What Type of Homeschooler Are You?

Abraham Lincoln You have a Bible and a library card what more could you possibly need? You prefer the Charlotte Mason Method of reading living books for everything: historical fiction, biographies, real histories, nature guides, etc. No soon-to-be-outdated textbooks for you. Visit my blog: http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.comTake this quiz!

This was fun and I'm not surprised at my results at all. The funniest question was the last and for those who really know me, I think it was written for me. I tried to copy and paste but it didn't allow it. Here is my paraphrase of just the choice I picked:

Your house is decorated with: books, books, and more books, a coon skin cap, a prairie bonnet, and a doll dressed like Laura Ingalls Wilder.

We honestly DO have all of those things. As a matter of fact, R dresses up as LIW on a regular basis. And we made all our own prairie bonnets.

Filed in Homeschooling

Phase 3: Recovery

I think of Christmas in terms of phases. Phase 1 begins sometime in November with gift preparation/planning. It goes into high gear after Thanksgiving with decorating, wrapping, baking, and all the Advent happenings both at church and at home. Phase 2 begins Christmas Eve with worship and family celebrations. It continues into Christmas Day with the excitement of presents, a large family dinner, and sitting around the fire. On the Texas years, skip the fire but we're in Illinios where the fire is stoked most of the time we are here. Grandma had a truckload of wood brought in just for us. That's love :) Christmas night is usually the most relaxed time of all. We play games or do a puzzle. This year one of the gifts from the Greek cousins was the original Monopoly and that kept us all busy for some time. S, you should know that Uncle Sid is quite the wheeler and dealer! All the adults had fun reminiscing and reviewing the rules since we hadn't played in 20+ years. Anybody want to guess which Monopoly piece I chose?...

Now we are into Phase 3. This usually begins as the family begins to disperse again and reality returns. For us, the vacation will continue but the more local family all left for home today. It's quiet here tonight. Dad and I took W out for a walk in the cornfields this afternoon. It's in the 30's but the wind wasn't too bad and it's dry. We saw the old barn which is mostly a skeleton now. We traipsed in the cornfields, tried to move a hay bale (not happening!) and found a tiny patch of snow leftover from some recent snowfall. It was pretty sorry looking snow but the guys had a very brief snowball fight which was fun for W. I do wish it would snow for him, but we definitely don't want anything that would cause trouble for driving home.

Phase 3 means a little bit of letdown but also a bit of comfort. Leftovers get pulled out and heated up. Games get played and new books read. We have hung out here by the fire for most of the day and I am working on a Secret Project. Not making very good progress, I must admit.

Tomorrow we'll take in a bit of the town, see a movie (Charlotte's Web is the current favorite choice), and get lunch at the local candy shop with the soda fountain and delicious sandwiches. I'm thinking a big juicy Reuben that drips all down my arms when I eat it.

W has announced the first meeting of the "Scary Story Club" to be held by the fire in 5 minutes so I guess I'd better close. I hope all of you are taking a moment to slow down after the hustle and bustle and just enjoy your family and home. God has given us many blessings. This is the perfect time to count them.

Merry Christmas from Illinois

We made our trip safely and in record time. We arrived at Grandma's by 5:03 PM on Saturday. We have been to church, visited with family, watched a few movies, and eaten a few pies :) We're waiting for breakfast now so I thought I'd pop in and say Merry Christmas to my own family back in Texas. I love you all!

One cool thing we have done is to visit via webcam with my SIL in Greece and her girls. This is so much fun and I can see how we could get hooked on it. Grandma and they visit several times a week but we have been slow to get going with it, even though we have the technology. Our little R and her little S have a close bond which would make this even more fun. We loved talking with you, S and we'll do it again soon. Merry Christmas!

More later...and J is going to try to help me upload pictures from my camera while we are here. He is my technology guru so I have to wait for him to hook that system up. He's already fixed my laptop since it wasn't receiving wireless here at all. I want you to see how beautiful things are here in the Midwest. Such a contrast to our suburban Central Texas existence.

Make Your Own Seasoned Salt

This morning I began to make Chex Mix that we could take with us on our trip to Grandmas tomorrow. I got into it and realized I was out of Seasoned Salt, a key ingredient. When I was a girl, my mom used SS on just about evereything so it is a staple seasoning in my house. But I must have used it all up and not put it on the list. Shameful, I know!

