iPod wOrthy: KJ-52

B and H both love KJ-52. I think he's pretty hilarious. For those of you who've never heard of him, he's a Christian rapper who (supposedly) sounds a lot like Eminem. So much so that KJ wrote a song called "Dear Slim" and "Dear Slim part 2" about how Eminem fans have heard the gospel in his songs and have accepted Christ. Of course the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing so KJ ended up on VH-1's "25 Worst moments in rap" special.

The unintended publicity has only served to cause him to take an even more tongue-in-cheek approach to his career and be more emboldened to share the message of the cross. While all this sounds pretty "serious" the majority of his songs have a healthy dose of, usually self-deprecating, humor.

This is true of my favorite song of his, "Piece of Junk Car". I tried to find the lyrics online to this classic but was unable to locate them. The song was a cut on a Bonus disc from his CD entitled "Behind the Musik (a boy named Jonah)". I HIGHLY recommend spending 99 cents to download it from iTunes or wherever. Especially if your history with automobiles is anything like mine. I think, in the 90's, we went through approximately 6 cars/vans in 10 years.

As the song says "whether I got a little or a lot, life ain't about what ya have or have not, so I always thank God for what I got."

Separated at birth?

Back in the 80's my bachelor rule #1 was "Never refuse free food". Twenty-odd years later, I'm 220 lbs. so I guess that rule has served me well. When we got married, we also adopted a "we will accept clothes from anyone" policy. Now we also give away LOTS of clothes to Goodwill, Kidney Foundation etc. but we've never really been hurting too bad for wardrobe.

So we were going through a bag of stuff recently and the kids found a brown boa-type thing that they immediately started playing with. So here's our version of "Separated at birth? (you decide)":

First IZ and Khleo Thomas (Hector Zeroni from "Holes").....


or IZ and the Lion from the Wizard of Oz...


Hmmm....

Great Moments in Homeschooling

Many times I wonder why I homeschool.
The days are sometimes a terrible blend of my disorganization and my kids focus challenges. I have never been a time oriented person as Ski stated in one of those posts below. This is in part for a very good reason. I have a nickel allergy. I have tried tons of watches and none of them have worked for me. I even have issues with the clasp parts if not the back of the face. So for a great part of my life I have lived without a watch. I recently got a very cool watch that hangs on a silk cord around my neck. Yeah!!! Finally something that doesn't bother me. If only I could remember to wear it more often and maybe look at it once in awhile. The other reason for my lack of time/calendar orientation I think is just my personality. I have a loose schedule that I live by. I think it works well for me since 6 kids include a great number of disruptions. BTW, one reason that I dislike the newborn period so much is the need for reliance on a time piece. It becomes very stressful for me.

So, we often have days that go by where I feel nothing got done. And days that go by where I get caught up in something and the time passes us by. And in the day to day grind I have a difficult time seeing what kind of end product is coming out. So, we just go on trusting that something good is coming out. So, the purpose of my post today is to share a little insight into what that product is......

This will not include the fact that I said with great enthusiasm "Hey kids look at the Durer!!!" in the middle of Biltmore to which I only got glazed looks. I will give them credit for realizing who Durer was after I mentioned "The Hare." It will also not include the stunned look my 10yo gives me when I tell him that he needs to rewrite the words because he misspelled them. Hey, how can you spell a word wrong when you picked it from a list on the page?!?!

Our first moment began with a comment close to the beginning of the school year. We were studying Lenin and the Bolsheviks and the end of the Russian Empire. It was not a pretty time in Russian history and it had a great bit of violence. The perspective was bleak and hey, what kid would like studying about an entire family getting shot to death. At one point, my son, discouraged by reading all of this sad stuff, came to me and asked the question that every homeschool mother dreads..... "Why do we have to study this?" I sighed and mumbled something about history being all intertwined with our present and how we should learn from it, but I know I did not present a well thought out or impressive argument. He lumbered away and went back to his reading unconvinced.

