In case you haven't read it yet, here are parts One and Two.
Mister Twister had that S.A.F.E. day last Friday, the 30th; he didn't earn enough points to get out, and so was given another day. Due to state testing, he was to go to S.A.F.E. again on Wednesday (two days ago) - and again, he did not earn his way out. He was close but missed it by 7 points. So, the procedure is to try again the next day. Thursday, May 6th: according to the teacher, the boy did nothing all day other than to say the pledge and listen to morning announcements. 50 points is the goal to get out of this program - Thursday, he only earned 2 points. TWO. All day, for 7 hours, nothing.
Now, any student referred to S.A.F.E. is given a list of work to do from their specific teachers - Mister Twister here had a full packet of work to be done in those 7 hours. 14 hours if you count Wednesday, which is when the work was first given to him! And he didn't do it? The coordinator basically said that he barely tried to do any of it (and he has corroborated this).
And because of this, the boy was suspended from school for one day - today, Friday, May 7th.
Neither his father nor I were ever *suspended* - what the hell did we do wrong?!? Well, a few things we feel we did right are the discipline for this development, and having today at home run on the regular S.A.F.E. schedule. The coordinator sent home with him all the work from Thursday plus her sheet on which the teachers wrote what was to be done. Our day today was quite productive thanks to this, and he still has one more day in S.A.F.E. for the forgery. He knows - as do we - that he can get those 50 points easily and has promised to do so.
His work was not hard:
-Language Arts - vocabulary from The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle; note major plot points throughout the book
-Reading - read up to p.84 in The Dark is Rising (he was on p.90 already)
-Social Studies - test review (they're in the Asia chapter)
-Math - a packet on integers
-Science - (her class had a test review; he was there, so no work from her was sent home)
He started at 8 this morning, just after I had dropped his sister off at school. I gave him the same scheduled breaks he had in S.A.F.E. and we ate lunch together around noon. [start sarcasm] Amazingly, he finished every bit of that work by 3 this afternoon! [/end sarcasm] He now knows that his next S.A.F.E. day will be the last... he can earn the 50 points *and* finish all the work given in 7 hours. Here's to hoping! :-)
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
On another note, Mother's Day is here and tomorrow I am having Mom and my MIL over for tea with Miss Hurricane and me. There will be at least one picture from this event! Sunday I will spend offline hanging out with my wonderful husband and super kids. Maybe I'll sew a little bit; Miss Hurricane has a blanket in the works and I think she reeeeeeeeeeally wants me to finish it before we move. Crossing my fingers.
Have a great weekend! Do what you can to thank your favorite moms for being wonderful women. :)
Namaste
~Mama Amphitrite
Friday, May 7
Crime and Punishment - Part Two
So, in Part One of this story I said I'd post his sentences for the new vocabulary words I gave him. Here they are, just as he wrote them:
forgery - "Forgery would be like; putting your name on someone else's document[s], or (like I did) put someone's name on one of your documents."
falsify - "One time I tried to falsify my friends in hide and seek by making noises and throwing rocks to the wrong place."
imitate - "In V the invaders' use masks to mak them look like copies of humans."
fraudulent - "I have been fraudulent to mom and dad for about 8 years. (I never do like it.)"
violate - "I have violated my promise to {redacted by me, if you know him IRL you know what he's talking about here} [too] many times."
criminal - "A criminal is a person who commits a crime that defies a law, or rule and is sentenced to jail."
plagiarism - "by the time you read this I will have plagiarised over half the definitions."
culpable - "friday, dad said that and I quote, 'but you're still culpable'."
misconduct - "I misconduct myself at (the majority of the time) home."
misdemeanor - "LAW & ORDER: misdemeanor = selling drugs. felony = killing of 4 cops."
(He watched this episode (S20E17) with us, which aired the previous evening.)
Mercy, this child seriously needs to work on grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling, editing... did I miss anything? There are a few sentences above which either make little sense, or he missed the mark completely. (Homeschooling friends - any free links that could help, email or facebook them my way please? :D Thanks in advance!)
Oh, but he's got the smart aleck part down pat. Did you see those? Oh. My. Gosh.
**HOWEVER**
There is a Part Three to this story. I'm writing it now and will link it in this post once it's ready.
~A
forgery - "Forgery would be like; putting your name on someone else's document[s], or (like I did) put someone's name on one of your documents."
falsify - "One time I tried to falsify my friends in hide and seek by making noises and throwing rocks to the wrong place."
imitate - "In V the invaders' use masks to mak them look like copies of humans."
fraudulent - "I have been fraudulent to mom and dad for about 8 years. (I never do like it.)"
violate - "I have violated my promise to {redacted by me, if you know him IRL you know what he's talking about here} [too] many times."
criminal - "A criminal is a person who commits a crime that defies a law, or rule and is sentenced to jail."
plagiarism - "by the time you read this I will have plagiarised over half the definitions."
culpable - "friday, dad said that and I quote, 'but you're still culpable'."
misconduct - "I misconduct myself at (the majority of the time) home."
misdemeanor - "LAW & ORDER: misdemeanor = selling drugs. felony = killing of 4 cops."
