-)
The first cool front of the season came upon us sometime last night. What a welcome relief! It was in the 50's this morning, and only warmed up to the low 80's this afternoon. I know it will warm up again before it cools down for good, but wow, was it ever nice to catch a whiff of fall around here. My brother sent a video clip of his cute little boy hiking up a mountain in New Hampshire, in the midst of the New England fall foliage. I was almost jealous until I remembered that their winter lasts until May. I don't think so! I sure would love to visit, though. Ben and I are tentatively planning a New England trip next September. We'll see if our budget allows for another big road trip this next year. Those vacations are amazing, but not cheap.
Nothing much to report for today. Lessons went well--I got good attitudes from the boys on just about everything! Happy day.
I'm very annoyed with Adobe right now. Photoshop was giving me issues (wouldn't open up my RAW files), so I uninstalled it, thinking that if I reinstalled it the problem would resolve itself. Well, now my computer refuses to reinstall the program. This is not good! I waited all weekend to contact Adobe customer support which was closed for something or other until this morning. Then when I finally got a hold of a real person, I was informed that they are "not trained" to help me with my problem, and I should take it to the user forums where maybe someone else would be able to help me. That sucks, Adobe, it really does. I paid big bucks for the program, and that is the customer support you offer? I'm disgusted. So I posted the question, but I have no answers yet. I have no idea who even reads those things and answers them. Not Adobe employees, anyhow. So I can't edit any of my pictures which is really bugging me. I took family pictures for some friends a few weeks ago and they're waiting for them, but I can't even open my RAW files, let alone edit them! I'm very frustrated.
Other than that, however, it was a pretty good Monday.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Day of rest?
I'm reading "Little House in the Big Woods" with Mosey. Tonight we read the chapter about "Sundays" which describes how Laura and Mary had to spend the Sabbath Day. Embedded in the chapter is a story about the little girls' grandfather, and the even more extremely strict way he had to spend the Sabbath as a child. It sounds so harsh from our modern perspective-- the children walked to and from church with no talking or laughing. At church they had to sit motionless, looking at nothing but the preacher. At home they had to sit quietly on a bench studying catechism. No playing of any kind was allowed. It sounds harsh!
But then, after Mosey and his brothers went to bed tonight, I looked around at the aftermath of our "Sabbath." Ben and I just spent the past hour trying to undo the damage. Day of rest? Yeah, not so much. If we made the boys sit on a bench and study catechism all day except for church, we could probably enjoy a day of rest!
I've read of how other mothers really do take Sundays off. They spend the day enjoying the family, and ignoring chores. And then they spend all day Monday paying for it... LOL! That's fine for them, but I've got to get lessons started at 7:00 AM and I can NOT start the day and the week off in chaos. I just can't.
I'm not sure what the answer is. The boys are doing a better job in cleaning up after themselves, but we still need to supervise their efforts. They won't just do it on their own. But Sunday afternoons are busy! Today we came home from church (after my after-church meeting), and I wanted to start on dinner. Then we discovered that Mosey did an "experiment" involving mud in a closed water bottle in the microwave. The bottle exploded and there was mud caked all over the inside of the microwave. So I couldn't start dinner until the microwave was cleaned up (I needed to defrost the meat), and the microwave couldn't get cleaned up until the dishes in the sink were cleared out so there would be a place to clean off mud. But we couldn't clear out the dishes in the sink until the dishwasher was unloaded.
This was just like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," only in reverse.
Anyway, FINALLY the microwave got cleaned out and I started dinner.
After dinner, I needed to cut Ben's hair. I would have done it last night (along with the other kitchen clean-up that didn't happen last night), except that I was at the Relief Society broadcast. So after Ben's hair was cut I decided to cut the boys' hair since all the hair cutting stuff was out, and after that was done and the boys were bathed and pajama-ed, it was their bed time, with no time to supervise the boys cleaning up unless I wanted them to stay up an hour past their bedtime. They probably would have been OK with that, but I was not.
Anyway, our "Sabbaths" are a problem. Saturdays are too busy, and often Ben needs to work a few hours, and so there is not really any extended period of time to get a lot of my weekend to-do-list items accomplished. For us, Saturday is not really "a special day, the day we get ready for Sunday," as the song goes. So for us to really honor the Sabbath day, we need to drastically rearrange and re-prioritize our Saturday activities, and I'm not exactly sure what is the best way to attack this.
I really need an 8th day of the week. Saturdays are for family, Sundays are (supposed to be) for God, but I need an Eighthday for chores and errands and honey-do's and church calling business and all the random weekday things that get pushed to the weekend.
Anyone want to join me in an Eighthday movement? :-)
But then, after Mosey and his brothers went to bed tonight, I looked around at the aftermath of our "Sabbath." Ben and I just spent the past hour trying to undo the damage. Day of rest? Yeah, not so much. If we made the boys sit on a bench and study catechism all day except for church, we could probably enjoy a day of rest!
I've read of how other mothers really do take Sundays off. They spend the day enjoying the family, and ignoring chores. And then they spend all day Monday paying for it... LOL! That's fine for them, but I've got to get lessons started at 7:00 AM and I can NOT start the day and the week off in chaos. I just can't.
I'm not sure what the answer is. The boys are doing a better job in cleaning up after themselves, but we still need to supervise their efforts. They won't just do it on their own. But Sunday afternoons are busy! Today we came home from church (after my after-church meeting), and I wanted to start on dinner. Then we discovered that Mosey did an "experiment" involving mud in a closed water bottle in the microwave. The bottle exploded and there was mud caked all over the inside of the microwave. So I couldn't start dinner until the microwave was cleaned up (I needed to defrost the meat), and the microwave couldn't get cleaned up until the dishes in the sink were cleared out so there would be a place to clean off mud. But we couldn't clear out the dishes in the sink until the dishwasher was unloaded.
This was just like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," only in reverse.
Anyway, FINALLY the microwave got cleaned out and I started dinner.
After dinner, I needed to cut Ben's hair. I would have done it last night (along with the other kitchen clean-up that didn't happen last night), except that I was at the Relief Society broadcast. So after Ben's hair was cut I decided to cut the boys' hair since all the hair cutting stuff was out, and after that was done and the boys were bathed and pajama-ed, it was their bed time, with no time to supervise the boys cleaning up unless I wanted them to stay up an hour past their bedtime. They probably would have been OK with that, but I was not.
Anyway, our "Sabbaths" are a problem. Saturdays are too busy, and often Ben needs to work a few hours, and so there is not really any extended period of time to get a lot of my weekend to-do-list items accomplished. For us, Saturday is not really "a special day, the day we get ready for Sunday," as the song goes. So for us to really honor the Sabbath day, we need to drastically rearrange and re-prioritize our Saturday activities, and I'm not exactly sure what is the best way to attack this.
I really need an 8th day of the week. Saturdays are for family, Sundays are (supposed to be) for God, but I need an Eighthday for chores and errands and honey-do's and church calling business and all the random weekday things that get pushed to the weekend.
Anyone want to join me in an Eighthday movement? :-)
Saturday run-down
Joseph woke up at 5:50 (!!) this morning, anxious to go running with Ben. They walked a mile with the dog, then brought him home and then Ben ran 7 miles with Joseph on his bike. When he came back, Joseph told me all about the dead skunk he saw on the side of the road and the deer still out so early in the morning.
Ben took Mosey to his first soccer game this morning at 10:00. He's playing YMCA soccer, and the coach for his team wasn't able to get practices arranged before the first game, so they went out there cold, unfortunately against a team with bigger, older, more experienced kids... Apparently the score reflected that. :-) Mosey, fortunately, is not particularly competitive when it comes to team sports (he is, however, VERY competitive when it comes to playing Sorry... The tears and drama the last time we played as a family was truly something to behold), and he just had fun running around. Ben said he is way more focused than he was last year as a 5-year old (when we had to keep reminding him to try to kick the ball), and if he had chosen to stay in the 4-6 year old league, he probably would have been one of the stars on the team. But when I asked him, Mosey really wanted to be on the 6-8 year old team, so there you go. Joseph and Brigham went to watch him as well, and I stayed home and folded laundry. Ben took the boys to Crown Donuts after the game, which I think will be a nice little tradition for them. Ben also got snookered into being the assistant coach, which I think will be great for Mosey.
When the boys got home, I had to put on my tough-mom hat and kick some little boys' bums to get them to clean out the car. After much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, they finally went out and did it. And it took them all of 20 minutes, too. Can you imagine the cruelty?!
After a quick run to Target, the boys had a friend over in the afternoon (also named Joseph, which made things just a little confusing). I took them all to see the Guardians of Ga'hoole movie, which I thought was great. Of course, I think all the new 3D movies are great. :-)
Then back home, threw together an awesome dinner of Rice-a-Roni and frozen broccoli and cauliflower from a bag (I am such a gourmet cook), and headed off to the Relief Society general broadcast. I especially liked President Monson's talk on charity and not judging others.
