It's all in the details

From Jon's narration of Heidi:

"And I felt a little nervous about saying, 'Aunt Dete' because it didn't really feel normal to me, but I thought you might like to know her name."

This was a great weekend

Which is probably not what all them public schoolers are sayin'. See, they all had to go to school this week, and I've been doing it all summer anyway. Allow me to start this post with yesterday morning, for that is where the action began.

Yesterday morning, we all got in the truck to go to Chisholm, way north of here. So we thought maybe we should stop at the post office before we began our long journey. Much to everyone's surprise, Lynae came out with two large packages, a magazine, and an envelope, all of which were addressed to me. So, I began frantically opening everything. The contents were as follows:
Box #1. Hat, large catalog with gunsmith supplies. I may never need it, but another catalog doesn't hurt.
Box #2. Gun case, gun cleaning kit, and ear muffs for sound protection. I used that all the way to Chisholm, since the siblings were being loud.
Magazine. Ummm... Didn't really look through it. It is a little kid magazine, kinda.
Envelope. A bunch of paintings for Christmas cards that Ducks Unlimited wants me to buy.

So, I put on the earmuffs and the hat and started working on school. My big assignment was to make a set of rules that I would enforce in my house. I labeled this assignment "The Exceedingly Just Rules" and they are as follows:

1. Anyone who breaks anything or makes a mess will restore everything to normal. But if this incident occurred when the person was disobeying or using something without permission, they will be sentenced to community service of a magnitude directly proportional to the magnitude of the damage done.

2. Dawdling in any task may result in (but is not necessarily limited to) loss of privilege, extra work, or missing a meal.

3. Any aggression (hurting, yelling, unkind words) will get the offender(s) put in a separate room to calm down, and will not be permitted to leave or get up until they have calmed down and are ready to make it right. After this, the offender(s) will lose a privilege.

4. Any profane or obscene language will result in loss of privilege for one week and washing mouth with soap, in addition to everything listed in #3, and shunning all contact with the noun responsible for educating the child to speak that way. If that cannot be performed, then the noun responsible for educating the child to speak that way must stop.

5. Any sign of disrespect to anyone, superior, inferior, or equal, will result in extra work on the part of the offender, possibly for the offended, after appropriate apology, and committing Bible verses on humility, meekness, or respect, to memory.

6. During church, devotions, prayer, and school time, full attention must be given. There must be respect for these things; no goofing off or distracting people. Any such behavior will result in extra work, after an appropriate apology.

Well, then we finally got to Chisholm. We went around in this labyrinth place called Ironworld.

After wandering around, getting lost, and finding ourselves again, we saw Charlie Maguire in concert. That was cool. And if that isn't cool enough, I got to talk to him. And if that isn't really super cool, I told him that I can play some of his songs, and he gave me a business card and told me to send him a tape.

And if that last paragraph wasn't so cool you fell out of your chair, wait till I tell you about what happened today...

... Oh yes. This morning, Mom told Michael and me to get up and do what we want. We started fantasizing about what we should do: catch a cottontail, kill Grace's dollhouse people with our knights, make another birthday cake. We immediately got to work after breakfast.

We got bored with our other ideas and made a giant catapult instead. It shoots stuff about 3 or 4 yards, which is really pitiful, but it looks impressive. We made it out of logs and rope, no 2 x4s. And the fulcrum is about 5 1/2 feet high. Wait'll you see the pictures!

Talk to ya later, and by the way, I didn't post this so late at night. I had it saved and it just got published late.

Could've been better -- could've been worse

Dear son made a mess in the laundry room today. (Thankfully, it is not a nasty mess!) He's been taking his sweet time cleaning it up. Unfortunately, he will not clean unless I am in the room with him, and then it is sometimes at a snail's pace. Fortunately, I was able to be with him and also supervise the others. Unfortunately, it's not a comfortable place to spend several hours. Fortunately, I was able to distract myself by finishing two books I hadn't picked up in quite a while.

Having posted this and updated the book list, I must return...

She's growing up

A Manner of Speaking

Tonight we were reminiscing about the David Sanborn/Al Jarreau concert we attended with Toby when he was just a few months old. Toby asked if that's considered jazz.

Michael: "Jazz - I like jazz."
Me: (chuckling, wondering if he's ever recognized jazz when he's heard it)
Michael: "I meant to say, 'Speaking of jazz - I like jazz.'"

