Friday, July 21, 2006

Friday Five

These came from Donna over at Quiet Life, and I have to say, they are some of the strangest questions she has ever asked us! I'd love to see what answers you come up with.

1. Would you be willing to commit perjury in court for a close friend? What if your lie would save his life?
It would really depend- is my friend guilty? Is the court fair? Probably a no.

2. Would you be willing to eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000?
I would be willing to give it a shot. Call this a yes.

3. Would you have one of your fingers surgically removed if it guaranteed immunity from all major diseases?
Why was this one the hardest for me to answer? Probably a no.


4. Would you be willing to give up all television for 5 years if it would induce someone to provide for 1,000 starving children?
Absolutely yes. This one was the easiest to answer of all the five.

5. Would you accept $1 million to leave the country and never set foot in it again?
Probably not, but maybe I would for $5 million. Gotta remember I can't be far from my Mama.

Those were thinking questions, Donna!
LB

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Homeschool post alert

Boy wrote a good post on snails on the GD blog. Check it out.
LB

Monday, July 10, 2006

Whirwind weekend update

Well, I have been wanting to post since Friday evening, but haven’t haqd internet since then. Phooey. So I am doing this in word, and hopefully I will have DSL by tomorrow. (Edited to say Yay, I have internet again!)

The kids actually had all their school work completed by 3 pm on Friday, so we packed up 4 lbs. of cherries and some leftover chicken, drove over and picked Papa up from work, and went over to Lincoln Park. We sat in the shade and talked, played on the great swing-slide, and had cherry-pit spitting contests. We headed home after traffic was over, curled up in our bed with the fans pointed right at us, each of us with a hunk of Sculpey in our hands, and listened to Papa read a few chapters of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

At first you might think this is a scientific story, and to a point it is, but it is also a great character study: Take 3 dudes, put them in an underwater box, and see what happens. One hates it and feels like a prisoner, one is enthralled with the experience of being surrounded by the science of the underwater world, and one could go either way, sometimes siding with his science-loving master, sometimes siding with the whaler who can barely take another minute of captivity. Fascinating. The kids love it. (Added Monday evening-We only have 3 chapters left! Can't wait to see how this story ends!)

Saturday, the Girl and I went to the feed store, getting feed and a few supplies for the chickens. There was a young man (13 yrs old) working there who has convinced both the Girl and I that we can successfully keep all ten chickens, and won't have to give any to Mr. B. at all (That had been our original plan- to keep 4 to 6 of them, and give him the extras.). In fact, the Girl is trying to convince Mr. B. to pay her for raising another set of chicks for him- she had a lot of fun with the wee ones and wants to do it again. We shall see.

This young fella at the feed store gave us a great tour of the store, took us out back and showed us their coops, and gave the Girl a ton of good avice about chickens. She got to pet tiny new kittens, tiny fresh chicks, and saw several varieties of chickens. I was surprised at how many she knew, just from reading the chicken books from the library. She really has a way with animals, too. It was cool to watch.

Sunday, papa got up early and was working out in his cottage garden, but he let me sleep in to a blissful 10:00, at which time I awoke to the wonderful smells of bacon, taters, and eggs. Wonderful! I really needed that. Then he and I worked in the veggie gardens in the blazing sun. My tomatoes are like a jungle- so are the potatoes, and the pepper, cantelope, and cucumbers were just not getting enough sun, so we transplanted them into another bed. We had a ton of cantelope seedlings left over. We potted them up, left some on our next door neighbor's porch (today I found 3 corn plant starts on my front porch- neighbors are so cool!), and took the rest over to the B family's house. We had another one of our harvest parties. We brought fresh picked peas, lettuce, and the veggie starts.

We dropped off some of Papa's homemade potato salad at Gramma's, and gave her quick kisses, before heading to the harvest party. We brought the ice cream maker, and made a batch of strawberry ice cream. We picked tons of fresh raspberries, thinned carrots, and had a good time visiting. Only a couple families showed up this week, so it was nice and low-key.

Today, Monday, the Girl had a two hour long piano lesson. She has her solo recital on August 12th, and she is working very hard with her piano teacher. While they worked, the Boy and I had a baby snack. Girl's teacher has a sweet, roly-poly 11-month old boy, whom Redal cannot leave alone (Hey- who wouldn't rather play with a baby instead of working on your latin? LOL)

Once we got home and cooked lunch, most of the day seemed to be gone. I worked in the garden again, even though I should have been focusing on schooling the kids, but that's okay. They did what they did, we will deal with the fallout later this week.

After Papa got home and we had supper, we helped our next door neighbor poor some concrete, and she let us put our handprints (and her dogs' paw prints!) in the fresh concrete. The kids are tucked in with freshly brushed teeth, one listening to Pooh, and one to Jim Weiss telling Greek tales, Papa and I are tucked in too.

TTFN,
LB

Friday, July 07, 2006

A gift in the mail

Not only did I receive the rest of my order from Brimwood Press (that is a picture of Marcia on the website, and yes, she is as nice as she looks!) today, but there was a surprise in the box as well.
Remember me telling you about the fabulous Worldview class the kids and I took last month, and how that evening several moms sat around having a fantastic philosphical discussion? How we had many religions represented- from Orthodox to Christian, to Bahai, to little ol' me who holds dear elements from Seventh-Day Adventist to Budhism, and we all had a dispassionate yet lively conversation. Well, Marcia sent me something to help with my journey of faith. It is a book aptly titled The Journey: Our Quest for Faith and Meaning by Os Guinness. I just made myself a cuppa tea, and am headed for the recliner. Thanks, Marcia.
TTFN,
LB

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Something new!

An update for you. I have started a homeschool blog. It is called The Green Dragon Academy, which is the name the children chose for our school many years ago. I will use this blog to practice writing transcripts, to keep track of grades, and other business-type stuff. I am hoping the kids will use it also, to record good stories, essays, and to post pictures of projects. I am also going to be teaching a class on homeschooling in the fall at S.S.C.C., so I will use the homeschool bolg to post information and thoughts on that, as well.

I hope this works for all y'all. For awhile I have felt a lack of focus in the area of homeschooling, and I also feel guilty when I post stuff about art quilting in one post, then homeschooling in the other. Since Blogger won't do categories, I will try it this way for awhile. Wish me luck!
TTFN,
LB

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

We're back.

Well, we had a great time, being half-eaten alive by mosquitosw being the worst trouble we had (Girly had over 40 bites when we came home). We had a delightful time, lots of good food (remind me to tell you about banana boats!), and lots of good company. I learned how to play Spades, soaked in the sun, and waded in the creeks. Drew a tiny bit, but not as much as I would have liked to.

We had a family meeting Friday night, and ended up staying at the campground instead of packing it up and driving to Soap Lake for the fireworks and birthday party. The Girl ended up having a nightmare that involved her Godparents being upset with her for not showing up! Poor baby. I told her they love her no matter what and that everyone knew it was going to be a tough decision for us as to whether or not we would actually make it to the lake. That seemed to make her feel bettter.

Today was our official first day of Summer term. It could have gone better, it couuld have gone worse. I am hoping tomorrow will be better. I have a couple of fun things planned.

I should write a bit more tonight, but my neck and shoulders are very sore- I had a hellacious massage therapy session today, and it is all I can do to type! Oh baby, make it hurt so good!

I will talk to you in more depth tomorrow- I am hitting the pillow now.
TTFN,
LB