I have had some health issues pop back the last couple of days so I didn't go to church yesterday. I read most of the day, but I finished what I was reading around 7 so I turned on the TV for a little bit. I ended up on what I thought was the Oscars, but turns out it was the pre-show fashion show. I watched for about 10 minutes and then I had to turn it off. I couldn't believe that so much time was dedicated completely towards critiquing every last person that showed up. What they were wearing, how their hair was done, who they were with, what purse they were carrying, what nail polish they had on, if they had a bugger hanging out their nose... OK, probably not the last two, but that is what it felt like. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes like looking at different fashion magazines, but the fact that so much time was spent on this seemed like a complete waste of everyone's time. The fact that there were people riveted to their tv watching this was unfathomable to me.
Which got me thinking about the Oscars in general. Did you know that when someone is nominated for an Oscar but doesn't win they receive a gift basket worth $45,000? Yeah, you read that right. The nominees who don't win receive gifts worth more than a lot of families make in an entire year! Now I don't know how many awards they actually give out, but let's say there are 100 Oscars actually given. That means that for all the Oscars that are won there are 500 losers. That is a grand total of $22,500,000 spent on the losers. I did the math twice. Over 22 million dollars given out to the losers. Please understand, I am a conservative Republican. I believe in and support capitalism. I do not believe that taking money from those who have earned it and giving it to others will ever work. My question is, why are these actors and actresses, the vast majority of whom spout support of green living and Obamacare and taxing the wealthy more, not taking a stand and insisting that the 22 million dollars be used for something other than gift certificates for spending a day at clown school? Yeah, that was a real prize this year. A chance to go to clown school. I can't make this stuff up people!
Seriously though, that money could have been used for so much good. Support for the victims of Sandy who are still struggling to rebuild. Clean water for how many villages in Africa. Any number of children or research hospitals. Schools struggling to keep their art programs alive. Good grief, give it to a company that will provide electric cars to people. I don't care what it goes to, but couldn't it be spend better? It's not like we're asking them to give up money they have legitimately earned. Just prizes that are worth money that other people want to give them. It literally makes me feel ill to think of the amount of money that was wasted last night. And makes me angry to think about all of those people who received those gifts and then turn around and use their status to talk about how horrible our country is because we don't take care of those in need.
OK, I feel a little bit better having vented. I hope I didn't offend anyone who genuinely likes watching the Oscars, that wasn't my point. I just wanted to shed a little light on something that I never knew myself until this year.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Best Writing Curriculum Ever!
Baby Girls #1 and #2 completed their first paper of the year. Before you judge, I purposely didn't start this curriculum until after Christmas. We have another Language Arts program that I use and really love. I wanted to focus on that the first part of the year. But after the Christmas break I wanted the girls to have an actual writing curriculum along with the Language Arts.
I can't take credit for finding the curriculum. We joined an academic co-op at the beginning of the 11/12 school year. We were only in it for the first semester, but I was introduced to this writing curriculum. At first I wasn't crazy about it because it seems really confusing for Baby Girl #1, but after the first month or so we found our groove and I realized how awesome it is.
Why is it so awesome? First of all, the writing process is put forth almost like a formula. A formula that you follow each and every time you write a paper. You always start with an outline. You always brainstorm for quality adjectives, strong verbs, and adverbs. In each paper you have a certain number of "dress-ups" that you have to have. You always have a first draft that you revise and then write a final copy. As we get further along there will be vocabulary words that they learn that they will then have to incorporate into their papers. I love that as my children get more familiar with the process it will become a habit for them to write like this. What I think is especially awesome is that this is a process that they will become familiar enough with that I will be able to have a short lesson with them at the beginning of the week teaching any new concepts and then they will be able to finish the rest of the work on their own. There is always a checklist to remind them of what they have to have in their paper, so there is no excuses for them to not get it right.
