Spirited Musings

Again Far Too Long

2007-02-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

Seems like no matter how much I try I just cant get back to this blog that often, which is odd considering the amount of time I spend online. So much has happen so far this year I hardly know what to highlight. The most convoluted path is that I taught two Organic Gardening classes at my kids' charter school, which led to people asking me if I knew of anyone that sold organic seedlings, which led to me starting my own organic seedling business (still in the beginning stages but will provide some seedlings this year to local stores-- see www.sproutinguporganically.com ). I have also been asked to teach a couple people how to cook this summer, the actual execution of which remains to be seen. My kids have been through so many ups and downs this year I cant even remember them all. So far this year, their great-grandmother died, their "aunt" had heart surgery and has yet another one coming soon (praying that this one is the end-all-be-all of it), and their grandpa ended up with a quadruple bypass surgery. On the happy side we went Disneyland and California Adventure for a collective 3 days and had a blast! Now comes the beginning of the rush to the end of the year, involving CA state tests, including writing tests and scantron tests. Oh Joy! Each year I keep saying we are going to find a better way to work our school year and each year I seem to allow myself to be railroaded into something else. Maybe this next year I will be braver and forge on our own, more satisfying path. WE are hoping to end the year with a trip to Legoland involving some friends to celebrate a collection of my oldest son's (belated) birthday, his friend's birthday and the end of the school year. I hope I am back on soon. I will try.....

Note to Self.....

2006-08-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

Note to self.....remember not to touch one's face after sticking them in dust (most of you would say yah, duh, but I am betting most of you do not have your face erupt in red itchy sores after doing so...needless to say I have actaully FINALLY figured what is the problem....now the long healing process begins)!

Note to self.....usually a good idea to finish the class outline before the classes actually begin....that gives me about 1 week to finish and track down the supplies.....I am a master procrastinator.....

Note to self.....here comes the next school year.....take a deep breath and plunge on in.....

Note to self....continue this list later because I am suddenly hideously tired.........

Food Explorers Continue....

2006-08-01T00:30:00.000-07:00

Well after alot of trial and error and many deductions, I believe what I am facing (all puns intended) in a secondary fungal infection on my scalp and parts of my face....research on how to be rid of this annoyance is still in progress.....

On a more interesting note, I got an offer from a friend of my mom's that may be an answer to a prayer of directionto my life ( yes I know that homeschooling my kids and being and living in their presence is a direction, but I am/was wondering what was beyond that when they are all old enough to be out on their own - I wonder if this wondering is caused by the happy circumstances of all 3 of my cousins are now finally married and out on their own.....an entirely other blog post someday.....). She asked if I would teach her how to make one meal each time I come down to my mom's (which is like every 2-3 months), and in return she would pay me what she would pay a professional to give her lessons (still not really sure what that is, but I guess I will be finding out).....

The thought stunned me.....I LOVE to cook, ask anyone (esp kids, seems to be inherited)....and I have been seeking to move our dietary habits closer to real food, God's food, not the crap we humans deem so necessary in life (sorry, Lachen.....LOL), but I never really thought about teaching it to anyone beyond my own little nuclear family......my first response was, uh, ok, I expect I can handle that...... (yah, real enthusiatic there, dear LOL)

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, especially in light of the fact that I seemed to have been deemed worthy to teach a group of K-2nd and 3rd-5th graders how to do Organic Gardening at our charter school ( a truly unique school I feel, built up and run by and for homeschoolers - another blog for another time) in the fall.....

WOW! I thought not only do I get the chance to show them how to grow food organically, naturally, God's way, but now I get a chance to show them how to implement the benefit of that ( and yes I realize that it is two different sets of people)... it is a staggering thought that answers a question posed by both myself and my grandmother ( again, another post).....how do you help people that want to change their diet (for one reason or another) but arent sure how to help them implement that information?

Well at least, for my side (her's has developed at her work), I think God's 2x4 finally made its way to my head.....

Its A Small World After All.....

2006-06-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

BTW my face has gotten better and doesnt seem to be reacting to honey. We will see how it all plays out.

