The Cat has Napped

So, I’ve got the first coat of white on the girls’ walls, and, God willing, they will be pink by Monday night (the walls, not the girls). I take a break to email/blog, and the cat awakes and approached for Serious Stroking. Silly me, I ignore her. She promptly jumps up toward the monitor, landing lightly on the printer. On the “Print” button. Click, whir, a little vibration under her feet -the cat’s attention is riveted. The blank paper emerges, Mousetrap springs.

And I thought the Boy was funny!

Tomorrow

Disclaimer: I’m stealing this idea from magistramater.
Tomorrow is Day 35 or so of this year’s Homeschool. If we take Christmas week off, we’ll be finished the first week of April. Usually, we go on an educational trip and count the 2 or 3 days as a field trip to end the year on a very fun note.

We school 6 days a week, 4-5 hours per day. Besides the 3 Rs, we have several classes: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have History lessons, and the girls have Latin lessons. Tuesday and Thursday we have Science and P.E., and Saturday we quiz in all subjects. Mixed into the schedule is Art (once weekly), Music (twice weekly), Home Ec (one day cleaning, one day cooking), Logic (once). Every day we have Bible, Spelling and Spanish. I try to make Fridays fun, but expect the kids to review for the Saturday quizzes also.

We had scheduled making Banana Split Pie this Friday, but the bananas were spotting, so #2 and I cooked today instead. (#1 and #3 took such a long time to clean they missed Cooking. They will make it up by helping me with Provencal Stew tomorrow night at dinnertime.) It was lovely, and I learned to schedule Cooking ahead, since I am only supposed to go to the grocery store once a month!

Honestly, at the end of most school days, I’m ready for some time away from my beloved kiddos. They watch a video, I look over email and blogs, or nap. One of the nicest things about homeschooling is that if one (or more!) of the kiddos isn’t feeling well, there’s no traffic to fight or administrivia to jump through to get them into bed with a dose of medicine. Sometimes they can even do a half-day if they feel better around dinnertime!

Back to Egypt tomorrow. #3 is in alt. He has taken to draping a Kleenex over his arm and pretending to be a mummy. Boys are for comic relief. (smirk)

Hooray for Normalcy!

Mr Wonderful has a gig today as Captain Jack, a pirate balloon-twister. It’s on the North Side, so we had a big, late breakfast together as a family and started school after he left. He got paid Thursday, so we paid all our back bills and the mortgage for September. (Can you believe it’s almost September already?)

I’m absolutely wallowing in contentment. The A/C works. The toilets work. The dishwasher and washing machine merrily clean whilst I repeat spelling words and stories about Ancient Egypt. The kids got a 75, a 92, and a 100 on their math tests today. (OK, so the 75 needs improvement.) We made chocolate chip cookies from scratch for Home Ec, spaghetti was our simple, welcome lunch (at 2 pm!), and did I mention the A/C works?

Happy sigh.

Reading Meme

Hoorah- MommyBrain is having a day like mine- bibliophilic! (Link listed)

What are you reading right now?
“Making the Mummies Dance”, by Hoving (see previous post).

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?
“False Impressions”. I doubt my artsy phase will outlive that one, though, so I will probably return to “Post Captain”, by Patrick O’Brian, which is part of the “Master and Commander/Far Side of the World” series.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now?
“Daily Bread”, which is Christian devotionals; “Going Places”, AAA’s monthly; and “Le Recherche Biologique: 18 Mots Cles” (“Biological Research: 18 Key Words”). Yes, Mr Wonderful and I both read French.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
Metamorphosis, by Kafka. Unlike my mom, some books I don’t finish, they are so valueless.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
Virgil’s “Aeneid”.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they? Not only, but we know their names as well. My kids call them the “WL”s, short for “Wonderful Librarians”, and we give them chocolates at Christmas and Valentines Day.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all? Hunchback of Notre Dame. I cry every time I read it- but not because of Quasimodo…

Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you’re on the computer? While you’re driving? We don’t let the kids bring books to the table, so I only read while I eat when they aren’t around. Never while I bathe, since I shower 99% of the time, and haven’t figured out how to keep the pages dry. (I did like Magistramater’s tape player set-up in the corner of the shower so she could hear books on tape whilst bathing!) Never during anything else, since I get so absorbed in the book I couldn’t honestly say I was simultaneously listening or watching anything else.