Not only does teaching them to add these dress-ups in their writing help me not die of boredom when reading their papers, it also translates into making their every day speech more interesting. For example, I would like my child to tell me that the fireworks display was breathtakingly amazing instead of telling me it was cool. I firmly believe that when they are able to write papers and add those kinds of words in without having to think about it that they will begin to use those types of words in their everyday speech! And I think that is really cool! ;)
So what is this curriculum? It is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Don't be intimidated when you look on their website. They have a lot of products, including a DVD set that they recommend you watch before trying to teach their curriculum. But I have never watched them and I don't have any problems understanding anything. Granted, I had the best English teacher in high school, but I haven't had any English beyond that. I don't even get the teacher book, just the student book, which states that I can make copies for multiple children in my own family. That means that I am spending just $29 a year for our writing curriculum. Can't beat that!
So it might seem a little ridiculous to be this excited about our curriculum, but as other homeschooling moms will understand, when you find something that you really love you want to pass that information to as many other moms as possible!
I can't take credit for finding the curriculum. We joined an academic co-op at the beginning of the 11/12 school year. We were only in it for the first semester, but I was introduced to this writing curriculum. At first I wasn't crazy about it because it seems really confusing for Baby Girl #1, but after the first month or so we found our groove and I realized how awesome it is.
Why is it so awesome? First of all, the writing process is put forth almost like a formula. A formula that you follow each and every time you write a paper. You always start with an outline. You always brainstorm for quality adjectives, strong verbs, and adverbs. In each paper you have a certain number of "dress-ups" that you have to have. You always have a first draft that you revise and then write a final copy. As we get further along there will be vocabulary words that they learn that they will then have to incorporate into their papers. I love that as my children get more familiar with the process it will become a habit for them to write like this. What I think is especially awesome is that this is a process that they will become familiar enough with that I will be able to have a short lesson with them at the beginning of the week teaching any new concepts and then they will be able to finish the rest of the work on their own. There is always a checklist to remind them of what they have to have in their paper, so there is no excuses for them to not get it right.
Not only does teaching them to add these dress-ups in their writing help me not die of boredom when reading their papers, it also translates into making their every day speech more interesting. For example, I would like my child to tell me that the fireworks display was breathtakingly amazing instead of telling me it was cool. I firmly believe that when they are able to write papers and add those kinds of words in without having to think about it that they will begin to use those types of words in their everyday speech! And I think that is really cool! ;)
So what is this curriculum? It is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Don't be intimidated when you look on their website. They have a lot of products, including a DVD set that they recommend you watch before trying to teach their curriculum. But I have never watched them and I don't have any problems understanding anything. Granted, I had the best English teacher in high school, but I haven't had any English beyond that. I don't even get the teacher book, just the student book, which states that I can make copies for multiple children in my own family. That means that I am spending just $29 a year for our writing curriculum. Can't beat that!
So it might seem a little ridiculous to be this excited about our curriculum, but as other homeschooling moms will understand, when you find something that you really love you want to pass that information to as many other moms as possible!
Monday, February 18, 2013
#2 turns 9!
Today is Baby Girl #2's birthday. We kind of celebrated all weekend long with her. Or more correctly, she's gotten pampered all weekend. And she has taken full advantage of it!
Friday we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I'm sure you remember that that is one of my least favorite places to go. We thought there was another pizza place that had games in it here, but when we looked it up online there were no games. So Chuck E. Cheese it was. Fun was had by all the girls. Although I think #1 is getting why I don't like it. She told us that she was disappointed because the games there don't give out hardly any tickets. Exactly!
Anyway, after Chuck E. Cheese we took them to get an ice cream cone. Baskin Robbins has some of the same flavors now that they did when I was a kid. Anyone else remember the bubble gum ice cream that had actual bubble gum pieces in it? Seriously, who thought that was a good idea? The girls enjoy me telling them what flavors I used to get.
For dinner we had nachos, #2's request for the night. We also had red velvet cupcakes, also the request of #2. Want to know my Mommy fail moment of the night? When I went to put candles on one of the cupcakes I realized that I only had 8. She turned 9. Kind of defeats the purpose of having candles if you don't have the right amount. My solution? Hubby held a lit match up next to the cupcake as we walked it out singing. It counts, right? I think it is safe to say that we were done with junk food for the rest of the weekend.
Early in the week last week I got online with #2 to have her pick out an 18'' doll. Why she wants one, I don't know, but she did. We ended up getting one that was exactly what she wanted on Ebay. It actually came on Friday, but she didn't know it so she didn't open it up until today. She loves it!
