READING

As I race on to finish these ½ read books by the end of January Mike is finding occasion to tease me. I tend to DEVOUR my books. The non-fiction, however, I often mark quite liberally. The most recent books to receive this attention are “Men in Black”, “Third Culture Kids” and “Experiencing God in Prayer”. I highlight, I make asterisks, I fold down pages and I even write comments in the pages. It’s not uncommon to pick up a book after I’ve read it and see comments like these in the margin: “Great comment!!!”; “Whoa – bias showing”; “WHAT – big leap”; “NO WAY” or references to other books on the topic, Scripture references that either support or refute what the author said, and BIG QUESTION marks on issues I want to study further. This has advantages and disadvantages….Mike can read the highlights and get the gist of a book that interests him after I read (so can the boys and I must remember this when pre-reading school books LOL); on the other hand there have been books I’ve not wanted to loan out after reading because my comments made me vulnerable to that person.

I don’t mark library books. I am very careful with books I borrow. If I find the urge to mark a book heavily I often buy it so I can do that. {g} Mike looked over last night and said “You’re really marking that up”. This a.m. I followed a link from Laura’s blog and found an article by Mortimer J Adler titled “How to Mark a Book”. And I quote: “I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours.” This whole article was great. Here’s the link if you want to read it in full. http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/adler.html What a timely post on Laura's blog. {G}

I can barely refrain from waking Mike to show him this article – or at least have him read this blog entry. I will continue to happily read with my highlighter and pen. I’ve been vindicated by a “great one”.

Friday – 27 January

I remembered the camera today but forgot the memory stick! What a total bust. I will get this right next week.

Melody, who you may remember is a homeschooling Mom whose husband works with Mike, and I had made plans to take her children and mine bowling on Monday. She now has piano students (Go Melody!) and so needed a day other than Monday. We settled on today – Friday. She gave me the freedom to invite some others with children the ages of my older boys. I did that at park day yesterday.

What a blast we had at the base bowling ally. We stayed much longer than I’d anticipated and the day got long for Zander. At one point I calmly told him that if I had to talk to him about his behavior again I would take him home. He acted up again. He’d already bowled 2 games. Jamin was at home because he wanted to finish school work (he’s got his hands full with Algebra 1 and Biology). I decided since we’d been gone over 2 ½ hours he was probably done with school and so I took Zander home. Poor boy. BUT he is learning that though he’s louder than I – my word is to be trusted and there are consequences to misbehaving. In other words he may be a screamer and I’m not – but I’m the mom. {g} When I got back to the base to pick up the other kids some of the families had decided to go down to Kids Kingdom. I phoned Mike and he said that he had a couple of hours left at work so we joined them.

We got to discussing that it’d been 24 days since we met these families at this very park. I’m reading “Third Culture Kids” and seeing that in the phase of transition I’m moving into the “entry” stage. This is good…shortly I may feel “involved” again.

Stacia’s been on this “new” funky formula for a week. We’ve now tried them all EXCEPT the new Sam’s Club has a generic that is cheaper and I’m trying it before going back to the original formula. None of them have seen to make much difference in the amount of her spitting (though I won’t discuss the finer points of consistency, smell and bowel movements here {vbg}).

We got a late start on our Pizza and Movie night – but we are pressing ahead….

THURSDAY 26 Jan 2006

I’m going to have to remember to take the camera to the park!

Today was another homeschool park day. I’m finding that there aren’t that many things the co-op offers that I feel a need for – but Park Day is great. The kids are making friends. I’m able to meet and visit with other moms. They wear off LOTS of energy. This group is really into light sabers. I must remember to take the camera and document 17 year old boys having a great time with 6 year old boys.

Adrienne (a mom of 7 with a little one just a month younger than Stacia) and I did laps around the park and that was WONDERFUL! Adrienne reminds me of Carleen from AK. She’s never met a stranger. She grew up in Eagle River, AK. I got a kick out of meeting women today (this is my 3rd official park day). One said “I only have 4 kids” and I had to laugh. I said, “Have you heard I have 9 kids?” {grin}

I heard good comments about the boys. Jared is known as “Clean Guy” because some of the kids were talking bad about one of the moms one week and he spoke up and said, “Guys, we shouldn’t be saying bad things about a Mom”. I was thrilled to hear that he is showing leadership skills with his peers. It’s often hard to learn those skills as the 5th child. Nolan made friends with boys who live on 11 acres and they plan to invite us all out before the next “official” park day in two weeks. Josiah and Andrew continue to enjoy each other’s company…and both have little sisters the SAME age (2 days different). Both are so good with the little ones. Jamin stays home to do school – but Jamin is a driven type.

After park day, I had to get my van inspected. I found a place but the young man was sure I need to register the van in TX and I was sure that wasn’t going to happen. I finally asked to talk with the owner and he agreed that you can put a TX Inspection sticker on an AK van. {g}

I quickly ran to Wal-Mart for supplies to make two bird feeders, smart suet and snowflake crystals…It didn’t take long to realize that I could BUY suet cheaper, I could BUY two identical bird feeders for our experiment and I’m not sure they’d BE identical if we made them and so I bought the finished products for Friday’s experiments.