I made it to the grocery store by 9:00, and back home by shortly after 10:00. Cleaned up the kitchen, put away groceries, fed Spots, and actually had a conversation with my husband. Busy day! I didn't get to all of my Saturday tasks, but that's just how it goes. It's technically the Sabbath now, and time for me to go to bed!
Ben took Mosey to his first soccer game this morning at 10:00. He's playing YMCA soccer, and the coach for his team wasn't able to get practices arranged before the first game, so they went out there cold, unfortunately against a team with bigger, older, more experienced kids... Apparently the score reflected that. :-) Mosey, fortunately, is not particularly competitive when it comes to team sports (he is, however, VERY competitive when it comes to playing Sorry... The tears and drama the last time we played as a family was truly something to behold), and he just had fun running around. Ben said he is way more focused than he was last year as a 5-year old (when we had to keep reminding him to try to kick the ball), and if he had chosen to stay in the 4-6 year old league, he probably would have been one of the stars on the team. But when I asked him, Mosey really wanted to be on the 6-8 year old team, so there you go. Joseph and Brigham went to watch him as well, and I stayed home and folded laundry. Ben took the boys to Crown Donuts after the game, which I think will be a nice little tradition for them. Ben also got snookered into being the assistant coach, which I think will be great for Mosey.
When the boys got home, I had to put on my tough-mom hat and kick some little boys' bums to get them to clean out the car. After much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, they finally went out and did it. And it took them all of 20 minutes, too. Can you imagine the cruelty?!
After a quick run to Target, the boys had a friend over in the afternoon (also named Joseph, which made things just a little confusing). I took them all to see the Guardians of Ga'hoole movie, which I thought was great. Of course, I think all the new 3D movies are great. :-)
Then back home, threw together an awesome dinner of Rice-a-Roni and frozen broccoli and cauliflower from a bag (I am such a gourmet cook), and headed off to the Relief Society general broadcast. I especially liked President Monson's talk on charity and not judging others.
I made it to the grocery store by 9:00, and back home by shortly after 10:00. Cleaned up the kitchen, put away groceries, fed Spots, and actually had a conversation with my husband. Busy day! I didn't get to all of my Saturday tasks, but that's just how it goes. It's technically the Sabbath now, and time for me to go to bed!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Daily run-down for Sept. 25
Fridays are our short lesson days. Normally we go to the library, do an extra history project or science lab, work on Spanish, do reading and music practicing. Today we only really got around to music practicing and reading... I can spend more time with the boys in their practicing on Fridays because I'm not also having to supervise math lessons at the same time. I was really proud of Joseph-- he had a really great piano practicing session. Brigham still struggles with accepting my corrections. He hears all my corrections as criticism. It's hard to combat. Mosey is coming along on piano. He's practicing a Halloween song that he's excited about. And he's coming along in violin, too! Each day is slightly less painful than the day before. :-) He has a very good natural violin hold-- something I remember struggling with when I first started.
Mosey got out the walkie-talkies we bought a couple years ago and the boys all had fun playing with them this morning. They were playing spies and were sneaking all over the house and around the back yard, conspiring with each other on the walkie talkies. Cute. There are four of them, so the boys each have one, and I have one too. It made it convenient to call them all back inside for lessons!
Mosey has become obsessed with a Jacob's Ladder he got at Olvera Street last year at Grandma Camp. He's played with it so much that nearly all the ribbons have fallen off at one point or another and I've had to reattach them with black duct tape. He keeps wanting me to explain how it works. It's hard to figure out! He carried it around with him all day today.
We went to horseback riding lessons this afternoon. Their teacher whom they have only been with for a few months, is moving to another stable and won't be at Ramaker Stables anymore. She'll be at a stable in Georgetown which I'm afraid is going to be too far away. I've emailed the other western teacher at Ramaker, but I'm not sure what our chances are in getting a lesson time on Friday afternoons-- really the only time we have during the week to do it. I will be seriously disappointed if we have to drop horseback riding lessons. The boys really love it. Joseph has been writing a story and in it there is quite a bit of horseback riding going on. He even writes at one point, "Luckily we had been taking horseback riding lessons..." I know that this is one activity that really means a lot to my animal-loving boy.
After horseback riding lessons we met Ben at Half-Price Books. This is another great reason to move to Texas. Half-Price Books is a chain bookstore, like Barnes and Noble, but with used books. The bookstores are big and have a really good selection of good-quality books. They are all very cheap, which pretty much means I feel justified in buying a whole bunch of books. :-) I get my book-buying compulsion from my dad. I envy his bookshelves lining the family room walls. I need more bookshelves so I can buy more books! :-) Anyway, Mosey wanted to use some of his points to buy a book at Half Price Books, which he did. And I bought another $50 worth of books to go along with it. I found this awesome book of American stories and folk songs, and another of classic fairy tales. We have a book of fairy tales already-- but it's in Spanish. Mosey asked me just this week if we could get one in English, and there it was!
Then Ben took Brigham and Joseph to their first basketball practice. It's an instructional league, so the first half hour is only instruction, and the last hour the boys are divided into teams for practice games. I took Mosey home and we perused SkyMall.com (Mosey became enamored of the catalog on our flight back from L.A.), and read a few more chapters of "Little House in the Big Woods," which Mosey is loving. Joseph and Brigham were not particularly interested when I tried reading it to them a couple of years ago, but Mosey likes it!
And now it's bed time. Mosey has his first soccer game in the morning. Joseph and Brigham are not playing soccer, which makes Saturday mornings much less complicated. He'll be in the older 6-8 year age group and I hope he can focus a bit better than last year. :-)
It was a good day!
Mosey got out the walkie-talkies we bought a couple years ago and the boys all had fun playing with them this morning. They were playing spies and were sneaking all over the house and around the back yard, conspiring with each other on the walkie talkies. Cute. There are four of them, so the boys each have one, and I have one too. It made it convenient to call them all back inside for lessons!
Mosey has become obsessed with a Jacob's Ladder he got at Olvera Street last year at Grandma Camp. He's played with it so much that nearly all the ribbons have fallen off at one point or another and I've had to reattach them with black duct tape. He keeps wanting me to explain how it works. It's hard to figure out! He carried it around with him all day today.
We went to horseback riding lessons this afternoon. Their teacher whom they have only been with for a few months, is moving to another stable and won't be at Ramaker Stables anymore. She'll be at a stable in Georgetown which I'm afraid is going to be too far away. I've emailed the other western teacher at Ramaker, but I'm not sure what our chances are in getting a lesson time on Friday afternoons-- really the only time we have during the week to do it. I will be seriously disappointed if we have to drop horseback riding lessons. The boys really love it. Joseph has been writing a story and in it there is quite a bit of horseback riding going on. He even writes at one point, "Luckily we had been taking horseback riding lessons..." I know that this is one activity that really means a lot to my animal-loving boy.
After horseback riding lessons we met Ben at Half-Price Books. This is another great reason to move to Texas. Half-Price Books is a chain bookstore, like Barnes and Noble, but with used books. The bookstores are big and have a really good selection of good-quality books. They are all very cheap, which pretty much means I feel justified in buying a whole bunch of books. :-) I get my book-buying compulsion from my dad. I envy his bookshelves lining the family room walls. I need more bookshelves so I can buy more books! :-) Anyway, Mosey wanted to use some of his points to buy a book at Half Price Books, which he did. And I bought another $50 worth of books to go along with it. I found this awesome book of American stories and folk songs, and another of classic fairy tales. We have a book of fairy tales already-- but it's in Spanish. Mosey asked me just this week if we could get one in English, and there it was!
Then Ben took Brigham and Joseph to their first basketball practice. It's an instructional league, so the first half hour is only instruction, and the last hour the boys are divided into teams for practice games. I took Mosey home and we perused SkyMall.com (Mosey became enamored of the catalog on our flight back from L.A.), and read a few more chapters of "Little House in the Big Woods," which Mosey is loving. Joseph and Brigham were not particularly interested when I tried reading it to them a couple of years ago, but Mosey likes it!
And now it's bed time. Mosey has his first soccer game in the morning. Joseph and Brigham are not playing soccer, which makes Saturday mornings much less complicated. He'll be in the older 6-8 year age group and I hope he can focus a bit better than last year. :-)
It was a good day!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Blogging while busy
It is ironic that during these days that I am so, so, so busy, my life crammed full of all kinds of everything, that my blog is the most sparse. Someday my descendants will read this part of my record and assume that everything was so quiet and boring and uneventful that none of it was worth writing down. Well, descendants of mine (and I realize there is more than a little touch of hubris in assuming that I'll have descendants a) reading this and b) taking time to analyze my life), rest assured that I am VERY busy, and things are quite eventful and unboring, I just don't have time to write every day!
Actually, while things are very busy, a lot of it is pretty repetitious, so it's hard to know what's worth recording. Maybe I should do a daily rundown of our activities, just to note what we're doing, even without commentary.
