Jack was very pleased to come home and inform me that he had made a new friend in his religious education class. Jack makes friends easily, so it wasn't particularly surprising. But, it is always nice to hear anyway.
Eric prompted him, "Tell Mommy what your friend is named."
"Leif!" exclaimed Jack. Though, in his mind, I suspect it looked more like "Leaf!"
Then he continued, "You know, Mom. Like a leaf on a tree?" He proceeded to make a motion with his arms to depict a leaf hanging on a tree, as if this was a foreign concept to me that would need not only a regular explanation, but a visual one at that.
"That's pretty cool, Jack. Leif, huh?"
And, then with deadpan delivery, Eric looked me in the eyes and calmly said, "Yeah, his last name is Erickson."
We stared at each other with serious faces for just a moment before we both burst into laughter. We then had to treat each other to a bevy of Viking and explorer jokes.
I think Jack thought we were insane. I just hope that he doesn't go to religious education next week and ask if Leif's last name is actually Erickson.
But, more importantly, if he does, I hope that Leif doesn't mention it to his Mom. Because, quite frankly, I'm used to being looked at like I'm insane at home. But, I like to play up the mild-mannered housewife persona at church.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
He's a nice kid, if he would just stop pillaging and burning villages
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I ran over a surfer because that's how I roll.
Oh my! I got this email forwarded from a friend, and for whatever reason, it just really tickled our funny bones. (Probably partially because sometimes when I do something silly or crazy, I ended up saying, "Yeah, because that's how I roll." So, it seemed so funny for that to come up as part of my sentence.)
So...what's your sentence? (And, I do realize that there may be a couple of sentence combinations that might be as nice together. So, if you get one of those and don't want to share, put together one from somebody else in your family that is funny. Noah's is: I did the Macarena with my sister because I'm cool like that. LOL)
Pick the month you were born:
January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena with
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over
Pick the date (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an ipod
29-------a surfer
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy
Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White---------because I'm cool like that.
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink-----------because I'm crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want.
Green---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars.
Orange--------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can.
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!
Book Giveaway Winner!
Congratulations to Katie from Just Another Catholic Mom for winning the giveaway for the book A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World by Carl Anderson.
(Can I possibly link any more words from that sentence?)
I hope that you enjoy that book, Katie! And, I was excited to hear that you thought your husband might enjoy reading it as well! Even better!
And, thanks to The Catholic Company for allowing me to review the book!
13 Relationship Portraits (TT #25)
Okay, I swear -- this is the last one. I have already posted portraits of babies and maternity, children aged 12 - 23 months, and children (preschoolers to preteens). I promise -- this is the last one.
(Well, maybe as a round up to finish it off -- but not as a Thursday Thirteen, I will post some senior portraits later. But, since I only ever did two senior portrait sessions, I don't really have enough variety without posting the same two kids over and over. LOL)
One of my favorite types of portraits are those that you can look at and you get a glimpse of the relationship between the people in the photograph. I think it's nice to have a family portrait every so often where everyone is sitting up straight and smiling while they stare at the camera. But, what I miss in that is seeing the emotion of the relationship.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Signing with Kids (Includes Links)
When I used to teach in the public schools, one of the kindergartners favorite things was learning new signs (using American Sign Language). I taught them the signs for each of the colors of the tables that they sat at (for silent releasing of tables before lunch), as well as just about anything else that came up that I also knew the sign for. (And, of course, there were times that I went out in search of the sign for something that the kids were just dying to know.)
My interest in learning simple signs started when Jack was a baby. At 16 months old, he didn't make any sounds. Not "baba" or "mama" or anything like that. The only sound he made was to cry. And, even worse -- he didn't seem to really respond to anything we said to him. We could repeat his name ten times with varying volumes and tones before he might finally turn his head to us.
After we got him into Early Intervention, we then started learning and using signs with him. It took him a while, but after a few months, he started using some of the signs that we had been using! We were finally able to communicate with him!
As time went on, many of the first few words that he finally produced were those that he had already long since been signing. (I will add that after going back to get my masters in special education, and then working in early intervention as a therapist, I have seen this many times -- the children start using the words they know the signs for first, and then eventually drop the signing because they can use the words.)
