SmallWorld

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Shelf Life

The good thing about a shelf breaking in a large cabinet that has a solitary purpose of holding (too many) homeschooling materials ...

… is that you find all kinds of things you forgot you had.

Yep.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

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My personal note: Jesse is currently doing Rosetta Stone Russian for his high school language credit, and he loves it! I personally would love to have the Latin program for my other kids, as I think Latin is incredibly useful in so many ways, whether your child is inclined toward the arts or the sciences.

Three Beautiful Things

1. A yard full of beautiful flowers.

2. Sunshine

3. Strawberry shortcake for lunch.

What beautiful things are in your world today?

Monday, May 11, 2009

Monday Memory: Three Times

Three times I've been blessed with giving birth. One baby we lost in early pregnancy. I'm not really a mom to tell birth stories. They were all extremely painful, but the results were phenomenal. But for just today, I'll relive those long, hard hours…

Cincinnati: Jesse was born in 11 hours from water-breaking to birth, after 2.5 painful hours of pushing. I had an epidural, which I despised. I was starving through the whole thing. He was 8 lbs. 11 oz., and I was dumbfounded. How could I have such a big baby?

Ames, Iowa: Laurel's birth was the most pleasant, although it was a long day. I had a midwife for her, and she let me eat graham crackers and other yummy things. Back in Iowa we had this drug called an ITN (intrathecal narcotic), which was awesome. So much better than an epidural. I knew Laurel was a girl, even before I had the ultrasound that confirmed my intuition, but I was flabbergasted when she came out 9 lbs. 9 oz. What is up with these big babies? (No, I didn't have gestational diabetes.)

Maryville, TN: Duncan was due on Christmas Day, but of course no one ever has a baby on her due date. Except of course I did. The nurses were traumatized that I didn't want an epidural (at that time, only one anesthesiologist at the hospital could do my beloved ITN, and it wasn't likely that I could get him on call), but Duncan's birth was fairly quick and not really terrible hideous. And just when I thought they couldn't get any bigger: 10 lbs. I have no idea. Duncan aspirated meconium in utero and he had to be whisked off to the NICU at a different hospital right away. His story is here. I am so thankful for his life.

Those are my babies. I miss their sweet-smelling skin and their tiny hands. But I love who they are now, and I am so very blessed to be their mama.

Your turn. Do you have a Monday Memory to share? Post it on your blog and sign Mr. Linky below with a direct link to that post. It's okay if you don't post on Monday and if you don't have photos; I like to read stories any day of the week! So dig down deep into your memories and get started!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Remember Your Memory

This is an official reminder that tomorrow is Monday Memory day. I expect at least double the number of participants from last week, so that would be 2!

Need some ideas? What about your first Mothers' Day? Or a memory of your own mother? What about the day you found out you were expecting? Another possibility is always to look at your blog entry on tomorrow's date from last year or two years ago, or scout through some old photos.

I'll be waiting…

I'm Their Mom

“Motherhood is the keystone of the arch of matrimonial happiness.”
~Thomas Jefferson

Happy Mothers' Day!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

My Mother

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
~Abraham Lincoln

With her brothers Max and Henry, about 1930

With Max, WWII

Senior picture, 1944

With James, on the way to California before my Dad went to Korea, 1951

With James and baby John, 1953

With James, John, and baby Peter, 1957

Nine years later, with the addition of Stephen and me, 1966

31 years later at Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniverary, with the addition of 8 grandchildren (1 yet to come), 1998

My mother and me, last summer

Friday, May 8, 2009

Crossing Over

Last night, my little girl crossed over from Explorer (4th-6th grades) to Pioneer (7th and 8th grades) at our American Heritage Girls ceremony. I don't have any pictures because that's one of the downfalls of being an emcee: you can't exactly whip out the camera in the middle of a solemn ceremony. Also, our sashes didn't come with the rest of our badge order, so our 9 new Pioneers didn't get to have their sashes presented to them. But still, it was a milestone for these girls, and I'm so proud of my daughter.

I do have photos from our very first awards ceremony in 2003, when all of our girls were given their Joining Awards and membership pins.

She's the third one from the left in this group of first-grade girls. Four of this first group of girls crossed over last night.

And here she is last year on the night of our ceremony. She's grown several inches since then. In the rush of things yesterday, I didn't even have the foresight to take a few photos of her before she traded in her blue vest.

Between Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and American Heritage Girls, our weeks can be crazy twice each month. And with Randy's being Cubmaster and my being co-coordinator of our AHG troop, some weeks our heads our positively spinning. We wonder what possessed us to schedule both the Cub Scout end-of-the-year picnic and crossing over during the same week as the AHG spring awards ceremony, and both topped off with the Boy Scout camporee over the weekend. What were we thinking?

But Scouting is one of the finer things in life for our family. We have put so much energy and time into the programs because we clearly see the fantastic benefits and blessings that have come about as a result of our participation.

But I'm happy for just a little break.

(Check out more finer things in life at Amy's Finer Things Friday.)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Wednesday Miscellany

* I've lost track of how many days of rain we've had lately. Do people who live in monsoon regions have a lot of nervous breakdowns? I'm starting to feel moldy.

* We're finally out of the Civil War and have backtracked to cover the westward expansion. We've been reading A Pioneer Sampler this week. We absolutely love this book! The kids made these "tin art" pictures yesterday while I was reading to them. The book is a perfect blend of stories, facts, and projects. (Don't be deceived by what appears to be a sunny day. That was but a 5-minute break in the clouds.)

* Speaking of 5-minute breaks, we were tremendously blessed last night to have a respite from the rain for the annual Cub Scout end-of-the-year picnic.

There were three-legged races, sack races (that's Duncan on the far right), and a tug-of-war, plus awards and a crossing-over ceremony. Dr. H. is feeling much relieved today. Tomorrow evening is our American Heritage Girls end-of-the-year awards ceremony, so we are both going to be happy campers on Friday!

Aren't these parents good sports? They did the sack race, too. Hey, those are three AHG leaders on the left! I'm glad they didn't hurt themselves! (I'm allergic to burlap, in case you were wondering.)

* This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at the Atlanta Homeschooling Examiner. I actually remembered to submit something this time. I'm looking forward to having some time to peruse the rest of the entries.

* Mothers' Day is coming up very soon. Fortunately, I remembered just in time to go to Winkflash to send Winky Personal to my mom and Dr. H's mom. These are the most awesome cards. All you have to do is upload a photo (or more for a collage), fill in the text (I found a couple of good "mother" quotes), and pay. They actually send the card directly in the mail to the recipient! All that (including postage) for $2.39; it's way cheaper than buying a card at Target.

* My Mothers' Day requests are simple: I want the carpet cleaned and the cabinet under the kitchen sink cleaned out.

What's on your Mothers' Day lists?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Asheville

Asheville, North Carolina is a fun city nestled in the mountains. It reminds me a lot of Ithaca, New York, where two of my brothers live. It's probably the crunchiest town in the Southeast, but for New Englanders and West Coasters, it may seem quite normal.

It is a great place to go for a girls' weekend getaway. In fact, Self magazine named it the "happiest city for women." So here we are, being happy.