mideastmom

Google Docs settings

2011-06-22T21:25:00.000+03:00

Okay, my Google Docs (where I put our lists) settings apparently defaulted to "private." I've made them public again (which is why I use initials in the first place), so everyone should be able to access them without permission.

Summer Lists

2011-06-22T00:49:00.000+03:00

I've had a couple of requests to see the kids' summer lists, so I thought I'd share them here.

They're working really well for us and have been a huge blessing. Hopefully, they can be helpful jumping off point for others.

These are modified/expanded/pared down versions of the lists we had during the school year. When we head back into homeschooling in the fall, they'll get yet another revision.

Morning Lists
Daily Lists (We're doing a semester-long study of Texas in the fall, and we're trying to get ahead on our reading, both to take advantage of the library and to have some school under our belt, so we can take some time off when the baby is born, hence the two blocks of "Read TX Books" on the list.)
Bedtime Lists
Weekly Lists

Stateside '11 Playlist

2011-03-17T18:41:00.000+02:00

My Stateside '10-'11 Playlist was getting a little bulky, so I subdivided. The Stateside '10 Playlist is still available, and here's what I've gotten so far in '11 (well, the non-kiddie stuff, at least; I didn't include "The B-I-B-L-E").

1. Shekinah - Jaye Thomas & Cory Asbury: There are no words.
2. Dance - Tim Hughes: Okay, so I picked this one up from The Journey, our 1st-4th grade worship service, but it's still an amazing call to active worship.
3. I Refuse - Josh Wilson: An exhortation to get involved, rather than just observe hurting people around you. (The video on this one is well worth looking up on YouTube.)
4. NY2LA - PressPlay: A funky, fun dance song of faith. Guess you just have to hear it.
5. Children of God - Third Day: We're all adopted. All of us. (The YouTube video on this one is not optional. It's a must-see.)

These are a few of my favorite apps . . .

2010-12-31T02:48:00.002+02:00

Sing with me! "When the dog bites, there's an app for that! When the bee stings, there's an app for that, too!"

Hey, it's a modern-day interpretation.

Finally getting around to doing a blog post of my favorite/most useful apps. As always, it'll take me a while, because I have to get it just so. But I'm a little under the weather today, so I think it's a good use of sitting-on-the-couch time.

ALL-STAR LINEUP (apps I use every.single.day):

Olive Tree BibleReader: I have had an electronic Bible since I got my first PalmPilot almost eight years ago. It makes so much sense for a mom with little kids (one less thing to carry on Sunday morning), and it makes it easy to copy whole sections of Scripture into my notes (on the same device). Plus, I can easily carry multiple versions. The thing that endears Olive Tree to me even more is their Bible Reading programs. A built-in feature allows you to choose to read the Bible chronologically, from beginning to end or by the "M'Cheyne" plan. I chose the M'Cheyne plan. What? You don't know what the M'Cheyne plan is? Well, I confess, neither did I. It's a set of four readings a day that take you through the Old Testament in a year and the New Testament and Psalms twice each year (read about it here). What I like is that it's four small chunks, so, if you get interrupted (not that I ever do), you have a convenient stopping place. Plus, it better fits my attention span these days than long passages would. And Olive Tree feeds it to you one chunk at a time, takes you to the next passage as you finish one, and keeps track of it all for you. I'm actually finally going to read through the entire Bible in a year!

Awaken: I was happy with using the Clock app that came with my iPhone for an alarm clock. Until I had an infant sleeping in a hammock on the other side of my bedside table where my phone sat each night. I needed an app with a variable volume. ML found me Awaken. I have fallen in love (with the app; I was already in love with ML). I now go to sleep each night with my phone on Awaken (plugged in to charge), set to the old-timey flipclock setting that takes me back to my childhood alarm clock. It wakes me up by gradually increasing the brightness of the screen and gradually increasing the volume of a song of my choice. Ahh. (And we use the "sleep timer" function in our boys' room to let them fall asleep to music but not have it playing all night. It fades out after two hours.) Oh, and if you shake the phone while it's on clock mode in Awaken, it flips to a candle/lightbulb option, so you can see your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Handy. (I still use the Clock app as a timer for various things around the house, like Wii time. It's very useful for that.)

CalenGoo: We used to love iCal (which comes installed on the iPhone and we used for a long time on our computers), but it got too glitchy. Plus, we needed an app from which we could "invite" people to events, i.e. each other. Rather than sharing calendars, we prefer to send invites, so we see events as they're created (as opposed to just looking at the calendar and discovering you have dinner with someone that night). At the time, CalenGoo was the only Google calendar app with that function (there may be others now).

2Do: Again, we got this app so that we could send to-do items to each other. Recently, it seems to have lost that functionality, but I'm invested, and I like all the ways I can sub-organize things like shopping lists, etc. (and ML's moved on to a to-do app that works better for him, anyway).

AwesomeNote: Way better than the note app that comes on the phone. Much more subdivisable (my spell check says that's not a word, but *I* say it is). I synch AwesomeNote with Evernote on-line, so I have a back-up. Plus, that allows me to cut and paste things from my computer (like recipes and patterns) to Evernote and then synch AwesomeNote, so they appear on my phone. This is where I take sermon notes, keep birthday party plans, make notes as to what is to be included in my funeral and what possible names we've ever talked about for future children (or pets), etc. It's a large percentage of my brain. That and 2Do.

FemCal: I'm not going to go into much detail on this one. As my grandmother would say, it's a ladies app. Well, my grandmother wouldn't have said that exactly, but . . . feel free to research it, if you want. Suffice it to say, I use it daily.

VIP's (apps that I use often and/or are extra-specially-useful when I do):

YNAB: Standing for "You Need a Budget," this app synchs with a program ML uses to keep track of our finances. It's been great. And trust me, finances not being our strong suit, we've tried a lot of programs. I use the app to enter any cash transactions I make, so he sees them. And I can access our budget and see how much we have to spend in any given category. Yep, I always do that. Mm hm. Okay, so I'm working on using this one more (I'm not an outrageous spender, I just do better with limits, and I need to make more use of my access to those boundaries).

myLite: A free app that I use relatively often as a flashlight. 'Cause I don't have one of them fancy iPhone 4's with that thar built-in flash/flashlight opshun.

AllRecipes: Having used allrecipes.com, I built up a stockpile of saved recipes in my "Recipe Box." This app allows me to access those and look for new ones (like Cheese Grits!). I don't use the main screen "Dinner Spinner" option, though.

Netflix: ML uses this one much more often than I do (watching something while doing a repetitive task like data entry), but I recently discovered the beauty of being able to let ZL watch a favorite show while I teach an after-school study session at the kids' school. Nice to have more choices than just what we own in iTunes.

SpellDown: You type in your kids' spelling words, it looks up a voice pronunciation on-line and quizzes your kids. While you drive them to school on the day of their spelling test. Or earlier in the week, even. A must for parents with more than one kid with a spelling list.

VerseByHeart: The only app I found that allows you to enter your own verses (as opposed to preloaded ones) and quizzes you (by having words missing or having you put the words in the right order). Many times, I've handed the phone to my kids in a store line (or, okay, in line to say their verses) to review what they're memorizing.

Mad Libs: Kind of expensive, as far as apps go (above and beyond the basic free one), but by far, the best $3.99 I've ever spent on an app. The kids spend hours playing it, and I even consider it educational, because they're reviewing parts of speech. Win/win. I'm just kicking myself for not knowing that there were new modules out that I could have given as stocking stuffers.

That's all she wrote, folks. What are some of your favorite apps? I'm always looking for new ones.

Stateside '10 Playlist

2010-12-29T19:56:00.002+02:00

Several friends living overseas have posted on FB wanting music recommendations, and I kept saying, "I should post my 'Stateside '10-'11' playlist, since it's made up of my favorite songs I've heard since we've been here, and they may not know about them." I kept saying that over and over again (to myself). And I finally got around to it.

1. Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly) - Sanctus Real: my theme song for the fall (it was rough); mentioned by a friend who had been through a "worst nightmare" (you know, the kind of thing that happens where people tell you it is their worst nightmare; okay, maybe you don't; it's an interesting phenomenon)
2. Healing is in Your Hands - Christy Nockels: a healing song I didn't have! I couldn't believe it until I looked at the copyright date and realized it was brand new; that explains it
3. Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus) - Chris Rice: a new classic; I hate it when people call things that, but it is what it is; it feels old; in a good way
4. Our God - Chris Tomlin: packed with truth
5. Bring the Rain - MercyMe: I know, this one isn't new, but I bought it when it first came out but forgot to put it in a list, so I didn't listen to it; something reminded me of it the other day, and I decided to put it here; it's my list; I can do that
6. Rise Up - David Crowder: the new fight song David Crowder wrote for the Baylor football team; now there's something I can worship to; seriously, it has all sorts of applications, and I like to listen to it with various ones; including the football victory one
7. God of Our Yesterdays - Matt Redman: He was and He is and He is and He is to come; in a new(ish) worship song
8. Love Came Down - Brian Johnson: the greatest story ever told
9. Beautiful for Me - Nichole Nordeman: straight from a VeggieTale video (SweetPea Beauty), plain and simple; love the message
10. Give Me Jesus - Fernando Ortega: a beautiful rendition of an old song
11. Forever Reign - Hillsong Live: pure worship
12. Restoration - David Brymer: one of His greatest gifts to us
13. Better Than a Hallelujah - Amy Grant: heard it at the kids' school during a Zumba demonstration; yes, I did; I like the message, even thought I'm not super wild about the artist
14. A Little Longer - Brian and Jenn Johnson: a beautiful song about striving; or not, rather

Caveat: I know some of this is not cutting edge (aka, it's been around a while), but I have not necessarily been in the right places to have heard it, so it's new to me.

70's Playlist

2010-10-17T03:49:00.001+03:00

Don't know why, but this one is a little slim*. Maybe because some of the classics are in the Folk Playlist. Suggestions are welcome, though.

*It grew when I found my to-be-purchased list on my phone. :-)

From the 70's:
1. We Will Rock You - Queen: self-explanatory
2. Joy to the World - Three Dog Night: grew up hearing it and, of course, had to purchase it with the birth of our youngest son, Jeremiah
3. American Pie - Don McClean: most recently brought to mind via the Weird Al "Star Wars" version
4. We Are the Champions - Queen: actually, most makes me think of high school football games

to-be-purchased
- Up Around the Bend - Credence Clearwater: this one must have been in a TV show we watched recently; don't know what else would have brought it to mind, but I'm pretty sure we had the record
- Ramblin' Man - The Allman Brothers: again, there was a record
- The Joker - The Steve Miller Band: "
- Dueling Banjos - Arthur Smith
- Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
- Lookin' Out My Backdoor - Credence Clearwater Revival
- Walk this Way - Aerosmith: Nobel's darkroom
- Sunshine on My Shoulders - John Denver

60's Playlist

2010-10-17T03:43:00.002+03:00

On to the 60's . . .

1. Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows - Lesley Gore: courtesy of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, of course
2. The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens: vague memories of a group of guys singing this at Talent Show at Centrifuge
3. Tell Him - The Exciters
4. Hit the Road Jack - Ray Charles
5. Wild Thing - The Troggs
6. Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers: pretty sure we had a record with this on it
7. Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
8. Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals
9. The Twist - Chubby Checker
10. Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett: ironically, I'm pretty sure I heard this for the first time at my brother's wedding reception 4 years ago; it's a signature song of a family friend's, and he always sings it at wedding receptions, etc., so that was my introduction

to-be-purchased:
Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
Georgia on My Mind - Ray Charles
Space Oddity - David Bowie: 'cause it's just so representative of the era

50's Playlist

2010-10-17T03:36:00.002+03:00

While I'm at it, I thought I'd post my other Decade playlists. As usual, I researched and tried to buy the "classic" version of the song. Occasionally, there was not a good recording available or I firmly new it by another artist, so I compromised.