So I assumed this would be an easy thing to borrow so I began calling neighbors. I had already made an emergency run to the store for laundry detergent(going on a trip tomorrow, remember) and I did not want to repeat it. But I have been made aware that SS is not a staple in every spice cabinet. First my noncooking neighbor offered Creole seasoning and BBQ rub. Don't think so. Then I called the only other homeschool mom of many on our street, whom I KNEW would have it. Nope, never heard of it. She hadn't ever made homemade Chex Mix either. I informed her that I might be forced to reconsider this friendship. I am a busy woman, you know and I have to choose my friends carefully. She offered Creole seasoning and Fajita seasoning. What is it with the Creole seasoning?

Never fear, Google to the rescue. I found a recipe at about.com and it looked good enough. Since I am a spice stasher, I had everything on the list, which was very long, I might add. I got out the little food processor and went to work. Here is the recipe for your Chex Mix emergencies:

Recipe for seasoned salt

INGREDIENTS:
6 tablespoons salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt or garlic powder
2 1/4 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
PREPARATION:
Put all ingredients into a mini food processor or small blender container and blend on low.

Now we are enjoying the smell of Chex Mix wafting through the house. I may have to take the neighbor some. Then I'd save a friendship at least.

Heard at our Breakfast Table

W: Mom, am I 5 or 6 years younger than R?
Me: You're only 3 years younger, she's 9 and you're 6.
W: That means I was born in...(thinking)...Nineteen Ninety...Ten!

Filed in children.

How To Make a Ham Bone Feed Your Family for a Week

Okay, so maybe the bone won't actually do it, but you can get lots of meals out of that holiday ham. We had our family dinner on Sunday and as I mentioned, I used some of its yummy bounty today. So here we go:

Day One: the Meal Enjoy your large ham, whether spiral cut or not. Make sure you get it in the oven in time so it's ready when you are :0) I can say that to my Dad since I just told my disaster story of the pork roast last week. Which, by the way, he responded that I should have just gone to the store and bought a new one! Duh... why oh, why did I not think of that???

Day Two: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches with the prettiest of the leftover slices

Now, at this point I usually freeze whatever is left in small portions (like quart size bags) one is bone with little meat, one is nice slices, and the third is usually those chunky pieces near the bone that aren't sliced neatly. But for the sake of argument I'll pretend these meals are all in a row.

Day Three: Split Pea Soup with just the bone- add one pkg of split peas, 6 cups water or chicken broth, 2-3 sliced carrots, one onion, a large bay leaf, and some crushed garlic or garlic powder.

Day Four: Scalloped potatoes with ham- make scalloped potatoes by layering sliced potatoes with ham, grated cheddar, and onions, sprinkling generously with flour, salt, and pepper at each layer. Pour milk over until covered like you would your cereal. Bake at 350 covered 45-60 minutes and then remove foil to allow milk to evaporate, about another 30 minutes. Done when it's all golden and bubbly. This is a long slow recipe for a rainy day.

Day Five: Breakfast for Dinner- make scrambled eggs adding just about a cup of chopped ham to the eggs. Serve with toast and fruit or smoothies.

Day Six: Make...Bean Soup! This time use either black beans or navy beans with pretty much the same extra stuff as the Split Pea Soup. Serve with corn bread. If using Black Beans, add cumin and Cilantro.

Day Seven: If you still have bits of ham, chop it finely and add it to onions and peppers in a white sauce and serve over pasta.

See, we did it! We used that lovely porker for nutritious meals and wasted nary a scrap. Tune in next time when we break the chicken's neck and make the hen feed us likewise.

Oh, and I love my brother!
For more great ideas, head over to Rocks in my Dryer

Kitchen Day

Today was mostly spent in the kitchen and here's what I have to show for it:

I could have laid out an artfully pleasing picture for you but this blog, and this post in particular is all about reality, and perfection was not the reality in my kitchen today.

I tried several new recipes and nothing worked perfectly. I started this morning by putting the ham bone from our family dinner in the crockpot with split peas for split pea soup for dinner. The little crock has soup without the ham bone for my girls who have decided to be vegetarians out of love for animals. I'm trying to support it but that often means double work.

Then I made the third batch of sausage and cheese balls of the year. The first two were taken to parties so this batch was just for us.

