Last Post!

The new blog is www.homeschoolislove.blogspot.com

Thanks and see you over there!

Add your new links, cause i sure dont know how to re-direct anyone using any html tricks!

Goodbye!

Goodbye 2006

I am starting a new homeschool blog this week! I will tell everyone about it on here. I am so excited. I have learned so much about blogging and cannot wait to return to my original intended format, which was homeschool updates.

Our winter semester plans so far include:
Bowling
Swimming
Cooking
www.Cosmeo.com
www.EnchantedLearning.com
and a Charlotte Mason approach to classic literature

of course we will be doing all sorts of other things academically as well, but these are our new hopes and focuses!

whole-family wise, we have returned to healthy eating, and with a 50 dollar gift card from my mom, I got us a rice cooker, a veggie steamer, a mini food processer and a super coffee machine. We havent ate "very well" since Grosse Pointe, honestly. Casey and Mickey will eat almost anything if they can chop it in the little grinder---spoonfuls of carrots, nuts, pickles, if it is chopped up---what do you know.

I got my whole new wardrobe and whole new hair over the last few weeks and I feel so great. I went from this random blobular brassy blonde with overgrown roots fake bob-ish shag hair with giant mens t shirts and gross flooded jeans for fat short curvy women, white tube socks and converse with no jewelry beside wedding ring----to new girl shoes, long hippie skirts, bracelets, fun socks and tights, new earrings, and dark brown hair with little bangs in two pigtails. I have spent probably 85% of my life as a natural and fake blonde, my kids are blonde, I feel blonde, and yet, of course, it is hard to maintain, and you really have to wear some makeup when your hair is light or else you look dead dead dead. Pale hair pale face pale lips B-L-O-B. with the dark hair, no makeup looks totally fine and makeup looks great! I dont know what color I will have when my hair is long, but the little bangs help me leave the rest to grow grow grow. Interesting, huh? Haha

The new blog will be announced shortly. Blogger has been RIDIN' me to "switch" to the NEW blogger, so I will. Hopefully the new version will let me do what I wanna do, cuz you know me---I can barely barely deal with any preset kind of template in life ; )

Loves and kisses
oh ps Christmas and Christmas Eve were FANTASTIC. Absolutley breathtakingly fun smooth cozy gorgeous happy dreams come true somehow without the use of credit cards yip yip horray, all toys were hits, etc etc super chocolatey peppermint fantastic stuff. Hope you all experienced the same....

at long last, I am a woman

After years and years of being denied the right to host any kind of HOLIDAY gathering, I am now soon to be a woman.

I am having Christmas Eve here and I have waited a long long time.

I have begged and practically humilated myself with wanting to have Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or Christmas but no one would ever agree to it. The feeling hit it's zenith when we bought our first home...I could smell the mashed potatoes and stuffing as we signed our names to the mortgage papers that May. Oh god it was gonna be so awesome to finally get to be the ones to serve the Big Meal. My mom told me my house was too small. I told her we had a table for eight and a card table and a couch and a love seat and an armchair like anybody else. But it was always no. The years we had a little baby I begged even harder, but it was no. I wanted to put the good dishes out, I wanted to play my jazz, I wanted to wow 'em with 3 desserts and a warm round of games after the big meal. I wanted to put my little ones to bed on time, and to not have to transport multiple high chairs playpens and bulging diaper bags. I wanted my children to get to host by my side, and to experience throwing a holiday get together with us. I wanted to have a glass of red wine in one hand and a video camera in the other. I wanted to need hand towels and guest soaps. I wanted to light cinnamon candles.

