The Good News...

The good news is that the kitchen cabinets are done.

The bad news is that Bohemian has hurt his back.

Every twist or bend causes him excruciating pain. He didn't sleep well last night, carefully turning to try to find a comfortable position. I called our massotherapist today to see if he can get him in.

The other bad news is that Edison hasn't been well for two days, barely eating, complaining of chills and a stomachache. Then, last night, Sweetheart began complaining that her tummy hurt "really bad."

Six more days until the family gathering.

Fellowship of the Ring

With all of the hubub about the LOTR, I've avoided it for the most part. I've always liked The Hobbit, and I don't have anything against the movies (other than how graphically scary the bad guys are!), but I've just steered clear of it.

Today, my dad brought home FOTR on CD from the library, so we listened to that while cleaning and finishing cabinets. Dare I say that I really like it? I always thought The Hobbit was too wordy and spent too much time on description, but I must have acclimated to the style or this one is different, because I'm thoroughly enjoying it, as are Bard, Houdin, Monet and Sweetheart.

My Housecleaning Playlist

If you have any suggestions for good songs with a "housecleaning" theme, send 'em on!

For now, here's my feeble attempt at creating a fun housecleaning playlist:

"Cleaning House" - Ian Charles
"Clean Your Room" - The Zucchini Brothers
"I Am Not Your Broom" - They Might Be Giants
"Cleaning House" - Grandpaboy
"The Inside Of My Head" - David Wilcox
"Heigh-Ho - Snow White" - Andre Rieu
"Clean Up" - Barney
"Clean Up Woman" - The Pretenders
"Clean Up Your Own Backyard" - Elvis Presley
"Paint Up, Clean Up Time" - Lord Creator
"I Will Never Clean Up My Room" - Cathy Fink/Marcy Marxer/...
"New Broom" - Byron Berline
"Dust My Broom" - B.B. King
"Got My Broom To Prove It" - Susan Weber
"I'll Make Your Bed" - Dolly Parton
"Cobwebs" - Loudon Wainwright III
"Doing The Dishes" - Frank Loesser
"Dirty Dishes" - Larry LaVey
"Too Many Dirty Dishes" - Albert Collins
"Too Many Dirty Dishes - (with Henry Gray)" - Tab Benoit
"Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma" - Spike Jones
"Whistle While You Work" - Artie Shaw
"Whistle While You Work - (alternate mix, previously unreleased)" - Diana Ross & The Supremes
"Housework" - Loudon Wainwright III
"Housework" - The B-52's
"Housework" - Fishbone
"Clean Up" - The Canton Spirituals
"Beautiful Day" - U2
"If These Walls Could Speak" - Jimmy Webb
"Step Inside This House" - Lyle Lovett
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Clean" - Request-A-Song.com
"I've Got To Be Clean" - Jeff Chaz
"Cleanin' Off The Porch" - Larry Cordle & Lonesome...
"Spring Cleaning" - John McCutcheon
"Dust Pan Blues" - Gene Autry
"Dishpan Brigade" - Wishing Chair And Kara Barnard

If you don't have Rhapsody yet, you can register and download it.

Insomnia

I know I should be sleeping. I'll especially know it tomorrow morning. But for now, the house is quiet, and I'm getting uninterrupted time. So why would I sleep? Why, that'd be...that'd be silly!

So I'm thinking about my day, instead. I'm thinking about how I woke up this morning and remembered that the piano tuner was coming to tune my FREE piano. When he walked in the door, he ran his hands along the front of the piano, feeling the grain. I don't know from what type of wood the piano is made, but it looks like curly walnut or some such. Very pretty. Still, because it was a free piano, I am suspicious of its true value. So when the piano tuner asked me how we got the piano in. I asked, "Why? Should we take it back out?" "Oh, no!" he said, "I like it!" For the next hour, I watched the piano tuner...well...tune my piano. When he was done, he pronounced it "among the living," and left. Now we have a freshly tuned piano for the gathering! I do hope someone who plays will come for our jam! Claudia, if you're reading this, I'm counting on you. :-)

In between The Baby's screaming and pizza bagels, the kids and I began deep cleaning the house room by room. Bard, Bohemain and I also worked on the kitchen cabinets. We had our cabinets built for our new house by a local Amishman, who must have thought we were thoroughly and completely nuts when I told him what I wanted. The upper cabinets are hickory, some with glass fronts. We had the carpenter poly the upper cabinets in natural but asked him to leave the lower cabinets unfinished. We then finished them with Old Fashioned Milkpaint in Lexington Green. It's been quite a learning experience, but we have the look we wanted...antiqued, distressed and very farmhousey. :-) For the past couple of weeks, we've been putting a coat of polyurethane on the cabinets. I didn't want to do this. We tried using Watco Danish Oil, but the waterspotting and staining was just awful, so I finally sanded the cabinets and coated them with two coats of satin poly. We have one coat of poly to do on our 8x4' island, and the doors/drawers that go in it, and we'll be DONE with that! We still want to make a matching panel for our FREE dishwasher after we determine whether it works or not.

