I have read some of the first grade curriculum now, and my first thought was, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
Today's lessons:
Language Arts, their plan: fill out a worksheet called "autobiography" that is a "fill in the blank with one word then draw a picture" worksheet.
Language Arts, what we did: discuss the roots and definition of the word "autobiography." We're reading "Little House on the Prairie," which Caleb identified as an autobiography. Outline an autobiography with one "chapter" for each year of Caleb's life and write the first chapter. Then move on to other topics--edit a short story into a play.
Math, their plan: do online worksheets identifying numbers 1-6.
Math, our plan: introduce the concept and look of long division.
Science, their plan: What lives in the ocean?
Science, what we did: Experiment--which holds better, low temp hot glue or high temp hot glue?
Social Studies, their plan: What are some rules and why do we have them?
Social Studies, our plan: Discuss personal responsibility and talk about not doing things that hurt us when we're angry.
Arts, their plan: draw with crayons
Arts, what we did: Watch puppetry videos (hooray Maxed Out Puppetry!); discuss how different puppets are constructed and where people get puppets. Design your own puppet. Write instructions for how you think you could effectively turn a stuffed animal into a puppet. Discuss what is required to create a puppetry troupe (puppeteers, etc) and name the troupe (Timed Out Puppetry, since Caleb's middle name is Timothy, and Tim is short for that, and when you add an 'ed' that turns into Timed). Plan to build our own puppets and put on a show.
And I was worried that my haphazard, unplanned homeschool was inadequate! None of my lessons were planned. I just siezed the moment and the kids' interests and made sure to talk about them. We covered all the required subjects, and in much more depth, with hands-on activities, and on a much more advanced level.
Now what am I going to do about the "word wall" assignment? They want me to post words on the wall for Caleb to practice sight-reading and spelling. The words assigned this week include "little" and "a." Caleb should be learning words like "homosapien" and "technocrat," and even those he probably would pronounce right (or nearly right) the first try. Maybe we can make the first grade word wall for Anda. She's only 4, but it's really just on her level....
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
There and Back Again
We joined Tim on one of his whirlwind tour segments, and it was exhausting. Mostly because for 3 days I didn't sleep more than four hours a night, all the hours of sleep were interrupted by nightmaring children and fussy dogs, and then we ran ran ran all day. Tim did a morning show, opened for a concert, helped his college group learn to evaluate shows, went to a wedding with me, and drove something like 25 hours in 4 days. I visited family, went to a wedding and reception, got my hair shaped (my sisters insisted), and tried to see every member of my family. The kids played with cousins and played nintendo.
Funny thing that happened: we left the kids with Aunt Beth while we went to the wedding, and when Dan woke up and found her there, he actually thought it was me. Beth and I look something alike--except we have different hair, different skin coloring, different noses, different eye color, and she's 4 inches shorter and 50 lbs lighter than I am. Still, Dan was legitimately confused when I showed up on the porch. He looked back and forth at us and said, 'Mommy! Another one! This one. This one. This one. Another one!" Finally Beth showed him the family picture and told him who she was, and he got it. But not until he clung to her instead of me (as if I were the babysitter) and asked repeatedly, "Where's Dad?"
We had a nice trip. The wedding was nice. It's always amusing to watch musicians and their musician crowds networking ("schmoozing" Tim calls it). The music, as usual, was far too loud for the space (Look at what living with a sound guy has done to me!). The reception was in the McCune Mansion in SLC, a restored Victorian mansion. I could have spent all year exploring that place. It even had a turn of the last century luxury bathroom--it looked like a spa. Benjamin was so impressed that he threw up all over the floor.
It was a very introspective trip for me. I learned that I did, indeed, lose my girlish figure, but what I gained (four children so far) was so so so much more valuable to me that I wouldn't go back, and will never mourn the loss of my figure. I realized that doing prominent things isn't the same as doing important things (a very nice article about Jane Clayson--she's LDS!--and why she quit her job to be a mom helped solidify this for me), and that I'd really rather be doing important things. I realized that when you are married to a musician, so many people are counting on them in a totally unique way that you really have to fight every step of the way to be a family--and it is worth it. I realized that the truly Christlike behaviors are not big--they are in completely tuning in to other people and doing the small things that make their lives easier and their memories more precious and happy. I learned that the General Authorities of the LDS church are not really Great Men in the world's sense, but they are most definitely great servants--humble people willing to do whatever the Lord wants--and that, given the choice, I'd willingly follow one of them over any of the Great Men the world has to offer. I'd much rather spend an hour with Elder Hales than an hour with the President. And I want to be like those great servants, even though it means I will never be a Great Woman according to the world.
It was a good trip.
Funny thing that happened: we left the kids with Aunt Beth while we went to the wedding, and when Dan woke up and found her there, he actually thought it was me. Beth and I look something alike--except we have different hair, different skin coloring, different noses, different eye color, and she's 4 inches shorter and 50 lbs lighter than I am. Still, Dan was legitimately confused when I showed up on the porch. He looked back and forth at us and said, 'Mommy! Another one! This one. This one. This one. Another one!" Finally Beth showed him the family picture and told him who she was, and he got it. But not until he clung to her instead of me (as if I were the babysitter) and asked repeatedly, "Where's Dad?"
We had a nice trip. The wedding was nice. It's always amusing to watch musicians and their musician crowds networking ("schmoozing" Tim calls it). The music, as usual, was far too loud for the space (Look at what living with a sound guy has done to me!). The reception was in the McCune Mansion in SLC, a restored Victorian mansion. I could have spent all year exploring that place. It even had a turn of the last century luxury bathroom--it looked like a spa. Benjamin was so impressed that he threw up all over the floor.
It was a very introspective trip for me. I learned that I did, indeed, lose my girlish figure, but what I gained (four children so far) was so so so much more valuable to me that I wouldn't go back, and will never mourn the loss of my figure. I realized that doing prominent things isn't the same as doing important things (a very nice article about Jane Clayson--she's LDS!--and why she quit her job to be a mom helped solidify this for me), and that I'd really rather be doing important things. I realized that when you are married to a musician, so many people are counting on them in a totally unique way that you really have to fight every step of the way to be a family--and it is worth it. I realized that the truly Christlike behaviors are not big--they are in completely tuning in to other people and doing the small things that make their lives easier and their memories more precious and happy. I learned that the General Authorities of the LDS church are not really Great Men in the world's sense, but they are most definitely great servants--humble people willing to do whatever the Lord wants--and that, given the choice, I'd willingly follow one of them over any of the Great Men the world has to offer. I'd much rather spend an hour with Elder Hales than an hour with the President. And I want to be like those great servants, even though it means I will never be a Great Woman according to the world.
It was a good trip.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Daniel's Collection
Tonight Caleb leapt onto the couch, and Daniel yelled from across the room, "NOOOOO!!!! Cawub! No!!!!" And started crying.
I reassured him that Caleb wasn't trying to hurt anything and it would all be okay. Then, when he was calm, I said, "What were you saving on the couch?"
"Boogers," Dan said.
I looked at him for a second and then said, "You were saving your boogers on the couch?"
"Yes," Dan said, nodding.
"Did you put them on the couch?" I asked.
"Yes. On tissue," Dan said.
Then he trotted over and retrieved a tissue Caleb had knocked off the arm of the couch and replaced it in exactly the same place it had been in before Caleb jumped.
How do I solve this one? I don't think I want a booger collection to live on the couch forever, but.....
I reassured him that Caleb wasn't trying to hurt anything and it would all be okay. Then, when he was calm, I said, "What were you saving on the couch?"
"Boogers," Dan said.
I looked at him for a second and then said, "You were saving your boogers on the couch?"
"Yes," Dan said, nodding.
"Did you put them on the couch?" I asked.
"Yes. On tissue," Dan said.
Then he trotted over and retrieved a tissue Caleb had knocked off the arm of the couch and replaced it in exactly the same place it had been in before Caleb jumped.
How do I solve this one? I don't think I want a booger collection to live on the couch forever, but.....
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
CyberSchools
As noted in a previous post, I am really excited about the possibilities inherent in cyberschooling your children. It seems like a nice blend of public school and home school, especially since in Colorado, we have school choice, so we can choose any of a number of cyberschools (many of which are charter schools).
So I've been doing a lot of research. There are actually many cyberschools in Colorado. We think we've finally chosen CDELA. Here's a rundown of my reasons for choosing/not choosing some schools:
COVA--Colorado's biggest online school. They are actually just the K-12 School, a well-known homeschool curriculum, administered by the State Online. The reason I didn't choose this one: The online information is condescending in the same way public schools are ("WE know more than YOU about what's good for your child; you have to do it our way because we are RIGHT.") and it isn't really a "cyberschool" (one that takes advantage of the possibilities of technology), just a paper school administered online.
Branson School Online--Seemed like a good possibility. They never gave me a "yea" or "Nay" about Caleb's application, and when I emailed them, they said "Busy time of year" and then "Call the office"--but the office closes at 4:00 pm and isn't open on Friday, so I haven't managed to reach them.
Rocky Mountain ESchool--Uses the CompassLearning Odyssey curriculum, but all their email links are broken. They are administered out of VILAS, CO, which is essentially a ghost town, so they may be defunct. Who knows. They went through "host Schools" anyway, so I'm not sure what that's all about.
