New Pics

Here's some new pics. They are both adorable and pretty. :) I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I think I'm beginning to get a knack for the landscape pictures. I had no idea they would be so beautiful!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Of Music and Lyrics

Guess what?! I finally (acidentally) found a website that does secular to christian comparisons!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! Isn't that awesome??? I don't know about all genres but Curt and I looked over the top 40 and the punk/metal/hardcore sections and they seem to be quite accurate, although the latter category was somewhat outdated. Most of them give you more than one choice of christian music to compare it to, so you're bound to find something that's still out there. I bet you're just itchin to know the website, huh? Here's a link:http://youthfire.com/media/compare/. Curt was having me search a song tonight. It took me 45 minutes to track it down, but I finally found it. Its a miracle, too, because the only thing he could tell me was that it was a female singer, and it was a secular song that they sometimes play on our christian station. Wow. Not much to go by there! He didn't even know any of the lyrics. He thought it sounded like she was singing "I pooped, I pooped my bed" but he said he knew that couldn't be right. So the next logical thing he thought was that the words were "I said, that's what I said", and I was like, "Well, that's too broad for me. I can't possibly search based on that. I need a subject of the song or I need to know the genre or who she sounds like, or at the very LEAST what she looks like!" LOL!! So, we narrowed it down to the fact that she sounds like Fergie. Good, we're getting somewhere. Then, he said she reminded him of the IPod Nano commercial. So, we googled that commercial and found out that the person who sang that commercial was a lady named "Feist". I guess she's from Canada. Well, I checked her out and he decided to pick (at random) one of her songs called My Moon My Man. And that was the one he was looking for! If you go to Rhapsody or whatever and listen to that song, its at the very end just after the instrumental part. And the correct lyrics are "My Moon The moom my man" repeated over and over. Whats truly hilarious about it is that the words "I pooped, I pooped my bed" fit! So now Curt wants someone to do a parody of the song but have it be about someone from a nursing home! Curt thinks Greg (aka Johnny Johnson) would do a great job at it! (In order to get this joke, you really HAVE to listen to the song...)

Is it April already?

Today, it was 63 as was yesterday! It has been sooo hard to concentrate on school!! We wanted to play outside, but considering last Sunday night we got 9 inches or so of snow and now its melted, it has been much too wet and muddy to play. :( We have had 2 good snowfalls since Nov and our family is ready for it to be spring. We decided that today. We wouldn't mind if it stayed in the range of 50's to mid-60's during the day and 40's for comfortable sleeping at night. Ahhh. I know. I will have to face the reality of more snow before it can truly be spring, but this was a nice reprieve from the usual January weather. Its been nice and intoxicating having the windows open the last few days. They are calling for a high of only 45 tomorrow with rain, which is a far cry from the sunny 60's, but still very warm for January.

School has been going well. We are getting into a routine, which seems to be more of this: we do what we want, when we want. :) Which is so nice and fun and different. We like it this way. Tomorrow, we are going to try to do math last at Felecia's request because its quite a challenge for her. I have my doubts that it will work that way, I'm thinking she is usually burned out by late afternoon and she won't want to stay focused, but hopefully I'm wrong. My idea was to always do math first and get it out of the way. However, doing it first also has sometimes set the tone for her to have a bad attitude throughout the day, so maybe doing the easier more fun stuff first will make a difference. Today, she got to sleep in till 9:30. The last few nights the kids have been chit-chatting and staying awake till 11-11:30! Tonight is crack-down time. (It's 10 to 9 right now and we'll see what happens -- I currently have 3 very wide-awake kids). In part, its my fault for being lax on them over Christmas break with their bedtimes. I like it for a while when they stay up because this means they will sleep in late, and I LOVE to sleep in. Now, I also like to start school by 9 so we can be done around 3 or 4, which means we all basically have to get up by 8 to have eaten and gotten really awake to start at 9. I wanted her to sleep till she woke up today, and that was 9:30. So she got 10 hours of sleep. This made a big difference in her attitude today. Plus, Curt had an extra day off this week so she was able to hang out with daddy and then do some art with him before starting core courses for the day. Consequently, we didn't start till 1:00 today but we finished by 5:30 so not a bad day overall.

