Remembered.

Usually I write about all the funny or naughty stuff the kids are up to, but today, I'll wax a bit more somber. Veteran's Day should be a bit somber, after all. It comes as a great disappointment, and really a dishonor to the meaning of the day, that there were no local services or ceremonies to remember our veterans. I remember looking for something like that to take the children to last year as well, and was not able to find any kind of public memorials. The store parking lots on Jefferson Road, however, were jam-packed. Therein lies the hearts of Americans.
So the children suggested we visit their great-grandpa's stone at the cemetery. We were very pleased to see that at least here, there were flags on all the veteran's graves. We walked around and looked at a lot of the other vet's stones, to see their dates of service and the other things that were listed. We even saw one purple heart recipient. The kids were all very interested, and had lots of questions, and shared lots of memories of their grandpa.

Sneak Preview and Editor's Cuts

Unedited, and in the raw. Our 2009 Christmas card photo shoot. Which looks very similar to our 2008 and 2007 photo shoots, only now with a dog.
We'd finally mastered the art of arranging children, running to push the timer button, then jumping into the photo before the timer went off. Then we got a dog, who is not the least bit sympathetic to the difficulties of group portraiture.
All that running, jumping, and shouting makes her a little jumpy herself. But, we got a few shots that we might be able to use, nonetheless.

Super Happy Crazy Funtasticness

Today, we went to the Strong National Museum of Play. As it turns out, they were inducting three new toys in to the Toy Hall of Fame (oh yes, there is such a thing!) Since we were there anyways, we went to see the "ceremony". The kids were hoping we'd get on the news- there was a lot of press there. Now that election day is past, they have to show something on the news, and this is probably as important as anything else they can think of to report on.
After the big ceremony, we hit the rest of the museum. Really, I don't feel right calling this place a museum. Museums should be quiet and dusty and full of cases of rock specimens and insects with pins through them. This place is more like Chuck E. Cheese on an acid trip. Everything is colorful, noisy, child-sized, gimmicky, and frantic. Up above is the miniature kid-sized grocery store experience.
They had a special display- a whole room full of full-size vintage arcade games. Joe liked Pac-Man. I tried to teach Naomi Frogger. Paul kept seeming to lose his tokens in broken machines.
This place is huge. Since we have a membership and can get in free anytime we want (normal admission price for our family costs more than buying a one-year membership), we didn't even attempt to do everything there. I'm now ready for a looong nap in a dimly lit room.

Today is Monday

It has been brought to my attention that I have not updated this blog in a few weeks. That is because, quite simply, things have been very dull.Of course, things have been dull here for quite some time, and it hasn't stopped me from posting about all of our glorious dullness.

This is what it looks like pretty much every day here. Eat, study, play, let the dog out; repeat. We've been getting lots of work done, much to the dismay of the children.

Every single morning, after breakfast, the children run off and hide in the far corners of the house. Every single morning, I track them down and round them up and start them on their studies. Every single morning, every single child lets out a long whine-"Awwww, why do we always have to do work in the morning!!"

You'd think they wouldn't be so surprised by this; like I said, we follow the same routine, every single morning. So, now you are up to date!

The only other thing we've been up to lately is buying a lot of stuff. This is my new oven, it arrived yesterday. I'm taking it for it's inaugural run with a Lemon Pudding Cake. The old oven (which was not that old, and quite expensive when I bought it!) was mostly broken for over a year, after having spent most of it's life mostly broken in some way or another. The plan was to sell this house, and let the broken oven be somebody else's problem, but since that is not happening as quickly as we'd hoped, and I absolutely could not live with the old oven for one more day, we got a new one.

This is my new guitar. My old one was not broken, but it was an entry level model and I was ready to upgrade. This one is pretty. I'm actually not sure yet if I like playing it better than the old one; I'm still working out some kinks in the set up, but it's pretty! I also got a pretty new strap and some other pretty new guitar accessory junk. Also in the new-stuff front, I got a new camera, that I've been wanting for quite some time. I didn't take its picture; I didn't want my old camera to be insulted by having to photograph its replacement.