After a few more months of plodding through World War I and the intervening time and the beginning of World War II and the rise of Hitler, we came to the week that I feared. The Holocaust. Now, if my kid was bucking me while studying the Bolsheviks, then what was he going to do now? I was a bit wary because I knew what I had planned for our study and I knew it would not be light and fluffy material. I wondered if I would be causing my kids emotional harm to study some of the things we were going to study. But the four of us dove in head first. The material included stories about children in the Holocaust. At the end of the very first day, my ds came to me and said with deep and heavy seriousness of heart, "I know why we need to study this, mom. We need to learn all we can about why this happened and how so that things like this will never happen again!" Wow!! That was cool!! My ds walked through the 2wks+ that we spent on the topic with tears and conviction. He was moved and disturbed by the films and books we saw, but seeing why this era should never be forgotten. One Sat during this time, the kids told me that they heard about a news story about how schools were thinking about not teaching this material. My children were outraged!! They learned and I learned. We sat through films and books crying. We had the son of a Holocaust survivor come to our home and speak to us. We saw news stories break during regarding Nazis and Holocaust victims. We found ourselves amazed by the people who risked their lives to help others. It was an amazing time for all of us. And then we finished the war and all the heroism of the war. War films I had never seen. And we talked about people we knew of who had fought in the war like my Uncle Kermit who was a front gunner on a supply boat in the Pacific as a teenager. How my mother was their age during the war. I remember the day my kids begged me not to make them watch another film, but several days later asked for just one more. I cannot express how much we enjoyed, no, that is not the right word.....experienced as we learned about the war. I would not trade this for a second of ease. I would trudge through all of those hard days again just to get to a week or two like this.

The second moment I have to share with you was surprising to me.
I was at the library one morning picking up some books for school. The librarian came to me and said, "Oh we were just talking about you this morning!" I thought, Oh, no!! What have I done now?!?!? Were they complaining about the number of books that I put on hold? Were they talking about how I always tell them how binding is coming loose on a book or a tape didn't work right? It must be something terrible!! Well, she went on for about 10 minutes telling me how they think my kids are just wonderful and that they just love them. My kids are polite, well behaved, friendly, nice......she just went on and on. I about fell on the floor. She said that my family is their favorite patrons. WOW!!!! I never saw it coming!! Hey, whenever they have a movie showing, dh and I are there to watch it. We eat all their popcorn. LOL!! Gee, I'd think that they would find us annoying or something. I mean I am there almost every week. I thought that they would be sick of me. I guess they figure I pay their salary with my late fees and books that I buy. She said that we are doing a wonderful job and to keep it up!! I told you it was a shocker!!

So, I will leave you now with a thing that happened today...
Dh was loading the dishwasher last night and just throwing everything in there. All is well. This afternoon, dd asks where her science project is. Hmmmmmm......Well, dad threw it down the sink. It looked like a glass of water. So, even in homeschool, the kid says....."My dad threw away my science project!!"

Napoleon Dynamite meets the Gilmore Girls

Our weekly date nites usually revolve around some sort of dinner out, coffee, or occasionally, a movie. Movies are hard for me to blog about. Most of them are, well, garbage or mediocre.

I saw some reviews of Juno and knew it had won an Oscar (best screenplay I think). The acting seemed similar to Napoleon Dynamite (which we all like) so I took a chance and paid my 12 bucks.

As it turned out, B and I had the theater to ourselves. (it was a Thursday night). The movie was GREAT! It was very funny and touching. Having been through eight pregnancies, we were able identify with a lot of the humor. The casting was excellent. Overall, the movie was kinda like Napoleon Dynamite and Rory from the Gilmore Girls have a baby--and cuss. Boy, do they cuss. Be forwarned, there's LOTS of blue language in this one and a few suggestive scenes. (The movie's about a high school pregnancy)

There's also lots of family support, loyalty, "blue collar" wisdom, and heck, even a mostly pro-life perspective. Probably the most enjoyable non-animated night we've had at the movies in a long time. But please, watch the language.