Yesterday I only got one batch of cookies made since I felt pretty bad. That was the one for dh, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chunk cookies. I was told this morning that they won't be right since I used Ghirardelli double chocolate instead of semisweet dark chocolate. Oh, well I'm sure the kids will like them. So I found this recipe at Martha Stewart's website for Outrageous Chocolate cookies. I tried them but they are way too thin and spread all over the place. I ended up putting most of the batter in a square pan to bake like brownies.

Then I attempted spritz cookies with a cookie press for the first time. That dough was too thick for the press so I ended up rolling and cutting those. They are pretty and taste fine but I didn't get the pretty press cookies I had hoped for.

Now I feel drained and I'm done! I'm glad I did dinner in the crock pot since the last thing I want to do now is cook more. I'm not even hungry. Must be all those test-tastes I was forced to try so as not to damage my family with inferior cookies :)

Of All Days...

Okay, so I declared that today we would start school one hour later so we could watch Martha Stewart. All of the kids like her projects, especially at Christmas. Only in the summer do I get to watch although sometimes I record a few and watch them later. But now it is 48 minutes into the hour and President Bush is STILL talking. I realize that what's going on in the world may be more important than a new Christmas cookie, but honestly, who does he think is watching right now??? Shallow, politically oblivious housewives. He's bragging about No Child Left Behind...please! I'm not taking a political stand...I'm just sayin'...

Finally, he stopped, but now I probably have to listen to the talking heads analyze. My one day of indulgent daytime TV has been wasted. Oh, well, might as well be reading Gulliver.

Bring on the Nyquil

We're passing around a nasty cold here in our abode. J caught it at Thanksgiving and then dsB and H have had it. On Saturday night, H felt so bad she could not sleep. At 1 am she was crying and miserable. I brought out the big guns and gave her Nyquil. That stuff is powerful strong and if I'm feeling yucky, it knocks me out within about 10 minutes. She was overworked and it took somewhat longer for her to relax and let it do its thing. When I went up and laid on the floor next to her, she was snoring in minutes.

Last night the girls were performing in the homeschool choir at the local Trail of Lights. We all went and then walked through the trail together. Then we stood under the Ginormous tree made of lights. I don't know how tall this thing is but it is several hundred feet and you can spin under it and get a good buzz of dizziness. Along the way, I felt a bit of a sore throat and was a bit worn by the time we got home, but it has been a tough few days. Since last Friday, I've had a deadline every day and stayed up late each night working on something.



As soon I awoke this morning, I realized it was more than just being run down. My head is heavy, my nose is stuffed, my throat still hurts, and I am sneezing in fits (okay, that part is nothing new to me-allergies). I am now looking forward to bedtime and my own dose of Nyquil. But J and I have a date tonight and I really want to go. We plan to go to dinner and to hear a musician we know from Kerrville. The music is free and we have gift cards to Chili's for dinner. There is even a display at a local musem which is leaving soon so we may try to fit that in before dinner. It's been a while since we had a date, with the exception of the office Christmas party. I'm not letting a little cold get in the way. I'll probably take a long, relaxing eucalyptus bath this afternoon before we go.

The kids and I plan to bake cookies this afternoon. They want Snickerdoodles, chocolate peppermint cookies, and sugar cutouts. J wants oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chunk cookies. He is quite the cookie snob, said in the most loving way, of course. I know his mom will make thumbprints for him and he likes hers better anyway, so I'll let those wait until we get home. Grandma, if you're reading, remind me to get that recipe when we're there this weekend. This weekend....we're getting pretty excited around here.

We are continuing in our reading of Gulliver's Travels this week. We finished his voyage to Lilliput and are now reading of his voyage to Brobdingnag. The interesting parallel I never understood before was that the size of the people is used by Swift to represent their character. The Lilliputians are "small" in both stature and character, very shallow, ridiculous little people. But when he goes to Brobdingnag, the people there are 12 times his size and do treat him as a sideshow attraction but are always above reproach in the care they take to be "good people". We are to see that they are even better "bigger" men than the humans of Gulliver's world. I am enjoying this study immensely.

B is babysitting for a neighbor this morning so we reversed the order of our school work. We usually start with Bible, then readaloud (Gulliver), then they dismiss to work on independent work like math and grammar. Wesley reads to me and then I work on the girls' language lessons. Today we started with the independent work and we'll read when B gets home.

