fat baby

My grandmother said when I told her how well Julia Ellen was doing, "You have to put that child on a diet!" I won't even think about how one would go about doing that, but fat babies are healthy and happy babies. I love the little folds on her thighs, the perpetually damp neck that never sees the sun, and the cheek jowls that hang below her chin. (yes, that is a little milk curd on her lip)

There will be plenty of time in her life to be neurotic about her weight, 3 months is far too early for all of that. Plus, every pound she gains is likely 1 pound that I lose, though I'm not sure it works out quite that evenly.

missing child

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to swing by the library before dropping off Will and Mary and then hitting the Commissary. I called down the stairs, "Time to go, shoes on! Grab your piano stuff!" I had given Julia Ellen a good feed and went to wake up Timmy from his nap. The door to the boy's room was ajar and no blonde head was in the bed. I ran outside and yelled, "Timmy?"

Upstairs, downstairs: no Timmy.


Then we looked in the girl's room and amidst the piles of stuffed animals and doll babies on Mary's bed was a little sleeping boy. I didn't particularly want to play our version of Where's Waldo? but all is well and we made it out the door in time. One of my big chores before we leave for Maine is to return every one of the 50 books we still have checked out, but I have to keep the 6 children entrusted to my care safe every minute of every day.

carnival of homeschooling

Dana at Principled Discovery is hosting this week's carnival with a Field Guide to Homeschoolers.

laws forcing adult children to pay for ma's care

I heard this talked about a few days ago on the radio and it was interesting to hear both of the Baby Boomer hosts say, "Everyone should take care of Mom and Dad. It is horrible that we should have to resort to laws to make people do it." While it of course is the Christian thing to take care of your elderly parents, what about the millions of adult children (of Boomers) who had their childhoods ripped apart by divorce? One of my college roommates couldn't even figure out where to go for Christmas break since her mother was on her 3rd marriage and her father on his 4th. Does sending a paltry check once a month for child support count as evidence that would later be used as justification for garnishing wages from their adult children?

Did you know you could be responsible for your parents' unpaid bills? Thirty states currently have laws making adult children responsible for their parents if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves. While these laws are rarely enforced, there has been speculation that states may begin dusting them off as a way to save on Medicaid expenses.

These laws, called filial responsibility laws, obligate adult children to provide necessities like food, clothing, housing, and medical attention for their indigent parents.
According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research organization, 21 states allow a civil court action to obtain financial support or cost recovery, 12 states impose criminal penalties on children who do not support their parents, and three states allow both civil and criminal actions.

Generally, most states do not require children to provide care if they do not have the ability to pay. States vary on what factors they consider when determining whether an adult child has the ability to pay. Children may also not be required to support their parents if the parents abandoned them or did not support them.

The passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 made it more difficult to qualify for Medicaid, which means there may be more elderly individuals in nursing homes with no ability to pay for care. In response, nursing homes may use the filial responsibility laws as a way to get care paid for. Senior Journal

economic difficulties

This week I have been told of 5 people who have lost their job in the past few weeks, 4 homeschooling dads and a single mom. Things are getting bad out there and likely to get worse. The worse places to be financially are Michigan and California, according to the National Stress Index up at AP. With unemployment at 9.5%, even folks who have steady jobs are asking themselves, "What would/could I do if I lost my job?"

It is more important than ever to be aware of every dollar going out the door and asking, "Do I really need to buy this product or service?" Something that I have been doing lately is finding school supplies at the thrift shop rather than hitting Office Depot. I wouldn't be able to find these deals in Maine since folks up there epitomize the stereotypical Yankee spendthrift, but down here in wasteful government spending land I can find pens, pencils, rulers, index cards, binders, notepads, preschool workbooks, storage baskets, flashcards, maps, and drawing pads for next to nothing.

In the book Cheaper By the Dozen the father made the children listen to French records while they were brushing their teeth. Copying his method of instruction I've hung calender pages of Leonardo da Vinci paintings in the upstairs bathroom, a poster of the Sistine Chapel ceiling on the back of the half bath door, and a topographic map of the United States in the basement bathroom next to the potty. I figure I shouldn't restrict their time in the bathroom, but I sure can make it educational.

one fabulous homeschooled speller

A West Palm Beach eighth grader is among the 41 spellers advancing to the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.. Serena Laine-Lobsinger, 13, sailed through the preliminary round on Wednesday. Serena, who is home schooled, said she learned many of her words from reading classic books. But since winning the regional competition in February, she's also been studying word lists between one and three hours every day.

It's not always easy to step up to the microphone in an instant-elimination contest on national television. But thanks to her bee experience, Serena has a cool head and a good perspective.
Eventually, she said, "everyone but one person gets a word they don't know." Palm Beach Post
Serena's bio reads:

Serena enjoys interior design, sewing, and learning to play guitar and piano. In her spare time she likes photographing nature or cityscapes and going shopping. Serena has a passion for writing and literature, namely historical fiction and classics. Her favorite author is Jane Austen. Serena participated in the 2008 national finals.

She made it to round 8, correctly spelling peculiar, typhlology, agrestic, hircocervus, imprimis, and omphaloskepsis, before spelling the word conchiliated incorrectly. I know that I couldn't stand up on that stage and even spell my own name due to nerves. I have the greatest admiration for all the children that participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

new look

Yesterday was hot. Not tropical hot, but it was too hot to not run the AC and I hate having hair sitting on the back of my neck 'cause it makes me sweat. So after a shower and with most of the children watching I took some scissors to my head. Since I cut all the kid's hair as well as keep Tim's military buzz in check I wasn't scared. After several really horrible haircuts as a child I have been mostly snipping my own hair for several years but was the first time I dared cut it so short.

Now I have a simple bob, think Katie Holmes (+ 15 years). All the fake blond has finally grown out and while I was tempted for about 30 seconds to dye it again, I like it.

carnival of homeschooling

Why Homeschool is hosting the Carnival this week with a Baby Bop edition.

hysterically funny and educational

Yesterday at the library the little kids and I were picking out picture books and videos while Will and Mary were at piano lessons. I was glancing at the CDs and pulled out Beethoven's Wig 2. On the way we played it and were roaring over Stuck in the Saddle Again sung to the Light Cavalry Overture by Suppe and an introduction to opera with Sing Verdi Very Loud. I think the folks in the car next to us were giggling at seeing everyone laughing and me tapping on the steering wheel.
This collection is a fun way to learn some classical pieces, bits about composers, and a easy transition into the Music Masters Series that we have enjoyed on car trips. Unfortunately our "new" van (it is only 3 year old, but that is pretty new to me) only has a CD player and I bought the MM series in tapes. I guess I know what to get for some one's upcoming 11th birthday.

there are some pretty mean people out there

Yeah, I was out of the loop this weekend with 3 Boy scout activities, a trip to the NRA range, extra piano practice for the upcoming recital, cleaning my house for company, and a trip to the thrift shop to restock Julia Ellen's wardrobe. While perusing my favorite blogs Sunday evening, I read great rebuttals to this anti-homeschooling post by Michelle and Spunky.

