Excitement

Popcorn balls, bags of peanuts, soda and beer were featured front and center in the grocery aisle. Indians shirts and hats were around every corner, on employees and shoppers. After a cold and snowy winter, on this gorgeously sunny and balmy day, Baseball Is Back in Cleveland.

Spring Is Here

It's raining instead of snowing. :) Seriously, we went out to dinner with friends last night, and the water was deep enough on the roads on the way home that my battery light came on temporarily. The raindrops also threatened to turn to snow briefly, but it was still rain when we got home. At least we are getting more sunshine, and I'm hearing more birds. Those are good things. Also good: the girls are spending more time outside instead of inside on the computer or whatever. I'm also trying to walk every day, or at least when it's not pouring down rain.

Easter 2008

I hope you all had a blessed and happy Easter. I am so thankful for Jesus' resurrection; it gives me hope to face the future. After church, we went to my in-laws, and had a nice time. The girls colored eggs with their aunts; I was glad to avoid the mess for one year. :) I was pretty good about not eating too much, or too many sweets, except for the ice cream cake my sister-in-law got to celebrate her husband's upcoming birthday. For you locals, it was from Handel's. I couldn't turn down a nice big piece!

Sick of Snow

Seems like Easter would not be Easter in Ohio without some snow. We got a fresh coating today, just when most of the huge piles from last week's snowstorm had disappeared. How discouraging. Definitely puts a damper on my desire to dress up for Easter, when I know it will be cold and probably snowy.

Cooking... Or Not

Yesterday we went out to eat with friends for lunch. For dinner, my daughters made homemade pizza (with pre-made dough.) Today, there was a luncheon at church in honor of our new confirmands. Tonight, I browned the meat and my youngest daughter is making the pasta for our meaty pasta dinner. You can't beat that!

I'm Still Out Here

I'd like to thank you all for your prayers and concern. I've really been struggling lately, and it helps to know there's people out there who care about how I am doing. I'm still not back to 100%, but I'm getting there. There's been several people IRL who have helped, especially the Presbytera, the Chaplain, and the members of Homestead Lutheran Academy. I wouldn't be able to make it through this without all of you.

The Latest

I haven't been feeling so well lately. I'd appreciate all of your prayers.

Winter Blues

I really wanted to go ice skating today, as I need to get out of the house badly. However, somehow my ice skates got lost when we moved, so I can't. I'm going to go insane.

I don't know that I've ever got "cabin fever" before, but this winter I seem to have it in spades. I'm bored with everything, including working on my pay-it-forward contest gift for Charity. Not to mention something for Debbie. I *am* working on the Italian wedding soup we're taking for the Lenten supper at church tomorrow, but as that currently involves boiling chicken in a giant pot, it's not very exciting.

What do you do when you feel cooped up and bored with life?

I Felt So Alone

Yesterday Wildchild and her Brownie troop celebrated Thinking Day, with the rest of the Girl Scout troops in our town. Thinking Day is an event when Girl Scouts learn about another countries, as there are Girl Scouts, or Guides, all around the world. Each troop had a table featuring posters and so forth about their country. However, one older troop had a "Rights of Children Around the World" table that made me feel sick inside. Now, I'm not against children having food and shelter and clean drinking water and all that. It's just the phrasing, as in this country a "right" has started to mean "something someone else pays for." Like how many in this country say that everyone has a "right" to healthcare and so we should start a government bureaucracy so everyone can get it for "free." I was also disturbed by the sign that said that the United Nations as central for dealing with problems of humanity. I, on the other hand, see the UN as a corrupt and bloated agency where the top officials take kickbacks and paybacks and whatever else they can skim off, UN soldiers can be rapists of women and children, and they are generally uneffective and overfunded. I also wondered about a sign that said children have a right to love. This reminds me too much of the pro-abortion mantra that every child should be wanted. Like if you don't think you are going to "love" a child, you'd better get rid of it. Sigh. It just seemed to be that this display was long on feel-goodism and short on anything real. One sign even said, "Think of the children." Isn't that what every slimy politician says when they want to take more of our money?

Also, this Girl Scout event took place at the local public school, and I couldn't turn around without seeing a sign about honesty or taking responsibility or conflict resolution. Nothing promoted was bad in and of itself, but it started feeling barf-worthy when it was everywhere in sight. I felt so alone, so lost in a sea of "feelings" and political correctness and mantras. Like there was no one out there who thought like me.

ETA: Oh, and since Senator Obama is the co-sponsor of a Senate bill to spend at least $845 billion over the next five years to fight *global* poverty, I'm a little worried about a laundry list of things that children around the world have a "right" to have.

Home Doings

Well, most of the cookies are out of the house, hooray! I knew how big a job being a cookie mom was going to be, so it wasn't surprising, but I'm still glad it's pretty much over with. I do have to collect the money, and there's a little bit of paperwork still to do, but at least the heavy lifting is over. The Scientist was kind enough to come to Wildchild's Brownie meeting with me yesterday and truck boxes out to people's cars with our dolly. I'm sure she'll do something in 4-H that Wildchild can help her with.

Doesn't it seem like cats always jump up on your lap just when you're about to get up?

