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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Meal Plan Monday

This is a crazy week but here is an approximate menu (I plan, God laughs).

Monday: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Cheddar Bay Biscuits (This meal is the requested Birthday Meal for NerdBug)
Tuesday: Marinated Pork Loin, Fried Potatoes, Broccoli
Wednesday: Baked Chicken, Beer Bread, Broccoli
Thursday: Chicken, Rice and Broccoli or Hot Dogs at Church
Friday: BBQ Burgers, Grilled Zucchini, Grilled Asparagus, some sort of starch side;)

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Friday, June 27, 2008

TV Discovery

So I go turn on HGTV's Designed to Sell for the NerdPie and I to watch. Then they had a carpenter named Greg that looked very familiar. Well, it was Greg Plitt, the over sexed trainer from the newest season of Bravo's Workout. Huh!

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I don't know how many of you know but I have 3 dads. My mom has been married 3 times so like many others of my generation this leads to many parents;).

So, my kids realized that I had many sets of parents and at one point they wanted to know when they were going to add another dad to their collection. Well, we convinced them that that would never happen. A year or so passes. Then my kids realized that my birth father lives in Texas. NerdPie then assumes that my mom lives with him (since they don't see her very much). I explained that they aren't married to each other but are married (Grandma x is married to Grandpa y and Grandpa a is married to Grandma b). They seem to get it.

Until....
We were meeting the missionaries that (at that point) were considering moving into the extra house. NerdPie says out of nowhere, "My mom's mom and dad weren't married when she was born". I just don't know what to say other than we are trying to explain my life;). But when I tell her my parents were married, she says they couldn't be because they aren't married to each other;).

We will work on it without making it seem as something we think should happen. Oy! Thanks Mom and Dad.

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Rehearing on the Big CA Homeschool Case

For those of you who might be interested, Ann has a piece on what happened at the rehearing this week. Now we just wait for the outcome.....

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Fun with Math (Sort Of)



NerdDad found this. It is done by Mitchell and Webb, the same guys who do the British Windows/Mac commercials.

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Meal Plan Monday

Here we all meet again and as always it is all about the food!

Monday: Pasta Alfredo Bake with Chicken and Green Beans
Tuesday: Pork Loin Chops, Broccoli, Garlic Parmesan Bread
Wednesday: Pasta Carbonara Florentine
Thursday: Tilapia, Broccoli Mac and Cheese
Friday: Crockpot Ribs, Beer Bread, Broccoli

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Friday, June 20, 2008

VBS Coming Up!

One of my kids' favorite time of summer is coming up and our church is gearing up for a good VBS!



VBS is July 7th -11th. If you are in the Fresno area and are looking for a great VBS just go over to New Cov site and sign up!

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Divorce and Houses To Big?

I am watching Moving Up on TLC and I have a question. I have seen and interview similar to this many times. A divorcee is leaving her house because it is just way to big for her and the kids. Does 1 person make all that much of a size difference? I understand that there are many reasons for moving in a divorce but this particular reason just doesn't make sense.

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Meal Plan Monday

So here we meet again. Here is what we will be eating, how about you?

Monday: Pork Roast, Broccoli, Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Tuesday: Chicken Kiev, Fried Potatoes
Wednesday: Chicken, Broccoli and Rice
Thursday: Tilapia, Broccoli Mac & Cheese
Friday: Pasta Carbonara Florentine


Have a great week!

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Friday, June 13, 2008

I hate the makers of Army Wives!

Ok, not really but I just finished watching the Season 2 premiere of Army Wives(I love Tivo) and....

SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you are going to watch it and haven't stop reading.



Going in to this episode we were told that we would be loosing a cast member so I was sort of prepared. We see all the major cast members except a couple of the husbands (we know they aren't going to die or the wives would have to leave base). The bar owner is in a coma and I assume that Betty is going to be the "beloved member who is leaving us". We saw all the wives on base except Claudia Joy who was banged up and taking her banged up daughter to college (which we knew was happening). Then less than 10 minutes to the end we find out the whole interaction between Claudia and Amanda is in Claudia's head because Amanda is in the process of dieing. I cried, no sobbed. This show can already get to my emotions but this was sobbing. You know the ugly cry; snot, tears. That was a dirty, dirty trick.

