mathmom's blog

We were discussing Santa and stockings this morning, and Michael said that we had been bad this year so that he and I would be getting coal in our stockings.  I said that actually we were giving the coal away to Chinese factories so they could pollute the air, which distressed Luke (he really wants to save the planet from CO2).  Eleanor then suggested that instead of coal, the greener alternative would be to give us wind in our stockings.  Now that sounds like a good idea, and much less trouble to transport to relatives' houses for Christmas.

I sometimes write a list of the things that need to get done on days when the kids are home.  One such day had things like "clean rooms," "practice," and "library" on it.  Luke had wanted to make granola bars for a while, so I put "granola bars" down as the last item.  I went back to look at the list a little later and saw "granola bears" as the last item.  "Wow," I thought to myself, "I must have been really distracted to write that!  How funny of me!" I laughed. You all probably know what happened before I did.  Every once in a while I would go back and look at the list and laugh at the funny item, and I started noticing that the "ears" in "granola bears" was written in a slightly different handwriting.  Eleanor did confess to changing the list, but she says that she only did it because the original looked so much like "bears" instead of "bars." I enjoyed the joke, but ...

Amanda picked up a pomegranate at the grocery store, and since it is my principle to let the kids get anything from the fruits and vegetables part of the grocery (well, almost anything) I let her pick it up.  I still remember my first pomegranate.  I was younger than 7th grade (it was in our first house) but not too much younger.  My dad brought it home.  I don't think they were scattered all over like they are now, I'm pretty sure they were rare.   It was amazing then, and it still is amazing now.  I also remember when he brought home a coconut and some sugarcane---I think I enjoyed it more since we really didn't see them around every day. The best part of having Amanda get the pomegranate was having her get the seeds out, with Luke's help.  Someone somewhere suggested to me that you peel it under water. I'm not sure that was necessary, but it was fun.  Sometime along the way Luke suggested that they plant some seeds.  He claims that he r...

In our back hallway, we have a beautiful shoe rack that Michael built.  It is interesting to see how many pairs of shoes accumulate on the shoe rack, and to whom each pair belongs. One person had 1 pair of shoes, 2 people had 2 pairs, one person had 4 pairs and one person had 5 1/2 pairs.  Can you guess who is who? Luke had 1 pair, Ella and I had 2 pairs each, Michael had 4 pairs (including flip flops and hiking boots) and Amanda had 5 pairs, plus a lone moccasin and a worn out roller skate. For jackets, Eleanor has none (she keeps hers in her room), Michael has 1, I have 3, and Luke has none---all of his are in the lost and found bin at school, I hope.  Amanda had 8, some of which I have moved to her room. However, I have about 10 bags of different sorts: the library bag, the swimming bag, the grocery store bag, the picnic bag...  I am the definite winner in that category.

In Sunday School yesterday we went to a class called "Welcoming the Stranger" about a Biblical way of thinking about immigration.  We talked about the great commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and some of the other commandments in Leviticus, including "Love the stranger as yourself."  Amanda was quite eloquent about how this meant that you should love anyone you come across. This morning as I was cleaning up her room I came upon a square of toilet paper written on in sharpie.  The writing was, "I (heart) U*"  At the bottom was an explanation, "U means everyone."  I guess when you are inspired, you have to write on whatever you find.  I am relieved she didn't get out of the bath and run down the street shouting, "Eureka!"

Last weekend, Eleanor went with the youth group on a trip to the beach. (Digression: I have to say, it is pretty cool living in a place where one weekend you can go to the beach and the next weekend you can go to the mountains.  Where I grew up, we could go to the lake or to the lake. Our youth group went to a camp on Lake Superior, which was actually pretty cool.  The driftwood on the lake was fun, there were dripping pine forests, sometimes canoes, always sitting on the porch in the sun, unless it was raining or snowing. It was refreshing to be sitting in the middle of the woods a million miles from anywhere---very different from going to a beach in NC at practically any time of year. As I recall there was even a sauna, for the winter.  But you could definitely not go swimming in October---or even August, unless you were very brave.) On Friday night she went wading in the ocean, wearing her crocs.  A wave as big as she is came crashing in to shore and she ran t...

For a long time, we had a big problem at dinner every night.  For some reason, none of the kids wanted to sit next to Michael and they all wanted to sit next to me.  Besides the fact that I don't have 3 sides, this made Michael feel unwanted (sniff!).  The problem was, when I chose someone to sit next to Michael the various people involved decided that I wasn't being fair, that I had chosen them last night, or last night but 2, and that Luke always got to sit next to me...  There was no way to decide. I remembered from kindergarten that the teacher had a list of the students on the wall and would move a marker down to choose a "person of the day."  The kids knew when their turn was coming up by how many names were between themselves and the marker.  I didn't have the energy to make a list or to keep up with moving a marker, but then I realized that the dates of the month will keep up with themselves and I don't have to do anything. So if the day of the ...

