Happy Birthday Katie!

Happy Birthday to our little blond princess! It's been a wonderful 17 years. I can't express the joy that your dad and I have felt as we watched you turn into a poised, happy, industrious, young adult. You have faced physical challenges and overcome obstacles with grace and good humor.

What beverage?

We stopped at a fast food restaurant over the weekend. One of my children remembered when he was learning to read, still at the stage of sounding out each word. The cashier asked what he wanted to drink. He responded "Hick." Neither the cashier nor myself could figure out what he meant. Finally he walked me to a self-serve drink dispenser and pointed to the sign that read "Hi C."

Air Soft War

Steve went off for an weekend war using air soft guns. There is a group of boys who he regularly plays war with and everyone always has a good time. Saturday, I received a phone call from Steve informing us that his tooth had been shot off. His left front incisor. O happy day! (note the sarcasm dripping from that expression.)

When the boys got into air soft guns we talked about safety. Simple rules like "don't shoot someone in the face", "shoot from a safe distance", "wear safety glasses." As the guns got more powerful we added the rule of always wearing their safety helmets. Steve found that he couldn't read the sights on his sharp shooter if he wore his safety helmet. We argued. He said that he would wear a cloth mask. I thought a cloth mask wouldn't provide enough protection. Mike over-ruled my decision.

We now have a VERY expensive dental bill 1 month before the on-slought of Christmas and 3 birthdays. We want to move in January and still need to purchase flooring for the entire house. One adult in this household is unhappy. She's biting her tongue and won't say "I told you so" to her wonderful husband. But a discussion on air soft safety will be coming and before anyone goes off to play air soft war again.

Friendship

It's been several months since I have taken any time to regularly converse with friends, let alone spend an afternoon visiting with one. Last week, I selfishly spent one morning and one afternoon with a friend. (Melinda, I still NEED to see you soon!) It was such a nice change.

Wednesday morning, a friend who will live 20 minutes away after we complete our upcoming move came by with her two daughters and her youngest son. Madelyn had such a good time connecting with her friends! Of course, I enjoyed chatting with a similarly-minded adult.

Watching the girls enjoy the morning together made me think about the different friends that we will leave behind. Madelyn has a variety of playmates near our current home, but none of these relationships have the uncomplicated friendship that she enjoys with her homeschooled friends. I've noticed that the neighborhood children spend a lot of time and energy competing with each other to be "top dog" in the neighborhood pack. The neighborhood children also try to control the acceptability of other friends. one girl frequently remarks that if you are her friend, you are not allowed to play with certain other children. She also threatens to punish individuals if she is not obeyed. Her parents and teachers call her a leader. She doesn't lead; she dominates.

I realize that many people consider this girl's behavior a normal stage of child development, but I disagree. Almost all of the homeschooled children of my acquaintance don't behave in this manner. They have been taught to think about other people's needs and feelings. They are taught this behavior through observing their parent's social interactions and through discussions with their parents. This is NOT to say that all children who attend traditional schools are mean dictators who try to run everyone else's lives.

It's possible that the children who treat others with respect do so because they value the time that they spend with their peers. My children don't spend 8 continuous hours with the same group of children each day. They are all involved in various activities and lessons with other children. Our home tends to be the place where the neighborhood children hang out, so we see a lot of kids everyday. But the time that is spent with friends is cherished as a special time during the day. Just as I cherish an afternoon gab session with my friends.

I've been contemplating sending my children to public school next year to give me a semester or year long break AND to give my children an opportunity to meet friends in our new town. The local homeschool group would not be a good group for my family. There are too many religious differences, the group is very structured, and the group primarily does classes. I don't need classes. We are almost always disappointed in classes that we take from homeschool parents. Either there is not enough depth in the subject offered or the instructor uses the class as an opportunity to convert my children to the instructor's religious beliefs. (Sorry to go off on a tangent.) There are a number of non-academic benefits that my children have gotten from homeschooling. One of the simplest is to treat others politely. Just because that's what friends do.

Sewing Projects

Yesterday was spent in the sewing area completing some Christmas gifts and household items. Here's what was accomplished:

1 lined kitchen curtain with rick-rack edging for the new house.
1 lined dining room curtain with piped edges for the new house.
1 pair of pajamas for Mike for Christmas (I think they will be too large).
2 Christmas kitchen towels.


2 kitchen towels for the new house.


1 nightgown for Allie for Christmas.


I plan to get a lot more gifts completed today. There is only three more weeks before I pack up the sewing supplies until the new year. It's too stressful to try and sew and do all the Advent and Christmas activities.

Hover-craft Project

The kids watched an old episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy a few weeks ago. The show talked about how air is a fluid and used a hover-craft as one of the many examples. Joe was intrigued with the thought of making a personal hovercraft, powered by a leaf blower. He's been nagging me to build one ever since.

We've been a little busy trying to complete projects on the new (to us) home we bought in September, so making a hover-craft was not high on my priority list. After putting Joe off for a short time, I realized that this was a great educational experience and should be encouraged. So I gave permission for the project. Joe spent some time researching the project on the internet and then made a materials list. We had some wood in the garage that Joe decided to use instead of purchasing a larger piece.

