Checked out the Food Analyzer over at Emergency Essentials.

It’s nice…but if you’ve already got a pretty established food storage, it’s going to be a weekend project to input all your stuff. (This is where we run into problems, ‘cause there’s no list for home-canned and frozen garden stuffs, and a lot of my store-bought items are not in there.)



If you’ve already got a working tracking system for your storage, I’d say skip it. (Unless you use it to track your Emergency Essentials purchases, which I think I’ll do.)



If you’re just starting out and don’t have much to input, this is definitely a go. It’ll help you keep track of your purchases and what you’re missing and how much you’ve really got on hand.



Nice graphics! And it’s dial-up friendly.

It's a wonderful sunny, blustery autumn day outside...and I'm sitting here at the computer with a Rerun Pig on my lap, trying to find some Beatrix Potter activities for Manling #4. He's really into Peter Rabbit at the moment, so I thought I'd see if I can find some lapbook inspiration for him. (He's getting into his Rabbit one--I'm having less trouble with motivation on his part than with Manling #3 and the Bee Lapbook he BEGGED FOR...and isn't working on. *sigh*)

That's a little better. Re wanted to run, so I have both hands free now. She's a good pig but very insistent on ear-scratches and chin-scratches when she's on your lap. Not that I can blame her!

I'm thinking I'll have him make a little flap-book as we read through his Beatrix Potter Collection--like we did with the one James Herriot book that he and Manling #3 loved so much. Just a little picture to coordinate with the story and a short narrative about each one. Nothing real indepth--just something to spork his brain into thinking mode. He really isn't ready to "write" but sometimes you can sneak it past him! *feels a little devious*

The next thing I need to do is get our Civil War stuff together. I promised my older two that unit this year, and if I don't deliver there may be blood....mine!

I also need to find some Bible studies for our Bible Notebook. I think we're going to work on that collectively this year...and then they can branch out into their own next year if they decide to.

Heavens....here I'm thinking they aren't 'Doing' anything....and I'm up to my ears in stuff to gather up for them! I think going back to notebooking and lapbooking was definitely the way to go. Thank the Lord for making that clear.

Didn't really get a chance to update on how homeschooling has been going.

Well...

I guess it's just kinda going at the moment.

Manling #3 says he's completely bored with his math program, which is unfortunate 'cause I have no more monetary resources to sink into curriculum this year. He's just gonna have to suck it up and DEAL until I figure something else out.

Manling #4 is steadily learning to read. I am slightly shocked and mildly confused. He just decided overnight to start reading....but he flat-out refuses to practice or read anything other than his reader and school book. I don't know if he scared himself with the fact that he actually CAN DO IT now or what. *sigh* Boys.

Manlings #1 & 2 are being your typical teenagers. One day they don't mind doing anything I ask them to. The next day it's like I've infringed on every conceivable liberty they've ever possessed or dreamed of possessing. *headdesk* Heaven help me till the testosterone wears off a bit! I've been told repeatedly by other mothers that they do eventually become human again. I'm not going to last that long....

I am feeling the pull toward going back more into lapbooks and notebooking. That way the guys can work on stuff they really WANT to be working on. Manling #1 and his train/electrical stuff. Manling #2 and his WWII history. The younger two can work with me on fun stories (like Black Beauty and The Trumpet of the Swan) and do some lapbooks for them. They both told me yesterday that they really like their lapbooks from last year. They like being able to look back over them and seeing the results of what really wasn't all THAT much work!

So at the moment, I'm looking up stuff to use in a lapbook for Black Beauty. All I never wanted to know about horses..... LOL But since it's set in England, we can do a chart on the Peerage, and look at pictures about hunting, and read about hounds, and do some horsey knowledge too. Not to mention English geography. Throw all that into a lapbook, and they've got a pretty good little reference to use later.

Now if I could just motivate the two older ones a bit. They're way too content to spend their free time in front of the TV or computer....playing games or watching crap. I'm not happy. But at least they're doing their science and math and grammar. Manling #1 is doing the Botany unit with the two younger ones, and Manling #2 opted to read through Joy Hakim's science books. (He was bored with plants.) I'm going to start M#1 on Joy's History of US this year too. Count it as US History for high school credit. We're gonna make a Civics Unit out of their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge this year too. Work M#3's Citizen Webelos badge into it. It's all good.

