Circling Through This Life

Today like many other weeks Supergirl looked up at me and said "It's Tuesday Mama!  You're supposed to call your mom."  And like many weeks since October she goes on to say "but you can't cause she's gone." Sometimes I can't tell if she brings it up because she misses my mom?  Maybe she brings it up because it was part of the routine we had.  She very rarely got to talk to Nana on the phone but she was always very excited when I told her that yes I would tell Nana about this or that or the other thing that Supergirl was convinced that Nana needed to know in order for all to be right in the world. It's been a couple of weeks since she commented on it being a Tuesday and that I call my mom on Tuesdays.  I don't know if is because something made her think of her Nana today. Sometimes she'll see me crying and she'll say "you miss your mom don't you."  Yes, peanut I do.  A lot. She continued her conversation with ...

Well actually she became a freshman Coug!  This post is almost 2 months overdue so you'll just have to pretend that it is still mid-August and she just left . . . instead of the reality that is is early October and her mid-terms will be happening soon! This is more of a photo essay: Tailorbear needed to be distracted the weekend we were leaving and she didn't want to be home with her two sisters.  I love this picture of  two sisters saying good-bye! All loaded up and ready to go! I know it doesn't look like much.  She packed the bare minimum that she thought she needed.  Turns out she was too minimalistic though.  We had to send a HUGE box of forgotten items later. (And no she didn't need the toilet paper so we ended up bringing that back home with us!) Here she is keeping comfortable on the long long drive! On Move-In Day the University has volunteers with carts to help unload your vehicle. We were grateful for the cart and the elevato...

 A friend posted on facebook some questions to ask your spouse (or girlfriend/boyfriend).  I decided that since today was my birthday, I wanted Honeybear to indulge me and answer these questions. The rules are WITHOUT any prompting, ask your husband/ wife/ girlfriend/ boyfriend these questions and write down EXACTLY what they say. It's great and funny. The outcome can be hilarious... What is something I always say to you? Stop doing that I wish I could protest and say something like I never say that. What makes me happy? Diet Dr. Pepper Hmm I was hoping for something more profound but I guess he's right. What makes me sad? No Sanctuary He means when I complain about not having a place in the house I can go that is clean and peaceful. How old am I? 47? No but since that is younger, I'll take it! How tall am I? 5'4" What's my favorite thing to do? Swear at the computer Um no. (Do I really do it so much that it appears to be m...

It seems such a short time ago I was freaking out because she taught herself to read and was asking me all kinds of embarrassing questions about the headlines on magazines in the check out lane.  Boy I was grateful for the family friendly check out lane but I do wish it didn't have to replace magazines with candy.   Unlike her older sister, Turtlegirl, didn't want a big huge celebration. She's a quiet introvert.  Our church has a tradition of honoring graduates.  It was the perfect way to acknowledge Turtlegirl's achievement without forcing her to be in the spotlight alone. After liturgy, Father called the graduates forward.  He prayed for them, spoke a short mini-sermon and gave them each prayer book.  It was beautiful.  I have no idea what happened the day church honored graduates with BooBear as that is the infamous heart attack day. The parish house was decorated and there was cake! It was very sweet to see four graduates! No they were n...

I'm a morning person.  Not an early morning, up before dawn, type of morning person but a woman who likes to get up and get going. Mentally I function better in the morning. I have more motivation and I accomplish more between 7am and NOON than any other 5 hour period of the day. But every now and again, I enjoy a lazy morning. Rather than fight with my family to get them to function on my circadian rhythm I just lay around in bed. But, wait, I don't lay around in bed tossing and turning.  I have my Kindle.  Just like with my Late Night Reading , I sometimes have Lazy Morning Play on Kindle. Since the Kindle Fire I have is like a tablet, I can do things like check the Schoolhouse Review Crew forum, or my personal and blog emails.  I can scroll through my facebook feed. I've been known to play Minion Rush and The Secret Society (a hidden object mystery game). Sometimes though, on some lazy mornings, I spend time chatting with my husband.  We lay there...

I often start composing my random five posts earlier in the week and aim to post them on Friday because the original link up was Random Five on Friday but often I just don’t get them posted until Saturday.  I confess that today I am composing and posting on a Saturday and I’m short one so it’s Random Four on Saturday in place of Random Five on Friday! 1.  Last week was very exciting. I really wanted to go to Doxacon Seattle but . . . well life is life.  I entered a contest to win a ticket and though I didn’t win, I did get to go.  An unknown to me person donated a ticket for me.  Tickets at the door for *just* Friday night were only $10 so Honeybear and I went together Friday night.  A friend of mine was going on Saturday and I was able to car pool with her.  (Thank you Mimi!!). 2. After the general session on Friday evening, we went out on a patio or deck and had snacks, fellowship, and a mini acoustic session of Geek Music from Pangalaticats . My f...

