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Thankful Thursday
Thursday, May 29, 2008
I'm thankful for a daughter who appreciates the little bit of effort I used to make chocolate pancakes this morning. Her sheer surprise and excitement when she awoke and saw the stack was truly a heart-warmer.
I'm thankful for my husband who has one of the best senses of humor I know. I love laughing with him.
I'm thankful for the "free" lawn service here in military housing. Although they cut the grass way too often and entirely too short, I'm thankful that my husband doesn't have to do it. That's just one less thing on his plate.
I'm thankful that our mini-van got paid off this month (two months early!)
I'm thankful for interlibrary loan. It has not only been invaluable to our homeschooling directly, using books which I've requested in our lessons... but also has saved us money by allowing me to preview books on my "think I might want to buy" list and realizing some of those aren't quite worthy of purchase.
To read others' Thankful Thursday entries and/or to submit your own, visit Iris over at Sting My Heart.
I forgot to mention (I think) that kiddo and I went to see NIM'S ISLAND Saturday evening on base. (Gotta love MWR pricing... it is one of our few military "perks!")
It was actually a pretty darn good movie!
Jodi Foster is in it ( how I didn't know that, I've no idea!) and I just love her!
I don't recall any foul language nor any adult connotations in it.
The main character, Nim.. is an 11 year old girl. While it is a "girl adventure movie" I really think boys would enjoy it too, due to the ADVENTURE in it.
There is a character that visits the island briefly and she has a low (and large!) bustline, but it is quite fitting to her character. There are hula dancers, too, in that attire.
Some of the action in the movie is a *bit* intense (but it DOES get resolved, on a good note!)
The movie was interesting enough that I didn't fall asleep!
It is rated PG but I had no qualms about taking my kiddo (turns 11 in July) and would feel the same way if she were just 9 years old, too. Eight years old.. maybe... the peril might be a tad too intense for that age, unless they REALLY like to 'root and cheer' for the protagonist.
Anyway, just wanted to share and suggest this movie to families with the appropriately aged kids! You can read a full review at Plugged In Online. The official website is over here.
So kiddo is upstairs doing her lessons, DH is at work, Me- I have a "short list" of things to do today, the sun is shining (though high only in the low 50's... but as we like to say, "Hey, at least it isn't SNOWING!")
I spent yesterday finishing up my lesson plans for Unit one of Tapestry of Grace Year 3. I just have to enter weeks 9 & 10 into Homeschool Tracker, print up a few things for notebooking, and that will be that. I also hammered out what to do next in IEW. Both of those things will also take place in weeks 9 & 10 of TOG.
Tonight kiddo has soccer practice. My DH is the assistant coach. So far, we've yet to actually PLAY a game since one was canceled due to a flooded field and the other game was forfeited by the other team, thereby a WIN for us! The kids are SOOOOOOO ready to just go play! This is our daughter's third soccer season. She's been placed this season in midfield, having previously dominated on the defensive line. So, we'll see how that goes. Our team has one kid whose never shown up and apparently isn't planning to, thus leaving us one person short. This means no rotations. That's bad enough during a regular game day, but even worse on a day of double headers!
Her homeschool volleyball program finished up. She starts a homeschool track program tomorrow. I'm so thankful that there are opportunities such as these for her here. She really liked volleyball. She's not much "into" running but wanted to give track a try. They'll go through all the various aspects of track and field, giving each a try. Track meets 2x/week just for May. Not too long to feel overwhelmed but long enough to get something out of it. Nice!
We're LOVING our guinea pigs! Yes! I said PIGS. We got Theo a friend, another male. I named him DINKY cause he’s little. Theo has had his issues with Dinky, trying to establish dominance, but it’s working itself out. They are both happy together. It isn’t any more work to have two than it was one, and barely any additional cost involved. Just so much fun and such different personalities. Love it!
Here's little Dinky:
He's WAAAY smaller than Theo.
And here they are together, munching on some corn husks this morning:
Look at how much Theo has grown in the time that we've had him!
He has a double chin now. LOL
This afternoon I need to finish up my reading and "pre-quiz answer gathering" (open book quiz) for my Biology 100 class. I tell you, I really had no clue how VERY different taking a college course online would be vise what I was used to-- sitting in a classroom listening to lectures. *sigh* But only a couple weeks left in the course! Registration will be soon for the next 8 week term which starts in June.
