What's the opposite of low key?

High key?  We had a very busy but good day today.   First I had to work this morning.  Right in the middle of my shift, I had to go and get my blood pressure checked because it was high the last time I went to the doctor.  Then I came by the house, ate lunch and made pudding for the dessert I was taking to a party this evening, went back to work, then came home and made the taco soup, finished the dessert, blew up 30 balloons and tied loops onto them, opened 45 glow bracelets and attached them and then decorated the trunk of the van and then we went to 2 parties in quick succession. Actually they were both scheduled at the exact same time but we went to one and then the other.  It was fun, but now we are just a leetle bit tired.  We had a good time though. 

Low key kind of day.

We don't have all that much to do today.  If I could've gotten done with work early enough we could have went to a nice lunch, but it didn't work out.  I didn't get finished with work until nearly 2:00 pm.  So, after school today, I'm going to try and get some more work done on my book and go to the grocery and just enjoy a kind of a low-key day.  I need to pick up some things for the weekend.  We're having a homeschool party this weekend and a party at church so I need to get some things to take to those.  

Oops, I just realized that I posted that nothing much was happening today.  I hope it doesn't end up like one of those novels that starts out "Nothing ever happens to me" and then all kinds of strange things happen to that person!

Thursday.

It was my day off and I had a dentist appointment today to replace a filling.  So the kids and I cleaned and did school this morning (mostly) and then I went to the dentist.  If it weren't for the shots in my gums and the drill, I wouldn't mind the dentist all that much.  I like lying there in the massage chair watching HGTV and having my back rubbed by the chair.  I mentioned to the dentist that I had been difficult to numb in the past so he shot me so full of novocaine that my eyeballs felt numb.  I told him if he wanted to do a little Lasik on me, he could because my eyes were already prepared.   Anyway, that finished, I came home to find a good surprise, my brother had come for a visit.  He and the kids and I played some board games and talked for the rest of the afternoon.  Now I'm going to watch a little NCIS that came from Netflix and do some more work on my book. I'm enjoying writing it and I think I'm making good progress.

Multitasking boy revisited.

A couple of weeks ago I shared a picture of my youngest son walking, carrying a sword and reading.  Apparently, he's given the problem of  trying to live life while constantly reading a lot of thought.   He wants to invent a reading device that will store infinite books, automatically turn the pages with thought signals, that is waterproof (for reading while showering) and that hovers at the perfect reading distance and lights up at night.

I want one.

Ooh, ooh, also, I want it to be able to start reading aloud to me when my eyes get tired.

Wednesday not Windsday.

It's not windy at all today.  I guess the storm is finished now.  Personally, I didn't find it all that troubling.  I got where I needed to go and did what I needed to do.  It was raining and a little windy.  Apparently, I everywhere I was going, I was missing the main part of the storm.  Several times I saw limbs down as if a more violent storm had just passed through, but was now over.  There was a mix-up with the dentist appointments.  One of us wrote down the wrong time.  I wrote down 1:00 o'clock and the dentist's receptionist wrote down 2:00.  Since we couldn't stay until 2:00 because of my podiatrist appointment, we rescheduled for today.  Ah well. 

I got quite a bit of work done last night on my book.  I'm enjoying writing it.   I do wish I had a better keyboard here at the house.  This one I'm typing on now has a very hard to press space bar and makes my hand hurt when I type a lot.

I haven't, as yet, made changes in the kid's homeschool schedules. I am planning that for next week.  The homeschool lecture I went to a few weeks ago made me feel as if I needed to make some changes, but I haven't implemented them yet.  I need to figure out what to take out when I put other things in and with my horribly slow internet at home, quick internet at my mom's house, printer at home and no printer at my mom's house and no flash drive to carry things back and forth, it's been kind of difficult to pull it all together.  Add to that, the fact that I've been working quite a bit on my Cafepress store when I'm at mom's and the other fact that I'm kind of a scatterbrain and the other fact, that I've been very busy and somewhere in there you have my excuse as to why I haven't changed anything yet.                                                    

Windy day.

