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Labels: Jen's world

I had to blog this, heard it on the radio this morning and thought there was no way this could be a true story...but here it is:

Wool pulled over Japanese eyes in Poodle scam- April 26, 2007, World Brisbane Times
go *here* to read the story. The Sun has a picture of one of the "poodles" *here* (be careful, some of the ads might not be for little eyes...) If you want a good, long belly-laugh..go see the photo.

I'll sum it up for you, they think maybe 2,000 people were scammed, uh "fleeced" by an import company selling poodles at an incredible discount. It all came out when movie star Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk show and mentioned how strange she thought it was that her new poodle didn't bark and wouldn't eat dog food, and then shared photos of her pet. I have to say it, she must have felt baaaad when she was told her poodle was in fact, a sheep. The sheep in poodle's clothing were sold for $1,600 each. One couple became suspicious after they took in their "poodle" to have a nail clipping and were told it had hooves.

The article mentions how rare sheep and poodles are in Japan, but I still had to wonder how a techno-rich society didn't think to look online for what a poodle looks like. I suspect that sheep farmers the world over are laughing wildly over this.

Maiko Kawamaki was reported as "..crestfallen when told it was a sheep" I have to say it again,
she must have felt really, really, baaadd- to have the wool pulled over her eyes like that.

Update: boy, do I feel Sheepish! It wasn't true! The link Amy left in the comments took me to a story that stated it was a hoax, and that the actress was on a talk show where she might have told a story about a friend who purchased a sheep-but that Japanese talk shows were known for lots of tall tales. I should have gone with my instincts, I thought it was too crazy at first to be true, I am glad it wasn't.. my hopes for human kind are not so in the toilet now.
Have to say it, I had the wool pulled over my eyes!
I did get 29 hits for "Maiko Kawamaki" and 2 hits for "sheep as poodles"...
*it was past 100 hits before the night was over, I've stopped keeping track now...this story seems to have gotten out everywhere!

I recently did an online interview with home and tell.com, a website all about homes, home projects and community. They were interested in our homeschooling and how that relates to our view and use of our home. To read the interview, go *here*.

Labels: family, homeschool

Labels: family

Labels: memes, Wordless Wednesday

Labels: hens

"She played and sang;- and drew in almost every style; but steadiness had always been wanting; and in nothing had she approached the degree of excellence which she would have been glad to command,..." - Emma

I've mentioned before that I am a little unorganized in thought and habit. It is a problem, I know; tho I manage to keep things moving along somehow. I really have been strongly desiring to get more orderly in life. The two areas I picked this month to work on are getting to bed at a decent hour...ahem, (just pretend you can't see what time I am posting this)..and the other area is planning meals for the week. I did actually plan meals for 6 nights this past week, it is a world record.

This really goes against my nature and childhood training. My mother routinely went to the store and came back with a quart of milk and one roll of toilet paper. This drove my rational husband who was raised in a family with 7 kids-wild. My mom didn't really see a problem, since she would be back at the store in a day or two anyways to pick something else up needed. This is kind of how I operate, I am doing good if I pick up ingredients for two dinners for the week.

My reason for this rambling post, internets (as BooMama would say)-is to ask for dinner recipes. I need to expand my repertoire if I am going to pull off 7 dinners in a row!!
Recently, Joyful days shared a recipe for cheeseburger casserole-it was a big hit! (except that hubby poured salsa all over his...I am thinking I will add some spices next time...)
and I tried the Ritz cracker chicken recipe Cyndi posted over at her blog, also a big hit. So, if my bloggy friends could send me a recipe, or post one over at their blog and let me know...I would be so blessed. -A recipe your family likes, and one that is not too complicated. I thank ye..

Saturday, we went to the grand-re-opening of the Orange Main Library. I have to admit that this event was marked on our calendar months ago. It is so beautiful, big and new!! You realize how much your life has changed when it is no longer the newest hot band in concert that you eagerly look forward too, but it is the library grand opening that sets your heart a' twitter.

This day was really, really crowded. We are looking forward to going back on Wednesday and having the place more to ourselves.

Oh, and we were happily greeted by one of the librarians-in the midst of the huge crowd. We really are regulars...kind of like going to Cheers, without the beer.