Well, I suppose that's it for now. Time to get crackin' on my list of TTD.
**Edited to add (in response to a comment left)... Dinky is smaller because he is a lot younger than Theo. We got him because he specifically was young. It is (typically) easier to introduce two boars when one is younger. And, TTD= things to do.
Weighing in on the economy...
Monday, April 28, 2008
So on one of my email loops I brought up the topic of the skyrocketing gas prices. Instead of rethinking it all to post here, I'll just edit it and repost here...
These crazy gas prices! We buy gas on base and even it is skyrocketing. It's put a real damper on those things that I'd otherwise have done/attended/participated in. Like tomorrow, we had a HS day at a ceramics place to go to ... but, because it is about 30 minutes away, I've decided to forego the outing-- because it would be a round trip to GO and paint the piece, plus the cost of the actual piece (though I could have just given DD a $$ amount to stay under) plus another round trip a week later to pick up the finished (fired) piece. Gas just rules that out. Kiddo has a month of track starting on Thursday which we've already signed up/paid for and both DH and I think it is a great opportunity for her that we've decided to suck up the gas expenditure and take part in this homeschool track program (offered in May only) which meets 2x a week. The meeting place is about 20 minutes from home. Heck, I've already prepaid for a field trip to a factory (in downtown Chicago) but I'm strongly considering not going and just forfeiting that money (only $6.00) because it would be at LEAST 45 -60 minutes getting there in traffic and most certainly more coming home, due to the time of day--- all that time sitting in traffic just sucking down gas. *sigh*
So, has gas changed ya'lls outings yet? If not, how are you dealing with the higher gas costs? Ya know, come to think of it-- if it were JUST gas prices raising, we could deal with that. But obviously everything is raising (string cheese is now $3.09!!!! when we moved here it was under $2.00! Needless to say, I don't buy it now. Instead I buy a block of Colby-jack and slice it into pieces. Yes, DD loves cheese and eats a piece every day! She'd be happy with a piece at every meal...but I frown on that. LOL)
And now I read this article and feel "validated" in my thinking/observations. Funny, my online buddy was the first to inform me about the rice hoarding going on. So I mentioned that to a few homeschool moms a couple weeks ago when we were discussing gas prices. They looked at me like I was crazy! Now they might not think I'm quite so crazy.
I'm even reevaluating if I *NEED* the items that I was going to purchase through the food co-op, or if I ought to change some of those items to other things that the prices have already been going up, to try to stock up more on those. This is all driving me nuts, I tell you. We were already on a pretty tight budget due to the HUGE pay cut we saw moving off of sea duty in Hawaii to shore duty in Illinois. Money isn't very stretchy nowadays either. LOL This one-income, homeschooling family definitely has some purse strings to tighten. Pretty soon, I think, that so-called purse is going to be inside out from so much tightening though! Ugh. I even sold a few books via email lists here lately. Something I said I didn't see me doing again anytime soon, due to the headache. Well, having even a tiny bit of extra cash flow far outweighed the potential headache. Now to just sit and wait for those money orders to arrive!
So, readers... weigh in. Has the rising gas prices (and even food costs) played into your homeschooling yet? If so, how? And, how are you coping?
The Bradys sing "Sunshine Day"
Monday, April 21, 2008
Growing up in the 1970's I could help but be exposed to the Brady Bunch-- all nine of them, plus Tiger. The ultra, white-bread, blended American family taught various life-choices, morals, and problem solving. Right?? One of the better episodes, IMO, is the one where the kids are "music stars" trying to earn the silver platter. Who can forget the song SUNSHINE DAY...
Truly one of my favorite songs, yes, even now-- a gazillion years later, even now as an adult. LOL
Anyway, this song sprung to mind this morning, when I awoke at 6:15am. The sky was a bright, clear blue and the birds were enjoying the feeders my husband put up this weekend. It's now, 4:15pm and the day was, indeed, a SUNSHINE DAY. DD and I enjoyed about an hour outside after breakfast, with her riding her bicycle and me walking (listening to my iPod shuffle--yes Mom, I finally loaded some songs to it and even got the arm band for it. LOL) We just walked through our neighborhood, watched the construction workers STILL working on new housing here. It was a nice time, ending at the park across the street for a few minutes before heading home and starting our school day.