Now we have moved to a big house and I am finally allowed. I am trying not to feel bitter irony and to just be happy. But I cant help but wonder what people think most of the inhabitants of planet Earth do with less than 1800 square feet when it comes time to get together in human holiday love?

whats up lately

We have been spending this last week and a half working on homemade christmas presents! It has been going slower than I had anticipated, but we are doing well. You see, I babysat for my 4 year old nephew and my 7 month old niece everyday last week, including driving 45 miles a day to go pick him up from his morning preschool. It really threw us all for a loop, as our lunch and naps were all screwed up and the baby was really hard to take care of! She is so cute and tiny but I think I am spoiled and used to my own baby who if he is sad, I can pop him onto his beloved nursey and everything is fine! Taking care of someone elses BABY is really really hard! I dont think I have babysat an actual little baby in years...and I have more of an understanding of why people worry about homeschool with babies---it is a virtual impossibility with someone elses baby, lemme tell ya! My own nursing baby is another thing. they are happy in your arms, you dont need all these musical beepy boppers to keep them happy, it is just different. Either the reader will immediatly understand what I am saying or they wont, and there is nothing I can do about it. And she is a good baby. But I couldnt do anything else besides soothe her and rotate her from furniture piece to furniture piece in between breaking up fight after fight with the little boys----and it was all very foreign to me i felt like a novice!

It wasnt the idea of traveling with six kids that was hard, I had to let Greta sit in the front seat with the AIRBAG looming in her face but obviously we are ok---or the sheep how-to of taking care of six kids, but really my idea that they would sort of assimilate into our activities simply would not occur. I thought we would get tons of cookies and chocolates made and HAHA we did not. I dont think I even went pee or took phone calls.

But we are busy again today, and the rest of the week. Wrapping and baking and watching food network like it is going off the air. Jamming holiday music till our ears fall off, and having a good time, despite lingering and returning illnesses. I have gotten a strong lead on present shopping these past two nights and am not too worried about anything now besides Christmas Eve going nicely.

Take care! Enjoy this precious week!

scout trips

Last Friday our Campfire USA troop went to the Humane Society to bring the dogs homemade dog biscuits that the children rolled cut and baked the week before, as well as handmade cat toys. We sat through an informational seminar on basic pet care and then had a tour of the facilities. The dogs were very loud and the cats were very smelly. I think the children were incredibly well behaved as a group and that they enjoyed the experience. We had to cut our trip short because I had my 7 month old niece with me and she cried the entire time. Fortunately there were tons of other babies there, too and everyone tried to help me as much as possible with the door and stuff.

Two weeks ago Thursday was the Girl Scout Christmas party. All scouting is done until the new year, now. Coming up are cookie sales and two field trips in January. Greta is going to be involved in two charity fundrasers, one is a "pajama party" in the daytime and one is a swap-fest where I think they are going to be making up care packages for people in need locally. I know after the holidays, people stop giving and so the troop is trying to help with that, helping out the needy in January!

I will try to post pictures but my camera is not wanting to link up to our computer now. * sigh *

Panera sunrise

Two Fridays ago, me and my four little ones were in Panera Bread at 7:04 am. IN it. Dressed. Brushed. In the pitch dark of the freezing December morning. And it was incredibly cool.

you see, we drove steve to work that morning, and had to be at Campfire Scouts by 10:15. So I got it in my head to try and just stay out. Once you get out of the house with four kids, it is beyond a bummer to go back home. So there we were! In the toasty cozy glow of the best restaurant around, yeah I said it, PANERA is the best yummiest place i adore, and if I were rich I would eat there 4 times a day. Id be so fat and happy, my smile would dazzle your eyes away from my 500 pound body. thats how yummy and awesome Panera is to me. So anyhow....

We sat on the couches. I alwasy thought that we couldnt sit there because it would be too hard with little kids. But it wasnt! Charlie was in his stroller, Greta Mickey and Casey were on the couch, and I sat across from them on the ledge of the fireplace. We were there so early they didnt even have the fireplace turned on and so we asked them if they could please do so and they did! Even cozier! We got coffee and waters and juice and an orange scone and 3 bagels and a giant cookie and it was like 7 bucks. We hung out as the busy people came and went. We saw lots of fancy office people pick up giant bags of food and hilarious BOXES of coffee and laughed about it all. We saw some old guys with laptops working, we saw a dad and his boy come in for breakfast before school, we saw a mom with two tiny girls who commended me on getting out of the house with 4 kids who were so well behaved (to me Casey was being too bouncy on the couch but her girls were actually crying and braying so it was a welcome compliment)--I reassured her that hers were very little and that it does get much easier. She didnt believe me. We saw them premake the pizzas and slice the bagels in the crazy sawblade thing. We saw a guy buy all the coffee cakes and imagined how much that cost him. We saw a lady taste test four kinds of cream cheese and be super rude and were sad for her. But most fantastical: we saw the sunrise. We saw the whole thing, in giant full color view, by the fireplace, together, with treats and laughs. It was a full color pink and orange display, the kind that comes on FREEZING bitter cold mornings in December.