We are supposed to have a storm today.  It's already very, very windy.   There are severe storm warnings.  I'm just trying to ignore it all and get my work done.  It's really a shame this isn't happening on Wednesday, so I could say "Happy Windsday" to people.  I miss Winnie the Pooh now that my kids are all big.  I watched a ton of it when my oldest was little.  I also watched a lot of Barney, but I can't really say that I miss him now.  Today, the kids have got dentist appointments today, for the 2 who missed going to the dentist because of aerospace camp and then I'm going to the podiatrist (my foot is better!) and then back to work.   Hopefully, I will be able to travel through this storm and get where I need to go!

A few things to supplement what we are reading.

My Side of the Mountain -Teacher Vision

Ranger's Apprentice - Teacher Vision

Animorphs Lesson Plans

Trying to write a book.

November is national novel writing month and I started one last year.  I think I got about 10 pages.  This year, I'm starting early and I'm writing a nonfiction book, not a novel.  I'm going to write a book about how to do a gluten free diet and try and self publish it.  I am going to ask my blog readers to be my cheerleaders.  Every couple of days, between now and the end of November, it would be nice if someone said "Hey, how's that book coming?" or "Still working on the book?"  I hope it will help me stay on track to get it done! 

Shopping, shopping.

One of my favorite comedians, Henry Cho, says that there is a difference between just stopping to get a few things which is "shopping" and serious shopping, which is referred to as "shopping, shopping."  My daughter and I went shopping shopping today.  We finished work and school and then went to several stores buying her some new clothes which she desperately needed, then finished up with a Friday night trip the the grocery, which I really don't recommend.  It took us 27 minutes to get the groceries gathered up from all over the store and 17 minutes to check out.  Whew.

I did save about 11 dollars with coupons I got from The Coupon Clippers though. :D

As usual, rethinking.

I'm thinking about readjusting our school schedule.   Again.   The thing is we're just not getting some things done and they bug me being on the schedule and not getting done so I am going to have to either take them off or get busy doing them.  Nine times out of ten, probably the reason we don't get them done is that I don't feel like it.  Yes, frequently it is Mom who has the attitude problem.  The kids will do it if I tell them they have to.   We are getting the basics in, but sometimes the extras get pushed aside and procrastinated about.  Today I don't feel all that great because I have a headache and an inner ear infection but I did read part of My Side of the Mountain which we need to read for our Bring a Book To Life field trip next month.   We were also supposed to sand the woodworking project chair, but we couldn't find sandpaper so we didn't.  Sometimes I feel that if I were a good homeschool teacher, I'd know where the sandpaper is but I've just got to work with what I've got. limited attention span, limited time and sometimes limited ambition.  Ah well.  Most of it gets done and the basics are always covered in the first 2 days of the week.  That makes me feel somewhat better.

Nothing really

exciting happened today.  I worked.  The kids did school.  I got a lot of calls made that I needed to make.  I'm helping to plan a field trip for next month so I did some planning for that.  I did some grocery shopping for Mom while the kids were at youth group. I cooked steak, potatoes and corn in the crock pot again.  This is the kind of day you long for when you're having one of those awful, eventful days, like you're in the hospital ER or something.  It was a pretty good day.

Another busy day in the neighborhood.

I worked this morning and now I'm getting ready for 4H today. We're doing a lesson on cooking and we're going to cook the 3 minute chocolate cake in a mug recipes and I'm going to throw in some lessons on kitchen safety and manners.  Hopefully it will be fun and educational at the same time.  The day is only about 1/3 over and I'm tired already.  It has something to do with typing a bunch of operative reports very quickly with a headache this morning.   :-P

Yesterday, we went to the doctor that referred my son to the surgeon just to see what he thought about the healing timeline for his ankle.   He reassured us that these things take time and that it shouldn't feel 100% yet.  He also thinks my son my have tendonitis too and put him on treatment for that.   Hopefully that will help. 

Small World.

Last week we got Season 6 of House M.D. on DVD.  Since we don't have broadcast TV anymore because of the digital TV thing that went into effect last year, we watch whole series at one time from Netflix.  Anyway, on the show they were talking about other hospitals in the area and they mentioned the one I used to work at in New Jersey.  Such a small world.  Now I work at a hospital in Florida.  I have always lived here in Kentucky, but I have worked at hospitals all over the country in my 16 years as a medical transcriptionist.   I wish I had been able to personally travel and visit all the states I've worked in.  That would be quite a road trip.  