Yeah....now let's see how this all pans out....

It's been a while since I updated my blog. But I guess I really should start working on this again. I haven't exactly been keeping up with my LJ either, so I don't feel too terrible about being so lax.

Books I've Read Lately:

The Shack by William Young
This book was...well...incredible.
God is a black woman named "Papa".
Jesus is a young carpenter with a big nose.
The Holy Spirit is a lovely Asian woman named Sarayu.
With that sort of mix trying to save your soul, how could they possibly fail?
The middle part got kinda long, but it was only because I wanted to get to the end part and find out what really happened to Missy.
Honestly this book needs another go-through, 'cause I read it in a rush so I could get it back to Nina after the weekend. I would like to ponder some of the things that Mack is told.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
This book was...disturbing.
Told from the viewpoint of a 14-year-old murdered girl who is looking down on her family and friends from heaven, you get a birds' eye view of life after losing a loved one. She keeps an eye on her first love, her parents and their failing marriage, her little sister and brother, and (in a creepy twist) the psycho who killed her. (What happens to him at the end is nothing less than divine retribution!)
It's absolutely heartrending in some spots--like when she 'possesses' her friend's body and has time alone with the boy she loves--and hilariously normal in others. There's also some heart-stopping moments--like when her little sister breaks into the killer's house to try and find evidence to convict him of the murder.
You also get to watch as her view of life after death matures; and she's finally able to let go, just as her family is letting go, which frees her from having to be with them constantly.

The A.D. Chronicles by Bodie and Brock Thoene
I'm in love with these books. At first I was a little skeptical--I mean, another fictionalized account of the Life of Jesus?? YAWN! But then you get caught up in Peniel's story...and the people he comes into contact with gradually start weaving themselves together. It's an incredible spiderweb of humanity that spins into a collection of stories that merely cushion the life of a baby named Yeshua as he grows into a man.

My biggest "gripe", if you will, about Christianity and Jesus in particular, is that he never really seems all that...human? I know, I know! That WAS kinda the whole reason for the virgin birth and all that suffering and stuff....but honestly? God Himself strikes me as a real wiseass somedays. Jesus? He's a bit too straight-laced and fussy. Not in here! Matter of fact (and I plead only insanity and a lack of Stargate), he started to sound a lot like someone else I know. Maybe somewhere between Rodney and John. And I think I'm starting to fall in love with Yeshua.

What I dearly love about these books is that they are VERY JEWISH. There's more than a liberal smattering of Hebrew throughout the pages, and so far there have been at least five or six of the main Holidays celebrated by the characters. I've gotten a pretty good introduction and overview of the whole historical timeline during these years, and I'm loving it! It's inspired me to start my Biblical Archaeology Notebook, and I'm probably going to be half-crazy by the time I find five minutes to get into it!

I'll bold the book titles as I finish them. Here's a brief run-down:

First Light (Peniel's story--the blind boy given sight by Yeshua. He becomes the narrator/recorder of the series. Sometimes he's a participant. Sometimes he's merely there to listen and absorb. Zadok the Chief Shepherd of the Temple Flocks appears here too, and he's a tough old guy with a tender heart.)
Second Touch (Lily and Cantor are lepers, hoping for a miracle. Their love story in the midst of such a tragic fate is bittersweet and lovely. Peniel is a participant in this one--and he witnesses just how awesome God's power really is. The ending made me cry.)
Third Watch (Yahav and Alexander are the primary pair in this part of the story. I think Bodie wanted to be a romance writer at some point, 'cause love is in the air for a lot of these books. Yahav is Jewish; Alexander is a "Romanized Jew"--they overcome the odds to be together. You find out that Zadok is Yahav's uncle--her mother's brother. You also get some of the background of how she and her family left Bethlehem, but the real meat of that comes later. I think I started to fall in love with Yeshua in this book....when he and Peniel are sitting in an apple grove, chatting....)
Fourth Dawn (Switch gears to go back to before the birth of Yeshua. This book--told by Zadok and Eliyahu, Yahav's father--covers the birth of Yochanen to Zachariah and Elisheba, the appearance of Gabriel to Mary and Yosef, and what nearly happens rather than a wedding.)
Fifth Seal (Mary and Yosef set out for Bethlehem. Zadok and his family are praying for the birth of the Messiah. You also meet the Magi--Balthaser and Melchior--who are recording the details of the impending birth in the heavens. It ends with Mary giving birth in Zadok's lambing cave with his wife, Rachel, assisting while in the fields, Zadok, Eliyahu, and some of the other shepherds are visited by angels.)
Sixth Covenant (Mary, Yosef, and Yeshua are living in Bethlehem for a bit with Zadok and Rachel, Eliyahu and Havila, before they take the baby to Yerushalayim for the Redemption of the Firstborn. Herod has finally flipped his lid and declares the lives of the male children of Bethlehem forfeit. I nearly threw up reading the end of this book.)
Seventh Day
Eighth Shepherd
Ninth Witness
Tenth Stone
Eleventh Quest