We were in there until 8:48. We tried to go to Petsmart and Michaels and all the other happy stores in the stripmall but they werent even open yet and that was such an eyeopener to us! We really felt encouraged to embrace many more getting up way before dawn adventures, even if it meant going to bed earlier*

* Casey did not agree to this

We sat in the car until Petsmart opened and then we hung out in there until 10, and then we went to Campfire Scouts. We made homebaked cookies for the dogs as a Holiday Present for the humane society field trip. We made toys for the cats. It was a great morning.

check, please

"So Joy what curriculum are you using?"
"Well we are not using any sort of pre-made expensive curriculum right now, as we do not have the money and I find them to be very dry and dull and hard to use"

"Oh cool you are losers who do nothing! Maybe you have too many kids and you cant teach them"

WHOA
NO
We do things that one would label and recognize as math and reading, writing, science, history, health, art, typing, french, geography, grammer, literature, poetry, phys-ed, cooking, research, and other things. I just do not have to parcel and dissect it all out like that since I am not dealing with 30 strangers, time constraints, government mandated check-points, score-dependant test preparation, crowd control or any thing of the sort.

I have 2 kids, a tot and a baby. Its NOT too many kids. Why in the heck would one child make a good homeschool? I am supposed to have one on one time all day with my kid? Why, because thats what they do in ublic school? Mizz Crabapple sits there with your child on her lap and they gaze into each other's eyes while they sing a merry tune about algebra? That sounds more than a bit demented if you ask me...
We make and work and do good stuff all day. I know it sounds vague, but to me, the stuff they do in school has a large amount of randomness to it too, n'est-ce pas? And to say it is piecemeal and meaningless can be an understatement! So, no, we don't "do" 50 minutes of division then 50 minutes of Egypt then 50 minutes of pottery then 50 minutes of dodgeball then 50 minutes of adverbs then lunch-on-the-clock then 50 minutes of abe lincoln then 50 minutes of filmstrip then STOP GO HOME---
and do you know why not?
BecaUSE THAT IS NOT THE WAY PEOPLE LEARN best
That is the way to appear to be smattering the little kiddies with a "wellrounded" load of miscellanea, that is the way to get the scores on the standardized tests to get the fund for the new ceiling tiles for the junior high, that is they way to WOW-em at the parent teacher conferences, and that is also the precise way to remove each and every sparkle out of each and every iris until everyone who isnt in the 50th percentile is slowly eliminated from the carrot on the stick that is SUCCESS.
Not real success, not actual knowledge or understanding, not real human brain processes, but to be a player in the game of institutionalized living, this 12 year holding cell place that so many of our youth live and grow in. It is an institution and institutions have rules and games that they play. Get an A, get on the honor roll, be somebody, etc.

I remember so well when we would be doing something in school that I really enjoyed, and how sucky it was to have them take it away and say ok byebye go do pottery now. Cuz the bell said. SO after a few years of this, you stop even getting excited. Excitement is right out. And I totally understand. Childhood excitement is so exuberant, so huge and powerful, that to be in a room with 30 truly excited kids might be, well, too much for the weary underpaid bitter Mizz Crabtree.

But in our home, and out and about, nothing could feel more natural. Exhuberant, enthusiastic GENUINE living. Going about your day. Figuring it all out. Looking it up/ Putting 2 and 2 together. Reexamining your original hypothesis. Listening to your body's cues. Rest if you need to. Eat if you need to. Wear the chlothes that make you feel comfortable and good. Buy what you enjoy. Speak your mind. Be kind and tolerant. Do not live removed from those younger older sick or strange. MAKE YOUR DECISIONS NOT OUT OF FEAR OF SHUNNING BUT OUT OF GENUINE DESIRE AND NEED. Feel good knowing that no one is going to torture and torment you because you got the green IPod instead of the bluish-green one. Wear socks to keep your foot warm, not to keep from being called a freakslut or worse. Go about your day in basic safety. Communicate with minimal manipulation and genuine motives. Stop and smell the roses, be yourself, all of it.

