Boys Will Be Boys, Especially at Camp: A Re-Post

Mr. Sociable, aka Spaz, has spent the last four days at church camp, a place he dearly loves. This is his fifth year and his last as a camper; next year he will be a worker, which will probably be just as much fun and is quite a bit easier on Mom & Dad's wallet. (Although having said that, I should mention that Spaz earned almost all of his $225 camp fee this year doing yardwork, collecting pop cans, helping unload trucks, and participating in various other work opps set up by his youth leader, as well as doing some yardwork for his grandparents. Total outlay from Mom & Dad's wallet: $46. Go, Spaz!)



Miss Homebody, aka Fuzz, tried camp two years ago and did not exactly dearly love it, so she has been home as usual and enjoying the relative peace and quiet along with some extra attention. Among other things, she and I have done small-town window shopping, errands, lunch out with Dad & Biz, and three straight nights of Lord of the Rings movies (her first time watching and only my second). Today, our last full Spaz-less day, we took a bike ride and cleaned & organized her desk, and we'll soon be heading out to her Favorite Eating Out Place in the Whole World, better known on this blog as Pahookey Bread.


But before we head out, I offer you this: a story from a blog post written in June of 2007, shortly after Spaz' second year of camp. I consider it well worth a re-post. Enjoy!




*************************************************************************************

Spaz was at church camp this past week; it was his second year. All in all, he had a great time, and his counselors, despite spending 4 days with a bunch of 9-to-11-year-old boys, seemed to have most of their sanity still intact.


While helping him pack for camp, I’d kept in mind that it always helps Spaz if things are kept simple. (I also make sure HE is the one who actually puts everything in the suitcase, in hopes that it will help him remember what he has & where it is.) So he & I packed "clothing rolls"-- socks, underwear, T-shirt & shorts rolled up and secured with a large file-size rubberband. (Socks are not normally a staple around our house in the summer, but state law mandates that kids at camps wear socks and close-toed shoes.) One roll for each day, plus one extra. A couple 'pajama' rolls, too (which of course, since he is 11, are not actually pajamas, but rather T-shirts and knit shorts that he uses specifically as sleepwear). He thought this was great. I figured that, like last year, he'd come back with a couple rolls yet unworn, but it never hurts to be on the safe side.


Post-camp conversation at the ice-cream shop:


Mom (observing Spaz' filthy camp T-shirt, swimsuit, and lack of state-mandated socks): So, Spaz, how many of the clothes we packed did you actually wear?


Spaz: Um, what I came in. Plus this shirt they gave me. And I wore my swimsuit all the time.


Mom: Spaz!!! Didn't you put on clean clothes after showers?


Spaz: ShowER, you mean. I just put my swimsuit back on. It was clean from the pool.


Mom: You didn't by any chance wear your pajama shirts & shorts to bed?


Spaz: The first night I did.


Mom (not really wanting to know): And then...?


Spaz: I told you, I wore my swimsuit the whole time.


Mom: Ooo-kay. And did you, perchance, use your toothbrush?


Spaz: Yup! Once.


Alrighty, then.


Though not apparent at camp & the ice-cream store, the smell became quite noticeable upon our arrival home, and he was sent almost immediately to the shower.


At least I don't have a ton of laundry to do.

That was three years ago, when Spaz was a little boy of eleven-going-on-twelve. For the last couple of years, I think the conversation could have been more or less the same. This year, however, as he approaches his 15th birthday, he has suddenly taken more interest in such odd and foreign activities as showering, hair-combing, and teeth-brushing. Now I know that the inclination toward such activities may wane a bit in an environment such as camp, but then again, at camp there are girls. I'm thinking --hoping-- that this year's post-camp conversation might be just a little different, and that there might actually be more dirty clothes than clean ones in the duffle bag tomorrow.


I guess we'll see.

Quirks and Strawberries and Deep Thoughts on Schooling

I have this little quirk about things having to “go together.” Like, you shouldn’t order the Asian chicken salad with the Mediterranean veggie sandwich. Asian and Mediterranean don’t go together. Even if you like the Asian a little bit better, you need to get the Greek salad with your Mediterranean sandwich.

You shouldn’t serve tacos for Sunday dinner. Tacos are casual, and Sunday dinner should be… nice. And you shouldn’t wear a nice blouse with blue jeans, either. T-shirts go with blue jeans.

And of course, you should never read a book that takes place in 19th-century England when you are studying the Vietnam War, or take a trip to the planetarium even though you are studying animal science. You should wait until you are doing astronomy, so it all goes together. It only makes sense. Everything has to make logical sense.

And red tea kettles do not belong in earth-toned kitchens. (Neither, for that matter, do black appliances.) This drives me crazy.

Sometimes it’s a harmless little quirk, this pursuit of ultimate consistency, this need to have everything fit into its own little box… but sometimes it becomes an obsession. Sometimes it factors too strongly into my thinking and makes things more complicated than they need to be.

Renegade strawberry plants should not be allowed to grow in a flower garden. They’d be out of place. They wouldn’t fit in. How could that be a good thing? Strawberries and flowers don’t go together: the former are for eating and the latter are for looking at. Two different worlds.

And homeschool families should not send their kids to high school. That doesn’t go together. Then you don’t fit in with the homeschool community, and you don’t fit in with the school families. Too hard.

Especially, white middle-class homeschool families living on 3 acres in semi-rural suburbia should not truck their kids into the city to a reduced-tuition urban school. What sense does that make? Even if they like the school, how do those things belong together? Two. Different. Worlds.