I am so busy and so tired by the time I can finally go to bed, that I think I'll just save up everything and write one long blog post at the end of the week. But it's hard to remember things for that long, and it ends up being too boring.
So, instead of actually writing about my life, I spend 10 minutes waxing (not so) eloquent about how I'm too busy to blog... :-)
One of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman, is amazing to me. She has 4 kids. She lives out on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She does photography. She cooks. She wrote a cookbook! She homeschools. And every day she comes up with multiple funny, witty, clever blog posts with beautiful pictures that she somehow finds time to take AND edit. (I take the pictures, but don't have time to edit them.) I don't know how she does it!
I think I must do some things in slow motion compared to other people. It seems like that, at least, when I'm up until 1:00 AM finishing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen, or whatever. Ben says (admiringly) that I must need less sleep than he does. Maybe I do, but to me it mostly feels like I don't have the luxury of simply stopping what I'm doing and going to bed when I'm tired. The work doesn't go away, it simply piles up...
Today was a busy Thursday, even though both piano and violin lessons were canceled for the afternoon. This morning we did a quick pick-up-the-house before the cleaners came this afternoon. Then on to lessons. We didn't finish up until about 3:45 or so. Then I helped Brigham with violin practicing before taking Joseph to swimming lessons at 4:20. We got home from swimming at 5:45, and I needed to quickly make dinner for us and for the Whipples whose little boy broke his arm badly today. I quickly mixed up a batch of brownies, made some rice and beans and bean-and-cheese tortillas (kind of like burritos, just folded over instead of rolled), threw in a bag of grapes, and called it good. Then we all piled in the van, drove to the Whipples to drop off dinner, and then rushed to the church building for the big boys' pack meeting. They finished their Wolf and are now Bears. They also got the conservation badge, 5 silver arrow points, and 1 gold arrow point. Good job, boys! Then home again, bed-time routine, bed-time reading, getting myself ready for bed, and here I am. 10:30 PM and I still have 4 baskets of laundry that I am NOT going to fold tonight. :-)
Commentary for the day:
Mosey was so cute at the pack meeting tonight. He sat by me and when Brigham and Joseph and Ben went up to the front to get their badges, Mosey put his little arm around my back. Normally I put my arm around his shoulders, but he beat me to it tonight. He must have been feeling protective of his mommy. :-)
Joseph went to his 3rd swimming practice this afternoon. I think he thought that swimming lessons would really be an hour of playing in the pool, and not an hour of swimming laps and learning strokes. It is hard work! He doesn't have much stamina built up yet, and after a couple of laps of free style, he was completely out of breath, and got overwhelmed. He started crying, and the combination of crying and swimming and trying to breath is not a good one. I think he got panicked and then really felt like he couldn't breathe. His coach told him to sit out for a few minutes to catch his breath. He came over near me and wrapped himself in his towel and tearfully told me he wanted to go home, he didn't want to do swimming anymore.
Well, I already paid for the month, and I had told Joseph if he wanted to do swimming, he needed to commit for at least a month. And, while I don't believe in forcing a child to be involved in a sport that he hates, I don't want him to quit right off the bat just because it's hard. Everything is hard at the beginning. I want him to give it a good shot, and then if he still doesn't like it after a few weeks, fine.
But more than that, I really want Joseph (and all my boys) to develop that inner sense of toughness. That inward core of stubborn pride that says, "I will NOT be beaten by this!" I don't know how to help the boys develop this. Is it something you are born with, like a competitive nature? I hope not, because that can be one of the most valuable qualities that helps a person power through difficult times, achieve goals, feel and be motivated by a sense of accomplishment. I have always had that in me (at least, I think I have). I'm not a competitive person at all-- just with myself. But I'm not a quitter. The harder something is, the more determined I am to show it who's boss! :-) Sometimes my innate laziness gets in the way, and I don't achieve what I know I could, but that inward stubbornness at least makes me feel really guilty when that happens.
But I'm not sure I was born this way. I can't remember. Did my parents somehow instill this in me, or is it just an inborn part of my personality?
Can I, and if so, how do I convey this inner toughness to my children? Do I simply keep trying to find opportunities for them to do hard things, accomplish difficult tasks, have a chance to feel that sense of accomplishment? Do I push them harder when things get tough and they get discouraged? If I do that, am I going to turn the situation into a power struggle? That's the last thing I want. I don't want them to feel a power struggle with me, I want them to feel it with themselves! I want them to feel that power struggle with that inward voice that says, "You can't do it; it's too hard; just give up," and beat that.
I know this is just another manifestation of the same parenting issues that have been plaguing me ever since I had children.
Being a full-time mother is hard for many reasons, but one reason is that there is no other "work product" than your children! Other forms of work yield tangible, or at least, measurable accomplishments. Something that you make, or improve, or fix, or figure out, or whatever. But the only thing motherhood yields is a child. So in a way, my children are my work product, and a lot of my identity and self esteem is naturally tied to this work product, as it is (I assume) for other workers. But a child is also a free agent, and my mothering influence is probably not a huge part of what makes a child who he is. So it's impossible to judge the quality of a mother's work by her work product-- her child. This is very frustrating! Not that I care that much how other people judge my mothering (well, I do care somewhat), but how do I judge my own mothering? How can I evaluate my own work, when I have no control group to which I can compare the effects of my work?
Ah! Impossible questions, I know.
Anyway, these are the sorts of philosophical quandaries I find myself facing as I sit on the white plastic pool chair observing my boy struggling during swimming lessons.
On a more encouraging note, it was really cute to see Joseph and Brigham getting ready for the pack meeting tonight. During their last scout activity, the pack leader talked with them about their uniform-- keeping it clean, wearing it correctly, taking pride in appearance. Tonight, both boys on their own got dressed, tucked in their shirts, put on their neckerchiefs just so, combed their hair (Joseph even used mousse!), and looked perfect gentlemen.
The theme of the pack meeting was "cooperation." They had 2 activities aimed to get the boys cooperating with each other-- pairing up and linking arms and trying to keep a balloon in the air as they moved across the basketball court, and another with all the boys tied up together, having to move as a group across the court. They were pretty hilarious to watch, and perhaps more a demonstration of the inability of 8-10 year old boys to cooperate to any measurable extent. :-)
OK, this is quite enough for tonight. See, this is why I don't write every day. Because when I do I have no self-discipline to curb my own output, and I end up spending 30 minutes writing, instead of the 5 minutes I had intended-- 30 minutes that I really can't afford considering the magnitude of my current level of sleep-deprivation. :-)
So, good night!
Actually, while things are very busy, a lot of it is pretty repetitious, so it's hard to know what's worth recording. Maybe I should do a daily rundown of our activities, just to note what we're doing, even without commentary.
I am so busy and so tired by the time I can finally go to bed, that I think I'll just save up everything and write one long blog post at the end of the week. But it's hard to remember things for that long, and it ends up being too boring.
So, instead of actually writing about my life, I spend 10 minutes waxing (not so) eloquent about how I'm too busy to blog... :-)
One of my favorite bloggers, The Pioneer Woman, is amazing to me. She has 4 kids. She lives out on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She does photography. She cooks. She wrote a cookbook! She homeschools. And every day she comes up with multiple funny, witty, clever blog posts with beautiful pictures that she somehow finds time to take AND edit. (I take the pictures, but don't have time to edit them.) I don't know how she does it!
I think I must do some things in slow motion compared to other people. It seems like that, at least, when I'm up until 1:00 AM finishing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen, or whatever. Ben says (admiringly) that I must need less sleep than he does. Maybe I do, but to me it mostly feels like I don't have the luxury of simply stopping what I'm doing and going to bed when I'm tired. The work doesn't go away, it simply piles up...
Today was a busy Thursday, even though both piano and violin lessons were canceled for the afternoon. This morning we did a quick pick-up-the-house before the cleaners came this afternoon. Then on to lessons. We didn't finish up until about 3:45 or so. Then I helped Brigham with violin practicing before taking Joseph to swimming lessons at 4:20. We got home from swimming at 5:45, and I needed to quickly make dinner for us and for the Whipples whose little boy broke his arm badly today. I quickly mixed up a batch of brownies, made some rice and beans and bean-and-cheese tortillas (kind of like burritos, just folded over instead of rolled), threw in a bag of grapes, and called it good. Then we all piled in the van, drove to the Whipples to drop off dinner, and then rushed to the church building for the big boys' pack meeting. They finished their Wolf and are now Bears. They also got the conservation badge, 5 silver arrow points, and 1 gold arrow point. Good job, boys! Then home again, bed-time routine, bed-time reading, getting myself ready for bed, and here I am. 10:30 PM and I still have 4 baskets of laundry that I am NOT going to fold tonight. :-)
Commentary for the day:
Mosey was so cute at the pack meeting tonight. He sat by me and when Brigham and Joseph and Ben went up to the front to get their badges, Mosey put his little arm around my back. Normally I put my arm around his shoulders, but he beat me to it tonight. He must have been feeling protective of his mommy. :-)
Joseph went to his 3rd swimming practice this afternoon. I think he thought that swimming lessons would really be an hour of playing in the pool, and not an hour of swimming laps and learning strokes. It is hard work! He doesn't have much stamina built up yet, and after a couple of laps of free style, he was completely out of breath, and got overwhelmed. He started crying, and the combination of crying and swimming and trying to breath is not a good one. I think he got panicked and then really felt like he couldn't breathe. His coach told him to sit out for a few minutes to catch his breath. He came over near me and wrapped himself in his towel and tearfully told me he wanted to go home, he didn't want to do swimming anymore.
