Church stuff

Goodness, life has gotten so busy again! Sometimes it's hard finding a few minutes to blog.

Erick suspended Wednesday night services at church in order to devote his time to Tuesday night youth group. We have about ten kids that come regularly to youth now, plus some more that show up occasionally. Some of the newer ones are actually from the town our church is in instead of being friends that our kids take with them. The first week of February we're going to have a 50s night and so we've been making big Styrofoam cutouts of a '57 Chevy Bel Air, a jukebox, and more.

We've also had a new family coming on Sunday mornings. They were back today, too. Over the past couple of years since we've been at this church we've had people come and stay for awhile and then leave, but we haven't had any sustained growth. We are really praying for a spiritual breakthrough. A long time ago our church went through a split, and we feel that the reason we aren't growing may be tied back to that time period. We have good worship and great teaching, and there's no reason for it not to grow except for a spiritual block. I don't feel like I can share everything here, but please be in prayer for our church. This year is going to be a turning point.

In the meantime, we have been attending some services when we can at a church that is in revival. It is led by one of the presbyters in the Assemblies of God and his church has regular outpouring services. We went last Friday and we're going again tonight. God is moving and we want to catch that fire.

One other thing we're doing at our church is a drama class for homeschoolers. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and so I offered it free for Jr. and Sr. High aged homeschoolers in our community. I had our first class last Friday and I had a great turnout--there were seventeen students there, not including Rachel and Timothy who participated anyway. We made Greek masques out of paper mache and they all had fun. I'll have to take some pictures of our class next week when we paint them.

Rollback?

"Hey, Ma, look. Them there Maxi pads are on sale. Y'wanna get some?"

"Sure, Pa. Looks like them there's a great deal. I love Walmart. They got some good Rollbacks now."

Or is that a Rollforward?

Playing with Babel Fish

Sometimes just for fun I like to play with Yahoo's Babel Fish translator. First I write something into the box, and then translate it into another language, and then another language, and then another, etc., and then finally back to English. It usually comes up with something completely different.

Today I'm going to use a small piece from a children's book called "Pooh Sleepytime Stories" that I've had since I was a little girl.

Here it is in English:

Pooh gave his last jar of honey to Kanga, and Kanga went off through the forest with Roo. Pooh began to smooth his bed where Roo had jumped on it.

Then there came another knock at the door.

 "No!" cried Pooh. "Go away! I want to go to bed. And I don't have any more honey!"

"You don't?" Christopher Robin came in. "What happened to the three jars I gave you this afternoon?" he asked.

"Oh, Christopher Robin! It's you!" cried Pooh.

Pooh told Christopher Robin about the gophers. He told him about Rabbit and his relations and Kanga and her cake.

"What a kind bear you are, Pooh," said Christopher Robin.

Now I'll paste it in the translator and turn it into Spanish.

Pooh dio su tarro pasado de miel a Kanga, y Kanga se apagó a través del bosque con Roo. Pooh comenzó a alisar su cama adonde Roo había saltado en él. Entonces vino otro golpe en la puerta. " ¡No! " gritado Pooh. " ¡Salga! Quiero irme a la cama. E I don' ¡t tiene más miel! " " Usted don' ¿t? " El petirrojo de Christopher vino adentro. " ¿Qué sucedió a los tres tarros que le di esta tarde? " él pidió. " ¡Oh, petirrojo de Christopher! It' ¡s usted! " gritado Pooh. Pooh dijo el petirrojo de Christopher sobre los Gopher. Él le dijo sobre conejo y sus relaciones y Kanga y su torta. " Un qué oso bueno usted es, Pooh, " petirrojo dicho de Christopher.

Now from Spanish to French.

Pooh a donné son tarro passé de miel à Kanga, et Kanga a été éteint à travers la forêt avec Roo. Pooh a commencé à lisser son lit où Roo avait sauté en lui. Est alors venu un autre coup dans la porte. " ; Non ! " ; crié Pooh. " ; Sortez ! Je veux aller mo'au lit. ET I don' ; t a davantage de miel ! " ; " ; Vous don' ; t ? " ; Le petirrojo de Christopher est à l'intérieur venu. " ; Qu'est-ce qu'a arrivé à aux trois tarros qu'ai-je données cet après-midi ? " ; il a demandé. " ; Oh, petirrojo de Christopher ! It' ; s vous ! " ; crié Pooh. Pooh a dit le petirrojo de Christopher sur les Gopher. Il l'a dit sur le lapin et ses relations et Kanga et sa galette. " ; Un quel ours bonne vous êtes, Pooh, " ; petirrojo propos de Christopher.

Now from French to German.