Apparently we homeschoolers are selfish, going against God's wishes, arrogant, intolerant, racist, and raising geeks. I can say with my whole heart that none of these things are true of any homeschooler I know. We see a broken system that doesn't care about children, is atheist in teaching, and is supremely arrogant and we don't want to sacrifice the gifts we have been entrusted with on the altar of government education. We can do a better job teaching our children, even if we don't have multiple degrees after our name because we want these children to succeed much more than any paid stranger and will do everything we can to train them to be good people.

Then poor Tim had to put all the little ones to bed while I was immersed in the saga posted by Milehimamma after she was attacked for not properly feeding or educating her 7 (soon to be 8) children. After reading her blog for over a year now I can say that she feeds her kids a lot more nutritious diet than I ever could and I think I'm doing a better job than the average. Her kids eat lentils and brussel sprouts for crying out loud!

"If you loved them, you would want them to have the attention and time it takes to make them the best they can be. Good schools limit the number of children in a classroom. Why? Because teachers need time to teach and care for each child. Good mothers are the same way. And special needs children need even more time."

Guess what? Most teachers have classes of 28-35 kids in their class, down to 12 in a special education room. That is far more than Milehimamma has in her "school." She blows me out of the water with her highly organized Montessori style toys in her living room, her training the kids to save $$ by using dry-erase markers in workbooks, and the obvious patience she exhibits with her kids. Some mothers are called to raise children with more needs than others and I have all the respect in the world for them.

In the slightly modified words of Dr. Laura, "Which of you would want to be homeschooled by your loving mother or sent away to the local public school?" I would definitely want to be in one of these Mommy's homes being taught my ABCs.

this is sick

A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for 8 p.m. today at Old Town Square to show support for George Tiller's family and to oppose violence.
Dustin Deckard, 20, organized the vigil and is hoping it will be "a quiet show of support for Dr. Tiller and a moment to remember his medical and political triumphs."

A candlelight vigil for a man who has murdered thousands of innocent children. While any killing is wrong, I can't exactly shed tears of sorrow for George Tiller, abortionist.

"what a fat baby!"

was the comment made several times recently on excursions to the grocery store and the thrift shop.

In HSLDA's magazine there is a regular feature by Dr. Roger Sayre, a homeschooling dad of 11. This month is about nursing babies not getting enough nutrition when Mommy is under stress and how homeschooling can result in low weight babies if care isn't taken. The 4 conditions to produce milk that is both high in quality and supply are: good health, good nutrition, adequate rest, and a quiet comfortable nursing environment.

Obviously with an almost 3 month old who is in the 95th% for weight and height Julia Ellen is getting plenty to eat. In fact, I had to go out and buy her "new" clothes because what I had planned on her wearing all summer are not going to fit more than a few weeks. My comfortable nursing space is my bed. I can put a glass of cold water or iced tea on the table, prop a book on my knees, and let the baby nurse as long as she wants. Maggie loves to climb up with me to get a little one-on-one time with me and the older kids watch the little boys while Julia Ellen slurps and gulps her way to "Bubba Gut" status.

I'm not trying to crow about this, in fact, I feel a little guilty that perhaps I'm not doing enough with the other children that would cause me to be stressed out. No, we haven't played as many games or read as many stories as usual the last few months, but I have given the children a brand new playmate who smiles and coos and is just as cute as can be.

And that is something to be proud of.

and I thought I was getting too old...

Having a baby at 38 is much harder than having one at 28: the recovery, the sleep deprivation, trying to lose the weight. I bought some beer at the mini-mart the other evening and the clerk took one look at the wrinkles around my eyes and didn't even ask for ID. I just feel so much older than I did 1 year ago and it is all from being older and pregnant. I can't even imagine becoming a mother again 20 years from now.

The 66 year old unmarried British businesswoman Elizabeth Adeney is almost eight months pregnant following IVF treatment. Elizabeth, of Newmarket, Suffolk, will take the title of Britain’s oldest mum.

The OAP has converted a room in her £600,000 home into a nursery for the tot, which is due a month before her 67th birthday in July. Elizabeth, who has also hired a live-in nanny was given IVF treatment using a donor egg at a clinic in Ukraine. ... she told friends she wanted a child to inherit her money. The mum-to-be is managing director of a plastics and textiles company, and was married briefly before filing for divorce in 1990.

way to go Henry!

Our "on-line friend" Henry Cate who runs the Carnival of Homeschooling is quoted in USA Today. Coming across this reminded me that I forgot to link to this week's carnival at The Common Room.

Profound shift in kind of families who are home schooling their children
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Parents who home-school children increasingly are white, wealthy and well-educated — and their numbers have nearly doubled in a decade, a new federal government report says.

As of spring 2007, an estimated 1.5 million, or 2.9% of all school-age children in the USA, were home-schooled, up from 1.7% in 1999.

The new figures come from the U.S. Department of Education, which found that 36% of parents said their most important reason for home schooling was to provide "religious or moral instruction"; 21% cited concerns about school environment. Only 17% cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction."

Perhaps most significant: The ratio of home-schooled boys to girls has shifted significantly. In 1999, it was 49% boys, 51% girls. Now boys account for only 42%; 58% are girls.

That may well be a result of parents who are fed up with mean-girl behavior in schools, says Henry Cate, who along with his wife home-schools their three daughters in Santa Clara, Calif. "It's just pushing some parents over the edge," says Cate, who writes the blog Why Homeschool.

my time is valuable too

Yesterday Julia Ellen had her 2 month well-baby check, the prerequisite to getting several vaccinations. The only appointment I could procure was at 9:20am so I packed up the kids after a quick breakfast, battled the Beltway traffic, and found the last slightly legal parking space on base. There were not many people in the waiting room in the pediatric clinic so the kids spread out to read and look at picture books. The corpsman called our name and I whisked Julia Ellen back for a few minutes alone to get her measurements. (13 pounds, off the chart!) A short while later they called us again so I gathered up the small children, leaving Will and Mary in the lobby, and followed a nurse back to a small examining room. I entertained the kids by balancing Timmy on one knee to read storybooks while simultaneously nursing Julia Ellen until the intern came into the room.

"OH! Do you want me to come back?" "No, she is all finished," I reassured him. Interns usually begin their year in July, but this guy seemed very inexperienced as he asked question after question, "Does anyone smoke in the house? What does she ride in in the car? Which way do you have the car seat facing? How do you manage 6 children? Does anyone in the house shoot? Does anyone in the house smoke? How do you deal with stress?How old is your house? Do you smoke? Is your husband going to deploy? How to you discipline 6 children?...." It felt more like a police interrogation than a medical checkup, with a cop trying to confuse a suspect into admitting he did it.

It seemed that he wanted to get a confession out of me, "Yes, I'm so overwhelmed every day. I don't know why I had 6 kids, no one should do this! I beat them to get them to behave like the angels they are being right now. Call social services and take them away so I can get a full night sleep!" I was polite, but getting a little irritated and he finally finished and said that the staff physician would be right in.

