COH - The Juggling Workshop

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ The Juggling Workshop
hosted by The Juggling Paynes at Home Spun Juggling

If I Only Had A Brain Hat

This is Terzo's brain hat.


This is also Terzo's brain hat.


This is the effect of Terzo's actual brain.


Any questions?

The Brain Hat can be found in Easy Make & Learn Projects: The Human Body by Donald Silver & Patricia Wynne.

Note: No children were harmed in the creation of this blog post.

COH - Game Day Edition

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ Game Day Edition
hosted by Beverly at Beverly's Homeschooling Blog

Needs Vs. Wants

I need to find an exercise program that works for me. I had convinced myself that all of the running around I do with 4 kids (6 kids if you include the borrowed ones) burned enough calories so that I didn't need to exercise, but I just can't keep up that charade any longer. I get achy too easily, and I tire too easily. I am obviously out of shape.

So, over the last few years, I have tried-out some various "programs" and schedules. I am not really the internally-motivated type. If it's not down on paper, I won't do it (I will also freak-out that it won't fit into my schedule). So I was looking for something pre-packaged that I could follow then adapt as I got to know it better.

Attempt #1: Back when I only had 2 kids, then 3, Body Electric would air during the kids' nap time. It was perfect. Low impact. Scheduled. 30-minutes and done. Then we moved and our new PBS affiliate didn't carry it, but I had recorded some of the workouts so I thought I'd be good. Wrong. When Quiet Time came around, I'd think, "Oh, I can pop in that tape" [remember tapes?!] "any old time. I'll clean [nap, make supper] now and exercise later." I needed that set time everyday... a set time ordained by someone else. We've moved again since, but now we don't get TV, so any broadcast program is out of the question.

Attempt #2: Exercise class through adult ed at the local high school. I was the youngest, least fit person in the class. I finished-out the classes I paid for then stopped.

Attempt #3: In an attempt to encourage me in my exercise endeavors, Frodo purchased some exercise equipment for me: a yoga mat, a balance ball, a block, and a bag to store and carry it all in. I've use the mat... twice? The ball has been taken out of the box; it wouldn't fit in the bag in its box, so the box had to go. I tried using the block once for some modified push-up exercise and almost gave myself a bloody nose when I slipped off the stupid thing. I use the bag all the time. It stores all the equipment very nicely and fits beautifully in its appointed place, conveniently located to be grabbed on the run or when I need to move it to clean my closet or locate a rogue shoe.

Attempt #4: To go along with my relatively new, yet already dusty, exercise gear, I bought the book Pilates: Body In Motion. It is a DK book with great photos, easy to follow descriptions of each exercise, and recommended exercise plans. I only used it twice. Have you ever tried to "Roll Like a Ball" while holding a paperback exercise book? Not pretty.

Attempt #5: I figured the quick fix to the book problem was to get a DVD. I ordered Louise Solomon's Yoga & Pilates Total Body Toner. Two problems: 1) I had to enforce my own schedule. Ha! 2) I couldn't do the workouts on the floor and see the TV. The one in the living room may have worked if our living room didn't have any furniture in it, and the one in our bedroom was so high up (being on top of a highboy dresser) that I got a workout but then needed to see a chiropracter about the crick in my neck.

Attempt #6: SparkPeople.com I have actually tried them twice. Once paired up with a physically distant friend. I liked the accountability (she could see if I had logged in my food and exercise info for the day and whether or not I was acheiving my goals), but it only works if you enter in your info every day - what you ate and the exercise you did. The exercise was actually pretty easy to enter, but the food was a chore. I often had to enter meals by ingredient since we rarely eat out, eat little prepackaged food, and often make recipe substitutions (whole wheat flour for white, etc) or just don't use a recipe at all. The second time (which I am currently in the process of abandoning - and overlapping with "Attempt #8... oh joy), was solo. All the frustrations of the first go-round with no accountability. Disaster waiting to happen.

Attempt #7: Since I couldn't find someone/ something to impose an exercise schedule on me, I decided an in-house exercise partner might work. Frodo is a faster walker than I am, and we generally have very different schedules, so that pairing wasn't going to work. I decided to go for exercise accountability and one-on-one mom-kid time and asked Primo to do Couch to 5K with me. Who'd of thought that a program with "5K" in the title would involve running? I don't run... unless I am being chased by a bear. They didn't provide one.

