This and That

Most the day is shown in the entries below. We didn’t do much besides the things reported.

We were sad not to be able to get together with friends today, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to get everything done if we had. {sigh}

On top of the granola and pizza sauce I friend up the 3 lbs of sausage that was aging in the fridge and 2 lbs of hamburger that I can use for tacos or enchiladas later.

We had to flush our fish today. We had bought four Dalmatians earlier in the year. Three of them died within a week. When we went back to the pet store to buy new ones they told us that they couldn’t sell us the Dalmatians because they all had a worm. We have been watching our fish. He seemed fine…until this week. He turned BLACK!!! Then he grew these green things that looked like trees out of his body. We couldn’t figure out what to do because we have one other fish in the tank. It can’t be good for HIM to be in the tank with this…but we didn’t want to flush the fish…it did become apparent the fish wasn’t going to make it. Now we have to figure out what to do with the tank. We think it should be totally cleaned or even started over…but the surviving fish is a giant scum sucker and if we clean the tank; he may starve. ARGH. I should call the pet store….

In other animal news….we looked out our window and saw a spider eating a fly. We watched the spider tangle the fly in his web and then slowly begin the eating process. Very strange/cool. The photo didn't turn out real well...but if you look close...

*So You Want to Be President* by Judith St. George. This was one of our favorite books from this week of study. In fact, we found the inspiration for Nolan’s quilt square in this book. Ms. St. George manages to pass on a lot of fascinating information about the Presidents in this charmingly illustrated picture book. We found it at the library and decided to add it in. We love the library!

We got two more packages today….the newest Tamar Myers book and *The Idiot’s complete Guide to the 20th Century*.

Josiah made my day. He has been working long hours. They asked him to extend today and he did. Then they asked about him working tonight (he’d already put in 7 hours). He told them that Friday night is the one night of the week he’d rather now work; and he does meet the truck every Friday. They said he’s the best at that job they’ve ever had. {mama brag alert} Anyway, as they talked he told them that Friday night is “family night” and that’s it our tradition. He told them we set up the projector or play games and eat pizza and he’d rather not be at work. I was thrilled that he enjoys the night enough to tell his employer.

Speaking of which: They just fired up the projector. We have *Valiant* from Netflix tonight. It sort of goes along with our history – WW2! LOL

Jamin let Arielle, Nolan and I make a pizza tonight. I mean he let us do the dough and everything. He LOVES to do this but was a pretty good sport about letting us in the kitchen. Here we are playing with the dough - we aren't as good at this yet as he is...but give us time. We made a cheese pizza, a Hawaiin Pizza, a 1/2 and 1/2 of those two and then a deep dish with they turkey sausage, onions, peppers and olives....We had more leftovers than we like. We'll try 2 regulars and 1 deep dish next week.

Making Pizza Sauce (scroll down to Sept 14th) at our home....this is 6x the recipe...and I realize I need an electric can opener or at least a new can opener....

Blog-o-Gram for Michael!!!

Phone home - email home? LOL Do you have a guarantee on these tires? The driver rear tire was resting on the rim when Cy got off work. He put the spare on, drove home, filled up the tire and put it back on.....the front tires were doing this. Is it time to replace all four tires on THIS vehicle too?

School Daze

We got a slow start this a.m. as the dishwasher broke. We were also out of granola. This meant I had to make granola and then do all the dishes by hands. Arielle and Nolan usually do breakfast clean up but I felt it was a bit much this a.m.

They set to work on their table school. I reveiwed Nolan's phonics while I did dishes. The only couch school we had left for the week was reading out of *Looking For Home*.

We had time to work on two quilt squares for the week.

Arielle chose to make a square on The Orphan Trains

Nolan's imagination was captured by our largest President...William Taft (we couldn't fit the full name on the square), who had a special bathtub built for the White House. Note that Stacia contributed to the project, giving Nolan a second chance at the tub. {G}

We are enjoying this project. I'm not sure when we'll begin the lapbooks. Tips - you can find graphics for almost anything by going to google.com and clicking "images". We've also found "templates" in some of our reading books - we make a copy and cut them out and go from there. The kids simply trace around them and fill in the details. Last week Arielle did both her squares "free hand".

Jared made up plans for a trench system for an Army. Jamin is bouncing around here like.....I don't know what....he's got a full schedule and we sort of try to give him "space" to work out the details. {G}

New Blog Feature – “Big Family Myths”

*I’m open to catchy names for this feature…suggest away… PLEASE!

I’m considering a new feature on the blog. This stems from several comments I’ve heard online and in real life. I think I’ll do a weekly “Big Family Myth” entry. That is if there is an interest (either for me to write or for you to read :::snort:::). I considered the fact that the blogosphere is filled with large family blogs and websites. Frankly, quite a few of the myths I hear stem from those spots.

I’m nothing if not real. Those who read regularly, see the bumps and bruises as well as the glowing moments in our family life. I do that for a reason. I think it is important for us to see that life is a journey, none of us have arrived, and all NEED grace and should be throwing themselves on GRACE DAILY! I have never tried to portray myself or my family as perfect. If you have us a pedestal – take us down now! :::stomping foot::: So…why would I consider myself able to debunk some big family myths….because I live it. Because I AM real…I have no books to sell or huge public image to protect. I’m fairly open and honest in real life so I doubt that anyone will ask something that my close friends and family don’t already know. Since many of you don’t know me in real life, you may feel comfortable asking things you’d never ask your friend in REAL life but that concerns you or you’re curious about. Frankly, I hope to offer you an avenue to understand your “eccentric friend” with the large family so that you can minister to each other a bit more competently. I also hope to help you understand the lifestyle, both its joys and its limitations, of a large family.

If you are a big family and would like a forum to have some of the myths that are so blithely thrown your way debunked, feel free to post the thought, question or myth. If you are a smaller family and wonder “how it all gets done” or if something you’ve heard is accurate, ask away. Now – be aware that something you may have believed as “fact” may be myth…and some “myths” you may have believed are likely to be fact. Of course, I do not speak for large families everywhere. In fact, I’m only now coming to grips with the fact that most do consider us to have a large family, even in the homeschooling movement.

For the purpose of our discussion “large” is anything YOU consider to be “large”.

Feel free to post the “myths” or questions in the comment section here or email them to me personally. I’ll see if general themes develop and try to handle at least one a week. Never fear the blog will not become ALL about big families…because I live a varied life.

I’m fairly certain that through this exercise we will learn that all of us are basically the same, with a few extra twists or challenges thrown in. I hope that we’ll better understand each other. I hope that less “biting or hurtful or unthinking or inconsiderate” comments will be lobbed at each other. I hope that we will understand a bit better the lifestyles of each other and the particular path that God has led each one down.

By the way, if one of you with a “small family” would like to do “small family myths” let me know and I’ll send folks your way….or I’ll post your entry here once a week…as long as you don’t write more often than I. For the purposes of our discussion “small” is anything you consider to be “small”. I WAS thinking I was a “small family” since we are down to seven at home but I’ve revised my opinion since Mike deployed. :::snort:::