Homeschrewling

A Good Dose of Bach

2007-11-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

Now that we have DSL, I can listen to music and watch those YouTube videos easily (I know...I'm so behind the times). The other day I was talking about organs, as I’d love to see a small, simple Allen organ in our church someday, and Sam argued with me that we already have one. We don’t: we have a Clavinova (a full-size Yamaha keyboard), so I was trying to describe what a real organ is. Apparently not doing a very good job, I remembered how easy it is for me to find something online and found a real showman's rendition of Bach’s Fugue in D Major. It was great to see my boys bouncing up and down and dancing to Bach organ music! That also led to a neat little video of the same song along with some commentary on Bach by a young German (who speaks very good English, I might add), who did a marvelous job playing it on a simply beautiful pipe organ.

Sharing the videos with Brewmaster that evening, he asked if this was a piece I ever learned: yeah, right. I wish. I told him of my last big Bach piece that I never quite mastered, Fugue in G Minor, aka “Little Fugue” (which really isn't that little). Trying to find a good recording of it on YouTube was very difficult, but alas I finally found one with an “air-organ” performer—the way I have to settle for playing real organ music these days. It’s rather amusing! He has good technique and is really playing it on his desk, although the video is a couple beats ahead of the audio, but when he brings in the first pedal line it’s almost together. A bit goofy, but at least it was a good audio recording and I was able to relive the good ol’ days of when my fingers were in better shape.

I can’t leave you with just that, though. After listening to the organ recording, you simply must listen to another I never thought I’d hear….ever. It will blow your mind!

Nothing in particular…

2007-11-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

…Just a few random things:

First, we now have DSL...exciting stuff!

However, we lost about nine months worth of digital photos in the process. Brewmaster downloaded everything onto DVDs in preparation to format the hard drive, but the one with pictures from January-September 2007 didn’t burn properly. And me being the tightwad, procrastinating, lazy person that I am, haven’t printed any off in eons (always waiting to get that DSL so I could do it from the comforts of my home). Long story short—if any of you have pictures of our family since last January, send them our way!

On a blogging note, I invite you all once again to frequent a real blogger’s blog, Dana Hanley at Principled Discovery. I learn so much from her writing and am always impressed and in awe how a mother of four young ones finds the time and brain-power to do what she does. Of course, she is a real writer—that is her gift; much like I am a musician, and people wonder how I can play on a Sunday morning while my one-year-old is fighting his father and anyone else trying to handle him, screaming his head off. So I should probably keep that in perspective as to not get too envious of her talent. But she’s changed her blog a bit, moved it to its own domain, so hopefully I’ll get that all squared away on her link over there. But hers is, by far, one of my favorite blogs out there to learn about the importance of strong foundations for our family, our culture, and our country.

On a book note, I’ve begun reading Common Sense via DailyLit and have been really enjoying it. In the weeks to come, I am going to post favorite quotes from that and from another book Brewmaster and I are both reading, D.L. Moody’s Prevailing Prayer. (I’ll end today’s post with a quote from that.) In our women’s study from church, we’re finishing up Charles Spurgeon’s Faith before starting a study on Paul’s letters to maturing churches in January. And last month I finished up Susan Hunt’s By Design: God’s Distinctive Calling for Women, and am slowly reading her book on Titus 2, Spiritual Mothering. Yes, it’s probably not wise to read so many at once; I’m notorious for starting many books and never actually finishing. So the blog is going to be my outlet to help keep me accountable to at least retain some of what I’m learning by posting bits and pieces on the books I’m reading now and then….kind of my own Charlotte Mason way of narrating, I guess. So that’s what you can expect on my end of the blog the next couple months as I try to increase in knowledge and faith by studying not only God’s word, but also those he’s gifted to help the rest of us have a better understanding of our role in his plan of redemption.

Now something from Prevailing Prayer that I read last night (and keep in mind he was writing in the 19th century):

I firmly believe that the Church of God will have to confess her own sins, before there can be any great work of grace. There must be a deeper work among God’s believing people. I sometimes think it is about time to give up preaching to the ungodly, and preach to those who profess to be Christians. If we had a higher standard of life in the Church of God, there would be thousands more flocking into the Kingdom. So it was in the past; when God’s believing children turned away from their sins and their idols, the fear of God fell upon the people round about. Take up the history of Israel, and you will find that when they put away their strange gods, God visited the nation, and there came a mighty work of grace.

Sacrifice

2007-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there will be people, maybe even family, who will question us about letting our children be so different and letting them constantly talk about God. It came to me (I call it my mini-revelation—I know, cheesy) that, in a way, we are offering our children as sacrifices. We are willing to let them not fit in, not know the new songs, new shows, new fads. We are even willing to let them be teased, humiliated, even hated by the world because they have different priorities and interests and loves. We are willing to submit them to emotional (perhaps even physical) pain because we know that it is the right and most important thing for them to love the Lord our God with all [their] heart and with all [their] soul and with all [their] mind and with all [their] strength (Mark 12:30).

I think of Abraham offering up his precious son as a sacrifice; his obedience is beyond comprehension. He was obedient to not just allow Isaac to experience pain and suffering and death, but that he would bring about Isaac’s pain and suffering and death. So many times I have thanked God for not testing my faith in that way. I’m perhaps revealing too much, but I’ve often said “I just don’t know if I could do it.” Even though I could never compare my faith to Abraham's, my mini-revelation gives me a little better understanding of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice and to be obedient.

Also, reminded of Rom. 12:1, whenever our children are suffering or hurting or sad or humiliated, we suffer with them. We cry over their physical pain, but even more so, we cry when they experience embarrassment or hurt feelings. I cringe inside when my sweet Gracie’s artwork gifts are misunderstood by the recipients or when Nathan gets ignored or patronized by the grown up with whom he’s so deliberately trying to share a story (usually the Gospel). We are offering ourselves as living sacrifices because of the hurt we experience on our children’s behalves.

I guess to wrap up my mini-revelation I’ll say that I want to be obedient as we continue to raise and school our children--I pray that my heavenly Father will continue to grow my faith. What is faith? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb. 11: 1). It is believing even if every one else does not and being willing to die for what you believe. Faith is sacrifice, sacrifice is worship (Rom 12:1), worship is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).

DailyLit

2007-10-24T09:15:00.001-07:00

Ever wish you would've read more of the classics in school, or actually pay attention to the ones you did read? Ever tell yourself you're going to start reading the classics but never get around to it? I recently came across a new website via Why Homeschool called DailyLit. Here you can sign up to receive free emails of classic literary works and read them straight from your email account. They send short bits at a time--about five minutes worth--and give you the option of selecting the next bit if time allows. You can find works by category, author and title. I haven't signed up for one to read yet, but plan to do so soon. I'll wait to see if anyone would like to do one together with me. I think for my first one, I'd like to read Thomas Payne's Common Sense, which is only 24 installments. If anyone would like to join me, let me know!

"They're going to do it anyway..."

2007-10-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

I can’t even come to grips with these two stories to comment on them myself yet. Maybe I’ll be able to later, but for now I just want to get them on the blog for y’all to read.

First in Maine:

Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will consider Wednesday.

The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing
condoms as part of its reproductive health program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers.

If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle schoolers are ages 11-13.

[…]

Types of prescription birth control available through the health centers include contraceptive pills, patches or injections, as well as the morning-after pill. Diaphragms and IUDs are not usually prescribed, she said. [empahsis mine]

So the idea of condoms were sold to public schools on the premise that kids are going to have sex anyway and we don’t want them to get STDs, so we need them to have access to all the condoms they want; it’s for their safety. So are STDs not that bad after all? (Maybe not since we can vaccinate girls for HPV, which may be mandatory before long.) I’m not following this jump…will they start teaching the kids to use condoms for backup protection now? Or vice versa?

I guess since the schools are already providing birth control and condoms, would it be too much to ask for them to also provide quiet, dimly-lit rooms for students so they don’t have to disrupt class with their sex acts? Well, it may be a better idea than just letting kids run around naked during school.

In a totally unrelated story out of Norway:

…a respected Oslo pre-school teacher, backed by child psychologists, thinks children should be allowed to openly express their own sexuality, not least through sex play and games in the local day care centers…

[…]

Children, she said, should be able "to look at each other and examine each other's bodies. They can play doctor, play mother and father, dance naked and masturbate.” [emphasis mine]

I mean, they’re going to do it anyway, so we might as well get them used to it and not feel ashamed and teach them when and where to do it along with all the other children, right? Because, you know, a few of these poor kids might not have parents doing their job and addressing this issue at home. So it’s important that the daycares and kindergartens do it themselves and expose a lot of other kids to such things unnecessarily to make up for the few not getting the proper upbringing, right? And we'll instruct the teachers on how to deal with this properly in a classroom setting:

"But their sexuality must also be socialized, so they are not, for example, allowed to masturbate while sitting and eating. Nor can they be allowed to pressure other children into doing things they don't want to."

Oh...what a relief. Sorry for all the sarcasm, but this got me in a mood. I gotta stop before I vomit.

Hat tip: Glenn Beck

Adjunct Jenny Update

2007-10-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Many of our regular readers may already know, but Adjunct Jenny's husband has been deployed to Afghanistan for six months as of last Thursday. They didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this--they first found out about three weeks ago today--and have been very busy the past couple weeks getting their affairs in order and trying to spend as much family time as possible together. He has set up a blog to keep in touch with everyone and, as he says, "to try to document evidence of God’s hand in my trip to this dark part of the world." They both have incredible faith and are anxious to share the Gospel wherever God sends them. Let us all keep them in our constant prayers during their separation, and marvel at God's love and work through these two able and willing servants!

Christmas is coming!

2007-10-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

For those family members who will soon be asking what our kids want for Christmas, please take note!

Fair Photos

2007-09-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

And now for that photo update...sad to say my camera was packed away in our suitcase, but, as usual, my dear sis came through for me!

Danny at the petting zoo...he actually made the county paper with a cute picture smiling and talking to a goat!

Sammy and Tommy riding the dragon roller coaster, with their cousin--the kiddie tractor-pull champ--riding behind them. Tommy rode this ride several times, although I really don't think he ever enjoyed it very much!

Here you can tell Tommy is enjoying the ferris wheel with cousin Dalton.

Fared Well at the Fair

2007-09-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

I just sat down to do a bit of blogging since it’s been a while and decided to pop open one of the beers Brewmaster spared when dumping that one batch (the stout with the funky smell/taste). I must say, it’s not bad. When dumping, he noticed some of them didn’t smell quite as funny as the others, so he saved a couple that were in his Grolsch bottles. I’m starting to feel very bad that the rest all went down the drain; even his “bad” beer is still better than the Bud Light I drank at the county fair!

Speaking of which, I took a turn taking the boys out of town this past weekend. (I know, I know…people are really gonna start talking about us now that we’ve taken two trips this month without the other!) Actually, BM would’ve gone had work not been an issue.

We went to visit my folks for the East Perry Co. Fair—“the best little fair in the land”. I used to laugh at that slogan, but after going back (it’s been 12 years since I’ve been), I think they’ve earned it. The biggest thing for me right off the bat is, of course, the food. It’s the best fair food ever and the prices are at least half what you’d normally spend. The boys had a great time watching the parade Perry County style: tractors, fire trucks, new tractors, school kids, high school bands, old tractors, wagons with kids, more tractors…and of course the army of horses wrapping it up. Did I mention the tractors? It was great. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a parade that didn’t involve throwing beads (we spent five years living in LA and MS, in case you were wondering).

Another highlight of the fair is touring the Quonset hut and browsing the produce entries. There’s just something absolutely wonderful about the displays of people’s best picks from the garden resting on little paper plates with ribbons attached, not to mention the 80-pound pumpkins and watermelons resting on the floor. What pride they took in their 5 little tomatoes, cucumbers, what have you, that they took the time to get ready, stand in line to enter, and share with others at the fair. Of course, there is a little monetary incentive: I think $3 is the going rate for a blue ribbon, which my sister won again for her dill beans.

And while we did venture through some of the 4-H exibits, the poultry and livestock and visited the petting zoo, we didn't make it to the mule jump--a most popular event. We also missed the boys' cousin take 1st place at the kiddie tractor pull, but I'm sure he'll win it again next year. I could always enter our boys in the contest, but these citified homeschoolers wouldn't stand a chance...unless Brewmaster got the notion to start training them this year. Maybe we'll be adding that to our PE curriculum.

This is all stuff I grew up with year after year and never appreciated until I left the country and became a snob. We’re working on getting back to the country-life like the fine folks I grew up around enjoy, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be happening here in the ‘burbs. Someday…

And yes, I am a snob: my dad wanted to buy me a beer, and I made him go around all the beer wagons and see if they had anything other than Bud Light, Coors Light, or Old Milwaukee. Hoping to find Shiner Bock again as he had a couple years before, he tried, but no such luck. I did manage to get half a Bud Light down, but it was pretty painful. Brewmaster has me spoiled drinking the good stuff.

By the way, I just finished the pint of “funky stout” and wish we had more. You know how moms and grandmas are known to eat the bad parts of a meal, like the least desirable piece of chicken or the crunchy corner piece of lasagna so no one else has to? I think it’s safe to say that I’m on my way to drinking BM’s bad batches of beer. Hey, if they make it to the bottling phase, chances are they’ll be good enough for me.

(Pictures of the fair to follow once I get them ready.)