Jack, of course, eventually did start talking. It was not an easy road to him becoming a fluent speaker. And, it also took a while before he really responded to us speaking to him. But, now at seven, he doesn't even receive speech therapy any more. And, truth be told, he has a hard time stopping from talking. It is not unusual for us to say, "Jack -- can you please stop talking for just one minute?" (Oh, and though he doesn't always respond to us still, it's not that he doesn't hear us. He appears to have super human hearing, actually, and can hear something from across the house like nobody's business. Well...especially when it's not his business!)
Signing definitely worked for us! Here are some great resources for learning signs to use with young children:
You can check out more great tips and ideas at Rocks in my Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday!
Photo by midnightglory
The Sweetest Day (Wordless Wednesday #18)
The Trim Painting Job From Hades (Tackle It Tuesday #16)
I haven't really mentioned it here on the blog, and I'm not sure why. But, this spring/early summer found us having two big household projects.
And, no, we didn't hit the lottery. Unfortunately, one of the big projects *had* to be done (new roofing), and so when we were able to get enough on a home equity line of credit to have a screened in porch built on the back of the house, we were pleased to go ahead with this project as well. (I know, I know -- it was not good to go into debt for something that we didn't really need. But, we had been really wanting an addition, and this ended up being a low cost way to add some space, especially since we are always envious of my parents screened in porch.)
In order to save some money on the cost of the porch (which was actually done for a very reasonable price by a contractor that we know from church), we agreed to do all of the painting ourselves.
Can I just tell you that how much work it is to paint a room that is almost entirely trim work?
This is probably why we tried to put it off as long as possible. We were actually asked to wait a month, since they used treated lumber. We were more than happy to do that, of course. But, when we started getting closer to six weeks, we knew it was time that we just needed to do it. (We figured that the neighbors were probably saying, "Isn't it nice that they built on a porch? But, what a shame that they aren't painting it. They're so lazy!")
Finally, over the course of about a week (four different painting sessions), we put on a layer of white primer, and then a layer of our slate gray/blue house color. (The contractor had actually needed to repaint some of our siding, and then bought too much paint. So, we were able to use what they had leftover.)
I forgot to take a before picture of the outside. So, here is what the inside still looks like, just to give you an idea of what the outside looked like for six weeks. (Yeah, we do actually have to go through the entire process again on the inside. Augh!)
And here it is, all primed and painted! Ahh...much better! Needless to say, some of our neighbors were sure to tell us how nice it looked with paint!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Hmmm...think, think, think...
I've been feeling in a bit of a rut lately. Have you noticed?
Maybe it's the way the pollen and my sinuses don't enjoy each other. Perhaps it's the busy schedule I seem to need to keep. Who knows.
So, I was wondering -- is there anything that you've wanted to ask me? Feel free to ask away, and if I don't want to answer it, I won't.
If anyone actually wants to know anything (no offense if I'm too much of an open book and have left nothing to the imagination), I'll answer some questions in a separate posting.
Oh...and I do have at least one question currently sitting in my email inbox that I need to post about. I got it several weeks ago, and it just seems like such a big question that my angry sinuses just haven't let me think about it. But, I promise I will post about it sometime.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Feel bad that you drive a minivan? (Or just need to laugh?)
Then check out this video from YouTube. (If you read via FeedReader, you'll have to come to the blog to see this.)
And here is the commercial that has been cracking me up every time I see it during the Olympics:
One Week Left
If you have had your eye on anything in my Etsy shop, this is the time to buy! I will be closing up shop on August 31st.
As a matter of fact, if you are interested in a few things, drop me an email, I might even be able to give you a deal!
(Editing this post to add: I can try to give a deal/discount for buying mulitple items, not on single items, since everything is already on sale. Thanks!)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
So, are you clairvoyant or do you just like to watch sports?
Our whole family has really been enjoying following the Olympics. I have to admit, I have been watching it every night until the wee hours of the morning. Quite frankly, I know we'll miss it.
Noah just noticed that they mentioned Olympics.com on some of the commercials, and he wanted to check it out. So, after we brought the site up and got confused for a minute, and then realized that we had to click on the option to change it to English instead of Chinese, Noah wanted to dig right in and start watching videos.
But, then I went to a girls night out/baby shower, and didn't realize that Noah watched quite a lot of events on the computer. He was thrilled to tell me all about them when I got home.
Finally, at one point, he said, "Yeah, you know, Mom...it was...well, you know..."
"No, I don't know, Noah. What?"
(This is not an uncommon conversation for us to have, particularly if there is something distracting in the room -- like someone breathing.)
"Oh, you know. It was E.S.P."