Attempt #8: The kids have been taking swimming lessons at the university since last fall. Only students, faculty, and recreation center members (and swim school kids) can use the pool, so this summer we signed up for a student family membership to the center. It was great! When Primo was in her lesson, I swam around with the younger three. When the younger three were in lessons, Primo and I swam laps and played speed games in the pool. Frodo would even join us when he was done with his afternoon tutoring sessions. I was guaranteed an hour in the pool twice a week. It was very easy to plan another family swim time at the pool or lake a third day during the week. I was golden. Until swimming lessons stopped. We went 2-3 tmes a week for almost another month, went on vacation (where were went swimming in the hotel pools almost daily), then came home and... nothing. I think we've been to the pool two times since early July.

As I was discussing my exercise woes with Frodo the other day and sharing with him my plan to get up earlier and try to get to the pool or walking park (did I mention there is a walking park 2 miles down the road from us?) early a few days a week, I came to a realization:

I need an exercise program, but I don't want an exercise program.

I want an exercise montage. Like in Rocky.

I want to don my "I mean business" exercise clothes, lace up my Nikes, and two minutes later be sweaty, fit, and celebrating at the top of the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I don't want to have to find real time, be sore, create more laundry, or add more showers to my week. I want great background music and a fit body in two minutes. I'm not even averse to sweat.

Is that too much to ask?

And while I'm at it, I would also like commercial breaks where a stage crew comes in and cleans my house. And have conflicts that result in witty one-liners (made mostly by me) and are resolved by a compassionate yet clever heart-to-heart less than 30 minutes (minus commercial breaks) after the introduction of the conflict.

How do you get out of the habit of no disciplined exercised to some form of disciplined exercise? Anyone? I'm all out of ideas.

Fly on the Wall

At the lunch table this afternoon:

Quarto: Dad? Can I eat the rest of my jellybeans tomorrow?

Frodo: No, you'd get a tummy ache.

Terzo: And be in a sugar comma.

Fly on the Wall

Uttered by Quarto (age 5) while hanging out with mom while the older three were at Vacation Bible School:


"Mom, when's it? Um.... when's it time to.... when's it time to collect the children?"

Sending Up A Signal Flare

I am still alive. The internet at our house has given up the ghost, so I am only able to get online once or twice a week at the library or coffee shop. On these trips I have to race through checking and responding to email, renewing library books (well, recently it has been more along the line of managing fines), and downloading and uploading chapter edits. This doesn't leave time for fun stuff like blogging, playing on Facebook, or reading through homeschool message boards. My publisher also invited me to join Twitter, but I don't think that is going to happen for a bit. It has also made ordering books for next school year a bit difficult.

Being nestled in the woods can be wonderful for the spirit, but it is the death knell to reliable satellite internet service. "All you need is a clear view of the southern sky" the smiling spokeswoman in the satellite ads assures. Guess what we don't have? As soon as the trees leaf, our internet goes POOF! We also live in a weird little hole without access to cable, DSL, or a strong cell signal. Our landlord, who lives on the same property but closer to town, is apparently the end of the line for DSL and cable... or so we thought. Frodo called Comcast the other day in his quarterly attempt to hint that they need to extend the access to our house. Usually, the response is a friendly but curt, "I'm sorry but we don't service your address." This last call was a bit more optomistic... "We can't do just internet, but we can do a phone internet bundle for you. We just have to send a tech down to check things out." Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I am getting a lot done in my yard, writing up lesson plans for next year, and writing up illustration lists. And maybe in another week or two, I can get back online at home, in my jammies, in the late night hours when the rest of my family is sleeping (well, everyone but Secondo, she's my fellow night owl) and blog to my heart's content. Maybe...

COH - No Child Left Inside

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ No Child Left Inside
hosted by Susan at Corn and Oil

Getting Past The Gag Reflex

The internet went out at our house again, so this afternoon I packed-up my stuff and set out for the coffee house... reliable internet and chai, who could ask for more?

As I drove up the driveway, however, I spotted Secondo standing at the end of the driveway with a pair of binoculars peering into the ditch on the side of the road.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" I inquired.

"The dead possum," she casually replied. "Do you think its back end was taken off by the car that hit it or do you think a vulture was eating it?"

Frodo had mentioned that there was a dead opossum in the road last night when he came home, and Zen Baby and The Man's mom mentioned that it was on the side of the road this morning. I had been wondering how long it would take for Secondo to make her way out there and investigate.

