on my own again

Tim leaves tomorrow (in the midst of Hurricane Bill) for DC and will return in about 4 weeks. Yesterday I took advantage of the opportunity to hit my favorite used book store and get out of the house with only the 2 little ones in my care. After an hour Tim called on the cell, "Where are you? Why are Maggie and Charlie out in front of the garage alone?" 5 minutes later he called again to ask if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean. I gave up on a trip to the library with great Wi-Fi (I had more pictures for the farm chores post but they wouldn't load on dial-up at home) and headed back. Again the phone rang, but this time I had left my purse in the back seat and refused to stop the car to answer it.

Every time I have a hard day or a mini-crisis up in Maine he suggests that perhaps I shouldn't stay up here alone with 6 children, but he can't manage without me for 2 hours (at that with only 4 children)? Now to be fair, he did apologize profusely when I got home and he is very capable, even managing to meet me in town for the loan closing with the 4 little ones in tow.

I did find several Landmark Books I couldn't live without, but I managed to not succumb to the desire to purchase the very rare #120 Medical Corps Heroes of World War II, priced at $125.

farm chores

This summer was almost the summer that wasn't. It rained every other day for much of June and July and has finally been hot enough to hay the fields. One of the neighbors down the road came the other day to mow and yesterday Will and Mary helped stack the bales on the wagon. Now the front field is clean and the rest of the baling should be finished today ahead of the hurricane coming up the coast.

My garden was finally dry enough to till, too late to plant anything that we could eat, but we planted some seeds from the discount bin at the hardware store so the kids could get the general idea of where their food comes from (well, not their food since they don't eat veggies, but normal people's food).

I hauled a few loads of horse manure from the pile at the dump (excuse me, transfer station) and together with lots of spare hay I made an enormous compost pile. The kids have gotten into the habit of not complaining too loudly when I ask them to dump the scrap bucket I keep in the kitchen.

The last project I have been working on is going out in the early morning with the pole saw and hacking back branches that overhang the fields. I realized during my tractor driving lessons this week that branches that seem safe while walking about are right at eye level when on the seat of a tractor. With enough bug spray and a huge floppy hat I can chop chop chop for about 90 minutes before needing sustenance and a short nap.

All these chores will help us in future years, but we all can't wait for that day when we will be up here for good and don't have to schlep back and forth to DC. 23 months left, but who's counting?

carnival of homeschooling

Home Spun Juggling is hosting this week's carnival with a juggling theme.

I don't wanna buy more baby gear

When you are expecting your first child you get the newest and most fashionable stroller, clothes, and crib. When you are expecting your second child you spluge on more stuff like an Ultrasaucer and a changing table.

When you are expecting your sixth child you need new stuff because the other 5 kids have destroyed the baby gates, lost the breast pump parts, and turned the Boppy Pillow into a 2" high pancake. So you either suck it up and buy more stuff or resort to what people used before BabiesRUs existed.

stereotypical Maine summer day

Yesterday I told the kids to pack up the van with beach gear (we went to Mass on Saturday afternoon so we could hit confession beforehand) and we headed out on to Knight's Pond. Saturday was a hotter day, and not just because I ran a 5K (2nd in my age group), and the race ended in a parking lot with the smell of trash wafting from the Bangor City Dump. They remembered all the life jackets, the inflatable boat and paddles, the cooler, and the blanket to sit on. My only job was to pack pb&js and change Julia Ellen's nappie. We left Tim happily mowing the field edges and spent the afternoon splashing, riding about, and chatting with the other families.

After cleaning up ourselves and the van we headed back out to go to the lobster pound for supper, a yearly treat. Lobster pound dining runs the gamut, some eat off the tacky Styrofoam trays with a plastic fork while the more glamorous cover the picnic table with a tablecloth and pull out bottles of wine, appetizers, and salad to accompany their boiled lobster. Before I tucked into my twin special (2 lobsters on a plate) the children picked up lobsters from the tank. "I picked up two at one time!" "Look at this big one!" (yes, I know this is a crab, but the others were dark)

Eating an ice cream bar back home finished up the day with promises that we would visit the pond several more times in the coming weeks.

hallelujah!