Connections Academy--a national "franchise" cyberschool. I was really excited about this school because they have gifted and talented programs for kids once they reach the third grade curriculum, and they can get there as fast as they want. So we applied. But then we got the course listing, and it turns out they are just an online-administered Calvert School (another well-known homeschool books-and-paper curriculum). They are also heavily involved in supervising how you supervise your child's education. Both they and Calvert Curriculum are for "box-checkers" and also seem to not "get" what technology and education should do for each other. It's a fairly traditional "read the book answer the questions" approach to schooling, and you don't spend much time on the computer, and they micromanage a little too much for me. Plus, when I read their print materials, I got the impression that, while they have a gifted program, the school is really geared toward remediation rather than acceleration (which may explain their micromanaging of kids and parents--they cater to people who haven't been succeeding). So I kept this as an option because Caleb was accepted, but it's not my first choice.
CDELA--Colorado Distance and Electronic Learning Academy. This is also a branch of a national "franchise" kind of cyberschool, but it is only in Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania so far. It is also the CompassLearning Odyssey curriculum. But they had links to the curriculum on their website, and I liked it. It is actually an online curriculum, mostly animated, and fun. Caleb even re-did the "dry" lessons over and over, loved taking the tests, incorporated the jokes into his daily idiom, and (most importantly) remembered every fact and detail he heard on it. The school mandates "class attendance"--once or twice a week, each class meets with their teacher online, and participate in a lesson together through cameras, microphones, and the internet--the kids even have to raise their hands to answer questions, which is one of the three things Caleb cited as his reasons for wanting to attend a "big building" school. They do their informational sessions for the parents online, too. They do send book and paper kind of materials, but that isn't the whole curriculum. Also, they don't micromanage parents--you are required to take attendance hours, keep track of lessons, etc, and report in once a week (instead of once or twice a day). And the class size is small (6 first graders), so the teacher can pay attention to Caleb and talk to him on the phone when he struggles, etc. They seem to cater to the "advanced" students and responsible, college-educated parents. We'll see what happens next--if Caleb can get in, what curriculum actually gets assigned, etc.
I've decided that the trouble with educators is they are a self-feeding system: people who did well at school the way it is now are the ones who go into education, and because they did well, they see no reason to change things up. Consequently, even when they "embrace online education", they do just the same thing they've always done. Very few people (if any) have actually sat down and said, "What can technology really do for education" and made a school out of THAT.
We'll see what happens--I'll keep you posted.
So I've been doing a lot of research. There are actually many cyberschools in Colorado. We think we've finally chosen CDELA. Here's a rundown of my reasons for choosing/not choosing some schools:
COVA--Colorado's biggest online school. They are actually just the K-12 School, a well-known homeschool curriculum, administered by the State Online. The reason I didn't choose this one: The online information is condescending in the same way public schools are ("WE know more than YOU about what's good for your child; you have to do it our way because we are RIGHT.") and it isn't really a "cyberschool" (one that takes advantage of the possibilities of technology), just a paper school administered online.
Branson School Online--Seemed like a good possibility. They never gave me a "yea" or "Nay" about Caleb's application, and when I emailed them, they said "Busy time of year" and then "Call the office"--but the office closes at 4:00 pm and isn't open on Friday, so I haven't managed to reach them.
Rocky Mountain ESchool--Uses the CompassLearning Odyssey curriculum, but all their email links are broken. They are administered out of VILAS, CO, which is essentially a ghost town, so they may be defunct. Who knows. They went through "host Schools" anyway, so I'm not sure what that's all about.
Connections Academy--a national "franchise" cyberschool. I was really excited about this school because they have gifted and talented programs for kids once they reach the third grade curriculum, and they can get there as fast as they want. So we applied. But then we got the course listing, and it turns out they are just an online-administered Calvert School (another well-known homeschool books-and-paper curriculum). They are also heavily involved in supervising how you supervise your child's education. Both they and Calvert Curriculum are for "box-checkers" and also seem to not "get" what technology and education should do for each other. It's a fairly traditional "read the book answer the questions" approach to schooling, and you don't spend much time on the computer, and they micromanage a little too much for me. Plus, when I read their print materials, I got the impression that, while they have a gifted program, the school is really geared toward remediation rather than acceleration (which may explain their micromanaging of kids and parents--they cater to people who haven't been succeeding). So I kept this as an option because Caleb was accepted, but it's not my first choice.
CDELA--Colorado Distance and Electronic Learning Academy. This is also a branch of a national "franchise" kind of cyberschool, but it is only in Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania so far. It is also the CompassLearning Odyssey curriculum. But they had links to the curriculum on their website, and I liked it. It is actually an online curriculum, mostly animated, and fun. Caleb even re-did the "dry" lessons over and over, loved taking the tests, incorporated the jokes into his daily idiom, and (most importantly) remembered every fact and detail he heard on it. The school mandates "class attendance"--once or twice a week, each class meets with their teacher online, and participate in a lesson together through cameras, microphones, and the internet--the kids even have to raise their hands to answer questions, which is one of the three things Caleb cited as his reasons for wanting to attend a "big building" school. They do their informational sessions for the parents online, too. They do send book and paper kind of materials, but that isn't the whole curriculum. Also, they don't micromanage parents--you are required to take attendance hours, keep track of lessons, etc, and report in once a week (instead of once or twice a day). And the class size is small (6 first graders), so the teacher can pay attention to Caleb and talk to him on the phone when he struggles, etc. They seem to cater to the "advanced" students and responsible, college-educated parents. We'll see what happens next--if Caleb can get in, what curriculum actually gets assigned, etc.
I've decided that the trouble with educators is they are a self-feeding system: people who did well at school the way it is now are the ones who go into education, and because they did well, they see no reason to change things up. Consequently, even when they "embrace online education", they do just the same thing they've always done. Very few people (if any) have actually sat down and said, "What can technology really do for education" and made a school out of THAT.
We'll see what happens--I'll keep you posted.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Haircut
So I've had the same hairstyle for the last 26 years. Not an exaggeration. But knee-length hair is more than a pain, so I got 36" cut off. Also not an exaggeration. This is the new me, blow-dried and styled by the lady who cut my hair.Today, I just washed it and let it dry, and I had something of a shock. Apparently my hair was being pulled straight by the weight. It's actually QUITE wavy. Who knew? And it naturally flips out. This was not what I had planned for. So now I look a lot like the lady on this logo. (I had copied the image here, but I want Caleb to go to that school, and one of their policies is that you can't use the school logo on a private web location....)
There are some things you shorthairs know that I'm learning. For example, drying off with a towel is all different now. When I move my head, my hair moves. This is a strange sensation for me. When I want to look over my shoulder in the car, I don't have to lean forward first (to release my hair). My hair "swishes", as Dan says. How do you brush short hair? It dries really fast (why would anyone need a blow dryer, anyway--it dries by itself in a few minutes!). It's thicker than I thought, and blonder (who knew?).
The most bizarre things: someone gave me a new shadow; and Tim looks at me different now, like it takes a second for him to realize who I am (I've looked the same the whole 15 years we've known each other, so no wonder....).
I like the new do. It feels like I'm wearing my hair up all the time, but without the headache the clips gave me sometimes. It'll take a while to get used to, though.
I'm trying to finalize the deal for the $2000 the ponytail is supposed to bring in, and then, after I receive the payment, I'll ship my hair.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
quick non-yucky lasagne
Mary gave me Desperation Dinners, a cookbook of 20-minute dinners for families. I took their lasagne recipe, modified it to make it cheap and even easier, and it came out tasting just like the real thing, but without heating up the house and without the hour of baking time wait because you don't bake it. And my way you can feed a family of 4-6 for about $6 if you add a can of fruit and a fresh veggie on the side
So, here it is:
1 lb hamburger
10 lasagne noodles, broken into 1-2" 'squares' (if you buy the 8 oz box, you can just bang the box on the counter until they're shattered)
1-2 c grated cheese
1 can or jar spaghetti sauce
garden veggies (opt)
cottage cheese (opt)
whatever else you like in lasagne (opt)
Boil the noodles until tender (8-10 minutes at this altitude) (I know, you don't have to do this when you bake it.....). While the noodles boil, defrost the burger in the microwave and then brown it with whatever veggies you are using (onion flakes? green pepper? zucchini? carrots?) in a large skillet with a lid. Drain the grease out. Stir in the spaghetti sauce. When the noodles are done, drain them. Take most of the meat sauce out of the skillet, leaving just a little so the noodles don't burn. Layer everything in the skillet: noodles, cheeses, meat, noodles, cheeses, meat. Top with one last layer of shredded cheese. Put the lid on, put it on low heat, and let the cheese melt.
Done.
And good.
So, here it is:
1 lb hamburger
10 lasagne noodles, broken into 1-2" 'squares' (if you buy the 8 oz box, you can just bang the box on the counter until they're shattered)
1-2 c grated cheese
1 can or jar spaghetti sauce
garden veggies (opt)
cottage cheese (opt)
whatever else you like in lasagne (opt)
Boil the noodles until tender (8-10 minutes at this altitude) (I know, you don't have to do this when you bake it.....). While the noodles boil, defrost the burger in the microwave and then brown it with whatever veggies you are using (onion flakes? green pepper? zucchini? carrots?) in a large skillet with a lid. Drain the grease out. Stir in the spaghetti sauce. When the noodles are done, drain them. Take most of the meat sauce out of the skillet, leaving just a little so the noodles don't burn. Layer everything in the skillet: noodles, cheeses, meat, noodles, cheeses, meat. Top with one last layer of shredded cheese. Put the lid on, put it on low heat, and let the cheese melt.
Done.
And good.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Oh, this week!
Usually, I lead a fairly charmed life. Now, you're looking at past posts and saying, but you had that computer virus fiasco, and the medicaid stuff, ADD, insomnia, childbirth, husband unemployed, etc. I know. I still feel like I have a charmed life (think how much worse it could be!). I used to say that life isn't fair--and I got the long end of the stick.
That said, I think this week was designed to even things out.