The Saga Continues

2007-09-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

I racked my brew into my carboy for secondary fermentation. It's been 8 days and nearly all of the noticeable fermentation is done. In fact, the most vigorous fermenting stopped after 36 hours, so it's been pretty quiet since last Sunday.

In regards to the quality, so far so good. I believe everything will be fine, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. There was a good inch of yeast in the bottom of the bucket, a good sign that my 9-month old dry yeast was alright.

That's it for today, nothing too exciting, just thought I'd get some brownie points from HM and actually post something again.

Socialization and the New Kids on the Block

2007-09-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Socialization is known as the “S” word to us homeschoolers and is generally one of the first questions or comments out of the mouths of those who disapprove or are ignorant of homeschooling. One of the pros many homeschoolers have on their list is the ability to have more control over who befriends their children. Not that other parents don’t have the same control; they do have it and should use it. But it’s more difficult to prohibit or hinder problem-friendships from evolving if your children are hanging out with kids you may not approve of five days a week.

Among many Evangelical public-schoolers (PSers) and homeschoolers, the debate isn’t so much about socialization as it is about “salt and light”. Christian PSers often make the argument that they want their children to be good influences on the more worldly kids at school. It’s been viewed by some Christian homeschoolers as an excuse to justify not wanting to homeschool or pay money for private school (although I don’t share this view so much as my own opinion has moderated a bit over the past year). We just figured that we didn’t really have to worry about the “salt and light” issue as much with our kids right now since we’re keeping them at home.

Turns out, God wants us to deal with it right now anyway.

On Labor Day we had a knock on our door. Brewmaster opened it and there stood a six-year-old boy and he said, “Do any kids live here?”

Jeffrey is new to the neighborhood and was walking door-to-door looking for playmates...alone. He wanted Sammy to come play at his house, to which I explained I can’t let him come by himself and that I’d like to meet his mom and dad first. So I gave him our pertinent information and told him to have his mom call us.

The next day, Jeffrey came knocking again wondering if he could play with Sammy in our backyard. I asked if he gave his mom our number and told him I’d really like to meet her and talk to her, to which he replied she tried calling in the middle of the night but we didn’t answer. Not believing his story and beginning to worry even more about him than the day before, I told him we’d love to come out and play with him. Not long after, his eight-year-old sister and three-year-old brother started coming along, always wandering the streets unsupervised (they live about two blocks away).

This has been going on since that first day Jeffrey showed up, and I can only think of one or two days when he hasn’t knocked on our door. I was finally able to walk over to their home and meet his mother after a week or so, and it only led to more worry. Our friend and neighbor next door, the pastor, has also gotten to know our new friends better and sees some warning signs…things that led him to say we shouldn’t leave our kids alone in a room with Jeffrey.

So, in the upcoming posts, we’re going to dive into this a little deeper and hopefully answer some questions we have (with your help, I hope), including:

1. How do we minister to these kids while still guarding our young ones?
2. How much should we tell our kids (mainly Sam) about what we learn regarding this new family?
3. What kind of boundaries are appropriate when we open up our “yard” (they haven’t been in our home yet, and we think that should be the case for now) to our new friends?
4. What about legal issues: what if someone gets hurt while playing here and their parents may or may not know where they are? Should we be concerned about getting sued, or, worse yet, arrested?
5. How do we go about attempting to minister to their parents?
6. How far should we go to try to get information that would give us a better understanding of what their home-life is like?

This is very foreign territory for us. It will probably take me several posts to get through my thoughts and concerns on this. God is putting us in a position that is not only unfamiliar to us, but very uncomfortable as well. Although my first thoughts are that I am utterly ill-prepared and completely unequipped to handle such a situation in a gracious manner and with a redemptive spirit, I feel the peace knowing that our sovereign God is in control of the matter and will lead us through this…and hopefully some help and good advice from you readers is part of His plan!

Brewmaster is Back in Business!

2007-09-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh.......the smell of homebrew is in the air!

Keeping it simple

2007-09-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Well I’ve taken off the last 9 months, not brewing or even thinking about brewing, because I’ve been disappointed with my last 2 batches. But I’ve had a kit sitting around my house for a few months now, and with the weather starting to cool off (down in the 40’s last night), HM & I decided it would be a good time to get back on the horse.

So last night I brewed a Honey Porter with my neighbor Brian, it took about 4 hours start to finish, and I believe with the changes I’ve made since last time, it should turn out alright. Here’s what I did differently that I think could contribute to better beer (aka. no off flavors).

1. Kept my boil down to 2-gal instead of the 3-gal boils I’ve done in the past. This makes it easier for my electric stove to keep up with the boil, takes less time, and I think the overall boil was more “rolling”.

2. Didn’t add any gypsum. Since I use RO water that’s been through a softener, I’ve always used gypsum to add hardness back into the water. However, since the water we get straight from the district is extremely hard, I think that by the time it goes through our softener, it is now about even with your typical household without a softener. And it was one less thing that I had to worry about.

3. I also didn’t use my wort chiller this time. Instead I just stuck the pot in the sink with 10 lbs of ice and water and stirred every 2-3 minutes. Doing it this way, I cooled off the wort in about 10 minutes, so it really didn’t take any more time than with my wort chiller, and I didn’t have to worry about cross contamination (which is what I think has ruined my last 2 batches).

4. I didn’t use the fancy sanitizers this time, only bleach. My primary has been soaking in bleach water for about 8 months now, so I think it was clean. I had a suspicion that the yellowish film left on my primary from my 1st and 2nd batches was a major cause of my problems, so now the yellow film is gone and I believe all is well.

5. The last change that occurred wasn’t intentional, but as I was prepping my equipment to brew, I noticed that my auto siphon tubing had little black spots on the inside, which I believe is mold or mildew, so that’s now in the trash can and I had to pour my cooled wort into my primary. There was a little spillage, but with my wife’s strainer, I caught all of the sediment and believe I have a very clean beer fermenting.

6. Didn’t rehydrate my dry yeast, just poured it straight in. In the past I would have been to paranoid to do that, but after talking with enough experience homebrewers, I realized that I’d probably be alright. It also saved me about 10 minutes, which is important when it’s 11 pm and the kitchen is a mess.

I carried it down to our basement which was holding about 70-degrees last night, and when I checked it this morning, there’s plenty of activity, so I know that my 9-month old yeast was doing just fine. I’m also not going to check the specific gravity this time around, I think that’s just another opportunity for contamination and not in line with my new way of brewing….just keeping it simple.

Following Up My "Disturbing Thoughts"

2007-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Okay…just one more post on this and then we’ll get back to our regular Homeschrewling programming.

I just wanted to list the specific things I’ve read or heard that has captured my interest on the topic of terrorists hitting our schools, since I know many of you don't have the time to read all my hyperlinks from the previous post.

Headlines from actual news reports:

FBI: Extremists sign up to drive school buses (USA Today;179 days ago)

Two Saudi men arrested for boarding school bus to Wharton High School (WTSP Tampa Bay’s 10 News; 5/19/06)

School bus thefts raise security concerns (KHOU.com, Houston; 8/28/07; 17 school buses missing in the Houston area)

Other reports and analysis from Glenn Beck and Brad Thor, taken from radio show transcript, 9/11/07:

We see thousands of school bus radios missing in the Northwest, the Pacific Northwest. (Thor)

In Iraq we found a diskette that had a -- that had downloaded all of the Department of Education security measures, and they're all available online. (Beck)

…that disk was on an Iraqi who was arrested in a terrorism raid, an Iraqi with known ties to active Islamic terrorism. (Thor)

…it would blow your mind how many law enforcement departments I talked to that have interrupted active surveillance on schools across the country. (Thor)

What was found in an insurgent, an Al-Qaeda affiliated safehouse over in Iraq, they were school blueprints, basically, floor plans for schools across the country. San Diego, California, West Salem, Oregon, Boyertown, Pennsylvania, schools in Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, (Thor)

Bin Laden has said what we did in Russia, we will visit 100 times worse in America [referencing the attack in Beslan]. He's even gotten a religious edict allowing him to kill up to two million American children and what they are looking for is a school where the girls are old enough to rape and the boys are too small to fight back. (Thor)

There's eight hours of tape that we found in Pakistan in another Al-Qaeda training camp, eight hours of tape where they made a mock American school. The guy, the terrorists came in and they took mock American students, they took one little boy and they shot him in the head immediately and then in English said, "Now follow our directions exactly." (Beck)

…what we've discovered is all of their plans on how to surveil the schools, how to get in the schools, how to hold the schools, the one thing that's missing from all these plans, there is no exit strategy. These people are not planning to leave alive. (Thor)

…this Al-Qaeda model of being like a shark, how they swim big concentric circles. They don't come right in and bite you. They collect Intel, getting closer and closer, tighter and tighter in the circles. But before they attack, before they take the bite, they come up and they bump you. They want to see are you a threat, are you going to put up a fight, or can we get you. And that's what we're seeing across the country…[referring to suspected dry runs and “bumps”] (Thor)

What to do according to Glenn if this goes down:

…if you happen to see that in Kansas, a school has been taken, you leave, you go to [your] school and you tell the principal, I need to get my kid because she's got a doctor's appointment. [don't create a panic]

Now, if it happens at [your] kids' school, you do not go to the school. That's the last thing you do. [possibility of secondary attacks]

In a wonderful in-depth post on Ordnance-Corner, Senior PoliceOne contributor Chuck Remsburg writes a piece about a three-day conference for terrorist issues, sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI) in Atlantic City. Here are a few bits from that:

Muslim religious literature…states clearly that the killing of children not only is “permitted” in Islam but is “approved” by Mohammed…

Probably not so many terrorists involved at a single location [as in Beslan]. Moving that big a contingent into place would likely attract too much attention and thwart the attack. Grossman describes a more likely possibility, in his opinion: Terrorist cells of four operatives each will strike simultaneously at four different schools. They’ll probably pick middle schools with no police officers on site, where the girls are “old enough to rape” but students are not big enough to fight back effectively.

The targets will probably be in states “with no concealed-carry laws and no hunting culture” and in communities where “police do not have rifles.” Rural areas may be favored, where 30 minutes or more could be required for responders to arrive in force.

In all, 100 to 300 children could be slaughtered in a first strike. Terrorists capable of this are already embedded in communities “all over America,” Grossman and Rassa agreed. [All emphasis mine]

I feel better now knowing I’ve shared this with some of you who were not aware of the threat. Of course, it’s not imminent, improbable that it will happen to anyone we know personally, but the possibility of such an attack is greater now than ever and there are many people who know way more about this than any of us do that are seriously worried about it. I pray they know enough so we never have to live it.

Please be active in your schools and communities, make a plan with your family members, and don't be afraid to ask your teachers and administrators questions related to security procedures and other "what if" scenarios. And thanks for bearing with me...I'm glad I have this forum to inform those I love without putting us all through the discomfort of an actual conversation!

Other sources: Gateway Pundit; Blogger News Network; National Terror Alert

Disturbing Thoughts on the Eve of 9/11

2007-09-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Okay…I don’t want to become a nut-job for posting this, but I guess I’ll take my chances.

I occasionally listen to Glenn Beck—much less now than I used to—because I find him very funny and quite informative. He seems to have gone off the deep end a bit the last year or so with his Islamofascist-doomsday stuff, but I’m often glad to get those stories from somewhere since I don’t go out looking for them myself.

Anyway, today on his radio program he began talking about a series he’s doing on his CNN Headline News show this week called “The Perfect Day”—terrorists hitting multiple targets at our schools [transcript]. It’s got me a little freaked out. Not that many of us haven’t thought of such a scenario happening, especially after 9/11 and the Beslan incident [**WARNING! Graphic contents**], but when Glenn starts talking about the video he has of terrorist camps we broke up in Afghanistan showing the terrorists being trained how to round up kids and shoot them; or the architectural plans of schools here in the US that they found in Iraq; or the signs pointing to terrorists hitting schools in the Heartland with slower 911 response times so they have time to set up; or Homeland Security procedures advising parents/people not to gather at the school in case of an attack because of the secondary attacks…you know, I start getting a little freaked.

Perhaps this is just something I’m going through on 9/11 Eve…a day you remember where you were when it happened, thank God for there not being another big attack here on our soil, then wonder why we haven’t been attacked since then and when the next time will happen. It’s not something I spend a lot of time thinking about; I would probably fall into the category of one of those Americans whose life wasn’t greatly altered by it and can pretty much go about my day like it never happened. But if Glenn and others are right and our enemies are plotting to attack our kids at schools in the hopes of getting us sucked into a holy war…well, I guess that’s just one more reason I’m thankful we homeschool.

Raising Pharisees

2007-09-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

How do we keep our children from holding others in judgment? Especially as homeschooling moms, how do we keep our children from judging those who are in public or private schools when we are vehemently defensive of our decision to homeschool?

It is true, we all know it: when we get questioned about our decision to homeschool and about the benefits/risks to our children, our claws come out. It doesn’t take much to send me into a tirade when I’ve had to answer difficult questions about why I’m homeschooling (I’m usually crying after the fact to my husband or close friends). We all have our reasons for homeschooling and they are solid and sound, but when we can sense that judging tone, it stirs up those self-doubts and secret concerns that have settled into the far recesses of our minds.

