Monday August 23, 2009
Outside my window: The sky is cloud free and brilliant blue. It should be another beautiful day. Our summer has had remarkably lovely weather with only two weeks of extreme heat and humidity. I am looking forward to fall with a tinge of sadness over the loss of our tree. There certainly won't be as many leaves to rake.
I am thinking about: the following quote from the Institute for Excellence in Writing spring 2009 newsletter. "There are many "good" things that can be included in the curriculum of a classroom or home school. However, we must always remember that "good" can be the enemy of "best". If we're doing one thing, we're not doing another, and time is our only asset. So as we consider the next week, month or year of our teaching, let us not ask, "Is this a good thing to do?" but "Is this the best use of this child's time?" If what we want is students who will grow up to effectively communicate goodness, truth and beauty, we must carefully choose how we spend our resources, mentor our children with love and wisdom, constantly think about character, knowledge, and skill, and be energetic and diligent in our teaching. If ever there was appoint in history when our work as parents and teacher will have repercussions beyond our imaginings, now is that time. May God help us."
I am thankful for: steroids. Tuesday evening of last week I was mowing our yard when I was attacked by ground wasps. We counted 17 stings spread between both of my legs. We immediately began benedryl, ibuprofen and ice but by Thursday morning the bite areas were hot to touch, bright red, and swollen hard. Then they began to itch! I am not one to swallow pills or go to the doctor but I knew I needed both! They are better but I am still recovering. The steroids make me nauseous to add injury to insult. I am also firmly against spraying chemicals in my yard and normally would wax romantically about the positive pollen spreading activities of these creatures but I deviated quickly to ordering an all out nuclear attack on their ground nest. Mr. emptied an entire can of wasp foam into the hole and around the nest. All that is left is the bodies.
From the learning room: I am gearing up to facilitate the Excellence in Writing co-op. Our notebooks arrived last week and I finally got the papers copied and put into notebooks. I have watched the styles and techniques DVD as well as the structure and style DVD. I am also gearing up for F.I.S.H. co-op to begin in a couple weeks and am planning a five week book study on Charlotte's Web for ages Kindergarten through 6th grade. I purchase a lap book from Hands of a Child to help with the structure of the class.
From the kitchen:
Friday - We deviated from our norm and grilled out chicken, potatoes, sweet corn, a garden salad and Zucchini cake for desert.
Saturday - pizza and movie night
Sunday - our church's annual business meeting and potluck
Monday - I think we will clean out some left overs
Tuesday - Roast chicken and terriaki potato salad
Wednesday - taking brownies to Life group where Mr. is heading up flag football
Thursday - chicken salad sandwiches
I am wearing: my running clothes and have every intent of working out today!
I am going: to run a few errands today. I need to return a friends air mattress that she let us borrow for our friends visit, pick up my co-op supplies, return another friends books, stop at the post office and run off some copies. DMD has been waiting impatiently for me to pick up the her new Mark Shultz CD which she had pre ordered so I plan on taking her in to pick that up today and I also need to turn in our CPI forms at the school district.
I am praying for our friends who came and spent several days with our family last week to have safe travel and for easy after vacation adjustments. They moved from Iowa ten years ago to Oregon and other than the occasional phone calls and Christmas cards we seldom talk and have not had the opportunity to see one another. Their oldest daughter and DMD had been good friends when they were small The boys were four and two when they left. None of the kids really had any memories of each other. Thankfully, they all hit it off right away. This was indeed a special time! I had just accepted Christ as my savior shortly before they moved.
I was sad to see them leave but they have extended an invitation for our to come and visit them in Oregon so maybe next year when we travel to California to see DOD we will get out that way.
Aren't they beautiful!
I am reading: NOTHING! I am a very frustrated reader! I used to be able to interlibary loan books for one dollar from the Ankeny Library. I frequently interlibarary loaned books from all over the country. I often want out of print, older books that are not readily available. Ankeny will no longer allow me to interlibrary loan books from them under the guise that they want to support my small home town library. (Translate this to mean it costs them money to interlibrary loan. They will allow me to check out books because their budget is based on the number of books checked out and this is to their benefit.) It would not be a bad thing to interlibary loan from our hometown library except that they only interlibary loan from the state of Iowa. I went in with my list and out of thirty books that I tried to get none of them were available to me through the libraries in Iowa. My DOD helped me to get on Amazon and I ended up ordering several of the books that I have been wanting but that cost me forty five dollars. Obviously not a long term solution. So, I have no reading materials and am anxiously awaiting for my books to arrive. Meanwhile in an attempt to subvert the system a friend has kindly attempted to interlibrary loan a book for me.
I am hearing: quiet. My dear nieces are not here today. They are in Colorado vacationing. It will be over two weeks before I see them. I am having cuddle withdrawals!
Around the house: A new window in my son's bedroom! This room has been without a window for several years. The lack of natural light has driven me crazy especially with DYS doing schoolwork and reading in his room. He never turns on enough lights for me! A few plans for the rest of the week: We have been so busy first with my dear nieces here for four days and then our friends here. DOD had a friend come in from South Dakota over the weekend. I am looking forward just to getting back to some "normal" scheduling. The tomatoes and peppers are ready for harvest so I need to begin processes them.
One of my favorite things: This was my grandpa's lunch box. He carried it to work with him every day. I have turned it into a pen and paper caddy for my kitchen. It has all my colored calender pens, dry erase markers, permanent markers, a stash of note cards that I use to make my grocery list, as well as some post it notes. Its a handy little mini office for me and makes it easy to have all those supplies in one spot. If I want to work on my calender somewhere else I just take my tool box with me. 
