Shhhhh… I once promised my oldest daughter that I’d never publish a picture of her on my blog without her permission. I just couldn’t resist this one, though. It looks like we’re parked at Albertson’s here, and she’s snapping photos of her dream car. Something about the silly shoes (sorry, dear, the artfully decorated shoes) and the yellow mustang just looked awesome to me. (She has great taste)
Sixteen
Luckily, she’s also informed us that ANYTHING with an engine and wheels will suffice. And she can wait until February, she says. What a lucky mamma I am.
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And now for the camera review portion of this post, whereby I qualify that I have not yet received the Nikon D90 that Nikon may or may not yet have decided to send me (emphasis on “yet”). This photo was, in fact taken with my old camera, I just stumbled upon it in my files today. If it was taken with the Nikon you’d surely see the aura of her desire for freedom and independence being cast upon the mustang.
I would have settled for the 600 or 700 but since this is a phony practice review, I thought I’d “think big” It’s easier to fixate upon a precise model number, rather than randomly wishing for a camera.
Anyway, this camera arrived just in time. (my old one, a Sony, died in August 2009)
I was able [...]
I know people who think kids shouldn’t go to weddings or funerals. The first time I came across this perspective, I was shocked. Those are really important things in life- why shouldn’t children be included? The answer I was given is that “Old people don’t want a bunch of kids running around” in reference [...]
Do you know what a Youtube playlist is?
People string together a bunch of videos of their choosing (usually around a central theme) and you can watch them all in a row.
I’m currently avoiding writing an article on mesothelioma listening to Sandra Dodd. She’s outspoken and it’s a good thing, but she’s one of [...]
It’s no secret that our culture has some mental issues. My philosophy is that it’s all because of how we were raised. A lot of people who were children during the depression are either pack rats now or minimalists, responding adversely to an extreme situation.
The daily decisions we make as parents, based upon underlying [...]
On good days, I don’t even believe that bad days exist.
“Life’s what you make it,” right?
maybe it’s hormones.
maybe it’s the changing weather
maybe it’s an unexpected bill that makes me change my plans and work my butt off when I’d rather be playing or crocheting or painting or writing (for fun) or reading or driving my [...]
Watching my kids learn has been the most fascinating aspect of not sending them to school. Partly, I’m sad for the children whose education isn’t self-driven, because the “love of learning” face that toddlers are known for grows more beautiful the older a child gets.
At 4, Grace is very helpful around the house. Recently, she [...]
Or maybe kids who text are smarter. Either way, apparently we can all relax when it comes to teens who communicate with messages like this:
hey
hey
wat r u up to?
nada, u?
gr8 day 2day. pizza 4 brkfst
cool
yeah
u goin 2 the dance?
no
why
idk- ru?
yeah
why
idk looks like fun
ok- g2g, cul8r
bye
Apparently- all that was a stimulating mental experience, like a critical [...]
am not a “morning person.” I wake up confused, my eyes are blurry, my voice is gritty and my body moves slowly. I tumble into the kitchen, straight for the coffee pot and stare at it cross-eyed until there’s enough to fill my cup. Sometimes I squat in the kitchen so I don’t [...]
This gets me steamed- and I see a lot of “gentle” parents doing it. It sounds like this;
“Oh sweetie, it makes mommy so sad when you _________”
or
“Come on, give grandma a kiss, you’re hurting her feelings”
or
“Please ______ honey, it would make me so happy”
Here’s a newsflash- Your kids are not responsible for your emotions, [...]
20% of the when time I visit Suite101, one of the websites I write for, I see the somber face of Barry Schwartz in the upper left corner of the screen, who writes his feelings about psychology. He has written ten books on psychology, the most recent of which is called “The Paradox of Choice: [...]
Peppers in your eye? Rinse with cold water for 15 minutes to relieve the burning.
(forgive me for being so quick about getting to the point unlike another blogger who made me read through squinted teary eyes about her whole family history and traumatic pepper in the eyes experience before finally getting to the point [...]
n my quest to live at a child’s pace, and just let my kids “be” I’ve been making a point each day to accompany my 21 month old on a walk to the garden each afternoon. She gets “itchy” to go outside with the older girls, but she’s too small to play in their games, [...]
Today it doesn’t matter that the floors are crooked (wavy, actually) or that the bathroom is…. horrid- completely horrid, if we were owners not renters, I’d dynamite the bathroom and press a port-a-potty against the door. and it doesn’t even matter that while we were gone, my dog shed a 2 inch layer of hair [...]
So- we all know American school lunches suck beans. Canned beans.
Anyway- on schoolfoodpolicy.com they’re examining several creepy and disturbing factors that contribute to the problem.
One, is the fact that lunch, in the US, isn’t part of the curriculum.
In Japan, students eat in their classrooms at their desk, they’re taught manners and deliberately fed nutritious [...]
Which would imply that we were flying but we’re actually DRIVING to Texas with the kids.
Six kids and 2000 miles (one way)
I’m such a last-minute person, but I’m really proud of myself. I have a friend staying here to feed the dog, water the plants, etc. Usually I call people on the way to the [...]
We have moths. This old house doesn’t have all of its window screens and every now & then a moth will fly into the house. In the daytime they hold very still somewhere and hope that I don’t kill them. On this day, Evelyn found the moth camping out on our living [...]
o we have an apricot tree and they’re delicious. I made dried apricots, filling my food dehydrator for the second time in five years. At the Goodwill price of 3.99, it’s paid for itself already. I also made a delicious Apricot thing. I tried to follow a recipe for Peach cobbler, [...]
o I’m pretty sure that I once wrote a blog post comparing the benefits of home cooked meals vs fast food with the benefits of homeschooling vs public education. I summized that depending upon institutionalized forms of education for children was like eating fast food all the time, crippling the brain as much as [...]
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