A tribute to the 50's:

1. Lollipop - The Chordettes: Resurrected recently by the movie Planet 51
2. La Bamba - Ritchie Valens: Associated with its resurgence my 8th/9th grade years, due to a movie.
3. All Shook Up - Elvis Presley
4. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
5. Tequila - The Champs: Again with a movie. Can't remember which one, though.
6. Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis: And yet another movie.
7. The Book of Love - The Monotones
8. Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day
9. The Elements - Robin Ray: NCIS episode, something to do with Abby, of course
10. Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
11. Lollipop - Sophie Green: Actually from Planet 51

And on my to-be-purchased list:
Chantilly Lace - Big Bopper
Love Me Tender - Elvis
Mambo Italiano - Rosemary Clooney
Earth Angel - The Penguins: Karate Kid, I'm pretty sure
A Teenager in Love - Dion & the Belmonts

80's Playlist

2010-10-17T03:29:00.003+03:00

Had a request from a friend (addressed to the "Playlist Queen") for some suggestions for a dance party she's having, all young ladies our age, so 80's music was prioritized. Much to my horror, I discovered I'd never posted my 80's playlist. So, to rectify that . . .

1. Axel F - Harold Faltermeyer (Totally 80's for Kids version; sorry, it was the best I could do): most memorable as what everyone learned to play on the keyboard when they first became popular
2. You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi
3. Take Me On - A-Ha
4. Angel - Aerosmith
5. Just Called to Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder: my ringtone for ML right now
6. Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
7. We Are the World - U.S.A for Africa: I had the tape. Yes, I did.
8. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper: I remember this one from our sabbatical to Oxford when I was in the 3rd grade. Must have just become popular (there) at about that time.
9. Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin
10. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi: Band bus. Totally.
11. Shout - Tears for Fears: Band bus, again.
12. Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
13. Axel F - Crazy Frog: I'd never heard of it, until I went looking for the classic version. The kids liked it, so I got it, too.

to-be-purchased
- I've Got a Rock 'N Roll Heart - Eric Clapton: Yes, I fell prey to the T-mobile commercial, I admit it.
- Dude (Looks Like a Lady) - Aerosmith
- Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran

Making the Skies Friendly

2010-10-11T03:11:00.000+03:00

I went to link a friend to a blog post I'd done on entertaining children on long flights, and discovered I'd never posted it. I've had this list forever and would have thought it would have been one of the first things I put on the blog. Guess not. It's definitely worth reading through, even if you rarely fly but drive places with kids (which is what my friend is doing), since many ideas apply across the board.

Each of these paragraphs is a set of suggestions from a different mom who has traveled internationally with children. Well, in some instances, adjoining paragraphs may be by the same mom. I wasn’t very good at documenting when I first started compiling this document. And only several pages into it did I start attributing the ideas. I’ve offered several times on the message board where these where gleaned for people to come forward and claim their ideas, if they want to, so I don’t think anyone’s too offended at not being given credit.

Some of the ideas are age-specific, but you can extrapolate ideas, if your children are not those ages.

You’ll notice that some ideas contradict others (i.e. each child has his/her own bag/backpack vs. Mom has everything in her bag). Different things work for different families, so I, knowing this, left in even contradictory advice. Find what works for yours. Good luck!

When we go, I make sure we have plenty of snacks, so that no one is hungry if the plane food is really bad. I usually have cheese, carrot sticks, apples, crackers or rice cakes, pepperoni, and some treats (candy, mints, cookies). I grab barf bags and paper towels as soon as we get on the plane, for trash bags and spills, respectively.

We have each child take a backpack. In the pack, there will be some new markers, coloring book, new book, CD player, audio book, and probably some treats (candy, cookies, chewing gum) that they can consume at will . I usually take the children to a toy/book shop and let them choose a new toy/book that will be in the pack and unopened when we depart.

I usually take a big tote bag as my carry on. It includes books to read aloud. When my children had "lovey" blankets, I always carried the blankets to prevent their being lost. I always take at least a clean shirt for each child (or sippy cups) since we seem to always spill drinks on ourselves when traveling. When my children were younger (my youngest is 7 years old now), I took a full changes of clothes. The worst trip we had a dc threw up in my lap, but I've also traveled soaking wet from a soda can spilled in my lap just after take-off and boy was I cold the whole way home! Oh yeah, grab blankets as soon as you get on the plane. Our 9-year-old daughter likes to sleep flat on the plane floor, so we put one under her and another over her.

The last few times we've flown, the airplane had a TV screen in every single seat back. There were movies, games to play, and other electronic stuff for dc to do. I wasn't able to figure out how to block any of the movies (adult things and Scooby Doo) or to prevent dc from turning the TV on, but there were some okay movies too, like Finding Nemo. The movies can fill a lot of time.

I also try to have a couple of new things for each kid that they don't even know about to pull out at a desperate moment. If you are traveling over night at their age they may sleep quite a bit. Well, the younger one anyway. Our flight from Japan is around 16-18 hours depending on layovers. Last summer my 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son slept very little, but my 18-month-old slept a lot of the time. My children were very entertained by the personal movie screen, but that will depend on what things you let them watch and what happens to be offered at that time (if you even have the personal screens). I admit that my children watched a couple of cartoons that I normally wouldn't have let them watch (nothing majorly objectionable, but a few that I just wasn't that thrilled with). It's just such a long flight!

Ummm, drugs????

Don't forget that the flight attendants have trays of food out on the counter in their "kitchen" between meals for hungry/bored people to help themselves. We always encouraged our kids to take walks up and down the aisles and stop and be nosey with other travelers. Sometimes the older kids would be able to talk with other kids and trade games or even play a game together.

In 1985 we were on a C5 USAF cargo plane going to Guam to adopt Philip and 2 1/2 year old Brian was with us...we took all sorts of entertaining stuff...but alas, it was an 8-hour flight from Hawaii and no amount of marvels could possibly satisfy an active 2 year old...much to our dismay when we were disembarking, this "evil, insensitive man" handed me a letter he had penned in route saying with all sincerity and probably concern, that if we would read Dobson's books Dare to Discipline and The Strong-willed Child that we would have a child that would not cry and disturb other travelers. We laughed and cried and stewed and cut ourselves to shreds over that...for we had highlighted and underlined and read and reread those two books and thought we were following them to the letter! So what did I learn from that? Well, everyone's ideas of a well-behaved child is as different as fingerprints.

Another story you might find humorous that I read in Reader's Digest some years ago: A mother went to the doctor for medicine to "drug" her children during a lengthy flight and was given sedatives for them. She returned to the doctor after the trip and he asked her how her flight had been. She replied that it was wonderful. Her children were no trouble at all. She took all the meds herself and thoroughly enjoyed the flight!

Make sure the children are chewing gum or sucking on something when the plane takes off - that will help their little ears.

Take wet wipes, even if you don’t have a diaper-age child.

We always took coloring books/crayons/sticker books, etc. They are simple and kept our little ones entertained for quite some time. When we traveled this year our daughter had a goody bag in her seat when she arrived full of neat things the airline provided.

The drug suggestion actually reminded me of a funny story. My dad was in the Army and had to go ahead of us to Germany to get housing. My mom, brother and I were to follow. At that time my brother was 3 and VERY active. The doctor suggested my mom give my brother a Dramamine to help on the trip. The first day my brother took the medication and slept like a baby. The second day (the flight over the Atlantic) he spit it out several times until it dissolved to nothing. My poor mom had only brought the one with her so we were out of luck. Needless to say - the flight is still a very vivid memory even after 39 years if that tells you anything! The man sitting in front of my brother got so drunk!!

Blow up a balloon or two during layovers in airports - good for quiet soccer or 'volleyball', etc. Another hit is to blow up rubber gloves for funny balloons! Then just pop them and throw them away when it's time to board.

Call each airline (or have your travel agent do it) and request a "kids' meal" for each flight that serves a meal. It's always a way better meal...chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, yogurt, fruit, crackers and cheese, etc. And my children usually can't eat it all so I tuck some of it away for later in the flight.

Audiobooks! Or CD's, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that you bring an inexhaustible supply of AA batteries so there are no accidental "cliffhangers"! Some that we always pull out on vacations and road trips are The Chronicles of Narnia episodes that Focus on the Family has put out, and also their Adventures in Odyssey episodes, which are available on tape/CD as well.

Ask the flight attendants for any "kid packs" they might have available. These have been life-savers on long trips when our dc were little and had gotten bored with all the stuff in their own backpacks. They are typically small handle-bags stuffed with anything from coloring books/crayons, to puzzle books, playing cards, kiddy-oriented flight magazines, etc.

Take full advantage of any pre-boarding help they can give you. Once, in St. Louis we were worried about making our connecting flight, and they let us off first, and had my stroller waiting, but they decided it would just be simpler to commandeer a cart. They loaded us up with all our gear and drove us to our gate of departure honking all the way, much to the delight of my then-3-year-old son!

If you do the balloon volleyball during a layover be sure not to bring the balloon onto the plane. The changes in air pressure will cause the balloon to pop mid-flight which in this day and age is disconcerting to all.

A few weeks before a trip I buy several inexpensive toys, (you know the ones: they're made in China and they break almost immediately - it's the one time I go for cheap not durable because I only care about amusing the little ones for a few hours) and I GIFT WRAP them and stuff them in their backpacks along with new pads of paper, some new pencils or crayons and some stickers. I gift wrap as much as I can. It takes them time to open the packages (and every minute counts for me) and it makes the toy seem more festive and wonderful than it really is. Then take a deep breath and go.

Our last flight we met a young woman traveling alone with her 10 month old. As we waited together for our strollers by the jetway she sighed and said "That was so much worse than I ever imagined!" My husband said later, "She must not have a very good imagination. I usually imagine being locked in a telephone booth for ten hours with a screaming infant and then whatever we experience has got to be better than that."

I agree with wrapping the gifts. But however, I add to that. When I start thinking about handing one out...I give a 10 or 15 minute warning. I will show them the gifts and say "let's have 15 minutes of good behavior please!" Then I get a quarter hour of excited but quiet little ones.

I take pajamas for overnight flights. I take the children to the rest room, they brush their teeth and go to the bathroom, we change into pjs, go back and set our seats back and they go to sleep as if for the night. No sleeping in clothes for the kiddoes. To maintain something of their bedtime routine, I think, helps them sleep so much better and longer. The last flight...my then 3 yr old and 5 yr old slept 8 1/2 hours!!!!

Don’t underestimate the value of a ladies magazine. Many more pages than a children's book and they aren't looking at the articles...they are looking at the colorful ads and the pictures...they enjoy a magazine for about 15 minutes when most children's books are read twice over in less than 5 minutes!!!!

My kids are happy with a bunch of happy meal type toys, or JUNK from the dollar store. I'd rather use cheap stuff and then throw them away or give them away when we are done. Anything new and different is entertaining.

I take maze and dot-to-dot books on trans pacific flights. I would buy brand new ones (Amazon has tons) just for the trip. There may be several available for free on the internet, too.

Sometimes having the kids backpacks be rolling ones can be nice. You have to weigh the advantage of rolling v. the extra weight those usually are.

I always pack a full-size carry-on suitcase as one of our carry-ons, usually mine. In it, I pack at least one change of clothes for _everyone_ (including adults; we've had too many throw-up/bad diaper experiences), more than one for potty-training age; a can of formula (which I use to refill the three-serving divider in the baby's bag), if one is in that age range; toiletries for my husband & myself (love to wash my face, brush my teeth, and re-do everything at the end of the long flight); all our meds (never say you'll never need that is my motto :-); etc. I usually put my own personal stuff in a smaller bag inside this suitcase and take it out to put under the seat in front of me (although I've discovered I need a _lot_ less to "entertain" myself when traveling with kids; our tradition is to buy a couple of magazines at the airport after check-in). On good flights, we barely touch most of this stuff, but it's all there in case we need it, which is better than the other way around. Plus, if our luggage happens to get lost or a flight gets delayed/cancelled, we have all the stuff we need for at least one night.

