Today I spent the whole day at a video seminar at our church.  It was by Sonya Shafer, and she was talking about the Charlotte Mason methods of education.  You can check out her website for all kinds of wonderful resources.  I’m eager to look around there and see what they have to offer.

While I don’t teach from a completely CM approach, I did get some good ideas that I want to integrate in my homeschooling.

Most of all, it was great to get away from home for a day, hang out with my sister, go out to lunch, and come home at the end of the day to a clean house and happy children.  My husband is so kind to me!

After resisting for a long time, I finally started using the Wii-Fit program.  All in all, I’m pleased with how it’s going. 

I’ve also started counting calories in an effort to figure out why I’m not losing weight.  After only one day of counting, the answer became painfully obvious.  Looks like I eat far too much to lose any weight.  So now I’m trying to control that a bit better.

Laura and her cousin, Nathan.

One Big Happy Family... sort of...

Two days ago Michael introduced our family to a program on my laptop called Photo Booth. While this program is fully capable of taking a nice serious photo, or rendering some cool artistic photo effects, it also has the option of making silly photos. It reminds me of those wavy silly mirrors in fun houses. As we started taking our photos, we started laughing harder and harder. Isaac even had to go change his pants partway through! What a hoot!

Grammy puts up with so much!

Finally, all our silliness got to be too much for Michael, so that was the end of that. The next day after Michael went to work, we started up again with more goofy photos. It kept the children occupied very nicely, and I was even able to sneak away for a quick nap while they played. Later that evening, when Grammy came over for supper, we had fun showing off our silly photos to her. She politely endured our long slideshow, and then was a good sport when we turned on the camera and asked her to pose. It amazes me at how fun it is to make faces at the camera! When the children aren’t looking, sometimes I play with Photo Booth and fiddle with all the special effects.

If you are interested in seeing just a few of the photos we’ve taken, you can check out my gallery. And if you have a newer Macintosh computer, be sure to check out Photo Booth sometime soon. Just make sure you’re not drinking anything, because it might come through your nose.

Yesterday morning was much like other mornings.  I was fiddling around in the kitchen, and the local radio station was playing in the background.  The morning talk show team was interviewing one of the players from the hockey team here in town.  At the end of their interview, they said that they were going to give away some tickets to the next game.  The fifth caller to the show would win the tickets.  As I heard this, I thought to myself that it would be interesting to go to the hockey game, and that Michael would probably enjoy it.  So I casually picked up my cell phone and dialed the radio station.  Busy.  I dialed again.  Busy.  This time I let the phone do it’s redial thing, and I waited.  Much to my shock, I heard a short ring and then a friendly voice said, “You’re caller number five.  What’s your name?”  I stumbled over my name as I gave it.  I couldn’t believe I was actually going to get tickets to the hockey game!  I was so excited and very eager to tell Michael.

When I called Michael, he was surprised that I was inviting him to a hockey game, but of course he was happy to be my date.  Then we had the dilemma of who else to invite since we had four tickets to use.  As I was talking on the phone to Michael, suggesting people we know who might like to go, Isaac was dancing next to me, jumping up and down, waving his hand in the air.  Finally in exasperation I turned to him and said, “WHAT!?”  He said quickly, “Aunt Katie likes hockey.”  Oh!  That’s right!  How could I have forgotten?

What fun it was to make plans.  A babysitter was arranged, Dave & Katie were invited, and Michael and I were looking forward to the game.  Neither of us have ever been to a hockey game, and I’ve never stepped foot inside the local coliseum.  This would be a true adventure.

As we headed out for our date tonight, I was so excited.  Not only was it an interesting thing to do, but it was free!  We claimed the tickets at the ticket window and headed inside.  Dave & Katie met us there, and we found we’d been assigned great seats!  I was tickled to see the Zamboni circling around the ice.  I felt like a little kid.

The hockey game finally started, and it had my attention from the very beginning.  Everything moved so fast, and the hockey players seemed so intense.  The opposing team scored early in the game, and for the rest of the time the two teams fought for dominance.  No more points were scored for the rest of that period or the next one.  Finally, the game was nearing the end, and the score was still 0-1.  With only half a minute to spare, our team finally scored.  The whole place erupted in wild cheers.  We couldn’t believe they had actually tied the score, and now were heading into overtime!  Overtime is five minutes, done with only 4 players per team, and it’s “sudden death” (meaning the first goal wins).  We were on the edge of our seats!  To our surprise, with less than a minute on the clock, our team scored again.  As you can imagine, the crowd went totally wild.  What an exciting end to a tight game.

As we drove home, we kept commenting on what an interesting game it had been, and how amazed we were that our team had won.  It was really a cool evening and a fun date, and it’s all thanks to some free tickets from the local radio station.  God works in surprising ways to give good things to us.

