Meet Patrick. And Patrick.

Just in case you thought it was cute that two of my boys painted their starfish drooling and wearing green shorts (this is for you, D), you need to know that they painted them to look like Patrick from Spongebob. (See previous post.) When we sketched mollusks, I got Gary the snail. Complete with a "meow" word balloon. From Spongebob. And when we studied sea-sponges....well, do I really need to go on?

Our entire invertebrate unit was like a tribute to Spongebob Squarepants and all his chums. Squidward, even Plankton made it into one or two pages. Yes, Mr. Crabs, too...however, I don't think they thought of Sandy the (underwater??) squirrel during the mammals unit a few months back. What IS Sandy doing in Bikini Bottom, anyway? That never occurred to me before.

"What exactly ARE those children learning over there, anyway?" It's what you're thinking, I know.

I wonder, if we would ever have to submit "proof" of our home education, if the powers that be would take issue with science notebooks filled with Spongebob illustrations. Hmmmm....

realistic, indeed....

We just got done with a science unit on invertebrates. One of the sections was on echinoderms (starfish, sand dollars..), and a suggested activity was to make starfish from salt-dough. (side note: Ever plunged your dry, cracked, winter hands into a bowl full of salt, flour, and water? Mostly salt? aaaAAAGGHHHHH!) So we made starfish, and carefully etched the five "spiny" rays and added texture, etc. We waited a long time (days) for them to dry so we could paint them. I was envisioning what kinds of realistic colors and designs the kids would come up with, and wouldn't they look pretty hanging on the wall with an "ocean" background?

Sigh.

Well, they did have a lot of fun. :)

He was a good fish...

Rest in Peace, Jeff the fish. You gave us four good months for the bargain price of $2.99. I'm sorry that the children wanted to see if Henry and Charlotte would eat you after you died. And I apologize if posting a picture of you dead on my blog is completely sick. We will miss you.

extrovert gets introvert time

Cabin fever. We have it. I posted this picture because my boys eat, sleep and breathe football right now, and they really need to burn off some energy. They played outside today (we had FIFTEEN full minutes of sunshine..."Get outside! QUICK!" I yelled at them....) and all they played was "tackle". Well let me say that because of the partial thaw and rain last week, and due to the colder temps this week, there is a solid layer of ice underneath all the new snow. They might as well be "tackling" on hard concrete. During the outside frolic today we had a total of two bruised cheeks, one black eye, and three bloody noses. Sigh.

So that's not really what my post is all about. Tim says I need to post pictures, and I figured it would be proper to at least explain why I picked the one I did, even if it has nothing to do with things. So there you have it.

It is 8:50pm. I have ten precious minutes left before Panera kicks me out. I have been here since 6pm. I have eaten a delicious meal, had a cup of coffee and a cookie, and have not spoken a word for three hours. (I did, however, treat the surrounding tables to a couple of newscasts and a really great sermon I was listening to, not realizing that my earbuds weren't plugged in all the way...oops.) I was supposed to have a meeting tonight that I was really looking forward to, but it was cancelled. Tim was already planning on me being gone for the evening, and his wise wife-intuition of 13 years told him I could stand to get out of the house. My yelling at him for buying chips and salsa at the store apart from my planned grocery budget for the week may have tipped him off. (My three hours at Panera cost considerably more, but we all know that's different.) Anyway, he is very intuitive of my need for replenishing, so he sent me packing. I didn't object. I'm really pretty much an extrovert. I love being with people, love being where the action is, love being with my family hanging out, love a good conversation. But once in a while I just need to be alone. I tried calling a friend to meet, but she couldn't. And I had to resist the temptation to keep trying to get someone to meet me for a good heart to heart and cup o' joe. Because tonight I think God was whispering in my heart that I just needed to be alone. Alone with Him, alone to gather my thoughts, alone to recharge. And that's just what I did. And now I'm ready for another day....

the "look"

I asked Janie to give me her best "Ten-year-old look". I think it's spot on, yes? I get lots of these looks, most of which are good-natured and in good fun....usually when mom is acting goofy and immature. There are those times when "the look" is not so good-natured, but we'll address those at perhaps another time. Anyway, Janie had a very fun "first" this week....she had her first orchestra rehearsal with Quad City Youth Prelude Strings. She's been taking violin lessons for just over a year, and this fall auditioned for the Prelude Strings ensemble. She wasn't wild about the idea, and was convinced she wasn't going to like it....at which point I told her that if I was spending $X per month on lessons only for her to play the instrument in her room with the door closed, then we needed to rethink things. So we arrived at the first rehearsal, she found her seat, they warmed up and began playing the first piece. Her first words as soon as the rehearsal was over: "Mom, thank you SO much for making me try out for this! I LOVED it!". (Yes, yes, moms do know a thing or two...) I think she thought they would all be playing in unison, and was delighted once they began the first piece to hear all of the parts coming together to create a wonderful sound! Hooray! Very fun to see a lightbulb go on in a child's mind! What a great joy it is to see your kids grow and learn and mature, even if you do get a couple of "looks" in the process! Love you, Janie!

Thanks, Mrs. G...

Today I ran across this post on the Pioneer Woman blog. PW didn't write it, but she often has a guest post-er named Mrs. G on the homeschooling section of her blog. I always enjoy Mrs. G's posts. They're very real and down to earth. She's a professional writing teacher, I believe, and has two grown children whom she homeschooled. In one particular post, she was talking about getting boys to write and how you just need to be okay with it if an integral part of their plot is that the main character poops his pants. Anyway (I digress), I always love her posts. Today's was the perfect medicine for any homeschooling mother (or any mother for that matter) who begins to have any of the following thoughts:
1. "I'm not doing enough."
2. "Whatever I am doing, I'm not doing it well enough."
3. "I should be reading War and Peace to my children during lunch."
4. "My kids will grow up to be social deviants because I didn't read War and Peace to them during lunch."
5. "Good moms are up before dawn, have had a quiet time, have run three miles, and are ready to serve a warm and nutritious breakfast to their family when they wake up."

...you get the idea... :) I think we all have days when we feel like rock stars at whatever it is we do, and then there are the days when those icky thoughts creep in and grow mold on everything, the kids are lucky if they get corn flakes for dinner, and we'd rather not speak to anyone all day if we can help it! Mrs. G's post today is one of those that puts things in perspective and reminds me to laugh at myself instead of taking everything so doggone seriously. LOVE IT. Whether you're a homeschooler or not, I think you'll enjoy the post. Thanks, Mrs. G!

Those groomsmen......

Sam: Mom, you know "bridesmaids"?
Me: Um, yes?
Sam: What are those other guys called? Grooms-minions?

......a random dialogue brought forth from the thoughts of an eight year old......