I couldn't quite see the opossum from where I stopped. I could smell it, however, so I backed the car up a bit, put on the emergency brake, and got out of the car.

"Well, Dad said it was in the road last night, so I am guessing that a vulture or something got a hold of it and dragged it into the ditch where it could eat without fear of being hit by a car and becoming some other creature's supper," I speculated.

"Look at all the flies on it! What else eats dead animals... carrion?"

This launched us into a 10-minute discussion on the decomposition process and the determination of time of death using insect life-stages. (I knew that Master's Degree would come in handy!) I told her that since Frodo saw the opossum on his way home but not on his way out and since we know that opossums are nocturnal, we could pretty confidently state that the opossum expired the night before.

"How long will it take to decompose?"

"Well, that depends on a few things... what creatures come along to feast on it, chemical breakdown now that the carcass was opened to the elements, the weather, and some other things."

"If I take a picture of it every day, I could record how long it takes to decompose and how it decomposed, couldn't I?"

She then ran inside to get my camera. I promised I would buy a new battery for the kid camera while I was out tonight. (And maybe new binoculars since toy military binoculars really aren't that helpful for serious scientific study... they magnified nothing and were amazingly blurry.) We then discussed the importance of taking pictures of reference before taking close-up shots (with the zoom, of course... that thing stank!). I encouraged her to take note of whether the body is moved and what state it is in each day. 

When I left, she was still taking pictures (one handed, so she could hold her nose) and had a HUGE grin on her face. 

She's probably not ready to peruse my copy of Spitz & Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death but maybe I can pull out the old textbooks and throw together a few forensic pathology lessons for her... or at least brush-up so I can answer her questions. That kid keeps me on my toes!

Hmmm. maybe I need to work on a Forensic Pathology for Kids. (I don't think the world is ready for that... I'm not!)

Ummm, okie dokie.

A couple weeks ago (I am finally catching up with posting... you'll see the phrase "a few weeks ago" a lot the next couple of weeks), the kids and I came out of the library to find this:



(Re-creation. Not original pamphlet placement. I don't carry my camera everywhere. Probably should, though... especially if stuff like this keeps happening.)

The collection included a personal note and the following pamphlets:

Preventing Youth Tobacco Use (Tip Sheet #4)

Home Smoke Alarms (two copies)

Rise to the Challenge (a recruitment brochure for the Army)

The envelope on top was addressed "Neighbor" and had "who is my neighbor?" in the lower left corner. Inside, the note (handwritten in a very pretty notecard) read:

3-23-2009

Praise the Lord,

I have been in Bible Study + Evangelism Training since (Dec.) 1979/80!

Please pray for me that I can become a Prison Work Minister/ Evangelism.

Joshua 24:25-28

Please pray for me + I will pray for you as well.

In Christ,
[name omitted]

I do not know this person. We believe it was the lady parked next to us who gave us a very warm hello when we pulled in. She was inside the library when we got to our car and discovered the "gift" she had left for us on our windshield. She didn't leave anything on anyone else's windshield that we could see.

Very, very strange.

Life sure is interesting, huh?!

Stimulus Pork... Yummmmm!

Schnitzel Von Krumm

A few years ago, friends from New Zealand introduced us to a wonderful little pup, Schnitzel Von Krumm and his very low tum. Terzo was the intended audience for these books, but never took to them as much as I did, so they spent most of their time on the bookshelf biding their time until someone would come along and appreciate them. Fast forward about 5 years, and they have found a fan... two actually.

Quarto and The Man (the three year old who becomes part of the family during the weekdays) LOVE Schnitzel Von Krumm... and yes, you must say his entire given name whenever reffering to him. It's just the way it is. Every day, we have a story time just before the kids go to quiet time, and every day for the last couple of weeks, Schnitzel Von Krumm has been enthusiastically brought as the day's selection.

Schnitzel Von Krumm is a dachshund with a very low tum who is quiet and lovable and doesn't ask much but to be surrounded by life's comforts - his family and his favorite beat-up, smelly, threadbare but comfy dog bed. His name and droopy little ears will immediately win your heart. If you are a little more difficult to woo, Lynley Dodd's playful artwork and engaging rhymes will have you hooked before you finish the first story.

Today, Quarto brought as his reading selection Schnitzel Von Krumm Forget-Me-Not.