Sunday, despite our best efforts, we were ten minutes late to church. By the time we got there, every person in the family had either cried or shouted or both, so nobody was happy. And ten minutes was apparently too much too late, so we didn't get to bless our baby, even though it was on the schedule. They said, "Get here sooner next time." Um, we can't. We really did do our very very best (after only 4 hours of sleep). I cried for hours, but eventually felt better after praying a lot.
Then, after all the work I did rewiring the swamp cooler, Sunday Night it developed a short and I couldn't find the broken spot. So Monday I went up on the roof (while the kids were sleeping and Tim was gone to Utah) to fix it, and the ladder slipped. I managed to jump to the roof and grab the ladder, but then it took me 20 minutes on a 180 degreee roof to find a stable spot to put the ladder down--it only worked after I prayed that I could get down.
My fix only worked for about 20 minutes, and then the whole thing shorted again, so I unwired it from the wall. It was only keeping the house 81 degrees cool anyway....
So I turned on the window-mount air conditioner I had already dragged up from the garage and installed in Ben's window. Then I went down to figure out if the central air was fixable. I read the instructions and cleaned it, reset it, and turned it on. Nothing. So, at Dad's suggestion, I followed the wires into the house and discovered....they'd been cut. I finally figured out where they belonged, but I needed the thermostat installation instructions to fix it--and I'd told Tim to throw them away Sunday night, and my computer wouldn't open the pdfs to read the online ones (way to go adobe update!).
So on Tuesday Tim was home and I spent all day in the heat cleaning the house and folding laundry because one of the moosebutter guys and his girlfriend were going to spend the night here before they all left for the next tour block. Good news, though: I found a product that we could paint onto our flat black roof that would reflect up to 90% of the heat that the roof is currently absorbing and putting into the house, plus it would seal the leaks we've developed after the blizzard last winter, and it has a 7-year guarantee (and lasts up to indefinitely). And we could do the whole roof and garage for $150. For a whole new, energy-star rated, efficient roof. Not bad. The bad news: no way to get it here, and nobody to watch the kids while I put it on because....
Wednesday morning early Tim left again, not to return until Sunday night.
So we're sitting in the heat, with no car, and me alone with four kids, and so what happens? I get sick, naturally. As sick as I've been since I had that horrid sinus infection when I was 7 weeks pregnant with Daniel. I caught the intestinal flu that Anda had, except (mercifully) I haven't been throwing up--yet. But literally every time I stand up I have to run to the bathroom, and nothing is really staying in my system long enough to give me an nutrition. Plus everything aches. It's bad enough that Caleb noticed and got worried about me.
Of course, after 12 hours of this (it lasts a week) I became concerned about my milk supply. So I prayed that I would have enough milk.
It worked.
Now, to add to my discomfort everywhere else, I am thoroughly engorged with milk--as bad as when Ben was a newborn.
Fortunately, my earnest prayers that the house stay cool enough to live have been answered with massive rainstorms and nice cool breezes every afternoon this week.
Caleb got accepted to one of the online schools I applied for, but now he doesn't want to do ANY school, which I wouldn't mind except that I think he'll actually like the online school (has anyone heard of Calvert Math? Is it any good?). The one I really want him to go to hasn't gotten back to me yet--it was the more flexible, less-required-of-the-parent option. The one he's accepted to requires me to schedule our lives, and I'm not good at that. I can enforce 5 hours of school a day, and help with lessons, but I'm not good at saying the lessons have to be in the same order and start at the same time each day...).
So I'm counting the days until Sunday. I should feel better by then. Tim will be home. My milk supply will have settled back into a pattern. Monday morning, Tim said he'd go get the roofing stuff at Home Depot and paint it on, and with another adult in the house to watch the kids, I should be able to find the short in the swamp cooler and rewire the air conditioner back to the thermostat (if I can access that one pdf.....).
That said, I think this week was designed to even things out.
Sunday, despite our best efforts, we were ten minutes late to church. By the time we got there, every person in the family had either cried or shouted or both, so nobody was happy. And ten minutes was apparently too much too late, so we didn't get to bless our baby, even though it was on the schedule. They said, "Get here sooner next time." Um, we can't. We really did do our very very best (after only 4 hours of sleep). I cried for hours, but eventually felt better after praying a lot.
Then, after all the work I did rewiring the swamp cooler, Sunday Night it developed a short and I couldn't find the broken spot. So Monday I went up on the roof (while the kids were sleeping and Tim was gone to Utah) to fix it, and the ladder slipped. I managed to jump to the roof and grab the ladder, but then it took me 20 minutes on a 180 degreee roof to find a stable spot to put the ladder down--it only worked after I prayed that I could get down.
My fix only worked for about 20 minutes, and then the whole thing shorted again, so I unwired it from the wall. It was only keeping the house 81 degrees cool anyway....
So I turned on the window-mount air conditioner I had already dragged up from the garage and installed in Ben's window. Then I went down to figure out if the central air was fixable. I read the instructions and cleaned it, reset it, and turned it on. Nothing. So, at Dad's suggestion, I followed the wires into the house and discovered....they'd been cut. I finally figured out where they belonged, but I needed the thermostat installation instructions to fix it--and I'd told Tim to throw them away Sunday night, and my computer wouldn't open the pdfs to read the online ones (way to go adobe update!).
So on Tuesday Tim was home and I spent all day in the heat cleaning the house and folding laundry because one of the moosebutter guys and his girlfriend were going to spend the night here before they all left for the next tour block. Good news, though: I found a product that we could paint onto our flat black roof that would reflect up to 90% of the heat that the roof is currently absorbing and putting into the house, plus it would seal the leaks we've developed after the blizzard last winter, and it has a 7-year guarantee (and lasts up to indefinitely). And we could do the whole roof and garage for $150. For a whole new, energy-star rated, efficient roof. Not bad. The bad news: no way to get it here, and nobody to watch the kids while I put it on because....
Wednesday morning early Tim left again, not to return until Sunday night.
So we're sitting in the heat, with no car, and me alone with four kids, and so what happens? I get sick, naturally. As sick as I've been since I had that horrid sinus infection when I was 7 weeks pregnant with Daniel. I caught the intestinal flu that Anda had, except (mercifully) I haven't been throwing up--yet. But literally every time I stand up I have to run to the bathroom, and nothing is really staying in my system long enough to give me an nutrition. Plus everything aches. It's bad enough that Caleb noticed and got worried about me.
Of course, after 12 hours of this (it lasts a week) I became concerned about my milk supply. So I prayed that I would have enough milk.
It worked.
Now, to add to my discomfort everywhere else, I am thoroughly engorged with milk--as bad as when Ben was a newborn.
Fortunately, my earnest prayers that the house stay cool enough to live have been answered with massive rainstorms and nice cool breezes every afternoon this week.
Caleb got accepted to one of the online schools I applied for, but now he doesn't want to do ANY school, which I wouldn't mind except that I think he'll actually like the online school (has anyone heard of Calvert Math? Is it any good?). The one I really want him to go to hasn't gotten back to me yet--it was the more flexible, less-required-of-the-parent option. The one he's accepted to requires me to schedule our lives, and I'm not good at that. I can enforce 5 hours of school a day, and help with lessons, but I'm not good at saying the lessons have to be in the same order and start at the same time each day...).
So I'm counting the days until Sunday. I should feel better by then. Tim will be home. My milk supply will have settled back into a pattern. Monday morning, Tim said he'd go get the roofing stuff at Home Depot and paint it on, and with another adult in the house to watch the kids, I should be able to find the short in the swamp cooler and rewire the air conditioner back to the thermostat (if I can access that one pdf.....).
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Potty Training?
Daniel has shown some interest in potty training, so we got out the big boy underwear today. Actually, he found them and brought them to me. So he was doing well, staying dry, and I was pleased. Then I asked him if he needed to go potty. "No," he said. I told him if he peed in the potty he would get a treat.
Apparently he didn't hear the "in the potty" part.
Proving that he has some measure of bladder control, he immediately peed right by Tim's foot and then ran into the kitchen and said, "Want a treat! Need treat now!"
Um, we'll have to work on this....
Apparently he didn't hear the "in the potty" part.
Proving that he has some measure of bladder control, he immediately peed right by Tim's foot and then ran into the kitchen and said, "Want a treat! Need treat now!"
Um, we'll have to work on this....
Monday, July 23, 2007
What We Saw in Boulder
We were driving through Boulder and I, like every mom, was pointing out things the kids might want to see as we drove. In a three block stretch, I said, "There's a kayak on that car...Oh, look, a stuffed animal on the roof...Hey, that lady has a drum on her back."
I guess they didn't see any of the things I was pointing out, because at this point Anda piped up, "Hey, I want to say silly things, too!"
I guess they didn't see any of the things I was pointing out, because at this point Anda piped up, "Hey, I want to say silly things, too!"
Anda
Misc note first of all: There is another virtual academy--Connections Academy. It's a national online school with branches (usu. charter schools) nationwide, but not in every state. Their target audience seems to be ahead/behind students who don't fit into the traditional classroom because of the way their brains work. It appeals to me because the promotional materials say you can go as fast (or slow within reason) as you want, even completing multiple grades in one year if you want--in one subject or all of them. Very cool.
Anyway, Anda:
Anda is sick today. Stomach/intestinal yuckies. She was walking around with a "throw up bowl" under her chin. "Are you throwing up?" I asked. "Apparently not," she said sourly.
You ask a stupid question......
Also, the kids reminded me of the first story Anda ever told us. I think she was two. The story went, "Once upon a time there was an ugly old frog who was dead. The end."
