Warning: Hippy Video

Great (although a bit long for our news bite society) video and website about where our "stuff" comes from and where it goes.

The Story of Stuff

The part that got me was about how it's impossible to pay $4.99 for something (in this case, a radio) and think that you possibly paid enough to have supported all the work along the way.

At one point I was much, much better about being a responsible care taker of our earth and its gifts. I am starting again.

Now.

Just because my community doesn't embrace recycling doesn't mean that I can't go the extra few miles to get my stuff to the recycling center. And just because shopping makes me feel good doesn't mean that it's worth it in the long run. And just because I like eating out doesn't mean that we should do it all the stinkin' time.

I got lazy because I am better than the average American about being wasteful but, for heaven's sake, the average American sucks at it! I can do A LOT better!

Thought for the day

Friends, etc.

There is something about me that makes people want to talk to me, to tell me things that they don't tell most people. Seriously, for no apparent reason, people tell me their secrets and inner thoughts. I'm honored that they feel comfortable enough with me to do it. I suspect it is that I just ooze mom-ness. Babies are drawn to me, too. I always say that they can smell the mom on me. :-)

Examples:

• A girl who was several years younger than me in highschool and the baby sister of someone in my class told me when I ran into her at Target one day that she was gay and had a girlfriend/wife and all about their life and how happy they were but not to mention it to anyone else because she hadn't told any family yet.
• I have known about at least a half-dozen breakups before they happened because the person ran it by me first.
• Many bar guests have told me things about their relationships and jobs that I have been told to keep to myself.
• I have known about several pregnancies (of acquaintances and strangers), most of them unexpected, before anyone else.
  

I love being that person. I love that people can trust me with their secrets and know that I will offer good advice and not judge them harshly if they change their mind. I love that people sense that I can offer balanced, thoughtful, wise advice. It makes me feel like the job I'm doing on this little planet of ours is important even if I have no "respected" credentials. I am, though confused by it sometimes and I don't know how or why people know that about me before they really know much else about me. This was brought to mind tonight when I ran to the gas station for beer after work and had an incredibly long conversation with the attendant about DWIs and breathalyzers and how she got a DWI after a funeral and on and on and on.

I am not great (actually really bad) about maintaining long-term friendships. There are several people who have come into my life whom I would like to count as really good friends. I just let them fade away for no other reason than laziness. I'm afraid that it is because I am very good at cultivating many short-term intense friendships that I don't value highly enough the ones on which I should be focusing.

If I want to go out tonight, there are many people in my phone whom I could call and they would love to hang out. They don't call me and I don't call them, but I could if I wanted to. I don't. Maybe I should every once in a while and make an effort to be a good friend. It is so easy to just be alone, though or just to have one good friend at a time.

I think that it says good things about me that I can help aquaintances and strangers with advice without being friends. It reminds me that God is, in fact, looking out for me; I am important.

Educating is fun, but should be work!

I had a wake-up moment today. How I educate today might impact how parents in the future are allowed to educate their kids. I spend too much time just having fun with the kidlets and too little time being the teacher.

On my homeschool group email list there has been some discussion about logging hours. I have to admit that I am really lacking in several areas surrounding this issue.

The first is that I suck at documenting. No way around it, I just plain don't keep written records as diligently I should.

The second is that I am a pushover and pretty darn lazy (wait, that's two, isn't it?) when it comes to school.

The third is that I have a tendency to start great projects and then let them fizzle out (wait, that's laziness, maybe it goes with the second point).

I wasn't paying very close of attention to the discussion until a mom whom I respect a great deal, Stephanie Herrick, posted a reminder for us all. I want to share a quote from her eloquent and thought-provoking email. "To the degree we fail to police ourselves, we open the door to be policed by others. "

Just because we, personally, are not at great risk of being accused of educational neglect should not mean that I can be lax about holding our family to the highest level of accountability. Everyone I communicate with about what our homeschool looks like will forge an opinion about what ALL homeschools are like. Do I want the image they get from me to be the image they pass on to others? The law in Missouri is fantastic and allows for a great variation in teaching styles and emphases and keeping it that way is of paramount importance.

So, just because Levi can race through his handwriting lesson doesn't mean that I should let him do it every day. And next time Paige wants to count her paper craft making as art I should remind her that a hobby doesn't get to count everyday, somethings are for fun, not school.

So, is my homeschool above reproach? I need to make sure I like the answer to that question.

To Do List

Tomorrow (Saturday) is a big day. Here is the list: (updated at 3:00) (updated at 5:30) (updated Sunday)

1. Wake up (sometimes a big deal to get around to). (check)
   
2. Put washed stones in oven to make cool crayon covered polished paperweights. (check)
3. Go pick up kidlets. (check)
4. Feed kidlets (and me). (check)
5. Use crayons to color warm stones. (check)
6. Bake chicken for lunch and to make soup for dinner. (check)
7. Feed kidlets (and me). (check)
8. Boil eggs. (check)
9. Shower all of us. (check)
10. Color eggs using rubber cement to make swirly designs. (rubber cement drying as we speak)
    
11. Set up incubator for incubation and embryology lab Monday (chick hatching). (check)
    
12. Clean bathrooms. (check)
    
13. Sweep and mop. (swept living room and school room) (check)
14. Wash hundreds of water bottles and refill (perhaps minor hyperbole). (check)
15. Vacuum dog hair from, well, everywhere, but especially couch where friend will be sleeping. (check)
16. Laundry. (half way done) (3/4 done) (close enough)
    
17. Dust. (check)
    
18. Play with rats (pets, not free roaming). (check)
19. Play stuffed animals with Paige (good mommy, but, honestly a bit tortuous, duty). (watched Wii and played Rescue Heroes instead)
    
20. Groceries -raisins for hot cross buns, carrots and celery for soup, beer (I deserve it, darn it). (forgot I needed soy milk, dang.)
    
21. Rent movie. (decided against it)
    
22. Polish stone paper weights. (check)
23. Entertain friend spending the night (probably Fluxx card game and movie). (check)
    
24. Feed kidlets (and me and friend). (check)
25. Make hot cross bun dough to bake Easter morning before work (yes, I "get" to work on Easter, yea). (forgot I needed soy milk, we'll make them tonight for tomorrow morning, Jesus won't mind a little Easter Monday celebrating, I'm sure)
    
26. Relax, I have a night off work! (check, check, check)

Overall, Saturday was a fantastic day! It's amazing how much better my day is and how much more productive I am when I don't have to be worrying about getting to work and when I get the kids all day and night.

Dog Cake!

Of course Paige wants a dog cake, what on earth else would she want?! So, a dog cake she gets. This is my first attempt at such a thing, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The body is strawberry and the rest is chocolate. It is covered with the easiest chocolate icing ever. It's just Cool-Whip and semi-sweet bakers chocolate. Melt it and it's a glaze, then whip it and it's an icing. I love it when things are simple!

Ta Da! Dog cake!

Best mom ever!

This is a story that really defines my sweet baby girl.

When I took her to pick out her birthday presents she told me it was the best present she had ever gotten and better than she could have hoped for! I'm super, right! Wanna know what amazing gift I let her pick out? Think it's the newest toy or doll or game? Nope, the best present my Paigey could get was...

TWO BABY RATS!

LOL That's my girl!

Skunk


Snowball

addendum: The two rats lasted a whole day and a half before Skunk escaped, oops. Why, oh, why didn't we get bigger ones??