But really this blog is about how it is a small world we live in.....
There is a girl I have known since I was about 12. We were in ice skating together first and then where at the same jr high and high school together. We were a couple years apart in school so I ended up at college first. I discovered her at same school couple years later, and we ended up in same sorority together......
And no she is not stalking me.... she is very sweet lady.....always has been....
Anyway I graduated from college and life happened and we lost touch as things go.....
Lo and behold, we went the Sea Center in Santa Barbara and there she was working as management.....we hadnt seen her in about 10 yrs and unfortunately, since she was working and we had to get out before time expired on our parking permit for the wharf, we didnt get a chance to catch up more than when she worked and that we would have to come back another time during her work hours and try to carve out more time to chat. But it was really cool to see her again and I hope that we do manage to catch up with her again.....

The Beginnings of our Food Exploration

2006-06-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have to share that on my grandmother's advice for a chronic sinus infection, I have been not putting either raw honey, regular honey, or processed sugar in my coffee for about the last 5 days or so. And my sinuses had started draining after about the first 48 hours. But I had also noticed that my facial issues (a problem with the T-zone where I itch and itch-and try not to scratch- and it can turn red), which have been an on-going but improving battle, had improved nicely over those last several days, but I thought it was due to the weather warming up and figured it was just the dryness of winter that aggravated it.
That was until I decided to go ahead and put a little sugar in my coffee this morning. Surely a little couldnt hurt right? OH BOY was I wrong!! Within about 30 minutes of consuming this sugared coffee, my face has erupted in itchiness and scales again!
Needless to say I dumped out the coffee in my cup and started over with unsweetened coffee. I will wait a few days or more until my face calms down, and try just some raw honey in coffee (because that is what I currently have) and see what happens.

Summer Almost Here!!!!! Thank God....

2006-03-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well well....been a long time once again. I plead once again busy-ness as I try to be a good teacher/mom. But official time is almost up as we have STAR ( for those of us in CA) testing coming up in 5 weeks and about 1 week later we have to turn in any and all non-consumable books and materials to the charter school. I love our school and the opportunities it provides me and my kids, but what exactly are they thinking we are going to do if all of our supplies our turned into the school library. Make it up as we go I guess.....for us, we will actually get around to those science experiments and art projects we have been wanting to do all year. But in an effort to be P.C. and make sure we are ready for standardized test, alot of the "fun stuff" (this would be the kids' opinion) has been left by the wayside. I hope next year will be better as we will actually have a chance in hell of getting our supplies for the year before Thanksgiving...mind you we have to order by June in order to make that a reality! This year was the "power-school year" - 9 months of work (in areas a little more) in 5 months.....I promised my oldest that next year will be better...I tell you if it is not I will revolt before they do!!! Anyway, I hope to change focus slightly and start blogging the interesting changes we have made in our diet and how they have affected our health and general well-being, but for now I say sionora and good night as we have on-site classes tomorrow and I will be prying kids out of their beds far too early in the morning! LOL. 'Til later....

The Smiley Face Butterfly

2005-08-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Look at the head just below the antennae. Another photographer was taking photos of this butterfly and pointed this out....couldnt believe it.....no idea what the real name of the variety but we dubbed it the Smiley Face Butterfly. My kids love this picture and so do I - it just makes the butterfly look Soooooooooooo happy LOL!

One more creepy moment complements of tides?

2005-08-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah...though this will post after the first one.....so in a survey at my DH's work they found out that their sleep patterns for the last three (?) days have been pretty DARN identical....slept like crap Sunday night and Monday night, but then Wednesday morning they all overslept soundly (this would be pre-cursor to the high tide thing)...today (or rather Wednesday night) everything was just fine again.......too weird for words....

Bad Karma Day

2005-08-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

I actually hid from the world today along with my kids, which it turns out was a good thing apparently (really we were waiting ALL DAY for the pest control guy to come out and spray our yard). I know of three sets of bad karma today, though I am sure there may be more......

