Is it odd?

I don't remember writing my last post? Must have been before the second cup of coffee! Well, I grumbled all day about having to find clothes to wear and then went and found something decent and I actually like the shoes. Dan found a nice black suit at Penney's and it was on sale. It was a blessing because we were just about to head down to the city but decided to stop just in case. I didn't see anything there yesterday, but I guess I missed it. So we are all set. But I'm still not happy about having to go.

I made cookies today and we ate them all! Ha! We had left over Mexican food that my Mom had brought this past weekend, for dinner. Yay! And my dog is whining at me to throw her ball but won't bring it to me.

I played Halo with Tom and Jake and they kept killing me. I had two kills and they got 15 each! I hate that game. I can't even move around or aim, dammit! If we were playing Tetris or Boomblox I would so kick their butts!

I wanna go to bed!

What happened?!

My son told me yesterday that it was only 10 days until Christmas. Crap! So we put up the tree. I guess I should start some Christmas shopping. I was praying that Santa would arrive, but I have a feeling that he relies on us parents.

Tomorrow is Dan's company Christmas party. We dread this every year, but this year is worse. His boss said it was "formal". So I've been searching all week for something to wear but to no avail. Suckage. I'm thinking I'll just wear the jeans and shirt I've been painting in for the last week, and my ratty camo converse. What do you think? ;) Maybe next year they won't make us come?

Back to the Blog!

You see, I have a problem with silly games on Facebook and things like it. I tend to play them to death and I can't stop. I forsake all other things that aren't completely necessary and play. So I have to quit. I'm in the process of selling all my stuff on Farmville and I'm putting it away. Maybe I'll pick it up again later.

Well, it SNOWed today! Wow! Is that cool or what? How could we know that moving to the desert would bring us snow our first winter here?! Actually, we did know that it does snow out here from time to time, so we have been waiting for it. I didn't think we would get any this year since last year there was tons of snow just before we moved here. I was sitting at the table (actually) getting something done and some big raindrops caught my eye. I stopped and watched and sure enough SNOW! I yelled and everyone came running out. It was big fat wet snow at first and it melted the second it hit the wet sand. It was kinda like we were imagining it because we couldn't look at it directly. Then it got heavier and heavier. It built up on the cars first and the kids were making snow balls and throwing them at me! About an hour later the ground was covered with white. Snow is much quieter than rain. :))

What else is going on? We spent the whole weekend working on getting the new house painted inside. We didn't get nearly done, so we will be over there working later this week. Jake got sick on Friday and is still not up to snuff, but at least he isn't throwing up. We picked out colors for the kids' rooms today and brought home a little potted Christmas tree, a "pinus penea". We love the scientific names for plants! Especially the "pinus" variety. Hilarity abounds at the mention of the name.

Here are some pictures of the snow!

So much to do...

And I'm knitting, so I can't do it! Ha!! I'm obsessing with the sock knitting right now. :)) I did put it down long enough to attend a talk given by Dr. Shannon Brooks yesterday. Wow. I'm so inspired. I heard Oliver DeMille speak about 6 years ago and really dove into the Thomas Jefferson Education Model. I got discouraged though and fell away until recently. I didn't drop the idea completely, I just relaxed a bit on educating myself for awhile. The reason was that I felt overwhelmed with what is going on around me. Not just my family, but out in the world. What could I do that would affect anything out there? It was pointless. But I felt compelled to hear Dr. Brooks speak and I forced myself to go.

There I was, surrounded by strangers without even my children to protect me! The meeting was filled with retired people and a few families. The discussion was wonderful. Of course I bought a few new books. But the one thing that really lit my fire was this. He was talking about the cycle of civilisations and when you look at it, we are obviously on the track from complacency to bondage. You can't go backwards, which I have heard over and over again. That is what bothered me. Well, then why bother trying to make things better? BUT, if we educate ourselves and our children in the principles of liberty and encourage others to do the same, we can speed up and lesson the effects of the bondage stage. We can have enough people in our country that understand history, economics, humanity, enough to get the cycle through bondage and on to liberty and abundance quickly and then stay there for a longer amount of time. It was very good to hear.

We are in the middle of history right here folks. These will be times that we tell our grandchildren about. But what will be the circumstances that we will be telling them in? Will it be under tyranny? How will we explain to them what happened? Or will it be on our way to abundance? Filled with spiritual strength and courage to fight for liberty.

READ! Study! Learn for yourself what our history is and find out how you can become a greater person so that your children will be inspired to do the same.

George Wythe University
Face to Face with Greatness
Thomas Jefferson Education Consortium

Back to Old Dale!

Ahh...it was finally cool enough to spend the day at our favorite camping spot. This is the first time we have camped out there since we moved to Yucca Valley. It was kinda weird only having to drive an hour to get there instead of three or four. :))

We got there after dark on Friday, played with fire awhile, ate dinner, and went to bed. We are early risers out there and no one sleeps in when you are all in the same room.

Saturday was filled with adventure. After spending a good hour teasing Tom about eating all the donuts before he got out of bed, Dan and Jake decided to go for a hunt. Tom got out of bed quickly then and they were off. A cup of coffee later, I went for a look see up to our "family monument" at the top of the hill. No one has been there, but I expected that. It has been too hot to be walking around the lower desert like that. Nikki stayed behind and gathered her thoughts. While I was on the hill I met up with the boys and we worked our way back to camp.