Then, for many of us, it comes out…we call it defensiveness…but we know it is pride. And, oh—does it lead to some sin! Many times, our words become peppered with cynicism and sarcasm. Or, we begin convicting others of their shortcomings, their failures or bad decisions. I found an interesting blog article, The Mark of a Christian, that talks about how we Christians “spew venom” while defending our own beliefs and in the process “destroy the vibrancy of our faith and our witness to the world.” We are so eager to defend our ideals, that we use sinful means to do it

How many times have we spewed cynical, sarcastic, judgmental words when defending our decision to homeschool? And, as our sweet children are always listening (more than we realize), we are training them to be little Pharisees. They know all our right answers, but their hearts have been trained to be prideful and their answers caustic.

So, back to the question: how do we keep our children from holding others in judgment? I’ll throw it out there for you to answer, but I think we can find one hint in Mark 12: 31 and another in Matthew 7:3-5.

Mustard

2007-09-06T09:03:00.001-07:00

(The following is a forwarded email from my sis. Enjoy the laugh!)

I Love Mustard.

As ham sandwiches go, it was perfection: a thick slab of ham on a fresh bun with crisp lettuce and plenty of expensive, light brown, gourmet mustard. The corners of my jaw aching in anticipation, I carried it to the table in our backyard, picked it up with both hands but was stopped by my wife suddenly at my side. 'Here, hold Johnny (our six-week-old son) while I get my sandwich,' she said.

I had him balanced between my left elbow and shoulder and was reaching again for the ham sandwich when I noticed a streak of mustard on my fingers.

I love mustard.

I had no napkin.

I licked it off.

It was not mustard.

No man ever put a baby down faster. It was the first and only time I have sprinted with my tongue protruding. With a washcloth in each hand, I did the sort of routine shoeshine boys do; only I did it on my tongue.

Later, after she stopped crying from laughing so hard, my wife said, 'Now you know why they call that fancy mustard 'Poupon.'

Ramblings 'bout the Weekend

2007-09-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

I love my children dearly. But even the best mom in the world (which I’m pretty sure I’m not, second only to Adjunct Jenny, of course) needs a break from the best children in the world (so far no one has contested us on that one). Thankfully I am married to the best man in the world, despite what my fellow blogger may claim on her profile, and he recognized that I needed a break. I wasn’t expecting what I got, though: a weekend alone in my own home.

Saturday morning Brewmaster and the boys made the three-hour drive to visit our folks for two nights. I don’t know many husbands who are willing to travel alone with three boys 5 and under…well, except maybe his older brother, who is a remarkable husband and father in his own right. But come Saturday morning, I waved good-bye, shed a few tears, then set to work painting our bedroom and bathroom. I wasn’t completely alone, though. I enjoyed the company of a new canine friend named Napoleon that we’ve become quite attached to. He’s not much of a watchdog. The only time I’ve ever heard him bark was at his own reflection in the window. And he’s terrified of our cat, but still a good dog.

While visiting my folks, the boys went to see a landmark near my hometown called Tower Rock, a small island a ways out from the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. It’s near Wittenberg, MO, and I doubt you could even find that town on a map anymore. Once when I was a kid (1988), the river was so low you could walk all the way out and climb the rock. I believe that was the first time in recorded history that ever happened. (The big boys are pictured here with my mom.)

This was the first time I’ve been away from all four of my boys overnight, so I was a little nervous at first. But I did pretty well considering. I definitely had some mixed emotions early

on, wondering if I should feel guilty enjoying time alone, or guilty letting my hubby use up a whole weekend taking care of them. But in the end, it was a good thing: they came back to a rested, happy wife and mother and I got fresh-looking bedroom/bathroom walls. How long rested, happy women and fresh-looking walls last is another story...

Boxes

2007-09-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

At my homeschool support meeting a few nights ago, one of the biggest areas of expressed concern from the moms was lacking flexibility with our children’s schooling schedules. For many of us it is hard to let one of our little students take a break from their seatwork and come back to it later. It’s especially hard when there’s “just a little more and then you’ll be done,” or when there are other things waiting on our list of “things to do” when school time is over. I am especially bad about compartmentalizing my day, “boxing” off school time, chore time, resting time, errands and then promptly pushing along until all of the boxes are checked. And, by the way, my boxes do not overlap; they are in a nice neat row. Too bad that real life doesn’t fit into tidy boxes!

As a military family, we are used to moving around and it’s a huge benefit to us when we keep things simple and neat and organized. When we prepare for the movers to come, we spend days and weeks sorting and pairing like things so that they’ll get boxed together. Imagine opening a box that is marked board games and finding Candyland, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, a couple of socks, a Barbie and a plastic bowl. It’s frustrating! I can’t just sit and organize and put away the games; I have to run around the house and figure out where the Barbies live, to whom do the socks belong (are they paired and are they clean), and which cabinet did I unpack those bowls into?? It’s inefficient and aggravating.

As a homeschooling mom, I have to face it, I am not going to have neat, tidy boxes to check off each day. This is how I picture how my metaphorical boxes should look: my chore time box would be full of cleaning solvents, rubber gloves (in sizes for me and the children), some elbow grease, and some Bible verses, and maybe a chemistry book…might even need a biology book! My resting time box should have some books, quiet music, prayer journal and Bibles for each of us. My errands box should have car keys, credit cards, snacks and water, diaper bag, and conversation starters to share with the children and math tables. And my school box—well, I shouldn’t need one at all because all of my school supplies and books and learning toys and Bible has been spread out to all of my other boxes!

Okay, it’s messy, but since having children, nothing has been neat and tidy! Perhaps that is by design so that we don’t just live life checking the boxes and missing the joy.

Lesson Plans: Structured and Flexible?

2007-08-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

We’ve completed our first two weeks of school without a hitch, and so far I don’t plan on making any major changes to curriculum or our schedule. Here’s what an average day might look like, just off the top of my head:

Boys up at 6:30
Sam works on Phonics and Handwriting while I make breakfast
Eat breakfast and memory work
Speech Therapy/or if at home, free time to read, play, or finish work
Danny nap/boys Math, then coloring/craft time or computer time
Lunch and Bible story time
Clean up/free time
Naps
Snacks
Play or read
Daddy home…evening routine

One thing I’ve learned with having a new toddler around is that our time sitting down for meals or snacks (at least when Daddy isn’t at home) needs to be used efficiently. Breakfast is a great time for reciting and discussing memory work; lunchtime is usually good for reading and discussing our Bible story. I say “usually” because with a one-year-old around, you really never know what mealtime is going to be like from day to day. Some days we’ll get it done, some days we won’t.

As far as my lesson plans go, here’s an example of those, too:

Lesson Plans August 20-24, 2007

Monday

Memory Work: Ephesians 2:8
Math: Lesson 5; practice writing 5,6,8,9
Phonics: pp. 33-36
Handwriting: pp. 12-14
Reading: Egermeier’s p. 28, “Abraham’s Strange Visitors”; Herriot’s “Moses the Cat”; Children’s Garden pp. 10,11
Bible: Matt. 5:1-12
Sam’s free reading: [this is the area I’m supposed to fill in as I see him reading whatever he chooses, but I usually forget]

As far as how much time is spent on each subject…15 minutes is my goal for each subject, give or take. We enjoy math so much that we may spend 20-30 minutes some days. I started assigning four pages of Phonics at a time because he is breezing through it so fast, and it still might only take him 5-10 minutes to complete his worksheets. And if we all feel like cuddling up in my bed and reading James Herriot or Batman some days, we might do so for 30 minutes if Danny is still napping. I’m striving for “structured flexibility”, if such a thing exists. I think it does.

All About Sam

2007-08-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sam turned five in April and is reading at a pretty advanced level. To be quite honest, I really don’t know what level he’s reading at. He can read the Bible, obviously getting stuck on some of the names and places, but most psalms would give him no problems. Does that help anyone out there try to give me an idea where he is on reading? And he puts an incredible amount of emotion into his reading, especially when there’s dialogue. It’s quite impressive, and I really don’t think I can take much of the credit for it. He’s just very good at it.

Anyway, I started him on first grade phonics and he’s breezing through it. (I should note that we’ve been working out of some of our books for a couple weeks now, even though I said that we’ve just officially started. I think most homeschoolers will know what I mean.) He can read the directions and do what they say. Once or twice he’s asked for help understanding the directions, and on those occasions I myself had to read them twice to make sure I understood them fully.

The math is also first grade level. So far it’s just reviewing stuff we already know, but learning things in a different way, as you’ll see when studying the RightStart program. I expect it to get more challenging in the weeks ahead.

With Sam being advanced for his age, it really takes a load off me worrying about the pressure of making sure he can read by the end of kindergarten. There are times where I wonder if I should push him farther and harder than I am, but I generally come back to the notion that “too much, too soon” could backfire. If our goals were more academic-driven and less heaven-driven, we would likely change our approach and make it more academically demanding.

Charlotte Mason didn’t like formal schooling for children under six, so starting Sam now might put me a year ahead by her standards. Here is what she had in mind (taken from Ambleside Online):

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint of a curriculum
outline from a CM school in the 1890's. From Summer 93 Parents Review
pub by Karen Andreola

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. To add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. To read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. To copy in print-hand from a book
6. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. To describe the boundaries of their own home
8. To describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. To tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. To be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. To mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. To do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. To know 6 birds by song, color and shape
14. To send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. To tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. To name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. To sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. To keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

"Are You Poor?"

2007-08-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Goal setting…this is the first step for many of us who travel down the homeschooling road. Short term goals are easy: my child should learn how to write name, learn to read, not have fits over handwriting assignments, etc. Long term goals tend to be lofty and philosophical: my child should be a Godly role model to his peers, be the next president, etc.

One of my long term goals has always been that my children will be able to articulate and defend their beliefs. I figured it would be a continued pursuit or a goal gradually achieved and mastered at adulthood, but maybe I need to move it more into the short term goal category.

About a month ago we were out to lunch with the Headmistress and her children. Our server, Abdu, (or rather server’s helper, as his mother was our official server) was an eight year old boy whose father owned the pizzeria. He was very friendly and assertive and seemed to enjoy visiting with us while he helped his mother serve our food. During our meal he asked where our children go to school and we told him that they are home schooled. He looked at us and asked “Are you poor?” We assured him that we are not (didn’t want him to think we weren’t going to pay the bill) and that some kids just do school at home, which seemed to be enough to satisfy him.

I didn’t really give it much thought until today while I was talking with my mother-in-law. She gave me a good bit of advice. She said that my children need to be prepared to give an answer when other children ask them “Why do you homeschool?” And I thought again about Abdu and if he’d asked my sweet six year old and four year old “Are you poor?” How would they have answered? Would they have been able to articulate and defend themselves? How do I teach/train them to answer those questions?

I asked my children today why we homeschool and they told me that it’s because we get done so much earlier. Maybe that’s the best answer for them to give to another child!

Introducing....

2007-08-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

Under the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law, it would be considered that an adjunct is any beer ingredient other than water, barley and hops.

From dictionary.net:

ad’ junct
1. Something joined or added to another thing, but not essentially a part of it.
2. A person joined to another in some duty or service; a colleague; an associate.

We’re excited and privileged to introduce Adjunct Jenny to the blog!

A few days ago out of the blue I asked my friend if she would be interested in contributing to the blog now and then. She’s happy to have a place to post her thoughts and musings without a lot of the work that’s involved with keeping up a blog. I’m especially happy to have another contributor since I appear to be a one-person show these days (hint-hint, Brewmaster)!

Just to give a brief history (if that’s possible coming from me)…

I’m proud to call Adjunct Jenny one of my dearest and closest friends. More like a sister, really. Our husbands have known each other since preschool, grew up in the same church, were in each other’s weddings—they go way back. Once married, we were nearly next-door neighbors here in mid-MO and again several years later when our husbands just happened to both get stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS. We’re waiting ever so patiently for them to get out of the Air Force and come back to mid-MO to be neighbors once again!

Adjunct Jenny is a devoted wife, mother and servant of the Lord. She and her husband homeschool their three children ages 6, 4 and 8 months.

NCLB Leaving the Top Behind

2007-08-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

We have a smarty on our hands, but I’m quite certain he’s no genius. However, one of the first reasons given to us by friends to homeschool was the possibility of Sam being bored in kindergarten. I must admit that at first this made my ego soar a bit: yeah…my son is too smart for kindergarten! And this evening I found a quote by Robert Davidson to back me up:

"I mean, that's criminal to send a kid [who already reads well] to kindergarten... Somebody should go to jail for that! That is emotional torture!"

Well, I certainly don’t want to be imprisoned for emotionally torturing my son, so I guess we’ll keep him home. But what if we didn’t homeschool? Would many schools let kids skip kindergarten? Would they be able to tailor his education for him and send him to first grade math and second grade reading while letting him hang out in kindergarten for everything else? And would such a kid stand a chance with his classmates socially under such circumstances (since that's what everyone seems so concerned about these days anyways)?

According to a recent article in Time magazine, most public schools are very hesitant to let kids skip ahead more than one or two grades, if at all, despite research showing that gifted kids do well academically and socially when placed in a grade appropriate for their skill level. And, not surprisingly, keeping them from jumping ahead can leave them socially inept and keep them from achieving their potential.