Big, big house

B would be very happy if life could be lived without calendars, clocks, or tape measures. And vacation planning? Why she'd rather read books on the Black Plague than some travel book with hundreds and hundreds of options (yawn).

I on the other hand, would be THRILLED coming up with a plan to squeeze every minute of shopping, eating and tourist trap experiencing out of our vacation time (thereby driving my family into sheer exhaustion).

How good of God (though I'm sure He gets a chuckle out of it sometimes) to pair the two of us together to plan what we and the skibums do for family trips. I, for one, still have SO MUCH to learn in terms of patiently, sacrificially and lovingly leading my wife and kids.

I say all this because, for the most part, when we take a day trip we usually end up having a very enjoyable time. Sometimes even a FANTASTIC time!

Recently, B found out about a discount for Leap Year (Feb. 29th only) at the Biltmore Estate and Winery. We're talking DEEP discount here. (And we didn't even need to sit through a timeshare presentation! eeew) Admission for all eight of us to the mansion, farm and winery was $33....TOTAL! I was thrilled with the fact that B had come up with the idea and made a quick call to my kind boss to schedule the vacation day.

The next morning, we piled into the van and headed to the mountains. The staff at Biltmore, from the ticket sales counter, to the guides, to the store clerks, could not have been nicer and more appreciative of our "well behaved children" (read: SPIRITUAL/CHARACTER FRUIT). We even got a few "perks" along the way as further blessing.

While you're not allowed to take pictures inside the mansion, I WAS able to snap some photos outside of the house, winery, and adjacent hotel. Maybe someday we'll stay there for a special occasion.

We had a BLAST!!! B loved the library and identifying art by Renoir, Durer, and others in each room. My favorites were Mrs. Vanderbilt's gold and purple decorated bedroom, the bowling alley, and indoor pool. The stone basement was very cool too. The self guided walking tour takes you all over the house and was very fun for all of us to explore. You could play some SERIOUS hide n' seek in there!

It's not easy being green (and yellow)

A few weeks ago, Brett Favre, QB for my team, the Green Bay Packers, retired.

This really wasn't a surprise, except for the fact that last year the Packers came out of NOWHERE to knock off teams like the Chargers and Giants. The only team that really had our number this year was "da Bears". (we coulda beat Dallas-but didn't)

Brett never seemed like a big ego-type QB. Considering his record (the league's only three-time MVP, 11 playoff appearances, including seven division crowns, four NFC Championship Games, two Super Bowls and a World Championship with a victory in Super Bowl XXXI) it's pretty amazing that his off-season activities revolved primarily around his Dad, wife, and hunting or fishing back in Mississippi.

I don't know where his heart is, though his wife, Deanna, has a book in Christian bookstores about her cancer survival story. I'm not one to sport his jersey or think he's the pinnacle of manhood. But I was a little sad when I heard he was hanging up the cleats for good.

We don't have cable or satellite so if the Packers aren't doing well in 2008, we won't be getting their games on the TV. I'll still be rooting for believers like Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Al Harris, and Nick Barnett. I don't think anyone expected Green Bay to go as far as they did at the beginning of last season. We'll see.

The grass is riz

In honor of the new season (and at the request of family to "send up some spring") here are some pics of this year's crop of my favorite flower, the crocus.

I'm not sure why it's my favorite. I think growing up in the dairyland of northern NJ, seeing the crocus (and robins) meant we were close to Easter, with biking to sunrise service on the side of a hill while Easter baskets with candy and Legos were waiting at home. Soon the frozen creeks and woods would be green and wet again and full of life to catch and explore (salamanders, frogs, minnows, crickets etc.)

We planted crocuses by our front walk a few years ago and this year, with our weird fluctuating weather, we got a round of white for a week, then a round of yellow, then a round of purple.

The change of seasons and the Easter story shows me, again, of God's faithfulness to me, a sinner. How amazing and wonderful, too, is the grace-filled beauty of His creation. Every new season, we get fresh examples of it again. Incredible.

