intriguing

While blog hopping tonight, I ran across this. I hope you enjoy it as I did - what a talent in putting this piece together.

did the rain bring them here?

Black and Yellow Argiope - aka garden/writing spider... they're everywhere right now!!!

As I drove through the neighborhood this morning I noticed at least 15 other Argiope webs - some were much larger then ours, it was interesting how the fog and the moisture seemed to highlight the webs for a clear view. These not so little spiders work pretty darn hard!! It was literally overnight that I had 6 webs, artistically spun by these busy critters; I'm guessing maybe all of the rain and flash flooding we've had could have driven them out of the wooded area surrounding our neighborhood.

I noticed companion webs by by the web that the female is hanging out in - which means there was possibly some spider 'naughty' going on.... so I must take action and move our spider out into the wild jungle of the 'common ground' behind our house. I won't kill her, but I will move her. There's no real reason she should move her and her large load of babies in with us... even though the bite is 'harmless' according to everything I've read - I'm still not much on one of these baby's crawling anywhere near me!

it left me speechless

Ezra's homework assignment tonight was 'leftovers' from class + 30 min of reading. He reads voluntarily for about 1-1.5 hours per day so that's something he likes. Back to the point of this post.... His 'leftovers' today from class was a sheet about himself. The sheet had many questions... but some stuck out to me.

• What's your favorite subject? answer: READING


• What's your least fav. subject? answer: MATH


• Fill in the blanks: When I grow up I want to be a race car driver because I like racing.

So I kept reading and got down to this one: If you could have 3 wishes come true, what would they be?

Keep in mind that he's a 9yo boy, who loves his toys, loves to play, and loves getting new things just like any other kid his age would. I kept that in mind, and he managed to blow me away. His paper was filled out w/o me around, w/o my knowing what he wrote. He put it away and asked me to sign his agenda to show that he'd read for 30 min and while I was signing that, and he was upstairs, I took a gander at his homework sheet (really to check out his penmanship) and this is what he answered to that last question:

1. I'd like to find a submarine and go over the entire sea ((he likes the idea of finding treasure))


2. I'd like to have the largest library ever made, for more knowledge.


3. I'd like for Sarah to have her brother back.

I'll leave you with that folks. That coming from a 9 year old. He could have said so many other things, could have wrote about wanting the most extravagant toys... And what's more, is that he wrote that - and likely thought I'd NEVER read it. He went to bed, never mentioned it - never wanted recognition for writing such a sweet thing. He'd want a library for more knowledge... how'd we get so lucky??

He'd use a wish on me - that's what makes me speechless.

unsettling

I'm a frequent reader of this blog; I stumbled upon her talent in searching for Montessori rescources, she's a Montessouri teacher as well as a talented sewing pattern designer. Her classroom inspires me to have more natural resources at home, her ability to use simplicity in photos keeps me in awe, and I'm constantly stealing book ideas as well as craft ideas from this site.

Today when I checked her blog, I was sad to read that a mass shooting claimed the life of one of her student's relatives. She often writes about her students, includes them in photos - and when you are a faithful blog reader, it almost feels as if you know them somehow, because you've been invited into their life. It was mind boggling to say the least that this can happen even AFTER the police were warned - direct quote from her blog "It appears that one of the warring drug cartels called the local police, told them to leave Creel, then came in and shot thirteen people, including a baby. No police or any officials arrived for hours after."

I felt the article was worthy of sharing. Here's the direct link to the article in English. My thoughts are summed up in saying - when will this begin to matter???.

old routine

Today was a terrific start of the new school year for big E, he loves his teachers and is excited about the 5th grade. Traffic was a little jammed up today, and I suppose it will be all week - we planned ahead with snacks,books and leaving a little early. Little J was sad to see big brother go off by himself today, they've been such buddies all summer. All I've heard all day is 'where's big E?'; his little face lit up like Christmas when he saw his brother returning to the car this afternoon!