I wish I'd known there were Bible studies in the backs of the 3rd through 11th books before I started reading them. Now I am almost tempted to go back and read them over again when I'm done, just so I can do the studies too.

Homeschooling will take a whole 'nother post. But I need to get to bed. I've got an evil cold, and I can't stop sneezing.

In a fit of sheer insanity (and maybe in an effort to up the ante on my survival prep), I started re-reading the entire Left Behind series.

I did most of the first nine books in one day per book spurts.
Insanity, I tell you.

I suppose what I should post here is that I have been inspired to delve more deeply into Biblical prophesy and daily reading.
*wrinkles nose*
I have...but that was in the works before I started reading.

I should say that I have been renewed in my reasons for getting our household prepped for whatever disasters might come our way.
*shrugs*
Yes....I have. But it wasn't just that...

Okay it's confession time.
I loved Mac McCullum from the moment he stared at the red moon...and began pesting Rafe for an evening meeting. In my mind, he's 42 and barely out of his prime....and he looks far too much like a certain Colonel than I like to admit. I couldn't help myself. He just morphed himself right into John. I can't tell you how much I love that he survives to the Glorious Appearing...and then goes on to celebrate his 1000th birthday in the end book. Very cool.

I just finished Glorious Appearing and need to get the last two books to read.
All I will say about the series is this: if it doesn't prod you into believing, then you're past the point of caring.

When I was at the library the other day with the boys, I checked the new release shelf as is my wont (although I've been pretty disappointed with most of what's come out in the past months).

This is what I found: The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters

First a little background:
A very dear friend introduced me to Ms. Peters's works when I was 16 or 17, and I've been an avid fan ever since. I love the Egyptian history that permeates her books, and her characters are almost a part of my own family. There were a few of her Amelia Peabody books that got a bit dry, mostly because I didn't really care about Ramses's war exploits, et al. But I've read them all and loved most of them. I had read one or two of her Vicky Bliss books, although not since high school, and I remember adoring her characters in those books as well. So imagine my delight when I picked up this new book to find a new Vicky Bliss with Egyptian undertones! YAY!

The boys have all been sick with a nasty virus, so they had no energy for anything but TV and Wii last night. I curled up in a corner of the sofa, opened my book, and dove headfirst into what turned out to be the most amazing 4 hours of my life this year.

There are four main reasons I loved this book:

1. Ms. Peters wrote herself into the book as a crazy writer who breaks into houses and bribes "venal men" for the Amelia P. Emerson journals.
2. She wrote the Emerson family history into the story as a wonderful underscore for the Mastermind's backstory.
3. There were subtle but definite barbs of animosity and sarcasm directed at a certain Egyptologist/Indiana Jones figure/tomb robber of the worst sort whose name I shall not bother to repeat. Either you like him or you don't. I don't.
4. Only Ms. Peters would have the audacity to make the prime subject of the book and unsuspecting target of 'kidnappers' the mummy of King Tut. Yes, the main plot is the kidnapping of his mummy from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings--and I agonized through the whole book right up until his restoration to safety.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the twists and turns the plot took, the elaborate ruses used by the characters to bring their quarry back into the light, and the sheer hilarity that pervades these books. While Vicky is not Amelia, she has a charm and wit all her own; although I must say I love little old Herr Doktor Schmidt the most.

I will confess to a slight problem on the subject of Vicky's love interest and sometime Master Criminal, John Tregarth. Although we find out late in the book that he was in fact a direct descendant of the Emersons, I realized by the end of the first chapter that I would not make it through the book without substituting another certain John into the mental image implanted in my head. I will admit that it was rather distracting to picture the Colonel in Egypt...and it was altogether tempting to place myself in Vicky's place in order to let that scenario play crazy games of its own. In short--sometimes you just have to let the voices in your head read along too. Keeps a happy balance.