First was my mom, who has decided that bad things definetely come in 3s. First she was at a routine check-up and when asked if she had anymore run-ins with cancer (she had breast cancer quite a few years ago - zero level for those of you that know about it) and she said yes she had some skin cancer removed (again nothing too severe). She promptly realized it was a case of "open mouth, insert foot" because now it will report to any company that she might apply to for insurance (life, medical, etc). She could have kicked herself for it.
This was then followed by a trip to the bank to deposit a check at the ATM (a feat which normally works just fine).....the cotton-picking machine would not take a DEPOSIT! Hello since when have machines ever had a problem sucking in our money - it is usually the spitting back out of the money they object to......luckily this did end well, as she went to the bank instead and informed the teller of the ATM's odd behavior (yes they did believe her).
The third and final installment of this daily saga is that she called the last time and informed that her watch stopped (presumably the battery which she had replaced not too long ago I believe). At that point she decided to join us in our avoidance of the outside world and went home for an early dinner and bed.

I thought is was just her day, until my brother-in-law came home and said he had the worst day yet at his job.....computer tech......if I got this right, he formatted the tech supervisor's main computer accidentally (I shall have to ask about the accuracy of this statement as I am not at all sure I got the right person) --- lets just say, it DID NOT sound good......

Then to read my BF's blog to find out her day went to CRAP as well......
I am glad I stayed home today.....

Anyone else realize we are having an astronomically high tide - and I mean that literally not figuratively.....a high tide combined with a full moon (do you suppose it is closest in its orbit too?)...something like 2 or 3 feet higher than normal...doesnt sound like much unless you are on a relatively flat beach...then I would imagine it makes a big difference.....

Could they be related? Too creepy to think about.....

I hope for a better posting tomorrow....for me and for the rest of you who had a crappy day....

Pleistocene Park

2005-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ok check out this article on MSN... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8983461/
Finally someone taking a proactive step to ensure that the food chains dont totally fall apart...yes we could keep developing more and more poisons to "rid" ourselves of the rats and the weeds but havent we proven that we are just finding new ways to poison ourselves by doing that? I applaud them for radical forward-thinking, and pray ferverently that people will hang around to listen to the hour-long version (see article)!

Wow has it been that long?

2005-08-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Oops! I was just informed by my BF that I am totally slacking on my blogging...so I logged on to see if she was right.....and yes it has been way too long since I was on... I plead sheer busy-ness as we are playing catch up with my son's skills for entrance into 3rd grade....I shall try to do better............

We're Baaaaack.........

2005-06-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, gma is now retired and moved out of her room to her garage (you can only fit one car in there now!)....and of course since we went to her school we are all sick again. It always happens when we actually go to her school especially since we are not exposed to all the germs at her school and invariably catch something.... ah well for the last time we hope since we will no longer have to go to "her school" and help set up or close out a classroom. I realized sometime in the time I was down there that not only is she retiring but so am I! I have been helping set up and close out classrooms as long as I can remember being able to do so.....after discussing this with my mom, we figured that that was about the age of 6 or 7. SO......I have been doing that for 25 years.... do you supposed I could start a business out of that????? Just kidding.....I have officially retired from classroom setups, unless it involves my kids' space for schooling....Sniffle, sniffle.....still haven't quite beaten this cold so I am off......will try to post more later....

Nameless Kids

2005-06-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, this has got to be the most asinine thing I have heard of yet.....My mom has informed me that as of next year, the other teachers are no longer allowed to spend time teaching kids how to spell their names (and yes she is still glad she is retiring)......Granted this is first grade we are talking about, but still, COME ON!!!!!!! She can only guess (and hope) that some how it is worked into the curriculum as it is one of those things that can only be effectively learned by repetition.

Reason three-hundred seventy-three I will never stop homeschooling my kids in CA......I reserve judgment on the other 49 states.....

Little Blue Marble, where are you....?