The day concluded with a trip to Sam’s club. I couldn’t believe that a big, red truck, with military stickers, pulled up right on my bumper so that I couldn’t open the doors to load groceries. I debated what to do. I could have him paged. I could wait with my groceries until he arrived and ask him to move his truck so I could open my door…..but the kids were at home waiting for the Pizza. I decided to load it into the side (hard work). I considered a note that said (imagine the tone and attitude) “Do ya think you could have gotten a LITTLE closer? I could still fit my visa card between our bumpers.” I realized that folks around town already are learning who I am by my van and I’d best not do that…and was convicted that what comes rushing in these moments will reveal if I’m walking in the flesh or walking in the spirit….so I grumbled in the spirit for about 10 seconds and then shrugged it off and went home.

We did get speech and school done as well. Tomorrow is FRIDAY.

Men in Black

by Mark R. Levine. I finished another book. I set the goal of finishing all the 1/2 read books on my night stand by the end of January - before I started any new ones. The problem is that the 1/2 read books are not the "twaddle - relaxing" books. One more down. I told the ladies on SHS today that I realized I could move the remaining books from the nightstand. I think I only have one left and a week to go...maybe...

From the afterword by Edwin Meese III
"Men in Black not only discusses the background and current threat of judicial tyranny, it also points to several innovative approaches for addressing it, including term limits for Supreme Court justices. They're both serious and thought- provoking. It is well past time for a thorough examination of this gathering constitutional crisis. This is a debate we must have, and a topic the American public must begin to udnerstand - lest the country we bequeath to our children barely resemble that which the framers established for us. And there is no better source for understanding and grasping the seriousness of this issue than Men in Black.

We found this to be a timely and informative book on the history of the Supreme Court and the state of the court today. Josiah and Jamin finished it months ago {blush} but I did finish it. {g}

Language Confusion???

Ok imagine this in a Speedy Gonzales cadence.....

Zander and Nolan (almost 4 and 7) are running around the yard (it's lunch break).

Nolan is yelling, "Lasagna, Lasagna"!!!

Zander corrected, "No, brother Nolan, FA-JITA, FAJITA".

Tapestry of Grace this week

Lately, I've been asked how exactly TOG (see side link) keeps everyone on the same topic. Maybe it will be helpful to see a glimpse into our history and literature studies of the week. Arielle and Nolan are in 2nd and 1st grade. Jared is in 6th grade. Jamin and Josiah are in 9th and 11th grade. (OK I can't get the cute little pictures to upload but they look great on my harddrive. LOL)


Read Legend of Freedom Hill by Linda Jacobs Altman, with Arielle and Nolan yesterday.. The story is set during the CA Gold Rush. It revolves around two little girls living in a mining camp. Both are outsiders one an African American girl and one a Jewish girl. I don’t want to give away too much but they end up hatching a plan to buy the freedom of one girls mother and several other slaves. The art work is great in this book. We loved the drawings of the Sabbath celebration.

Arielle is reading by HERSELF/INDEPENDENTLY Annie Oakley: Young Marksman (Childhood of Famous Americans series) by Ellen Wilson. She’s making steady progress. This is one I added in.


(no picture) Cornerstones of Freedom: The Story of the Pony Express, by Conrad Stein I threw this one into our school line up this week. I’ve now been asked to research more biographies of the pony express (along with the OR Trail journals).

(no picture) Cornerstones of Freedom The Story of the CA Gold Rush


(picture won't upload) This was another big hit with all my kids (yep even the high schoolers). Voices of the Alamo by Sherry Garland follows one plot of land that comes to be known to us as “The Alamo”. She follows it through the years and from various perspectives. We are probably going to buy this book as we’ve lived in San Antonio and know the Alamo well. The little ones don’t remember the Alamo so we are in the process of planning a trip down there since we are finishing up on the Mexican War.

I was scheduled to read Little House in the Big Woods a few weeks back with Arielle and Nolan. The past two weeks have had those little “my first Prairie books” scheduled. They begged me to read the next Little House book so we are reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.


While we’ve read these Jared has added a few.

This seems to be well-tolerated by the boys. The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins. I may get around to reading this to Arielle and Nolan before we go visit the Alamo.


Jared was NOT interested in reading any Little House books but this week I suggested he give The Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder a try. He likes it – or tolerates it…


The two older ones have been reading:

The Mexican War: How the United States Gained Its Western Lands (Proud Heritage – the Hispanic Library_, by Carrie Nichols Cantor.




The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx


Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. This is their final week on this book. Since I knew they were reading some “heavy” stuff I let them read Voices of the Alamo and Boy in the Alamo along with The Mexican War and called it good. We are fairly well versed in this segment of history.

For those who are wondering: No – I did NOT make it through the unabridged version of Les Miserables….maybe when Jared hits rhetoric level. I did get over ½ way so I have a good start.{grin}

Guess the Date

This was Stacia's birthday gift to me. She is diligently trying to learn how to crawl. She was moving her legs in various positions, laughing and having a great time but hasn’t quite figured it out. We’re taking guesses as to how long it will take for her to learn the trick. Mike says 2 weeks. The rest of us haven’t committed. Any guesses?