My husband’s sister and her husband came recently, and they did use "drugs" for their kids, Benadryl, specifically. He's a doctor and she's a nurse, so I figure they know what they're doing, lol. Actually, we're just lucky to get kids (so far) who have _very_ adjustable body clocks, so we haven't had to do that. One warning I've heard, though, is to make sure to try it out before the trip, if you don't know for sure how your kids react to that particular med, since it actually makes some kids hyper!

One other good idea my sister-in-law and brother-in-law had was to travel with phenagrin(sp?), an anti-vomiting/diarrhea medicine. It basically knocks the person out so they can sleep, but it would be a life-saver if someone got sick, and there's nothing you can do about it mid-trip but push through. It is prescription, though.

If you have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can get audio books to put on that, a little more convenient than CD's or tapes.

Last idea for now: for a 4-8yo, a Leapster is a GameBoy alternative that we've really been pleased with. Aside from being exclusively educational, it requires a skill level more appropriate for those ages (my oldest son could do some things on some games on his friend's GameBoy, but mostly, he just pushed buttons). My 3.5-year-old can do plenty on the Leapster, too, just on the games that are included originally. He's getting a LeapPad for his b-day in July, before our next big trip. My plan is to have at least one new game for each of them to pull out somewhere along the trip.

Depending on the timing, I might put the youngest in her jammies before we board, or we might have the dinner, head to the bathrooms where we get ready for bed and then back to our seats where we put the jammies on. We lay back the seat, plump up the pillows and blankets to make a little nest and then hope for the best!

We pray for upgrades to business class, but they rarely come through for us so as a friend told me, "it's one day out of your life and then it's over."

I just keep reminding myself that I can do anything for nineteen hours (or how ever long its gonna take)! Most of the time my kids do great, but if something is embarrassing (say a crying kid), I am reminded that I'll never see these people again and it is worth it to go through this for all the fun that we'll be having once we're there!

I did hear a tip on a radio travel show. They polled parents for the very best toy/item to keep young kids occupied for hours on a plane. The winning item was unexpected - a roll of scotch tape!!

Try to check in early to get good seats especially the ones near the toilets, but more importantly to make sure that you get to sit together with your children.

I also would just suggest being very careful with how much you carry on. Sometimes the amount you’re carrying can become more of a headache than the actual time on the plane.

If you’re traveling in the winter-time, a friend who came to visit us had a wonderful idea: she brought a large army-type laundry bag with her on the plane. It was canvas, so it folded down to practically nothing and could be stuck in the side pocket of a bag. Once on the plane, she put everyone’s coats (and any other warm accessories in the bag and stored it overhead. That way, they were all easy to find upon arrival. After she got here, she used it for transporting laundry.

Red River Mom:
Tip 1: Fleecy blankets can easily be vacuum packed and will take no space at all. Buy the space bags or just use regular trash bags, use your vacuum cleaner and then tape it up. We do this every time we travel distance. Clothes take up no room at all this way and allow more space for other things.

Tip 2: Check out luggage storage facilities at the airport where you are overnighting. Often you cannot check luggage all the way through if your layover is too long. So we pay and store it at the airport and don't have to deal with it again until the next day.

Tip 3: Be prepared to put your kids to work. 9 yo can easily take on a cart of luggage (esp. carry-ons) while you and your dh each pile 5 on the other 2 carts. Put 6 yo in charge of 3 yo. While we stand in line to check in, my kids can often be found at the nearest pole or wall, sitting together and playing their gameboys and guarding the carry-ons. I need them out of the way while we are wrestling with bags, if the check-in folks want to see them they are nearby and smile on demand. LOL

Tip 4: Don't make your kids carry-ons heavy. You will end up carrying them! My older ones know whatever they pack, they carry, but I still wean through their stuff before we fly... amazing what my 11 yo deems necessary to ahve with her on the plane as opposed to in the luggage.

Tip 5: Take some easy card games for in the airports. We usually head straight to the gate where we can grab a bit of floor space, sit on the floor, and play cards.

Tip 6: When reserving your seats, you can book three seats together and then leave the middle seat free between the other two. No one will take that seat unless the plane is completely full and you will end up with some extra space. If the plane is full and the seat is needed, trust me whoever is in it will gladly trade with you so they are not in the middle between two of your kids!

Tip 7: Reserve children's meals through your travel agent in advance. They are so much better than the regular fare and a better chance your kids will eat something.

Tip 8: Take on healthy snacks but don't force the kids to eat. Keep them available, but don't be surprised if they are just not hungry. Just make sure they stay hydrated and they will be fine.

Tip 9: Pack up some new things for the kids as a surprise for on the plane. Save them until you are desperate and then whip them out and you get Mommy-of-the-year points.

Tip 10: Keep in mind, at all times, that the process of overseas travel will end, you will get there, and, even though it may seem endless, above all - you will survive!

Tip 11: The kids attitudes and coping during travel will largely depend on you. Laugh at the problems, smile at the spilled juice, nod sweetly when dealing with long lines, longer security, and endless red tape. You show frustration and your kids will pick up on it and reflect it right back at you. Make it an adventure (even if you know it means you will be nominated for Best Actress), your kids will do better because of it.

Wow, that was a lot more than I planned to say... Take what is interesting or applicable and toss the rest. And, have a great trip!

Jackie in Oz
I have had one or the other of my children pulled aside for the more vigerous checks (never do understand why a 9 year old would be considered a threat . .) and I always insist I am present, even if the security guy has to wait a few minutes while I organise the rest of us. If I am pulled aside and if I am travelling with the kids alone, I insist they come along!

Lisa Marie
I always made sure I had healthy snacks, a change of clothes, some favorite read aloud books, small toys (possibly electronic games) and whatever they usually slept with (blanket, teddy bear) especially if it's a "long" flight--you want them to settle down and actually sleep at some time! When our boys were around 2 and 3 they REALLY loved listening to things like Adventure in Odyssey on tape. It would keep them occupied for hours depending on how many different stories you bring!
(Children's Tylenol and Band-Aids are good to bring too--I say this from experience!)

MissKris
First...accept the tiny of bottle of wine they offer and drink it.

Two, at least 2 changes of clothes...cause the reality is..... I mean for the dc and at least a clean shirt for yourself MINIMUM.

Snacks... most littles don't like airplane food.

A surprise toy...but not one with a lot of little pieces!!

• magnetic puzzles
• a new colouring book
• blocks, doll or a new car... they have never seen and give it on the plane.
• Pack one cuddletoy in their carryon...so they can sleep.

Juice boxes for take-off so they can suck on something as the plane ascends/descends

Some books to read to them
Finger puppets

Keep it simple...the airline should give them a toy pack
You don't want to be lugging a lot of extra weight when the dc are heavy enough and you are by yourself... I learned that the hard way!

A walkman cd or tape with books or music they like is also great.

LatteMom
Last time, I put things in regular business-sized envelopes, numbered them, and sealed them. I probably did 10 envelopes for each child, and we didn't even get to them all! And I did the "I need 15 minutes of quiet behavior before you get your next envelope"...worked really well.

The favorites were:
• a roll of scotch tape (my dc went nuts over this and played with it for the longest time...hands down, the all-time fave!)
• about 10 bandaids (for them to play with, put all over themselves, etc.)
• sheets of foil (my oldest two had a ball making foil sculptures)
• oh, and I also had some little bitty stuffed animals (someone gave me from a Happy Meal or something)...I put those in an envelope with a questionaire that my dc had to fill out with the pet's name, favorite food, tricks, etc....a ton of questions! And they had the best time "inventing" info about their pet. Then they played with their pets for a long time afterwards.

My other thing is that my dc always wear Crocs when we fly so I don't have to deal with socks or helping dc get their shoes on.

What I personally don't waste a lot of space on is snacks. I take a few things, but then just save left over granola bars, etc. from the kids' meals during the flight. (But my dc aren't picky eaters so that helps.) I also don't take a lot of books...simply because of weight and space. My dc do far better on flights with unusual, fairly interactive things. (If I do take a coloring book, it's one of those Color Wonder ones so I don't have to worry about the markers.)

Last year, I downloaded some stories (ours were Odyssey, but you could do anything age-appropriate) onto my iPod. My dc took turns listening to it. That obviously won't help with the littlest ones, but maybe the oldest would enjoy it, and it definitely takes very little space.

Joyfulquiver
When my kids were little, I used to carry lots of wet wipes ,for the obvious clean up of sticky fingers, diapers, but ds used them to clean the seat, table, window, floor ,anything really...kept him happy for a LONG time.

Hypatia
I used to do small presents in wrapping rather than envelopes, but I like the envelope idea. Stickers, wet wipes (ds once spent the entire 1.5 hour train ride "washing" the train we were in....), notebooks for the stickers/drawing in, some crayons (although the plane might a small pack from a restaurant or similar doesn't take up much space), audio books especially if you have the book and individual backpacks for the kids to carry their junk in. Magazines/comics that they've chosen "for the journey" plus some snacks - then pack the bag the night before pushing how exciting it will be and how the day will go plus how we have to behave. I found a small "first adventure" type book and bought that ds read it over and over whilst on the plane at 28 months. hmm it is still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Plane-Fi...2500783&sr=8-3

momtoagem
We like to travel with small magnetic doodle boards (not the ones that make lots of noise when erasing). My girls love to draw and this way I don't have to worry about lots of paper or crayons that will get lost.

WanderingFeet
Word to the wise - the sound of fifty crayons hitting the floor and distributing themselves in random places around the plane is not a happy one.

Hypatia
Hmmm - wonder if it's anything like the noise fifty-squillion bionicle pieces make when they hit the floor and roll chaotically around whilst wails of anguish are heard from a certain seat?????

Hypatia
There's an advert here that made me laugh, the Mom is booking seats and the assistant says, "Oh we can only sit three of you together". They get on the plane she seats the dad and two small children and then wanders up the plane to the other end to her own seat..... Would never happen in real life but perhaps a fantasy

Angle Bagsh
one thing I would request is the bulkhead seats, it's no fun taking care of little ones when the seat in front of you is in your lap!

Konagirl
My secret weapon was Ring Pops. You can't whine or cry while sucking a Ring Pop, and they last long enough to get you distracted!

Pull Ups for any kids with any chance of potty accidents, even if just while sleeping. I had one who was potty trained but fell asleep and wet the plane seat- that was the biggest pain of the whole trip.

Another big hit was one of those square pads of multicolored post it notes- the kids loved writing on those and sticking them all over the place. Mini magnadoodles- the pen is attached and you can't drop it! Etch a Sketch. Avoid, as others have said, anything with little pieces that can be dropped.

LatteMom
Wipes and post-its go right along with my theory that anything that you would normally say "no" to around the house...okay, maybe it's just my house. LOL! Wipes, post-its, bandaids, scotch tape, reinforcement stickers,...those are forbidden treasures.

And ring pops...that's genius! Plus you've got plenty of wipes for clean up!

Jennifer in AZ
Remember that you don't want toys that make noise-even toys that seem quiet at home are very loud on a plane!

That said, my dd loves her leapster and you can either turn the sound off or use headphones w/ it.

Debs
Crayola Modeling Material: My 5 and 3 year old played with this for over an hour on the plane. It's got a different feel than playdough. It is not messy and it's light. Store it in a ziploc bag.

Jennifer in AZ
If you have a lay-over, have the little darlings run around. If you can find an unused gate they can play tag or something. My dc liked to play a game they made up called "Naughty Noo-Noo". If you have seen teletubbies, it's that Noo-Noo. Anyway, they would march around the seats/bench and then whenever someone yelled "Naughty Noo-Noo" they had to run until they were laughing too hard to continue. Silly kids! Then they would play again.

Leezan
We tended to take too much and then you will have to carry it all because they are tired/grumpy and cant carry their own bags. This is an important point to mention to her. We have found that we don't take very much - colouring books, pens, soft toy (1) or small soft toys, a few little cars or other little toys they like, 1 or 2 small reading books, but often they don't use much of these things - and I know from experience we have travelled for sometimes 30 hours at a time when the kids were little.

