Copycat...

So, if you don't like icky stuff, just post a comment to that effect and you'll not be grossed out by my blog!

Wanna know all about Blepharitis? Click the link! Really. I went for a routine dentist appointment and since I was in town, I decided to drop by my eye doctor. I like her personally and as my Dr. I can just drop in and she can take care of me right away, no appointment!

Let's back up. I've never had allergies that affected my eyes. But that's exactly what my eyes have felt like for about a week. One day one eye is glued shut. The next day, the other one has a turn. It's a gooey glue, and only begins at night. I thought it would clear up if I washed them with warm water and kept my fingers out of them. Nope.

So, within minutes, Dr. has glanced at my eyes, listened to my complaint and handed me a box with eye cleaner that I have to use twice a day for the next week to clear this problem up. Apparently it can get really nasty and I don't want that. I need to be able to read to my boys! She also said that under no circumstances should I use baby shampoo. Then she explained why: We don't keep the bottle/solution sterile.

Did I tell you I love my eye doctor? Really, I do. If you are looking for a good eye Dr. let me know!

I've been thrown a bone...

Well, in your blog editor, there's a circle with what may appear to be goggles or perhaps chain links. Highlight the text you want to be the link and click that button. Mine is the fifth from the left, next to the Text color button.

Gee, that was an easy post for today.

Thanks, Meg.

Just what exactly is a green toilet?

Everything is going "green", but I still have no idea. But, I do now know what it takes to repair a "won't quit running" toilet! It was a $7 kit from Low*'s. So for my dad's birthday, I bought the necessary kit and went to work. Now for those of you who know me, you know this is right up my alley! I'd share a list of skills I've acquired, but that would be boring. The toilet repair job didn't go perfectly either! I only report the good results. How's that for fair handed reporting! This is my blog, and I'll share if I want to, share if I want to...

What would be fun is if I tell you what I discovered while I wasn't at FPEA. A blog that I found through Math on the Level is found here.The author creates and sells PDF files to be used to print index cards for your homeschool and it also contains documents that tell you how to use the index cards to do everything from teach the material to play games and review the material. It encouraged me to create things daily for my first year registered homeschooler (I'd call him a kindergartner, but he's about to turn 6 and it just doesn't make sense to call him a first grader either!).

I'm also waiting for my copy of "26 Phonics Games Kids Can't Resist". L will make the games for M and in the process review/learn phonics I never knew how to teach him. Since I mentioned it, Math on the Level is a complete math program for beginning math lessons through pre-algebra. They describe it much better, but you have all the teacher's materials required bound in several volumes and organized by skill type. You are given all you need to teach your 4 yo how to count coins and your pre-teen how to add up the value of the coins said 4 yo counts all on the same page. Besides all that concise instruction information they include a really cool way to keep track of your child's math progress. It will be what I use to track all the manipulative activities I am planning to use this year!

Last year we studied Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. This year we will study the human body using the Usborne Science Encyclopedia as a stepping off point for a year of research and report writing using the IEW method of teaching writing. But that's not a new discovery. What I did learn as a I tried to search for human body science focused literature (not for specific research but to enjoy reading as we research) is that we have living math books but every time you google science and human body and throw in literature for good measure, everything comes up experiments and texts but no real literature. I hope that by posting you'll add comments that might give me good ideas of what we can read as we do all that human body research!

So, I probably summed up my weekend of research in this one blog and Princess is going to spend all week raving over what she learned. I'm glad. It wouldn't have been good for me to leave HOH with the boys while I played on our anniversary weekend.

The final note: did you notice that I use links to significant pages spread throughout my post? I like to do that. It points you to other sites that are way more informative than mine. Do you like it?

Curriculum or Character

First, tell me you are glad I didn't post this in Webdings (I have that option you know!) Would you know how to translate it?

Meg, tell me if I used ; and , right in this first sentence:

No pictures today; although, I should have taken some as L worked with lumber scraps from our neighbor's new deck building furniture for his fort! Oh I hope DH doesn't grow tired of it for many years! I also should have photographed the bug M brought in. He and L thought it was a spider with claws. HOH cleared the confusion: it was a wheel bug! (HOH declared he doesn't like DH, so until he comes up with a better acronym, he's HOH.)

OK, now you get an internet photo of what the kids found: After reading about the "bite" of the wheel bug, I'm very glad L was there to send M up for a glass jar with a lid and that L knew to handle all things with care and not touch them with his own hands! (I got the picture from here.) I didn't complete their survey as I have grown weary of doing them with no reward/benefit to myself or my family!


Onto the real reason for this post:
When I started on this road called homeschooling after our first was born, I received some sage advice from veterans. This is how I now summarize it:



If you have all the right curriculum but you have not character you are but a struggling mother working very hard at nothing.



Yes, I stole the structure from I Corinthians 13 and I mean it. I use that structure frequently. I find myself looking at my kids and wondering if they'll ever conjugate verbs in foreign languages or solve quadratic equations or just read what they've been assigned. Then I remember, do I want sounding brass and tinkling cymbals (OK, just tinkling on the potty would be nice!) or do I want love?