Filed in homeschooling, homekeeping.

Christmas, Round One

Every other year we travel to Illinois to be with J's family for Christmas. When this happens, we need to have the gathering with my side of the family early. The kids love it since they get Christmas presents 3 different times. One with each side of the family and our own to them on the night before we leave.

Today was the gathering with my Dad and the crew. Here is everyone gathered together just before we headed home.


Now I can also share a few of the gifts since they were given tonight. One of the projects we did on Thursday was some beading. I found these blank metal bookmarks made to add beads to when surfing around craft sites. I made one for my sister and also my stepsister. B and I made some for us to practice also :)

When I took R to the mall we found these perfect little gift boxes to put them in. They fit just right!


I told you yesterday I spent most of the day sewing. Now I can share what I was sewing. For my BIL, I made a quillow out of scrabble fleece. It is a blanket that will fold up into a pillow by attaching a pocket to it. I cut out some of the letters from the scraps to spell his name. I had to put them on a red corduroy background so they would show up. This shows his all folded up.

And this was the quillow I made for my new little niece, the daughter of my stepsister. She is only 5 months old so I wanted her to have something she might enjoy now and later. This quillow is made of very thick fleece and I sewed little loops of coordinating ribbons under the pillow pocket. I had seen loopy blankets made with these sewn around the edges for the child to play with. I thought this was a nice touch. When the quillow is all folded up, the ribbons are safe inside. The picture just shows the top; it's quite large.


I hope all the gifts are liked and appreciated in the spirit they are given. I love to make homemade gifts but I always get a little nervous about whether they are liked since they are more of a reflection of me than a purchase or a gift card.
That said, sometimes the best gift is a gift card or certificate. My brother, sister, and I all went in together to get the parents a Dream Dinners gift certificate. They enjoy doing this and it provides nutritious dinners at a stage of life when they don't particularly feel like cooking and are still very busy. It's not practical for a large family with teens like ours but for them, it's perfect.

My brother is trying to learn some cooking and do more home cooking so I gave him a gift basket with a variety of spices, snacks, and goodies. Food is a universal love language :)

Filed in sewing and homekeeping.

Preparing for Pies

This is a picture I took while making all the Thanksgiving pies. Never got around to posting it but I loved the afternoon sunlight coming into the kitchen that day.

Pancake Molds

As a teacher, I am fortunate to receive many Christmas gifts from appreciative families. As a teacher to homeschoolers, it is overwhelming the number of gifts I get. I am so grateful to be loved and they blow me away every year. I had to make three trips to the van this week with gifts from just one location. I opened lots of delicious homemade goodies, cocoa, mugs, gift cards, and these lovely pancake molds. I've always wanted to try this but it seemed like a luxury to buy for myself. A parent and longtime friend gave me these cute Christmas pancake molds. We tested them out Thursday morning for breakfast. I discovered several things before I got nice pancakes out of them. First, you have to make the batter considerably thinner than I normally do for our pancakes. Also, you have to be VERY careful not to overfill. Spraying them with Pam helps the mold come off for flipping and keeping them warm helps clean up the scraps between uses. The first few were a disaster but R was willing to eat them as a sacrifice. As I got more practice, they turned out better but I might have to make them once or twice more this week just to practice.
Filed in cooking.

A Woman's Confinement

Wow, it seems like posts are getting sparser and sparser. You know that's because I'm so busy doing things I can't tell you about. Just wait until after Christmas and see what I've been doing. Today I'm sewing, yesterday it was cooking, the day before-crafting. I can share about the cooking :)

Remember my friend who had the baby? Well, yesterday it was my day to take dinner. I don't know why but that always takes me most of an afternoon. It's probably because I don't usually cook a full 3 course meal for our own dinners and I usually try to take some baked good for breakfast as well. Yesterday's menu included Herbed Pork Roast with Root vegetables, green beans, rolls (which never made it there-more on that later), and Rice Pudding for dessert. This is my friend's favorite comfort food so I have made it for her several times. Then I was making our own traditional sausage and cheese balls so I decided to bake some of those to send to her as well. I took the two-pack of roasts from Sam's out of the freezer at 6 am when I got up. I considered doing it the night before but I was afraid of leaving them out so long. I should have done it anyway. The frozen roasts led to one disaster after another. About noon, I realized that they were nowhere near thawed so I soaked them in water in a large sink until 2, at which time I still could not separate them. I began to panic. I ran water, pried them, used a spatula, changed the water, pushed on the middle, changed the water. Finally at 3:30, they were apart and I put it in a large oven bag with the vegetables to cook. I baked the cheese balls on the top shelf, did the rice pudding on the stove, and did the beans in the microwave. When the top shelf was free about 4:30, I put our roast in.

