More. Fun.

About 10 years ago, my parents gave my kids a bounce house thing.  It's one of those inflatable things with a fan/motor that keeps it inflated.  I don't know what the official name of it is, but we have sure gotten their money's worth out of it.  I'm pretty sure mom picked it up on clearance.  For years, we have used it occasionally in the living room, taken it to parties where there will be small children, etc.  It has been great for ending a bad mood.  A few months ago I loaned it to my sister-in-law, thinking she could probably keep it till I had grandkids.  Her kids are 4 and 6.  Then yesterday when I got home from the party, it was in my living room.  She had brought it back.  My first thought was that I'd probably take it to Hallelujah-Ween and then put it in storage, but my kids, ages 14 and 16 have been playing with it for 2 hours this afternoon.  They play a lot like they did at 4 and 6.  The only difference is their vocabularies are more sophisticated.  They use phrases like surface area, distribution of weight and disproportionate in between the giggles and screams.  It's pretty hilarious.
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Good and busy.

We had a nice day yesterday.  We went to the state park for free, which was fun.  Then we went to a fish fry at our church.  In between I worked at my job and I didn't get finished until after 9 last night but we had a good time.  Today I have so much I need to do.  So, so much.  I need to go to the grocery, I need to clean my house.  I want to go and visit with my mom today.  I need to get my hair cut.  I seriously need to return books to the library.  Everything is overdue and the fines are going up as we speak.   My youngest has lost 2 books, which he says is not his fault, but I just paid to replace a book a couple of months ago and I'm sick of it and am considering taking the drastic step of grounding him from the library for a couple of weeks.  I kind of think he might drive us all insane if I do that - the boy is like that robot from Short Circuit back in the 80s, remember that?  Need input!  Need input!  So I hesitate to ground him from his books for the rest of our sanity's sake, but he needs to learn to keep up with the books better! 

Starting to look like fall.

Is this the prettiest poison ivy you've ever seen or what?

Oldest Son's Birthday.

Yesterday, my oldest son, who now is in Mississippi, 9 hours away, in college, had his 20th birthday.   We went about our business throughout the day, but it felt kind of weird not having him here.  He didn't really make much of an appearance on Facebook (which seems to be his preferred method of communication right now) and we called him last night and sung happy birthday last night but we had to sing it to his cell phone's voice mail.  Then, this morning, he was on Facebook and told me that he gotten our message too late to call back last night, because his new friends had taken him out for pizza at the Mellow Mushroom for his birthday and he had forgotten his phone.  I'm notorious for not answering my cell phone, so I can't get mad at him for that.  I'm so glad that he had a good day, that he's happy and enjoying himself down there, and has friends who care enough to make his day happy.  Last week on the phone, he did admit to being a  little homesick every now and then and honestly, I'm glad about that too, because we want him to miss us and come home as often as he can.  :-P

I don't think he reads my blog from there but I'll say it anyway.  Happy Birthday!  We are proud of the young man you have become.

I really hope that he gets his web camera today and that it works and we get to do a video chat with him tonight or this weekend.  We sent him a web cam as part of his birthday package and we mailed it out last week. 

Pictures.

Zoey on the windowsill.

The kids doing a little hammock schooling. 

One of my art journal entries.

art journal

art journal

art journal

art journal

more art journal

and more

and more

and more

and more

Crochet mat that my youngest son has started.

Fingerless gloves crocheted by the girl.  She's started making crafts to sell at the craft fair in December.

Circle scarf made by the girl for the craft fair.

Another smaller circle scarf.

Chain circle scarf.  She's been really busy lately.

Storm and other things.

We had a huge storm this morning that lasted for 3 hours or so and took our electricity briefly 3 times.  Each time it did this, I lost the report I was working on and had to start again.  Freckles was terrified, literally shaking the whole time and Max was keeping me in close proximity, both of them following me to the bathroom or kitchen or wherever I happened to be going.  The teen who, as a child, was so afraid of storms that he had to go into counseling, was outside on the front porch watching it part of the time and the other one slept through the whole thing.  The boy in Mississippi apparently had sunny weather with a temperature of 92.  I say apparently, because I looked it up on the internet, not because he contacted me today.  He's been a little scarce lately in talking to us Kentuckians.  He seems to have been having a bunch of fun and he says that he's been studying a lot too.  I told him to call tonight.  Hopefully he will.  The younger 2 kids did school today without much prompting and got done pretty early, for them, about 5:00 p.m.   We ordered the Beatles Rock Band and it came today but our microphone doesn't work with it, so that was pretty disappointing.  I'll be glad when it gets here because I think I will much prefer Beatles songs to some of those ones on the original rock band.  I wonder who picked those out?  (I'm talking about Rock Band 2, the older version of the game is really cheap right now.  I picked up the Beatles for 6 bucks).   So anyway, that's what we're doing.  I hope all my bloggie buds are doing well. 