I want my kids to learn all that they need, but before all the weariness of mind I really want to instill that God is #1 (paraphrase of Commandment #1! for kids).

Here are some off the cuff ideas I have for making God #1:

• Read the Bible every day.


• Talk about what you read (even if all you do is recount the significant verse you read).


• Pray.


• Let my kids know for whom they should pray. (I fail in this often, I get the message, but fail to pass it on. It's a genetic deficiency I got from my parents - I'll not say which one!).


• Write down what you believe, then teach your kids. (I'm cheating on this, I'm using a Catechism -this is not just for Catholics- study, but I am in the process of writing down what I believe.

Training up kids is very difficult, in case you didn't already know. But I serve God who knows them better than I do. He leads me to the curriculum that is best for my boys. So, as you scour the internet (or FPEA or any other Homeschool Convention!) be on the look out for God's best. He goes for the package deal. You may speak with tongues of men and angels and have love as well! Paul just said he'd rather love above all!



Sincerely tired...

Have you ever been goaded...

into doing something that seems to consume way more time than it should?

That question has nothing to do with my blog today.





But I have pictures. And they have everything to do with my post today. We love our riverhouse, even if from time to time I whine about living 20 miles from the city limits and literally 20 miles from the nearest W*mart. What do you do when you are out of Velve*ta? (I'm sure there's a fancy way to put trademarks on these names, but for now you'll have to assume you know what I'm talking about even if I skip more than one letter per *.) I make my own! Really.



Before I continue, I must add a disclaimer: I'm not confident at the use of HOH, but I'm trying. Please bear with me. Is it "My HOH..." or "HOH was..."?



But here I go again not explaining to you why exactly would I gross you out with a picture of raw flesh when you pull up my blog! He he he! That's what I do when I am goaded. But not really. I did want to share this with you. Down here on the river we have a lovely view from two sides of our house. We are encased in trees (I hold my breath during hurricanes!). Along with our neighbors, we try to have a line in the water most every day that is good for fishing. This day was no exception (don't ask which one it was, but it was last week). My HOH had been gardening all day (I'll have to post more about that another time) and our neighbor had been checking the lines. When he checked this one line it had a fish on it that fought like the dickens (what is the dickens really like, anyways? - s added for irritation of potential readers). After a good fight, the fish was reeled in and wow was he a whopper.



HOH weighed him on our spring scale (google that for science today) and he weighed 10 pounds. I quickly googled how to clean a carp. After sifting through the whining about whether or not it was junk fish (and there really is some junk fish in our river) we found that the scales are tough and require skill in cleaning (not like bream or bass). Well one of the best skills we have is obtaining and using the right tool for the job, which in this case isn't even pictured, but was none the less present in HOHs hand. (This picture only cost one arm!). It's an electric knife, like what some use to carve turkey on Thanksgiving, but we use routinely throughout our days.



You are asking yourself many questions about this winding river. Right now, one would be, did you eat it? No of course not. We caught it, cleaned it, cooked it then we ate it; silly. What about the very fleshy picture at the top, whose finger is it and what is it hilighting? Carp is very bony meat. Some of the bones are shaped like a y. The finger hilights the white tip of a bone. I only saw one in my cooked portion bc my HOH is so good at what he does best: taking care of us. Finally you may be asking what I consider to be most important: did you get sick from eating that lovely flesh? No. In fact, it had the nicest texture of any fish I've ever, ever had. HOH cooked it (see mine cooks, too!) for a very long time to be sure that it was done. It was done and oh it remained tender through it all. A picture is worth a thousand words, but really pictures don't do this meat justice.



Some have likened it to fresh water tuna. I'd agree, except that it has no really fishy taste and HOH likes it but he hates tuna.



Meg, are you happy now?
Did I post before Princess?
Did I post on the one day that she will miss?
Oh I hope she's alright! Pinatas. Teenagers. Parties. BDs....

Guess what M discovered today...

General knowledge about me, my kids are either #1, #2, or #3 or they are S, M and L. Not their first name initial but their sizes. Got it?

I'll tell you in a minute, but first here's a blogging tip and trick for you. When you go to post your blog for the day there's a box with the date on it. I started my previous post on 5/6 but I didn't finish it until tonight. Except that I'm fessing up, no one else would ever know that I posted it tonight and not 5/6/08. - Princess that's for you, but I know you'd never be deceitful like that. In all honesty, I did write most of it on 5/6 I just got distracted from finishing it until today.

Now that I have your attention, Princess, do you know what an astringent is?

Now, onto today's discovery. I'm posting here because it'll hopefully draw my friends to read instead of tiring of my lengthy posts elsewhere. I'm competing in a work challenge to get healthy (no I don't consider myself healthy unless you are weighing babies who are the only ones allowed to be of a "healthy" weight). My solution is to add at least two walks per week in addition to all the steps I normally take. Work even supplied pedometers for us to wear and keep track of our steps. I wear mine all through my waking hours. Every step counts.... Back to the discovery. While out on our walk today we had just gotten started and I was trying to fix M's shoe that was bugging me. He was distracted and generally uncooperative as I fiddle with him. Nearby stood his observant but naive younger brother, S.