Never mind that we’ve already done it for years. It still feels like starting over, and it still feels uncomfortable.

Maybe we should just do what’s comfortable, what’s logical, what’s sensible. Stay firmly entrenched in the realm of homeschooling, or at least go with the very-homeschool-friendly, nearby, suburban, conservative, homogenous school.

Because everyone knows that strawberries don’t grow in flower gardens.

*******************************************************

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Try to Make Vacation Sound Like Education

Blogger wasn't letting me in yesterday (Bad Blogger! Bad, Bad Blogger!), so I had to post this on my HSB blog. It took me like five stinkin' hours because I am still trying to figure out the new system over there.

Anyway... So yeah, it's late. But this time it actually isn't entirely my fault.

How about a Three-Week WrapUp? That’s about how long it’s been. I should have posted this last week. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Oh and well.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of “school” going on here lately. While a few local schools got out this past week and the rest continue through this coming week, we cut out on May 19 and have already been on “summer vacation” and back. Summer vacation before Memorial Day, because… well, Just Because We Could.

But just because we took time off school doesn’t mean there wasn’t any ejamacayshun going on. Or should I say, ejavacayshun?

We ejavacayted ourselves on the road…

LITERATURE

We never take a road trip without audio dramas, and we love Focus on the Family Radio Theater!

MATH, LOGIC, LANGUAGE ARTS
Good car stuff

ART APPRECIATION: FOLK ART

Artisan Center, Berea KY off I-75

...and we ejavacayted ourselves at our destination.

U.S. GEOGRAPHY

 

EARTH SCIENCE

Tuckaleechee Caverns, Townsend TN

This was a great place to be on our lone drizzly day

 

HISTORY

Mill at Cades Cove

Ogle Cabin, Roaring Forks Loop, GSMNP

 

NATURE STUDIES

Along Newfound Gap Road, GSMNP

"Chimney Tops" as seen from Newfound Gap Rd, GSMNP


This guy (?) liked to hang out by our front door

Part of a series of pics entitled 'Butterflies on Bear Poop', taken in the Park. I spared you the graphic ones with the huge lumps.

 

ANIMAL BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

Coyote, Cades Cove

Bear cub, Cades Cove

This guy came to visit us almost every night. The kids named him Gregory. BAD Gregory!

 

REGIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

Taken from the tram up the hillside at Hillbilly Golf, Gatlinburg

More Hillbilly Golf. Cheapest fun in Gatlinburg!

 
Even more Hillbilly Golf. Where else can you play in a setting like this?

MUSIC
(cross-reference under 'Regional Cultural Studies")

Pre-show at the Dixie Stampede- our lone "touristy" splurge

We got lucky. Yes, it's Dolly, live and in person, if only briefly. She made a surprise appearance and did one song.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES

Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum, Gatlinburg, with over 20,000 shaker sets

P. E.

Picnic Area near Cades Cove, GSMNP

Picnic Area near Cades Cove, GSMNP

Hiking along the Appalachian Trail, GSMNP

Picnic Area, Gatlinburg, just outside the Park

Pigeon River, Hartford TN

FIRST AID

You have to be pretty talented to get smacked in the face by the T-bar end of your OWN paddle. I had help from a nasty rock.

And probably best of all,

RECESS!!!

Over the mountains through steep hairpin turns, to our lovely cabin we go... (Bluff Mtn, Wears Valley TN)

Breathtaking ...Why we chose this cabin

View from the deck

That was called, “Posting vacation pictures under the thinly veiled guise of a Weekly WrapUp.” I am clever like that.

When we got home, there was a garden to put in, so the kids & I did that. Log under "Nutritional Studies" and/or "Home Ec".

Now we’re on a relaxed “summer school” schedule, which for the time being consists of a little math and scrapbooking/ power-pointing our trip. (That’s language arts, layout/design, and computer skills, you know.) Although I must confess that after all that fun stuff, pulling out the math books this past Wednesday just seemed sort of wrong.

You can read more WrapUps here. (But they probably won’t be like this one.)

*******************************************************

Do I Like It Here or There? I Think I like It Everywhere!

Well. Life just gets more and more complicated. I try to quit HSB and try my hand at Blogger, and what does HSB do? Goes and upgrades to an entirely new, very user-friendly platform with all sorts of very cool bells and whistles including a pseudo-facebook feature. Now how am I supposed to leave?

 Ironically, when many HSB users were jumping ship to Blogger, I stayed. And at a time when many Blogger users have been jumping to Wordpress, I’ve finally jumped to Blogger… but now HSB itself has jumped to Wordpress. Is that fair? And if Blogger was a step or two above HSB, and Wordpress is a step or two above Blogger, then where on the scale does the new HSB/Wordpress hybrid fall? It’s all so… confusing. (Not really. I’m being melodramatic.)



I was keeping up my HSB blog for a while by double-posting the homeschool-oriented posts so they appeared both here and there. But when HSB converted to its new interface a few weeks ago, I was just too darn busy to deal with it. I’ve just been doing everything here. Not that it’s been a whole lot. But I have finally gone to play around over there a bit, and I have to admit, I like it. I might like it better than Blogger.


So... I’m still learning the ropes here, and now I have to decide whether I want to learn this new HSB-- and if so, whether I will continue to learn both or just quit Blogger while I’m still young at it. Decisions, decisions.


Meanwhile, all you Blogger users who found it so difficult to download and/or comment on the HSB blog-- go see what you think. Pull it up, try to comment, and tell me whether it's easier now. I'm just curious.