Pooh hat sein tarro Honigvergangenheit an Kanga gegeben, und Kanga ist durch den Wald mit Roo gelöscht worden. Pooh hat begonnen, sein Bett zu glätten, wo Roo in ihn gesprungen war. Dann kam ein anderer Hieb in der Tür. " ; Nicht! " ; geschrieen Pooh. " ; Kommen Sie heraus! Ich will gehen mo' am Bett. UND I don' ; t hat mehr Honig! " ; " ; Sie don' ; t? " ; Das petirrojo von Christopher ist an l' gekommenes Inneres. " ; Qu' ist es qu' in in den drei angekommen ist qu'tarros; habe ich diesen Nachmittag gegeben? " ; er hat verlangt. " ; Oh, petirrojo von Christopher! It' ; s Sie! " ; geschrieen Pooh. Pooh hat das petirrojo von Christopher auf Gopher gesagt. Er l' auf dem Kaninchen und seinen Beziehungen und Kanga und seinem Fladen gesagt hat. " ; Welcher Bär gut Sie sind, Pooh, " ; petirrojo Absicht von Christopher.

And now from German back to English:

Pooh gave its tarro honey past at Kanga, and Kanga was deleted by the forest with Roo. Pooh began to smooth its bed where Roo had jumped into it. Then another blow came in the door. " ; Not! " ; cried Pooh. " ; Come out! I want to go to mo' at the bed. AND I don' ; t has more honey! " ; " ; It don' ; t? " ; Petirrojo from Christian OF is at l' come inside. " ; Qu' it is qu' in the three qu' arrived; tarros; did I give this afternoon? " ; it required. " ; Oh, petirrojo of Christian OF! It' ; s it! " ; cried Pooh. Pooh said petirrojo of Christian OF on Gopher. It l' on the rabbit and its relations and Kanga and its Fladen said. " ; Which bear you are good, Pooh, " ; petirrojo intention of Christian OF.

Hmmmm, something seems to have gotten lost in the translation!

Creative Writing

This week my classes start up again. All of my classes are online again this semester. So far in my entire school career I've only had to take two classes on campus--last spring when I took Algebra I because I forgot everything I'd learned in high school and IvyTech didn't offer that online, and this summer when I took Chemistry because I thought it sounded like fun. (Ha!)

Since I transferred to IU East this last fall, I will only have one more class that I will be taking on campus. The main reason is that IUEast's campus is three hours away, so it's a little far to drive. The one class that I have to take on campus I will be taking at IvyTech again and transferring it in. I'd rather not have to, but IU East doesn't offer Spanish II online and I need it for my degree. I've already got more credits at IvyTech than I can transfer, but it's got to be done. It will just have to replace a different class that I transferred.

Since I have to take Spanish II at IvyTech anway, I'm going to take it at campus. Language is a really difficult class to take online. They had audio and video clips to listen to, but I would do better getting a chance to actually practice speaking and listening to others in a group setting. I'm hoping to do that this next fall. In the meantime, I'm trying to brush up on what I've already learned before I forget it all.

This semester I'm taking four classes, as usual. It'll take me a little longer to graduate that way, but that's about all I can handle with working and homeschooling and church and everything. I'll be taking a class called New Media, which I have no idea what it's about, Propaganda and Persuasion, Cross-Cultural Communication, and my favorite--Creative Writing. I'm really excited about the last one.

I just get so much pleasure out of reading a well-crafted sentence. Sometimes I'll stop in the middle of a story just to admire a good, descriptive sentence. For example, I just finished reading Lynn Austin's latest book called "Wonderland Creek." On page 152, she writes, "Lillie took both of my hands in hers, gripping them tightly as if trying to squeeze all the fear out of me like juice from an orange."

Isn't that wonderful? How do authors come up with such delightful ways of writing when I'm still using simple adjectives? I'll admit I'm slightly jealous of that talent.

I will confess I have a couple of good ones that I've stashed away in the corner of my brain in case I ever have an opportunity to use it. If my Creative Writing class calls for one, I'll at least know where to start, but I hope to learn how to pop them out of my head as easily as some people seem to do.

Erick's birthday

Today we celebrated Erick's 34th birthday, even though his birthday isn't actually until tomorrow. But we both ended up with the day off, so we decided today would work better for the purpose of celebration.

First we went together to town to have a little date. We went to the beauty school so I could get my hair fixed again. It had grown out a few inches since I'd cut it last, plus my roots were showing. After I got it dyed blonde last time I went back and added some brown foils so it would look a little more natural and blend better with my roots when they started growing back in. This time I had blonde highlights added to the roots so I would still have some brown. I really liked it, and the whole thing only cost me $24. The student that cut my hair was very confident and seemed to know what she was doing. I was glad I had her and not the one cutting the hair of the lady next to me. That poor girl was doing her first hair dye and looked scared to death.

Here are some pictures of my new 'do:

Front view

Back view

Side view

After that we went to Olive Garden and ate. I had lasagna and Erick had some kind of chicken thing stuffed with cheese and tomatoes and covered with mushroom sauce. They took kind of long with our food so the server gave him an extra scoop of mashed potatoes, although Erick doesn't even eat mashed pototoes anymore because he's given up carbs for his diet. He did eat some, as well as half a breadstick, but he regretted it by the time he was done. I think we both ate too much.