At 5:30, my usual delivery goal for taking meals, the meat thermometer wasn't even registering on the scale yet. I'm sure it had been still frozen in the middle but I thought it would thaw quickly once in the oven. I had rolls rising on the top of the stove but I couldn't bake them until I had oven space. That wasn't happening with two giant pork roasts in it. I kept checking and finally at about 6:45 it registered 155 deg. I figured 160 would happen after I took it out, so out the door I ran to drive dinner 5 miles or so to the family. I had visions of starving children gathered at a set table wilting from the wait. Instead I found all of the children happily playing out front and no one seemed to be concerned at all. Relief was all I could feel. I sure hope theirs was done. Mine which was a bit larger and went in the oven almost an hour later, didn't get to 160 until 10 PM! I cut pieces off the edges to serve at 8 finally and left the rest in. They didn't get the rolls because that would have meant another 20 minutes of oven time.

What you are wondering does all of this have to do with a woman's confinement??? This is something my friend, Noel, and I have talked of many times. As I said this was her 9th baby. It's also her 3rd at home. When she had #6 the midwife told her to stay in bed for 2 solid weeks. I know most women are out and about within days of having their children and I think we need to rethink this. Mothers should get back to this period of slowing down, keeping to the home, protecting our babies from germs and the elements. When I had my first baby, I was at church the second Sunday after and I realized that was a huge mistake. We were safer at the grocery store or the library where we could remain anonymous and no stranger would yank my newborn out of my arms. I literally had to hold on to her tightly to keep well meaning friends in the church from taking her away from me. I have since been made aware of the dangers of any slight infection in a tiny newborn like that. As a matter of fact, Noel's own 5th child suffered a terrible hospital visit and invasive procedures just because she had a minor fever in the first few weeks. The general rule is to guard them from infections for as long as two months. There are people leaving their babies in daycare younger than that with all the myriad of germs known to lurk in such places. With each successive child, I stayed close to home longer and longer. If I did venture out, I used my Snuggly carrier to keep baby attached to me, preferably sleeping. I never hesitated to say NO when someone asked to hold the baby and I did make even my family wash hands when they came over. Both J and I had red, raw hands from washing so much in those first weeks. I use the lanolin meant for nursing to sooth my hands.

In addition to protecting the baby, mother needs extra rest and TLC during this time. The times of women giving birth in the fields and then going on with the harvest are also fraught with consequences too numerous to mention. I know I saw a difference in my own healing when I overdid the activity. We moved to another state 2 weeks after dsB was born and B was only 15 months old. I had many complications of healing with that time. It also compromised my milk supply and I did not nurse that child as a result. By the time W came along, I was wiser. I canceled all nonessentials and we stayed close to home with me resting whenever possible for about a month. By the time we were out and about, all was well.

There will be plenty of time to show off that cute baby later and you can bet the housework will still be there as well. If you have other children to care for, do that with the minimum of effort as possible. Train your children during the pregnancy to be somewhat self sufficient. Hire a preteen or teen girl to come and play, make sandwiches, or sweep. This is the time to accept all help offered, no matter how small, OR how proud you may be. Expect emotions to run high and give yourself a break, especially at the 2 week mark. My own mother recognized this and would always plan to be there on day 14. I was clockwork tears on that day :)Enjoy your baby, snuggle him or her on your chest and sleep. Nurse until they want to stop. Sleep, take long warm baths together, eat lots of protein and fiber. Read comforting books. This time is all too short and one of the most precious of your entire life.

In other news, I went to the mall this morning. Despite my worst fears, it wasn't that bad. R had money and two gifts left to buy so I took her to Claire's and we stopped at Target. She bought thoughtful and affordable gifts. I have been proud this year to see the children make many gifts and buy those which they cannot make. I myself subscribe to that philosophy. Show and tell to come soon.