10 minutes ticked by... 20 minutes ticked by.... 30 minutes came and went. After almost 11 years of waiting and waiting for military pediatricians to show up, I finally snapped. I began to rant aloud, "How long is a well-child check supposed to take? 2 more minutes and I am out of here!" The 2 minutes passed very quickly as I got Julia Ellen back into her clothes, "Let's go!" I told Will and Mary who had been patiently reading while strapping the baby into her car seat.

I did call the clinic later and ask if I could go back and get her shots at the immunization clinic without the physician's signature on the chart. They took my name and number and finally at 4pm the doctor called to simultaneously apologize and blame me for what happened. "I understand that this is a teaching hospital, but with this many children I have been the guinea pig more times than the average. I certainly don't think it is fair to expect me to keep 4 small children quiet in a tiny space for over an hour and leave a 9 and 10 year old alone for that long."

This summer I plan on getting the baby's 4 month shots at the local family practice clinic in Maine, just paying out-of-pocket. I have a feeling that I won't be kept waiting for over an hour for him to pronounce her fat and fabulously healthy.

it's my computer!

This past weekend the girls went to their aunties' houses and brought home trinkets for themselves and for their brothers. One of the treats were horse cards (think Pokemon or baseball cards) called Bella Sera. Well, their expert eyes found bellasera.com on the bottom of each card and Mary has been asking before breakfast, "When I finish my work, can I play on the computer?" While dressing horses and feeding them is perfectly innocent, I don't really care for the children to spend their free time on the computer, but prefer that they read books and play games.

I'll give the newness of it about 2 weeks and then it is off. After all, I want to check my email, chat on-line, and get back to playing Tumble Bees. (Actually this has been beneficial in a way. I have finished 3 baby quilts in the past 3 days. Keep playing guys!)

too many people?

Last week I finished a very interesting book, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner,

which tracks the source and impact of what we use/purchase. The author travels to the depths of a gold mine in Africa to see the process of extracting tons of ore to refine the few ounces of gold used in his wedding ring, explores the deep sea where many fish are being hunted to extinction, visits a green bean farm in Kenya and prawn hatchery in Bangladesh that both fly food thousands of miles to Britain, and witnesses the vast desertification of Uzbekistan in order to grow cotton for our clothes. It was amazing to catch a glimpse of how many ordinary items are produced and shipped all over the world so we can pick them up and purchase them at the local Walmart.

It is only at the end of the book that the author goes completely eco-crazy and gives us his solutions for the global crisis: grow more food in cities to reduce shipping, get rid of cars, stop burning fossil fuels for energy (he against nuclear for purely emotional reasons, so where does that leave us?), and stop having babies. This last "suggestion" has been debated many times over the past 20-40 years with the greenies saying there are too many people in the world and the Catholics saying that civilization and humanity will self-destruct if we contracept and murder our way to a smaller global footprint. Then this morning I read a blurb from LifeSiteNews which reported that several of the world's rich and powerful have met secretly to discuss reducing the population to "save the world."

Even though recent demographic study has revealed a great looming threat of demographic winter, the richest of the rich seem to believe that overpopulation is the top priority for their philanthropic endeavors. John Harlow writes today in The Times about a secret meeting of the global financial elite, convened by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates, at which attendees agreed that curbing the world's population should be their top priority.

In "Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation," Harlow recounts that a May 5 meeting took place in Manhattan that included "David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America's wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey." Harlow notes that the general agreement that population control was a major priority came at Gates' instigation.
Gates' enthusiasm for population control comes as no surprise since he has himself admitted to being strongly influenced by the views of Thomas Malthus, the fear-mongering overpopulation guru of the late 18th century.

Yes, we need to live more simply and be more mindful of where our clothes, food, and energy comes from, but killing our fellow human beings is not the solution. Are these folks suggesting that Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Lenin were the best of men? After all, they reduced our carbon footprint. We would be wise to remember that each person has a unique soul created by God and we have a responsibility to defend the weakest among us.

exercising the 2nd Amendment

Way back in February I was concerned (along with a lot of other people) that our 2nd Amendment rights were likely to be threatened with the election of Barack Obama. Tim took a gun safety class in February and yesterday it was my turn. I had a few logistical issues to overcome such as producing enough extra breast milk to leave for Julia Ellen and then pumping and pitching in the bathroom periodically during the 5 hour class.

I was so proud when the instructor asked twice, "Are you sure you have never shot before?"

it is so quiet...

Yesterday the girls left for a weekend sleepover at their aunties' houses and it is amazing how my work load has diminished with only 4 children in the house.

Only 4 children... it seems funny, because when I had 1 child it seemed like there was an impossible amount of work and effort to get through the day, but now if I only have 3-4 kids at Mass or while running errands it is a mini-vacation. It seems too bad that I didn't know how easy 2 children could be when I only had that number, I could have saved myself a lot of whining and complaining. I certainly don't regret the large number of little people I have to feed and clothe and cuddle, the joy and laughter far outweighs the loads of dirty laundry and arguments that must be broken up every day.

please mr. postman...

is there a letter in your bag for me?

This week our field trip was a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Union Station Metro stop, the National Postal Museum. Tucked away inside the old DC Post Office, the museum is full of neat kid-friendly exhibits,

an example of every method of delivering the mail,

folk art mailboxes,

and Owney the dog who was the railway mail service mascot during the 1880's.

We learned about early mail routes between Boston and New York, early machines that manufactured envelopes, and direct mail (also known as junk mail). The children even got to sift through hundreds of stamps and start their own collection. Each picked a theme, Maggie chose birds, Mary chose people (including Louisa May Alcott, her favorite author this week), and Will selected 6 striking stamps from European countries.

On the train ride home we chatted with a nice man after Timmy accidentally whacked him and when we said goodbye, they asked the question that means a field trip was a success, "When can we go back?"

sweating again

After a few weeks of not being able to run due to Tim's long hours at work and being away I finally have been able to run 4 days in a row. So far it hasn't resulted in any weight loss, but I'm sure that they will come off, especially since I found Gmaps pedometer which allows me to plan out new routes and calculate the distance down to hundredths of a mile. I might have to run clutching the directions in my sweaty palm, but I can get 4-5 miles in without having to go on the main roads and risk getting run over.

those who can't... teach?

I recall standing on the sidelines of a soccer field a few years back listening to a young woman complain to her friend, "Please pray for me this weekend. I have to take the Praxis exam again, 'cause I flunked it the last 2 times." Now, I had to take calculus II 3 times because I'm not the brightest person out there when it comes to numbers. (for the record I did get a B on the 2nd go-round at the local Community College, but the policy required I take it again at Tech, where I got a C) But these standardized tests are so easy that even a non-mathematically inclined person like myself managed to score 187/190 on the math portion of the Praxis exam.

So... the question is how dumb are all these Elementary Education majors that they can't pass a very easy standardized test? And do you really want them teaching your children? I have much more confidence in parents who care enough to take on their own kid's education and are willing to sacrifice to do so.

