Plant people vs. non plant people

Sorry, I haven't blogged you back for awhile. I have no excuse. None. Laziness? Avoidance of my computer? Blogger's block?

I had fun at your house on Thursday. I am super impressed at your ability to not turn on the tv to entertain your kids for awhile, because they just want to do stuff all the time and that would be an easy way out. They are busy children. I know when my kids start to talk so much that I literally can't hear any more, I just have them go watch tv. Sure, I could engage them in some sort of artsy crafty activity, but usually I just want the noise to go away for awhile. This is terrible to admit. Please don't call child protective services.

This blog needed a picture. Me & my nieces, Esme & Grace.

Todd and I talked about having a garden this year. And then Alyssa and Sarah brought some cabbage plants home from school. And they watered them and put them in the sun. And they talked to them and loved them. And now they are dead. And I am feeling very discouraged by this and the fact that I have killed yet another house plant this year. We are not plant people. We are 'go to the farmer's market' people. We are 'admire other people's garden veggies' people. Maybe my big sister will give us a tomato or two?

I must tell you about our newest knitting obsession. Finger knitting. Why are we obsessed, you ask? Because you can have yourself a scarf made in minutes! And it's easy enough that even Sarah wants to do it! I'm sure you know what it is, but for anyone who doesn't, here is a wonderful art teacher's blog with demonstration videos. Look under "wearable art". http://mrscart.weebly.com/blog.html . 
Alyssa got so excited, she made a scarf for every girl in her class and her teacher.

Zion has a program on Thursday night at 6:30 if you aren't busy (but I know you are). Alyssa's class is doing the Alleluia chorus with signs and Sarah's class is doing mixed up nursery rhymes. I think Haley has a chorus concert at the same time?!? Argh.

Have a great week sissy!
Love, Em

Blah

Dear Em,
I am crabby. I'm so glad you're coming over on Thursday (bet you are too, now that you have this to look forward to).

Love,
Al

Neat Stuff You Should Look At

First, let me tell you that we are not watching TV, playing video games, or playing on the computer (work and research on the computer are still allowed...I guess this blog is temporarily in the "work" category) until June 1. Some things the kids have done instead that are absolutely shocking to me:

• Played with their toys together
• Played actual board games together (mostly without screaming)
• Gotten a head start on their schoolwork without being asked
• Read books without whining
• Not asked to watch TV - not even once, that I can remember

Who would have guessed it? This is like one of those things that other people blog about that I scoff at as blatant lies designed to get more blog hits and/or make me feel bad. But it's really truly happening, I promise! I'm training them for the next school year, during which they are not supposed to watch any TV at all (according to our new curriculum, see link below).

Okay, now for the links to neat stuff you should look at:
Robinson Curriculum (what I ordered for next year - worked for the genius children of two scientists...let's see if it works for children on, let's just say, more of the other end of the spectrum): http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/

Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner (plan your garden online! print it! show it off to your sister, who may or may not care!): http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/

Knitting Daily (online knitting community for nerdy old ladies like us): http://www.knittingdaily.com/

Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project (tons of free children's literature to read online or print): http://www.mainlesson.com/main/displayarticle.php?article=mission

Love,
Al

11 AM

ALLISON,

IT IS 4 AM! What are you doing awake if your baby is sleeping? GO TO SLEEP! I understand worrying about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but for goodness sake, check to make sure he is breathing and go back to bed! Here is what I do at 0400: look at clock, wonder why I have awakened at such a horrendously early hour, close eyes, continue sleeping for 2-3 hours.

Honestly, I cannot do much of anything before 7 am. I know this is pathetic. I am not working right now, so I have no reason to get up any earlier than this, so I just get up at like 6:45 and wake the kids up and drink coffee while they get ready for school. I should  be more productive than this. I am just not. What is wrong with me? Why didn't I get those genes? Todd found one of those e-cards that says something like, "I'm not really a morning person and I'm not really a night person, but I can rock 11:00 am like it's nobody's business!" He thinks that totally applies to me. He's right.

