So Typical

So, I was on facebook, and the video below is what showed up as most-watched from my geographical area. What a great commentary on this lovely town. Enjoy!

Why I Homeschool

There's a myriad of reason why I home school, but here are a few of the clinchers.

Schools teach to the middle.

Early last school year, I talked to my daughter's kindergarten teacher at a local private school with a concern about her reading. She happened to be quite a bit ahead of where the classroom instruction was. When I asked her teacher how this would be handled the reply was, "Don't worry. The other children will catch up."

I didn't want the other kids to catch up...not because I am spiteful toward them, but because if others "catch up," then my daughter's not progressing.

The problem is just as strong for kids with a learning difficulty in a subject. Because elementary school classes are so large and general those who are either above or below the average will not be adequately taught.

School children are over-socialized.

Lots of people see low socialization as a drawback to homeschooling. I see it as quite positive. When children are surrounded by other children for 7 hours a day at school and a couple hours in the evening playing, they get too much socialization, in my opinion.

I want my child to be respectful and able to act appropriately in the company of adults. I can't teach my child to behave well by putting her around a bunch of kids that don't behave well all day.

My daughter goes to a gymnastics class, a kids' club, and Sunday school each week. She also has some friends in the neighborhood that she plays with occasionally. I find this to be sufficient social time.

Being publicly presentable early in the morning just doesn't do it for me and my kid.

Getting up and getting my child ready to send off for school by 7:30 doesn't fit into our lives very well. Even if I'm up then (which I usually am, thanks to the baby), I'm certainly in no mood or position to be getting my 7-year-old ready to catch the bus at such an ungodly hour. I don't think it's healthy for kids to get up that early. I'm a big believer in kids sleeping as much as they need to. I'm also a big believer in lounging around in pajamas for as long as we want.

World on Fire

Awake

I woke up at 5:40 this morning 80% groggy, 100% confused. Billy wasn't in bed, and neither was his pillow.

I got up to investigate and found him on the floor in Ashlyn's room, which sounds weird, but it was quite charming.

He did this because I've been all grumpy and tired lately. Well, okay for the last 15 months of my life. Something about pregnancy and new babies doesn't allow for much sleep.

Anyway, I never did get back to sleep, but I got to lay in bed without having to worry about how much longer it would be before Ashlyn woke up. At about 6:20, Billy came in to bed and I rose to start the day with the mini-him.

I feel really good today. I keep thinking, "So this is what it feels like to sleep all night! Amazing!"

I know that he won't be able to do that every night, but it was sure a considerate, sacrificial gesture.

Thank you, Billy, for letting me sleep.

Published

Today, I hung out with my partner in homeschooling crime, Kara. She's also the one that builds my self-esteem by saying that I'm a good mom, a good singer, and her resident Bible commentary. This is why I hang out with her. LOL

Over the year that I've known her, Kara has kept hounding me to turn in an article to a local publication called Evansville Parent. Today, I picked up a copy of the issue that has my article, "Lifelong Learners," on page 16.

I'm pretty proud of that. Billy is proud of me, too. He put my article on the fridge.

I'd love to know what you think of my article. (It's is on page 5 of this electronic version.)

School Days

We're back at it, again. And we've really been having a blast.

Figuring out this schooling thing is tough with Ashlyn demanding attention and Billy working at home these days. There are scheduling considerations that we just didn't have to deal with when we started last fall.

But all in all, it's gone well. Eve is progressing well with her addition and subtraction tables. We're studying ancient history from Creation to Christ. Science has focused on water and water-related weather for these first weeks. And Eve's doing great on the piano.

Right now, she and Billy are at her weekly P.E. session, otherwise known as gymnastics class.

So, it's fun, but also tiring. So, I'm spent.

Pages Tour: Bebo Norman in Concert

Recently, we had acquired some free tickets to see Bebo Norman in concert. He was part of the Pages Tour with Shane and Shane and Shawn McDonald.

So, on Wednesday night, Billy and took advantage of some babysitting from my mom and trekked out to the West Side of Evansville for the show. (On the way, we stopped for the complete luxury of ice cream, which I believe we should eat only slightly more often than we drink alcohol.)

