It's Friday

No time for long chatty entries today. Friday morning is always my homeschool chat. From 8 a.m. (CT) to whenever, often until afternoon.

http://www.leapingfromthebox.com/hs/chat.html

But today I will have to leave early, as we (Charles and I) are driving to Birmingham to visit friends for the afternoon. And then we have to leave by 4 so that I can get home in time to get ready for dancing. Friday night is always square dancing night.

http://www.brindleemountainsquares.com

So a hectic day! But fun.

New Favorite CD

I have been wanting the Vince Gill "These Days" CD pack ever since I first heard of it, especially when I learned that one of the CDs was totally acoustic. I put it on my Christmas list last year, much good that did. So last week I broke down and bought it. Am I ever glad I did! I have listened to each of the four CDs several times over this past week and I cannot decide which is the best. And I am wondering why I never bought a Vince Gill album/CD before?! And yes, I am old enough that I still think of them as albums and miss those wonderful album covers.

I know I just posted about technology and how confusing it can be, but I am glad that I live in this time where there is such an abundance of music. I love music. I have way too many favorite performers and CDs and music genres. If I have any say over my next life, I will come back with more musical ability. More? Hah! Maybe I should say "I will come back with musical ability" since I do not have much at all in this life.

So, what CDs can I listen to for hours on end? Here are a few:

• Road to Drumlemon - The Full Moon Ensemble
• Down the Old Plank Road - The Chieftains
• Safe Harbor - The Full Moon Ensemble
• Home - Dixie Chicks
• Live at the Acropolis - Yanni
• Secret People - Capercaillie
• Harvest Home - Jay Ungar & Molly Mason
• Out of Ireland, The Story of Irish Emigration to America, Original Film Soundtrack
• Rainbow Man - Jeff Bates
• The Wildlife Concert - John Denver

Those are the ones that seem to hit my CD player the most often. The ones I listen to while writing or thinking or when I just want to feel good. And I refrained from listing Christmas ones! I will have to save those for another day. And here's another blog entry to fill up the month with nothing much of import to add to the world. Yippee!

Technology, Love it or Hate it?

Charles got an iPod for his birthday Tuesday. He had an mp3 player already, but it was about wore out and he had requested something bigger and better for his birthday. Of course, bigger and better also means more complicated! Charles does not deal well with most computerized technology. He has a difficult time reading something and translating that into action. If he can see it done, he is fine. But he has inherited my technology-blindness, if you will. I have tried to help him, and we are finally making progress in understanding how to convert his existing songs into the proper format, but man, has it been a struggle. It's like learning a new language, reading some of the technical jargon. I'll read something to myself, then read it aloud to Charles, and the two of us try to decipher what I just read. But, like I said, we are finally making progress.

Now, if you were to show Charles a new karate form, he would get it right away. Or if you were to put him in charge of a class of karate students, he would have no problem with that. The class would continue calmly and smoothly. But show him something that needs tools to work on, like a car, or something with technological jargon and pop-up warnings, like a computer, and he is lost. He has had to learn to deal with more of that, though, this year with David away to college. No more can he just throw his arms up in defeat and cajole his brother into helping him.

And what is Charles doing now? While his iTunes is finally converting all the files the way he has been trying to get it to since late last night? He is out squirrel hunting. I am not sure if he took his blow gun or his bow. I do know the squirrels are not in any danger, though. The cats trailing after Charles will successfully warn away any squirrel silly enough to get within shooting range.

March Update

Well, I have failed at my goal of daily writing for the month of March. I know March still has a few days left, but as regular readers have likely noticed, there is a huge gap in entries, from March 17th to today, March 28th. My excuse? Life. In all it's wonder and glory!

Sunday (the 18th) was race day and also was the beginning of two days of watching Miss Munchkin while her mommy and daddy got all of her belongings moved to their new apartment. They did take Charles with them, but I am not certain it was a fair trade. Charles is pretty quiet these days, sleeping late and not keeping me very busy. Miss Munchkin not only does not sleep late, but she does not take very long naps and she is not quiet when she is awake! She kept me very, very busy those two days.

