A Momma's Pride

Griff got a call from a friend from church a couple of weeks ago. They were scheduling fathers and sons to pass communion trays and he wanted Griff and Robert to participate. I was a bit anxious about how Robert would handle it, but I needn't have been. Griff was with him the whole time, instructing him on how to carry the trays, which pews to pass them down first, how to pick up trays and pass them on to other pews, and how to return the trays when finished. And he was so obviously excited and proud of himself. On his first trip down the aisle, I could see him looking for me. When he saw me, he gave me a big grin. Several people around me chuckled. His joy was very obvious to everyone.

Later, I was praising him for doing such a great job (for the umpteenth time) and he finally said, "Mom, stop. You're making me blush." Such a funny, sweet boy.

I didn't know this until we got to church this morning, but the whole service was youth-led. The song leader's son was with his father, helping with that job. His sweet, mic'd voice could be clearly heard singing the songs. He is 8 years old. All the prayers and scripture readings were done by boys ranging in age from 9 years to 13 years. Two middle-school-aged boys did short sermons. They both did a fantastic job, too.

It was incredible seeing all these boys up there, leading us. They are the future of the church and it did my heart good.

The occasion for this special service was the kick-off for LTC. Robert and Ruthie are both old enough to participate this year. We haven't made our final selections, but so far Robert wants to do reading and sign language. Ruthie signed up for reading, art, and scrapbook.

It's going to be a great experience. I just know it is.

(BTW, I've realized that my blog posts tend to be Robert-heavy. My next post will be all about our Ruthie. )

Take Your Kid to Blog Day

Blest with Sons hosts Take Your Kid to Blog Day every Friday. It is a great opportunity to show off what your kids have done, or let them have a turn at blogging. I'm participating this week, showing off some of my children's work from this week.

I am pretty eclectic in my homeschooling approach, but one thing I absolutely love is Charlotte Mason's narration method of learning. For my non-homeschooling readers, basically you read to your child (or they read themselves), then they retell it back to you. Here is a good, short explanation of narration and its benefits.

Anyway, back to the kids. I have been attempting narrating since we started homeschooling back in January, with limited success. Ruthie is capable, but hasn't liked it. Robert has really struggled with it. His Asperger's means that he has difficulties with comprehension and expressing himself, so narrating can be a real struggle. The I read Linda's advice to start with Aesop's Fables. We started and still struggled, until I came upon the idea of having them narrate to me while I typed it into the computer. Success! They both loved this. Ruthie took to it right away, but Robert, while he tried harder, still struggled.

This week, Robert gave me the following narration for the fable of the The Wolf and the Crane. Read and enjoy. :) (The punctuation is mine, but the words are all his.)

A greedy wolf had been eating too much and got a bone
stuck in his throat. He couldn't spit it out nor swallow
it, and of course he couldn't eat anything. So he asked
for the crane's help. He said, "If you can get this bone
out of my throat, I will reward you greatly." The crane did
as he asked and took the bone out. Then the wolf left.
The crane said, "What's my reward?" The wolf answered, 
spinning around angrily, "Tch! Isn't it enough
that I let you take your head out of my throat without
biting it off?" The moral is do not expect any reward for
serving the wicked.

It's absolutely wonderful. I almost cried and I did have to hug and hold him close when he was done. When you have a child that struggles, breakthroughs mean everything.

In the spirit of fair play, and because I am also proud of Ruthie's narration, here is hers.

There once was a greedy wolf who was eating and got a
bone stuck in his throat. He could not move it up or down
and he couldn't eat. It was a bad state of affairs for
the wolf. He went to the crane, thinking that she could
surely get it out with her long bill. The crane, as you
could imagine, was very nervous about putting her neck in
the wolf's throat. But the wolf promised her a reward, so
she did it. When she pulled her neck out, the wolf started
to leave. "What about my reward?" she called. "What?!"
cried the wolf. "Haven't you got it? Isn't it enough that
I let you put your neck in my throat without snapping your
head off?" The moral is expect no reward for serving
the wicked.

Want to show off how smart, funny, or cute your kids are? Head over to Blest with Sons and join in the fun.

A Father's Love

If you have not heard the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt, you need to go over to Higher Up and Further In and read about it and see the video there. In fact, even if you have heard the story, you should go over and hear it again.