MALDEN, Mass. (WPRI) - According to state education officials, nearly three-quarters of the people who took the state elementary school teacher’s licensing exam this year failed the new math section.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results Tuesday. They say that only 27 percent of the more than 600 candidates who took the test passed. The test was administered in March of this year.
The teacher’s licensing exam tested potential teachers on their knowledge of elementary school mathematics. This included geometry, statistics, and probability.
Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester was not surprised by the results. He told the Boston Globe that these results indicate many students are not receiving an adequate math education.
Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents , said "The high failure rate puts a shining light on a deficiency in teacher-prep programs."

carnival of homeschooling

Home School Dad is hosting this week with a baseball theme, perfect for my post today.

a beautiful day for baseball

it is very hard to really whack a baseball off a tee in our suburban front yard. It is likely to either hit a car, a house, or go down the storm drain, and the backyard is worse with a narrow yard and a steep hill that goes down to a stream. So after weeks of the kids begging to practice at a local field, I decided that if everyone finished their work and piano before lunch yesterday(very easy since 1/2 the subjects have been finished for the year) then we would gather up mitts and balls and head over for a little hitting and fielding practice.

Of course Will's and Maggie's mitts were missing, as were all of the baseballs ( I have bought about 8 of them this spring) so we stopped at the thrift shop and picked up 5 balls at $1 each and 2 more mitts at about $3 each. Parenting "experts" would tell me that I should employ logical consequences when the children lose their toys and make them work to pay for new ones or make them miss practice, but with 6 kids, how am I supposed to know if they lost their own equipment or a younger sibling simply misplaced it?

Every kid got a turn at bat, but the little ones soon drifted away to play in the gravel or pick "wild strawberries" so Will and I played for a good long time before we ran out of water and finally gathered up our things to go home.

and on the 5th day....

there was POOP!

Maurisa, you were spot on, it was explosive and got all over her outfit, her socks, her blanket, my jeans, my hands... I'm so grateful she did this at home (and not out in public), not at dinner time, and when most of the children are with their father at baseball. One bath later she is a sweet smelling and clean little babydoodle again.

Notre Dame and Obama

Michelle Malkin has some fabulous commenters up at her piece about Notre Dame.

our own personal physician

There have been many time over the past 11 years that I have been spared a trip into the pediatric clinic by getting medical advice from my husband. "Is this cut deep enough to warrant stitches?" (Yes) "Should I be worried about this rash?" (No) This weekend I asked, "Is there something wrong with Julia Ellen's digestive system?" (Not likely)

I noticed on Thursday after I started using the two bags full of cloth diaper liners that Michelle brought me, struck me on Friday after only changing wet nappie after nappie, and concerned me on Saturday when evening came and the child still had not pooped. Now it is Sunday and by the time she went night-night she still hasn't gone. She is happy and belching and "making bubbles" so everything seems to be in working order, but if I didn't have Tim reassuring me that, "there is nothing you can do," I would be hauling her into the ER wailing, "My kid won't go potty!"

I'm quite sure after expressing all this anxiety about the situation she will wake up tonight at 3am with an overflowing nappie, simply to expose me for the Nervous Nellie Mommy that I am.

stocking up

This past week I printed and clipped a huge stack of on-line coupons before heading out to the commissary. The bulky items such as toilet paper, nappies, and coffee filled the cart halfway through the store so I had to send Maggie out and fetch another one. She is pretty good at pushing the cart for the first aisle or so because then the packages inside block her view. Needless to say it was a comedic sight with 3 small children racing around in circles while I was throwing rolls of paper towels over my shoulder and steering both carts. Luckily Julia Ellen didn't even wake up until we got back into the van. I learned many years ago to give babies a good feed right before going to the grocery to prevent unpleasant episodes.

Usually the 90 minutes that Will and Mary spend at piano is enough time to shop, drop off the perishables at home, and still have time to return before they spill out the front door of their teacher's house, but this time we were almost 20 minutes late due to the cashier examining each coupon with microscopic intensity in an effort to reject them, but despite his efforts, (since I am honest to a fault) I managed to save over $40 off my bill.

Kraft, owner of the Maxwell House coffee brands, raised retail prices on its Colombian blend by almost 19 per cent last month due to the rising prices of Colombian coffee beans. Nestlé declined to comment on whether it has been raising prices on Nescafé.

Separately, sugar prices in New York and London rose last week to their highest in almost three years. White sugar prices rose above $450 a tonne, a 52 per cent gain from mid-December, as traders bet that India, the world’s largest consumer, will require hefty imports to compensate for the failure of the local crop.

not too cool to wear shades

our Stevie Wonder impersonators

if you pull on your fingers the bug tattoo wiggles!

learning US geography

While growing up, instead of posters of pop bands or movie stars, I covered all 4 walls of my bedroom with National Geographic maps. Right next to my bed was a map of the United States which I traced with my finger the routes and places in my reading. By the time came to officially memorize the capitals I was ahead of the pack. Seton requires memorization of this information in the last quarter of 5th grade. While Tim was quizzing the children at supper the other night I realized that our method actually worked, both kids could spit out the capitals with ease, even Charleston, West Virginia which I'm pretty sure he thought was Wheeling.

Every day for weeks we have played Mad Dash, a fun geography game I picked up at the thrift store followed by filling in a blank map of the US, xeroxed from Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book.

When she could fill it all in with no trouble we switched to my homemade color-coded flash cards to match states and capitals.

In less than 8 weeks she is better educated in US geography than many of today's high school seniors.

carnival of homeschooling

Walking Therein is hosting a Mother's Day themed carnival this week.

rain, rain GO away!

During the past month Tim has taken the older children on Monday evenings to homeschooler baseball/softball, leaving me home with "only" 3 small children to bathe, read stories to, and put to bed. But with Tim up in New England this week I had to fight the traffic and haul the whole crew across the county, only to have the rain come pouring down about 45 minutes later. The kids had a wonderful time, and Charlie got to practice with the little boys, but in our mad rush to the van I forgot to pick up my new library book off the ground and didn't realize it until I was putting the children to bed.

"Well, we will go back up there after every one's schoolwork is finished just to get it out of the mud," I told Maggie this morning. Then I sat down at the computer to read an email from one of the other parents saying he found the book! Yeah! I'm thinking that that $20 I was going to give to the library should be used in some way to say thank you for small blessings.

putting away the Easter candy

Between not being able to run much this month (Tim's been working really long hours) and eating too much sugar, my weight has bounced up and down. My goal this week while he is away is to hide the 1/2 price candy and not eat any sweets. Right now I can only fit in 2 pairs of shorts and I'm getting very frustrated on Sunday mornings about my choices in what to wear to Mass since most of my skirts are in smaller sizes than what will currently button around my waist.

happy mother's day!

Since a crowded and expensive dinner out with 5 kids and a 2 month old is not my idea of a good time, our little clan will be heading out after Mass for a picnic lunch and stroll at the National Arboretum on Sunday. The 15,000 azaleas are in full flower and I am looking forward to the show.