I tried to think of how ESP tied into watching the Olympics on the computer. After a moment, I decided that perhaps I had figured it out.
"Noah, are you saying that you saw some sports on ESPN or that you know what was going to happen because you have E.S.P?"
"Oh yeah," he said in a long, drawn out voice, "ESPN. Yes, yes, that's it. I watched it on ESPN."
I couldn't decide what was funnier. Was it the ESP / ESPN confusion or the fact that our nine year old son that knows very little about sports and has parents that don't watch sports knew about ESPN.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Fun Ways to Practice Spelling Words (at home and at school!)
My latest article was just published at The Homeschool Classroom, but it is definitely information that can be helpful to any parent whose children have spelling lists that need to be practiced, not just those that homeschool.
So, if you could spice up the way that you help your child study for spelling tests, pop over and check it out!
Do you ever get really tired?
I mean, like really tired.
Like, so tired that you start to think, "You know -- if I got the flu, I would probably have to stay in bed for a few days and just rest."
Oh...ummmm...that's not a normal thought?
Oh yeah, no, I don't ever think that either. I was just asking, that's all.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thirteen Portraits of Children - Preschoolers through Preteens (TT #24)
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Can you help my husband with a correlation study for school?
My husband is doing a correlation study for a statistics class. He wants to see if there is any trend between the number of siblings a woman has, and the number of children she later has. This study is a quick three questions, and is for mothers 30 years old and older (no maximum age).
He needs as many responses as possible, so if you could just take a moment to answer, he would really appreciate it. If you prefer not to have your information in the comments, please just put a note when you leave it in the comments of "DO NOT PUBLISH COMMENT." If you do that, then he will be able to collect the data, but then I will not publish your comment.
(Anon. comments will not be included in the results.)
If anyone is interested, I can ask him for the results to post at the end of the semester.
Thanks!
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Please pick the age range that you are currently in:
Age Ranges:
30 – 39
40 – 49
50 – 59
60 – 69
70 – 79
80 – 89
90 & over
2. Number of siblings that you have. (Please answer the number you would give to a stranger on the street if you had to tell them how many siblings you have in one word, without any further explanation.)
3. Number of children you have through live births & adoptions (please do not include step children, unless you have adopted them or are currently in the process of doing so).
Review: A Civilization of Love (Plus a Book Giveaway!)
I was excited to be able to get a chance to review the book A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World by Carl Anderson. I read some reviews on it, and thought that it would be a book that I would enjoy.
Then, I have to admit, when it arrived, despite its size (just over 200 pages), it was a pretty heavy book. You know...weighty, and not in its actual weight as a book. I had been expecting something considerably more touchy-feely, and instead, I was greeted with discussions of Nietzsche and Descartes, among many others. It was apparent to me that this was not the book I was expecting it to be.
I think, perhaps, this initally made me not really want to read the book. Because I was anticipating a light book, only to be met with something much deeper, I wasn't sure what to think. Unfortunately, because I kept thinking that, after about three weeks of trying to read it off and on (mostly at my many doctor's appoints for my kidney stones), I was still only on page 19. Seriously!
Now, before you start thinking that I'm trashing the book, I must admit, I sometimes have a hard time getting into books. And, this was certainly no exception.
However, this past Wednesday evening, with no cable or Internet, I cozied up in a chair after everyone was asleep and really allowed myself to just take time to appreciate what this book WAS, not what I expected it to be. And, because of that, before I went to bed that night, I had finished the book!
A Civilization of Love touches on so many important topics in our society and in our past. I was really moved by so many portions of the book, and I learned a lot about various times in history, as well as different figures throughout time and the effect that they have had (both positive and negative) on our current times. (I was particularly moved by chapter eight, which is titled "A People of Life and for Life," which discussed both St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose story I did not fully know, although I was slightly familiar with it, as well as the pro-life movement.)
Another really nice feature of this book is that at the end of each chapter, there are "Suggestions for Contemplation and Action" to help the reader find ways to incorporate what they have read into their lives.
I would definitely recommend this book, but with the caveat that this is not a lovey touchy-feely book. This is the kind of book that will make you think, and will probably be the kind of book that you read and think, "Wow -- I never knew that!" or "Huh...I never thought of that in that way."
Now that I have read my copy though, I would love to pass it along! If you are interested in having my copy of this book, please leave a comment on this post by Friday, August 22nd at 11:59 pm EST. We'll do a random number drawing to choose a winner! Good luck!
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on A Civilization of Love.
