Christmas Lights

Darkness each day overtakes more minutes of sunlight.  For someone like me, the lack of sunlight makes me a bid sad.  I hear that I can replace all of my light bulbs with full spectrum light bulbs.  Well, I just might do that.

In the meantime, I'm decking the house with Christmas lights.  Who needs chachkies on every shelf. Storing ornaments is enough clutter for this girl.  But, ah, Christmas lights.  Christmas lights are happy.  They make the whole house sparkle with tiny little colors.  The kids love them too.

 

I just might need to keep these lights up until Valentine's Day!

My Kids' Mother is a Sucker

It's all about making a good offer -- something I still need to master.  A negotiator, I am not.  A bargainer, I am not.  At the marketplace, I'm a merchandizer's dream. Typically, I return the sale items and keep the full priced buys.  I arrive the day before or the day after the sale and figure, "Well, when else will I get out of the house to finally buy this?"

My poor bargaining skills have left me holding the short end of the stick at home too. Alas, my children know me too well.  Sure, I homeschool in order to know my children.  But did I think about the consequences of them knowing me?

Living on 2 acres requires a lot of yard work.  With all of these kids, the natural conclusion is that I should be lounging on the porch sipping Mai Tais. Or at a minimum, I'm sure you conjure up visions of the baby giggling as he throws leaves in the air while the rest of us clear the lawn of sticks and mow it with the tractor.  Smiling children rake the leaves from hard to reach areas along side a proud mother who accomplishes the Herculean task in matter of mere hours. Fresh squeezed lemonade in a glass picture awaits us on the deck table.  The sky is blue.  Singing birds land on my shoulder. Everyone is so happy to be alive for this one task.

In reality, I'm out there alone. I tried to assign the yard as a chore.  Somehow they weaseled out of that due to complaints of needing time for schoolwork.  Then I tried to bribe them.  After 2 payments, the kids decided that I couldn't pay them enough to do that job. One time I even did more than half of the job for a child that received payment. (That kid is going places!)  Occasionally, I'm able to strong arm them into helping with one of the secondary jobs so that I can zoom by faster on the tractor. But I've really lost my mode of incentives for them.

So here you go.  Here's your time to gloat.  Tell me how awesome you are at keeping on top of your children's chores.  Tell me how your amazing payment systems motivate your children to work.  While I'm rolling my eyes, I might actually glean a tip or two.

Wherefore Art Thou, Brown Bag?

This year, I made some crafts with the kids in honor of Thanksgiving.  We did the traditional hand transformed into turkey craft.  But when I wanted to make them fringed Indian vests with matching headbands made from brown paper bags, I realized that we don't really have any of those types of bags.  Unless you shop at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, you probably don't have a huge supply of brown bags like you did when you were a kid.  Remind me again why those fell out of favor?

Bored with the hand turkey, we also made snowflakes.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Rut-roh.  My oldest dropped her phone in the toilet.  Does this happen more often than people are willing to admit?  Right now, it's dehydrating in a bag of rice. Let's hope the grain resurrects it.

Last week marked 365 consecutive days of a pee-pee free phone for me.  Let's hope that my daughter can follow that example of mine too.

Shoes? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Shoes!

Here in Virginia, the days are getting colder.  Cold weather, cold feet. To me, cold feet must be covered with at least socks and preferably shoes when I walk outside.

Often I forget to remind the kids to put on shoes before leaving the house because to mention this seems too obvious.  Hot weather, cold weather, it doesn't matter.  Most of my kids want to be barefoot.


This explains why I didn't learn that my youngest girl was barefoot with no shoes packed until we were 3 hours into our 6 hour drive.  With no time to turn around, an emergency trip to WalMart was needed before we could eat at Chick Fil-A.

Another time, we arrived at class to find the youngest boy without shoes.  But in that case, his footed sleeper pajamas covered his feet.  Inside a building, that counts as footwear, right?

And don't get me started about my oldest.  I think that girl is part Hobbit by the way her barefoot feet don't notice cold, wet, or rocky terrain.

Did I reject shoes this much as a child?  I can't remember.  But I'm put at ease by the stories of other families whose children also seem to repel footwear.

I remember a friend telling me the tale of when her family was stationed in Alaska.  It was winter, the snow was deep, and this family decided to go through the drive-thru for dinner.  With their car in the garage, they never needed to leave the warmth of their house.  The kids piled into their van without socks, shoes, or coats.

