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I am hosting a chat at Two Peas in a Bucket.com tonight. On this board: The CHA CHAT Board.
From 10pm EST - 11 pm EST.
We are giving away a prize from Prima at 11.
Shimelle is up before me - she has 2 prizes and is chatting from CHA.
Dude..I might skip me and just chat with her!
OR..do both!
Yes, totally both!
:)kellicrowe
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I have a friend coming over today to ask me some things about homeschooling.
I am kinda afraid that I am going to get excited and vomit 7 years of jumbled up information on her.
"Just be a good listener"
I keep telling myself.
But wouldn't it be great if I were just a good listener and didn't have to keep reminding myself to be one?
I feel like at some point I'm going to be like,
"Wait...what did you just say?
I was chanting be a good listener in my head and totally missed it."
I remember my Grandmother just listening to me when my kids were babies...(like they were all babies)..and really, whatever I said, she would say "You probably know best."
That was so encouraging!
A bunch of hooey.
But encouraging.
But I think that is something sorely missing at times: simple encouragement.
We are smart. There isn't much we can't figure out or look up for ourselves.
I remember taking David to his Developmental Pediatrician when he was 5 or 6.
Everyone from Dr.'s to pre-school teachers kept telling us what he couldn't do.
This Dr. played with him for a bit and came back and said,
"I think he is wonderful. You two are doing an excellent job as parents with him. Here is what we can do to make some things easier for him...."
It was seriously a turning point in our lives - the encouragement as well as the information.
I think as homeschoolers, parents, people....encouraging one another is huge.
**The photo - because every blog needs a photo: Max standing pennies on end. I see pennies and think, "we need to scoop these up." Max see them and thinks, "I bet I can stand them on end."
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It was my turn to post on the Garden Girl Blog over at Two Peas in a Bucket. com today.
I was supposed to show what was in my cart.
It was a lot.
A LOT.
I'm not buying it all or anything....
I put lots more in my cart than what I plan to purchase...
for scrapbooking, at Amazon for books and even when shopping for clothes.
I think it is fun to put everything you like in the cart and then edit, edit, edit.
Above is a small sampling of the HUGE amount of things in my cart.
The link to the blog post is here.
How do you shop on line?
Put a lot in the cart and edit?
Wait, is there another way to do it?
(I have probably 11 pages of items "saved for later" in my Amazon cart.)
Or do you have to see something in person to purchase it?
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I do not especially like to wake up to people yelling.
And people yelling,
"The rats broke out of the cage....again!"
really isn't the way I like to start my day.
At all.
This is Zippy...and me.
It takes a lot of work to get a photo with NOTHING in focus.
But the how to's on that are another blog.
We adore Zippy.
You walk in the room and she is all about coming over to say hi.
Unless she is curled up in a ball in her hammock.
Our allergies keep us from having a pet any larger.
Zippy is a Fancy Rat.
She is clean.
Never bites.
And is clever.
A little too clever.
This is Zippy and Bingo's cage.
It is a sweet pad.
4 levels of food, fun and stuff to chew on.
A hammock.
A wheel built for 2.
These $8 rats
live in an $80 cage.
Over the past 4 months, they have chewed just a little bit at the corners.
And then one morning
I woke up to yelling.
"The rats are out!"
Over night they had chewed a rat sized hole in the corner.
We got a new bottom to the cage.
And 2 mornings later
I woke up to the yelling again.
We put the metal end of weights in the holes.
They got out again.
We duct taped the weights into place.
And sprayed the holes with bitter tasting stuff that is supposed to keep animals fro chewing up your things.
I sprayed it all over the corners.
Zippy chewed the corners as I sprayed them.
I washed my hands like 4 times....and they still smell like that spray.
I put on chap stick.
Uh huh.
I got some in my mouth.
It is like rotten citrus pealing and hairspray.
And, apparently, ZIppy doesn't mind it a bit.
That is the hole she chewed beside the metal weight and through the bitter spray and duct tape.
Outside of the cage she has chewed up:
directions
a Wii game case
a game controller
a plastic mechanical pencil
a foam bow staff (for karate)
and 2 wires.
Tonight the rat's cage is in an enclosed shower.
I feel like my life needs to be about more than keeping our rats in their cage.
But for now...this is what I do.