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Breaking News: Tim Russert is Dead

Tim Russert has passed away from a heart attack at the age of 58. The host of Meet the Press had the heart attack while recording voice overs an upcoming episode. I knew that Russert had been in politics for ever, working for people like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but I didn't realize that he won an Emmy for his coverage of Ronald Reagan's funeral. While I didn't always agreed with his political views, he did such a balanced job on Meet the Press that I always liked watching the show. His presence will definitely be missed.

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Around the Nerdosphere

I just wanted to let you all know about a new feature over at Making Money, Keeping Money. It is called Contesting Mondays. I list some great blog giveaways and then bloggers can come list their own! At this point we have over 20 giveaways listed! This will be a weekly feature so go check it out!

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Monday, June 09, 2008

TobyMac: Alive and Transported



We are huge TobyMac fans in the Nerd Family so I was stoked when I found out that he had a new project, Alive and Transported. This is a clip from it. It is a huge concert CD/DVD and I want it! There are showings on the big screen but Fresno is not 1 of the 2 California spots. If you can go see it, please let me know what you thought.

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

Meal Plan Monday

Here is this week's lineup!

Monday: Bacon, Eggs, Cinnamon-Raisin Bread, Green Salad
Tuesday: Chicken Kiev, Mashed Potatoes, Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Broccoli
Wednesday: Pasta Carbonara Florentine, Salad
Thursday: Cube Steak, Broccoli, Bread
Friday: Pork Loin Chops, Broccoli, Beer Bread

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Saturday, June 07, 2008

Weezer and YouTube Celebs



This is a great convergence of You Tube celebrity!

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Defense Department Shake Ups

So the Secretary of Defense is "accepting" the resignations of the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff due to some slip ups in Nuclear security. That seems like a good reason. I do love the wording of accepting resignations instead of firing their butts!

(HT: Two Babes and a Brain)

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How I Schedule

Heart of the Matter has asked how we schedule. I have a confession, I don't do any firm scheduling but I have zones of schooling. But that is the beauty of homeschooling, you can form it to whatever works for you. So what do I actually do? Every season is different but lets work through this last academic year. We can't just look at school schedules without looking at life a little broader.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: We do book work from about 11-12. Then we read together from 12:30-1, finish book work or do projects from 4:30-5:30.
Tuesday: NerdBug has choir in the morning and we are all at church until lunch. Book work about 4:30-5:30.
Thursday: NerdBug goes to the homeschooling room and does some book work and plays games from 9-11am. Then he finishes us book work from 4:30-5:30.
Friday: Sometimes we skip all real school to go play at the park or go do something fun.

So that is all I do! I keep it really laid back and try to just bring learning into life! What do you do?

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Thursday, June 05, 2008

WOW Hits


I am a big fan of the WOW hits series. It is a great opportunity to get 1 cd collection that has all the big hits of the year. Well now there is a great website, WOW Hits 1. It has an album player that plays full songs and it has the WOW pipeline that is a feed reader off all the artists' blogs. I have already read a post from TobyMac and listened to 5 songs!

Kindergarten is a War Zone

Kindergarten is the easy grade to try out public school, right? The kids are to young to really corrupt each other and kindergarten teachers are sweet people who love little kids (why else would they choose to chase them), right? Not so much.

So here is our first situation. First imagine an adorable 5 year old boy (and I do me cute!) who has some discipline problems so mom takes him to outside doctors (as recommended by the principal) and they start the process to get him officially diagnosed with Aspberger's. Some 5 year old boys can have discipline problems to begin with but pile on Aspberger's and I am sure it can be rough. But how rough would it have to be for a teacher to pull this kid up in front of the class, have every student say what they don't like about him and then vote as to whether they want to keep him in the class. That is exactly what what Wendy Barton did in Florida.