Normally, going from a warm house to a warm van wouldn't require winter clothes, but that day was different because the car broke down. There they were on the side of the road as they froze waiting for help to come.

To you without kids, this might appear easily avoidable.  If this is how you feel, remember that those without fault can cast the first shoe.

Update: Captain II Died

Yesterday we left a swimming fish at the house; hours later we returned to find a fish laying on the bottom of the tank.

Our first reaction was to tap the glass.  Then we banged on it.  Finally we took both hands and shook the tank.  Funny, each of us kind of went through the stages of disbelief in the same way.

This time though, we couldn't hide the news from the 5 year old.  Whereas we were able to shield her from the death of her birthday present by buying and replacing the fish without her notice, our realization of the second death happened right in front of her.

The poor girl burst into uncontrollable sobs.  Never mind the fact that she'd ignored the fish for weeks.  Once this fish died, it became her favorite pet.

Walking around with that tank filled with yucky dead fish water and a limp Captain II, we all worried she might let that gross water spill all over the floor.  She'd set it down on the coffee table as close to the edge as possible and look at her fish.  "Is Captain laying down or dead?" she asked me a few times.  

Through those tears came a silver lining to her sadness.  The rest of us now know what Santa is to bring the distraught little girl: a girl fish.  Plus, our household has a few weeks without caring for something that we feel doomed to die.  Because after these two deaths, we've become jaded with owning a beta fish.

Beta Version Failure

The first fish died.

Ok, I said it. It's out there.  We couldn't even maintain the life of a beta fish. A beta fish!  Of course, we have no idea what we did wrong, but there it was.  Floating. Motionless. Still.  Captain wouldn't flinch when we tapped the tank or even when we hit it harder.

Now we have Captain II or Captain 2.0 depending on your geek background, I suppose.  Captain II can't ever get any sleep when we are awake.  After our last experience, we worry when he rests in the plastic plant.  To reassure ourselves that he is in fact alive, we tap the glass.  A lot.

When we knock on the plastic, Captain II's fins then begin to undulate and put us at ease that our fish is indeed still alive.

Hopefully, we will learn in time to accept that our underwater friend needs to rest and be still.  Because if things keep going as is, then we might develop an OCD type of habit.  Each time we pass the tank, we might feel compelled to keep wrapping his wall which will keep him continually awake.

Pandora Radio

Music is such a mood regulator.  Instead of grabbing that bottle of whatever, why not try what we do?  Our Pandora radio station is almost always playing at our house.

If it's chore time, the Rage Against the Machine station comes on.  When it's time to settle down for reading,  the Bach station is played.  For background music during a meal, Carla Bruni accompanies our conversation.

Since any child is allowed to approve or disapprove of a song by using the thumbs up or down feature, they all become so animated when their favorite song comes on.  In our family, we would much rather let the automated DJ choose our next song then make our own mix.  What's the fun in making your own?

Whether driving or at home, we are continually listening to our tunes.  And sharing this music I love with my kids definitely ranks high in the fond memories I will keep with me from my time spent all day with them.

Agent Prudence

My oldest boy came up with the idea for this entry and wrote it himself.  This is his explanation for why Prudence feels the need to run away from our house each day.

Agent D (Prudence our dog) is an associate of Perry the platypus.  Perry is a secret agent whose mission control is underneath Phineas and Ferb's house.  Each day the family wonders where their platypus has gone.  Little do they know that he is off fighting crime.

Likely fighting an evil doctor, Prudence disappears once a day.  We are not sure where her missions control is or how she gets there -- but we are onto her!

Horchata

Christmas is coming, which means that the month of December is almost here.  Ever since my kids became stuck on the Vampire Weekend song Horchata, we've been singing the first line over and over. Never mind what the rest of the lyrics are because we have no idea.

References to this song pop out at any time.  For example, while my oldest boy perfects his paper on the Boston Tea Party, we hear him often read the phrase, "in December."  When he reads that phrase, the rest of us burst out, "drinking Horchata!"

As November rounds the corner towards December, I think it's a given that we'll be singing this line for many weeks to come.

Here's a link to the song for all of you who have no idea about what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k7ueRrKRmo

Mt. Vernon

Yesterday, the kids and I hit Mt. Vernon's annual homeschool day.  We enjoyed good weather, lower admission, and lots of costumed historical interpreters who demonstrated life in the 18th century.

With the temperate weather, the kids and I spent most of our time outside at the farm.  There the kids participated in the colonial games, brushed wool, and picked cotton.

