A New Year

This will be the third time that I have tried to write this post. The first incarnation was a wish list of changes I wanted to make in my life. As I typed, I realized that wishing would not make one single one of them happen. I started looking for some online help for each of the areas. Then I realized that online help is part of my problem. I find all these things to watch or print out (I printed a bunch of stuff from reviveourhearts.com and organizedhome.com if you're wondering) and ...pfft...the air is let out of the good intentions balloon.

Mostly, what I need is to have better habits in the areas of time, eating and spending. Who doesn't, right?
I need to be healthy. I need to read the Bible and pray regularly. I need to save money. I need my house to be clean and organized. I need my children to behave. I need to be a better wife and mother...

My head is spinning!

I've taken the first step. I installed a Firefox Add On called Leech Block. I set it to block Facebook from 9 am to 3 pm, with no password. There are no Facebook emergencies.

I found an exercise video on Netflix instant download that has three levels of instruction. That way I don't injure myself like I usually do when I decide to work on my body.

I moved my thyroid medicine to the bathroom, with a water glass. That way, I am not tempted to turn the computer on on my way to the kitchen to take it.

I looked up how long new habits take. This post says a lot longer than the 21 to 28 days normally quoted. Try 66.

Here are my goals: (because I refuse to call them resolutions)
1. To fit comfortably in size 8 jeans.
2. To cut caffeine and sugar consumption by half.
3. To follow a daily schedule which includes devotional time.
4. To help the boys develop better use of their time.
5. To work on Steps to Financial Peace  and talk dh into attending a local FPU class

I pray that 2010 will be a year where you do things on purpose as you go about fulfilling your purpose.  

What Am I Supposed To Do With This?

My sister is one of those people that gets her Christmas shopping done by the end of October. She shows up every Thanksgiving with presents for everyone, even extended family.

She usually gives us a family present. We've gotten a forensic science detective chemistry set. We've gotten board games. This year she gave us a web cam.

Dh and the boys thought it was really cool. Dh even told his mom she should download Skype so we can use the computer to talk, instead of the phone. #1 She is not very computer literate and she would end up calling us, to figure out how to use it, anyway. #2 It's only a camera, it does not do audio.

One of the boys kept asking if we could go online and talk to other people with webcams. Again, I say, it's only a camera, it does not do audio. Well, can we go online and see other people's webcams? Sure, but I don't recommend it.

I thought it might be fun to set it up and let the world watch us do school. Just kidding.

We could also use it to take Facebook profile pictures.
Here's the latest picture I took of myself

Did I mention that it takes bad, grainy pictures? And the cord is badly kinked from being in the box, so it won't stand up.

Saturday Stream

Where does time go? I keep scrolling over the time on the computer to make sure that it's really Saturday. I did not get one school-related thing done last week. I think next week will be the same.

Today I need to arrange church music. That's number one on the list. I do not enjoy arranging church music. And I feel guilty for not enjoying it, because worshiping the Lord is a privilege.

I have a PJ top that needs exchanging. Dh and N thought buying jammies for teenagers would be fun for me. Let's just say that jammies for teenagers are not cut for grown women who have nursed three babies.

Something has gone afoul with my new coffee maker. For Christmas, I planned this great brunch that included spiced cider. A lady on the website where I got the recipe said that she made it in her coffee maker. So I did and now...well, it took 30 minutes to get 6 cups of coffee and it's concentrated. blech! I'm going to run some plain water through it and some vinegar. I pray I don't have to get another one. That would make three coffee makers this year, and I really don't want to spend my Christmas money on a coffee maker I need new under clothes and larger jeans.

Q is leaving for BSA winter camp today. Dh and M are leaving tomorrow.
N is not going. He was going to work, but they lost his application and then were quit rude to him when he tried to reapply. He's not happy. Most of his friends are gone. He'll have to find somewhere to go on Tuesday, though. I'm having a girl's day and night then, which I planned when I thought all the boys were going to be gone.