Robert and Janice Davidson believe that today’s schools are holding back the gifted so much so that they founded a free public day school on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, the Davidson Academy of Nevada, to accommodate kids with an IQ of 160 or higher. From the article:

What's needed is a new model for gifted education, an urgent sense that prodigious intellectual talents are a threatened resource…The academy will begin its second year Aug. 27, and while it will have just 45 students, they are 45 of the nation's smartest children. They are kids from age 11 to 16 who are taking classes at least three years beyond their grade level (and in some cases much more; two of the school's prodigies have virtually exhausted the undergraduate math curriculum at the University of Nevada, Reno, whose campus hosts the academy).

This comes in a time when we spend billions more educating the learning disabled in an attempt to bring them up to the minimum level than we do trying to challenge those at the top.

American schools spend more than $8 billion a year educating the mentally retarded. Spending on the gifted isn't even tabulated in some states, but by the most generous calculation, we spend no more than $800 million on gifted programs. But it can't make sense to spend 10 times as much to try to bring low-achieving students to mere proficiency as we do to nurture those with the greatest potential.

However, U.S. Sec. of Ed. Margaret Spellings says that we need to “close the achievement gap and prepare all children to succeed in the global economy” by reauthorizing NCLB. But what effect does this have on the kids at the top?

In a no-child-left-behind conception of public education, lifting everyone up to a minimum level is more important than allowing students to excel to their limit. It has become more important for schools to identify deficiencies than to cultivate gifts. Odd though it seems for a law written and enacted during a Republican Administration, the social impulse behind No Child Left Behind is radically egalitarian. It has forced schools to deeply subsidize the education of the least gifted, and gifted programs have suffered. The year after the President signed the law in 2002, Illinois cut $16 million from gifted education; Michigan cut funding from $5 million to $500,000. Federal spending declined from $11.3 million in 2002 to $7.6 million this year. [emphasis mine]

There is so much about this that I could go on and on about. Perhaps I should've made it a two or three-day post. But I encourage you all to read the article for the full story, lengthy as it may be.

Sources: Yahoo News, The Education Wonks; photo: The Davidson Academy of Nevada

The Hodge-Podge Curriculum

2007-08-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here are the basics that we’re using:

RightStart Mathematics Level B
MCP Phonics Level A
Letters and Numbers For Me
The Bible

Another one on the back burner and hoping to work in, but not going to freak out if we don’t get to it until next year:

Suffer Little Children, Book One

Other books we’re reading from right now are:
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
Egermeier’s Story Bible
Children’s Garden of Verses

Our Bible studies for now are not structured, just daily memory work and selected readings picked by Sam or his parents. My goal right now is to get him interested in reading Scripture on his own and have him familiarize himself with the books of the Bible. When we start Suffer Little Children, then it will become more structured and rigorous, but I’m not going to push that just yet.

As far as science goes….when given a choice, Sam will usually pick a science-related book over anything else. It could be bugs, space, volcanoes—that’s what gets him excited. I lucked out finding the Giant Book of Science Fun at a garage sale last summer, so when time and energy allows we can do some science experiments from that. Otherwise, anything science related will come from library books, being outdoors, or cool websites and games on the computer.

And history…do kindergartners study history? Well, we won’t be doing anything specific for history yet. We’ve been reading Egermeier’s Story Bible from start to finish--that will be our history this year.

My weaknesses will no doubt be anything that involves crafts, structured play, sports, or really anything that might be fun for kids. Lucky for me, my children know me well enough by now to not expect to be entertained all the time by me. I do wish I was more creative, though, and could come up with more fun activities on my own. Yet, despite all this, they still love me and would rather be home with me all day than off to school...well, for now anyhow!

So, what am I leaving out? Is this a good start? Too much? Too little? Good enough?

The Resources that Inspired the Hodge-Podge Curriculum

2007-08-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

If anyone would categorize my style of homeschooling, my guess is that for now it would fall under “eclectic”. Personally, I think eclectic probably means you don’t really have a clue what education style you are attracted to, what curriculum you want to teach from, and frankly don’t have a clue what you’re doing, so you just start grabbing at whatever looks good. Yup, that sort of sounds like how I’m getting started!

I know I’m not alone. I think it’s naïve to start out expecting to know all those things right away. I expect to mess things up and change my plans now and then. My prayer is that I am alert enough to recognize when those times are, I’m willing to admit my failures along the way and learn from my mistakes, and I’m smart enough to “lean not on my own understanding” when changing the course (Prov. 3:5).

I’ve always been drawn to a Charlotte Mason education, although I still haven’t read The Well-trained Mind which could change that a little (it’s still on my to-read list). Classical seemed a good fit for a while, too, but I always felt it to be a bit haughty for us simple folk. So if I had to guess what our homeschooling future is going to look like through the years, it will probably be somewhere between the two or a combination, if possible.

One excellent resource I found many months ago is Ambleside Online Curriculum. If you are leaning toward a Charlotte Mason style of education but don’t really know where to begin, this is the place to look. There is a wealth of information about what this kind of education entails, lists of books that would fit such an education, and even a 36-week schedule for each grade—free. Although I won’t be following the year one schedule very closely, I have it printed off and put it in my folder because the book lists are so invaluable.

Another great site is Simply Charlotte Mason. This is the site where I first heard of RightStart Math and found our scripture memory system that I’m so fond of. These women not only put great information on their site, but they sell a lot of books and guides that they have put together themselves that may be helpful. I haven’t purchased any myself yet, but if I do I’ll let y’all know.

Other ideas for some of the books we’ll be using came from Covenant Home, Sonlight, and Cathy Duffy’s website and 100 Top Picks book. There are many other great websites out there that I stumbled upon that gave me ideas. But with me, sometimes the more I read and learn, the more confused and distracted I become. But that’s not always a bad thing because it will usually remind me to always pray first!

The Three Rs: Rested, Recharged, Ready!

2007-08-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

I took a very long break from blogging late spring into mid-summer for several reasons (and not just a break from posting on my own blog, but from reading others as well). For one, the weather was too nice to be indoors anymore than necessary. Another reason was I was spending too much time on the computer and needed to cut way back so I could discipline myself more easily when coming back to the blogosphere (which I always intended to do). But probably the biggest reason was to just take a much needed rest from all the thoughts and ideas floating around inside my overcrowded brain…thoughts about homeschooling, education, today’s culture, politics, religion, heath issues…you name it, I was probably thinking about it.

I never put nearly as much time and effort into posting on my own blog as I did reading and commenting on other blogs; I love being able to check in on what everyone else is writing about and read the resulting conversations. But not being an intellectual person myself, I began suffering from “information overload”.

Taking that break from the blogosphere and the World Wide Web gave me a chance to rest in the knowledge that, as helpful as all that information can be, it’s useless if I allow it to consume me and let it drive my actions and motives for the choices I make in this homeschooling endeavor. It made me forget Who led me to the idea of homeschooling, Who wrestled me to agree to homeschool, Who encouraged me in my abilities to homeschool, and Who is continually strengthening me to homeschool (the capital Ws should give it away).

My rest has recharged me and made me ready to take on this awesome task, and reminded me to seek first the Kingdom and let all those other things be added unto me (Matt. 6:33).

School is in Session

2007-08-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

The lesson plans are made, the books are bought, the pencils are sharpened: today we officially began our homeschooling adventure. I say “officially” because this is the first time I’ve ever drawn up a lesson plan (as simple and modest as one could be) and stuck to it. We’ve been sitting down and “having school” every now and then for the past year or so, but more to just get Sam (and now Tommy, too) and me into the groove of what that might be like, try out different locations in the house for different subjects, how long we should spend working on a particular subject, etc.

When writing up my so so-called lesson plan, I had to come up with something rigid enough to hold myself accountable so that I don’t fall into my poor habits, yet flexible enough to work around the younger ones and not completely overwhelm Sam and me. For now I’m only scheduling one week at a time on the off chance that I’ll want to change my format one way or the other, but still keeping in line with my plan for the whole year. And for those of you that don’t know (although I’m sure it’s very obvious): I have absolutely no formal training in early childhood development, education, etc. My only knowledge is gained from the few books and gazillion websites I’ve read, backed up with a fair bit of common sense, personal experience, smart friends, and—most importantly—the downpours of grace the Almighty has kept drenching me in ever since I’ve submitted to what I once thought was this crazy idea of educating my children at home.

In the upcoming posts, I will discuss what resources I used that led to my hodge-podge curriculum choices, exactly what we’re using, what my lesson plan looks like, and how the first week is shaping up. And just to give a heads-up, I will be posting often on how our math curriculum is going, since many of you are interested in RightStart Mathematics. So stay tuned!

Forced National Pastime

2007-08-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

The bigger boys thought they needed a turn getting their photo on the blog, so here's one taken a while back right after Sam lost his first tooth. Needless to say, Tommy was pretty proud of his big bro, as you can see here.

Moving right along to politics...is anyone out there keeping up with the political scene for me? I was sick of the campaign before it ever officially started, so I'm just blocking it all out these days...which is odd for me, because I used to really thrive on politics.

Every election it seems that they start the next presidential campaign earlier and earlier. I've never given much thought before about why that is, just that I can't stand it. Well, tonight I found a headline on Drudge Report that caught my eye:

Modern road to White House 'verges on insane,' says Gingrich

This sounded like a headline echoing my own sentiments, so I read the article. Good piece. According to Newt,

"The job of the candidate is to raise the money to hire the consultants to do the focus groups to figure out the 30-second answers to be memorized by the candidate."

Sounds about right. He goes on to explain how it's necessary for candidates to get started so early because they need to build up their organization in order to raise more money--money they need not only for their campaigns, but to write the checks to all their advisors and campaign managers, who are naturally advising them to start campaigning earlier to raise more money. Meanwhile we get to read and hear about all these, as he puts it, "almost unedurable" debates (I'd omit the "almost") long before we ever vote.

I like his plan for debates: the two candidates do one 90-minute "dialogue" once a week for the nine weeks leading up to the vote.

Candidates would pick the topics, and their answers would be uninterrupted "except for fairness on time," he said.

"After nine 90-minute conversations in their living rooms, the American people would have a remarkable sense of the two personalities and which person had the right ideas, the right character, the right capacity to be a leader," he said.

Just think of it: no debates until the homestretch of the election. Wouldn't that be nice? And no, I'm still not sure who I'd vote for if the primary were tomorrow.

So whatever happened to baseball?

Baby Dopey?

2007-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Some sad news out there for all of us moms who thought we could outsource our parental duty to educate our children to Baby Einstein...

A new study by some geniuses from Washington University--who most likely didn't grow up watching Baby Einstein (how, then, can they be smart enough to make it into college?)--found that brainy-baby movies won't help get our kids into Harvard. So, apparently we're not quite off the hook and actually have to do a bit of parenting ourselves once again. According to this study [sigh], for every hour that we stick our wee ones in front of the tube watching these brainy-baby movies, they will understand an average of six to eight fewer words than little ones who don't watch the movies.

Well, this must explain my two oldest: Tommy didn't watch as much Baby Einstein as Sam and understood much more at an earlier age than Sam. Of course, Sam isn't afflicted with a speech disorder and we can actually understand what he says, so maybe this isn't a good example.

Anyway...what on earth would we do without researchers looking out for us! I'm sure there are many parents out there reading this story that might find it newsworthy (of course, I'm blogging on it, so I must find something newsworthy about it) and be surprised by the study's findings that too much TV--even "educational" TV--isn't good for babies. I guess what really makes me so sad, though, are all the parents out there who really believe that all the latest videos, games and gadgets are necessary so their kids can keep up with or have an edge on all the other kids out there. It's easy to fall into that trap.

Personally, we really like Baby Einstein movies--especially the music in them. I just wish I had come up with the idea myself!

Hat tip: Fox News via email from Brewmaster

Cop-out Post

2007-07-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

When time is short, I take the easy way out and link to something worth reading. Today's winner is a bit on what teachers really need to know in order to get certified, with much thanks to Why Homeschool for posting on this.

You put WHAT in my cake?

2007-07-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Our baby is one. We celebrated his big day in style: a party at Grandpa and Grandma's house. And yes, I made a whole wheat carrot cake for his first birthday.

You see, the past few months I've been a bit busy going off the deep-end: acupuncture, health food stores, cat's claw, herbal tea...you get the picture. Anyway, it works when I do it. It's breaking the bank and I'm getting lectured by my dear accountant how we can’t afford to eat everything organic, so I have to scale back a bit here and there. But I certainly wasn't going to skimp on my baby's first cake!

By the way, Homeschrewling is up and running again, so we hope you can get back in the habit of checking in on us now and then. Plus, there is a "honey porter" kit sitting on my kitchen counter for all you beer fans, so I'm hopeful that Brewmaster will pop in to tell us how that turns out.

And for those of you who asked, here's that cake recipe. It's the best carrot cake I've ever eaten!

Carrot Cake
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix above ingredients well. Add the following:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flower
1 cup grated carrot
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup chopped nuts [I omitted these for my allergic kids]
8 ounces crushed pineapple, drained
3/4 tsp baking soda

Mix. Bake at 350 in a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; about 40 minutes. (To double recipe: Double all ingredients. Bake at 350 in 9x13 pan until toothpick comes out clean; about 50 minutes.)

Cream cheese frosting
3 Tbsp cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar, about 1/3 cup

Whip cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Sift in powdered sugar gradually and stir until a creamy smooth frosting is achieved.

Well, Spring was here...for a little while, anyway...