Today’s cute moment for you to picture:

Lilly was exploring on the floor, and she came across an unguarded kazoo.  She popped it into her mouth, and then made little noises into the kazoo.  Amazingly, she was able to make it work.  She sounded so funny, and the whole family was howling with laughter.  She took it out of her mouth and turned it around and tried it the other way.  It didn’t work as well, so she turned it back around and continued humming the way that had worked before.  What a little character!

It’s important to feed a parrot a healthy diet.  Natural foods are best, of course.  It’s also good for parrots to forage and hunt for foods as they would in the wild.

So this evening when our lovely parrot, Chico, hopped off my shoulder and marched across the counter to hunt for his after-supper snack, I was proud of him.  He was doing what a parrot should do.  Good for him.

As Chico stood there with his prize, I just shook my head.  Not exactly natural.  Even though the box boldly proclaims “Whole Grain”, I somehow doubt the healthfulness of the ingredients.  Chico didn’t care.  He chomped happily, dropping crumbs everywhere.  The dog eagerly stood on the floor under the falling crumbs, licking up what the parrot was dropping.

Hmmmm.  I think I need to work on healthier foraging options.  Meanwhile, Chico is sleeping soundly, quite satisfied with himself for nabbing such a prize.

Today my mother hosted a tea party for her daughters and granddaughters.  We’ve been planning all week for this interesting event.  My sister and I each had different foods we wanted to bring, so we each researched the internet to find recipes we liked.  Last night I spent about three hours putting together my tiny quiches and cheese bites and chocolate-covered strawberries.  This morning the girls and I finished our preparations and headed over to grandma’s house.  Michael wasn’t able to stay home with the kids, so I took Judah and Lillian with me.  When Joyce found out Judah was attending the party, she asked if Josiah could come along, and Grandma said that would be fine.  So we had two little gentlemen at our tea party, along with all the beautiful ladies and girls.

The party was a resounding success, and you can see photos of the event on my gallery.  I’m guessing we’ll do this sort of thing again.

A few days ago I received a big box in the mail.  I rolled my eyes when I saw the myriad of packing peanuts in the box, but the children were delighted.  After several attempts to keep the children away from the box, I finally decided that I was willing to pay the price for many hours of harmless entertainment.  That box has been the most popular playsite in the house.  I don’t know why, but the kids love to sit in it and play.  Miguel even brings his blanket and curls up in there.

Of course, peanuts spill everywhere, and we must sweep and pick up many times a day.  Soon I’ll tire of the “fun” and get rid of the box and its contents.  Of course, when I decide to do that, I’ll need to sift through the peanuts and remove the small toys, miscellaneous animals and any children hiding within.

But until then, it’s one way to keep kids happy during these cold days when I can’t just shoo them outside to go play.

Last October I accepted an offer of someone giving away a bird.  After all, who can pass up a free cockatiel?

After Pi Bird lived with us for about a month, he got sick.  I don’t know exactly what was wrong with him, but I finally took him to a local vet.  Months have gone by, and Pi hasn’t gotten better.  So today I took him to the University of Illinois vet clinic in Champaign.  We spent over two hours in the exam room, while a team of docs and trainees checked him over.  So now we have even more of an expert opinion that we don’t know what’s wrong, but we have more things to try.  We’re also $200 lighter than we were at the beginning of the day.

So the next time someone offers you a free pet, just remember the advice given to me a while back by some horse owners:  The cheapest thing about a horse is the purchase price.  Same goes for any other animal, as far as I’m concerned.  And “free” pets are the most expensive of all.

Apparently it’s 52 degrees outside.  That is significant, because for as long as any of us can remember, it has been below freezing and quite awful outside.  But today it’s beautiful.

I had a pretty good hold on the kids for the first half of the day.  They were working on school and minding their business.  But then one of them went outside.  The secret was out.  The news spread like wildfire that it was WARM outside!  There was a complete mutiny and every one of my scholars abandoned their posts in favor of the great outdoors.  Several of the kids headed for the trampoline, while others headed out front.  Poor Lilly was strapped into her high chair, sitting alone in the kitchen, watching people as they hurried inside for things and then hurried back outside again.  I must confess, I was one of those people scurrying back and forth.  The older children and I set up our front porch with a table and chairs, and we also set up areas for the birds to perch.  Then, before we could take birds outside, we had to clip their flight feathers that have grown in so beautifully over the cold winter months.  That trauma completed, birds then were taken to the porch to bask in the warm sunshine.

Now I’m trying to collect the children one at a time to remind them of their duties.  The news is not welcomed by any, but not denied by them either.  So now they are working again, some inside and some outside.  Muddy footprints have been wiped up; birds are snoozing; and I’m ready for my afternoon nap.  It’s amazing how refreshing and wonderful the first really warm day of Spring can be.