We are finished with school! While Maggie finished 1st grade months ago and Mary finished about 4 weeks ago, it took Will forever to write and polish his book report on St. John Vianney. The California Achievement Test is knocked out so all that is left is for me to drop off the mailers at the post office.

This is the latest is has ever taken us to get through a school year in our 6 years of homeschooling, but it is the first time that we had a baby born in the middle of the academic year. Of course we are all ready to start back up in about 2 weeks, but we will take advantage of the hot temperatures and sunny skies that have finally arrived in Maine. Today we are planning a trip to Knight's Pond, a secret spot in the middle of nowhere with a tiny beach, blueberry bushes, and a resident Bald Eagle.


In the meantime Maggie and Charlie have been clamoring to begin phonics and mathematics, so who am I to say they can't?

mommies of large families are psychotic?

In 2007 alone, American women birthed more than 4.3 million babies — the highest number ever. More than a quarter of those were to women having their third or fourth child, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some women may like being pregnant a little too much, often driven to rapidly reproduce out of insecurity, a craving for attention, or feelings of abandonment by their own parents.

Having babies isn't addictive in the way that alcohol and narcotics can be. But bumpaholics feel compelled to procreate for many of the same reasons that substance abusers turn to booze or drugs.

"Women who are obsessed with being pregnant are literally filling an emptiness inside of them, just as alcoholics and drug addicts use substances to fill a psychological void," says Beverly Hills psychiatrist Carole Lieberman, M.D. Every one of us at some point encounters this void, adds New York family therapist Bonnie Eaker Weil, Ph.D., author of "Financial Infidelity." "You want to have a purpose in this world. You want to feel less lonely." msn

Or some of us could be us just love babies, like our children, and are trying to follow the God's teaching. There are days like today that I feel psychotic, but that is because I have 6 children, not the other way around.

dirt in the...

house, dirt in the car, dirt in kid's hair, dirt caked into the kid's clothes. Where did all this dirt come from? A big hole in the ground- the foundation for what will be our house 18 months from now. In the meantime, we have lots of dirt to play in. Dirt for playing house, playing roads, playing that they are dogs,

that they are bulldozers, that they are at war, and dozens of other games that I can't figure out. But the children are outside in the sunshine and using all those Tonka toys I bought the little boys for Christmas. Charlie now wants an excavator after getting to sit in the cab and move the levers.

Anyone want to come over and play in the dirt?

this is the face...

that apparently stops people’s prayers. We were sitting in Mass this past Sunday and the folks behind us couldn’t stop raving about how beautiful Julia Ellen was. During the passing of the peace we were told by the woman in front of us how pretty she was. Then when I had dismissed the children, “You may go downstairs and have a doughnut,” cleaned up the crayons and was getting ready to genuflect another woman said, “What a beautiful baby!”

If I hadn’t had 5 other babies who looked exactly the same I might me thinking I have a child model on my hands. Yeah she is chubby and smiles a lot, but gee, I feel like I’m back in Italy, the land full of people who love children but don’t have any of their own. Chio bella!

where is Mary??

I forgot my kid. I didn’t lose her, I just forgot about poor Mary in the locker room at the pool while we were on the playground across the parking lot. There she was sitting on the bench in her underpants and t-shirt while I had her shorts in my purse. I tried to give them to her after her swimming lesson but all I got was, “I can’t take them, I’m all wet.” So, for 30 minutes she felt alone and abandoned until I called everyone to get in the van and realized that I hadn’t seen her outside. I should tell her to not feel bad, both my parents forgot my baby brother once, only realizing ½ mile down the road that he was still back in the house.

I am constantly counting heads when we are out, “Do we have everyone we came with? No extras?”