.Monday ramblings.

Uh oh.  I can't find my calendar this morning.  I think my son has an appointment with the orthopedist today. Okay, I found it. Yes, he does.  We're actually going to get a second opinion on whether the amount of pain my son is still experiencing is normal.  My own foot is not hurting in the same place, but is still tender, so I guess we'll limp in there together later today.  Meanwhile, we've got work and school.  Fall break is over and we've got to get going again.  I'd kind of like to take a second week of break from school and get a bunch of home improvement projects done while the weather is nice, but I don't know if we'll be able to stand on our feet that long?  So I guess we'll just do school and regular work.  I've still got a little bit of planning to do for 4H tomorrow and I just got an email letting me know that there is no work in my hospital yet this morning, so I think I'll look up some things for 4H a little before I go to work.  Nothing exciting so far today, but sometimes that is a good thing.

The woodworking project.

This is the chair my husband and kids made for woodworking.  Now we just need to sand and paint it.
I want another one.  Hint.  Hint.

I should also point out that we got the woodworking plans free from http://ana-white.com/.

A few pictures from our week.

A picture of the farm/orchard we went to, Hinton's Orchard in Hodgenville.

Freckles is getting ready for halloween.  She is not happy about it.

10 dollars and 40 cents worth of food.  Note the gluten free cake and baking mixes. 

The adventures of Frankencorn.

The corn maze key at the orchard.  Pretty cool that they do a picture.

Frankencorn on the van.  See my daughter holding the camera in the reflection.

Good day today.

We had a good day today.  I got my work done in record time this morning and we went on a trip with our homeschool group to the orchard/pumpkin patch - the same one we went to last year.  We really had a good time and it was quite a bit less expensive than I thought it was going to be, an added bonus.  I love that place and I love my homeschool group.  Then, on 2 friends recommendations, we checked out a local salvage grocery store.  Wow was it great.  I got all kinds of gluten free flour, crackers, pasta, cereal and other things, 3 whole bags full for 10 dollars!  I'll share a picture tomorrow when I'm at my mom's house and have my camera cord. (This picture is our pumpkin in the maple tree from earlier this summer).    I couldn't even have gotten the 3 boxes of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mix for 10 dollars at my regular grocery store, they are 4 dollars a box.   They are not expired and won't until after my birthday in the spring but the boxes are a tiny bit dented.   Now I am stocked up.  Cool.

Thinking.

I'm thinking today.  Can you hear the gears whirring?   I've been thinking about homeschooling while going about my Thursday chores.   It's my day off work and I always feel that I should get a ton of stuff done, but I rarely do.  I have been able to check a few things off my list.  I called the oral surgeon about the wisdom tooth extraction and we are thinking about maybe postponing that until after the first of the year so that we will have better dental insurance.  I'm not sure exactly what to do.  I need to find out if our health insurance pays for wisdom tooth extractions and go from there.  I called and scheduled dentist appointments for myself and the 2 youngest kids.  Fun, fun, fun. 

I've taken the garbage down, made a grocery list and gathered coupons and also have been planning 4H for next week.  It's supposed to be home-ec but we've got some boys in there who are afraid it will be too feminine for them, so I'm thinking of doing something on the science of cake baking and bake a cake in a mug.  Can't go wrong with chocolate cake, can you?  We might also make some ice cream. That's science-y too, right?  And yummy.  My sweet tooth is working a bit overtime this week, can you tell?  I found a recipe called "fudge pie" and modified it to be gluten free and  have made it twice this week.   Oh my goodness it is good.   There is a lot of butter in it and it's terrible for you and I really  need to stop making it but before I do, I'll share the yumminess and the fatteningness with all of you.  I found it on All Recipes

Fudge Pie.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup gluten free Bisquick.
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Beat together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, butter or margarine, eggs and vanilla in a medium-size bowl.   Put in pie pan you've sprayed with non-stick spray.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until set. Allow to cool to room temperature. 

