More Luci-Speak

Em-bullope: A letter to Daddy goes in an em-bullope

Ellem Opie: The letters between K and Q

Troller: The thing that changes the TV channel (as in, "remote control")

The Fed-up Homeschooler's Wish List

This is funny, irreverent, and true. It's a think piece for everyone who doesn't homeschool, and one of those "Amen!" moments for those of us who do. Thanks, Abby, for sharing it first on your blog.

Luci's First Soccer Game

Today Luci woke up with a fever. I gave her some tylenol, and she perked up and thought she could play soccer. It was Luci's first ever soccer game, so she was pretty determined to get out there and play. You can tell that in some of the photos she doesn't feel all that well.

It was a lot of fun to watch. During the game a teammate named Mason hugged Luci and kissed her on the cheek! Twice!

Bryan and JT filmed the action (but missed the kisses, playing in the sand, and making faces during the kick-off) to send to John.

Kalyn!

We got to spend lots of time with Kathy, Kalyn and Jack this week. Luci and I both loved it. Here the girls are on Friday. Dressed up and taking care of babies. I love that expression on Kalyn's face! She was making faces for me all day. Luci's feet look backwards.

I'm getting married!

Luci and Kalyn at McDonald's. This was the only time they were still the entire time we were there.

Baby Jack. He is a smiler! He has tons of personality.

JT and Luci at Redstone Thursday. Luci rarely hugs the boys, so JT told me to get the camera out, quick!

Next School Year

Okay, so I am a geek or a nerd or whatever people like me are called. A geeky nerd?

I just ordered Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) for our homeschool. I got the set with all three levels, for all the children and for John and me to use. The homeschool version will track progress for each student. Buying all three levels at once is a good deal--essentially, you are getting one year free.

Luci is going to explore Mandarin Chinese with Muzzy. We will all get exposed to the Mandarin language, since I intend for us to use this in the van as well as at home. (Can you say, "Captive Audience?")

Both of those programs let you pay in several installments.

I'm excited. And yes, I have our curriculum for next year's main studies already--continuing Volume 4 of Weaver, and Volume 5 is ready to go when we complete that.

Geek for sure. I looked it up. Here.

2 out of 3 Children Agree...

Mom is mean!

Bryan's not real happy with me right now. He was too sick today to do school work or chores, so I won't let him play any video games or use his lap-top computer. B, his friend, has been pushing him to get me to let him use it so they can play games together. You should hear Bryan's side of the conversation! It is funny. "That won't work....It's not that I haven't finished the homework. She says it's because I don't feel good enough to do school or chores so I must not feel good enough to play games....She doesn't care what your mom lets you do....Stop, B, she wants to talk to you and I don't want her to...." and on it goes.

Now JT says, "Quit ruining my life." JT was told to quit playing x-box at 8:30 and be in bed at 9. Guess what he was still doing at 9? So I unplugged the modem. Now, I'm ruining his life, even though he knew the limits ahead of time.

Luci still likes me.

Warm Enough for Popsicles!

It's 73* as I write this--it was absolutely gorgeous today! I even found all natural Popsicles that are made by a national, mainstream company--Popsicles by Unilever. They are so good. It's nice being able to get a real Popsicle, instead of one of my home-made ones.

Luci the Giant. I was trying to take a photo of one of the blooming weeds (oops--I mean "wildflowers") in our yard.

At YMCA, waiting for the military support group meeting to end.

Red Maple seeds, on a tree in our backyard. This website, run by Vanderbilt University, calls the seeds "fruits"--two seeded-samaras. I didn't know the seeds were fruits. I learned something today. You can drive down the country lanes here and see trees with red somethings (turns out they are samaras). Just growing wild. Since I grew up out West, with little precipitation and few deciduous trees, the trees and the changes every season here are amazing for me to watch.

Heard This Week; and Some Thoughts

The kids were all around the table as we studied Vertebrates and Invertebrates in our Weaver science class. I asked the boys to name some common vertebrates. Luci (Luci! I didn't think she was listening) pipes up with, "Horses." Mom, directing her question to Luci: "Can you name an invertebrate? That's an animal without a backbone." Luci: "Butterflies! God made butterflies." Bryan: "What about spiders?" Luci: "Nope. God didn't make those." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is simply amazing how happy de-cluttered kitchen counters make me feel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John sleeps better when his daddy is doing well. Dad W. went home from the hospital today, with a brand new pacemaker. Thank you for your prayers for him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AT&T DSL internet connection is wonderful! Much faster than the Hughesnet connection we've had for the last four years. And we've got it bundled with our telephone, so we are actually saving some money. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Parenting Is Your Highest Calling" and 8 Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt by Leslie Leyland Fields is a good book! Thanks, Amanda, for suggesting it to me.