Anda loves to tell stories. They go on and on. When she tells a traditional folktale, she's never content to stop at happily ever after. Instead, she says, "The End. Now, verse two." Most of Anda's stories have verses, which are something between what you would call 'chapters' and 'variations on a theme.' Most verses include her favorite toy, Baby Kitty, and Caleb's toy, Guy the Green Bear.
She also loves to break out of traditional songs with improvised, scat-singing breaks, which she invariably wants us to sing along to and gets mad if we improvise different than she does.
Anyway, Anda:
Anda is sick today. Stomach/intestinal yuckies. She was walking around with a "throw up bowl" under her chin. "Are you throwing up?" I asked. "Apparently not," she said sourly.
You ask a stupid question......
Also, the kids reminded me of the first story Anda ever told us. I think she was two. The story went, "Once upon a time there was an ugly old frog who was dead. The end."
Anda loves to tell stories. They go on and on. When she tells a traditional folktale, she's never content to stop at happily ever after. Instead, she says, "The End. Now, verse two." Most of Anda's stories have verses, which are something between what you would call 'chapters' and 'variations on a theme.' Most verses include her favorite toy, Baby Kitty, and Caleb's toy, Guy the Green Bear.
She also loves to break out of traditional songs with improvised, scat-singing breaks, which she invariably wants us to sing along to and gets mad if we improvise different than she does.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Never a Shortage of Ideas....
I have ANOTHER idea for a novel. I never seem to run short on ideas.
So now while Kate is turning into a smart and overconfident 16-year-old, Maggie is stewing over how someone could electronically hijack her top-secret cell phone/CIA toolkit and how to get to the seventh floor unseen, Sophronia is lying about her age so she can ride with Annie Oakley, and Melora is trying to find a contest a teen could win against an adult that would have high stakes, I am pondering this:
Wouldn't it be fun to write a murder mystery where one of the fairytale wicked witches has been murdered, and all the princesses are the suspects. Naturally, it would take the stories of the princesses and, instead of asking "how would a good person grow from these experiences", the question would be "how would this life history ruin a person?" So, for example, Sleeping Beauty is a pothead (or junkie or something). Snow White? Obsessive-compulsive. You get the idea. Each of the princesses really does have a legit motive for wanting a witch dead, you know....
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far on the plot. I just have a little dialog jotted down--the princesses are sitting around talking when a flying elephant zooms by and someone shoots it. They think whoever created those creatures out to be shot, too, and have his heart and brain buried under a mountain. "Have you noticed they always seem to fly overhead right after you wash your coach?!" Imagine the mess that would make. They all live in the same ostentatious neighborhood, of course, and everyone's always remodeling their castles to be better than everyone else in a serious case of Keeping Up with the Charmings.
The thing that's holding me back is the sleuth. Who would the sleuth be? The Fairy Godmother? Another fairy? One of the Handsome Princes wouldn't work because I don't think I could write a convincing male sleuth. Maybe one of the ugly stepsisters or a stepmother of someone. That would work--a wicked stepmother, who is actually a really nice, down-to-earth person who has been vilified by the "rich" set. She's not actually wicked--it's just that the princess was a real jerk who was always in trouble (stealing and stuff), and stepmommy got the blame. Hmmmm.....
I'll have to let the idea ferment some. It might conflict with my idea of taking Kate to a convention of holiday-related characters. Maybe not. The mystery can be different, although I kill a witch in one and the easter bunnies (stupid pests--always running around, multiplying like crazy, and they have no sense of propriety. Not to mention they chew the furniture and tend to run off in the middle of a conversation) in the other.
Writing is so fun.
So now while Kate is turning into a smart and overconfident 16-year-old, Maggie is stewing over how someone could electronically hijack her top-secret cell phone/CIA toolkit and how to get to the seventh floor unseen, Sophronia is lying about her age so she can ride with Annie Oakley, and Melora is trying to find a contest a teen could win against an adult that would have high stakes, I am pondering this:
Wouldn't it be fun to write a murder mystery where one of the fairytale wicked witches has been murdered, and all the princesses are the suspects. Naturally, it would take the stories of the princesses and, instead of asking "how would a good person grow from these experiences", the question would be "how would this life history ruin a person?" So, for example, Sleeping Beauty is a pothead (or junkie or something). Snow White? Obsessive-compulsive. You get the idea. Each of the princesses really does have a legit motive for wanting a witch dead, you know....
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far on the plot. I just have a little dialog jotted down--the princesses are sitting around talking when a flying elephant zooms by and someone shoots it. They think whoever created those creatures out to be shot, too, and have his heart and brain buried under a mountain. "Have you noticed they always seem to fly overhead right after you wash your coach?!" Imagine the mess that would make. They all live in the same ostentatious neighborhood, of course, and everyone's always remodeling their castles to be better than everyone else in a serious case of Keeping Up with the Charmings.
The thing that's holding me back is the sleuth. Who would the sleuth be? The Fairy Godmother? Another fairy? One of the Handsome Princes wouldn't work because I don't think I could write a convincing male sleuth. Maybe one of the ugly stepsisters or a stepmother of someone. That would work--a wicked stepmother, who is actually a really nice, down-to-earth person who has been vilified by the "rich" set. She's not actually wicked--it's just that the princess was a real jerk who was always in trouble (stealing and stuff), and stepmommy got the blame. Hmmmm.....
I'll have to let the idea ferment some. It might conflict with my idea of taking Kate to a convention of holiday-related characters. Maybe not. The mystery can be different, although I kill a witch in one and the easter bunnies (stupid pests--always running around, multiplying like crazy, and they have no sense of propriety. Not to mention they chew the furniture and tend to run off in the middle of a conversation) in the other.
Writing is so fun.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Selling my Hair
I posted my hair for sale on thehairtrader.com. I figured since I was going to cut it anyway, I might as well make a little money.
Within 24 hours, I got FIVE responses saying "I want 36" of it, and I'll give you x amount." The highest offer so far was $2000. For three feet of virgin blonde hair. Who knew? I suppose I'll have a little auction and see what happens. Next time you see me, my oh-so-characteristic long blonde tresses may be only shoulder length. But then Tim can finish school without working, and I won't get caught in doorways anymore, and it will grow back.
Funny, huh?
Within 24 hours, I got FIVE responses saying "I want 36" of it, and I'll give you x amount." The highest offer so far was $2000. For three feet of virgin blonde hair. Who knew? I suppose I'll have a little auction and see what happens. Next time you see me, my oh-so-characteristic long blonde tresses may be only shoulder length. But then Tim can finish school without working, and I won't get caught in doorways anymore, and it will grow back.
Funny, huh?
Compelling, Part 2
I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been too busy writing. While we were in Utah, I realized, thanks to promptings by my mother mentioned in earlier blog entries, that I had really written two books, not one, even though it was one story.
So I cut, added a few lines, and sent it off to my beta readers (I know you're not supposed to use husband, sisters, and parents as Beta Readers, but my family happen to be extremely competent editors and well-read in many genres, and with different but equally refined tastes--why search for someone else?).
My beta readers said it was boring.
They were right.
So I skipped back to the rewriting I was doing at the moment--re-doing the query to reflect the "two books" status.
My beta readers said that was boring, too.
They were right.
So I sat down with Tim and he said, "Think movie trailer. Decades ago....." and he went on and told me what would really be interesting and catching. He, a great student of movie trailers (he watches and studies hundreds) gave me the "quick and dirty" of what makes something interesting and compelling or not, with examples of trailers that work and that don't. He said, "Put on the most cliche movie trailer music and get to work." Then he went to bed and I went to work. Now I'm embarrassed about the queries I've sent so far. The fact that they got good responses lets me know the quality of the other queries out there!
Anyway, that fixed, I started thinking about if the query is the trailer, the book is the movie, and suddenly the issue of what's compelling became very clear to me.
I have to go back here to fill in the blanks in the thought process, or it won't all be clear.
It actually all started with Dad's comments (emailed privately) on my previous "compelling?" post. He said that "hooking" the reader like a fish seems unfair, and referred to D&C 121 that talks about your dominion flowing to you without compulsory means. I thought that this was the key to the issue, but I didn't understand it myself, even after talking to Dad. Wouldn't a writer use the same techniques to hook the reader as to make them want to come to you? What's the difference between those, anyway?
I didn't have answers, so I let the questions ferment.
Then, in Utah, I had sick kids, sick husband, and I was sick, day after day. Just as soon as one person got well, another got sick. So I sat in my mom's house and ended up picking up the books she had lying around. Mom reads murder mysteries. One after another I picked them up--legitimate, published books, mind you--and read the first chapter or two and then gave up. They just didn't catch me. Then I picked up Sarah Graves' book, "Mallets Aforethought." Man, I was caught. I read it straight through, every word, in order. You know the last time I did that? It's been so long I don't even remember. Probably the last Harry Potter Book, and even then I skipped ahead a few times and went back.
So I spent a few days thinking about what caught me. There were a few elements that I'm just a sucker for: a historic mystery that has to be solved alongside the modern one, secret rooms and passages in an old house. But that was only part of it. The thing that surprised me was that the story itself was so formulaic as to be predictable. It followed the exact story that I criticized at the beginning of the early drafts of Poison Spindle, down to the last predictable detail. The characters were fun, lovable, interesting, and not entirely believable--and not in the larger-than-life way that Donald Maass thinks is ideal but other agents don't really go for. She didn't even follow up on every detail that she made out to be important (spent a lot of time talking about a cat and then never followed up with it). But it was still compelling!
Then I realized that one of the themes of Poison Spindle is that the real world is formulaic, and knowing the formula doesn't make living it any less traumatic or surviving it any less satisfying. (Didn't even know I put that in there!). In "Mallets" the journey was satisfying anyway.