Fudge pie relates somewhat to what I've been thinking about as well.  I've been reading the homeschooling book and trying to come up with a way to describe it that is unique and I've thought about nutrition.  We can feed our kids all kinds of junk and they still will grow because that's what kids do, and we can put them in a poor educational environment and they still will grow up but is that what's best for them?   I can't figure out how to express it well.  I'd like to condense it into a memorable quote.  Can anyone help me out here?

In looking around I did find a homeschooling quote that I like very much.

Home schooling is a very old way of doing things. If you look at any of the bills in your wallet or the coins in your pocket, they all have a picture of a homeschooler on them. - William Lloyd

We are taking a tiny fall break, yesterday and today.  We're doing well with the number of school days and right on target to be halfway done by Christmas, if nothing comes up, which it probably will ... 

Books about homeschooling.

This is the one I am currently reading.  It is great.  I keep meaning to share some quotes but I have been too lazy to do all that extra typing outside of work where I type all day.  If you want to read some of their writing online, here's a link to their blog.  Homeschooling, A Family's Journey.


















I haven't read this one yet, but it looks fascinating.  I'm thinking of asking my library to buy it.  This works well for me because our library seems to have a good-sized budget and I don't.  Also, books I probably only want to read once don't end up cluttering my house and other people get a chance to read them if the library buys them.  So it's a win-win-win.








A book that I have read that helped me when I was starting out.   Free Range Learning, How Homeschooling Changes Everything by Laura Grace Weldon.














A very enlightening book about our public schools.  (Schools on Trial by Nikhil Goyal)

A little bit.

Disappointing.  The sewing class, that is. My daughter made a bracelet and a purse size tissue cover.  In 4 hours.   I think probably we won't join the 4H sewing class that begins in January unless they do an advanced one.  We'll just continue to homeschool sewing.  What she knows now she's learned from her Dad and me and both grandmas and that seems to be working just fine.

The boys stayed home and did school after all.  I bounced around between work and the doctor's office, goodwill, the library and 4H all day long.  The good news about the doctor visit is that I got the cast off my foot (yay!) but I did get a steroid shot into my tendon.  Now it's kind of throbbing, but hopefully will feel much better in the near future.  

Trying Tuesday.

So far, today's been kind of trying.  I can't seem to get my lines done and there is another 4H camp this afternoon, a sewing camp that my daughter is going to participate in.  Then I have a follow up visit with the podiatrist to see how my foot has progressed.  Then I have to pick my daughter up.  I would like to get my minimum lines done in the next 30 minutes before I have to get on the road, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

I'm not sure what to do about the boy's school this afternoon since she's doing a special project but I guess I'll just figure it out as I go.  As usual.  Playing it by ear.

I had

so many plans for what I was going to do today after I dropped off my oldest at his discussion group.  I was going to go to some of the stores we don't have in our small town like Hobby Lobby and Whole Foods.   However, the way things worked out, I had to pick the younger 2 up directly from 4H day camp and they were hot, exhausted and hungry, so we went to Taco Bell instead of all the other places I was going to go.  When they first got in the van and realized that we had a long drive ahead, they whined about it.  I told them to go to sleep and they said indignantly that they couldn't sleep in the van!  Five minutes later, I checked my rear view and they were both out like a light.  They aren't used to getting up at the homeschooler's crack of dawn (8:00 am).  :-) 

From what I hear, 4H camp was very, very cool.

Manic Monday.

So far, it's been a crazy day today. All 5 of us had dentist appointments this morning but due to a lack of communication between my husband and me, I had scheduled the 2 younger kids for a 4H day camp today.  I had to get up and have them at the 4H office by 9, rush the 10 or so miles home, pick up the big boys and we went to the dentist.  We were in the dentist's office for almost 2 hours, for cleanings.  Good grief.  Then, it's back home then back  out again almost immediately to get to my mom's to work, 2 hours late.  Now I've got to hurry, hurry, rush, rush to try and get my work done before I pick the younger 2 up at 4H at 3:30.

This morning I found out that I have a cavity and a filling that need to be replaced and my oldest has to have his wisdom teeth surgically removed.

Joy.

It's fall break this week for the public school kids and my kids did find out so we make take a couple of days.   We've got 2 4H camps this week and a field trip so we will be doing some schoolish things.  Wednesday and Thursday, we might be so tired, we just lie around like vegetables all day.

Whew.

The homeschool week - in summary.