(He watched this episode (S20E17) with us, which aired the previous evening.)
Mercy, this child seriously needs to work on grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling, editing... did I miss anything? There are a few sentences above which either make little sense, or he missed the mark completely. (Homeschooling friends - any free links that could help, email or facebook them my way please? :D Thanks in advance!)
Oh, but he's got the smart aleck part down pat. Did you see those? Oh. My. Gosh.
**HOWEVER**
There is a Part Three to this story. I'm writing it now and will link it in this post once it's ready.
~A
Sunday, May 2
Crime and Punishment
Today, I am not talking about the Dostoevsky novel ... no, I mean right here in our household.
Our son, Mister Twister, is in the sixth grade. He's been a great student; a good kid, also a smart kid who usually gets an A or A- on most tests. One problem that he's had since homework started for him a few years ago is not turning said homework in, either on time or at all. Well, around here, sixth grade is the beginning of middle school. (This child will be 12 in August.) So amid the work required for his core classes - language arts/english, maths, science and social studies - we also are dealing with the beginning of pubescence and all the hormonal junk that goes with that.
Currently, we have about a month of school left. I believe I have mentioned before that he has had detention twice since the beginning of the school year; it's worked out to about once every 12 weeks (the year is 4 [9-week] quarters). Per his school handbook, any student who misses two consecutive detentions "wins" a day in SAFE (Suspension And Failure Eliminated - it's like in-school suspension).
Guess who had a SAFE day on Friday?
Also guess who did *not* know about this until after school started?
While Poseidon and I were out running errands around 10:30 a.m., the school's SAFE coordinator called me to let me know about a new development in this story. It seems that, as best she could tell, Mister Twister had given her a paper - which was supposed to have been seen and signed by a parent and returned to her (or one of the student's teachers) - on which the signature looked like it was not signed by me or his dad. "I tried the phone number listed here, and that turned out to be a business; they said there was no one there by the name [my name]. It really looks like forgery by [our clever son], and for that he'll have to serve another day in SAFE. I will send home another sheet for you to sign and he needs to return it Monday."
Really, son? Seriously? Awesome. 
So, after talking with her I told Poseidon about this interesting new development. You see, Mister Twister had mentioned *nothing* to us about a detention (to have been served on April 15), *nothing* about the detention make-up (April 22), and not a word about SAFE (April 30). The boy, however, knew about the SAFE paper for a full week - it was sent home Monday, April 26. Honestly, we both laughed because otherwise, we may have cried in frustration.
And it was at this moment that we began plotting a punishment which would absolutely fit the crime.
Luckily for him, we know that grounding and taking away beloved objects and priveleges no longer work.
Unluckily for him, I like writing and have seen his penmanship.
- I wanted to give him a word list and a dictionary, or take him to the library rather than let him use any electronic dictionary or website. I spent part of Friday evening and part of Saturday coming up with a word list for him, which would consist entirely of words related to the incident (listed and linked below if you'd like to see them).
- Friday night, we sat down with him and each of us printed, then signed, our own names. In this way he was able to see that anyone can print anyone's name, but a signature is something you *own*; something by which a person means "yes, this is *my* name in *my* handwriting". My own signature is quite unique, in that I practiced and consistently use an older style of my last name's first letter. It would be very hard to copy - which prompted the phone call in the first place. LOL.
- Saturday, he would help his dad finish the bathroom floor. We have been working on the bathroom this week, and all that was left by Friday night was the floor tile - self-adhesive linoleum. They finished it by dinnertime.
- No gaming for the weekend. This meant only no XBox and no Wii, including not helping Miss Hurricane if she needed help (like she does in Halo or Banjo Kazooie). We did let him use his Ipod Touch for reading or watching youtube videos.
It's just after 6 p.m. now and he's almost finished with the writing assignment I gave him. I looked up the words, chose the fitting definition and gave him the listed origin of each word. After each word, he is to write a short paragraph - a few sentences - using the word correctly to prove that he does understand what it means. Afterward, he also has to write two apology letters - one to the SAFE coordinator, and one to the teacher who referred him to SAFE (they mailed us a letter with her name as the referring admin).
The word list, with links I used:
forgery, definition 1
falsify, definition 1
imitate, definition 4
fraudulent, definition 2
violate, definition 1
criminal, definitions 1 & 4
culpable
misdemeanor, both definitions
misconduct, definitions 1 & 4
plagiarism, both definitions
Fun stuff, huh? I'm such a mean mom. Better he get used to it now though. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
(While I was linking, he brought his finished work to me. Now all that's left is the apology letter. I'll update this in a couple days.)