So it was something about the writing itself that made the story compelling. Looking at the writing, the one thing that stood out, above and beyond the other books, was that Ms. Graves didn't waste any words. It's not that she didn't include anything that didn't move the story forward. Obviously (the cat) she did. But she only said as much as she needed to, in an easily accessible way, to get the story told. The other thing she did was put a body in the first line. Dear Departed Miss Snark used to say she wanted a body in the first paragraph. One of the other mysteries I got into still didn't have a body by page 20, so I gave up. Took too long to get to the story. And THAT is exactly what my beta readers missed in Poison Spindle. They wanted action up front--a body on the first page, and it was on the sixth (or maybe fifth, but still....).
The problem with the novel before, that made the story "just not come together in my mind" was that I was writing the novel as if it were a bit of expository writing. The story and characters are interesting enough that this almost works, and definitely has it's good parts.
I realized, as I tried to make the first chapter less boring, that I was trying to "hook" the reader. I was trying to create something that was interesting and intriguing, and I couldn't make it work. The harder I tried, the more contrived it was. I finally realized I was just trying to manipulate the reader. It might work to keep them reading, but it wasn't fair and it didn't make for compelling work. Instead, it created the kind of work I skip through quickly just to get the answer to the "hook", but I don't get lost in the story. I was trying to force a body into the first paragraph, and all I got was a lot of bodies, but not story still.
Then I read Orson Scott Card's analysis of Snape, and, in it, his analysis of what makes a character interesting and alive. I was struck by his comments that at some point, Rowling got lost in her own story. I have thought I got lost in my story before, but I hadn't. I had gotten lost in the incredibly pleasurable experience of writing. But not in the story itself.
So then I got to "Decades ago...." When Tim verbally turned my query into a movie trailer, I was floored. I actually HAD written an interesting story. It had been so long that I wondered. He hooked me, and I wrote the darn book!
So how did he do it? With Living Language. It wasn't just that he took out the passive voice because I don't really have a serious problem with that. It's that before, the language was expository, and the story was just being told. But in a compelling book, the story isn't just being told. It's living and happening. The characters aren't just cardboard cutouts being moved by the writer through events set up to take them to the end of the story, they are live people that the writer watches and knows and follows.
Writers have said this all before, and I've known it. But I finally "got" it.
It's not that the writer has to know the story well. It's that the story has to be alive (and worth telling), and the writing has to be alive, and then the reader, without being compelled to, WANTS to stick with it and read it. Not just to find out what happens, or how all the pieces fit in, but because they just somehow got lost in the story. They might go back and appreciate the novelists' craft and skill, but that's not what makes them want to read every word. That's the after-the-fact effect.
Can I write a living story? I don't know. Visualizing it all as a movie helps--where would the director cut to a shot of out the window? Where are the characters? What lighting is there? Where does he zoom in, or cut to the wall instead of the speaker's face?
The first time Tim read my book, he said, "You're a playwrite." All my experience to that point had been something like that. But now I hope I've moved on. Suddenly, in my mind, my novel isn't just on a stage, it's a real, living, thing.
Does this mean I have to rewrite every word? Probably.
Will it be better? I hope so, or I should stop trying to get published and just keep enjoying the experience of writing as an end in itself.
So I cut, added a few lines, and sent it off to my beta readers (I know you're not supposed to use husband, sisters, and parents as Beta Readers, but my family happen to be extremely competent editors and well-read in many genres, and with different but equally refined tastes--why search for someone else?).
My beta readers said it was boring.
They were right.
So I skipped back to the rewriting I was doing at the moment--re-doing the query to reflect the "two books" status.
My beta readers said that was boring, too.
They were right.
So I sat down with Tim and he said, "Think movie trailer. Decades ago....." and he went on and told me what would really be interesting and catching. He, a great student of movie trailers (he watches and studies hundreds) gave me the "quick and dirty" of what makes something interesting and compelling or not, with examples of trailers that work and that don't. He said, "Put on the most cliche movie trailer music and get to work." Then he went to bed and I went to work. Now I'm embarrassed about the queries I've sent so far. The fact that they got good responses lets me know the quality of the other queries out there!
Anyway, that fixed, I started thinking about if the query is the trailer, the book is the movie, and suddenly the issue of what's compelling became very clear to me.
I have to go back here to fill in the blanks in the thought process, or it won't all be clear.
It actually all started with Dad's comments (emailed privately) on my previous "compelling?" post. He said that "hooking" the reader like a fish seems unfair, and referred to D&C 121 that talks about your dominion flowing to you without compulsory means. I thought that this was the key to the issue, but I didn't understand it myself, even after talking to Dad. Wouldn't a writer use the same techniques to hook the reader as to make them want to come to you? What's the difference between those, anyway?
I didn't have answers, so I let the questions ferment.
Then, in Utah, I had sick kids, sick husband, and I was sick, day after day. Just as soon as one person got well, another got sick. So I sat in my mom's house and ended up picking up the books she had lying around. Mom reads murder mysteries. One after another I picked them up--legitimate, published books, mind you--and read the first chapter or two and then gave up. They just didn't catch me. Then I picked up Sarah Graves' book, "Mallets Aforethought." Man, I was caught. I read it straight through, every word, in order. You know the last time I did that? It's been so long I don't even remember. Probably the last Harry Potter Book, and even then I skipped ahead a few times and went back.
So I spent a few days thinking about what caught me. There were a few elements that I'm just a sucker for: a historic mystery that has to be solved alongside the modern one, secret rooms and passages in an old house. But that was only part of it. The thing that surprised me was that the story itself was so formulaic as to be predictable. It followed the exact story that I criticized at the beginning of the early drafts of Poison Spindle, down to the last predictable detail. The characters were fun, lovable, interesting, and not entirely believable--and not in the larger-than-life way that Donald Maass thinks is ideal but other agents don't really go for. She didn't even follow up on every detail that she made out to be important (spent a lot of time talking about a cat and then never followed up with it). But it was still compelling!
Then I realized that one of the themes of Poison Spindle is that the real world is formulaic, and knowing the formula doesn't make living it any less traumatic or surviving it any less satisfying. (Didn't even know I put that in there!). In "Mallets" the journey was satisfying anyway.
So it was something about the writing itself that made the story compelling. Looking at the writing, the one thing that stood out, above and beyond the other books, was that Ms. Graves didn't waste any words. It's not that she didn't include anything that didn't move the story forward. Obviously (the cat) she did. But she only said as much as she needed to, in an easily accessible way, to get the story told. The other thing she did was put a body in the first line. Dear Departed Miss Snark used to say she wanted a body in the first paragraph. One of the other mysteries I got into still didn't have a body by page 20, so I gave up. Took too long to get to the story. And THAT is exactly what my beta readers missed in Poison Spindle. They wanted action up front--a body on the first page, and it was on the sixth (or maybe fifth, but still....).
The problem with the novel before, that made the story "just not come together in my mind" was that I was writing the novel as if it were a bit of expository writing. The story and characters are interesting enough that this almost works, and definitely has it's good parts.
I realized, as I tried to make the first chapter less boring, that I was trying to "hook" the reader. I was trying to create something that was interesting and intriguing, and I couldn't make it work. The harder I tried, the more contrived it was. I finally realized I was just trying to manipulate the reader. It might work to keep them reading, but it wasn't fair and it didn't make for compelling work. Instead, it created the kind of work I skip through quickly just to get the answer to the "hook", but I don't get lost in the story. I was trying to force a body into the first paragraph, and all I got was a lot of bodies, but not story still.
Then I read Orson Scott Card's analysis of Snape, and, in it, his analysis of what makes a character interesting and alive. I was struck by his comments that at some point, Rowling got lost in her own story. I have thought I got lost in my story before, but I hadn't. I had gotten lost in the incredibly pleasurable experience of writing. But not in the story itself.
So then I got to "Decades ago...." When Tim verbally turned my query into a movie trailer, I was floored. I actually HAD written an interesting story. It had been so long that I wondered. He hooked me, and I wrote the darn book!
So how did he do it? With Living Language. It wasn't just that he took out the passive voice because I don't really have a serious problem with that. It's that before, the language was expository, and the story was just being told. But in a compelling book, the story isn't just being told. It's living and happening. The characters aren't just cardboard cutouts being moved by the writer through events set up to take them to the end of the story, they are live people that the writer watches and knows and follows.
Writers have said this all before, and I've known it. But I finally "got" it.
It's not that the writer has to know the story well. It's that the story has to be alive (and worth telling), and the writing has to be alive, and then the reader, without being compelled to, WANTS to stick with it and read it. Not just to find out what happens, or how all the pieces fit in, but because they just somehow got lost in the story. They might go back and appreciate the novelists' craft and skill, but that's not what makes them want to read every word. That's the after-the-fact effect.
Can I write a living story? I don't know. Visualizing it all as a movie helps--where would the director cut to a shot of out the window? Where are the characters? What lighting is there? Where does he zoom in, or cut to the wall instead of the speaker's face?
The first time Tim read my book, he said, "You're a playwrite." All my experience to that point had been something like that. But now I hope I've moved on. Suddenly, in my mind, my novel isn't just on a stage, it's a real, living, thing.
Does this mean I have to rewrite every word? Probably.
Will it be better? I hope so, or I should stop trying to get published and just keep enjoying the experience of writing as an end in itself.
Google Does it Again
Google has lots of good ideas. This the newest I've found: scholar.google.com
This is a fabulous research tool. No joke. Instead of searching the wide wide world of the web, with all its info and misinfo and pseudoinfo and crap, scholar.google.com searches only scholarly publications, ranking them by the status of the researchers and publications. Very cool. In my test, I looked up the last thing I was trying to find scholarly info on: oxytocin. It plays a major role in the Poison Spindle Problem. In literally three minutes I had more information than hours of searching provided last time. I even had information at my fingertips (the name of the hormone that functions in men the way oxtyocin functions in women) that I never could find before. It doesn't give the full text of every article, but it gives as much as it can (abstract, full text, just a reference). It's fabulous. Even better than the University Library search. What more can I say?
