Huelle Family Adventures

A Misunderstanding

2012-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

I watched two minutes of something I should not have, Dr. Drew on Unschooling. Ugg...I've seen this before. Every time I see someone on TV discuss unschooling, they always show clip after clip of children being...children. It is as if only unschooled, or homeschooled for that matter, children are capable of being rude and obnoxious. It just makes me crazy. They film all day at your house for several days, then make a montage of all the times you asked the kids to do something and they growled or all the times they interrupted. And they always show all the little ones, not the young adults.

I'm going to attempt to set something straight here. I don't homeschool my kids so that they will be perfectly regulated angels. I'll admit it, sometimes they are outright brats and they make me cry in frustration. But I'm fairly sure that public schooled kids do that too, especially the young ones. I don't expect them to be well behaved all the time. They are children and they are learning what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, and how to behave in a social group. To me, and many others, the way to teach that is by example. If you treat a child as a slave, with no individual rights, his humanity will rebel. He will get uglier than he is already. If you put a child in a totalitarian system, he will not learn self-government. If you use force on a child, he will use that force on others. Use force on a person and you get rebellion or submission, neither is a positive attribute in my opinion.

Two examples from our house.

Me: "Hey, Tom! Can you take out the trash when you get a minute?" (He's playing a video game on my computer.)

Dream Response (which I do get fairly often): Tom: "Sure, just a second." (Finishes level or gets to save point, runs out to the trash.) "Anything else?"

Me: "No. Thanks!"

Tom has learned that what he is doing is valid and he has been respected. He will most likely treat others this way. Maybe not always, or right away, but in the future for sure. And there is always the likely hood that he may just be wrong in his head and be an ass when he grows up. It's his choice and forcing him to do something when I say to do it regardless of his feelings will not change THAT.

Another Likely Response (of which I also hear very often): Tom: "Sure, just a second." (Keeps playing)
Me: "Tom? The trash? When? I'd like to read our book". or "We have somewhere to be today."
Tom: "Oh! Right! Sorry!" (Saves game. Does chore.)

And this response happens every once in a while, more often when they were younger. Tom: "I'm busy! I can't save!"
Me: "Ok, I'll do it this time, but breakfast will have to wait that much longer. I hope you aren't hungry."

This is where people freak out. He has no consequences for not doing what you told him to do! Yes, he does. His breakfast is late. And my cheerful attitude about doing more work while he plays usually gets his conscience and he loves me a bit and does something else to help. Maybe not the first time, but eventually.

Bottom line? I treat my children with the respect I treat adults. Their play is their work. Yes, it's a lot more fun than my work usually, but I took that on of my own free will and they will too eventually. And yes, it is working. My boys are 11 and almost 10 now. They help a lot more than they used to and never by force. I have heard often this past year, "I'll help you do your chores so it will go faster and we can go to Disneyland earlier!" They have personal chores they do, but they are chosen by them and usually revolve around them and what they like. Jake likes his bed made when he gets into it, so he makes it. Tom doesn't like jeans on the floor because he is afraid of bugs, so he folds them up in his drawer.

I don't have well behaved children. I have children. They are cute and that is what saves them many days! :)

Classic Moms Class

2012-01-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Last night was my Classic Moms Class online from Abigail Adams Academy. We were discussing "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I've read the book before and really liked reading it again. I do wish I had taken more time to write down my thoughts as I read though. I feel like I remember so much more of the book when I do that.

During our discussion last night, someone brought up the class thing. The book is filled with class issues, Mr. Darcy's main hesitation about asking Elizabeth to marry him is because of her lower social class. What we were talking about was whether or not classes exist today. I don't think they do as they did then. I understand that people who are poor don't always have the chance to change that. There may be no influence to show them another way of life, but it isn't impossible as it was in the past.

Today, if a rich and well educated person were to go and find a family to "adopt" and help through tough times or someone from that family was able to get an education for themselves, raise their standard of living, or even become rich themselves, they are not excluded from activities and events given by other rich people because they used to be poor. Wow! Was that a sentence?

In the past there was a wall between the classes. If you were born a farmer and you became rich somehow, you were still not allowed to attend the ball of some aristocrat. You were of a lower class and did not belong.

Today, at least in our country, things are different. I agree there are economic classes, but they can be transcended, even if it is unlikely or difficult. Yes, there are people in our country who still think, "Well, he just recently became rich, unlike us, who had our money handed down for generations." But typically, if you can buy a ticket, you're in.

There is also a difference in the term "class". One can have class and not be rich or aristocratic. And one can be rich and have no class whatsoever. That was true then and now. The book has some great examples of that as well.

Little Protesters

2012-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, I logged into FB, my email, and Blogger, as is my wont, but found something I was unaware of...a protest! Here are the details if you want to read about it. https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
At first I thought, well how much will staying off the internet do to stop this legislation? Is it worth it? I figured I jump on the band wagon and stay off as well and then went to my books, which is also a morning routine. Then I headed for the shower.

I thought about telling the boys about the protest and asking them if they wanted to participate, but when I emerged there they were, reading something on the internet. I got my coffee. My son asks me, "Mom, what do you know about the PICA/SOPA thing?" What?! How is he even aware? Turns out that a few of their favorite sites are shutting down for the day in protest. We discussed the bills and what they could mean for the internet. Tom worried that it was a violation of the first amendment. Me, still astonished. Both the boys decided they would stay off the internet as well. And that's no small feat around here, especially since Dad had to go into the city for work earlier and we had no car to take us on adventures AND Jake had been sick the previous day so he was in no mood to run around outside. Tom did get online long enough to change his webpage to point to Wikipedia's protest page. Here's a link to it http://kikapoogamez.weebly.com/

So we spent a lazy day watching a movie, playing XBox at Grandma's, reading our books, and making chocolate chip cookies. It was a good day. I even got a small knitting project done. We had teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner. The kids were a little tiffed at that since Dad wasn't home and we are supposed to have pancakes on nights like that, but I had already started the chicken before I remembered and Dad doesn't like teriyaki either, so it still worked.

Don't worry though. Dad got home! :)

A Blacksmith!

2012-01-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

Ahhh! It's working! As my favorite A-Team member says, "I love it when a plan comes together." Tom has been thinking a lot about what direction his life will take. When he turned eleven this past October he began writing a journal on the computer. He said he had to start writing things down because "things were starting to happen to him" and he wanted to remember them.

Last week, he talked to me about being a Blacksmith. He's done a little work with a couple of Historical Reenactments and really loved it, besides he could make swords in his spare time. After a few days of thinking and talking to Dad, I realized that this could work. I could find those people at the Historical Museum in Big Bear and see where they learned, maybe they would need an apprentice. I talked to Tom about it and he said he would love it, but not the kind that Nat Bowditch got signed up for. He didn't want to be indentured!

Yesterday, I poked around the Internet and found the California Blacksmiths Association. I looked through their classes and found one right here in Yucca Valley! I emailed the guy about Tom. He called me back. And now Tom's signed up to go to the Novice class on Saturday afternoon! How awesome is that?! The guy was really nice. Their family homeschools too. He told me to bring him on Saturday and fill out the forms to be a member of CBA and $20 for the class and he can try it out and keep coming every month if he likes it. Dad is going to go with him so that he can learn a bit too.

I don't know who is more excited, me or Tom. The only bummer is that we have family coming over on Saturday, but my brother is staying all weekend so Tom won't miss him and he can fill everyone in on his adventure when he gets back.

So, what's "working"? My own education and research in homeschooling led me to the unschooling idea of leaving them alone to be kids. We read together a lot. We talk about life a lot. We go to museums, parks, and other local (and not so local) stuff. We've never sat down for "lessons". They play games most of the day. But they are voracious readers, excellent mathematicians, and well versed in history. And now, at eleven years old, Tom is looking into what he wants to do with himself. He is feeling puberty coming on. He is self-aware and knows that he is growing up. He is taking a class to learn something because it interests him, not in a classroom with a textbook, but with a real mentor working in the field. As he actually works, he will feel his purpose in the world. He won't be waiting until he is 18 to start his real life. He has been living it the whole time. I'm excited for him. If blacksmithing proves to not to be his life dream, so what? He will have some skills to use. Not just blacksmithing skills, but pride, communication, and confidence that he can use in his next endeavor.

New Years' Party at Old Dale

2012-01-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

It was a one family party, but it was fun. I should have taken more pictures but I was distracted. :))
We spent New Year's weekend at our favorite camping spot since the weather was so warm for January. It seems that there were a lot of other people with the same idea! We could see three other campers from our spot. One of them had a TV and generator, which they ran all night. Seriously?! When we drove back into the mines there were several people camped back there, too. Crazy busy!

We got a Baja Bug last week, so we just had to take out there and play with it. The last few times we've been out have been all about target practice and skeet shooting, but this time it was all about driving! All three kids did a great job driving the bug and it's a manual transmission so that's saying something. Jake and Tom have fallen in love with the stick shift! Nikki could do without it but it has given her a new appreciation of how much easier it is to drive the truck.

Dan told Jake to turn around in a spot that proved to be VERY deep sand and they got stuck. So stuck, that Nikki and I had to drive the RV out as far as we could and then walk out to them with the jack and some pans to dig them out! Dan got out though and the adventure was very exciting!

We attempted to do some exploring farther back in the mines as we had done before, but going up that road more than once proved to be more than we had the guts to do. The bug can only seat four so Dan had to ferry Jake and I up and then go back for Nikki and Tom, but after going up that nasty road once, we decided not to tempt fate and do something else. We all messed around looking for new places to explore, then went back to Virginia Dale to poke around. While we were there we saw a guy (with an awesome Jeep) come down that same road with a trailer!! I couldn't watch.

Tom and I decided to hike around the mines while Dan took Nikki and Jake back to camp but then we decided we would try and walk back. We had the best time! It took us about an hour walking straight across the desert but it was so fun and we saw a couple critters. Funny that we rarely see any animals, not even birds. We see lots of tracks though.

The next morning, Dan ferried Jake, Tom, and I out to another spot we wanted to explore and we walked back from there. We got to the top of this big hill and could see a ravine, so we walked down to that and checked it out. You can't see it at all from the road or camp. Good place to hide! :)) The best part of that walk was the long philosophical discussion we had on the way back. All that walking and quiet solitude really gets those boys to talking.

The last day we were there, Dan got the bug stuck again but this time closer to camp. Things we need on the bug: a jack, a piece of wood, a shovel, and a piece of carpet. That ought to keep us rolling! And I need a bug of my own! Ha!

Oh! On the way home, the bug started smoking bad and Dan had to pull over. Luckily, Tom and Jake had their walkie talkies on and Tom called us and told us to stop by a van on the side of the road. They were in front of us quite a ways and when the bug broke down, a guy pulled over to help them. I would have seen them too late and had to turn around on the highway if Tom hadn't have radio'd us right then. The guy that stopped was so cool! His name was Clark Cravy and he lives out there. He knows all about bugs and was going to help Dan fix it right there on the road. It wasn't that bad though. It just got hot going too fast up a grade. We took it easy the rest of the way home and it was fine. Dan has fallen in love with the bug though and now he just has another reason to spend time on it. The guy told us to look up the UCC Connection when we got home. He said he tells everyone he meets to look that up. Turns out he is "one of us". The site is article is great and Freedom-School.com has lots of great stuff to read too.

We're all home now and the laundry has begun! I can't wait to go out again though. Every time we take the RV out for a short trip, I long for a big ol' road trip even more!

Happy New Year Everyone!

New Toy!

2011-12-29T07:26:00.001-08:00

Here's Dan driving off towards home with it!

We've been wanting a new vehicle toy for some time and after the Christmas we had...we got it!! Yes, we drove all the way down to Laguna to pick it up and in hind sight we should have rented a trailer to bring it home, but it was SO worth it!

We decided on the Baja Bug because it is old enough not to need a smog check, runs on little gas, it's cheap, and well...it's just so cool looking! This one needs a little minor work, but we can use it as it is right now. The engine and transmission have had lots of work and it runs great. We had only one problem. It's not charging the battery as it runs, so when it got dark and the lights came on, it died on the freeway. Hmm...that's why they guy through in a set of jumper cables!

Dan was behind me on the freeway and in the left lane, no where near an exit when it died the first time. He got it on the shoulder and then called me. When I came back, the Highway Patrol was there giving the car a charge. That guy was super nice. We got it off at the next stop, but it died crossing the street and two people stopped to help Dan push it. I was praying he didn't have a heart attack pushing that thing! So we sat at a gas station charging it off our truck for a bit. Drove another piece and charged it again. Stopped at a Walmart that time and picked up a meter so Dan could see how much battery he had left. It's amazing how comforting a Walmart is to us. It was a huge nice one too. I was envious.

We stopped and charged up one more time before we got home. It was at the Whitewater rest stop we know and love. There was a pony asleep by the fence. I wanted to take a picture, but my phone doesn't work well at night. Dan called Mom from there so she would know we were almost home. He talked to Tom and told him about our plight. I'm sure he was working on fixing it in his mind.

The kids came running out when we got home. The boys are so excited! I think we will take it out to our favorite camping spot this weekend for a trial run. There are several spots we've been dying to get to but couldn't do it in our truck!

Christmas Is Over!

2011-12-26T10:43:00.000-08:00

Oh man! It was, once again, the best Christmas ever!

Sword Play!

2011-12-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

Where's Christmas?! I know! I'm getting caught up. Christmas will be discussed later!

The boys and I drove down to the OC for a class on how to make foam swords last week. Cool, huh? It was given through a school called "Celebration Education" that offers classes designed for homeschoolers by homeschoolers. Much fun was had by all! They made two swords and then had an all out war. I tried to take some pictures, but they were moving pretty fast.

After the "class", we stayed for our old park day and a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Then we headed to Great-Grandpa's house and took him out to dinner for his Birthday. That was my favorite part. I love my Grandpa and I love spending a little time with him and my boys. I didn't get a picture though! Grr...

Uncle Sam Magoo!

2011-12-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

I know! You probably haven't even thought of Mr. Magoo! This came up on my Netflix as a suggestion and the boys and I just finished watching it. Lately, I've been watching a documentary or biography on Netflix in the afternoon. It's a subversive attempt at getting the boys to watch something besides the Simpsons! Ha! Today I chose this instead. Mom's time on the TV! They were both sucked in and it was great. I love that they both know what parts of American History they are talking about before the show put a name to it. They knew all the historical characters and had comments about how accurate it was or not. The word "propaganda" came up, and we talked about using original sources if you really want to know what happened or what someone thought or did. There were also a few quotes at the end that have spurred us on to knowing more. They were from people I hadn't heard of or don't know much about.