I hope you had a good weekend - ours was crazily rainy!
Namaste =)
Our son, Mister Twister, is in the sixth grade. He's been a great student; a good kid, also a smart kid who usually gets an A or A- on most tests. One problem that he's had since homework started for him a few years ago is not turning said homework in, either on time or at all. Well, around here, sixth grade is the beginning of middle school. (This child will be 12 in August.) So amid the work required for his core classes - language arts/english, maths, science and social studies - we also are dealing with the beginning of pubescence and all the hormonal junk that goes with that.
Currently, we have about a month of school left. I believe I have mentioned before that he has had detention twice since the beginning of the school year; it's worked out to about once every 12 weeks (the year is 4 [9-week] quarters). Per his school handbook, any student who misses two consecutive detentions "wins" a day in SAFE (Suspension And Failure Eliminated - it's like in-school suspension).
Guess who had a SAFE day on Friday?
Also guess who did *not* know about this until after school started?
While Poseidon and I were out running errands around 10:30 a.m., the school's SAFE coordinator called me to let me know about a new development in this story. It seems that, as best she could tell, Mister Twister had given her a paper - which was supposed to have been seen and signed by a parent and returned to her (or one of the student's teachers) - on which the signature looked like it was not signed by me or his dad. "I tried the phone number listed here, and that turned out to be a business; they said there was no one there by the name [my name]. It really looks like forgery by [our clever son], and for that he'll have to serve another day in SAFE. I will send home another sheet for you to sign and he needs to return it Monday."
Really, son? Seriously? Awesome. 
So, after talking with her I told Poseidon about this interesting new development. You see, Mister Twister had mentioned *nothing* to us about a detention (to have been served on April 15), *nothing* about the detention make-up (April 22), and not a word about SAFE (April 30). The boy, however, knew about the SAFE paper for a full week - it was sent home Monday, April 26. Honestly, we both laughed because otherwise, we may have cried in frustration.
And it was at this moment that we began plotting a punishment which would absolutely fit the crime.
Luckily for him, we know that grounding and taking away beloved objects and priveleges no longer work.
Unluckily for him, I like writing and have seen his penmanship.
- I wanted to give him a word list and a dictionary, or take him to the library rather than let him use any electronic dictionary or website. I spent part of Friday evening and part of Saturday coming up with a word list for him, which would consist entirely of words related to the incident (listed and linked below if you'd like to see them).
- Friday night, we sat down with him and each of us printed, then signed, our own names. In this way he was able to see that anyone can print anyone's name, but a signature is something you *own*; something by which a person means "yes, this is *my* name in *my* handwriting". My own signature is quite unique, in that I practiced and consistently use an older style of my last name's first letter. It would be very hard to copy - which prompted the phone call in the first place. LOL.
- Saturday, he would help his dad finish the bathroom floor. We have been working on the bathroom this week, and all that was left by Friday night was the floor tile - self-adhesive linoleum. They finished it by dinnertime.
- No gaming for the weekend. This meant only no XBox and no Wii, including not helping Miss Hurricane if she needed help (like she does in Halo or Banjo Kazooie). We did let him use his Ipod Touch for reading or watching youtube videos.
It's just after 6 p.m. now and he's almost finished with the writing assignment I gave him. I looked up the words, chose the fitting definition and gave him the listed origin of each word. After each word, he is to write a short paragraph - a few sentences - using the word correctly to prove that he does understand what it means. Afterward, he also has to write two apology letters - one to the SAFE coordinator, and one to the teacher who referred him to SAFE (they mailed us a letter with her name as the referring admin).
The word list, with links I used:
forgery, definition 1
falsify, definition 1
imitate, definition 4
fraudulent, definition 2
violate, definition 1
criminal, definitions 1 & 4
culpable
misdemeanor, both definitions
misconduct, definitions 1 & 4
plagiarism, both definitions
Fun stuff, huh? I'm such a mean mom. Better he get used to it now though. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
(While I was linking, he brought his finished work to me. Now all that's left is the apology letter. I'll update this in a couple days.)
I hope you had a good weekend - ours was crazily rainy!
Namaste =)
Sunday, April 25
Make a new plan, Stan
Yes, I've been singing this song all day now. I like Paul Simon though, so it's okay!
Poseidon and I spent Saturday morning crunching numbers and deciding which was the best way to move a family of four across the country. After two hours of writing, adding, subtracting and bouncing ideas around, we made the decision to fly everyone out instead of the cross-country drive we were hoping to make. We will still make that drive, but are now saving it for a future visit back home in a year or two.
So, here's our new plan for leading up to The Big Move:
This weekend, we've listed things on Ebay that were going to be sold anyway.
May 2-8: ship everything sold there, list other things on Craigslist.