2007-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

I must be a "fair-weather" blogger...well, but in the opposite sense, I guess; I only blog when the weather isn't nice enough to be outdoors. Once the weather got nice, blogging was the furthest thing from my mind. Now that it's freezing outside again, I hit the computer. Guess the posts will be few and far between till next fall.

I'm just touching base to give an update on the boys...

Danny is army-crawling everywhere. He's taken one trip down the stairs to the landing (luckily our house is a split-foyer--meaning just half a flight of stairs) when Sam opened the gate while Danny was right there. Couldn't even find a scratch or a bruise on him, thank God. His second tooth finally cut through. He's become rather fond of torturing Charlie (the cat), but thankfully Tommy broke Charlie in when he was Danny's age (9 months). Charlie is quite tolerant of babies; much less so of 2- and 4-years-olds (not to mention 30-year-olds).

Tommy started speech therapy a few weeks ago. He does exceptionally well at the sessions and looks forward to time away with just the two of us (what middle child wouldn't?). The therapist is still getting to know him and figuring out what his problem is, but this past week she said she does see an apraxia element to his problems. It may take her a while to see if there are other problems as well; time will tell. But we're glad to be learning this now rather than later. We may have a long road ahead of us with this, so please pray for the wisdom, patience and endurance we'll need to work with Tommy. Also pray that Tommy works well with us and the therapist. He's our little hard worker of the family, so we're confident that he will do great and that God will equip us to do what's best for him.

Sammy is still being the good big brother he's always been. He's been helping me with Tommy's speech, he reads books to Tommy, and when not busy playing and helping me he's doing whatever he can to amuse his baby brother. He's still into superheroes and told me the other day that Jesus is a superhero. I asked him what superhero he knows that rose from the dead and can take him to heaven....he answered, "Yeah--Jesus is cooler than superheroes, isn't he!" AMEN!

Have a blessed Easter weekend!

What's for Dinner?

2007-03-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

I'm just now trying to get back into the swing of cooking real meals with real food after the strike I was on during/following this last pregnancy. My goal is to do this six times a week, but right now I'll settle for five. And when I say "real meals with real food" I mean very few shortcuts (processed)--preferably zero, but let's be realisitic. The few cookbooks I own tend to be loaded with shortcuts, and I just reorganized the Hoosier and left very little room for new cookbooks. So, that leaves me surfing for ideas...

There's tons of places for ideas, but this one appeals to me: Meals for You. One problem I've been having is the inability to make decisions; no time is this more evident than when I'm trying to plan meals. So, the folks at Meals for You have done the planning for me. At the top of the homepage, I just click "meals", select my "meal plan" on the left, and viola! a whole list of meals appears for me to browse. When I select a meal, I get the recipes for all the courses. I can add it to my "cookbook", add it to my "shopping list", etc....it's a miracle, I tell ya. (Yes, I know...sites like this have probably been around forever, but it's pretty new to me.) You can print them right there, but I had problems getting some of the meals on one page. So I copy and paste the recipes into a Word file and fix it so it all fits on one page, print it off, hole-punch and stick it in my kitchen binder. Genius, I know. Oh yeah--the coolest part is this: you pick the number of servings and the recipe automatically adjusts itself. Amazing.

This has been a great tool for me. I've done three meals this past week from the low-carb/low-sugar category and they've all been very good. The best was tonight's meal: Easy chicken with vegetables (delicious & VERY easy), Pasta with lemon butter (I used couscous), and Mediterranian corn salad (excellent!). Everything went so well together and it received our highest rating. (I should note that I'm not afraid to tweak recipes to my liking, and I have no issue with using real butter, salt and pepper.) I know a lot of husbands aren't usually game for trying out new fare too many times in one week, but when you've gone as long as Brewmaster without regular real-food meals, they'll be up for anything!

In the News Today…

2007-03-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

WTHR out of Indianapolis reports:

Indianapolis - The Warren Township school district is gaining national attention after a 13 Investigates report confirmed young students engaging in sexual activity during class time.School officials are refusing to comment publicly, prompting concern and outrage among township parents.

Two days after 13 Investigates uncovered hidden facts about two Raymond Park Middle School students engaging in sexual activity during shop class, Warren Township School administrators still aren't talking.

[…]

Associate School Superintendent Dr. Jeff Swensson confirmed the incident happened almost four months ago in an Industrial Arts lab with the teacher present. He told 13 Investigates another child acted as a "look-out," disputing an insider's claim that as many as ten children may have witnessed the act.

Should it bother us that our first reaction to this is probably, “Yeah, what else is new”? We’re pretty numb to stories like this out of public schools making national headlines. And the following quotes certainly reflect a big part of why we are so numb to middle-schoolers—what are they, 11? 12?—engaging in sex-acts during class with the teacher present:

"This doesn't pose any danger to the other students even if they did see it," Kevin McDowell, the attorney for the Indiana Department of Education.

When asked for claification, McDowell repeated his stance.

"All right, so they may have witnessed this. While this is an activity you certainly don't see in a school and it's something that would be certainly unusual, I don't feel - I don't know where it posed any immediate danger to those children who saw it," McDowell said.

Now, to give Mr. McDowell a little credit, he did at least undermine the manner in which school administrators have handled the situation. I mean, hey—it’s not like a kid was gunning them down during class or anything, so what’s the big deal? They’re middle-schoolers; they’ve already learned about sex and condoms in sex ed. Witnessing something as beautiful as the intimacy between two adolescents is necessary for their social development, right?

Here’s what Honorable Thomas Zampino said:

In this day and age where we seek to protect children from harm and sexual predators, so many children are left unsupervised.

Oh wait…I’m getting my stories confused. That’s what he said about a homeschooler. A completely unrelated story out of New Jersey that many of us homeschoolers have been keeping an eye on:

Honorable Thomas Zampino of the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court has ordered penal charges against a home-schooling mother of seven. According to a report by Matt Bowman on the website constitutionallycorrect.com, the mother's supposed infraction is home-schooling her children without supervision from the local school board - a right explicitly upheld in New Jersey law.

According to the court's opinion, Tara Hamilton is the defendant in a suit brought against her by her recently estranged husband, Stephen Hamilton. Stephen brought the suit in an attempt to force Tara to enroll their school-age children, aged 12 to 4 years, in parochial school because he believes that they are not receiving an adequate education while being home-schooled. All seven children currently reside with Tara.

I hope Judge Zampino’s opinion of homeschoolers isn’t widespread, because if it is and if we keep letting these judges play legislator (without votes, of course), we’ll be looking a lot like Germany. He went on:

In today's threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical, but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children?"

Hence nearly every homeschooler’s decision to keep their kids out of your schools, Your Honor.

Thanks to Drudge Report and Why Homeschool for these stories.

Center of the Universe

2007-02-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

Does anyone want to guess what the universe—or at least America—revolves around these days: Money? Power? Social status? Pleasure? Yes, I think many of us wouldn’t argue with those, and could possibly add a few more to the list. How about people, though…what group of people does America seem to revolve around today: Children?

It’s not something I’ve really given much thought to before, but the evidence is certainly there. After reading a piece written by Dr. Gene Edward Veith, academic dean of Patrick Henry College and director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis, in March’s issue of Tabletalk (a monthly publication from Ligonier Misistries and R.C. Sproul), I began thinking about just how much our culture revolves around kids. Now, I know the little world Brewmaster and I live in revolves heavily around our children, and often we have the same struggles many parents have with balancing our efforts to raise Godly children without making our family an idol. But in his piece, Family vs. Culture, Dr. Veith tells how we learn about a culture’s values by studying their artifacts. After letting that sink in a little, does your heart feel a bit heavy like mine did as you look off into space thinking about all the artifacts today’s culture is leaving behind for future generations to study? Here are just a few I immediately thought of: Rap music, WWF, Grand Theft Auto, South Park…

Here’s what he had to say about today’s cultural artifacts:

And, in the oddest anthropological phenomenon of all, our cultural artifacts are shaped not by adults but by children. Teenagers set our cultural fashions. In every other culture, elders determine the fashions, make the music, and tell the stories. With us, adolescent children make the culture.

Of course, children cannot afford recording studios or Hollywood sound stages. Adults still manufacture and sell the artifacts. But they gear television and movies to the taste of adolescents, with little effort to form them into adults. And our popular music is entirely the province of teenagers, who are the performers and trend-setters. The result is that our adult culture is infantilized. Adults try to be like children, instead of vice versa, as is the case in normal cultures. All of this is, of course, pathetic, ridiculous, and embarrassing to actual children.

Ideally, the elders in families and communities teach the youth about their culture, using artifacts to reinforce the values they want to pass down. As Christians, can we use today’s “artifacts” to reinforce the values we want to impart on our children? Or, rather, will we allow today’s “artifacts” determine the values we pass down to our kids?

Coming back to my point of children being the center of the universe…I know there are many explanations and theories for how society has shifted from that of being elder-led to child-led. Even in families like ours that try so hard to be Christ-centered and elder-led, the temptation to let the children be the parents’ peers can be hard to resist. But can anyone argue that we have gone overboard on the authority we have delegated to children—way beyond “spoiling our kids” or “child-centered parenting”—by letting them dictate today’s culture, all the in the name of “children’s rights”? Or do you think that “we’ve come a long way” in doing so, and that as a society we’ve progressed for the better because of it?

Scripture Memory System

2007-02-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Brewmaster and I have just started a new way to memorize scripture with the kids, thanks to the ladies at Simply Charlotte Mason. It sounds a little over-the-top at first, but I think it's a really smart way to not only memorize a verse for the day, but review the ones you've just learned every other day, then once a week, then once a month, etc. Of course, having a four-year-old with a photographic memory makes this pretty easy...for him, anyway!

Hanging with the Papas

2007-02-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Danny with Brewmaster's dad, who visited the other weekend and celebrated his birthday with us.

Tommy and Sammy with my dad, who visited that same weekend. (By the way, sis...that's your son's book. Sammy tried telling me he left a book here, but it wasn't until I posted this picture that I now know which one he's talking about! We'll get it to you one of these days, I guess!)

Curriculum Update

2007-02-20T07:19:00.001-08:00

I posted a while back that we are leaning toward a Charlotte Mason approach to our homeschooling. Since then, I've found two very helpful websites: one is Ambleside Online, a free online curriculum guide; the other is Simply Charlotte Mason, a site with lots of great tools to help direct and organize your CM curriculum.

I have to admit that early on in my CM research, I thought this method sounded a bit too artsy-fartsy for my boys, and that Brewmaster would never go for this kind of learning style. I couldn't have been more wrong! He is very excited about this philosophy, and we both are anxious to get started. One thing that appeals to us so much about CM is that we will be forced to finally read "the classics"--something we've always talked about doing, often wondering why it wasn't pushed on us when we were in school. While a CM education might not focus as much on learning facts-facts-facts and pounding them into your brain in hopes that they stick, it will foster good habits and a desire for learning things on your own. More importantly, with the use of narration and journals, you will learn methods to aid in your learning with better retention. Therefore, less time wasted on information that will surely be lost soon after "the test", but better skills to employ as you get older and really want and need to learn all you can.

I've also been focusing on finalizing a math curriculum this past week. With a CM approach, I plan to use whatever books are available from the library, which means I won't be spending much money on curriculum--just notebooks, paper, etc. That leaves more money to spend on math and science. I had narrorwed my math choices down to Saxon and Singapore. The Lutheran school here in town (our "back-up" in case we can't homeschool) uses Saxon Math, staying a grade ahead of the public schools. Initially I was leaning toward Saxon so I could make sure the boys were keeping up with them--just in case. Although, we then realized that we don't need to keep up with them; if the boys attended that school, they would place them wherever they fit in, whether ahead or behind the rest. I've had a couple friends recommend Singapore Math to us, and it sounds like a good curriculum. Best of all, it's very reasonably priced! But as I was reading through the Simply Charlotte Mason website, I read about their recommendation for the early years: RightStart Mathematics. (I should note they recommend Math U See for the later years.) This one really has all the bells and whistles! My first thought was that it was almost too much (as in dollar amount and being over-the-top), but after reading more about it, looking over their sample (pdf) and taking inventory of my own teaching strengths and weaknesses, I think this is the one. The starter kit is very pricey, so I'm going to let this all sink in for a while, do some more reading, and see what things I can leave out in hopes of not spending so much money. But, I will always remind myself of the money I'm saving by not buying other curriculum. Math will be one of my weaker subjects to teach (but only until Brewmaster takes over in the upper grades), so I don't think it will be a waste spending more on something like this.

TeenPact

2007-02-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie post here...

While skimming my most-read blogs, Jeannie Fulbright's latest post detailed her daughter's recent experience with TeenPact. Here's yet another reason why I can't wait until the boys are older--more cool stuff for me to learn and experience with them! I briefly read the site, but it doesn't appear to be just a "homeschooler thing". Check it out.

Teacher Salary Wrap-Up

2007-02-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

After some more thought on this issue, and a few conversations and emails, I’ve been put in my place to know better than to question teachers’ work. This confuses me a bit, because we’re often told how teachers desire to have more parental involvement. I’m sure like many things, though, only in moderation. It’s still important to give the teachers room to do their job since they are the ones with all the experience and expertise. But I’m wondering if many times parents err on the side of watching from too far a distance as to not step on an educator’s toes. I fear this many lead to less accountability unto which teachers should be held.

