Thursday, October 30, 2008

Why is Christianity now associated with Republicans? This is so unfair. I am a Christian, and because of my beliefs, I'm also a Democrat. Which party thinks that if we have enough to spare, we should give it up to help others? Which party fights for social programs to make sure that every American has basic needs met? Which party champions education and health care? These are all issues of the Democratic party. Doesn't it seem that Christians should support these issues? I am tired of Republicans trying to co-opt Christianity and I for one am not going to put up with it anymore. I am a Christian and a Liberal and proud of it!
My new favorite quote from this election season:

"There will be an election, followed by rioting, the complete unraveling of society, and, I assume, a zombie problem. And everyone will agree it’s an improvement." -Scott Adams

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I just got accepted to take part in this:

Job Description
Position Qualifications: Interested participants should have good written and oral communication skills; be willing to work with digital audio equipment; be comfortable working with different ages and ethnicities; be open to group discussion and seminar participation; be willing to share personal experiences throughout the oral history process; have a desire to educate local teachers in classrooms; be interested in local history. Oral historians will be trained on several methodologies of collecting oral histories; will go out into the field and interview residents; will meet monthly to discuss and review relevant texts; will learn from each other’s field experience; and will become the tools for local educators who are interested in bringing oral history techniques into their classrooms.

Commitments

  • Attend a panel discussion on Oral History November 8, 2008 from 2 – 4pm
  • Attend monthly meetings for an 8-month period
  • Learn oral history techniques and theory
  • Interview residents at various locations
  • Use digital voice recorders
  • Transcribe full interviews using word processing software
  • Read relevant excerpts and full texts
  • Collect three interviews and transcribe
  • Be a resource for local educators to use oral history techniques in their classrooms
Sooooo excited to be part of this! I think this will be a great resource for homeschooling, and a very interesting project!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Pumpkin Time and Jumping in the Hay


Every year we take Esme to the same spot to choose a pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern. Today she learned that pumpkins are actually a fruit and that the average pumpkin weighs twelve pounds. Last year was the first time she was big enough to jump in the hay pile, and today she had it all to herself. I think that was her favorite part!

Our First Ever Halloween Party


Esme's Halloween party was a big success! She had 5 guests. They made Halloween fairies out of fabric samples, cardstock, vellum wings, sequins, and buttons. They made their own pizzas, played a couple rounds of pass-the-pumpkin, and of course had plenty of time to just play together! We loved having everyone over - it was a great time!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Homeschooling this month.....

We finished up our homeschooling State Park series with a very cool trip. We visited a center that has dioramas of habitats all the way from the ocean up through the forest, following a local river. The interpreter walked the kids through each diorama and showed them little hidden secrets along the way.

Esme is playing soccer again - she is on a different team this season and the games are just starting now. I am worried that it is going to be COLD by the time we finish! She is loving ballet and has attended bring-a-friend-to-dance classes with both Kaitlyn and Sarah. I am pretty impressed how quickly she has learned to remember the different ballet positions.

She is also continuing with Daisy Girl Scouts, and we have starting preparing for our mitten drive. We wanted to offer something back to the library since they let us meet there for free, and the children's librarian suggested that we work together to do this. Last week we made posters and this week we'll make the actual tree.

Esme is continuing in the Math curriculum we chose and progressing nicely. She is also doing very well with her Bob books - I can see that we'll have to purchase the next set soon. However, she is resistant to trying to read anything but those books, so that is something we will be working on in the coming weeks.

This is our new kitty Cosmo! He is such a sweetie! He wasn't big on having his photo taken! He has certainly livened up our house with all his playing, but he also loves to cuddle and spends lots of his time purring loudly.

When we couldn't find Pekoe we hung up signs all over the neighborhood, and someone from a cat rescue shelter called us to say she might have our cat. By then we had found Pekoe, but we got to talking and she said she had a kitten waiting to be adopted, and that she wouldn't even charge us the normal fee if we wanted to come get him. We talked it over (Ethan had to be convinced) and picked him up the next day. Of course after he explored the house a bit he sat down on Ethan's lap and put his little head down on Ethan's hand and fell asleep, so now he is pretty much Ethan's kitty.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

One reason I am looking forward to the Christmas season: stores open longer. I am having trouble being confined to the normal schedules - if I want a craft item at 8 am or 1 am - I want to get it then!!

Monday, October 13, 2008

I looovve Columbus Day weekend! Every year half the citizens of a neighboring town hold yard sales. We're still paying for our new water tank and don't have much money to spare, but we were able to get many good deals for not very much money. I got a sewing machine, leg warmers for Esme, Polly Pockets, dancewear, a microscope, and a couple building sets great for fine motor development!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Yesterday was a horrible day. Our family's cat disappeared around 10:30 Sunday night, not to be found til about 2:30 Monday afternoon. Pekoe is a member of our family and we were all distraught, thinking we would never see her again. She's an indoor cat and very gentle, so I don't think living outside would be easy for her, and I am not quite sure she would have the skills to find her way home again.

My brother Charles was doing some work on our house and we were both going in and out. Charles is very considerate about shutting doors because he knows we have a cat, but he didn't notice and I forgot that the windows were open on our sun porch. When she disappeared in an unfurnished apartment, we assumed she had jumped out one of them. Esme and I searched for a long time last night. Ethan searched when he got home from work. I woke up early and searched again, and hung up flyers all over our neighborhood. Charles, Ethan, and I all searched the empty apartment for her mulitiple times. There literally nothing in the apartment, so it should be difficult for a kitty to hide.

A long time ago I remember a discussion on the NSBR board at 2 Peas where someone said, after you have kids, your pets are no longer members of your family. I can say for us, this is not true. I spent many hours crying and walking and calling her name - if she was not a member of our family that wouldn't have happened.

Yesterday afternoon Ethan went over there to do some cleaning, and out walked Pekoe!! She was disgustingly dirty and had obviously been trapped somewhere for a long time. I suspect she had climbed into the back of a dryer that's not in use right now, and couldn't get out. We were all so happy to see her we didn't care. We hugged and kissed her anyway! We are sooo happy she is back!!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Dinosaurs


We decided to check out the dinosaur tracks in town in preparation for sending our Summer/Fall box to Nebraska. I was so proud because Esme said, "Shouldn't we read about dinosaurs before we go?" She found a book about dinosaurs from her library and we read all about their life cycles, how they ate, what they ate, etc. Then we grabbed some crayons and paper and headed down to the tracks. They were amazing! We found three very distinct types, and read that they were created approximately 190 million years ago. This was a fun side lesson for all of us!