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits? Probably, since I literally walked home from the bus stop reading, but I never noticed!

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? “Jester Leaps In”, by Alan Gordon. As a lover of mysteries, a student of medieval Europe, and the wife of a professional clown, I found it tailor-made! (Same reason I liked “Ringing for You” by Anouchka Grose Forrester when I was a receptionist- myopic egomania!)

Fine Art Friday

If you haven’t already, indulge your curiosity and link over to Magistramater (Latin for teacher-mom) and get a gander of Fine Art Friday.

I am woefully ignorant when it comes to art, a fact Mr Wonderful has yet to really fathom. Thus, our children’s education in art has be removed to a far back burner since he started working full time and I started my at-home dictatorship. We would like our kiddos to be classically educated, oh yes, so they are learning Latin and Logic this year. Art is when they find the modelling clay in the Crafts Cabinet in #3’s room and make cups and cats for a couple of days.

Seriously, I’m beginning to wrap my head around the idea that we ALL should be exposed to, and educated regarding, great art. Yes, some art is great, and some art is junk, no matter what the “Freedom of Expression” camp screams. (A later blog, perhaps, on aesthetics.) Product of 21st-Century Americana that I am, I trolled over to a Large Chain Bookstore and perused “Art for Dummies”. It will be the Art text for my kiddos when they reach 8th grade. (It’s over their heads now.)

Meanwhile, I noted that the co-author, Mr. Something Hoving, was the curator for the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and self-proclaimed flamboyant renovator. He wrote a book about his tenure, “Making the Mummies Dance”. Hmmm, sounds like a great story, thought I. So I borrowed it from the library. It IS a great story!

I had forgotten that reading is a way to temporarily wash the Daily Drudge off my personality! Like rented movies, reading works inside your time frame- you can get up for a cuppa, yell at #3 to get out of the tub, answer the phone, and come right back to the story without missing a bit! I almost feel human again!

A quick reader from childhood, I’m about half way through “Mummies”. (#1 thinks it’s part of our study on Ancient Egypt. I won’t dissuade.) Next up, “False Impressions: Discovering Art Forgeries” by the same author. Yum!

Auntie Em!

We’re home! We have power and probably phone tomorrow morning (it’s charging, I’m assured).

We also have a food pickup tomorrow, and after that I have to go explain to the WLs (Wonderful Librarians) why all my library books are late. Somewhere in there I call the insurance guy again to get a check so my check to Mr Sparky doesn’t bounce. Then it’s hot dogs and fries for dinner, and off to more AWANA training (where I’ll learn I’m in charge of the Cubbies again this year, I’m betting).

So, no school tomorrow. Between “have to” places we’ll clean the bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, bedrooms, write thank-you notes and relax in our own HOME!!!

God willing.

A Little (But True) Story

Last Wednesday night we had a strong electrical storm come through. It messed up the power to my neighbor Michelle’s house. EMC came and rewired from the road to their house.
Sadly, EMC left a little too much wire drooping over the road. Saturday afternoon an 18-wheeler came down the street and caught the wires.
It tore the wires down on both sides of the street, 3-4 houses each. It also tore down 2 transformers (one is now lying in my yard), tore the meter and meter box off my house, tore a hole in my siding, yanked the wires of my house so hard the fuse box INSIDE is 1/4 in deeper into the wall, and broke the top off a couple of power poles.
God is gracious- my whole family was at Mr W’s classroom, putting up bulletin boards and painting murals on the wall, whilst all this was occurring.
We drove up to our house at about 6 pm and noticed the electric lines all over the front yard and called 911.
My friend SW (we were to travel to Washington, DC together, remember?) has put us up since Saturday night. (Or is that “put up with us”?) SW has no internet, thus the lack of posting here.
We managed to reach our house insurance agent Monday morning, and an electrician Monday afternoon. If the county will issue a permit, and the electrical company’s work goes smoothly, we MIGHT (2% chance) be back in our own house tonight.
Will keep you updated. Ya’ll keep praying for us!