However, the recent favorite of both Quarto and The Man has been Schnitzel Von Krumm's Basketwork.

I love reading this one aloud to the boys. A typical reading finds me reading along in the story,

He liked all the tatters,

he liked every tear,

the broken down edges,

the holes and the hair.

The smell was so friendly

and as for the fit-

if he needed to squeeze,

did he mind?

All this time the boys' anticipation has been growing. They've been squiggling and squirming and repressing giggles. They are so happy as I finish the line and then they burst out with,

"Not a bit!"

This joyous refrain is repeated numerous times throughout the reading, and each time the boys greet it with the same anticipation and glee.

There are many childrens books that I enjoy, but after the 20th reading in half-as-many days, I want to rip out my vocal chords after most of them. Not so with Schnitzel Von Krumm. I could read them over and over again... and I do. With a very happy and not-at-all hesitant audience.

Generally, you can tell which books in our library are well-loved because they are wrinkled and torn and dog-eared and probably have many, many patches of packing tape. The Schnitzel Von Krumm books do not have that "well-loved" look however... they have a "cherished" look. You can tell they aren't new - barely. They have been read over and over, but they are treasured. They are put away with care not to wrinkle them. They are closed when not being read or looked through and set in a safe place so as not to be accidentally trodden on. They are not used as magic carpets for action figures or barricades for army men. To the boys, they are Schnitzel Von Krumm, and they are treated like any well-loved canine best friend should be.

There are three books in the Schnitzel Von Krumm series, but our little dachshund friend did not make his debut in these books. He is actually one of three canine friends of the apparently popular series of books starring Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy (the books are very popular in Dodd's native New Zealand as well as in Australia and Great Britain, but in America, their fan base, although just as dedicated, is still very small). The Hairy Maclary series, also by Lynley Dodd, follows the antics of a hairy, rather shaggy little black dog who looks mysteriously like our own, aging Gideon. I have a feeling we will be adding the Hairy Maclary books to our library in the very near future. I know I can't wait to read them, and I will enjoy many more afternoon story times on the sofa with Quarto and The Man... I am sure I will enjoy reading these again and again as I have the Schnitzel Von Krumm books - no matter who else in enjoying them with me.

Tea Party

This past Friday, February 27th, "tea parties" were held across the country. Inspired by the now famous report by Rick Santelli on CNBC and the Boston Tea Party carried out by America's first patriots, the tea parties were a protest against the stimulus bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. Reports, found mostly on blogs and twitters with occasional support from the mainstream media, indicate that the parties drew anywhere from 100-500 participants per city and included organized speakers and marches... not bad considering that these were all organized in three days with most participants joining in as the protests were going on. Participants in Atlanta even braved severe weather and a close-call with a tornado!

I perused some pictures of some of the protests this morning (I didn't attend any since I was bringin' home the bacon and tryin' to stay off the dole that day). I always like to see the signs people bring to these events. I am never clever enough to come up with these. I have to admit to a bit of "slogan envy." (Although I was rather proud of the Libertarian t-shirts we made for a street fair we participated in a few years back.) My kids love to make signs for events like this. Maybe I need to organize more protests so that we can hit art and civics in one shot. *grin* It might help to spark my creative juices, too. Practice makes perfect and all that.

Some of my favorite slogans from the tea party signs were:

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt?"

"Chains We Can Believe In"

"Why would YOU want to pay for MY health care?"

And a picture of a little girl (I'm guessing she was about 4) holding a sign that read: "I read as much of the stimulus bill as my Congresswoman" (seriously, it was 1100 pages and it was not available in its entirety until after the vote, so don't believe any Congressman who told you they read it before they voted... they didn't, they couldn't)

You can view pictures here and here.

I only hope that the energy and push to action that inspired these protests continues. We need to live the lives of free men and not just be content with the appearance of freedom. It begins with protest. Hopefully it will end with government action.

COH - Stimulus Edition!

Carnival of Homeschooing ~ Stimulus Edition!
hosted by Judy at Consent of the Governed

Living Green

One of my "invisible friends" on a homeschool message board that I frequent has purposed, along with her family, to attempt to halve their belongings and outgo (which includes money, trash, and mileage) this year. While researching and pondering green and sustainable living, she asked herself if large, Christian, homeschooling families might actually be living more sustainable lifestyles with smaller carbon footprints than smaller, liberal, consciously "green" families.