I recently found out that we are able to do up to 12 supplemental hours each week and count towards required hours for school. That's neat! We are constantly in search of free internet educational games. Yesterday, we watched a recorded episode of "Survivorman". It was the one where he was on Baffin Island, The Arctic, Canada. I took notes based on what she and I thought was interesting/noteworthy. We learned a lot and that was a nice supplement to science and history. (In history, we have been learning the continents, oceans, directions, poles, etc.) Before we started the show, I explained to her about seasons and the position of the earth and our relativity to the sun during seasons, and also where Les (aka "survivorman") was and what season it was where he was at. (I had already seen that episode as Curt and I are avid watchers of the show.) It was really interesting to stop every now and then to take notes and answer her questions and then to come up with our own conclusion afterward. I had my doubts as to her interest and how long she would last, but she really enjoyed it as well.

I Got a Job!

Teaching, that is. Though I know it's a good thing,(to homeschool) it's been a frustrating day. We have immersed ourselves into homeschool! Officially, we started on Tuesday. We have been doing a lot of unit testingi n Math and English to see what Felecia knows and where is a good place for us to start. Today, we worked way too long on Math. I was trying to accomplish the goal of getting past the "assessment". (test). You have to get 80% or higher to be considered having mastered the Unit. We now know where we need to be for Math, we are still testing for English. Today, though, I wanted to do a lesson for each, plus do Science, Music, Art and Phonics. Yea. We had a 7 hour day today! AHHHH! We did just over 2 hours in Math. I should have just stopped after 1 hour (which is the state-recommended amount per day) and finished the next day. Its just so hard! I'm learning to realize the difference between a 28 year old accomplishing a goal (like, adults work until "x" is done, regardless of things like thirst, hunger, boredom, etc) and a 6 year old accomplishing a goal. I also learned that getting an assessment "done" doesn't mean squat if I can't walk away and Felecia know what to do. I don't think its test anxiety. I don't know what happened today. We'll just have to see. It wasn't even that she choked, she just really never grasped the concept that we had spent an hour and a half studying and I didn't realize that she wasn't grasping it!!! UGH! I have realized that this is my new "j-o-b". Except, the dividends by which I get paid take longer to show, and an even longer time for me to appreciate all my hard work. I now realize it doesn't matter if she per se progresses on to 2nd grade next year. That is generally what is drilled into the general population's heads regarding public school. Going to 2nd grade won't help if she can't master the 1st grade skills. I feel very behind for 2 reasons: 1) I'm not sure (obveously) exactly what she learned/how far she got in school. Plus, what they did teach her, does she really have a good grasp on? 2) Starting in the middle of the year with a whole new program is probably not the best idea, but given our situation, we really had no choice. So I feel compelled to rush to "catch up". Which I know is not overall a good thing for Felecia. But today, after we had a lunch break, we did Music, then some Art, then English and that was alot smoother and more fun. Right now, I cannot see how we would ever finish in time for June, but oh well. That's hard for me to state being the "type A" personality that I am. I have figured out how to better organize the school stuff but it is tough living in a small place. We are managing. Each day I feel more and more familiar with the school in general. And Felecia loves it! Believe it or not, she is starving for knowledge! And I love feeding it to her! She is like the plant from "Little Shop of Horrors" saying "FEED ME! FEED ME!" She was sad that we had to stop today. I love doing it too, but there has so far been about an hour of prep time per night (since I have to keep everything in boxes and read up/familiarize myself with each of the lessons) and I don't want to make homeschool all that I live and breathe. Surprisingly, housework isn't falling too much by the wayside, but we shall see what the weeks and months to come bring. I think my inlaws may have imposed themselves on us for Christmas, but oh well. C'est la vie, right? More to come as I have the time. I've decided to try to post like at least once a week about homeschool, because I want to be able to look back on it. Yea. We'll see how that goes. I'm by far not the world's most consistent blogger.

The boys are doing well. Somewhat put out about mommy not just being at their every beck and call as before, but they like to do school with us. I don't let them do English or Math, but they seem to like the other stuff.

Am I missing the bigger picture here?

Maybe I put too much stake in people and their opinions of me. Maybe. Maybe I need to learn to let go more easily. I can understand why people would "zing" me if I had done something wrong, but it really hurts when you think someone's your friend and then all of a sudden, they cut you to the quick. I know I have issues. I am trying to deal with them. Blogging them helps. I tend to turn on worship music while blogging and writing and listening to music is very therapeutic for me. I just want to be loved. Needed. Wanted. Not just by my immediate family, but by people outside my family. Is that so wrong? I do not feel acceptance from most people I know. I feel like everyone tolerates me. And barely at that. So, I am seeking to change. Or maybe, in my seeking, God will reveal to me that maybe its more others than me that need to change. Maybe I'm not such a lousy person after all. I know that God loves me unconditionally and accepts me for who I am. But sometimes that isn't enough. I know its suppose to be. And I know humans can let you down. But for some reason, it seems like I get let down by others more than others get let down by the people around them. Ahh well. The music that I've selected to share here has spoken to my heart and God has put salve in the wounds through it (the music) once again. I knew that there was a reason I picked the songs I did!