May 8-9: Mother's Day weekend - for the last two years, I have had Mom and my mother-in-law over for a "tea party" the day before the holiday; this year I may still be able to do that, and I also want to invite a wonderful lady who used to work with Poseidon (she retired in January) and our landlady (if she isn't busy with her daughter).
May 14: be totally finished with Ebay and Craigslist selling and shipping.
May 15: yard sale! (Let me know if you need our address! LOL) We're selling off almost everything, as we've mostly decided what we actually *are* moving out to Portland with us.
May 18: the kids are out of school for primary elections, so we might just set any yard sale "leftovers" out and try to get all of it sold.
May 22-31: we are hoping to box up most of our non-essentials, and store them at Mom's house for a while. (Things like winter clothes and heavy blankets, stuff we won't need for a few months.) Dad said he'd ship these out to us once we've found a place to live out there.
May 31: our last day in this house! We'll turn in the keys and hug all our neighbors who will be missed!
June 1-3: the kids' last 3 days of school. Still working on the actual plan for getting them back and forth for these days, but it *is* only 3 days.
After school on the 3rd, we'll all head over to my in-laws' place and camp out there for a week; we hope to use this week for some visiting and goodbyes with friends too. June 10th we'll head north and spend a week with my parents, during which time we'll sell the car and have visiting with all the folks up there. We're tentatively scheduling ourselves to fly out on June 17th. That's just the date we used to get estimates in figuring out just how to get moved; however we do still hope to be in Portland by July 1st. Everything leading up to the end of the school year is pretty well set now, and as it gets closer we'll finalize the details for June. I will still keep this updated as originally planned!
Now, we have much to do and little time left in which to do it all! Have a great week everyone =)
Enjoy some music from my library:
Love and blessings,
Amphitrite
Poseidon and I spent Saturday morning crunching numbers and deciding which was the best way to move a family of four across the country. After two hours of writing, adding, subtracting and bouncing ideas around, we made the decision to fly everyone out instead of the cross-country drive we were hoping to make. We will still make that drive, but are now saving it for a future visit back home in a year or two.
So, here's our new plan for leading up to The Big Move:
This weekend, we've listed things on Ebay that were going to be sold anyway.
May 2-8: ship everything sold there, list other things on Craigslist.
May 8-9: Mother's Day weekend - for the last two years, I have had Mom and my mother-in-law over for a "tea party" the day before the holiday; this year I may still be able to do that, and I also want to invite a wonderful lady who used to work with Poseidon (she retired in January) and our landlady (if she isn't busy with her daughter).
May 14: be totally finished with Ebay and Craigslist selling and shipping.
May 15: yard sale! (Let me know if you need our address! LOL) We're selling off almost everything, as we've mostly decided what we actually *are* moving out to Portland with us.
May 18: the kids are out of school for primary elections, so we might just set any yard sale "leftovers" out and try to get all of it sold.
May 22-31: we are hoping to box up most of our non-essentials, and store them at Mom's house for a while. (Things like winter clothes and heavy blankets, stuff we won't need for a few months.) Dad said he'd ship these out to us once we've found a place to live out there.
May 31: our last day in this house! We'll turn in the keys and hug all our neighbors who will be missed!
June 1-3: the kids' last 3 days of school. Still working on the actual plan for getting them back and forth for these days, but it *is* only 3 days.
After school on the 3rd, we'll all head over to my in-laws' place and camp out there for a week; we hope to use this week for some visiting and goodbyes with friends too. June 10th we'll head north and spend a week with my parents, during which time we'll sell the car and have visiting with all the folks up there. We're tentatively scheduling ourselves to fly out on June 17th. That's just the date we used to get estimates in figuring out just how to get moved; however we do still hope to be in Portland by July 1st. Everything leading up to the end of the school year is pretty well set now, and as it gets closer we'll finalize the details for June. I will still keep this updated as originally planned!
Now, we have much to do and little time left in which to do it all! Have a great week everyone =)
Enjoy some music from my library:
Love and blessings,
Amphitrite
Friday, April 9
We've been kinda busy
In just a few weeks we'll be packing up to move! Lots of things that have to be done around here in the meantime. So here's a quick little update on things, and a rough timeline of when it's all going to happen...
Just want to mention my father-in-law Ty (that's going to be his blog nickname now!). About 6 weeks ago, he was rushed to the ICU and no one knew what was going on - or if he would even survive this ordeal. Incredibly scary time for the first week, for all of us, but especially my mother- and sisters-in-law. Thanks to modern medicine and some seriously skilled medical staff, and his own good health, Ty recovered with no lasting effects! He's back to the Ty we know and love =D
The kids were on Spring Break recently and we spent the week at home. We did have plans to go to a few places, but my back started hurting - for the first time in my life - and I spent most of my time laying on the hardwood floor in the living room. I haven't been seen by a doctor, but I'm guessing it had something to do with my sciatic nerve (not something I've ever dealt with, my guess is based on a Google image search - I could see that yes, that's where the pain is); all the pain is on my right side. No fun. Now even a week later I'm still in a little pain, but it is much better and I can move around all by myself now! Thankfully Poseidon was home too and he is a *wonderful* Mr. Mom.
