Just a warm-up for an Occupy Wall Street post

Showed the kids video from Occupy Wall Street last night, including some with police overreaction in NYC.

Reactions: “Why are they pepper-spraying? They’re just standing there!”
“People are allowed to protest. That’s in the Constitution.”
“Does everyone know about this? Why aren’t the police being stopped?”
There was a call to nationalize the banks.

And from my youngest, who wants to know how much of our money is in banks run by people so poorly, a plea never to protest, because the police could hurt me. 😦

Nice job, NYPD. You’ve created quite a challenge in this homeschool. Because I don’t know WHAT to say about your behavior that’s both truthful and reassuring.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

I just needed to stop and say thank you to Steve Jobs.

My first husband was a multi-variate statistician and psychologist who was part of the original design team for IBM’s ‘personal computer’. He was a big believer in the architecture of the PC, and therefore we weren’t “Apple people.” (This is way before Microsoft. My husband built computers by hand.)

However, he also died young, taken by Cancer.

I am immeasurably grateful to the empire Steve Jobs built, the Mac I’m using now, the ipods, ipod touches, iphones and Pixar movies that inform, entertain, and connect my family.

My thoughts are with his family. 😦

The math I most need is the ability to count my blessings

I went to bed last night around 1am, which, sadly, is not unusual.

I was disposed to feel sorry for myself, because I was a ‘single parent’ for a week, my husband being off on a business trip, and because I was in a fair amount of pain with a TMJ problem,  which my dentist cheerfully assured me was “chronic” and “due to stress” despite the fact that I’d never previously had it.

I mean, come on. You should have to have something go wrong at least TWICE to consider it chronic. That’s my “rage, rage against the dying of the light” POV.

He prescribed me a muscle relaxant (because nothing says taking care of 5 children orthodontia week like ‘new meds that you can’t take while operating heavy machinery’) and I’d obediently attempted to get them filled, because ALL I really wanted was to be prone in my own house, in less pain. Took the 15 minute guarantee Rite-Aid over an hour to come up with a third of the prescription, but I won’t get into that.

After dinner, etc., had massive trouble converting all the MAC files to PC files for Tegan’s school project, and, what with one thing and another, no one got to bed until 1 am.

Woke up to schedule a visit from the geo-thermal drilling guy for 20 minutes later, to get everyone up to be ready for that, to be followed by orthodonist visit, school, etc. etc.

And when I walked into the bathroom, there was a surprise. 2 surprises.

The countertop had been wiped clean, and there was a full, untouched, roll of toilet paper.

This is Countertop Wiper:

He's actually being a Greek mask of Comedy, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Toilet Paper Replacer:

Teens get all the sleep they missed as babies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not a single parent, ever. I’m part of a team. A Family.

No Fruit Loops For YOU!

L: Can I have some cereal?
Me: Yes.
L: Can I have some ‘silly cereal’?
Me: No.
L: Tried my luck. 😀

Wordless Wednesday 2

The smallest one, stationary for a moment

It’s not the destination

Here is a story about big ideas.

Have to tell you, I’m a fan of big ideas. I’m that gal. It’s one of the reasons I like young people, and actors, most of whom have big ideas.

Homeschooling, was, for me, a perfect place for big ideas… and they tended to get bigger as my number of students increased. However, there are a few tricks to surviving the cross connection of big ideas and homeschool, and a great place to start there is in your approach to field trips.

If you’re a homeschooler,particularly of an infant or some toddlers,  you probably know what I’m talking about. YOU are going to go on field trips. Your whole family will cross the Americas in a campervan, updating your podcast at least weekly, and compiling the material for your book. The children, all fluent in Latin already, will easily pick up other languages as you travel.

But if you’re lucky, you’re married to a man ( or woman) kinda sorta like mine, who has a rooted stick-in-the-mud attitude about steady incomes and health insurance,

My husband Steve, prior to 1st aid & haircut. Broke his head open wrestling shelves in the basement.

and you turn your attention (temporarily) to shorter field trips. It’s easy. You start a field trip co-op (unless someone beat you to it) and every Friday you meet up with the group to visit museums, historical sites, and cultural activities. On the other days you’re geocaching.

If you have given birth exclusively to extraverts, have no regular work responsibilities, and just a few children, I look forward to hearing about this. 😉 I will live vicariously through your awesomeness. However, at a certain point I had to ratchet back on the extra field-trippage, mostly because we could never find enough matching shoes to get out the door. We committed to a FEW things and occasionally made an appearance at area activities, but we live in a neighborhood where the kids have friends and activities of their own, so we did more school-type stuff during school-type hours.

