To School or Not to School

It's Kindergarten Roundup!  And I have a future kindergartener who may or may not need rounding up.

This is the week to go down to the school and fill out the stack of papers to enroll Reuben for the fall.

But do I do it?

I don't know.

I keep going back and forth about the pros and cons.  So I'm going to lay them out here to clear my brain.  (But I don't have a lot of time.  I've got a date with My Man to do lesson ten in our language learning.)

Send the Rube to Kindergarten
1. That whole socialization thing that everyone and their mother-in-law is so worried about.
2. I'm a recovering Anemic and am so tired and maybe I'll be this tired always.
3. I'm used to this whole send-your-kid-away-all-day-and-let-someone-else-educate-him and I like it.
4. It's what everyone else is doing.
5. A lot of Rube's friends would be in his class and he'd love being with them, including his future wife, Kelsey, with whom he plays several times a week.

Keep the Rube at Home
1. He doesn't want to go to school.  Which surprised me.  We don't talk negatively about school.  Peter goes to school.  Rube is super independent, but also easily scared.  Like, everyday he is scared of something.  So maybe that has something to do with it.
2. We quite possibly could be moving to The Place in the middle of the next school year.  This would just mess up switching to homeschool midyear and midcurriculum.
3. We love LOVE the flexibility in our lives that homeschooling gives us.
4. Homeschooling is awesome.
5. And that whole socialization thing.  I want him to be socialized by me, not his peers.  Unlike Peter, I think Rube will be easily influenced to follow the wrong crowd.  He shows tendencies to be dishonest and to want to fit in.  I want to build up his moral backbone a bit, no, a lot more.

Okay, that's it for tonight.  Do talk amongst yourselves and send me any thoughts, pro or con.  My brain is only functioning at a third of it's power due to the lack of hemoglobin circulating in my veins.

And I haven't mentioned it, but we've been doing No Sugar March because I'm tired of Reuben always wanting candy and desserts.  All day, everyday sugar, sugar, sugar.  But, I uh, really needed some chocolate tonight, you know, so I snuck out to the gas station on my way to the PTO meeting and bought a pack of M&Ms and now I'm going to go eat them.

And I'm not really digging this blog layout either.  It's so green.  I do like that it's wider and the pictures are larger.  Prepare for another change.

Water

I've got boys who love to play with water.

Another day

Another day

Mixing colored water

Hair design by Paul

Cookies, Ketchup, and Eyewear

This is how Charlie likes to spend Quiet Reading Time...

Researching cookie recipes.

Getting a different perspective.

Here's how Reuben likes to use the cookie sheet.

Charlie discovered ketchup.

He likes it a lot.

Here he's dipping Honey Nut Cheerios in it.

 

Reuben and Pete are big pirates fans.

Rube recently made us matching eye patches.

So we practiced making pirate faces.

Very fierce.

Culinary arts, music, fine arts, history, and drama.

Preschool play is very educational.

Horrible Design

Okay, that was a terrible design, yes?  It took me forever to figure out how to log in and write a new post tonight.  And it was a confusing page.  I did like looking at all the pictures from posts of yore.  But, this should be better.  I may change again.  Will that frustrate you?  There's no going back to the original, sorry.  It has disappeared.

Did you know that they boys did not get to go sledding this year?  Not enough snow.  Crazy.  In contrast, Reuben and Charlie played in our wading pool this afternoon.

I have started a new playgroup on Tuesday mornings.  It's in our backyard this week.  Come and visit.

I am also starting a new Bible Study group with three women who I barely know.  They were each baptized this winter and need guidance in their faith and what it all means.  I feel inadequate to properly disciple them, but who else is going to do it?  Right.  I will do my best and constantly rely on God to speak through me.

What else?  This afternoon I held the smallest human I've ever seen.  Four pounds, twelve ounces.  One week old.  The first grandson of a close friend.

I have three package slips in my P.O. box that I've had to wait all weekend for.  Tomorrow!

If you were to ask me if I wanted something to eat, I could reply, "Ban saw-de-jay beershay itchmek istiorum."    That means "I only want something to drink."  Very useful phrase.

'Night!

New Design

I'm testing new designs, see?  This mosaic one is fun for easy reminiscing.  But don't get too comfy with it.  It may change.

You might like to know that my boys are fishing right now.  Isn't that a cute father-son thing to do?

And I am in search of a cute white, wooden picket fence that is about 30-36 inches tall.  But it's really hard to find.  I want to put in it front of our front porch, that is dreadfully unappealing cement and black iron poles.  So if you have a source for cute cottage fencing, do tell.

Like this...

This and That

Lots of great newness...

• Nolan and Levi have a new family!  Can you believe it?  Officially matched and will be 'home' in less than a year.  Ah!!!!
• 82 degrees and perfectly sunny today.  That's new.  For mid March.  And wonderful and lovely.
• New spring garden planted this evening by my hunky gardener.  Peas, spinach, arugula, a rainbow of carrots, radishes, and peas.  Have never done an early garden.
• New hole in Reuben's mouth due to the loss of his first tooth.  He has me constantly checking to see that his new tooth is still growing in.
• New homeschool curriculum delivered to my door this afternoon.  First grade phonics for Reuben next fall.  Exact same book I borrowed from my friend a few years ago for Peter.  Feels strange to be needing it already.
• Not exactly new, but I found my lost car key.  It went missing last week.  Found it in an outside planter covered in leaves.  No idea how it got there.
• Renewed energy and significantly decreased dizziness today.  Feels great.  My last bloodwork showed my hemoglobin up from 9.1 to 10.5, if that means anything to you.  Iron supplements are working!
• New haircuts for Rube and Paul.  Desperately needed but I've been too tipsy.  Used the clippers on Reuben, which I haven't done for years.  Usually just scissors.  Long enough on top to spike it up like Dad, as requested.
• Charlie has a new word, thus doubling his vocabulary.  "Buh-bye," complete with a full arm wave.  Very sweet.
• New blog design coming.  Be prepared.