Shopping Agony

You would think with a title like this, I'm speaking of Christmas shopping. But, remember I'm done with all of my Christmas shopping. No, today I had to face that dread of all dreads, worse than swimsuit shopping...jeans shopping. I HATE having to try on new jeans. The only pair I currently wear came from a friend in a bag of things she was shedding. They are Old Navy and they fit well, although a bit loose and definitely "Mom jeans", in the high rise they sport. So I thought I'd try Old Navy. B found one pair in her size that she liked so we paid for those and headed down the strip to TJ Maxx.

I tried at least 6 pairs all in the same size, different styles. You know, those low rise jeans just aren't very flattering on anyone with any derriere to speak of. And mine was speaking loudly that it did not like what I tried. I finally found one pair that came just to my waist, fit nicely, and even had no bulky pockets(much more slimming). It helped that they came with their own cute little belt, and were even in a size smaller than my current fringed ones that absolutely must be replaced. So, I lined up to pay for a single pair of jeans which I hope to enjoy wearing much more than I enjoyed finding them. I promised B, who found nothing at TJ Maxx, that we would continue in our search for just the right pairs.

Did I mention that I hate shopping for jeans???

Someone's Been Thinking...

Both of these kid quotes came from R today:
"Mom, you know those gifts the Wise Men brought to the Baby Jesus? Well, what did he do with them?"

"Which tooth is the sweet tooth?"- after we all had Christmas parties in class today and W came home with a huge belly ache. He's lying on the couch moaning as I type :)

Pics from the Baby Shower

As promised, here are a couple of pictures from my sister's baby shower last weekend. Isn't she positively glowing?

Here we are together during the present opening time: I took two pages of notes on who gave what!

And here are the sweet friends who put this together for her


I bet she has had a fun week opening all those sweet baby things and getting them situated in her nursery. Since she does not know the sex of the baby, she received mostly very useful things. She seems to be all set in the bath, feeding, and transprting departments of baby care. I enjoyed seeing all the new baby gadgets that had come about in just the last 5-6 years since my last baby.

In other related news, my close friend locally has just given birth to her 9th baby this weekend. I am happy for her and will be taking dinner on Friday night. This was the tie-breaker since she currently had 4 boys and 4 girls. The announcement hasn't gone out officially so I don't know who the new one is yet! How fun.

Update: My friend had a girl. She gave her the same middle name as R and she is adorable.

A Night Out...and One at Home

Last night was J's office Christmas party. It was dinner at a nice restaurant. I was excited just to get to dress up :) Here we are just before we left. The facial expressions look pained I think but we were happy about it. Didn't bother to look at it so dsB could get a better picture. Here's another that is equally bad:

The dress is black velveteen with rhinestones all around the neckline; very soft and flowy. The party was fun considering I knew practically no one and J doesn't really have much in common with his coworkers. Dinner was steak, chicken, scalloped potatoes, steamed vegetables, and Amaretto cheesecake for dessert.

Today was a busy, busy day at church. Kids had various activities and performances and the Christmas music concert was this afternoon. It was a dreary, cold day so I felt a pot of chili was in order for supper. I put it in the crockpot before we left for the concert and it filled the house with its delicious aroma by suppertime. Here it is with homemade cornbread fresh from the oven.

Normal...

is just a cycle on the washing machine
--Naomi Judd

Advent

It's that time of year again. What I tend to notice every year is that I really resist getting into the Christmas spirit, at least as early as the rest of the world does. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday and I resent the short shrift it gets each year. It seems the rest of America, the land we are so thankful for, skips right straight from Halloween (my least favorite holiday) to Christmas, barely acknowledging God's blessing on us. For this reason alone, I tend to hang on to Thanksgiving. But the fact that I spend much of the year just keeping my head above water, the preparation and work involved in Christmas makes me shudder. I just want to say, nope, not doing it this year.


But last night I finally "felt the Spirit move me", Since it was Thursday and we had no obligations, I was able to get the house clean, play a game with the kids, and then open up the attic to find the decorations. I had even forgotten how I had put them all away in a much more organized fashion last year. I bought more red topped Rubbermaid tubs, sorted them by content (nativity, tree, stockings, linens, books, etc.) and stacked them neatly. It was so easy to pull out just the boxes we needed. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" while we put the tree up. Today I'll do the stockings and maybe the nativity. I can manage small portions at a time more easily than dragging all the boxes out at once. Happily, the downstairs is already straight so it wasn't as much of a chore as usual. The playroom really didn't take as long to pick up as I worried about. So, now our tree is up and I am officially in the Spirit of Christmas :) Tonight B is babysitting and tomorrow is J's office party but on Sunday night we'll string popcorn and cranberries for our tree.