I have heard the argument that homeschoolers teach kids that everything is fun and that the children will be shocked and awed when they leave homeschool and find out that life is actually a big poo pile. I have heard this argument from genuinely sincere people, and how do I even begin to unravel all that is implicit in that whole train of thought? I feel so sorry for them that they have been so "schooled" as to ingest and accept that this would possibly be some kind of "truth", then surely life for someone like that has most likely been a poo pile? 18 years of fantasy, 44 years of wage-slave, 15 years of lonely television viewing and then hope there is a heaven? Hmmmm. Sounds like a poo pile to me. Perhaps the reader will find me to be a pampered spoiled housewife who rides the throbbing gravy train of my husband's massive paychecks, blogging about things of which I know nothing of, popping bon bons, clipping coupons and trying not to burn the veggie roast. Perhaps the reader knows nothing of my past, nothing of my stints in various empolyed positions, nothing of how much of the world I have truly seen in 31 years, nothing of the VAST amount of book research and field research I have under my belt. Perhaps another entry, another time....

First of all, it is SCHOOLKIDS who live in a bubble. Do you hear me? This might be the original misconception from which all doubts and unease surrounding homeschooling arises---so I will say it again:
IT IS THE SCHOOLKIDS WHO LIVE IN A PROTECTIVE BUBBLE. IT IS THE SCHOOLKIDS WHO ARE UNSOCIALIZED. IT IS THE SCHOOLKIDS WHO HAVE THE FALSE REALITY PARCELLED OUT AND DISTILLED FOR THEM BY SO MANY LAYERS OF HIGHER-UPS THAT THEY WILL NEVER GET TO MEET, NEVER KNOW WHAT LIES BEHIND THE MOTIVES AND INTENTIONS OF THE MAKERS OF THE SCHEDULED CURRICULAE. IT IS THE SCHOOLKIDS WHO ARE TRAINED FROM AGE 3 TO ONLY DO THINGS FOR THE STICKER OR PRIZE, AND IT IS THE SCHOOLKIDS WHO HAVE NO CONCEPT WHATSOEVER ABOUT THE REAL WORLD, REALITY, LIFE, LIVING, TRUE LEARNING OR DARE I SAY, WHAT IT IS LIKE TO EXPERIENCE FREE WILL ON THIS PLANET.

And so, we have the fabled "twenties" to figure all that out. We get out of the system at 18 and then BOING! And who was it again that was gonna be in for a surprise? the kids who have been living a real life from the start? Or the ones who have lived in an institution governed by all sorts of motives but certainly not one based in any kid of "reality" unless you call a mix of lord of the flies, prison, Survivor, Heathers, Breakfast Club and trendy pharmacuetical sales "reality".

but what would it be like to be a human with rights and free will and to live right here in the world and in the town and on your block and in your home and in the shops and on the internet FROM BIRTH? to do self motivated research, to converse and relate WITHOUT COERSION, without manipulation, with genuine growth based on the individual (with freedom and justice for all!)

It would be homeschooled humans. And I am starting to sound like alot of the claims of the verrrrry elite private schools who advertise in Metro Parent, as well:
Small Class size!
Move at your childs own pace!
Computers in every classroom!
Arts and Integrity!
Character building and Morality!
Rich literature based learning!
Open Mixed age classrooms!

NINE THOUSAND BUCKS A YEAR.

somebody cut me a check.

the 50's 90's crayola boheme

Ok so here is the look I need. Apparantly it doesnt exist in any universe. On all of the internet I cannot find the tights. It is also vaguely impossible to want to wear any kind of dress if you are tall.

From the bottom up:
Shoes: either some type of doc marten mary janes or some amazing chunky boots or some simple earth shoe-thingy or chucks or vans.

Legs: stripey or patterned cotton or wool tights.

Skirt: Some kneee length cheerful skirt, maybe in a vintage fabric. I will need a few long ones, too.