Another great hour with my boys and now they ran off to play Halo at Grandma Anne's house. And I just saw one of the chickens chase a cottontail across the yard!! It's cold and wet out, but it didn't snow, so I'm sulking.

Finished St. Augustine Reading

2011-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

This reading was only to Book IX, so I haven't finished the book. I'm following the reading plan written in "The Great Books" series.

This one took me awhile because of the language. It was bit harder to read, but once I got into it, it was amazing. I'm not reading to understand every paragraph fully. I'm reading right now just to get through the selection and glean what I can. The next time I read, I will get more. It is a great way to give yourself and education! I only read about an hour and a half a day, and slowly but surely the books open up their wisdom to me. I love it!

Rain!

2011-12-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

The weather report says it will rain like crazy today. Oh, it better! There are clouds in the west, but no rain yet. Our big plans for driving down to Orange County for a foam sword making workshop and park day have been postponed to next week. Well, the class part has been postponed. I still have to drive down and pick up Nikki from her friends house. She spent the weekend there. The best laid plans...I guess.

Last night, the boys and I finished reading "Anne of Green Gables". You would think that they wouldn't enjoy a book as tame as that, but they loved it. Both of them want to read the next one right away. That book is just filled with awesome descriptions. I think that Tom especially loves the clever ways that Anne deals with her situations and feelings. He identifies with her over the top imagination. There are other books that I would like to read out loud, but I think the next Anne book is going to be first.

Oh Wow...that St. Augustine Again

2011-12-09T08:39:00.001-08:00

You wouldn't think that a guy that wrote some 1600 years ago would have anything relevant to say to me, but wow! Here's the bit I found I had to share today:

"For a froward will was a lust made; and a lust served became a custom; and custom not resisted became necessity."

Everyone has desires and all of them are natural, not all of them serve us well. If we give into these "lusts"(and we're not talking just sexual here, people), we serve them and they become custom, normal, to us. How many feelings and desires do we give into that become a normal part of our lives and we feel that we must work around them because they have to be there? If your action does not serve you purpose in life you must give it up. Only things that make us better people and help us toward are goals as human beings should we keep in our lives.

Oh, the other thing was that he described giving up his carnal nature to serve God as waking up. It was glorious. Funny to hear someone so long ago describe something that we all feel today. You're all warm and comfortable and you want to wake up, in the back of your mind, but you don't want to make that final effort to jump up and get dressed. The transition from comfortable sleep to enjoyable waking is a pretty tough one. Much like the transition from inactivity to activity, from reading about a subject to acting on that subject. Crazy!

Karate Class & Christmas Trees!

2011-12-09T07:23:00.001-08:00

Yep, the boys are still taking karate! There was a while there where they had to be encouraged to continue but now they are crazy about it. I never told them they had to go, just told them that from my experience I believed they needed to give it more time. Jake always wanted to go, but he didn't want to go if Tom gave up. Tom was growing weary of the other kids in the class. He thinks they should be more serious about learning and gets frustrated with them. We talked a lot about people and their styles. I also told him to have a bit of patience. Some of these kids don't really want to take karate, but have to because their parents think it's important. And all of them have been in school all day and are kind of burned out on focus by the end of the day. That seemed to help him and he's been getting along a lot better.

They want to get there a few minutes early on Tuesdays and Thursdays because theirs is the first class that day and they can practice together without younger kids running around crazy. When it's their turn to lead the class, they are so serious and full of authority. They watch all the kids as they do the basics and help them fix the things they are doing wrong. Jake is adorable with the younger kids. Yesterday they were sparring, but there were only the three little ones with them. Sensei took turns sparring with Tom and Jake and they took turns sparring with the little ones. It was so cute. They love sparring with their Sensei because he is bigger than them and can teach them a few things. I like watching them fight with the little ones because they let them get a few punches in and act like they get knocked down.

We got our Christmas tree at Home Depot this year. There were no little Christmas tree lots in town this year. It made me sad. The last time we bought a real tree at Home Depot in Anaheim, there was a place out in the parking lot and it gave the feel of a little tree lot, but this time they were in the back of the garden department. A guy came up and told us he would open any of them up for us, but we decided to play the lottery and pick one that was all wrapped up. We were there about 10 minutes and that includes looking for lights...which we didn't get because they were almost completely out. There were no pretty multi-colored ones! We brought that wrapped up tree home and Dan put it in the stand. It was perfect! Tom wondered how they get them all to grow perfectly triangular like that and I told him to look closely at the ends of the branches. They cheated!!

Yesterday, the boys put the lights on it, with much arguing about doing it wrong. Tom did the "Traditional Tree Skirt Dance" with much flair. And some of the ornaments are on. Maybe we will finish it today?

My new Kitchenaide Mixer came too! Dan got it for me for my birthday. I've been talking about it for years and he finally got it. Funny too. Saturday was my birthday and he took Nikki out to practice driving. They were gone for hours. When they got home, Dan said they drove all over town (two stores) looking for one. Wal-mart said they were out but had ONE on order. And Sears (which closes it's doors this week) said they would order one if we needed it. Ugg. So he came home and ordered me a bright red one with the BIG motor, so there! It's gorgeous. Like art on my counter top! I made cream cheese mints yesterday and we all made ourselves sick on them. Today, I'm going to make marshmallows and take them to park day!

What's wrong with this Segway?

2011-12-05T08:25:00.001-08:00

Tom was just too much a Walmart yesterday! He had several things that he just HAD to get so we went on a SUNDAY! Actually, he deserved the trip. I asked the boys to get the Christmas decorations out of Grandma's shed and bring them up to the house and they did it...without a fight between them. Crazy huh? So there we were going through Walmart and Tom was the king of smart ass the whole way through. It was hilarious and reminded me of my brother. We stopped in the garden department to see how much trees were this year and he runs to the stack of dollies yelling "I've always wanted one of these!" He stands on it, leans forward, it goes no where. He tries to scoot if forward with momentum. It goes a couple inches. He does it several times. Another customer looks at him and he says "These segway things suck. I don't know what people see in them!" I just about fell over laughing. We then went to look at getting some new Christmas lights and proceeded to fake an arguement about whether or not we needed more lights. Tom being on the side that we had plenty. Me, I wanted more!! I'm fairly certain people thought we were insane.

Saturday was my birthday and my Dad and Step-Mom took us all out for lunch and to see a movie. We saw "The Muppets", which was awesome! I don't think I've laughed harder than that at a movie in a long time. It was hilarious! I remember watching the TV shows at my Dad's house, eating spagetti! Good times!

We also stopped by the towns Craft Fair and I got some new soaps and cute Christmas Cookie earrings. Cuteness!

The Living Desert

2011-11-17T11:10:00.001-08:00

The boys and I met Grandma and Grandpa B a The Living Desert yesterday morning. Every time I go there I remember how much I love coming. It's just a beautiful park and the people working there are very friendly. One guy recognized us this time!

Jake impressed one lady with his knowledge of bones. It was hilarious. They know the names of most of the bones in the human body because of karate. At one of the "discovery carts" they had a leopard leg and foot.

Grandma got them both a souvenir and we had a boat load of fun walking around the zoo. Next time we go, I'm going to spend more time just sitting and watching one animal. I always feel like we are rushing when we are there because there is so much to see, but I love watching the animals most. Jake said he could stand there and watch the giraffe all day.

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A Lesson from Anne of Green Gables

2011-11-15T08:39:00.001-08:00

I think the boys learning something last night while we were reading Anne.

Marilla is shocked by Anne's behavior and the things she says. And sometimes it is right that she is. But in the back of her mind she thinks they are sweet, insightful, funny, or just. Her gut says they are funny, but her upbringing and society tell her it is wrong. She rebukes Anne for her behavior, but in the kindest way possible and Anne does her best to conform in her own way.

The boys said they knew someone like that, my Mom! They frequently say and do terrible things just to get a reaction from her and she, rightly, is appalled by their behavior. I think Tom realized that doing or saying it once is funny and childish, but it would be nice to attempt to reform when others are offended. They might take the offence more lightly if they knew you were trying your best to do better.

More St. Augustine!

2011-11-15T08:36:00.001-08:00

I know! Twice in one day!

He had a friend, or really a student that he felt connected to, that he noticed following down a path that would lead to ruin. He wanted to spare his friend from some of the mistakes he made, but didn't know how. While teaching him one day, his friend heard the words and took them as a rebuke and learned much. St. Augustine did not intend to preach to him, but God spoke to his boy through him.

How many times have I had the same thing happen to me through messages, articles, and my Bible? I wasn't looking for a lesson or help, but they came to me at just the right time. A word of help that I didn't even know I needed. These are the times I know God is there helping me through life. I LOVE those moments!

STILL Reading St. Augustine's "Confessions"

2011-11-15T08:09:00.001-08:00

I have a confession of my own this morning. I tend to gloss over this book while I'm reading, my mind wanders. There are great insights in this book, but I know I'm missing most of them because I just read right through and I have no idea what it said at times.

Here's an interesting bit I read today. "For I kept my heart from assenting to anything, fearing to fall headlong; but by hanging in suspense I was the worse killed. For I wished to be as assured of the things I saw not as I was that seven and three are ten." "But as it happens that one who has tried a bad physician fears to trust himself with a good one, so was it with the health of my soul, which could not be healed but by believing, and, lest it should believe falsehoods, refused to be cured; resisting Thy hands, Who has prepared the medicines of faith, and hast applied them to the diseases of the whole world."

He's talking hear about returning to his Mother's Catholic faith. He continues on about the things he feels he does know for certain without actually seeing; history mostly. He has faith in those who wrote the books and trusts what they say. Same goes with the Bible and what it says. I'm having hard time putting it into words. I have faith in God because of the works He has done in my life. I have faith in the Bible because God has not failed me in other respects. I understand that humans have interpreted what God said and did and wrote it down. I also understand that my English Bible has been rewritten and re-translated, so there probably is some loss there somewhere. But I believe, from my personal experience with God, that what is in there is useful and "inspired" by God. It has been left there for a reason. Just as I believe that God does not need my help in directing peoples lives, He does not need mans help in keeping His Word straight in a book.

And the reading continues....

I'm also reading Ron Paul's book, "50 Issues". Wowness! If you are ever interested in learning more about what being a Libertarian is all about...READ IT! It's awesome, concise, and really makes you re-think many of our governments policies.

Calico Ghost Town!

2011-11-14T08:06:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I got the boys out of bed before noon! Ha! Tom is my sleeper. I think he is making up for his lack of napping when he was little. Jake is usually up before 9am, but Tom, it could be any time between 9 and noon. I got them up early because I wanted to make a breakfast and I didn't want to make it twice. I know! I'm so selfish!

During breakfast, we decided we should do something fun together, so we decided to go to Calico! Yay! We haven't been out there in about five years and recently the boys had heard more about the Haunted Shack at Knott's and seen the video on YouTube of the Mystery Shack, so they've been wanting to go. Nikki at first said she was going to stay home, something about getting school work done, whatever! We made her feel bad and she came with us.

The first thing we did was go to the Mystery Shack and the Sheriff gave us a tour. Luckily, we were the only ones on the tour because all the kids gave him a hard time. We also checked out Maggie's Mine and the girl at the entrance showed us a magic trick guessing numbers. She said we looked like a family that has a lot of fun. She was right! We are! Then we went on the train, had some sarsaparilla at the Saloon, and did some shopping. We stopped at the woodworks shop and the lady there was really nice. She stood there and showed Tom through a couple of her wooden puzzles. She asked him the dreaded question, "What's your favorite subject in school?". I do my ultimate best not to jump in and talk for him when I hear these questions. I stand back and listen to see what he says. He went into the explanation that we homeschool and we don't do "subjects", we learn from life. Nikki jumped into help. She was impressed. I told her that we don't separate into subjects, so they aren't used to the question. But I told Tom that he explained very well. He's thinking of better answers all the time. I love it. We got a few puzzles for cousins' Christmas presents and one for ourselves. She gave the boys one to share with their Uncle on Thanksgiving.

We got a "Jaw Harp". Dan says it's a "Jews Harp". Tom was playing it on the way home in the truck. When we got home, Tom looked it up online and found some interesting stuff. It's an Asian instrument! The Turkish word for it sounds like "Jew" so that could be why people call it that. And Tom was thrilled because of course they would have an Asian instrument in the old west because the Chinese were there! Ahh, I love it when a plan comes together.

On the way home, we stopped in Barstow (ick) and had dinner at Popeye's (yay!). We used to eat there all the time when we lived in Anaheim, but there isn't one nearby us now. It was a serious treat. Man I love those biscuits!

It was such a great day. We were all beat when we got home. Tom wrote it all down in he journal. Jake had to get an hour of him computer game in before bed. And Nikki disappeared into her room.

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Anne of Green Gables

2011-11-10T08:07:00.001-08:00

I finished "Anne of Green Gables" by LM Montgomery earlier this week for my Classic Moms class at Abigail Adams Academy. I didn't take notes while I was reading like I usually do, but I put arrows next to bits that I thought were thought provoking and kept that page turned down. Yesterday, I went through the book and wrote out my thoughts about those bits in the hopes that I will remember them better. I'm terrible about reading a book and then completely forgetting all the details.

I wasn't excited about reading this book when I saw it on the list, I have to admit. It looked like a girly, feel-good book that wouldn't give me much but warm fuzzies about it. It WAS that, but so much more. When I was a kid, I used to watch the TV show and I loved it. The TV did well capturing the characters as they are portrayed in the book, but I wonder if the lessons or morals in the book are in the show. I'd have to go back and watch it again.

It's hard to pick a favorite character, but I'd have to say mine is Marilla. An "old maid" turned adoptive mother of a highly imaginative little girl quite by accident, she changes throughout the book and I grew to love her so much. I can't imagine what kind of shock it would be for someone like her to raise this kind of a child that isn't even her own. She probably has ideas about how children are raised up proper but those change as your children grow and you have experiences of your own, not just ones you've heard or read about. Mrs. Lynde tells Marilla's brother, Matthew, just that. Raising kids isn't like mathematics. There is no formula to follow and it's constantly changing for each child and each family.

