Recent Happenings

Wow, it's been a while! I haven't posted much on here cuz last week there just wasn't much to post! LOL

2 weekends ago, we went to Salem with the Watson's for the annual hayride there. The hayride was okay...but really the most fun we had was when we took them out into the woods and we all got to go 'tree-tipping'. I know, I know...sounds like a really hillbilly thing to do! Well, it is and it's fun!! LOL We basically find old dead trees that are pretty rotten in the root system. Then you just push 'em over! They go over really easy but it's so much fun to watch the kids feel so powerful in the way they can 'move trees'.

Last week was a week of recouperation and time to start getting ready for the upcoming Halloween party and Trunk-n-Treat at church. The boys began seriously preparing for their upcoming Tae Kwon Do tournament that is this weekend.

On Friday evening, I was completely tuckered out and decided that since this was the first in about 12 weekends that we've had at home with nothing to do, I was gonna go rent some movies and we'd veg on Saturday (Terry was sick anyway, so I knew there was no way he'd be up working outside on Saturday!). I am blogging our reviews of the movies we watched here.

On Sunday evening at the end of the worship, there was an announcement by our minister saying that he and his family would be moving on to another location at the end of the year. Oh. My. Goodness. There were tears and hugs and utter sadness for nearly an hour! We were all shocked and saddened, but know that that is us being selfish in our wanting them to stay. This is what they feel they have to do for themselves and is what they feel they have been led to do...but it is NOT an easy thing to accept! I know for myself, I struggled until late afternoon yesterday to be able to not cry every 5 minutes. And Brent was really struggling too...he cried from the moment we got in the van that night until I finally got him to bed around 10, and then was crying again when he woke up the next morning. Thankfully, he is better now. He's still sad, but is better and is processing it well. I know the Lord has good things in store for the M's and for us at Jackson....He will bring someone to us that will help us grow even more!

This week, we are working on Halloween costumes...we just painted them today. They need a second coat and then I can finish the last bit of it...I will post pictures later! :) We're also working on their Halloween bags...I have decided to use canvas bags that they can decorate with paint. I don't like the little plastic buckets you can get and using a pillow case (like I use to do) doesn't work so well with C, who is short! Fun! We're taking a few days break...sort of a "Fall Break"....from schooling. Brent needed it and so did I. He just finished Unit 1 in his books and I thought with all the Halloween activity coming on, it would be good not to have to do school 'formally' this week.

We also have TKD tourny coming on Saturday followed by the Halloween party at church...should be lots of pictures to share next week!

My other blog

Well, I've had this other blog in place now for a while, but haven't added anything to it...at all. ;) The goal is to have a place where I review and rate movies I see and books I read (mostly it will be books!) so that friends and family have a place to go to see my thoughts on that (if they so desire!). But, I just haven't had the time to put anything over there.

Until today! LOL I just finished a book that I think warrants a review, so it will be my first over there. Eventually I will c&p the ones I've done here on this blog over to that one so they are all in one location and easier to find.

So if you want, here's a link! ABCatHome-reviews

4-H Meeting at the Fire Station

On Friday we had our first 4-H meeting of the year...and since it was National Fire Safety Week, we had it at the Fire Station. Mr Jeff showed us around and put on his gear for us. (Did I mention that our 'little' 4-H group is made up of all homeschoolers?? LOL) After he finished with his gear, the kids got to explore inside the fire truck, which of course, they thought was completely awesome!

There were all kinds of gadgets on the outside of the truck too. Knobs to push and things to look at!

One particular door that opened was truly fascinating to Brent....the one with all the sharp objects!! LOL He was "wow'd" by the axes and such that you see below. I'm sure you can tell his jaw is hanging open as he leans on the truck looking at all of it!

Near the end of the tour of the truck, the kids all climbed in the back seat area and sat still long enough for a posed shot!

One of them (I don't remember which one) asked about the 'heat sensing gun' to help them find people in a fire. (I am thinking it was Brent cuz he knew about the camera from our trip to the firehouse in Jackson last year...) Mr. Jeff got it out for us and was showing them how it works. Below, you can see his hand in the camera screen where it is on the door. These camera's are really neat...cuz for a few seconds (maybe 15) after he moved his hand, the heat imprint was still visible on the screen. Really cool!