This afternoon it looks like we'll be headed to our friends' for a game and cocoa afternoon since the park will be too cold for us wimpy Texans. I've really missed visiting with the ladies the last couple of weeks. I may take our new game we just got yesterday. I ordered Made for Trade, a game of Colonial life. It's similar to Life with several options for play depending on age. It is part of our current history study. In literature we are reading Gulliver's Travels. I am reading it aloud to all and reading the Cliff's Notes chapter commentary after each chapter. I am pleased with how well it fits with our studies of England in the 1700's. Mr. Swift was a genious when he wrote this funny children's story which is really a powerful political satire of Europe in this time period.

Filed in homekeeping and homeschooling.

Meet the SWANS

First there were YUPpies(Young Urban Professionals); then came DINKs(Double Income No Kids). Now, we have SWANS- Strong Women Achievers, No Spouse. There is an article in our paper about these women who are in their 30's and 40's with advanced professional degrees making lots of money but with no family obligations. The focus of the article is about the fact that in the later part of the 20th century it was very difficult for an intelligent woman to find a man who was willing to marry her. Women hid their degrees out of fear of intimidating men.

But that is changing, according to Christine Whelan, the author of Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women. According to current statistics, census data tells us that SWANS in their early 30's are just as likely to walk down the aisle as their "less accomplished sisters". Ms. Whelan attributes the change to the fact that men are different. Here are her words,

"Because their mothers probably worked outside the home, because their teachers or their professors or their pediatricians might have been women, men's idea of success and family include a woman with a career.

In addition, many men are relieved to know they don't have to be the sole breadwinner. They are looking for a partner, not a household staff"(emphasis MINE)

Oh boy, Ms. Whelan, them's fightin' words. If my husband had been looking for a household staff, I'm sure he would have been terribly disappointed in my job performance and I would have been fired long ago. The fact that she equates earning an income with being a partner is insulting to the institution of marriage, I think. It's not just about consolidating personal empires, small or large. It's about consolidating lives. It means emotional support, practical help, physical nourishment, and spiritual growth. If a man is relieved at not being the sole breadwinner, fine, but he needs to seriously consider if he is in line with God's plan for the family. I do not believe it is a sin for any woman to work or even be the sole breadwinner if that is truly in line with God's plan for that family. It takes a special man to pick up the slack when a woman leaves her responsibilities at home for a 9-5 career. And there are responsibilities being left. I know two days a week, I leave my responsibilities behind and sometimes it's tough. Asking her to help earn the bread but not helping to fry up the bacon...or bathe kids...or drive Taxi, is lazy and irresponsible on his part.

What I also know is that most of these SWANS (and the men they marry) are not all that concerned about God's plan for the family. That's the sad and worrisome part for me. I know I can't expect everyone to build their life on the same foundation (the Bible) I do. So in the absence of a religious compunction, I'll have to hope they have a moral common sense that comes with their "higher education". I have a higher education but I also have a Higher Power.

Happy Birthday to W

I'm actually a day late on this. Yesterday, my baby turned 6. Sadly, I am just sappy enough that I will call him "my baby" for years to come I'm sure. We had a regular schedule day of classes but we had a special dinner with cake and presents last night. We only have birthday parties every other year and this was his off year. He still had a nice day and enjoyed his presents and cake very much.

Today was run-all-around-town-running-errands-day! We covered all the basics from library, gymnastics, pet store, Target, Blockbuster, sports store, and on...and on...and on... You get the picture. I am glad to have it all done, though since I do not plan to leave the house tomorrow. I have also ordered every one of my Christmas presents and they are beginning to arrive. Every day or two I get a small or large box from the Big Brown Truck. I heart the Big Brown Truck :)

Cozy Winter Evenings

We had a lovely time at the shower and enjoyed the time visiting and playing dominoes with family. We ate well, laughed hard, and drove long. I arrived home about 8:30, just as the family was returning home from church. They had rented a movie and were laying a fire in the fireplace. B is knitting a winter hat as the fire glows. They are enjoying popcorn and laughing at the movie (Ice Age). It doesn't get better than this.