Do I really have OCD?

*****Note: this is meant to be kind of a joke, yet somewhat serious. Its meant to be a lighthearted post to give a good laugh.*****
Do I? I don't know. I think I may. Here's what I know that I do: It all started with getting an over-the-toilet-rack for my towels. I realized quickly that I needed the space in my cramped hall closet, so I took the rack that a friend gave me about 2 years ago. Well, I had to divise a better way of folding my washcloths, hand towels and bath towels because of it. Why? Because they would be on a "display" of sorts, and I personally didn't like walking into my bathroom seeing things in dissaray that I apparently never cared about in the hall closet. Now, if anyone walked into my apartment unannounced, you would take a look around and say "Oh my! There's no way you're OCD! Look at this messy place!" But see, I don't like it messy. Its called, having 3 kids ages 6, 4 and 2. Plus, living in a 600 square foot apartment and not having room for even the basics. I would love to have nothing on the floors or even my countertops. The emptier those two things are the better it looks to me and the more calm and sane I feel. See? That right there is an OCD tendancy, isn't it? Since I started folding my towels specificially, pretty soon, I started caring about how I folded the rest of the laundry, too. Next thing you know, I have "places" for the canned goods to go in the cupboard. Now I didn't go so far as to label the places. Although I can say I have a great interest in a labeling machine. I'm just afraid that I would really go off the deep end if I got one. I have never labeled anything except just before Elijah was born, and that was on the cupboard doors so that my mom who was coming to stay with us for a week would know where to put things. But if I didn't have OCD I probably wouldn't have labeled the doors because I wouldn't have cared where she put the clean dishes! AAAHHHHHH!!!!! I would love to imply a rule about the kids' bookshelf. hehehe. But I don't want my kids growing up having this disorder. I know I don't have the disorder as bad as some people. I don't "count" when I wash my hands. (Those of you with full blown OCD know what I am talking about!) And I do not constantly bleach all hard surfaces. Unless we are going through a sickness. Then I do my outer door handle, the door handle to enter our building, the railing, laundry room, etc. Which doesn't make any sense, really. Except that it doesn't spread the germs to my apartment neighbors. Nice for them, but I probably picked it up from them in the first place!!! Maybe its not OCD after all. Maybe I just have control issues where I want to be in control and decide how everything should be. Is that what OCD is? A control issue? Hmmm...

You've Got A Friend

Anyone know that James Taylor song? Well, I want to have someone that would be the friend to me like the one in the song. I know I'm 28 years old, but you're never too old to start a new friendship, right? Of course, my husband is my bff (that's best friend forever, for those of you who don't do the abrreviation thing), but that's different. I want more of an objective person that's not a family member. I have had friends come and go, but never one that has stuck with me through thick and thin. I have had friends that have hurt me and it has caused a tear where later, its unrepairable even if we "make up", its still never the same again. I have also been the one to hurt someone else and be the cause of the tear. I know moving out of state obveously means that relationships are harder to keep up. I get that. But why haven't I made any good friends since I moved here? I have been going to the same church for almost 3 years now, though I finally felt in August like I was at a point in my life where I could get involved in church. I currently help to lead children's worship. See, Curt works Sundays, plus most evenings and we have no one that I trust that will ever watch the kids. Much less on a consistent basis. The one person I can have babysit wants to charge me like $10.00 an hour!!! I have friends from my MOPS group, but no one I feel like I can just call when I'm having a bad day. My one friend that I could call moved 1/2 hour away and she used to live upstairs from me so it seems like she has moved on the other side of the world. Gas is expensive, her car recently broke down, and btw, I sprained my ankle badly the day after Thanksgiving, so I am on crutches and non-weight-bearing until next Tuesday and then I have to use crutches while walking for a week. Then go back to orthopaedic surgeon on 12/27. I don't think I ripped out my surgery (Crissman-Snook procedure, for those of you medically inclined/google fans who want to look that up) from 9 years ago, but that's what it was looking like the few days following the injury. So anyways, I can't drive, and I end up going out only about once a week. Yuck!! Anyways, I want a loving dear friend that I can go window shopping with, that will take me for ice cream, surprise me with little things and I can do that with them too. I want them to be a christian, a female, that is strong in their relationship with Christ and live close to me. Boy. How pathetic. It sounds just like a want ad for a dating service. I'm not trying to replace my hubby by any means. All I want is a good girlfriend who I can grow old with!