Under: some bike-shorts type of dealy so I can be a busy Mama playing on the floor and not have to worry about peepshow

Shirt: Long sleeve tshirts, cardigans, fun or funny crazy t shirts, i dont care if it is waaaaay beyond "sell-out" now, I still can go for an old or fake-old pepsi or orange crush or whatever tshirt, especially concert t of a good band.

Head: my fanatastic long hair that is blue, orange, green, red, pink, purple, i will change it all the time as it grows super long so i can have my 2 braids back.

Glasses: new ones that are cool (descriptive, huh?)

Accessories: some myseterious wool or felt backpack that doesnt exist so i will just make it. Little hats with earflaps. Huge sunglasses (think Kurt not Paris) bead bracelets, earrings and necklaces that i make. same perfume as now, but still looking for new ones, short nails in a happy color like green

other options: Gigantic linen overalls, dark jeans, and my elusive 50's shirtdress that i have been hunting dreaming of and chasing since i was 17. I will wear the dress with socks and low top skateboard shoes in summer, and with tights, docs and a cardigan in the summer. Planning the tattoo for a while more.

blue hair

Well, I did it again. I have lovely, dare I say "stylish", brown with blond highlighted hair in a good haircut. got the whole long sideswept bangs and layers and everything....just like the people have...and I couldnt hate it more. I look like a LADY and it freaks me out. regular lady. kmart lady. board-meeting lady. giant mystery slacks lady. powder perfume lady. Well, almost. we are surprised to find out that you were into that kind of music lady. why does that nice lady have tickets to this concert? why is that gross lady wearing patchouli--maybe she has teenage kids.

haha
ok this cannot be just an identity crisis, I really really dont want to look like the smooth and luxey ladies at Panera. because they are NOT brethren to me. I want to look like how I feel, which is this:

-----------------

not this

I must come to grips with all of this, I really need to work out whether it sucks more to have fancy ladies think i am some bad news punk road scum or to have cool music awesome people think I am some pantyhose girdle sick geritol mutt. well i know the answer. why do i need to "pass" among rich ladies, ever? I am not rich. I do not do what they do. I do not vote with them, I do not enjoy them, I do not enjoy what they stand for or what they have bought into. I do not enjoy that they would not enjoy me with blue hair. so they suck, and i do not want to be passable anymore among the masses of gently layered blonde streaky stepford wifeys. i want to attract awesome people, little kids, butterflies, and Steve.

if I lived somehwere cool, I wouldnt have to deal with this. My town is so cool, but no one has blue hair that i meet.

the only other hope would be awesome new wardrobe and that costs much more than a jar of manic panic

oh 8 dollar bottle of glory

how much i love to think about you

how much one little dip of the hand, (never gloved, that would destroy the whole thing HAHAHA) makes me all different now. dig yer paw in, smear it on your head, now you are somebody.

for someone such as myself, who has such extreme hair dysphoria, this subject matter is dead serious. I really really like that fairy girl with the green eyes. Maybe she can be my new icon on the thingy. This girl is awesome, too. I guess I just wanna look as extraterrestrial as I know I am. If I saw this girl I would IMMEDIATELY and intensely want to talk to her. thats all Im saying.

* * * *

feelin better

First of all, I am NOT depressed at all anymore. It was like a 2 day thing and I feel great again! Phew! I hate that!

The kids are in that phase now where they have their own music they like to play over and over again and it is an exercise in patience that I am enjoying so much! I know someday they will be locking me out of their rooms and blasting some scary stuff so for now, Paul McCartney's odd little casio xmas song on repeat is making them so so so happy. they dance and dance and dance and sing--Charlie stands up on the couch and claps and claps and does the CLASSIC baby dance of squat-squat-squat---GOD it is so cute.A nice break from spongebob CD that "had to go back to the library" (it did!)

Today was Gretas christmas party for Girl Scouts and we all went. It was fun! The boys sat with me and Greta was up front in a gymnasium. They sat very quietly for the badge ceremony and clapped when appropriate. Then there was KWAFFS! yes! glitter glue and beads and pipe cleaners oooh it was nice. We ate crazy food and played and Greta got to have fun with her girlfriends.