One of my favorite quotes from Anne is that she has grown but she hasn't changed really on the inside, "I'm only just pruned down and branched out.", she says. Jesus used this analogy as well and I've always loved it. If you let a tree or vine grow wild without pruning, it never bears good fruit. It may have it's good years, but you have to prune it (or train it) to get it to really show its colors.

Another one is toward the end when Anne's future has changed a bit. She used to see her future laid out before her straight and she could see all that was going to happen, but now things are different. Her future isn't ruined and she has no reason to break down and sink into inactive depression about it. Her future road now has "a bend in it" and she knows it's out there but she's unsure of what will happen. It makes life exciting for someone like her. When she was an orphan going from home to home, there was a bend there too, and around the bend was Green Gables and her wonderful adoptive parents. So what could be around the bend for her this time? I already know because I love the books so much, I've already read the next one! Ha!

I'm going to read this one to the boys because I know they will love her as much as I do!

Karate

2011-11-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Drove down to town for the boys' karate class and there was a sign on the window that he was home sick so there was no class tonight. Grrr. The boys were mad because he always tells us to call if we aren't coming to class.

It was weird too because of the time change. On Wednesday, class starts at 5:30PM. It was really dark and we felt like we were late. I love the gradual change of the seasons but the silly time change is so sudden, it makes me grumpy. Ha!

This Is Halloween!

2011-11-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween! We left Monday morning at 10AM to head down the highway to Orange County. We just HAD to see our old friends and I'm glad we went because I met some new ones. Yay!

On the way there we stopped at Michael's for yarn (got a new sweater I need to start ASAP) and some candles for pumpkins. Then we stopped at Dorling's Fruit Stand for pumpkins...and candy. :)

The park was the best! Not many people were there at our old homeschool park day, but enough to make it fun. I met a new family that I just totally love! And I got chat with a few old friends while the boys wore themselves out and Nikki relaxed with some of her buddies. She had been down there all weekend making the rounds of her friends houses.

We went to Poppy's house next and carved pumpkins, ate pizza, and trick o treated. Fun stuff. The costumes were a big hit in the neighborhood. Nikki took a neighbor girl (friend of Poppy's) around for candy. She moved here from China last year! And my cousin and her family joined us and the kids got a boat load of candy. The kids loved answering the door at Poppy's just as much as trick o treating themselves. It was a race to the door every time the bell rang!

At 9PM we headed home and talked about the great day all the way home. I'm glad we went. It was totally worth it!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so all I have if phone pictures this time. But they are still cute.

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Awesome Friday!

2011-10-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

Boy did we have an awesome day yesterday! I didn't think we would have such a smooth ride for a Friday but it sure ended up well.

Chili (our little beagle mix dog) caught at rabbit in the back yard and quickly brought it in the house first thing in the morning. It was squealing and I told her to drop it and she did. It made a bee line for the sliding glass door which was closed and knocked itself senseless on the glass. I picked up away from the dogs and took it outside. The cat followed in the hopes that he could play with it too. It came around but was very still and had a bloody nose. I thought he might make it but then he kicked a couple times and went limp. Dead. So sad sweet little bunny. The dogs and the cat were adamant about playing with it, so I put it on the front porch until the boys brought the trash cans up from the road later. An hour later, when the boys went to get the trash cans, it was gone! I have no idea what became of it. If Chili got out of the back yard (which she often does) she would have played with it and brought it in the house. The cat is about as big as the rabbit, so he would not have been able to drag it very far and we would have seen it. It was definitely dead, so it did not wake up and run off. So the only thing I could think is that a coyote came up and got it but that would be one very brave coyote and I was in the kitchen most of the time and I think I would have seen a coyote walk up to the front porch. Weird. We think it is now and UNdead bunny and plotting revenge. Ahh!!!

Dan was supposed to drop off Nikki in town so she could go with her mother at 11AM. He ended up with drama at work and couldn't leave so I offered to take her. But then I remembered that it was park day and I promised to bring cookies (which I had even made yet). I put the cookies in the oven, washed the dishes while they baked, got my stuff for park day together and we were ready to go. And I didn't have an anxiety attack attempting it!

We got the mail on the way into town. I was hoping there was a slip for a box since I ordered some books last week and there was. Yay! Dropped off Nikki to her mother and went to the book store in town. Ever since we read "Carry on, Mr. Bowditch!" Tom has wanted to learn another language. I figured we'd go into town and see if the used book store had any foreign language dictionaries. It would be cool to have a few around the house in case we needed to look up words. We found the perfect Spanish one called "Look and Learn Spanish". It teaches you vocabulary and grammar at the same time with pictures and sentences. Tom spent an hour at the park learning several useful phrases. They didn't have any other languages with that book, but I found some online that I've added to my wishlist.

After the book store, we stopped at the post office for my box. I ordered "Anne of Green Gables" and "Pride and Prejudice" for my Classic Moms class. I also got a "Soma Cube" puzzle. I read about that in that John Holt book. At the park, we spent a lot of time trying to put it back together. One of the girls at the park built other things with it. It's a very cool toy.

Before

After

Park day was great. We stayed until 4:30! Park day is what saves homeschooling parents from insanity. I love my Friday because it is the time I get to sit and talk to my friends. The kids are starting to love park days again. They have made some friends and spend the whole day warring against each other with swords, or making up games to play on the swings. Yesterday Jake and Tom sat on the top of the playground and sang the whole Yellow Submarine album to the other kids.

We ran into some Mormon Missionaries on the way to the truck and that ended up in an awesome theology discussion on the way home. They were really nice guys.

When we got home, Dad agreed that the evening needed burgers so we went down for a batch of Tom's Place burgers, fries, and shakes to-go.

Ended the evening with the season premiere of "Gold Rush" and hit the hay. Good times!

Tom Woods Got Me Thinking

2011-10-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

I didn't mean to, but I spent 45 minutes this morning listening to Tom Woods speak. I've read a few of his books and follow his Facebook page. I'm a big fan of his work, but I've never heard him speak before. He was talking to his local Libertarian group and even if you don't swing that way you should listen to this video. He spoke a bit about getting your voice out there an it really got me thinking about putting my thoughts together. Not to convince anyone that reads my blog of my views but to clarify my views for myself. He mentions having a YouTube channel. Even if no one watches what you put out there, you have spent the time putting ideas together and you've practiced speaking your views out loud. The same with a blog. I don't think Facebook status would count though. One or two lines about your feelings isn't going to get you anywhere. But sitting down with yourself, writing out your ideas, and attempting to present them to others has a great benefit to a person. This jibes with the Thomas Jefferson Education ideas that I've been rolling around in my head for years as well.

So the final thought here, since my son just came in looking for breakfast, is that you might be hearing more philosophy from me here but don't think I'm trying to convince you to think my way. I'm arranging thoughts in an "out loud" way so that they make more sense to me. I'd love to hear people's thoughts about what I'm writing though. I'm still learning debate and I love discussion!

Letterbox at Big Morongo

2011-10-25T09:26:00.001-07:00

This shall be the late summer picture of this tree. We're going to go back in a couple weeks and take another picture. We went to a quick walk at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve to look for the Letterbox we left there in the spring. Unfortunately, it has gone missing. We have to replace it. It was a nice walk though. There were clouds and it looked like it might rain and by the time we left it was! Tom cracks me up. He wants to come back another time so that he can sit still and wait for critters. We had fun stopping and waiting whenever he hear something rustle.

This sign was fun! Ever since we read "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch", we've been interested in languages and how they are different. We figured out most of these. It was fun to notice the languages that are really similar and really different.

We're Back!

2011-10-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

That was a nice weekend! Old Dale is one of our favorite places and we've been going there for years. Dan used to go there with his Dad and brothers. This time we were out there for two nights. Highlights?

No one has found our Letterbox at our "monument" on the hill out there. It's been summer though, so that's pretty typical. No one hikes out there in the summer. We have a running conversation with one man that comes out there fairly regular. The last time he was there he said he was going to Afghanistan.

We found the Geocache that we stumbled across last spring. We left a bird whistle and some .22 bullets in it.

We played a lot of Mad Libs, which is always fun. It's actually pretty hard to think of completely random words, so many of our end up having desert, gun, and camping words in them.

The boys sat and listened to Dad read a book about the history of paper money for over an hour. Crazy.

We watched the stars move across the sky and talked about the moon.

We played with fire.

We had several skeet shooting competitions. Dad ultimately won with 4 hits in row. Tom held second place with three. I had two. I did start to get the hang of it though. Jake likes the shotgun now that he is getting a little bigger and able to hold it better. He's also starting to better thrower as well.

I got to play with the new Glock a bit and actually hit targets that I aimed at. It got much easier when I began to relax and be stressed about the sound, recoil, or dropping it. Practice makes for a relaxed shooter, for sure. I can load it and shoot it without worrying too much about doing something wrong.

Jake thought of a funny joke. "If a duckling is a baby duck, what is a dumpling?" We will giggle about that whenever we hear those words again!

Tom continues to be an amazing shot. I'm always in awe about how confident he is about the guns and how to use them. Next to Dad, he is the most knowledgeable and ready to help when Jake and I have a problem.

Nikki didn't go with us this time because shooting is death by boredom to her, so she chose to stay home and hang out with Grandma. They did some practice driving while we were gone.

It was a much needed weekend together and I always love being out there, but now I REALLY want to go on a long trip in the RV!

Good Morning Old Dale!

2011-10-22T07:05:00.001-07:00

This has to be our most favorite camping spot in the world. Man I love mornings here!

Boondocker Coffee Pot

2011-10-22T06:43:00.001-07:00

First use of the drip coffee maker!

We love this thing! It isn't a percolator, it's drip coffee without electricity. Heat up the water, pour it in the top, drips through the grounds and viola! Grandma and Grandpa B brought it to us and little did they know how wonderful it would be for us. Good coffee while camping, just can't be beat!

Two Books Finished

2011-10-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, I finished reading "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham to the boys. I read it for my Classics Mom class and thought I just had to read it to the boys. It's such a great story. They loved it! What I like about the book is that it describes and explains a lot of sailing terms, not so much that it's annoying and can't enjoy the story, but enough so you understand what's happening even if you don't know that much about boats. It also mentions historical dates and events in enough detail to think "Oh! That's when this story is!". I love that the boys have to run out to the dining room table and find all the places that Mr. Bowditch sailed to and figure out how long it took them to get there and back. Tom was fascinated that the guy could learn languages with a dictionary of the language and a Bible. I'm thinking we may need a few Foreign Language to English dictionaries around this house.

The book I finished yesterday was "How Children Learn" by John Holt. I've read a couple of his other books and just love them. I was excited to have this on my reading list for my Classic Mom class too. This is what I got out of this book.

Trust and Love are key elements in raising children. I don't say "educating children" even though his books are an attempt to change the education system we have. The last chapter in this one gives me the sense that he felt he failed that attempt and in some cases made it worse in that people took his ideas and applied them in ways that he never dreamed possible, without the trust and love.

We need to trust, have faith, that children are naturally curious about the world around them. They do see what the world is doing and attempt to do the same. They will correct mistakes when they see them and they will find those mistakes on their own, in their own time.

We need to love them for what they are and what they are trying to become, not what we believe they should or could be.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone, whether you are a parent or not, homeschooling or not. It's just a wonderfully inspiring book that will make you look at all children in a way that makes them much more fun.

Here's my favorite part at the end.

"All that energy and foolishness, all that curiosity, questions, talk, all those fierce passions, inconsolable sorrows, immoderate joys, seem to many a nuisance to be endured, if not a disease to be cured. To me they are a national asset, a treasure beyond price, more necessary to our health and our very survival than any oil or uranium or - name what you will." John Holt - "How Children Learn"

Picnic!

2011-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

We drove to Whitewater Preserve for a picnic with Grandpa and Grandma B this afternoon. It was a perfect day for it too. We walked up the trails a bit and played in the river. It was hot enough to enjoy being wet but not too hot to hike. I love that place! We planted a new Letterbox there. Go check it out. It's at http://www.atlasquest.com/!

A Gorgeous Morning!

2011-10-18T09:39:00.001-07:00

Had to share the greatness of such a beautiful morning! My chickens are ready for breakfast!

Birthday Party!

2011-10-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but this picture of my precious son made me tear up. Maybe because he looks so big or the smile he has on his face. It's typical Tom, though, and it was just magical that I captured it by accident. He's surrounded by his family and that means so much to him. The day after the party he was "sad" (a usual evening occurrence at our house) because he "didn't know our family". He likes hearing stories about other aunts and uncles and the crazy things that happened to us as kids. He said he loves parties because he gets to see his extended family but he doesn't get to spend time with them and really know them because we don't have them often enough. It must be hard living with all that brain! :)

Tom shared his birthday party with his cousins Carson and TJ this year. It was a blast, seriously! Between all the kids and crazy family, we had the quad and the go-kart going all over the property. It was a perfect day weather-wise, not to hot, not to cold. The whole family seemed to be enjoying each other. I got to spend some quiet time with my cousin and her family, which was very special. And I love being able to see many of my friends and family getting to know each other. There were several family members missing (you know who you are) and they were sorely missed and should make more effort to join us.

Tom is realizing that little kids get a lot more toys than big kids but that's ok because he got money. He's saving up for a dirt bike. His favorite uncle got him a replica Russian "Potato Masher"! That, and several new orange shirts made him very happy. Cousin Mike pinned them in Grandma's house after dark and there was much screaming and running back to the house under airsoft gunfire. Our chickens and their eggs were a big hit with the little ones. Grandma and Grandpa B brought Trick or Treats and glow sticks which were much needed that evening. And my Mom got to spend the night in our "guest house", otherwise known as the RV. We stayed up late at the campfire in the back yard watching the stars until the nearly full moon came out and chased them away.

It was a great day!

Who Do I Want to Become

2011-10-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this for my Classic Moms class at Abigail Adams Academy and it's a tough one.

I made the mistake of reading other people's papers before writing mine. They are all so good. Insightful is the word I'm thinking of, and inspiring. Coincidentally, that is what I hope to become! I already know who I am and that that person will evolve and grow as I get older, hopefully in a positive way. But my hope, and what I'm working towards with this class and my other studies, is that I will become more insightful in my life and inspiring to others that know me.