I did have Tuesday to myself and I do not remember why I didn't write that day, other than possibly I was trying to catch up on every thing I did not get done while Miss Munchkin was here! And then Wednesday morning I got a phone call from my daughter asking if I would come and help clean and paint their house, which consumed the next four days. I know their house was not that clean when they moved in to it! But it does look nice now and hopefully they will be able to sell it quickly.

So that took care of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday? Race day again, and a resting day as I tried to recover from four days of manual labor. I'm soft, I know! And also hunt the job boards for possible positions in Tallahassee for Bill. That has been my normal Sunday occupation for many months now.

Monday? Tuesday? I do not know where those days went. I was busy, but not too busy to write. So no excuses there. But today I have written twice to (hopefully) make up for lost days. And who knows? Maybe during these last remaining days of March I will be as prolific as I have been today! And be able to create whole entries that say absolutely nothing, as this one does!

Fast Food / Junk Food

Monday Charles and I watched the documentary "Super Size Me." (I love Netflix!) It was a good documentary and I would highly recommend it to everyone and anyone.

Here is the DVD blurb:

On the heels of recent lawsuits against McDonald's, director Morgan Spurlock takes a hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body. For one month, Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's food, ordering everything on the menu at least once and "super-sizing" his order if asked. With obesity on the rise, Spurlock's film begs the question: Where does personal responsibility end and corporate responsibility begin?

We try to avoid fast food, as much for monetary reasons as for health reasons, but still we tend to eat out way too often. Last week as I helped Kat freshen up her old place for resale, I had fast food for lunch four days in a row. And I also bought some junk food (store bought granola bars and blueberry muffins that contain way too much refined sugars and flours) for snacks. I did have some healthy options. I drank only water and brought along cheese sticks and bananas. But still I ate way more fast food and junk food than I normally do. The result? Four pounds of weight gain in those four days.

I have been working hard to lose some extra pounds over the past several months, managing to lose ten pounds in seven months. That is just a little under 1.5 pounds per month. They say slow weight loss is healthier and you are likely to keep the weight off longer than if you lose it quickly, so I have been happy with that rate. Luckily, those four pounds gained last week are temporary ones; by yesterday I had only one left to see disappear. But it was eye opening how little time it takes to sabotage oneself. I could have just as easily packed salads or sandwiches to eat last week. Instead I took the quick and easy way out.

So, last night when we went out to dinner to celebrate Charles's 17th birthday, I remembered and ate sensibly. Broiled blackened salmon, steamed broccoli, brown rice and water. For dessert a slice of cheesecake with cherries (not cherry pie filling!). So this morning when I weighed myself, I was the same as yesterday. That's a good thing! By the end of this week that last pound should be gone and then I can begin April with a ten pound loss and begin working on the next ten! And maybe I will watch "Super Size Me" one more time before I send it back to Netflix. Fix it firmly in my mind how very bad fast food really is for my health!

What Kind of a Blogger Are You?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

I always enjoy these types of quizzes, except that they do not always have the correct choices to question. Or you can only pick one choice to a question when two or three might be more accurate. For example, one of the questions was "Why do you blog?" I could only pick one answer, but there is no one answer. I blog for several reasons: my own enjoyment, I like to write, to keep family and friends informed, as a daily diary, to share information. No one reason is predominant.

Many thanks to the "no school, just learning" blog for being post fodder.

I Just Do Not Understand …

There are many things in our current culture that I do not understand.

• Rap and HipHop music (although upon closer listening, there are some similarities between rap and bluegrass)
• Chainsaw / gory / psychological thriller movies
• The fascination with certain "stars" who have done little to nothing to deserve that term
• Preschool

Now I realize that many parents have to work and they figure their children will be more prepared academically for kindergarten and be better socialized in a preschool setting than in a daycare setting. Doesn't that sound odd? "Be more prepared academically for kindergarten?" Not all that many years ago Kindergarten prepared you for first grade. You did not have to prepare FOR Kindergarten.