Upon arriving, the crowd was sparser than I had anticipated. We arrived about 1/2 an hour before the concert started, but by the time Bebo Norman got on stage, the audience had multiplied.

Those people who came late really missed out. Not only did we get a spot really close to the stage, but Shawn McDonald had been replaced in the tour by a personal favorite of mine Monk and Neagle. I was super geeked to hear them announced and even more floored to hear them play. Their first CD is great. I got as a $3 add-on to a CD-club purchase about 3 years ago. I had never heard of them, but the 30 second clip sounded good. When I got the CD, I was amazed. So, to see them play live was a nice time.

Bebo took the stage next. As expected, he was awesome. He had a larger band than the last time I saw him, which was in a school gym about 4 years ago. Back then, he traveled with a guy named Gabe who plays every instrument known to man. These days, he's added on another guitarist and a drummer.

Bebo's set was great because he's beyond talented as a lyricist and musician, but I often felt like the electric guitar was overpowering his voice, I felt like this also hindered the worship at the end of his set. When I go to my church, I like that I can hear people around me. At this concert, I could only hear the performer. That is fine for a show. But when it's a time for corporate worship, I like hearing random Dan (or Clever Dan)next to me just as much as I hear the worship leader.

Still, Bebo himself is a very down-to-earth person, and watching his set...hearing him play and listening to him talk...feels like you're right around the campfire with him.

I think one of the nicest parts of the evening was sharing it with Billy. Billy's way more into music than I am. He always knows of more cool bands, so I liked that I've been able to introduce him to a couple of my favorite artists and that we got to experience them live together.

Favorite Movie Clip

Billy tagged me to post my favorite movie clip.

This is from the 1996 movie Mother, written/directed by and starring Albert Brooks.

Special thanks to Amanda for introducing me to it. Once I saw it, it quickly became a favorite, and I even watched it during my labor with Ashlyn.



So, now I'm tagging my fellow new mom/sister in frugality Jessica.

Just One More

Recently, I posted about a conversation that Billy and I had about whether or not we ought to spend money on expensive guitars or pianos or alcohol when there are more worthy causes such as people dying of starvation that we could give the same money toward. A heated response ensued in the comments.

After Billy tried to explain me (thank you, most valiant knight of mine), Jenn asked why I feel guilty of these types of pleasures. While "guilt" is probably not the right word, I definitely have deep feelings of turmoil when confronted with the choice to spend my money on a full-out luxury for myself as others go without the bare necessities.

Now, my understanding of Jenn's recent comments is this: Idealism is only good when it leads to enough change. Not buying luxuries like beer cannot bring about enough change. Therefore, my idealism has gone too far.

I disagree with this position. I do not believe God called billionaires alone to make change in the world. I don't believe that we need to have extreme excess (which is a relative term, anyway) in order to do enough to make a difference.

Rather, I think every "little" thing we do makes enough difference to be worth it. So, I ask myself..."am I doing enough little things?"

This is not a question I ask out of trying to earn salvation or feeling like I have to get notoriety for my actions. It is simply me desiring to put faith into action. This is me considering whether I truly have the Mind of Christ at fervent work within me.

So, similar to Oskar Schindler (see clip below), I believe the lives that could be saved from every small donation are worth said donation.

I believe that luxuries shouldn't be taken for granted, and that sacrifice is our calling. This doesn't mean we can't enjoy life. It simply means that we can enjoy life on less.

Review: Meal Mixer Menu Planning

After a new baby invaded our home seven months ago, I found little time for meal preparation, and even less for planning the menu in the first place. This resulted in lots of frozen meals and more eating out than this household had ever seen.

About a month ago, I decided it was time for me to get back in the game of housewifery, and one of my first stops along the way was finding a website that would plan my week's meals for me to alleviate that burden from my own load.

What I found was MoreThyme.com, which has now become MealMixer.com. So, today, I thought I would give a quick review of the site for anyone else who's in need of this service to consider.