While out at various times on the patio today I spotted some wonderful seasonal visitors back to our yard... saw a Golden Finch, a Red-winged Blackbird, Grackles, Cowbird, and a cabbage butterfly. Add those to our already spotted (or never left) visitors. It was again, a SUNSHINE DAY.
I'm a gal who likes to wake up naturally, no alarm clock, no lights turned on-- just natural-- the sun coming gently rising into our east-facing window, the birds chirping outside, neighbors' dogs barking, etc. Nature wasn't so helpful with waking this morning, though. Nope. The gloomy, haze grey sky barely allowed any sunlight to come into the bedroom. No sun rays available to poke me in the eyes. No birds chirping. Even the dogs were inside, probably snuggled down on a bed of some type. Instead, the pitter-patter of rain truly made it difficult to want to get up this morning. I've always thought rain made for perfect sleeping weather.
However, I knew dear lil' Theo was downstairs and awaiting the refilling of his guinea pig pellets (he typically always finishes the last of them during the night) and would want a freshening of his hay. Plus, he's always eager to see what fresh veggies will be served in the morning. (Today was a canteloupe rind and cucumber slices.)
It's now 1:19, lessons and lunch is over, dinner is made (tonight is volleyball practice for DD so I wanted dinner to be ready when we get home. Tonight it is chili and cornbread) and it is still RAINING.
My DD picked out the positive the other day (when it was also raining) about all this rain we're getting. She was delighted to look out the schoolroom window and see that the grass is greening back up. We always took pride (and care) in our little bit of lawn out our patio. The military housing has landscapers that come and mow it (and mow it VERY low, and TOO often!) but we enjoy our little patch of grass.
All this rain will make for an interesting "opening day" of our soccer season, though! I'd like to say, "Hey, at least it isn't SNOW!" but all the weather forecasting I've seen says there is a pretty good chance for some white stuff! AACK!
In northern Illinois, living just a few minutes from Lake Michigan, we've seen some pretty odd weather. From thunderstorm bands that hit just north and just south of us, to sweltering humidity, and yes, even a rainbow (though not NEARLY as beautiful as those we enjoyed in Hawaii!LOL) But this winter has dumped quite a bit of snow on us.
Last Wednesday we got 13" of snow here. Of course, that was a duty day for DH as there's no "snow days" in the military. Actually, he was duty driver that day and had to drive the CO and XO to/from the O'hare airport. He's a smart cookie, though, and opted to stay at O'Hare instead of driving back up here between the drop-off and the pick-up. He hung out in the USO room and chatted with fellow military members. I was just happy he wasn't making two trips on the treacherous roads!
At home we had a normal homeschool day. Afterwards we had gotten all the things set up for DD to make her Valentines for a swap the following week (today, in fact, as of this writing) but instead of starting I suggested we go outside and shovel the driveway and sidewalk to help Daddy out. DD was more than happy to join in, so we got bundled up and out we went.
WOW... the snow was 1/2 way up my calf! DD was a trooper and did the whole sidewalk herself while I went and started in the driveway. She finished the walk and came and helped me. Boy, was that a task! The snow was so wet and heavy. There was just so much of it. I even had to call DH on the cell phone to ask WHERE TO PUT THE SNOW!!!! We live in a court and quite frankly, there's not a whole lot of empty ground here. So, as per DH's instructions, we shoveled and piled all that snow up behind my mini-van. We shoveled for 2.5 hours, in the snow, during the blizzard. Crazy, yes, but MUCH appreciated by my DH who didn't get home until 7:30pm. He and I spent another 90 minutes or so shoveling the giant PILE of snow (he scooped and moved it to the yard pile two houses over from us, where the snow plows pile snow, IF/WHEN they ever come!) and clearing out new-fallen snow, etc. It was actually a nice time out there with him, albeit very cold and windy. He was just so amazed at the hard work DD and I had done. Four days later he was still oozing appreciative words to us.
The shoveling story that afternoon and evening would have been better had I taken photos of our progress, but alas, I forgot. Instead, I have these few photos for viewing.