Oh, and thanks to Scholar, I got to use the words "monogamous prairie vole" in my novel. Can't get better than that.....
This is a fabulous research tool. No joke. Instead of searching the wide wide world of the web, with all its info and misinfo and pseudoinfo and crap, scholar.google.com searches only scholarly publications, ranking them by the status of the researchers and publications. Very cool. In my test, I looked up the last thing I was trying to find scholarly info on: oxytocin. It plays a major role in the Poison Spindle Problem. In literally three minutes I had more information than hours of searching provided last time. I even had information at my fingertips (the name of the hormone that functions in men the way oxtyocin functions in women) that I never could find before. It doesn't give the full text of every article, but it gives as much as it can (abstract, full text, just a reference). It's fabulous. Even better than the University Library search. What more can I say?
Oh, and thanks to Scholar, I got to use the words "monogamous prairie vole" in my novel. Can't get better than that.....
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A Picnic
I realized today that I met Tim 15 years ago next month. That means I've known him half my life!
Tim is on the board of the Colorado Vocal Jazz Society. They have a meeting once a month, right after their annual family barbecue/drinking party. I shan't speculate on what this says for the quality of the meeting, since it follows an hour or more of drinking and partying. But there were kids there, and our kids were having a marvelous time with the swingset and trampoline. At one point, I went to check on Caleb and heard him say to another boy, "I'm five. Well, I'm five and three quarters. Well, not exactly. You see...um...I'm not exactly sure how old I am, but I know it has a five in there somewhere. And I'll be six in a few weeks."
Funny. Then I felt bad. He asked me the other day exactly how old he is, so I told him, "Five and 23/24ths." It was the 23/24 that he couldn't remember, and which the bewildered 7-year-old he was talking to (who was smaller than Caleb), wouldn't have understood anyway.
Caleb has now lost two teeth. I told him to put them under his pillow and maybe the tooth fairy would come. He lost the teeth somewhere in the house. But he got money under his pillow nonetheless ("It's not $2, Mom! It's 8 quarters."). The look on his face when he discovered that daddy didn't do it was priceless!
Tim is on the board of the Colorado Vocal Jazz Society. They have a meeting once a month, right after their annual family barbecue/drinking party. I shan't speculate on what this says for the quality of the meeting, since it follows an hour or more of drinking and partying. But there were kids there, and our kids were having a marvelous time with the swingset and trampoline. At one point, I went to check on Caleb and heard him say to another boy, "I'm five. Well, I'm five and three quarters. Well, not exactly. You see...um...I'm not exactly sure how old I am, but I know it has a five in there somewhere. And I'll be six in a few weeks."
Funny. Then I felt bad. He asked me the other day exactly how old he is, so I told him, "Five and 23/24ths." It was the 23/24 that he couldn't remember, and which the bewildered 7-year-old he was talking to (who was smaller than Caleb), wouldn't have understood anyway.
Caleb has now lost two teeth. I told him to put them under his pillow and maybe the tooth fairy would come. He lost the teeth somewhere in the house. But he got money under his pillow nonetheless ("It's not $2, Mom! It's 8 quarters."). The look on his face when he discovered that daddy didn't do it was priceless!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
You know why I hate touring?
I hate touring because the kids invariably get sick.
Yest, on the road again--and home again. This time our trip was half touring, half family vacation, and we got to see all the families. Also share the stomach flu with them. How lovely. There were many good shows, lots of good talk, more than enough getting stressed, and I'm glad we're home.
One significant thing happened--my mother, fearing I would be offended, suggested that what I really write is Young Adult Lit (in publishing, as I understand it, that category covers junior high and some high school aged readers, what's called Teen Lit in bookstores and libraries and academic circles). I was not offended. In fact, that's what I set out to write in the first place. I accepted the suggestion immediately, and applied it to my WIPs (works in progress), too, and found that the new focus was the solution to lots of my problems.
And viewing myself that way ended up being a great relief.
I immediately knew what I needed to do to "fix" Poison Spindle to be a YA book again. Then I realized it was twice too long (instead of just 15% too long). But then I realized I could make it into two books if I divided them not where the ms was divided right then, but about 20 pages later. This is not the exact middle of the manuscript, but it's a nice "done but what next" kind of stopping point like you want for leading someone to the sequel. Writing is not a fast craft, especially with three or four kids at (or on) my knees at any one time, so it took me two hours to finish the changes. But only two hours. I re-read the dialogue and realized that Kate, the heroine, already acted 16, just like my mom said. No change necessary there. And, as with all good edits in this book, the change allowed me to delete and simplify some things that I had to write pages of dialogue to "justify" (like how come nobody noticed Kate was gone for 2 months?).
So, dare I say it again? The book is finished (?).......and is now one story, but could be two books legitimately.
Anyway, I then went to my other books. Maggie, the ex-spy housewife, is still an adult book series and always will be. But the Western, which was going to be a sequel to the Poison Spindle Problem, is no longer a "Bookstore" book. Instead, it is a standalone YA novel, "Sophronia Kelley, Hired Gun", about a teenage sharpshooter who, after lying about her age to get in with Annie Oakley's girls, gets hired to be the President's daughter's bodyguard as she's going to a new women's university in California. Half-way there, the train they are on is held up by "Injuns" and Sophronia is too young and scared to actually shoot a man (she's really 15-year-old actress, not a cowboy!), so she loses the President's daughter. Instead of going on, she sets out into the Arizona desert to find the girl and make good her promise to protect her. It just works so much better as a YA book! And the other one, Melora and the Maltese Falcon, which I noted it's permutations before, is still a mystery, but I've restored Melora to her 14-year-old splendor. Instead of saving her boyfriend, she's out to rescue her father. Other than that, the story stays the same. Wow--do I go in circles or what?!
Yest, on the road again--and home again. This time our trip was half touring, half family vacation, and we got to see all the families. Also share the stomach flu with them. How lovely. There were many good shows, lots of good talk, more than enough getting stressed, and I'm glad we're home.
One significant thing happened--my mother, fearing I would be offended, suggested that what I really write is Young Adult Lit (in publishing, as I understand it, that category covers junior high and some high school aged readers, what's called Teen Lit in bookstores and libraries and academic circles). I was not offended. In fact, that's what I set out to write in the first place. I accepted the suggestion immediately, and applied it to my WIPs (works in progress), too, and found that the new focus was the solution to lots of my problems.
And viewing myself that way ended up being a great relief.
I immediately knew what I needed to do to "fix" Poison Spindle to be a YA book again. Then I realized it was twice too long (instead of just 15% too long). But then I realized I could make it into two books if I divided them not where the ms was divided right then, but about 20 pages later. This is not the exact middle of the manuscript, but it's a nice "done but what next" kind of stopping point like you want for leading someone to the sequel. Writing is not a fast craft, especially with three or four kids at (or on) my knees at any one time, so it took me two hours to finish the changes. But only two hours. I re-read the dialogue and realized that Kate, the heroine, already acted 16, just like my mom said. No change necessary there. And, as with all good edits in this book, the change allowed me to delete and simplify some things that I had to write pages of dialogue to "justify" (like how come nobody noticed Kate was gone for 2 months?).
So, dare I say it again? The book is finished (?).......and is now one story, but could be two books legitimately.
Anyway, I then went to my other books. Maggie, the ex-spy housewife, is still an adult book series and always will be. But the Western, which was going to be a sequel to the Poison Spindle Problem, is no longer a "Bookstore" book. Instead, it is a standalone YA novel, "Sophronia Kelley, Hired Gun", about a teenage sharpshooter who, after lying about her age to get in with Annie Oakley's girls, gets hired to be the President's daughter's bodyguard as she's going to a new women's university in California. Half-way there, the train they are on is held up by "Injuns" and Sophronia is too young and scared to actually shoot a man (she's really 15-year-old actress, not a cowboy!), so she loses the President's daughter. Instead of going on, she sets out into the Arizona desert to find the girl and make good her promise to protect her. It just works so much better as a YA book! And the other one, Melora and the Maltese Falcon, which I noted it's permutations before, is still a mystery, but I've restored Melora to her 14-year-old splendor. Instead of saving her boyfriend, she's out to rescue her father. Other than that, the story stays the same. Wow--do I go in circles or what?!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Surviving Sunday
So Benjamin woke me to nurse at 9:44 am. By the time we were done, it was 10:33, and church starts at 11:00. Just enough time to dress and go!
So I got the kids up and immediately noticed that Anda's hair was gunky. It looked like she'd been sucking on it again, and had gotten gravy in it at dinner, and then slept on it. It really resembled a birds nest more than a head of hair. And then I remembered that, while Caleb has bathed recently, he hasn't washed his hair in more than three weeks (he hates having his hair washed, and I haven't been up to forcing the issue). So I threw everyone into the shower, including me.
Consequently, we were 45 minutes late for church. We had just gotten settled down to listen to the end of the first talk when Anda announced she had to go potty. Tim was still driving home from Utah, so I had all four kids. And all four had to come with me to take Anda potty, naturally. As we got up from the last row to sneak out the back of the gym, Dan yelled, "NO! Stay here!" He followed us out anyway, and we got back in time to hear the musical number and try to listen to the last talk.
Ben was sleeping, but I'd come with the double stroller (not a car seat), so I had to hold him the whole time. Dan was a good sport about that. I sent the kids to primary and took the babies to nursery, where Dan clung to my leg the whole time but cried when I took him out so I could feed Ben. So we went back and stalled Ben.