That’s my ramble for the day. Oh, and thanks to ComfyDenim for the inspiration for the title of this post.

*******************************************************

To Send or Not to Send (and I'm Not Talking About E-Mail)

We've been... (Wait. Is there a rule against beginning a blog post with a contraction? No? Okay, I didn't think so. Sorry; carry on.)

We've been undergoing the agonizing process of deciding whether to send Spaz to high school next year (as we did with his older sibs) or to homeschool him for high school. After more than a year of thinking and avoiding and contemplating and processing and PRAYING and thinking and avoiding some more, it's time to actually make the decision.

Okay, I know. It's well past time to have made the decision. We're very good at trying to prolong the inevitable. Why make a difficult decision in a timely manner when you can put it off until the very last minute? Procrastinating on such things keeps life interesting and stressful. You ought to try it.

Being a Person Who Thinks Too Much, I have long been compiling a mental list of Relevant Factors We Ought to Consider. And I have indeed been mentally considering said factors. Being a Person Who Likes to Have Everything on Paper or Screen, I have long intended to type out said mental list. Being a Person Who Procrastinates, I did this on the day that was my self-imposed deadline for making our decision. Being a Person Who Is Compulsively Persnickety About the Structure and Order of Any Written Material Including Lists, it took me forever to (being a Person Who Does Not Dangle Participles, I did not just almost write that) I spent a couple hours typing out said list.

And being a Person Who Ought to Write More Blog Posts, I have decided to turn my list into one and share it with you, for whatever it's worth.

Keep in mind that this is my kid and my family and my situation. "Your experience may vary." (Or, "Don't try this at home." Or something like that.)

Oh, one more thing- although we've considered both public school (for about two minutes) and charter school (for a little longer than two minutes), our decision has come down to homeschool or Christian school. Since this is West Michigan, we have approximately 73,000,000 Christian high schools within a 25-mile radius, but we've narrowed our choices to two: the reduced-tuition, socio-economically-diverse, becoming-college-prep urban Christian school that Biz & Cheez attended, and the full-tuition, very-homeschool-friendly, conservative, Classically-bent suburban Christian school that two of his friends attend.

That said, here's my banged-out, not-necessarily-comprehensive "list", just the way I typed it out for Hubz & myself. (Well, except for the blog names.) You'll be happy to note that it contains far fewer Randomly-Capitalized-and/or-Hyphenated Words than did this introduction.

Things to consider:

CHARACTER, FAITH, DISCIPLINE, ETC:


How would each option-- homeschool or Christian high school-- be likely to influence his spiritual and personal growth?


Is it time for a new “stage” in his life? Is it time to “release” him?


*Going to school would be another step away from us and toward independence. It would be an intermediate stage between homeschool and college /adult life.


*Our own personal limitations don’t allow us to be “everything” to our kids, esp as they get older. It may be time to enlist the help of “the village” to nurture faith & world view & leadership skills & discipline in ways that we can’t or don’t, and to release him to be more influenced by other (hopefully godly) adults as well as peers.


*He needs at his age to have other godly people speaking into his life besides just parents & grandparents. Do church/youth group and homeschool activities/classes provide enough of that? Would school provide too much?


*School provides more opportunities for both negative AND positive peer influence on his faith & character.


*Going to school, even Christian school, would provide an opportunity for him to be a little more “in the world” and deal with a few more issues of life while he is still under our guidance.


*At TPH, he is likely to be exposed to questionable views & media that one or both of us might feel is bad for him. Are we as parents equipped to deal with this and guide him in the right direction w/o alienating him or causing strife?


*Going to school would be a broadening experience-- for better or for worse?


*God has a call on his life, although we don’t know exactly what that is. Would one environment --homeschool or Christian school-- better equip him than the other to grow into that call?



PERSONAL, SOCIAL, & OTHER FACTORS :


*Going to school may leave less time and energy for pursuing his music.


*Does our family “fit in” at TPH? I've often felt like we don't. We aren’t urban, globally minded, or committed to diversity. Would we fit in at FCS? We don’t quite fit the conservative stereotype. At either place, would we feel at home? AND… does this really matter?


*Going to school would wrench him away from the homeschool friendships he’s formed, but he’d be likely to form other friendships that are just as good for him. This worked out fine with Biz & Cheez.



FAMILY:


How would each option impact our family?


*Would going to school pull him away from family? Would a little bit of pulling away actually be healthy for him & us? Is his relationship w/us strong enough to prevent pulling away to an unhealthy degree?


*If he goes to school, we would “lose” a certain dynamic & togetherness that we seem to finally have achieved as a family. But might this be OK? How much would we really be losing? Would we really lose it, or would it just change? Family life does go through different stages.


*If he goes to school, “what other parents do” would become much more important.


*If he goes to school, esp TPH, we’d be doing that “living in two worlds” thing. This felt very difficult to me with the other two. It was hard for me to “embrace” school & be involved, and I felt like the kid in school was more “separate” from our family.


*If he goes to school, Fuzz would get a lot of 1-on-1 time and might blossom better out of his shadow.


*Am I going to pursue a career or at least have some sort of paying job? If so, do I really want to commit to at least 4 more years of homeschooling?


*Spaz & Fuzz will be in high school together for a year or possibly two. We have to consider what we will do with her. Might we end up with kids in two different schools?


*Is homeschooling high school going to cause too much stress for Mom? I would have to be teacher, administrator, and guidance counselor!