The biggest moment of today was that she got to get her ears pierced. #1 got her ears pierced the first time when she was 8. Turns out her ears are very sensitive and they got infected a couple of times and we had to let them grow back in. She got them pierced again at 9 and has done much better with them. Unfortunately for #2, that experience taught me that 9 might be a better age to get the ears pierced than 8, so #2 had to wait until this year. She's been talking about it since her last birthday. She was excited all day today, but as we got closer to actually getting it done she got more and more nervous. I took her to dinner with just the two of us first, thinking that after she got it done she wouldn't feel like eating. In retrospect, I probably should have taken her to eat afterward. She was so nervous before hand that she could hardly eat anything. Even when the staff made her a birthday treat, she just couldn't eat.
But she did very well getting them done. She cried a little, which is totally OK. But now she is feeling fine, and loving her earrings. She feels so grown up and special.
I'm just amazed that it was 9 years ago that she was born. She was so unexpected and arrived at a difficult time in our lives, but we are truly blessed to have her as our daughter. She is so much like me in so many ways, which is great for the rest of the world, but it drives me a little nuts. She has the best laugh and biggest heart. She loves to think she is so grown up, but she still loves to play with her little sisters. She creates songs and plays that are beyond impressive. I can't wait to see what the coming years with her brings. I don't know what they'll hold, but I can guarantee they'll be a blast!
Friday we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I'm sure you remember that that is one of my least favorite places to go. We thought there was another pizza place that had games in it here, but when we looked it up online there were no games. So Chuck E. Cheese it was. Fun was had by all the girls. Although I think #1 is getting why I don't like it. She told us that she was disappointed because the games there don't give out hardly any tickets. Exactly!
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| This is what $30 in tokens will get you! |
For dinner we had nachos, #2's request for the night. We also had red velvet cupcakes, also the request of #2. Want to know my Mommy fail moment of the night? When I went to put candles on one of the cupcakes I realized that I only had 8. She turned 9. Kind of defeats the purpose of having candles if you don't have the right amount. My solution? Hubby held a lit match up next to the cupcake as we walked it out singing. It counts, right? I think it is safe to say that we were done with junk food for the rest of the weekend.
Early in the week last week I got online with #2 to have her pick out an 18'' doll. Why she wants one, I don't know, but she did. We ended up getting one that was exactly what she wanted on Ebay. It actually came on Friday, but she didn't know it so she didn't open it up until today. She loves it!
The biggest moment of today was that she got to get her ears pierced. #1 got her ears pierced the first time when she was 8. Turns out her ears are very sensitive and they got infected a couple of times and we had to let them grow back in. She got them pierced again at 9 and has done much better with them. Unfortunately for #2, that experience taught me that 9 might be a better age to get the ears pierced than 8, so #2 had to wait until this year. She's been talking about it since her last birthday. She was excited all day today, but as we got closer to actually getting it done she got more and more nervous. I took her to dinner with just the two of us first, thinking that after she got it done she wouldn't feel like eating. In retrospect, I probably should have taken her to eat afterward. She was so nervous before hand that she could hardly eat anything. Even when the staff made her a birthday treat, she just couldn't eat.
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| They made a really cute little palm tree out of bananas and kiwis |
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| Look close, they're there! |
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Random Going Ons
Baby Girl #4 has slept all night in her own bed for the last two nights. I'm not getting my hopes up, but maybe it'll become permanent. I'll let you know how that goes.
Notice I didn't say how restful it has been not having her in the bed with us. That is because last night I had Baby Girl #3 in bed with me instead. She came in around 4 burning up with a fever. Not sure what is going on with her, just that she does this sometimes. Usually when I haven't made her lay down and take a nap for too many days in a row. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be the flu!
For her or Hubby who has also been laying in bed all day with an upset stomach. He apparently was up for several hours early this morning as well. I didn't notice. I've made up for it today by getting him anything he wanted and keeping the girls out of the room. A feat unto itself. Anytime Daddy is home they want to be with him.