Reason #997,247 to be a homeschooler...

Class surprises lesbian teacher on wedding day
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2008

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage.

The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with hugs.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, a friend of a friend, officiated.

A parent came up with the idea for the field trip - a surprise for the teacher on her wedding day.

"She's such a dedicated teacher," said the school's interim director Liz Jaroslow.

But there was a question of justifying the field trip academically. Jaroflow decided she could.

"It really is what we call a teachable moment," Jaroflow said, noting the historic significance of same-sex marriage and related civil rights issues. "I think I'm well within the parameters."

Nonetheless, the excursion offers Proposition 8 proponents fresh ammunition for their efforts to outlaw gay marriage in California, offering a real-life incident that echoes their recent television and radio ads.

"It's just utterly unreasonable that a public school field trip would be to a same-sex wedding," said Chip White, press secretary for the Yes on 8 campaign. "This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to have an understanding of its purpose."

The trip illustrates the message promoted by the campaign in recent days, namely that unless Prop. 8 passes on Nov. 4, children will learn about same-sex marriage in school.

"It shows that not only can it happen, but it has already happened," White said.

California Education Code permits school districts to offer comprehensive sex education, but if they do, they have to "teach respect for marriage and committed relationships."

Parents can excuse their child from all or part of the instruction.

On Friday, McCoy and Carder, both in white, held hands on Newsom's office balcony overlooking the rotunda and recited their vows.

"With this ring, I thee wed!" Carder said, shouting the last word for emphasis.

After traditional photos, the two walked out City Hall's main doors where the students were lined up down the steps with bags of pink rose petals and bottles of bubbles hanging from their necks. McCoy, a conferences services coordinator, was in on the surprise and beamed as the children swarmed around Carder.

The two said they have participated in the campaign against Proposition 8 and planned to travel around San Francisco on Friday afternoon in a motorized trolley car with "Just Married" and "Vote No on 8" banners.
The two met on a dance floor two years ago.

"This is one girl I can honestly say deserves happiness, and it came in the form of Kerri," said Carder's friend Dani Starelli.

Creative Arts administrators and parents acknowledged that the field trip might be controversial, but they didn't see the big deal. Same-sex marriage is legal, they noted.

"How many days in school are they going to remember?" asked parent Marc Lipsett. "This is a day they'll definitely remember."

Carder's students said they were happy to see their new teacher married.
"She's a really nice teacher. She's the best," said 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt, wearing a "No on 8" button on her shirt. "I want her to have a good wedding."

Chava's mothers said they are getting married in two weeks.

The students' parents are planning to make a video with the children describing what marriage is to them.

Marriage, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander said Friday, is "people falling in love."

It means, he added, "You stay with someone the rest of your life."

As is the case with all field trips, parents had to give their permission and could choose to opt out of the trip. Two families did. Those children spent the duration of the 90-minute field trip back at school with another first-grade class, the interim director said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's not controversial for me," Jaroflow said. "It's certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for."
----
Now, I realize this is California and not where I live, but still. If this isn't another reason to homeschool, I don't know what is! So sad....

Grades Report...from LAST year! HA!

Okay, I know it's a little late for this, but, well, I just got them done! LOL We schooled all summer to make up for what we lost last year with Janice's illness/hospitalization and Terry's surgeries. So, we had just finished with last years' stuff when we jumped straight into this year...I had no time for grading or posting to my 'grade book' (which is just an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs that I created last year so it could do all the figuring for me!). So, here we go:

Phonics:
9769/10165 = 96% A

Reading:
4135/4297 = 96% A

Writing:
618/627 = 99% A

Math:
11167/11586 = 97% A

Art:
505/517 = 98% A

So, obviously, B was 'promoted' to 2nd Grade! LOL He did really well last year and is actually past his actual grade when it comes to many aspects of his schooling. We've decided to change Mathematics curriculum this year to Modern Curriculum Press Math...it's sequential, vs the spiral that we had been doing in the past 3 years. We're still using Rod and Staff for Phonics and Reading, and they also sent us a Social Studies book this year that Brent LOVES! It's doing a general study of the world geography, and he's learning all the continents and some of the individual countries within them. Very cool!

