mathmom's blog

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...