I saw a video of them a year or two ago and it is one of the most incredible stories I've ever heard.

Go. Now.

9-11

I have been thinking for weeks about posting my "where I was" story for 9-11. However, I've decided I'm not ready to do that yet. That day affected me on such a deep level, changing who I was and how I thought of my way of life. I have never been the same.

I'm just not ready to talk about it yet.

My thoughts and prayers today are with the families of the 9-11 victims, the victims who survived and are having to deal with the lasting effects, our soldiers, and everyone else who struggling with the memories of that horrible day.

Out of My Comfort Zone

Our school year this far has been pretty, well, to be perfectly honest, boring. We've been at it for 6 weeks and I'm about to start banging my head against the wall. I have no idea how the kids are feeling, but nobody's having much fun around here. And really, what's the point of homeschooling if you can't have some fun.

So, I'm doing something I said I would never do. We're doing a Konos unit study. My friend Heather is a Konos fanatic, but I have been resisting. It just seemed like so much work. And it may very well be. But, something has got to change. So, we're off on a new adventure.

We're going to be doing the Attentiveness study, mainly because that's the same one Heather is doing and she can hold my hand through it. We'll be starting with sound, ears, and music. It also includes frontiersmen (including a Lewis & Clark study), animal tracking, and Indians. If the first part goes well, we'll continue with that.

I'm nervous, but also excited.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. (Really. I will.)

Blog Naming

Are you curious about the process bloggers go through to choose a name? Barb over at A Chelsea Morning has asked for your reason. Blog about it, then go over to her blog and leave a link to your post.

I actually shared my reason for the name "Imagine" in my very post, which you can see here.

Really Funny Commercials

Have you heard the "Real Men of Genius" radio ads for a particular brand of beer? They are hysterical! While I am not endorsing alcholic beverages of any sort, you gotta appreciate the pure brilliance of this marketing campaign.

Here's a link to a list of many of them. My personal favorite is #52 - Mr. Way Too Proud of Texas Guy.

Go and listen and laugh.

This Is Just So Typical!

So, I'm looking for Robert's Cub Scout belt. His first meeting of the year is tonight. I know I have seen it recently. I'm pretty sure it was hanging on the belt hook in his closet, but no, it's not.

I ask Robert if he's seen it (a long shot, but maybe). He also thinks it's in his closet.

I look everywhere I can think of, but still can't find it.

I email Griff at work and ask him if he's seen it. No, he hasn't.

30 minutes before we are to leave, I find it.

It's in the bread basket.

????

Ingredients for a Fun Morning

Needed:

1 soft wax ear plug, divided in two

1 ear

$275.00

1 9 (almost 10!) year old boy without any sense

Directions:

Insert ear plug into ear. Have Dad spend an hour trying to remove. When that fails, you get to miss school the next morning while you see the pediatrician. After a valiant effort by the doctor, you head off for the ENT to give him a chance. After an hour in the waiting room, the nice doctor is able to remove the ear plug and you get to go home.

Now, doesn't that sound like a great way to end the week?

Well, That's Just Your Opinion

We have been doing school since the beginning of August, which is about 2.5 weeks earlier than the local school districts. I made this decision for a couple of reasons.

• I wanted plenty of time for fun stuff this year and didn't want to feel like we were falling behind by taking a day off.
• It is as hot as blazes outside (exactly how hot is "blazes"?). I'd rather have time off on a pretty fall/winter/spring day.

This has already paid off. We got less than a full day done last Thursday. Friday was great, but it is our "enrichment" day (music & art appreciation, history projects, science expirements, etc.). On Monday we met some friends at the park for lunch, then the kids had their first orchestra rehearsal, so very little school was done. And, of course, the field trip yesterday.

Ruthie does not seem to see things quite the way I do, though. I was talking to Griff on Monday evening, telling him how crazy things had been. Ruthie piped in with, "Yeah, our homeschool is falling apart."

Today we are hitting the books hard. We don't want our homeschool to fall apart! :)

Fun Was Had By All

We went on our first official field trip of the year today. A co-op we did some things with last year organized a trip to see the Body Worlds 3 exhibit. In addition, we could choose other things to do at the museum as well, all at the cheap-o group rates. We chose the IMAX and Cockrell Butterfly Center.