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If I start to put away Christmas decorations
then surely it makes sense to pull out ALL the Christmas decorations
from years past
even those undisplayed this year
and resort, re-containerize and relabel them all.
(Repairing and purging along the way).
And to take all the ribbons from packaging this year
and wrap them carefully around clothes pins.
(Yes, camouflage ribbon does indeed work for all seasons).
And as long as the Christmas decorations are out...
really
it was only logical to pull out the Halloween and Easter items as well
to give them equal time for resorting and relabeling.
And as long as all the containers were out of the closet,
well, it would have been foolish not to take this time to vacuum it out and move things around in there.
I did resist the urge
(strong though it was)
to repaint the inside of the closet.
And this is why it took me the better part of a week to de-Christmas our house.
Because if you give me a container....
I'm going to have to make a label...
(Thankfully I didn't run out of containers that matched or out of label making tape....because that would have brought the whole process to a screeching halt until rectified...)
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Last January, the kids set some goals.
This January...I asked them how those goals turned out.
Some were met.
Some were forgotten.
We all decided together that the best way to meet a goal was to have a plan.
I printed out blank calendar pages for the boys.
1) They put their goals on the calendar
2) Counted the days they had to achieve their goal
3) Put mini goals in place
4) Wrote down specific things they would do each day / week to get closer to those mini goals.
EX: Alex is working on getting his black belt.
He has to run 2.5 miles by mid - March.
He has a mini goal to run a mile by the end of the week without getting overly tired.
Each day he either runs, works out or does the elliptical machine.
He checks off his progress each day.
By having the visual reminder of the marked off days in front of him, it really helps to keep him focused.
And it gives him a very realistic view of both how much he has done and how much he has left to do.
I know that I often take for granted that the boys will naturally be able to set goals and reach them or have good study skills all on their own. Sometimes it does work out that way. But other times, it is good for me to reassess the skill set I have taught them to see if it is working.
The just getting them to set a goal without a plan didn't work out so great.
Gee.
What a shock.
It never works for me either.
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Scoff at our paltry 1/2 inch of snow that closed down pretty much everything in Altanta...
but we don't do that sort of thing here.
Snow, that is.
It is the ice that gets you.
And it was enough for some super sledding on our hill.
Case in point:
Alex crashing into the shrubs.
And here is the Alex shaped hole that was left in the shrubs...
The cul-de-sac above ours drains into our side hill...so it is the last thing in our yard to dry.
This makes for a super slick hill to slide on.
In fact, you can slide down it without snow or ice.
They got going so fast down the hill, they went over the driveway, through the garage and ran into the door....
That was a long way to go over just pavement.
We, um, closed the garage door.
David and Max (in the back) trying to stop..I think they ended up hitting the house.
Alex being dramatic on the hill.
They were very much...
"Take a picture of this Mom!"
"Did you get that on video tape?"
Alex...and his very white tooth:)
(It is a crown. Hey, for the price I should be glad it shows in pictures...right?)
Don't even ask us about how we keep our grass this shade of yellow.
It is our own secret recipe.
No one got hurt...which is remarkable considering that every other time they hit the house, the tree, the garage door...the shrubs.
David can't pass up any blank canvas. He drew pictures in the snow.
Right.
Because how could trying to surf down on a boogie board go wrong?
This is what I am saying.
No matter where I stood...they almost hit me every time.
Max...having just missed me, hit the tree (again) and laying down in the snow.
Yo.
Super fun.
Super cold.
We came in and Alex told me I made the best hot chocolate ever.
Good snow day.
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If you are a Caroline Bingley fan (and really, who isn't?) or you just want to keep that Pride and Prejudice bubble inflated with anything remotely Jane Autstenie...then you will enjoy taking a turn around the room with this story. If you are a P&P purist who will have a hard time seeing Elizabeth and Darcy relegated to barely supporting players...then this isn't the book for you.
Summary from the back of the book: "When Caroline Bingley collapses to the floor and sobs at Mr. Darcy's wedding, imagine her humiliation to discover that a stranger has witnessed her emotional display. Miss Bingley, understandably, resents this unknown gentleman very much, even if he is Mr. Darcy's American cousin."
Language: B
Characterization: B
Plot: B
Revisit vs. Rehash: A
Hooked: A+
Nit Picky Things: A-
Wonderful Moments: A
Originality: B
The moment I was hooked: A+
Language: Well written in modern language.