Sunday afternoon we were returning from lunch, when I began exclaiming loudly over a pair of birds I saw in our tree. Sky thought that at least something or other must be on fire, but no- I was beside myself because I thought I spied two robins in our tree. Being right in the heart of OC, I have never lived in a neighborhood with robins. A few years ago we were at a nature preserve about an hour away, and I saw a robin there..but Robins are not birds we normally live with. I ran into the house to get the camera so I could show our neighbor, who is a real bird watcher...but, they flew off. I hope they come back to visit. Our neighbor said that this was the right time to see them passing through, since they are migrating.

Today we joined a group of homeschoolers for Shakespeare in the park, tho today it was in the house, because it rained. We sat in while a very talented mom read Cymbeline. She had a large group of children clustered around her feet, supplying answers as she asked them what happened at the last reading. I was really impressed! My older two thought the story really good, and want to read the whole thing now, since we missed the first half.

Did I mention it rained today? It was a light rain, the chickens seemed to enjoy it. the cat did not.

April is poetry month, so I will leave you with yet another poem:

Labels: homeschool, nature

The very first time I walked through our soon-to-be new home, my eyes gleamed when I saw this closet. The previous owners had coats hanging in here, so un-imaginative! I looked, and saw a homeschool closet, home to my curriculum-addiction. Sky custom built the shelves here to hold all my stuff..ahem, educational materials.

Our last house was under 1,000 square feet. 4 kids, 1 bathroom- it was tight! We had just started on our homeschool adventure and the dilemma was- where to put our books. Sky very ingeniously built shelves into our small-ish hall coat closet. He put in shelves taking up about 3/4th of the width of the closet, leaving a small space to hang a few coats and ran the shelves up to the top of the closet-which is usually wasted space. It worked very well for us back then, I wish I had a photo to show you. I blush a little now to think of that small closet and compare it to my closet space now, and how my collection has expanded to fill it. I am going to sell books I am not using this summer. Just in time to make space for any new books... :)

Labels: homeschool

Daddy teaching Amie an early Sunday morning lesson on counting benzene rings.
Dad's inner-engineer is showing.

Labels: family

Here are a few more photos from our Spring Scavenger hunt, our first finds are *here*.
Our other finds, captured here, are:

*shade of green

*shade of green

*spring mud (with moss)

I had no welcome,
no fancy tea laid on,
so tired inside
that simply raising my arms
seemed too huge a thing.
But Madame Equinox
simply arrived,
put on the kettle,
and blew her breath
through my house,
making herself at home
as if she knew
how much I wished
for an end to cold bitter,
dusting the last leaves
of a forgotten fall
with pollen confetti,
to leave her card,
the sort of RSVP
I can never ignore.

©2007, Lisa Shields
go **here** to read the entire poem

Labels: Charlotte Mason, homeschool, nature

I have to link you *here* for the "Chicken story". I can't stop laughing. I have hens, I could totally see myself falling into this clumsy situation. Maybe if you don't have hens, you will not find this so funny. But then again, if you often find yourself awkwardly trying to explain yourself to strangers.... Klick on over for kicks.

I posted a Spring Scavenger hunt *here*, about a month ago...and finally got the chance to go out with the kids to work on it today. Here are a few items we found:

*Spring flowers

*a fresh spring scent

*signs of nest building

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?

by Richard Le Gallienne

Our learning day went something like that today...

sometimes you just have to go with the flow...

Labels: homeschool, nature

Today- Friday is the last day to vote in the Homeschool Blog Awards. I see many favorite blogs over on the lists, and lots I haven't visited yet. Go on over and vote for your favorite reads!!
voting ends today...go...scoot!

BooMama 's got something cooking over at her place to bless Heather and her family. Go on over *here* to find out how to help.

And Kelli is in need of some prayer, maybe go on over and let her know you are thinking of her.

Sometimes your sadness or lack of coping skills seems too big, and then you read something
like *this* and you feel so very small. Please pray for Heather and her family. I only know her through her blog, but I was crying for her as I read this. Please pray for her, and drop her a line letting her know that you are praying for her.

