Where we went today.

We took another field trip, this time to Dinosaur World in Cave City. Here are some pictures.

Good kids.

Yesterday, we finally, finally got something done we'd been planning to do for over a year, an edging on my mom and dad's sidewalk. I think it was last year we were going to do this for my mom for Mother's day, or maybe it was the year before? Anyway, we did one side the first day we bought it and procrastinated about doing the other side until yesterday. But, finally, we got it done yesterday; my brother, my oldest son, my daughter and me. I didn't make the kids help or even ask them to help, but they pitched in and did a ton of work. I was very proud of them. I'm so glad that is done. It feels really get something done you've been procrastinating about.

I am better today.

I realize my post yesterday had several negatives. After I lost that entire report and had to type it over, I admit it, I was cranky. We had a scheduled Moms Night Out with the other homeschool moms last night and that helped so much. I feel better. We talked and laughed in a restaurant for 3 hours, ate tacos and enchiladas and generally had a good time. We do this once a month and it is very helpful for our mental health. The kids want to go but it's just not the same if you have to keep interupting your conversation to say things like "No!" "Get down from there!" and "Stop that!" So Moms who are reading, if there's any way in this world you can do it, have an occasional night out to rejuvenate your spirit.

So many things on my mind today.

So few actual concrete thoughts ... My brain is just kind of jumping from one thing to the next. I wrote myself some notes about what to blog about early this morning and now that I've got a minute to blog, here's the list I am confronted with.

Blog Ideas.
Chair height.
Spring fever.
Discouragement.
Public schools not so bad.
FEAR!
Addiction.
Carnival.
Bad aspects to the lists.
Burnout.
Mistakes from rushing.

So here's the translation
Chair Height.
I think it's funny that I like my desk chair as low as it will go. If the kids sit in my chair for a minute, they have to raise it up.

Spring Fever.
We all seem to have spring fever. We do not want to do any kind of work at all. I do have a vague desire to have the house spring-cleaned, but I don't want to do it.

Discouragement.
I'm trying to deal with that right now. Youngest son wants to whine about the schoolwork all the time and it's getting to me. He has come up a couple of grades in reading level this year and is almost where he should be. I keep trying to tell myself that.

Public Schools not so bad.
This is what a 13-year-old girl told me last night. She realized that the majority of kids in our AWANA group are homeschooled and she told me, "You know, the public schools are not so bad. You don't have to be afraid of them." I tried to explain that its not fear keeping us out of school, it's a confusing mix of work schedules, learning difficulties not served well by the schools and a desire for more family time but that's hard to explain in one minute. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that she would assume that.

FEAR!
Speaking of fear, one of my children had a bad dream in which the setting was the living room of our house and now won't go into the living room without an adult escort. This is making my life very difficult, since all of our rooms pretty much open off of the centrally located living room. I have to quit working several times a day and escort him places. It's driving me nuts, but I'm not sure what to do about it. (It's not the teenager!)

Addiction.
Several of us in this household play too many video games, myself included and I think we need to stop. Not sure how to go about this either.

Carnival. The carnival of homeschooling is up here.

Bad aspects to our lists.
Sometimes when we are hurrying to finish the deadlines to avoid the consequences, we make mistakes. For example, I was hurrying to finish this morning, hit a wrong button (not sure which one) and erased the entire thing. Very frustrating.


Burnout.
I have burnout in my job. I have had for about 5 years, but I keep on going. It does get on my nerves though.

Mistakes from rushing.
See above, under bad aspects to our lists. Apparently, I had the same thought twice while my mind was racing around, going nowhere.

Rising from the ashes ...

The youngest got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, grouchy. My daughter said that he needed us to get out the "bouncy thing". It's this inflatable bounce house made by Six Flags that the kids get in. It's relatively small and will fit in our living room, so it's a good thing to pull out on rainy days or when someone's cranky. Apparently, it worked and put him in a better mood. I heard him a few minutes later quoting Hank the Cowdog. He said dramatically "I'm rising from the ashes like the mythical Tucson." LOL. Gotta love old Hank.

Absolute power.