All is well, I gave Mary the privilege of choosing the pasta for naked spaghetti (or should I say naked macaroni?) tonight. I’m forgiven and perhaps she will take more responsibility for her own things next time we go to the pool.

lobster dripping with butter

This losing weight business is for the birds. I should be so grateful that within 5 months of Julia Ellen’s birth I can fit back into most of my clothes. This morning I weighed myself after running and nursing and found the scale showing that I am only 2.5 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight. Switching from an all-you-can-eat pregnancy diet where I had at least one soda a day and M&Ms every night while reading in bed, I would think that I would be back in size 8 in weeks. No such luck.

The problem? Every time I lose a pound my appetite increases to the point of me thoughtlessly scarfing down half a bag of cheese popcorn or doing something else insane, sabotaging my efforts. Then it takes super-human effort for several days to see that same number on the scale. This week's stress of driving Will and Mary an hour each way to sailing lessons hasn't helped matters, a Coca-a-cola keeps me calm enough to not drive like a mad woman on the twisty back roads just to shave off a minute or two.

carnival of homeschooling

Beverly is hosting this week's carnival with a game day theme, I wonder if some of our top five favorite games are listed?

1. Mad Dash
2. Clue Mysteries
3. Puppyopoly
4. Junior Scrabble
5. Uno

We usually have several jigsaw puzzles being put together and the big kids and I play Rummy after the little ones go to bed. (they bounce on the bed and mess up the cards)

Force feeding a cultural education

Last Monday night we drove into Bangor (the “big” city) and went to an evening concert hosted by Kneisel Hall, a Blue Hill summer program for young talented musicians. Now, any parent of small children will state that evening activities, especially ones that involve being quiet are bad ideas. But I really wanted Will and Mary to see Emely Phelps, a prize-winning pianist, currently studying at The Julliard School. The options were to take everyone and pray for good behavior or forget the whole idea. Until 20 minutes before we left the house I wasn’t sure we going to go, but Timmy had a long nap so we changed into nice clothes after supper and hit the road.

After arriving at the church, we sat next to the door off to the side so I had a quick escape route in case of noise or bathroom emergency. A lady came over and graciously asked if the baby was a quiet one, “Oh yes, she is very good and I will cut out if she fusses.” I didn’t take offense, but put myself in the position of the musicians who have practiced and studied for weeks to learn their pieces. I certainly wouldn’t want to spoil the concert with 6 loud, unruly children. Will of course paid perfect attention to the concert while the others were much less interested. Why I folded a copy of Mother Earth News magazine (I only read it for the articles and try not to go ballistic over the enviro-wacko anti-child editiorals) into my purse I don’t know, but it is likely that it saved the evening for over a hundred people. Charlie spent an hour examining each photo within, spending most of his time on the tractor ads. All anyone heard from our pew was a little gurgle from Julia Ellen before I started nursing and a faint repeating hiccup afterwards. The first trio played pieces by Haydn for 20 minutes and the second group (a string quartet) played Mendelssohn’s #6 for 40 minutes. The wiggling and shuffling was getting more noticeable so I made an executive decision to cut our attendance short and head out during the intermission.



A good plan for both a comedian or parent is to always leave them wanting more, the audience that is. Several folks complimented the children’s behavior as we scooted through the crowd, but I knew that if we had stayed we would have ended up leaving in disgrace.


I recall a discussion a few months back on someone's blog about rewarding the children when they are praised by strangers (for their behavior, not their looks) and I felt that they certainly deserved a treat so when we were all strapped in the van I said, “Sundaes at Dysarts!” Even though it was way past their bedtime I was very impressed by their manners and consider the outing a great success.


It occurred to me while we were listening to the beautiful music that I was in a similar position to those young adults in a way. They worked and practiced every day for years to be able to play difficult scores and make it appear effortless, while I have worked, endlessly it seems, for over a decade to have children who can be trusted to sit quietly in church. All the Masses standing in the vestibule, bribing the children with doughnuts, training them in the proper behavior made it look easy. I can’t say that it will be clear sailing from here on out, but this outing would have deemed impossible only a few years ago. So, for those with only little children I give you hope that one day you will be able to listen to the beauty of Mass with few distractions, at least from your own pew.

let them howl

Ever since Will came home from Boy Scout camp he has been eager to use some of his new skills. Our backyard has turned into a campsite, complete with a roped off wood chopping area, 2 tents, a screened pavilion, and now a fire pit. He did a good job constructing all this on his own (I helped put up the pavilion) and the second attempt at fire building was much better than the first. Last night we roasted marshmallows and I let the big kids read in the sleeping bags for 45 minutes after dark.