This book will be a purchase in the not too distant future, and I hope to go back and get the others to complete the collection.

Ah, Elizabeth. Some of my most fond bookish memories are courtesy of your novels. I thank you.

One of the main things on my to-do list for the year was to start a Book List w/Notes.
Obviously keeping this on paper is just going to be a headache for a vast number of reasons (the main one being that I cannot possibly take the time to actually WRITE on paper during the course of a week). So I hope to at least type up my reviews here and then (at some future date) print them off to put in a binder.

Book List 2009 (with notes)

January/February
('cause I didn't start this sooner....)

The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen
I really enjoyed this book. It was a romance without the smut...or...a Christian book! Okay, to point the finger and laugh at myself, I've found that I much enjoy these books for one very odd reason: if a smut book is well-written, the smut ADDS to the story. Most of them just don't. So I've found that Christian romance novels usually have at least passable storylines. They have to; they can't fall back on the smut for support.

What I loved about this book the most was the references to the herbs and sundries that were sold in the apothecaries shop, as well as the underlying current of tension between medical doctors and the apothecaries guild. The characters were fun and well-written, and my heart ached at the end for the people lost and the love that is found. If I had a few spare dollars (or found this at the used-book sale in July), I would definitely add it to the book collection.

The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase
I picked it up 'cause I love conspiracy theories.
I put it down 'cause I was bored out of my mind.
I guess you just have to be really into the whole English Royalty Drama to like this book.
Not my thing.

March

The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters (This book review gets a post of its own. A+++)

Troll Fell by Katherine Langerish
We read this together as a family, and the boys all loved it--especially Max. It was about trolls and orphans and treasure. Fun for them...kinda long for me. But a good read nonetheless.

Brisinger by Christopher Paolini
Please God...don't let him finish the final book for at least another three years. I need the time to recover my will to live. I don't care that Eragon has a really cool new sword. I don't care that Brom was his dad. Nor do I really give a hoot what happens to the dragon hearts and all. BLEH. The one redeeming feature of this third book in the series was that every time I read something about Roran, I pictured Hector (aka Eric Bana) all buff and sweaty, and miraculously the chapters went MUCH faster. *headdesk*

April

Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph Yoder
This is a wonderful, quaint little volume I picked up at the library that is falling apart at the seams. It looks well-loved, and one chapter in it's easy to see why. It's an easy read and just completely enjoyable. Rosanna is abandoned by her father when her mother dies in childbirth and is raised by an Amish woman and her subsequent husbands. I cannot wait to see how the book wraps up 'cause there was a sequel on the shelf too!

In the true spirit of the New Year and getting my life back in order, I have been working on all of the paperwork and crazy-ness in my life.

At work I have now gotten all of the backend filing and miscellaneous things caught up as of this week, as well as the consult billing done through the end of 2008. This means I can now move forward on this year's billing (which will take a couple of days) and finish getting new charts together for next month. I cannot tell you how good this feels!

At home I've gradually been working on taking back my sanity (and bedroom) from the stacks of papers and binders that seem to have multiplied exponentially in the last year and a half. It's been very disheartening to realize that I've lost so much time and energy trying to find things when it was all right underneath my fingertips the whole time. In all fairness it's been a long year and a half, and I thank God it's over and done with and regular life can now resume. I sincerely do not want to have to go through another cycle of trying to find a few decent employees at work. Ever.

I am currently working on putting my sons' homeschooling portfolios together for the end of the year, and then I'm moving on to lesson planning for the last four or five months. I am also hoping to get my seed orders together this week and make up the wish lists for homeschool items to get once we get our tax refund. *sigh* It's so nice to be able to breathe again.

Time to get back to work.

Forbidden Thoughts from the Peanut Gallery

I don't usually talk politics.

It's an odd sort of thing to have come from the mouth of a girl whose mother will die a die-hard Democrat, waving an American flag, and attesting to the brilliance of our country and its government. She even ran for the Wyoming State House as a Democrat (in a state full of Republicans). Who even knew they recognized the Democrats on the ticket?? But there were four or five Democrats in our tiny town of 2500 people, and sure enough they encouraged her to run.