2005-06-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Poor little man, my youngest, DS2, tries so hard to be the experimenter, the daredevil, and more times than not he ends up either hurting himself or pissing someone off. Sighhh, genius is soooooooooo misunderstood.......His latest experiment? Let's see what happens when you drop a marble in your mouth from up above....wait for it.....(can YOU predict the end to this one?).....yep you are right, he swallowed it, with a loud gulp that caused me and big brother to turn around and find out where the noise was coming from, especially since he was standing next to the fish tank at the time. "Oh yuck, that was gross, I didnt want to do that..." were just some of the phrases out of his mouth as soon as he realized that spitting was not going to work anymore. His last wail? "That's why we dont put those things in our mooouuuuthhhhh!" Uhhhh.....yep....hit it right kid! In seriousness, he is just fine and, though he cried himself to sleep for a nap (and is currently still up making up stories with his Thomas the Tank Engine characters), he now waits not so patiently for it to come out the other end.

He has been assured by his mom (me) and dad, big brother, and big sister (and even the store checker at the local market) that we have all swallowed things about the same size at about the same age and lived to tell the tale......I wont bother to update you all if it all goes well.....

Homeschooling Continues......

2005-06-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well another homeschool year is over.....has been a odd year......depsite all the sickness and aborted schoolwork, DS1 seems to be reading FAR better than he was at the beginning of this year. SO much so that when we did the CTBS testing for 2nd grade he finished all the reading comprehension areas in the time allotted (some thing that he has to read all himself, I cannot even help him decode a word). Not only that but he barreled through the whole test in one day (this is 5-6 hours plus break time worth of testing, mind you)!! All of us were amazed, from his grandma school teacher, to me and DH, and his supervising teacher at the school.....
He has hit a short wall in math , but nothing that cannot be scaled over with some effort.
Grandma Schoolteacher will be retiring in 2 short weeks, and we are all thankful for it......she will design their cirriculums and I will make sure they do their homework and art and music and science experiments...this is just fine by me since I have no idea where to start when designing a cirriculum!
On a kinda-funny note, my 3 yr old was complaining today that he doesnt know how to read....it is apparently frustrating him to no end....after all big brother can and now big sister is starting too on her own with plans to work over summer with gma on it. HE wants in!!!! So I will spend the next several weeks drilling both preschooler kids on their alphabet letters, and playing flash card game with DS1......wish the stupid June Gloom (fog every morning, sometimes all day) would just pass on, happens every year and never fails to drive me bonkers.......though having the two youngest decide to become the "Terrible Twosome" of late is not helping!!!!
I am off to bed since I am getting grumpy and yawning!

Creepy Movie, Part 2

2005-06-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know in case anyone is interested...yes we did have rain after watching this movie again....not much but still......havent watched it since.........probably will some time soon though just to see......

Damn Internet Explorer

2005-06-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

I spent the better part of 2 hours tonight trying to delete or disable a MALWARE - otherwise know as malicious spyware - on my computer. I had to actually go into the registry (anyone who has tried this knows what a freaky prospect this is especially if you havent been trained to decode it), with the help of my DH, and delete several instances over a couple different sessions, in addition to running Ad-Aware (good program) that searches for, quarentines (sp?) and deletes anything that threatens your computer. The problem came when it could not delete it even after rebooting, since the "file" (hiding as a driver for either the printer or the scanner) was read-only. ARRRGHHHHH!!!!During one of those sessions, I got lucky. I found the registry file containing the boot sequence for this MALWARE. SO far so good, but we will have to see what happens after the computer is rebooted tomorrow morning since I will just plain shut it off in a bit.
Yah Yah I know this just sounds like on of those darn computer things, but the strange thing I think is that My DH had a similar issue at his work. He uninstalled and deleted any instance of Internet Explorer he could find and is using Mozilla's FireFox (or is it FoxFire? I forget....) now. Voila! NO more malicious spyware for some time now....go figure......does this seem suspicious to anyone else????

Ummm....creepy movie?

2005-04-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

Ok for those of you who have seen "The Day After Tomorrow", I have a little story. The first time we watched this movie, we woke up the next day to the tsunami in Sumatra. The next time I watched it alone, still we ended up with massive rains, and incurred mudslides and road damage (yeeha Southern California!). We haven't watched the movie since. Not out of fear but by sheer coincidence. Noting this tonight before watching the movie again, we are waiting to see what happens next.....I'll let you know how it turns out.....

DVD stands for what?