Last week was the first anniversary of my friend Timmy's passing. Not a nice anniversary to remember, but it was good to be reminded and to think about him for a while, and to send out love and comforting thoughts to his family. The gang got together up north to have a little party for him - he is very much loved and missed.
A few days ago the weather finally warmed up enough for me to swap out the seasons in our closets. I asked Poseidon to get the boxes out of the attic for me, and when I was able to stand (or sit sometimes) with little pain, I worked on moving batches of clothes around. The kids helped with theirs and I did our closets. Blankets and outerwear are the last things to be put up, and I'll have him do that. In the meantime, our living room is a bit of a mess because it has taken me almost a week to get everything sorted and picked through - there are many things that each kid has outgrown, so we have "yard sale", "ebay" and "craigslist" piles and boxes laying around too. That is the only downside to storing off-season clothing... the weeklong mess that inevitably ensues!
Yesterday I had my Spring conference with Miss Hurricane's teacher. There was a singing performance a couple weeks ago, and I have a picture of them together which will be up soon (I'll come back and edit it in). The kids were awesome, and I got some good videos too. Due to school district rules I will *not* be posting the videos online, but we can put it on a disk to be viewed on a DVD player =)
Anyway, the conference went well, as expected. This child is very intelligent (like her father) but can space out at times, and socialize too much (like her mother). She's a good mix of us LOL! Mrs. B. said Miss Hurricane would be well on her way to a creative arts school here in town if we were staying, and told me to let her know if the Portland schools need or want recommendation for the same once we move.
Mrs. B. also works with a lady who attends church with my in-laws, and knew about the last month. She was so happy to hear that he has fully recovered =) All in all it was a good conference. Miss Hurricane scored pretty high on the state-issued tests so far this year and will be moving on to 2nd grade. A very creative child she is, and we have some of her work to scan and I'll post those here as well.
For the move itself, we're going to look into a few options and see how we can save the most money in the process. We went out today, and on the way home ended up behind an RV - with a website on the back. That's an option we hadn't thought of, and we have it bookmarked to get more information about that. Luckily we won't be taking much - we wanted to get rid of our couch and the kids' bunk bed anyway, so those won't be coming with us. And being renters, we don't have large appliances to haul along! So now we're getting things ready to sell and going as minimalist as we can. We want to have everything (not couch or beds yet) sold by mid-May to give ourselves two weeks to pack the rest. Here's the loose timeline:
May 15 or 22 - yard sale. I'm going to talk to our neighbours and see if anyone else wants to set things out for a street-long sale day.
June 1st - have all furniture gone that wasn't sold and we aren't taking with us.
June 2nd - last grocery trip and making sure the house is all packed (minus two days necessitites).
June 3rd - kids' last day of school.
June 4th (morning) - turn in keys to landlady and say our goodbyes to neighbours and friends here.
June 4th (afternoon) - we'll head over to his parent's place and stay for a week or so - likely camping the yard or the awesome treehouse :D But we figure this will give everyone who wants to see us a chance to visit a little while we're still in town.
June 10/11 or thereabouts we will leave to stay a week or so with my parents. My family is bigger (*tons* of aunts/uncles/cousins) and there are more relatives involved, so that week will probably be very busy and nonstop with people coming and going. Glad Mom has a huge yard!
June 17/18 or so we'll leave Mom's and head to his brother's house in Detroit. Depending on how well they like us (LOL) we may stay only a few days... ;)
We will head west from Detroit and we *will* be blogging along the way! Even if it's only a quick post, we are absolutely going to post something daily once we leave Detroit. Be sure to bookmark this page, and if you use Twitter I'll post links there too (that address will come soon). I know some of my friends homeschool, and I'll keep that in mind for pics and links if we visit historical places - I may even take requests!
We're still obviously in the early stages of planning this trip, but we (kids included) do want to see as much as we can without wearing ourselves out too much, or spending too much money along the way. We're thinking we may try to camp a few times if we can find a free/really cheap campground! We are also going to let the kids handle picture-taking while we drive. One of us adults will take pics when we stop somewhere, you'll probably easily pick out who took which quickly... LOL. So far we have only Mount Rushmore on the list, but I have a list with a map and I'm looking for at least one place per state - allowing 2 for Montana because, well, it's a big state.
We are hoping to be in Portland by July 1st but will be taking our time enough to ensure we *get* there. The schools there start right after Labor Day, so we'll have a couple of months to settle and figure everything out while helping the kids do the same. Unfortunately, I will miss one cousin in all this. He's still in Iraq and will have a 2wk R&R in mid-June, but I do want to be there with his wife to welcome him home when this tour is up! They will be the only family nearby.... and they're a few hours' drive away. The flip side to this is I already have some friends in the city there - fellow mothers - so we aren't totally throwing ourselves to the wolves. =)
In the time I've sat here to write, my back has started hurting again, so I'm going to stake out a good place on the floor. We may go out hiking this weekend, and I hope you have a great weekend too!