Pick an airline that is good and check if it has individual TV screens - we love Emirates best - they give everything!!!

Hunca Munca
Before boarding each flight, we wrote each kids seat number on the back of their hands. Made making sure we were all in the right places SO much easier as we boarded.

Athena
laminated name tags: put laminated name tags inside pockets and remind the children never to take them out. if you can attach them to the garment by any means so much the better. the name tags should contain essential info, eg, their names, country of origin address, tel no including country code and area code, destination address and tel no again including country code and area code as well as health info, eg, allergies, etc.

about food. i never take any into the plane. they feed you anyway. what i do is feed them while waiting at the airport so i dont worry if they fall asleep during the flight, whether its long or short, etc... i usually bring the stuff they fail to eat that way i dont worry about where to get food and feeding them once we arrive at our destination. this also works when there's a connecting flight and a long wait in between.

New Lists for a New (Temporary) Life

2010-08-29T19:32:00.001+03:00

Way too much to catch everyone up on right now, but suffice it to say, we're spending the school year in the US. Suprise! To everyone! Including us!

Hopefully, I'll be able to come back later and explain all of that, but right now, I've had a couple of requests to look at the morning, after school and bedtime lists I have adapted for this season.

Oh, did I not mention that the kids are going to school? For the first time? Ever? Well, they are. And, consequently, we have had to learn a whole new system, including lunch boxes and homework and PTF committee meetings (okay, so those aren't on the lists, but . . . ).

To keep my sanity (you may laugh right now), I updated our old lists, and then revised and revised them. I'm sure they'll undergo continual revision, but these are relatively final, so I thought I'd go ahead and post them. (We aren't doing individual family responsibility [aka "chore"] lists right now, because we're just doing chores as we have time. [Read: Mommy and Daddy are doing most of the work])

Hope these are helpful in spurring ideas for other families:
- morning list
- after school list
- bedtime list

You'll notice that ZL now has his own lists. He loves them. Seriously, he thinks it's so cool that he has his own lists. And, no, he does not watch TV from the time he finishes his morning list until the Bigs get home from school (although "Nick, Jr. is like preschool on TV!" ). We pull the plug relatively quickly, but this gives me an opportunity to have an extended Quiet Time on occasion (although it is pretty surreal to be listening to worship music via earbuds and have Olivia playing on the TV in front of you).

(My apologies for the funky format of some of the lists. They get simplified when they're uploaded to Google Docs, and they lose all of their pretty colors, etc.)

My Trip in Status Updates

2010-06-16T17:18:00.000+03:00

Last time I traveled to the States by myself (oh, did I mention that I traveled to the States by myself with all five kids last week?), I kept a running note on my Palm of texts I would have sent ML along the way, if I could have. I sent it to him (and to family members) in an e-mail after I arrived.

This time, I kept thinking of Facebook status updates I would have posted, so I jotted those down. And posted them one by one after I got here. It was my in-flight entertainment. Cause, you know, you can't just put the headphones on and watch the movie when you have to keep track of and take care of five kids.

For those more into blogging than Facebook and for posterity's sake, here is My Trip in Status Updates.

Needn't have worried about Z for takeoff. He's so fascinated that he's been sitting still with his hands folded in his lap, eyes wide, the whole time.

There's a ladies-only bathroom on this flight. Haven't seen that before.

Forget the safety info. How about a video on how to latch the bathroom door?

I'm paranoid. Every time I hear someone repeatedly pinging the flight attendant, I make sure Z is not touching the buttons.

Sitting MA next to JAK and I was a win. She's reveling in helping take are of him. And I'm reveling in it, as well.

Z's fascination with the airplane has worn off. I think we only have 12 1/2 hours of the 13 hour flight left.

I've got to make or buy some sort of pouch that will hold 6-7 passports and our residency cards. They kind of balk at the ziplock bag.

Apparently, only some airlines are worried enough about peanut allergies not to serve them anymore.

Mental note: put long pants on the baby, even if you are flying from the Middle East to Texas. It's a tad chilly on the plane.

Ah, a Friends episode. Just what I would have picked for the first in-flight option on a family-filled flight when everyone is still awake.

Advantage of the plane engine noise: it drowns out some of the noise from the children in front of us. Disadvantage: the parents feel like they need to yell at each other from two seats apart.

Oh, Karen Rumbaugh, I could just kiss you for introducing me to the AquaDoodle product line. Just on the cheeks, of course. But three times on the second side.

The lady in front of me apparently only brought enough formula powder for one bottle, so now she's asking the flight attendant for milk. Seriously? For a 13-hour flight?

Is it really necessary to have the kids' meals scalding hot? (I know, one warmer, probably, but maybe they could take them out ahead of time?)

Rather than bulkhead with a bassinet as I was told I had, I have one row behind bulkhead with a bassinet on the bulkhead row. JAK is napping in the bassinet while we eat, but when it's time for me to sleep, he'll have to go into the sling. There's no way to strap him into the bassinet, and I'm afraid he'd wake up and fall out.

The older four kids went to sleep remarkably well. After trying to figure out how to keep the headphones on Z, so he could watch something while he fell asleep, I gave up in frustration. He conked in about 30 seconds.

Jeremiah slept in the bassinet during dinner, which was great, because I had my hands free to eat and help the other kids. Not so great when he woke up and was raring to go just as it was time to sleep.

Jeremiah's been doing his army crawl, which he just started, across the seats in our row.

I think flight attendant pinging (repeatedly pushing the call button) is something akin to Chinese water torture. And I'm not even the flight attendant. Amy and Cindy, care to tell us how it feels?

The ladies-only restroom has gone the way of the dodo bird. It's first come, first serve now.

Spoke too soon. Z just hit the call button. :-/

Just got complimented on what great travellers the kids are. A. They really are. B. I'd be crazy to do this, if they weren't, and I told the guys so. And C. I don't think the contrast to the kids in front of us hurts.

Zachariah insisted on feeding me all of the M&M's out of his trail mix once he found out that I liked them. Love that kid. (Actually, he calls them M's, because that's what's written on them. There's no convincing him otherwise.)

Yeah, the bassinet in the row with the yelling kids is not really working out for me.

Requesting kids' meals, which come before the adult meals, so I can help them get set up and actually eat my meal when it comes = win.

Flight attendants should have a way to turn off the call button for a specific seat. Not arbitrarily, but some sort of three strikes, and you're out thing.

The flight attendants on this route should get combat pay. Or overtime. Or something.

I'm totally traveling by myself with five kids from here on out. I've been waved past two humungous lines, passport control and security.

Magdalyn's response when we came up to take the train from one terminal to the next in Chicago: "Oh look, Mommy!" It was grass.

I feel like I'm in the movie Airplane. We've changed gates three times so far.

It's so nice not to have to think through how to say something before I have to say it.

Make that four gate changes. All in the same terminal but back and forth between wings. Good news is that I've bonded with several fellow passengers as we've jogged along.

How to Buy a Used, Unlocked iPhone

2010-04-19T14:58:00.000+03:00

After a couple of statuses (stati?) about how pleased I am with my (current) iPhone, I've gotten several questions about buying an unlocked phone to use overseas. As was my purpose with this blog in the first place, I'm going to park my answer here to link to in the future.

I am currently the (proud and not-so-proud) owner of two used, unlocked iPhones. So, I can tell you how to and how not to buy one.

How not to: look randomly for a used, "unlocked" phone on eBay, buy it, bring it to the country where you live and have a partially unlocked, partially functional phone/iPhone (mine never recognized wireless, which negates almost half the functionality of the iPhone and didn't wake up from sleep to ring, so you constantly had to check to see if you'd missed calls, if you wanted to put it to sleep to, say, put it in your pocket).

How to: Buy used from Gazelle on eBay. You can check them out at gazelle.com. They buy used electronics from people, evaluate them, and turn around and sell them (they also do fundraisers where non-profits can collect used electronics from people and get paid for them, which I thought was cool). The advantage they have over buying used on eBay, in general, is that they have a consistent rating system, they deal in bulk, so they know how to evaluate the condition of the piece of equipment, and they detail the condition of the piece, i.e. where scratches are, etc. I like this, because you can decide that you don't mind scratches or an engraving on the back, for example, since they'd be covered by a case, but you don't want scratches on the screen. We've bought three 3rd gen iPods and two iPhones from them, so far, and been very pleased.

"Sunday School" overseas

2010-04-19T14:38:00.000+03:00

The same friend as the previous post recently (no, really, it was recently this time) asked whether I had any suggestions for doing "Sunday School" with her daughter. Living overseas with no convenient access to an English-speaking church, you have to be creative about these things. Even when you have a group of ex-pat friends that you fellowship with (which we do), you've most likely got a wider age range than you're going to be dealing with in the average church children's program.

Here's the answer I gave my friend:

My suggestion for "Sunday School" activities is to pick a Bible story book and work your way through it (a story a week, one a day, a few a week, whatever works for you). In preparation for each story, google, for example, "Noah sunday school lesson," "Noah coloring pages," "Noah craft," etc. This will give you plenty of activities to choose from, from dress-up to paper crafts to songs. You can pick and choose what's at P's level (and what uses supplies you have access to/you can get people to mail you :-).

Some Bible story books we have (in no particular order):
- The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers (I notice this is a younger version of the Rhyme Bible Storybook. Haven't seen it, but it might be worth checking into.)
- The Picture Bible: particularly good for older children (and younger children who long to be/seem older :-); done in a "graphic novel"-type format (that's geek speak for "comic book," and it actually more accurately represents the book itself; it is not "childish" at all); very engaging
- My First Bible in Pictures: very simple (a few sentence each) stories with an easy question at the end; the first story Bible we used with MS and similar to one ML grew up with
- Read and Learn Bible: we haven't had this one long, and the illustrations aren't my favorite (a little too cartoonish), but it looks like a good option for an 2nd grade-ish level reader to read independently or to be read to a younger child
- The Early Reader's Bible: kind of like a study Bible for 1st graders; lots of questions and application scenarios; would also be perfect to read to older preschoolers/kindergarteners
- The Right Choices Bible: out of print, which is a shame, because it presents Bible stories in light of the (right or wrong) choices they make; would be worth looking for used
- Egermeier's Bible Story Book: one of the most in depth story Bibles you'll find; the stories are often several pages in length (small type) with detailed illustrations; good for reading aloud to a very interested K or 1st-grader or an older child; the read-alone level is probably 3rd grade or above
- The Jesus Storybook Bible: we don't actually have this book, a friend brought it with her when she moved here recently; it tells all of the stories of the Bible as they point to Jesus, and I'm very intrigued to check it out further
- One-Year Children's Bible: another that we don't have, but piqued my interest as I was searching for links for the others; we may have to get this one; because, obviously, our motto is "never can have too many story Bibles"

I also love using scripture songs for verse memorization. We like GodRocks! and Seeds Family Worship. I like to type up the verse and put pictures above major words (from Google images searches) to help with memorization (I repeat the pictures from verse to verse for the same concept). And we use sign language for major words when we're singing the songs. I have a bit of a background with sign language vocabulary, but a good online dictionary is really all you need (ASLUniversity and Michigan State's ASL Browser are the two that I use).

Now, this was written to someone just looking for something to use with a two-and-a-half-year-old, but it really can apply up through upper elementary age, at least. At that point, you can include children in your own gathering, start them on independent studies, etc.

Hopefully, this will spark some ideas for those living in similar circumstances.

Entertaining 2-year-olds (whether or not they're being angels)

2010-04-14T16:06:00.000+03:00

A friend asked me recently (okay, back in February, but I've been meaning to post this since then) for some ideas for entertaining her 2 1/2-year-old daughter. Since most of our children have been or will be two, I thought this was a topic of possible general interest, so I thought I'd post my response here. This family lives in India, so my comments as to "available there" refer to that fact.