Poor kids from big families...

Elena has been carefully guarding these toys all morning- a little stuffed border collie and a box of alphabet blocks. She has been carrying them from room to room. When she goes to the bathroom, the toys come with her. There have been several unsuccessful hostile takeover attempts this morning already, as well as cries of, "Elena's not SHARING". This is because nothing is so covetous to another child as something that someone else is playing with.

Children from large families jealously guard that which is rightly theirs, or even that which they believe ought to be theirs. We've had battles over every toy in the house and every food item that cannot be divided in to five equal portions. Outgrown clothing, especially favorite items, are pried unwillingly from the hands of the too-big owner to be given to the next younger child (who does his part by gloating cheerfully over the newly acquired item.) The rights to things like bunk bed assignments, drawer and shelf space, and van seating are hotly debated. Order is also very important- who has to take their shower first, who gets in or out of the van first, who gets served their dinner first, etc. Our house is filled with lamentations of "Hey, that's mine!", "How come she gets the last piece?", "I should get it, I'm the oldest!", "I had to go first last time!"

So really, there is good reason for Elena's pathetic little toy hoarding maneuvers. She know for an established fact that if she turn her back on her toys for even as long as it takes to use the bathroom, some other kid will walk off with them. And since even here at home possession is nine-tenths of the law, it's very likely she won't get her toys back.

Homeschool Kids Gone Wild

It was a slow, cold-ish, rainy-ish morning. The kids were tired from a late night last night, and a few of them are coming down with a little cold. I needed some time to practice my music. So, the children had a little time to kick back and go crazy this morning. This is what goes on when home schooled kids are left largely unsupervised for a few hours:

Joe (who finally rolled out of bed hours after everyone else) is our master paper crafter. He spent the morning making admirals' hats for his little stuffed dogs. If he had enough paper, he could probably make full wardrobes for every member of the family.
The rest of the wild and crazy kids made paper-and-marker replicas of flags from around the world. I forgot what countries these flags are from, but I assure you they are legitimate, actual countries. If you notice any worn-out flags flying over the UN headquarters, give these kids a call; they'll hook you up.
Elena made up her own flags. This one looks like the Republic of Spiderman. I think I'll go live there.

We have moved on to more standard school work, but I've caught a few of these hooligans trying to sneak some flag-coloring underneath their spelling books.

A Homeschool Archeological Dig

Here we see the natives in their natural habitat. It's fairly easy to figure out what a typical day-in-the-life is like for them by digging through the artifacts they leave behind. Just as with sedimentary rock, the oldest layers are on the bottom and become more recent as you work up towards the top. Petrified food particles indicate that these people had a diet that included bagels, toast, and cream cheese. The remains of a brewed caffeinated beverage can be found in what was probably the matriarch's drinking vessel. Their work day can be pieced together as well: math lessons first, followed by some scribbling on paper, then English grammar, guitar practice, Lego building, and paper airplanes. Soup spills on top of everything indicate the tribespeople did not need to go far for their mid-day meal.
Occasional catastrophic disturbances disrupt the layers, but can tell a far more interesting story. Note the appearance of a wild beast in this photo- a single leap up on to the work area could lay waste to an entire morning's work. This tribe, while they maintain a main base camp, is still largely nomadic. When resources like pencils or Ritz crackers run dry, individual members may head off in search of replenishments, sometimes never to return. They almost always leave behind trails of books, candy wrappers, and hand held video games, and an experienced tracker can sometimes locate them to re-join with the rest of the tribe.
Here we see a lone tribesman. He set off on his own when he failed to achieve dominance over the others in the group. In this circumstance, his chances for survival may be better than if he had stayed with the group; however, it is uncertain as to whether the group will ever accept him again.