The Set-up

Meal Mixer is above and beyond the generic one-size-fits-all site. It doesn't simply send out a menu to all its members, regardless of their tastes. Rather, it begins with a short preferences survey asking new members to rate various ingredients on a 5-point scale from "Yuck!" to "Yum!"

After getting your personalized preferences (you can also set your personal dietary needs, such as calorie, fat, and carb intake), the planner asks for a type of meal (pasta, vegetarian, casserole, etc.) that you would like for each meal you want planned. The member has full control over whether she wants just dinners or every meal, including snacks, planned.

The website then prepares a menu. This menu can be tweaked by the member and then printed.

The printed pages include a shopping list, recipes and a week-view menu for hanging on the fridge.

The Good

There are some great qualities that came with my membership to Meal Mixers. Here are my favorite things.

Time Saving

The amount of time I've spent planning good meals with Meal Mixer is minimal. The original set-up took a little bit of time, but once I got the hang of how things worked, I was able to breeze through recipes and have my printed list in about 15-20 minutes for the week. (Keep in mind, this is with a baby in arms. Those of you who are baby-free can whip through the steps much more quickly.)

Variety Inducing

Before using Meal Mixer, my poor family had about 5 meals they could count on week after week. But with the hundreds of recipes on Meal Mixers' site, we have yet to have the same meal twice. So, once again, Billy gets up from the table and tells me something like, "That was fabulous!" Aww...it's just like when we were first married.

Tradition Keeping

Not only does Meal Mixer have tons of new recipes, but it also allows you to enter in your own recipes so you can add your old favorites to your week's plan. The screen to enter these is very intuitive, and the recipes are immediately stored in your personal favorites and dietary information is also available on these.

The Bad

There are also several things lacking with Meal Mixer. Here are a few of the more disappointing features.

Technical Glitches

Recently, MoreThyme.com turned into MealMixer.com. With this change came some new features, but there are still kinks to work out, so some of the selling points of the site actually turn into pretty big annoyances. For example, if a member doesn't like the meal that Meal Mixer chose for her, she can (in theory) ask for "ideas" and all the meals that fit the previously chosen criteria and ingredient survey are supposed to pop up for her to choose from. This doesn't actually happen. When I tried this feature, I got a pop-up window, but it was blank. Also, Meal Mixer did not fill in all the meals I requested. Therefore, we ate cereal for breakfast on Saturday, because I didn't get the cooked meal I asked for.

Incomplete Recipes

Sure there are hundreds of recipes in one location, but many of them are hard to use due to missing information. Today, I went to make a chicken and cheese casserole. I mixed all my ingredients together and realized that I didn't know what size dish to use. I whipped out a 13x9 incher and filled it up. But it didn't actually fill up. The recipe was only large enough for a 9x9. So, I ended up with two dishes to wash. This type of thing is not unusual.

Un-intuitive Interface and Inconvenient Categorizations

This website takes quite a bit of looking around to figure out how to work efficiently with it. Once the basics are learned, it continues to be annoying to move from recipe viewing to the week's grid view. Also, if you would like to move a meal from one day to another, you must keep it as the same meal. So, you can't move French Toast from breakfast on Tuesday to dinner on Wednesday. Day to day moving is allowed, but the meal categories restrict your use of them without using the long-hand procedure of entering meals one recipe at a time.

The Verdict

Despite some of the negatives, mealtime has been much more enjoyable since I've begun using Meal Mixer planning site. Will I renew when I've used my 12 menus? Probably not right away. But I expect that a couple months down the road, we'll be back to our 5 staple meals, and I'll look to sign back up.

WARNING! If you sign up for this service, make sure that you realize that they will continue charging your credit card until you cancel. There is no way to make your membership a manual update, and this is pretty shady, if you ask me.

They have some nice fine print that they'll throw at you to say that they won't refund your money once they take it from you. So, that's annoying, needless to say, but it is there if you look around.

It does seem like a cancellation takes effect at the end of your time period. So, if you "pay" for time you don't want, make the most of it and use up your menus.