Welcome To My World

Hello there! Welcome to my little corner of the world....in particular, my dining room.  You know you are a homeschooling family when your dining room table looks like this....

 Let me guide you through this mess. Algebra and math books, and a physics workshop....

Oh, and Legos.  Bags of Legos, along with the instruction manual.  And tires from some vehicle....not sure where the rest of it is.

 One armed wrestling dude, shaking his one good fist angrily at the ladybug habitat, complete with ladybug that was rescued from a puddle in one of my Crocs this morning.  The other wrestling dude is doing his yoga moves for the ladybug. 

Algebra should be taken with a 'grain of salt'....Hahahahaa!  Oh man, am I funny.

How about you? Is your table this crazy? Or is it immaculate?

When I Was Your Age...

Having been a homeschool mom for a few years now, I have developed a tough skin.  Certain things that other people questioned me about that used to annoy me now just roll of my back...the socialization thing for starters. I *know* better, so I can simply shrug that off. And the worrying about the quality of education...the numbers don't lie, so I know better on that one too.

Yesterday there was a statement presented to me that has had me a little ruffled ever since.  And it wasn't said in a condescending way or anything, just a matter of fact. Actually it was said to my kids.

"When I was your age, I had to get myself up and ready for school everyday! Mom was at work and we had to do it ourselves."

Of course my initial reaction was indignation. 

But the more I thought about it, I had to face facts.  My kids don't have that level of responsibility.

Their alarm clocks go off at 7:00, but many mornings I am still having to shake them awake.

They don't have to 'beat the clock' to manage time wisely.  They are allowed to shower and dress at their leisure, they have time to eat their breakfast, brush teeth, etc without feeling the pressure to be 'done' at a specific time.

Should that worry me?  When they are adults, will they be lazy and not good managers of their time?  I am kind of on both sides of this fence. When *I* was their age, my mom was a stay at home mom. But I had to get ready for school and rode my bike to school every day. 

Or is this something that is irrelevant when they join the work force?  When you know you 'have' to be somewhere, that prompts you to get on the ball and get ready...right?

Or should I consider this one of the benefits of homeschooling?  The luxury, at least for a little while in their lives, to enjoy starting out the day in a pleasant way, ready to tackle their 'job' of learning with more enthusiasm. 

What do you all say?

What's on the Menu

Here's a peek at our menu for the next two weeks, if you are into that sort of thing...

Cheesy Enchilada Soup ( Paula Deen's recipe.  Surprisingly, no butter or cream cheese was harmed during the making of this recipe. )

Shrimp Fried Rice and Pot Stickers.

Maple Dijon Chicken, Roasted Garlic Herb Potatoes and Broccoli

Italian Beef Sandwiches (thanks to the slow cooker) and fresh fruit

Stuffed Shells, Salad and Bread

Chef's Salad and Homemade Rolls

Yes, I said 2 weeks.  I make a big meal so we can have leftovers for a day or so.

I don't know about you all, but I'm excited about Fall and using my slow cooker more and more for those yummy Fall dishes!

One More Reason I Love Homeschooling

I love homeschooling mostly because of those "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" moments.

Yesterday we had a lesson on scientists and inventors of the past and their contributions to physical science...Isaac Newton, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Otto Lilienthal, Robbert Goddard, Neil Armstrong.

Which lead to us YouTube-ing footage of Armstrong's first steps on the moon. 

Which lead to us finding videos of astronauts playing around in weightlessness.  Which prompted great questions such as "If there is no gravity, how do you go to the bathroom?" And "Why do they have to workout while in zero-gravity for an extended period of time?"

Which lead us to videos of pilots in a zero-gravity plane popping water balloons.

Which lead to conversations of how an airplane can simulate the weightlessness of outer space by flying in a parabola.

Which lead my son to dig out a 'Magic of Flight' dvd that was purchased years ago at a Pensacola museum of aviation.

Which lead to discussions of how a planes wing is modeled after a birds wing and how wind speed differences create lift.

Those are the moments when I sit back and think, if this took place in a classroom, the lesson would have ended with Newton, the Wright Brothers, and Armstrong. 

13 Things

My son turned 13 today. 

He was my first baby.  The ubiquitous 'guinea pig', the one who taught me in so many ways how to be a mom.

