Mama On The Move

Last month, Emily and I had a "Girls Only" weekend in Waikiki. This was basically a "birds and the bees" discussion time. Emily already knew where babies come from but this weekend we focused on details, emotions, and repercussions of baby making. I had ordered Passport2Purity as our curriculum for the weekend and I can not recommend it highly enough! It was fabulous! There were five lessons to listen to on DVD as well as a workbook for Emily to fill out as we listened. There was discussion time after each subject and little projects we had to do together to enforce the messages being taught. Although I knew a lot of things I wanted to discuss with her on this subject, the DVD lessons had useful information I wouldn't have thought to include. I was very thankful to have had this program as a guide to make certain all aspects were covered. I do wish I had done this with Emily when she was a little younger. At 13, she already knew a lot of the basic in...

Letting Ben drive everywhere I need to go is a win-win situation: He gets to practice driving and I get an elevated heart rate for 30 minutes.

Remember this? This video was shown on the now-cancelled "Bonnie Hunt Show" about a year ago. I uploaded it to you tube, and it's been viewed over 30,000 times. It's gotten popular enough that You Tube asked for permission to put an ad on the site. We get one-tenth of a cent for every billion people who click on the ad (or something like that). So go watch the video on YouTube and then click on the ad! Help me buy a gum ball or two!

Ben took the PSAT this morning. I've hounded him all week about what to do and how to do it. This is crunch time - where all our hard work starts to really count. The scores from the PSAT will be sent to colleges and they can start contacting him if they are interested. The scores are also submitted to the National Merit Scholarship Program (although as a privileged white male, I don't think Ben is going to given a lot of scholarship opportunities). He (I) won't find out his scores until December, so he (I) have quite a while to wait before we know how he (we) did. The test was given at a local public high school. Fortunately for Ben, five of his homeschool friends and about a dozen of his youth group friends were all there so he wasn't totally on his own. When we pulled up, I was still trying to drill into him some of the facts we've been covering all week. "If you don't know the answer, just skip the question. Don't try to guess. It's bet...

Ben and Emily each decided to write 25 random facts about themselves and post it on Facebook. Sometimes I learn more about my kids from Facebook than I do from living in the same house with them........ Emily 1. I love getting socks for Christmas and birthdays (hint hint) 2. I have written 3 books 3. I currently have 67 teddy bears 4. I have cynophobia 5. I am allergic to cats, dogs, milk, dust mites, and mold 6. My longest babysitting job ever was for nine hours 7. I have more notebooks than I care to count 8. I want to get at least one of my books published before I learn to drive 9. I have two dogs (and am allergic to both of them) 10. I have worn makeup outside of the house four times in my life 11. I need braces 12. I already had braces 13. I love going to museums and reading about EVERYTHING there 14. I'm having trouble thinking of what else to write for this thing 15. I know how to knit and crochet 16. Ketchup, lamb, and (sometimes) beef make me sick even though I'm not...

This was cool! We went to White Plains Beach on Sunday and a big 'ol monk seal was out sunning on the beach. Every so often he would roll over to let the other side bake a little. Then he would schlump a few feet up higher on the beach. Then he would open his eyes and look at us. Then he would close his eyes again. I forgot my camera and I had to take pictures with Kerry's cell phone. We see turtles on the beach all the time, but this was the first time we've seen a seal - except at the sea life park and it looked nothing like those cute seals that balanced balls on their noses and danced in tutus. This fella was ginormous! I love my life!

The school where Ben took his Driver's Ed class has a giant banner hanging outside proclaiming their adequacy. I knew you wouldn't believe me so I took a picture with my phone: We have achieved "Adequate Yearly Progress" it declares proudly. When I was growing up, adequate was an insult - especially pertaining to school work. Adequate meant you had just barely made the grade. It wasn't excellent . It wasn't superb . It wasn't even good . No one urged their kids to "go out there and be adequate! " Then Ben showed me this sign, which was hanging in the "cafetorium". It mentions "Suprine" Pizza, "Pepreroni" Pizza, and a "Feild" Trip. Don't even get me started about the apostrophe in pizza's. Sometimes even adequate isn't good enough.

Ben had to take Driver's Ed classes this week. When I was growing up, Driver's Ed was an optional course you could take if you wanted. Hawaii state law requires Driver's Ed if you are under the age of 18 and want to get a license. I could have signed Ben up with the local high school but I understood from others who have gone before us that this could mean a wait of around eight months (homeschoolers obviously don't get first priority over the students who actually attend the high school). The course is thirty hours, and this means every Tuesday and Thursday night for weeks until all information has been covered. I wanted to just get this over with, so I signed Ben up for an intensive four-day course that one of his friends was also taking. We figured it was a good way to get the course out of the way quickly and he would know someone in the class. Hooray. The first day, we arrived early. It was taking place at a local elementary school and, not being familiar...

Well, after my last post about Katie's penchant for doing the wrong thing, I didn't expect to have another Katie story so soon. We went to our homeschool co-op yesterday. The co-op consists of around 40 people and we all get together to do PE, and study science, art and writing. In the hustle and bustle of everyone arriving and getting their things in order, Katie realized she had left her science experiment in the car and asked for the keys to go back out and get it. Then we all settled down into our classes; I wasn't teaching during the science class today so I was talking with another mom for a while. About 40 minutes into class time, Katie came running through the house and tearfully flung herself into my lap. She was red and sweaty, and I was trying to determine if she was hurt or just upset about something that had happened in her class. Turns out when she had gone out to the van to get her experiment, she had opened the sliding door on the van just wide enough to...

We were going through a drive through last week and the kids were all trying to tell me at the same time what they wanted to eat. As I pulled up to the speaker, I hit the button to roll down my window, but I accidentally rolled down the window behind me, where Katie was sitting. Realizing my mistake, I pushed the button to roll my window down and rolled Katie's window up at the same time. Immediately there were bloodcurdling screams from the back seat. "Roll the window down! Roll the window down!" In the five seconds that the window was rolled down three inches, Katie had stuck her hand outside. When I rolled it up, her hand was pinned by the window. I quickly jabbed the button to roll the window back down and she snatched her hand back inside and cradled it, trying not to cry. I was trying to ascertain how injured she was and trying to order our food all at the same time. Ben and Emily were still trying to tell me what they wanted to eat while simultaneously chidin...