That's my 6yo.

Lynae

Here are some recent pictures... posing for fun, and making Nana's pizza dough recipe:





I guess Gracie snuck in there, too. LOL

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some click-to-enlarge pictures of my dear blessings:

Catching up

Loren has made it safely "home". He starts work tomorrow, and I'm sure he'll be thrilled!

Speaking of thrilled, I've found a software replacement for Kodak NotSoEasyShare. I can use Picasa to get pictures off my camera. Here are a few that waited patiently on memory cards while I figured that out:

Toby teaching Grace to play Battleship

Michael's first fish, mounted and hand painted
by Toby for Michael's 6th birthday

Michael and Grace studying together

Going for a walk at Trail of Tears Park

Mummy wrapping Grace as we study Ancient Egypt

Jon mummy wrapping his pound puppy

Two beautiful people

The fam at Nashville's Centennial Park in early October

Baby got blog

Toby and Lynae started blogs today. Their links are listed on the right side of this page. Check 'em out... I'm so blessed to spend my days with these children!

I made Jon laugh!

Mood-setting media: Randy Travis Worship & Faith

Today was a good day. I made Jon laugh. We laughed together. That hadn't happened since the last time I wrote about it, so you can see it's quite rare. We were discussing the word "sew" and why it doesn't sound like "sue". It was no big deal, but I found his funnybone, which definitely IS a big deal. Gracie was particularly helpful and sweet. Loren installed another window (just one left!) and cleaned the garage. It only got up to 70 degrees, and is currently a beautiful 55 degrees, moony, and foggy. I spent some time on the front steps tonight just drinking it in. If only this were normal here for this time of year! (sigh)

School plans for the year have already changed, just 10 sputtering weeks into it.

I've decided to take Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays off. That way we have a day of rest, a cleaning day (I love Mondays!), and errand/choir day. I'm hoping this will allow us to focus more completely on school when we're doing it, since we won't have to cram it in before going to town.

Instead of writing out weekly assignment sheets from my planner, Toby and Lynae have each been given a folder that will take them through their current "grade" levels. Most of their assignments are spelled out for them, with a couple of pages devoted to "Mom's choice" assignments. All I need to do now is tell them each morning how many assignments I want them to do that day. So far I haven't come up with any reason why it won't work and I'll have to scrap it and start over. I'm a little suspicious.

I've also decided that Jon's going to do very little writing this year -- he'll mostly be reading. It's one of the few things he does without complaint, and he does it well. I figure if I can keep him excited about learning on his own, we can cover written work later on... next semester, next year, or whenever he seems ready to do it without ripping his paper, breaking his pencil, and crying.

Ok, I just deleted a bunch of really dumb stuff. Yet again, I've waited until all is quiet here to sit and write, and now I'm dozing off. I won't try to share what I was thinking... not tonight. If it's worth sharing, it'll come around again. It's time to go find the "good" pillows (a complicated process by which pillows are ranked by size, shape, and pillowcase) and get them arranged just right so I can sleep.

Girly girl is 10

Sweet Lynae Marie just turned 10. We took her shopping and she picked out a pair of shoes, a Polly Pocket set, some cute jammies, and a chair for her room. We also got her a camping chair and a clip-on watch, and Toby got her a gerbil. A good time was had by (nearly) all.

She spent the week at a 4-H day camp collecting and identifying bugs and leaves, building a birdhouse, and fishing. She had a blast, and was totally exhausted by Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, when I picked her up, I had to tell her that Gracie let her gerbil out. As of now, he hasn't been found. I figure he's fine somewhere, as long as she didn't flush him.

Gosh, he's getting old!

My firstborn is twelve today. He's getting all sentimental about it, which is sweet. This morning, he even played "horsey" for Gracie and invited both of his sisters to sit on his lap.I know he'll be over it soon enough, and swinging from the top of a tree, thrilled to be sweaty, grubby, and on top of the world.

I'm so glad, at times like this, that we homeschool. I cannot imagine having missed so much of his life by sending him off to public school. The years have flown by fast enough as it is.

While he and Loren put a roof over our back porch, I took a stab at cake decorating. Never having done it before, I was certain it would look ridiculous. I think, though, it turned out just ducky. :D