But just now I thought, “Who am I right now?”

Michelle Ann Huelle and that name stands for a unique person that is a combination of “what's”.

To others I am a daughter, grand-daughter, cousin, aunt, mom, wife, and a multitude of other family names. I've been an employee and a boss.

I'm a woman, an American, and a Californian. I'm a person who tries to know more about the world around herself.

In the past, I've been a student, painter, stage-hand, lighting designer, set-designer, college student, laser technician, sales clerk, electronics technician, sound board operator, and scheduler. I've also been a girlfriend, and EX, and someones love interest. I've been someones little girl and the love of someones life.

My life is centered on being wife and mother right now, with the added excitement of autodidact at this time. I'm the house cleaner, cook, and therapist. I'm the one who kisses bruises and holds hands with sick kids. I'm a teacher and helper to my kids. I'm the friend and lover of my husband.

What do I want to become? A mentor, a mother-in-law, and some day a grandma. I want to become a scholar. I want to be joyful in everything I do and I want to be someone that people can see the love of God in.

And, by the way, the Cactus Wrens are very busy collecting nesting material outside my window. It's very distracting when I'm trying to be creative. :))

Started St. Augustine's Confessions

2011-10-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

This is the next reading in "The Great Books" series and it's pretty hard reading for me, a lot of thee's and thou's. But I'm reading slowly and getting what I can.

The first part really spoke to my heart yesterday. "For who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee?" There was more that spoke to this but he says anyone can call of God because we are a part of Him and our soul reaches out for Him without ever hearing of Him from human mouths.

"Thou lovest, without passion; art jealous, without anxiety..." He goes on and on with this. God asks for our love but does not need it. God is everywhere and can tell the world about Himself, He does not need humans but wants us. Why do we, as a people, continue to make fake false gods and religions? Or try to put Him into a form He is not? No one thing can hold Him. He is so much more than one book, people, or church.

The part I read today was fun. He talks about when he was an infant, but he says really he is describing other infants that he has seen, since he can't remember his own infancy.

Socratic Questioning

2011-09-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

You know something that really bugs me? When I find out that I have more to learn. Sounds funny doesn't it? But my list gets longer and longer every day and I start to think I'm going to lose my mind. I wish I had started this learning stuff earlier in my life!

This is what I found today, Socratic Questioning.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-role-of-socratic-questioning-in-thinking-teaching-learning/522
The idea that questions fuel learning, not answers. Answers are the end of learning. Our modern classrooms are full of the answers in the form of textbooks that outline what the questions and answers are for us. The thing that came to my mind while reading the article is my resent delve into studying the Torah and what it means to Christians. I've been a bit disappointed that the book is only leading me to more questions and now I'm busy trying to find those answers. That is the conditioning I've received from our modern education system and I'm only now starting to ask the questions that might lead me to a greater understanding of our world. The conditioning is that a teacher asks the questions and the student reads a textbook and regurgitates the answers that were given, not the questions that have arisen from the reading and the discussion that follows between people that are on a similar quest for knowledge.

So here I am again having to think! :)

Sprint Car Races!

2011-09-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

When we went to the Demolition Derby a few weeks ago, one of the bigger races was cancelled so they gave us free tickets to the next race. That's the one we went to last night. Here they are are gettting ready to start.
The race was awesome! I'm amazed at how fast those little cars go around the dirt track. Tom and I love the races. We could sit there all night! The rest of the family likes going but could probably take it or leave it. I like the dirt they throw up into the stands on the corners and they way they go sideways around the curve and blast off into the straights. I have to admit though, I like the demo derby better. More crashes!! :)

This is what I found the boys doing during one of the races. I had to record them doing it since Jake was making one his famous cutesy faces. I'm sure some day I will be able to blackmail them both with this!

Fighting for Principles

2011-09-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

While reading "The Life of George Washington" by Washington Irving, I came across an interesting point. Washington was defending his stance on the current tax on tea. Before the colonies declared independence, their argument was not that the taxes were too high or "burdensome", but that they were wrong. It was the principle they were fighting about. And they were willing to stop all trade, risk being killed, even war to stand on principle. How many times today have we heard one side, Democrat or Republican, go on about how horrible it is that the other side is holding up legislation due to ideology or principle? We hear that people aren't going to get their welfare checks if we don't set aside our principles and come to a compromise. That would be fine when both sides have similar principles but need to compromise on details. Amazing that our forefathers, our founders, could see that a principle is something you fight/die for not compromise on. The taxes that the King of England continued to impose were only a few cents but both sides were willing to go to battle over the thing. The King was willing to fight to the death for the idea that he was absolute ruler and could do as he saw fit. And the Colonies were willing to die for the idea that man must be governed with consent. Neither could compromise their principles and should not have unless they decided to agree with the other sides point of view.

Today, are we willing to fight, die, or even lose friends for the ideals that we hold dear?

Tovaas Day at Disneyland

2011-09-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Yes! We spent the weekend at the Happiest Place on Earth with my Dad, Step-Mom, and Brother and his family. And it was a blast! I can't remember the last time I had that much fun at Disneyland. It might have helped that we haven't been in over a year and we were used to going every week. And staying at the Grand California Hotel may have had something to do with it. But I think that it was mostly because we spent the time together with our family and we are one fun bunch!

The Grand Californian was beautiful. We've walked through it many times on the way home from California Adventure when we lived across the street, but we've never stayed there. The only complaint I had was the 1gpm shower heads. Sheesh! The hotel room had bunk beds for the kids and they loved them and they left chocolate coins for us when they turned down the beds.

We arrived Friday night and had dinner at Tortilla Joe's with the whole family. Nikki and the boys walked around Downtown Disney and met us back at the hotel for a swim. The pool has big water slides! Carson was getting tired and laying a lounge chair, so I put a towel on him and tucked him in. We had to do that several times. :))

As guests of the hotel, we got to get into the park an hour before it officially opened. I've been there as a cast member a million times for Magic Mornings, but never as a guest! We got on the Monorail at 7AM and headed straight for the new Star Tours (which was awesome). We went on Space Mountain next. It was decorated for Halloween with projections of some scary monster thing. We weren't impressed except for the very beginning of it and a part before a drop that looked good. Then we had breakfast with Minnie and Friends at Plaza Inn (another first for us) and Chip kept trying to steal everyone's chocolate milk. We had fun harassing characters.

The rest of the day was filled with lots of rides, snacks, and walking...lots of walking. I'm still recovering from all the walking! We would split up, get together, go on a ride, get a snack, split up again. It was great. It never got hot cause it was pretty cloudy all day. And we got trapped in a huge crowd before the fireworks. There was something going on in Tomorrowland that involved the fire department. That kinda scared us. Nikki and I had cream cheese filled pretzels and now we're having withdrawls from the deliciousness. We got to see Fantasmic. And then we went around and went on all the dark rides in Fantasyland just before the park closed at Midnight. 17 Hours! I can't believe we made it! A little balking from Jake at around 10PM, but some coke and a pretzel cured that. Tom started the crying about missing Disneyland already after Fantasmic, but he's ok now. I didn't have to carry anyone out of the park.

We staggered back to our hotel room and fell into bed at 1AM. The next morning we were up at 7am and out in the lobby saying our goodbye's at 9. I hope we can do it again sometime. It was the best weekend ever!

Cold?

2011-09-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

It was dark this morning when I got up and not because the sun hadn't come up. There were big black clouds. Lightning and thunder and then rain. Rain! And it was cool outside. It stayed that way all day. In the afternoon, it started to let some sun through but then it clouded up again. We have the windows closed and the fans off for the first time in months. I'm sure it will warm up again over September but it is weird that Fall hit us so suddenly.

The boys and I watched "Cheaper By the Dozen", the one with Steve Martin. They were shocked. We just read the book a month or so ago and they loved it. I couldn't read the last chapter without choking up every other sentence. The movie was only the same by the fact that they had twelve kids. That's all. Not even the names were the same. Tom thought the kids were brats and that they should appreciate how hard their Dad was working to give them a bigger house and new clothes (in the movie), which made his Dad smile. The movie was funny, don't get me wrong, but it didn't have the moral message or bright outlook on life that the book had.

I'm reading "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch". I just got it in the mail this afternoon and I have a discussion online about it on Thursday afternoon, so I'm zooming through it. It is a wonderful book. I'm so going to read it to the boys when we are done with "Tom Sawyer". They will love it.

It Ended Up a Great Day

2011-09-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

My headache wasn't as bad this morning but was still there. It still is while I write this but I haven't had any ibuprofen since this morning and it's just a fuzzy pain. Hopefully, tomorrow it will be completely gone.

I woke up this morning to a light rain. I was laying there hoping to sleep longer but couldn't get back to sleep. When I came into the livingroom, I realized that it WAS late. The clouds were covering the morning sun and it looked dark out. I sat on the porch and listened to the rain for a bit while my coffee brewed. There is nothing like rain in the desert. The smell is just amazing and you can hear the rainfall approaching. It pitters from far away and moves across the desert. It sounds like the earth is breathing a sigh of relief.

Jake got up, got dressed, and went to Grandma's house to play XBOX 360. That's where the day went downhill. Grandma lives next door and got an XBOX 360 on Saturday. She also got them Halo 3, which they have been wanting forever. So now Grandma's house has way better toys than home and Mom's jealous of the time spent over there. I feel like I'm just here to cook and clean and hand out chores. I can't explain it really. All I can say is that I hate it. Tom got up while I was in the shower and left before I even got to say good morning. If they are over there all day long, how am I supposed to lure them into doing something besides playing that damn game? How am I supposed to model the behavior I want to see in them, if they are never home? Ugg... I guess it will pass after awhile, but it doesn't look good right now. I didn't want the new game system. We already have three at our house. It's a perpetual time and money sucker and it makes me crazy.

Dan had today off and he wanted to do something fun so we took the kids to the Palm Springs Air Museum. The boys love World War II stuff and they loved showing the place to Dad. Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Islands! Yay! And we stopped at Michael's to get some yarn for my next project. It was a perfect afternoon.

When we got home, it was still raining and 74 degrees has never felt so good! The boys ran to Grandma's...grrr...and there was an awesome double rainbow. It was so amazingly bright!

And here's a bonus picture of Tom coming in a the quad in a cloud of dust yesterday!

The Stars!

2011-09-04T17:03:00.001-07:00

Last night, I couldn't sleep. I've had a migraine since Friday afternoon and spent most of Saturday sleeping. Of course, when night came, I could sleep no more and couldn't even read since it hurt my eyes. So I lay there, dozing off now and again. I heard the cat meow outside the window and went to let him inside. He didn't run right in the door so I stepped outside to see if he was on the roof again. I looked up. I stopped in my tracks in awe. It was about 4am. I had never seen so many stars over my roof. We have star gazed in the evening before bed, but this was something else. Amazing. It was like the usual groups of stars you can see in the desert but then someone dusted the whole sky with tiny pricks of light. It was absolutely beautiful. At that moment, I thanked God for the experience, picked up the cat, and went inside. I'm still in awe of it so many hours of daylight later.

A Discovery!

2011-08-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, Tom came running in with a novelty pen that we had gotten at Yellowstone National Park a few years ago. It has a couple glass bulbs at the end filled with blue liquid. When you hold one bulb between you fingers the liquid boils up into the other bulb. Dan explained what was happening and how it worked to them when we bought it but they just looked at him dazed. Last night though, Tom came running in with it exclaiming with excitement that he figured it out. The glass bulbs are a vacuum and water boils at a super low temperature in a vacuum so all it takes in the heat from your fingers to make it boil. It's glass because it has to hold the pressure of the world out and plastic probably wouldn't be able to do that. He had always been irritated that it was glass and breakable. Now, where did he learn that?! Last week, I got an awesome book called "Physics for Entertainment". It's a book of short and entertaining stories explaining physics concepts. It isn't a book you would study, just an interesting book to have laying around to peruse when you have a few minutes to kill. I was doing that one afternoon and was laughing at one of the stories and told it to the boys. The information had been rolling around in their heads for days and when and example came up in real life, they put the story with the example and VIOLA! They had learned something.

Crazy isn't it?! See, this "unschooling" thing can be a lot harder than people think. We have a lot of learning to do so that reading, writing, and discussing is something that is natural in our home. They learn about the world around them because we are all actively in it on a twenty-four hour basis. We are reading, watching, experiencing all the time. And we actually talk to each other. I think that is the biggest key. So many families I see around town just aren't talking to their kids. When we are out, I actually take down notes of things to look up and understand more fully later in front of my kids. And now they are doing it too. I don't make them take notes. I model the behavior I think I want them emulate. We can't know the answers to everything, but we can attempt to get more information. So when we are out and about, the zoo, the museum, the grocery store, out to dinner with a tv on in the corner, if there is something we don't understand, we ask questions. And if the questions can't be answered, we make a note to look it up on the internet later or ask someone about it. An example, we were watching an old movie that took place on an aircraft carrier. In the background, there were people on the deck with different colored shirts. We were curious what that was all about. Uncle John was in the Navy, maybe he knows. The next time we see him, it's the first thing the boys ask about, which launches into an discussion about life on an aircraft carrier from someone who has been there. Pretty cool. Those stories were later translated and asked about of a retired Navy guy at the Air Museum in Palm Springs who was in World War II. They guy was impressed about how much they understood and the questions they had for him, especially since they stood there and talked for over an hour.

Anyway, had to write about the process around here. I know many of my family members are concerned about how we learn since we don't do school. Bottom line, it's simple but I lot harder to achieve than just reading through textbooks and filling in multiple choice tests.

Oh my goodness!

2011-08-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

I love it when I'm reading about one thing and it applies to other things. Just now, I was reading "A Year Through the Torah" by John J. Parsons and I read this, "Most of us, I'm afraid, don't want to be free. It's so much easier for us to regard ourselves as pleasing to God on the basis of some litany of rules that we are following." Wow! Ain't that the truth?! Here, he's referring to the reason so many people throughout time have added "religion" to the scriptures and relied on following those man-made rules instead of their own hearts and faith in God. That's mind-blowing in and of itself, but I think that's the same reason people refuse freedom in the secular world as well. Think of homeschooling. Taking responsibility for your own children is a huge task with many life long consequences. I can't blame anyone but myself for how my children turn out. Oh, wait, I could blame them though. :)) Since they ultimately have the freedom to make their own choices, their lives are their own. They have no one to blame but themselves as well. Now, that's a hard pill to swallow. We have chosen freedom. We have chosen to live our lives by God's Will, not our own. I pray daily that the right information will cross my path, that God will provide for us throughout our lives in every way, and the things (or information) that we don't get are apparently not needed in God's eyes.