Free museum day.

Next Saturday, museums all over the country are free-ish.  You can go to this web site and print out a ticket for 2 people in your household to go for free.  I think we might check out a little local museum that we've never been to because of the cost.   Here's the link.

Some high school science and other subjects video finds.

I've found some fun things lately.  I started out looking for physics videos to replace the ones I lost in the great computer crash of 2012 and can't seem to re-download from Currclick and these are some that I found. 

These minute physics videos are very fun.
Minute Physics

These Chemistry Videos look fun although I have only watched a few.
Periodic Videos.

I haven't watched these but they look good as well.
Veritasium

Another one which seems to be about various subjects.
CGP Grey 

Last one
Smarter Every Day 

And, if you want to watch these without having to look at other videos/ads, use this link.    

Not too much going on today.

And really, that's how I like it sometimes.  Too much nothing going on and I'll get irritable and need to do something, but for little stretches here and there, I enjoy it.  The fall weather is wonderful.  I'm really enjoying it.  We're still getting tomatoes from our garden and I spent some Swagbucks today to get some flowering perennials to make the yard look better.  It's nice just to get 10 dollars in gift cards for just doing what I normally do anyway, search on the internet.  Today, we cleaned a little, played rock band a little, did school, watched a little TV, went shopping at Goodwill and Kroger, sent a package to the oldest son (He finally has at least a workable address, though not a PO box yet.) and went to see my mom.  There were a couple of things on my list I didn't get done, but I really don't care.  The housework will still be here tomorrow.  That is one thing I know for sure.

Really good day.

This has nothing to do with my post today, but isn't it a pretty shell?  We saw this in Mississippi and would have brought it home, had it not been occupied by a hermit crab.  :-)

Like I said, I think we're doing okay.  Yesterday, we had 4H with the homeschool group.  We've decided this year, that our club is going to morph from an art/cooking class to a speech and demonstration class, so that means the kids are going to do some or all of the teaching.  All of the kids in our group except one are now teens and she's almost 12, so I think they can handle it.  Yesterday, my daughter taught everyone how to crochet and got them started on making mats for the homeless.  Meanwhile, her mat after winning a blue ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair (we missed seeing it when we went up there and thought she had won a red ribbon, so we were excited to see it yesterday) is going to a reservation to serve the homeless population there.  Next month, I'm trying to talk my youngest into teaching/demonstrating something.  I'm leaning towards making him make cinnamon pancakes, because we love them and they're so easy, but we'll see.  We have a bunch of shy kids in that group, which is why we are trying this and I don't know how it will go.  Then, after our successful 4H class, we went to Wendy's to eat.  Then we came home and worked on school and work, then made pumpkin cinnamon pancakes (we may need an intervention!) then went to play Scrabble with my mom, then talked to the oldest on the phone for quite a while (he's doing fine!), then did some watching TV and art journaling.  (My fellow blogger Amy, has inspired me).  It was a very nice, very satisfying day, with good interactions with family and friends, good food and creativity.  It just was a great day. 

Adjustment period.

Mossy Mississippi trees.  I've got to admit that I find vegetation in other areas fascinating.  I'm always looking at trees when we are traveling. 