Then we went over to the Open Door which is a Christian book store and bought a few books. I got Lynn Austin's latest one. I'm excited because she's my favorite author.

Erick is sitting here next to me remarking about how it's his birthday and that I'm posting all about me. Oh well. :)

Anyway, while we were gone, the kids were decorating for his birthday (see Erick? It's not just about me!) and they hung squiggly balloons all over the livingroom. They hung them from the ceiling fan in a sort of box shape with lots of crepe paper dangling around as well.

They also baked an angel food cake for him with Splenda. Angel food cake doesn't have much flour, so it was a good choice for his diet. We bought some sugar-free ice cream to go with it, too.

When we got back we gave him the gifts we had bought him last night--a teensy little Bible on a keychain (it has Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Hebrews, James, 2nd John, and 3rd John). Now if he forgets his Bible he has something to preach out of, but he'll need a magnifying glass to read it. We also bought him a Three Stooges movie (in color, no less!) and an AlumaWallet. As Seen On TV. He was interested in it, and so I got it. Besides, he got me the As Seen On TV Eggies that I had been curious about for Christmas, so I figured I owed him one.

We watched the Three Stooges when we got home, and they were really stupid as usual, but I laughed anyway. I couldn't help it. It's like on America's Funniest Home Videos when they show everyone falling down on trampolines or getting hit in the crotch. It's not funny, not really, but for some reason everyone laughs. (Except for mature people.)

Then we waited to eat supper until we had digested our lunches, which the kids felt took far too long. I forgot to buy birthday candles for his cake. Sarah had dug out some leftover ones from the bottom of the utensils drawer, but they looked kind of gross so we didn't let her put them in the cake. Instead we lit the candle that my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas and Erick blew it out. Then we re-lit it and he blew it out again. We were going to make him do it 34 times but he got tired of it after only twice. I guess that means he's only two.

So far he's had a nice birthday, I think. I've enjoyed his birthday, anyway. :)

It's Not Christmas Without The Messiah

Yesterday we spent the day with my family for our Christmas celebration. Since Christmas came on Sunday this year and since there are several pastors in the family who live several hours apart, it wasn't possible to get everyone together on Christmas Day this year. Instead, we decided to wait until the Thursday after Christmas to get together. Besides the food and presents, the highlight of our family's Christmas is to sing from Handel's Messiah.

My family has been singing the Messiah since I was ten years old. My mom taught us to sing "For Unto Us a Child is Born" for our church's Christmas Eve service that year. My mom sang soprano, my dad sang bass, I sang tenor, and my younger sister sang alto. It was a hit, and we've been learning new songs since, adding siblings as they grew old enough to learn the parts. A few years ago we put on a Christmas concert and went to three churches to sing seventeen songs from the Messiah. That was the first year that all of my siblings (plus one sister-in-law) sang together.

I have had such wonderful times singing with my family. I sang in several other choirs when I was growing up such as homeschool choir, church choir, and the 4-H chorus, but singing with my parents and siblings will always be something I cherish. So yesterday, after the food and before the presents, my mom passed around the books and popped in the accompaniment CD, and we sang until we were hoarse.

I wanted to share this video of one of the songs we sang yesterday called "And the Glory of the Lord." In this video, my parents, siblings, husband, in-laws, future in-laws, children, nieces, and nephews are all crowded into the living room at my parents' house. We are packed so tightly in there that many have to sit on the floor, but nobody minds. Not everybody sings, but anyone who wants to is welcome to join in. We are a close-knit family who loves to be together and to sing together, and even though we haven't sang together since last Christmas, we still know how to make beautiful music together as we worship God. After all, what would Christmas be without the Messiah?

Christmas Day

This was the best Christmas I think we've ever had, or at least it's up there somewhere in the top three. :) We went all out and bought iPod Touches for all six of the kids. They had all wanted one, even Timothy. When we had them make their wish lists this year, they all put one on the top (except for Jay, who asked for a Zune instead). They weren't really expecting one, though.

We had so much fun making it impossible for the kids to guess what they were getting. We wrapped them each differently in different sizes and shapes of packages. I wrapped a bag of lentils around one and it felt like a bag of sand. Another I packed inside a box of old books. One was in an oatmeal container, another inside a box of macaroni. Some of them made noise when shaken, others did not.

We also got them each a unique cover so they would be able to tell them apart. I put the covers in gift bags wrapped in tissue. They were so lightweight that some of the kids questioned whether there was anything in them at all!

Last night we allowed them to each unwrap one present--a pair of pajamas--but the had to wait until today to get their iPods. They were so excited and they've spent all day playing with them.

I didn't used to realize what iPods were. I thought they were just music players with a touch screen. With all the things that they can do, we didn't just give our kids music players. We gave them each a gaming system along with dozens of games, a camera, a video recorder, a TV, a flashlight, a Bible, lots of books, a phone with the ability to text, a computer, toys, musical instruments, a pedometer, an alarm clock, a calender, and I don't even know how much more! There are tons of free apps to download.