Ah, children's toys/activities. How did you know my weakness? We've never had "bristle blocks," "waffle blocks," or "tinker toys," but just about everything else non-electronic . . .

I don't know what all you would have access to there, but I'll list several things, and hopefully, you'll hit the jackpot on some. Or something will look promising enough to be worth the time to make, if that's an option.

- lacing cards (threading a shoelace through holes around the edge of a shape; could be made, if necessary)
- Duplos/MegaBlocks (large/extra-large legos)
- cardboard bricks (these come flat and then you assemble them, so it's possible to bring them over in a suitcase/trunk)
- instruments, like shakers, cymbals, drum, etc. (although, then, you have to deal with the noise :-)
- dollhouse (Melissa & Doug makes a folding one that is relatively compact, but you could probably find something locally or make something out of cardboard boxes)
- dolls & doll stroller, plus doll blankets, doll bed, etc.
- dress up clothes (if you have a used clothing bazaar, this is good for stocking up; also, buy scarves, etc., locally; they're great for dress-up, plus it ties the kids into the culture)
- wooden puzzles
- Mr. Potato Head
- magnetic playsets (search for "magnetic playset" on christianbook.com; they're backgrounds with figures to play with on them; also great for travel)
- play food and dishes
- wooden blocks
- books (if you can, train her to look at them by herself, especially ones she's been read enough to know the story line)

For an electronic options, iTunes has a great selection of PBS shows. At that age, Little Einsteins and Blue's Clues (okay, so that's Nick, Jr.) are good options. We tried to steer clear of Dora, with the goal of mastering Arabic before we added Spanish, but that's just a personal preference.

Similarly, pbskids.org and nickjr.com have some simple games that P might be ready to get started on, if you have a desktop computer you're willing to let her play on. Or if you want to attach a mouse to a laptop (that would work for some 2 1/2-yr-olds, for others, it would be a recipe for disaster :-).

If you have a video iPod, audible.com/kids is building a collection of children's audible books that show the illustrations on the screen as the book is being played. Under "categories" at the bottom of the page, look at "with synchronized images." Kids books can be kind of short, but if you teach her to navigate the click wheel or she listens/watches nearby with you to help, it might buy you a decent chunk of time. (Man, I did *not* need to look at that site again. I'm a sucker for children's books and gadgets. This is the perfect marriage of the two. :-P)

Children's Songs

2010-02-02T23:17:00.000+02:00

Went looking for "Wheels on the Bus" (one of Z's favorites) and, well, I stumbled upon this "little" list. Okay, so it was a tad comprehensive. I shelved it to the wish list until the kids' annual Christmas iTunes gift certificates came from Uncle Carter & Aunt Karen. Then, I spent Z's and JAK's on the essentials of the essentials. The following was the result. (I noted a few others, such as several songs from the Mary Poppins sound track, for future purchase. Shhh. Don't tell MA. Her birthday is this week. :-)

Chicken Dance - DJ's Choice
B-I-N-G-O - Larry Groce & the Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus
ABC (The Alphabet Song) - Dora the Explorer
Are You Sleeping? - Twin Sisters
Rubber Duckie - Ernie
The Farmer in the Dell - Larry Groce
Hokey Pokey - Ultimate Party Mix
I've Been Working on the Railroad - Pete Seeger
Old MacDonald - Larry Groce
It's a Small World - Disney Studio Chorus
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Tom Gardner
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - Larry Groce
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Elizabeth Mitchell
Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes - VeggieTales
Pop! Goes the Weasel - Larry Groce
Row, Row, Row Your Boat - Elizabeth Mitchell
Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me - Larry Groce
This Old Man - Rob Newhouse
Wheels on the Bus - The Little Series
Skip to My Lou - Larry Groce
Where is Thumbkin? - David Jacobi
Linus & Lucy - Vince Guaraldi Trio

* Also of note is iTunes Essentials Children's Lullabies list. We have many of them, and it's enchanting.

Mommy/Baby Hospital Lists

2010-02-01T20:11:00.000+02:00

Quietly announcing that I'm going to try to post something to one of my three blogs each day in February. I figure that's a smoother attempt at getting back into blogging than to try to jump full force into one of them (or worse, all of them). We'll see how I do.

A friend here is due any day and has been packing (and re-packing) her hospital bags. I remembered that I had an ongoing list in my Palm software, so I looked it up and sent it to her. Thought it would be good to post here among all of my other lists.

the "adult" bag (myself and dh)
coffee (for ML & prepared for me)
pillows
hair towel
towel obviously from a previous pregnancy, since the current hospital provides these
camera
house shoes
socks: both
pads
Tucks medicated haven't needed these since my first, but I guess I never took them off
underwear: both
bra
q-tips
lotion
make up
toothbrushes
toothpaste
scrubby
wash cloth
tylenol
ibuprofen
deodorants
hair gel (ML)
brushes
pajamas: both
clean clothes: ML because we got there without any for him one time; oops
t-shirt
jeans
iPod
khaki pants a trusty pair of "transitional size" pants
water bottles: sm 1/2 froz, lg froz again, the more recent hospital provides cold water
OJ
kids' books for when they visit the hospital
phone charger think we forgot this one time, too
blood work
admission papers
bananas/dried apricots

the baby's bag (aka everything else)
candy to give out at the hospital, a cultural tradition
diapers
wipes
hats
gowns/sleepers
under shirts
shoes
pacifiers
blankets
changing pad
alcohol pads
bottles
formula
baby blanket

School Daze

2009-03-08T12:41:00.005+02:00

Oh, about a week ago I promised pictures of us doing school when I posted pictures of some of our organizational systems. Better late than never? I have a few excuses, and they're even good ones, but I'll spare you and get to the point.

JW studying his Yo, Millard Fillmore book, a sequenced cartoon picture-recognition method of memorizing the presidents in order (you really have to see it to understand; sorry for my awkward explanation)

MA working in her Miquon book with her Cuisenaire Rods

Figured out the answer!

And afterwards, she got to free-play with the rods. This second one is the L family, ex-pat friends here in town. Two of the children are being held, hence their "flotation" in the air, according to MA. The two older girls' ages even correspond to the value of the rods used to make them.

MS moved to the dining table to work at some point this day, since he had a sore throat and wanted some hot tea. We have been choosing to work in the Family Area most recently, but I didn't want to risk the tea spilling.

Meanwhile, ZL played on the computer.

And read books.

And ML fixed the washing machine. (Yay Daddy!)

And, as a treat, I let them all listen to their memorization songs at the same time (they normally listen individually) while drinking cocoa (we had a late-season cold snap that week). Notice how far I had them sitting from the computer. :-/

For a more detailed description of our school day, read this post. Today was more a visual tour. :-)

A Place for Everything (Mom, don't laugh)

2009-02-25T11:53:00.007+02:00

I actually remembered to take pictures during school time yesterday. I think I was motivated by the fact that we will be moving (to a new house in the area) in August (more on that later), and we're starting to pack for the US, so I don't know when the house will look quite the same again. I guess, technically, never, since it will be a different house.

I have some shots of the kids doing school, which I will post soon (possibly later today), but since I actually managed to have a post showing a setup that works in our house on a Wednesday, I decided to grab all the gusto I can get and do a Works For Me Wednesday post. Who knows if I'll actually get around to linking it on her post, but it still counts, right?

So, for now, I'm going to share the basics of how our daily work books and read-alouds are organized. I would show our readers and out-of-rotation read-aloud shelf, but, well, it's not that presentable right now. Maybe after we move.

After trying out having each child have a shelf or a 1/2 shelf in a cabinet to house their school books (workbooks, artpacs, mapwork, current readers, etc.) and having them avalanche constantly, we settled on "School Books Bins." MA's and JW's are stored on this little shelf under a coffee table in our family area. MS actually has a plastic basket (somehow I managed not to get a picture of his), because his won't fit in this sized bin, and it's stored underneath one of our family room chairs. The added benefit is that they can bring their basket or bin to where we're schooling, if it's somewhere other than the family area, which the boys do on Tuesdays when we have a meeting at our house.

In this picture you will also see my crochet bag (which I often work on while supervising schoolwork; it keeps me sitting) and a cloth wipes box (okay, a recycled disposable wipes box). A fairly appropriate homeschooling hodge-podge, I thought.

After running to the shelf daily for the read-alouds we needed (where they were shelved with all the read-alouds for the year), we settled on a "school books basket" that houses all of our current read-alouds (literature, science, history and Bible) and that year's Language Arts Instructor's Guides for handy access.

We started schooling with a pencil box for each child that housed their crayons, colored pencils, pencils, scissors, glue, ruler, etc. I had fond memories of my pencil box from when I went to school in England, and it sounded like a good idea at the time. Only no one ever had what they needed in their own box, and they were constantly having to borrow from one another, and the boxes took up precious shelf room for nothing. So, we now have the "Pencil Box," which is technically the "Pencil+ Box," as you can see from the label, because it houses pencils (periodically sharpened by Mommy, because there is a pencil sharpener-eating monster in our house, and Mommy's the only one who can manage to keep up with hers...barely), scissors, and glue. The first person to get started on his/her schooling in the morning (and, therefore, require a pencil) is responsible for bringing the Pencil Box to wherever we're working (usually either the family area or the dining table, but sometimes the kitchen or the kids' room on meeting days). The last person finished is responsible for putting it away.

The Pencil Box's cousin is the "Color Box," which houses all crayons, markers and colored pencils. It is not always needed, but if someone needs it (and, most days, there's either an art project, mapwork or a Miquon page that needs colors), they are responsible for bringing it to our study area. And the last person finished puts it away at the same time as the Pencil Box.

All of our assignments are tracked on Homeschool Tracker where I laid them out at the beginning of the school year and assign them according to our school day calendar each six weeks. Even Mommy has assignments. I have all of our read-aloud assignments assigned to me. I tried e-mailing PDF versions of the kids' assignment sheets to them, but someone was always doing something on their computer when they needed to check them to see what they had next, and then I had to check them off on my computer, anyway, so now we just all work off of my laptop, which goes with us wherever we are in the house.

MA and JW both have a "Letters Page" and a "Number Line." Actually, they're supposed to have a Number Line per math book, so two each, one for Miquon and one for Singapore, but I think by this point in the year they may only each have one that just floats in their school books bin and is retrieved when needed. These help with basic letter/number formation in the beginning and are referred to to avoid reversals after that point. The number line goes to 20, and so can also be used for basic addition and subtraction, if needed. These were both created using StartWrite handwriting software, and I print new ones out (usually in new colors) at the beginning of each school year.

For long-term homeschoolers, I'm sure none of this is earth-shattering, but maybe you'll find an idea that's just what you've been needing. If you're starting out, hopefully it can spark a solution that would work perfectly for your family.

Happy Decade Birthday, MS!

2009-02-20T12:51:00.007+02:00

Ten years this month (8 February, to be exact), ML and I became parents (okay, life begins at conception, but you get the point). It feels like just yesterday, and it feels like forever ago. I'm sure you understand, if you have kids.

One year, we did back-to-back birthday parties when MS and MA's birthdays fell on a Friday and a Saturday. One year. Just one year.

They pretty much alternate who gets the party closest to their birthday, and this was MS's year to have his the next week. He didn't mind. Much. Okay, so having to go to a little girl's fourth birthday party on his birthday was not exactly his idea of how to celebrate, but he survived. :-)

We're so grateful to have MS in our family. He adds humor and insight and not a little bit of help with everything from corner store grocery and bakery runs to dish washing.

The cake was all Webkinz all the way. After a brief hiatus, Webkinz once again reigns in our home, and it (both the stuffed animals and the on-line play) is the activity of choice for all three Bigs. He wanted the cake to also somehow reference his being a decade old, so we worked that in there, too. The cake itself was French Vanilla with chocolate chips, and the icing was chocolate. We finished it the next morning for breakfast (with eggs), of course.