Tomorrow...continuing to deep clean room by room.

Oh, joy.

Vedic Maths Tutorial (interactive)

Vedic Maths Tutorial (interactive)

This is a very cool new way of looking at math facts. With these tricks, you can develop math confidence and solve math problems more quickly! We really liked learning the first tutorial. At first, my brain didn't want to cooperate (I was ready for something hard, and my mind wanted to resist!) but after I let it click, it was really cool!

Ah, the thinks you can think. :-)

Looking back...

I've been looking back at some of the photos from Autumn 2003 and thought I would take the time to post a few of them here. It's fun thinking back to what was going on in our lives this time a year ago. The photos below are from Fall 2003.

Last year, we went to a harvest party at the home of some friends. This was sweetheart's costume...she went as a princess. Our friend Sarah was so kind as to help me take an old costume and sew some fancies on it to make it "new." 

Monet attended the event as a Knight. Brave, brave Sir Robin. :-) 

And Bard went as an Autumn Fairy.  

This time last year...

About this time last year, this is what the house looked like. The carpenters were just putting the roof on the second floor. :-) I remember thinking, "This house is going to be the best house in the whole wide world."

And it is.

Stream of Consciousness Whilst I Eat a Brownie

Houdin just brought me a brownie. It's hot. He dropped the fork on the floor when he handed it to me.

Bohemian is playing "Show the Way" on his guitar. He hasn't played for a while. Sounds sweet.

The Baby is playing with spoons and pots from the kitchen.

The brownie is still hot.

Monet is giggling. Something that Houdin says makes him laugh.

Bohemian grouted the tub tonight. We cleaned and buffed, cleaned and buffed, cleaned and buffed.

I hear a lot of clinking forks. But the brownie is still hot.

Today was a quiet day. The radiator blew in the Jeep a few days ago, and Bohemian spent the day trying to fix the water pump, which went out after the radiator was replaced.

Someone's whistling.

We're out of milk.

The birds are quiet.

The dogs aren't.

The neighbor brought the new puppy over, after he made a voyage to their house. This is unlike him. I looked up training techniques to keep him on our property.

The Baby's crying.

The brownie is still hot.

The kids are playing Connect Four. It's not the real Connect Four, but a rip-off sold by Wal*Mart.

We're supposed to take a walk with Jane Goodall on Monday. I hope the van is fixed by then, or we'll have to miss it. That would be a bummer.

The brownie is only warm now.

Bohemian is asking for a glass of water. That's because we're out of milk.

This brownie would be really good with icing. I think I'll have another when I'm done with this, but put icing on it.

I wonder if anyone gave The Baby a brownie. I should go check.

I only have one bite of brownie left, and some crumbs.

The Baby is yelling, "GO!" and Bohemian is yelling, "WHERE?"

Houdin is quoting Bill Cosby.

The brownie is gone.

Timelines

This looks like an awesome resource. When I climb out of debt, I want this. Of course, I'll be, what, 65? As Pierce Pettis said, "When Garth Brooks recorded 'You Move Me,' we were able to go from renting to owning a house. We started out with nothing! Now we owe thousands and thousands of dollars!"

I Had An Abortion and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

Planned Parenthood T-Shirt

I had to see it to believe it.

Welcome to Great Folding Carts.com!!!

Welcome to Great Folding Carts.com!!!

I'm not sure what I'd use this for, but I saw it on another homeschooler's blog. If you click on the "free sticker" button, there's a sticker that says "no school like home." Kinda cute. :-)

People over 35 Should Be Dead

I don't know the orignal author of this, but found myself nodding my head over it, so I thought I'd pass it on.

People over 35 should be dead.

Here's why ...

