Heptadecagon

And something a little lighter from the 4th grade this week, lest you think I dwell on the negative side of things. Well, had I been a different person, this could have been interpreted negatively. But the more I think of this, the more I laugh. Before I begin, though, let me first do something: WARNING: CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD. Zoe brought home her STAR/guided reading book yesterday. Just for the record, the book is called The Year of Secret Assignments* , by Jaclyn Moriarty. I have never read the book, nor had I ever heard of it. Zoe walks up to me and says, "Mom, what does this mean?" I take the book from her and read on page 41, "I have a lot of dreams about sex. I mean dreams about what I think sex is like. I think it must be good." I looked at Zoe, but I couldn't speak. Really, I was speechless! Not because I didn't want to tell her what it meant, or thought it was weird she was asking. I was so flummoxed that she was coming home, fr

Here is another bit that goes along with my Friday Ergh! post of last week. First up, a bit of the teacher's bonus-word-only-counts-sometimes spelling logic. The girls have a bonus word on the spelling list each week. If you get that bonus word right, it can only help you if you've actually spelled a word wrong. Therefore, if you get 13 out of 15, and the bonus word correct, in the end you get 14/15. But, if you get 15/15 and the bonus word correct, you get a big old nothing. Where is the logic in that? You tell me. Why can't they get the extra point and use it for later? How fair is that to the students? Let's only help the kids that screw up! And along those lines, you have the retake-a-test-if-you-get-a-D-or-an-F logic. It should be obvious what that one concerns. Here's the thing, though. You get to retake the test and then take the higher of the two grades! Last year, they would average the two grades if you had to retake the test. That seemed fai

I am in the midst of a war with myself. I continually vacillate between being extremely happy with the kids' school and wanting to pull them out and homeschool them. For the record, Aaron is enjoying first grade, and we are enjoying his teacher. This is the second go-around with her. Zoe had Mrs. G for first grade, and we loved her then. We still do. All teachers have their pros and cons, but Mrs. G has been teaching for so long, she has her stuff together. That isn't to say she can't adapt, though. We have seen some differences between what Zoe did and what Aaron is doing in class. One of the things I like about Mrs. G is her no-nonsense communication. She tells you what to expect and when and she sticks to a schedule. Each week, we know when the homework will come home, and when it is due, since it doesn't change from week to week. She also records a weekly message that we listen to on Monday afternoon. For the most part, if Aaron misses out on something,

It is October 20th, and November 1st is right around the corner. That means NaBloPoMo . I will attempt, again, to make a post for every day in the month of November. Usually I have enough fodder, and the site gives some good writing prompts, but I'd rather hear what my readers (the few of you that there are) would like to know about us. Please leave a comment, or send me an email (you know how to reach me), letting me know what you'd like to see here. And Tara, keep it clean! Thanks! Chris

A faithful reader from the North called me a slacker today. Yes, my lovely and talented, possessor of one child sister said it in jest, but in some ways, she might be right. I just ate my soup while I finished up the novel I was reading. I could have taken bites of my lunch while chopping the vegetables for stir-fry. Slacker ! I read a couple of books to Melina while we had a tea party today. I didn't get to the store to get materials for Aaron's birthday or the salad dressing the kids like. Slacker ! After putting Melina in her room for a nap, I threw one load of laundry in the dryer and started another load to wash. I might have already had those loads done last night, but I helped the girls start their book reports. Slacker ! I am betting that I can come up with at least another handful of decisions I made today that could potentially be considered slacking. But most of my audience, including the faithful reader from the North, is trying to juggle many, many things

All 4 kids were playing with 2 neighbor kids outside yesterday. I thought they were raking leaves into a pile. When I went outside, this is what I found: Aaron had a ton of trouble walking, considering his pant legs were so stuffed. I don't have a clue how the kids convinced his friend to hold a baby and a purse, but I think he was supposed to be a girl. Clearly, he went along with it. I bet they both were itchy after that! Always a good time in the leaves!

Melina has become infatuated with the movie Tangled . We borrowed it from a friend last week, and she has seen it at least twice so far. She can finally say the name Rapunzel without starting, "What's her name again?" and she has me dressed up as Rapunzel's mom, Mother Gothel, who really wasn't her mom. Hence the dress and heels on a Monday morning. I just can't see how those 1950s housewives were able to cook and clean like this! It is a cool morning, so I wanted to put a sweater on. In order for Melina to approve that look (it isn't quite what she thought Mother Gothel would wear), I had to tell her it was my cloak. Go figure. Melina has been pretty good with getting the Tangled dialogue and details right. But this morning, this is what went down at our house: Melina: Can you please be Rapunzel's mom? Me: Daddy is home. Can he be Flynn? Flynn Rider? Melina: That isn't his real name. Me: Oh yes. His name is Eugene. Melina: No, that i

I am not a big user of Facebook. I do check it most days, just to say Happy Birthday to those who have a birthday or look for a new picture or two from some good friends and family. Since there have been changes to Facebook, I went in and made a custom list of my friends so that I could be sure to see what I wanted. While I was clicking on the friend list, I realized that I hadn’t heard from a few people in a while. Once I made my list, I went back to check-in on their profiles to see what they have been doing as of late. Imagine my shock and horror when I clicked over to my friend Beth’s profile. One of the first postings was from her teenage daughter. She expressed sadness and regret at not being able to see her mom. I scrolled down the page, and found another post: this time, the daughter had written on Mother’s Day how much she missed her mom. It slowly dawned on me that Beth had passed away, sometime within the last year, and I didn’t even know it. I hav

Our CSA box came complete with turnips this week. I wasn't sure what do to with them, besides roast them, so I looked up roasted turnips online. The entire recipe I chose can be found here . In short, you chop up turnips, sweet potatoes, and granny smith apples, and add dried cranberries, brown sugar, and butter. If you like sweet potatoes, or sweet potato casseroles that actually end up being sweet, this recipe is for you. Although I do have to warn you that it really is much more of a dessert item, in my opinion. Tim and I both loved it, and I made sure not to use too much brown sugar or butter. It is a great recipe for the holidays, I think, so I thought I would share it.

You might wonder about the title of my post today. You see, I do a little bit of work for a friend of mine, who has a business based in New Jersey. She is very bright, and excellent at what she does. Because of these traits, she has little tolerance for people that don't do his/her job as well as she does. I certainly wouldn't be able to do her job, as I am not trained for it. But she knows me pretty well, and trusts me. I am not going to stab her in the back or make her life difficult, and therefore, she lets me do some menial tasks. All of which take about 1 hour a month. My kind of gig. Just to be fair, she has told me that when I am ready, she would be happy to have me take care of more than just the mundane affairs. I might be ready to do more, but I need to find more time! Anyway, because she is in New Jersey, she and I correspond mostly via email. I also rely on email as a way to interact with her clients and/or people with whom she is networking. She has always closed

From Hellraiser. This is what happens when you babysit my children. Thanks to Tara for the picture. Thanks to Todd for being a good sport.