If that isn't bad enough here is the second situation. So your five year old comes home and complains that his teacher doesn't like him and that he kids don't either. While your child is saying all this you are getting progress reports that are well mixed in the good marks and the bad. The teacher says sometimes your child is disruptive and can't keep his hands to himself. But when you ask the teacher if you should set up a "behavior plan" with the teacher she says she doesn't have time. So it must not be that big of a deal. Well, many times you would say that the kid is being to sensitive to limited correction and isn't really reading the situation properly. Well, what if that kid started acting out at home? The parents of Gabriel Ross decided to send a tape recorder in his pocket to see what is really going on. The results were shocking.
What they heard over four hours of tape shocked them. Woodward can be heard telling Gabriel that he had "tortured and tormented" her and other teachers all year.

"I've been more than nice to you all year long and you've been ignorant, selfish, self-absorbed, the whole thing! I'm done!" Woodward says to Gabriel on the tape. She continues: "Something needs to be done because you are pathetic! If me saying these words to you hurt, I hope it does because you're hurting everyone else around you."

Gabriel can be heard crying on the tape.


Now I am hearing some people say this is evidence of a bad school system and that is why you should homeschool. I am looking at it a little differently. Apparently all the training these teachers got didn't prepare them to actually deal with kids. I think this should be empowering to any parent who has ever doubted that they can teach their own kids. Do you think the home environment will be healthier than this? Now, I am not saying that all teachers are like this because they aren't. But, all the training can't be the end all and be all to teaching your child so have a little faith in yourself, your intelligence and your love. You can do it!

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

The Summer Blahs

So Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer gave us a theme for this week's Works for Me Wednesday, "Mom, I'm Bored". So I was really thinking about how to deal with this issue since I homeschool. But even though I school pretty much all year, a lot of our activities (both for kids and mom) stop so our life changes also. The saving grace for me is structure and a schedule.

Now, that doesn't mean that everything is time but generally mapped out. There isn't any sleeping until noon and staying up to midnight going on around here (don't I wish;). We set up the basics: breakfast, errands, chores, crafts, computer, etc. I think knowing how life is going to happen and that in a set time you will change activities will prevent to much blahs. Also set up an activity day a week. Last summer my kids got together with friends every Friday (usually going swimming). It gave them something to look forward to and a motivator for good behavior.

Balance is the key. I think to many people figure that because it is summer nothing should be planned but that is just begging for a good nagging. If worst comes to worst, put them to work and do all your deep cleaning for the fall!

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Easy, Cheap and Fun!

Eye catching title, eh? I saw this over at Crafty Pod and fell in love. I am going to pass this one on to our MOPS craft person and possible just make a bunch of these for my NerdPie! Go check it out and if you make one, send me a link to your finished project.

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Meal Plan Monday

Here is this week's menu.

Monday: Fried Potatoes, Eggs, Strawberry-Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
Tuesday: Pork Loin Chops, Broccoli, Salad, Garlic-Parmesan Bread
Wednesday:Corned Beef Hash, Eggs, Broccoli
Thursday:Cube Steak, Garlic Parmesan Bread, Strawberry-Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing, Broccoli
Friday: Chicken, Broccoli and Rice

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I have made a realization!

I don't really share anything going on in my own life. I know, it seems odd that I have a blog and don't talk about anything in my life but a little about my kids. I realized this because we have many things going on around here and none of it is here. So I am going to try to rectify that in the future. I will start now!

This weekend I graduated from a 2 year program in Women's Ministries. It 6 classes over 2 years with homework and projects. When you think about only 6 classes in 2 years it doesn't sound that impressive but when they started listing off the 10 books, 20 papers and projects we had done, it sounded much more impressive;). It has been a couple of crazy years. We have moved, not sold our other house, had a baby and NerdDad has changed jobs. I know this program equipped me but more than anything I am just glad that I got through it all and finished! So now, according to my certificate, I am a Women's Ministry Specialist;).

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