Cloud

I saw a cloud today that looked like a jellyfish.

That's unusual!

The Puppet Show

We have two hand puppets.  One is Bard the Dragon from Baby Einstein.  The other is just a grey dog.  They make beautiful music together.

The duets began with my two oldest sons.  They got the funny idea to do a puppet show and have the dragon and dog sing to the song Monster Mash.  It is so funny!  Bard (played by my oldest son) sings the main song.  The dog, (played by my 10 year old son) is the backup singer.

Now, when the kids are all at school, my two youngest get the puppets and have them sing to the song Puff the Magic Dragon.  The best part is when I actually hear my two little ones sing the song.  I love their sweet little voices singing together.

If Peanut had not broken our camera, I would take a video and add it to the blog.  It's so cute!

Much on my mind

I've got a lot spinning around in my head, but not too much that is blog worthy.

I've written about this before: music.  I've been listening to a small list of some of my favorite music.  Only one song has singing, the rest are instrumentals.  Gosh I love my music.  I wish I could describe what about music that is so magical to me, but I can't.  Even if I could, the way this particular music makes me feel may not touch someone else and certainly not in the same way.  But music is for me, very magical and it seems to tickle a memory that I can not reach. 

I'm working on becoming professional.  Does that sound funny?  For my school program, I will have to post my resume before the semester is over.  I don't have much of a resume of professional work to post, but I started thinking of the several organizations I belong to.  They are very professional.  I may not contribute anything to those organizations as of yet, but being a part of them and reading their newsletters and publications keeps me informed on the professional things others do.  It looks good and sounds good when I can say I belong to the International Council of Onomastic Sciences.  It sounds very impressive.

Hubby and I went for a drive the other day.  I thought of something funny I wanted to blog about, but have since forgotten.  Typical of me.

Death of a camera

Peanut got ahold of our camera several days ago. 

She broke it and now I can't take pictures!

I miss my camera.

The idea of philosophy

I've never studied philosophy.  I never considered it before.  I never thought of myself as a philosopher in any way. 

Then, a few months ago, I ran across a book called, The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy.  I love the Narnia books and thought this might be an interesting read.  Boy was it! It was a collection of essays mostly written by university professors of philosophy.  Some of the essays I didn't care for much.  Some weren't to interesting to me, but I read them all and learned a little from each.  Some of the essays were excellent and thought provoking.

As I read the book, I realized, I've been a philosopher for a long time and just never realized it.  It's hard to explain, but about a year ago, I came up with an idea regarding the Narnia books.  I did my best to write down these thoughts, but they were hard to put into words.  I now realize I had a philosophical idea.  Who knew you could do that without knowing it?

Now, I'm looking to read another book from the same author/editor.  He has done several, but the next one I want to read is The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy.  It too is a book of essays.  I think it will make for very interesting reading.

When I started college, I knew what I wanted - to be a camp director.  To become a camp director, I needed to study recreation management and administration.  Done.  What I didn't realize while I was in college was the amazing amount of other interests and studies that were out there.  In the last decade, I've developed interest in the history of Indo-European languages, onomastics as a formal area of study, linguistics, etymology, and now I can add philosophy to my list.  It makes me wonder, what's next?

laundry conversations

Speaking to my 10 year old:
"Mom, I don't have any socks."

"Well, I did six loads of laundry yesterday.  There were no socks of yours in there.  What do you do with your socks when you take them off?"

"I throw them."

"Throw them where?"

"Ummm....."

Yeah, no wonder we can't find socks.

Speaking to my 6 year old daughter:
"Here, Daughter, is your pile of clean clothes.  Please take it to your room and put the clothes in your dresser."

"In my dresser?"

"Yes, in."

"Not on top of my dresser?"

"No, in your dresser.  That's why there are drawers."

phone conversation

A bit of the phone conversation I had with my 4 year old.  I was at the Phonix airport getting ready to board a plane to go home.
Son:  Hi Mom.

Me: Hi, how are you?

Son: I'm sad.

Me: I'm sorry.  Why are you sad.

Son: Brother got candy and I didn't.

Me:  Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.  I'll be home tonight and I'll be able to hug you and tuck you into bed.  Would that make you happy?

Son:  Playing Nick Jr. on the computer would make me happy.

The To Do List

To Do List

Those three words have the ablility to put fear and dread into the hearts of many.  Really, how many people say, "Yes!  I get to work on my to do list!" 

Not many.

Of course, it also has the ability to make great things happen.

My to do list is waiting for me.  It isn't pretty, but at the bottom of the list is "open up new thread"!  It's good incentive.  If I get my work done, I can finish getting my thread on the warping board.  I'm going to weave something new, big and different from anything I've tried.  I can't wait to get started.  I'd better go work on that to do list. 

The mountain of laundry is ugly!

