I want my Tax Stimulus!

So we all want to know when we are getting our tax stimulus package, right? Well if you go over to the IRS they have a chart of when you should get your money. These are for people who had their taxes processed by April 15th. It is broken up between direct deposit and checks in the mail.

Technorati Tags: irs

Computer Programming Quotes

Dev Topics has a great list of 101 Great Computer Programming Quotes. I like many of them but here are a couple I loved.

"That's what's cool about working with computers. They don't argue, they remember everything, and they don't drink all your beer."
(Paul Leary) (Though I would substitute Chocolate;)

"Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window."
(Steve Wozniak)

"Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves."
(Alan Kay)

(HT: Why Homeschool)

Meal Plan Monday

Another crazy week so I am going very easy!

Monday- Enchiladas
Tuesday- Pasta Carbonara Florentine
Wednesday- Cube Steak, Beer Bread, Broccoli
Thursday- Cheeseburger Pie, Broccoli
Friday- Date Night! Kid: Mac and Cheese

Meal Plan Monday

This is a crazy week so here is to keeping it simple.

Monday: Enchiladas (in the freezer)
Tuesday: Corned Beef, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli
Wednesday: Cube Steak, Broccoli, Beer Bread
Thursday: Pork Loin Chops, Fried Potatoes
Friday: Pasta Carbonara Florentine

Argh!!!

So I went to a wonderful women's retreat in the Monterey area last weekend (as evidenced by previous picture). While there I got a lovely sunburn on my shoulder, chest and the part in my hair. Now by head is peeling and it looks horrible. Ug.

Wordless Wednesday: God and the Ocean

Now this is a place to talk to God. This is the first of my pictures from the Asilomar Beach. I went there this weekend for Women's Retreat. It was a great time of fellowship, time in God's Word and time with God!

Carnival of Homeschooling

Welcome to the 120th Carnival of Homeschooling and come on into our home. I am sorry I am running late but I had women's retreat this weekend and choir and Bible Study today. So sorry. Let me drop my purse and Bible, just make yourself comfortable and ignore the mess;).

Yes, your kids are more than welcome. They can play here with the others in the playroom. Maybe Sarah's kids from over at Small World can show their wonderful creativity like they did At the Carnival.

Oh did you see the bookshelves and the computer? It is great to have such a learning nook. Kerry over at 10 O'Clock Scholar is sharing a great Geography and Science Combined Unit. Barbara Frank is sharing a great project when she asks, Is There a Young Writer in Your House? Tiffany at the Natural Family Living Blog does a book review on Finding Your Child's Strength. One of my favorite sites, Let's Play Math, is sharing Math Games by Kids that has lots of great Math resources. Homeschool Buzz Reviews asks us if we are looking for a break from your serious reading? Check out our review of the entertaining classic graphic novel Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The Reluctant Homeschooler has recently switched from using textbooks to using biographies with her 16 year old so now he is asking, "Why do I have to learn all that?".

Let's go in the kitchen and get a cup of coffee and a snack. Oh, over on the island is the crafting center. ChristineMM at The Thinking Mother is Playing with Needle Felting. sharing how she and her two boys have been enjoying doing daily needle felting which qualifies for 'homeschool art class'.

I love my kitchen too. I am blessed to have so much space in here but it gets messy. Let’s look in at Ship Full O’Pirates. Jenny is sharing some wisdom on Galley Duty.

Take a seat at the kitchen table so we can listen to some of the wonderful people who are willing to give us advice and pointers. Michelle over at Organically Inclined starts the conversation with Attachment Parenting and the Independent Teen. Have you ever asked, My child won’t do craft activities- what now? If so, Melitsa at Play-Activities.com has some answers. Terri at Cricket's Corner shares The Rite of the Hanger for those times that you realize your kids are growing up. Renae at Life Nurturing Education looks at life and the kids with Looking at the Future. A Mountain Homeschool deals with an issue we all deal with in Birthday Parties (and that whole "gift" thing). Life Without School says children need trust .... and they need mentors, guides, and facilitators in Healthy Mentorship. The Upside Down World wants advice on what to do when mom is the one who doesn't want to do school work in Homeschooling Blahs.

Wow that has given us so much to think about but there are so many to talk to we have to keep moving. Let's go sit in the living room and hear all the blood stirring political and insightful philosophical talk. HappyCampers at Reese's View of the World start us off with a poignant Saturday Quote. Then Alasandra of Alasandra's Blog Awards is talking about The Harassment of Homeschoolers Continues At The American Chronicle. Rational Jenn mentions something. Oh, In Case You Haven't Seen This Yet includes some excerpts from an op-ed entitled "Your Child Is Not State Property," and directly challenges the idea that homeschooling parents and children should be monitored by the state. Remember, THEY work for US! :o) Then Findings gives us Socialized Homeschooling in which she discusses the different alternatives available for establishing a social life for my children as homeschoolers. Cristina at Home Spun Juggling continues her series "You can learn a lot from watching animals" with A Tick to Ride. Theresa at Olin gives us another reason to homeschool with Coming to A School Near You. Then Henry Cate at Why Homeschool also gives us Yet Another Reason to Homeschool - Help Stop a Pandemic. Then Learning at Home reminds us that sometimes we are Getting MORE than we paid for in some cases. A Family Runs Through It give us Comment Love where she is seeking advice to jerks who leave her anti-homeschooling comments. Then Dawn Adams presents Day by Day Discoveries: If it Looks Too Good to be True... posted at Day by Day Discoveries talking about K-12 Free.