When the baby became absolutely determined to eat now, I took Dan and him out and ran into Caleb being taken out of primary by his teacher for being too wild. He promised both of us he would be reverent, and he went back to class, where he immediately started jumping around and flailing his arms and getting all the other kids even more riled up. Mosiah started it, but Caleb fed the fire. Still, when his teacher came back in, he calmed down, so I went to nurse.
I was still feeding the baby when Caleb's teacher brought him to me and said, "I'll see you next week." In other words, don't come back today. Caleb didn't understand that he was in trouble, and that he couldn't come back today. Then he was mad because the other kids promised to play freeze tag with him. He couldn't see that this was the problem! Meanwhile, Dan started bawling because we weren't back in nursery yet, and Ben was mad because I wasn't nursing him and putting him back to bed.
Finally, I took everyone into nursery, where they were reading books, so they all settled down. A new book is Caleb's favorite thing in the world.
Church ended ten minutes later and I collected everyone and then had to wait a bit while Caleb begged to play freeze tag and other boys whose parents were waiting, too, were running and smacking each other with scriptures and yelling. I wasn't waiting for Caleb to finish. I was waiting to see the Bishop to arrange for Ben's baby blessing. But then I discovered that the Bishop's father died yesterday, so he was gone. While I was talking to his counsellor about the baby blessing, a two year old slammed Anda's finger in the church door and held it there and Ben started crying again and Caleb started running again and Dan started begging for an apple (and I didn't have one--Anda was eating the last one).
Finally, we got to walk out into the 99 degree heat to walk home, and Caleb was still wound up. Then his loose tooth fell out into his hand. And right then the lady asked me to do my food order for the next two weeks. Anda gave Dan her apple and Ben fell asleep, so I stood in the parking lot while Caleb whined that we didn't have enough people to play freeze tag and filled out the food order, with the paper resting on Anda's head.
As we left, we noticed that a sprinkler that had been leaking when we arrived was still leaking, so we had to go back and tell the clerk because we didn't know who to call and we didn't want the water to run into the gutter all week.
So I survived Sunday.
But then I thought about my friend the nursery worker, who mentioned in nursery today that she has two sons serving in Iraq and one in boot camp, and her husband just lost his job and they've found that nobody wants to hire someone who is 52, so he got a job that requires him to travel a lot--three weeks at a time across the country--and she still has a couple of kids at home.
And, in the midst of all my chaos, one of my friends stopped to say hi and, in the course of the conversation, I found out that her husband just lost his job, too, their lease is up on their house, her young single mom daughter and toddler granddaughter are moving out into another single mom's house (maybe good, maybe not!), and her other daughter tried to commit suicide because she's bipolar and is just about to get out of the mental hospital (and the family doesn't believe in mind-altering medications and want a homeopathic doctor to "cure" her.....).
So my Sunday was so hard it will be funny in an hour or two, but all together, I think my life is going really well right now. Comparatively, I have nothing to complain about.
So I got the kids up and immediately noticed that Anda's hair was gunky. It looked like she'd been sucking on it again, and had gotten gravy in it at dinner, and then slept on it. It really resembled a birds nest more than a head of hair. And then I remembered that, while Caleb has bathed recently, he hasn't washed his hair in more than three weeks (he hates having his hair washed, and I haven't been up to forcing the issue). So I threw everyone into the shower, including me.
Consequently, we were 45 minutes late for church. We had just gotten settled down to listen to the end of the first talk when Anda announced she had to go potty. Tim was still driving home from Utah, so I had all four kids. And all four had to come with me to take Anda potty, naturally. As we got up from the last row to sneak out the back of the gym, Dan yelled, "NO! Stay here!" He followed us out anyway, and we got back in time to hear the musical number and try to listen to the last talk.
Ben was sleeping, but I'd come with the double stroller (not a car seat), so I had to hold him the whole time. Dan was a good sport about that. I sent the kids to primary and took the babies to nursery, where Dan clung to my leg the whole time but cried when I took him out so I could feed Ben. So we went back and stalled Ben.
When the baby became absolutely determined to eat now, I took Dan and him out and ran into Caleb being taken out of primary by his teacher for being too wild. He promised both of us he would be reverent, and he went back to class, where he immediately started jumping around and flailing his arms and getting all the other kids even more riled up. Mosiah started it, but Caleb fed the fire. Still, when his teacher came back in, he calmed down, so I went to nurse.
I was still feeding the baby when Caleb's teacher brought him to me and said, "I'll see you next week." In other words, don't come back today. Caleb didn't understand that he was in trouble, and that he couldn't come back today. Then he was mad because the other kids promised to play freeze tag with him. He couldn't see that this was the problem! Meanwhile, Dan started bawling because we weren't back in nursery yet, and Ben was mad because I wasn't nursing him and putting him back to bed.
Finally, I took everyone into nursery, where they were reading books, so they all settled down. A new book is Caleb's favorite thing in the world.
Church ended ten minutes later and I collected everyone and then had to wait a bit while Caleb begged to play freeze tag and other boys whose parents were waiting, too, were running and smacking each other with scriptures and yelling. I wasn't waiting for Caleb to finish. I was waiting to see the Bishop to arrange for Ben's baby blessing. But then I discovered that the Bishop's father died yesterday, so he was gone. While I was talking to his counsellor about the baby blessing, a two year old slammed Anda's finger in the church door and held it there and Ben started crying again and Caleb started running again and Dan started begging for an apple (and I didn't have one--Anda was eating the last one).
Finally, we got to walk out into the 99 degree heat to walk home, and Caleb was still wound up. Then his loose tooth fell out into his hand. And right then the lady asked me to do my food order for the next two weeks. Anda gave Dan her apple and Ben fell asleep, so I stood in the parking lot while Caleb whined that we didn't have enough people to play freeze tag and filled out the food order, with the paper resting on Anda's head.
As we left, we noticed that a sprinkler that had been leaking when we arrived was still leaking, so we had to go back and tell the clerk because we didn't know who to call and we didn't want the water to run into the gutter all week.
So I survived Sunday.
But then I thought about my friend the nursery worker, who mentioned in nursery today that she has two sons serving in Iraq and one in boot camp, and her husband just lost his job and they've found that nobody wants to hire someone who is 52, so he got a job that requires him to travel a lot--three weeks at a time across the country--and she still has a couple of kids at home.
And, in the midst of all my chaos, one of my friends stopped to say hi and, in the course of the conversation, I found out that her husband just lost his job, too, their lease is up on their house, her young single mom daughter and toddler granddaughter are moving out into another single mom's house (maybe good, maybe not!), and her other daughter tried to commit suicide because she's bipolar and is just about to get out of the mental hospital (and the family doesn't believe in mind-altering medications and want a homeopathic doctor to "cure" her.....).
So my Sunday was so hard it will be funny in an hour or two, but all together, I think my life is going really well right now. Comparatively, I have nothing to complain about.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Mom's Bread
I didn't think it was possible to improve on Mom's bread recipe, but I was experimenting last night and discovered a variation that is even better than the original. So here you have it, the improved on perfection bread recipe:
2 c hot water (not too hot, though)
1 rounded tbsp (or 1 1/2 pkts) yeast
1/4-1/2 c sugar (I was making butterscotch rolls, so I used 1/2 c)
1/3 c oil (vs the usual 1/4 c)
1 1/2 tsp salt
Mix these and let it get foamy to make sure the yeast is alive.
Add 6 1/3 c flour (or so--I always need more flour at this altitude, so go slowly and add as much as you usually do plus a little to counter for the extra liquid in the recipe).
Mix it just a little and then add
2 eggs.
Mix it until it's soft and clinging to the dough hook, but not necessarily smooth. (I tried once "letting the gluten develop" like all the ward members say you need to, and it ruined the bread. Don't do this.). Take it out. Knead it a few times in your hands (not on a breadboard). It's okay if it's a little sticky at this point. You want it soft and tender. Put it in an oiled bowl and microwave 10 seconds. Flip the dough over and microwave another 10 seconds. Take it out and cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to raise. (While I'm microwaving it, I turn the oven on to warm. When it's preheated, I put the dough in, turn the light on to keep it warmer, and turn the oven off. This is for two reasons: it's warm, and the kids don't get at it to get snitches that mess up the raising.). Raise it (or let it rise--which is it?) two or three times for 30 minutes each. Then take it out, form it into three regular loaves (or butterscotch rolls and 1 loaf for me last night), put it into loaf pans, and let it rise again for 30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of rise time, turn on the oven to 350 (take the loaves out while it preheats to bake) so it's ready to go at the end of the rise time. Bake the loaves at 350 for 30 minutes. When they come out of the oven, dump them out of the pans right away. If you're making wheat bread, make all the 30s into 35s, and use just a little more yeast. Or use half-wheat, half-white (or confectioners, as I call it because anything it makes is really nutritionally a confection) flour.
What was the difference, you ask? The texture of the bread was different--softer, more tender. Also, you've added the nutritional value of eggs, which can't hurt. I suppose you could use milk, instead of water, and add that nutrition (and richness), too. And the extra oil? I don't know what it did, if anything. It was an accident that it got in there.
2 c hot water (not too hot, though)
1 rounded tbsp (or 1 1/2 pkts) yeast
1/4-1/2 c sugar (I was making butterscotch rolls, so I used 1/2 c)
1/3 c oil (vs the usual 1/4 c)
1 1/2 tsp salt
Mix these and let it get foamy to make sure the yeast is alive.
Add 6 1/3 c flour (or so--I always need more flour at this altitude, so go slowly and add as much as you usually do plus a little to counter for the extra liquid in the recipe).