All of MS's ex-pat friends who live in town were able to come to the party, as were all of the boys in our building around his age. Homeschooling friends in the capital had to miss due to other plans, and the English-speaking cousins of one of our neighbors were also not able to come.

Presents at the party* included a Webkinz (appropriately), the ever-popular money, and...two water turtles! The McB family gave MS a turtle bowl, rocks, turtle food, the turtles themselves, and the promise to care for them while we're gone to America. They were quite a hit.

For fun, the kids had sword and finger rocket battles, played Wii, and even learned a bit about playing guitar, thanks to Uncle J.

*On his actual birthday, MS received his family gifts, which included a Didj from Mommy & Daddy, a Star Wars Didj game from Nanny, and several Webkinz (well, the promise thereof upon arrival in the US) from other family members. He now has 10 Webkinz. :-P

MA turns 6!

2009-02-14T17:44:00.007+02:00

Saturday before last, 7 January, was MA's 6th birthday. This year, her birthday fell on a Saturday, which was an available day, so we actually had the party that day. Unfortunately for her, MS's birthday was the next day and his party the next week, so that, on top of the hecticness of life in general, meant that her pictures did not get posted in a timely manner.

But we did celebrate MA, even more than we do daily. She definitely adds more than just a touch of the feminine to our family and is growing to be quite a helper to me, especially in the kitchen, which she loves.

Her cake was Fetch with Ruff Ruffman inspired, as it is one of the kids' very favorite shows right now.

Excepting brothers, it was an all-girl party, just like MA.

There were, of course, presents, including a bead set from which she has made several bracelets and necklaces already.

And then the girls invented their very own party game: Hoppy Poppy Dance Floor, which consisted of laying bubble wrap on the floor, and dancing on top of it. They had quite a wonderful time, and it required no preparation/thought on my part, which is a good thing, because I do not do well with party games.

A good time was had by all, and we enjoyed celebrating our precious MA.

25 Questions

2009-02-11T20:47:00.003+02:00

The second in my "Viral Writing Exercises from Facebook" series.

1. WHAT CITY AND STATE WERE YOU BORN IN?
Louisville, KY (Oh, the shame!)

2. CATS OR DOGS?
Dogs, for sure. Dachshunds, preferably

3. HOW MANY CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE?
6

4, YOU PLAYED WHAT SPORT IN HIGH SCHOOL?
Does marching band and flag corp count?

5. YOUR COLLEGE ROOM MATE DROVE YOU NUTS BECAUSE...
They expected me to actually clean up after myself and be neat. Hmph! (Just kidding, guys. Is it to soon to publicly apologize profusely again?)

6. DO YOU EAT MUSHROOM SOUP?
Only if it’s cream of mushroom. Actually, I’d eat any kind of soup with mushrooms in it.

7. IF MARRIED, WHERE WERE YOU MARRIED?
Trinity Baptist Church, Kerrville, TX

8. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE PICTURES YOU TAKE?
Share them on Facebook, and occasionally print books with them from walgreens.com

9. FAVORITE FLOWER?
Roses and austrimariums

10. HOW MANY BROKEN BONES IN YOUR LIFE?
Three, if you count cracked and fingers

11. SPOUSES OR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS NAME?
Micah Lawrence Key

12. FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME?
Currently, Same Kind of Different as Me

13. SURGERY???
- tonsils out
- gall bladder removed

14. HEELS OR FLATS?
Depends on the occasion. Heels, if they’re called for, flats, if I can get away with it.

15. PARTIES OR QUIET NIGHTS ALONE?
Both, in equal doses. I usually get enough time home alone, so I’m almost always up for a get-together.

16. FAVORITE PART OF CHURCH?
Worship

17. HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU FAIL YOUR DRIVERS TEST?
None, but I barely passed.

18. DO YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIES?
Airborne and some suspected food sensitivities, at least. I hope to be tested this year.

19. YOU DRIVE A...
2003 Kia Carnival (overseas equivalent of a Sedona). A huge blessing that I never expected.

20. HOW MANY CAR SEATS ARE IN YOUR CAR?
3

21. FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPINGS?
Mushroom, beef & extra cheese

22. FAVORITE JEANS?
Ones that fit

23. A PAID VACATION, YOU CHOOSE TO GO WHERE?
Disney World with my family

24. HOW OFTEN DO YOU EXERCISE? WHAT DO YOU DO?
3-5 times a week. Aerobics and boxing on the Wii Fit.

25. YOUR FIRST CAR WAS A...
’79 Chrystler La Baron

Please, feel free to take these and answer them on your own blog. And be sure and let me know, if you do. I've enjoyed learning things about people this way.

25 Random Things About Me (Don't worry, I'm not tagging.)

2009-02-06T15:56:00.003+02:00

According to the New York Times article, the "25 Random Things" phenomenon is one of the biggest viral writing exercises ever (really). (I'll post the rules below, so you'll get the idea, even if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

I was not going to get sucked in, even after the first 10-15 of my friends on Facebook tagged me. But then I started reading them. And they were interesting. And I enjoyed getting to know people or getting to know fun things about people I already knew (or used to know). And they made think of things that I could post that might interest people. So I caved (and, as you will find out later as I post them, caved more than once).

So, since I have a slightly different "readership" here on my blog, I thought I'd share the "25 Random Things" love (hey, it's a free blog post; that's too hard to pass up, okay?)

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

Naturally, feel free to ignore this and only participate if you want to. It's only for fun and for us to get to know each other a bit better!

1. Growing up, I always liked to have what everyone else had…but different. In Jr. High, I had both the Swatch watch that no one else had and the Coca-Cola shirt that was different. I’m still kind of like this, but more on the different end of the spectrum.
2. The first house I lived in was next door to Colonel Sanders’ farm (as in KFC), and I have a picture of me sitting in his lap at his piano. (Yes, I was actually born in KY. Shh. Don’t tell anyone. I got to TX as quickly as I could.)
3. I don’t know if I owned anything the color pink until I had a daughter, and now I love the color (in moderation and preferably paired with chocolate brown or turquoise).
4. I was on one of the sets of the movie A Perfect World as it was being filmed and have pictures of Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner to prove it.
5. I have a playlist for everything. If you don’t believe me, just read my blog. See, you guys are already one step ahead!
6. I have yet to find a form of alcohol that I actually like, which is very disappointing for a Baptist preacher’s daughter who no longer lives by those strictures.
7. I was a 3rd generation Baylor student…and I actually had a choice as to where I would attend.
8. I chose to major in education in case I “had to” homeschool. I got the homeschool bug while researching the concept in college.
9. My first car had an 8-track tape player.
10. I have a high tolerance for pain…medication. It takes at least three times the normal amount to deaden for a local anesthetic, and then sometimes I still feel it.
11. I once went skinny dipping with another pastor’s daughter and a couple of other friends.
12. I had my first four children in less than four years (only by a day, but still…)
13. I seriously considered waiting until 25 people tagged me to write this note, so all I would have to do is tag them back.
14. I prefer written communication, if given an option (as is evidenced by my mad texting skills), and proof-read everything obsessively before I send.
15. If I ever teach public school again, I would like for it to be in the inner city or the prison system.
16. I have hiked to the highest point in Texas.
17. I lived in Abigndon, England for a semester in 3rd grade.
18. I was in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the Palestinian Intefada acting as tour guide for some visiting friends.
19. I have never had in mind the number of children I want to have. Still don’t know.
20. I am actually actively using my university degree.
21. I love hymns. I have a playlist entitled “Worship Hyms,” which are traditional hymns played in a contemporary worship style.
22. I have seriously considered getting both a tattoo and a nose stud.
23. I am not a good housekeeper (those of you who live here are not allowed to comment as to this not being a “random” thing, rather a fact of the universe), but I am getting better.
24. In spite of the above, I really like for things to be neat and in order.
25. I am almost exactly 50% extrovert/50% introvert, both of which would surprise some people.

There, now wasn't that fascinating? :-P

Feel free to participate, if you'd like, and please do let me know, if you do. I've really enjoyed reading these as they make the rounds. More random Facebook lists about me soon.

Rock/Alternative Playlist

2009-01-26T13:52:00.004+02:00

And now, for the spin-off of the Pop Playlist: Rock/Alternative (maybe eventually they, too, will be separate; you never know).

1. What I Like About You - The Romantics: Um, a Numb3rs episode, maybe? Or NCIS? I really don't remember, but it was on my iTunes To-Buy list, so I did.
2. Where is My Mind? - Pixies: from the ending of a 4400 episode (I also heard it in another show, but I can't find anywhere on the internet where that was. Frustrating. ETA: Just figured out where it was. Not another show, but a great LOST fan video montage.)
3. Shiny Happy People - R.E.M: Would you believe it was a Sesame Street short that led me to get this song? I was looking up various Sesame Street shorts from my childhood to put on my iPod, and I came across a bunch of celebrity appearances, too, most of which are very fun, including R.E.M's "Smiling, Happy Monsters." :-P Then, I had to have the original, harkening back to my jr. high/high school days.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen: re-introduced to this song thanks to the amusing "LOST Rhapsody" YouTube video
5. White Flag – Dido: I heard this in the video store and remembered liking it, so I dug it up.
6. In The Sun – Joesph Arthur: from the alternate, alternate ending to Bourne Identity (took some digging on the internet to figure that out, if you can imagine)
7. Who Will Save Your Soul - Jewel: I think I just like it.
8. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants: Just fun. Plus, ML sings it occasionally.
*9. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric: From the movie Stranger Than Fiction. According to ML's research, it is a common first song to learn on the guitar because of the simplicity of the chords (it may actually have just one chord).
*10. Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams: Once again, I'm not sure if this was on Numb3rs or NCIS, but I heard it and remembered it and wanted it, which is basically a running theme, in case you hadn't picked up on that.
*11. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.: Numb3rs, I'm pretty sure.

*New song.

Pop Playlist

2009-01-26T00:28:00.003+02:00

As promised, my original Pop Playlist grew cumbersome, so I split it into Pop and Rock/Alternative. Some of my choices as to what went where defy iTunes designations for those songs, but, by golly, they're my playlists. I can put the songs where I want them.

1. I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor: from an episode of Medium (You can all collectively gasp at the fact that we watch that show. Would you believe that my mom recommended it?)
2. Bubbly - Colbie Caillat: On our family vacation a couple of years ago, the pop (meaning, American) radio station that they had on in the restaurant each morning at breakfast played this song. It's catchy, and it reminds me of our vacation (which had its high points, although we will be returning to the Dead Sea from here on out and probably not deviating from that tradition again).
3. That’s Not Me - Bianca Ryan: I discovered this song after seeing the Bianca Ryan YouTube video from America's Got Talent. I know it's just a cover she does, but I like the song and the way she sings it.
4. Lullaby – Dixie Chicks: another Medium episode
5. The Rose - Bianca Ryan: Another Bianca Ryan cover that I liked. Reminds me of seeing Beaches at the drive-in with my mom and a friend.
6. I’m Still Here – Johnny Rzeznik: from the sleeper Disney movie, Treasure Planet
7. American Pie – Don McLean: Not quite sure on this one.
8. Complicated - Avril Lagrine: Think I just liked it.
9. Extreme Ways - Moby: Bourne movie credits theme
*10. Mad World - Michael Andrews & Gary Jules: From the opening scenes of a Without a Trace episode. The openings of the episodes tend to be without dialogue, because they depict the disappearance, which is, of course, shrouded in mystery, since the missing person is not there to explain, so I've gotten to hear some interesting songs. Oh, and this is not a song I would play with my kids listening (and since I control the iPod in the car and my computer in the kitchen, the two places I listen to my own music, this is easily accomplished). The lyrics are too negative and depressing and might be latched onto particularly by my one more melancholy child. They do, unfortunately, portray the perspective of many adolescents.
*11. Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin: I know, this does not belong in a "Pop" playlist, but I just don't have enough R&B yet to spin it off. Eventually, maybe. Inspired by discussion of her music following her inaugural performance. Also reminds me of a scene in the movie Sneakers.
*12. Rich Girl - Gwen Stefani & Eve: Random, I know. The kids were watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua (which I do not recommend; they were not glued to it, fortunately, and will not be seeing it again; I was giving it a chance at a friend's house), and I got a kick out of the song behind the opening credits, which was a hip hop version of "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to imagine it, if I hadn't heard it myself, either. I do not recommend watching the video [I wanted to listen to the whole song to make sure I wanted it, so I pulled it up on YouTube], nor purchasing any other of her songs without first researching them for content, from what I've read). This one, though, is just fun, and I'm enjoying listening to it.
*13. If I Were a Boy - Beyoncé: I'm just surprising you all over the place today, aren't I? Saw the video for this song at our favorite ice cream parlor in the capital when ML and I were on a date a couple of months ago. Although I don't recommend watching it with the kids, the video is interesting in a cultural literacy/cultural commentary way. And I just like the sound of the song.