This is the last Friday in August.  I am very sad to see August end.  I’m sorry to see summer end.  I love summer. Spring is my favorite season but oh I do so love summer here in the Pacific Northwest. 1. Turtlegirl, Tailorbear and Boobear went camping two weeks ago.  They were with our Church.  Like last year they camped at Mt Rainer National Park and went hiking. Unlike last year, they did not have a camera so this picture is from last year. 2. The grandparents arrived for a week long visit.  They drove out.  Yes DROVE.  2000 miles one way.  Usually they fly, but not this time.  They left a couple of days ago and we were already missing them as soon as the door had closed. While they were here we had fun playing games like Sequence, Farkle, TransEuropa, Clue and even the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary edition of Yahtzee. We fed ducks at the local park.  The husband, children, and grandparents made a day trip to Mount Rainer for a ...

Today my “baby” turns 19.  I will be clinging all year long to the fact that technically she is still a teen.  Sure, she graduated from high school a year ago and she’s old enough to vote.  Yes, she’s a legal adult but 19 is still a teen and I intend to hold on to that! Boobear said she can’t believe it’s a been a year since she graduated from high school.  I can’t believe it’s been nineteen years since I first held her in my arms.  I can’t believe I’ve raised a child to adulthood and we both survived! Since this past weekend was FREE DAY at the state parks, we celebrated with a trip to a state park we’ve not been to before and we brought a picnic supper to enjoy.  The weather was cloudy in the morning so we didn’t really start our day until the afternoon and it was nice to see the sunshine for a little bit. BooBear got to choose the park and she chose a park that had access to Puget Sound. Supergirl wanted to know if we were studying sea creatures for s...

I haven’t done any kind of think back (or throw back if you prefer) Thursday kind of post in months, perhaps over a year!  But I was trying to find something on one of the thumb drives and I found our Disney pictures from November of 2008. Supergirl has a life threatening heart condition.  (Life threatening does not mean terminal.  Many people think that wishes are granted only to children with terminal illnesses.  This is not true.) In April of 2008, Supergirl’s cardiologist recommended her for the Make-A-Wish program.  She wished to go to Disney World (yes that’s the one in Florida!) and meet Buzz Lightyear. It was a memorable trip and she still talks about it!  It’s also been wonderful for me to look back at these pictures and see how much this tiny little thing has grown. So here’s a a few of pictures from that memory making family vacation. Our Make-A-Wish trip to Orlando, Florida included 1 free day pass to SeaWorld in addition to our Park Hop...

I know a lot of home educating families.  Some are my e-maginary friends who live in my computer while others live and breath in the “real world”.  All of them have library cards. Or maybe I should say none of them has admitted to not owning a library card. We have library cards for all 6 of us and those cards are one of my Home School Essentials. Both my husband and I love to read. We also both love history.  Once we discovered a literature based approach to history we were set.  I fell in love with Sonlight and shared the catalog and a friend’s TM (they were Teacher’s Manuals back then.  They are Instructor’s Guides now) and he was hooked. We wanted to build an heirloom library for our children.  We determined that we would purchase full Basic programs (now called Cores) for as long as we could. So what does a book based curriculum that we decided to purchase have to do with a library card? And why would the library card be essential if you already ow...

I don’t remember exactly when I started reading Donna Andrews novels. I do know that it was after we moved here so sometime after spring of 2001.  I do remember that it was my husband who first found the books.  We didn’t start with the Meg Langslow Mysteries though.  We started with Ms. Andrews’ other series: Turing Hopper . With titles like You’ve Got Murder and Delete All Suspects we were hooked. While we waited for book 4 to published we started in on the Meg Langslow series.  These mystery novels are not my favorite just because I enjoyed them but rather because of how we discovered them and the memories created of my husband and I enjoying them together. When the girls were younger we spent many evenings doing family read alouds. These were mostly the read aloud selections for whatever level of Sonlight we were using at the time.  Once the children were in bed my husband and I would maybe watch something on DVD from Netflix (nowadays it is more stream...

One of the goals I have for my blog is to keep it real. So I’m going to be real here. There are days.  You know the ones I mean.  Days where you’re positive that a jury of your peers, your real peers, the stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom peers, would find homicide of your offspring justifiable. A favorite quote of mine is “The days are long but the years are short.”   I loved that phrase.  Those days when I had only little ones and they all needed me.  Four of them, one of me and no helpers.  The day seemed to drag on and on and on forever. How soon until Daddy gets home?  What??!! It’s only been minutes?  But the baby’s found the cat litter and the preschooler found the scissors and one twin got lost somewhere between the kitchen and the dining room while pushing her screaming twin in the baby seat.  I can laugh now.  I assure you I wasn’t laughing then.  I was thinking murderous thoughts as I collapsed on the kitchen floor a...

Last weekend we’d all been feeling under the weather  so I decided it was time to make some Virus Killing Soup . (I used a rotisserie chicken.) We love eating bread with this soup and Tailorbear has been experimenting with bread baking. It warmed my heart (as well as my kitchen) to look up and see Tailorbear and Supergirl working in the kitchen.  Tailorbear decided to let her developmentally younger sister help.  Both girls were wearing aprons.  I giggled when I saw granny’s apron wrapped around little Supergirl.  Grandma would have been pleased! I used to bake bread very regularly.  I used to grind my own wheat!  But that was a long time ago.  We’ve gotten away from whole wheat bread.  Making homemade white bread has got to be  step back in the right direction, though right?  Eventually, Tailorbear may try her hand a multi-grain bread or even an oatmeal bread!  For now though she is using an adapted “French Bread” recipe to ...