Well, I already paid for the month, and I had told Joseph if he wanted to do swimming, he needed to commit for at least a month. And, while I don't believe in forcing a child to be involved in a sport that he hates, I don't want him to quit right off the bat just because it's hard. Everything is hard at the beginning. I want him to give it a good shot, and then if he still doesn't like it after a few weeks, fine.
But more than that, I really want Joseph (and all my boys) to develop that inner sense of toughness. That inward core of stubborn pride that says, "I will NOT be beaten by this!" I don't know how to help the boys develop this. Is it something you are born with, like a competitive nature? I hope not, because that can be one of the most valuable qualities that helps a person power through difficult times, achieve goals, feel and be motivated by a sense of accomplishment. I have always had that in me (at least, I think I have). I'm not a competitive person at all-- just with myself. But I'm not a quitter. The harder something is, the more determined I am to show it who's boss! :-) Sometimes my innate laziness gets in the way, and I don't achieve what I know I could, but that inward stubbornness at least makes me feel really guilty when that happens.
But I'm not sure I was born this way. I can't remember. Did my parents somehow instill this in me, or is it just an inborn part of my personality?
Can I, and if so, how do I convey this inner toughness to my children? Do I simply keep trying to find opportunities for them to do hard things, accomplish difficult tasks, have a chance to feel that sense of accomplishment? Do I push them harder when things get tough and they get discouraged? If I do that, am I going to turn the situation into a power struggle? That's the last thing I want. I don't want them to feel a power struggle with me, I want them to feel it with themselves! I want them to feel that power struggle with that inward voice that says, "You can't do it; it's too hard; just give up," and beat that.
I know this is just another manifestation of the same parenting issues that have been plaguing me ever since I had children.
Being a full-time mother is hard for many reasons, but one reason is that there is no other "work product" than your children! Other forms of work yield tangible, or at least, measurable accomplishments. Something that you make, or improve, or fix, or figure out, or whatever. But the only thing motherhood yields is a child. So in a way, my children are my work product, and a lot of my identity and self esteem is naturally tied to this work product, as it is (I assume) for other workers. But a child is also a free agent, and my mothering influence is probably not a huge part of what makes a child who he is. So it's impossible to judge the quality of a mother's work by her work product-- her child. This is very frustrating! Not that I care that much how other people judge my mothering (well, I do care somewhat), but how do I judge my own mothering? How can I evaluate my own work, when I have no control group to which I can compare the effects of my work?
Ah! Impossible questions, I know.
Anyway, these are the sorts of philosophical quandaries I find myself facing as I sit on the white plastic pool chair observing my boy struggling during swimming lessons.
On a more encouraging note, it was really cute to see Joseph and Brigham getting ready for the pack meeting tonight. During their last scout activity, the pack leader talked with them about their uniform-- keeping it clean, wearing it correctly, taking pride in appearance. Tonight, both boys on their own got dressed, tucked in their shirts, put on their neckerchiefs just so, combed their hair (Joseph even used mousse!), and looked perfect gentlemen.
The theme of the pack meeting was "cooperation." They had 2 activities aimed to get the boys cooperating with each other-- pairing up and linking arms and trying to keep a balloon in the air as they moved across the basketball court, and another with all the boys tied up together, having to move as a group across the court. They were pretty hilarious to watch, and perhaps more a demonstration of the inability of 8-10 year old boys to cooperate to any measurable extent. :-)
OK, this is quite enough for tonight. See, this is why I don't write every day. Because when I do I have no self-discipline to curb my own output, and I end up spending 30 minutes writing, instead of the 5 minutes I had intended-- 30 minutes that I really can't afford considering the magnitude of my current level of sleep-deprivation. :-)
So, good night!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Reason #951 to move to Texas
Blue Bell Snickerdoodle ice cream.
Oh, my, I think I am in love.
Come and visit us in Texas and I'll buy you some...
Oh, my, I think I am in love.
Come and visit us in Texas and I'll buy you some...
Thursday, September 16, 2010
By the way
I'm not complaining or griping about my busy schedule.
I love it!
There is nothing on that list I would rather not do (OK, maybe except laundry).
I know when the boys are gone I will desperately miss these days.
I'm trying, and I think I'm mostly succeeding in largely enjoying and appreciating everything in my life right now.
I just with I had about 3 more hours in the day. :-)
I love it!
There is nothing on that list I would rather not do (OK, maybe except laundry).
I know when the boys are gone I will desperately miss these days.
I'm trying, and I think I'm mostly succeeding in largely enjoying and appreciating everything in my life right now.
I just with I had about 3 more hours in the day. :-)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Someday
Someday the boys will be grown up and moved out and I'm going to have way too much time on my hands. So, to the future me who may someday be reading this, here's what I have been doing the past two days. This is representative of most week days.
Tuesday:
6:20-7:00 AM: Alarm goes off, I stumble out of bed after a refreshing 5 1/2 hours of sleep and get ready for the day.
7:00-8:00 AM: I call the boys downstairs, make breakfast, have scripture study, and supervise morning chores.
8:00 AM - 2:45 PM: Lessons. There is not a breath of free time for me during these hours. I go from one boy to another getting them organized, answering questions, reading to them, teaching lessons, listening to practicing (I've been working really hard on letting them practice independently, but that doesn't mean I can't call out from the other room, "Left hand goes to the B flat right there!"), checking assignments, correcting math, etc., etc., etc. I make lunch around 12, and we usually go over Greek and Latin roots during lunch, so no breather there, either.
2:45-3:00 PM: Get ready for Cub Scouts. Search the house for cub scout shirts, kerchiefs, slides, books, and the collections they needed to bring.
3:00-5:15 PM: Drive to Steiner Ranch, drop off Brigham and Joseph at Scouts, drive back up 620 to Walmart for a quick grocery run, manage to get in the WRONG checkout line (soooo sloooow), and then behind the most cautious driver in the universe who stops BEFORE the light even turns yellow, but still manage to pick up the boys before it was too late, and then brave the after-5:00 traffic down 620 to Anderson Mill.
5:15-7:00 PM: Unload groceries, and then back into the van to drive down to Alpha Music to pick up the boys' Suzuki violin book and try to find Halloween music for the piano Halloween recital coming up next month, and then enjoy rush hour traffic coming back up 183.
7:00 PM-9:30 PM: Fix dinner. Practice violin with Mosey and Brigham. I need to do this separately because Mosey is self-conscious and doesn't like to practice with Brigham right there. Supervise baths and bedtime. Have a good and much-needed heart-to-heart with Joseph.
9:30 PM-12:53 AM: Finally put away groceries, clean up dinner, organize and put away school stuff, fold laundry, put away laundry, start more laundry, do some Relief Society work, and finally get ready for bed and then lay there trying to fall asleep, my mind racing despite being completely exhausted. 12:53 glowed on my alarm clock the last time I opened my eyes to check the time.
Wednesday:
6:20 AM-2:30 PM: Same as yesterday, except that I got a refreshing 6 1/2 hours of sleep (probably). That's an improvement.
2:30-3:00 PM: Get all the school stuff organized and put away. Make rice crispy treats.
3:00-5:15 PM: Teach art class, supervise 9 kids running around with swords and guns. No blood or tears resulted, so all was good.
5:15-7:00 PM: Take Joseph to swimming lessons (first day). Take the Anderson boys back to our house to retrieve forgotten shoes. Take Brigham and Anderson boys to their house to continue playing with swords and guns. Go back to swimming lessons with Mosey. After swimming lessons, get back in the van, drive back to the Andersons' house to pick up Brigham, red-faced and sweaty after playing with swords and guns for the past 2 hours. Drive back to the pool so that Mosey could search fruitlessly for his missing watch (although he did find it in the car after we got home--that boy probably spends 30% of his waking hours searching for misplaced but dearly beloved objects). Finally drive home.
7:00-9:00 PM: Fix dinner. Supervise violin practicing. Take Joseph to go get more crickets for Spots at the pet store. Supervise house clean-up. Our cleaners come tomorrow so that means everything has to get picked up tonight.
