~ Monday, September 20, 2010 ~

What a freaking day! First, I had to send smoke signals to my husband at his work via my friends on Facebook...."Captain Destructo and his brother chaos are at it already today. Josiah has locked my bedroom door and pulled it shut, with no one in the room. WTH? Why? My phone is in there. My clothes are in there. The key to unlock the bedroom door is in there, all of my keys are in there. ****If any of my friends see this and you ...have Mike's cell, will you call him for me and ask him to bring the key home at lunch? Grrrrr!!!****" Later: Josiah, why did you lock the bedroom door? ~ Because Sam was going to get me. ~ But shouldn't you have locked yourself IN the bedroom, not OUT of it? ~ (Josiah just smiles & shrugs his shoulders...after all, he is his Mother's child.....).
Thank you Katie for sending rescue! 




I am doing my normal Monday clean-out-the-fridge routine and the DISCOVER CARD turns up...Facebook: Robin Jenkins Duralia...

"just found my lost credit card. It was in my fridge. That's right. My REFRIGERATOR. It's very cold."

SO it's in an Itty Bitty Bites Healthy Kids Meal bag, from our lunch at Earth Fare last Friday, which is, in fact, the last time I saw it.  What the hell was I thinking? Or was I even thinking, period? Mike laughed his ass off, for the second time today. What if I were as "on top of everything" as you would like for me to be, Mike? What would you have to laugh at?

 

Today was chore day. Sam cleaned the boy's room, Josiah helped me downstairs. If I put them in the same room, with Josiah tending to be a slacker when it comes to cleaning, Sam gets pissed, someone throws a toy or something, and there is much crying & tattling. We deep-cleaned the kitchen, re-organized the "cleaning closet", cleaned the dog kennels, tried the carpet steamer I have owned for many years yet never took out of the package, cleaned the guinea pig cage, made organic blueberry/vanilla almond milk popsicles, and did some laundry. The "cleaning closet" is a closet under the stairs that holds pet foods, cleaning supplies, paper items for replenishments, and the vacuum. Weeeelllll....the zoo grew so the food bags got bigger, then the vacuum cleaner became evicted from the closet, then even some food bags were evicted. It just needed to be emptied and re-organized, now everything is back in it's original home. Cassidy did the bathrooms when she got home. Mike fixed the vacuum cleaner when he got home, and reprimanded me about how my shaggy rugs keep messing it up. He says I can't vacuum my rugs with it anymore. The rugs take up 80% of the floor, MIKE. What am I supposed to vacuum them with, if not a vacuum cleaner? A better solution is...I vacuum the rugs, and you continue to fix the vacuum cleaner. Team-Work!

 

 

Shaimeek (I think that is spelled right now, I was spelling it incorrectly before) comes over to play and stays until 915pm, at which point Mike drove him home. He was here 6 hours and his Mom never called once. We don't mind him being here at all, so maybe his Mom should just pack his stuff and send him here to live. The boys & Shaimeek had a little spat over the fence with the kiddos of the Pit Bull owners (who we have taken to court, and had to spend $5000 on a fence to keep our animals and ourselves safe...). Sam comes in and says BB gun, and I go ape-shit. I go out, the chick is atop MY fence, I ask her to get down, she smarts off. If my kiddos are on someone else's property and they are asked to move off of it, I expect them to say yes sir/yes maam, and get the hell off! She told us that side was THEIR fence. I could have come across it at that point. Mike sat all three of the boys down and talked to them about it. It's really so sad that all some kids think about is fighting, who fought who, who is going to fight who, etc. It's sad that dogs stay chained up and ignored 24-7. The police frequent the house. I hear the older brother over there is in a gang...NICE. I think I may resume my house-hunt now.  I was sitting in the "cleaning closet" sorting out a few final items last night while Mike was getting the boys through their baths, and I thought, "I need to develop a relationship with the chick, because she needs a positive role model." Now how do I do that? If that is what the Universe calls for, the Universe will make it happen. Maybe next time she is by the fence I will speak to her. What to say to make her trust me? I have no idea. Keeping the bad energy going helps no one. If I react to her the same way everyone else probably does (negatively), how does that benefit the good of the Universe? It doesn't. I have been told before by another neighbor that she was trouble. So we just label her trouble and treat her accordingly from now on? The kid didn't wake up one day and decide, "I think I'm just going to be trouble from now on." 