As for little J and I, I went back and reconfigured my daily routine/schedule and so far so good!! We will have 1 class a week at a local childrens center/gym, I've found a homeschool group for pre-school/toddler outings 1 x a week locally, library 'story-time' 1 x a week, and the other two days are freebies for us to just catch up on odds and ends, appointments, grocery shopping, etc.

I'm researching and still driving toward a better education plan for our family... the answer is yet to come to me... but I've found lots of resources recently and I'm defiantly checking out many homeschool co-ops and groups to find out what will be the best fit for us. Our goal is to make any changes at the end of this school year. My heart tells me one thing, and the world tells me another. I will go w/ my heart of course, I'm not too concerned about impressing others in order to feel good about myself the opinion of others... my ultimate goal isn't to feel like I'm above anyone else because my kids are in "this" school or homeschooled, my goal is for my kids to be educated, well rounded, upstanding, moral citizens - over all "good people". Period. How we go about reaching that goal is our responsibility - so I am really digging hard to find what will be the answer...

I can't tell you how sick I am of people stereotyping homeschooled kids as 'un-social'. I'm sure there are people who SAY they homeschool and don't... but the people I know who homeschool their kids are dedicated and involved and they keep their kids active in the world. I could go on a rant about that for DAYS. I know of plenty of homeschooled kids/adults who are highly successfull and completely 'social'. That's like saying that we send our kids to school to be social, and not to learn. That people send their kids to a private Christian school because they want them to learn their religion and beliefs - isn't it our responsibility to lead the way?? Ok - rant is about to start...I'll stop now, I really posted this to say that even though I'm seriously disappointed in CMS our poorly organized public systems.. two years in a row big E landed himself a terrific teacher!! We're glad for that!

random review

I have a pretty heafty list of feed subscriptions, and I take time to read them each time they're updated. I found a meme posted on one of them recently and I just had to do it myself after reading it.... it's more of a 'review' then a quiz. My SIL had a questionnaire posted on her site a few weeks back and just knew that no-one would re-post it. IF anyone re posts this please leave a comment.

10 years ago I was:
…a smoker – I’ll admit it because now I’m a quitter! I’ve been proud to be a quitter now for a little over 5 years.
…not married, and dating someone that I thought was the person for me – I’m glad I woke up
.…my mis-spent youth was coming to a head.

5 years ago I was:
…newly married, stepmom, and in the middle of a very terrible battle for custody of my stepson (we have him – no worries there)
…wondering if I would be a good mom
…. Living in a very small apartment with my husband
…finding out that I was a candidate for cervical cancer
…quitting smoking – see the above line for why… as if I needed a reason… someone should have passed me an idiot sign

1 year ago I was:
…becoming very comfortable working from home, taking care of my 2 kids, and being mom
…mourning the loss of my brother.
....becoming a better me after some serious life changes

Yesterday I was:
…relaxed
…productive

…organizing for the new schedule during the school year

5 snacks I enjoy the most:

1. Cheerios – Multi grain – dry, I like to eat like a 2 year old.
2. Turtle Chex Mix
3. Pistachio’s
4. Grapes
5. Granny Smith Apples

5 songs I know all the words to:

1. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice (thought I’d throw that out there… I’m not proud, but I know it)
2. Imagine – John Lennon
3. Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan
4. The Space Between Us - Dave Matthews Band
5. Janice Joplin – Me and Bobby McGee
   

5 ideal places for running away to:

1. The beach
2. The lake
3. A park in the mountains
4. … if no place away from home – my refuge is sometimes the bathroom – although it’s a rarity that I go it alone… I do have a toddler.
5. Worst case scenario…and possibly the most dangerous – my mind.

5 items you will never see me wear:

1. spandex
2. Stilettos
3. Fake lashes
4. Fake nails – I was blessed with good nails J thanks mom!
5. A string bikini – oh how I’ve resigned that those days are over… I’m accepting of myself so that’s ok. It was good while it lasted!
   