B
Characterization: Caroline is taken from a supporting character to the main one in this novel. In some ways, Monica Fairview presents Caroline in a similar and misunderstood way that Austen first presents Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Of all the Austen characters, Caroline is really the only minor one that I would care to read more about. (I remember seeing a follow up book about Jane Fairfax. I barely wanted to read about her in Emma...a whole other book, really?) And it is so interesting to see how so many different authors have taken Caroline's character and made her darker, more conniving, have a total reversal of feelings or find true love. But so far, this is the first book I have read that shows her as misunderstood due to her station in life, expectations and social constraints.
I quite enjoyed Robert Darcy's character. He reminds me of a mixture of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Col. Fitzwilliam.
The problems: Col. Fitzwilliam, Darcy and Elizabeth all feel a little unfamiliar. Everyone calls Elizabeth Eliza. Even her family. It isn't totally wrong but it isn't right. (To my recollection, only Caroline called Elizabeth Eliza in Pride and Prejudice. Her family called her Lizzy or Elizabeth.)
Not totally wrong but not quite right is how Elizabeth, Darcy, Georgianna and Col. Fitzwilliam all felt in this book. Fortunately, they aren't in there a lot, so the discomfort is minor.
B
Plot: The plot reminded me of romantic comedies I have seen before. And it reminded me a little bit of Pride and Prejudice. But I didn't seem to care. The story moved along quickly. The conversation was lively. The situations were at times a little too complicated...but the humor kept me happy.
"As I said before, I do not think we move in exactly the same circles." (Caroline)
"I hope I do not move in circles at all," said Robert Darcy.
It isn't Shakespeare, or Austen, but it made me laugh.
Problem: I can overlook the character irregularities, but there was a scene where Fitzwilliam Darcy allowed Georgianna to be around Wickam. No one seemed to think anything about it. Considering she couldn't even continue playing the piano upon hearing his name mentioned in P&P, it seems too weird for her to be around him in any situation.
B
Rehash or Revisit: No rehashing.
A
Nit Picky Things: Fitzwilliam calls Georgianna Georgie and she playfully calls him Fitz. I like to see them as close siblings, but I also think propriety was not lost completely.
A-
Wonderful Little Moments: Once again, we have a Darcy gentleman emerging, white shirt clad, from a body of water on the grounds of Pemberley. A funny nod to the 1995 Pride and Prejudice BBC/A&E movie.
A
Originality: The best development of Carline Bingley's character I have read so far (out of about 11 or so follow up books). While I might have recognized the plot, it felt original in this context.
B
The moment I was hooked: The first page. The prologue really pulled me in.
A+
If this were a movie, I think it would be rated PG. It is pretty clean.
Not the best follow up book - but certain the top of the middle. And is it really fair to compare it to books that are all about Elizabeth and Darcy? It was a fun read. And I recommend fun.
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We woke up one morning shortly before Christmas to find our 3 ornamental polar bears in a compromising position.
And this note.
And a small plate of cookies.
We still don't know who did this.
However, the plate of cookies sorta classed it up a bit.
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I have a New Year.
And a New Word.
(Well...I didn't actually have a word before...)
My word for the year is PLAN.
(See Ali Edward's inspiration for one little word here)
Most people seem to have more feeling words like
Nurture
Faith
Knowledge
Encourage
I'd like those.
But I know me.
I better get a plan.
I have nice ideas.
But crummy follow through.
I could be on the "olympic sitting there team."*
This year, I don't want to end up in the kitchen with a hungry family and no idea what to have for dinner.
This year, I don't want to have run my self so ragged that I am bitter by the time my guests arrive.
This year, I want to get a grip on my technology that is supposed to make my life easier...but really is just frustrating me.
This year, I want to be that person who writes thank you notes again.
This year, I want to create exciting learning environments for the kids.
SO - I need to plan.
Because I know me.
I like to think and dream but the doing...
not so much.
I need a plan.
And I need to make things simple and realistic.
Plan. Plan. Plan.
I got a notebook to keep ideas & lists in.
I started writing in it this morning.
I was on a role.
By noon I had lost the book in my house.
I know it is close by.
Somewhere.
In the morning, I plan on finding that notebook.
Do you have a word?
**Quote from Friends. Do you know who said it?
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