What I do not understand is why a parent who chooses to stay at home to raise their child should feel that child would be better off enrolled in a preschool. If you can read and interact with your child, then you can teach your child everything he/she will need to know. It really is not that difficult. Read to them a little bit every day. Talk to them like they are an intelligent human being, rather than your puppy dog. Well, maybe I should not say that because I have seen some people who talk to their dog on a higher vocabulary level than they do their children. Just don’t baby-talk all the time to your child. Involve your child in your every day activities. Let them help with the laundry, sweeping the floor, changing the baby's diapers, whatever your daily tasks may be. And talk to them while doing so. Explain what you are doing and why. Involve them. Interact with them. It might be fun!

As for socializing, children are much better socialized from being around adults, especially their own family members, and especially the first several years of their lives. Did our pioneers worry about their children's socialization? For that matter, did our grandparents have preschool? Did our parents? I certainly did not have preschool and I was more than ready for kindergarten when the time came. At what point did preschool become a standard practice? I guess I was bucking the trend when my children were that age, almost twenty years ago. Some days I sure am beginning to feel old!

Anyone need a Math or Science book?

My list is complete! Well, no, that is definitely not a true statement. I do have more books, more games and more software that I will have to sort through later on. I am just not quite ready to part with it all yet. Or I cannot get to it yet because it is out in the office building and that room needs a massive cleaning just to get into the door! But I do have the math and science books that I sorted out of David's room last week on a massively long list, complete with descriptions and prices. And there are a few pieces of software added in on the list. If anyone would like to look at the list, you can e-mail me at wdkmg@pipeline.com and I'll send it to you.

I sorted through my history shelves last December and felt quite proud of how many books I disposed of until Kat remarked that there appeared to be quite a few books still left. And she is right. I had five shelves full of history resources, got rid of probably 40 books or more, and those shelves all still appear to be full. What happened? Must be I had them double shelved, or piled on top of each other. So I need to go over them again with a more ruthless eye.

And then there are my language arts shelves and my biographies shelves and …. Oh, the pain of it all!!!

Oh! And yesterday Bill passed his certification test he has been studying so hard for over the past several weeks. So, in addition to his Microsoft certifications, he is now a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Hopefully it will translate into more hiring opportunities in a higher salary bracket!

Spring Fever

Spring has sprung here in north Alabama. The sun is shining, it's mid-seventies in temperature, the flowers are blooming, and the humidity is still relatively low. All that, combined with Daylight Savings Time, has given me a bad case of spring fever. I do not want to sit and write today. I want to be out digging in the dirt, playing in the leaves, planting something. I know from past experience, though, that if I go out and rake last fall's leaves or whatever other thing might need doing outside right now, my sinuses will flair up and I will be miserable for days. So instead I have expended all this spring fever on house cleaning. Don't panic! I do not mean any real serious house cleaning, just some sweeping and vacuuming and laundry.

If we were not in the middle of these trees, my sinuses would not have such a problem with outside activities. But here, with all the leaves and dampness and lack of any real circulation, we have mold spores and mushrooms and all sorts of lovely things practically year round. It is one reason we have considered clearing out all of the big trees, but could never quite bring ourselves to do so. And one reason I am looking forward to moving to an established yard rather than trying to carve some sort of yard out of a forest.

Another reason I would love to be in an established yard is due to all the poison ivy and poison oak here. For several years I had a nasty outbreak of what, I did not have a clue. But it itched and spread all over my arms and legs. After about the third year I finally discovered it was a poison oak reaction. I had never reacted to poison ivy before, so this was new to me.

Another new item that we discovered our first summer here was chiggers. It seems that chiggers love pine straw, and we certainly have a lot of that here with all these huge pine trees. Chiggers are most lovely. NOT!

So, spring fever I may have, but I will do my best to limit my energy to the indoors and hope that next year we are in a place that is more conducive to outdoors activities.

Spring Break Over

Tomorrow we take David back to college, which means another long day of traveling. It is really an easy trip, with the only really heavy traffic going through Nashville. And even then, we are usually making the trek on either a Saturday or Sunday, so the traffic is not all that bad. But it is still a long drive. And with tomorrow being the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, that means we will lose an hour's sleep tonight. I love Daylight Savings Time and am very happy that it is starting earlier this year and lasting longer, but I hate losing that hour's sleep!