We did okay with homeschooling this week.  It may be because I lowered my standards to just 'mostly' done.  The math is all done.  The grammar, biology and writing are done.  Some little extra things like watching a DVD on Friday did not get done, but we did extra work on nutrition this week.  We've come to the part of the nutrition unit where they are learning how many calories they need in a day and how many they are taking in, so they are keeping calorie records and that has extended into the weekend.  I made Cowboy Stew today from the Crockpot 365 site and the first thing my youngest asked, was "how many calories does this have?" 

Saturday.

I'd be more excited about Saturday if I didn't have to work, but it's okay.  Work is going really well today.  My first hour I did 302 lines.  My company expects 125 lines per hour, so that was a really good hour for me.  Unusual, but I don't mind.  This way, I get done and have most of the day ahead of me, to do what, I'm not sure.
With no school today I'm not sure what we will be doing.  I wish I was one of those people who would make a plan and stick to it.  I have a friend who can tell you exactly what she's going to be doing on any given day, as in, I can't go Tuesday because I'll be mowing the lawn, cleaning the baseboards and ironing the sheets, but I'll be done by 3:15 if you want to go then.   Even if she's sick she sticks to her schedule and gets it all done, whereas I will use any excuse not to do what I need to do.  I wonder if there's any hope I'll ever get organized?

A funny from the skating rink last night.

At the end of the night, we were cleaning up cups and things and one of the moms asked her son repeatedly if he cared if she threw away his drink which was half full.  She couldn't get his attention.  Finally, he said "I don't care."  Then she threw it away and then he continued his sentence "because that's not mine.".  LoL.  We're not sure whose drink she threw away.  :-P

Handwriting progress.

This is my youngest son's writing before and after a couple of months of occupational therapy.  It's not perfect in the second one, but it's way better.  I should note that the numbers in the first example were written by someone else, either me or my daughter.

Mua--ha-ha.

This is the phenonomen that has taken over our house since I bought window markers the other day, the adventures of Franken-Corn, who is apparently a genetically modified candy corn.

It's on our van but I couldn't get a good picture of  it there, so I asked her to draw it on paper for me.  I am driving around with the most interesting van in the area, that's for sure.

I hate to speak too soon, but

I think the new schedule changes I made this week are working.  I haven't heard any math whining this week and the house is staying pretty clean and orderly - I mean, for our house.  The living room looks fine.  The bathroom is clean.  So theoretically, if someone stopped by to visit and then asked to use the bathroom, we'd be okay.  The kitchen is the type of mess probably only a homeschooling family would make it.  I thought about taking some pictures last night of the kitchen table which contains library books, nutrition unit study pages and a couple of science experiment balloons among other things -- a lot of other things.  :-P   Not to worry, today is cleaning day.  It should look okay by this evening.

Today is my day off and now with therapy cancelled for this afternoon, I'm looking at the whole day getting to participate in our homeschool!  I was thinking yesterday that I would have been so jealous of my kids if I had grown up with them - me in school and hating it and not having enough time to read and not enough library visits and they get to read a ton and go to the library about twice a week.  Wow.  To me, school was just an interruption of perfectly good reading time.  Actually, I think they feel the same way, but they have less actual hours of school due to not having to wait on everyone else to get done. 

I've actually been reading a bit myself again, nonfiction.  I go through phases of enjoying fiction and then sometimes I just don't.  Right now I'm reading Homeschooling A Family's Journey by Gregory and Martine Millman.  Very good reading so far.Homeschooling: A Family's Journey

Even more randomness.

My mind is going in thousands of directions at the same time today, so I'm just going to share in no particular order.

My youngest son "graduated" from his occupational therapy for his handwriting.  The therapist says that all he needs now is practice.  I hope she's right and we don't run into continuing issues with reversals but I am also relieved because this will free up several hours a week for me taking him to therapy. 

My oldest son passed his driver's permit exam yesterday.  When he first turned 16, he didn't really care about it, then he decided he was ready, then broke his ankle and that ordeal went on for months and then we went to test it and they told us that he'd actually get it sooner, because of Kentucky's graduated license laws, if he just waited until he was 18 and he would omit one of the 6 month waiting periods.  So that's what we did.  Now we just need to get him added to our insurance (there go groceries!) and try and teach him to drive. 