Here are 13 things I learned since August 7,1999:

1.  It all washes off.  No, really.

2.  Even if you don't have a clue in what you are doing, keep in mind the baby hasn't been to this rodeo either.  He won't be judgemental if it takes you three tries to put that diaper on right.

3.  Your baby won't explode if they eat REAL food.  Real HUMAN food.  That stuff in the jars? Not human food.

4.  It takes 3 days of no sleep for one to begin to questions one's sanity.  (Actually, I learned this from my daughter.  My son slept like an angel.  An angel that led me to believe I was the Best Mom Ever. Until I had my daughter.  But that's a whole 'nother story.)

5.  It's all cute and fun when you have pets before you have a kid.  You refer to them as your 'babies'.  Then you bring that baby home and all those pets suddenly become hairy, noisy, germy animals. Amazing, really.

6.  Watching nature documentaries, particularly the ones that show baby animals being hunted down by packs of hungry lions while the mother fights with all her might to protect her young become more emotionally gripping than anything Hollywood could concoct.  My heart goes out to those mommas.

7.  Along with #6...every child becomes 'your' child.  That child on the news who is missing?  It hurts your heart because...'that could be MY child'.

8.  Nothing is better on a day when you are feeling fat or frumpy than a crayon drawing with 'to my beeyoutifull mommy, the best mommy ever' scrawled across the bottom.  Heaven.

9.  You learn the true meaning of grace.  Yeah, you lose it when something gets broken or destroyed, but you still love the socks off of that kid.  And thus you realize how much God loves you in the same manner.

10.  Watching that first baseball game when the kids are pitching and they all want to pitch a 100 mph fast ball but have NO accuracy what so ever requires many trips to the concessions.  I can't watch.

11.  I'd rather be punched in the face than see someone hurt my kids' feelings.

12.  My parents really WERE smart.

13.  No matter how old they get, when I look at them I still see their little chubby smiles and feel those sweet kisses.  I always will.

Sometimes He Sends a Spider

I love Joel Osteen, don't you? He looks perpetually happy everytime you see him on television, and I truly believe he really is that happy 99 % of the time.

Anyway, I caught his sermon on television yesterday morning before church and it has stuck with me, so much so that I want to share it here.

In a nutshell, it was about a soldier in Vietnam who was alone in the jungle.  He could hear the enemy getting closer and closer.  He started to run, but could only go deeper into the jungle.

Finally he came to a cluster of caves, and out of desperation, he chose one and hid in its darkness.

All the while he could hear the enemy approaching.

So he prayed. He prayed for a brick wall, an iron fist, anything to stop them from capturing him.

He came to terms with his mortality.  And he waited.

Suddenly he noticed a spider in the mouth of the cave.  It began to spin a web from one side of the cave to the other, and in no time it had woven it's web across the mouth of that cave.

The enemy approached the caves, and began searching them for the soldier.

When they came to his cave, one of the soldiers saw the spiderweb and suggested there was no way anyone could be in that cave...they would surely have disturbed that web when entering.  And they moved on.  One little spider saved that soldiers life.



How many times do we pray for that brick wall, that iron fist...or at least expect something huge and amazing to answer our prayers, all the while forgetting that God can take a lowly spider and create something extraordinary out of it?

The next time you pray and think that God hasn't heard you because he didn't send what you requested...look again.  Closely.

Sometimes He just sends a spider.

Blueberries and Cream Pie

Yesterday I came across some blueberries in the freezer.  Not enough for a cobbler, but I really wanted to make a dessert.  Then I found cream cheese. 

This is what I made:

I made a pie crust and pre-baked it for a few minutes. You can use a refridgerated store bought one if you wish.  Preheat oven to 400.

1 block cream cheese, softened
1 egg
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp AP flour

Cream these together till well blended.

2 1/2 c frozen blueberries (or fresh would be fine)

Stir berries into cream cheese mixture.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

Mix together:

1 1/2 Tbsp butter, softened
3 Tbsp flour
3 Tbsp chopped walnuts

Remove pie from oven.  Sprinkle nut mixture over pie and bake 10 more minutes.

Let cool on counter, then chill in fridge.

Enjoy!