 

 

I cooked chili beans for dinner, and may have to do them again tonight because they were so popular.

 

I am excited to have registered for FLT Fall Gathering. It was really cool to notice that some pics of my lovies are featured on the FLT website, in fact I think I took most of the pics on there! Take a look! Look at my hubby in his pot-hat! So sexy! http://flt.fltnc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=56

 

I finished "R" is for Ricochet, and started "S" is for Silence. I really need to get into Moll Flanders, but am addicted to Sue Grafton now!   

~ Sunday, September 19, 2010 ~

The ride to the MIL's 65th was a hoot. I had a bottled Kombuchi, and the husband and I sang together. The actual event was actually quite pleasant, on the surface. Unfortunately for me, I am very sensitive to energies, so no matter how you try to play it, I always know how you really feel. My BIL & SIL are such good company, they have a great sense of humor. We had some really great laughs, a fabulous dinner, wine, and dessert. I loved the way my baby girl niece dips her chip in the salsa. I loved Nana's Don't Even Ask candle. I got kisses from Biscuit! My husband had my back, he didn't have to act on it, but I knew for sure he had it. A very nice evening.

It's not that I want to be impossible. I don't expect to change you. I just expect you to respect my boundaries.



This is random, but I keep having dreams that I am pregnant.

~ Saturday, September 18, 2010 ~

No hangovers for me since Master Tonic came into my life. I rushed to get ready and head to the wedding of a dear friend of mine's daughter. I played Bottoms Up over and over in the truck, just to hear Nikki Minaj rap her part. The wedding was beautiful, and I cried like a baby when beautiful young ladies and handsome young men that I have known since they were babies walked down the aisle. I did become slightly irritated before the ceremony started with the lady sitting in front of me...my Facebook post...

"sitn in wedding ceremony. mom in front of me lets out earpiercing shhh evrytime kid asks question but mom herself has not shut up since she got here. 'like' if u think i should bop her head wth the heavy cardstock wedding program..."

I had 26 likes, but shortly after I made the post, the Mom took the kid and never came back. I did have enough time to muster up a silent Master Tonic burp and blow it her way before she took off, though. It was interesting being back in the church I was involved with during my separation. There were great things I took from there and awesome, sincere people (Kimberly H. I love you!) who came into my life, but being in there again after all of this time, the phony, ego-based atmosphere nearly suffocated me. I saw some familiar faces...the youth pastor's wife, preaching to young ladies to be modest but sitting on the front pew with her sisters about to fall out of her low-cut get-ups every Sunday, a couple of members of the choir with their insatiable egos, look at me! look at me!, the old batty church ladies whispering their criticism of the wedding party to their husbands, etc. Yeeesh!

The food at the reception was fabulous. My favorite: A raspberry and some lemon meringue in a tiny pastry cup...OH MY!! I was solo, and picked the right table at the reception, because I met some super cool people!

Myself with the Beautiful Bride

 

After the wedding I had a couple of hours to kill, so I went shopping. That's when I DISCOVERED that my DISCOVER card was missing. I called the husband and had him look a few places at home (in the right pocket of the denim shorts in the dirty laundry pile in the closet floor, in the backpack either in the floor on the pile of junk from the car or on the dresser on top of or under the pile of clothes...)...he was pissed. His voice was stale.  He reprimanded me for one hour over the phone. What I needed to hear him say was, "It's okay babe. You are busy. You made a mistake." What he did was take the opportunity to rake me over the coals to justify his point about how I should be as perfect as he is.  Blah. Blah. Blah. I was so disappointed in myself and sick to my stomach. What is wrong with my mind? Do I have a brain tumor? Why can't I "keep up"? I drank mixed drinks, margaritas & sangrias, with my friends at dinner, and could barely catch a buzz. I wanted to go home and clean and organize the house,  make everything perfect to prove that I am not a hopeless disaster. For about two hours I felt this way. Then I thought, screw him. He's not so damn perfect, he just thinks he is. I go above and beyond for him and the kids. For every one thing I fuck up, I knock twenty things out of the park. 