And this goes for government as well. The small government that people like me promote, is too small to take care of your every need. You must provide for yourself, which means that you may fail. There is no one but you to blame when things go wrong. It means that we, as a people, must educate ourselves about the world and our history. It means that we are responsible and it's a boat load of work and not always safe. Ahh...I'm having a hard time putting this into word coherently. Writing is not my strong point. But I've got the basic idea down "on paper" and I'll write more about it later. Back to the book, but first more coffee!

No Jury Duty!

2011-08-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

I never get Jury Duty. :( I get a letter every year. I call in the night before and they don't need me. Strange that I want to go and never get the chance. It happened again tonight.

No rain today. The black clouds with lighting come in and thunder by but go a couple miles north of us and we sit and swelter in the sun. My friends house hot a boatload of rain yesterday. She got hail and a rushing river for a road and she only lives 10 minutes north of us!

Speaking of that friend, Tom and Jake spent the night over there last night for their friends birthday party. It's the first time they've spent the night at someone elses house besides Grandma. Jake was excited to go but Tom was a bit nervous. I left him my cell phone though and told him to call if he wanted to come home but he didn't. When we picked them up this morning they were out on the quad and go-cart with their friend's Dad. They said they had the best breakfast feast ever and stayed up until 12:30AM! Both were happy they had stayed and want their friend to stay at their house for Tom's birthday.

Let's see...not much else. Oh! There was a big Tarantula on the window in the living room last night! Dan had the light on near a window and there were lots of bugs flying around. I think he was waiting for one to come closer. There was a small scorpion too. Ick! We stood there watching them for a long time to see if we could watch them eat something but I guess they didn't want to have an audience.

Last week the boys were debating whether or not they would continue with karate classes next month. Jake wants to. He likes the class even though it is hot in there. He wants to get yellow belt. Tom doesn't exactly like the class. He doesn't communicate well with the teacher and says that he just doesn't like people. This has come up before quite a few times. Tom doesn't like to do things in groups, large or small. Communicating with other kids can be hard for him and when adults don't take him seriously he get offended. It's hard to explain. He is one of those kids who is smart, knows it, and is eager to show others how smart he is. He comes off as a bit of an ass. He's young. Jake, on the other hand, tends to be low key around others. He's not a show off and listens more than he talks. He would rather be around much younger kids who idolize him. Tom would rather be around older kids. Anyway, the point is that we were talking about continuing the class and it's a "no brainer" for Jake. Tom has decided that putting up with people is just what he will have to do to get the prize (attaining yellow belt) he wants. It's fun talking about options with them and watching them grow and mature. If karate just wasn't their thing and they had no interest in moving up, they'd quit. It is hard to get up and go out every evening for class. It's hot and the lure of one more game or quad ride is pretty strong, but they make that decision for themselves. I think it's good for them to get the hour of exercise and put up with the learning speed of others for a bit every day, especially since they want to move up in rank. But I would like to save the cost of the class, too. So either way they choose is fine with me. I'm just proud that they get the chance to think these things through and make these simpler decisions in preparation for the bigger ones in the future.

The Great California Shake Out!

2011-08-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

The big one is coming!! No really, it is! The boys and I went to the High Desert Nature Center today and listened to a woman from the San Bernardino Museum tell us about earthquakes, preparedness, and the Shake Out. She really loves geology! I wish the lecture were less about the Shake Out and more about earthquakes but she made it pretty exciting. There was a lot of stuff we already knew, but some things I hadn't thought about.

One of which is how a large earthquake could effect the whole coast. There was quite a bit of research put into what could realistically happen. These are just educated guesses as to what might have happened in the past and what could happen in the future. That's my only problem with these geologists. What they are pointing out and showing us is mostly just a guess and they present it as if what they see is like a recording of what actually happened. They are looking at clues from thousands of years ago and then telling the story as if there could be no mistake or misunderstanding. I just feel it cheapens the research and wish they would give several different scenarios that may have happened instead of just one history. But the geology is fascinating and her enthusiasm about the subject was infectious. The best was that it was a lecture for adults, not geared toward children, so she didn't dumb it down. The boys were very interested for the first 45 minutes but started to lose it toward the end. Tom had some questions about earthquakes at the end and it was fun to watch him asking.

The other thing that made me think was our emergency preparedness. We've been working on this and have basic supplies ready at home. We have the camper stocked, a "bug-out box" in the truck, and food, water, and medicine around the house. I think telling people that we have emergency supplies in case there is an earthquake would be a great way to get people thinking about preparing their own homes. People just don't think about that kind of thing and they should. There are threats other than earthquakes, but out here they are pretty likely and a larger one could stop our water supply or shut off our electricity for days. In the desert, that could be life threatening. We've done a lot of the little things. When a soda bottle or juice container is empty, I wash it out, fill it with water, and write a date on it. Every months I water the plants with the ones that are six months old and refill them. I also buy two or three more than I need when I'm at the grocery store of things that won't spoil, spam, soup, chili, pasta, etc. Just a little at a time and it doesn't cost much. Besides, it's stuff we use all the time so it doesn't just sit there and spoil. And I've got things like fire extinguishers, propane lamps, gas, etc. in the garage if we need them. All of this will make life easier for us all if something happens to knock out water, electricity, or transportation for awhile and it doesn't cost a lot or go to waste.

Here are some links to what we did today and how you can begin to be prepared at your house.
The Great Shake Out

The Survival Mom

Food Storage Made Easy

A Hot One

2011-08-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

It was 108 degrees on my front porch this morning...in the shade. Yuck! I can't complain though. It's been a pretty nice summer so far. I guess we will have to put up with a little extreme heat. It figures though that the motor went out on the swamp cooler yesterday. Dan fixed it though and it's running fine now.

My happy thought for the day is that I love it when my boys drop what they are doing and come running when I ask for help with housework. They may not have a list of things to do every day or do anything on their own really, but if I ask for a hand they are always cheerful with the help they give. Gotta love 'em.

The boys went to the movies with Grandma Ann today to see the new Planet of the Apes. They said it was awesome, except for the previews. There was a preview for Paranormal 3. They said it was a preview that you have to close your eyes, plug your ears, and sing a happy song over. While they were gone, I played Crash on the Wii! I was sitting there zooming through levels and noticed a bunny hop by outside the window. When I looked to see where he was going I noticed three more under the bushes. We have the water run off from the swamp coolers down there and they were all laying around in the wet sand. I watched them stretch up high to get some green and pull it down. They scratched a bit in the sand to uncover the cool and then stretch out on their bellies. It was adorable!

I went out to water my garden today and found a dead snake there. He got in there somehow and I guess he couldn't get out and died of the heat during the day. Poor guy. He had a black head and a long pink tail. Just little. I guess I'll check the garden in the AM as well as the evening so it doesn't happen again. I hate it when animals die because of my garden. I don't mind the boys killing squirrels but a snake getting stuck bothers me. Even if he was so dumb he couldn't get out. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

Computer Time

2011-08-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

Tom and Jake have been working on making movies with Xtra Normal all day. Jake made one that was a conversation between Lincoln and Washington. It is pretty darn funny.

idk just check it out
by: monkeyhead03

Tom's hasn't been published yet. He's still working on it.

Tom had Nikki make him a "Math Quiz" this morning and he spent a good amount of time solving the ten problems she gave him. I think he likes the challenge!

Ice Cream

2011-08-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

We made ice cream today! Real kind! Dan got us an ice cream machine at "The Mart of Wal" because it was on clearance. $20! Sweet! So now our freezer is stocked up with the best ice cream ever.

We were reading a bit of a book called "Mathemeticians Are People, Too" today. We read about LeGrange, which led us to the metric system, which led us to dividing and mulitplying by 10's and 100's, which led us to fractions. The white board got a lot of use today. Did you know that a "meter" is one ten millionth of the length from the north pole to the equator? That's just nuts!

The boys are talking about not doing karate next month. They are just not big fans of the sport and don't feel that it is worth the money. Tom really wants to play football. Jake says he always gets hurt when he plays football so he doesn't like that idea.

Mad Libs still rocks, by the way. We've been doing Star Wars and Indy Jones ones for the past few days. Hilarious! And I have to keep going back to the instructions because I can't remember what an adverb is.

It wasn't my imagination!

2011-08-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I thought I heard the bass of someone's party nearby. It reminded me of Anaheim and I thought we were done with that. Grr... I finally fell asleep but it took a long time. Then today, I'm folding laundry, and I hear it again. I turn the fan off to hear it better to find out what the noise is and it stops. It's the swamp cooler on the roof! I told Dan about it and he and the boys went up on the roof to check it out. Sure enough, the belt is loose and there is a nut missing. Ha! It wasn't my imagination or a wild party AND it's fixable! Yay!

The earth has tilted enough back towards winter that the sun does not blind me though the window in the evening. I love how much I notice the changing of the seasons here. I told Dan that I want one of those bad-ass weather stations for my birthday. You know, the one that has the wind speed, rain gauge, maybe even hooks up to the computer to keep track of things. It would be so cool!

Oh! They came in. The swamp cooler is fixed! Coolness...literally. :))

Giving up a Book

2011-08-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

We started reading "The Green Hill of Nendrum" by J.S. Andrews a few weeks ago. The cover drew us in and the description seemed promising, but reading it out loud became tedious. We got about 40 pages into it and finally gave up. I'm not sure why we weren't liking it exactly. Maybe because we couldn't relate to the story of a sea-faring boy from Ireland. But we couldn't see slogging through a book that just wasn't catching us. We've moved on to "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NHIM". I love that movie!

The boys went out to Old Dale to shoot the new gun with Dan this morning, even in this heat. We watched "Apocolapse Now". Bad idea, now I'm bummered. And now they are taking turns riding the quad around the driveway. Too hot for me though!

I'm inside writing this and then I'm going back to my knitting. I bought all of the yarn in the color I needed from Wal-mart a couple weeks ago and started a project. I knew I would need more but it wasn't any special yarn, so I figured they would get more soon. It's been two weeks and the spot is still empty. I should have known. The store out here is notorious for empty shelves. Grr...

Yo Yo Tom

2011-08-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is an awesome video of Tom and his yo-yo tricks. Jake is in the foreground because Tom is pretending that I'm taking Jake's picture so that he doesn't feel watched. That is when he messes up...more. Too bad I don't have a head cam because before I got the camera Tom says, "I can do round the world with my eyes closed!" then throws the yo-yo out and around and into his head and fell dead. That would have been an America's Funniest Video winner for sure!

My Tetrahedron Kite

2011-08-19T17:06:00.001-07:00

Like it?!

Got a New Book!

2011-08-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

Or really, a few good books. Who can get just one?! They arrived in the mail yesterday. I ordered "Physics for Entertainment" by Yakov Perelman and I'm loving it. Lots of cool stuff explained in a fun way. Yesterday he explained why you can't just drop a brick from a plane with a note on it and have it land on your friends house. The boys quickly told me that's why they have these cool sights on bombers. And there was another one about jumping up and the earth rotating under you. It won't work that way! Something about you cannot change the laws of physics man! :)) The boys swear that the train does move under you and you land in another place because they've tried it but I say they didn't jump straight up but rather back or forward a little.

The other books were more "Fudge" books, the ones by Judy Blume. Tom and Jake love those and they didn't have two of them at the bookstore the last time we were there. It's funny to watch them read those and joke about them together. I remember them from when I was a kid.

Today I built a Tetrahedron kite. I showed the boys what I was doing. They were interested in the shapes but not so much with the tying and glueing. It was a bit time consuming and fine motor skilled for them. But they were interested in trying to fly it. It wouldn't go up though. Maybe some fine tuning by Dad and some stronger wind will get it going later. We shall see. I got the directions here - http://gw011.k12.sd.us/buildingkite.htm

Let's see, what else. Grocery store. Laundry. Cleaned the bathroom. What Dan likes to call my "regular chores". It makes me happy when the boys see laundry folded on my bed and they put it away.

It's hot. I'm tired of hot. Summer is boring. Can't wait for it to cool off and we can go out to park days again and enjoy people's company for a change!

Big Day!

2011-08-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

It was huge! There are few instances when our family finds getting up at the crack of dawn a good idea, but this was one of them. The boys flew with the Young Eagles today! They were having an event today at Big Bear City Airport so we got there at 8:30AM to sign up. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for flying. We signed up and went outside to wait. There were lots of kids there already but we only had to wait an hour before they called the boys names. Dan and I were both a bit nervous as we watched them get into an airplane and taxi down the runway with Tom next to the pilot! They flew for about half an hour out over the desert and over the lake. They both got a chance to be co-pilot and loved every minute of it. They looked like they were going to explode coming up the ramp to get back to us. The pilot gave them both a picture and a certificate and a logbook so they can keep track of thier flight time. Tom said he didn't notice they were up in the air until he looked out and saw the building below! Jake loved flying and said it was pretty bumpy up there at times. They both can't wait to do it again. Maybe we will have a couple pilots in the family!

After the flight, Dan took us all out for burgers at "Get the Burger", our favorite place. The boys told us all about the flight, what they could see from up there and again how much they loved it. Tom wonders how the Young Eagles make money doing this, since it's free and run by volunteers. Jake doesn't care as long as he gets to try it again. He says it was one of the best days of his life.

We visited the Big Bear Historical Museum before we headed down the mountain since it was only 11AM. The place is only open on the weekends in the summer and we rarely come up on weekends. We loved it! And highly recommend anyone go. The people there are the nicest and they have lots of old west stuff to look at. The Blacksmith and the guy helping the kids pan for "gold" were the greatest. It's cheap and lots of fun.

Now the kids are all taking turns riding the quad around the neighborhood before it gets dark. I just heard a loud squealing with laughter and a lot of dirt flying so it looks like Dan is having a bit of fun showing off for them. All of them have been driving it around the driveway. Tom LOVES driving anything!

I'm sure all of us will sleep well tonight!