I'm sure we are going through an adjustment period around here.  The boy in Mississippi seems to be having a good time.  He's added about 25 friends to his Facebook page if that's any indication.  :-)  Here, we seem to be doing okay.  I think.  Yesterday I was talking to someone about how we had gotten off track with our renovation and hadn't done anything on the house and she asked if that was because I was depressed because of my son going to college.  I don't think I am.  I am glad he's happy there.  I do wish it were closer.  I do worry about his finances.  I do worry that his siblings miss him more than they are saying.  I really, really, really wish he'd get his mail situation straightened out (but he says that they are building onto the post office and he can't get a PO box right now), so we could sent him a web cam so we could do online chats.  I ordered him to call tonight (it's cheaper if he calls us rather than vice versa) so he can talk to everyone.  But meanwhile here, we're doing school, playing Rock Band, watching the old Dick Van Dyke show, knitting, crocheting, reading, listening to audio books, enjoying the cooler weather, cooking comfort fall foods and I think we're doing all right.  I do sometimes get depressed about my mom's health, a few other people's health, getting older, etc., ... but ignoring the housework is really not a new symptom and I think we're doing okay  :-P

College boy correspondence.

It's hard to mom from a distance.  My oldest is still needing things from me, but I'm having a hard time sending him anything because he hasn't gotten a PO box yet.  This has been 23 days and he still hasn't gotten a PO box and I can't make him do it.  It's frustrating.  Last week he told me just to go ahead and mail a package to the dorm's address and put his name and room number on it, but he still hasn't gotten it and I can't help but think it would have been faster if he'd gotten that box.

Here's my facebook message to him from Friday.

Your daily reminders.

1. Get PO box.
2. Go to FAFSA online and fill out that form.
3. Do anything else you need to do for the financial aid.
4. Work on your thank you notes this weekend.

Love,

Mom.

Projects and stuff.

Bracelet my daughter made from crocheted wire.  This one is mine.

More bracelets. 

Stick bug on window screen.

Necklace my daughter made for me.

Closeup of necklace.  She made every single chain link by hand.  Cool, huh?

My bracelet close up.  So pretty.

Nice day.

The temperatures are a little cooler around here.  Unfortunately, it has not yet inspired us to get out and do gardening and yard work.  It has, however, induced some food cravings.  Chili.  Turkey and stuffing.  Cinnamon rolls.  Pumpkin pie.  The only thing we haven't made and eaten yet is the pumpkin pie, but I can feel it coming on.  That craving.   I've gotten so much better at all of my recipes, adapting them to be gluten free.  It took a long time for me to get the chili right and now, when I am about to have my third gluten free Thanksgiving I've really gotten good at making stuffing.  Today, we made some stuffing and something else really extremely yummy, cinnamon roll pancakes.  I saw the recipe on Pinterest.  Oh my goodness.  So good and extremely easy and quick, unlike homemade cinnamon rolls. 

I really wish the fall season would inspire me to exercise, but so far, no luck.  :-)

I'm getting way better, I think at nagging parenting my oldest from so far away.  He's been doing several of the things I've been constantly reminding him about.  Unfortunately, he has not yet gotten a workstudy job and he really needs to.  He said the only jobs open right now are lab techs and other things that he's not qualified for.  I really hope something comes up soon!

My daughter is into crocheting wire into bracelets today.  I'll share some pictures when she shares some pictures.

For my nephew's 6th birthday, we used another idea from Pinterest, a build it yourself fort kit.  He seemed to like it.  I hope so. 

This is the practice fort they built at the birthday party. (at Pizza hut).

Nothing much.

We have not done anything much today.  I worked.  The kids did school.  My husband worked.  Then I took a nap.  We had leftover chili from yesterday for supper, I read a book while the kids did an obstacle course outside (youngest likes to make obstacle courses and get people to go through them), then we played a little rock band and now we are winding down in preparation for bed.  Ahh. 

I like this kind of day.  

Crocheted Lion.

This was a gift for my new niece.  My daughter made it of course.  Someday I may learn to crochet and surprise everyone.  :-)

This is the pattern book she's been using.  If you follow the link, you'll recognize the lion.

Vanna's Easy Crochet Critters book

Friday stuff.

Today, I've been doing some counseling with my oldest who is in college in Mississippi.  This is is first college experience and I think it's been kind of overwhelming.  I mentioned in another post that he was working very hard, trying to keep up.  He had one class in which the professor was assigning a couple of essays/papers every day, trying to make up lost time from the hurricane missed classes and my son just couldn't keep up with the pace.  He's also had a bunch of tests and a ton of assigned reading.  Since he also needs to do work study, I told him to go ahead and drop the one class that is distressing him so much.  The others are okay.  He can make it up later, once he gets his pace, rhythm, groove, whatever you want to call it.  I do believe he will be able to cope with it, but there's just so much for him to get used to right now.  The advisor we first talked to originally said for him to take 3 classes since they do a trimester system and their classes are more intense.  I ignored that advice and signed him up for 4 and that was a mistake.  So now maybe, he can get started on his workstudy, stop growing an ulcer and get really good grades in the classes that he is taking. 