9:00-10:15 PM: Get new crickets situated in cricket cage and feed Spots. Sweep the floor in the kitchen. Yes, I know cleaners are coming tomorrow, but dirty floors are the bane of my existence. Sit down to check email and write ridiculous blog posts chronicling my blessed (though busy) life.
Still to do tonight: Fold laundry, put away laundry, personal scripture study, and, hopefully, sleep. :-)
Tuesday:
6:20-7:00 AM: Alarm goes off, I stumble out of bed after a refreshing 5 1/2 hours of sleep and get ready for the day.
7:00-8:00 AM: I call the boys downstairs, make breakfast, have scripture study, and supervise morning chores.
8:00 AM - 2:45 PM: Lessons. There is not a breath of free time for me during these hours. I go from one boy to another getting them organized, answering questions, reading to them, teaching lessons, listening to practicing (I've been working really hard on letting them practice independently, but that doesn't mean I can't call out from the other room, "Left hand goes to the B flat right there!"), checking assignments, correcting math, etc., etc., etc. I make lunch around 12, and we usually go over Greek and Latin roots during lunch, so no breather there, either.
2:45-3:00 PM: Get ready for Cub Scouts. Search the house for cub scout shirts, kerchiefs, slides, books, and the collections they needed to bring.
3:00-5:15 PM: Drive to Steiner Ranch, drop off Brigham and Joseph at Scouts, drive back up 620 to Walmart for a quick grocery run, manage to get in the WRONG checkout line (soooo sloooow), and then behind the most cautious driver in the universe who stops BEFORE the light even turns yellow, but still manage to pick up the boys before it was too late, and then brave the after-5:00 traffic down 620 to Anderson Mill.
5:15-7:00 PM: Unload groceries, and then back into the van to drive down to Alpha Music to pick up the boys' Suzuki violin book and try to find Halloween music for the piano Halloween recital coming up next month, and then enjoy rush hour traffic coming back up 183.
7:00 PM-9:30 PM: Fix dinner. Practice violin with Mosey and Brigham. I need to do this separately because Mosey is self-conscious and doesn't like to practice with Brigham right there. Supervise baths and bedtime. Have a good and much-needed heart-to-heart with Joseph.
9:30 PM-12:53 AM: Finally put away groceries, clean up dinner, organize and put away school stuff, fold laundry, put away laundry, start more laundry, do some Relief Society work, and finally get ready for bed and then lay there trying to fall asleep, my mind racing despite being completely exhausted. 12:53 glowed on my alarm clock the last time I opened my eyes to check the time.
Wednesday:
6:20 AM-2:30 PM: Same as yesterday, except that I got a refreshing 6 1/2 hours of sleep (probably). That's an improvement.
2:30-3:00 PM: Get all the school stuff organized and put away. Make rice crispy treats.
3:00-5:15 PM: Teach art class, supervise 9 kids running around with swords and guns. No blood or tears resulted, so all was good.
5:15-7:00 PM: Take Joseph to swimming lessons (first day). Take the Anderson boys back to our house to retrieve forgotten shoes. Take Brigham and Anderson boys to their house to continue playing with swords and guns. Go back to swimming lessons with Mosey. After swimming lessons, get back in the van, drive back to the Andersons' house to pick up Brigham, red-faced and sweaty after playing with swords and guns for the past 2 hours. Drive back to the pool so that Mosey could search fruitlessly for his missing watch (although he did find it in the car after we got home--that boy probably spends 30% of his waking hours searching for misplaced but dearly beloved objects). Finally drive home.
7:00-9:00 PM: Fix dinner. Supervise violin practicing. Take Joseph to go get more crickets for Spots at the pet store. Supervise house clean-up. Our cleaners come tomorrow so that means everything has to get picked up tonight.
9:00-10:15 PM: Get new crickets situated in cricket cage and feed Spots. Sweep the floor in the kitchen. Yes, I know cleaners are coming tomorrow, but dirty floors are the bane of my existence. Sit down to check email and write ridiculous blog posts chronicling my blessed (though busy) life.
Still to do tonight: Fold laundry, put away laundry, personal scripture study, and, hopefully, sleep. :-)
boys
We had art at our house again this afternoon. Fun times with 8 little boys and one girl. Natasha is awesome. She totally holds her own with the boys. After their lesson they ran around and played for 15 minutes or so. She was running around with two light sabers and a gun strapped to her side. My kinda girl!
Later, as I was driving two of them home, all five boys were sitting in the back of the van. Brigham said, "You want to know something reeeaaally disgusting about our van?" Umm, yes, they are boys, of course they want to know. So he proceeded to tell them all about the cockroaches in the air conditioning vents. Four years ago, when we were in Florida, we somehow managed to get some cockroaches in the air conditioning vents. I'm not sure if they were blown or simply were trying to escape, but some of them managed to die just inside the vents along the back of the van. Yes, very disgusting. There are some things I don't miss about Florida, cockroaches definitely being one of them. At least it made for an awesomely disgusting story Brigham could use to impress his friends. :-)
Brigham dressed up in his Civil War costume from last Halloween and further impressed the boys he was with. They made some grand plans for "our moms to get together and make us ALL soldier costumes!" It's so fun eavesdropping on their conversations.
Later, as I was driving two of them home, all five boys were sitting in the back of the van. Brigham said, "You want to know something reeeaaally disgusting about our van?" Umm, yes, they are boys, of course they want to know. So he proceeded to tell them all about the cockroaches in the air conditioning vents. Four years ago, when we were in Florida, we somehow managed to get some cockroaches in the air conditioning vents. I'm not sure if they were blown or simply were trying to escape, but some of them managed to die just inside the vents along the back of the van. Yes, very disgusting. There are some things I don't miss about Florida, cockroaches definitely being one of them. At least it made for an awesomely disgusting story Brigham could use to impress his friends. :-)
Brigham dressed up in his Civil War costume from last Halloween and further impressed the boys he was with. They made some grand plans for "our moms to get together and make us ALL soldier costumes!" It's so fun eavesdropping on their conversations.
Monday, September 13, 2010
kids growing up
I don't have little kids anymore. I've gotten used to saying "I have 3 little boys," but it really isn't true anymore.
It hit me (again) this weekend when Ben took the boys to go see a football game at a friend's house Saturday afternoon. I went to do some errands, and then called when I thought they might be coming home. I still had to go to the grocery store, but I realized I actually *wanted* one or all of the boys with me. I used to really savor solo grocery trips. A chance to be alone and take my time and enjoy the peace and quiet without feeling guilty.
Joseph came with me (he likes the grocery store, too), and I loved that hour I spent with my boy. It's so nice doing some things truly alongside them. Me teaching them school stuff is nice too (sometimes), but it's not the same as just being with each other. Joseph is old enough to have interesting conversations with me. And he's really helpful, too.
I've had some chances recently to work with Joseph. Last week a bottle of maple syrup (the real stuff), accidentally got knocked off the pantry shelf. Everything breaks on our tile floor, and there was syrup and broken class splattered all over the floor. Ugh. But Joseph came in and helped me clean it up. He did a good job. And we had a good conversation. It's easier to talk (with my boys, anyway) when we're working together.
It hit me (again) this weekend when Ben took the boys to go see a football game at a friend's house Saturday afternoon. I went to do some errands, and then called when I thought they might be coming home. I still had to go to the grocery store, but I realized I actually *wanted* one or all of the boys with me. I used to really savor solo grocery trips. A chance to be alone and take my time and enjoy the peace and quiet without feeling guilty.
Joseph came with me (he likes the grocery store, too), and I loved that hour I spent with my boy. It's so nice doing some things truly alongside them. Me teaching them school stuff is nice too (sometimes), but it's not the same as just being with each other. Joseph is old enough to have interesting conversations with me. And he's really helpful, too.
I've had some chances recently to work with Joseph. Last week a bottle of maple syrup (the real stuff), accidentally got knocked off the pantry shelf. Everything breaks on our tile floor, and there was syrup and broken class splattered all over the floor. Ugh. But Joseph came in and helped me clean it up. He did a good job. And we had a good conversation. It's easier to talk (with my boys, anyway) when we're working together.
veggies
In an attempt to get the boys to eat a wider variety of vegetables (hearts of romaine salad and broccoli are about as far as their adventurous spirit goes these days), I've started asking them to choose a new vegetable when we're at the grocery store.
Last week Mosey chose brussel sprouts which I was sure would be a bust. I have a vivid memory of my mom boiling some brussel sprouts for dinner one night, and, peeling back the first layer of leaf, finding a bunch of black bugs inside. I still shudder thinking about it.
But, they actually ate them! And liked them! You could have knocked me over with a feather.
We picked up artichokes and asparagus for this week. We'll see how that goes!
(I did make creamed spinach tonight which was *not* a hit. They just can't get over the texture, even when I mixed it with rice. Too bad, because I really like it, but I just can't take the cream and butter content if I eat it all myself...)
Last week Mosey chose brussel sprouts which I was sure would be a bust. I have a vivid memory of my mom boiling some brussel sprouts for dinner one night, and, peeling back the first layer of leaf, finding a bunch of black bugs inside. I still shudder thinking about it.
