Being Productive

Looking at my day today, I was feeling a bit down that I hadn't gotten more accomplished. I managed one small work meeting and an errand to the bank. OK, I also battened down the hatches at the dock as the lake began to flood- this time, *before* the boats floated away. ;) . . . but that's pretty much it. I didn't even make the kids do all their chores. My miles-long to-do list looks pretty much untouched since yesterday.

But wait, I realized: today was extremely productive on the homeschooling/kids front. I started my day with an extended wrestling/tickling/cuddling match with my oldest, who seldom wants to do that anymore. Then he asked to make us waffles from scratch for breakfast, and I said "yes". I walked him through the recipe. . . which meant a lot of concentrated instruction on fractions. (I even used the math manipulatives!) Julian worked on an alphabet puzzle and asked me to help him with flash cards, which we used to work on number recognition, counting and beginning phonics. This video (shared by a friend) then led to a discussion about genealogy:

(I wonder if she's right?!?)

Both boys had some outside time to run in the rain and gawk at the flooding.

While we were out running errands (including a stop at the post office so Simon could mail his first letter to his new pen pal in Japan) I stopped at the bookstore, where they browsed. Simon chatted with the saleslady, she helped him find what he was looking for, and he made his own purchase. On the way home, I spotted something interesting and turned around to check it out- it turned out to be a whole parking lot full of restored antique working steam engines! Apparently there is an annual 4th of July steam engine parade here. Who knew? We walked around and looked at them all, and smelled the wood fires burning, and listened to the (VERY LOUD) train whistles blow.

(photo credit Nicole Gustin)

Back at home, Simon volunteered to make dinner (frozen pizza and fresh fruit), and spent some time reading his book. Then we had an impromptu detailed exploration (sparked by a small query) of astronomy topics, in which I answered questions, explained, and we looked up answers together on the internet. Some topics covered include:
- What is a light year?
- How do you say 6,000,000,000,000?
- What does the sun sound like? (This was the golden question of the night, which led us to this very cool 10-minute documentary about a project to sonify solar data, which sparked many more interesting questions)
- What is a sunspot?
- Can solar flares and coronal mass ejections harm the Earth?


- What is Earth's "magnetic field", and why does it protect us from solar wind?
(Did you know other planets don't have a magnetic field? I feel like I should have known that, but I don't think I did.)


- If we could be right next to the sun without burning up, what would the sun *really* sound like?
(The answer, of course, is that we wouldn't hear a single thing. Which of course leads to the question,
- "Why?" Which leads to a discussion of sound waves and how they are transmitted.)
We both loved all these explorations and questions, and dug into our ice cream tonight feeling energized and inspired by our learning.

I read Jules his new Scooby Doo book for a bedtime story, and after tucking the boys in I thought about my day and what got done. I've realized I feel pretty darn good about it, actually. :)

Wordless Wednesday

A Random Interlude

Scatterbrained Mini-musings

Ohhhh, I have a migrane.

The wild grapevines are starting to gild the foliage here and there, in tangles by roadsides- the first sign this year of Autumn. I welcome thee!

Babyman slept soundly last night from about 9:30 pm till about 3:30 am. 6 hours! A record. He then slept on, till about 7 am. I am very pleased- it's a sign, I hope, of better nights to come. A light at the end of the tunnel. A knot at the end of my rope. And so on, and so forth. Too bad I stayed up late. DOH!

My new favorite drink at Starbucks is a tall soy chai latte, no water. Yum.

Littleman's favorite phrase right now seems to be "You don't underSTAND me!" (~rolling eyes~) The kid is 4 for heaven's sake!

Sweetcheeks had a fun birthday. (Thank you all, who came out!) He's 3! I think he had a blast, and really felt special. I was glad to see that. It's tough, being the middle kid.

