4 years later...

I discovered I still had this blog. I thought it would have been closed or given to someone else long before now.
     So what has changed? My fifth and youngest child was born. I became a Benedictine Oblate. I had a hysterectomy. The list could go on and on.......so I think I shall do like Flylady says and just jump in where I am.

Snow Day in the South

Today was the first wintery day of the season. Yesterday a bit before noon is started to sleet and alternately sleeted and snowed well into the night. All this yuck only amounted to a bout an inch of crunchy snow on tyhe ground but it did manage to cancel school for my oldest. This distressed her greatly as she was scheduled to be on a bus at 6 am to go to the March for Life in DC. She went last year and loved it. It was a school sponsored event and she had even convinced her pro-abortion friend to go. (Her friend believes that people do not have souls until long after birth when they earn them so there is no reason not to kill them, which is probably a strange enough topic for a post all its own)
Anyway, the girls have been full of themselves all morning. Singing, joking, and getting along which is a major improvement. After lunch they took little sister out and pulled her around the yard on her new Christmas sled, much to her delight and let the dogs rumpus together.
I thought I would take the opportunity to drink a cold glass of ginger ale and catch up reading the message boards. So I went to the frisge to get some crushed ice for my drink. I pushed, nothing happened. So I put the ginger ale and water in the glass. Then I thought,"Surely I can get the ice thingy to work" so I jiggled and shook various parts and it began to make the appropriate grinding noise....but no ice came out. So I opened the freezer door and found that the chute was full of ice but had not triggered the flap to let it out into my glass. So I pushed on the ice pack and whoosh! all the ice that was backed up came exploding into my glass causing it to over flow and ice to spread all over the floor: my own personal kitchen ice storm I suppose.
Mean old Momma that I am, I still am making the homeschool duo do their work today. Although the older has disappeared into the shower for the past hour. I will get her when she emerges. Mwa ha ha.......

School started again

I dug in and had the girls start school again Tuesday. Of course the younger one had managed to lose 3 of her books during the winter break. With the older I am trying to give her more choice in what she studies. I am not entirely sure how I feel about this. I read up on Sudbury schools and decided it way too radical a leap of educational faith for me. Yet I wanted her to take more charge of preparing for her future. So I let her choose what to study this semester. Sh chose to take an intro to Algebra class that was offered, read lots of literature, learn more about grammar, and look into animal health. We'll see how that goes.
Of course, the younger one is being a real stinker. I asked to see her math lessons for the week today and she couldn't find them. So I told her she had to re-do them if she couldn't locate them. (I had suspected she hadn't done them yesterday when couldn't tell me the subject of the lessons) So an hour later I check how far she has gotten. 2 problems done. So I said she had to work in her room instead of in front of the TV. That provoked her to stomp into her room screaming how unfair I was being. I am so mean, I expect her to do the work she is told to do instead of watching TV. (/me rolls my eyes.)

I spoke too soon

Not 24 hours after I commented how warm it had been this winter, it turned cold. Started as just a nip in the air but now is positively brrr-freezy. But no snow, which is sad because I really miss snow, even though I have lived in VA for almost 20 years now. Yet I am glad it is cold if it will kill all the evil germs who have been persecuting me!

Sick Sick Sick

This feels like the Winter that is not. It has been in the 60s and 70s with only a few cold nights. I have trouble holding it in my mind that it is really January.I mean the bushes are trying to bloom! One of the side effects of a warm winter is increased germs. I think I have caught everything that has come down the pike. In mid December I had a double ear infection and sinus infection. I managed to get well for Christmas but 3 days later got the flu, in spite of having taken the flu shot. Well, that was 7 days of misery. Thought I was going to cough up a lung and ached all over. I guess from the way I felt, it would have killed me without the shot. So I am out of bed one day and it is DD#2 b-day so i take her and friends out to dinner and the arcade. By the time I get home I have a raging intestinal virus and spend the next 24 hours on the pot. So I get over that and say well, I think I have had it all now. I was wrong. Next I get a yeast infection! I am NOT saying I have had it all. Germs, and all other infectious critters stay away!

Sick Sick Sick

This feels like the Winter that is not. It has been in the 60s and 70s with only a few cold nights. I have trouble holding it in my mind that it is really January.I mean the bushes are trying to bloom! One of the side effects of a warm winter is increased germs. I think I have caught everything that has come down the pike. In mid December I had a double ear infection and sinus infection. I managed to get well for Christmas but 3 days later got the flu, in spite of having taken the flu shot. Well, that was 7 days of misery. Thought I was going to cough up a lung and ached all over. I guess from the way I felt, it would have killed me without the shot. So I am out of bed one day and it is DD#2 b-day so i take her and friends out to dinner and the arcade. By the time I get home I have a raging intestinal virus and spend the next 24 hours on the pot. So I get over that and say well, I think I have had it all now. I was wrong. Next I get a yeast infection! I am NOT saying I have had it all. Germs, and all other infectious critters stay away!