2nd grade is definitely more work for him (and me!) but he's really enjoying school this year. Plus, it helps that Daddy is teaching math this year too! :)

More later!

Freed-Hardeman Chorale

We were truly blessed this weekend! For three years now, the Freed-Hardeman Chorale has come the first weekend in October to stay a night with us and perfrom for us on that Sunday afternoon. This year was no different! The 'kids' came in on Saturday evening and a few of us stayed together to eat dinner and play some cards. Oh what fun we had!!! The card game we learned/played was like Spades and Bunco combined...what a treat! We rotated tables and really got to know each other.



We had Asia and Rebecca...Asia is pictured below, on the left. She's a sweetie and I'm SOOO thankful we've been blessed to get to know her!

The rest of the Birthday!

Thursday night we gave Clayton his gift from us...a new PINK guitar! This is his reaction:

His first words were: "My very own guitar!!! And it's even pink!!" LOL I just love his love of all things pink!

Of course, Daddy had to 'tune' it (which took forever!) and I kept telling him he didn't need to do much with it, just make sure the strings were tight, cuz the first thing Clayton would want to do would be 'tune' it himself! And, yep, he did. So all that tuning was wasted. :-) Oh well.... But then the boys decided they would "rock this house" (to quote Jack's Big Music Show) and began making their rocking music.

Last Weekend happenings

This past weekend in Salem, the kids were out playing ball with Terry when they came to get me. They found this bug (below) and we have NO idea what kind of bug it is. I hope the picture is clear enough, but I will give some descriptions, just in case. If you know what this bug is PLEASE let me know! LOL

It has a regular bug like body, and six legs. However, the top of it has hard-like wings, like a beetle. Now, the 'hump' you see looks almost like a triceratops little flat part behind their head, but turned sideways. Then he has these two LONG antennae, a really long head/nose (who 'nose' what it is! LOL) and a red straw looking thing going from his head (?) to the ground. REALLY strange looking. It looks like a type of beetle, but I couldn't find anything online that resembled it! Help!

Also, over the weekend, Darlene gave us a big bag of fresh apples from her trees. We finally got them processed last night after church. We peeled, cored, and sliced them (all by hand, since we didn't know where our handy counter-clamping thing is!). We finished about 11 o'clock and I just put them all in 2 big bowls with a bunch of water. I covered them with plastic wrap and sorta pushed the plastic down till it touched the apples, to minimize air contact. (Smart, huh??) Well, today, I decided to make applesauce out of one bowl and we'll use the other bowl to make some apple crisp for Clayton's birthday tonight.

Applesauce....YUM! I rinsed the apples and put them in a big pot of water, brought it to a boil and let it boil for about an hour. Oh, about half way through the boiling process, I sprinkled in a bunch of cinnamon. Then I drained them, put them back in the pan with some brown sugar and used a potatoe masher on them. Well, I quickly saw that this wasn't going to get it as smooth as I wanted it to be...so I got out the food processor and just whipped them up! I added a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon and had the kids come in and taste...they LOVED it! :) So now it is cooling in a bowl so I can refrigerate it... I thought I would have enough for freezing some of the applesauce, cuz I had so many apples. But it is amazing how much they cook down! Oh well, we'll have applesauce for...uh, maybe 24 hours! LOL

Happy Thursday!

My baby is 6!

Happy Birthday to Clayton! He turns 6 today and he's SOOOO excited about it. He has been planning this birthday for months and been asking me for weeks how many more days till his birthday! We had a party last weekend in Salem for him with the Salem-family. Darlene made the cake (she's practicing for ReVay's wedding!) and Cory and Maggie decorated it. Clayton LOVED it! (He especially loved eating the fondant!)

Below is him 'making a wish' and then blowing out the candles...and then when opening presents, he felt the need to put the gift bags on his head... Oy. :-)

I will update in the next few days with more photos from the remainder of the activities we have planned!

Wonderful weekend!

We were childless for the weekend! :) Mom and dad took the boys for the weekend so that we and some friends of ours could go on Saturday to one of the local wineries and take a tour. I'd been there last year with the college girls that came to MO, but Terry still had never been. We really enjoyed the live band and getting to try several different wines so that we could figure out which ones we liked! :)

We went to get the kids last night and they were WOUND! I kept asking mom what she gave them before we got there, cuz they just wouldn't settle down! They were loud and full of energy. But by the time we got home they had settled down considerably. They even commented on how clean the house was when they walked in! LOL Now, if a 5 and 7 year old will notice it when it's clean, it must be really bad beforehand, which it was!