Of course she didn't win.
But it was her way of prodding me and my sisters into 'being all we could be'. You know, we could be anything we wanted to be, because girls are as good as boys. That's my mother, a complete liberal--Democrat to the bone, All-American, and a total supporter of feminine rights.

Um....well let's make that a supporter of women's rights. I don't know that I'd go way out on a limb and attribute 'feminine' as one of her virtues.

See, when I say 'girls are as good as boys', let me make it perfectly clear that she didn't see it worked in the other direction as well. I'd even say my little brother was more of a second-class citizen partly due to the Y-chromosome in his make-up. There was really no room for 'equality' in my mother's world view. She was too busy (as were all the other women's libbers) trying to prove to the world that she was just as good as or better than the men. She could do it all--run a home, work a full-time job, raise her kids, and participate on dozens of committees while still maintaining the illusion that everything in her home was PERFECT.

Except of course when something wasn't.
And there was a lot that wasn't.
But that's a subject for another time.

Today's post is brought to you by the Democrat-I'm-Not-Despite...or maybe Because Of...My-Mother.

I tried to do 'her' thing. For about the first ten years of my marriage, I was utterly convinced that I too could have it all. The house, the kids, the husband, the Ozzie-and-Harriet routine, and somehow still manage to work PT and even go back to college too.

But somewhere in the haze of 3 a.m. colic with my last son followed closely by four years of repeat hospitalizations due to my husband's recurrent cellulitis, I realized I didn't WANT my mother's lifestyle. When Manling #4 would finally go back to sleep, I was so exhausted I could barely make it through the day with the other three. A perfect household was NOT in the cards. DH's hospital 'vacations' put a tremendous strain on our budget, our nerves, and our marriage. We went into debt trying to continue our regular lifestyle even when he was only drawing disability for part of his time off work.

At our lowest point, we even had one of the credit card companies calling us because I was a month behind on a payment; and I will never forget listening to the phone ringing, wondering if it was THEM again, and thinking to myself, "we're going to lose everything."

That was about the time we all realized things had to change.
And it was tough.
DH and I had grown up with parents who had not given us 'everything we asked for', but we'd never really gone without either. Looking back I realize now there were times my mother and stepfather must have been hard-pressed for money, but it was never talked about. Instead of discussing finances and training me to manage my own household, my mother told me to plan to take over the world--no doubt figuring I'd marry some nice accountant who would manage all my bills and budget for me. (Either that or we wouldn't have money in this 'Golden Age' we'd be living in.)

It took another three years of struggling with managing our money before we finally started getting the hang of budgeting. We're still not out of the hole we dug, but the light is brighter and the end is at least in sight.

We started a backyard garden and canned and froze the excess. I started haunting survivalism and homesteading boards, looking for ways to maximize our money and make sure if something did go wrong we'd still be able to feed our family of four ever-hungry, fast-growing sons. We also had the debate when we started the garden about organic vs. non-organic--and the whole house agreed that we would never knowingly eat a bunch of potentially harmful chemicals, so why would we dump them on plants we were intending to eat.

DH had been diagnosed with really nasty eczema (which had contributed to the cellulitis due to skin breaks and repeat infection). In order to make things more bearable for him, I found a recipe for making our own laundry soap and cut out the fabric softener. The fifth or sixth time he was in the hospital, he was also diagnosed with hypertension and gout. He'd never had a gout attack--but the doctor told him it would only be a matter of time if he didn't change his diet. The youngest Manling and I also had food sensitivities, so we started with a lower protein diet for DH and ended up with a mostly-from-scratch diet that has done wonders for my IBS and doesn't affect Manling #4's stomach.

What does all of this have to do with my mother's Liberal Democrat upbringing?
Not a thing. That's the point.

I recently took a good hard look at my political leanings--mostly in light of things I've been hearing and reading about what to expect in the next four (and possibly eight) years. I think it's become pretty clear to me that I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican either. But I'm too conservative for an Independent. I think about as close to a title as I'm going to get is Libertarian. I might even swing as far as Green depending on the issue. I think it's probable I might have to start a new political party--something like "Conservative Hippie". LOL

In the last couple of years, I've incorporated new words into my life that would make my mother roll over in her grave (as she no doubt will be sooner or later). Words like: suburban homesteader, homeschooler, housewife, Christian woman, pro-life, and survivalism. I've got friends who are a wide range of political leanings and religious bents--from Democrats to Libertarians, pagans to faithful LDS. Most of the people who live on my block know me as 'the weirdo'--THAT homeschooler who dresses half-hippie and half-Mennonite (I usuall wear a headcovering or have my hair pulled up). All this adds up to make me into about the closest thing to a polar opposite my mother could have. I'm understandably not celebrating this week.