*Will there be more tension in the home with him staying home or with him being in school?


*Would his relationship with Mom be better if I am only his mom and not his “schoolmaster”, too?




ACADEMICS/COLLEGE PREP:


Which option-- homeschool or high school-- is more likely to (a) prepare him for college and (b) foster a desire to go to college?


*Would I, with the help of outside &/or online classes and good resources, be able to give him a good high school education that will prepare him for college?


*Would I be good about “making” him do hard things in the classes I am in charge of? (He would always have outside classes in some subjects.)


*Is it true, as some claim, that the customized education and potential for independence provided by homeschooling is better preparation for college than conventional high school is?


*Is his lack of motivation & self-management going to be a bigger problem with school or with homeschooling?


* Would the rigors of high school academics be more likely to “burn him out” or “spur him on”?


*Would I do a good job with college admissions prep -- ACT, AP classes, dual enrollment, transcripts, etc?

And now, being a Person Who Ought to Go to Bed Soon, I am ending this post without much of a proper conclusion, except to say this: We did actually make the decision. Now we're giving ourselves that 3-day "buyer's remorse" period, also known as the Waffle Period or the Second-Guess Period. Okay, so it might be more like 5 days. Because we're very indecisive like that. Or wait-- maybe we're not. I don't know. At the very least, we tend to be kinda sorta tentative. I think.

***************************************************************************

Smoky Trips and Veggie Gardens and Other Random Things

Random, unedited thoughts for a neglected blog:

~~We (the four of us living at this house) just returned from a 6-day trip to the Smoky Mountains-- our first stay there and the first "big" family trip we'd taken since 2004. We cut our school year short by several weeks and went in May for the simple reason of Because We Can, taking advantage of off-season cabin rental rates and relatively low crowds. Our four days in the Smokies were very busy and very fun and very busy. (Notice I said it was a "trip", not a "vacation"! There is a difference. Although I keep calling it "vacation.") Busy or not, it was great to get away and have some family adventures. Now we are in that period known as "recovering from vacation trip."

And I'd like to blog about those adventures, by the way-- but don't hold your breath; you know how I am. Actually, I'd originally hoped to blog about them while we were there, but you can see how well that worked out.

~~Since our return, I've been busy (there's that word again) putting in my veggie garden. I am not a great gardener and had given up on it for the last couple years, but I am back at it with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. I really can't homeschool and live on three acres and not at least try to garden, now, can I? I'd already put in some cold-weather veggies about a month ago, which is highly significant since it marks the first time that I have ever actually gotten those in on time! Last night we ate our first home-grown salad of the year; woot, woot! Small successes are encouraging.

~~Cheez is on her own little vacation to California, visiting a not-previously-met-in-person internet friend of the male persuasion. We are so not happy about this. Supposedly there is an agreement in place that they are "just friends," period. One can only hope. Last night I happened "by accident" onto this article which, once I waded through all the stuff at the beginning and got to the father-of-prodigal-son part, was very timely and helpful in its perspective. (Oh, and I've decided that I am beyond worrying about what my blog-readers out in Happy BlogLand think. I think bloggers should just be real, so there.) Later edit: What Cheez failed to tell us, purposely or not, is that this guy still lives with his parents. She was staying with a FAMILY, not a guy with his own place. Okay, well that makes a big difference. We would have worried less. On the other hand, we'd probably have prayed less, too, so I suppose it's all good. (And they really ARE just friends.)

~~We need to make a decision in the next few days as to what Spaz will be doing for high school. With a huge homeschool community, a plethora of Christian schools, charter schools, and public school choice, the options in our area are many. We've pretty well narrowed it down to three, one of which is continuing to homeschool for high school. That is Spaz' first choice, but Hubz and I have very mixed feelings. We feel that it is probably time to "release" him into the world beyond our home while he is still living here under our guidance. Like most of the other things I've written so far in this post, this could easily fill an entire blog post in itself. But it won't.

~~I brought home two souvenirs from our trip: a T-shirt I bought at the National Park and a black eye I incurred on the last day when I was smacked in the face by the T-bar end of my paddle while whitewater rafting. (I am pretty sure I had help from a rock which caught my paddle.) It makes a great conversation starter. Now whenever anyone comes up to talk to me, I just stand there and wait for them to break off mid-snetence and say. "What on earth happened to you?" Then I get to tell them about our vacation trip. It actually works much better than a T-shirt.


You know, I am doing pretty well with the "unedited" thing. I snorted to myself when I typed it, but so far I have successfully managed, for the most part, to resist the Tweak-and-Edit-to-Death Monster.


~~Thursday night my bestest buds and I had our monthly dinner out. I like my friends. They are nice friends and easy to be real with, when one can get a word in edgewise. We have all known each other since our kids were little and we thought that homeschooling them would somehow keep them from ever making bad choices in life. Most of us have since learned otherwise, which is why it is easy for us to be real with each other.

~~We finally got the water hooked up on our new frig and are enjoying fresh cold water-from-the-frig door. This may indeed be very old technology, but it is a first for us.

And yes, I know that was a random useless comment of little value. I felt like I had to throw one of those in there. Here's another:

~~Yay, Lee! He and Crystal have been family favorites from the beginning (as was Siobhain), but I never thought he would make it past 5th or 6th. If I liked Siobhain because she reminds me of Cheez, I think I liked Lee because he reminds me of her high-school friend T, a great kid whom I love and miss. Same cute smile. Although I don't think T can sing very well. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay.