Umm, that was Good Mexican Food

Mr Wonderful is now the Biology and Bible teacher at Christian High School, right here in our own town! Classes start Monday, so he will be going in today to set up his 2 classrooms and putting together a grade book.

What’s that you say? Didn’t he teach Biology and Bible first semester last year and find it taxing? Yepper, but he’s willing to tackle it again. In fact, this will be easier in some ways (no AP classes) and harder in others (no computer grading system, no Powerpoint in the classes. This school doesn’t even have whiteboards yet, they still use chalk!)

Downer: There is no benefits package, which means the kids go back on state-funded medical insurance. Upper: The school pays twice a month, and has agreed to pay him as if he has worked all of August! Whee!

My kids have been wishing we could live at Six Flags. Now, we can get off the roller coaster. Thank You, God.

A Change for the Better

Mr B brought his neighbor and fixed the A/C in thirty minutes.

Mechanic Wonder got the car past emissions, and Mr Wonderful had it registered in 30 minutes. (Hooray for the government!)

There are schools looking for French teachers in D-ville and C-town, and a student from Last Year’s School is pushing the admin to add French 4, with Mr Wonderful as teacher and grade-publisher.

Should Mr W get a full-time teaching job, he would also take a night course once a week until Christmas, tutor an Italian and a French class, and spend two nights studying. Hmmm, the house seems quieter already!

Our friends gave us some teal and some denim blue paint that we used on the spare bedroom. Mr W is right- it looks classy. (It used to be bright orangey-yellow.) They also gave us peach, but we’ll probably take that down to Habitat for Humanity- the only room left is the girls’, and with purple carpet, peach walls aren’t a good option. I wonder if Habitat would trade us for something in pink?

My hope for the rest of the year is to have a working van and the gas to drive it to food co-op, flag football practice, the local great library, and AWANA each week.

There and Back Again

At church this morning my friend SW approached and asked how she (and a few other ladies) could help us. “I know you won’t feel insulted if I ask”, she laughed. No, not after I have ranted so many times about people not letting us know when they needed help. “Do you need meals? Groceries? Water?” (They had already heard about our A/C going out.)

Well, explained I, we had groceries for all the meals planned through August, excepting milk (which I’ve been mixing with powdered to stretch it), and we suddenly ran out of pancake syrup (I thought we had three bottles when I checked in July). Inside my head, I was also remembering that we were down to 4 rolls of “bathroom tissue”, and I have never budgeted how long 4 rolls would last…

“Make me a grocery list in a couple of days, and we’ll get what you need”, SW promised.

After church, we headed over for a cooling swim in our friends’ pool. Their boys came back home with us for dinner, and were real troopers- no complaints- about the heat inside the house. We returned to the boys’ home for Small Group this evening, and prayed with the 4 families there. As we were leaving, one family presented us with several bags of groceries. Inside, amongst other things- pancake syrup, and 24 rolls of bathroom tissue. Nope, they hadn’t checked with SW- it was a God thing.

However, SW had picked up a spare fan from the Wrights and brought it to Small Group to loan us.

We get home and find Mr & Mrs B in our driveway. With 2 brand-new fans. Mr B asked if he could approach his neighbor, a retired HVAC man, and use neighbor’s tools to test our system to find out how expensive repairs would be. Mr B will be over tomorrow at about the same time our church’s Mechanic Wonder is coming by to see if he can easily repair the emissions system on the red car so it can get registered on time this month.

I can’t even call them our “church family”, because they have gone so far beyond what my genetic family would do. They are more than family- what is that called?

Yep, we have a good supply of tissues for these tears of thankfulness.