This week is a 'normal' week for us. We have TKD twice and then Presidents with our homeschool group on Thursday morning. We've just started, but we're doing George Washington and John Adams and we'll work our way through the list. I'm really pretty excited about it, as I never learned them in school and have always wanted to learn about the Presidents. Cool!

This weekend, we'll be going to Salem so we can celebrate Clayton's birthday with the family there. It will be our first time going in since the first of August! It's not like us to go so many weeks without visiting, but life has just gotten so crazy! Clayton is excited about getting to FINALLY celebrate his birthday (even though it hasn't even occurred yet), as he's been waiting for months for his birthday! But hey, at least THIS year I have his scrapbook caught up to his 2nd birthday, so we have pictures to share with him. (He's only been asking for that for a couple years, but hey, what can I say???)

K, time to go get them ready for TKD and get supper started. One of these days, Sunny, I'll get some pics on here of myself and get out from behind the camera! :) No one will take pictures if I don't do it! LOL

Campout 2008!

We have been planning this family camping trip for weeks....months even! Terry promised the boys that he would take them camping by the end of summer and this ended up being the ONLY weekend we had to do it. So, we left on Thursday with plans to come back on Saturday. We went to St. Francois State Park, about an hour from us, and it was truly beautiful! Course, it helped that we were completely alone on our 'loop' for the first 36 hours and the kids could roam all over the area where we were and go exploring in other sites. I told them that as long as I could see them, I was comfortable with where they went. They absolutely loved it!

But the trip started out a bit ....well, shall we say wet! It was sprinkling on us before we ever even picked out our site and backed into it. We were supposed to unload our stuff and go pay for the site, but we knew that since it was raining we would need to get the tent up asap and then go pay. Luckily, the campground host was driving around and came to us while we were putting the tent up and we just paid that way. So nice. Anyway, it rained that entire night! Thankfully, we had a couple extra tarps so we were able to rig a canopy by tying a tarp up between some trees just outside our tent. The rained calmed a bit before supper and we went and got some wood....Let me just say here that whoever is supplying the state parks with wood is making a bundle of money...or perhaps they aren't, but the state is! This little bitty bundle of wood that burns up fast cuz it is so dry is $3. We spent $15 on wood that would have gotten us through the first day, maybe. But we had to have a fire that night so we could eat, so we paid the money. Ugh!

We got back to the site and Terry built a fire, showing the boys how to stack the wood so it would burn well and catch quickly. I was truly amazed at how the boys would just sit out in the rain watching their daddy build a fire and helping him chop kindling. :) Anyway, they finally got the fire going and started roasting some hot dogs. I got the chips, ketchup, mustard, and buns and sodas over under our little canopy. Terry would bring me a couple pokers filled with cooked dogs and I would slide them off with the buns, doctor them up and pass them out. We all sat under the canopy eating our supper while the rain continued to fall! Course, one piece of entertainment was how the canopy would build up a bit of water and then it would fall off...the boys said the canopy was peeing for us! LOL

(Obviously cuz of the rain I don't have any pictures of the beginning of our trip....I didn't want to take the chance of ruining my camera!)

We finally got to bed...the boys were asking for their beds by 8 PM!!! I was shocked! But it was nice for Terry and I...we got to sit out by the campfire and visit, alone, for a couple hours! And the rain stopped just so we could....we only got dripped on by the trees! But once we got into the tent for bed, we had only been laying there about 10 minutes when we heard this loud, "sshhhhhhhhh....thunk!" and then, "Dad, I fell out of bed!" It was Brent. The boys were sleeping on an air mattress that was raised up on a frame and we were on a mattress on the ground. Well, apparently Clayton had continually scooted over to Brent, and Brent kept scooting from Clayton...and ended up in the floor! Poor kid! He fell out of bed twice through the night, so none of us really got much sleep that first night. But oddly enough, we all woke up feeling well and rested...and ready to tackle the day!