Tomorrow is campfire scouts again and we are turning in our food for the dogs at the Humane Society, which is next Friday's field trip.

This weekend I am having my nephew over for christmas cookie making and crafts, then Saturday night Steve and I are going out for the first time without any child in probably a year and a half! I do not know how we keep our marriage together sometimes...his mom is going to come here and basically House-sit, the kids will be in bed and she can do what she pleases...

Then Sunday I am taking Greta and Charlie up to my grandma's house to go pay her a much overdue but admittedly dreaded visit. I love her but don't get what I am going to do there with Greta OR Charlie. Oh well. It isnt for my big pleasure, it is to go see my dear sweet Grandma and for her to get to MEET New Baby Charlie who is 13 months old!! I am bringing a vegetarian pastie-like casserole that I just invented this week so by the time we say hi, eat, clean up, play a little, she will probably be shoving us out the door, which is unfortunately cool. If she "lets" us go in the basement I can stay longer, but if we have to sit at the dining room table only, I dont get how long Charlie will want to do that for, and if he cries she will give me the speech about how I cant possibly homeschool with a baby, despite the fact that I have done so every year since the start (Mickey, Mickey and Gracie, Gracie, Casey and Gracie, Charlie and Casey....etc etc etc)

Steve has to work 54 hours next week but that will help with money and we can start to gift shop soon I hope. It is gonna be hard for me to have him gone that much--gulp!

My friends have been so cool in the past few days, including my bestest friend in the galaxy, precious Steve. I am beyond not depressed--thank goodness.

necessary book

please get this into more peoples hands and onto their lips and minds
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0897894278?tag=earthybirth07-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0897894278&adid=08BKWN6EGD160NYN2NC1&

Ok I am already cheered up!

Wow! So cool!

http://www.sagefemme.com/works.asp
way cool.

and
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/?id=5
make yr own? as in...my dream? I may open a cyber store soon, who even knows. ok i am off to play with this!

bla poo bla bla

What is this idiotic little picture of my profile? Where is my fisher price girl? SIGH

We are sick again. Huge head cold. I am getting burnt out...feel like we need to go places, cant seem to be able too, too poor, too sick, and so we rot. time is dragging and our internet is mostly not working--or our 10 year old computer crashes every 5 minutes I should say....things are lame.

I have alot coming up so I guess we are "resting" even though it feels like "festering". I am an extroverted person and that costs money. It costs money to get up and out, no matter how much you are willing to drive on empty and bring gross stale crackers and gross house water with you in your backpack....I am so sick of being this broke. We need paper and hairdye and apparantly I need zit cream and some kind of body transplant...we have like, nothing, and are just waiting for the check, waiting for the check, I am so sorry to write such a blobular lackluster thing as this, but its true.

Beautiful snow fell today and the kids acted like they didnt want to go play in it and frankly I totally understood but I "made them" go outside in some fit of 50's like-it-or-wear-it mean freak out, and so they stood out in the front yard and pouted and then I got super angry about WHATS WRONG WITH KIDS THESE DAYS GOSHDERN FREELOADIN LAZY COMPUTER FREAKS DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY IN THE RED BLOODED SNOW

Maybe it wasnt beautiful snow. Maybe I am a lunatic. It was 1/4 inch dusting, a windchill of 8 and our sleds and snowpants are lost. Id pout in the frontyard too ...maybe....

I dont know. It just sucked. They are sick, I am sick, Charlie has a rash so horrible he cant pee without freaking out, and he poos every 30 minutes. I dont see how I could leave the house with this current pooing issue. I have eliminated EVERY thing from his diet, including my own diet....so did I mention the last few days have been long and boring and long. The good vibes are missing right now, and I know we need a trip somewhere but are too poor or sick. I really need to just take a $20 and pop it in my pocket everytime Steve gets paid, just so we can go do stuff here and there. MOMMY NEEDS A FRICKIN COFFEE FROM A PLACE. a coffee that doesnt taste like nasty dish soap in a stupid old house cup. I need a reason to spackel makeup over my random new bad skin. I want to go back to Ann Arbor. soon soon soon I hope.