Did anyone notice that the last post had the word 'kidney' in the title but really it should have been 'liver'?  Doesn't really matter.  Organs are organs, yeah?  Would kidneys leave a more respectful aftertaste?  Unlikely.

I Will Eat the Kidney

I did.  I ate it.  Several.

I was mentally strong

as I soaked and rinsed and floured and fried them,

knowing that chicken livers are the highest source of iron.

Enormous amounts of iron is what my body needs right now.

See how calm and peaceful I am?

It's like I do this.

Like I fry bloody chicken organs.

And then the oil started popping

and a piece of liver clung to my shirt.

My toughness began to melt away into

how I really wanted to feel:

disgust.

I have very little experience with frying food.

And with raw animal body parts.

The opposite of my favorite things.

 

 Have you ever bought chicken livers?

You probably have.

Locals here have told me the gas station

sells them hot and ready to eat.

Who knew?

Well, they come in a tub for $1.29 at Kroger.

Never again do I wish to buy them.

Or eat them.

Or smell them.

Or taste the lingering after-taste on my tongue.

 Instead,

I will stick to green smoothies.

1 frozen sliced banana

1 cup orange juice

and a blender full of spinach.

The way iron should taste.

Photos Phor You

 *I just accidentally realized that if you click on a picture it takes you to a full-screen slide show of all of them.  Neat.*

My littlest cute man.

 My two biggest cute men.

(Peter being baptized)

 My two smallest cute men.

(Rube seriously needs a haircut,

but not while I'm dizzy.

Except maybe that would be funny.)

 Enough cutsie...
This guy Reuben loves to celebrate - anything.
I forget this occasion,
but it may have been because he declared me the winner of a game he made up,
or something random like that.

 Yesterday he hung up streams and balloons for that very reason:
Me winning his game.
(I don't know what I did to win,
but it deserved an instant party.)

 Block creation by Peter.

 Spelling game in the kitchen.
Oo, here's video...

Spelling "Tom."

 Cutest vacuumer, yes?
The boys can't resist the 'wand.'

 

 He's very thorough.

 And a grand finale of my littlest and biggest cute men.

A man and his guitar,

makes my heart all melty and ridiculous.


Here's one more video... of Charlie singing,
using a pocket-size, Charlie-size, dictionary...

He makes us laugh often.

Reuben

Here's a little helping of Reuben.

Wooden train track in the living room.

Wearing holes in his pants.

Later I found him surrounded by Clifford.

I love hearing him sound out words.

These next two must have been taken while I was out.

I don't remember this event

and I don't know what he's doing.

But he's cute and creative.

And!

He has his first loose tooth.

Which he is THRILLED about

and I'm surprised about

because he's only five

and it seems early.

He and I have taken two-week break from schoolwork

due to my inability to be upright and

the greatness of swirling in my head.

But thanks to the mega doses of iron,

we are back today.
We met the letter Y and added seven new words

to our word caterpillar today.

Then throughout the day he pointed out

various Ys that he saw- 

like the crack in our neighbor's sidewalk

and the zipper and collar on my jacket.

Reuben is easy to teach.

I am trying to gear myself up to teach both

him and Peter next year,

and keep Charlie from yanking the dry erase markers out of our hands and writing on the couch.

I resubscribed to www.simplehomeschool.net

to get ideas and motivation.

I've dusted off The Well Trained Mind

and perused the site for the annual homeschool convention.

In response to my plea suggestion for Paul to help me

teach next year he said,

"Oh, let's just send them to school."

See how easy that is.

Just send them to school and let someone else do it.

Hmmm

Five Dollar Sausages

Reuben - "I gave you a 'sauge so now you can give me five dollars."

Paul - "You gave me a sausage and you want five dollars?"

R - "No, Dad.  A 'sauge.  I gave you a 'sauge so now you give me five dollars."

P - thinking... "You gave me a MAssage.  And I'm not giving you five dollars."

R - "But Dad."

P - "I'd give you five cents, but not five dollars."

R - "But I want dollars."


I overheard a conversation that went something like this and I was cracking up.  Reuben is really into this entrepreneur business.  (Was that use of 'business' a pun?  And why do writers always apologize for using puns?  Just use the pun and let the readers enjoy the humor, I say.)

As to businessman Reuben...  He needs to learn to set up his deals before doing the work.  Although it reminds me of crossing the Mexican border back into San Diego and while one is waiting for the border patrol dogs to sniff her car, Mexican men come around and clean her windshield then expect payment.  You know what I'm talking about?

Happened in Belize City too.  When this local guy came across some tourists (us, for instance) he would tell some dramatic, entertaining story about something;  I can't remember, but Paul probably does.  So then the tourists would clap or laugh or somehow acknowledge the greatness of his storytelling and turn to leave when Prince Charles, as he called himself, would become pushy and declare his deservedness of significant payment for his efforts.  Meanwhile, locals look on, shaking their heads.

Dear Reuben, don't become a tricky businessman.  It's irritating.  Thank you.