I am finally knitting the scarf from the yarn Dad & Michele brought me from Italy. In a perfect world, in our old age (like late 50's, early 60's- no offense to anyone in this age range, I don't think you are old), we are going to knit together on a regular basis- like in a knitting circle. Todd heard me saying this and asked if we could really get any more boring than we already are. That if we are already wanting to knit together now and have family tea parties (like we have decided to do after someone brilliantly brought it up at the homeschooling expo), how much worse will it be in 20 years? Like soon we are going to be those ladies in weird clothes and plastic hats carrying our yarn all over town and knitting at inappropriate times and making our kids and grandkids wear things that they will be embarrassed by. I am going to show him. I am resolving to only ever knit cool things and show him that knitting and tea parties are for cool people who are interesting and young. You must join this movement.

I am glad that Phil is still alive. I saw Grandpa Phil today, and you will be glad to know that he is still alive as well, although I didn't have to listen for him to cry as an indication. He stopped here while on official business and helped with Sarah's math homework.


Love, Em

P.S. I love the new look of the blog. And the picture where you are trying to choke me to death. Just kidding, I know you didn't mean it. :)

Is He Dead?

Dear Em,

Phil is still sleeping. As in, he has not woken up since we put him to bed last night. I keep thinking, "Maybe he's not okay...I should go check on him. He might be dead!" But I know that if he is okay, this will wake him up. And if he's not okay, I'll at least have one good hour before I discover it and have to start freaking out. What you wrote about the homeschool Expo is interesting; surprising, even. I haven't had time to really think about it, but it is true that once you put yourself in charge of "school," you get to (or have to) figure out how to make it work for you and your family. We all share ideas with each other (some, like me, are always asking for them and others seem to be always giving them), but in the end, you have to rely on your own brain and skill level and interests to get the message across to the kids. You're all you've got, and homeschooling is challenging enough without trying to do something that no one wants to do. And since there is no readily available standard - or even peer - against which to compare or measure them, it is a LOT easier to be okay with who and what and where they are in school. I know I obsess over pretty much every detail of school, including whether or not the kids seem to be on track with where they'd be in the public school, but I don't feel anywhere near the pressure to keep up or compete with other families like I did when they went to school. It's the same with television, believe it or not. We don't watch a whole lot of TV, and now I've banned it completely until June 1, and we never see commercials, because all we have is Netflix. Not having commercials has been SO good for me and the kids as far as curbing the desire for more stuff. I can tell, after watching "real" TV with real commercials that I feel a little bit less satisfied with what we have. I start wanting things that I didn't even realize existed. The couch looks a little dirtier. My wardrobe seems a little less cool. Cooking without that awesome $200 casserole dish on HGTV seems a little more mundane. It's a lot easier to be happy when you're oblivious to how you compare to other people. Anyway, I love that you came and enjoyed the displays, and the kids loved seeing you and the girls. That sounded bad - of course, I loved seeing you guys too! All afternoon, they were asking if I thought you were still in town and why didn't we get to go play with you and when were we going to see you again.

And now, you'll be relieved to know that Phil is crying and must therefore still be alive.

Love,
Al

Teacher of the Year

Dear Al,

Someday Isaac will realize that you were a cool, brave, smart, and awesome mother. He will be 35, but he will realize it! I think we spend our adult lives making up for being such idiotic adolescents and teenagers. He will figure it out someday.


Are you surviving over there? Is Phil letting you get anything done? I could spend all of this time avoiding school at your house just as easily as at my house you know.

I have 2 observations about homeschooling that I made from coming to the expo on Saturday.

1. Everyone is always kind of doing their own thing. Which is cool, because that is the whole point of homeschooling. Moms are nursing babies, kids are dressed as characters or not, they are doing presentations or not, they have created something to share or not, dad's are helping or not. This is very different from (especially) public and private school where everyone is doing exactly the same thing. And if you aren't, you are not cool. There is one way to do something and in one order.

2. Everyone is willing to share. They are sharing ideas, books, food, etc. From the outside, it seems like a very friendly group of people who isn't competing about how great their kids are at school, but like they are willing to share things that work for them. Also very different from public school. Kids and parents are competing about everything it seems.