 

We had a blast at dinner. Sexually harassing SOMEONE ELSE'S waiter, quizzing the WAIT STAFF and PAYING THEM for their answers on why BJ's are called BJ's, looking for gluten-free dildos at Adam & Eve (I just made that on up!), (we even found a pair of panties for a three-legged woman!), salmon on butt-crackers, stopping up the hotel toilet, me sleeping soundly while others stayed up all night jumping on the beds, drinking shamelessly, defying the noise ordinance, amongst other things...I love these ladies, so many laughs. Jennifer has been making me piss my pants with her wit and humor for years..after all, she is the one that made me realize a couple of years ago that it could have been worse, it could have been a goat... Happy 30th Birthday to Kim, a beautiful person! 

~ Friday, September 17, 2010 ~

Tight schedule today! The boys and I had to get up early and take Cassidy to school, because she was leaving from school for a weekend-long choral retreat with SCCC, Mike needed my truck to haul his drums to play his first gig, so Mom gets Cassidy's car, which is really still my car.... It was comical that I would be driving her teenage-ified car around to homeschool events all day. My Facebook post:

"Cassidy has done ghettofied my car, and I have to drive it to home school events today. "Kim Loves You!" in bright pink across the back windshield, air fresheners dangling around, Dolla, T-Pain, & Tay-Dizm sangin' "Who The **** is tha-at" on the CD player." 

 

The boys and I treated ourselves to Starbucks breakfast sandwiches...YUM.  We are disappointed that they dropped the mini doughnuts in order to offer the Pumpkin Spice Latte, though :( Boo!

 

 

 

First stop was Home School Day at the rec center. It was crazy packed with home schoolers of all ages! It was a nice surprise to see some of my peeps from farther away there. Sam & Josiah immediately got involved in a game of something-or-another "Vortex", and I realize that I am in trouble for not writing the name of the game down because purchase of it has been heavily requested now. If anyone recognizes it from the pic, please speak up! Anyway, there was a Drawing Club, Star Wars Club, Game Room, Board Game Club, Game Room, and I don't even know what else. The boys had a blast as always and did not want to leave when it was time to go.

 

 

For a late lunch AND our Health lesson for the day, we had lunch at Earth Fare. The boys used to eat off of the bar, but in order to collect the Itty Bitty Bites cards, they started getting the Kids Healthy Meal. They have a menu that they get to check what they would like to have in each category, then hand it to the deli person and have their order filled. We love Itty Bitty Bites comic books, and we are anxiously awaiting Issue #3. #1, Trans Fat Tina, has been the best so far. I am so blessed to live so near to Earth Fare. 

 

We had a Not-Back-To-School Pool Party with Rock Hill Area Home schoolers from 4pm to 6pm, which the boys had a blast at, but me not so much. I brought healthy snacks and added them to the snack table of JUNK. These people obviously have no concern with their diets.  The Moms were nice enough, but very obviously extremely conservative. I think they smelled the "evil" on me. Thank goodness I am a seasoned Unschooler who doesn't give a care about fitting in.

 

I took the boys to the ex-MIL's for their Dad's visitation weekend. Walking them in the house, I noticed my Grandparent's antique coffee and end tables (that he stole during the separation, said he didn't have, then they showed up in his parents living room) were not in my ex-MIL's living room any longer. It was a very interesting spiritual experience that lasted until I got to the end of the driveway:  I was *aware*...I thought, "If they were going to get rid of them, why didn't they return them to me?"....for a brief moment I remembered ALL of the monetary and tangible loss...and I was *comfortably numb* with the memory.  Aware but numb. I'll take that. Then a thought came, "*Things* are just things, and I have so much more intangibles than I could have ever hoped for. It's not the *things* you took from me that bothers me, but your lack of integrity." And with that I pulled out of the driveway, and haven't even thought enough of it since to mention it to my husband. 