I've never heard anyone else talk about this phenomenon and it may be that I'm perfectly placed to see something that other journalists/newswriters/bloggers aren't: but if you want to learn about living sustainably in terms of larger families consuming fewer resources you should look no further than the Christian homeschooling movement.

That's right - the Christian homeschooling movement.

Liberal "greenies" like to pretend that they have it dialed out when it comes to living lightly on the earth, but often that's a sham. Sure they shell out big bucks for products that are organic or herbal or not tested on animals, but the truth is that they still consume way more than their fair share of the world's resources. The environment will not be saved by a Silicon Valley suburbanite living in a 5,000 sf house who chooses Aubrey organics shampoo over Pert.

Continue reading here. And while you are at her site, check out Jennifer's other writings (she has a wonderfully engaging and informative writing style) and sustainable living links.

What do you think? Do Jennifer's observations have some merit? What about population boom? Are you doing anything to conserve resources? What? If not, why not?

Some ways our family is living "greener":

- buy very little by way of packaged foods

- buy locally (food, books, clothes, etc)

- buy organic (truly organic, not mass-market organic which, as you know if you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma, is really not much different, if at all, from "non-organic" options)

- grow as much of our own food as possible (since we rent, we can't put in the fruit trees and very large garden that we'd like, but we can provide quite a bit ourselves)

- buy second-hand whenever possible; including clothing, furniture, gardening supplies, homeschool books, etc (we generally don't buy second-hand appliances and technologies since they usually use more power to run but we often wait and buy the not-quite-the-newest models)

- recycle & reuse

- use energy efficient bulbs and turn lights off when not in use (we try not to turn lights on during the day, and if we do, we stick to task lighting if available)

- add layers and turn down the heat or remove layers, open windows, and turn up the temp on the a/c

- own two cars so the commuter (i.e. more frequent driver) can use the more efficient vehicle and we use the bigger, less-efficient vehicle for large group trips

- make it a game to fit all of our trash into one can or less per week

- save-up junk mail to use as fire-starters

- cook at home (healthier and saves on eating out and medical bills)

- compost

- and coming soon: a new clothesline - I miss our old one

Fly on the Wall

Terzo came into the kitchen after coming home from his first swimming lesson to give me a report.

Terzo: There are three boys in my class, but I'm the only one who spokens English.


(I was very proud that I held in my guffaw while correcting him.)

Perfection In Half An Inch

I was taking my PhD practical examination. We lived in a little apartment with all of them on top of each other, and I had a long exam to take and could not ask for help. I open the exam, and the first question is, “God is perfect. Explain.” There is a space of about half an inch in which to answer. I turn to my wife and say, “The only question I can think of that would be harder than this is ‘Prove that God’s exists. Give two examples.”

- Ravi Zacharias, 2007 Ligonier Ministries Conference

Um, Oops.

I transferred a bunch of posts during the last 24 hours from my old blog to this one, and apparently those getting email updates were bombarded with blog update notifications. Sorry about that. (Maybe it's some sort of suppressed need for attention from my blog given that I have been neglecting it recently.) I think I have finished transferring everything I wanted to, but if I decide to transfer any more, I'll either shut off the alert function (if I can even do that) or give you a heads up.

Again, I'm sorry for stuffing your inboxes this morning. *blush* Oops.

Other People's Money On Other People

Milton Friedman said there are four ways to spend money:

1. You spend your money on yourself.

2. You spend your money on other people.

3. You spend other people's money on yourself.

4. You spend other people's money on other people.

If this list sounds familiar, you are either very well-informed or you remember me mentioning this before. *grin*

The economic stimulus package that the House of Representatives is voting on today (you can read all 647 pages here) is a very good example of what happens under situation #4. Here is a summary from today's Wall Street Journal:

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

You can read the entire article here.

The Senate has their own version of the stimulus bill which should come up for a vote in a few weeks.

Sounds like the same old pork, different congress. Whether your political beliefs or understanding of the Constitution allow for a government stimulus of private commerce or not, shouldn't the majority of the bill contain laws which would actually stimulate something economic? Maybe they are trying to stimulate a faster economic downfall? In so, way to go!

So much for change.

Update: The House passed the bill this afternoon (Jan. 28th) 244-188.

COH - The Adventure Edition

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ The Adventure Edition
hosted by Tiffany at Life on the Road