As far as the salary bit goes, I’ve learned from Brewmaster that the $34/hour number was taken from metro areas (St. Louis, K.C., and S'field here in MO) and that Missouri teachers are way down at the 43rd state for pay. That troubles me, but at the same time I don’t know enough about economics and cost-of-living issues to know how all those things factor in together. I do know my first reaction to the $34/hour number was, wow! they get paid that much? I’ve been told several times now that increasing teachers’ salaries is important so we are not losing so many teachers to jobs outside of education. I can definitely see that point. However, I personally know more teachers who have left the system because of the political and administrative bull-crap they have to put up than the low salaries. As I said before, I have no problems increasing teachers’ salaries as long as it comes from the local officials and there is a real need in order to keep teachers in the schools.

Brewmaster hit on something in his comment here about what he thinks are bigger problems in public schools: administrators and dead-beat parents. There are so many factors that play into the troubles our education system is facing these days; it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few. But this one thing I know: thank God we still have the freedom to educate our children at home if we so choose. It’s not like that everywhere. We are learning more and more each day about homeschooling and the joys and successes it can bring to families. We are also learning more and more about the threats that are out there to take away that freedom. This is not just kook-talk: we all need to be aware of the State’s desire to own our children, taking away the parent’s right to be in charge of their child’s education….and I’m not just talking about taking away homeschooling parents’ rights to keep their kids at home.

One more question: would a teacher rather deal with an over-zealous parent like me than a parent who doesn’t give a rip? No doubt the teachers out there will be having the last laugh on me when I get into the thick of homeschooling and discover the joys of lesson-planning!

First Step: Admitting You Have a Problem

2007-02-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Headmistress. [“Hi, Headmistress.”] And, um….uh….[sigh]…I’m a long-commenter. I don’t really know how it all started. I mean, I don’t think I’ve always been one. I don’t know; maybe I have always been one. Well, I know before I got my own blog, I’d go hang out at Architecture & Morality and comment with Relievedebtor, but I seemed to handle commenting in moderation. I mean, there might’ve been a few times I went over my limit, but I didn’t think I had a real problem. But ever since I got my own blog, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’ve really gone overboard…way overboard.

I’m beginning to get the impression that my problem is keeping others away from commenting with me. Sometimes I try to limit my commenting, and occasionally with great success. I usually don’t have a problem commenting in moderation over at Tony’s blog. But here at my own blog, now and then, I just can’t seem to stop. I’ll tell myself, “Okay—that’s enough. Stop here.” And then I’ll think of something else, and before you know it…well, you know what I mean.

But, at least I’m admitting that I have a problem, and I guess that’s an important first step. I want to change; I really do. But I know it won’t happen overnight. [Hang head; big sigh.] Thank you.

$34/hour?

2007-02-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

Are teachers really underpaid? Surely I must be one of those cruel, conservative public school bashers who has always felt that teachers are adequately compensated, and some possibly over-compensated when taking into account poor academic results in some public schools (note I said "some"). So being the one-sided, uncompromising bigot that I am, I enthusiastically share this op-ed from the WSJ with all who are willing to read.

By the way--lighten up, all you whose veins are popping out of your head in anger at me right now...I called myself all those names up there so you don't have to. I'm finding these days that too few people can hold a differing opinion on this subject without being called ignorant, unenlightened, unappreciative or just plain mean when questioning teachers' salaries and whose view is not in line with the NEA. And note I said "questioning"; I haven't completely made up my mind on this yet. I know many teachers who are doing the Lord's work in the classroom. But, for as long as I can remember, I've believed that teachers earn a fair wage when taking into consideration the hours spent in the classroom. ("But the work we take home and countless hours getting ready in the summer never get counted!")

So now is the chance for anyone to convince me that the $34.06 hourly salary for teachers is not enough. That seems high, I know. But according to their report, two Manhattan Institute researchers gathered their data straight from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and apparently that is the number the BLS comes up with from the information given to them from employers (public schools) and the actual hours worked by teachers (36.5/week, according to the BLS). Taking those numbers and multiplying them by 40 (I'm subtracting an estimated 12-week summer vacation from the 52 weeks in a year, although, according to the report's nine-month contractual arrangement most teachers face, it would be closer to 38 weeks), you get over $49,000 a year (or $47,000 for 38 weeks). Do public teachers really make this much annually? (And I should note that the report found in some areas, public school teachers make over twice that of private school teachers; however, in other areas, private school teachers made more.)

Check out the article and report...I'm curious to know other people's reaction to this and how the numbers compare to where you live.

Just write something, for crying outloud!

2007-01-31T19:58:00.000-08:00

Last week I had about four things I wanted to blog about every single day but absolutely no time to do it. This time I've sat down and started something twice, but chucked it each time....so it goes, I guess. Instead of a real post, here's a familial update and a picture with Sam in it since his grandma is concerned about him getting equal time on the blog with his brothers (even though Tommy is in the background; so much for keeping it even)!

Danny (who isn't pictured this time) cut his first tooth last week and is working on #2 this week. He seems to be doing much better with it this week. That first one always seems to be a real doozy with my boys. He turned 7 months last Friday, so he's two months behind the others with the teeth. However, this nursing mama is certainly not complaining. (TMI?)

On a health note, I finished my first vile (silver) today for my allergy shots. Have I mentioned this yet on the blog? Maybe not. Well, back in December, I got tired of my MD prescribing me antibiotics for my sinus headaches, so I saw an allergist to get tested...probably something I should've done ages ago. Long story short, I'm starting to feel much better--most likely a combination of the shots and my husband understanding my complaints and volunteering to dust and vacuum several times a week until the shots kick in. I notice the day after I get one a change for the better, and the day before I am to get one (I get them once a week for now; every other week by this summer, barring any serious reactions) I start feeling my old "normal" self. I didn't expect so much improvement this soon, so I'm optimistic that they will help tremendously with my overall health. The allergist said I'll be utterly impressed with how much better I'll feel and said he will really have a hard time peeling me off the shots in a few years. I can only imagine how much money these allergists must make...see a patient once or twice, make a good impression, then have them drop in for a shot every other week for the next five years or so. If Brewmaster didn't already have plans for me to go to pharmacy school when the boys are out of the house, I think I'd consider becoming an allergist for my empty-nest years!

I'd also like to comment on my husband's end of the blog...the "rew" of Homeschrewling. I'm glad he finally gave a home brewing update. His first batch was a lot of fun...the first couple tries had him very worried that it didn't turn out (no carbonation), but after learning a little patience we found out just how good his first batch was. Sad to say we wasted too many beers the first couple weeks trying it--a mistake we won't make this next time. I really enjoy watching him stand in the kitchen for so many hours at one time, especially if the end product turns out as well as that first batch. The one thing I've learned from home brewing is that when a batch is gone, the wait for the next one seems to last forever!

That oughta wrap up my update. I have strict orders to practice good sleep hygiene (no, that has nothing to do with being clean--just go to bed at a decent hour and get up at the same time everyday), so it's time sign off. This sleep hygiene stuff is sure bad for my blog output, but my body thanks me for it.

Have a great weekend y'all...oh, and wish Brewmaster a Happy Birthday this Sunday if you run into him!

He's back.....

2007-01-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been gone for so long, guess I haven't had anything to say in a while. Here's an update on the homebrewing.

I just bottled my third batch of beer, an Irish Stout (if you remember my second batch was thrown out before bottling), and I'm ready for kegs! I spent about 3 hours this morning, although you can't call it a waste since the end product is homebrew, but that was about an hours longer than last time. I did have some extra cleaning to do this morning, since I had the beer in my bottling bucket for my secondary fermenter. I normally would secondary in my glass carboy, but I ran out of sanitizing solution and my bottling bucket was sanitized, and there was ice and snow on the ground and I couldn't get to the store to buy bleach, so this morning I had to rack the beer into a sanitized carboy, clean and sanitize my bottling bucket, and then rack again for bottling. What a pain...bottling is not the funnest thing in the world to do.

On another homebrew note, my good friend from Champaign, IL, just informed me that his wife gave him a deluxe homebrew kegging system for Christmas...with 2 kegs, 2 tappers, a CO2 bottle, regulator, etc., man I'm jealous. He already makes good beer, so I can't wait to see how this new addition to the family will improve his brew!

My next batch is going to be a lighter beer, hopefully with a little more hoppiness to it, probably an English Bitter or ESB, not sure yet. I'm sure I'll brew it long before I ever tell the blog, but if any of you want to recommend something for this summer, let me know.

Tag...I'm It

2007-01-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

Blogging buddy Tony at Rambling Prophet has four daughters (so far!), so I definitely want to stay on his good side and answer the "tag" questions he put over on his blog...just in case he's footin' the bill for a wedding (or three) someday...

1. What's the most fun work you've ever done, and why?
Definitely playing piano duets with a very old dear friend, Jack Kinder, when I was in high school. He couldn't read a lick of music, but he certainly didn't need to. He was (only!) 64 years older than me, but he always said he'd wait for me!
2) A. Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did? (one sentence max)
Play organ—our present church has no organ.
B. Name one thing you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting it off? (one sentence max)

Get in shape (duh).

3) A. What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why? (two sentences max)
Gardening and canning—because it’s something I grew up with and feel the need to do.

B. If you could take a class/workshop/apprentice from anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn? (two more sentences, max)

That’s easy: Bach…not only would I love to hear and learn from the master himself, but I’d really love to watch someone with that much faith AND genius compose.

4) A. What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?
Practical, patient (so my husband says), perceptive

B. Now list two more words you wish described you…

Energetic, romantic
5) What are your top three passions? (can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes– three sentences max)

Faith, family & music
6) Write–and answer–one more question that YOU would ask someone (with answer in three sentences max)
Q: If you ran for political office, what would be your number one campaign issue? A: Tax breaks for homebrewers and homeschoolers!

[Bonus: What is one question you wish people would ask themselves?]
Is it really that important for me to spend money on little crap in my house that just collects dust and I can’t take with me when I die anyway?

By the way, if you've never ventured to Tony's blog before it's definitely worth the visit...and put in a good word for my boys while you're there!

Rational Thinking or Procrastinating?

2007-01-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

I’m up to my neck in homeschooling research these days…mostly curriculum browsing, but still tweaking my general goals and philosophy. We know our main goals of homeschooling (Christ-centered education in a family that will grow and learn together), but I keep going in circles with methods, styles, etc. The flavor of the week: Charlotte Mason. I remember reading a very small bit about her philosophy in my earliest research days, but this past year I tend to forget about one particular method when I learn about a new one that intrigues me. One week I like Classical, the next unit studies, or some days I think I will put together my very own curriculum…one never knows which way I’m leaning in any given week. Last week I actually told a friend that I think I’m going to “breeze through kindergarten” with Sammy this semester. I certainly could if I wanted to, but should I really do that with a four-year-old just because I know he could do it?

After some prayer (I wish I could say “much prayer”, but I need to do a lot more praying before I can make that claim!) and much thinking (that’s accurate) on how to start out with Sam, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t need to rush him or myself. I think this next year (or at least ½ year) would be better served if I continue to educate myself and continue praying about my plan of action, as well as focus on getting well and enjoy motherhood with three young boys. It would be so easy for me to stress myself out and push the two younger ones aside while I turn Sam into some little genius who could go on local TV shows and name every volcano in the world, or something like that. But what would that really accomplish? Would that fit in with our overall goals? Is that something that would really bring glory and honor to God? By not filling Sam’s smart little brain with all the facts it could possibly hold, am I severely short-changing him in some way? It’s hard having such a bright child and not wanting to miss every possible opportunity for developing his mind to its fullest potential, at least by society’s career/socioeconomic-driven standards.

But, in the end, I know that God is leading my efforts these days. He’s showing me things in Sam that I haven’t paid much attention to before, probably because I was reveling in my own glory of having such a little smarty on my hands. My ego was soaring from all the accolades I receive from friends and strangers alike who compliment him and praise me for spending so much time with him. I “humbly” (heh, heh…who am I kidding) tell them that we’re just trying to keep up with him, even though my memory immediately flashes back to our days of only having one child and all the time we were able to devote solely to him. It was certainly a joint effort; we spent an enormous amount of time working with him, but he made teaching him easy with how well he remembers everything.

These days I recognize his need for developing his creativity and giving him time to be bored now and then (thanks, relievedebtor, for your outstanding post echoing my thoughts on this!), as well as learning how to set a good example for his younger brothers by taking time out of his busy play-schedule to sit down and be silly with them, sing with them, tell them stories, etc. It’s nice to finally realize how much more joy and pride I feel seeing Sam play peek-a-boo with Danny or superheroes with Tommy than showing his smarts off to others!

So I think I can have it both ways: I can still find ways to challenge him academically (that sounds so weird saying that about a four-year-old!) while relaxing a bit as I enjoy watching him be the superhero of his choice (it changes daily) and build “Space Shuttle Discovery F-15 Rocket Ships” out of Megablocks. Not to mention all the attention I can give his younger brothers while he’s off in his own little world content with an “inter-battery robot” (that would be the Energizer charger for rechargeable AA/AAA batteries) or a whisk and spatula fashioned together to make a special sword. Well, there’s that Cinderella book he got from his great-grandma for Christmas that he’s able to read on his own…perhaps I should rethink letting that one go.

I think the Charlotte Mason bit is so attractive to me right now because she didn’t advocate formal schooling for kids under six, wanting those early years to be spent playing, exploring (under mom’s strict supervision, of course), and forming good habits, especially on paying attention and focusing on the subject at hand. I’m excited to get my hands on more books about her method and see how it would work with our family. My first thoughts are that it would be a very good fit!