What on earth was into them this afternoon? I just wanted to walk. Is it really that complicated. Am I going to have to nag all the way "get going" "hurry up"? I hate walks like that. You'd think I'd quit. As these questions rattled in my cage, M got my attention by pulling away and asking "What is that, Mom?" Quickly grabbing S, I jumped back not knowing if it was in the right direction or far enough. "What? Where? Huh?" I asked. "There. See. What is it?"

We are genuinely curious down here. We had a moth in it's cocoon since November last year that just hatched yesterday (I'll post it later) . We've found snakes. Baby bass eating a minnow as big as he is. Water moccasins, glass lizards, gators and the like. Today was no exception. Standing still so as to not startle this creature we called for back up. DH to the rescue! He didn't exactly know what was going on, so he made his way to us. Before he got there we wandered off deciding that either it'd be there when we returned or DH would discover it for himself if he ever did come.

We got about 100 yards before DH hollered at us to come back for show and tell. So we did. So, what did we find? A broad-headed Skink. Check it out here: tiny link. Just looking at him gave me the creeps. The shape of his head made me believe that he could be poisionous so we kept our distance, but not too much. He was all shiny and very still. I even considered whether or not he bites.

As all the excitement seemed to have abated, S and I left for the walk I really wanted to take. M and L stayed beind with DH to take pictures and check this out even more. Being the men that they are I'm sure at some point they prodded the skink to action. When I was about 200 yards down the road from them I heard a scream. It was M. The skink had skinnied between his legs and disappeared into the underbrush on the other side of the road.

So with the sun setting in the west and me happily strolling through our neighborhood with S, M caught up with me while L and DH returned home victorious in their conquest.

So you wanna know what I'm thinking?

I read today in Joshua 10. The sun stood still. The Canaanites were defeated. Kings hid in caves and then were killed and hung on a tree.

My first response is: I don't understand it. What does a battle with the Canaanites have to do with me? Then I consider, what did they represent? They inhabited the promised land. The Israelites had to drive out the inhabitants to obtain the promised land. Joshua had already made two mistakes in the battles for the promised land. Both times he failed to ask God what to do. Both times he failed. Israelites died as one result and the other they were now burdened with slaves.

Am I seeking to inhabit the promised land? Land flowing with milk and honey... and giants! You bet I am. The promised land is fruitful and productive. Not a waste of time at all. So, who or what is my enemy? ... The devil? Yes. Where does he attack? My flesh. What are his weapons? The world. What must I do in response to this information? Will I respond like Joshua and make a deal with my flesh and make it servant (and trouble) to me? I tro not. Will I march forward thinking everything is fine only to find out later there is sin in the camp? I hope not.

This battle is not against flesh and blood...

You live where?

So, my fellow homeschooler and friend has been doing this blog thing. She started it. So now I've caught the bug. I don't think the local e-group of which we are part will tolerate my ramblings about the latest curriculum I found or my really lame puns. Therefore, I'm starting my own blog.

I think It's kinda cool. I get to write. You may or may not read. I'll have sated my keyboarding apetite. (I really hope this hasa spell checker.... Oh, there it is! Ah....)

You see there's this river, folks from out west -really anywhere else- would call it a stream or tributary, it runs right through my front yard. The road is on the back side of the house so even the most annoying people enter as back door guests! Do you know what lives in the river? Fish. Yes, lots of fish. Do you know what happens to lakes, rivers, and streams when it rains? You guessed it, they swell with water. When it rains enough our river swells right into our yard. It makes me queen for a few days in my castle. My castle is complete with rain, boating, wading, swimming and gardening gear. (You get wet when you garden, too!) When the water recedes (as it always does, Thank you for rainbows, Lord) there are certain places where fish are trapped, but naturally. The best thing we can do is catch them and eat them! Right now we have about 200 in our deep freezer waiting for a fish fry with all the fishermen present. Nets are great!

Do you know what else lives in rivers? Crawdads. We have them, too. But that's not all. Our river is the complete package, the real deal. We have mosquitos too. You might argue that you have them and you have no river, but we have river dwelling mosquitos. They are extra thirsty and very fruitful. That's not the big deal around here (according to everyone else), we have cotton mouths and gators to boot! Really, we do have them but they have their house and we have ours. We live here they live there. If they come to visit, it's sure to be their last (except the gators - they're too ornry to ever visit our side of the river. We've got to go boating to see them most of the time!

Back to my friend. She used to live in a different city altogether and enjoy the country life, sans rivers and gators, but now she boasts her life in the city. I'm glad she started blogging.

Final river notes: You don't have to live on the river to seel the snakes. They're everywhere. We had some friends visit today and rather calmly one of the children notified me that down on the ground with my toddler son is a snake of unknown kind. Without shoes I bee-lined to the location. My oldest knows what a moccasin looks like and they all know to steer clear of all snakes. I wasn't too worried. A little prodding brought out a thumb thin oak snake that was very long (2-3 feet) for his breadth. After observing it in our habitat for a while, we proceeded to clear the area and go about our business.

When, I married my dh I knew that this house would be our home. I've always felt at home here.

I promised ramblings and that's what you are getting.