I told this lady at church that I'd help her go through her closet and get rid of some stuff. I don't know why. She caught me at a weak moment. She told me that she purposefully did not ask her daughters because they would get rid of her favorite clothes. I told her I'm a ruthless tosser of stuff, so be prepared. I have a feeling it's going to take a long, long time. Hopefully, she'll be ready tomorrow.

This has been the most random Saturday stream in a long time. I am satisfied.

Saturday Stream

Guess what? there is nothing on my calendar all week next week? (Except Christmas, and it came printed that way.) No driver's ed (it's over, and dh let N drive the big old truck for an hour and a half on their way to East Texas, yesterday), no classes, no wrestling, no Scouts, no running around.

I have plans. I am going to do lesson plans through Spring Break. And I am going to browse curriculum and begin to finalize my shopping list. In one month I will be filing our income tax return and a few weeks after that, I will be ordering curriculum. That's my kind of fun.

I mentioned that dh let N drive yesterday. Yesterday morning was also an historical occasion here. We had an extra driver to do the driveway dance!! We have a single wide drive way, filled all the way to the street with vehicles. Five of them.

In order from front to back: A 1982 VW Vanagon, a.k.a. "The hunting van." It belongs to my mother-in-love. Legally it is ours. The title is in our name, we pay the registration and the insurance. I just like to keep saying it is hers, because it makes me feel less car hoggy. We have used it twice this year to camp in. It has a fridge, a sink, a queen size bed and a potty.

Next, is the Big Old Truck. A 1980-something Ford F-350 dually diesel. It is a crew cab and has seatbelts for 6. Dh loves this truck, even though it is ugly as sin. His uncle gave it to him. It had been sitting for 5 years. Dh got in and it started right up. He believes it was a gift from God because he was pining for a truck so badly. It is only driven for hauling, helping people move and camping. It is a huge pain in my butt to drive.

Next is the Jeep Cherokee or the Mercury Grand Marquis, depending on which has gas and which has a current registration and or inspection sticker. We bought the Jeep new (1998) the day before Q was born. It has nearly 200K miles. The heat doesn't work, anymore and I'm scared another plug is going to go out while I'm driving. We bought the Mercury (1992) from Dh's aunt for $1000 about 5(?) years ago. It drives very smoothly, the heater works, but the rear windows do not. It also has nearly 200K miles. The headlights recently went out so I can't drive it at night. I have to drive the Jeep with no heat.

Lastly, is the best and most well-maintained vehicle. Dh's work Jeep Grand Cherokee. It belongs to the city and he drives it to and from and during work.

Gah! I nearly forgot why I told you about all our vehicles! The driveway dance. Dh needed the truck out because they were going to E. TX to help move my Gramma out of her little property. Behind the truck were the two Jeeps and the Mercury. Dh moved his work Jeep, I moved our Jeep (it's standard) and (trumpet fanfare!!) N moved the Mercury! It is what I have been waiting for ever since we bought the Mercury.

I was also going to talk about how I feel like my parents because we have to wait until Christmas Eve to go Christmas shopping. Soo not looking forward to that. I hate crowds. I hate tardiness. I should not have judged my parents. It's all coming back to me now. But I won't. Instead I will tell you that I am going to devise an elaborate plan where we all 5 go shopping and get groceries and Christmas gifts and they will still be surprises. I can do it. It will be the plan of plans.

Here's a cool thing, not related at all to driving or Christmas.

It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. You can tell it was summer time in the north by the sun's footprint over the planet. You could see that it didn't quite set in the extreme north and it didn't quite rise in the extreme south. Notice that as evening approaches, the traffic is predominantly from the US to Europe and when daylight comes, the traffic switches and it is predominantly from Europe to the US.

HT Why Homeschool

Tis The Season

American Vision has a great article today titled Exmas and Christmas. I don't really care for the name calling in the beginning of the article, though. The Word says that They will know we are followers of Christ by our love and I don't think calling fellow heirs names accomplishes that. All that said, I still think it's a good article.

I have struggled a lot over the last 12 years with Christmas. I have judged other in my heart for insisting they have a right to erect pagan symbols of false gods in their houses. Yet, I still experienced the joy and excitement that Christmas morning brings. No, the Bible does not direct us to observe the birth of the Messiah. Then, there is the argument that "it is one of two times a year that Jesus is in their faces." Really? Well shame on us.