I'll stick to Tastycakes, thanks

Now that I have a few days off, I have a bunch of ideas swimming around in my head for the blog. So here's the first one. (it's short)

I read an article recently about chalk.
(yes, that's right, chalk).

The skibums (esp. the youngest two) love sidewalk chalk specifically.

Did you know....

-that "school chalk" is made of a kajillion tiny little microscopic marine organisms? (So draw a fish on a chalkboard)

-that sidewalk chalk is made from evaporating a mineral (gypsum) from seawater?

-and (my favorite) that gypsum is also used as the white filling in drywall.....and as a dough conditioner in Twinkies!!! (yech!!)

Happy St. David's Day!!!

Today is March 1 and it happens to be St. David's Day.
No, I am not Welsh. And I am not Catholic.
So how, you ask, did I come to know and celebrate St. David's Day?!?!

Well, many, many years ago, I lived in a small mining town in Central PA. It was a unique experience for me. I have always found other cultures fascinating and this town was filled with many cultures. I did not spend the best years of my life here, but I did come to love kielbasa, pirogies, fastnachts, gyros, Polka, and St. David's Day.

You see, in this town there happened to be Catholic churches of every variety. I learned to polka at weddings that were half Protestant and half Catholic unions. My father asked me once if I wanted to go and I said yes. I quickly learned that these mixed faith weddings were the best. I was known to ask where the reception was being held. If it was in a Catholic social hall, I begged to go. It was great fun and the food was fabulous!! That was where I learned how to love REAL kielbasa and how to polka. Before lent, the German Catholics made Fastnachts for Shrove Tuesday. We still celebrate Fastnacht day in our home.

In this same town was a Welsh Congregational church. Every Spring on March 1, they held their St. David's celebration. It was always amazing!! The Welsh are known for their singing and I don't think a single soul from that church was a bad singer. We spent the evening listening to them sing. At the end, they would have the congregation sing. It was always fun to try to sing Welsh. Afterwards, we would go downstairs and have cakes and tea. That was the highlight of our night. There were always daffodils on the tables. Everyone was always so nice to us and they talked to us for hours. I had so many fond memories of those yearly visits!! In addition, I knew a lady who hailed from Wales. She was so very kind to me.

So after I watched "How Green is my Valley," all of those wonderful memories came back to me. I decided to share some of them with my children. I have always been known for celebrating things that people had never heard of before, so this is not too strange. Also, I share a tradition of having tea with my children. I am not always faithful to do it, but the goal is once a week. It is a fun time to just talk or read poetry or simply relax. I have a honest to goodness recipe for Welsh Cakes that the ladies from the Welsh church gave to my mother. My family had never had them before. So, Hannah made them for us, and we had delicious Darjeeling tea. I wanted Welsh breakfast tea, but it was not to be found last minute. Isaac couldn't have the cookies, so he had a bar. I printed games and coloring pages for the Skibums. I shared with them the story of St. David, the Patron saint of Wales. I showed them the flag and other pictures. The loved coloring the daffodils and leeks and dragons. Obviously, Simon that he should be coloring the Polish flag with a dragon on it. Not quite, buddy!!

Here is Isaac's firt try at real china. He did wonderfully!! He doesn't drink tea since we had a bad episode with tea once. Instead he has chocolate soy milk which is a treat for him.

I bought sugar cubes for this special occasion. The kids loved putting them in their tea. Isaac wanted one, too. So I gave him one for a treat. He thought that they were just fabulous!!



We had a fun time altogether.
We even had the blessing of dad being with us.

Oh, and you will notice that they are sitting on the floor. We always have tea in the Library and there are not enough seats for everyone. Besides, our tea is not an exercise in being fancy or proper, but in enjoying each other's company. So, the floor it is for some of the Skibums!

Iz eating his sugar cube.
I can't believe I gave him straight sugar to eat!!