I spent most of today working on creating a list of all the math and science books that I sorted off the shelves on Thursday. All day, but I have only about 1/4 of them on the list. That means a lot more work next week before I am ready to post the list to any group. After I get the list made, then I have to go back through the list, looking up comparable books on e-bay and/or Amazon and see what the used price should be for each one.

This evening we met Kat and Miss Munchkin in Cullman for dinner. Steak! Yummy! Miss Munchkin ate a fair share of my green beans, along with some french fries and a small bit of cheesecake. She definitely prefers to feed herself now, although with only two teeth, you have to really watch what she tries to eat.

It was a nice dinner out, with all three of our children there. But every time the past few months that we have been able to all be together, I cannot help but wonder how long it will be before we are all able to be together again. Life is changing. David in college. Kat with a family. Us looking to move further south. So many changes. And no way of being able to look ahead to know whether they will be good changes or not. No guarantees in this life! Just sight your course and hope for smooth waters and good times ahead.

Time for bed … I am going to have to arise much too early for a Sunday morning!

Is Homeschooling a Reward for Bad Behavior?

Today I answered an e-mail from a parent who wondered when to remove her child from public school. The child was bored, the school had said they would provide extra for the child and yet had not, and so the child was beginning to act out his frustrations and boredom. She wondered whether to begin homeschooling him now or to wait until the end of the school year, which was only 2.5 months away. Her main concern seemed to be that homeschooling him now would send the message to her child and to others that bad behavior would get him what he wanted (the child had asked to be homeschooled).

This is not the first time I have heard this concern. For some reason, certain parents tend to view removing the child from the bad situation as a reward, as giving in to the child's bad behavior. Yet, if the child were to behave well, then there would be no reason for homeschooling? Is the child to continue suffering in his present situation just so he gets the message that acting out will not get him a reward? More likely the message the child is going to get is that no one cares, that all is hopeless, that his life is just going to continue being an ongoing life of frustration and boredom.

Children are pretty much powerless in a public school situation. If they are bored, if they are being bullied, if they are frustrated, if they just plain do not like it there, what are their options? Unless someone is really listening to them, they have only three options:

1) They can tolerate the situation for the coming months, years, a lifetime, until they reach the age when they can drop out or, if they are really patient, graduate. By that time they have lost all hope of a life of interest and have really absorbed the message that learning is no fun at all and not for them.

2) They can act out their frustrations and boredom either by bullying or some other form of destructive behavior. And feel helpless and powerless as their frustration and boredom turns to rage and/or indifference.

3) They can turn their boredom and frustration inwards, becoming depressed and possibly, eventually even suicidal. Only by suicide do they see any way out, any way of taking back control of their lives.

None of those options are good ones, are they? Instead of viewing removal from the public schools as a reward for bad behavior, why not think of it as if public school were a disease which has infected your child and now it is time to remove as much of that disease as possible. If your child had cancer, would you leave the cancer there because removing it would give your child the idea that he would get special attention when he was sick? Or think of public school as an allergy. If your child had an allergy to milk, would you keep forcing him to drink milk? Or would you try some other alternative, like soy milk or coconut milk? Public school is simply one mode of learning among many, one pathway to an education.

Listen to your child. If he is telling you that something is wrong, it is your responsibility to do whatever you can to make the changes needed, changes that will promote your child's emotional, physical, and mental well-being.

Miss Munchkin's Birthday

I did not post an entry yesterday because it was Miss Munchkin's first birthday and I was very busy! I began crocheting a YoYo Bunny back in early January, but somehow, like usual, it came down to the wire and I spent five hours yesterday finishing it. And finish it I did, with time to spare (a whole half an hour!). It looks sort of cute, in a disturbing kind of way, but I am not sure how well it will hold together. If it falls apart, probably the yoyo's will be more fun to play with than the bunny!

Miss Munchkin had a small first birthday party, with just family there, grandparents and uncles and aunts. She loved the black cat that we had made at Wack-a-Bear or whatever that store is called. Most of all, though, she liked the balls that Uncle Charles picked out. They were one of the first gifts she opened and after that, she tried to bounce every other gift. If it did not bounce, then back she went to the balls!

