Monthly Archives: December 2010

Homeschool

A wooden duck, a weepy Mommy and some pachyderm communication

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Our “Five in a Row” book this week was “Daniel’s Duck” by Clyde Robert Bulla. It’s a nice little story about a little boy who lives in the mountains and wants to learn woodcarving. It ends sort of abruptly, and Poppy wasn’t thrilled about that. She wanted to know what happened next, so we spent a little time on Monday imagining what might have happened after the book’s end.home/school In other “FIAR” news, we talked about how artists do what they do and about why the days are shorter in winter.

Poppy finished her handwriting book before Thanksgiving, so we’ve started doing copywork. I made several sheets for her to work on at the Zaner-Bloser web site. This week, I used lines from “Autumn Fires,” a list of our family members’ names, a quote from “Toy Story” and a line from one of her favorite songs. So far, she’s been excited in the mornings to see what the copywork sheet will be. She also memorized “Eletelphony” by Laura E. Richards this week (it’s a silly little poem), and we started reading “Betsy-Tacy” by Maud Hart Lovelace. I’d never read it before — in fact, I hadn’t ever heard of it until I was looking for chapter books for Poppy and I to read together. We read Chapter 8 on Friday, and I don’t want to hand out any spoilers here, but: I cried. On the bright side, I’ve now steeled myself against any more surprises in Lovelace’s cruel world.

What to know what other homeschoolers are doing? Here’s the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I’m linking up there, and lots of other homeschoolers have, too.

Bandwagons

Ol’ dunderhead and the truthiness kickoff

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This funny comic is from ToothpasteForDinner.com.
This funny comic is from ToothpasteForDinner.com.

I tried to use my Google fu to find out when and where this “30 days of truth” thing originated, but the eye-twitching, nauseous-making headache that’s taken up residence in my skull has stolen away all of my skills. Anyway, whomever came up with it was not messing around. Today we’re getting straight into Unpleasant Stuff territory with the very first prompt. Which is:
30days

Something you hate about yourself.

But I’m not going to answer it. Not quite as it’s written, anyway. I struggle with self-image, and I’ve been trying to be nicer to myself. One of the tactics I’m using is to try to stop when I’m thinking unkind thoughts about myself and ask, “Would you say that about a friend?” I can’t think of a time when the answer has been, “Why yes, I would.” The point is: I believe that some words carry a lot of power, and “hate” is one of them. It’s a really negative word and an extremely negative emotion, and it isn’t a term that I’d use in describing someone I love. So let’s try to make this a little more positive and talk about something about myself that I’d like to improve, shall we?

I’d like to be a person with a steel will. I wish I could say “This is how things are going to be” and then make it so. Instead, I decide to lose weight and do really well with it for a week or so. And then there’s cake and cheese and cheesecake and such, and all that resolve goes out the window. I decide we’re going to ban eating in the living room, and for a few days the couch is free of crumbs. And then I get a headache and the kids are extra whiney and there they are, leaving a trail of crackers from here to eternity again. I decide enough’s enough, we’re going to cancel the TV and the internet and eat on $55 a week until all of our debts paid off. And then sports and new shows and email and mmm food, and there goes that plan, too.

I’m not sure whether this all boils down to laziness or being too easily overwhelmed or a short attention span or what, but it’s not my favorite character trait. I could give you a rather long list of other things I don’t like, but remember what I said up there about trying to be nicer to myself? That probably means I shouldn’t dwell on that sort of thing.

Family matters

An extremely brief P90X update

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P90X vs. cheeseburgersSummary: Week 3 went really well. Seemed to hit on all cylinders. Started to see results. Dropped two pounds.

Week 4: Recovery week. Supposed to do nothing but cardio and yoga. I got sick and didn’t do anything. But I also didn’t eat, so I lost another pound.

Week 5: This week. Phase 2. Amazing change of pace and tough workouts. I am still not fully recovered from my sickness, so I’m taking it easy.

Side Note: Took 30 day pictures. Gut is a little smaller. Moobs (Man Boobs) are a little smaller. Spare tire (back fat) is less monster truck and more motorcycle. Nothing drastic, but noticeable.