~~I am in sort of a quandary about the changes over at Homeschoolblogger, where my other blog still sits. I was already unsure about giving that one up entirely, and HSB's switch to Wordpress hosting is making it even more difficult. I want to go play over there and see what I can do with it, but I haven't even been there since the switchover. Heck, I have barely been here. It's hard to think about re-learning that one when I am still learning this one, and now I am back to trying to figure out which one to keep. I have a hard enough time keeping up on one blog, let alone two. I really ought to just keep... neither! Although I'm sure my 3.7 readers would be utterly crushed. *Sigh* Life is complicated.

~~I got a new puzzle book for our trip. I usually get Penny Press or Dell variety puzzle books, but this one is an Official. It's weird. The puzzles are similar but harder and... different somehow. I don't like it as much. However, it does have a great puzzle that I'd never had in previous books, a combination of sudoku and kakuro (cross-sums) called "sumoku". Fun stuff. Fuzz actually did one of these with me in a waiting room the other day. She's a kid after my own heart.

~~Last night while I was reading blogs and the guys were watching LOTR, Fuzz occupied herself by writing a book. Look for How to Plant an Elephant coming soon to a bookstore near you! (Not really, but it was fun to say.)

I guess I'm done now.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Manage to Get Some School Done In Spite of the Busyness of the Week

Forgot my Midweek Musings, of course. But hey, I managed to do it for a grand total of one consecutive week before missing! That's actually one time more than most of the things I think of posting.

As for Weekly WrapUp, I'm not even going to try to post anything even vaguely resembling a "normal" one. All you get is this...

Our week included:

*Spaz' first neurofeedback session... and his second, and his third... all of which required me to sit for an hour in a waiting room listening to "easy listening" music which has now been running non-stop through my brain all weekend. Ho-nes-teee is SUCH a lonely wo-ord / Ev-ry-one is soo untru-ue... There, now it will run through yours, too. You're welcome.

*An interview (at my request) with the principal of Biz & Cheez' alma mater, which may become Spaz' high school as well. The appointment was supposed to last 30 to 40 minutes, but we had such a good time talking that it ended up being two hours.

*Normal extra-curriculars --except soccer, which was rained out. Spaz was disappointed, but I was not. See above; it was nice to actually have an afternoon at home.

*Two math meltdowns by Fuzz.

*The crumbling of Communism. Well, I mean, we studied that.

*The conclusion, after four years, of four HUNDRED years of U.S. and world history. Yes, I know we are supposed to cover the entire gamut of world history, ancient to modern, in four years. We did that in six. We've taken our time with early modern and modern; there are just too many good books to read and I refused to rush through it.

*Seven surprisingly splendid summaries from Spaz, which superbly surpassed my satisfaction. I had him read a book called 1989: the Year the World Changed and write a 1/3-to-1/2-page summary of each chapter. (He'll finish this coming week.) The resulting mini-essays needed little-to-no editing, and they were --get this-- commited without any wailing or gnashing.

*Some other school stuff. By the way, we're wrapping up three to four weeks ahead of the local schools. Part of homeschooling is that lovely feeling of getting away with something.

*Printing up trail maps for the Smokies and going over them with Biz, who has been there several times.

*Sifitng through review after review after review online, trying to determine which vacation activities would be most worthwhile. (Some reviews required sifting through error after error, which didn't faze me for the most part. However, I'm not really sure I want to go to the place that is "defiantly recommended.")

*Gardening. I think I might just dig up all my established plants, start a garden elsewhere, and let the dandelions take over my existing flower bed. It might be easier than trying to eradicate said dandelions. On the positive side, the veggie gardening seems to be coming along well so far. Given my notorious brown thumb, that is a very pleasant surprise.

*Hosting a "reunion" party for Spaz and nine of his Friday school classmates. We set up several outdoor games, which were for the most part neglected in favor of playing Capture the Flag. That's okay, though. Besides, they used the Corn Toss bags for flags, so it's all good.

*Hosting a birthday party for my mom. Having two parties in one weekend actually works out pretty well, as much of the prep for the first carries over into the second. Like the other party, this one involved many noisy young people; thankfully, both also involved beautiful days, which kept much of the activity outside. (Although I did find out later on Facebook that one of the teenage-cousin activities involved my nieces hiding in our shower and throwing our dirty laundry around while my son chased them with a spray bottle. Nice.)

That was our busy, busy week. Whose crazy idea was it to plan a vacation during such a busy month, anyway? Oh yeah-- mine. And whose idea was it to start neurofeedback three times a week in that same month? Mine again. And who wanted to host two parties that month as well? Me. So I really can't complain about the busyness.

Coming up: an even busier week.

For more of this week's WrapUps, go here.

Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Have Our Heads Examined and Do Other Interesting Things

"I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again."

Two things by way of introduction: (1) Since I, for no apparent reason, failed to post a WrapUp last week, this one will have to cover the last two weeks. (2) In a desperate and perhaps futile attempt to make my WrapUp somewhat interesting, I am going to post it not in Day-by-Day form, nor in Subject-by-Subject form, but in Award-by-Award form. I suppose you are wondering what that means. I suppose you will have to read on to find out.

*Just to get it out of the way, I'll start with the dubious Stuff That Interrupted Our Educational Endeavors Award: There was a lot of competition here, but First Prize definitely has to go to Jury Duty, which kinda sorta defined the week before last. Although I ended up being gone only one day, I'd had to plan for two, so jury duty consumed one entire day and somewhat discombobulated another. (I love that word and use it often. No, not "another"; the word before it.)