And, of course, there was the obligatory chocolate cake with frosting! Mommy and Daddy just could not understand why both grandmothers thought that a little girl covered in cake and frosting was so cute! When we left, Miss Munchkin was headed for the bathtub for a thorough cleaning.

Who Collected All These Books?

I just finished cleaning off the math and science bookcases that were in David's room. Yes, that was plural. Eight shelves of science and math books. I wanted to sort through them while David was home, since some of the science books were his, but not surprisingly he did not wish to keep very many of them. So now eight shelves have been sorted down to four shelves and I have piles of books all around me here in my office. They are mostly sorted according to subject (Calculus, general math, earth science, evolution, etc.) and now I just have to go through them one by one, make a list and decide how much I might be able to sell them for. I will list them first locally on my homeschool e-mail list and then try to sell whatever is left on e-bay.

It is amazing how many books I have accumulated over the years. Homeschooling has been a wonderful facilitator to my book addiction! There's no way I can blame all of these books on homeschooling, but certainly it has been a convenient excuse for me to collect so many. Our children were interested in so many subjects when they were younger and many of these books came in very handy then. Plus, I never knew what subject might come of interest, so more books were needed just in case. Although, over the past four or five years I have noticed a definitely decline in book usage for reference purposes. The Internet seems to be taking over that function. Even I will head first to Wikipedia or Google to research a topic rather than to my bookshelves. Are books becoming outdated as reference sources?

Something Meaningful

Well, here it is the sixth day of my 30 Day Trial and I have not a clue what to write. I have already missed one day, so I really need to write something for today. But today has been one of those non-eventful days and I feel rather brain dead tonight. So meaningful this likely will not be.

This afternoon the boys and I went to the mall to find Miss Munchkin's birthday presents. I bought three board books:

• Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle
• Good Dog Carl, by Alexandra Day

All three books were favorites of her mother's, so I am sure they will be well used.

In addition to the books, we went to Build-a-Bear, or whatever the name is for the one at the mall, and picked out a black cat with green eyes. Miss Munchkin has a thing for cats, so I know she'll like that. And then we found a couple of small bouncy balls, since she seemed to like Uncle Charles's basketball the last time she was here.

Tomorrow is the big party day. We will go over to Kat's in the late afternoon for dinner and birthday cake or whatever the dessert of choice will be. Miss Munchkin will be one! A year ago tonight I was walking the floor with Kat, wondering when/if Miss Munchkin was ever going to make her arrival. And now she's one. Simply amazing!

All Tired Out!

I know I did not write yesterday. I will have to make up for that by writing two entries another day. Miss Munchkin and her family have been visiting for the last 48 hours, from Saturday night just after we arrived home with David until tonight. So yesterday was a busy day with all of our children home. We played on the Wii, watched movies, and were generally entertained by Miss Munchkin. I was so busy that I just plain forgot to write!

Today I have been babysitting, from 7:30 a.m. till 6:15 p.m. I am barely coherent at 7:30 in the morning, let alone capable of taking care of a one-year-old! Miss Munchkin was good most of the time, but she sure is busy and she jabbers almost continually. She took only one nap, which lasting little more than an hour. Grandma is one tired gal tonight!

I have gotten very accustomed to a quiet house, with morning all my own, and just generally not having to think about a wee child every waking and sleeping moment. There is a reason why older women do not conceive as easily as younger women. Little children are just plain exhausting and best left for the young of mind and body to raise. And this particular old body is going to go soak in the tub and go to bed!

Names on the Road

We made the trek to Evansville and back home today to bring David home for Spring Break, a 600-mile round trip. We are getting the trip down pretty good, this time only taking 11.5 hours and that included two gas stops, one meal, picking up David at the college, and four potty stops at rest areas! Boy, am I sore, though. I cannot ride nearly as well for long periods of time as I could in my younger days. I remember a time, not all that long ago, when going non-stop from NY to AL was fun, only 18 hours! Not anymore!