They say that absolute power corrupts and well, I'm demonstrating it today. Because we had a field trip yesterday, I didn't print out the school/work lists for the kids and myself. Hence, I'm working this morning pretty much without a list. I've changed mine every week, trying to get just the perfect balance of school, work and housework and trying to get everything in without overwhelming myself. This morning, I got up and started working. I ran the dishwasher and fed the pets and started the download. Then I gave into tempation, briefly, and played The Sims. I got the Family Fun Stuff pack yesterday as a belated birthday gift and still haven't seen all the new things on it. I soon realized that at the pace I was going, I would not get 1/2 my daily lines and a bunch of housework and exercise done, then I had a very evil inspiration, a perfectly awful idea (as the Grinch would say) - why not adjust the list to what I actually got done this morning? Let's see. Dishwasher. Check. Feed pets. Check. Download and type 217 lines. Check. Hey, I got my list done! Who would've thought?

I'm terrible, I know, but it's only this one morning. I'll exercise tomorrow, really I will. Consider this my birthday present to myself.

Trying the Meme.

1. Were you named after anyone? My middle name is similar to my mom's first name. She's Pauline, I'm Paulanne.
2. Are you an only child? No. I have an older brother.
3. Do you like your handwriting? It's terrible.
4. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Probably.
5. Would you bungee jump? Never.
6. What is your favorite cereal? I don't think I have one.
7. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not really, but most of my shoes don't have ties.
8. Do you think you are strong? In some ways.
9. What is your favorite ice cream? Edy's slow churned.
10. What is the first thing you notice about people? I have no idea. I notice babies and young children a lot when I'm in a crowd.
11. What is the least favorite thing about yourself? I speak too quickly and don't think enough. (I'm just going to leave a lot of Janet's responses without change, because they fit.)
12. Who do you miss the most? My uncle who died last June.
13. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? bare feet, blue jeans.
14. What was the last thing you ate? Homemade taco salad.
15. What are you listening to right now? I'm kind of listening to/watching Dancing with the Stars while I type this.
16. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Navy blue.
17. Favorite smells? vanilla candles, coffee.
18. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? my dad
19. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Well, I took it from her, but yes, I like her very much!
20. Do you have any pets? 1 cat, Xena, 2 dogs, Lucy and Max and the green anoles, Annie and Andy.
21. Favorite sports to watch? I like the dog competitions that come on once a year, other than that ...
22. Hair color? Brown with weird highlights.
23. Eye color? Dark green.
24. Do you wear contacts? yes
25. Favorite food? must I name just one? Mashed potatoes.
26. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy Endings.
27. Last movie you watched? Meet the Robinsons.
28. What color shirt are you wearing? Black (always).
29. Summer or winter? Summer
30. Hugs or kisses? By Hersheys? Kisses definitely. (again, Janet's answer works!)
31. Favorite dessert? Italian Cream Cake and basically any cheesecake.
32. What book are you reading? I'm kind of between books right now.
33. Most likely to respond to this meme? Not sure.
34. Least likely to respond to this meme? Not sure.
35. What is on your mouse pad? Bubbles.
36. What did you watch on tv last night? I watched House MD on DVD.
37. What is your favorite sound? My kids laughing.
38. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Probably Beatles, although I like the Stones song "You can't always get what you want."
39. What is the furthest you have been from home? Tucson, Arizona.
40. Do you have a special talent? Probably singing, but I don't do it very often.

I'm much too young to feel this, um old.

I had my birthday this weekend. When you get to middle age, they get kind of bittersweet. I mean, I enjoy the eating out, the gifts, the cards, etc. but its hard not to feel a little anxious about the passing of time and the feeling that I'm not accomplishing what I want to do with my life. Oh well. I guess I'll just go shopping and try not to think about it. Retail therapy. It actually works pretty well most of the time.

We're going on a field trip today for school today, to an alpaca farm. Can you believe that there are alpaca farms in Kentucky? I wish I could take credit for arranging this cool trip during our South America study, but someone in our homeschool group arranged it. It'll be cool and I think I'll do some shopping on the way home.

I made it.

The goal was to get my exercise, housework and half my daily lines for my job done by 11:00 a.m. and I got everything done and got even 6 extra lines. I think that was remarkable considering that I usually get up at 7:00 and today I didn't get up until 8:30. Ha. Now the kids have to do school.

Overslept!

I still don't have an alarm clock. I overslept until 8:30 today. Can I finish my list in time? Tune in later to find out!

A Game.

The two younger kids have made up a game. It's called Spelling Baseball. First they throw the ball up and hit it, then they run to first base. If they can spell a word (called out by whomever they can get to do it for them), they get to go to second base. They have to spell a word on each base and if they do, they get a home run. If they don't spell it right, they're out. I think this is a very clever game. It combines exercise, playing outside in the sunshine and spelling. How cool is that?