But, they actually ate them! And liked them! You could have knocked me over with a feather.
We picked up artichokes and asparagus for this week. We'll see how that goes!
(I did make creamed spinach tonight which was *not* a hit. They just can't get over the texture, even when I mixed it with rice. Too bad, because I really like it, but I just can't take the cream and butter content if I eat it all myself...)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Week of September 6
Things to remember:
- Training Mosey and Joseph in sweeping and mopping the floor on Labor Day. We believe in laboring on Labor Day! Teaching them to divide the floor into mental rectangles and then being sure not to miss a spot in the rectangle.
- The boys going out into the backyard in their swimming suits Tuesday afternoon during one of the biggest downpours we've had in Texas. They ran around, arms outstretched, and got as soaked as soaked could be.
- Seven boys running around the house Wednesday afternoon after their art lesson, having a massive sword fight. I think Natasha, the lone girl, was a little nonplussed. But when the activity moved to the backyard and the rope swing and the trampoline, she joined in the fray like everyone else. I love seeing kids play with such reckless abandon. As long as no one gets hurt.
- Brigham's (very rare) temper tantrum when he misunderstood (didn't listen to) his writing assignment. It was supposed to be a descriptive paragraph about something they could see in the room. They were to use descriptive, sensory words. After I told him he needed to redo his first attempt (which was only one sentence!), this is what I got: "I see a grumpy mother. She's only had six hours of sleep. She makes her kids her slaves. She's very picky, she always blames. She's very cruel but she gives her kids home school." Ouch, right?! Ooh, he was very mad at me. Later, however, before bed, he came to me and said, "I'm sorry for getting so mad about my grammar paragraph, mom." He is always so good about apologizing. I need to be more like him.
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
tired...
I'm tired.
We've had a ridiculous amount of rain in the last 3 days. So much rain, such heavy downpours, that it actually has kept me up the past two nights.
Also, I must be getting old. When I wake up in the night, I can't get back to sleep. I never used to have this problem!
But, I've been so good about getting up at 6:30 AM every morning so we can be ready for breakfast by 7:00. Sometimes I despair because of my lack of discipline. So it's good to know I can pull it out when I put my mind to it. Now I just need to put my mind to getting in bed before midnight! Why is it there is so much to get done at night after the boys get in bed? I'm not even wasting my time blogging (well, except for right now, anyway), as evidenced by my sporadic posting. And I took draconian measures with my Google Reader subscriptions. I pared down my daily blog-stalking pretty drastically. I doubt I spend 10 minutes a day these days.
Still, I guess work expands to fill the time allotted, right?
School is going well so far. Except for a minor melt-down by Mosey this morning when I tried to help him learn a better way to grip the pencil... He didn't want to listen to me, and ended up in tears screaming about how his hand hurt when he held the pencil. Believe me, his hand did NOT hurt, and he was just tantruming. We let it go until after lunch, and then magically he was happy and cooperative, and his hand stopped hurting. Oh, the drama.
Our Math-U-See stuff came yesterday afternoon. It was like Christmas, opening up the big box and pulling everything out. I think I like it! The guy who created the program also introduces each lesson on DVD. He's very engaging, and the kids find it interesting. Too much so, actually. While Mosey was watching his DVD clip this morning, Joseph and Brigham both gravitated to the computer to watch Steve Demme teach place values. :-) I told Ben I liked the system because he teaches math very much the way I think about math, and would like to teach it to my boys. But I haven't been using manipulatives, which I think will be very helpful. Also, one of my boys doesn't like to actually listen to what I'm trying to teach him. :-) I'm an extremely visual learner, and when I'm doing math, I tend to "see" things in my head. It's a little hard to communicate this way of thinking without actually using something the boys can see, so I think this program will work beautifully.
We had our first art co-op this afternoon. We had 8 kids, ages 6-10 at our house this afternoon. I'm teaching drawing classes every Wednesday afternoon for the next 4 weeks, and then we'll switch off to another mom teaching something else fine-arts-ish. I'm excited because I've been meaning to do formal drawing lessons with the boys for ages and ages, but somehow never get around to it. Now it's scheduled in and there will be no more excuses! Also, my kids are making other homeschool friends. I really suck at arranging play dates for the boys. (Is the term "play date" way too babyish for my big boys?) The boys play together really well, and never express much of a desire for having friends over or going over to other friends' houses, but I do want them to make other friends. It so happens that there are 3 other homeschooling families with kids around the same age who all live pretty close by, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and arrange this co-op.
I think the lesson went well today. I'm using the Monart method, which I love because it's exactly the way I taught myself to draw, only more formalized into lessons.
Tomorrow afternoon Brigham and Mosey start violin lessons! I'm really hoping it goes well. I'm not sure where we're going to fit in violin practicing... But we'll figure it out. Somehow my mom managed to juggle the schedules of up to 8 kids in the house at a time, each involved in varied and different extra-curriculars. 3 kids should be a cinch, right?
OK, that's enough for tonight.
I'll leave you with a picture of a really priceless note that Mosey wrote for his cousin Jack over the summer while they were at my mom's house. Jack was in the back yard, playing on our old, somewhat decrepit swing set and play structure, and managed to step on a rusty nail. My mom took to him urgent care where they x-rayed his foot, took out the nail, and sent him home with antibiotics. Mosey wrote this note to Jack, completely on his own.
We've had a ridiculous amount of rain in the last 3 days. So much rain, such heavy downpours, that it actually has kept me up the past two nights.
Also, I must be getting old. When I wake up in the night, I can't get back to sleep. I never used to have this problem!
But, I've been so good about getting up at 6:30 AM every morning so we can be ready for breakfast by 7:00. Sometimes I despair because of my lack of discipline. So it's good to know I can pull it out when I put my mind to it. Now I just need to put my mind to getting in bed before midnight! Why is it there is so much to get done at night after the boys get in bed? I'm not even wasting my time blogging (well, except for right now, anyway), as evidenced by my sporadic posting. And I took draconian measures with my Google Reader subscriptions. I pared down my daily blog-stalking pretty drastically. I doubt I spend 10 minutes a day these days.
Still, I guess work expands to fill the time allotted, right?
School is going well so far. Except for a minor melt-down by Mosey this morning when I tried to help him learn a better way to grip the pencil... He didn't want to listen to me, and ended up in tears screaming about how his hand hurt when he held the pencil. Believe me, his hand did NOT hurt, and he was just tantruming. We let it go until after lunch, and then magically he was happy and cooperative, and his hand stopped hurting. Oh, the drama.
Our Math-U-See stuff came yesterday afternoon. It was like Christmas, opening up the big box and pulling everything out. I think I like it! The guy who created the program also introduces each lesson on DVD. He's very engaging, and the kids find it interesting. Too much so, actually. While Mosey was watching his DVD clip this morning, Joseph and Brigham both gravitated to the computer to watch Steve Demme teach place values. :-) I told Ben I liked the system because he teaches math very much the way I think about math, and would like to teach it to my boys. But I haven't been using manipulatives, which I think will be very helpful. Also, one of my boys doesn't like to actually listen to what I'm trying to teach him. :-) I'm an extremely visual learner, and when I'm doing math, I tend to "see" things in my head. It's a little hard to communicate this way of thinking without actually using something the boys can see, so I think this program will work beautifully.
We had our first art co-op this afternoon. We had 8 kids, ages 6-10 at our house this afternoon. I'm teaching drawing classes every Wednesday afternoon for the next 4 weeks, and then we'll switch off to another mom teaching something else fine-arts-ish. I'm excited because I've been meaning to do formal drawing lessons with the boys for ages and ages, but somehow never get around to it. Now it's scheduled in and there will be no more excuses! Also, my kids are making other homeschool friends. I really suck at arranging play dates for the boys. (Is the term "play date" way too babyish for my big boys?) The boys play together really well, and never express much of a desire for having friends over or going over to other friends' houses, but I do want them to make other friends. It so happens that there are 3 other homeschooling families with kids around the same age who all live pretty close by, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and arrange this co-op.
I think the lesson went well today. I'm using the Monart method, which I love because it's exactly the way I taught myself to draw, only more formalized into lessons.
Tomorrow afternoon Brigham and Mosey start violin lessons! I'm really hoping it goes well. I'm not sure where we're going to fit in violin practicing... But we'll figure it out. Somehow my mom managed to juggle the schedules of up to 8 kids in the house at a time, each involved in varied and different extra-curriculars. 3 kids should be a cinch, right?
OK, that's enough for tonight.
I'll leave you with a picture of a really priceless note that Mosey wrote for his cousin Jack over the summer while they were at my mom's house. Jack was in the back yard, playing on our old, somewhat decrepit swing set and play structure, and managed to step on a rusty nail. My mom took to him urgent care where they x-rayed his foot, took out the nail, and sent him home with antibiotics. Mosey wrote this note to Jack, completely on his own.
 |
| "To Jack From Mosey" |
 | |
| "Dear foot, Did it feel like a cat gived you a kick in the heel? P.S. Get better" |
Sunday, September 05, 2010
One week down!