The first thing we did, though, was to set parental controls and take away the web browser. They don't really need to have Internet access all the time--we like to have adult supervision for that. But they can still access anything that has an app, like Facebook. That means we'll have to make sure they don't play on their iPods when we are having school.

We did let them take them to church but they have been strictly warned that if they are using their iPods, they'd better be using the Bible app or taking notes with it! We had a beautiful Christmas morning service, btw. We took communion with a loaf of French bread and sparkling grape juice in goblets to make it special. I know that Jesus actually would have used unleavened bread, but the French bread just looked so pretty. There were candles everywhere in the church, although we didn't light the ones in the windows because we didn't want to catch the curtains on fire.

We played Christmas carols and sang some specials. I was going to sing "Every Valley" but I've had a cold lately. After leading worship my voice wasn't strong enough to sing a difficult song like that.

I took a nap when we got home and then made a delicious pecan pie to go with our Christmas dinner. I also made a sugar-free jello dessert for Erick. He's not sticking entirely to his diet right now, but he is still watching what he eats.

I got to use every one of my Christmas presents today--a Ninja blender (to turn some pecans to dust), my toaster (because the bread for the sandwiches we had for lunch was still in the freezer), a set of Eggies (for egg salad), and a stock pot (for the sweet potatoes).

Erick hasn't had a chance to use his new Garmin GPS system yet. We haven't been anywhere yet, except for church, and we know how to get there. We've named it Judy because the female voice that tells you where to turn sounds like a Judy.

Christmas isn't entirely over for us, though--later this week we're going to visit our families. I can't wait!

Christmas break

Today is the first day of Christmas break. I don't have a lot planned for this week, but we do have some cleaning to catch up. Of course, that's nothing different--it seems we always have cleaning to catch up on.

I really don't have that much else going on. I'm only posting in my blog because I haven't posted in it much lately. I've made more posts to my Greene County Daily World blog than I have this one lately. I've even posted to my dream blog more than I have this one! I never thought I would be posting to three different blogs.

I think I'll go clean my room.

The future of online content

This semester, I have really been wondering what will happen with Internet content in the future. So far, media technologies are still fairly new. All throughout my textbook for my Intro to Journalism class I've looked at timelimes that have shown the progression of different inventions and technologicial discoveries, from Nikola Tesla and his radio coils to LePrince's motion pictures to Zuckerburg's Facebook. A hundred years ago the world looked very different. Even fifty years or fifteen years ago, things looked very different. I have a photo album of pictures of my mother when she was a little girl, and they were all in black and white. There are home videos of me as a little girl, and they are all on big giant reels in my parents' attic. They are silent videos because home video cameras back then apparently didn't have audio capabilities. In comparison, my kids have hundreds of digital photos and videos of them on my blog and on Facebook.

My dad loves genealogy. When I was a kid we would hunt for photos of relatives and read through old letters that gave us a glimpse into their lives. Those were real treasures to us because they were rare.

If my grandkids want to know about me, they won't have to rely on stories handed down through my kids or by finding my box of love letters (which I really hope they don't find!) They could read my blog or notes I have written on Facebook. But what about the next generation or the generation after that? What will happen to my online content when I am dead?

I would love to be able to look back at my great-great-great-grandmother's Facebook page or read her blog or wach digital videos of my ancestors as they played in the hose when they were children. Will that information still be around a hundred years from now? A thousand?

What will happen to all of the pictures and posts that I've uploaded in my lifetime? If they are still available, we will have a rich world. We will be able to pass our knowlege and insights down to generations in a way that has never been possible in the past. The stories of our lives will be around forever rather than fading into oblivion, assuming they don't get dumped.

That's my fear--that eventually all of the old data will get dumped in order to make way for new generations to upload their stuff. Will my blog still be around a thousand years after I've stopped posting in it for my descendents to discover (assuming this world lasts another thousand years!), or will somebody out there decide it's no longer necessary?

I've actually checked into this on Facebook. They say that when you die, your family can set your page as a memorial and only your friends can see your page. I would guess you can't approve more friends, though, so any descendents I might have after I died would be out of luck.

Laundry!

Yesterday we finally got a dryer. Ours went out a few days ago. It was taking longer and longer to dry a load of clothes. At one point I was having to run the dryer three whole cycles just to dry one load of clothes. Finally, it just quit heating up altogether.

Erick tried to fix it. Some of my Facebook friends suggested that replacing a heating coil was an easy fix. Erick is pretty handy about fixing things, but one thing he hasn't had any experience fixing is dryers. That may be because his parents dried their clothes on a clothesline when he was growing up and he didn't get the chance to learn how to fix one.

He gave it a good try, though. He looked it up on the Internet and took it all apart, but when he was done with it, it didn't work at all. Our neighbor came over and looked at it, too, and I guess neither of them could figure it out.