Good Morning

2011-08-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

I got up at 6:30 today. Earlier this morning the power went out for a minute. That happens a lot. :(

There are a few high scattered clouds. I hope that isn't a sign that the humidity coming back. The quail are making a racket outside. The babies are out and about and it is so funny to watch them all run around looking for specks to eat. I haven't seen them at the chicken feed yet, but I did watch a very brave cottontail eat right alongside one of the chickens yesterday.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2011-08-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

This past week was my Dad's birthday and Big Bear City Airport just happened to be having their Air Fair this weekend, so we went together. It was a fun day. Getting the boys up early and out the door was a challenge as usual. It really isn't all their fault though. I'm not much of an early riser either and between me and them, well, let's just say it wasn't easy.

We had hoped to get there earlier so that we could see the parchuters, but we had a massacre last night in the chicken yard! That dumb dog of ours barks all night, keeping me up, and then during the morning, something got into the chicken yard and killed three of our reds. She didn't bark at all then. Dumb dog! So I found two dead chickens (without bites), one inside and one outside the fence. And one is missing. I'm not sure what happened, but there is a hole under the fence where the water is run, so we filled it up. Now we are down to six chickens.

When we arrived at the airport, the parachutes we coming down. Tom was disappointed but he soon forgot about it because there we lots of planes to see. He loves them. Then both went on a bounce house slide thing and we got some roasted almonds. It was a great morning. The Young Eagles people were super nice talking to the boys. They told us that they will be having an event at the airport next Saturday and they can get a ride in a small airplane. So we WILL be going back for that. There were Bi-Plane rides at the Fair for $99 but that is going to have to wait.

After we saw all the planes, we went over to Village Pizza for lunch. They have the best pizza! And then the boys took Grandpa on the toboggan slides nearby. They had a blast and it was fun hanging out with the family all day. We were exhausted when we got home. Too much sun and pizza, I guess!

Here are the photos!

Happy new "school" year!

2011-08-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of Liberty Academy's 2011/2012 school year! Our school has two students in attendance, both of which had perfect attendance last year AND completed all the requirements to pass on to the next grade. It's really a paperwork day for me. I've updated everything to this current "school year" and filed away last years attendance record and course of study. I love reading over it and realizing how much of the typical course of study we cover without even thinking about it.

It's a most wonderful day in the desert today. The humidity has gone away so the evening was cool and the sky is clear blue again. The swamp coolers will do wonders today! It may be too hot to work in the sun, but the shade is marvelous and coming indoors is a relief. I can't stand the humidity, can you tell?

I finished my Austrian Economics class this week. Yesterday was our last online discussion. That class was worth all the time I put into it. If we all had more education about economics, I can't imagine what our country would get done! I'm looking forward to the next class, but for now I went back to my Plutarch and I'm reading about Caesar right now. That guy was a amazing!

Karate!

2011-07-06T17:29:00.001-07:00

Tom and Jake headed to their second day of Karate class!

Class Cancelled?!

2011-06-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

The weekly discussion portion of my economics class was cancelled today! I have to say I was sorely disappointed. How strange is that?! When I was in college, a cancelled class meant I was still closer to the end of the semester, but I didn't have to sit through the lecture. Their loss, not mine! Ha! I remember waiting in a hallway and noticing that the teacher was late. We would all keep an eye on our watches and bolt as soon as it was ten minutes past the hour. That was school policy. If the teacher was ten minutes late, class was cancelled. Yay! But this is different. For once, I'm doing all the reading, writing all my thoughts and revelations, and making plans for what to ask about when we meet next. This morning there was an email, class is cancelled. It was an important excuse, so I don't blame her at all, but it is odd that at 38 years old I've finally got the bug to learn more. It's taken this long to detox from all my forced education, I guess. But next week will be even better because we will have so much more to talk about.

The positive of it is that I had more time today to read about Alexander and Caesar. Talk about opposites! I finished Alexander a couple days ago and was just in awe of his life and accomplishments. Sure he conquered peoples, but he was a gentleman about it and expanded his empire while expanding his people's love for him, even those he had conquered. But Caesar was a the perfect model of a modern politician. You could replace the names of those involved in the Roman Senate with Obama, Pelosi, McCain, etc. and you would think you were reading a news story. It's fascinating. I can't wait to read more.

I need a timeline on my wall though. I'm running into the problem of keeping things straight time-wise. I think I have plan though and I'll keep you updated when I work it out!

Tom & Jake

2011-06-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm at my wits end right now and I can't even express it in words. Uhg.

Park Repairs

2011-06-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm a little confused here. A while back, we were climbing around in the national park and came across a place where park rangers were planting some bushes and trees. The sign said that they were slowing erosion in the area by planting local flora. Now, erosion in the area is pretty natural. The rocks here funnel the rains (when they come) down the hills and into the valleys, digging deeper and deeper into the earth and dragging the sand and debris down the river beds. I thought humans were supposed to leave nature alone? Why would we put in all that effort to stop a natural process? I actually giggled thinking about what would happen the next time it rained and flooding waters ran away with all their precious plants. Funny too, to think that they are planting baby creosotes and grasses. I mean, those things are everywhere! I guess you could say at least those people have jobs, no matter how unproductive and useless the job may be.

But seriously, this stuff bothers me. It's just so stinkin' wasteful and totally against all the preaching the national park system does at us. The parks are not museums, sitting there perfect the way they are, unchanging through time. Why can't we just let the parks do what they've been doing for eternity? Things change people! Climates change. Earthquakes happen. Rains will come. Glaciers will melt. You can't stop that from happening any more than you can stop your children from growing up.

Power Baseball

2011-06-26T08:11:00.001-07:00

How's this for a handsome crew?!

We went to Palm Springs last night to see a POWER Baseball game with Jake's Little League team. It tells you something about the weather that there are no day games at this stadium. Ha! I love going to these games. They are cheap for one thing. You always have a good seat. The kids run around and get snacks and stuff by themselves without worry. And they give away lots of swag, so you always come home with something. This time we came home with coupons for free Jack in the Box tacos, which we LOVE! A guy broke a bat with one hit, that was pretty cool. And they have a "Beer Batter". If he strikes out, beer is $1 for 10 minutes. For anyone reading this from my Economics class, yes, I did think to myself "The demand for beer is about to go up dramatically!".

Weather Changed!

2011-06-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, it finally got over 100 degrees. Wow! It's officially summer and won't get below 90 for the next three months. But, after spending the last two summers in the desert, 90 is not bad at all. It's the up over 100's that are icky, especially when they have a bit of moisture with them.

Yesterday, I was sick. I felt completely exhausted. So I slept all day. I mean, really, all day. Got up for some dinner and watched "Michael Moore Hates America" with the family and then went back to bed and slept in this morning until 6am. By the way, that movie was VERY uplifting and really made us happy to watch. A couple weeks ago we watch "Bowling for Columbine". It was such a depressing movie and really gave nothing to the world but fear and loathing for our fellow Americans. Dan looked into a lot of the numbers that guy gave during the movie and none of them were accurate. And they showed this horrible "history" cartoon that was a blatant lie. Then, watching this movie, we see all the other things that were twisted around and lied about. The worst was watching interviews with people who love the movie and love Michael Moore's point. When asked what they would think if many of the statistics and interviews were false or misleading in the movie, they just said they wouldn't mind if that's what he has to do to get his point across. Seriously?! I about fell over. I don't know how many times we have been reading something, or watching something on TV and thought (out loud) I hope he's not exaggerating or misleading me because I really want to believe him. If he's lying about this, what else isn't true? Apparently there are many people out there that don't care about integrity and it just made me sad. There were so many scenes in Mike Wilson's movie that made you really happy to live in America though, that it made up for the stuff that made you think people were just evil. You left the movie thinking good thoughts, ready to make the world a better place because we all have that opportunity in the USA.

Ok, I'm done.

This morning there was a red headed woodpecker poking around in a yucca in the back yard. I love the way they sound. They make sound much like a prairie dog barking. I'll have to refill my hummingbird feeder. They love that thing!

Attempting a New Habit

2011-06-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

The boys came to me a couple days ago and were upset because they were bored. They said they had no purpose and needed something to do, not just more entertainment but work or something. I told them I'd be happy to help them find a project or work on a new class, but they were in charge of finding out what it was they wanted to do. They made lists of some of the things they want to work on during the day. One of Tom's is to learn to write better, so he has a notebook he writes the alphabet in once a day until he gets used to writing and then maybe he'll write more. Jake has some woodworking projects listed, like get Dad to help him make a new sign for a driveway.

This was all well and good, but the next day they got up and went right back to the TV and computer games. They did work on their projects a bit, but most of the day was spent on a chair in front of the computer. So we talked about that for a while and last night the family came up with an idea. There is no TV or computer games except for the time between noon and five. This goes for everyone. You can work on the computer, meaning you can look things up or doing homework (like Nikki and I are doing) and if your job relies on it, that's different. We all agreed. The idea is that sitting in front of the TV all day has become a habit for all of us. It is what we automatically do when we get up and then we get sucked into it all day, especially now that it is hot out.

Today was the first day. It worked well. We played board games, got housework done, and got some exercise. And we even had time to read a story. They are playing now. I'm doing this and then I'm going to finish my classwork for Economics. We all feel better so far. Let's hope this works!

Day Trip to Big Bear

2011-06-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had a great time today with some friends. Gale followed us up the mountain to the Big Bear Discovery Center. It was a good place to start. They have a room full of exciting things to look at a great gift shop. We got an Adventure Pass for the National Forest so we can come up again all year and hike and picnic all we want. A ranger told the kids to check out the "Echo Spot" out on the patio. It was so cool. If you stand in a certain spot and talk it sounds like your heads in a bucket but no one else can hear it. They all had fun taking turns standing there.

They had a section of a huge tree with the rings marked for the years, but we were confused. Wouldn't a tree from from the inside out and the bark is the oldest part? I don't understand tree rings. Another subject to look into.

After that we had a quick tailgate lunch and then headed to find a Letterbox that I had printed out earlier. It was a bust though. We never did find either box. But we did have a great time walking the trails. There was a huge swarm of lady bugs and they were crawling on everything. We saw a Buddhist Monk walking the trails too. I love those guys. They just radiate peace! The kids found a dead fish and we talked to some fishermen at the lake. Then Gale and her kids had to go home.

We went over to town and stopped for ice cream and candy and then headed home ourselves. On the way down the mountain, we stopped at Barton Flats to check it out. Not much there, but there were cool rocks the kids wanted to climb a bit and some gorgeous yellow flowers. I'm working on finding out what they were.

I can't wait to go up there again.

Spiritual Lessons from a Dead Bird

2011-06-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

Jake found a baby bird on the ground in the driveway. :( He pushed it into the shade and came running to find me. Tom went to get his gun. "Mercy kill!" he was yelling. Jake wanted to try to save it. It didn't seem hurt, just exhausted and not in his nest. So we picked him up and found shoebox and put a blanket in it for a nest. The poor thing had plenty of feathers on top but not much on the bottom. We got a dropper and got a little water in him and let him rest a bit. A few hours later, he was calmly sitting there looking around but not wanting to eat. We called him Popeye because his face looked just like the cartoon character.

In the morning, he was dead though, as I suspected he would be. We had looked up on the Internet how to care for a fledgling bird, but all the sites said there was not much hope for the little thing, so both the boys were not surprised to find the little guy dead when they got up. I told them that was probably why he was out of the nest in the first place, either something was wrong with him physically and the parents kicked him out to save food for their other babies, or it was stupid and jumped out too early.

A thought came to me, humans (well most humans) don't do that naturally. It isn't our instinct to get rid of a "useless" or sick child. Could this be part of what the bible says? That we are "created in His image"? If you consider how useless or ill-formed humans are compared to what the God of the Bible is, he should kick us out of the nest as well, but he cares for us anyway and gives us a chance to be near him and learn from him. He cared so much for our inferior bodies that He gave us his Son so that we may be redeemed and live forever with Him.

That's what we do with our young. The conversation with the boys went on to discuss about children and adults with terrible infirmities that render them useless to themselves. Why should we continue to keep these people alive? Why do we let a baby, just born and obviously not going to ever be healthy, live on? Because we are compelled to show mercy to that human life as God has shown mercy to us. Who knows what the Lord has in store for that life? Maybe they will be miraculously healed. Maybe they will continue in their state and some one's mission in life is to care for them. Maybe, just by that invalids presence, another human being will be brought to Christ. There is no telling. But if we kill of the sick and infirm, we will have more physical wealth, we will be more productive, but we will be dead spiritually. We will cut off from us an avenue that the Lord could have used to some great purpose. He doesn't do things by accident. Just like finding that baby bird was no accident.

Grasshoppers & Economics

2011-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention bugs yesterday! So I'm out there trying my best to put a mesh fence around my garden, scratching my hands, frustrated with wire, to keep the dogs and rodents out. Then I see a grasshopper. And I know if there is one, there are a thousand. I threw up my hands in despair and came in the house. The boys were worried about me. :))

And this leads me to economics of course! The other day I saw that dumb commercial with Michele Obama telling kids to grow a garden if they want their own fresh vegetables. Grr. That doesn't make any sense (for the reason given). I mean, if you want to experiment and see how vegetables grow, or if you want to have the experience, or know how difficult it can be, etc., that's a great idea. It is fun to grow plants. I love it! But if you want fresh, organic food, growing it yourself is not always the best idea. If you live in the city and have a small space like a patio or balcony, you can grow one salad for a family over the spring. That's helpful! And if you live in an area that is not conducive to a vegetable garden, like mine, you are going to be spending a lot of money on little produce. Wouldn't it make more sense to support an organic farmer and buy their produce? I mean, the more customers that guy has, the cheaper his product will be. It is hard these days to know if the produce you are buying is truly organic, but you can try. And if more of the general public is asking the sellers about the produce, aren't they going to attempt to satisfy the customer if they want to stay in business?

Desert Gardening

2011-06-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have a garden in my desert yard. I know you're thinking "What? Isn't it always hot and dry in the desert?" It isn't always hot, actually part of the year it is extremely cold compared to Southern California temps, and part of it is very very nice. Only those three months of summer get pretty warm and only two of those get stinkin' hot. As for dry, yes it is, pretty much all year around but I have city water, so I get what I pay for and can water plants, but that isn't the problem. The problem is rodents and birds. Anything green and leafy attracts attention for miles and there is no keeping those things out. Mice and kangaroo rats can get into a space half an inch wide. Rabbits can jump. Birds can fly in, grab and go.