Mama's Boys

2006-12-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-12-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-12-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

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...

Never a dull moment...

2006-11-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

Not Looking Good...

2006-11-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

Or should I say not smelling good. I checked my new batch last night and while it is starting to ferment, it's not smelling like it should be (or atleast what you'd expect fermenting beer to smell like). I think the long lag time (the time it takes from the moment you pitch the yeast to when active fermentation begins) really hurt this batch, so I now have more equipment that I need. Next time I'm going to make a yeast starter so that they can get to work right away!

Sorry if I'm being too technical (translation: if you're just too bored with all of this). If I had a brew buddy around here I could share all of this with him, but since I don't I get to bore all of you who actually read this stuff!

And if you're interested in tasting the beer, you'll have a better chance of doing that if you either show interest in me making the beer or if you buy me equipment that allows me to make better beer!!!

All Bottled Up

2006-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Well, back by popular demand (actually one person, thanks Brian for the encouragement), a post on Home Brewing! Sorry I've been absent for such a long time, there hasn't been anything to comment on since my first batch took such a long time in the secondary fermenter to finish.

I finally bottled the first batch on Thursday, got 49 beers out of it. My final gravity was 13, which is good enough. Now it's bottled and the conditioning begins. It will take approximately 2-4 weeks to condition it, so while it won't be ready for Thanksgiving, it should be ready by the first of December.

I also brewed a new batch on Friday. My second batch is a copy of Fat Tire, which is a Belgian Ale for those of you who haven't heard of it before. I took great caution to correct all of my first time mistakes, and everything was looking great until 4 hours into the brew, after I had cooled my wort, pitched the yeast and sealed the lid on the primary fermenter; I was putting the airlock onto the top of the lid when the rubber grommit, which seals around the stem of the airlock, pushed off of the lid and fell down into the beer. Oh, the horror!!!

So I had to fish it out, which I'm almost certain contaminated this batch, but rather than give up, we'll just wait it out and see if everything ends well or not. If not, then your Christmas stockings may not be stuffed with a 6-pack like I had planned. I'm researching right now to see if I could reboil it and pitch new yeast (which I'd have to buy and it wouldn't arrive til Wednesday), but then I'd know for sure that I don't have any contamination. We'll see what I hear back from my Homebrewing Brothers on the world wide web.

So this is just a quick update, I still have a couple good posts that I need to write, so stay tuned and post your comments.

Discipling the Undiscipled

2006-11-08T09:17:00.000-08:00

In honor of Election Day, I avoided all talk radio and internet media, which left more time open to finish reading the many comments on a recent Spunky Homeschool post about discipleship. What an eye-opener! At last count this morning (Tuesday) there were 135 comments (I started it Monday when there were 85). Now grant it, I didn’t completely read them all and disregarded those that went off topic, but most of the comments were between the same handful of folks and were very thought-provoking and well written. The topic was this: what does the Bible say in regards to education and discipleship of the children He has given us?

The Christian homeschoolers (CHS) look to Deut. 6 (as well as other passages, but for the sake of time and space…):

Hear, O Israel : The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

CHS believe that public schools do not acknowledge the lordship of Christ, and if you can’t be for Christ you are against Christ; therefore the Bible cannot support the idea of putting our children under the authority of the public schools.

The Christian public schoolers (CPS) look to other verses from the Word:

“As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:18

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors…..Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. 1 Peter 2:13, 17

The following comment by “Elaine” is a good summary of what the CPS were saying:

Yes, I do use 1Peter as the scriptural basis for sending my children to PS. I do not believe it REQUIRES me to do so. Nor do I believe Deuteronomy and the other verses REQUIRE me to homeschool, "only" to raise up my children in God's righteousness--a huge responsibility that I take very, very seriously. You don't have to agree with ANYTHING I've written, Brian. But I will ask you for acceptance and respect, which my Bible also requires me to accord to you as a good Christian…

The “acceptance” and “respect” part seemed to rule the day for the CPS. It wouldn’t be difficult to wonder if these ladies—one whose kids were all grown up now (“jettybetty”)—had put their kids in public schools and might possibly be regretting their decision, and were now reaching for some kind of validation from their Christian Homeschooling (CHS) brethren. I’m undecided if this is really the case, though. They used several passages from the Word to back up their decision, but were still unable to answer the question: can Christian children be discipled to live for Christ by public schools? (And please note that I did not say “by parents”, but “by public schools”.)

Their argument sounds good from a politically-correct-Christian point of view—God can be found in public schools, not all public schools are like the bad ones reported in the media, children can certainly witness to their peers in public schools, etc. And although they can give a pretty compelling argument defending their choice to be CPS, they continually miss the point that the CHS are trying to drive home: children are undiscipled. As Spunky put it in one of her comments:

All parents disciple their children, Christian or not. So do the teachers in the school. A disciple is a follower of an ideology or teacher. All children are by their very nature undiscipled. That's the whole purpose of education- to create disciples and why Voddie Baucham titled his blog, Education the key to discipleship. The state knows this as well, that is why they make getting an ungodly education available. They have no desire or interest in creating disciples of Christ. In fact, they hope for the exact opposite and that's why they work so hard to undermine all parents, especially Christian parents. People without a belief in Christ and detached from their family will naturally look to the secular state as their protector and provider.

She also says:

The public schools do not have the goal of discipleship in Christ. The Bible states that he who is not for me is against me. The schools are by Biblical definition working against the cause of Christ because they are NOT for the cause of Christ. Thus they actively undermine the Christian parent's biblical exhortation to "create disciples" in their own children by false teaching and ignoring the teachings and Truth of Jesus Christ.

I am living proof of what can go wrong when sending and undiscipled girl—even one with 8 years of parochial schooling—into public high school…and the rest of this story is a post for another day!

A Must Read

2006-10-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

Jeannie Fulbright's post Conviction or Condemnation is so good and exactly what I needed to read today...I highly recommend it.

Quote of the Day

2006-10-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Something I stole from Spunky Homeschool:

The offers are all so very tempting. I would enjoy many of them and maybe even make some needed cash. But in earning the extra money, I know I would be short changing my children. That's a net loss in my opinion. My time with my children is so short. It's hard to say no. But I'd rather say no to those who don't know me than to the little ones sitting around me each day.

I must say "no" to others, so I can say "yes" to my children.

Can "Pro-Choicers" Be Christian Brethren?

2006-10-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

I tuned in to Glenn Beck during his 10:am hour today and heard something that shouldn’t surprise me in today’s day and age, but horrified me nonetheless. He reported on a story out of the U.K. where a hospital is incinerating aborted fetuses along with the rest of their medical refuse. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, he quoted a woman who received an abortion from there:

I am furious and very hurt. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my baby was incinerated in the same furnace as the hospital rubbish.

(Okay, so I don’t need to waste my time stating the obvious hypocrisy of what this woman is saying.)

I don’t want to exhaust my time and energy on something we’ve been debating since last century; it should be obvious what side I’m on in this battle. I expect something as evil as abortion to exist in a world where Satan is constantly on the prowl. But why do so many of our Christian brethren turn a blind eye to it? I just don’t understand when I hear the following phrase by a self-proclaimed Christian: I don’t think abortion is right and I would never have one, but I don’t think we should deny those who want an abortion the right to have one. Why not? Women can be arrested for prostitution or doing drugs. Heck, they can even be arrested for smoking a cigarette in Omaha!

I expect those kinds of comments from the people of this world, not from followers of Christ. The other day I was chatting with my neighbor—an LCMS pastor’s wife—about some emails I had sent out to her and others regarding the stem cell issue we’ll be voting on here in Missouri. We were talking about our friends that have very differing opinions from us (I’m staunchly opposed to the amendment, in case I had to clear that up for anyone). When talking about one of my friends, she asked “is she a Christian”? “Well, yeah…but, I guess so…sure she is…I mean, I think of her as one…but…” and I started wondering why all of a sudden I had to try to defend my friend’s faith for her because her beliefs fall so short of what I would expect a follower of Christ to believe and promote. I came back with a comment like, but our salvation is secured by Christ’s death and resurrection—by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus—not whether we’re pro-life or pro-choice, right?

So I ask you, who else has struggled with these questions:

Can you be pro-choice and still be a Christian?

Should pro-life Christians cease fellowship with pro-choice Christians?

Can we make exceptions for our moral beliefs if it infringes on our rights as Americans?

Now, deep down I know the answers to all of these. I know what scripture says about them (the second I had to look up because I couldn’t remember—1 Cor. 5), so shouldn’t that settle it? It should, but too often I find that I want outside input, too. Horrible, I know. I can imagine that if you’re Reformed you’d say I shouldn’t be friends with a pro-choicer; if you’re Baptist, you’d say what an awesome opportunity to evangelize; if you’re Methodist, you’d tell me to welcome diversity of opinions with open arms, doors, minds, whatever. I’d like responses to my first question of who else has struggled/is struggling with these questions and how they overcame it or hope to overcome it. And from a Christian homeschooling parent’s point of view: how in the world do you explain abortion and pro-choicers in the Church to your kids? The abortion part isn’t that hard—you teach your kids about sin, Satan, and the evil that exists in the world. But how do you explain why some Christians accept it the way they do?

...you should not associate with a person who calls himself a brother but is immoral or greedy or worships idols or is a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief. Don't even sit down to eat with such a person. After all, it is none of my business to judge outsiders. God will judge them. But should you not judge the members of your own fellowship? As the scripture says, "Remove the evil man from your group". 1 Cor. 5:11-13 (TEV)

Where Have I Been?

2006-10-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

I’ve been too busy to write these days, mainly because any time I’m online I’m reading other homeschoolers’ blogs…like the ones listed to the left, as well as some others that are good but not worth cluttering up the “Links” column over there. I’m amazed at some of the wonderful Christian writing I’ve found and the sheer volume of information that other homeschoolers put on their blog so I don’t have to search for it myself. So I highly recommend the homeschooling links I’ve posted to check out daily, and if I ever come across something I find interesting that they aren’t talking about, I’ll try to post it when I can. Like this:

According to the Home School Legal defense Association, homeschool graduates are active and involved in their communities. In the survey, "Homeschooling Grows Up," 88 percent of homeschool graduates surveyed were members of organizations-community, church or homeschool groups or a professional organization-compared to only 50 percent of U.S. adults. The survey also said 71 percent of homeschool graduates participate in an ongoing service activity-such as volunteering at a school, church, neighborhood association or coaching a sports-compared to only 37 percent of U.S. adults of similar ages.

You can go here for the rest of the article I was alerted to by the HSLDA, but I thought this particular paragraph says a lot regarding the argument that homeschoolers are or become isolated from the rest of the world.

And as promised (but not always fulfilled!), here is a picture of some pretty sweet boys. Tommy likes to lay on our bed and hold Danny a lot, but this particular time I think he wanted to wrestle with him. I talked him out of wrestling and encouraged cuddling instead. I’m not ready for Danny to take part in the “jump on Daddy” games just yet!

Don't Worry, Be Hoppy

2006-10-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Fermentation is progressing along nicely! It's definitely slowed since Monday, when fermentation was at its greatest. And let me tell you, the beer "burps" that are coming out of my airlock smell awesome, nothing like the beer that I put in there on Saturday. It has a very sweet smell, almost fruity, possibly from the 2 lbs of honey I put in 40 minutes into the boil.

Tomorrow morning I'll transfer it into my secondary fermenter (a 5-gal glass carboy), then I'll get my first look at the brew. The closet in my basement under the steps has worked well for fermenting. It's out of the way, completely dark, has a near constant temperature since there are no supply air grills and has a concrete floor in the event that I spill something. I think I'm going to clean out all of the stuff under there and deck it out with shelving, lighting, hooks...basically I'm going to turn it into my little brewery.

And for an update on my bottle search, I'm doing no better than I was the other day. I have put some feelers out with some guys at work, but that hasn't resulted in anything yet, so tomorrow I might scavenge MU's football stadium parking lots after the homecoming game...wish me luck!

Family Planning: What About Spacing?

2006-10-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

There’s some interesting stuff out there on how far apart you should space your kids—three years seems to be the recommended time I’ve come across quite often. It gives the mother’s body time to recoup in between pregnancies/deliveries; it gives the child more time to grow before a younger sibling is introduced…just a couple reasons.

Here’s something else to consider, something that happened to me this week and prompted this topic for my post:

I had just started nursing my three-month-old when my two-year-old came to me, pointed to his bottom and said “poo-poo, poo-poo”. I normally don’t stress too much these days with making him wait until I’m finished nursing, even though it bothers me because I think this is a great milestone he’s reached moving towards potty-training. However, the budget is tight these days and we’re using some pretty cheap diapers on him, so I know that too many sudden moves will cause a leak.

Not two minutes later I hear my four-year-old yelling “I’M DONE, MOMMY!” from the front bathroom (I was wondering where he ran off to). “OKAY, JUST A MINUTE!” came the usual reply from me. So I wrapped it up with the little guy, sat him up for a burp and “SQUIRT”! It came out the back of the diaper—certainly something we’re use to around here and have the three or four onesies a day in the bathroom sink to prove it.

So what do you do first: the infant-blowout, the toddler-could-possibly-blow-out-and-is-stinking-up-the-entire-neighborhood-diaper, or the preschooler-wipe?