This year the Lord has highlighted two portions of Scripture that give me hope and remind me that Jesus came for a purpose.

John 18:37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king for this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

Isaiah 9:6,7  For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Scripture tells us that He NOW sits at the right hand of God. A place of authority. That He does rule and reign. So take heart. Have hope. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He reigns now and forever.



If the angels celebrated His arrival, then I see no reason why we should not remember it. How many times in the Bible were the people of God instructed to remember the mighty acts of God. How it is remembered is up for debate, I suppose. But no name calling, please. 

Christmas Music Post

I have a serious love/hate relationship with Christmas. I hate that they play it until you want to stick pencils in your ears. But one note of Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole and I am instantly 8 years old.
Some (not all) of my favorite Christmas songs make no Christmas sense whatsoever. But I love them, nonetheless...

Do They Know It's Christmas tops the list. A) No, they don't know, or care it's Christmas, most of them are Muslim. B) "Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you. ??? Ironically sung by demi-god Bono. What kind of charitable thought is this?? C) It's SOOO catchy :)  D) I think the general attitude found in this song is why the English banned Christmas hundreds of years ago.




My second favorite Christmas song is Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing The Little Drummer Boy. 
David Bowie doesn't have his own piano? The dialogue just cracks me up. Two of the great voices paired. Beauty.



All the songs from The Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon





Sorry, I can't find a decent sounding video of this song by TransSiberian Orchestra. So enjoy the overplayed lightshow.



 You just can't have enough U2 at Christmas ;)



And Nat...



We had this album when I was a kid. I guess there were several, really, but this I remember this one the best. I didn't even know Any Williams sang anything but Christmas music for the longest time.

I'm Going to Throw Up, and Then I'm Going to Die!

(That's a quote from The Grinch movie, with Jim Carrey)

N started driver's ed on November 30. It is every night, 6 nights a week, for 3 weeks. Then, you schedule the driving time. Which is only 7 hours. Isn't that scary? Some of those kids will get driver's licenses on 7 hours of driving time. Not N. Our plan is that he got his permit as close to his 15th b-day as possible and will drive as much as possible for a year, then get his license.

In Texas, they have parent taught driver's ed. Dh decided that we would not be doing that. I was a little offended at first, but I'm relieved to not have another thing I need to do. (Except drive him back and forth every single night.)

(He made an 88)

He got his permit on Monday. It was pretty exciting. And my calm, cool kid was just about jumping up and down in the DPS office. The first lady we saw mumbled a lot and did not find him amusing at all. The second person we saw, a man, (a very caffeinated man) joked a lot with him.

I caught his excitement and let him drive down a normally busy road in Austin. He's driven in the POA parks, here in our town, why not on a busy road in Austin? I want to throw up just thinking about it. Our Jeep is standard, and every time he changed to 3rd gear, he jerked the wheel and we swerved all over.

(Did I mention it had been raining? Somehow, I'm not making myself look any smarter.)

I called dh to tell him I let him drive. He said, "Not a good idea. He needs to drive the Mercury and on the abandoned roads behind the golf course." Makes sense. OK. When we picked him up from his class, M told him he was not going to drive us home on the highway. LOL!

So, yesterday, I needed gas before I drove him "into town" for driver's ed. He asked if he could drive there. sure, why not? It's only across the road. It's only 4 o'clock. What could the problem be in that? Well, the end of our road is a steep (ish) hill, pointed up, when you're sitting at the stop sign. The high school down the road we needed to cross had just let out. And there were two cars sitting behind us. When he had a clearing that I liked, he started to go, rolling backwards a lot. The man behind us got impatient and pulled out and around us. The lady behind him, could see that he must be learning to drive and was laughing a lot, when I got out of the car and went to get in the driver's seat. Before I could get in, he'd turned it off and let the parking brake off. So I was hopping in a rolling car.

I think I will stick to Dh's plan. and tomorrow when I get the Mercury registered and groceries purchased, we will cruise on over to the area suggested.