Blessings,
Amphitrite
Just want to mention my father-in-law Ty (that's going to be his blog nickname now!). About 6 weeks ago, he was rushed to the ICU and no one knew what was going on - or if he would even survive this ordeal. Incredibly scary time for the first week, for all of us, but especially my mother- and sisters-in-law. Thanks to modern medicine and some seriously skilled medical staff, and his own good health, Ty recovered with no lasting effects! He's back to the Ty we know and love =D
The kids were on Spring Break recently and we spent the week at home. We did have plans to go to a few places, but my back started hurting - for the first time in my life - and I spent most of my time laying on the hardwood floor in the living room. I haven't been seen by a doctor, but I'm guessing it had something to do with my sciatic nerve (not something I've ever dealt with, my guess is based on a Google image search - I could see that yes, that's where the pain is); all the pain is on my right side. No fun. Now even a week later I'm still in a little pain, but it is much better and I can move around all by myself now! Thankfully Poseidon was home too and he is a *wonderful* Mr. Mom.
Last week was the first anniversary of my friend Timmy's passing. Not a nice anniversary to remember, but it was good to be reminded and to think about him for a while, and to send out love and comforting thoughts to his family. The gang got together up north to have a little party for him - he is very much loved and missed.
A few days ago the weather finally warmed up enough for me to swap out the seasons in our closets. I asked Poseidon to get the boxes out of the attic for me, and when I was able to stand (or sit sometimes) with little pain, I worked on moving batches of clothes around. The kids helped with theirs and I did our closets. Blankets and outerwear are the last things to be put up, and I'll have him do that. In the meantime, our living room is a bit of a mess because it has taken me almost a week to get everything sorted and picked through - there are many things that each kid has outgrown, so we have "yard sale", "ebay" and "craigslist" piles and boxes laying around too. That is the only downside to storing off-season clothing... the weeklong mess that inevitably ensues!
Yesterday I had my Spring conference with Miss Hurricane's teacher. There was a singing performance a couple weeks ago, and I have a picture of them together which will be up soon (I'll come back and edit it in). The kids were awesome, and I got some good videos too. Due to school district rules I will *not* be posting the videos online, but we can put it on a disk to be viewed on a DVD player =)
Anyway, the conference went well, as expected. This child is very intelligent (like her father) but can space out at times, and socialize too much (like her mother). She's a good mix of us LOL! Mrs. B. said Miss Hurricane would be well on her way to a creative arts school here in town if we were staying, and told me to let her know if the Portland schools need or want recommendation for the same once we move.
Mrs. B. also works with a lady who attends church with my in-laws, and knew about the last month. She was so happy to hear that he has fully recovered =) All in all it was a good conference. Miss Hurricane scored pretty high on the state-issued tests so far this year and will be moving on to 2nd grade. A very creative child she is, and we have some of her work to scan and I'll post those here as well.
For the move itself, we're going to look into a few options and see how we can save the most money in the process. We went out today, and on the way home ended up behind an RV - with a website on the back. That's an option we hadn't thought of, and we have it bookmarked to get more information about that. Luckily we won't be taking much - we wanted to get rid of our couch and the kids' bunk bed anyway, so those won't be coming with us. And being renters, we don't have large appliances to haul along! So now we're getting things ready to sell and going as minimalist as we can. We want to have everything (not couch or beds yet) sold by mid-May to give ourselves two weeks to pack the rest. Here's the loose timeline:
May 15 or 22 - yard sale. I'm going to talk to our neighbours and see if anyone else wants to set things out for a street-long sale day.
June 1st - have all furniture gone that wasn't sold and we aren't taking with us.
June 2nd - last grocery trip and making sure the house is all packed (minus two days necessitites).
June 3rd - kids' last day of school.
June 4th (morning) - turn in keys to landlady and say our goodbyes to neighbours and friends here.
June 4th (afternoon) - we'll head over to his parent's place and stay for a week or so - likely camping the yard or the awesome treehouse :D But we figure this will give everyone who wants to see us a chance to visit a little while we're still in town.
June 10/11 or thereabouts we will leave to stay a week or so with my parents. My family is bigger (*tons* of aunts/uncles/cousins) and there are more relatives involved, so that week will probably be very busy and nonstop with people coming and going. Glad Mom has a huge yard!