Our Week

Luci had her first Upward Soccer practice this evening. This is going to be a fun spring to watch 4 year old soccer players. There are 8 kids on this team--7 of them are BOYS. On the way home, I asked Luci how many girls there were on her team. "Two." Who's the other girl? "She's from China, too." Turns out she was talking about Crystal, her coach, who is not from China but has lovely black hair just like Luci's.
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I took (dragged, really) the boys with us to soccer. Good thing! They were able to demonstrate some things for the kids and chase after children who wandered off (Luci was one of the wanderers!).
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Jumping for joy! Following directions. With her coach, Crystal. This soccer program is an outreach of our church. It is such a good thing! If you have Upward sports in your area, check it out!

John had a St. Patrick's Day party this week. Of course, he wore plenty of green. Ha ha. No choice in that.

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John and horseshoes. Neat photo, huh? Notice he has his weapon on...watch out, bad guys! He's a good shot with the weapon and with horseshoes.

John took a combat lifesaver course and part of that was learning to start an IV. Here he is after successfully completing this task. They all had to practice on each other. John got 100% on his test! YAY, John!

Please keep John's dad, Olen, in your prayers. He is having a pacemaker put in tomorrow or Saturday. Thanks!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Luci's ready! But she's somewhat confused. She'll tell you it's "Patrick's Day, but not the Patrick on Sponge Bob Squabby Pants!"
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We're having chili today. Not very Irish, I know, but we'll also make some White Soda Bread from the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.

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Are you doing anything fun today? Making a special dinner? I'd love to hear what you have planned.

It's the little things, really.

I get to go grocery shopping BY MYSELF this afternoon! I'm feeling kind of giddy about the prospect!

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How sad is that?

This is not me, of course. It's Jennifer Garner, big movie star. I love this photo because she looks so doggoned real.

Photo from here.

What Does God Look Like? and other stuff

Luci knows! Here's the latest rendition: God wears "Bible clothes" and has "kinda long hair" and carries a shepherd's crook. Tonight at church we saw Luke with his parents. Here's Jud with Luci and Luke. John works with Julie (Luke's mommy) when he's stateside.

Luci's looking demure in her "Southern Belle in training" t-shirt.

Some School

I am loving the Weaver curriculum. We have covered more history and science than ever. And even Luci can take part in the lessons! That is fun. We try to start out with things nice and tidy, but "stuff" takes over. Here on the table is Luci's lunch, the map pencils and markers, school papers and books. This isn't school, but I thought it was cute. Luci watching TV.

Some Photos I Like

I have a point and shoot camera. It's a pretty nice one, but it does not have a lens you can manipulate and do the "portrait" thing. I have a theory about taking photos of the kids, scenery, what's going on, etc: Take enough, and you might have one or two that actually turn out well. Every once in a while, I think wow, it would be really nice to have a camera that will let me do what Katie Bug's mom and Mommy24Treasures do (well, maybe with dreaming I could do that). But if I'm honest with myself, I would never ever take the time to learn real photography and do it well. So, I'll keep my money a little longer and keep this camera.

Here are a few photos I really like. The first two were taken Monday at Constitution Village (out of 201 photos!). The third was taken in September, 2008.



and of course, I have to include the "Spork" photo.

Monday

Today we met up with Kristi and her family--Kristi is a Feingold mom and is homeschooling. We took the kids to Constitution Village for their Alabama History workshop for homeschoolers. It was a lot of fun and I think the kids even learned something. Here are all of the kids together...Bryan, Luci, JT, Sam, and Nick. (See, Kristi, I remembered which one is Sam!) I put all the photos together because each one seems to show the personality of the kids. They were all hilarious! Kristi, you have two smart boys!

Here are (mostly) my kids...waiting in line at the "Necessary House"...doing sums on a slate...Bryan posing behind the girl's cut-out...JT participating in a duel, and doing surveying work.

Afterwards I took Bryan, JT and Luci to the Space and Rocket Center. Luci was relieved she wasn't tall enough for Space Shot...JT and Bryan challenged themselves on the Mars Wall Climb...Luci was relieved that Mickey Mouse does not live there...and we all melted in the 83* heat!

Finally, an editorial on "The Financial Situation" that will make you laugh.

