Today and Last Week

We are staying home this weekend.  I got to run errands/grocery shop by myself and loved the 3 hours alone.  Mat Kearney kept me company in the car and I really could have just kept going west to the coast.

Anyone have a free flight they'd like to donate to the Keeping Stacey Sane cause?  I just need one.  No need for anyone to come along.  I would also like a stay at a B&B in Laguna Beach.  Have one of those?  With a chocolate chocolate chip muffin and a fruit salad waiting for me.  Doesn't that sound nice?  Hmmm...

That was a nice little escape.

I mentioned a few days ago about the variety of bodily fluids I managed during an outing with the boys.  Here's what we did in between trips to the bathroom...

We went to the circus.

Peter's eyes show his uncertainty.

A little more comfortable now.

Elephants are one of my faves.

Then we had a picnic in the parking lot of the Art Museum.

We toured the outdoor art.

Brotherly Love

Reuben pretending to be a bush.

Then we went inside for a tour with our homeschool friends.

Hard to take pics without a flash.

 I had a hard time justifying a trip to the circus as school.

It was a free daytime show specifically for school kids. 

Hundreds of public school kids.

So that was my justification:

The public school thinks the circus is worth a day of school.

Lame, I know.

The docent-led tour at the Art Museum
gave it an extra boost of academia.

Whatever.

It was a good time
and a needed break from the regular routine.

It seems the boys are off for a bike ride in the mist.

Can't miss that!

Diploma

I attended 5 colleges and eventually did graduate from one.

A nice one.  I liked it.

Met Paul there, so that's sweet.

And it was small enough that I got to play
on their soccer and basketball teams.

Started even.

Ha.

That's me in our yearbook.

It said I was warming up for a basketball game.

Fierce game face, yah?

*Seriously, how did I play college basketball?
WHY did I play basketball?
I have no idea.
All I know is I jammed my middle finger in practice once and it's hurt my bowling game significantly.
Because I bowl all the time, right?*

Back to the topic...
Now I need proof that I graduated 

(so I can be a Test Administrator for our homeschool group).

I have a diploma... somewhere.

I just looked in the obvious place:  my box of sentimentals.

Apparently it wasn't sentimental enough.

But I did find my cowboy boots from high school that I thought were long gone.

Those'll be fun.

Could you find your diploma if you needed it?

A Package!

Back in January www.MoneySavingMom.com posted how to get free fast shipping with Amazon.com.  So I did it and it worked!  Our homeschool curriculum that I ordered yesterday arrived just after lunch today.  For free!

So we opened the box and had a grand time going through our new books.

 He's holding our grammar book.

I was showing him how we'll get to diagram sentences 

and it's so much fun!!

It's all in how you present it.  

(I've never diagramed a sentence, ever.

I learn so much along with him.)

 I'm cherishing that toothless grin.

Reuben whined that he wanted something from the box too.

Amazon, so thoughtful, sent him air pillows for his jumping enjoyment.

We started the spelling program this afternoon and I quote...

"Mom, 3rd grade spelling is my new favorite subject!  It's so fun."

Well, points to Sequential Spelling.  Let's just hope the enthusiasm lasts beyond tomorrow.

3rd Grade, or No?

I asked Peter this morning if he wanted to move on to 3rd grade, or if he'd rather stay in 2nd.  He said 3rd would be good.

So I clicked "Complete Order" at Amazon.com and purchased our curriculum for next year...  Which will actually start in May or June, since we year-round it.  Only 19 more days of 2nd Grade, which means only 19 more days of phonics!!  Until Reuben's turn anyway.  (I think phonics is great and supremely useful, but not easy to teach Peter.)

The subject Peter's most excited about?

Latin 

He thinks the ancient Romans were pretty cool.

 
 

And in case you're curious...

We're also using Saxon Math 3
 

Sequential Spelling 

First Grammar Lessons, Level 3 

 

The Story of the World, Volume 2 

The Middle Ages

Encyclopedia of Our World 

Encyclopedia of Space

...along with some other supplemental books for science and history.

