You Capture - Real Life

Sometimes they fail to clean their rooms. Even if they say they have.

Sometimes I let the Lego Man build instead of doing other things he should be doing because I know how very much he enjoys building.

Sometimes I let the kids watch as much TV as they want to so I can enjoy a little peace and quiet.


Sometimes Many times the petty bickering of sibling rivalry can make a mama want to scream, but then something happens that makes that same mama's heart melt.

Sometimes I get upset over stupid, little things like spilled milk. They are always quick and gracious to forgive me for losing my cool.

Sometimes All the time I love them with all the love my little mommy heart can give.

For more photos of Real Life, visit I Should Be Folding Laundry.

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Bright Futures and Other Housekeeping Issues

Thought I would give you an update on Bright Futures. It's going great. It is getting a little old driving downtown with kids in tow every week (especially since Tuesday seems to be THE Day for an Atlanta downpour), but we pass the time listening to books on CD. We just finished Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest series and enjoyed it immensely.

I have so enjoyed getting to know my BFA kids. They're good kids, all four of them, and we have a great time together. Please note that I have added 4 new essays to Homeschool Writer's Block. I have not been good about keeping up with that. And the kids miss it! Every week they have asked me, "Do you have our comments?" Trust me when I tell you how very much those comments mean to them. So, while I know it takes a good bit of time out of your day to do so, I would very much appreciate if you would visit and comment on their writings.

The essays I have posted are just one of a few assignments they have completed in the last few weeks. They had a rough time with their Lord of the Flies analytical essays, so I did not post those. For a couple of them, we had to re-work those papers and then re-work them some more, and we still have much room for improvement in that area.

Note: If you are new here and are wondering, What on earth is Bright Futures? visit here (the last post under that label explains the most).

As for that other housekeeping issue, I have recently made a new friend over at Running with Letters. Cynthia really does run with letters. And then she takes those letters and spins them into a lovely choice of words. And then she takes those words and morphs them into wonderfully composed sentences. She's a fun, busy, sweet person and someone I'd love to meet in person. Oh, and she's written two books for young adults. The Chrysalis is found here, and Drink the Rain may be found here.

Anyway, she has in the last few weeks awarded me two blog awards. The first was forever ago. So thank you, Cynthia, for the i give good blog Award

and for the Superior Scribbler Award.

The Superior Scribbler Award comes with some fine print. Here it is:

1. Each Superior Scribbler I name today must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving bloggy friends.
2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog.
4. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

So here's what I'm going to do. I happen to have 3 blog friends who were or are English teachers, which, implicitly, means they spend quite some time "scribbling". And they are:

Annie at Having a Ball
TeacherMommy at Diapers and Dragons
Arby at Boarding in Bedlam

I also have a wonderfully fun blog friend who acts like she was at some point an English teacher. I mean, she writes well and corrects people's grammar (and that's endearing, not annoying for the record). (Note to self: ask her what she did in Life-Before-Mommyhood-and-Homeschooling). And that person is:

Crossview at Down a Red Dirt Lane

Finally, one of my Write4Homeschool students is a witty, charming blogger herself, and she becomes my last but not least award recipient:

Aja at The Penguinator's Lair

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Fun with Gladiators

Before we had kids, Mark and I attended various sporting events on a regular basis. Both of our companies possessed coveted season tickets to the Hawk's games, and whenever the bigwigs of either company could not make use of these tickets, they were up for grabs. We always grabbed them. I loved going to NBA games. I enjoyed the energy of the crowd, and I love the game. My most memorable basketball date was definitely when we witnessed the Hawks take on the Bulls. And this was back when Phil Jackson was the coach, and the team consisted of Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, some other guys, and, of course, #23. The best part about it? We were in Row B. That's the second row! From the court. We were showered with Michael Jordan's sweat whenever he ran by.


Although we enjoyed basketball, our favorite events came in 1996 when the Olympics came to Hotlanta. Mark's company offered us tickets to witness the women's semi-final games in soccer. And we also splurged and bought ourselves men's volleyball tickets. I don't recall who played. I only remember that our games took place the morning after the bombing at Centennial Park. Since the Omni where the games took place was close to the park, we experienced the scrutinized check-ins that are now so commonplace at any public venue. And, as almost-newly weds trying to find our way in the world, our "splurge" got us nose-bleed seats, but we still had a fantastic time.

Since those days of long ago, children have entered our lives, making sporting events more difficult. Not that children don't have a place in the stadium, but lugging diaper bags and babies through crowds only to have the kids squirm and complain in their seats is not the best use of finances or time. We have taken in a few baseball games with the kids, but only when we were able to get free or almost-free tickets. Baseball is by far NOT my favorite sport. I chalk it up to the fact that I grew up a world away from the game. And I always laugh when the "World Series" for baseball rolls around each year. I mean, I know there are some Americans who think that life revolves around them; perhaps they are the ones who define the "world" as the United States and that one team from Canada.