Baby Girl #2's birthday is less than a week away. I'm sure if I asked her she could tell me exactly how many hours it is. The child can not make a decision to save her life. We gave her the option two weeks ago of either going bowling, to Mr. Gatti's Pizza (think Chucke Cheese) or going to the movies. She has changed her mind no less than 20 times. She knows that if she hasn't decided before Thursday that we're making the decisions for her. She'll probably change her mind 10 more times between now and then.
When we lived in Houston I was signed up for with a market research company that I did several focus groups with. You go in, give your opinion about something, and they pay you for it. Nothing like that where we are now, but I am still signed up with several companies that do everything online. I've been involved in a study about bottled water this last week. I've never drank so much water every day in my entire life!
We're going to California this summer. Hubby is holding a meeting for a church out there and we're all tagging along. The 30 hour drive will be no fun, but we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends out there, as well as going and doing something fun. Like a vacation, maybe? I have to keep reminding myself it is still 6 months away. I want to start making lists already.
My sister is getting married in 2 1/2 weeks. We've been getting packages almost every day with dresses and shoes for the girls and I. I've been pinning boards on Pinterest to get ideas for hair for all of us. I'm going to have to be very aware of the time it takes to get all of us ready. We're all looking forward to it.
There is an ice cream drumstick in the freezer seriously shouting my name now that the girls are all in bed. I've been good all day. I think I will answer the call!
Notice I didn't say how restful it has been not having her in the bed with us. That is because last night I had Baby Girl #3 in bed with me instead. She came in around 4 burning up with a fever. Not sure what is going on with her, just that she does this sometimes. Usually when I haven't made her lay down and take a nap for too many days in a row. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be the flu!
For her or Hubby who has also been laying in bed all day with an upset stomach. He apparently was up for several hours early this morning as well. I didn't notice. I've made up for it today by getting him anything he wanted and keeping the girls out of the room. A feat unto itself. Anytime Daddy is home they want to be with him.
Baby Girl #2's birthday is less than a week away. I'm sure if I asked her she could tell me exactly how many hours it is. The child can not make a decision to save her life. We gave her the option two weeks ago of either going bowling, to Mr. Gatti's Pizza (think Chucke Cheese) or going to the movies. She has changed her mind no less than 20 times. She knows that if she hasn't decided before Thursday that we're making the decisions for her. She'll probably change her mind 10 more times between now and then.
When we lived in Houston I was signed up for with a market research company that I did several focus groups with. You go in, give your opinion about something, and they pay you for it. Nothing like that where we are now, but I am still signed up with several companies that do everything online. I've been involved in a study about bottled water this last week. I've never drank so much water every day in my entire life!
We're going to California this summer. Hubby is holding a meeting for a church out there and we're all tagging along. The 30 hour drive will be no fun, but we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends out there, as well as going and doing something fun. Like a vacation, maybe? I have to keep reminding myself it is still 6 months away. I want to start making lists already.
My sister is getting married in 2 1/2 weeks. We've been getting packages almost every day with dresses and shoes for the girls and I. I've been pinning boards on Pinterest to get ideas for hair for all of us. I'm going to have to be very aware of the time it takes to get all of us ready. We're all looking forward to it.
There is an ice cream drumstick in the freezer seriously shouting my name now that the girls are all in bed. I've been good all day. I think I will answer the call!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Awkward....
Our church started the reading the Bible through in a year at the first part of the year. Hubby and I decided that we were going to read in the evening with our girls and go through it with them. I'm not going to lie, we've missed a few days. For the most part we get caught up quickly, but there have been a few times that we've just said that we're going to skip ahead to where we should be. I figure as long as we don't quit we'll be doing good.
The bad part? There are some things in the old testament that are a little awkward to talk about with the girls. And we're not talking about Song of Solomon awkward. More like explaining what circumcision is. And why a concubine is different than a wife. And why that was ok then, but not now. And why Abraham was married to his sister. Lovely topics, all of them. The best was discussing what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. We were able to discuss all of it calmly and matter-of-factly, but I'm not going to lie--I wish we didn't have to have those conversations.