This category also has a couple Honorable Mentions, the most interesting of which would be Going to Get Our Heads Examined. Because this is far too complicated to explain here, it'll suffice to say that Spaz and I went in on two separate afternoons to do our initial assessments for neurofeedback brain training. If you don't know what that is, you can read about it here or on countless other websites. I went to a seminar and did some web research, and I am pretty sold on it as a possible remedy for ADD-type issues. Spaz starts the program this coming week, and I may do it later.

The other Honorable Mention in this category would go to Visiting Another School. We're still in the process of deciding whether Spaz will stay home next year or go to high school, and school visits are part of the exploration process. Friday he visited the small, socio-economically diverse, income-based-tuition Christian school where Biz & Cheez spent their high school years. He felt comfortable there, which renders it a viable option. I could write several blog posts' worth about this whole big decision, although I'm sure I won't.


And now some awards for the Educational Endeavors themselves, because we really did have some...

*The Is This Really History? Award: We read about the Israeli wars and the oil embargo, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and Northern Ireland, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the deposing of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent rule of the Ayatollah. All of these things happened during my lifetime, and some of them I remember quite clearly. It feels odd to call such things "history". If I remember them, shouldn't they be called "current events"? Wasn't 1980 just a few years ago?

*The That Must Be A Really Good Book Award: I love it when "I have to read how many chapters today?" turns into "Hey Mom, I finished that book already!" Last Tuesday I returned from the library and handed the kids The Breadwinner, telling them they'd have to share it. Although written at about a 4th- or 5th-grade level, this story about an Afghani family living under the Taliban seemed a worthy book for Spaz to read as well as Fuzz. Initially they both grumbled about having to read it. But Spaz read it straight through that night in bed, and Fuzz had finished it by the following evening. So much for them having a week's worth of reading. (Here I would say, "End of story" --except that I've ordered the sequels.)

*The Pleasant Surprise Award: Spaz' writing assignments get the prize here. When his writing class ended in March, no small amount of dread accompanied my decision to revert back to the old Mom-makes-up-history-based-writing-assignments method. However, it has gone much better than I had anticipated. Using outlines from Story of the World, principles from IEW, and guidelines and comments from Yours Truly, he's written some pretty good stuff with minimal frustration. The week before last he finished up a 1-page assignment about Apartheid in South Africa and this past week he began writing about Iran and the Ayatollah.

*The Wow, It Works! Award: I mentioned last time that I instituted a credit/demerit system for being on time and staying on task and that in conjunction with that, I've been a bit less relaxed and more deliberate with our schedule. This has really seemed to make a positive difference for us. Hooray, I'm doing something right!!! I feel so... successful.

(Oh, side note-- I have moved from the stickers-on-my-hoodie method of tracking credits to the less-risky rubber-bands-on-my-wrist method. I am happy to report that I never did gallavant about town wearing the Sticker-Laden Hoodie of Dorkdom. Success again. I have gallavanted about town with a multitude of rubber bands on each wrist, but I actually think that makes me look kind of, you know, hip. It's, like, modern jewelry. Or maybe it just makes me look stupid, I don't know.)

*The Most Improved Award: Spaz, who has supposedly been teaching himself to play guitar via a DVD, made more progress in the past two weeks than he did in the three months before that. This might be because we finally jumped from playing one string at a time, as the DVD initially teaches, to learning chords. It might also be because I decided to sit with him and MAKE him practice them over and over again. (And the rubber band thing helps, too. He said so. Especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when American Idol viewing is at stake.) 

*The Pluggin' Away Award goes to Fuzz, because it isn't fair that Spaz gets all the press. Good ol' Fuzz meets and exceeds expectations pretty consistently, and that's worthy of mention.

*The Outdoor Chalkboard Award: Last Tuesday was a beautiful warm day, so Fuzz and I sat on the porch steps to read about amphibians. I was trying to teach her to take notes (something we've rather neglected with our relaxed approach to learning), so I had her fetch some sidewalk chalk and I used the front walk as a chalkboard. Until the rain washed it away a few days later, we were able to read about the metamorphosis of toads every time we walked past our full-length glass front doors.

*The Normally Abnormal Award goes to our Fridays. With my jury duty on one and Spaz' school visit on the other, we did not have normal school days on either Friday, which is normal. Two weeks ago we actually had a normal school day on Friday which, considering that it was the only "normal" Friday of this entire January-through-May term, was quite abnormal. Abnormal Fridays seem much more normal. On my jury duty day, the kids did independent school work and then hung out with Hubz at home and at the park. On Spaz' school visit day, Fuzz and I reverted to the science-and-art format we followed when Spaz had his Friday classes. We read from CKEB about reptiles in general and turtles in specific, and then we drew frogs from our nature drawing book. And we ate doughnuts.

*Last of all, the Anticipation Award: That would go to our upcoming 6-day vacation to the Smoky Mountains, for which we're cutting our school year short by several weeks. (Whereas most local schools get out June 11, we'll end our "regular" school year in just over a week. We do a little summer school, but it isn't nearly the same.) Meanwhile, we are really trying to make the most of what little time we have left. And by "we are," I of course mean "I am."

That's a Wrap, folks. You can read more WrapUps here.

Midweek Musings

I bet you think I am posting this on Saturday, but look, see? It is Wednesday. That's what Blogger says and Blogger doesn't lie. Ha. I love manipulating dates to make posts look like I posted them earlier than I actually did. Reality is whatever you make it out to be, or something like that. It's all about appearances posterity.