So we bought a used one last night. Our neighbor had told us about a Facebook group that posted classified ads in our area and we found a used one for $75. It's nothing fancy, but it dries clothes, and we are waaaay behind right now. I haven't seen stacks of laundry like this since we lived in the trailer and I had to take my laundry to my in-law's house each weekend. That was back when we only had two babies. By spring, we'd literally have laundry stacked to the ceiling. (Remember, they didn't have a dryer!) In the winter, we'd take home baskets of wet laundry after washing it all load by load in their wringer washer, and we'd put it on the front porch so it would stay fresh-smelling until we could get it all dried. Then we'd bring each load in, one at a time, and let it thaw. We'd drape them over chairs and drying racks and cabinet doors until they dried, and then bring in another load to thaw. Our clothes were always stiff back then.

We have come such a long way since then. This new dryer might not be top-of-the-line, but at least I can dry a load of clothes in a reasonable amount of time. By the end of the day I except to have a mountain of clean laundry instead of a mountain of dirty laundry.

Fall break

This week is fall break for me. The kids had their fall break weeks ago when the co-op took their fall break, but I had to wait until this week, even though there is only just a few weeks left until the end of the semester. Since I don't have school to do, I decided to take a break from bookwork for the girls so they could finish the quilts and curtains they started last summer.

Joy and Sarah are making quilts with zebra print zigzags and matching curtains. Abby and Rachel didn't need quilts because they already had nice comforters, but they needed some good curtains. I had bought the material for it but never had time to help them make them. So this was sort of a "home ec" week. We are almost finished, too--Sarah just has to finish up her quilt and then we still have to make the zebra curtains.

We also bought a new van today--a twelve passenger. Our mini-van had eight seats, but the kids keep growing taller (imagine that) and plus they always want to take their friends places. People used to ask us why we had six kids and one of my favorite answers was to say that if we had more than that, we'd have to supersize everything. I didn't think we'd be supersizing anyway! I guess I'll have to think up another answer to that question.

Anyway, this van was a very good deal. It's a Chevy Express 3500 (and yes, I had to ask my husband because I had no idea) and it's green. It's very pretty on the outside, and very plain on the inside, but there's lots of room. It doesn't have any fancy features, like cruise control or a cassette/CD player, but at least the air conditioning works. It also doesn't have power locks or windows. Timothy thinks it's so cool that you can roll down the windows without even putting in the key!

We are looking forward to taking this van on vacation next year. Lord willing, we're going to go out west and see the Grand Canyon and go to Yellowstone and all of the other neat places that are out that way. We've been north and south and east, but not west, at least no farther than Missouri. It's so big that way. I hope we get to go. I also hope I can handle the Grand Canyon, since I'm terrified of heights. The last time we went on the sky ride at Indiana Beach I spent the whole time clinging tightly to my daughter and telling her to not look down. That's the best way to convince others that you're not scared--pretend like you are trying to keep someone else from being scared. It works fairly well.

I know this blog post was a bit rambly (is rambly a word?), but hey--it's fall break. I'm resting my mind and that means taking a break from being organized. You should feel lucky I posted at all.

Happy birthday to me!

Today I am 33 years old. My family "surprised" me this morning with breakfast in bed and showered me with gifts and handmade cards. Timothy (age 7), Rachel (age 8), and Abby (age 10) all made handmade cards that said things like, "Mom, I love you, Mom. Mom, you are the best Mom ever. I love Mom. Mom loves me." (I think they like to use the word "Mom" a lot because it's easy to spell).

Rachel also gave me a present--a beautiful tea set that I had bought at a yard sale last year. It was in a gift bag wrapped up in a piece of purple cloth, an apron, and an African costume we had made for school several years ago (since obviously we didn't have any tissue paper handy).

Sarah (age 12) gave me a necklace, although Joy (age 13) said she was actually the one who had made it. Either way, it was very pretty and I wore it to church this morning. They also gave me a gift bag with some body wash and a hair clip. Sarah said, "Don't tell her the story about the hair clip." I still don't know what that is about.

Jay (age 14) gave me the most unique gift of them all. He translated "The Lord's Prayer" into Elvish and framed it. He's taught himself how to read it and has a whole dictionary of Elvish words that he's been printing out a little at a time from the Internet. I don't know if there is any practical use for knowing Elvish languages, but if there ever is a demand for an expert in the field, Jay might be the right person. I think it's cool, though, that he has shown the initiative to learn something on his own. I just wish I could give him a high school credit for it.

Erick gave me some chocolate and another hair clip, and I also received some gifts at church including fuzzy blue and green striped socks which I immediately put on. My girls are afraid that I will wear them to the Community Thanksgiving Service tonight with my dress clothes and are imploring me not to because they will "die of embarrassment." They said I'm too old to act crazy.

I've had a lovely birthday so far, and soon I will eat my pineapple upside down birthday cake that Jay made for me. I was going to make it myself but I decided I shouldn't have to make my own birthday cake.