But that got me thinking about another subject that we need to start discussing with the girls. Homosexuality. One of the big reasons we homeschool is the ability to keep our children innocent and ignorant about a lot of sins for as long as possible. It has bothered me for many years how the homosexuals are pushing their agenda on our children. One of my brothers asked me once what I meant by the "homosexual agenda." To me it is the teaching of our children from a very young age that being a homosexual is completely OK and something someone is born with that they can't do anything about. As a Christian I see over and over in the Bible where it talks about homosexuality as being a violation of God's Law. It is not natural nor is it something that we as Christians should tolerate. Now I'm not saying we should approach homosexuality with hate and fear. We should approach it just like any other sin. But when there are children's books for young children about Heather's Two Mommies or My Two Uncles that to me is an agenda to start teaching our children from a very young age that homosexuality is completely normal and that if you don't agree, you are the one that is wrong.
I am very glad that up to this point I haven't had to discuss with my children what homosexuality is. Not because it would be awkward, but because the knowledge of sin brings the Christian heart sorrow. I can not teach my children about homosexuality without also teaching them the sorrow that we as Christians have for those who sin. I would like my children to not have to bear that burden of sorrow for as long as possible.
But a few days ago I had a friend put on FB a book published by Apologetics Press entitled Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies? It is a children's book addressing the issue of homosexuality. When I saw it I really started thinking about the fact that our oldest two are probably old enough to start talking to them about this. It is apparent to me that we can not start teaching our daughters why a sin is wrong in God's eyes without first teaching them what the sin is.
We'll probably be buying that book soon and having a discussion with our daughters about it in the near future. And a litttle bit of my children's innocence will be gone when we start discussing sin in the world today. And they will never be able to get that innocence back. And that makes me incredibly sad.
Come quickly Lord Jesus!
The bad part? There are some things in the old testament that are a little awkward to talk about with the girls. And we're not talking about Song of Solomon awkward. More like explaining what circumcision is. And why a concubine is different than a wife. And why that was ok then, but not now. And why Abraham was married to his sister. Lovely topics, all of them. The best was discussing what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. We were able to discuss all of it calmly and matter-of-factly, but I'm not going to lie--I wish we didn't have to have those conversations.
But that got me thinking about another subject that we need to start discussing with the girls. Homosexuality. One of the big reasons we homeschool is the ability to keep our children innocent and ignorant about a lot of sins for as long as possible. It has bothered me for many years how the homosexuals are pushing their agenda on our children. One of my brothers asked me once what I meant by the "homosexual agenda." To me it is the teaching of our children from a very young age that being a homosexual is completely OK and something someone is born with that they can't do anything about. As a Christian I see over and over in the Bible where it talks about homosexuality as being a violation of God's Law. It is not natural nor is it something that we as Christians should tolerate. Now I'm not saying we should approach homosexuality with hate and fear. We should approach it just like any other sin. But when there are children's books for young children about Heather's Two Mommies or My Two Uncles that to me is an agenda to start teaching our children from a very young age that homosexuality is completely normal and that if you don't agree, you are the one that is wrong.
I am very glad that up to this point I haven't had to discuss with my children what homosexuality is. Not because it would be awkward, but because the knowledge of sin brings the Christian heart sorrow. I can not teach my children about homosexuality without also teaching them the sorrow that we as Christians have for those who sin. I would like my children to not have to bear that burden of sorrow for as long as possible.
But a few days ago I had a friend put on FB a book published by Apologetics Press entitled Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies? It is a children's book addressing the issue of homosexuality. When I saw it I really started thinking about the fact that our oldest two are probably old enough to start talking to them about this. It is apparent to me that we can not start teaching our daughters why a sin is wrong in God's eyes without first teaching them what the sin is.
We'll probably be buying that book soon and having a discussion with our daughters about it in the near future. And a litttle bit of my children's innocence will be gone when we start discussing sin in the world today. And they will never be able to get that innocence back. And that makes me incredibly sad.
Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Nothing says fun like sticking your hand in a cow's stomach!
It pays to have friends who have lived in this city all their lives. Why? Because they know about all the cool things going on that you normally wouldn't have any idea about. Yesterday the cool thing was the LSU vet school having their annual open house. Now normally I would ignore this information because I'm not exactly looking for information about a vet school. But because this cool friend knew about it she informed me that they actually had a lot of cool things that the kids would love and it was free. We had no other plans so after looking online to get us exact directions so that we wouldn't get lost in the downtown/college area we took off and met our friends.