There is another problem, soil. We have sand, lost of it. Nothing really decomposes in the ground or on it. I'm pretty sure you can leave a piece of lumber laying on the ground for about 100 years before it falls apart and it will be from sun and wind. All the nutrients just drain right through the sand with the water you put on it. You can use a container garden but it has to be pretty deep and wide to grow anything of good size. And that is a lot of soil to buy from the garden center. You can keep it up with compost and chicken droppings.

Anyway, it isn't cost effective. With the money I'm spending on water, soil, protecting the plants, not to mention time and effort, I might as well go to the Farmer's Market in town and buy whatever vegetables I want. And that is what I will do....next year. :) I'm not going to scrap it all just yet. I do like to grow things in my green house, so I'll keep that going. Maybe put more effort into that next year. And the plants I have going now, I'll try to keep up. But I'm not going to spend any money on more.

Movie Night!

2011-06-03T06:22:00.001-07:00

Does this look like fun?! Grandpa and Grandma came over and brought a bunch of old films and slides to show the kids. We made pizza, ate, talked, and watched the boys try to kill each other to pass the time until it was dark enough. My living room does not have curtains, so it was going to be a long wait. We got impatient, of course! So I brought the quilts off the bed and duck taped them to the windows. :))

The boys were fascinated by the projector and slide machine. I have to admit that the clicking sound the projector makes brings back memories. I had put some of the old movies on DVD but I sure wish they had an option to put that sound in the back ground instead of music or nothing.

The slides were great! It was so fun to see my brother and sister and I when we were little. The kids thought it was hilarious! My Dad takes great pictures. :) The only thing that made me a little sad was Tom asking why we don't see all these people (my aunt, uncles, and cousins). The family has grown so large, I guess. We rarely see each other anymore. Almost makes me want to call everyone together...almost. ;)

Thanks for the GREAT evening Dad and Bonnie!

Baffle Gab

2011-06-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

We played Baffle Gab. I'm not real fond of this game but the boys like it. You need to be able to write fairly quickly to play by the rules, so it doesn't work well with our family. We pull out cards for each of us and have one minute to use all the words correctly in a story told out loud. It's a little too easy though so you always get all the points available. But it does make for some pretty funny stories.

Games

2011-05-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

We played "Postcards from North America" today. Our game closet is over full of games we rarely play. I've decided that we will play one game every day until we get through it. If we can't stand a game, we shall get rid of it and thin them out.

Postcards is a fun game. We like reading the postcards when we get to a place on the board. And it was fun watching the boys get all excited about the one's from places we have been. One downside, I want to go to the places that are on the board that I haven't been. ROADTRIP ideas abound!

The Salt Shaker Incident

2011-05-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Tom dropped the salt shaker and broke it. No big deal right? Wrong. He starts bawling. You'd think that he was afraid he was going to get in trouble or that he felt bad that he had broken something valuable. He was upset that he broke the “salt shaker we have always had”, “a part of his childhood”. These are his words. He was inconsolable for quite some time. I tried to be supportive. I know how sentimental he is. You can't even imagine what went on when we moved from our house in Anaheim. They don't remember any other house.

I started throwing away the pieces and he was getting them out of the trash. He insisted we could glue it back together. It was broken into at least 50 pieces. It just wasn't going to happen. I got him to let me clean up the mess and throw away the pieces. The whole time he sobbed out things like, “I will always remember it.” “It's the only salt I've ever known” “...so many memories”, as if it were a special toy.

I went back to making popcorn and turned around to find him grabbing pieces from the trash and running out of the room. Then I heard him put the pieces in his drawer. I shook my head and jokingly told him he was nuts. We went to watch a movie and the rest of the evening rolled on.

Later that night, late, everyone was asleep, I wake up to hear him rummaging around in his drawers, wait, then I hear him sobbing into his pillow. I go in to him. He has the pieces of the shaker and he is just so pathetic. I gave him some love and told him we could find a new one that was even cooler than the old one. I didn't mention replacing it with the same one since I wasn't sure we could or if it would be healthy, I mean the kid is freaking out. He went back to sleep.

I heard nothing about it the next day. We did joke with him about breaking the new one, the paper container from the store. I looked up a replacement for the old one and it was $30 since they are from a set that is discontinued. He saw it and I told him it was too much for a salt shaker I wasn't attached to anyway. We should just get ourselves a cool new set that we love.

Late last night, he came into my room and woke me up. He said he wanted to give me half the money for the new set we found online. The kid has issues. I'm joking really, he's just very sentimental like his Dad, but seriously, how do I comfort him?

It's working!!

2011-05-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I made a promise to myself to start studying more regularly. I have three books I'm working on in the morning. I get up at 5:30 and make coffee, check my email and FB while it brews, get my cup and open my Bible. I read a couple chapters, not study, just read. What does the Lord have for me today? Then I read as much as I can of "The Great Books". I love these books! It's a entire classical library in my livingroom with a schedule what order to read built in. I got them for Christmas at out used book store in town. When I've had enough of that, I move on to my science book or whatever class I'm working on. I made the starting promise to do this for one hour every morning, no matter what my mood. And it's working! Today I was stuck into it for over an hour and didn't realize what time it was. I'm so excited!

Geology By Design

2011-05-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

Just finished reading "Geology by Design" by Carl R. Froede Jr. I read the Astronomy one in the same "design" series a few years back and was thrilled with it so I was excited to get this book when I saw it at the Creation Museum in Santee, CA. I don't even pretend to understand half of what is in this book. It is pretty technical to a layman, but I slogged through it anyway and got quite a bit out of it. I love rocks in the first place, so that is why I was drawn to the book. I'm so curious to know what scientists ideas are about how the rocks formed. Living next door to Joshua Tree National Park makes it hard not to notice the crazy rock formations and how different one area can be from another. While writing this, I'm trying to figure out how to get the boys to let me explore a little today with the new knowledge that I have. I'm also just dying to get deeper into the subject. I think I might take a geology course online soon. Can't right now though, because I signed up for an economics class, so I've got to get crackin' on that. :)

I highly recommend these books though. Even if it seems too technical, keep reading. There are tons of tidbits hidden in there that will open up whole avenues for you!

Palm Spring Air Museum

2011-05-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our lovely friend Gale, we had the chance to take a "educational" tour at the Palm Springs Air Museum today. THANKS, Gale!

Tom loved seeing this big gun out front. It's called "Flak 88"!

At the beginning of the tour, this guy, Greg, gave the kids a lecture about the science and history of flight. They ate it up. He was a great presenter and the kids all loved his demonstrations.

There were some mock-ups in the children's area that most of the kids spent a LOT of time on, including mine.

Lunch was a little pricey but the food was good.

This is where we spent a lot of time. This guy talked with the boys about submarines, battleships, and aircraft carriers for an hour. He was in the Navy during WWII. I loved listening to their questions and his answers. He showed us how they got the planes back on the battleship, the Wildcat wings and how they set the plane up to take off from an aircraft carrier. It was great!

We will definitely be going back soon. They have lots of things for the kids to do over the summer. And Dan did not get to go today. He had to work and could not get the day off. There was so much to see that we will need a trip back anyway. Even I was interested in talking to the people there since they were all so nice. I'm not much of an airplane fan, so usually I'm pretty bored in about an hour or so.

Why is it cold?

2011-05-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of may and I'm wrapped in a thick blanket this morning! It was 42 degrees when I got up. The wind died down though. Yesterday it was blowing so hard that it knocked me into the door on my way back from the laundry room.

Tom had a baseball game last night. I thought for sure they would cancel it because of the crazy wind, but they didn't. All the other teams did, but not our game. Crazy boys. It wasn't bad though. Since it was still light out, the sun was warm on our backs. Tom's team had to forfeit since they were short four players. Grr...Why do people do that? It's a team sport, you can't just not show up because you don't feel like playing today. Half the team shows up to practice, too. What the heck man!? They played the game anyway, since they were there and it was a great game to watch. Since we already forfeited the game, the coach put in any of the boys who wanted to try pitching. It was pretty crazy. Tom played catcher a bit and got to get a boy from his team last year out. That made him happy. I love watching Tom play. He is very confident and knows what is going on in the game. When he started last year, he had no clue how to play baseball except that you hit the ball and run. Now he is the master of the rules, at least. He is getting much better at the skills, too. He had two great hits! One even surprised him as he ran to first. He did his trademark fists in the air "YES!" and then realized he had really hit it and made it all the way to third. The part I love to see though is how much attention he gives to the game. You have to watch it. He looks like a mini pro.

Jake made a friend at the game this time. Actually, he always makes a friend. There are boys from his team last year, or little brothers and sisters of Tom's teammates that he is running around with. Tonight, he sat there with a little brother on the bleachers and talked with him for a long time. I heard him ask who his brother was, how old he was (5), what team he played on, etc. Jake is always nice to little kids. He loves them. I think he prefers their company to kids his own age. He makes faces at them and carries them around. It's pretty stinkin' adorable.

Finished Book 1 of Politics

2011-05-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm not even pretending to understand the last two books of Aristotle that I have read. It all seems pretty jumbled up to me.

I learned the word "niggardly" means cheap or grudgingly mean about spending. Also that there are "natural forms of society" and that that the smallest "state" is husband and wife. I did heartily agree that a man who is not social is the most dangerous to a society. He is armed and intelligent with no ties to human life.

He talked a bit about slavery being a natural condition in the world along with submission of wife to husband. There was a bit about whether or not women and children have natural virtue which I did not understand much of. I got that they did, but it was different. The virtue of a man is to command or be master of his family and that of woman is to obey. Children are immature and will grow to be citizens someday so need to be taught these virtues. I think I was missing his point.

I'm off to read some commentary on this book to see if I can make any sense of it all.

Biblical Studies

2011-05-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

I'm loving reading Geology by Design! I read another similar book about Astronomy years ago and just as impressed. The book is a science book and gives answers and research to topics related to the subject. I'm big on the rocks man, so I picked up this one. Much of it is over my head, but I just keep reading and I find nuggets of enlightenment in every chapter.

I don't like Christian studies that only site the Bible as a the reference. I like ones that use science as anyone else would and then show how what they have found correlates to what the bible says happened. It's very exciting.

Another thing I was looking at was a study of the Torah on http://www.hebrew4christians.com/. I so want to buy that. I love a deep study of the bible. I love finding out what the words originally meant and how they were translated into English. It gives the scriptures so much more depth. Those that have not read into what the Bible actually says and then condemn it really bug me. There is just so much knowledge there. No wonder the Jewish people call the books of Moses, the Teaching!

The Baseball Issue

2011-05-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Why is Little League such a hotbed of hatred? I just don't get it. I understand that it's "the Great American Pastime" but why all ugliness even at the lowest level? It makes me want to start a league where you're only allowed to play if you just want to learn the game and have fun. And you have to take a test to get in.

Yesterday, while watching my littlest play, I listened to two mother's sitting next to me complain about all the other kids playing that weren't doing so well. Of course, theirs made big mistakes too, but they yelled at them sarcastically from the stands and talked about how much they would have to practice to get any better. I wonder if that helped their sons. I heard parents yell at the umpire about bad calls, that's typical, but I never hear them gripe about it when it's about the other team. I heard them complain and put down our 14 year old umpire as if there is some kind of conspiracy against our team. That boy spends all his extra time at the ball park volunteering so that the younger boys can play (you can't have an official game without an umpire) and he has to know all the rules for all the leagues, rookie, minor, major, junior, not to mention the softball leagues, and they are all different. I heard parents complain that the coach is letting kids play positions that they aren't good at. They are all not good at any of the positions! That is the point. They are learning to play the game.

Well, it just went on and on and that was just this last game! What is wrong with people? There is no money on these games. There is no college or pro scout there picking players for next years line up or scholarship. There is no major award for winning. It's just little boys learning to play baseball. It just kills me that these boys have to go home with these parents. I heard one mom saying that she was pissed off that her son didn't want to play pitcher when he was so good at it, she forced him to play. One mom said her son didn't want to play baseball this year but she signed him up anyway, it would keep him out of trouble. I mean, he's 10 years old, and at school from 7am to 3pm (probably later). What kind of trouble can he get into?

Jake and Tom complain that most of the kids are wild animals in the dugout. Two maybe three on the team are paying any attention the game at all. I have to say, my boys are not the best players, but they are in the game when they are there. They want to be there and they enjoy playing ball. I enjoy watching all the boys play.

Oh, one more, I actually heard several parents brag about being thrown out of several little league games for bad behavior. Seriously?

Ok, I'm done...for now. We have another game on Thursday.

2011-04-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great day with my Dad and Step-Mom today. Dan and I left early this morning and drove out to their new house. Their community was having a yard sale and we walked around finding cool stuff. I found a book about full-time RVing and I think it is a sign that we need to hit the road more often! :) I also found a car vac that I had wanted for the RV. And a new clock radio for our room (since Tom stole our old one). We moved a couch from Bonnie's Mom's to their new house and we took home lots of great stuff from there. The boys had fun unloading it from the truck when they got home from the movies. Grandma Ann had taken them to see Rio while we were gone. It must not have been a very good movie because I haven't heard a word about it.

Reading Plato

2011-04-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

The next book on my list is "The Republic". I can't help but envision Viscini from "The Princess Bride" while I'm reading though. I'm totally confused. I read the Spark Notes online and have a better idea of what is going on, but sure would like to hear from a few people who have read this and learned something from it. For now, I'll keep trudging on.

Vacation Thoughts

2011-04-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

My feelings about "camping" have changed since I moved out here to the desert. I used to feel like taking off in the tent trailer was a get-away. We were escaping, for however long, from the city and our crowded surroundings. When I returned I always felt a little sad to leave. I loved our house and our friends, but I loved being out and about in the world. I loved escaping from the neighbors, cars, and noise. But now it's different. I love my home. I love being home. Taking off in the RV isn't an escape anymore, it's a sightseeing adventure. I love being out, but I'm happy to be on my way home. Driving into my town makes me smile to see familiar surroundings. When I get home, I'm happy to feel the wind and the dry air and to see my animals and garden. I feel at home.