I recently read this in our church bulletin, "I go to Mass every week and thank God for the blessings of my husband and children. I also go to Mass every week to pray to get through another week with my husband and children." May I be a good mother to my children and a good wife to my husband, after all, they likely pray to survive another week in my company as well.

May we all pray for our mothers and grandmothers. For those who are still with us let them know how much you love them. For those who are deceased Eternal rest give to them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.

treasure trove

This morning we were supposed to go to the National Zoo with the American Heritage Girls, but like baseball earlier this week, it was cancelled due to rain. I think it has rained 10 out of the past 14 days, reminding me of this past summer in Maine when I almost went mad being shut up day after day in a very tiny apartment with 5 children.

Of course the kids were so looking forward to a field trip that when morning dawned and it wasn't actually raining yet... I said we could ride the Metro and go to the National Aquarium. I printed out my school group discount sheet off the internet and we hit the road. I had to wrangle for a minute or two with the ticket guy, "Are you discriminating against homeschoolers?" but it did shave $1 each off the kid's regular admission. The aquarium is pretty small, but we did like the piranhas, the alligators, the electric eels and this medium-sized snapping turtle.

After a quick snack/light lunch of Triscuits and blueberry muffin we headed over to the Mall on our way to the Botanic Gardens, but were waylaid by two huge tents full of exhibits by every government entity that exists. The kids filled up tote bags with balls, pencils, stickers, magnets, calenders, flashlights, tape measures, puzzles, and CDRoms. In the military tent they saw a dozen landmines (they were inert), a table full of guns to hold (no bullets), and talked to many soldiers and reservists. The paratroopers helped Will test out a parachute and explained how to jump out of an airplane.

We never made it to the Botanic Garden, instead visiting the very nice restrooms and lobby of the Smithsonian Castle before heading home to dump out the loot all over the living room floor.

what a beautiful life

Irena Sendler - who recently died at 98 years of age, was a 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee During WWII, Irena was given permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist, but she had an ulterior motive. Being German, Irena knew what the Nazi plan was for Jews. Irena smuggled out infants in the bottom of a tool box she carried in the back of her truck. She used a burlap sack for bigger children. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with her dog. The barking covered noises of the infants and children.

Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 infants and children, before she was caught! The Nazi's broke both her legs and arms, and beat her severely. Irena kept a record in a jar buried under a tree in her back yard of all the children she smuggled out. After the war, she tried to locate all parents that may have survived to reunite families, but most had been gassed. The children she could not reunite were placed with foster families or adopted.

Irena was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won for a slide show on Global Warming.

Thank you to Delores for sharing this. After yesterday's outing in which we were subjected to extreme rudeness, learning about Irena gives me a renewed hope in humankind.

our oldest child

When I first went to Tim's apartment while we were dating, a little orange and white fluffball stretched out his paws on my leg to receive a head scratch. When we married and moved to our little bungalow overlooking Scott Creek I would find a little furry purring bundle on the end of our bed waiting to be patted. When we were standing in the Norfolk airport waiting for our flight to Italy to be called a little pink nose pushed out between the mesh of his carrier to be rubbed. Every summer we would load that same carrier in the back seat and attempt to soothe an anxious kitty as we prepared for the 10-15 hour trip to Maine.

Freddie has been through it all, 17 years worth of moving, bringing baby after baby home, always underfoot waiting for someone to give him attention and hiding under the bed when visitors came. While I am a cat person in general, Freddie is by far the most affectionate and sweet feline that has ever existed. He has never scratched or bit anyone and we have reciprocated by teaching each child in turn, "Must be nice to kitty. Give kitty a pat." He has been getting sicker and thinner in the past few months and it is time for us to say goodbye. But he is the only pet the children have ever known and so will stay in our memories and even in our family song.

Yes, we have a family song and I'll share it if you don't laugh:

I love you

You love me

Together we are family.

With a Mommy and a Daddy

And a Will, and a Mary, and a Maggie, and a Charlie, and a Timmy, and a Julia Ellen,

Don't forget Fat Freddie too,

Don't forget Fat Freddie too.

(tune is the Barney song)

carnival of homeschooling

A Spring Fever edition is being hosted by Atlanta Homeschooling Examiner.

saving my pennies

The IHM homeschool conference is next month and my favorite vendor (besides Seton) is Keller Books. The booth is always crawling with used book aficionados and I learned to take my highlighted list of Landmark Books with me, after finding out the hard way, that when faced with dozens of titles I can't recall which ones we already own.

Yes, we have access to some good libraries where we can find updated biographies and histories, but I have found that my kids are more apt to read The Story of WWI or The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad if it is sitting on the shelf in our home. Some of the particular titles I will be hunting for are The West Point Story, The Story of the Paratroopers, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. To pay for all these purchases I have been trying not to go to the thrift shop, the drug store, or the quilt shop, but instead trying to organize our shelves and see what we really need for next year.

breakfast of champions

In southern Virginia strawberry season begins around April 20 and in North Carolina a bit earlier than that, but 250 miles to the north we expect the berries not to hit peak for another 3-4 weeks. This is a shame 'cause the kids have been pestering me (with good results) to buy them strawberries at the grocery. These children looooove strawberries, last year we ate 8 buckets worth over the course of the season. This morning I made buttermilk biscuits with a little extra sugar and covered the split halves with cut berries, and smothered them in homemade whipped cream.

During the meal as we watched the public school bus pull up, I said, "Now aren't you glad you are homeschooled? You are sitting here eating shortcake while all those children probably ate cold cereal before going outside to stand in the rain." Will said, "Yeah, on my hike Saturday I told the other boys about homeschooling, now they want to do it too!"

my classic kid

Charlie is the epitome of a 4 year old boy: squirmy to the point that he sometimes looks like a marionette and fascinated by anything/everything gross. Currently he is driving us all crazy with his constant antics, hitting a peak on Friday by ruining his perfect blond bowl haircut by chopping off his bangs to 1/4."

This morning in Mass Tim had his hands full trying to keep this one child from doing back flips, while I was able to pray and get the 4 others to stand/sit/kneel without breaking a sweat. One day this child will be 5 (in about 8 weeks) and he will mellow and sit still for longer than 2 seconds, but for now, Charlie is my bouncing (off the walls) little boy.

the father of all field trips

Yesterday morning we woke up bright and early to strive with the Beltway commuters to visit Mount Vernon. This was the field trip that I wanted to do right, but was convinced that something horrible would go wrong as it combines the 3 big dangers: a long drive to get there, high admission fees, and a lot of irreplaceable historical artifacts. The night before I had nightmares that we would get lost, get a flat tire, lose a child, or they would break something. Luckily my fears were not realized and we pulled into the driveway 8 hours later with the same # of children with which we started.