"and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand." Revelation 8:4

Homeschool magazine responds to eBay's ban on selling teacher's editions...an interesting short article, go here to read it.

Also worldnetdaily had an article here.
eBay prohibits textbooks
for homeschool teachers
Lumps them with illegal drugs, bootleg recordings,
prompting avalanche of complaints from customers

I remember when the ban hit, maybe last year? It did affect my ebay habit, I don't visit the site anymore. As a homeschooler, finding used teacher's manuals was the main attraction to ebay. It is frustrating that they have made such a policy when *many teacher's manuals do not contain the answers, they are lesson plans...the solutions manuals are often separate items *I can order teacher's manuals from the big bookstores- no policy to check if I am a teacher or not.
*most of the items sold to homeschoolers are specialty "homeschool" books, or older editions of textbooks, they are not items used commonly in the public school settings, a group of kids intent on cheating will not be buying the books the homeschoolers are buying. *the whole cheating thing is the arena of parental responsibility

“Teachers editions are intended for teacher’s use and eBay believes in limiting the resale of those items as we are not equipped to verify if the buyer is a teacher or not.”

(from the article)

This also brings on a whole discussion on who is a teacher...I wonder if they meant to make this a political statement?

"Homeschoolers frustrated with the eBay ban on teacher's editions can take their business to other sites who understand the importance of being able to buy and sell teacher's editions for home educators. "

I think we already have...
the whole thing is frustrating. Ebay was easy to work with. I guess we all have to get used to a new system somewhere else. I hope that Ebay's loss is their gain.

Labels: homeschool

Apollos Academy is hosting the 67th carnival of homeschooling this week. Go on over to find links to different homeschool articles by many different bloggers. My post on the book "Dooms" is listed in the carnival. Happy Reading!

Labels: homeschool

I just spent the evening watching the Math U See demo dvd. My first thoughts are...wow! And then, Wow..it's Montessori math explained and improved!! I was really intrigued with Montessori's philosophy of teaching and read much on her and her methods a few years ago. But, I do have to say that the learning curve is very steep with the method, and I just did not have the time to take a course to learn how to teach with her materials. With the Math U See program, I do see a tangible program that I think I could teach, especially with the help of their dvds... Liking what I saw. I might finally be able to break away from my loved/hated abeka. (It's really a disfunctional thing with me...). More thoughts on Math U See in a later post after I have investigated more. But, so far I really liked it.

What our day was like today;

I am really fighting in and out with depression, the last few months have been really bad for a few days, right about that time. This month it hit again. Today I fought the urge part of the day to climb back into bed and curl up in a fetal position. It helped to focus on what I need to do with my kids, I need to teach. We were able to get through our basic table routine of math, handwriting and spelling. Have to admit I did skip phonics with Demi today... We did a read aloud out of 50 famous stories retold and did narrations with all 4 kids. Even Amie did a narration, she is so cute! I had the 3 older kids do an illustration after the oral narrations. (I made the mistake of giving the older two the option of a written narration and/or an illustration, they picked just the illustration, of course-I will not make that mistake again! I am just not at my sharpest right now...) Demi played Jumpstart K on the computer, which has math and phonics. Meg worked on a story she is writing in Word, for about an hour. We had violin and piano practice, the kids played outside. Meg and Josie spent some time teaching the guinea pigs to run an obstacle course (entertaining!) Hubby came home and worked in the garden with all the kids. Darling husband then took me out to dinner at Cheesecake factory, being the wise man that he is-he could see that alittle Godiva cheesecake would brighten my outlook. (that and getting out of the house!!). It was a respectable day in homeschool land. I finished the day reading a story to Demi and Amie at bedtime and then watching the math demo. The day did end on a brighter note than it started.

Just a little look into homeschooling, when mom is not feeling her best...
Update: today-Tuesday, I woke up feeling so much better...I could feel the difference right away. I don't know what it is, maybe the prayers -thank you! or maybe the sunshine...the sun came out yesterday late afternoon and today has been gorgeous, we've had a few days of gloomy weather. Thank you so much for the prayers, I really wasn't sure if I should even post about it, but I am glad I did.