My 7-year-old was so excited to see the 2-story, 16 sided barn since she read about George Washington the farmer.  He invented this barn to thresh wheat inside during bad weather.  Watching people walk around the inside loop and seeing the grain fall through the cracks in the floor boards fascinated us all.

Despite all of the history to be seen and learned, my littles had more fun playing in the bushes than learning how bee wax candles are made.  Like a child who bypasses the toy in order to play with the box in which it came, these kids made a fort in the overgrown boxwood bush and declared it the most fun they had all day.

Inside the 16-sided barn

Remembering the Purple Lotus

Today I'm considering taking the kids to Mount Vernon's home school day.  If I do go, I promise to be much more careful than I was last year when I dropped my phone into the toilet.  While rice revived the pee-pee phone, it never really was the same again.  Here is the obituary I wrote for it when I thought all hope was lost. The comments and condolences left on my Facebook note made me laugh so hard.  So, go to my notes and read those. 

Purple Lotus: Dead at 21 months

November 5, 2010

The purple Lotus cell phone that transformed its owner from a mere talker to a texter is dead at the young age of 21 months. 

A beautiful phone that would stop people in their tracks to ask, "What is that thing," fell into the toilet of a Mount Vernon restroom earlier today.  The splashes of its owner fishing it out  and her gasps of horror could be heard in the neighboring stalls.

The phone documented its owner's life and quickly uploaded each minute detail of her life to Facebook.  The familiar revving engine sound of an incoming text message was always guaranteed to prompt a laugh from people who heard that out-of-context noise.

After its owner tried to dab the water off the phone with toilet paper in lieu of what most people would consider extremely handy paper towels, she held the battery under the hand drier futilely. 

Even though she did receive sympathies for the passing of her phone, most of her friends burst into laughter instead of offering condolences upon hearing about how the accident happened.

The owner is reported to have complained about losing all of those numbers due to her inability to remember a single person's phone number.

The phone is survived by her owner, the family and an unused phone book.

Phineas and Ferb

It's our ritual.  Every Wednesday after our weekly classes, we come home to watch a few episodes of Phineas and Ferb.

The baby is tired because on Wednesday he can't have his crib if he needs a nap. The oldest is wiped out after handling babies in the nursery for almost 6 hours. The other kids are tired from being in class all day.  

So after we've put away our things, we snuggle under blankets and watch our funny show.  To me, it seems like The Simpsons for a younger generation. Except, the kids in this show respect their elders.  With cultural references and silliness that appeal to both the kids and me, we all agree the show is hilarious.

Last week, we fired up our show, and the 3 year old who can barely speak blew me over with his ability to sing the song!  He knows the hand motions and where to project his voice for some of the punctuated parts!

Besides Avatar, the Last Airbender, no other kid cartoon has captured my attention this much. So, it's not just the kids.  I really do love our weekly habit!

Lessons from Prudence

Prudence, our beagle, wasn't named by us.  Frankly, I wonder if she'd know good judgement if it knocked her over the head.

Continually, I long for the capability to reason with her.  I'd love the chance to explain why she mustn't chase the runners that pass by our house or dig escape holes under the fence.  If only she'd be happy in the backyard, she could run around outside all day.  

Instead, she is cooped up inside where she barks at squirrels from the wrong side of the glass.  Her occasional barking fits tempts me to open the door and let her run free.  Forever.

But here she remains, proving that she does have some sense.  She's wagged her way into the hearts of my children who'll defend her no matter what she does.  To them, she can do no wrong.

If I'm going to keep the upper hand here, I think I'd better take a lesson from Prudence.  Using caution, I won't indulge in eye rolls or sighs.  Rather, I'll smile, hand the kids the cleaner, and point to wherever there is a mess to disinfect.

The Gluttonous Day After

Everyone knows that candy spoils quickly.  Because of this, the kids and I are doing our best to consume all of the candy as fast as we can.

School is so much more enjoyable now that we take breaks to maintain our sugar rush.  Being in charge, I decide how many pieces we will have.  But the kids know me too well.  They keep the pile of candy in front of me so that I'll cave in and say, "Let's have another piece each!"

These indulgences actually have an academic side affect. My 5 year old has learned that when Mom says 5 pieces and she's eaten 2, then she can have 3 more.  Math like this is so much more fun.

If all goes according to plan, I won't have this candy around for much longer to tempt me.