Hanging out on campus

School has changed so much since I went and I didn't go THAT long ago.  I graduated from college in 1997, so that's what, 13 years ago?  It might as well have been a hundred years ago for all the changes.  Wi-Fi didn't exist.  Heck, I didn't use the Internet for the first time until my senior year in college.  If you had a laptop, it was huge and weighed about 30 pounds.

The catalogs needed to search for the classes you needed to take were actual paper catalogs.  Now, everything is online.  As handy as that is, having everything online, it can be a pain.  To see one classes description, I click here.  Nope, that wasn't what I wanted, back click.  Maybe this class, click, nope, back click.  It was handy when it was just on a sheet of paper where I could dog ear pages, circle a class that looked interesting, and X out the classes I didn't need or couldn't take.  Now I'm like, what was that class again?  Click on link, nope not this one, back click, this one? nope, back click, etc.

No one had cell phones, much less iPad, iPods, smart phones and all.  It was notebooks and paper.

So, here I sit, on campus, linked into their Wi-Fi, typing on my blog, listening to music on my headphones, and enjoying the college atmosphere.  I have to go home tomorrow and my little college life will be over.  I'll start classes, but I'll be at home, with kids running around in the house, trying my best to figure out how to take an online class.  Who would have believed that thirteen years ago?

back to school

We survived the first day back to school.  I must say, I probably had the best day of anyone else in the family.  :)

My oldest son, who is starting 7th grade had a really long, frustrating day.  It has to do with schedules and a group of kids (including him) who should be at a brand new school that isn't finished yet, so they are joining with another middle school until mid-October.  It's way to much to get into, but I feel bad for him.

The two elementary aged kids had a better day.  My 4th graders homework for today was to read for 20 minutes and he is happy to do that work.  We ordered him a book he really wanted to read and it's sequel.  Well, the sequel came last week, but the first book has not.  He is really hoping to get it soon.

The two youngest, who are still at home, had a good day.  They played a lot together and they fought a lot together.  They just love to annoy the heck out of each other.  I find that very annoying.

I enjoyed the peace that can only come with having three less kids in the house.  I got a ton of laundry done, dishes, general cleaning and a little packing for my trip later this week.  You know, the fees they put on luggage these days makes packing much more difficult.  Still, because I don't need to back extra clothes, books, and toys for kids, it will keep my suitcase light and I'll be able to get by on one small on. 

Hmm, I guess I had better get my MP3 player charged up.  It's going to be a long flight.

The things Peanut says

Peanut's grasp of the language is really growing.  She is starting to use prepositions.  "He is in his room," for example or "I want to watch a movie." (both things she has said to me recently)

Today she said:
"Hey, cut it out!"  when her brother annoyed her.

"I want to play Nick Jr. on Daddy's computer." (although she says Mick Jr.)

"Will you turn off the music?"

"I'm done crying now." (said while crying)

She loves to review the 12 - 15 sign language signs she knows.  Her favorites are baby, milk and eat.  She didn't do any sign language for a while and about two weeks ago, she started to do them again.  I need to teach her a few more.  My sign language vocabulary is very limited, but I know a few more.  I need to teach them to her.  We also sing the ABC's a LOT.  I should sign the letters while we sing.  Maybe she'll pick up on those too.

I love watching babies go from crying to speaking language.  It's an amazing journey.

Mom's homework

Every year we've lived here and had kids in school, they bring home a million forms during the first week of school for me to fill out. 

Today I filled out at least 10 forms.  With one son, I think we might be done with most of the paperwork.  For my daughter, we've got at least six more forms to fill out that will come home the first or second day of school.  I've done several for my middle schooler as well, but I know there is more that will come home.

Mom's homework.

So many projects...

I have so many projects to work on and there just doesn't seem to be time to do them all.  I want to weave more.  I've got a project that only needs 20 more inches.  It wouldn't take too long to do, but every time I sit down to weave, one of the kids needs something.  Then another kid needs something, and on it goes.

I've got my next weaving project all planned out.  I know what I want to do, but I really need some thread.  I've got 9 cones of thread, but they are all the same size and the same colors and although they are two different materials (one is cotton, one is acrylic) they feel exactly the same.  So, it doesn't make for anything diverse.  To tell the truth, I've got several weaving projects planned.  I just need to buckle down and do them!

I've ordered my textbook for the semester, so I'll have plenty of reading soon.

The house is in desperate need of a good cleaning, but it always is.  We did a good cleaning last week, but you wouldn't know it.  We even did a good cleaning yesterday, but again, you wouldn't know it.  These kids trash the house faster than a tornado.

My youngest daughter doesn't have her Christmas stocking yet.  I cross stitch all my kids stockings, and Peanut has had two Christmases without hers.  I want to have it ready this year, but that takes a lot of time and I haven't put much into that lately.