 

 

A few miles down the road driving away from the Ex-MIL's house, and I heard a song that I absolutely LOVE...Fly Like a G6 , and so I slipped into party mode! I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about riding solo and making an entrance at a bar alone, but I was also excited for my husband. I am really not a fan of bar flies, and hanging out at bars & clubs does not even make the list of things to do when I have free time. Don't get me wrong, I have done my fair share of bar-hopping & clubbing back in the day, and I can't remember exactly when I became completely disenchanted with the entire scene, but I most definitely am. I showered & got dressed, rather conservatively. I thought, "Hmmmm....Mike loves me, but he is attracted to women on the trashy side, and I want to win tonight...", so I put on a tight little push-up cami, tight jeans, and sexy boots. I won all right...some drunk Grandma was ready to whoop my ass because all of the (mostly toothless) men were admiring me so. I can't say I didn't have a good time, though, we did have some dear friends show up, as well as the bass player's wife was there, so we had a lot of laughs...and I had free beers! I had no idea..the band (and wives) drink free! Wow! The band sounded great. I am their best groupie, because I hung in there and ate with the band at Waffle House at 3ish in the morning! Do you have any idea how looong it has been since I did that? They are playing the same bar this coming Saturday. I only own one slutty push-up cami, and I done wore it...What to do? What to do?

 

September 16, 2010

My kiddos are well aware that there is no Santa Claus and no Tooth Fairy, but we still play the games. I really suck at Tooth Fairy, and, as usual forgot to make the transaction until I woke up this morning. Luckily, Josiah was still asleep, so I grabbed a five and sent Sam up to do the deed. Sam was thrilled to play Tooth Fairy, so it all worked out fine. Josiah was thrilled with his five, and pointed out the building on it, calling it The Parthenon. Our History lesson is born! We looked up the Abraham Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and learned all about it. What luck! Mom ordered a neat book a while back, Lincoln Tells A Joke - How Laughter Saved the President and the Country!! Geography: We find DC on our map of the United States. Josiah would like to visit DC now. The book about Lincoln brought up questions about slavery, so we read a book that we purchased at Stones River National Battlefield this Summer, If You Lived When There Was Slavery in America.



Ooh! More Geography! Josiah ~ "Why did you tell Mike to drive safely?" Because Mike is in Atlanta, Georgia today. We go to our map of the United States and trace from Rock Hill, SC to Atlanta, GA. We review the states: NC, SC, TN, and add GA to our States of interest! Josiah ~ "Is he spending the night?" Sorry, Josiah, no Pajama Party in Mom's bed tonight, Mike will only be in ATL for the day. 

I love watching Jake, our "teen" dog, play Tug-O-War with the pups. (The wood in the background is the boy's building materials ;)

I really love this quote that a friend posted on Facebook today: "When someone in public school excels, it's because of school. When someone in public school struggles, it's their own fault. When an unschooler excels, it's because they're motivated, smart, etc., not because of unschooling. And when they struggle? It's entirely the fault of unschooling. Such hypocrisy!" ~ Idzie Desmarais

 

Mike coaches Sam's Rec Soccer Team, and we had practice tonight. Shamique came over and played a while after school, and when Sam had to depart for practice and leave his friend behind, he had a meltdown. We had a talk in the car all the way to soccer practice about following through with your commitments and the effects if you don't. Sam was asked five times if he wanted to play soccer again this season, and he said yes all five times. Mike committed to coaching a team because Sam wanted to play, so now we have a team that is counting on Mike and Sam to be at practice and games until the end of this season. There is a difference in trying something new and being absolutely miserable enough with it to drop it, and voluntarily committing to something you are already familiar with, then just dropping out, because you don't want to do the work. I told Sam about how I, after cheering three years at my Junior High, got burnt out near the end of my 9th grade year, and just quit. It left my squad in a bind with a competition we had practiced for. Not okay. I lost some friends. I have an established history of falling through on my commitments. My ex-husband was sent to me as my wake-up call. He was/?is? the expert at falling through on his commitments. I saw myself in him and it was ugly. Thank you Universe, for the ten year mirror! I know my children have to learn by making mistakes, but I don't want to be an enabler.

September 15, 2010

I made huge progress in our "classroom" today, although visually, it's not very obvious. Very strange...same physical movements as yesterday, but lower back pain is gone. Now it's left ovary and left leg pain...sciatic nerve? Ovarian cyst? Both? lol Okay, enough of my ailments. 