Another “pro” to add to your list if you’re one of those who actually thinks YOU are the one in charge of family planning: I won’t have to worry about what this lady just wrote about happening to me.

By the way, I wiped the four-year-old first, changed the baby, then the toddler. The baby’s poop wasn’t going anywhere and had already made a big mess, plus I’ve mastered holding the baby while wiping the four-year-old and convincing the two-year-old he doesn’t need to help me wipe the four-year-old. Naturally, the middle child gets pushed to the back…again. Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance, does he Brewmaster?

My Gender Identity Crisis

2006-10-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

I’m such a loser…and here I think I can home school my kids. When Brewmaster and I were concocting this whole blog idea, I thought “Headmaster” sounded awfully masculine, but I wasn’t familiar with a more feminine alternative. Why didn’t you all tell me? (Probably because no one is out there reading this.) I finally sought counsel from Webster himself and he informed me that “Headmistress” would be better suited for my new profile name. Duh.

Things are a brewin'!

2006-10-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

My first batch of beer is now in the primary fermenter (a 6.5-gal plastic bucket) and fermentation has begun. The brew on Saturday went pretty well. I started at about 11:00 a.m. and finished around 2:30 p.m., so I think after some of the lessons I learned I'll be able to get it down to a couple hours. Not that it needs to be rushed, though, because it was a rather enjoyable experience (part of the reason I'm doing it)!

I've also compiled a short list of things that would have made things easier, and also may have positively affected the final product, so for any of you out there wanting to buy me something for Christmas, I'm sure Headmaster would be more than happy to pass my list on to y'all!!!

I'm still on the look out for dark colored non-twist off beer bottles, if anyone has any laying around. I've got about 2 weeks before I'll need to bottle my beer, so here are my options at this point if you don't pull through for me...

Time Before Bottling My Game Plan

14 days out Ask friends / coworkers / acquaintances for some

10 days out Resort to begging (including strangers)

7 days out Swing by the local bars on Monday morning

5 days out Call every frat house in town

3 days out Commence dumpster diving at the local recycle drop offs

1 day out Buy 2 cases of expensive beer and throw a party

Headmaster is not real thrilled about many of these options, and since we only have 2 friends in town the party thing won't get us too far, so if any of you have any better ideas I'm open to suggestions.

I'll also post my "do's and don'ts" of brewing your first batch in subsequent blogs, so please check back often (we really like comments even if it's short...it atleast lets us know that you're out there)!

Our Pumpkins

2006-10-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago we visited our family and Brewmaster took the two older boys on a hayride and pumpkin patch adventure. Sam showed off his muscles picking out the perfect pumpkin and Tommy just wanted to hang out with the cows...."Hi, moo-moo!"

It's About Time!

2006-10-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it...it actually let me post a picture! I'm only going to do this one for now and try again later with multiples. Anyway, here's a very recent one of Danny...probably from two days ago. We bought a new high chair shortly after bringing him home, thinking it would be a safe place for him--out of Tommy's reach! However, he's never liked it and would always start crying shortly after putting him in there, but we think he's starting to warm up to it a little. He's such a sweet thing...good eater, good sleeper, good smiler, good cuddler--thank God he's in our little family!

To brew or not to brew...

2006-10-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

...that is the question! I'm happy to report that my homebrew equipment and supplies have arrived! Should have beer a brewin' this weekend...I'll keep you posted.

Should HS Kids Fit In?

2006-10-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

The following comment was left by an anonymous blogger:

I agree that homeschooling has positive benefits. It gives you control over what your children are exposed to. I might however suggest you be mindful of selective learning. Though it is important to ensure that our children are not 'tarnished' it is also important to make sure they understand the world around them. Do remember that though we live 'for' the next world, we live 'in' this world. Public school education may employ methods and subjects you don't approve of, but there are lessons in them that we all must learn if we are to function and guide our society. In raising children, whether home or publicly educated, we have to have faith in ourselves that we gave them the tools they need. More importantly, we must have faith in them that they will make the right decisions for themselves.

I really appreciate this comment. I always feel bad when I come across as someone who relentlessly bashes all public schools because I know so many good people who are employed there and send/sent children there, and I know many of them feel called to be there. However, I have never met someone with a strong enough case to convince homeschoolers that there are more benefits from public education than homeschooling (unless you feel that yearbooks, proms, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc., are necessary in order to be "well-rounded"). I wish I would have asked the anonymous commenter to be specific on what lessons we learn from public education that will help us "function and guide our society", but I didn't. So in an effort to relate this comment to something I wanted to write about anyway, let's pretend s/he is referring to something along these lines: adapting to today's culture and winning the lost.

For many, the big socialization issue against homeschoolers is more about pop culture than it is about getting along with others; homeschoolers might not get enough exposure to all that is "hip" when they spend all day at home with Mom and their siblings. They'll turn out weird, non-conforming to society's standards, and won't know how to relate to their traditionally-schooled peers unless they immerse themselves in the world beyond the home front. When a secularist makes this argument, we homeschoolers will roll our eyes with a big "whatever". But when our brothers and sisters in Christ tell us that our children should be in the world in an effort to win the lost, I can't help but stop and ponder the issue.

There have always been movements in the Church to not only reach out to the ever-changing culture, but to adapt to culture that it may appeal to the lost. Some Christians argue that children need to be around the lost in order to better understand the lost, as if this is all it takes in order to save the lost. Our faith need not be in our children's ability to get along well in society. It needs to be in the Spirit working through them when telling others the Gospel. Following the latest fads and trends aren't the answer; knowing the Bible is.

We, their parents, have a responsibility to teach them about the world and all that is in the world--even the bad. Not on an R-rated level, but enough so that they know that evil exists and will be able to recognize it when they see it. This is something they can learn while under our watchful care and be ready for when they go into the world as young adults. I do not agree with this notion that children need to be exposed to things that their young minds can't understand or handle in order to cope better later in life. Let them be kids, and let us adults--the ones with better coping mechanisms--worry about the evil that surrounds us.

Putting our children out into the world so that they might come in contact with the lost is another issue. If they are at home all day, everyday, there will be too many missed opportunities to minister to the lost. R. C. Sprouls, Jr., makes an interesting observation about this in his book When You Rise Up. He writes how he has never met a Christian parent who has enrolled his child in a Muslim school in order to save a few lost souls. He adds that if winning the lost should be a priority for our children, shouldn't we find less convenient ways for them to run into the lost than enrolling them in free public schools?

Now, just in case I completely misread the comment earlier on...perhaps the anonymous blogger meant something else by the "function and guide our society" comment. Perhaps this is coming from a perspective that homeschoolers--especially conservative Christian homeschoolers--do not teach their children "diversity" or tolerance to alternative lifestyles, that this is something best taught in the public schools. That would be a correct assumption, at least in our home school curriculum. We won't be reading Heather Has Two Mommies at our school, and I won't have my boys practice putting condoms on bananas for Sex Ed. They will be learning God's Word; they will learn to not only love the Lord, but to love even their enemies. They will learn what it means to show mercy to those who do not deserve it. And they will learn about sin. They will learn about what happens to nations who do not follow the Lord, because they will read about it in His Word. And when learning God's Word, they will also be taught what this means in the world we live in today. They will learn how to pray for the world we live in, for guidance in their own lives and for our government, for the lost, the poor, the sick..they will learn what's most important in guiding our society.

Attention!

2006-10-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

An excellent article on giving your kids effective attention is here.

Home Schooling 101: Introduction

2006-10-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

In our first post we explained how we came up with the name of our blog. And you know why we're homebrewing (yum). But some of you might like to know why we decided to homeschool. This can be a pretty tricky question to answer, especially because it's usually asked by those who don't homeschool and don't know many people who do. Sometimes I find it hard to not tailor my answer to suit whoever is asking the "why" question; you can't help wanting to impress others. The urge to stress academic excellence among homeschoolers is hard to suppress when an academic type asks why, as is the urge to stress the faith issue when a religious type asks. When confronted by family members and close friends who send/sent their children to school, you worry about offending them in some way...as if when learning of our decision to homeschool, they're really hearing "if you were good parents like us, you wouldn't have sent your kids to school". There's this fear lingering over us that people will look at us as that pretentious little homeschooling family whose kids are too good for school. Then again maybe these concerns of mine are unwarranted. Perhaps they're just the feelings I used to have about homeschoolers before taking the plunge myself.

Not quite a year ago I was asked by my sister-in-law if we were going to homeschool. No way, I said. I was going back to school once the boys were in school (including preschool). We had tossed around the idea of homeschooling and how it seemed like a good thing to do, but I wasn't fit to teach my children. I don't even have a degree. Not long after that conversation with my sister-in-law, my heart grew very heavy. I was looking at a college for organ/sacred music and checking out houses on the market in that town thirty minutes from here. I even loaded the two older boys in the car and drove around the campus and town, and planned on calling the organ professor and discussing options for me and my education there. But my heart grew heavier and I couldn't understand why. For the first time I thought I was finally on the right track moving in the direction that I wanted to go. But this homeschooling thing kept coming up and I kept pushing it aside.

Then I started praying for help with my mothering skills. I was very sick with my third pregnancy and feeling disappointed with the job I was doing as a mother of two small boys, so I prayed and prayed for energy, patience, and the wisdom to be a better mom. I didn't get much energy or patience, but the flood of homeschooling thoughts and ideas wouldn't stop raining down on me. I resisted for a while but finally gave up...then the peace, joy and understanding that only God can give descended on me like the warmth of the sun after a cold rain. I thank God for being patient with me while I walked down my path, and praise Him for leading me down His path!

The answer "because God told me to" probably won't satisfy a lot of people when asking why we're going to homeschool...although I personally can't think of a better reason. But if people keep pressing for other specific reasons, I think the answer I'm going to start using is "why not"? And since this post has exceeded my length-limit that I wanted to abide by on our blog, I'm going to close with an invitation for anyone to comment or ask questions. Remember, you can post a question anonymously if you choose.

For those of you looking for a picture of those adorable boys: So sorry...it won't let me post one and I've tried four different times! Hopefully Brewmaster can get it to work with his next one.

It's SOY Good!

2006-10-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well, at least Tommy thinks so. But take it from me: instant pudding and soy milk don't mix so well. You'll need a heaping of Cool Whip to thicken it up a bit. He sure didn't mind it being a bit runny, though!

However, we're ditching the soy milk pretty soon and switching to raw cow's or goat's milk. We're hoping he'll tolerate that better than pasteurized milk. I've been reading some interesting stuff about soy and raw milk that might interest some of you. Tommy has not tested positive for food allergies yet, but he's still young and clearly has problems with nuts and minor problems with milk.

But, until I get my hands on that goat's milk, I guess I'll keep experimenting with the soy. It doesn't bother Tommy too much, but Sam makes sure I'm not putting soy milk in his pancakes or waffles in the mornings!

First Batch

2006-10-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

As with everything in this world, there's always a beginning. This adventure in Homebrewing our own beer has just begun. If any of you are veteran homebrewers, I'm sure you'll scoff at us blogging something we've never done before, but the way I see it, what better way to start something than with a blog to chronicle our experiences.

With that said, here's a little info on the first batch we're going to brew. I'm an ale drinker, have been ever since I graduated from college, got a job and could afford something more than Keystone Light. My all time favorites are Bass & Newcastle, so of course our first batch will be an English Amber Ale.

I'm taking the easy way out to start off, I'm using a liquid malt extract (see ingredients below). And the equipment I'm using should take all the guessing out of the equation. But we hope to have the first batch ready for consumption by Thanksgiving. And to those of you on our Christmas list, you can expect a six pack in your stocking this year!

First Batch Ingredients

6 pounds of Amber malt extract, 2 pounds of Minnesota Clover Honey, Crystal Malt, Chocolate Malt, Northern Brewer bittering hops, Williamette aroma hops, 1 tsp. Gypsum, 1 tsp. Irish Moss, White Labs British Ale 005 pitchable tube yeast.

Why "Homeschrewling"?

2006-10-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

We're "Rush Babies"--kids who grew up around parents who listened to Rush Limbaugh. Well, I am at least; Brewmaster became an avid listener in his late teens and married a Rush Baby, so we'll count him, too. There are many words that Rush throws a spin on, such as school: "schrewl". Okay, so we don't know how Professor Limbaugh would spell it (probably not like that) but it'll work when making up a new word combining our latest passions: homeschooling and homebrewing.

We have several goals in starting this blog. First of all, it will serve as a place for family and friends to come check out the latest photos of those three darling boys of ours. Second, it will give us--Headmaster and Brewmaster--a forum for sharing and discussing our latest adventures at the school and brewery. And, as if all that weren't exciting enough, we'll also share some experiences with our other DIY endeavors--such as home improvement projects--and try to steer anyone we can back too the good ol' days of self-reliance.

To the folks who keep bugging me to send pictures of those boys: I promise to always include at least one photo with each new post. I can't speak for Brewmaster in case he'll be posting from his work computer (during his lunch break, of course!), but you can bet on at least one new post a week from Headmaster...most likely more, so check weekly if not daily.

We hope you add us to your "favorites", visit us often, and share any thoughts you might have with us as we embark on these new adventures. And if you know anyone who might have interests in homeschooling, homebrewing, or whatever else we might be rambling on about, send them on over to "Homeschrewling"!