So, for the few times we have caught the Braves in action, the kids , like me, have found sitting in the scorching sun to watch some middle-aged men maybe hit the ball and then maybe make it all the way around the diamond as exciting as watching your hair grow. (And my apologies to the many baseball enthusiasts I just offended with that statement.)

Moreover, having grown up where football is a sport where the foot actually makes contact with the ball, I have historically had the same relationship with football in this country as with baseball. However, when the Falcons went to the Superbowl back in the '90s, I had my husband explain the complicated-looking game to me. Once I understood it, I actually found American football is fascinating enough that I enjoy watching a game now and then, both on TV and in the Georgia Dome. Although, as I recall, during the last Falcons game we went to, I was more entertained by the drunk guy in front of us than the game, but maybe that is because he wouldn't sit down and thus blocked my line of vision.

Crowds can get rowdy at hockey games too, and we've been to our share of those. Before the Thrashers were born, Atlanta had a minor league team called the Knights. Because of the team's amateur status, tickets were cheap. For $10, you could score seats fairly close to the fight game.

While the Knights have been replaced by our NHL team, out in the 'burbs we have another minor league team called the Gwinnett Gladiators. We as a family got our first taste of the Gladiators last night...and all for free! An old dentist friend of ours happens to be the Gladiator's dentist (imagine the miracles he has to do when stray pucks meet those mouths!), and his dental office annually sponsors a special reading program. We took part this year, and scored free tickets for the whole family! Pretty good seats too.

We had such a great time last night and even discovered some teaching moments at a hockey game. For example, either we were sitting in the season ticket holder section where the fans meet together on a regular basis to cheer on the team, or I completely missed the memo. Because every now and then, our entire section would break out in a chant, the words of which I could not discern. However, it very clearly ended in a big "You suck!" at the opposing team, an ending that was not lost on the children. We discourage that phrase in our house. (Modeling not using that word is hard for me because I have to bite my tongue when I want to say things like, "It really sucks that we can't sell this house" or "It really sucks that our church is closing".) The lesson lay in explaining to the children why a couple hundred adults might be acting like children by demeaning the other team in that way. At another point, the whole stadium began loudly booing the team from Kalamazoo. Alex, my compassionate one, turned to me and stated, "Well, that sure is mean!"

Another lesson was found in that old phrase, "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out." I shared that phrase with the kids before the game, and they rolled their eyes at me and gave me their usual, Mom, you're kind of crazy, do you know that? look. Turns out we all enjoyed the many body slams which shook the glass and caused sparks of ice to fly from the players' skates. But then in the third period, two players threw their helmets (or hats as my littlest called them) to the ice, knocked each other to the cold floor, and began whaling on each other. The lesson lay in explaining to the kids why the audience was cheering them on. The resulting Time Out in the Penalty Box at least proved to show the children the good use of a Time-Out.

Lessons aside, the kids were very into the game the whole time. (Well, except for maybe the Princess who stated emphatically a couple of times, "I'm bored.") The energy in the stadium was electric as it usually is at such events, and my children caught that vibe. They cheered, danced, vied to catch the various prizes that flew from the prize shooter, performed a pretty good YMCA, and--thankfully--did not join in on the You Suck Chant.

(No, we didn't have the stadium to ourselves. These pictures were taken prior to the game--while the teams were practicing.)

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The Murder Story

Murder. It is such a harsh word. Especially considering the fact that I am only talking about plants here. And I suppose if I were to stand trial on behalf of all of the vegetation that has resided--however temporarily--in and around my house over the years, I would be found guilty only of involuntary, uh, plant-slaughter.

Yes, I have a black thumb. Don't believe me? This is one of my current houseplants:

And this is the only kind of plant I've been able to sustain for any length of time:

And to show you my depth of botanical knowledge, I have no idea what this vine is called; I simply refer to it as "that plant, you know, the kind you can't kill." And you really can't. It can be all brown and shrively for a week and perk up in minutes with a mere sprinkling of moisture. Yes, it's my kind of plant.

So, knowing my sordid past with plants, one might ask why I am planning to plant a garden this spring. Because I am. I've always wanted a garden. I think it would be nice to be able to provide my own food. Like in the olden days. Like Half-Pint and her family did. Plus, I think it would be a good learning experience for the kids.

I'm going to hopefully make this whole Gardening Thing easier for me because I am going to go the way of Square Foot Gardening. Reading about this method is so exciting because it actually sounds fun!

I'm going to start small: one 4x4 for herbs and then maybe another 4x4 or a 3x3 to experiment with some veggies. I also would like to reserve a square foot for each child. That's one thing that's great about Square Foot Gardening: it's perfect for Control Freaks like me. If the kids have their own square foot, I will be far less likely to fret over it.

So I'm really looking forward to spring. Before then, I will probably start some of my seeds indoors. And in the meantime, I'm reading and researching, researching and reading. I am bound and determined to turn my black thumb into green, resulting in a little less, uh, murder around here!

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Save the Time!