Labels: homeschool

How it was with Dooms, a true story from Africa- by Xan and Carol Hopcraft

This is a book in my Spring reading challenge, one I found through the ending credits of the movie, Duma. Dooms is a nickname for the swahili word Duma which means cheetah. This book tells the story in almost scrapbook style of this family's life with Dooms, the cheetah they raise from a cub. The hopcraft ranch is in Kenya, and before Xan is born his parents take in a lost cheetah cub. The book is full of incredible photos of Xan, from infancy growing up with Dooms. Xan's mother Carol is a wildlife photographer and this book is full of beautiful, incredible photos.

The kids and I were captivated by seeing real life photos of a real life "Calvin" growing up with a real live "Hobbes", the photos are just breathtaking-allowing the reader for a moment to see the fantasy of growing up with a beautiful wild animal-lived out.

Xan describes in 7 Chapters with lots of illustrations and photos...
*How dooms came to live with them *When Dooms was a baby *When Dooms was big, when I knew him *Dooms's friends *Dooms learns to find, hunt, and bring down his food *any day with Dooms *When Dooms got sick...and after

"When Dooms was listening he'd just stare at you peacefully with his big yellow eyes...He'd stare our far away on his plains and purr. When you brushed the short thick white hair under his chin, he'd close his eyes and throw his head back with a low purr that some people thought was a growl but we knew was a purr. That was his favorite, to feel the warm sun and the dry cool air around him. This was enough for him. And enough for you." -How it was with Dooms page 52

The story of a boy and his cheetah is the wonderful main part of this book, but we also really enjoyed all of the educational tidbits tucked away in this living book. As a homeschool family, we found the photo and description of the family's house and the roofing material-papyrus-very interesting after having studied early Egyptian writing for history. Also interesting were the photos of Xan's dad lugging Dooms down a ladder from the roof because Dooms could damage it with his sharp claws. Interesting facts about Cheetahs throughout the story, such as how the mother cheetah hides her cubs to hunt, how cheetahs need to catch their own wild food, that cheetah's claws do not retract like a cats, how fast they run, brought biology to life for the kids. The subject of camouflage took on new meaning in the real life story of how well a cheetah's coat blends into the grass, a little eerie when you think about it. We loved seeing the photos of the different wild animals in the family's yard, passing through. The photos of Dooms lounging with Xan, laying by the pool, being licked in the face by a family dog...are just captivating.
The last chapter will make you cry.

"At the [animal] hospital...Daddy had gone to move the car and Mama was still worried about the operation and wondering about it out loud and taking pictures of Dooms like she always did. You know how it is when you're doing something you think is important and you miss the thing that's really important. And so it was that we missed it..." page 61

The book was very different than the movie "Duma". The movie added in events that did not happen to make it exciting, though we all thought growing up with a cheetah was plenty exciting all in itself! The movie changed the location of the ranch from Kenya to South Africa, and had the dad die to introduce all the excitement of the plot. In real life, Xan's father did not die- but Dooms did, after exceeding the life expectancy of a cheetah in the wild. Xan and his mother wrote the book as a way to work through their grief over losing such a friend. In an interview I found with Xan online, Xan was grown up and an environmental policy major in College. He spoke about the differences in the movie and his life with Dooms, and about memories of Dooms taking afternoon tea with them everyday, his freedom to come and go as he pleased, his watching t.v. with them and the way Dooms listened.

This book has become one of my all-time favorites. Our copy is from the library, but I will be purchasing a copy for our home library, just so we can enjoy looking through the wonderful photos often. The movie was also very good-different from the book, but still a good movie-the kids really enjoyed it.

I found so many educational opportunities in this book. We will be drawing maps of Africa, locating Kenya and the location of the Hopcraft's farm. Narration and possible further studies of Cheetahs are in order, as are artwork inspired from the photographs in the book. A list or chart of other wild animals that live in Kenya, and a chart of the food chain of the cheetah are two other possible projects. For creative writing I am considering asking for a first person description of a day spent with Shalla, the cheetah cub that comes to live with the Hopcrafts later. A bigger project possibility would be making a scrapbook storybook with the children about one of our pets.
"How it was with Dooms" is really a book not to be missed.