We went through Body Worlds very quickly. It was really too much for the kids. It was very graphic. I'm not sorry we tried it, though. I liked the parts I did see.

We had time before meeting our group at the butterfly center, so we spent time in the normal Exhibit Halls. They have a great hands-on section for kids on the ground (basement?) floor. The kids always love that.

After that, we headed to see the butterflies. I always love this part. They have a "tropical rainforest" you can walk through with thousands of butterflies fluttering about. Here are some of the better pictures I took today:



The kids are now asking to raise butterflies. I talked to one of the moms who has done it and she told me to check out this web-site. I'm seeing a side-excursion in our science studies for awhile.

They also usually have a couple of experts wandering through, showing something. Today, they had a giant walking stick.


See that hand? That's MY hand. The kids wouldn't touch her (yes, she female), but I decided to put on my brave hat today and let that thing crawl on me. Aren't I a good mom? :) I have never seen a walking stick that looks like this one. I meant to ask where it was from, but I forgot. I've google'd it, but haven't found it yet. If anybody can give me more info, I'd appreciate it.

They also have an entomological exhibit with all kinds of bugs to check out. When I saw these, I just had to take the picture.


They are hissing cockroaches. The white one is an albino hissing cockroach. Can we all say "EWWWW!" I really can't stand these things. They are one of my "WHY?!" questions for God when I get to Heaven. I can handle just about any bug except these.

After lunch and more museum, we headed to the IMAX to see "Ocean Oasis". I had no idea Baja California had that kind of aquatic life. Beautiful and amazing. Ruthie especially loved this.

After one more trip into the museum, we headed home. It was a full day, but a great one. The kids have been to the museum on many school field trips, and I have gone with them, but I don't ever recall having so much fun with them. It was so much more relaxing than previous field trips. We all had an excellent time.

Overheard

From my soon-to-be-10 year old son...

"When I grow up, I'm going to eat pancakes and eggs and milk for breakfast."

(pause)

"Of course, I'll need a wife or someone else to make them for me."

Sleep (or the lack thereof)

I had 2 nights this week where I was unable to sleep and was up 'til 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.

Today, I made up that sleep with a 4 hour nap. (yowza!)

This means I will not be able to go to sleep tonight until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.

And so the cycle continues....

Unfinished Business

I have a flaw in my character. Okay, more than one, but we're zeroing in on one for now. I am always starting projects, then fading at the end and never finishing them. (Can we talk about the trim painting I haven't finished from 3 years ago?!) I have several posts that I said I would follow up on, and never did. So, here we go.

Remember Hurricane Rita? (I know that was almost a year ago, but I point to my previous statement about the trim painting. A year is nothing!) All that drama was, for us, for nothing. The storm moved east. We got some wind and some neighbors lost some branches on a tree. We got very little rain. We even watered our yard the next day.

Stray Kitty - She is still part of her family. I'm still refusing to name her, although we have considered the names of Sneak and Spook. She's an odd thing. She will only stay on one side of the house (breakfast room, kitchen, dining room). She rarely ventures out from there. If I go into the kitchen, she follows me around and just stares at me. She doesn't meow. She doesn't need food or water. She just watches me.

I never told the story of my trip to Galveston. We did go and we did have a good time. We went to Schlitterbahn on Tuesday. That was fun, except for when we lost Ruthie for 30 minutes. That was NOT fun. Maybe I'll tell the whole story of that someday.

My personal Diet Coke challenge - Well, I didn't come close to the sticking to the one a day, but I did manage to make 3 12-packs last 2 weeks. That's not quite 3 a day. Definitely an improvement.

If there's anything else you're wondering about, just ask. I'll give an update.

Well, That Was A Bust

Confession time... My family's dinners are often (always?) hastily thrown together. I am very much an it's-5:00-what-in-the-world-are-we-going-to-have-for-dinner type of cook. I'd love to say that I can throw together a great meal with things I find in the pantry, but that would be, well, a lie.

Last week, however, I decided I would try to actually plan out meals for this week. To make this easier, I used my recipe software and pulled out a pre-planned menu it included. I printed off my shopping list from this same software and went grocery shopping yesterday.