Well, whatever. I had to pretend to post this Wednesday because it is called "Midweek Musings" and Saturday is pretty much not midweek. Besides, I hate to look like I go a whole week between posts, even though I do.

And yeah, I know-- I could just call this post Saturday Snippets and we'd be good with the whole day-of-week thing. But I had already come up with the title and started to write the above on Friday before I got sidetracked by life and sleep, and now that it's there I kind of have to keep it because it amuses me. But more importantly, this can't be Saturday Snippets because Saturday is part of the weekend (in case you hadn't noticed), and weekends are when I supposedly (key word there) post my WrapUps, and we can't post WrapUps and Musings too closely in succession now, can we? Perhaps we could if I were one of those good bloggers who posts 5 or 6 times a week, but I'm not so we can't.

(Oh, and you are wondering if I noticed that I didn't do a WrapUp last week and whether I am going to do one this week, and you are also wondering whether I am ever going to finish my jury duty story. And I just don't have any answers for you. My blog is like my life; I am always behind and some things just don't get done. Right now I'm trying to do THIS, because this is what interests me at the moment. Yes, I do in fact have ADD; why do you ask?)

And you are also wondering (or I'm pretending you are, so humor me) what Midweek Musings might be. I'm getting to that.


I got to thinking that my facebook status updates-- my facebook musings, if you will-- are far more interesting and entertaining than anything I blog anymore. Whereas on my blog, I take a thought (or a billion or two) and feel like I have to expand on it, on a Facebook status I have to condense that thought down to its briefest essence. Given my tendency to think and talk write something to a slow and painful death,  that whole condensing thing really works well for me. Less is more, etc.

I also got to thinking that it's really a shame that, while a blog post is preserved forever (or at least until the blog host has a major nuclear meltdown and loses your whole blog), a facebook status is sort of... dust in the wind. Here today and tomorrow, but gone next week. Well, not really gone, but not so easily accessed. And I always think that I will end up incorporating my good Facebook stuff into blog posts where it can be read and appreciated by thousands hundreds tens more people, or at least better preserved for posterity, but I rarely do.

(Did someone say, "think and write something to a slow and painful death"? This post, like most of mine, is a case in point.)

And then I got to thinking about how I love the "weekly twitter updates" that appear weekly on one of the blogs I read, because they give a glimpse into the author's everyday life and because they make for very entertaining reading. And I think to myself, Well, I could do that. Not that I am her or anything, and not that my life is anywhere near as interesting as hers, but still, I could do that. (I could write books and curriculum like she does, too, if I really wanted to, but that's neither here nor there.) I may not tweet and I may not have "tools" that grab my FB updates and automatically compile them into a weekly blog post, but I could, you know, do it manually. Because I am just that... that... words escape me here. I am just that.

So here we are. My last couple of weeks in Facebook Status Updates, with a few imaginary ones (read: thought of but not posted) thrown in. But only through Wednesday, because, you know, that's what it is today. And yeah, I know that most of my blog readers (all 4.73 of you) are my facebook friends and therefore have read most of these anyway, but whatever. I'd like to think they are worth reading over and over again because I am, you know, just that. Here goes...


*I'm volunteering at the library book sale tomorrow, so as to not be outdone by my 11-year-old. She wanted to sign up to help, with or without me. How could I not let her? And then how could I not sign up, too? Oh, and when did she grow up like that? Wasn't she a toddler just a few days ago?




*I nabbed (among other things) a brand-new-looking copy of Cheaper By the Dozen at the library used book sale. The picture of Steve Martin on the cover really irritates me, as he and his stupid movie have nothing to do with the book. But I suppose it's nothing I can't fix with duct tape.




*Fuzz wants to keep reading for the last ten minutes of her break, but I told her to do something "active". So she's going up and down the stairs while reading. I hope this doesn't end badly...



*I remembered for once to get my cold-weather veggies in while the weather is still cold! Perhaps, despite my notoriously brown thumb, I will actually have some success with them and with veggie gardening in general this year. (Is that being hopeful or delusional?)




*Fuzz to Spaz: "Would you rather be able to speak three languages, or have the power to make a chair run outside and jump into the pond?" Where do my kids come up with this stuff?




*I think it is really funny that at the bottom of the "delivery failed" message from Mail Delivery Subsystem, gmail is telling me that i can "invite Mail Delivery Subsystem to chat." Really? That would be an interesting conversation. Or not. Maybe I should try it.




*Today I: tried to arrange for kids to go to a concert next week, only to find it had been cancelled; prepared for my absence tomorrow due to jury duty, only to find it had been cancelled; and made arrangements for my absence Friday due to jury duty, which for all I know will also end up being cancelled.




*I'm sad that Siobhan had to leave A.I. She was my favorite-- perhaps because, apart from that whole singing thing, she reminded me a lot of my own 19-year-old.



*Anita Renfroe with the girlfriends tonight-- lots of fun. Serving as juror on a DWI trial tomorrow-- no fun.




(SPOILER ALERT- Here's where I give away the ending of My Day as a Juror, Part Two. If you think I might actually post Part Two at some point, you may want to skip the following musing. Like you would really be able to now.)

*Sat through an overly long day of redundant testimony and excessive, hair-splitting questioning of witnesses, only to be randomly drawn at 5:30 pm as the "7th juror"-- the one who is dismissed prior to closing arguments in order to cull the jury down to six. I am really frustrated and disappointed and kinda ticked about that.