 

Our "school" treasures have been unguarded and haphazard for awhile (due to their location in the house), but most things fell back into place as I re-organized. I am, however, missing an Owl Pellet. The instructions for the Owl Pellet Dissection are in the box, but the actual Owl Pellet is no where to be found. Looks like someone went ahead and did a little Raptor Project without Mom....and Mom has owl pellet particles ?somewhere? in the house...No one has made a confession yet. Maybe the cats ate it. 

 

It was comical finding small barbie-doll-sized human bones & organs here and there...a rib cage, a liver, a heart, all from our anatomy models that Josiah absolutely LOVES, but also LOVES to throw the body parts here and there, at the ceiling fan to make them shoot across the room, etc...is this considered Physics?

I was able to pull all of our scary Halloween books and such together, and as I made a little display basket of our Halloween collection, I began reminiscing on Halloweens Past...My elementary school days, Rhyne Elementary in Gastonia, Ms. "Randy" the librarian, library time, the little "reference nook" room upstairs in the library, lights out, candle lit, scary album playing on record player, scary stories, Ms. Randy scaring the shit out of us...Good times! I'll bet that's not even allowed now! Shame on these wimpy-ass kiddos of today! lol I plan on a thorough Halloween curriculum at THIS school.  

I tried a Nettle Hair Rinse today, and it's a very simple process. It wasn't the most pleasant fragrance, but my hair is nice and soft. I steeped a new jar of Nettles Tea today for consumption, and I can't say enough about how wonderful it is, especially my pick-me-up cup of it around 3pm! I scored the nettles I have now from a friend, but I am planning to purchase my own from Mountain Rose Herbs. 

 

 

The boys had a blast, as always, when their dear friend, Shamique, got off the school bus and came straight to our house, as usual. Jumping on the trampoline in your underwear and spraying one another with the hose pipe is great fun....

 

We are still full steam ahead on the Greek Mythology passion, I think we have watched the Odyssey like 5000 times since I scored it at the library a couple of days ago. Josiah runs to me during the Cyclops scenes. 

I was so excited when the following opportunity came across the Rock Hill Area Homeschoolers email list tonight: "3rd–4th Grades Historic Brattonsville Academy: Schooldays of 1840 $10 per person, Length 9 am–1 pm, Max 25 students (2 adults allowed)... From the minute the school bell rings, students become scholars in an 1840's academy. They walk, talk and play as children did in the 1840s. This highly immersive program shows students, first hand, what school was like before the Civil War. Lesson includes: ciphering (on slates),
grammar, quill penmanship, spelling, geography and games." Civil War and pre-Civil War is a passion of Sam's, so this is just perfect. I signed him up! Yay! This RHAH group is really into following the SC Public School curriculum, so we just jump in when it suits us.

Josiah just lost his first tooth tonight! He noticed it loose after dinner, wiggled it a little, then yanked it out himself! We pull our Anatomy book from our "classroom", and find out that it is an Incisor Tooth that he lost, used for chopping up food. He was concerned that he wouldn't be able to chop up food now, but I pointed out in the diagram that he has more than one Incisor, so no worries. He also pointed out the little "hole" in the root, and we learned from the diagram that the hole is the root opening, and that pulp, blood vessels, and nerves were in the "hole." Unschooling at 9pm. Love it! 