Mix it just a little and then add
2 eggs.
Mix it until it's soft and clinging to the dough hook, but not necessarily smooth. (I tried once "letting the gluten develop" like all the ward members say you need to, and it ruined the bread. Don't do this.). Take it out. Knead it a few times in your hands (not on a breadboard). It's okay if it's a little sticky at this point. You want it soft and tender. Put it in an oiled bowl and microwave 10 seconds. Flip the dough over and microwave another 10 seconds. Take it out and cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to raise. (While I'm microwaving it, I turn the oven on to warm. When it's preheated, I put the dough in, turn the light on to keep it warmer, and turn the oven off. This is for two reasons: it's warm, and the kids don't get at it to get snitches that mess up the raising.). Raise it (or let it rise--which is it?) two or three times for 30 minutes each. Then take it out, form it into three regular loaves (or butterscotch rolls and 1 loaf for me last night), put it into loaf pans, and let it rise again for 30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of rise time, turn on the oven to 350 (take the loaves out while it preheats to bake) so it's ready to go at the end of the rise time. Bake the loaves at 350 for 30 minutes. When they come out of the oven, dump them out of the pans right away. If you're making wheat bread, make all the 30s into 35s, and use just a little more yeast. Or use half-wheat, half-white (or confectioners, as I call it because anything it makes is really nutritionally a confection) flour.
What was the difference, you ask? The texture of the bread was different--softer, more tender. Also, you've added the nutritional value of eggs, which can't hurt. I suppose you could use milk, instead of water, and add that nutrition (and richness), too. And the extra oil? I don't know what it did, if anything. It was an accident that it got in there.
Allergen Warning
Since many of the people I know are highly allergic to substances you put on skin, I thought I'd pass this along. From Snopes.com, a warning about getting henna tattoos. Follow this link .
It's not natural Henna that's the problem. That's safe. It's adulterated "black" or "blue" henna, which is often mixed up not following FDA regulations and can cause a severe allergic reaction that produces a lifetime hyper-sensitivity to many substances, including antibiotics and analgesics (no epidurals for women with this sensitivity!).
Just an FYI, and verified by Snopes--for once an internet/email-lore that is legit!
It's not natural Henna that's the problem. That's safe. It's adulterated "black" or "blue" henna, which is often mixed up not following FDA regulations and can cause a severe allergic reaction that produces a lifetime hyper-sensitivity to many substances, including antibiotics and analgesics (no epidurals for women with this sensitivity!).
Just an FYI, and verified by Snopes--for once an internet/email-lore that is legit!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Kid News
Caleb has discovered "Alice in Wonderland." I left my copy of the Philosopher's Alice (a version with sidenotes about philosophy and nonsense) on the floor, and he found it and was instantly enamored with the fact that there was a child named "Pig" who turns into a pig. So I got Caleb the other version I have--one with side notes defining the more difficult words and with pictures of the less-common things mentioned in the book. He loves it, but he says he especially likes the second verse of "You are Old, Father William."
We found a fully-accredited k-12 public school that functions entirely online. It is the Branson School. Branson is a small town in Colorado, .3 miles from the New Mexico border, with a population of 77. No joke. But the Branson School Online provides computers and teachers, curriculum, feedback, etc. The kids stay at home with parents as teachers, but they are enrolled in school and provided with all the "stuff" that public school kids get (books, field trips, etc). Because it is public school, everything is free. Because Colorado supports school choice, the school is filled on a first-come, first-served basis. So we applied. It may be just the right thing for Caleb. Because it's online, it is individualized, and they say they want school to fit in the family's schedule, instead of the other way around. They don't do letter grades, but do have evaluations. I am excited about the possibilities inherent in doing a school all online. I hope we aren't seriously disappointed. If we are, there is another --the Colorado Virtual Academy that is both charter school and virtual school, all online, and based out of a suburb of Denver, so they also have regular outings and stuff. How did I not know about all this before?
Anyway, on to the other kids:
Anda is reading well now. She won't do it on demand, but likes to read to herself, and, when questioned, really is reading. Most days her name is Baby Kitty. Or Becca (then she makes me be Anda or Tim. Talk about confusing!). Sometimes she's Scruffy the Tugboat (remember when Caleb was Soonle Great? Scruffy is a different character from the same movie). Sometimes she's Perdita, and then one of the others of us has to be Pongo (from 101 Dalmations). Sometime's she's Kiki (from Kiki's Delivery Service). Sometimes she's something else. Talk about confusing. To add to the confusion, sometimes the kids go play in their room, and sometimes they go play on the "Highland Sennec Ship"--their bunkbed, I mean rocket.
Daniel is verbalizing a lot of things, and he sees the world in a unique way. For example, when the Baby's binkie falls out, he says, "Oops! Fell Off. Back on..." and he tries to put it back in. Upside down. He's very consistent about that. One day "Benj'nin" wouldn't take the binkie. He kept spitting it back out. I heard, "Fell off. Back on. Fell off. Back on. Fell off." Then Dan came trotting over to me and said, "Fix it," and handed me the binkie.
A few days later, I took off his very soggy diaper (he always says that, too, "Not poopy, mom. Soggy.") and then got distracted before I got another diaper on him. When I turned around, he was just starting to pee on the floor. I shouted, but my arms were full of baby and I couldn't get a diaper on him just that seconds, so I said, "Run outside" (the back door was open) "and pee out there." So he ran outside, and I got distracted again. About two minutes later, I was finally putting down the baby, and Dan ran back inside bawling. I said, "What's wrong!" and he said, "Doesn't work!" and cried and cried. I finally figured it out--he hadn't been able to pee outside after I startled him, and he thought he was broken!
So that's Dan. Cute as ever.
Benj is getting cute, too. He smiles more and more, and loves to have a two-way "Conversation" of goos and coos. He likes to talk to his painting of black and white flowers that hangs over my rocking chair. And he seems to have respiratory allergies. I spent several days trying to pinpoint the one thing it probably was. Then I realized it was probably all of the things--the cottonwood fluff, the pollen, the dog that came to visit, the perfume in Relief Society, the mold that we found in the swamp cooler pads, dust, etc. Poor kid. He's only 7 weeks old, and he's already smashed with hay fever. He'll probably have asthma, too.
Now all the grandmas and aunts and uncles have been duly updated. You can go back to reading your email again.
We found a fully-accredited k-12 public school that functions entirely online. It is the Branson School. Branson is a small town in Colorado, .3 miles from the New Mexico border, with a population of 77. No joke. But the Branson School Online provides computers and teachers, curriculum, feedback, etc. The kids stay at home with parents as teachers, but they are enrolled in school and provided with all the "stuff" that public school kids get (books, field trips, etc). Because it is public school, everything is free. Because Colorado supports school choice, the school is filled on a first-come, first-served basis. So we applied. It may be just the right thing for Caleb. Because it's online, it is individualized, and they say they want school to fit in the family's schedule, instead of the other way around. They don't do letter grades, but do have evaluations. I am excited about the possibilities inherent in doing a school all online. I hope we aren't seriously disappointed. If we are, there is another --the Colorado Virtual Academy that is both charter school and virtual school, all online, and based out of a suburb of Denver, so they also have regular outings and stuff. How did I not know about all this before?
Anyway, on to the other kids:
Anda is reading well now. She won't do it on demand, but likes to read to herself, and, when questioned, really is reading. Most days her name is Baby Kitty. Or Becca (then she makes me be Anda or Tim. Talk about confusing!). Sometimes she's Scruffy the Tugboat (remember when Caleb was Soonle Great? Scruffy is a different character from the same movie). Sometimes she's Perdita, and then one of the others of us has to be Pongo (from 101 Dalmations). Sometime's she's Kiki (from Kiki's Delivery Service). Sometimes she's something else. Talk about confusing. To add to the confusion, sometimes the kids go play in their room, and sometimes they go play on the "Highland Sennec Ship"--their bunkbed, I mean rocket.
Daniel is verbalizing a lot of things, and he sees the world in a unique way. For example, when the Baby's binkie falls out, he says, "Oops! Fell Off. Back on..." and he tries to put it back in. Upside down. He's very consistent about that. One day "Benj'nin" wouldn't take the binkie. He kept spitting it back out. I heard, "Fell off. Back on. Fell off. Back on. Fell off." Then Dan came trotting over to me and said, "Fix it," and handed me the binkie.
A few days later, I took off his very soggy diaper (he always says that, too, "Not poopy, mom. Soggy.") and then got distracted before I got another diaper on him. When I turned around, he was just starting to pee on the floor. I shouted, but my arms were full of baby and I couldn't get a diaper on him just that seconds, so I said, "Run outside" (the back door was open) "and pee out there." So he ran outside, and I got distracted again. About two minutes later, I was finally putting down the baby, and Dan ran back inside bawling. I said, "What's wrong!" and he said, "Doesn't work!" and cried and cried. I finally figured it out--he hadn't been able to pee outside after I startled him, and he thought he was broken!
So that's Dan. Cute as ever.
Benj is getting cute, too. He smiles more and more, and loves to have a two-way "Conversation" of goos and coos. He likes to talk to his painting of black and white flowers that hangs over my rocking chair. And he seems to have respiratory allergies. I spent several days trying to pinpoint the one thing it probably was. Then I realized it was probably all of the things--the cottonwood fluff, the pollen, the dog that came to visit, the perfume in Relief Society, the mold that we found in the swamp cooler pads, dust, etc. Poor kid. He's only 7 weeks old, and he's already smashed with hay fever. He'll probably have asthma, too.
Now all the grandmas and aunts and uncles have been duly updated. You can go back to reading your email again.
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