June 17/18 or so we'll leave Mom's and head to his brother's house in Detroit. Depending on how well they like us (LOL) we may stay only a few days... ;)
We will head west from Detroit and we *will* be blogging along the way! Even if it's only a quick post, we are absolutely going to post something daily once we leave Detroit. Be sure to bookmark this page, and if you use Twitter I'll post links there too (that address will come soon). I know some of my friends homeschool, and I'll keep that in mind for pics and links if we visit historical places - I may even take requests!
We're still obviously in the early stages of planning this trip, but we (kids included) do want to see as much as we can without wearing ourselves out too much, or spending too much money along the way. We're thinking we may try to camp a few times if we can find a free/really cheap campground! We are also going to let the kids handle picture-taking while we drive. One of us adults will take pics when we stop somewhere, you'll probably easily pick out who took which quickly... LOL. So far we have only Mount Rushmore on the list, but I have a list with a map and I'm looking for at least one place per state - allowing 2 for Montana because, well, it's a big state.
We are hoping to be in Portland by July 1st but will be taking our time enough to ensure we *get* there. The schools there start right after Labor Day, so we'll have a couple of months to settle and figure everything out while helping the kids do the same. Unfortunately, I will miss one cousin in all this. He's still in Iraq and will have a 2wk R&R in mid-June, but I do want to be there with his wife to welcome him home when this tour is up! They will be the only family nearby.... and they're a few hours' drive away. The flip side to this is I already have some friends in the city there - fellow mothers - so we aren't totally throwing ourselves to the wolves. =)
In the time I've sat here to write, my back has started hurting again, so I'm going to stake out a good place on the floor. We may go out hiking this weekend, and I hope you have a great weekend too!
Blessings,
Amphitrite
Wednesday, March 24
**Politics/Religion Warning** Yes, it's THAT kind of post, my friends.
I got an email from one of my aunts yesterday. I thought about replying to her (and about 7 others to whom she forwarded this email), but decided that I only knew half of those people so I brought it over here. They'll find it eventually if they are so inclined.
Here's the email I recieved: President Obama removing his shoes before entering the Blue Mosque
Thank you, Barbara and David!
[Now, I didn't think to check Snopes immediately, so I started poking around online to try to briefly address the religious side of the whole thing (my entire family was raised in the Christian faith, myself included). Here's what I found - and bear in mind, I never took a journalism/history/religion/political class or anything beyond high school. I'm not a researcher or teacher... I just play one on the internet.] :P
Anyway, this is what I almost sent back to all of them....
Quick history lesson:
Atheists and believers have been around since the dawn of time. There has likely been at least one person on Earth at any given time in history who didn't believe there was *something* out there bigger than himself. Judaism was founded around 1300 B.C., which is about 3300 years ago. Then Christianity, which I'm sure you all know the most about. Next up, Islam - whose followers are called Muslims - was founded about 1300 A.D., or 700ish years ago. Later on came Hinduism and Hare Krishna, and so on throughout time. I'll go into these a little more at the bottom.
SO, about President Obama and 'the scary Muslim picture'. Who really cares what religion he is? The constitution guarantees freedom of religion - any religion - or none at all. That's up to each individual citizen. Here is what Thomas Jefferson - a founding father of the US - said about that. If you need more, trust Google to help.
The National Day of Prayer has *not* been cancelled - it's still on for May 6, 2010. If you pray, you may pray anywhere and anytime as a matter of fact, but on this day groups of people will come together to pray. Think of a revival meeting - but one which invites everyone who believes in any sort of higher being, no matter the name of said being.
I also want to point out that our founding fathers decided that a majority should choose who runs the country (that's the 12th Amendment). That happened once again just over a year ago, when people actually *did* get out and vote - and that should be celebrated! Too many people just do not care about their governments (local, state or federal) and either choose not to - or flat refuse to - go out and vote, when this *is* the best way to have our voices heard... as stated in the Constitution written by those same founding fathers. Isn't that wonderful?! Do not be afraid to voice your opinions at the polls! Anyone who tells you otherwise is only trying to keep you from your duty as an American citizen - you must *not* let that happen.
Here's some fun stuff for you to digest:
I feel drawn to (and try to practice) Buddhism, and I have among my friends: Buddhists, Hare Krishnas, Jews, Catholics, Christians, Pagans and Atheists. Does that have any impact on our friendship? Actually, no. I see *people* - loving parents, friendly personalities, good humans with good morals - and I do not care to whom or what they worship or pray if they do at all. It shouldn't matter to anyone really - every religion states something along the line of the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.... pretty simple stuff.
Here are some links which describe some of the basics of a few religions:
Buddhism - founded about 2500 years ago. Extra link here.
Islam - founded about 1300 years ago. ("Allah" is the Arabic word for "God" - not a different God, just a different word - like "Dios" in Spanish and "Dieu" in French both translate into English as "God")
Judaism - founded around 1300 B.C., so it's about 1300 years older than Christianity. (sidenote: many Jews do not write or speak the word God, as it is a name and so holy that it must be guarded to avoid defacement - that will make sense if you click the link)
Vaishanvism - a recognized sect of Hinduism - also known as Hare Krishna, which gained popularity here in the states thanks to George Harrison. (not just "strange orange-clad men in airports", they are normal people like you and me)
Atheism - well, they just have that one rule.