BROKE TO THE BREAKING POINT

Written by Cindy Adams

New York Post
Last updated: 4:53 amMarch 8, 2009

Posted: 4:29 amMarch 8, 2009

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I HAVE decided Washington needs my help. I at least know about paying taxes, which is more than our treasury secretary does.

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I mean, what did I miss? What happened? This country grows wheat. It produces food. Our cows are contented. How did we get broke?

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In the old days the American business plan always worked. A guy with creative math manufactured an item for $1. He sold it for $4. He'd say, "You think 3 percent is bad?" So what went wrong?

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Industry, thanks to our ever-increasing tax structure, is leaving the country. An American entrepreneur comes up with a new idea then a month later the Japanese reinvent it and the Chinese sell it to us cheaper. A businessman can't win anymore. He does something wrong, he's fined. Does something right, he's taxed.

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A few minutes ago the folks who ran AIG were so rich they had their gums capped. Come April 15 we'll now be able to list that place as a charitable deduction. It's become a nonprofit organization.

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Noah was probably the last smart financier. Who else could float a company when the whole world was in liquidation.

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And the whole time TV's know-it-alls, who are fighting with their bosses to earn more than minimum wage, are spouting stuff like: "Commodity fluctuations multiplied by inflationary pressures complicated by international imbalances intensified by political tensions are what's causing our financial instability." Hey, if they don't know, why don't they just say they don't know?

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Everyone's kaput and yet the president says we're on the right road and business is booming. Must be he has a better location.

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The recession's so bad even plumbers are now flying economy. When I started checking into it I was told all this talk about soaring prices of meat and milk and bread is pure propaganda. Sure. Circulated by people who eat. What it really means is your savings won't buy as much today as it did when you originally didn't have any. Or, to put it another way, after you get enough to buy something, it isn't enough. My nephew said to me: "I put some money together to buy my wife a mink. Wasn't what she wanted but I couldn't afford to get her a pot roast."

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A dressmaker I know complains that longtime customers aren't altering new clothes. Why? They aren't buying new clothes. They love her work but she's now not getting work. She didn't invest with Bernie Madoff and doesn't understand how come she suddenly has no money. And her husband asked the paymaster in his plant, "Where's my paycheck?" The cashier explained, "After deducting withholding, state tax, city tax, Social Security, retirement fund, unemployment, insurance, hospitalization, our dental plan and group life insurance, you actually owe us $14.95."

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So I asked this couple: "Are you saying you can no longer live within your income?" And they replied: "You kidding? It's all we can do to live within our credit."

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I met a cloak-and-suitor who was told that if he wanted to survive he had to give up wine, women and song. Told not by his doctor - by his accountant.

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Nobody can afford anything. No wonder Michelle Obama's dresses don't have sleeves.

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Our economy is not in a coma. Our legislators are. The stimulus package they need is in the brain or other unused parts. Handing $800 billion to one company, $765 trillion to another. And a buck and a quarter to each American. I mean, where's all this money headed? It can't all be going to our government officials!

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Everything's tied into this stimulus. Coffee's a stimulant. Booze is a stimulant. Drugs are a stimulant. What Washington's stimulating is rage. The subway fare's going up, the jobs are going down. With today's price of postage it costs more to mail this stimulus than the person gets. Congress should announce: "We are now spending $3 to let you know you'll be receiving $2." And I figured out why it's so expensive to send out that letter. The postage is only 42 cents but it's $4 for storage. In terms of mail delivery, if not for ESP none of us would ever hear from anybody.

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But back to our economy. As I think about it, you can't trust bankers in any case. They can't count. If they could, they wouldn't always have eight teller windows and two tellers.

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I understand the economy is grim. Remember Alan Greenspan? The man hasn't smiled since his bar mitzvah and as near as I can figure that's about when we had The Great Crash.

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And the problem is global although other countries have their own particular problems. Like take Cuba - please! The island's in the Caribbean, the government's in Moscow and the people are in Miami. And the Middle East? Hezbollah officials just released a cable that went to Ahmadinejad saying, "Keep up the good work. You're my kind of guy. Signed, 'Khadafy.' "

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Who I really feel sorry for are the muggers. So few people have cash these days.

Spring Forward! We did, did you?

John thinks I get this big, old bed all to myself. He is somewhat jealous, since he has a skinny, lumpy cot. Here is what I usually find when I wake up in the morning: company! On Sunday mornings when the kids won't get up, I sing this Irving Berlin song--

Oh! How I hate to get up in the morning,
Oh! How I'd love to remain in bed!
Someday I'm gonna murder the pup--
the guy who gets the bugler up--
And then,
Spend the rest of my days in bed!