I have found that Math on Mom's Bed After Bath Time works for us. Last night, Josiah took off in his Math Workbook on his own, while Sam and I started on Multiplication. We did Multiples of 2. I used manipulatives (geometric shapes in sets) to show him the concept, because rote memorization is USELESS, IMO. He really had a blast with it, arranging, then counting the sets to work the problem. He pretended the sets of shapes were battling one another, of course...lol. We did flash cards lastly (gasp! All of this stuff and I don't own a set of multiplication flash cards! No worries, I printed them off in 5 minutes here...http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math/multiplication/flashcards/miniset1.html), and it was interesting to see him work the problems on his fingers (I still do that! lol) ...Example: 2 x 7...He would count to seven on his fingers, then continue counting, but go back over the same fingers...recognizing 2 x 7 is two sets of 7, or 7 sets of 2. Josiah joined in on the flash cards because yelling an answer while jumping around on Mom's bed is great...he even answered some of the Multiples of 1 correctly! I need to interject here that Cassidy was never able to "memorize" her Multiplication Tables. She still can't fire the answer back at you to this day. She has developed ?some way? of doing them that her brain understands. She is 16, in 11th grade, and ROCKS at Algebra, etc. Hmmmm...all of that verbal abuse from family members over not fitting the mold...Even Mike, the brilliant Engineer husband of mine, has a Multiplication Memorization Nightmare story to tell...his teacher played a record, and Mike had to answer them as fast as the record went. He couldn't do it. He developed stomach pains from the anxiety, so severe that his Mom took him to the doctor. 

 

Sam cooked Cascadian Farms Organic Tater Tots all on his own by reading the instructions on the back of the bag. He also read over my shoulder as I blogged...lol. Josiah knows Mmmm...Aaaaa...Ssssss..., but gets all nervous when we talk about him "reading." We are using Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons for Josiah, but not religiously. He loves it, and he loves pointing to the letters and making the sounds.

 

So, um, if I must water learning down, and put it in a neat little box to present it to the powers-that-be...today we covered: Reading, Math, History, Science, Health, and Socialization. We read all day.

Husband and I had cookies and milk in bed together at midnight. He fussed at me about not ordering checks yet, and bragged to me about farting at band practice. (Pinto beans, cole slaw, fried taters n onions for dinner before he went to practice tonight;) I love him bunches. He is so excited about his band.

September 14, 2010 ~Knights in Shining Armor~

We stayed at home all day. I am still working on "organizing" our new "classroom" (Mike has had his new Man Cave organized since the day we switched everything). As soon as the boys' friend, Shamique, gets off the bus, he comes straight to our house and stays until dark. He got here today and fell into some chores... we all worked together in RE-organizing the boy's room. He stayed right there and helped with a cheery attitude! Such a good kid, I have to wonder though why his Mom doesn't mind being away from him so much. He is at school all day, then at my house until bedtime :( I really got into it today, and all of the sitting, squatting, bending, and lifting aggravated my degenerative disc disease, so I ended up "down in my back" (damn I am getting old...). I must say, we have enough cool stuff, books, manipulatives, models, souvenirs, and pics for a small museum/library of US.

Mike and Sam went to soccer practice (Mike coaches a recreational league here in the city), Cassidy handled dinner for me and did some cleaning, and Josiah and I cuddled in my bed and did about fifteen pages in his Math workbook. He loves this particular workbook, and would have done fifteen more pages, but Mommy needed a rest. (**For progress report use: He has anything with 1-5 down pat, and counting to any number is no problem, but he is working on recognition of 6-10.) It is colorful and the activities are fun. He especially loves the Odd One Out page. If you are interested in checking it out, it is Sylvan Basic Math Success. We have grade K for him, but it comes in all "grade levels".

The Renaissance Festival/Halloween costumes (knight costumes) arrived yesterday, and we are very pleased! They are of good quality and very beautiful. I ordered them from Costume Craze, and I will definitely be using this company from now on. They have variety, free shipping, and the product arrived exactly when they said it would. We enjoyed visiting a Halloween Express, especially looking at the zombie dummies, but as far as the costume selection, availability, etc, I am not chasing costumes and sizes from store to store. Now that I am comfortable with the service and quality, I may order Mike and myself some Renaissance costumes to match! (You will wear it, honey? Please?)

Last night Sam and Josiah made up "plays" of sword-fighting and performed them for me in their costumes while I lay in the bed ("down in my back"! lol). I wish I would have video-taped them, what a treat! It made me smile all over and probably helped heal my back just by watching them perform for me. They are getting pretty good at fake-fighting with the swords, but occasionally throughout the day there is screaming and crying from a mishap in spatial reasoning. I wouldn't put them in the Medieval Times performance arena with the real swords just yet. 

Dad cleaned the kitchen after dinner and took care of all of the bed time routines while I healed my back and rested. I love him so much. He is my Knight in Shining Armor, every day.