Charlie couldn’t make himself brave enough to walk out alone to the tents in the dark, so he nestled next to me in bed and was soon sound asleep. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of walking down myself to fetch the rest of them, and to prove my point the second after I poked my nose in the tent, I heard a coyote howl in the not so distant woods. Maggie propelled herself out of her sleeping bag and followed the other sprinting children across the grass and up the back stairs into the safe and secure house. Tim and I conference on the phone and decided that letting the 4 big kids sleep in the hay loft in the barn is a good compromise, they would be camping out, but not accessible to hungry wild animals.

Miss Poopy Pants

I overbought size 1 diapers for Julia Ellen, the poor child had red impressions of the elastic on her thighs when they were wet and swelled up. Now that we have finished up the last package I am free to resume using the cloth diapers that Michelle so graciously lent me a month or so ago. Since the diapers were free and I picked up a few vinyl covers at the thrift shop for less than $1 each I am saving several dollars a day by using cloth. Not to sound like someone’s grandmother, “Back when I was a little girl a Coca-cola cost a nickel,” but way back when my first child was a baby the name brand disposable diapers were about 15 cents each, now they are hovering around 23 cents apiece.

Now down in suburbia land the magic trash truck comes every Wednesday morning and makes all those stinky diapers disappear, but up here in rural Maine you have to take all the trash to the dump (politely and accurately called the transfer station) yourself. Most towns even charge up to $2.50 a bag for the privilege of throwing it away and disposables take up a lot of room. I figure that washing is almost free since we have a well and septic system. Julia Ellen really likes having her nappy changed so the frequent whisking away of wet underclothes makes her smile and kick her feet.

what a view!

Charlie is a typical 5 year old boy. His legs go faster than his sense of balance can handle, so he manages to fall or trip every 10 feet. Maggie doesn’t have the same excuse since most 6 year old girls exhibit a little more grace. Both children’s legs are currently covered with bruises and nasty cases of poison ivy. Today’s outing didn’t improve their looks in our attempt to hike to the top of a nearby mountain.

After befriending the world’s biggest black Labrador Retriever (he put his face in the window of my full-size van to say hi), we walked up a rocky road beside a blueberry field

before scrambling up quarter-acre size rock faces and sitting down to eat our picnic lunch. We fended off the now hungry dog, the deer flies, and no-see-ums, eating our sandwiches in record time so we could pick wild blueberries and drink down limeade. The view was just incredible with woods and farms spread out before us and the river off to the east. I promised the kids that we could bring binoculars the next time so we could find the exact location of our farm.

Between sweating just from carrying Julia Ellen in the sling and holding Timmy’s hand I had my hands full and just gasped when I saw Maggie trip on a rock in front of me and see half the bag of cheese popcorn go flying through the air in a beautiful arc. Her arm and leg were bleeding (luckily it wasn’t the knee that had been cut so badly last week that if we lived closer to the ER we would have gotten stitches) and she tried to make everyone else miserable all the way back to the car.

Just to add to the sweat and ickiness of our hike, when it came time for drying off after baths I noticed Charlie messing with himself. He said, “Is this a tick?” and sure enough there was one right THERE. While I did flinch at first, I managed to get it off and flushed down the potty.

do you need to go?

Now that Timmy has turned 3, we are potty training in earnest. He started about a month ago learning to sit on the potty and get m&ms for sitting. Now he has progressed to getting 1 candy for using the potty if I ask him to, 2 candies if he does it without me reminding him, and a whole 8 candies for pooping in the potty. There are still lots of wet pants, especially since we spend so much time outside doing various farm chores and he isn’t within a few feet all the time. There are gross moments like this morning when I finally got myself and the baby ready to attack weeds only to discover after I stepped outside that Timmy had pooped in his pants. Yuck.

