Mama's Boys

Time for a couple pictures...sure wish I had planned on getting that one with all the boys and me. Perhaps we would've dressed better! Tommy and I are in old t-shirts, Sam is still in his church clothes, and Danny is in Tommy's outfit from two Christmases ago that I was just trying on to see if it fit. But a picture with just me and my boys is a rare find! And then there's our little roly-poly boy, Danny. He's just going to town, rolling all over the place these days. It seemed to happen overnight! And his new favorite pasttime is playing with his toes, but he hasn't mastered chewing on them yet. I'm sure that's not far off...

News-worthy?

So Drudge posted a story this morning that Iran is now a nuclear power. Oh, and that "the US, Britain, and the Zionist regime will vanish" (just another rambling by Ahmadinejad). Why isn't this news? It's not on any big news websites: CNN, ABC, Fox News, etc., nor on the top-of-the-hour news updates on talk radio. Nor did the press ask President Bush about it this morning during his news conference (but Scooter Libby's trial is still a big deal).

My whacko theory (more like hope and prayer): the media is actually cooperating with the government keeping the country preoccupied with news about troop numbers in Iraq, the economy, etc., so we can have an edge, giving the Islamofascists the impression that we're unprepared and apathetic to the danger we're really in, and, of course, keep spending all our money on useless Christmas presents and other creature comforts to keep the economy rolling; also, avoid mass chaos as everyone flocks to Aldi's and Super Walmarts for canned goods and bottled water. Meanwhile, somewhere, somehow, there is a plan to defeat this threat and keep America safe. Plausible theory? Or should I return the Superman toothbushes, pencils, and coloring book stocking-stuffers for Del Monte and Dinty Moore?

Bah Humbug!...and Other Christmas Ramblings

Like so many people today, I get my fill of the holidays before the church bells start ringing. I agonize over how over-the-top I’m going to be this year with my cards (which didn’t actually happen this year, just in case you were wondering where yours was!), with presents to our close friends and family, and especially with the gifts we give our boys. It’s like I’m incapable of having fun with the holidays, because I want so badly for my boys to grow up not being too spoiled, yet still having fond memories of Christmas; but especially, like all Christian parents, I want my boys growing up thinking of the Christ child first and their presents under the tree last. Should I just wake up from my little dream and expect my kids to be the greedy little sinners that they are? Or is there a chance that, with a lot of work, my dream of having Christ-centered, selfless boys could come true?

Yesterday I came across a story that suffocated any optimism I may have had a bit. Some ten-year-old kids were asked several questions, like the following:

What do you think is the very best thing in the world?

Their answers:

1. Being a Celebrity 2. Good Looks 3. Being Rich 4. Being Healthy 5. Pop Music 6. Families 7. Friends 8. Nice Food 9. Watching Films 10. Heaven/God

So, these were kids out of the U.K….such a Godless bunch of chaps over there, I say! But I wonder what the same study done with average kids here in the U.S. would show? (Grant it, I doubt #8—nice food—would make the list on this side of the pond; from what I hear, the food over there is nothing to brag about, so my guess is the good food they do get to eat is probably really appreciated!)

I just returned from a two-hour trip to stinkin’ Wal-mart (I despise how dependent I’ve become on that store!) and started thinking about how much stuff I bought and how much of it I’m going to return. Why in the world do we parents spend so much money on little stuff (for example, “stocking-stuffers”) that will probably end up in the trash come New Year’s Eve? I try so hard to be practical with my gifts, but am always reminded by Brewmaster how fun and exciting it is on Christmas morning to open stuff that has something “cool” on it—say Superman, or Batman, what have you—even if it’s not the most practical thing in the world. So as I try desperately to balance the practicality of gifts with the fun and excitement that only Christmas morning can bring, I find myself still unable to decide how we’re going to celebrate everything this Christmas. Will Santa be bringing the gifts, or just Mom and Dad? Do we spoil the kids rotten, or teach them to be happy with whatever they get? Do I spoil myself with clothing and other desirable gifts, or do I spend my Christmas money on a new vacuum with a HEPA filter and other hyper-allergenic stuff as recommended by my allergist today? ARGHHH!

I know I’m not alone with all these thoughts swarming up in my brain. I want so badly to live a simple life, but sometimes it just seems too impossible in this day and age. Surely I’ll figure it all out one of these days. But until then, you can probably expect a lot more posts on me trying to figure out just how over-the-top I’m going to be in so many areas of my life—like with my diet, my homeschooling, my parenting, my faith, my housekeeping, my….

Note to Self: The Purpose of Homeschrewling is...