It took me the entire drive to decide to splurge the extra $20 on annual passes, figuring that we will return in the fall after the children learn many useful facts about George Washington and amaze the socks off the docents. "Wow! Those kids know so much, they must be homeschoolers!" To accomplish this I let them dress up in colonial garb in the Hands-on-History room while I visited the Teacher Resource Room. I love the room for little ones (3-8 years) where they can piece together a pottery "artifact," pretend they are eating colonial food, do puzzles, and read stories about Washington. Diana Cordray, the Education Center manager seems to love homeschoolers and put together a huge packet for me of great material, chatted with the children, and oohed and aahed over Julia Ellen. She said the best times to visit were in October, January, and February for the smallest crowds and more interaction with the docents.

The kids really liked their own Adventure Maps which gave them puzzles to solve while we walked from the gardens to the blacksmith shop to the grave site of our first President.

Off the beaten path, but worth the walk was the farm exhibit with a replica of the 16-sided threashing barn that George Washington designed himself. We listened to the colonial-garbed ladies explain about all the animals raised on the farm, including many mules used for plowing and pulling carts like Kit and Kate shown here.

I think doing all the outside things first before returning after eating lunch was smart, but it still took an hour of waiting in a very long line... (this was only about 1/3 of it)

to walk through the house and see the bed where George and Martha Washington slept and the very ornate dining room where they ate dinner. All in all, it was a very long day, but well worth the traffic issues and having to say countless times, "Charlie, put the gravel down. NOW!"

not so good vibrations

At my 6 week post-partum doctor's appointment I mentioned this chronic upper back pain I have been experiencing. She said it was likely due to carrying Julia Ellen around and recommended a massaging pillow. Since getting my new sewing machine I have been doing a lot of quilting and this past week have been working on some yellow star baby quilt tops.

Then it hit me, the pain in my back wasn't due to the baby, but to vibrations from the machine going right up my back. Our rental house was so cheaply built that a toddler walking across the floor sounds like a 400 pound man is jumping up and down from underneath. The light bulbs in the basement have to be replaced every month because of the effect of this vibration. Since then I have put a carpet pad under my chair and a pillow on my chair with no effect.

I don't want to stop quilting, especially right after buying such an expensive machine and frame, but I don't want to risk permanently damaging my back if I continue. Luckily this isn't going to be our residence forever and I will ask the builder up in Maine to reinforce the joists or whatever needs to be done to make sure I can quilt in the future.

carnival of homeschooling

Corn and Oil is hosting this week's carnival with a No Child Left Inside theme, check it out!

warts and all

Today we almost had the perfect homeschool day: everyone got their work finished, no one watched a movie, and we got in extra science lessons. While working around the Verizon dude who spent almost 3 hours in our basement and backyard to fix the busted internet connection, Will set up a little study area out on the back deck and finished Science for the year.

Mary finally completed her 4th quarter Phonics test and I put Maggie's CAT in the mailer to take to the Post Office. While we were working, the younger children found a huge toad in the backyard and proceeded to dig up the grass to find juicy worms, spiders, and rollypolly bugs. We hope to see our new pet again, since Mary apparently taught him the commands, "Stay! Sit!" See how well he is obeying?

Good Mr. Toad.

sad news

Our prayers go out to Ann Coulter (I think she is just hysterical) who lost her mother to ovarian cancer this past week. May God bless Nell's family and have mercy on her soul. She sounds like a great mother and a fine lady, even if she did raise a real firebrand!

complete disconnect between the ears

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

Vice President Joe Biden, a strong abortion proponent, said, "You know there is no excuse for violence against a woman or child. There is no excuse," during an awards ceremony at the Law Center of the Jesuit-run Georgetown University yesterday.

The vice-president's appearance at the university had been condemned by pro-life Catholics, who argued that the event violated a directive from the U.S. bishops that pro-abortion politicians should not be honored by Catholic institutions.

Why is it that the same people who proclaim themselves the defenders of women, minorities, gays, and children are the ones who are in favor of killing, intimidation, and violence to get their way?

shopping spree?

While I was on Amazon buying Liberty and Tyranny (because no local bookstore in our liberal town happened to have one in stock the day after it was released) and Any Child Can Write, I scrolled through the Saxon Math books and found a copy of 7/6 about $5.

All About Spelling appeared on our doorstep on Saturday so Mary and I stayed up late sticking magnets on the back of all the letter tiles. We stayed on my bed the entire time and still managed to lose one tile (they all come on a laminated sheet to cut apart, so I know it was in the box). Anticipating and opening all these boxes made me wonder what else I could buy to bring the big brown truck back to our house. Actually, I don't even know what the UPS man looks like, but it is always fun to see our jolly and friendly mailman Tom.

Then it hit me: cloth diapers. I am getting a bit tired of shelling out $15 a week for disposables. We tried cloth ages ago, but living in a hotel for 4 weeks with no dryer soon put an end to that adventure. Apparently these days diapers are much more user-friendly and if given a good nudge, I might be persuaded to try again.

So... any suggestions on brands or tips for use?

no, she's MY baby!

Yesterday one of my former high school classmates brought her 4 very polite and well behaved children over for a playdate. The kids played inside while it rained and after the sun came out we headed over to the nature center for a little "educational time" and a stroll through the woods.

I'm really glad that Maggie emailed me (my kids are already asking for another get-together), but it surprised me when she said her 3rd child didn't like it when baby Elizabeth first showed up on the scene. My kids love new siblings, the charm only begins to fade once the baby is mobile and starts getting into their gear.

a treasure trove

With all our activities cancelled due to the rain I made an executive decision on Monday to make our own fun: lunch at Chick-fil-a and a trip to the library. One of our neighbors mentioned the previous day that this library has a fabulous book sale every day in the basement. After filling up our tote bags with borrowed movies and picture books I led the children into the stacks to see what we could find for sale.

With 10 bookcases full of children's books (all newly organized), we don't really need more... but Will found a stack of Hardy Boys and Mary seized upon a handful of the Magic Treehouse series. My find was a $2 Landmark Book titled John F. Kennedy and PT-109, which normally sells for between $10-15.


I don't envision such a haul every week, but it is nice to bring home a new (at least to us) book every so often.

carnival of homeschooling

The Common Room is hosting the carnival this week, chock-full of articles you will want to peruse at leisure.

I'm so blue...

After figuring out how to quilt straight lines with my giant quilting frame I have been working furiously on baby quilts to sell. After finishing the two pink Ohio Star quilt tops I cut out enough fabric for 5 blue star tops. Right now I'm on blue top #4 and while they go together in only a matter of 2 hours or so (less when Will helps piece), I'm a little tired of blue stars and am excited about a ladybug print I just found with a yellow background.

sweet dreams

With every baby a month or so after birth I have awoken terrified, only to sneak in to the nursery to check that they are still breathing. Julia Ellen has been gradually going longer at nights between feeds, but last night she officially hit the 8 hour mark.


Of course what that means is that instead of going back to bed and getting more rest, I'm wide awake at 5am and find myself padding downstairs for a little blog reading and posting.

what a beautiful day!