We survived our first week of school!
I'm actually pretty happy about the way everything turned out.
I was nervous about the first day. I wanted everything to go smoothly and happily to get the year off on the right foot. I woke up at 6:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep (only 20 minutes left before the alarm, anyway), so I just got up. This whole week, actually, I had a little trouble waking up early and then not being able to get back to sleep. I must be getting old since that is certainly not my lifelong pattern. :-)
The first day was OK. It could have been better. But I used my point bracelet to keep track of points and we finished our lessons by 3:00 and so I can't complain.
Tuesday was my birthday, and the boys gave me the best present by being totally wonderful and cooperative and cheerful all day long. It was quite miraculous. Joseph and Brigham had their first day of Scouts. Tuesday afternoons will be good Mommy/Mosey time. He went to Walmart with me.
We only had one really hard day, and that was Wednesday. Mosey was way overtired. He has this amazing ability to keep himself awake until all hours. He was up until past 11:00 PM Tuesday night, and maybe even later. So Wednesday he was severely sleep deprived. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and wasn't willing to cooperate with just about anything. He needed to sit down and do his math, but he kept sneaking to the computer to play Webkinz World (not allowed until after lessons, and even then not allowed unless he's earned 10 points). Instead, he ran away out the front door. The boys all know that running away from me is one of the extremely big "no-no's" in our household. So he knew he was crossing a big line. I hoped he would come back, and he did come back, at least, across the street. But a woman from a couple of blocks away had seen him, got in her car, and followed him trying to find out if he was lost, or what the story was. Mosey wouldn't respond to her, but luckily Brigham saw them out the front door and I was able to wheel out there in my wheelchair and talk to her. She was extremely nice and asked if there was anything she could do to help. I said, "Give me some advice?" She didn't have much advice, but was sympathetic and not judgmental. Mosey ran back off around the corner, and the big boys and I got in the van to find him. We found him almost back to our house again, and Joseph and Brigham went out to try to get him in the house. Mosey ran away again, this time behind our neighbor's house. Joseph knocked on the door, but no one was home, so he and Brigham went on back and ended up pretty much dragging him back into the house. I banished him upstairs. After a couple of hours he looked sheepishly down from the balcony and dropped a note down for me. I thought it might say, "I'm sorry," but instead it said:
Then I felt a little like the evil stepmother who locks Cinderella away... I did feed him, but his privileges for the day (playing outside, going swimming, computer games) were revoked, and he had to go to bed at 7:30. Also, his long-awaited Wall-E blanket and sheets we ordered for his room came that day and I told him he couldn't open them until after the weekend, and then only if he could show me that he could be a good boy. So, it was a pretty bad punishment. Ben had the privilege of enforcing the 7:30 bedtime, and he reported back to me that Mosey was asleep before 8:00 PM. He didn't wake up until after 8:00 AM the next day so he really was tired. Happily, he's been a pleasure the rest of the week. He's just like how my mom describes as a child: "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!" I sure love him, though.
The rest of the week went smoothly. Our lessons go Monday-Thursday, and then Fridays will be library days, projects, oral reading, and Spanish.
I think some of the keys to our success are/will be:
1. Getting math and piano done first thing. It's not a good idea to wait until the end of the day when everyone is tired to tackle the most troublesome lessons...
2. Giving Joseph and Brigham way more free-reign with their piano practicing. They're old enough to do it mostly on their own now, anyway. They'll need my help mostly just with new pieces. They have to practice for 30 minutes and I tell them they can use it the way they think will get them most ready for lessons on Thursday afternoon. It's hard for me to keep my mouth shut, but in the long run I think practicing will be a much happier experience for everyone. And, seriously, that matters way more than having a perfect lesson, anyway.
3. Starting on time! When we get going right at 7:00, somehow that momentum carries us through the day. And the corollary to this: getting to bed on time! No one does well sleep-deprived.
4. Points. I'm really happy about how effective the point system has been so far.
I hope I can report in another week that week 2 went even better!
I'm actually pretty happy about the way everything turned out.
I was nervous about the first day. I wanted everything to go smoothly and happily to get the year off on the right foot. I woke up at 6:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep (only 20 minutes left before the alarm, anyway), so I just got up. This whole week, actually, I had a little trouble waking up early and then not being able to get back to sleep. I must be getting old since that is certainly not my lifelong pattern. :-)
The first day was OK. It could have been better. But I used my point bracelet to keep track of points and we finished our lessons by 3:00 and so I can't complain.
Tuesday was my birthday, and the boys gave me the best present by being totally wonderful and cooperative and cheerful all day long. It was quite miraculous. Joseph and Brigham had their first day of Scouts. Tuesday afternoons will be good Mommy/Mosey time. He went to Walmart with me.
We only had one really hard day, and that was Wednesday. Mosey was way overtired. He has this amazing ability to keep himself awake until all hours. He was up until past 11:00 PM Tuesday night, and maybe even later. So Wednesday he was severely sleep deprived. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and wasn't willing to cooperate with just about anything. He needed to sit down and do his math, but he kept sneaking to the computer to play Webkinz World (not allowed until after lessons, and even then not allowed unless he's earned 10 points). Instead, he ran away out the front door. The boys all know that running away from me is one of the extremely big "no-no's" in our household. So he knew he was crossing a big line. I hoped he would come back, and he did come back, at least, across the street. But a woman from a couple of blocks away had seen him, got in her car, and followed him trying to find out if he was lost, or what the story was. Mosey wouldn't respond to her, but luckily Brigham saw them out the front door and I was able to wheel out there in my wheelchair and talk to her. She was extremely nice and asked if there was anything she could do to help. I said, "Give me some advice?" She didn't have much advice, but was sympathetic and not judgmental. Mosey ran back off around the corner, and the big boys and I got in the van to find him. We found him almost back to our house again, and Joseph and Brigham went out to try to get him in the house. Mosey ran away again, this time behind our neighbor's house. Joseph knocked on the door, but no one was home, so he and Brigham went on back and ended up pretty much dragging him back into the house. I banished him upstairs. After a couple of hours he looked sheepishly down from the balcony and dropped a note down for me. I thought it might say, "I'm sorry," but instead it said:
Then I felt a little like the evil stepmother who locks Cinderella away... I did feed him, but his privileges for the day (playing outside, going swimming, computer games) were revoked, and he had to go to bed at 7:30. Also, his long-awaited Wall-E blanket and sheets we ordered for his room came that day and I told him he couldn't open them until after the weekend, and then only if he could show me that he could be a good boy. So, it was a pretty bad punishment. Ben had the privilege of enforcing the 7:30 bedtime, and he reported back to me that Mosey was asleep before 8:00 PM. He didn't wake up until after 8:00 AM the next day so he really was tired. Happily, he's been a pleasure the rest of the week. He's just like how my mom describes as a child: "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!" I sure love him, though.
The rest of the week went smoothly. Our lessons go Monday-Thursday, and then Fridays will be library days, projects, oral reading, and Spanish.
I think some of the keys to our success are/will be:
1. Getting math and piano done first thing. It's not a good idea to wait until the end of the day when everyone is tired to tackle the most troublesome lessons...
2. Giving Joseph and Brigham way more free-reign with their piano practicing. They're old enough to do it mostly on their own now, anyway. They'll need my help mostly just with new pieces. They have to practice for 30 minutes and I tell them they can use it the way they think will get them most ready for lessons on Thursday afternoon. It's hard for me to keep my mouth shut, but in the long run I think practicing will be a much happier experience for everyone. And, seriously, that matters way more than having a perfect lesson, anyway.
3. Starting on time! When we get going right at 7:00, somehow that momentum carries us through the day. And the corollary to this: getting to bed on time! No one does well sleep-deprived.
4. Points. I'm really happy about how effective the point system has been so far.
I hope I can report in another week that week 2 went even better!
Mosey-ism
I was asked at the last minute to substitute for the CTR 4 class in church today (4 year olds turning 5). It was fun and crazy. 4 and 5 year olds are a kick. Anyway, at the end of class, their attention capacity was just about depleted. I had no crayons or coloring sheets or snacks or anything else to use up the last few minutes, so I tore out sheets of notebook paper and made paper eaters and paper airplanes instead. (Which was a big hit, by the way.) Joseph and Brigham and Mosey came and found me when their classes let out and Mosey, our resident paper-airplane-maker-extraordinaire, observed me making a "pointy airplane" for Tyler, one of the little boys in the class. After watching for a minute or two, Mosey leaned over and said, "I'm not trying to judge you or anything, but that's the worst paper airplane I've ever seen!"
Ha, ha, ha!!
Good thing he wasn't "trying" to judge me, I would have been totally cut up. :-)
Ha, ha, ha!!