Labels: book review, homeschool

thought I would share a few interesting links going around the blogosphere;

Go over to Ree's blog for a sandwich recipe that is promised to knock the socks off your man. She includes great photos of each step, just wonderful! I actually don't know what round steak looks like...(I'm glad she showed me so I can buy the right stuff!) If more recipes included step by step photos, maybe I would cook more interesting meals. Maybe. I will report back after I make this for my hubby...
Warning; her recipes are not for anyone on a diet...

April is National poetry month. You can go over to Poets.Org for a poem a day in your in-box. Hat tip to Circle of Quiet for this info.

A thoughtful article by John Mark Reynolds, Toward Virtue: Ten Lessons we have learned home schooling. Deep and encouraging, go here to read it.

And to leave you with wisdom I realized today, too late...

After letting your 7 year old son watch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dvd, know that the resulting 5 hours of "pows", grunts, banging of furniture, sounds of jumping off furniture, and endless "dude!"-'s and "cowabunga!"-'s heard even after light's off...are really your own fault.
Yes, I repent. Send it back, oh send it back....!

Cyndi chose me to receive one of her Thinking blog awards, and I am so very honored to have made her list. The rules to this award are:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote

I am not early in the game with this award meme, so I am not going to work hard to find blogs that have not been given this already, I am going to just list 5 that come to mind as blogs that I read regularly that make me think.

Here is my list for blogs worthy of The Thinking blog award:

1. One more day - Cyndi, right back at you! you regularly make me think deep thoughts

2. A spacious place - Kelly's blog is another place I know I will be treading waters that run deep

3. Amy's humble musings- always something to ponder, from parenting a housefull of children, to living a simpler life, to current events, she gives you something to think about. Amy is expecting a new baby and is out of commission right now, but I wanted to send some link-love her way.

4. At a hen's pace - I went here first for the name, gotta love it! I go back because her posts are thoughtful and deep, reverent and full of her houseful of kids. She is another homeschooler, as are Cyndi and Amy.

5. The Lilting house- Melissa is a homeschool mom and writer. I really respect her approach to homeschooling, her posts show me Charlotte mason homeschooling lived out in concrete ways. I go to this blog for inspiration and ideas for the homeschooling lifestyle- and to see what is going on at her house, funny how we come to feel like we know the bloggers we read!

I hope if you are not familiar with some of these blogs, that you go visit them.
Happy Blogging!

Labels: memes

Last night I was making girl-cheese sandwiches for the kids for dinner. Yeah, that is what we call them, because that is what I thought they were called until about Jr. high age. And yeah, it was a really uncool moment of revelation...

Anyways, I was grilling up some sandwiches, doing the multi-tasking mom thing...sandwiches sizzling, pouring drinks and cutting up pears to go with it-when I realized I had forgotten the sandwiches a little too long. Couldn't interrupt my pace, so I flipped them over and continued with the pears.

Hubby came over and observed they were burnt, one more-so than the others. As I turned around answering that I was aware of the problem, I watched in horror as he quickly scooped up the sandwich and flipped it into the garbage can-in an engineering/efficient sort of way.

"Nooooo!" I screeched, "I was going to fix that...it is all under control!" He was pretty amused, "how so?" he asked. "I gently coax the piece of bread from the melted cheese and get out a fresh slice of bread..good as new!"
"So you do this often, do you?" Hubby asked, in that highly amused voice. "Yes, I have a system. I almost always burn them, as did my mother before me! ...It is tradition!!" -the last part said in my best EverAfter imitation. He is laughing now over this sad truth that I am my mother in so many ways. Now I am muttering and clucking because he moved the order of sandwiches on the griddle, the lower right sandwich was all cheddar-'cause that is what Josie likes. I mock-glare at hubby and complain that he mixed them all up.

"You threw off my groove!" I throw out in my best Emperor's new grove way. Hubby is retreating from the kitchen, chuckling over my hopeless DNA. From the safety of the dining room he asks, "did she really always burn them?"

"yes", I answer,"almost every time...and she didn't get out new bread, if we were lucky she scraped some of the burnt parts into the garbage. I would eat dinner thinking "this would be really good if it wasn't so burnt...I can almost taste how good it is.." Hubby is now howling.