Well, with Julia Ellen being stuffed up and throwing up from coughing so hard we bailed on the Homeschooler Day at the National Portrait Gallery and took advantage of the first 70 degree day this spring to go to the National Arboretum. Free admission, free and ample parking and the opportunity for the kids to run made it a pretty easy choice over having to negotiate the Metro, an overtly politically-correct program, and a no-stroller policy at the museum.

Our first stop was the pond with giant carp which was such a huge hit with Timmy and Charlie that I was afraid they would fall right in.




Then we strolled through the Bonsai exhibit (after a firm don't-touch-anything warning).



Apparently they fascinated Mary so much that she asked me 5 times to buy her a little bonsai. I told her that she could read about their care at the library and then we could consider it. I want to encourage her to learn about plants, after all, I was a horticulture minor at VA Tech, but, I know the likelihood of it getting destroyed during the 10 hour trip to Maine is high.

We next walked around the herb garden and walked up to the columns which once graced the Capitol building.

The Arboretum is quite large (440+ acres) so we drove over to the Oriental gardens and the dwarf conifers before eating a picnic lunch. I plan to make this a regular Sunday afternoon expedition, especially with the opportunity to hike up a hill covered with 15,000 azaleas and a view of the Washington Monument and Capitol from the top. I highly recommend a trip to this tranquil spot filled with flowering apple trees, budding Japanese Maples, Virginia bluebells, and late blooming daffodils.

how can we improve?

This time of year I always seem to be in a mad race to finish up the school year, after all, we only have about 10 weeks until we hit the road for Maine to spend an idyllic summer on the farm. But it is good to look back over the last 7 months and examine what went well and what subjects we could improve on next year. All in all, the children learned a great deal, especially about biology with our home-grown lessons in fetal and infant development!

Will's writing has improved and his vocabulary and spelling have been outstanding. This is the last year he has in handwriting and his math skills have dramatically improved, so I think he will start Seton's 6th grade next year with only a small tweak or two; Apologia's science book instead of the standard text and continue Story of the World in the evening after prayers.

Mary has rebounded remarkably after switching to Singapore Math, finishing 2 levels and currently 1/2 through the next. While she wants to go on to Saxon Math next year I think we will stick with this program next year. Her reading and vocabulary work is wonderful, but she can't spell anything and cries every time I ask her to write a paragraph. The 10 words a week drill and quiz method is just not working so I investigated other programs and much to her delight, I ordered All About Spelling, a phonetic-based spelling program that many homeschool moms rave about. I also stumbled across a book titled Any Child Can Write at the library and finding a gold mine of lessons and tips ordered it on Amazon. We will be incorporating both of these into our lessons immediately, not waiting until fall to have her filling her notebooks with creative and descriptive stories. So, Mary will continue her all-over-the-spectrum homeschool next year, beginning again in spelling, starting 3B level in math, 6th grade art, and 5th grade in everything else.

Maggie has almost finished all her 1st grade work, with only math and spelling left each day. We started on the CAT this week and I found that her reading skills have dropped since she finished her last Faith and Freedom reader last month so I put the 2nd grade reader in her stack which she can reread in September. I don't think we will change anything for next year, but I have to remember that she would be starting 1st grade this fall if she went to public school and not to push her beyond what she can handle.

In addition to the 3 older children, Charlie will be starting K this year. Hopefully I can convince Mary to be my assistant in teaching him phonics and numbers. That only leaves Timmy and Julia Ellen as my "preschoolers." I realize that one fall morning in the distant future (2014) we will have 6 homeschoolers: Will in 11th grade, Mary in 10th, Maggie in 7th, Charlie in 5th, Timmy in 3rd, and Julia Ellen will start her very first day of Kindergarten.

carnival of homeschooling

This week's Peter Rabbit themed carnival has some very good posts. Check it out.

the best laid plans...

I have so many wonderful kid-friendly field trip ideas, but having 6 children tends to make carrying out those plans very difficult. Between softball/baseball, choir, piano, Boy Scouts, and American Heritage Girls we have very few free days available to go anywhere and those seems to be characterized by a child with a stuffy nose and a fever. If somehow we happen to all be well and our daily plans are cancelled, like Monday, something else prevents us from getting down to the Metro station such as waiting all morning for the plumber to replace the leaking kitchen faucet.

Today I wanted us to participate in one of the hundreds of TEA party protests, in which we would be standing with signs, "Obama is worse than King George III ever dreamed of!" and "Thomas Jefferson, my fellow right-wing terrorist!" Instead we will be doing school in the finished basement, nursing baby Julia Ellen (who's nose is a bit stuffy), and making brownies. Hopefully we will squeeze in some good field trips this month. Excellent destinations in the spring include the National Arboretum, Mount Vernon, the Naval Academy, and the National Zoo.

falling through the cracks times 10

I just finished reading a new book from the library, The Trouble With Boys by Peg Tyre which details the gender gap that exists today. Boys are expelled from preschool, are doped up on prescription drugs, are disengaged from extracurricular activities, take few AP classes, don't apply to college, and as a result are less educated and earn less than their 20-something female peers. Something has gone terribly wrong with how we raise and educate boys and this book explores some of the reasons behind the problem.

I wouldn't want to condense this book to a few short quips, but imagine yourself as a little boy growing up today expected to sit still for hours each day with no opportunity to race around or play the kind of games that come naturally, pushed beyond your developmental capacity, surrounded all day by women who seem frustrated and disappointed by your behavior, and not given good examples of how to become a man. You might just end up frustrated, tuned out, and spending your days playing video games too.

What should we do as homeschooling parents to help our sons and encourage other parents? Give boys lots of opportunities to blow off steam in free play, don't expect them to sit still all day- Mary Kay Clark, bless her soul, suggests having boys jump rope between subjects (she mentions this in every talk, but she has raised 7 sons, so she does know from whence she speaks), encourage reading but let them learn at their own pace (my oldest didn't really read until the beginning of 2nd grade- a big no-no these days in public school), get them involved in boy-centered activities such as Cub/Boy Scouts, encourage extracurricular activities other than just sports, find them fun but educational hobbies such as model building, and pray for them.

This issue is not just one that affects parents of boys, but our entire culture as we shift from a traditional family model to one in which 1 in 3 wives are out earning their husbands and dominate almost every professional field. I do have hope that the pendulum is swinging back toward doing right by boys and this book gives examples of how we can assist in educating all of America's children well.

busy as a bee in spring

This is what I've been doing the past two weeks:

Now I need to go to G Street Fabrics and find something wild for the borders and start on some blue baby quilts, then I'll be ready for etsy!

Happy Easter!

This morning was a cold, but sunny day and we had our first incident-free Mass in almost a month. Will was complemented on his serving, the girls on behaving so well, and the little boys for not having to be removed from the pew. I am in the midst of preparing Easter dinner and hope that your day has been as filled with eggies, fancy hats, and (at least perceived) holiness as ours.

spring organizing

Well I might not have alphabetized the 10 bookshelves of children's books in the schoolroom, I haven't sorted the toys into bins in the playroom, I haven't even managed to fold and stack neatly all the new fabric I have bought recently, but... I did tidy something: socks.