Most of all I'm the proud mother of four sons. FOUR. SONS. Four Manlings of various ages, who I hope will grow up to be good husbands and fathers and providers for their families. I have learned a lot about boys/men in the last fifteen years. And then again, there's a whole lot I still don't understand.

But I will say this--my mother was very wrong when she said girls were just as good as boys. Girls are girls. Boys are boys. There's no room for comparison.

Don't believe me? Ask a mother of four girls. *smile*

I love my Manlings.
I love my country.
I sincerely hope things are going to start looking up....for all of us.

Of Books, Boys, and Nothing in Particular

Another Sunday.
Another white wintery day.
We actually had a decent amount of snow last evening and into this afternoon. It's not a Wyoming Blizzard....but at least the grass is covered! Or was...until Manlings #3 & 4 scooped most of it up for their sledding ramp in the backyard. Thank goodness it's started coming down again to cover up the bare sports. Just so I can pretend we've had a snow 'storm.'

Manlings #1 & 2 came back from their Boy Scout Klondike Derby this morning, only to find me on the warpath after tearing apart the living room and their desks--only to find a whole lot more left undone than had been confessed to last week. I was NOT happy. Neither was their dad. Privileges have been revoked. A martial state has been declared, and we're going to have a long couple of weeks ahead of us trying to get back on track.

*sigh* Just when I thought things were getting better.

You know, it's not even that they didn't do the work as they said they did. It's the LYING that accompanied it. I hate it when my kids lie to me--for whatever reason. It really feels like someone has punched me square in the stomach, and I just can't get my breath. They know I'm going to be mad if they don't do their homework; but why lie about it? Lying just makes me even angrier, and they've blown my trust in them.

*feels small* Sometimes I envy parents who can send their kids off to public school. At least they can have a break from the constant presence of a child who cares so little for their parents' affection that they have no compunction about telling white-faced lies.

I just don't get it.

On the upside, the younger two both told me this morning that they feel things have gone much more smoothly now I'm home to explain things to them more. I know they're enjoying more mom/boys time.

With the older two out of the house for camp this weekend, I did get some cleaning done. My living room looks much more live-able now, and we rearranged the dining room to better accommodate our table (which really is too large for the room but that can't be helped with six people).

There was a whole fiasco this summer with my oldest sister who was using my house as her own personal storage unit the last year or so. When she finally decided she could find room in her new place, I had to literally empty of her crap out of my house in the space of a weekend. (Very hard to do when most of it had been put to use with her permission and blessing.) To be honest, I hadn't really liked having her 'stuff' cluttering up my house in the first place. You know how somethings just 'don't belong'? That pretty much sums up her items. Everything put me on edge. But getting it all out in one large sweeping clean-up meant a lot of holes and misplaced items of mine, which I haven't really had time to correct what with working so much.

This weekend I finally managed to banish the holes and start replacing things where they belonged. My tins and sewing things have reclaimed their places in my living room. My apple knicknacks have restaked their rightful places on the entertainment center. Best of all, it feels like MY house again.

And let me tell you what: DH and I have worked too long and too hard for what we have for us not to walk into this house and be able to claim it as our own. This is OUR space. It's not big, and it's not fancy...but it's OURS.

I'm dreaming of a white...Sunday?

The snow has been falling quite happily outside my contented little home for most of the late afternoon. It's probably the first 'real' snow we've had this winter--although there have been two or three with accumulation, they didn't last and were mostly sleet/freezing rain. This is honest-to-goodness white flakes with a solid two to four inches of ground cover. I'm inclined to take this as a sign that Mother Nature (in all her wisdom and glory) has decided we idiots in the Mid-Atlantic deserve a White Winter too. Amen.

On a more domestic note, I decided to take advantage of our Winter Storm Warning Day and do a little 'redding up' as my PA Dutch ancestors would say. Heaven knows, with four Manlings, a husband, the cat, a Punkin rabbit, and five little piggies in this house 24 hours a day, seven days a week--give or take trips to the grocery store and errands--the place is starting to look a bit rough around the edges. I'm not sure houses were actually built to take This Much Abuse.