5 biggest joys in life:

1. The birth of my son and the very first time he looked at me.
2. My husband and 2 boys
3. The sound of the ocean
4. The smell of rain
5. Chocolate and Carmel – together as they should be ;)

last days of summer break

Little J had an allergic reaction today, we're not sure what caused it - seems like it may have been the mulch, or something in it. We had benedryl, gave it - and it cleared up. This scared me because of my own personal history with anaphylaxis, and with my brothers death by anaphylaxis. We have intentions of allergy testing at his 3rd year check up. We keep a journal of each occurrence, and in 2 years this is #6 and one of the smaller ones. Today was hives, and swelling. Thank goodness the benedryl did the trick, and he was not at all bothered by any of it.

I've realized that the summer is coming to a close for weekly outings w/ the boys - so this week we tried to make the last week of summer - fun. It turns out that the planets didn't align and I had chaos... flat tires, toddlers with busted eyes, computer problems... anyway - Friday and Saturday were dedicated to park hopping... so that's what we did.

I have been playing w/ photoshop recently. Big J uses it all day long, every day - that and Illustrator, but I wanted to learn some basics, so I checked out a very informative book, found some terrific tutorials and am officially screwing up pictures by the dozen with my new found love for photoshop! The red leaf picture in the slideshow is my favorite so far... I removed the color, and added back in the red leaf. I found this amazing strand of red leaves hanging in a perfectly green tree at the park today; one of the leaves had fell to the ground and was so glossy and shiny that I had to take a picture. I wish I'd have taken a photo of the woman who thought I must be insane to take a photo of the ground.... HA.

Thursday's Stuff

Big E had orientation today; his teacher is super nice! He's excited about going to the 5th grade this year and several of his teachers from last year popped by the class while we were their and they said hi. Little J is going to be sooooo sad when school starts.

to the gym!

Jesse's class has been a blast this summer... he really enjoys going and knows when we're on our way there that certain landmarks mean we're close. When we arrive he goes straight for the gymnastic equipment... future Olympian??? I'm kidding...

by invitation only....

Welcome to my pity party - it's come as you are, and we'll have whine and cheese :).

When it rains it pours right? I'm going to be self-centered a bit... It's been a crazy week so far at our house and it seems like it all happens at once... dad told me tonight on the phone that maybe I'm getting my 'run of bad luck' all at once so there's sure to be sunny days ahead.

Monday night little J fell, brow bone first, into the corner of the open drawer on our wood coffee table. He was getting down and tripped and fell. I just knew that it was going to be a geyser of blood - but it wasn't. He's a pretty tough cookie, but this one was a biggie. We put ice on it, and because it was so close to the temple we called the Ped's office for safe measure. Ironically, she said we were the 6th call in 1.5 hours about a toddler falling and injuring the face/head... she admitted it was the craziest night of her nursing career. We were given advice, and we followed it, I'm glad I called. We don't generally call the triage line, but head bumps and as hard as he fell - it was worth keeping peace of mind. He's just fine - and his war wound looked alot better with even 15 minutes of ice on it!

(Above - it looks alot better here then in person.. kindof looks like a 3rd eye stickign out on his head the way it's swollen...)

Tuesday morning I had a LONG drama w/ one of big E's doctors about a medication - it's Jerry Springer worthy so I will not post that - it's just stressful even thinking about it - we will end up changing doctors soon... Anyway, Tuesday night Jonathon came home from work, we were getting dinner ready and had a tight schedule for TaiKwon Do for big E, after a day of scheduled events already with the boys. I went in the garage for something and heard a hissing sound - it was Jonathon's tire... going flat. This would be the 2nd flat tire on his car in 3 weeks! At this point I wondered - are we being punk'd?????

Tomorrow is a different day - and it's destined to be a better one already!! I realize that there are PLENTY of things that are worse, and that we totally are fortunate. But in those given instances - it sucked. Honestly, I'm not going to candy coat it - those moments sucked... but I step outside of my own world for a moment and realize that a flat tire isn't so bad because we can afford another.... a kid with a bruise on his head isn't so bad because he was just fine.... and the ignorant nurse that I talked to today was probably having a bad day and took it out on me... I guess we all have those days...?? right?