I put tonight's meal (sweet and spicy chicken) in the crockpot this morning. It was pretty much done by the time Griff got home from work.

Then the problems began.

Griff: Is there teriyaki sauce in that recipe?

Me: No, it's soy sauce.

(brief silence)

Griff: I do appreciate you cooking dinner tonight, but I really don't like soy sauce.

Me: What?! I've been married to you for almost 16 years and I didn't know you don't like soy sauce?!

Griff: (trying to be nice about this) I'll try it.

(he takes a bite)

Griff: I'm sorry, but I really can't eat that.

Me: Let me try it. (I take a bite) Nope, I'm not going to eat it, either.

We call Ruthie in to try it. She takes a bite and spits it out into the trash. By this time, we're all laughing. There is no way Robert will eat it after all this, so we don't even ask him to try it.

I don't want to throw it away, so I decide to call a friend and offer it to her family. She said she would take it. Her family actually likes soy sauce!

So, my efforts for dinner tonight were a complete failure.

On the plus side, though, I did get Pei Wei for dinner. Yum!

(Tomorrow night's dinner is meatloaf. I should be pretty safe with that.)

Tickle Your Funny Bone

If you like to laugh at the funny things kids say and do, check out Carnival of Kid Comedy over at Life in a Shoe. You won't be sorry!

Just So You Know

Ruthie went to a birthday party at a friend's home yesterday evening. I picked her up at about 8:30. Between moms coming in and girls leaving, the front door ended up staying open for several minutes.

All of a sudden, the smoke alarm on the ceiling in front of the door went off. Birthday girl's mom reached up and pulled the cover off to turn it off. She told us this happened all the time. The heat and humidity from outside would set off their smoke alarm.

Did you get that? The heat and humidity coming into the house set off their smoke alarm. At 8:30 at night. In an air-conditioned house.

And I choose to live here. I LIKE living here.

I am a very, very strange person.

Works-for-Me Wednesday

I am once again participating in Works-for-Me Wednesday. My tip involves my stand mixer.

I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer. It's great, but I always had a problem when using it with cake mixes (or any dry mix). It seems no matter how many times I scraped the sides of the mixer, I always ended up with a small amount of dry mix in the bottom of the bowl.

The last time I made a cake, I got the idea to add the wet ingredients to the bowl first, rather than the dry. Ta-da! No dry mix left in the bottom of the bowl.

This may violate some sort of baking rules (I am no chef, as evidenced by the fact that I use cake mixes!), but it works for me!

Be sure to check out the rest of the great tips over at Rocks in My Dryer.

Car Trip Survival

Have you discovered the joys of books on tape? If you are looking for a way to make a car trip easier with children, without the use of a DVD/video player, you will find these to be invaluable. The kids and I went to Memphis last week and they did beautifully well on the 10 hour trip. I give most of the credit to books on tape. (I would love to say that it's because I've done a wonderful job of training them to sit quietly for hours on end, but anyone who knows me and my children would out me as a complete liar.)

Here are some of our favorites. Some were listened to on this trip. Others are from trips in the past. We got all of these from our library.

Hank the Cowdog - These are read by the author and are absolutely hysterical. We took 3 of them on our trip, and while I was a bit Hank'd-out by the end, the kids never tired of them.

The Secret Garden - Oh. My. Word. I had never read this book. I just fell in love with the reading. What an absolutely beautiful book. It made me want to move somewhere with actual seasons and start a garden. For someone who can't keep an ivy alive, that's really saying something. I'm not sure Robert enjoyed it as much as Ruthie and I did, but he did not complain about it. (There are many different audio versions of this book. The one we had was read by Josephine Bailey.)

Redwall - It's one of our favorites. It's done by a full cast and is fantastic. It also got Ruthie interested in reading the books. She has now read 3 of them, all since May. Warning: You need a really long trip for this one. I think it is 16 hours long.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy - This one was for me. While it is a trilogy written for children, mine are much too young. However, I found them completely entertaining.

If you can recommend any other audio books, please do so in the comments. They do not have to be children's books. My list contains those because I am rarely in the car without my children, so that's what I end up hearing.

Yep. That's Me.

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Anyone surprised? Anyone? HT: Higher Up and Further In