*(a) Still bummed about yesterday, despite having ingested copious amounts of chocolate, and (b) highly unmotivated about today, despite having imbibed several cups of coffee. Time to invoke my Keys To A Productive Saturday: Make a list and a plan, and turn the computer OFF. And make more coffee.



*Bribed The Boy to try a medium-length haircut. It hasn't been this short since he was 11. I knew that somewhere beneath all that hair there lurked a really good-looking kid!



*Two more solid weeks of schoolishness, then a week In Which We Wrap Up School and Get Ready For Vacation, then it's off to the Smokies!!! (Yes, we are cutting out several weeks early this year-- mostly Because We Can.)




*Note to self, for future reference: Before making copies, remove sticky note that says, "Make copies."




*Frank Sinatra night and no Siobhan. Two reasons I'm more interested in FB tonight than AI. Haven't yet heard anything worth the listen.




*Watching TV with a lightweight blanket over the screen is rather entertaining. You get light and colors and movement without the details. We have the executives of A.I. and their poor taste in guest entertainment to thank for this discovery.



So there. I have wanted to do a post like that for the longest time, and I finally have. Good for me. Now I need to turn the computer OFF and go make more coffee and a Saturday list.

(Oh wait. Isn't it actually Wednesday? Now I'm confused...)

My Life as a Juror, Part One

(Okay, so it really should be "My DAY as a Juror." That just doesn't have the same ring to it. So I took some, you know, editorial liberties with the title.)


Yesterday was a beautiful, gorgeous, warm spring day, and I spent most of it caged up in a windowless courtroom, doing my civic duty. It was an interesting and educational experience, and ultimately a... well… I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself here.


I’d been selected for this jury and another back at the beginning of April and, up until a few days prior, had almost kind of sort of been looking forward to it. I mean, think about it: I’d get to put on nice clothes and go somewhere and interact with other grown-ups and listen to intelligent courtroom dialogue (um, we’ll revisit that thought a little later) and participate in thoughtful discussions and help to make crucial decisions that would profoundly impact the lives of other people.


Well, okay. That last part made the whole thing a little scary. But then again, this was district court, where all the cases are misdemeanors and jail terms do not exceed one year. It wasn’t like I’d be helping to put somebody away for life or put some hardened criminal back on the streets or anything like that.


(Parenthetical Thought: It did occur to me that looking forward to jury duty as an opportunity to do something important and interesting with other adults is a little pathetic. It is probably a sign that I do, in fact, need a life. But hey. Jury duty would be a new experience, something different from the norm, and you know, variety is the spice of life and all that. Tell me I’m not pathetic for feeling positive about the chance to do something different, with a significance beyond my own four little walls.)


Anyway. As the time for the back-to-back trials approached, I found myself feeling much less anticipatory and much more apprehensive. Not just because jury duty disrupts the flow of my work week and requires extra preparation and arrangements-- I do, after all, have a job of some importance right here at home-- but because it is, well, heavy stuff. Receiving and concealing stolen property may not be a felony, but it is still a crime, and a year in jail is still a year in jail. And drunk driving is no small issue, either. What qualifies little old unassuming me to make decisions in such matters? Then again, somebody has to do it.


As it turns out, the receiving-&-concealing case was settled beforehand and never actually came to trial. That is not unusual; in fact, I’m told that it happens far more often than not in this court. (Of course, I didn’t get to find that out until the night before the scheduled trial, because that’s how jury duty rolls. I happily adjusted.) I wasn’t so lucky with the drunk-driving case… not that I thought I would be. The hard-hitting, intensely-questioning defense attorney in that case had made it perfectly clear that his client, as a Canadian arrested on a DWI while in the U.S. on business, had much at stake. It didn't seem likely to me that they'd settle out of court, and they didn't.


Oh, but it would have been so easy for me to have gotten off that jury in the first place. There is always a questioning process once the jury is selected, to give the lawyers opportunity to weed out those whom they, for whatever reason, don’t want on the jury. I, in all honesty, had itsy-bitsy negative thoughts about the defendant the moment I set eyes on him. All I’d have had to do was remark to the lawyer that “he looks guilty to me,” and I can almost guarantee you, I’d have been out of there.


Okay, that was kind of a joke. I wouldn’t have said that. I am able to set aside personal biases and opinions and be objective. Still, I came that close to not having to be on that jury. Each lawyer can dismiss up to three jurors (who would then be replaced by someone else in the pool) without apparent cause-- just because they don't like the size of your nose, or whatever; they don't have to give a reason. The defense attorney had grilled us all relentlessly about pretty much every irrelevant matter under the sun… and he had seemed to pick on me in particular. He’d even told me to just say so if I didn’t really want to be on that jury. Well, I didn’t, really-- all that interesting and significant stuff aside, who really wants to do jury duty?-- but I wasn’t about to be a shirker. I was willing. Still, I'd thought for certain that he’d dismiss me anyway.


He didn’t. Our jury of seven was deemed “satisfactory” by both lawyers, and we were given our slips and told to report back four weeks later for the trial. And so followed the weeks of angst and expectancy and trepidation, each in its turn, and then the night-before phone call to the courthouse recording confirming that the trial was indeed to proceed.


So there I was on this beautiful sunny day, locked with six strangers behind multiple sets of heavy doors in a room with bad coffee and mediocre donuts and not a single window, waiting for the trial to begin.


And here I stop, leaving you hanging until Part Two… because this post is already long enough, and because I am just mean like that, and because I want to pretend that you have all even made it this far and will be going insane with curiosity and anticipation.