We Called It School

Like I said, when the weather's nice, we go to the zoo a lot. Last week, we went with my good friend, Lis and her sweet kids. Maya can't get enough of holding baby Sam. I was jealous.

Maya also got called out for violating the carousel rules. Apparently, riding backwards is a serious offense.

She was quite embarrassed as she was forced to unbuckle and turn around. When we got off, I told her she should apologize to the old man running the thing.

He was kind enough to lecture her on carousel rules and threaten to not let her ride if she did it again. Nice reward for her humility.

Joshua and Isaac didn't get in any trouble. Lucky them. These two are best buddies. They followed each other every where. Isaac probably would have followed him into trouble, but Joshua's not that kind of friend. Lucky me.

Candace and my three spun themselves dizzy, totally unaware of the misdemeanor activity happening on the other side of the carousel.

The weather was perfect and Lis and I enjoyed chit chatting for a good hour while the kids ran off their lunch. They're good at that.

Call It School

This is a phrase I hear all the time from homeschoolers- "We called it school." Here's an example:

Today, we had a lot of errands to run. I took the kids to the grocery store, the
drug store, and the health food store. They selected the best apples, found the
best deals, and made it all fit in the budget I gave them. We got home at 2:00.
We called it school.

What does that mean? I really don't get it. Do people say that because they're trying to meet a school quota for their state? Do they still have a school mindset that tells them they need to have academic meaning for everything they do? I honestly don't understand the point.

I homeschool year round. I don't take off three months in the summer. In fact, we work the hardest in the summer and winter and relax more in the spring and fall. We don't school with textbooks; we use living books. When we go to the zoo, which we do a lot in good weather, I don't have to keep track of what all my kids learned while there. We go to enjoy the animals and have fun. And yes, the kids learn a lot while we're at it. But I don't have to fit the public school mold. That's the freedom of homeschooling! The bottom line for me is achieving our goals each year. I don't care how long that takes. Right now, I want my kids to be good readers, improve on their penmanship, complete their math books, and their Ambleside reading list. No amount of calling something school is going to help me achieve those goals.

So you didn't school and instead ran all the errands necessary to feed your family. Great! Your kids are learning valuable information, but what's the point in "calling it school"?

Growth Tradition

One of our family traditions is marking the kids' heights on a door jam every November. Why do we always do it in November? Because that's when we first started it. No such thing as a stupid question. Don't feel silly for asking.

While Kyle is scribbling all over our trim, the babies are pretending to be monkeys. Monkeys move much faster than this, but don't tell them. It'll hurt their feelings.

Can you guess whose closet we're marking up?

Here's this year's stats, in order from least change to most dramatic change:

Chloe grew 1.5 inches since last November
Elena & Lydia - 2 inches
Isaac - 3 inches
Maya -3.5 inches
and little Daniel grew 4 whopping inches in the last 12 mos.

Way to go, Daniel!

Tolerance??

An angry mob of homosexual activists in Southern California attacked an elderly bespectacled woman carrying a cross then shouted her down during a live TV interview as she tried to explain to a reporter her defense of the state's new marriage amendment.

"WE SHOULD FIGHT! WE SHOULD FIGHT!" screams one protester as the woman, identified as Phyllis Burgess, stands calmly with a reporter waiting to be interviewed.

In the live interview by KPSP-TV in Palm Springs, another protester yells, "GET OUT OF HERE," and the reporter tells her anchor team back at the station, "As you can see we are being attacked."

The confrontation developed when homosexual activists gathered at the Palm Springs City Hall for a protest following voters' approve by a margin of nearly 53 percent to 47 percent a state constitutional amendment that recognizes only a marriage between a man and a woman.

Read more here.

I think it's ironic how those who fight for tolerance are so very intolerant of those who disagree with them.

A Job Well Done

In my bathroom, because I don't trust the girls with it, are all the hair do-dads. The girls' barrettes, clips, rubber bands are kept in this little drawer set.

Saturday morning, I was fixing everyone's hair so they'd look nice when their grandparents arrived. As Lydia was walking out of my bathroom (with a beautiful 'do if I do say so), she accidentally knocked over the drawer that had all the rubber bands in it. HUGE mess! Maya was next in line to have her hair done, so she was also in my bathroom. She sweetly told Lydia to clean it all up.
My jaw dropped as I watched Lydia quickly bend down and commence the massive clean up. She didn't stop until all the rubber bands were put away and she never complained. When she finished, I said, "Thank you, Lydia," and she left.
I called Kyle in and privately told him what she had done. He went into the girls' room and asked, "Lydia, did you make a mess of the rubber bands? Mommy said that you cleaned THE WHOLE THING UP BY YOURSELF AND YOU HAD A GOOD ATTITUDE!" (He was saying it with a loud excited voice so all could hear.)
"Lydia, you deserve a prize for your hard work."

Hands Full

Saturday night, after entertaining my in-laws all afternoon, we decided to go out to eat. Now, for me eating out is a social event. When we go out to eat, it is almost always with friends or family. In fact, there's only been a few times lately that we've gone out to eat just the 8 of us. (Pedro moved out last weekend. Oh phooey, I forgot to tell you about that. Maybe other time, ok?)
So, I called Allison, my good friend and neighbor and asked her what she recommended. (She knows all the good kid spots) Kids eat free at Denny's on Saturday nights, she says. It's been years since we've eaten at Denny's and I absolutely love breakfast for dinner, so why not? 2 Kids free per adult. Woo-Hoo!!
Fast forward to the restaurant-- the waitress comes over to take our drink orders and immediately says:

Wow, you guys have your hands full tonight.

I think I hear that comment more than any others. I know a lot of big families are used to hearing, "Wow, you've got your hands full," and that didn't bother me back when we just had kids that looked like us. But that particular night, I didn't want to deal with that comment.
So when the sweet waitress said

Wow, you guys have your hands full tonight.

I think I cracked a weak smile when I said: "Every night. We're really blessed."
She then went on to say how brave we are. I was looking down at my menu when a "That's frustrating" look came over my face.
She didn't miss the expression (subtlety is not my strong suit) and tried to explain that she just meant that most people wouldn't want so many kids and we must be really brave.
She's not doing too well digging out of her hole and I, ungracious as I was feeling, didn't help her either.

As soon as she walked away, a rush of guilt came over me. I wasn't nice and I hate it when I'm not nice. She was trying to compliment us and I was rude.

I apologized as soon as she came back.

Licorice Root

Licorice Root has a very sweet taste; when infused in a tea it needs no honey or sugar. It's delicious as is. It is specifically used to stimulate and regulate the adrenal glands and the pancreas. It is one of the best known herbs for hypoglycemia. Licorice Root also acts as natural cortisone and it can help with hoarseness or voice damage.

Try it and see if you don't love it. I do!