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's,50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets

and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.(Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own.Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Manners for a Guinea Pig

Yesterday, we started working on using good manners. The system works very simply: good manners all day, no instigating arguments with siblings, obedience to Mom and Dad. For every infraction, you get a point. The person with the least points gets to sleep with a guinea pig in their room. Yesterday, Bard and Sweetheart tied, so they both got to keep guinea pigs in their rooms. :-) The scoreboard has been cleared and we start over, working on manners for two days, and then the winner will get the guinea pig in their room. Since we have three guinea pigs, this should work out well. If they all tie, we'll bring in a rabbit. :-)

Bard's Activities

Bard has been an ENORMOUS help with the Open House preparations. She has been organizing, cleaning and doing laundry. So far, she has cleaned the kids' bathroom, Sweetheart's room, the computer room, the family room, and her own room.

Today, she was called away to do chores at a neighbor's house--scrubbing floors and cupboards. This will help to earn her money for her trip to China.

Thank you so much, Bard! You're a blessing!

Writing Practice

Monet has been enjoying e-mail correspondence with his grandma, which has been great for his writing practice as well as his computer skills.

Sweetheart has been working on drawing princesses. Fantastic practice for hand-eye coordination, shapes, and writing readiness. The princesses have oval faces, triangle bodies, lines for hair, and zig-zags for crowns. :-)

Radio Programming

We had a great discussion last night about radios and television. It was initiated by the fact that Grandpa bought each of the kids a small radio and headphones, which immediately became a problem. None of them could hear us, which made it impossible to follow our instructions. Also, Monet, at nine years old, has no idea what kind of garbage is rampant on radio and so doesn't know what to avoid.

Bohemian decided to sit down and discuss the issue. We talked about our television viewing, how we're selective about what we view because once you put garbage into your head, it's very difficult to get back out. The garbage can be in the form of unpleasant images, scary scenes, sexual images, or what seems as benign as materialistic commercials. This is why we don't have network television. Our TV is a receiver for DVDs only, and those are selected by us as a family to enhance our imaginations, inspire us, or educate us.

In the same way, we don't just play the radio. There is so much on the radio that's unfit for adult ears, let alone children. But, again, the materialistic bent of commercial broadcasting is just that, commercial.

To prove our point, we threw out a few random words which also happened to be keywords for local radio commercials. All it took was for me to say, "I met my husband," and they could finish, "on E-Harmony dot com!" Or I could say the word "gimmicks" and they could sing the jingle for the local car dealership.

This, children, is the point of radio programming. To program the minds of those who listen. To create in you a need you never knew you had, and then make you restless enough to sell you something to meet your need. Radio and television programming is designed to unsettle us, to make us selfish, to tell us that we're not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, clean enough and to convince us that we need more more MORE!

It's important to make wise decisions about what you put into your head. Some things, no matter how benign they may seem, will never come back out.

This Magic Moment

Last night, we watched a movie about illusion called The Mysteries of Magic, The Impossible Made Possible. It featured the history of illusion, especially as it related to people producing ghosts and conjuring up "spirits." It was very enlightening to see how far people would go to make a person believe something.

One of the illusions involved reflections in glass. It was an illusion called "Pepper's Ghost," where people would enter this old house, received all sorts of sensory deprivation, drink "poison" (which was actually some type of narcotic to make them more open to the trick), and then be lead to the edge of death where they would see a beautiful girl turn into a skeleton, right before their eyes.

After the video was over, Bohemian jumped up and said, "We can do one of those! We can do one of those magic tricks!" So he sent all of the kids from the room, except for Bard, and then he arranged us thus: Bard sat on a stool on one side of the room, just behind the french door. I sat on the other side of the room on a stool where I couldn't be seen but facing the french door. The room was completely dark, and we each held a flashlight. When both of our flashlights were on, Bard could be seen through the french door's window, and my reflection could be seen ON the window. Thus, we could line up our faces so that we would be in exactly the same place. Then, Bard turned her flashligh on and I turned mine off. When Bohemian would count "three," Bard would turn her flashlight off, and I would turn mine on. Her image would then disappear, and mine would appear exactly where she had been!

We called the other three kids down and showed them the illusion. They were amazed! It was as if Bard were disappearing and I were appearing in her place! The other kids had great fun with it, Monet figuring the mechanics of the trick out right away and putting it to other uses. He was able to make himself disappear and immediately started talking about all of the possibilities for the trick. Bohemian explained that it was through a trick like this that David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

This magic moment went right along with our discussion on light and darkness, in more ways than one!