We need to pick 2 artists to study next year and we'll use library books and online resources to study them.  And he'll continue weekly piano lessons and daily practices with Paul.

We're still trying to find a TaeKwonDo place.  They're all an hour away, and I guess I'm still deciding if it's worth it.  Otherwise, he attends our homeschool P.E. class that I teach.

For Bible, he has a great Sunday School class at our church that sends him home with follow-up activities/lessons and we do those during the week.

Throw in helpings of life experiences, field trips, creative play, trips and travels, his snow shoveling business, and relationship building and I think we've got a well-rounded plan.

Meet My Shoulder

Out of the blue, BOOM, tendonitis has made itself at home in my body.  So saith the nice doctor at the Immediate Care office this afternoon.

Yesterday my shoulder hurt.  It was uncomfortable, but not enough to concern me.  And I was pretty distracted from my own needs, as you'll recall from yesterday's post.  Yes.

But this morning I awoke in agony.  So much so that as I tried to change my clothes my mouth involuntarily yelped and screeched and my tears afloweth.  Something is really wrong.  And it's Saturday.  So that means a 45 minute drive to the Immediate Care.

A few torturous squeezes to my shoulder and tendonitis was declared the ailment of choice.  How do you get tendonitis from not doing anything, I don't know. 

So to the pharmacy (which we never go to except twice now in a week... Peter's ears are all good) for a pain-killer I'd rather not take and a Call Me In The Morning... but really wait 5-7 days... and don't call me, call the ortho guy upstairs whose number is xxx-GAME.  Why would a doctor have the word 'game' in his phone number?  Hoping I don't have to find out.

Should be interesting/scary to see how Paul styles my hair tomorrow morning before church.  Oh man.

Love via Gross Parenting

Have you had one of these days recently?

Poop, no vomit first, then pee, then the poop, then blood.  That's what I got to interact with today, thanks to both boys.

The first three were dealt with in 3 different public places far away from home - a gas station, the circus, and the museum of art.  Blood was due to an interaction with our front sidewalk, so that was easy.

All are washed, bandaged, and/or well at this point.  Except for me.  Isn't that how it goes as Mom.

I got to meet their needs and hopefully (somewhere deep in their subconscience) they feel loved.

Time for some self-care, aka, a shower and an Amish novel in my electric-mattress-pad-warmed bed.

Bulgogi

We have been on a Korean kick lately.

We're learning the language, reading books, and being so bold as to attempt to cook.

Tonight, at Peter's request, we're having bulgogi.  

Yummy marinated steak strips, 

cooked in a skillet with onions, LOTS of garlic and carrot. 

Woo Seok (our exchange student from a few years ago) and his mom came to visit last spring and she showed me how to make a couple dishes - bulgogi one of them.

Here's my interpretation of what she was doing:

Mix in a bowl with your hands:

1 package steak strips, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1-2 green onions, big sliced

1 carrot, matchsticks

whole garlic bulb, minced

2 heaping T sugar

The steak.

Beautiful.

 

The veggies and sesame seeds.

Pour on it:

2-3 T soy sauce

Lots of pepper

2 T sesame oil

2 T sesame seeds

Set for 1/2 hour.

Cook in skillet with a little oil on high.

She didn't measure anything, of course,
so those are estimates.
She kept pouring and tasting and pouring and tasting.
Unfortunately I don't have her experience to gauge how it's supposed to taste.
So we'll just love it how it turns out.

Reuben and I watched this video that shows how make really cute triangle pouches.
It's like Korea's version of a sandwich
made of seaweed for the bread,
rice and tuna for the filling,
and a great triangle mold to shape it.
We're totally going to try these.

(I was confused by the plastic-covered seaweed, but she shows at the end how to cleverly remove it.
It keeps the seaweed crispy!)