Cookie Craze

As cookie mom, it was my responsibility to pick up 43 cases of Girl Scout cookies this morning. Good thing we own a minivan! Then my two girls carried them into our home and helped me sort them out so the right cookies can go to each girl. What a job! And the girls used math skills! :)

The cookies were picked up at a warehouse in a rather shabby neighborhood. I especially realized this when I drove past the Park-n-Pawn. Yes, really, there was a pawn shop called Park-n-Pawn. Never seen one of those before.

Little Gardens

Since I can't have a garden outside, I'll have to have my little spots of color where I can find them. For example, the pot of miniature daffodils I bought at the grocery store.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the little daffodils had little bugs on them, so the pot went outside. Not sure where to go from here. I think it's too cold to keep the pot outside permanently, as yet.

Also, here are some rock gardens, one of the girls' art projects from last week. They got the idea from a book that my sister gave them ages ago. The markers recommended by the book with which to color the rocks were $16 for a set of six, and I had to wait to get a sales associate to get them for me as they were locked on the wall to prevent theft. One reason why I don't do a lot of the projects in that book is that many of the projects seem to need items not readily available and perhaps on the expensive side, at least if you don't have a big art budget. I suppose the girls might have just used tempera paint, but I wasn't sure how well that would stay on, so I preferred to use the markers suggested in the book.


This book seems to have possibilities; the girls have already done some projects from it. It touches on some of the basics of art, such as value, texture and space, some of the lessons teach about famous artists, and the projects don't require a lot of expensive materials. All pluses for me!

I Love the Internet

The family was talking about keeping teeth clean today when Daddy used the phrase "flip-top head." The girls were confused by the phrase, so I did a quick search on YouTube for "reach toothbrush commercial" and, ta-da! They now know the origin of this important phrase.

Valentine's Day Fun

For more funny political Valentines, go here.

h/t Dawn Eden.

Brrrr

Well, I certainly picked a great day to go to the doctor's office for a check-up. It is currently 5 degrees outside. In Celsius it sounds even worse; it's -15! Lots of schools are canceled for the day around here, but St. Barbara's by the Lake will be in session! Wildchild wrote "School Today" and three sad faces on the chalkboard. Way to start the day off, kid. I wish I could make it more fun for them, but I'm not sure how to teach them what they need for college and even high school and make it fun, at least all the time.

A knitting update: with the help of the Presbytera, I learned how to cast on, but I still need practice at it. We'll see how I do when it actually comes time to knit. That was always my problem with crochet. I could crochet a chain a mile long, but I couldn't crochet two rows together. Well, with crochet the other problem was that I am left-handed, and my mother had a difficult time teaching me backwards.

No School Today

Are your kids as enthusiastic about school as mine are, lol? Do you take it personally when your kids don't like whatever you're doing in homeschool? Or do you unschool, so the kids are always learning something they're interested in? We're in our third year of homeschooling and I still feel like such an absolute newbie at this. I suppose from the perspective of someone who taught their children from Kindergarten through high school, I am. Even though we're still tweaking some things, I am pretty comfortable with where we are in our homeschool journey. Of course, being me, I'll probably always try to do better, but for the most part I feel the girls are progressing well. Sometimes I even feel like this is so easy, the girls can't be learning anything! But their father sees the progress they're making, and that helps me feel better.

The Scientist still talks about how bored she was in parochial school, and how much she disliked her lessons. In a way, it makes me feel badly, that perhaps time was wasted there needlessly, but it gives her a good background for appreciating homeschooling now. Wildchild appreciates homeschooling because she can wander around, get a snack when she feels like it, sprawl out on the floor, talk to herself while she's working, etc.

In other news, the sun is making appearances today, just to let us know it still exists. I'm trying to enjoy it to the full, as snow is predicted for tomorrow.

Blech

Like Miss Sniz, I'm feeling gloomy. Perhaps the gray, cold weather has something to do with it. I need something to perk me up, and I'm not coming up with any feasible ideas. Maybe I should try to clean up the clutter around here. It might help not to have to look at that.

Book Meme

Amused Momma tagged me for this meme. Here's what you do: grab the nearest book, turn to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence, and post the next three sentences.

Well, the nearest book over 123 pages was my An American Translation of the Bible, and I'm using actual sentences, not verses:

They came and carried them (their relatives - me) in their tunics outside the camp as Moses told them. Then Moses told Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar: "Don't let your hair hang wild or tear your clothes; you will not die. He is angry with the whole community."

I'm tagging the Die-Hard Equestrian as payback. I'd tag her mom, too, but she hasn't yet done the one her daughter gave her, so I'll let her go this time. :)

Lent Is Coming

You can tell because Wendy's and McDonald's are running commericials for fish sandwiches.

Birthday Fun

Today Wildchild turned 9 years old. Here's a picture of her cake, with the dozen roses her daddy got her. I love that Daddy is setting the standards high for what Wildchild will expect from future boyfriends! :)

I remember my youngest sister was crazy about My Little Pony as a little girl.

We took Wildchild, the Scientist and two friends to Build-a-Bear Workshop. We didn't have a planned party there, but they still sang Happy Birthday to her.

Now we're making homemade pizza, and we'll make homemade milkshakes to go with it. Yum!

I can't wax all poetical like Kate can about her kids, maybe because it's at least six years before one of my little fledglings will be old enough to leave the nest. But I love my girls more than anything, and I am thankful to God for the nine years He has gifted us with having Wildchild. I pray that we may be blessed with many more.