Interesting bit about the song from here:

Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 that gives a comic perspective on military life. Berlin composed it while serving as a sergeant in the United States Army during World War I and used it in a show called Yip Yip Yaphank that he wrote and produced with an all-soldier cast to raise funds for a new building at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York "There were a lot of things about army life I didn't like", said Berlin, "and the thing I didn't like most of all was reveille."

My method is to keep singing, getting more out of tune and silly as the verse repeats, until everyone is up.

Sorry about all the changes....

I wanted the picture of the Chinese Bouyei village to show in its entirety, so I changed the blog look for about a week. Now we are back to the old view, which I like better. And changed from blue (John's favorite color) to green, in a nod to Spring and St. Patrick's Day.

Wish Blogger had a bunch of templates to choose from, as Vox Blogs do. That would be so much more fun.

Spielberg and Lucas, Take Notice!

Bryan and JT had two boys from church spend the night last night. I looked out the back window today and saw four young, costumed filmmakers heading down to the creek. They look like they might be working on a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings re-make. Lots of fun!

Good Friends!

We were invited to Lori's house last Wednesday. It was so fun! Her kids and my kids are different ages but they get along so well (a bonus that many homeschoolers know about). Another bonus of homeschooling: you can plan your schooling around your visits! I love that!
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JT and Nathan played and JT got an up-close view of Nathan's pet lizard. I am clueless about lizards and don't know exactly what kind it is. Pretty exciting stuff for JT.
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Casey was so sweet with Luci. Casey has some gorgeous baby dolls. Luci had a blast playing with them, and doing "real baby stuff" with the dolls--including applying lotion and using some cute baby bottles filled with a mixture of water and white glue. They looked like they had real milk in them, and were tightly sealed. Clever!
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I got the best part of the visit...a real, live grown-up friend to talk to! Lori and I had fun talking about everything. She even has a little school house in the back yard--that was so neat to see!
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My house next time, Lori!

My, Look How They've Grown!

John was at the Ka bul, Af ghan istan's office of the Corps of Engineers when it was made an official branch of the Corps. Here is the official photo from March, 2004. John is right in the middle.

This is from the 5 year anniversary, taken early this week. I had a hard time finding John in this photo, but Luci found him right away!
Nice coincidence that John was there at the beginning of this office, and there again. There is one other person in both photographs, too--and I'm sorry I cannot remember his name.

A Bouyei Village in Guizhou

Recently a friend (hi, Don!) asked about Bouyei. Here is a village in China that is Bouyei--that's Luci's minority. Sometimes when you travel, you get where you're going and things look not too differently than what you left at home. When we got off the plane in Guizhou, we were surrounded by karst mountains such as these. It was quite satisfying, somehow, to know that we were "in a foreign place."
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More information on Bouyei and other people groups
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photo info:

Shitoucun,Longtanzhen,Guizhou,China.jpg‎ (800 × 600 pixels, file size: 114 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

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Bouyei minority Shi tou village, west Guizhou (near Longgong caves), China. Taken by Ariel Steiner.

Thank Goodness!

Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint

At least he spent his own money on the study.

More Luci-Speak

Heard today:

When I play soccer, I am going to be a good spork.this photo was from a year ago, but too cute to pass up!

A Baseline

Just when I think we are moving right along average with these kids, one of them will do something that makes me wonder what is percolating inside their cute little heads.
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Luci has drawn two pictures this week that have a baseline in them. A grounding. Something for the object drawn to sit upon. I remembered Dr. Faye Doran's class at Harding and wow, got excited for Luci. Luci is four years and just barely four months. Baselines come along for 5 and 6 year olds, in normal, untaught development. I saw her first drawing and tried to not get excited...but two in the space of two days, well! Way to go, Luci!
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Introduction of the Baseline

Snow!

We got some of that snow you've seen on the news. It was lovely, and gone by noon. It's still pretty cold outside, but you can't keep snow around when the sun is shining. I woke the kids up early this morning to play in the snow, before getting ready for church. But it was too cold to stay out! You can see Luci below, complaining to me that Bryan won't help her build a snowman. The boys did build something for me, though. Yesterday I found these little shelving "cubicle" things at Target--on clearance, you can't beat that! They all worked hard and now the cube things are holding some essential toys in the living room.