It's late, so the Rock/Alternative Playlist will have to wait until tomorrow. I know you're all just waiting with bated breath.

*New song.

to-be-purchased
- Be OK - Ingrid Michaelson: from a commercial

Folk Playlist

2009-01-26T00:05:00.003+02:00

Okay, folks, it's been entirely too long since I've done a playlist post. I know, there for a while, those of you who were reading my blog at the time (Hi, GfG!) thought there would be nothing *but* playlist posts, but it's been six.whole.months since the Birthday Playlist post, and it's high time.

Drumroll, please...

I have a *new* playlist! Yes, you've all guessed it by now (because you're all smart people who can read blog post titles): I created a Folk Playlist.

1. Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Simon and Garfunkle: another song that my family has owned in more than one medium. I remember listening to the record (or maybe the 8-track) on my parents stereo in elementary school. It's a classic.
2. Send in the Clowns - Judy Collins: I've got to start taking better notes on where I hear songs. Either this was in an episode of a TV show I watched recently or another song was and when I looked up that song this one came up as a Genius recommendation on iTunes. Either way, I remember hearing this as a child, too, and it has a nice mellow tone to it.
3. Blowin' In the Wind - Peter, Paul and Mary: You guessed it: a record of my parents'. Takes me back.
4. Piano Man - Billy Joel: I'm thinking this was the song that was in the TV episode that then led me to Send in the Clowns, a Without a Trace episode, I'm guessing. Okay, the theme of this playlist is definitely "Songs I Remember Hearing as a Child."
5. Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce: Mm hm. See above

Definitely needs to be fleshed out. Unfortunately, I can't get the Genius Bar in iTunes to work when I want it to, just when some song that I never want anything else of that genre is playing. Suggestions are welcome. Mom, maybe you should just go flip through the records and type me up a list.

It's a...

2009-01-21T19:40:00.007+02:00

GfG's comment on my earlier post made me realize I'd forgotten to post the results of our Saturday ultrasound. Please forgive me. Sometimes I forget there are worlds outside of Facebook.

So, without further ado...

This was the image on my favorite piece of flair that I found to include the announcement on my board on Facebook (yes, I, the last Flair hold-out on the Facebook planet, have given in and become addicted). I was glad to find it when I google image'd "It's a Boy." Appropriately boyish, don't you think?

MA was, of course, hoping for a sister. She teared up originally, but seems okay with it now.

Yes, we have discussed names. No, we have not made a decision yet. Yes, we've re-shelved our girl name for a second time.

When I was calling my parents to let them know, I couldn't help thinking of this commercial. This, of course, is the re-make Geico did of the old 1-800-COLLECT commercial that I actually remember, but it's still funny, all the same.

Now, I just have to figure out how to crochet cool booties like Claire on LOST.

Fortunately, the site where I found this image (which amuses me; it's all about knit/crocheted items spotted on television) includes a link to a similar pattern (fortunately, although the poster is Hispanic and most of the site is in Spanish, the pattern itself is in English; I'm not sure I'm quite up for crocheting in Spanish yet; ETA: I just now looked back at the pattern page, which finally fully loaded and noticed that the author is Portuquese; oops; well, I'm *definitely* not up for crocheting in Portuguese! :-P).

Our School Day

2009-01-21T13:12:00.002+02:00

I had an e-mail from a new friend the other day* asking a few questions. Among them, she wanted to know what curriculum we use and what our school day looks like. She and her family are moving to our area of the world this spring, and she will begin homeschooling at that point. Although she has been a classroom teacher in the past, she has this wild idea that homeschooling will be somewhat different. Hm, probably because it will be. Anyway, I'm shamelessly cutting and pasting from my e-mail reply to share with you here.

The short answer is that we use Sonlight. We are, by definition, a "Sonlight Family." The literature-rich educational track very much fits who ML and I are (basically, bibliovores :-). It also fits with the educational philosophy I was taught under at Baylor, which I really resonated with. In my earliest days of planning to homeschool (before we had kids, even, when I knew I would be raising kids overseas), what I thought out is exactly what Sonlight has done for me. Bottom line, I have come to realize just in the last year that my personal educational philosophy is to surround my kids with books and then supplement with workbooks, as needed.

Now, when I say we use Sonlight, that's going to look very different from someone who orders the deluxe, all-in-one package and teaches straight from the Instructor's Guide. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing just that, and it will get your kids a great education. Curriculum planning, though, was my favorite part of teacher training and of teaching public school (6th grade Language Arts, Reading and History for two years), so while I am infinitely grateful to Sonlight for all of the planning they do for me, I just can't leave it alone. :-P

For example, we're finishing up Core 4 right now, having done Cores K-3 the previous years (and bits and pieces of Core Pre-K 4/5 here and there for whomever it was age-appropriate), but for K, I added lots of sequels, and for Cores 1-4, I have rearranged them to flow with the Story of the World series, books 1-4, which we've read as our history "spine" each year (Sonlight uses two different spines over those four years). If you want to see how I laid all that out, I'd be happy to show it to you, but I share that more to say: you can make whatever you pick work for you.

CM, for example, when she homeschooled her kids, used a workbook curriculum that some would consider very dry. She, though, supplemented with so many fun projects and tie-ins that many, if not most, of her homeschool days looked a heck of a lot more fun than ours. :-)

As for our homeschool days, I'll lay out a basic one for you. Of course, it doesn't always go like this, actually, but this is the general flow (keep in mind, this is with a 4th and 2nd grader and a K'er, so it's much more intense than when they were younger).

We start schoolwork after breakfast, between 8 & 9, ideally closer to 8, but we sometimes have late nights, so occasionally it's even 10 (devotionals and Bible reading happen before breakfast, so I don't include that as part of the school day). We start with "independent work," which includes their Math (currently, we do Singapore and Miquon and the boys have drill books from Rod & Staff with a 1/2 page of basic problems to quickly work) and Language Arts (sometimes more independent than others) every day and art, music, map work, timeline, science and/or history projects, depending on the day.

I lay out each book at the beginning of the year and input them into a software program called Homeschool Tracker. Each six weeks, I then lay that out into daily assignments, so they know to check my computer for their list when they need to know what to do. I'm sitting with them during this time (unless I'm off changing a diaper), but I'm not always available to give the next assignment, if I'm helping someone else. They come to me when they have questions, and I'm just generally interacting with them as they do their work, so although we call it independent work, it's still pretty hands-on for me (I often knit or crochet to keep me sitting still; I find if I'm on the computer, I'm not as tuned in as I need to be, even if I'm still sitting right there).

When they've finished with their independent work (which is usually youngest to oldest, since my K'er has just a few things she works on), they listen to their memorization songs on their computer (in another room). In their assignments, I list which songs they're supposed to memorize each week, and MS sets those up in playlists at the beginning of the week with each song repeated three times, so they just listen through their playlists each day. This year, this includes two Wee Sing America songs, a Bible memory song (we've finished the GodRocks! series and just started Seeds Family Worship), and a Schoolhouse Rock multiplication song for all of them (the multiplication song was just supposed to be for JW, but MA and MS wanted them, too, because they are actually videos, and they enjoy them). MS also has a geography song to listen to about every other week. This year, his are US geography. When we start back through our four-year cycle of history, JW and MA will also have geography songs.

At this point, I don't quiz them on their songs. They just listen to them, and in the process, usually memorize them. I plan to be more purposeful about making sure they're memorizing the second time we use these same songs when they're older (although probably not with the Wee Sing America songs, since it's mainly things like Yankee Doodle Dandy :-). Many people have the kids listen to songs at the same time and sing them together. For us, it's more difficult/disruptive to try to find a time that everyone's at a good stopping point or just stop everyone in the middle of something to do this. Up until now, we've still done this weekly to watch our science DVD (since I'm not the best about getting around to the science experiments, I'm super-grateful that Sonlight provides a DVD demonstrating them), and once a week is hard enough. Next year, I think I'm going to rip the DVD and import the experiments into iTunes to include in their memorization songs time, too.

After memorization songs, they each do a lesson of Rosetta Stone Arabic and then have "learning game" time. This rotates between computer, LeapPad, Leapster and Wii. They pick what they play, but it has to be educational (and I make the call on that). Some days, MSi and JW do not get to this point, since they have a decent amount of work to do and/or they dawdle. It's a nice incentive, though, for them to work quickly.

During this time, as long as they've been putting effort into their work, they can get a snack (most often fruit) once breakfast starts to wear off. We break for lunch later or they eat as they finish their independent work, either before or after doing computer schoolwork.

Usually, we then have rest time, which is reading (Sonlight or history-related readers, unless they're way ahead of the game in these). After a little while, I will allow MA (my K'er) to move on to listening to audio books or songs on the iPod once she's read for long enough (she was an early reader, but she still has an age-average attention span).

After rest time, we do read-alouds, which is literature every day, history 1-2 days/week and science 1 day/week. MS has outlining to do for each history chapter and a test to take afterwards (another thing which MA and JW will join in on next time through history).

And that's our school day.

Oh, and what's my 3-year-old doing this whole time? Unfortunately, spending way too much time on the computer, but also often playing independently or sitting to be read a book or stopping in for a snuggle in my lap. Next year, he will be more incorporated into our routine. He's very introverted, though, so it suits him well to kind of keep out of the thick of things at this point, and I make sure he gets some one-on-one attention later in the day, in addition to what he gets during school time.

*(read: over a month ago. I'm very bad about putting off things that I think will take a while to do. Like e-mails that require more than one-sentence replies. I'm working on that. I promised I would reply to her follow-up questions with less than a month turn-around. I'm sure that encouraged her.)

Pacifier Progress

2008-12-31T13:44:00.007+02:00

Thought I'd update on the Big Operation going down in our area of the world. No, not that operation. I'm not going there. You can either guess my thoughts or you probably don't want to know (and that's the closest I'm hopefully ever going to come to discussing politics on my blog). I was more referring to this operation. Hey, it feels big when you're living it, okay?

So, the first night, ZL cried for 45 minutes. Seriously, he looked like a little addict going through withdrawal, thrashing around on his bed. It was pitiful. And I thought of Jackie Pullinger as I prayed over him. Fortunately, sleep came eventually. And when he woke up at 5:30 the next morning and got into bed with us (something he does when we're sleeping in), he went back to sleep quickly. No problem.

Night two: he cried for 5-10 minutes. Yay! Only, when he came into our bed at 4:45, he wouldn't go back to sleep. So, I put him back in his bed. And he came back to ours. And ML put him back in his. And he came back to ours. And I put him back in his. This went on until I finally got up with him at about 7:00. Not fun.

Night three: he cried for 2-3 minutes. Whoopee! And when he came into our room in the middle of the night, I took him straight back to his own bed, and he fell asleep. And slept until we got him up this morning.

Okay, so we seem to have the nighttime part of the routine down. Only one problem: Z hasn't taken a nap since we took the paci away. He just will not give in and go to sleep. It's like he's tired enough at night time to make it through not having the paci, but not at nap time. And he's seriously grumpy as a result. As if his recent obsession with the word "no" wasn't enough.