Here is "The Lord's Prayer" in Elvish. I, for one, am glad to know that there are Christian elves.

A tough lesson

Sunday night I woke up at 2:00 a.m. to use the restroom. Upon discovering there was no toilet paper in the upstairs bathroom, I went downstairs. While headed towards the bathroom to retrieve a pack of toilet paper, I ran into a tall, shadowy form--that of my 14-year old son, Jay. He was just coming out the bathroom. At first I assumed he was there for the same reason I was, until I switched on the light and saw his schoolwork spread out over the bathroom floor. Then I understood.

See, Jay is a freshman in high school this year, and I'm doing things differently with him than I have in past years. Before, I printed out a school schedule for him like I do with my younger children, detailing what subjects he was to do each day. Way before school ever starts I look through the curriculum and figure out how many times a week each child needs to do each subject to get through their books by the end of the year.

But I didn't do that with Jay this year. I want him to learn how to be responsible and set his own schedule. I want him to be able to set his own goals, plan out what he needs to do to accomplish those goals, and follow through with those plans. And I want him to learn to do that while he's still living at home, instead of when he's away at college without the benefit of me there to breathe down his neck all day.

So this semester I gave him weekly work instead of daily. His schedule is more like a course calendar, detailing what work is due to be turned in each Monday (so that he is allowed to do work on the weekends if he so chooses). For example, he has four Algebra lessons and a test to complete each week, but it's up to him when to do those. If he wants to do a lesson every day for the first four days and then the test on Friday, I would definitely call that a wise idea. However, if he wants to do them all at the last minute, that's up to him, too--although his grades will most certainly reflect it.

I want to clarify that I do make him do school every day. After all, homeschooling law in Indiana is 180 days. If he did all of his schoolwork on Saturdays that would only be, oh, about 36 days. That's not practical nor is it legal, so we spread it out to 180. So he's not allowed to do things like get on Facebook until he's done with the school that he's planned out to do that day.

Anyway, Sunday night he was behind, and he stayed up until the wee hours of the morning finishing up his schoolwork. When he apologized for getting behind, I told him that he's the one that pays the consequences for that, not me, so he didn't need to apologize to me. When he explained that we had a busy week with our church's fall festival, I reminded him that I'm also a student and that I had all of my schoolwork turned in by Friday. I also reminded him that he spent quite a bit of time on Facebook last week.

I left him doing his school in the bathroom and went back to bed, but I was so proud of him. He could have just left his school undone and tried to bargain for extra time (not that it would have worked). He could have just not cared about his grades. But he did care--he sacrificed sleep in order to get his schoolwork done in time. A difficult lesson, to be sure, but a good one. He made a childish decision to wait until the last minute, but a very grown-up one to stay up and get it done. To me, that's what homeschooling is about--raising my children to be responsible adults who will be successful in a tough world. I love my kids so much, and I know they will do well in life.

Fall Festival--Candyland theme

We just got back from our church's annual fall festival. This year we centered it around a Candyland theme. We traced the characters from the classic Milton-Bradley boardgame onto pieces of styrofoam, cut them out with a hot knife, and painted them. We strung a grid of fishingline up high in the gym and hung all of the characters on them. We made the squares on the board out of construction paper and decorated around each of the characters. We added special touches to each one, like tying peanuts to the fake plants that decorate the sanctuary platform and putting them on each side of Grandma Nut for her nut garden. We had goodies that the children could win, such as a sandwich baggie full of DumDums for landing on Princess Lolly. The winner of each game received a bag full of candy, but all of the kids got something. We had other candy-themed games, too, like a marshmallow toss and a game where you had to throw Smarties into pop bottles (it was really hard.) We had two big bounce houses outside, and the weather was perfect. Betty did candy crafts with the kids, making cute little houses and trains out of graham crackers. We had about twenty kids that came and they really enjoyed it. I made a video of the game so you can see it. We put a lot of work into it and I was really happy with the way it turned out. We have to take it down in the next couple of days to set up for our Thankgiving dinner next Sunday, but I think I'm going to put all of the characters and decorations on the walls of the family center. They are just too beautiful to throw away.

Teaching Timothy to read

I am almost finished teaching all six of my children to read. I have used the same phonics book for my six kids that my mom used to teach me and all seven of my siblings. Professor Phonics Gives Sound Advice is a simple little book, but it's become quite a fixture at our house. We are actually on our second copy of it, as the first one disentegrated after the first two or three children.

Now that I'm on my last time through it, I'm starting to feel a little nostalgic about being finished. While I've always enjoyed the cozy times of sitting next to my kids while we sounded out words together, I'm taking care to treasure this last time as I teach phonics to my youngest son, Timothy. He's seven, and he's a smart little guy who is in 1st grade this year. He's funny, too. He loves to linger over each word and talk about it. Sometimes he takes what seems like forever and I have to prod him to just read the word and move on to the next!