The carnival of homeschooling for this week is up

The free product of the week at the homeschool estore is a Respected American Women Lapbook.

Too Warm.

The other night, youngest son climbed into bed between his Dad and I. After a few minutes, he complained that he was hot. I was barely awake and said "What? You're hot?" He said, "Yeah, you're warm and Daddy's warm and 2 warms make a hot."

Back to work etc.

I'm back to work today. I took off Saturday for the party so I've kind of had a little mini-vacation. It's been kind of nice. We did end up mostly taking the day off from school yesterday. We each did 3 of the things on our school/work lists and then we went on a little field trip with the local 4H club, the first time we've ever been on a 4H trip but it won't be the last. It was very nice and totally free. We got to tour a veterinarian's office. I got to talk to the vet about this pet food recall and she said that Max was probably okay since his initial blood work was okay. That made me feel a lot better. We also learned quite a bit about different kinds of pets. One little girl said she had a bunch of baby ducks and asked how she could tell if they were boys or girls. The vet said that she could bring them in for DNA testing or just wait to see which ones lay eggs, because even professionals can't tell the sex of a duck without DNA testing or doing an endoscopic surgery to look around in there. Weird, huh?

Today, though, we're back to work as usual and I'd better get going on it!

Trying to recover.

I'm tired. I wonder what the kids would think today if I typed myself up a to-do list that only had a couple of things on it, like read blogs and get email. Maybe I could add drink coffee to the list. I do feel like I could manage that, otherwise, not too much.

The party was a success!

I think my Mom and Dad had a really good time. Here are some pictures.

Busy Weekend.

Today's the day of my parents 50th wedding anniversary party and my daughter is going to a birthday party that starts an hour and a half before our party. Thankfully, a homeschooling friend is going to take her to that and my husband can pick her up and bring her to the other party. I think I'm remembering everything I need to take, serving dishes, pictures, camera, prozac ...

I colored my hair yesterday and it looks really bad. I overhighlighted it. I went to Walmart yesterday and tried to find some lowlights to counteract the highlights, but I started talking to a lady I know in there and she and 3 other Walmart employses had a conference and decided that my hair looked okay and I didn't need the lowlights, so I didn't get any. It was kind of a funny scene, me standing there with 4 ladies analysing my hair color. I tried to touch it up this morning, but it's still wet and I'm not sure how it's going to look. Sigh. One of these days, I'm going to get a professional to do it.

Anyway, I'm going to party today, funny looking hair and all. Thankfully, the sun's not out so maybe some of my more orange-y looking hightlights won't show!

South America Study.

We're still studying South America. Yesterday, we were studying Peru and the unit study suggested that we make pre-Columbian type clay figures. We used Sculpty clay and the kids made people and animals. Pictured here are my older son's iguana, my daughters 2 chinchillas and a boa constrictor made by my youngest son. My daughter asked him about the lump in the middle of the boa constrictor. He said that the lump was the snakes lunch. Apparently, he just ate a very large egg. ;-)

Smile (written by my daughter).

Note: This story was written by my 10-year-old daughter yesterday as a writing assignment. The writing prompt said: "What if you woke up one day and animals could talk?"

Smile

One day I woke up and said to my dog "Good morning Max" and every other morning he would have just looked at me and wagged his tail, but today he said - yes, he actually said something - he said "Good morning Delaney." I was shocked. My dog talked. That was weird. I went outside to the porch. I said to my dog Lucy, "Good morning Luce-luce and she looked at me, wagged her tail and said "Hi." I couldn't believe my ears! She said hi! That was really weird. There was only one thing that could make this any weirder than it already was; if my cat Zena could talk. If she said "meow" it would just be weird. If she said "good morning" or "hi" I would faint. I ran through the house to the deck where Zena has her bed and her food and spends most of her time. I went to Zena and said "Good morning Cutie Pie!" and she just licked herself, I thought. Then I sighed and turned around to go back inside. I stopped, because, Zena, my cat, said "I'm sorry. Bath. Good morning to you too."
I fainted and when I woke up it was just a DREAM.

The End.

Wait, that's not the end. There's more. I woke up in my bed and said "Good morning Max. Aren't you going to say good morning?" but all he did was wag his tail and smile a cute little doggie smile.