I do like traveling, though. I always have. There is something about hitting the road with a long trip planned that is just very exciting and also relaxing at the same time. One of the things I enjoy most about traveling is seeing all the different place names and trying to figure out why they were given that particular name. Some are named for people, some are Indian names, some are named to remind immigrants of places in their homeland, and some seem to be descriptive names, but it is not always clear which is which. For instance the Elk River in Tennessee. Now I am pretty sure there are no elk in southern Tennessee and that there were no elk there two hundred years ago when the river was named. So did someone think they saw an elk? Or was that someone's last name? Or did Elk just sound similar to what the Indians called that river and so the settlers called it Elk?

Then there is the Cumberland River that runs through Nashville. Why is it called Cumberland and just what is the origin of the word cumberland? I am going to have to look that one up because it has intrigued me all day long.

Clarksville (Tennessee) is an easy one. It was named for General George Rogers Clark, a frontier fighter and Revolutionary War hero. He was also the older brother of William Clark, of Lewis & Clark fame.

Now Paducah (Kentucky) is another one that I will have to look up. I imagine it is an Indian derivation, but I would love to know for sure.

Just a few of the thoughts that absorbed my mind today as we drove the many miles. And best of all, David is now home and we all get to enjoy his company for a week! And then next Sunday make the same trek all over again!

American Idol

Yup, I'll admit it. I am an American Idol fan, especially after my favorite won last year. This is the first year that I have watched it from the very first show. I don't think I watched any shows in the first two seasons. The third and fourth seasons I just watched them whenever I caught them, but did not make any special effort. Last year, I began watching American Idol after they were down to the final twelve and that was when I decided that I wanted Taylor Hicks to win.

My kids thought I was crazy, rooting for Taylor. And no, it was not because he was from Alabama. I know people who voted for Bo Bice (season four) solely because he was from Alabama, not because they liked his music. No, I liked Taylor Hicks because he did not fit the norm of what you would think an American Idol would be. He was not that great looking. He could not dance, even though he loved doing so. He was not even necessarily the best singer. He just loved his music and it showed. He was infectious (my children would say like a bad virus!) And he was not afraid to keep his hair it's natural gray. As someone who grayed early in life (too early), I found that admirable.

Who do I think should win this season? LaKisha Jones or Melinda Doolittle. My sentimental favorites are Lakisha Jones or Chris Sligh. But there is no telling who will win. The American voting public is an unpredictable lot. For example, this week two contestants that I thought should have been voted off were not, Antonella Barba and Sanjaya Malakar. And it looked like the judges agreed with me last night. But then, I guess I cannot complain about whom ultimately wins, since I am not yet hooked enough to actually vote!

A 30 Day Experiment

I have been enjoying "Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog" and recently shared it with a friend. She pointed out to me his entry for April 30, 2005, "30 Days to Success" and then she suggested we try something similar. We have both watched the movie "The Secret" and been discussing The Law of Attraction. My friend has had some past successes with The Law of Attraction and has shared some of them with me. I am still a little uncertain about The Law of Attraction, but more about the implementation of it than the possibility of its existence.

Anyway, we have come up with our own 30-day challenge for the month of March. Each of us has set some ideas into motion, some goals, and will be accountable to each other throughout the month, hopefully seeing progress by March 31 in the appropriate areas of our lives.

I do not wish to share with the public all of my goals, but I will share this one:

I will write a blog entry daily for the month of March. I will write about an important-to-me topic. My entry will be entertaining, supportive, and enlightening to my readers. Most importantly, each entry will be something I am pleased to have written for the public to read.

The reason behind this goal is that I want to get into the habit of writing daily. I have novels I want to finish and articles I want to write, yet I find it too easy to become distracted by life and not accomplish what I want. November will be National Novel Writing Month again and this time around I want to be able to write those 50,000 words in one month. Only by having the habit of daily writing will I stand a chance.

I doubt that 30 days will be long enough to make daily writing a habit. My past record tells me that it will take much, much longer than that to make it a habit. But it is a beginning. And you can track my progress here, since each day's writing has to be posted on my blog or it does not count. Watch me grow!