We keep this big basket in the kitchen with all the children's socks so that when it is time to go somewhere the kids don't all scatter, leaving me to follow when they call out, "I can't find my socks!" I finally switched to Hanes brand for everyone because they have those easily identifiable colored letters on the bottom (thanks Danielle!). To make it even more simple for those who can't recall which color cooresponds to which child, I made this chart:

Now that I've tackled that big project, maybe I'll start to work on those bookshelves....

grey fuzzballs

Last week a very rare set of three wild baby eagle chicks hatched at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. You can watch live footage here as well as link to video clips of Mommy and Daddy Bald Eagles feeding their young eel and fish. Checking out the eagles is now part of our daily routine, yesterday Will and I watched one eaglet go potty!

please pray for our nuns

While we were stationed in Naples we became good friends with a group of Benedictine nuns at San Vincenzo al Volturno in the Abruzzi mountains. I have been very worried about them due to the massive earthquake which struck L'Aquila on Monday, destroying buildings and killing over 200 people. Please pray with me for all the people affected by this disaster.

carnival of homeschooling

A Pondering Heart is hosting this week's carnival with a theme in honor of April being National Gardening Month.

do ray me fa so...

I've plucked the book Raising Musical Kids off the shelf at the library after one of the ladies started a discussion on the Ora board about the best series to teach piano.

We have been through 3 piano teachers due to military moves and have been very happy, despite or perhaps because of, our serendipitous method of finding a teacher. Our first instructor was the church organist who played at our wedding. When we moved to North Carolina both kids had a great year after Mrs. Hillman called me in response to fliers we posted around the neighborhood. This past year I had one week to find someone before leaving for Maine and was referred to their current teacher by a national piano teacher association.

The book covers when to begin music study, how to find a good teacher, choosing the right instrument, and the best chapter: describing what good practicing looks like. Usually I read books like this and mentally file away the useful information, but I am hitting Office Depot this afternoon to xerox this chapter to keep on hand. Apparently Will has been doing something that Robert Cutietta, a musician, music teacher, parent, and writer recommends; playing a fun and well known piece at the end of each practice. Everyone in the house is pretty sick of hearing "Ghost Ship" when he plays it as his finale every day, but it gives him confidence (as well as an opportunity to make everyone roll their eyes in exasperation).

lots of cherry blossoms and people

For years I have heard people rave about the cherry trees blooming in Washington, DC, but have never managed to be here in April, so yesterday morning we decided to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't realize that the Japanese festival was taking place, the official parade was at 11am, that everybody and their brother was going to be downtown, but we soon found out when the Metro Center station was so crowded that we couldn't get on the train going to the Smithsonian and decided to walk. Then we stopped at a bookstore to use the potty and I tried to nurse Julia Ellen but was rewarded with milk upchucked all over my pants and her outfit. Only 15 minutes later did we run into problem #3 with the parade route cutting off our access to the National Mall and the view of all those famous trees.

After we finally got across the street, we wandered up to the Lincoln Memorial and took the elevator, bypassing all the stairs and then walked past the White House, not even attempting the closer Metro station.

Poor Charlie was so tired he fell asleep while I was giving him a piggy-back ride. Our bedraggled crew practically crawled into the house where Tim cooked up a triple batch of pancakes and renewed their energy enough to play outside. While I was pointing out flowering trees on the car ride home Mary said, "You mean we could have just seen the cherry trees on our block and NOT had to go through all that?"

It certainly would have been easier on all of us, that's for sure.

what are you feeding that child??

Yesterday Julia Ellen had her 2 week pediatric appointment. Yes, she is 4 weeks old today, but they said since I was an "experienced" mom they would not require me to drag her back so soon after birth. The military hospitals in DC have major parking issues (there is none) and I have the added difficulty of not being able to fit into the parking garage so the closest I can park is 1/2 mile away with a huge flight of steps in between (try that with a double stroller).

After the corpsman weighed her: 10lbs 3 oz., the resident examined Julia Ellen and exclaimed, "She looks like a 6 week old!" Obviously she is thriving and the conversation somehow turned to homeschooling, "How do you do it? How can you do 1st grade in 30 minutes when public schools take 6 hours?" It was funny to see myself through their eyes, this confident got-it-all-together mom of many.

Yeah right.

Any pride evaporated when we had to travel back down those long set of stairs to the parking lot and Timmy pulled his hand away from mine, sprinted down the hill, and jumped with both feet into an enormous puddle. He not only soaked himself up to his waist but got Charlie wet too.

As for the original questions: What am I feeding this fat little baby?

Evidently pure cream.

rousing the troops out of bed

This morning is First Friday and the homeschool Gregorian Chant choir the two older children attend sings at Mass at 8:00am, which wouldn't be too bad except the church is 45 minutes away. Luckily another mom volunteers to take them, only leaving me to get them up, fed, and presentable by 7:15.

A few weeks ago the group gave a concert in Baltimore the day after St. Benedict's feast day in St. Benedict's Church, which is run by a group of Benedictines- very appropriate! They did a marvelous job, though I don't think Will opened his mouth once and Mary spent the entire last chant trading elbows jabs with the boy next to her.



We had the added excitement of me losing my car keys and only finding them in the sanctuary after begging the gift shop lady to let us back in and praying quite a few Hail Marys. While I can't sing a note without mangling it, chant is a wonderful way to glorify God both in prayer and voice.

carnival of homeschooling

Janice Campbell is hosting the carnival this week with a Spring Fever edition. This week is the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC and we are going to try very hard to get the big kids downtown this weekend to see the riot of pink flowers. Maybe we will run into Michelle and her kids strolling around the Tidal Basin.

discipline issues

Recently the older children have been giving Tim and I more problems (it really has been going on for a while, but I have been ignoring the situation) with disrespect and poor attitudes. So I listened again to my CDs by Dr. Ray Gurendi from last year's IHM Catholic and Family Life Conference in Chantilly, VA. He and his wife have raised 10 children and he offers very practical, been-there-done-that techniques to get your children to become pleasant, positive people, rather than sullen nasty little brats. A few days ago I printed out this essay for when they give me a hard time

and I can see an effect after the 5 + times they have copied it.

sweet rest

Last night I awoke with a start at 2:15am to perfect silence. Then I put my head down on the pillow and heard a faint cry from the next room. As soon as I opened the door and turned on the light Julia Ellen quieted and waited for me to offer her Mommy milk. Gradually she has gone from 3 hours between night feeds to 6 hours of sleep for her, resulting in 5 hours for me (going to bed at 8pm would be nice, but...).

As I looked down at my little girl and stroked her soft head I was so proud (hopefully not in a sinful way) that every ounce of her body, every drop of food she has consumed has miraculously come from me. What a satisfying feeling, not at all what Hanna Rosin, a liberal writer had to say about how babies keep mothers tied at home and not productive. Anyone can get a job and earn a few $$, but only I could assist in the creation of this tiny and precious child.