Yesterday when Eleanor came back into the house a lizard* came in with her.  I was following a few seconds behind so I didn't see the lizard get in, but I did see that it was hiding behind our craft center.  At least it was a cute lizard.  I told Eleanor that I didn't care so much about the lizard in our house eating the bugs, but I really didn't want the lizard to die in the house.  That disturbed her for some reason. We left the door open and Eleanor waited for the lizard to move. I went upstairs so the lizard wouldn't run towards me and climb into my hair.  I have a few irrational fears about animals.  The lizard moved toward the open door and Eleanor scared it outside.  Phew. No more lizard in the house. Of course, the other day as Amanda was in the front hall she saw a lizard calmly walk in between the front doors, look around, and walk out as Amanda went closer to investigate.  A few years ago I saw a lizard half way up our two-story ent...

I humbly suggest that anyone with some spare investment dollars buy some stock in Kleenex, Puffs, or other facial tissue products. I have a raging cold.  Since I've had it for almost a week now, I'm hopeful that it is going away soon, but so far I've only succeeded in having new symptoms, not in feeling any better. On a lighter note, Eleanor made dinner for Amanda and Luke AND made sure they ate it, with some fruits or vegetables.  Luke spent THREE HOURS cleaning the kitchen with Daddy (a difficult task, without the dishwasher) and Amanda learned to whistle.  Only she can't do it when anyone is watching her, yet. I am thankful for my family.  I hope they don't get the cold...

Eleanor is an acolyte at our church.  She gets to assist with the service, gets to sit up front with the pastors, and gets to process in the beginning of the service.  To be an acolyte, one of the only requirements is that she have a pair of black dress shoes: no crocs, no sandals, no tennis shoes. This would not be a difficulty, except that Eleanor's feet have grown several sizes in the past year.  She has a pair of tall black boots from the start of school last year (she only asked for two new articles of clothing: a pair of boots and a jean jacket).  The boots are now two sizes too small.  She is saving them for her little cousin who also looks to have big feet. When Eleanor was asked to acolyte at the end of the summer, then, we didn't have any shoes that fit her.  I looked in my closet and found a pair of black pumps (very low heels) that fit me, and so she wore them.  Towards the end of the service I noticed she was walking funny...my first r...

Recently I've been able to take sick kids to the doctor's office, have the doctor say that there is no problem, and have the kids walk out cured.  The simple process of going to the doctor's seems to have made whatever was causing them problems better.  I do this all the time myself with strep throat. All someone has to do is mention the words "strep throat" and my throat starts hurting, I get a headache and start feeling warm.  I go to the doctor, he or she does a strep test which comes back negative, and my throat starts feeling better immediately.  I've started going to the CVS instead of the urgent care office to save money and time.  Sometimes I can even pretend I got a strep test and I start feeling better. The kids are particularly susceptible to imaginary illness when one of their siblings is sick.  Usually it suffices to send them to school any way (with no fever, of course).  The distraction of school makes them forget that they are suppo...

For the first few days, Luke evaluated whether he'd had a good day at school by how much he had to write.  A good day was not much writing, a bad day was lots of writing.  I could see that instead of expending energy writing, he was expending energy on figuring out how to say what he wanted in the fewest words. Then one day at bedtime he said that he was starting to enjoy writing.  "Nathan L. was right!"  he exclaimed.  "What?" I asked.  "He said that if you look deep inside yourself, to your inmost soul, you will find that you like to write." I was confused.  Nathan L. is another high intensity little boy with whom Luke had had some conflicts in the past.  I knew that he wasn't in Luke's classroom this year.  When I asked when Nathan L. had said this, Luke responded, "In kindergarten."  I guess the advice had staying power. Or maybe not.  Today I asked Luke to write a birthday card for his friend, and he made it quite clear t...

A week ago Luke wanted to get from the porch to the garage without going through the house.  He said that there were too many flies in the house.  I scoffed.  "What are you afraid of?  There aren't that many flies."  How wrong I was. All the next day we killed one fly after another.  Michael stopped counting after a dozen.  Amanda even killed two with one blow (although we did not have a belt made with that phrase on it, for fear she would be recruited by passing kings who wanted her to kill a giant).  Even the spiders got into the act---there were several flies in webs around the house. Yum! Some flies even made it into Luna's (the betta fish) tank.  I'm not sure whether she ate any of them.  It's a good thing we have three flyswatters: the entire family can get into the fly swatting act. I went from not seeing any flies when Luke asked about them to seeing tens of them the next day.  Spontaneous generation, a la Aristotle?...

We have been having trouble with our dishwasher. The dishwashers don't seem to understand that you are supposed to put dirty dishes in and get clean dishes out. About 2 years ago we got rid of our GE dishwasher when it started leaving the dishes dirty. We replaced it with a Kitchen Aid that had gotten good reviews, was much quieter than our GE and had a better loading layout. Then last year at about this time, after a few months of trouble, I gave up putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, only to have them come out still dirty.  I washed dishes by hand for 2 months.  We did eventually call a service company (Convenient Appliance Raleigh, they're great!) and they fixed the problem, a sensor---fortunately it was under warranty.  The top rack was a bit broken: one wheel kept coming off, but Michael jury rigged something so it wouldn't fall apart more. It worked great for a while... But then more and more the dishes on the top rack would be dirty.  I'd wash them b...