The very first room we went in showed several different hearts of animals. One was a dog's heart. With heart worms in it. I've heard a lot about heart worms, but haven't really spent a lot of time of what they might actually look like. If you are like me, allow me to enlighten you. They are really skinny worms whose larva are delivered through a mosquito bite that make their way through a dog's body, into his heart and then begin to grow. The heart that they showed looked like an organ with angel hair spaghetti in it. It was gross. My wonderful friend has informed me that she got a picture of all our girls looking at the heart with much interest and I'm in the background horrified. When she puts in on her blog I will provide a link. It was gross.
Here our girls are playing with cow and dog eyeballs. Again, gross. But being the good mother that I am when #4 wanted to touch one I put a glove on her and held her up so she could hold one. And being the mean mother that I am I made #1 pick it up again so I could take a picture when she was clearly horrified to be touching it. What can I say, she needed some more science.
This is all #3 wanted to have with the eyeballs.
Another fun room was where they had two cows set up with a hole in their side that you could stick your hand into its stomach. #2's face pretty much sums it up. Never one to pass up a learning experience, I asked the people there why the cows had holes in their stomachs. I figured they had to do surgery because they were sick. Turns out they do it because if they have another sick cow come in they can take the digested food out of these cow's stomachs and give it to the sick cows and it supposedly has the right amount of bacteria and nutrition to help the sick cow get better. See how educational this day was? And just in case you're wondering, the girls didn't actually touch anything in the stomach. I however looked inside it and it wasn't gross or slimy. It looked like a barrel full of mulched alfalfa. The smell was pretty bad though.
Can't have a vet school open house without some cute baby animals to pet. And let me tell you, those vet school students were so excited to be holding these animals so all the crazy children could go by in a line and pet them.
Last, but in no way least, the heart and lung of a cow. But it isn't just any old lung laying there on a table. Oh no, they have it hooked up to a machine that makes it move like air is going in and out of it. #4 had to touch it. She was fearless and wanted to touch everything all day. I'm pretty sure #1 and #2 touched it as well. This was the only organ I touched. It was actually very soft and squishy. And yes, squishy is a scientific word. I know because the vet student used it to describe the lung while trying to convince me to touch it!
All in all, it was a really fun day. Now that I'm in the know, we'll make sure and go back every year!
The very first room we went in showed several different hearts of animals. One was a dog's heart. With heart worms in it. I've heard a lot about heart worms, but haven't really spent a lot of time of what they might actually look like. If you are like me, allow me to enlighten you. They are really skinny worms whose larva are delivered through a mosquito bite that make their way through a dog's body, into his heart and then begin to grow. The heart that they showed looked like an organ with angel hair spaghetti in it. It was gross. My wonderful friend has informed me that she got a picture of all our girls looking at the heart with much interest and I'm in the background horrified. When she puts in on her blog I will provide a link. It was gross.
Here our girls are playing with cow and dog eyeballs. Again, gross. But being the good mother that I am when #4 wanted to touch one I put a glove on her and held her up so she could hold one. And being the mean mother that I am I made #1 pick it up again so I could take a picture when she was clearly horrified to be touching it. What can I say, she needed some more science.
Another fun room was where they had two cows set up with a hole in their side that you could stick your hand into its stomach. #2's face pretty much sums it up. Never one to pass up a learning experience, I asked the people there why the cows had holes in their stomachs. I figured they had to do surgery because they were sick. Turns out they do it because if they have another sick cow come in they can take the digested food out of these cow's stomachs and give it to the sick cows and it supposedly has the right amount of bacteria and nutrition to help the sick cow get better. See how educational this day was? And just in case you're wondering, the girls didn't actually touch anything in the stomach. I however looked inside it and it wasn't gross or slimy. It looked like a barrel full of mulched alfalfa. The smell was pretty bad though.
Can't have a vet school open house without some cute baby animals to pet. And let me tell you, those vet school students were so excited to be holding these animals so all the crazy children could go by in a line and pet them. 
All in all, it was a really fun day. Now that I'm in the know, we'll make sure and go back every year!
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