2005-04-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

My family rents from Blockbuster on a fairly regular basis, well semi-regular, like maybe once every couple months. We have rarely ever had problems with the rentals being in bad condition, you know scratches or finger prints (totally cleanable). We rented four movies tonight - two for kids and two for us adults in the house. Kids made it thru first movie (a short Scooby Doo cartoon) and were trying to watch second,when one of them came into garage where I was talking to DH and informed me that the "stupid DVD doesnt work"! Huh?
Went in and turns out the DVD is skipping and jumping (we have one of those players with the errrr... progressive scan, looks for the nest good part). IT WAS VERY BADLY SCRATCHED, and I watched my oldest DS put them in carefully. So I take it out and jump in car to Blockbuster, who was most apologetic, and get it swapped for a new non-scratched one. All is well until DH comes in from trying to watch one in garage (yes a DVD/TV/Audio set up in the garage! go figure.....) and says his movie is doing it too. Upon examination, it turns out that there are not only fingerprints, but what looks like cola fizz drops and also, you guessed it, scratches. SO checked the last one, yep, scratched too - one big honking line right thru the middle of the DVD where the actual info is.
By this time it is 10:30pm, but the store is open til midnight. So I head back for a 3rd time, having already called to warn them I am coming, and DH heads for bed (after trying to convince me to stay home and do it tomorrow - nope better to hit same crew).
When I get to store and show guy on duty, he just shakes his head in disbelief - what are the odds we got 3 out of 4 damaged DVDs? So we try a mini-experiment and grab 3 more of each movie.
Guess what? 3 out of 4 copies of the movies are so badly scratched that he sits them aside so they wont go back into circulation.
What do people do with these Dvds when they rent them?! The answer from Blockbuster worker dude? "Oh you know, use them for cup coasters, they fling them down wherever, sand or not." And apparently leave them next to a newly opened, fizzing soda can. Sheesh... One even apparently looked like it had water damage.
SO if anyone out there has any ideas what DVD stands for please let me know......because apparently it is not Digital Video Disc!

Birthing A New World

2005-04-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

I am quite frequently astounded at what comes out of my 7 yr old DS's mouth, both the good and the bad. Along with the requisite "poopy-head" and "pee-pee-face" (much to mommy's chagrin and requiring a stern look) usually directed at his siblings, he utters things out of the blue that generally cause me to stop and do a double-take. I am sure they are not out of the blue for him; they have probably been swirling around in his brain for some time before they reach my ears.
His latest? Watching a show on Science Channel about the rise and fall of dinosaur eras, "When an old world dies off, the earth gives birth to a new world." My response? " Uhhhh, yeah..." No question about it, just a sure uttering from his point of view.
Does anyone know if this is normal? I wonder if my other two will exhibit the same philosophical tendencies. I guess I will have to wait and see....

Popping out of the Snow Like Daisies?

2005-04-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

My kids are addicted to "Mulan" and I am sure "Mulan II" if we had it. They watch it every day, sometimes more than once, and then again around bedtime. Then they go around uttering phrases such as "they popped out of the snow, like daisies" and "let's go kick some Hunny-bun" (if you have never seen this movie, you really must - the character of Mushu is a hoot!). Even my 7 yr old DS stops to watch inbetween other things he does (esp the battle parts I admit with a cringe - but then again hey its Disney not Braveheart). On the flip side to all this, I think even I have the movie memorized, including the songs (all versions), which entertains the kids when they are now sick listening to mommy try to sing along.

Home schooling?

2005-03-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Home schooling as been an interesting and on-going journey so far. We started initially because my then 4-year-old DS desperately wanted to start school, and yet no one would let him due to the fact his birthday is a few days after the cut-off date for entering kindergarten. A few days? I can see a few months, but like a few days woiuld make all that much difference.
Then after assessment we and the umbrella school we went with decided to start him in first grade lest he be bored by kindergarten (and they were right). So we jumped in - text books open and running. I tried frantically to make sure he was kept up to speed so he would not get behind other kids in his grade (see anything wrong with that statement yet?).