Now, here's a photo from December 28, 2007, with DD outback playing in the snow. I show this as a frame of reference. Please note the neighbor's bushes to the left of her.
Here's those same bushes (along with the neighbor kids' snowman) around 11am last Wednesday:
You can just see the tops of them peeking up.
And, about 4:00pm, here's that shot again:
If you look closely you can just see a twig sticking out from where the bushes
should be, at the left of the photo. There on the right is our gas grill with cover on it and
snow accumulated on top of that.
For reference, here's an old photo from this past summer of the lavender and peonies that were growing inside a little wire fence, around the bird bath:
Here's that same area with the lavender over-wintering inside the wire fencing at about 11am last Wednesday--
Just the top of the fencing and lavender stalks poking out.
Crazy person out on the streets, driving uber-slow in the background. LOL
And at about 4pm or so, here's what that same area looked like:
No fencing, barely any lavender plant showing. Keep in mind, the tallest
of those stalks are well up to my thigh, and I'm 5'9".
Of course, after all the hard work DD and I did I couldn't very well say "NO" to her request to go attempt to make a snowman. I did tell her to face AWAY from the driving wind, though (which she is doing properly in this photo. LOL)
Her attempt was more like a snow pole than a snowman. LOL
But, blizzard or not, the Dark Eyed Juncos were fearless and came looking for seed throughout the storm. It was tough keeping up with the snow accumulation. So, I eventually rigged a little "sheltered" feeding bowl for them.
The red bowl is standing on its side as a "shelter" from the blowing snow that would keep
covering up their food. The seed is in a little terracotta dish. All this was right
up against our patio windows, in an area that was partly covered by awning and
had made itself lower than the snow accumulation on the rest of the patio, rather
ravine looking actually. The Juncos ate here all day. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any
photographs of them since they were so close to the window. They'd just fly away if I
tried to move the blinds for the shot.
DH and I laugh that the ONE time I opted to go outside and shovel (other than a random sidewalk swipe, etc) was during "the worst snowfall we've had since the blizzard of 1978!" (so says area residents.) LOLOL It figures.
He's WAAAY smaller than Theo.
Look at how much Theo has grown in the time that we've had him! 
These crazy gas prices! We buy gas on base and even it is skyrocketing. It's put a real damper on those things that I'd otherwise have done/attended/participated in. Like tomorrow, we had a HS day at a ceramics place to go to ... but, because it is about 30 minutes away, I've decided to forego the outing-- because it would be a round trip to GO and paint the piece, plus the cost of the actual piece (though I could have just given DD a $$ amount to stay under) plus another round trip a week later to pick up the finished (fired) piece. Gas just rules that out. Kiddo has a month of track starting on Thursday which we've already signed up/paid for and both DH and I think it is a great opportunity for her that we've decided to suck up the gas expenditure and take part in this homeschool track program (offered in May only) which meets 2x a week.
I'm a gal who likes to wake up naturally, no alarm clock, no lights turned on-- just natural-- the sun coming gently rising into our east-facing window, the birds chirping outside, neighbors' dogs barking, etc. Nature wasn't so helpful with waking this morning, though. Nope. The gloomy, haze grey sky barely allowed any sunlight to come into the bedroom. No sun rays available to poke me in the eyes. No birds chirping. Even the dogs were inside, probably snuggled down on a bed of some type. Instead, the pitter-patter of rain truly made it difficult to want to get up this morning. I've always thought rain made for perfect sleeping weather. 
My DD picked out the positive the other day (when it was also raining) about all this rain we're getting. She was delighted to look out the schoolroom window and see that the grass is greening back up. We always took pride (and care) in our little bit of lawn out our patio. The military housing has landscapers that come and mow it (and mow it VERY low, and TOO often!) but we enjoy our little patch of grass. 
You can just see the tops of them peeking up.
If you look closely you can just see a twig sticking out from where the bushes
Just the top of the fencing and lavender stalks poking out. 
No fencing, barely any lavender plant showing. Keep in mind, the tallest
Her attempt was more like a snow pole than a snowman. LOL
The red bowl is standing on its side as a "shelter" from the blowing snow that would keep 