Joe (with minimal help from Mike) spent a few hours cutting out the circular base and air hole, stapling heavy plastic to hold the air, and using duct tape to anchor the plastic around the air hole. They finished the project two nights ago. Joe tried to use the hover-craft that evening and discovered that he needed the larger piece of wood to lift his weight. The hover-craft filled with air, but couldn't get him off the ground.

Yesterday morning, the kids decided to try the hover-craft with some of their smaller siblings. Allie was able to get off the ground and move slowly around the driveway. Everyone was excited by the discovery and plan to purchase wood this weekend to make a few more hover-craft for the larger children. There is even talk about having hover-craft races as part of our New Year's Eve activities. Hmmmm, children racing down the dark street on hover-crafts, drunk drivers behind the wheels of cars, icy streets. Not my idea of a fun New Year's Eve. Fortunately, I don't need to make the decision for another month!

Paper Garland

It's time to start making Christmas crafts. My youngest two girls (ages 4 and 6) really enjoy making things. Today, we made paper garland, which is a traditional Swiss decoration. The girls had a blast and were pleased with their creations. We will probably make more to put on the window sills in their bedroom.

The project started by drawing a simple tree outline. The lower branches and base will keep the trees connected.



The tree outline is placed on a long sheet of paper. I used paper from a large sketching pad. The paper was cut in half lengthwise, then taped together to form a long, narrow sheet.



Fold the long sheet of paper back and forth, accordion style.




I gently taped the tree outline to the front of the long, folded sheet of paper. Cut the tree outline, being careful to not cut the branches and base where they connect to the next tree. For cleaner edges use a craft knife.




Unfold the paper and decorate the trees as desired. My two girls glued various sequins on the trees as ornaments.

Halloween 2009

We finally got the costumes ready Saturday morning. Paige wanted to be a butterfly. Then Allie wanted to be a butterfly also. There was a short skirmish, until I explained that only one girl could be a butterfly. That was the Halloween rule. After learning that she couldn't be a butterfly, Allie wanted to be a murderer. I tried to talk her into being a bee or something similar, but nothing was any good. She decided to let me see what was available at the store. Eventually, she agreed to be a black bunny with white ears and a white tail. I had planned to use black sweat pants and sweat shirt for the body parts of the girls costumes. Did you know that plain sweat shirts and sweat pants are not available? They all have designs or sayings. Walmart had long black shirts and leggings, so we used them instead. The girls wore blanket sleepers under their costumes and remained warm throughout the night. Sorry that the photo is so bad.



Joe dressed up in a shroud with black wings that he made from an industrial garbage bag and two curtain rods. He also carried an ax-thing. He explained that he was "Your worst nightmare." Steve dressed up as Dr. Who with a home made sonic screwdriver.



Madelyn fashioned a pirate costume from items around the house. I really enjoyed not spending hours and hours preparing costumes this year. The kids used their imaginations and I wasn't stressed. Maybe this should become a family tradition.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

Today was spent getting the house in order, running errands, and taking kids to activities. We really needed some baking supplies because I'm supposed to bring 6-8 cakes for my mom's Halloween party this weekend. So I stopped off at Aldi's to save a few dollars on supplies. I loaded up my goodies in cardboard boxes because I'm too cheap to purchase bags and headed out to the car. It was warm, but pouring rain. I quickly unlocked the door, threw my purse on the passenger seat and unloaded the boxes into the backseat. I was in a hurry because I didn't want the cardboard boxes to fall apart in the rain. The cart needed to be returned to the corral so I locked the door and dropped the cart off. Then realized that the car keys were on the passenger seat.

We haven't replaced my van yet and are borrowing my oldest daughter's car. No one else has keys to this car. The wonderful manager at Aldi's grabbed some wire and tried to help me unlock the door. Nothing worked. The Grand Am is one of the safest cars in regard to break-ins. After 1/2 an hour in the pouring rain, we called it quits and I called a lock smith. It took the lock smith 25 minutes (still raining) to open a door. By this time, I'm drenched and freezing cold. After handing him a check for $50 (Yikes!), I was on my way.

It's been a long time since I locked keys inside a vehicle. Hopefully, it will be a long time before I do it again.

Where Do They Go?

What happens to all the pens, pencils, and crayons? I'm a dutiful homeschooling mom. Tons of pencils, crayons, and pens are purchased in the fall at the back-to-school sales. A few packets of each are placed in the desk drawers. The rest are strategically stashed away for when no one can find a writing utensil. We still have a constant shortage of writing instruments. The exception is crayons that find their way into the washer and dryer, but that is another issue.

Sunday, I needed to fill out some forms. After diligently digging through all the desks with no avail, I decided to hit my stash. After all, it's been almost two months since I replenished the supply. Guess what? My secret stash was gone! Some child had located my supplies and taken them. Could I fill out my forms in purple crayon? Would the post office be able to read purple crayon? Probably not. More pencils and pens were purchased. Where can I hide them? My underwear drawer is already hiding hairbrushes, combs, and hair bands. No room there.

A solution needs to be found for this problem. It drives me crazy. Several years ago, I purchased pencils and pens with different colored surfaces. Each child was assigned a color, so I knew who was not putting their supplies away. The plan wasn't too successful. At this point, we have too many people to assign a color. There isn't enough space to give each child a pencil box. Any suggestions?