I'll be preparing for classes now and then cuddling up to the warm fire with my dh before heading to bed for some rest in my own bed again. I have good pictures from the shower to share but it will have to wait a day or two. I'm a little behind on the house and classwork :>)

Soccer Update: For those who care, the Wave had a tie-loss-loss record in their tournament yesterday, eliminating them from the playoffs. Although that resolved the Sunday morning issue, I couldn't help be sad for H who was so hopeful and disappointed at the results. This means that soccer season is officially over. We started practice in August on a day where the temp was over 100 deg. and finished on a day in December where they played a game in 38 deg weather. What a ride it has been!

Love to all, and thanks for the hospitality to my sister and her husband!

Of Soccer and Showers

Nope, not another rained out message; this is what's going on in my life this weekend. H is playing in the district playoffs which means 3 games today and more tomorrow if they make it that far. She is so excited and we are amazed at both how well she has taken to this sport and how well her team has done. This is a mostly young, inexperienced team playing for the first time together. Her coach says if they do well in this tournament, they could play in the "select" league next spring. Oh boy I don't know how I feel about that! Of course I am proud like every other mother should be. But we never bargained for high level soccer. As it is, we are having issues with the Sunday games, level of practice, etc.

All that said, after the first game this morning (at 9 am in the early 30's outside-brrrrr), I am taking off with my family to go to my sister's first baby shower. This is about a 5-6 hour drive so I'll be there until the shower tomorrow and then get home late tomorrow night. I'm very excited to have this time with her since I am so excited about this new little one in our fold...but I am also very anxious about leaving my own brood. Dad is never crazy about pulling duty; he'd much rather take a supporting role. And this day not only holds 3 soccer games, but also one Scout loading Christmas trees, a birthday party for W, a library meeting for B, and a babysitting job for her this evening. Not to mention the game(s) tomorrow, and the Advent program at church tomorrow night. He'll have a full plate, to be sure. I hate to leave all that to him even when I often have that kind of schedule.

So it's early in the morning and my head is swimming with too much input. I was able to prepare most of my class material yesterday since I'll be late on Sunday. I'll be heading out soon for FreezeBall so I'd better got H up and ready and start packing hot chocolate. I'll check back in after the shower.

Resurrecting the Game Closet

Our game closet is under the stairs. We had shelves installed years ago so we'd be able to use that space. Under the shelf on one side, I had the carpenter install hooks so the kids could have a place to keep their coats in the winter. In theory it is a great idea; In practice, the hooks don't grab the coats the way I'd like and they often end up all over the floor. Then when kids rummage among the dozens of games to find just the one they want to play, they invariably make a further mess. About a month ago, a whole tower of games toppled down and spilled their contents in and among the fallen outerwear. This left a mess about 2 feet deep in the closet and I just hadn't been strong enough to tackle it. Yesterday with the cold front and no place to go, the children wanted to play a game after dinner. I took advantage of the motivation they were exhibiting and put them to work clearing, sorting, and organizing the whole closet. We pulled everything out and sorted games. We got rid of a few we never played and decided which ones needed some TLC. A few needed box repairs, replacement pieces or instructions. I set those aside and made note to use Google to help with that effort. Above you see one side, about 2/3 of our games. On the door I have a shoe hanger which holds all the small size games, card decks, etc. It took about anhour but it is so much nicer now. We put everything back and chose the games for the evening. We poured large mugs of hot apple cider and played The Amazing Labyrinth and Password, then put them away.

This morning I have found the answers to our game issues. I went to the Hasbro site who make Trouble. Our Pop-o-matic Trouble has been a favorite for years but many pieces are lost now. They have a function where you can print up an order form for any Hasbro game, fill it out and send it to them to replace pieces. All of the instructions are in PDF form directly from their site. I can get a whole new set of Trouble pieces for $3 plus S&H.

Then I did further research and found this site, where you can look for replacement pieces to lots of collectibles, including games. I ordered a new set of Sorry cards, a few Clue pieces, and a new plastic box for my 20+ year old Risk game. I am a firm believer in the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle philosophy and this allows us to continue enjoying our favorite games for years to come.