My daughter finished her hammock chair and my husband hung it up.  I'd share a picture but I don't have any with me since I'm posting from the library.  It's cool.  I would have loved to have one when I was her age.

School's going okay.

Work's going okay.

My foot still hurts and that's frustrating since I was planning to do a ton of walking once the weather got cooler.  I can really sympathize more with my son now with his 14 weeks of non-weight-bearing.  I would have been really grouchy, but then I would have still had a bunch of responsibilities that he does not have. 

I only have 2 minutes remaining of my library computer time so I'd better go.  I've got to go to Walmart, then it's off to pick up the kids and return them all back home ... sometimes I feel that I live in the van.

New, new schedule thoughts.

It's always a balancing act around here, trying to get it all in.  I think I've pretty much given up on ever getting it all done in any given week, we just do the best we can.  I did go ahead and change my oldest son's math to every day at his request, I changed the chores so that each person has rotating daily chores, list A, list B, list C and so one day a kid might be doing a load of laundry, unloading the dishwasher and feeding the pets and the following day, he or she might be sweeping the living room, cleaning their room for 15 minutes -- you get the idea.  I personally think it will work better because they'll know what they need to do and not have to wait around for me to come home and tell them.   So now we'll see, with this system, if we get any closer to getting it all done with a minimum of whining.  That is the goal.

This is the view today out of my 'office' window, the den at my mom's house.

It's beginning to look like fall around here.

\

The first 2 of these pictures were taken in my mom's yard.  The second 2 are of a leaf that blew into my van one day when I was parked at my mom's and left the window open.  Is it just us or does it look oddly like an owl on a branch?

Ideas.

We discussed the schedule a little bit today. The 2 younger kids like it fine just the way it is.  They like being done with math on Monday.  They are doing Life of Fred so they don't really mind math this year.  The oldest is doing both Algebra 2 with Teaching Textbooks and Life of Fred Geometry and doing a week's worth of math in both subjects on Monday is just too much for him.  I have some concerns about the chore distribution and I'm still not sure what to do about freebies.

Anyway, we are going to change oldest son's math to every day and do chore lists that are a bit more specific than what are doing now and that's all we're going to change for the time being.  Otherwise, the block schedule is mostly working. 

Tweak!

Yes, it's that time.  The public school kids are going on fall break and I'm not mentioning it to my kids.  What they don't know won't hurt them.  Right?   We may take a short break and we may not..  I really hate to mess up our momentum.  Anyway, the schedule is working okay but we're not getting in everything every day and it seems like we are always rushing off to do something.  I like most of the things that we are running off to do, so  I need to figure out how to make sure the basics are covered before we go and that no one is using a freebie for something that is not optional ... and all that.  I also want to make sure the kids are getting time to work on their own projects.   It seems a little overwhelming when I begin, but I can usually come up with something that will work -- at least for a while until something changes and I need to tweak it again.  This year's schedule has been an experiment with the block scheduling and with me working in the mornings and out of the house but I think it's going to be okay.  We'll manage it.  We just need to tweak it a little.  :-)

So, today.

We went to the  Frazier International History Museum.   We were there to learn about armor through the ages and I think everyone enjoyed it.   It was a rush to get there in time after work and afterwards, my foot really hurt from all the walking and I needed to sit for a while but it was worth it.  I don't have any pictures because on the way down there, we saw an unusual car and I had my oldest son take a picture of it. Then, instead of putting the camera back in my purse or handing it back to me, he put the camera in the floor of the van and left it there.  It's a shame too because I could have taken some really good pictures, especially later on, in the gift shop when everyone was trying on hats.  Oh well.

Can you all believe it's already October?

I can't.  I seem to have issues overall with how quickly the time seems to pass.  I had a good day off yesterday, got a little housework done and got school done and then had a Mom's night out.  We had a great time, despite the fact that our waitress was really pretty rude.  The company of the other moms was, as always, good.  We enjoy getting out away from the kids and talking about things. 

Today, we get to see them again, as we have a short field trip/class this afternoon, which I will tell you all about later.  I'm trying to get work done in a hurry this morning so I won't have to come back after the class and work again.