Snacks! Or what we call "Second Breakfast". The boys fought and played with the rockets a while. I started reading "The Lonesome Gods" to the whole family and they were riveted. I ready four chapters!

After lunch we went on a long walk to try and get to the base of the hills in the west. We found a baby horned toad! Jake said his new boots were hurting, so Nikki went back with him. Dan and Tom and I made it! We found the camp where we saw some campfires the night before. There was junk everywhere. Dan and Tom had a shooting contest. Tom is an awesome shot with the pellet gun. He nailed both shots.

That night we made a big fire after dinner and read by the fire some more. Lots of fun was had singing disgusting songs and cracking rude jokes until Dan could take it no more. The boys played with lighting things on fire for a long time and then we hit the hay.

Sunday I searched and searched for our rabbit grave but still couldn't find it. I was very disappointed. I was telling Dan that next time we do that I will have to make a better grave marker with something "unnatural" so I can find it easier. Then I went for another walk and found it! I did make a better grave last time! I had totally forgotten about it. Last time we dug it up, I had a hard time finding the pile of rocks, so I made a bigger pile when we covered it up and put a piece of cut wood in the middle of it so that I would be sure when I saw it.

Digging that grave up was SO fun. We kept finding all these bones and bits of fur. Tom found one piece of the skull a few feet away from the grave on the ground, so something must have gotten to some of last time. It was white from the sun. We kept trying to figure out what things were and how they went together. I kept thinking out loud, "Can you imagine trying to figure out how these bones went together if you didn't know what kind of animal it was?" "What if we just found this pile of bones and it was a thousand years old instead of a year?" It was fun playing archaeologist for the morning. We kept the bones and this week we are going to look it up online and see if we can't identify some of the pieces. :)

We came home around noon on Sunday. It was a nice trip and we look forward to going out again. I don't know why I love it out there, but I do. Something about the solitude I guess. You would think that living out here would diminish the effect of camping out there, but it doesn't. It is still a special place. I just love it.

Playing Catch Up

Do you know this game of "Catch Up"? It goes like this. Sit around and do nothing for days complaining that you don't want to. Have a holiday. Sleep a day. And then wake up on a Monday morning and realize all the things that HAVE to be done now. :)) That is what I did yesterday. What fun! Actually, it was fun to be done with all my chores, but I was tired when I went to bed. I still have a pretty long list to get done today, but it is getting shorter.

Halloween was a blast here! We ended up going to Poppy's house for the evening. We were going to go to the little fair in town, but Jake was just too sad about not trick or treating. I called my Grandpa and he was happy to have us over. We stopped at a "most sincere" pumpkin patch on the way down and got some love pumpkins to carve. When we arrived at Poppy's house he was decorating the front porch with spooky lights. We made pizza and carved pumpkins and then the kids went out to the neighborhood with Dad. Poppy and I manned the front porch and gave out candy to the kids. It was great. We didn't get home until after 10 and Jake informed me that it was the best Halloween ever.

Sunday wasn't so fun. I think we were all suffering from sugar withdrawal. Jake said he hates the day after the holiday. "The day sneaks up on you, it's the big day, and then by the time you are ready for it, it is over." I totally understand. We did nothing all day.

And now it is Tuesday! Yay! What to do?

Public Option

Ok, I'm going to talk politics AND education tonight, so get ready. I have this going around in my head and I want to write it down so that I can expand on it and maybe get your thoughts.

Public Schools are the "public option" for education, just like this "public option" thing for health care. How do you think they are doing? Does anyone think that the public schools are doing a great job for the amount of money they are getting from you? A private school education runs about $4000 a year here in California, more or less depending on the school district. How many people can afford that? Not many as you can see by the attendance at those schools. Only the very rich or those that make serious sacrafices can send their kids to private schools. The rest have to go to that "public option". It isn't free though, contrary to popular belief. We pay for it in taxes and about $5000 to $7000 a year goes to each child that attends there. Now, if I were paying $7000 for my child to attend a school, you bet I would be very attentive and making sure that I was getting my money's worth. If I wasn't, I would be taking my money elsewhere. But the "public option" makes it look like it doesn't cost me anything and I can't take my money elsewhere since I have to attend the public school where I live.

What is my point? Do you really want the government to do to healthcare what everyone agrees they have done to the public school system? Do we really think that the government (as it stands today) can do a better/more efficient job of ANYTHING? The only thing it will do is create a public school type healthcare. Over priced, we won't care since we aren't paying for it. We can't go to another doctor or hospital because this is the one we are assigned to where we live and all doctors are good just like all the schools are good, right? No sense in you leaving your district to get better services elsewhere. And the real good doctors, well only the very rich and those that make serious sacrifices are going to be able to afford that. Just like the government officials don't send their kids to the local public school, they won't be using the public hospital either.

Let's think about this seriously and rationally before we run off and sign up for something that can't possibly work. I know healthcare isn't what it could be, but I don't think the government can make it any better than it is.