Brazen Becky on the Chesapeake Bay

I already spend enitrely too much time online pertending to be a pirate but last month my family headed to the coast for a nautical themed weekend. We camped in a county park and started with a cruise around the bay to see the modern Navy ships. We also happened to pass a couple sloops used for entertainement purposes. I was amazed how big a sloop is! My puzzlepirate sloop, the Caustic Muskellunge, seems really small and only needs 4 people to sail and is full at 7 people. The real thing was bigger than my house.
We also visited a museum that had clothes and the whole family had their picture made dressed as pirates. I learned a lot about the physics of ships and how hard it is to navigate and steer. I also found out NOAA, who does the weather also maps the bottom of the bay and ocean. Who would have thought? I don't know if the kids learned much about ships and naval history, but I had a great piraty time. Yarrr!

Another family game night story

It was a dark and wooded lane lit only by moonlight. In the dark wooded lane there were 6 vampires strategically placed behind the trees. They bit the trees. Their biting the trees was the sign to call the head vampire dude. But the head vampire dude wasn't listening because he was busy with a stopped up drain. One vampire screamed in a loud voice, "I have a splinter!" The other vampires shot him because he was being loud and he wasn't supposed to. Then suddenly Hannah Montana started singing her party song. But it was only in 1 vampire's head so only he could hear it.
Meanwhile the vampire who had been shot headed off to the head vampire's house where he discovered the head vampire with his hand caught in the drain. He helped him get loose and then the head vampire killed him for deserting his post. Because he was supposed to be bilging. The head vampire went to pick up his girlfriend on his awesome motorcycle. Meanwhile back at the sink, the serpent thingy creating the clog, stuck out it's tenticle and resurrected the vampire. The tenticle not only resurrected the vampire but broke its bonds to the head vampire dude. The head vampire sensing something was wrong, cussed in 6 languages simultaneously turned around, went home and cut off the head off the tenticle thingy. Eric got back on his motorcycle and rode away with Suki into the moonset.
Meanwhile the serpent thingy head grew back and he climbed out of the sink and snuck off. The serpent thingy and the very grateful vampire hurried off to warn the beautiful innocent young woman who was walking into the trap in the wooded lane. As she walked down the lane in the moonlight she felt someone was watching her. The serpentine thingy, vampire and woman didn't know was this was really a plot to ambush the next plumber so Eric could fix his sink.
Eric and Suki decided to make their own crew called the night raiders. As they wereon one of their adventures Eric found another woman named Jezabel and fell in love.
Back in the wooded lane, the Serpentine thingy, and vampire caught the young innocent plumber just in time. As dawn approached, they needed to get back in time to fix the sink while he slept.
Back on the ship, Jezabel died and Eric realized she had had him under a spell because she was far too ugly for him to have loved and begged Suki's forgiveness. Suki forgave him and said Eric had to take her out to dinner at the Owl Barn. Suki, under depression, killed herself and Eric realized she was even uglier than Jezabel.
In retribution the serpent thingy travelled through the plumbing and dragged Eric's ship to the bottom of the ocean. Meanwhile a tall ship appears on the horizon. It has big red letters on it that read,"Happy Birthday Eric". Back with Eric and Suki, Suki's body changed and he realized she was another woman who had taken a polyjuice potion because she was in love with Eric. Still, he found out that Suki had died a long time ago and this person had been impersonating her. But considering the ship Eric was on was on the bottom of the ocean being slowly crushed by the serpentine thingy, this was the least of his troubles. The tall ship searched for survivers and found none but did sea a tenticle slip beneath the sea.
Fiona showed up and stepped on everyone's head. (Little Penguin had fallen asleep and mumbled this)
Eric swam to the surface. Then God showed up and everyone went to either Heaven or Hell and ended the story. The resurrected vampire, the young beautiful plumber and the 5 vampires with their teeth stuck in trees were notpart of this delusion and may appear in a later story.

Keeping me out of trouble again

Remeber a couple weeks ago when my husband called just as I was struggling with my conscience? Well, it happened again. I was at my brother in law's while my daughter worked. I was there to try to fix his computer and was waiting for something to download. it was taking forever as the parasite was trying to prevent it and he has dialup. Now it is my nature to be be nosy, I once told my husband before I married him I love to collect useless information abotu people just for the fun of collecting. So to kill time I thought I would see what my brother in law kept in his closets. He is a bit eccentric, living with no furniture, few dishes and keeping his bills in pots on the stove. So I was curious what he would put in a closet. Yes, I know it was none of my business what was in there. Well, just as I open the door, my cell phone rings. It is my husband. "How do you do that?" I say. Needless to say he had once again just felt like he should call me and there I was getting into trouble. I think my guardian angel(I call him Chevalier) must have a hotline to him or to his guardian angel. Thanks again Chevalier and Mr Moo!

Funny but Embarassing Story

We usually keep Bitty Moo, aged 18 months locked out of the bathroom. Too much to get into and she has a way with undoing child proof locks. Well, 3 days ago somebody slipped up. One of her sisters comes to me and asks, "why is she chewing on a tampon?" We took it from her although she was not happy about this. Then I went to investigate. She had gotten into my bathroom drawer and removed and an enitre box of 40 tampons and strewn them about the house. I found them under the sofa, on the back screen proch, in the kitchen, all over. Every time I think I have them all picked up, another one surfaces. I found one again this afternoon. I keep imagining someone I don't know well, like my priest for example, coming over and finding one. I believe I would shrivel up and die of mortification on the spot.