But I have to remember that all the older children went through this as well, I recall one particularly nasty episode in a Subway sandwich shop restroom where I just pitched out Maggie’s underpants. Timmy will eventually learn to use the potty, which will likely lead to embarrassing events like last week when Charlie dropped trou right in front of a dozen picnickers at a town beach and peed right on the sand.

enjoying the summer sun

Well, we finally experienced the first 2 hot days of the summer much to the delight of my children as well as every other person in New England. Even the local newspapers have front page articles about what the rain has done to the farmers and tourists. Nothing has been growing and fungus diseases have been rampant while the tourists from Canada are still traveling here in masse. It makes me wonder how cold and miserable the weather must be up there if they think Maine is an improvement this summer. I have been slowly signing the children up for lessons in swimming, sailing, and canoeing.

Last year Mary helped out at the farm down the road with the horses, but our neighbor seems a bit distracted and hasn’t gotten back in touch with me. I think I’ll check out the horse rescue farm a few miles away and see if she can do anything useful. Mary just wants to be around the creatures in any way she can, she checks out every horse book, fiction or non-fiction, she can from the library and asks every few days, “Do you promise I can have a pony when we move here?”

A well meaning friend keeps suggesting that the girls do ballet with her children, but I can’t contemplate spending beautiful Maine days cooped up at an inside activity. What people who summer here as children remember are the bright blue skies, the cool breezes, the days on the water, and the incredible views of mountain and sea. I want the kids outside, running through the fields, riding their bikes to the mailbox, and wading at the shore. As soon as the package arrives with my sling, we are going to hike up this mountain that overshadows our farm.

It is a mile to the top, but without a secure method of carrying Julia Ellen, it might as well be as far as the moon. While we aren’t quite ready to camp at Mt. Katahdin or brave the summer crowds at Acadia National Park, we are enjoying every ray of sunshine, every breeze, and every opportunity to be out in the wonderful Maine air.

run faster!

After a year long respite I signed up for another running race, but this time one of the children agreed to run with me. Mary has gone running a few times and shows promise so when I explained that the course was less than 2 miles and all downhill she agreed. This morning we got up, futzed around for a bit and topped off Julia Ellen’s tank, before leaving town to go up to Brewer in the misty rain. I was much more nervous than she was, I knew I wasn’t as fast as I was last year. However, the crowds of people lining the route cheered us all on (the 4th of July parade starts 15 minutes after the race) and the views over the Penobscot River were quite pretty. I finished the 3000m in about 13:30 (my first mile time was 6:30) and started back to cheer on Mary, only to find her standing in the chute, already finished with a time around 14:30.

I was so proud of my little runner and she paraded around the rest of the day in her race shirt making Maggie and Will jealous. They have already promised to run next year with the added bonus of seeing the parade and scooping up some candy from the floats. Now I just have to convince Tim to haul the rest of the crew to cheer us on, I think the mention of classic cars and a 1952 John Deere tractor just might be the trick.

shipping one kid off

This afternoon we took Will up to Boy Scout camp, his first time being away from home for more than a night or two. I’m sitting here in relative luxury, for my little boy forgot to pack soap, there wasn’t a pack of mosquito netting available within 300 miles, and I'm not quite sure that he remembered to pack shorts.

The sun finally came out for the first time in over a week and the temperature soared above 80F for the first time all summer. It might be a very stinky, buggy, and hot week but I’m sure that he will still have a great time. After all, my little social butterfly will have 199 other boys to jabber with for 6 days and no amount of discomfort could compete with that.

eat your veggies

After hitting two of our local libraries for new books to read, I came across this interesting selection An Apple a Day, The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat by Joe Schwarcz, PhD. The first half covers specific foods and whether the health claims we hear about in the media are warranted. Some examples are tomatoes and Lycopene, fish and Omega 3 Fats, and Chocolate and Flavanols. The other half of the book concentrates on food issues of our day that have turned trying to have a healthy lifestyle into a herculean task. Is MSG that awful? Is High Fructose Corn Syrup the same chemically as sugar made from sugar cane or beets? Are there fewer pesticides in organically grown veggies? Should we be concerned about polyvinyl chloride leaching into our foods from plastic bottles? The more I read the less worried I was about not jumping on the wagon every time another medical study “proves” that this food is good or that one is dangerous.