Top 5 Reasons I Hate Daylight Savings Time. Or the end of Daylight Savings Time. Or whatever it's called when we "fall back".

Reason #5:

I procrastinate so much in resetting all of the clocks that, inevitably, at least one clock remains an hour ahead. Which always results in at least a couple of instances where I glance at said clock and say, "Oh, crap! I'm late!" and then rush through whatever I'm doing only to go into another room where the clock has been reset and realize all of the stress and hurrying was for nothing. Of course, once we "spring forward" into Daylight Savings Time once more, the clock that's ahead won't have to be touched.

Reason #4:

I have to re-learn how to reset the car clocks. Every time. Every season. And I'm not one to consult manuals and directions and other things that are written to make life easier. So by the time I am done re-setting the car clocks, all of the pre-programmed stations must be re-set as well. And I'm not one for consulting a manual for setting the presets either, so it's all just a vicious circle.

Reason #3:

It feels like midnight by the time I start dinner preparations, which causes a little bit of extra panic along with the panic I already feel because of the fact that I'm not all that handy in the kitchen.

Reason #2:

Obviously since it is about midnight when we're thinking about dinner, it feels like about 2 or 3AM when I finally wrestle the children to bed. Then I'm too tired to get Stuff done.

And the #1 Reason I hate Daylight Savings Time (ending) is:

Before children, I LOVED falling back. It meant an extra hour of sleep. Not so much with children because their internal clocks haven't caught on to this anomaly. I finally have them sleeping in 'til 8:00 every morning. The End of Daylight Savings Time rolls around. We "fall back", and now they're up at 7:00 every morning.

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You Capture - Whatever You Want

Many times, both in my classroom teaching and in my home teaching, I have given my students/kids the assignment of writing "whatever about whatever you want." There are always those students who get giddy at the thought of filling a paper with words on their choice of topic. Then there are those who meet your eyes with a blank stare.

Because I'm such a professional when it comes to this pho-tography stuff, I am the latter kind of student. Last week's You Capture assignment was to photograph "anything you want."

Blank stare.

I racked my brain (which hurt). If I was to photograph anything I want, it would likely be the kids. But that would be too predictable. I thought about putting more of my town in photos. In fact, yesterday as I drove back from co-op, I passed "The Dam Store" and "The Dam Bar" (we live near, um, a dam), and I thought pictures of those signs would add some quirkiness to photos of the lake. But I did the lake last week. Plus going to the lake would be a lot of work.

I don't actively seek extra work.

I've heard tell that in some photography classes, they give you an assignment called "From the Bench" where you sit on a bench and take photos from that bench without getting up. I actually did go to the park yesterday, but I was too busy yapping it up with the other moms to take pictures. So of course I am, today, taking the lazy way out:

(Drumroll please) I now present to you "From My Chair."

This is my chair:

There is usually a cat on my chair. She thinks the chair is hers. She is sorely mistaken.

A bookcase tells a lot about a person. These are books I have used in my role as Teacher.

These are gardening books. Since I can't keep a plant alive to save my life, I'm not sure what they're doing there. Oh, OK, I do know, but that is a story for another day.

The kids like to play this:

While sitting here. These are African chairs. They are surprisingly comfortable. Of course, the grown-up size of these are even more comfortable, but these aren't bad. Really.

And, yes, there is still Halloween candy being sorted by little fingers in my family room. Did you see it behind the African chairs? Here is another pile. Wasn't Halloween a week ago? What kind of mom allows her kids to still have all this candy lying around anyway?

Although I prefer a clean coffee tabletop, it usually isn't. Somehow my coffee tabletop has turned into a catch-all, an arts & crafts table, and a Lego workshop. Always with the Legos. Honestly, the whole house is pretty much a Lego workshop. At least one would assume that to be true since they are EVERYWHERE. These particular pieces of Lego art happen to be from the kids' AWANA tonight. They had to create Bible scenes with Legos.

On the left we have the Garden of Eden. In the middle is Jesus in the manger. And on the right is the lame man being lowered through the roof for Jesus' healing.

Behind the couch which the coffee table serves is this wall:

The arched window looks in on the ktichen. We built this house, and that brick accent wall as well as the wrought iron railing you see on the top right both have stories too long to tell here. That sweet baby? That's the Princess. I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with her when we moved in here; those were her first professional pictures. (And her last since shortly after that we purchased our new-fangled camera, and I got this silly idea in my head that I am some sort of professional.)

And finally, one thing I love about my chair is that I have a wonderful place in the morning for my quiet time. Just me, a hot cup of tea, and the Word. (Well, and lots of interruptions from little people if I don't get up early enough. Like that has ever happened. The sleeping in late, that is.)

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One-Liner Wednesday: Murder Edition

Although murder had always been a part of her life--the easy way out really--she knew that with a little hard work, a new way of life could emerge, which could be both amusing and lucrative.

Just to avoid having the police knock on my door, I will explain later this week...

For more One-Liners, visit Cynthia at Running with Letters.

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