Dinner and a show! I aim to please, after all.

Labels: family

I've noticed several discussions in blogland lately about birds, and two specifically about chickens.

I thought a little cutting-edge, timely, topic- specific blogging was in order. I am all about the community, blogging friends. I do need to point out that the main ingredient in the bird bread is in fact, not bird, it is cornmeal. The bird bread is for the birds... so, ahem...here is my mother's famous bird bread-loved and raved over by the 5 or 6 parrots she kept, and cursed by my sister and I-because mom stopped cooking for us sometime in Jr. High and to come home to a house full of delicious baking smells and to have to pick out the crushed egg shells from it was just plain pathetic. But I digress, here is the recipe:

Labels: hens

or household gone wild...

We don't take the children out to restaurants very often. When we do, we usually have the children share meals. There are, after all, four of them, and they seldom actually finish a whole meal...(and I need to spend our money on other little things like shoes, clothes and groceries).
I am often heard uttering what are sure to be homey-nostalgic words of wisdom to my kids such as "if you are still hungry after, you can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when we get home" or, "everyone is having water". We actually do have McDonald's as a treat occasionally, it is a favorite to take to the park on library day or to take home on a busy day. But, we never actually eat at McDonald's because I have found a way to feed us all for under 8$. My secret? Cheeseburgers for everyone, the two little ones share one, we get one large fry and share that, and no drinks-the kids enjoy a juicebox at the park or at home. Yeah, I've learned to be cheap in some areas. They are supremely happy with the little cheeseburgers...I figure why waste funds for more exotic fare?

This weekend our church held a conference for the Elders and responsible ones from different localities near and far. Sky attended, and we had a dear friend and his daughter stay with us for this event from Washington State. The men-folk were gone everyday, all day...Friday and Saturday...So, left to ourselves-I planned some unusual fun.

Friday I took the older girls and their friend to Disney Walk and for lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe. (Which I have never eaten at...I have visited the outside many times with my little ones, but never actually had a meal there...again, that cheap thing coming into play...) The girls had a blast. I was disappointed with the food. I ordered an appetizer first, did not make my girls share a meal...and they hardly touched their food. Well, they did have a good time-but I will never eat their again-the food was not really good and was expensive.

We spent a couple of hours walking around and visiting the shops. Stopped at the candy store, of course! It was a beautiful California day, not too warm-just a wonderful day to be walking around outside. We ended the day with homemade pizza and molasses cookies from Trader Joe's-I had thrown caution to the wind by this time!

Saturday I took the older girls to the nearby mall and dropped them off to have lunch and to see a movie at the discount theater there. It was a really odd, milestone sort of moment to hand my oldest daughter some money for lunch and the movie..and walk away. Yikes! I could tell they were hoping I would leave..Yikes!, I am the mother of pre-teens!!
I took the littles over to the McDonald's in the food court and ordered them A! HAPPY! MEAL! each, with chicken mcnuggets and a soda. They thought they had won the lottery.
And THEY! GOT! A! TOY! Mutant Ninja Turtles...we like them at our house. I don't know why, but apparently we do...

I then walked around with the little ones and bought my oldest a few cute, trendy shirts because she really needs new clothes. And maybe I had to prove I was a way- cool mom. I found the girls on my way out to establish a meeting place later (because I was about to leave my flesh and blood baby girls at the mall without me!) and to showMeg the shirts I bought her. I got this hard to decipher strange look for my efforts..I think it was a "please leave, you are embarrassing me-look" ...not certain, I haven't received one of those before. Should I write the day down in her scrapbook for fond remembrance?
And so, I left, cuz' I can take a hint...eventually...

We ended the day with some dvd's (2-5$ movies from Target, cause I was just running hog-wild at this point) and In and Out for dinner, because our little Washington friend had requested it- In and Out being a California thing.

Sunday we ended the weekend over at Cortina's for pizza after the Lord's day meeting. A really fun time with old friends and a few of the bible school boys.

So, yes I feel like I went a little crazy with the spending and outings-but it is a rare thing, and the kids had so much fun.
That was my weekend, how was yours?