Yesterday we had a real rip-roaring thunderstorm: hail, couldn't see across the street rain, loud booming, etc.  I called Amanda and Luke upstairs to look at the hail.  Amanda was thrilled!  She loved watching the rain pour out of our gutters (hmm, maybe we need to get them cleaned again...or maybe it was just a huge storm).  I wouldn't let her go outside and collect the hail, which was disappointing to her. I'm always a little nervous about Luke and weather.  He sometimes seems anxious---he tries to get me to look at the radar, he tells me about the latest Nova special featuring super-twisters, and he tries to hold my hand.  So when I saw him looking out the back window (we could hardly see the trees in our backyard!) whimpering a little, I was worried.  "Luke, are you all right?"  I asked.  He turned to me with a big grin on his face, laughing, "I love severe thunderstorms!"  You never know what you are going to get with Luke. I to...

Over the past couple of months and years I've become increasingly convinced that sugar in my diet is a big problem. It started with reading Gary Taubes, then with talking to the trainers and nutritionists art the gym. I gave up sugar for a month and it felt good . Then I read the Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub. She and her family totally gave up all forms of processed fructose for a year: no sugar, no fruit juice, no wine... She did this based on a video she saw on YouTube and the ensuing research she did. Eleanor also read the book. She was appalled at the way food companies manipulate the taste of processed foods (she had already read a version of fast food nation, which prepared her for this idea). We decided to try giving up sugar for September and October. We are not quite as die hard as the Schaubs. At restaurants, we will not ask about the buns or chicken nuggets, but we won't order the mountain cake on the assumption that it has no sugar. Unflavored bread is ok since ...

We finally got another betta fish.  After Sunny and Merlin, we wanted a fish that would live in an actual tank, not just a bowl.  But when we opened up the tank (2.5 gallons, with a filter and the all important decoration) I really wanted this to be a family fish, not just for Eleanor. We put the fish on the kitchen counter, and the most surprising thing is how much personality this little fish has.  I suppose that by "personality" I really mean that she notices people watching her tank or moving her food and eagerly swims up to the top as if to say, "Feed Me!  Feed Me!"  But frankly I'll take what I can get. The kids have worked out who feeds Luna when---they read that it's good for the fish to eat a few times a day, just a little bit, so Amanda feeds her in the morning, Eleanor feeds her at lunch (one of the perks of homeschooling) and Luke feeds her after dinner.  Amanda turns on the light in the morning to show that Luna has been fed, and Luke turns...

The other day I was going through the kids' bathrooms looking for socks when I ran into and knocked over the music stand in Amanda's bathroom.  Of course she has a music stand in her bathroom, I thought. Right. When I asked her later what was up, she said that she had put a book on the stand to read while taking a shower (through the clear shower curtain, of course). My first thought was for the book's safety. My second thought was, "Why didn't I think of that," followed shortly by "I wonder if that would work in our bathroom?" I have long held that one of the major problems with daily chores like showering, blow drying one's hair, and vacuuming is that it is difficult to impossible to read while doing them. Amanda seems to have found a partial solution, at least if you don't mind getting your book slightly wet... I might wait for the waterproof eBook, though.

Eleanor looked at her new shampoo bottle and saw that it had 100 uses.  She wondered what the different uses were---Body wash?  Dog shampoo? Bug repellent? Can you think of some? Sometimes the actual meaning is much less exciting than the first reading.

For the summer, each kid is supposed to have a long term project to be working on.  Luke's was learning to type, but he rejected that one.  I suggested we choose a new goal: learn Spanish, or knitting, or something like that. Well, yesterday he came up with 2 new projects. First, he is trying to create a world record for the largest amount of pencil shavings.  He sharpened all the pencils in the house (it took him about 30 minutes with our lovely electric pencil sharpener!) and put the shavings in a large garbage bag.  So far, he has about 1 cup of pencil shavings, but he dreams big.  He is completely undeterred by the fact that there is no record. Interestingly, I googled whether there is a record for this, and came across a blog post of another little boy who decided to break this record as well. The other project is to make the Solar System out of cotton balls.  He induced me to buy a bag of cotton balls at the store, and then has been soaking th...

I could fill this blog with stories about Luke.  Here are some of the latest. He recently had a birthday, and decided to save his money.  What is he saving it for?  A farm.  So we can grow food to eat.  He realizes this will take a long time: when he broke the ukelele and I suggested he needed to pay for a new one his response was, "But I'm saving for a farm!" On Saturday, I heard Luke wake up and go downstairs just after 6.  Usually he lays on the couch in a lump for half an hour or so.  However at 6:09 the strains of Allegro (Wake Up Shake Up) came from the front hall.  I had to explain to Luke that playing the violin before 7 is anti-social.  He went down to the basement and practiced for 21 minutes (according to him).  The next day (first day of daylight savings) he of course didn't want to wake up until quite late... He has a friend at school who does not believe in God.  When he heard that a family member was traveling t...

So, Eleanor, the girl who will hardly have time to get dressed and eat breakfast after having been up for an hour and 20 minutes on a school day, woke up at 7 and is outside in her boots and jacket at 7:30.  Because, of course, snow.  We'll see who else gets up and out.