Friday morning was a bit cloudy still, but you could see a little blue sky trying to show through, so we were hopeful! We got around, Terry stoked the fire...well, rebuilt it really cuz there weren't any coals left from that dried out wood we had to use....and we had breakfast of Pop tarts, Granola bars, and juice. Very easy but a treat for us, cuz those aren't things we have much at all at our house! We decided to go back up to a place a couple miles from the park where we'd seen a sign for firewood to see what the cost would be. The guy LOADED that back of the van with nice round pieces of wood and only charged us $20! When we got back, the boys helped Terry unload it:





Just a few minutes after we got back from getting the wood, mom and dad came for lunch. We made campfire sandwiches...well, we tried to make them anyway...! If you've never had them, campfire sandwiches are these GREAT camping tools that create sandwiches for you when you stick them in the coals. Most of them are square, but you can find round ones sometimes. They are sort of like hot dog pokers, but have a square compartment at the end instead of the pokers. Anyway, you put in bread, cheese and lunch meat (ham is best) and close it up and stick in the coals. Watch it for a bit (opening and checking it so it doesn't burn, which ours did!) and when it is toasted and the cheese is melted, you pop it out onto a plate and bam-o! You have a hot ham and cheese! YUM! Then at night for dessert, you can butter the outsides of the bread and fill it with pie filling and cook it...instant pie! :)

Well, after mom and dad left, we took the kids to the playground area and to the creek. Oh, the creek was hilarious! It is always amazing how kids can play for a long time with a rock and not want to play at all with toys you have purchased! We skipped rocks and the boys had fun just throwing rocks in the creek. Then we encouraged them to wade into the creek (it was only about chest deep for Brent) and they had so much fun! Brent found this rock (pic below) that he continually would throw across the water, let it splash and sink, and then find it again...only to do it all over again. He played like that for over 30 minutes!

(Left: B splashing himself with his rock. Right: B 'looking' for his rock after throwing it.)



Clayton figured out that he couldn't keep his flip flops on very well in the water (they kept coming off and floating to the top) so he decided to just take them off and play with them!




Left: Clayton watching the dirt 'trail' that he left behind and that floated down-river every time he walked. Right: Clayton "dog-paddling" in the creek.



Just some more misc. creek picture...





These below are pics of Brent's rock that he found and then them together with his rock. He wanted to take the rock home with us but we explained that the State Park wouldn't look too nicely on us taking rocks....



While the boys were in the creek I found some deer tracks that we showed them when they got out. Very cool...and I was SO proud that I was the one that found them! LOL



We finally got them out of the creek and back to the campsite. Terry got the coals going for our supper and then took the kids up to the shower house for showers. While they were gone, I scrubbed taters and got them in the fire for baked potatoes....OH! What a great meal when it's cooked over the campfire like that!

Oh, and another thing happened while they were all in the shower....I was just sitting there, minding my own business when a deer came out of the woods at the top of the loop (couple hundred feet away) and began eating from the grasses that were there. She just stood there for nearly thirty minutes eating and listening, twitching her ears and her tail....but just as calm as you please! It was such a beautiful sight!

After supper, we taught Brent how to play Yahtzee and he loved it! (I always love being able to squeeze schoolwork in without them noticing!) Shortly after, the boys went to bed...they could barely keep their eyes open!

***The One Bad Thing*** I started getting a headache around the time they went to bed. I took some Advil and went to bed myself, telling Terry that I wasn't feeling very good, but didn't really know why. Well, I found out! I woke myself up multiple times through the night moaning in pain from a migraine! I finally got up around 6 and took some migraine meds (I'm so thankful I remembered to bring them with me!) and went back to bed. (It was the worst migraine I think I've ever had! When I got out of the tent to get my meds, I glanced up at the sky to see what the weather was doing. There were a few clouds in the sky and they were pulsating at me! I've never had that happen before. Light sensitivity, yes. But nothing like that!) Terry let me sleep till about 9:30, but he had to wake me up so we could pack up camp and be off the site by 12. I still had an achy head, so I took more Advil and started working. Oh, it hurt!

Anyway, we got everything packed up and I'm so thankful for the wind! It was only because of the wind that we were able to dry everything out before packing it up, so we didn't have to put the tent back up when we got home! :)

Amanda