And here are some gratuitous N pictures. Just because.

 

He's really tall.

 

Opening his b-day gift

Too cool to blow out the candle, he had to pinch it out. Q made the cupcakes for him. Aww...

I let the boys walk to the store behind our house to buy soda. They enjoy it and it gets them out of my hair. (That's a joke. It's true, but it is a joke.) Usually, they buy generic 25 cent cans of whatever and said soda is consumed before they get home. Then, I make them stay outside and bounce on the trampoline until they vomit. (That is a joke and it's not true, but I do make them stay outside after chugging 12 oz. of soda.) Today they went with a dollar and change and came home with a 3 liter bottle of generic RED SODA. Do you think it would be wrong to make them stay outside for a couple of days?

The Myth of the Freedom of Religion

The other night I was listening to a new, local drive time talk show. The personal jury is still out on the guy. Sometimes I really like him, other times, I think he's far too wishy washy. I'm not a huge fan of most big-name radio guys. In fact, I am an anti fan of most of them, I think they are narcissists. So back to the local guy.

I don't even remember what the original topic was, Christmas songs at a school, or something. You know, as in, this school decided not to have Christmas songs in their "winter pageant." So, the guy starts invoking "freedom of religion." His callers were invoking "freedom of religion" and talking about how Hanukkah doesn't offend them, blah blah blah.

The thing is this, the First Amendment does not say "freedom of religion," nor does it say anything about "separation of church and state." It says,

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It says that the government won't make laws which respect one religion over another. And more importantly, as it pertains to most people who want to fuss about Christmas songs, it says that it will not make laws which prohibit the free exercise of religion.

Has the government already violated this amendment by making Christmas a "legal public holiday"? Is this one of the arguments that The United States is a Christian nation? Christmas was not made a "legal public holiday" (the legal term "national holiday" does not exist) until 1870. U.S. Grant was President. Maybe it was a concession to the American public for the government corruption under him?

The government cannot promote nor prohibit religion. Can ordinary citizens pitch a fit over expression of religion? Sure. And that is where the concept of community comes in. And that is where the concept of loving your neighbor comes in. This is pure democracy. PTAs and elected school board officials, not the federal government or ACLU lawyers, come together and decide what values and beliefs are reflected in their community. This is how government is supposed to work.

That's what I think, anyway.

Snow Schmo

Thursday night I was thinking that we would not be able to go to our homeschool group's Christmas party due to snow. (go ahead B, Mrs. B roll your eyes, mumble...) We live off of a hilly, windy road. We do have a 4WD vehicle, but the heat doesn't work. And other people do not have 4WD vehicles. So, I was thinking we would not risk careening off a cliff into a creek, and not go.

All Thursday night, M kept flinging the door open (prompting the heater to come on each and every time) to see if the snow had started, yet. We don't even have TV with weather warnings, he just KNEW. I got up Friday morning, no snow. I began thinking, "It'll probably start while we're on the road." No snow.

As the party was winding down, kids started racing outside to see the snow. We were powerless to stop them. I got my coat and my notebook and headed out, no snow. N says, "Look real close." No snow.

It happened on the way home, on the treacherous, hilly road. Finally, the snow.

When I was a baby, my dad was in the Navy, based in Oakland, CA. As soon as I could walk, they took me to Yosemite to see my first snow. There is a picture of me somewhere, standing in a snowsuit in the snow, howling!

When I was 21, Sam was going into the Air Force. His parents lived in CA. It was December. What did they think would be a great way to mark the occasion of Sam entering service? Going to Yosemite to see snow. I stayed in the car.

(We also have pictures of the boys in the snow in Yosemite in MAY.)

I'm not a fan (of snow, Yosemite is lovely.)

As we neared the house, I could see breaks in the clouds. And 20 minutes later, it was beautiful, sunshiny blue :) This is why I love Texas.

I did take a picture (it is obligatory). The picture I missed though, was of the big boy standing outside in "the flurries." (That's what everyone kept saying, lol!) (Don't look at the grass...we had a drought...at least that's my story.)