While I think it is great that some families feed their children granola for breakfast, hummus and salt-free pita for lunch, cabbage and hormone-free free-range chicken for supper, I can’t manage to go beyond a little ground flax thrown in the pancake mix and a ban on colored breakfast cereal. I might not be doing too badly, the kids eat pounds of fruit and we use real butter and hormone-free milk. Basically studies show that you should eat lots of fruits and veggies, more whole grains, low fat dairy, and eat less overall. If you are concerned about what your family eats or are just want to know if the hype is for real, read a few chapters. I do suggest putting an apple beside your favorite reading spot ‘cause all this talk of food will make you hungry for a healthy snack.

a day at the beach

Since our arrival we have had 1 full day with no rain, so after school and mowing the area around the house with the riding mower we decided to hit the beach. Now, while Maine boasts of hundreds, if not thousands of miles of coastline, most of these beaches consist of gravel, not sand. Children don’t seem to mind, but gravel does tend to stick to the legs and feet, getting deposited all over the inside of the car and the bottom of the bathtub. While it was hot and sunny on the farm, by the time we drove the 20 minutes down to the coast there was a light cover of fog, which hung over the boats in the harbor.


Luckily for us the tide was going out and the kids found seaweed to decorate their castle and moats, emerging rocks to climb on, as well as starfish and periwinkles to collect (and return to the sea). I talked a bit with the harbormaster about the summer sailing program and then packed up the car and headed back home in time for supper. Sometimes capturing summer memories here is like trying to catch a butterfly, you have to be willing to run when the moment arrives, for the sunshine does not stay for very long.

up in Vacationland

Except for the accident, the trip up to Maine was pretty uneventful. I suggest lessons in all aspects of driving a trailer, including backing up, before setting off. The silver lining in the past few days has been that I like my big-mama van much better than the hulking SUV that we are renting while the dent in the van is fixed. I can’t imagine having to fold down the middle seat every time everyone gets in/out, and the thing uses gas like my kids drink chocolate milk through a straw.

On the down side it has been raining for an entire week and only 1 day this week looks to be lovely. Eventually it will stop and the fields will be hayed so we can take long walks and explore. My garden plot looked indistinguishable from the surrounding grass field and when Tim tried to till it on the first dry day he and the entire tractor were soon covered in mud. But soon enough I will plant my box full of veggie seeds. Apparently I’m not too late; folks who planted a few weeks back had all their seedlings killed by frost.

As for school, the older children are whittling down their workload and progressing through the tall stack of piano books their teacher handed me at the recital. They really like to experiment with the different sounds on the electronic keyboard we bought last year for them to practice on. The church organ and harpsichord settings seem to be the most popular, but Will played Old Susanna that made it sound like a real banjo.

Our first outing proved to be a success when we pulled up and Charlie piped up, “This is my favorite library! They have a train table, fish, AND a turtle!” The older children appreciate the finer things, the ability to confer with a knowledgable and enthusiastic children’s librarian who directed Will to Eoin Colfer’s books and showed him the new purchases in the space exploration section. Without my knowing it, the oldest child has learned to Google, but has limited his searches to NASA and Apollo sites. I guess when we get back to Maryland I will have to put a filter on the internet. I can’t imagine what sort of sites might pop up if he searches for “space games.”

We are certainly all glad to be back in Maine: the views are prettier, the pies at the truck stop are sweeter, and our family is able to get out into nature more, even in the damp and drizzle.

on the road again...

The next time I post it will be from the local library in Maine using their WiFi. As they are 10 miles away it is likely I will only be able to post a few times a week. This time tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that we will be mowing the fields, tilling the garden, planting seeds, and moving everything from the garage into our new barn. I'll be sure to post pictures of our progress!

but I'm sure their social skills will make up for it...