Also, this school year, I want to work on my youngest son's education.  He is too young for Kinder this year, so I have the joy of keeping him for one more year, but he doesn't know basics yet.  He can't say his ABCs or count to 20.  I've got a good pre-K curriculum and I'm going to work on it with him this year.  Peanut will join in as well and probably pick up the information very well.  She's smart!  She doesn't know her colors yet, so we'll work on that too.  I hope to help them both and make a bit of progress with my son.

Well, there is much to do today and the time is passing.

end of summer blues/joy

I never like sending my kids back to school after the summer break, but at the same time I love to send my kids back to school after summer break.  Can that be possible?

One big reason that the love of sending them back overcomes the dislike of sending them back is by the end of the summer, they seem more, oh, I don't know, argumentative?  There is some boredom in that they really start to miss friends.  So, instead of becoming better friends with their siblings, they start to annoy each other.  Why is that?  There is more fighting and more teasing.

My youngest two are going to miss the others when they go back, but I think they will find more peace and happiness with each other when the older three aren't around to antagonize them.

Still, I hate to send them off each day for 9-10 months to sit in a school room and do their best to learn in an environment that doesn't always encourage learning.

I guess you can have opposite feelings about some things.  This time of year is truly a sad and happy time, for all involved.

Party!

Yesterday my two older boys had an end of the summer party with some of their buddies.  They had a great time.  They tossed a beach ball around in the living room for a while.  Well, tossed is hardly the right word.  They threw the beach ball as hard as they could at each other.  It was pretty funny.  Then, one of my sons brought out a big foam puzzle and they threw the pieces at each other like they were Chinese Stars.  I'm still finding pieces of that puzzle around the house.

I BBQed hamburgers and hot dogs for them and they had lunch.  There was lots of food for them.  They turned on the X-Box for a while and discussed the pros and cons of Halo vs. Halo 2 vs. Halo 3 and what the future versions of Halo will be like.

After such a deep conversation, they went out in the rocky front yard to play some water games.  The game started with tossing wet wash cloths at each other, then one of them turned on the hose and started spraying the water at anyone who came with in range, including myself and my two littlest kids who were out there too.  My oldest son is so funny when it comes to water.  He loved it when they would spray him with the hose, and he encouraged them to fill up the buckets with water and dump them over his head.  They were all completely soaked and so was I.  My shoes are still sitting outside in the sun getting dry.

After several hours, moms started arriving to pick up their boys and I started cleaning the mess inside the house.  One friend stayed until dinner time and they had fun playing more X-Box.  I should have kicked them off and had them help me clean, but I'm too nice and I let them play.

The party was a great success and everyone went home wet and happy.  Now this last week of summer, we will be getting the last of the school supplies, making sure everyone is registered properly and attending open houses at the schools.  It is sad to see summer end (but I'm ready for them to go back).

Summer is coming to an end

The days just fly by when it is summer time.  The kids are certainly not ready to go back to school.  We have a week and a half until the first day of school.  And two weeks from today I'll be on my way to my own student orientation in Michigan!  I'm so excited.

So, we are almost done buying school supplies and a few new items of clothing need to be bought.  My daughter is tough to shop for.  She has one of those beautiful, long torsos.  (I wish I that)  Anyway, it makes finding shirts long enough for her tummy difficult.  She is set on pants, skirts, and shorts, but all of her shirts are belly shirts.  That means when she raises her hand, part of her belly shows.

The boys are good on shirts, but need new pants and shorts.

At least I have two at home that I don't need to dress up for school.  I can't imagine what next year will be like when I have four in school!  I just know, shopping for school supplies won't be cheap.

So, we are spending these last few days of summer trying to squeeze in as many activities and time with friends as we can.

picking the next president

I've said this before, but I don't like presidential election years.  I get so tired of the ads, the debates, the hate that pretty much splits our country in half.  I know this year isn't a presidential election year, (thank goodness) but I started thinking about the next election.

I've come up with a new system! This will be great.  The candidates will have two weeks to prepare for the big day.  What will happen that big day?  Grocery Shopping!  Yes, I said grocery shopping.  Whoever can get the most groceries (non-food items are included) for the least amount of money is made president.  This proves you have excellent financial understanding and can actually work on a budget - a small budget. What do you think?

I think other qualifications should be considered when choosing a president:
1. The candidate should have served on a PTA board.  You can not understand the incredible amount of work, organization, and financial planning that goes on in a PTA meeting unless you have been there.  It is incredible and it's all for the kids and their education.  This proves your organizational skills and true dedication to education.

2.  The candidate can not own more than four pairs of shoes and at least one of those pairs need to be at least 5 years old. This shows the American people you are resourceful.

3.  The candidate can not have had any previous political experience.  The candidate needs to be a regular American who has spend his/her life working, raising their family without hired help (the appliance repairman doesn't count), and been a good law abiding citizen.  This proves you understand the average working American because you are one of them.

If we get a president who can get $200 worth of groceries for less than $50, I think our economy will turn around.