Now 3 years later my vision of what home schooling is has changed quite a bit.
I have spent these years digging around on all manners of home schooling and education websites, and picking the brains of my relatives (I am ironically surrounded by school teachers), neurotically trying to make sure I am not doing wrong by my kids. I have discovered that there are a plethora of very wise people out there that have made me realize that school does not have to be a cookie cutter affair for your kids to grow up educated, compassionate people.

Unfortunately my oldest son is still (though only 7) thinking books are a stupid way to learn (and I quote). I am hopeful that I will convince him otherwise as he gets older. I suspect his attitude has something to do with the fact we pushed to hard to get him to read. Mentally he was ready, but emotionally he was not yet there. He would much rather learn by doing, and I cant say I blame him. I do insist on some read-aloud time 5 days a week, telling him it is like soccer - if you dont keep practicing the skill gets lost. This has seemed to sink in and now it is not so much of a struggle to get him to read. I keep my faith in his abilities by reading articles by others whose sons had no interest in reading until somewhere around the age of 9, including some relatives of mine, who then proceeded to scarf up everything they could get their hands on.

Now how do I get him to start writing? He does so only under duress. I have been thru the threatening, the cajoling, the compromising, the whole works. I am at a loss now, but am sure that some inspiration will hit me over the head and I will wonder why I didnt think of it earlier. Maybe it is simply a matter of letting the spelling rules sink in, as I suspect he has as many issues with phonics as I did as a kid.

On the flip side to all of this, he grasps math and science concepts with rapidity, so much that I wonder if I will be able to keep up in a few more years. And social studies/history? HAH! We are going thru the 2nd grade books this year and we go thru an entire unit at a time, mostly because we have either already discussed it or can relate it back to something we have discussed. He has had a fascination with Ancient Egypt for the last year and now has included Ancient Rome and Greece and China in that list. What are we supposed to study next year? I dont think those are on the list.....do I care? Probably not.

With the normalcy of a child, he is not interested in local events but anything far far away (in either time or space) that involves a mystery or adventure. Ever tried to teach government workings and CA history to a kid who could care less about the state he lives in, let alone how its gov't works (or doesnt). Maybe if we get a chance to look at Rome with their ideals of gov't, we can compare to current ones. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

I am more and more sure next year we will go "independent", partially because I am getting disgusted with standard cirriculum (though it is nice to have as a back up list) and because the umbrella school has changed their prices and pricing structure. Since my two youngest are now entering the "schooling" phase I would need to pay somewhere around 4200.00 to enroll them all (that includes teacher supervision and cirriculum supplies). As my mom is retiring this year and is willing to be our supervisor (she is a elementary school teacher - handy eh?), we will be better off getting free books from school district as basic framework and otherwise go off on our own little tangents.

Ah well, I better get back to my wonderful, genius, high maintainence, sweet kids....and try to keep up with them.....

"Every good day ends with a miracle" - DS age 7

First Blog

2005-03-23T00:34:00.000-08:00

I have heard of blogging from lots of people but never really tried it myself until now - yes dear friend, you finally made me cave in!
Rain rain and more rain - I used to think I would want to move to the Northwest because they have "more weather". But I think we switched winter weather patterns with them this year, and I can tell you I have definetely changed my mind... I dont think I could stand the grayness of clouds day after day. Not all of the NW is like this I realize but the area I was thinking of moving to was....The last week we had very spring like weather and I felt like I was emerging from a gray dull unthinking cocoon. Suddenly my life had more life and energy and purpose. After a couple days of reflection, I decided that I had been suffering some form of SAD. SAD in So Cal? Doesnt make sense to me either..... but there you go....even my oldest child asks me how many days until spring, as if it is a magical day on the calendar that suddenly changes the weather for us. Thus begins an explanation of calendar year vs natural year.....ever tried explaining this to a 7 yr old??? Luckily for me he gets it.
We are supposedly to have sun tomorrow - I certainly hope so, though I finish that thought by remebering that at least I am not living in the SE right now who are contending with tornadoes and hail. I count my blessings even with a leaky closet..... I wish them luck and safety tonight as I go to bed.
Wonder if my kids would be interested in blogging????