The basement got a good going-over since all our school stuff is down there. The 'classroom' needed organizing and sorting. I even found a couple of books I missed which will come in handy for our Geology unit. OH! And I found the planner that had 'gone missing' months ago! ...only I already bought another. Oh well. I'll just erase the started pages and use it again this fall. LOL

The kitchen and dining room got picked up and swept. It is starting to look like human beings live here. Now if I could just do something about my icky stove and cabinets... Our home was rented before we moved in, and the tenants didn't really take great care of the place. Consequently the kitchen only gets So Clean before this gigantic gaping hole in the universe opens, and TPTB sit on my nasty dirty range hood and laugh maniacally at me. I've tried everything I can think of to get the grease off that hood and the cabinets around it...and they just won't come clean. I guess there's only so much accumulated filth you can remove. Thank heavens my DH and I are also in complete agreement about removing that entire section of the kitchen first. Hopefully soon.

On the homeschooling front, the Manlings started homework back up this week. Well...the younger two did anyway. In a spurt of motivated insanity, they finished up their Colonial America lapbooks, worked on their Genesis lapbook, and started their Geology Notebook. Next week we are starting up the American Revolution with sections on all the major players, and they are going to do Noah's Ark for their Genesis lapbook.

Manling #3 is doing better than expected in his reading but lapsed a bit on what he was asked to do in copywork and math. We had a little chat about what to expect now that my work schedule has stabilized and I'm home most of the morning/afternoon to help out more. He's actually quite content with how things are going and is an incredibly happy child.

Manling #4 is my handful, and I dearly love him in spite of it. He's been very grumpy about learning to read and has been pretty resistant to it. DH suggested that perhaps he's afraid that if he learns to read I'll stop reading to him. (I read to the whole family quite a lot. We're working on Johnny Tremain for history with the younger two...but the older two listen in. The 'family' book at the moment is Brisingr by Chris Paolini.) I had a talk with him and let him know that learning to read will not stop family reading time...and the next morning I got much less resistance when we went over his McGuffey Reader lesson. He's started a new copywork book which is children's poems (and he loves it!) and is re-starting his Explode the Code book which he had been refusing to do. Yay!

Manling #1 is chomping at the bit for the Civil War Unit I have planned to start in March, so I'm giving him some upper-level reading to do on generals and important people. I think I might have him start a CW notebook on them that we can then add to when the other three are ready. He is also supposed to start plotting what he'd like to study when he starts 'high school' in the summer.

Manling #2 has been having some "focus" issues and found himself behind in Math and Science. He's playing catch-up at the moment and isn't happy. But he's realized it's better to finish small chunks every day than have to do a whole bunch all at once. Lesson learned. I also told him he couldn't start his WWI Unit until the make-up is done. Ouch. That didn't make him happier.

Overall I think things are going to run a bit more smoothly now that I'm not working as much and at a better time. It's just too distracting and non-productive to put in extra hours all the time and really get nothing out of it. I'm much more relaxed too, both at home and at work. I was a little worried about learning to bill...but I've actually been enjoying it. It's mindless and easy on the nerves and gives me some much-needed downtime in the evenings. I get to unwind, then come home and finish up whatever needs doing yet before bed.

A reference for me: http://www.homeschoolforfree.net/2007/09/lapbooking-links.html

It's a list of lapbooking resources. Heaven knows I'm gonna need it!

This is my Grown-Up Blog

As I was updating my Homeschool Blog this morning (for the sixth time in two years) and then updating my LJ and checking MySpace, I realized that maybe I was going about this all wrong. Much as I've loved my LJ, I honestly think I've outgrown it. It's become a very convenient excuse to vent and rant to several close friends...and that's about it.

I need some place to organize my regular day to day stuff--homeschooling, homesteading, religious views, Christian woman stuff, and survivalism.

I need a place to put my favorite links that deal with all of this.

I need some place to be a grown-up.

LJ allows me to still be a crazy fangirl for my one-and-only TV addiction: Stargate. But I feel like it's allowed me to stagnate and not move ahead in other areas of my life. So...it's time for a little maturity and sober introspection.

And here it shall start.