While the yellow bus has stopped hurtling down our street every morning, two of our children are still hunched over the books. Will has to finish his last week in Wordly Wise and write 2 book reports, while Mary will continue working on spelling and math. We still haven't even received the California Achievement Test and the piano teacher gave me a huge stack of books for them to work on all summer.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that there is no opportunity to play the blame game; I am the teacher and the parent. If one of the children isn't doing well in a subject then we can immediately review, concentrate on, or experiment with another method to learn the information.

CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School.

The mother of a one student who failed eighth grade says she got no warning her son was struggling. The school says she was notified, and other parents insist she did not do enough. Tatianna Dennis says she had no idea her son was about to fail English; no written notices from Bradwell Elementary, she says, and no warning from his teacher. Tarrell had failed English two times before, but Dennis thought he was doing better. "They told me that he was fine. He was starting to come around and his grades were picking up," Dennis said. "They never gave me any indication that he was going downhill."

It was a disastrous year for the eighth grade at the south side Bradwell Elementary school in a tough neighborhood with high poverty. More than half the class, 44 of 77 students, did not graduate.

stylish luggage

Since we leave for Maine in just a few days I have been frantically cleaning, organizing, sorting clothes, making lists, and returning books to the library. After looking and sweeping under beds searching for that last Boxcar Children book that was on the card we headed over to the other branch library and found two copies. "Are either of these still checked out?" I asked the librarian and found out that it had been sitting prettily on the shelf for two weeks. I guess I should be irritated, but at least now there isn't anything under the beds, not even dust.


Our plan today is school, piano, and while the children's auntie comes to say goodbye, I'm going to scoot out and hit IKEA for a few new rugs and under the bed storage bins. Two dressers are not enough for 6 children and there isn't enough room for another. I also have to pick up some more boxes from the local storage place, I don't have nearly enough suitcases for 8 people to pack clothes in for 14 weeks.


Schoolbooks, hairclippers, raincoats, sweatshirts, don't forget the blue potties for Timmy. Coolers, lifejackets, camera, and computer, squeeze in 4 dolls and Geraldine the giraffe. It could be worse, the last two summers we have PCSed and then headed up to Maine, at least I don't have to unpack too.

orphanages for children with parents

My favorite quote from Dr. Laura is when she was on a panel of one of those daytime shows like Oprah and was getting hammered by the anti-stay-at-home crowd. She asked, "Suppose you were to come back to this world as a little baby. Raise your hand if would you want to be put in day care as opposed to being taken care of at home by your own mother?" It immediately shut down all opposition.

This news article reminds me of her question, Why have children if you aren't going to raise them?" How on earth can someone consider warehousing their small child in an institution for over 10 hours a day?

(LifeSiteNews.com) - A sweeping change that would combine day care with kindergarten in Ontario schools is being proposed by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. The plan would allow parents of 4- and 5-year-olds to leave their children at school from 7:30 in the morning to 6 in the evening.

John Campbell, chairman of the Toronto District School Board, approved of the proposal, saying many parents will welcome the possibility of leaving their children in care facilities for a longer period of time.

"With so many households where you have two working parents or if you have a single-parent family where the sole parent is working, they're already looking for these kinds of solutions," he said in a Canadian Press report.

Chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Lynn Scott said, “I think some parents will certainly welcome it. I’m not sure that’s true of all parents,” she told the Ottawa Citizen, and added that acceptance of the program "will depend on how much importance people place on parents interacting with their young children."

carnival of homeschooling

Super Angels is hosting this week's carnival.

serving God at the altar

Our parish had a surprise this past Sunday when we read the bulletin and found that Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, Australia was saying Mass. He gave a wonderful and orthodox homily on the banquet feast of Holy Communion. When he was introduced to the parishioners afterwards in the social hall one of the ladies asked me, "Can Will serve Mass tomorrow and Tuesday for Bishop Elliot?"