Now that I’ve decided the blogosphere hasn’t contributed to my headache problem, I ventured to my favorite homeschool blog to see what’s up. I’ll tell you what’s up: she split…just like that. All of a sudden, on December 5, Spunky tells us all “adios”. This should make Jeremy quite happy, as he always griped about a homeschooling mom of six spending so much time blogging. But she was very faithful to her following, constantly keeping us informed on the latest news regarding homeschooling, education, current events, etc., and always provided useful commentary to help me see these stories from a Biblical worldview. She must’ve taken cues from Jerry Seinfeld, leaving on such a high note. I will miss her.

I’m sure I will come across other useful homeschool blogs; I just haven’t taken the time yet to sort through them. With Spunky’s, I just came across it, liked it, got my fill of information and left it at that. We were just talking to our good friend who was here for a visit last night about blogs and the sheer volume of information out there; there’s not enough time in the day to read all you want to read. And when it comes to writing, there are so many other freaks out there like us who are all saying the same things (of course, most of them are much better writers than me). It’s not like we’re being original or saying something that hasn’t been heard before. So what’s the purpose of blogging anyway?

My first reason for doing this is simple: to help get things straight in my head. I’m not a very good verbal communicator. I don’t pretend that I ever was a good one, but nowadays with bouts of fibro-fog, I often have some pretty slow word recall issues and, quite frankly, can’t keep a darn thing straight in my head. I can stop mid-sentence and wonder, now what was I saying? And—poof!—it’s completely gone. So for me, writing about issues that need to be sound in my head is a great help when I need to verbally communicate them to someone. And I’m sure that’s true for many folks, not just those of us who have a condition that we like to blame our flightiness on!

Another reason I like to blog (despite my hiatus—there shouldn’t be anymore of those, I hope) is to inform those of you who know us what’s going on—not just what’s happening with the boys and seeing cute pictures of them, but learning what issues we’re dealing with and what’s on our minds. I’ve heard from several readers that know us personally that they’ve learned more about us from the few posts we’ve made than they ever learned hanging out with us. I imagine that’s because I’m more likely to rant about what I’m thinking in my writing than in the middle of a conversation: no non-verbal cues here to make me bite my tongue! And although you can find the same opinions on a gazillion other blogs, chances are you’re not seeking them out. Our audience seems to mostly consist of people who know us, perhaps even love us, and who want to find out what’s going on in our lives, how our homeschooling and homebrewing adventures are coming along, and what issues might have us fired up on any given day.

So, to sum up: my goal for this blog is to share my thoughts and feelings in hopes of getting them straight in my own head, and to engage in discussion when something particularly interesting comes up.

Please stay tuned as I get back into the groove…

Return of the Blogger

Top left: Jeremy digging out Old Blue to get off the street before the plows come; if I had high-speed internet, I'd attempt to post the video of him trying to move that old truck in the snow before he started digging! Top right: Jeremy and Tommy on the back of our beloved pickup; the storm put the snow on the back, not us. (FYI: my husband is a veteran, not a hunter...if only Uncle Sam could give everyone nice Gortex for days like these!) Bottom left: Tommy and Sammy freezing their you-know-whats off posing for their bossy mom. Bottom right: Veiw from the street right in front of our house; Jeremy's official totals--14 1/2" in street, 15 1/2" on driveway, 18" in yard.

It’s been such a long time….a line from one of my all-time favorite tunes from one of my all-time favorite bands, Boston (appropriately titled Long Time), that’s running through my head now. As many of you know, I have health issues and one thing that has been plaguing me recently is some pretty bad headaches. So, the genius that he is, my husband questions whether they could’ve come on from the increased time I’ve been spending at the computer (i.e. blogging), and suggested I cut back. I have a hard time doing anything in moderation, so I cut it out completely for about four weeks. They got worse; so much for that theory. So I’m back to the blog.

Last week, we here in mid-Missouri ushered in the new month with a bang…literally. We had what meteorologists call “thunder snow”, which woke Jeremy up in the middle of the night fearing that our chimney had fallen down. When we went to bed last Thursday night, there were maybe two inches of sleet and snow in the grass and less on the roads; when we awoke at 6:am the next morning, the skies were clear with over 15 inches on the ground. In our neck of the woods, we get our share of wintry weather now and then, but these kinds of storms don’t come around that often. So naturally a small photo gallery will be attached to this post.

The boys were very anxious to get out in the snow that Friday, but once out there they weren’t quite sure what to do. They couldn’t walk in it, so Sam just crawled around, lapping the snow up like a dog as he made his way through. He was so amazed that you could eat this stuff! Tommy was pretty scared to go into it himself. He ventured a few times but usually started making a fuss, wanting help back to the shoveled-out driveway. The snow was too dry to make snowballs and snowmen, but this week it should be better for packing. By the way…do you know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? (Hint: It’s one of the things in the aforementioned sentence that you can’t make with dry snow.)

It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin, yeah
And time doesn't wait for me,
it keeps on rollin...