Miss Me?

I'm posting less these days. So if you miss seeing me today, come on over to Homeschooling Mommybot, where I posted yesterday about our first days of homeschooling this week. We're having a great time, and it's why I'm not around the blogosphere as much. Miss you all!

Male Hairdressers

Anyone heard of Chaz Dean? Yeah, my son has potential to be him someday. He likes to do hair. Most especially he likes to CUT hair. His sisters' hair. But lately he can be counted on to be my go-to guy for something like putting a quick ponytail in Eva's hair before church. You can see his mastery of the pigtail on my own hair, above. And, below, he put Eva's hair in a braid and brushes Sam's hair after a bath.

One of my best haircuts was given by a guy. Sure, he was probably gay, as most male hairdressers are, right? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not that my son will be gay. But if he is, by God, I will still love him just the same. Sorry to go all political and social and crazy on you there, but that is where I stand as a mother and as a human being.

Starbuck's VIA Iced

I don't know what took me until AUGUST to start drinking iced instead of hot coffees, but there ya go. Sometimes I'm slow to catch on, but when I do, I do it bigtime.

A friend brought me some Starbuck's VIA ready brew iced, and I'm sipping it through a straw as I write. Too much caffeine might certainly contribute to the crazy way I write sometimes. Anyway ... I have the caramel kind ... it's already sugared and I just add milk, ice and some chocolate syrup and it makes over 2 cups. I'm getting the calcium I desperately need, but I'm also packing on some poundage (my dad calls it tonage).

What was my point?

Oh, just that it's a good way to stay away from the Starbuck's drive-through and save a little money. And it's yummy. And Starbuck's rocks. Hard. And no, they don't give me stuff to write about them. That would only happen in a perfect world.

Happy Sunday of Labor Day Weekend

Hope you are all enjoying a nice weekend. Our plans got changed when all our local pools shut down due to a waterborne virus. If you are a homeschooler, or even if you just like extra educational information, products and funnies or just like to peer into the life of a homeschooler or are a homeschool wannabe, come on over to Homeschooling Mommybot sometime!

 I have a lot of great stuff coming up ... things I use in my homeschooling, field trip photos, etc. Posting will be less frequent everywhere for me soon, since our official homeschool year starts the day after Labor Day. Then we will be hitting the unit studies, Pokemon Club, playdates, park dates, field trips, fishing trips, campouts, cheerleading, gymnastics, Scouts, sleepovers, reading, etc.

Please pray for me as I try to start a routine ... AGAIN! I'm thinking of doing certain things on certain days of the week and making a chart for the kids so they know what to do each morning ... with pictures of things like a toothbrush so the little ones know to brush their teeth after breakfast.

Do you have any big plans in September?

Playing With Pokemon Cards

Sorry to put a shameless Amazon link on tons of posts lately, but when I write a blog post, the Amazon search box is right next to the posting window, so I like to search for fun stuff from time to time and share it with you.

This post is about a cool mom I met recently at a homeschool group meeting thing. My 10-year-old just discovered his Pokemon cards ... again. He now knows how to play. He was trading with the son of this cool mom I met, and her kid kept coming over to ask her if such-and-such was a good trade, and SHE KNEW HER STUFF! I was impressed.

I used to be that kind of mom. She has 5 kids like me and they are about the same ages as mine. She homeschools. I have no excuse not to learn how to play Pokemon with my son. I guess I gave up on playing games because when I try to play, say, Candyland with Callie, the little ones climb all over and eventually disrupt the board and I end up throwing the whole thing across the room.

I think I can play Pokemon cards while Sam sleeps on me for naps, though, like I used to play Old Maid with Callie while Sam slept on me. I'll have to put on a Dora episode for Eva to keep her occupied, but what's 1/2 an hour of educational TV in the grand scheme of playing with my older son and giving him some one-on-one time he deserves?

Update since I wrote this: The mom also has her own deck holder and SLEEVES for her cards. Dang! I played a short game with Joel and it was fun, but it was hard to keep Sam occupied while we did it. We played on the deck, and while outside Sam likes to pick our tomatoes ("ball!") and throw them.