And here is a link showing that there are SO many others as well.
Click each of those for a brief description of their core beliefs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My goal in all of this writing? Just want my family to remove their blinders, or at least loosen them up a bit. When I was young, another aunt once told me "only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear". That advice should be taken completely to heart in these days of email!
Many blessings upon you,
Amphitrite <---(A Greek goddess. That post is still in the works too!)
Here's the email I recieved: President Obama removing his shoes before entering the Blue Mosque
Thank you, Barbara and David!
[Now, I didn't think to check Snopes immediately, so I started poking around online to try to briefly address the religious side of the whole thing (my entire family was raised in the Christian faith, myself included). Here's what I found - and bear in mind, I never took a journalism/history/religion/political class or anything beyond high school. I'm not a researcher or teacher... I just play one on the internet.] :P
Anyway, this is what I almost sent back to all of them....
Quick history lesson:
Atheists and believers have been around since the dawn of time. There has likely been at least one person on Earth at any given time in history who didn't believe there was *something* out there bigger than himself. Judaism was founded around 1300 B.C., which is about 3300 years ago. Then Christianity, which I'm sure you all know the most about. Next up, Islam - whose followers are called Muslims - was founded about 1300 A.D., or 700ish years ago. Later on came Hinduism and Hare Krishna, and so on throughout time. I'll go into these a little more at the bottom.
SO, about President Obama and 'the scary Muslim picture'. Who really cares what religion he is? The constitution guarantees freedom of religion - any religion - or none at all. That's up to each individual citizen. Here is what Thomas Jefferson - a founding father of the US - said about that. If you need more, trust Google to help.
The National Day of Prayer has *not* been cancelled - it's still on for May 6, 2010. If you pray, you may pray anywhere and anytime as a matter of fact, but on this day groups of people will come together to pray. Think of a revival meeting - but one which invites everyone who believes in any sort of higher being, no matter the name of said being.
I also want to point out that our founding fathers decided that a majority should choose who runs the country (that's the 12th Amendment). That happened once again just over a year ago, when people actually *did* get out and vote - and that should be celebrated! Too many people just do not care about their governments (local, state or federal) and either choose not to - or flat refuse to - go out and vote, when this *is* the best way to have our voices heard... as stated in the Constitution written by those same founding fathers. Isn't that wonderful?! Do not be afraid to voice your opinions at the polls! Anyone who tells you otherwise is only trying to keep you from your duty as an American citizen - you must *not* let that happen.
Here's some fun stuff for you to digest:
I feel drawn to (and try to practice) Buddhism, and I have among my friends: Buddhists, Hare Krishnas, Jews, Catholics, Christians, Pagans and Atheists. Does that have any impact on our friendship? Actually, no. I see *people* - loving parents, friendly personalities, good humans with good morals - and I do not care to whom or what they worship or pray if they do at all. It shouldn't matter to anyone really - every religion states something along the line of the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.... pretty simple stuff.
Here are some links which describe some of the basics of a few religions:
Buddhism - founded about 2500 years ago. Extra link here.
Islam - founded about 1300 years ago. ("Allah" is the Arabic word for "God" - not a different God, just a different word - like "Dios" in Spanish and "Dieu" in French both translate into English as "God")
Judaism - founded around 1300 B.C., so it's about 1300 years older than Christianity. (sidenote: many Jews do not write or speak the word God, as it is a name and so holy that it must be guarded to avoid defacement - that will make sense if you click the link)
Vaishanvism - a recognized sect of Hinduism - also known as Hare Krishna, which gained popularity here in the states thanks to George Harrison. (not just "strange orange-clad men in airports", they are normal people like you and me)
Atheism - well, they just have that one rule.
And here is a link showing that there are SO many others as well.
Click each of those for a brief description of their core beliefs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My goal in all of this writing? Just want my family to remove their blinders, or at least loosen them up a bit. When I was young, another aunt once told me "only believe half of what you see and none of what you hear". That advice should be taken completely to heart in these days of email!
Many blessings upon you,
Amphitrite <---(A Greek goddess. That post is still in the works too!)
Friday, March 5
Quick link for today
I'm working on an update, but today Poseidon found this and shared it with me. Really resonates right now.
Seek Danger (An Open Letter to a Friend)
There is another man in my heart who could stand to read this today too. Baby Bro, I hope you take these words to your soul as we did. I love you man, and I want you to be alright.
~Namaste~
Seek Danger (An Open Letter to a Friend)
There is another man in my heart who could stand to read this today too. Baby Bro, I hope you take these words to your soul as we did. I love you man, and I want you to be alright.
~Namaste~
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