Babyman LOVES to wave these days. Smile and wave, smile and wave. Politics? Hollywood? He laughs a lot, loves to hang upside down and is trying to figure out the whole crawling thing. He likes cheerios and can really pack away some baby food. (I think it's all stored in his fat little knee rolls.) Still nursing, too. He loves music and singing, and will "sing" along with a CD or "sing" himself to sleep. He loves books and no paper is safe in his reach. He's still quite demanding, but will play by himself for short stretches now.

Thanks to a Wendy's kids meal prize, the boys have discovered the joy of books on CD. (So something good came out of that trip, besides convenience!) We have been listening to Magic Tree House books on CD just as fast as we can check them out from the library. It's been great!!



On that note, I've completely run out of steam. Besides, my head feels like it is imploding and I'm a little nauseous. I'm going to go to bed and pray for a repeat sleep performance from Babyman tonight. Is there a Native American dance, like a rain dance, to encourage babies to sleep at night?

Oh, CRAP.
Did I jinx it?
Babyman wakes.
Dammit. And a whole host of other expletives.
Ah, well. Off I go.

Coffee shop, and Littleman the hikerman

Monday, February 25, 2008

Coffee shop, and Littleman the hikerman
Current mood: accomplished

OK, this is at least the third time this weekend that I have tried to post a blog entry. Nothing drastic has prevented me from blogging- just the usual things (babyman) demanding my attention. Anyhow, earlier today I began my entry thus:

I am sitting in a coffee shop, and a lady just walked in that bears a striking (if passing) resemblance to Dolores Umbridge (as played by Imelda Staunton) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.



* * *
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

Something wonky just happened, and I just lost all the rest of this post. Not the part above, for some reason, just all the bunches of stuff I'd written below. *%$##! ^$#$**&!! myspace. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

ANYHOW, I was telling you about . . . Damn, by the time I summarize it I might as well tell you the whole story.
Humph.
I'm going to go make some popcorn.

* * *

OK, I'm back. I made popcorn and loaded some pictures into the computer. So anyway, did you catch that earlier? I was sitting in a coffee shop? Blogging? [insert little happy dance] Billy had Littleman and Sweetcheeks for a day of hiking, no girls allowed. Suited Babyman and me just fine. ;) Of course, right about the time I got that far into my post, Babyman decided he'd had enough of the coffee shop. So I'd postponed it yet again.

Now the boys are home, and I have been informed that Littleman broke all his records yesterday: he hiked 5 miles, all himself! Billy didn't carry him at all. It's 2 1/2 miles in and 2 1/2 miles out, and when Billy suggested that they all turn around and head back (because he knew it would be a long, tough hike if they tried to do the whole thing) Littleman really, really wanted to hike the whole way. It was tough for him, but they did it! Sweetcheeks was so tired on the way out that he slept as Billy carried him. Littleman is very proud of himself.

The intrepid little hikers (photo by Billy):


They were at theRaven Cliffs Trail, which is one of my favorite hikes. I'm proud of my Littleman.

So, I'm quitting there for the night. I'll try not to go so long before I post! And I'll see if I can catch up on some of the other thoughts I wanted to write about.

a bloggers' meme

Monday, February 04, 2008

a bloggers’ meme
Current mood: overstimulated

OK, so I was "tagged" with a meme. (Meme? Meme? WTH is a meme? I mean, where did that term originate? I've always just called them "surveys", but that's not always an accurate description. Like now. So, I guess "meme" it is). Ahem. Anyhow, (waving at Kyddryn) thanks for the tag! You can find my tagger's blog here at blogspot. And see, that's the beauty of this particular meme. The best part isn't the meme itself (though often interesting), but the list of links to other people's blogs. My blog gets exposure, and so do several others. So, be sure to take advantage of that, and check them out!

First, the rules.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Now, on with it.