Oh, that group over in the garage, they are getting ready to take their learning out into the world. Bookworms and Tea Lovers is telling us how to get the most out of Visiting Museums with Children. Brain Blog has provided us with 2 essays that were submitted by homeschoolers in Florida with Brain Health and Alzheimer's Prevention. Jennifer of Diary of 1 shares The Child's Spring Book. It tells us how to make a ziplock-bag-book full of the specimens of spring! My Domestic Church offers us If you build it, they will come! It is all about their homeschool soccer league. Peakmore Academy shares all about Science Fair and more! The Sojourner says Sometimes You Just Gotta Have Fun With Your Kids! She says that sometimes you need to just "play" with your kids like she did at the county fair!

Thanks so much for coming over and hanging out with me! Next week Principled Discovery will be hosting this wonderful carnival. Go over to BlogCarnival and get your entry in before Monday night at 6pm (pacific). If you like this carnival please use what ever social bookmarking (Stumble, Digg, etc) you participate in so we can share this with others. Now go visiting and comment on their blogs about what a great job they all have done!

Technorati Tags: Homeschooling, Carnival of Homeschooling

Call for Entries

This week I have the pleasure of hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling. Entries must be in by Monday night at 6pm (pacific). Go over to BlogCarnival and put in your entry!

How We Got Started Homeschooling

I often say the thing that got me started on the idea of homeschooling was attending public school and knowing kids at private schools. But I am not sure if that is totally true. I think it was watching my younger siblings starting school while I was still in high school. I started seeing all the negative things that started as early as kindergarten and paralleled that with my corrupting high school experience and it got me thinking about why we were in school. My brother was a severe asthmatic so at one point early in his school career my mother pulled him out to do a long term, parent directed schooling through the district. With just this change I saw amazing differences in both his intellect and personality. Then we he went back to school I saw him go from very advanced back to normal.

That was it for me. Then looking at my own schooling I realized how the herding mentality held me back as a student and I already knew the social issues that were bad (obviously I was and am a nerd). Then I was blessed to meet someone likeminded. NerdDad had seen the negatives in his own schooling career and decided he wouldn't want to put his children in it either.

We both wanted 4 kids, the wife to stay home and to homeschool. That is part of what got me interested in him;). Now I don't want you to think we were the kids left behind and we are bitter we couldn't read. We were kind of the opposite. Self teachers who never felt nurtured. It was obvious that we weren't in an environment that loved learning (except for a few teachers and their classes) and the school wasn't really caring on developing our character. We were the kids who would have been better left alone in the library for a few years. Now we do know the kids left behind and the schools didn't serve them either. So we decided the schools don't serve anyone other than the government, for the most part.

Once we got married we began educating ourselves on homeschooling. Then obviously we had kids. I loved the classical theory and The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. So here we are just a couple years in but completely committed to homeschooling!

American Idol Confession

Ok, I don't watch American Idol. I know it is shocking. But, this morning I was listening to KDUV, my Christian radio station, and they were talking about the big American Idol fundraiser that was on last night. Joe and Shannon said that the closing song was shocking and then played a little bit of it. It was "Shout to the Lord". I confess that I just started tearing up immediately. The idea that the most watched show in television was playing that song is very exciting to me. After I get home today I will see if I can find a YouTube of it.


****Updated

Here is the YouTube. Within a half hour of my posting this one of my favorite nieces sent me the link! There is talk about the editing of the original words of the song. They did change "my Jesus" in the beginning but I am not sweating it. Anyone who has seen an infomercial has seen this being part of a Christian worship album so I don't think there is a mystery as to who it is really about.



Technorati Tags: Fox, American Idol, Idol Gives Back, Shout to the Lord

Meal Plan Monday

We were all sick last week so I attempted the week without a plan. It was a food disaster. So hopefully this will be a better executed week!

Monday: Chicken Kiev, Roasted Cauliflower, French Bread
Tuesday: Quick and Easy Corned Beef, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli
Wednesday: Ham, Beer Bread, Broccoli and Cauliflower
Thursday:Corned Beef Hash, Scrambled Eggs, Broccoli
Friday: Ham, Broccoli Mac and Cheese Gratin

How dare you keep your own money!

If you are unaware of all financial life here is a harsh truth, in the last few years property values have dropped. Especially in California, a lot. Part of the bills you pay when you own a home is property taxes which are usually a percentage of your property value. This tax price is usually only decided on when you buy or sell the property. But , and this is a big but, apparently you can have it assessed for other reasons and that can effect your tax. (This is something we at the Nerd Family household are currently looking into for ourselves.)

So what would be the problem with a home owner getting a tax break because their home is worth less? Well, a good portion of the tax goes into the school districts. In Larry Ellison's case he will be taking $250,000 a year out of the Portola Valley School District. Apparently his home value has dropped about $100 million from the districts assessment (or wasn't worth that to begin with) and he doesn't want to pay tax on it. Imagine! So based on everything he is due a $3 million refund. There is an entire article about the effect on the school district in the Palo Alto Daily News.

Now am I shocked or angry that they felt the need to do an article on the effect? No, but the issue is that it is his money and he has a right to it regardless of how much of it he has. That means that I have a right to my money too! I think that governments are going to fight all of these reassessments because they "need" the money more. That is just another case of the government thinking they can spend my money better than me. I say scrap the whole tax system and give me my money;)!

Carnival of Homeschooling

Go check out Why Homeschool: Carnival of Homeschooling - The April Fool's Day Edition. The Cates have once again done a stellar job on the carnival!