Today we've been doing "Hard and Soft 'C', Mixed." This is just a glimpse how it went.

"Since--I know that word! That's like how much money you have."

"Corpse--What's a corpse? A dead body? Is it like the whole body or just the bones? Is it just one dead body? 'Cause if it is, why would it have an 's' on the end? Shouldn't that be more than one dead body?

"Cellar--Those are the people that sell stuff to people. Like in the stores, they have lots of sellers that bring stuff so that other people can buy it."

"Carpet--Why does it have a 'pit' in it? It sounds like "armpit."

"Cyclone--Hey, if you take off the 'cy' you have clone, which is what men wear!"

"Princess--If you take off the 'ss' then you have prince! Wait, is prince and princess spelled the same except for the 'ss'? Wow, that information could come in handy!"

"Cistern--if you take the 'n' off the end, you have 'sister'! Okay, well then, if you take the 'n' off the end and then take the 'c' off the beginning and stick an 's' on the beginning instead, where the 'c' used to be, then you have 'sister'!"

"Cyclops--What's a Cyclops? So he's just like a regular guy except he has an eye in his forehead? Mom, there's no such thing as monsters. He would have to be a legend."

Why homeschooling is like making chili

I love a hot bowl of chili on a cold fall day. Topped with cheese and sour cream, it warms me up like nothing else can. I like my chili with lots of hamburger and onions, chili beans, mushrooms, and a good dose of cayenne pepper.

A friend of mine thinks it is strange that I put mushrooms in my chili. Another friend of mine thinks it is strange that I don't put macaroni in my chili.

Attend any chili cook-off and you will discover more varieties of chili than you knew existed! I know one man that puts coffee in his chili and boasts about how many contests he's won with his secret ingredient. I know another that puts a warning label on his chili--it is so hot, he calls it "X-rated chili." And of course, there's white chili, which doesn't seem like it should be called "chili" at all!

I read a story a long time ago about a mother who was making chili for her family. Each family member made a special request to leave out a certain ingredient. One child didn't like beans. Another didn't like onions, and so on. At the end of the day, the mother served up a hot, steaming pot of water to her family, because there were no ingredients left that her family could agree on.

There are a lot of similarities to chili and homeschooling. There are as many "recipes" to a successful homeschool as there are recipes for chili. Sometimes when people try to define what a homeschooling family is, they think of a stay-at-home mother (in a denim jumper, of course) with five or six children sitting around the kitchen table together, or maybe at desks in the family room. Depending on the level of contact that people have with actual homeschoolers, their views of homeschooling can be fuzzy and vague ("Do they have any friends?") or at best, limited.

So what do homeschools have in common? Well, they usually have at least one teacher. Many times it's the mother, and many times she does stay at home. Other mothers (like me) work a job and homeschool. In those cases, the fathers are often involved. Homeschool teachers can also be grandparents, siblings, friends, tutors, and more. Some students, especially older ones, are self-taught.

Most homeschools do the bulk of their schooling at home (which would make sense given that it's called "homeschooling"), but not all meet at home. Some meet in churches or buildings with other homeschoolers, either daily or weekly. Some do their work at a parent's place of employment. Some prominent politicians have homeschooled their children while on the campaign trail in order to keep their family together.

Some kids do their work at desks or the kitchen table, others while sitting on the couch or lying on the floor. Some stay in their room and do their school while others (like mine) are not allowed to. When I was a kid being homeschooled, I liked to do my schoolwork while sitting up high in the  maple tree in our backyard.

Some families use a boxed curriculum. Others use no curriculum at all. Some are involved in sports and other extra-curricular activities. Others prefer to stay at home. Some homeschool for religious reasons. Others homeschool for academic or practical reasons. Some are partially involved in the public schools. Others stay as far away from the public schools as possible. Some buy computers for all their children. Others do not own a computer or even a TV.

Even amongst homeschoolers, sometimes we quibble over the definition of homeschooling. Recently, public schools have begun to offer "cyber schooling," which is public schooling at home, through the computer. Is that homeschooling or public schooling? People disagree. Maybe cyber schooling is like white chili--it just seems out of place somehow.

My recipe for homeschooling has changed slightly over the years, and will probably continue to change as my kids get older. On the other hand, my recipe for chili is likely to stay the same, because it's perfect the way it is!

Chili

Brown one pound of hamburger with onions. Drain. Add one can of tomato juice, one can diced tomatoes, one can of mushrooms, and two cans of chili beans. Add chili powder, garlic powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper to taste. Simmer for as long as you want. Serve hot with sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips, and green onions.

Skinning stuffed animals--it's educational!

Today I helped eight 2nd and 3rd grade homeschooled children kill their stuffed animals and tan their hides. It was a pretty messy experience, but they enjoyed it.