As for us at home, we are having fun playing rock band, doing school and working.  Okay, some of that is not fun, but you know what I mean.  Switch it around.  We're doing school, working and having fun playing rock band.  That's better.  Right now we are downloading some more songs, but I sung one last night, called Psycho Killer, that had my fellow band members laughing so hard, they couldn't even finish the song.  You should have heard it.  Or maybe not if you have sensitive ears.  :-P

Ah, Thursday.

My day off.

This is where we were 2 weeks ago.

I slept in till 9:00 o'clock.  It felt good.  Now I am going to blog, check Facebook and email, watch a little bit of The Closer that I got from Netflix yesterday then tackle the housework.  I haven't got to have my Thursday to myself for a while.  Two weeks ago I was in Mississippi and then last week I was working, doing medical transcription, trying to recover from the trip and loss of my hard drive.  This week, even though I have to clean the bathrooms, I'm going to enjoy it.  :-) 

A nice day.

The dorm my son is in.

I got my work done today and then made dinner for my brother and sister-in-law who just had my new beautiful niece while I was in Mississippi.  Oh the baby is so cute and tiny and adorable!  Anyway, we took them dinner then came back and had our dinner and since then we've been playing Rock Band off and on along with doing some other things.  My daughter ordered it for her birthday on August 6 and it just came today.  I am the most uncoordinated person and my playing drums is hilarious, but it's fun.  I had quite a long chat with my college boy.  He's doing fine, but he has a lot of studying to do, an amount he is not used to since he never really worked that hard at homeschool and even that has been over a year ago.  But, he's buckling down and doing the work, so that's good.  I hope he'll be able to manage that and work study and still have enough time to have some fun.  I had fun in college and I hope that he does too.  I also hope he gets really good grades.  I think he will.  He's going to try his hardest anyway and that's all we can ask. 

Labor day.

My husband and I are celebrating labor day pretty much the way we always do, by working.  Today is also our 24th wedding anniversary, but we probably won't go out and celebrate tonight because after working 10 hours and driving 2, he doesn't usually feel much like having a party.  The kids who live here are taking the day off.  They are still sick with this cold/flu/virus, whatever they have.  The girl seems to be getting better, but the youngest is feeling pretty bad still.  So that, combined with the fact that its a holiday, inspired me to give them the day off.  The college boy is studying for a test and preparing to audition for a band tomorrow.  I talked to him this morning via Facebook.  I want to get web cams for us and him so that we can have live chats because his younger siblings don't like talking on the phone (I have no idea where they get that) and they aren't really into messaging on Facebook either, although the girl does do it some.  We're relics of the past century I guess, because none of us having texting on our cell phones.  When the girl gets her driver's license and is out and about alone, texting will be a necessity because she won't talk on the phone at all.  Until then, to cope with the boy being in Mississippi, 9 hours away, I think video chatting would be a nice option to have. 

Crochet project for a baby shower gift.

Last night my friend's daughter posted about 8:00 p.m. on Facebook, about how excited she was that her baby shower was today.  Whoops.  I looked at my daughter and said "what do you want to make?" and this is what she came up with.  It's a hippo. 

I also got a Sandra Boynton book (a lot of hers have hippos in them).  I looked for "But Not The Hippopotamus" which is a long time favorite around here, but couldn't find it.  I got "The Going To Bed Book", which I noticed that they have changed it a little since I first memorized it about 17 years ago.  :-)

Feels kind of like fall.

Both younger kids have a cold this week.  It is overcast and rainy and that makes it seem like fall.  The golden rods and asters are blooming.  The only thing is it is still really hot outside.  Maybe these hurricane leftover rains will cool it down around here.  I am kind of ready for cooler weather.   This summer I was all excited for the weather to get warm so I could get in the pool but it hasn't worked out as I planned.  I am lucky if I get in the pool once a week.  I feel guilty when I do get in there for some reason and guilty if I don't because that's where I get most of my exercise.  It's so fun being me sometimes. 

I do hope these kids get over these colds soon and my husband and I don't catch it.  :-P