If there was a PTA for homeschooling, you would be the president. Or if it was a real school, you could be the superintendent or principal or teacher of the year.  I don't know how you get everything done. I secretly hope and imagine that you have one really messy, disgusting, horrid closet or something where you are hiding everything you can't clean or do. There's like a dead animal and a months worth of laundry in there. But I have never seen it. I have lots of really messy closets and I don't do nearly as much as you do.

Anyway, you are cool, despite Isaac's best efforts to convince you otherwise. And I can't change this blog layout because I'm not the administrator I think. We continue to be lame.

Love, Em

More Lame than Embarrassing

Dear Em,
I've been thinking about your letter (I'm calling them letters, not posts) and about being an embarrassing mom, and it makes me sad. For one thing, I wish I had been the kind of kid who was NOT embarrassed of her parents, but I remember being mortified to be with them in public in middle and high school. There is a certain story about the National Honor Society blood drive that still makes me cringe (bring it up sometime when I'm not there if you don't remember this one). I wish I had been less concerned about what my friends (really, the popular kids who were not my friends and wouldn't have been my friends even if Madonna and Michael Jordan were my parents) thought and more concerned with my relationship with our parents. I would have spared myself, and the world at large, from some truly embarrassing and regrettable behavior on my part. For another, I get the feeling from Isaac not that he thinks I'm embarrassing, but that I'm just boring and lame. I'm constantly losing out to Mike and his household in terms of coolness. They have better food, better TV, better entertainment, better pets, a better house, a better neighborhood, cooler friends (remember Keith?), and on and on and on. And I resent it. And I created the whole situation, and so I feel guilty for feeling angry with Mike and irritated with Isaac.
Anyway, in the end, we need to be proud of our lame, embarrassing selves. It's a sign that we're doing our jobs as parents. Secretly, Haley likes it that you stick up for her and protect her and cheer for her, regardless of how silly you look.
P.S. Please make this page look better. I chose the boringest layout there was (gah! see, I am boring and lame!)

Love,
Al

Moms are Embarrassing

Dear Al,

I think your neck looks at least 28, maybe 26 with good lighting. Like near darkness. Just kidding.

I spent several hours today writing about very specific nurse educator related nonsense that seems totally unimportant now that I think about it. I wish I had a baby to distract me from such tedious work. It is so boring here by myself all day. Sometimes I realize that I have told the dog what I'm doing like I really expect him to understand. Then I think, he's a dog you idiot! Oliver just licks his lips and goes back to sleep.

So, Haley and I went for a bike ride the other day and we stopped at a park for a little while. There were these middle school aged kids there who were really obnoxious. I mean really obnoxious. One kid kept saying a phrase (not clean enough to mention to our large audience of adults and children alike), and I was just going to go yell at him when Haley begged me to not to, because it would embarrass her. The annoying boy saw that I was going to come over and yell, and he left- saving her from said embarrassment. The next day, she wanted to ride her shiny new, awesome bike over to her friend's house and I insisted that she wear a helmet. This is an incredibly embarrassing skull saving thing to do if you are in middle school. Then yesterday we had the talent show for Zion and she was picked to play a game. In the middle of the game, I yelled "faster Haley!!" and the crowd laughed. I am now the most embarrassing mother on earth. She may never be seen in public with me again. Can you relate to this?

Our next project is to make this blog look not quite so lame. It needs a theme. Like baby animals or fire and ice. Wait, I know- the theme is- are you ready?---letters. Clever huh? I will work on that.

Love, Em

First Post!

Dear Em,
I wrote a long (some might say eloquent) post yesterday and didn't get to actually post it because I got distracted by what has GOT to be a baby on the brink of a major breakthrough (teeth? sleeping through the night? crawling? revealing his genius through baby sign language?). It was all about what I was going to do yesterday, and looking at it now makes me laugh. In a sad, silent way. So I've decided to be a lot less ambitious with the length of my posts and the length of my to-do lists and focus on stuff that is either interesting, funny, or extremely important. Nothing of that sort is coming to mind, so I'm just going to tell you this: I started this blog so we can stay connected and amuse our parents. Your job is to write back to me and be clever and make me look clever. If you can do that, our next project is to make me look younger. I've got a flap of wrinkly neck skin that I'd like us to focus on. Soon.

Love,
Al