The Real End.

Still here.

I'm still here. My eye is still pink but maybe getting better. I hope. I really don't want to go to my Mom and Dad's anniversary party this weekend with a yucky looking eye. We didn't have school yesterday, not because I didn't feel good (which I didn't) but because I didn't get done with my list. I had too much computer trouble so the kids got the day off. The oldest said that he'd rather be off in the spring when it's not so hot and he won't mind doing school this summer to make it up. We'll see.

I watched the results show of Dancing With The Stars last night. I hated to see Leeza go. She was the oldest female there and I was cheering for her for that reason. Oh well. I think they are all doing a pretty good job with the exception of Clyde. I think he's a very nice man, but to me, he's just not very graceful on the dance floor. Sorry, Clyde Drexler fans.

I'm finding it hard to focus on school this week because I'm not feeling very good and I've got so much looming over me this weekend but I guess I'll just press on. I don't want to take any more days off unless we really have to, so we can be done at the end of May.

That's all from me today, nothing funny or cute, nothing particularly clever, just hanging in there, waiting for the weekend to be over. I've got my sights set on next Monday ... when I can relax.

Days like this ....

I feel like Alexander in the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Nothing truly horrible has happened, but I'm having a frustrating day. It began when I woke up unable to open my left eye. Pinkeye. I guess maybe it's caused by allergies? Joy. I also have an unexplained rash on my face, which started a couple of days ago. Finally, I got my eye open, put some antibiotic drops in it (from the last time this happened) and started work. Then, the computer just basically ate (for lack of a better word) a 4 page infectious disease consult I had just typed and I had to type the whole thing over ...

I think I need a nap.

Back to School.

We are starting back to school very quickly after our short break, despite pleas from the kids to take 2 full weeks of spring break. I'm determined. I want to get school done this year, not drag it out all summer! Well, I guess I'd better get started! I haven't done the first thing on my list this morning!!! Whoops! They might actually get the day off if I'm not careful!

Happy Easter!

Evil Laughter.

Last night I was reading Hank the Cowdog, Book 10, Every Dog Has His Day, Chapter 6, which ends with this sentence "I not only snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat, but also snatched Pete into the Jaws of Destruction." This chapter seemed like it should have an evil laugh at the end of it, so I did my most diabolically evil laugh. This was wasted on my children, because apparently, when I try to do an evil laugh, I sound like Santa Claus. This led to a hilarious attempt by almost everyone in the household to do their most evil laugh, which sounded like everything from squeaks to The Count from Sesame Street. I'm sure, Max, our dog wonders what he did to deserve living with a bunch of crazy people.

Spring break?

It's spring break here and it is about 30 degrees and snowing. Can you see the snowflakes in the picture?

Spring Break/Easter Break

We decided to take a short Easter/Spring break, just Thursday, Friday and the weekend. We'll all be fresh as a daisy and ready to start back Monday, I'm sure. (LoL!) Anyway, hopefully with just a 4-day-weekend, we won't get so badly off track as we do everytime we take a break of a week or more. We've got Easter this week and my parents anniversary party and a birthday party and a housewarming party next weekend. Come to think of it, we may take next week off too!

I forgot to mention...

The carnival of homeschooling is up here. I entered the post "Talking With My Daughter" this time.

The bread, a short time later.

Only a few crumbs left. It was good.

The downside.

There is a definite downside to baking bread in the bread machine. For about an hour each day, no one in the house can think about anything except how wonderful it smells and when is it going to be done. Sigh. 14 more minutes.

Can you see the writing on the wall, I mean window?

This is where we've been writing the spelling words. Apparently, using the window markers is much more fun that just plain old paper and pencil.

Free April Gift from the Homeschool Estore.

They are giving away a free unit study on the moon as a free download. It's published by Hands of a Child. I've downloaded one of theirs before and liked it. It's regularly 13.99 so this is a great deal, free! This is the description:
"Help your child explore the Earth’s natural satellite with the Moon Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. This 74-page project pack is complete with a 14-page research guide and 20 hands-on activities to complete their study of the Moon."

Here's the link.

I guess it serves me right.

This is what I had to look at in my cereal bowl, today, the day after April fools.

April Fools!

Something funny happened to our milk today. I wasn't home most of the day, so I didn't get to do it in time for breakfast, but it was pretty funny when they did discover it. We had alien milk syndrome! April Fools!