Creation & Earth History Museum in Santee, CA

2011-04-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

We got up and took a long walk with Dad this morning. He's been working while we were camping the last few days and we finally had the chance to show him the rest of the campground. Tom was out feeding the ducks while we were getting the breakfast dishes cleaned up and he came running in with big news. He was watching the ducks when a momma duck came out of the nesting box hung on a tree. Then a baby duck came out and jumped to the ground after much coaxing from mom. It was a 7 foot drop!! He was so excited he had to come get us to see it too. It was so cute! There were about 17 babies in there. It was their first time out of the nest. The momma duck stood there keeping all the babies together until the last one came down and then they all walked to the lake and went for a swim for the first time. It was pretty thrilling!

At 10AM, we drove down to the Creation Museum we had heard about. It was an awesome place! You couldn't spend all day there. It is small, but has a great book store. I was so impressed with the building. I could have stayed and spent hours reading all the signs, but the boys grew weary. There was too much to read and not enough to do. I highly recommend going. It is inspiring for sure!

Here's the website if you're interested in seeing it yourself. http://www.lifeandlightfoundation.org/

Science and Baseball

2011-04-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

This was the event we came down south for! Rueben Fleet Science Center hosted a Field Trip Day at Petco Park and a baseball game afterwards. It wasn't quite what we expected since they said there would be players on the field and they would do some physical stuff along with the science of baseball, but they just did some tricks with dry ice and coffee creamer, both of which we have extensive experience with. ;) Although they did give us some cool ideas to try. He he he...

Getting ready for "the show". We saw some friends while we were there!!

Part of the show. They did a great job with it. I was impressed, but just disappointed that it wasn't what they had advertised. The froze things in dry ice and smashed them, imploded a can, made a dry ice bomb, and a flame thrower...cool stuff. Hard to understand though, small PA system in a baseball stadium, my sound friends can relate.

Play Ball! The seats were great! We were up in the cheap seats but it was a great view. We had similar seats at Angel Stadium that made it really hard to watch the game, but these were the best I've had. Can't yell at the players or see them come off the field grumbling like you can at Palm Springs though.

Nikki and Dad are cold! We were in the shade at first but that all changed later in the game, much to my dismay.

The blessed hot dogs. I made them wait until after the 4th inning to go get hot dogs. For cryin' out loud, we just had lunch when the game started! They were worth it though. All the kids were shocked at the prices at the ball park. I warned them, but they didn't believe me. A bottle of beer was $7.75 and there were people drinking everywhere. Crazy. It was enough to stop me from buying anything to drink at all!

It was a great day. For once, the boys left something we planned and looked forward to with a smile. They were very pleased. It was the first big league game they had sat through the whole thing start to finish. The game was disappointing. The Padres lost big time to the Braves. We did get a big #1 finger and Padres baseballs, so that was cool. When we got back to our campground, we went swimming for awhile and filled up on tacos and now we're all relaxing and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, we will be heading home with a couple stops along the way. I can't wait to get back to my desert!

Another Day at Santee Lakes

2011-04-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

We went out on the lake this morning!

Notice that Tom has not let go of the steering. He's a little possessive.

We had followers. These ducks kept on us the whole time we were out there. They even jumped on the boat a couple times.

Tom is a serious pilot.

And I had fun taking pictures.

Later in the day, Nikki came with us and we went on the boats again. They spent a long time in the pool and I did a lot of knitting and reading today.

We are only having small problem with the RV. The bathroom floor get super wet when we are hooked up to the water. It happened last summer when we were in Oregon but we thought it was the toilet. It's new now and is leaking more. Bummer. Dan is working on it and I'm sure he'll have it straightened out by next time. Now the battery died on the camper...weird cause we are hooked up to city power. Ahh the joys of an old camper. Makes it an adventure! :)

We're on an ADVENTURE!

2011-04-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Santee, California after our Easter celebrations at Aunt Cindy's yesterday. We're camping at a place called Santee Lakes. It's really nice. We have end spot and it's a weekday so it there aren't a ton of people here. There's a pool, fishing, playgrounds, and paddle boats. The kids are having a blast. We plan on hanging out here again tomorrow and then going to a Padres game/science show on Wednesday. On Thursday we are going to a Creation Museum here in town and then heading home. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Grandma Shelly laying down the law!

This lunch looked great until my BROTHER got in the picture!

This is our camping spot. The boys have fishing on and off all day. No dinner though. :(

Tom is the king of the rock pile!

And an afternoon swim. It is not very warm though, the pool is not heated, and it is windy. The boys shivered all the way back to the camper.

Lizard Rescue

2011-04-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

I went to water my tomatoes and found this guy stuck in the net that protects them from getting eaten. The netting says it is "bird safe", but apparently it is not lizard safe. He was a big one and not too happy to be trapped. No worries though, he ran off when I cut him free. He was giving me an evil lizard eye and tongue though. I think he was thinking that if he were bigger he would eat me!

Jake and Baseball

2011-04-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Friday's baseball game was a bit rocky for Jake. At our last practice, he worked for awhile but came to me complaining of being sick. We had been fighting a cold for a few days so I figured it was best to just go home and rest. When we got his game on Friday afternoon, he ran off to warm up with the team but came back to the fence a few minutes later teared up. He was trying not to cry in front of the people, but he said he stomach hurt and he wanted to go home. Odd. We took a minute to go to the bathroom and talk. I worry about him. He has the usual spiel of "I don't know." and "It's just too hard." when he is feeling like crying and he can't explain what the problem is. I asked him to tell me what had been happening on the field specifically, this time, today. He said he went out to warm up and was throwing the ball to Austin but he couldn't throw that far. He asked Austin to move up closer so he took one step. He just kept trying to throw the ball but it wasn't working so he asked again. This time Austin just sat on the grass. It clicked for me. I had felt the same way earlier in the day. Someone doesn't something rude, intentional or not and I just can't recover. Actually, for me the incident I was dealing with is still going around in my head. It hurt Jake's feelings that the other boy was not listening or helping him. That is what Jake would do for someone else and he just can't understand why someone would hurt him intentionally. I sympathized with him but reminded him that most likely the other boy here and in other instances probably has no idea that it bothered him. He needed to play the game anyway since the team needed him to have a game, whether they knew or appreciated it or not. He said he would try and if he couldn't then he would come get me. I told him to act like the Marines he likes so much. Pretend it is a battle that he has to go through and has no other choice. At the end, there will be great rewards...like ice cream and a Mommy shoulder to cry on. And he grinned and ran off.

The game went really well! He made an awesome out at second base (you could see the grin from the bleachers). He caught the ball in right field and looked to first, runner safe, looked to second, runner approaching, threw it there, didn't over throw and the second baseman threw it to the pitcher. AND when he was playing second, he caught the ball but the runner was already safe there. Jake held the ball and walked around the base watching the boys foot to see if he stepped off before he threw it to the pitcher. He knows the game. He may not have all the skills (none of the boys do) but he knows how to play the game. He is always watching what is going on. He is proud of his uniform and being part of a team. He practices constantly, whether it be outside throwing the ball and catching or playing on the XBOX and learning the rules and plays. I'm very proud of him. Watching him (and his brother) among the other boys reminds me that we are doing something right keeping them home from public school and letting them grow up of their own accord.

"The Clouds"

2011-04-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished the play. I wish I could here it instead of read it though. I didn't understand much of it, sad to say. I understood the words and what was going on in the play but I had a feeling there was deeper meaning that I was not getting anywhere near. But I did get one thing. Strepsiades getting out of his debts by the "logic" that his son learned sounded much like the politicians I heard talking on TV yesterday. They state something that makes no sense and look incredulous as if we are just too stupid to understand. It makes me nuts!

Coyotes

2011-04-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

I love them! I don't care if they come through and eat one of my chickens now and again. They are gorgeous and I love the way they sound. This morning I was sitting here reading and I heard the start of a yip. It was really close, so I went outside to see if I could see them. One yappy call, then another from the other side of the house. Then a steady barking. I stood there for awhile and thought the coyote had left and now a dog was still barking at the smell of them. Then bark turned into a yap and back to a bark, then another yip from behind me. They were talking! I think one was calling more. Don't know over what though. I couldn't see them. But they were very close to the house.

Spring in the Desert

2011-04-07T08:13:00.001-07:00

Yes, THIS is my front yard a couple days ago! Do I have enough to thank GOD for?! Wow!

And the next day...

2011-04-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Was fairly crappy! Crazy! I have to tell you, I'm currently working through getting off of Zoloft and refusing to be on any other anti-depressant drugs. It's hard. I've been on them for about 8 years and when I started them, it was an ugly place for me. Add to that, that it is that time of the month AND those are not as easy as they used to me and you have one pretty grumpy momma. But I slept well last night and have read up a bit and now I'm thinking it will be a nice day to get back on track.

A friend pointed me to a great website a while back that has really helped me. It's called "Depression is a Choice". It has wonderful exercises and quick ways to get your mind back on a happy train of thought. The one that worked best this time was to stop and recognize that you are having depressing thoughts and that they aren't going to help. Write these down for the next time. And that is what I did. When I'm tired or feeling blue, I start to get the idea that everyone hates me and that everyone is an idiot. Well, this may be true, but it isn't going to help me much! :)) Usually, that thought just circles around and gets worse and worse until I explode into a hateful, mean spirited tirade that does not make me or anyone else around me feel any better. Then I decide that maybe the pills would be easier than trying to understand other people's points of view or getting anyone in this house to see my point of view and that there is obviously something terribly wrong with my mind to be that angry at the world. Then I feel like a big loser for a long time. Kinda like a drug addict. It's not a good place.

So here I am, writing it down and refusing to go back. There are lots of things to work on, but today I'm focusing on my family and how much I love them. I'm focusing on being the loving person my husband needs in his life. I'm focusing on the kind and understanding person Nikki needs in her life. And I'm focusing on the attention and help the boys need with their projects. Everything else is second fiddle to that. Or should I say, fifth or sixth fiddle?

Feeling Good

2011-04-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

"I have to admit it's getting better..." I hear this from the kids all the time. They are big Beatles fans. But it's the first thing that came to mind this morning so I figured it would be my theme today.

Things are getting better. I love getting into a groove and being able to get a few things done. I sewed my first skirt, for one thing. It's a wrap around skirt that I found online here At first I was intimidated by the directions. I tend to look at the whole thing instead of step by step and if I can't picture it in my mind then I get frustrated and give up. But I slowed down and just did it step by step, trusting the instructions to be correct. I did the same thing with some grocery bags that I found here. Except after I made the first one, I made the next a couple inches deeper. On the skirt, I made a little one first so that I didn't waste a bunch of fabric if I messed it up too much.

I've painted the mud room at our house too! It looks much nicer. When we lived in Anaheim, I put off doing any cosmetic work on my house because there was too much to do. We lived there for seven years and I kept putting off painting things because I thought I'd have to scrape, fill, sand, and repair for it to look any better than it was. But when we were getting ready to sell the house we painted over everything and made it look so much nicer. Who cares if it doesn't look perfect?! At least it looked clean and like someone cared about it. I promised not to do that at this house. The mud room really needs to be taken down and redone. The drywall is cracked and all the seams were not done right. The windows are cheap and drafty. The roof leaked at one point (probably still does) and the ceiling has holes and is bowed down. There was paper tape covering the bigger holes. Jake and I pulled all the tape down, filled the holes and cracks as best we could, sanded and put on primer in the whole room. I painted it "Warm Muffin" and put up some cheap curtains and it looks very nice. I still have to arrange it so that it looks more done, but it is a hell of a lot nicer that it was.

We have a big freezer in there now so I have to find a new place for all the other stuff that was in there. The boys have a cabinet they call "The Arsenal" of air soft weapons. It needs a new home. And we had a coat rack with a box that carried all the sports equipment. Hmm...

I'm off! I just heard the bread maker beep and I'm on to the next step of cinnamon swirl bread!

2011-03-31T17:08:00.001-07:00

I got a bug about painting the mud room today.

2011-03-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Man, I woke up so sleepy this morning and I can't seem to shake it. It's warm this morning. I have slippers on but I'm a little too warm in them.

A dove has decided that the top of our shelf unit on the back porch will make a fine nest. Her and her mate were courting there yesterday. I scared them off thinking they wouldn't come back to a place where a lady shoo's at them, but she is back this moring coo'ing away. Oh well. I don't mind, but I'm sure the cat will find her eventually.

Speaking of the cat, he brought a fine dead mouse onto the back porch last night before we went to bed, upping his status according to Dan. He now has a use.

I'm thinking of attempting to make a skirt. I'm fairly certain I can do it. And if it comes out well, I'll make a shirt to go with it. I'm gearing up for summer. I don't like what the store in town is selling. It's always too tight, too short, or to heavy. They act as though there are only skinny teens attempting to look like hookers in the town! :( I found a cute pattern for a wrap around skirt, so I think it may be my first attempt.

What else...Oh I better run. I hear the chicks crying for help. The older chickens are mean to them when they are locked in the coop. No where to hide!

2011-03-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

I was doing the dishes and realized the sound of baseball video games had stopped. I looked up to find this going on in the driveway. You have no idea how hard it was to make them not look at the camera and be nerds!

An attempt at online conversation

2011-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

"A civilization in which all men are compelled to agree is not one in which we would care to live." From The Great Conversation - The Next Great Change

I'm reading the first book from The Great Conversation set I got for Christmas. Here's another one,

"Yet there will not be much argument against the proposition that, on the whole, reasonable and intelligent people, even if they confront aggressively unreasonable or stupid people, have a better chance of attaining their end, which in this case is peace, than if they are themselves unreasonable and stupid."

What I'm wondering is, is it too late? Is our nation so ignorant that we have lost the ability to have an intelligent conversation with those we disagree with? Will it be a long hard decline into another Dark Ages and then a slow climb back out before we realize what we have lost? Or can we change things now, educate ourselves and our children now to stop the decline or make the climb back out go more quickly?

2011-03-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

So I'm thinkin' I'll wait to get the camera on until Tom gets to third but the this kid hits a wammy out to center field and brings Tom in from second. You can just see it, but he was elated to get a chance to score!

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2011-03-29T08:15:00.001-07:00

Tom's New Do

2011-03-29T07:53:00.001-07:00

Tom had me use a #1 when I cut his hair on Sunday and THIS is the result.

From Drop Box

It's so soft and rubbable! ;)