- In middle school, I started my own business (not licensed, of course) selling my homemade cookies. I sold them to teachers, neighbors and parents of friends. I think they probably just bought them to be nice. :) $5 for a baker's dozen. It was a pretty sweet deal for me, because all my supplies just came out of my parents' kitchen- the money I made was pure profit. As long as I didn't take too many orders per week, I could get away with it. My poor folks.
- I love reading mystery novels- they're like candy. My favorite mystery series is probably Martha Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries. I got hooked on mysteries long ago by the combined efforts of the lovely Miss Marple and a couple siamese cats named Koko and Yum-Yum. Oh wait, first there was Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown!
- I have never cut my hair short. At most, it's been trimmed a few inches- but otherwise it's been free to stretch out endlessly since it first started growing. My mom had to do a lot of detangling when I was little! Perhaps that's where I developed my high tolerance for pain?
- I wish I could take horseback riding lessons regularly.
- I believe in magic.
- I have the ability to belch like a. . . wow, in an effort to find a suitable simile, on a whim I googled "belch like a" (with the quotation marks) and found "belch like a- trucker, troll, dyspeptic pensioner, gluttonous rhino, bastard, sailer, bloated mule, frat boy, glutton after Thanksgiving dinner, champ, flamethrower, dog drinking grog, 300 lb. defensive tackle who just ate a dozen hard boiled eggs, foghorn, rugby player, 53 year-old drunk, a Yule log thrown on a fire of lusty living, and a Yankee Stadium urinal at the end of an extra-inning game. (EWWWW). That's just a quick skim of the results. Anyway, I can belch. Really, really loud. But, I generally don't.

OK, now for the blog links. I have a dilemma, here. Most of the blogs I read just aren't proper venues for me to play tag with a meme. There are a few I can annoy:
Like Gypsy Guru here at blogspot. I read her blog regularly. Also, I can bother Farbod over on myspace, because he'll wonder why the hell his friend's sister is even reading his blog, let alone being all annoying and sending a meme his way. Plus, his blog can be very entertaining. I'd send you to some of my other friends and family on myspace, but most of them don't blog much at all. However, I can point you to a couple good "mommy" type blogs on myspace: Jackie and Tommasina. Those are worth a look, so check them out!

I am honestly out of good ideas. I think I'll cheat a bit, and simply list some links to good blogs, and call it done. I've been trying to think of more for days without coming up with suitable ideas. I'm afraid I'm just not all that connected in the blogosphere yet!
So, be sure to check out:
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
and BECAUSE I SAID SO.
And, since I'm cheating I'll list a bonus: Yarn Ball Boogie. They're all great blogs!

Enjoy!

Just a quick hello

Sunday, January 20, 2008


Just a quick hello
Current mood: drunk

OK, so I still stayed up too late and am trying to blog when my brain is mush. :) Pleasantly though, I spent my evening with Babyman and my wonderful husband. (Amazing!) We traded the baby off while (finally) dismantling the Christmas tree, watching The Lord of the Rings and drinking a very nice red wine which we'd received as a gift. (The wine has more than a little to do with why my brain is mush). It was an excellent evening. Tonight's thumbs-up will be for that wine- but the bottle's downstairs and I'm upstairs, and I'll just be lazy and tell you what wine it is in a later post. So, check back for that- I highly recommend it.

Today I managed to collect a variety of things to get rid of, probably via a donation to Goodwill. I want to find a lot more stuff (including clothes, for sure) to purge. I'm also trying to "disappear" several toys. (Including those ridiculous, loud, annoying dancing bears which the boys got from a relative for Christmas. I can't begin to explain how very irritating this thing is. It literally makes me cringe every time they hit the button. Luckily, the batteries are failing so they are losing interest in it. (There's not much there to hold their interest, anyway). It is SO outta here.

It would be nice to get some more things organized around here. Baby steps, I guess. Little bit by little bit. (And try not to add to the chaos too much, in the meantime).

I am muddled in my thinking right now. Pleasantly so, but it does make it difficult to write intelligently. I think I will spare you further rambling tonight. :) I wish you a lovely evening.

PS- there is no "tipsy" smiley in the myspace list, so "drunk" will have to do. Isn't it cute?

just random:

Saturday, December 01, 2007

just random: Current mood: tired