Good thing he wasn't "trying" to judge me, I would have been totally cut up. :-)
The Snake Farm
For the boys' birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, Brigham wanted to go tubing down the San Marcos River. Joseph wanted to go to the Snake Farm in New Braunfels. We couldn't do both, so we promised Joseph we'd go the next week. Well, last weekend it was 100 degrees and I was *not* feeling the Snake Farm thing. But today was about 15 degrees cooler (we got the first cool front of the season two days ago-- yay!!), and so off we went!
It's this funny little place just off I-35 and looks like a weird, junky place. But it's actually pretty neat. And Mike Rowe filmed one of his "Dirty Jobs" there!
We got there just as one of the workers brought out a huge albino Python. Brigham's hiding back there behind the wooden post.
Mosey was a little hesitant, but soon enough got into the whole reptile thing.
Inside, there are dozens of cages with all sorts of snakes including giant pythons, an anaconda, multiple rattle snakes, bright green jungle tree snakes, copper heads, cotton mouths, king snakes, etc., etc.
There are also alligators, crocodiles, iguanas, and a fruit bat in various cages and habitats inside.
Outside there is a motley assortment of animals from a warthog to traditional petting farm animals to macaques to porcupines to kookaburras, and a lot more. I'm not sure what the connection is between all these animals. Maybe none, just cool animals to look at.
After we went back inside, the guy brought Sunny (the python) back inside and we got a closer look.
This snake had a pink tongue he kept flicking in and out. He'd even reach out and "lick" our hands!
Look at this awesome little baby alligator.
This is a western diamond-back rattle snake and one of the nastiest-looking creatures I've ever seen. Look at that baleful glare!
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra
Gay your life must be!
What's the name of the Warthog in the Lion King? This guy was a lot less friendly looking.
What has Mosey got on his face (besides his usual goofy camera-look)? I have no idea. I wonder if Arctie is having a good time?
That is a good looking little kid!
The boys and Ben went out to a petting zoo area, with the normal goats and pigs and llamas and such. It was out in the sun and too hot for me, so I sat under a tree and waited. An older man and his grown daughter came and sat down near me and we got to talking. His daughter lives in Pasadena, and they told me how they went to see a movie in La Canada a few weeks ago. Small world! It turns out he's a family practice doctor, mostly retired now, but teaches neurology to P.A. students. He asked me about my M.S. and we had a nice discussion. I told him about the transplant and, at the end of our conversation, he asked if I wouldn't mind emailing him and keeping him informed about how things turn out. What do you think about that? What a nice guy. I told him I definitely would. There are some very nice human beings out there.
Waiting patiently for his turn to pet the snake, another python named Venom. This one weighed over 100 lbs!
Later another worker brought out scorpions (mother and babies), a blue-tongued skink, a milk snake, and a baby alligator.
Joseph knows a ton about animals. And he especially loves reptiles, and kept telling us facts about everything as we passed by. During one of the presentations, the worker asked if anyone knew why milk snakes are called milk snakes. Joseph was the only one who knew! (Answer: these snakes like to eat mice and rats, which are plentiful in barns. Farmers would find the snakes in their barns and postulated that the snakes came in to drink the cows' milk.)
If you live around Austin, it's definitely worth the hour it takes to get there!
On a completely unrelated note, Ben went jogging this morning and passed by a deer that had been recently hit by a car. He came home and asked the boys if they wanted to go and pick it up and bring it back to our house to cut it up and eat. I told Ben flat out NO. Too messy, too risky, too traumatic for little boys. Ben was pretty annoyed with me, but I told him I was pulling out my veto power (we each have veto power), and so he backed off. But not before making it clear that the next time I leave town, all bets are off.
Possibly our differing opinions are somewhat gender-based, but I don't care. That is too vile for our civilized world. Ben said, "Well, what if there's a huge emergency and we need to get our own meat?" "Too bad," I said, "We'll just have to figure it out when the time comes." The whole idea gives me the shivers...
We got there just as one of the workers brought out a huge albino Python. Brigham's hiding back there behind the wooden post.
Mosey was a little hesitant, but soon enough got into the whole reptile thing.
Inside, there are dozens of cages with all sorts of snakes including giant pythons, an anaconda, multiple rattle snakes, bright green jungle tree snakes, copper heads, cotton mouths, king snakes, etc., etc.
There are also alligators, crocodiles, iguanas, and a fruit bat in various cages and habitats inside.
Outside there is a motley assortment of animals from a warthog to traditional petting farm animals to macaques to porcupines to kookaburras, and a lot more. I'm not sure what the connection is between all these animals. Maybe none, just cool animals to look at.
After we went back inside, the guy brought Sunny (the python) back inside and we got a closer look.
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra
Gay your life must be!
What has Mosey got on his face (besides his usual goofy camera-look)? I have no idea. I wonder if Arctie is having a good time?
The boys and Ben went out to a petting zoo area, with the normal goats and pigs and llamas and such. It was out in the sun and too hot for me, so I sat under a tree and waited. An older man and his grown daughter came and sat down near me and we got to talking. His daughter lives in Pasadena, and they told me how they went to see a movie in La Canada a few weeks ago. Small world! It turns out he's a family practice doctor, mostly retired now, but teaches neurology to P.A. students. He asked me about my M.S. and we had a nice discussion. I told him about the transplant and, at the end of our conversation, he asked if I wouldn't mind emailing him and keeping him informed about how things turn out. What do you think about that? What a nice guy. I told him I definitely would. There are some very nice human beings out there.
Joseph knows a ton about animals. And he especially loves reptiles, and kept telling us facts about everything as we passed by. During one of the presentations, the worker asked if anyone knew why milk snakes are called milk snakes. Joseph was the only one who knew! (Answer: these snakes like to eat mice and rats, which are plentiful in barns. Farmers would find the snakes in their barns and postulated that the snakes came in to drink the cows' milk.)
If you live around Austin, it's definitely worth the hour it takes to get there!
On a completely unrelated note, Ben went jogging this morning and passed by a deer that had been recently hit by a car. He came home and asked the boys if they wanted to go and pick it up and bring it back to our house to cut it up and eat. I told Ben flat out NO. Too messy, too risky, too traumatic for little boys. Ben was pretty annoyed with me, but I told him I was pulling out my veto power (we each have veto power), and so he backed off. But not before making it clear that the next time I leave town, all bets are off.
Possibly our differing opinions are somewhat gender-based, but I don't care. That is too vile for our civilized world. Ben said, "Well, what if there's a huge emergency and we need to get our own meat?" "Too bad," I said, "We'll just have to figure it out when the time comes." The whole idea gives me the shivers...
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Boo to Spicewood Elementary
Spicewood Elementary (the school the boys used to go to, about a quarter mile away) has a chess club that meets before school Friday mornings. It is run by parents. Their first meeting is tomorrow morning.
Brigham LOVES chess. He constantly begs his brothers to play with him, but they don't like to since he is good and always wins. :-) One of his friends from church is in the chess club and loves it. So, I emailed the parent who is in charge and asked if Brigham could join. He emailed me back and told me he forwarded my email to someone at the school and she would get back to me. This is what I got back:
"My name is ________, and I am the registrar at Spicewood Elementary.
I received the email below with your request for your son to attend Chess
Club Meetings at Spicewood Elementary. Unfortunately, we are unable to
honor your request as students must be enrolled at Spicewood in order to
attend Chess Club Meetings.
I am sorry it won't work out for your son."
Yeah, I bet she's real sorry. Because it would be such an incredible burden to let one little 9 year old play chess with the other kids.
And there are sooooo many homeschooled kids in the elementary school boundaries that if they let Brigham in, it would surely set a precedent and the chess club would be totally overrun by those pesky homeschoolers trying to mooch off the system.
Right?
We pay our (really high) property taxes like everyone else, but I guess that's not good enough.
Jerks.
Brigham LOVES chess. He constantly begs his brothers to play with him, but they don't like to since he is good and always wins. :-) One of his friends from church is in the chess club and loves it. So, I emailed the parent who is in charge and asked if Brigham could join. He emailed me back and told me he forwarded my email to someone at the school and she would get back to me. This is what I got back:
"My name is ________, and I am the registrar at Spicewood Elementary.
I received the email below with your request for your son to attend Chess
Club Meetings at Spicewood Elementary. Unfortunately, we are unable to
honor your request as students must be enrolled at Spicewood in order to
attend Chess Club Meetings.
I am sorry it won't work out for your son."
Yeah, I bet she's real sorry. Because it would be such an incredible burden to let one little 9 year old play chess with the other kids.
And there are sooooo many homeschooled kids in the elementary school boundaries that if they let Brigham in, it would surely set a precedent and the chess club would be totally overrun by those pesky homeschoolers trying to mooch off the system.
Right?
We pay our (really high) property taxes like everyone else, but I guess that's not good enough.
Jerks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