My kids are part of a co-op group that meets every Thursday for classes. The parents are the teachers, and we each sign up to teach classes that are in our area of expertise each semester. This year the board voted to plan the classes around a Way Out West theme. This made it a little tricky for me, since I was planning on teaching ballet. Cowboys in tutus just didn't seem like a good idea. So I decided to teach a class called "Working With Leather." I'm not a leather expert, by any means, but I do have some limited experience. My dad is a book binder by trade, and I did skin a rabbit for the 4-H Tanning project years ago. So I did some research and prepared enough lessons for a six-week class covering the uses of leather, how leather is made, leather crafts, and leather care.

I didn't think the seven- and eight-year-olds in my class would want to actually skin live animals, so I cooked up the brilliant idea of using stuffed animals. We tied yarn around the legs of their teddy bears, stuffed dogs, and even a frog, hung them upside-down from a coat peg, and then used scissors to slaughter them. We cut the heads off first, so the "blood" could drain out, and then slit them down the belly and up the legs, cutting out the feet. We scraped the skin with butterknives and then soaked them in a bucket of water, salt, and alum. We stirred the skins with wooden spoons while I explained the process of tanning to them. Then we tacked up the hides on pieces of cardboard and styrofoam for display.

The funny thing was that we had a photographer today at our co-op to take school pictures earlier in the day. She had her equipment set up in my classroom, and was just packing it up when we started whacking off the teddy bears' heads. I think she was just a little bit disturbed at first. She said, "This is a very interesting class. What are you teaching the children?" I explained to her what we were doing, and she just laughed, saying that she had always thought homeschooled children were nice!

I guess we are nice, but Teddy had better look out!

New homeschool group

Today I received the new member packet from our new homeschool group. We've been a part of our old one, GRACE, for the past three and a half years, ever since we moved to Southern Indiana. We've enjoyed that group very much and our children have made many close friends there, but we are going to try a new group this spring. The reason for this is financial--we aren't able to afford the fees for our old co-op group anymore.

Not long after we joined our old group, a family purchased a building and donated it to the co-op. The board voted to use it and pay for the utilities with fundraisers. I felt at the time that it was a bad idea, but being new to the group, I didn't say anything. It was nice having our own building. We could put up our own posters in the classrooms, fix lunch in the kitchen, and not have to worry about our group being in the way at a church's building. It needed a lot of work, and the families all worked together to fix it up. We had yard sales and other fundraisers, solicited donations from philanthropic groups, and made and sold our own lunches to ourselves to raise money. It still wasn't enough. Some of the members even gave their tithes to the building, something I personally had some reservations about.

At the beginning of this school year, the board voted to raise the costs of co-op registration by $100 per family per semester to cover expenses, explaining that it still wasn't going to be enough to cover everything. This is on top of co-op fees. If we kept attending this co-op group, we would be paying close to $200 twice a year just to be able to attend co-op. Erick and I talked about it and decided to look for another group. There is a group in Clay County called FISH, and it's been around since the mid-nineties. It's bigger and cheaper, since it still meets in a church like most homeschool groups do. The fees there are only $20 per family, plus class fees (although even those seem cheaper). It will be a longer drive, but we're going to give it a try and see if the kids like it. If not, we haven't burned any bridges. We'll just have to see how it all works out.

I did it--478 posts moved over to my new blog.

Well, it took nearly two weeks, but I've moved over all 478 posts and close to eight years worth of posts and pictures to my new blog here. I've enjoyed looking over my old posts and tweaking a few things I found along the way. One thing I'm really going to like about this new format is the ability to post videos. Before, I had to post links to Facebook when I wanted to share a video. Now I can upload them directly or embed them. I added the videos to my blog as I went along. I also have an opportunity to be a community blogger for the Greene County Daily World. I interviewed the general manager there for a school assigment, and he asked if I'd like to do that. I most definitely am interested, but I'm not sure whether to use this blog or start a new one. This one is so huge--I'm sure he doesn't want this many posts right off the bat. I'd like to write more, but it's already 10:15 and I haven't started school yet. I really need to get busy on my day!

October 16, 2011--Last post

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day for forums. It just doesn't seem possible. I've spent eleven years of my life here--at times I was absolutely addicted to it. I've moderated here, I've made real life friends here, I've wreaked havoc here, and I've been blessed here. This is the place that I've had to really work out what I've believed on issues. I've had my viewpoints challenged and over the years I've even changed some of my opinions because after doing the research, I found my opinions needed to be adjusted. I've made a fool out of myself a time or two, but despite it all I've always felt this was my home. It's been my homepage, my blog home, and the place that comes up over and over when I Google my own name. I'm going to miss Crosswalk a.k.a. Faith Community Network, which to me is forums. Without forums, I don't have much of a reason to visit Crosswalk anymore. I will always treasure the times I've had here. It's the end of a great era. I'm glad that many of the friends I've made here are friends on Facebook, although I won't be joining the groups at this time. I guess from now on I'll have to argue my opinions by myself on my blog and hope someone out there will set me straight if I'm wrong. So, goodbye forums! You will be missed.