Unlike our former parish, St. Benedict's in Chesapeake, VA, where 15-20 boys rotate serving duties, our parish here only has 2-3 servers so Will serves every week we are in town. I agreed that we would be there and made sure he practiced the responses and gestures that evening. When we arrived before Mass on Monday he found out that no one else was available to serve and he would be doing it alone for the very first time. All my prayers were for my son that he would do his best and glorify God in his actions and words. I especially held my breath after the Sanctus that he would not forget to ring the bell once at the Hanc Igitur (not that the ceiling would come crashing in if he didn't, but I wanted it to be perfect).


After Mass everyone congratulated Will on his fine job and I suggested that doughnuts would be a fitting treat for everyone. While we were sitting at the kitchen table chomping away, Charlie asked, "Is Will going to be a priest soon?" I can only hope and pray that God grant one of our children a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

happy birthday Charlie

Someone woke up on Saturday morning and the first thing out of his lips was, "When can we make my cake?" Charlie had picked out a funfetti mix and decided that blue icing was just the thing to make it special. We did wait until breakfast was eaten and cleaned up before we started, but our brand-new 5 year old got to crack the eggs and work the mixer.

I have been keeping a list of gift ideas for each family member so when it comes time for birthday shopping I can recall what they have mentioned wanting or needing. Charlie's list was: windup flashlight, play dough, and a replacement Thomas the Tank Engine (which he lost at the hospital one day a few months back). All the children asked if they could play play dough on Sunday afternoon and the older children made these and baked them in the oven to save their artwork.

piano recital

Yesterday we all dressed up and drove down to the local Unitarian church (which, from the snapshots on the wall, seems to be where only chubby middle-aged pantheists worship) and watched Will and Mary participate. From little 7 year old Sarah to high school senior Alec (who has been taking lessons for 12 years) the kids were all impressive. All the children also scored honors on the Maryland Piano Teachers music theory test.

I asked some of the other moms at dinner the other evening if they thought that more homeschoolers play musical instruments than public school kids. They seemed to think so, especially since several of us were getting ready for spring recitals. Mary played Sonatina in C by Costly and March of the Wee Folk by Gaynor before playing Alligator Blues by Bastien in a duet. Will played Gavotte by Bach and The Clown by Kabalevsky (his teacher said he learned this faster than any child she has taught) before playing Rondo Capriccio by Beethoven in a duet with his friend John.

Everyone was impressed by Charlie and Timmy who sat for the entire hour without saying a word or making a noise. As for Julia Ellen? She fell asleep in her daddy's arms and certainly didn't ruin her outfit, which she did to me twice the day before at the IHM Conference.

had a blast!

What would help you in your homeschooling? Vendors selling every curriculum/book that interest you? Speakers who have been in the trenches for years and know just the trick to dealing with whatever is hampering your daily life? A dinner out with new and old friends to bounce ideas off of and affirm your radical decision to homeschool?

Well... yesterday at the IHM Conference it was all these things and more. It was being immersed in a micro culture of life with babies and hugely pregnant women everywhere you looked. It was being able to say grace in a fast food restaurant and not have anyone look at you funny ('cause they are all saying it too). It was chatting with other moms who were right where you were 5-10 years ago and have 800 questions about how to homeschool. If you have the opportunity to attend such a conference then just ball up the courage and go!

ready for the IHM Conference

Tomorrow is the IHM Catholic Homeschooling and Family Life Conference in Chantilly, VA. I have gone twice before, but since we lived so far away I stayed in the hotel. This time I can only go for one day with Will and Mary's piano recital and Charlie's birthday on Saturday, but I am looking forward to the exciting speakers, the myriad of items for sale, and seeing many old friends. I had to scramble to find someone to watch the kids, Tim is on call that day and he couldn't stay home (he said he would take them all to work- bad idea) but luckily my cousin Ann volunteered to come over at 8am through lunchtime. I then asked on the local Catholic homeschool Yahoo group if anyone had a teenage daughter who could sit and voila! lovely college student Shelia called and is going to relieve Ann until Tim gets home.

With that logistical nightmare figured out I then set my brain to deciding how I was going to nurse Julia Ellen without showing too much flesh. After seeing several ladies with new nursing covers I decided to make myself one.

Now if I could just figure out how to cart around the baby, my purse, and my new books without resorting to buying a new stroller at BabysRUs.

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.