We take vacations. Did I mention Disney? 😉

And last Friday we took a field-trip to the opening public day of the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2011, because we have a big focus on sustainability in our curriculum and household. http://www.solardecathlon.gov/

Here we are. What do you notice? Take your time.

some days are more solar than others

I drove through torrents of rain to get there, 2 1/2 hours, most of the kids slept the whole way. My husband and I had the longest uninterrupted conversation we’ve had in 6 months, easy.  We saw a few of the houses that were open (weekdays are short, and they all close at intervals.) We got soaked through, they had to rope off areas of the walkways because they FOUNTAINED foul-smelling water when you walked on them. It took me 6 hours to drive home, in unholy conditions of traffic stopped and blinding rain.

We loved it. The building from Calgary was particularly super awesome.

on we go, Canadian turtle straight ahead

We have to go back and see all of them. Forecast is rain.

Ugly approach, I thought, but valuable idea

That’s the thing about field-trips, and much of parenting. It’s not the destination that matters.

September 11th, 2001, remembered

I had a job on September 11th.

If you are an actor (or otherwise employed in the arts), you know that “having a job” means anything from “rehearsals start soon” to “under contract for a number of years” and the hours and renumeration vary accordingly.

In this case, we were already in rehearsal for a long-running show called “Lafferty’s Wake” at a small venue (The Society Hill Playhouse) in Philadelphia. It was a good show, and a good job. Humorous interaction with the audience, which was all around us in a pub setting. Several of us were joining the cast, and I was pretty darned excited to be once again employed in my field, despite a high level of concern about leaving my husband 4 nights a week with our 4 kids.

But that happens at night, mostly. During the day I was homeschooling, cooking, doing laundry, and the many other activities associated with my main job, trying to get a family raised to be happy, contributing, members of their society.

I was also moderating a parenting bulletin board. That’s how I saw the first plane hit. We went from potty training to news, and I ran for the TV. Called my husband at work. Saw the towers fall.

My sister had a job on September 11th.

This is a picture of my sister.

I love my sister, circa 1964

Niagara Falls trip, early '80's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another one.

 

 

 

 

On September 11th, 2001, my sister’s job was in transition. She was being made a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy. Her ceremony was planned for September 14th, in Washington DC, where she worked.

Since my sister joined the Navy, shortly after college, I have been impressed by Naval ceremonies. They have a personality and warmth that I wasn’t expecting. People bring their families and mostly sit in rows without rank, and they’re well… just warm, fuzzy, (albeit inspiring) things (particularly considering they feature a lot of authoritative, short-haired, mostly men, who I know perfectly well could snap me like a twig, if they wanted to). And I was wildly excited and proud about this Chief Petty Officer thing. Chiefs are special. MY sister made Chief. Because she’s always been totally amazing and badass.

And.

Lucky.

Because instead of being in the Pentagon when the plane hit, as she would have been, she was engaged in some sort of pre-Chief hazing activity that involved caddying for senior Chiefs on a golf-course, that day. She was on a golf-course. Phones were down, took a while to find out.

She spent the weeks following at the site, as they looked for survivors, and entering data as her friends were identified by their DNA. Her clearance was high enough to do that.

And that’s what, from a purely personal and selfish point of view, we must call ‘lucky.’

This is another picture of my sister, at a beautiful family wedding, last night.

My sister Alex, and her husband, Mike (USAF ret)

Our fabulous Adam and Nina

Here’s the bride and groom, who were teenagers 10 years ago. It was a totally AWESOME wedding, which deserves its own post.

My sister will retire, next month, at the rank of Lieutenant. I look forward to the ceremony.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, may good luck pursue you each morning and night. -Irish Blessing

A Post to let you know about Disney

leaving Animal Kingdom, ready for more

which is our ‘other home’ according to the children.

For me, it’s the super awesome place where I can really admire someone else’s gardening, live in immaculate surroundings, and never attend a meeting where I have to take notes.

Well, I can take notes if I want to. 😉

Anyway, I have a page up connected to my “About” and doubtless many posts coming, but I wanted to give you a heads-up.

Five reasons to be glad you’re older.

Decided to start this blog with my five reasons, this morning, to be glad I’m older… maybe they’ll inspire you to have your own list..

1. I can’t see the dust on top of anything, and I’m not climbing up to look.
2. I’m less afraid of being disliked. Oddly, this probably makes me more likable, since I’m more consistantly genuine. And if not, too bad. 😉
3. As a young person, I thought I was the center of the universe. As a Mom, I sort of am.
4. There are more clothes in my size at Goodwill.
5. Life still surprises me, mostly in a good way, and I’m more compassionate. Even to myself.

Have a lovely weekend.              

And feel more than free to add items from your own list in the comments.