I'm not ready for him to give up naps. And I really don't think he is either. Here's hoping that he'll regain that skill sans paci.

And, for posterity, some classic Z-with-paci pictures.

A classic ZL picture all around. ZL gets overwhelmed in social settings, and we have allowed him to retreat to a Blue's Clues episode on my iPod when necessary. This particular day was on our vacation a little over a year ago, and it had been a long no-nap day. Lunch was late, so we let him chill while we waited for our food.

At the end of a visit to the Children's Museum. Either after ZL was tired of walking or Mommy and Daddy were tired of chasing him. One or the other.

At Wartburg Castle at the end of our trip to Germany this summer. I thought this particular picture was an appropriate representation of this particular week for Z. He spent a lot of time in the stroller. There were just too, too many people for him to process. And it was his first experience (in his memory) with organized childcare. They ended up parking the stroller, with his pacifier and B in it, at the door of his classroom. He would play with the other children and the teachers until it just became too overwhelming, at which point he would retreat to the stroller until he was ready to "face the world" again. A rather creative solution I thought, both on the part of the teachers and Z himself.

Love that Middle Eastern tradition!

2008-12-29T19:14:00.003+02:00

Today, the kids played Santa and his elves. They delivered plates of homemade goodies to our neighbors (red plates with Santa napkins decorating them).

"Today?" you say. Yes, today. Because, you see, in the Middle East a holiday starts the day of the holiday but extends past the day itself 3-5 days. Basically, the opposite of Western tradition of the season leading up to the day and ending on the calendar day.

I love it, because it means we prepare ourselves and our family (with Advent and shopping and gift unwrapping, etc.) in the days leading up to Christmas. We celebrate with our ex-pat friends the day of. And then we host guests and deliver presents and treats to our local friends and neighbors afterwards.

It spreads the season (read: the busyness) out perfectly.

Deck the halls!

2008-12-29T18:49:00.009+02:00

And you thought I'd forgotten to post pictures of the decorations! Okay, so I had, but I remembered...finally.

And here they are. (Fair warning: they're not stellar, but they pretty much get the point across.)

Standing inside our front door, looking through the doorways to our Christmas tree.

Looking from our family area into the dining area. The sole point of this picture is to show off our Texas-tribute pepper lights (which quit lighting up a couple of days ago :-( ).

And the tree itself. Decidedly not "Eat at Joe's," but definitely less perfectionistic than years past.

Our nativity collection: Palestine (top), Mexico (bottom left), and Honduras (bottom right) and two of the kids' stockings (temporary, until Mommy gives up and turns the whole project over to DeeDah [get ready, Mom, they're all yours now]).

The kids' tree. More on the Eat at Joe's end of the spectrum.

See, I let them have colored lights (and all the ornaments that belong to them, plus those that didn't quite "make" the family tree :-).

And, last but not least, our Advent calendar (see a previous post for the Advent wreath, too). This was given to us by ML's mom one Christmas when MS was a toddler, and it has been a fun part of our Christmas celebration ever since (okay, so hot-gluing all the pieces back to their velcro got a little old the first couple of years, but they're now permanently affixed). The kids take turns placing the day's figure. And the rule is that, whomever's day it is to place the figure gets to choose where to place it, no criticism or re-placing allowed (look again, and you'll see what I mean).

The end of Christmas

2008-12-29T16:00:00.005+02:00

"The end of Christmas" sounds so dire, but we've had a really good Christmas season, and it's okay for it to come to an end. It wouldn't be special if it was all year long (and it's certainly felt like that as long as we've kept our house decorated in years past :-/).

So, on Christmas Eve, we went (courtesy of my and ML's Christmas gift money from my parents) to a Christian village outside of the capital to eat dinner and see the town Christmas tree and the decorated houses. I mentioned this in another post, but now I have a picture!

The tree in the town's main circle

The food was delicious (Lebanese, so a twist on the standard restaurant fare that we would get), the fellowship was sweet (we went with the family whom we've been working with since we came overseas 9+ years ago), and the lights were beautiful (both the tree and the decorated houses).

I mentioned most of our Christmas day but promised pictures. Seems like pretty much everyone was too busy having fun (and eating Mexican food and desserts) to take pictures, just like we were.

There were two cute ones of ZL in his Christmas gift from the G family...a giraffe costume.

Grumpy Giraffe

Happy Giraffe

Ever though there is no pictorial proof, trust us that we had a fun time. We all enjoyed our presents, and we even got to talk to DeeDah and GranJack (my parents) on the computer in the midst of it all.

Speaking of, we also got to Ina and Boba (ML's parents) the next day, and Saturday night we were able to see and say hi to all of GranJack's extended family, including Nanny, his mother, and Gabriela, his niece, for whom the purple dragon is named. They were gathered in Austin at my cousin's house (and had been at my brother's house, as well) for their Christmas celebrations. Since we were able to see and say hi to all of ML's extended family at Thanksgiving, we feel very, very blessed by the internet and webcams and the way they help us stay connected.

And now, I need a nap.

We did it! We did it!

2008-12-29T10:37:00.003+02:00

Okay, three guesses as to what we finally accomplished last night. And the first two don't count.

(And he only cried for 45 minutes, poor guy. I tried to lay down with him, but it seemed to just be keeping him awake, so ML just sat in the hall to make sure he wasn't getting out of bed, since that's what our others did. He never even tried. Just cried. Hopefully tonight will be better. Especially since he's pretty grumpy today.)

On the forty-seventh day of Christmas...

2008-12-27T16:14:00.010+02:00

Okay, so it didn't feel like the forty-seventh day, but I felt like I've written about that many posts so far. :-P

We got home way too late on Christmas Eve to open our last presents, so on Christmas morning, we...

celebrated Advent (the Christmas Day readings from our K Family Advent Service),

raided our stockings,

had breakfast from them (sorry, no pictures, but everyone picks a cereal box or breakfast bar [no Pop Tarts to be found this year :-(], and we scramble eggs),

and then opened presents.

From our name-drawing on ML's side of the family, we got...

an Aquadoodle mat from Cousin Liselle,

a new Hermie DVD and a Webkinz ballet costume from Cousin Noelle,

a Webkinz monkey figurine and two very cool Wall-E t-shirts from Cousin Luke,

and a Webkinz camo outfit and extremely cool book, Art Fraud Detective from Cousin Charis (in spite of the fact that he looks rather non-plussed in the picture, he took his fully camo-decked-out koala and his book with us to our big Christmas party :-).

ML got two very nice shirts from his brother-in-law, Aaron, and I got an awesome knitting book (Mason-Dixon Knitting, supposed to be very funny and helpful/practical) and a great DVD (Ever After) from ML's sister, Mindy.

Thank you so much, everyone!

After present opening, we did some mad wrapping and last-minute preparations for our big Christmas celebration with our ex-pat friends here (fortunately, I'd already cooked my main contributions, refried beans and el charro beans, ahead of time in the crockpot). We had such a wonderful time eating Mexican food, opening presents, swapping white elephant gifts and playing Worst Case Scenario that we forgot to take any pictures. I'm going to try to round some up so that I can post them. That and a picture of the largest Christmas tree in-country that we visited on Christmas Eve. Our camera was out of battery, so we're going to need to get that from a friend.

So, I haven't completely blogged Christmas, but I think I get some prize for number of posts today, don't you? Maybe I can finish tomorrow. Right now, though, I've got to exercise, shower and get the kids ready to head to our friends' house for a Numb3rs watching session. ML will join us after his guest leaves.

Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night! (Or afternoon! Or whatever time of the day it is when you read this!)

On the fifth day of Christmas...

2008-12-27T13:59:00.008+02:00

There. I decided to forego the table for now. We'll be eating on it between now and when the guest comes, anyway. So, I ordered children around and washed some dishes. Not that you can tell. There's still a mound on the counter. That's what happens when you do Christmas baking, leave the house for the majority of the time for 48 hours, have no water for the following 24 hours, and still have pesky family members who actually want to eat in the midst of it all.

I realized as I went to tell about this day that I'd forgotten to mention one family present we'd opened the first day: a family membership to the children's museum in the capital from Nanny (my dad's mom). I went looking for a post to link to, thinking that I'd blogged about the museum, but apparently I haven't. I'll try to do that soon (in the meantime, I've included a few pictures). It's an amazing place. When the museum opened, we asked about memberships, but they weren't available. Now they are, so we're going to join. Only we're going to wait until we get back from the States in June so we don't waste three months of our membership while we're gone. We're very grateful to have Christmas money to spend on a treat we might not be able to afford otherwise right now. And we look forward to many, many hours of fun enjoying it. :-) Thank you, Nanny!

Now, for our presents from DeeDah and GranJack (my parents)...

ML had the brilliant idea of getting an easel for ZL this year. You see, he apparently enjoys drawing while standing up over drawing with paper on a flat surface like the dining table. Consequently, the walls of our house have suffered a tad (which is a huge understatement :-/). Fortunately, he's finally submitted to the "gentle persuasion" of his parents and has stopped drawing on the walls, but we still thought an easel would be an excellent gift for him. And he has thoroughly enjoyed it already.

For "The Bigs," DeeDah and GranJack gave magazine subscriptions. We have had success paying a little extra for shipping and actually having children's magazines delivered to our P.O. Box here, so we're hoping it will work with this company, as well. The kids love receiving things in the mail, so this will be a special treat. MA is pictured here with a certificate for Ladybug Magazine. Upon further inspection, we realized that Ladybug was a little too juvenile for her, so we're getting her Spider Magazine, instead.

JW was originally slated to get Spider, but we decided that he would more greatly appreciate Ask Magazine, which is science-related.

And the magazine that started it all: Cricket Magazine for MS. ML and I both enjoyed this magazine as older children, and I'm trying to confirm this, but I'm remembering it's one of the few venues where I've ever actually published writing. Anyway, we showed him several pages of a sample copy on-line, and he's very excited.

Before we opened presents this particular evening, we did have a brief discussion of and vocabulary lesson pertaining to the meaning of "non-immediate gratification." They did well. :-)

Thank you, DeeDah and GranJack!!!

On the fourth day of Christmas...

2008-12-27T12:03:00.010+02:00

Okay. I'm back.

The fourth day this year was the toy/game from Daddy and Mommy. We had a hard time coming up with what we wanted to give JW and MS. Two years out from visiting the States, I had nothing left stashed, and nothing available locally was wowing us. After several brainstorming sessions, though, we were pleased with what we came up with. And so were they, fortunately.

What I did have stashed was this Noah's ark set of lacing cards. ZL is getting the hang of them, although, I have to admit, they wowed MA more, and we had to fend her off of them so that he had our traditional three-day-exclusivity possession of his new gift (each child gets three days to play with a new toy without having to share; this is enforced more strictly with some things than others, depending on the nature of the gift and the child).

Another gift I pulled from the stash was a Melissa and Doug wooden food set complete with cutting board and (wooden) knife. The pieces of the food are velcro'd together, so that you can "cut" them with the knife. I wasn't totally sure that MA hadn't passed this stage yet. I mean, she's been wanting a more elaborate play kitchen, but this was "just" wooden food with a knife. Boy, was I wrong. This was the feel-good hit of the winter. She absolutely loved it. And has played with it consistently each day since she got it.

We stretched the definition of toy/game on this one, but we knew JW would be totally blessed by a season of Fetch With Ruff Ruffman, a show all three older kids enjoy (and, shhh, learn from). He was. And Mommy is blessed by all they're learning in the process.

A last-minute inspiration, I remembered that MS has been drooling over some of the downloadable games available on the Wii Shop Channel. Unfortunately, you can't buy printable gift certificates on-line. Fortunately, Daddy could easily make one. He was extremely please (even though he'd peaked and seen the certificate several days earlier in Daddy's satchel :-/) and has already bought one of the original Zelda games. (And, yes, I know that this is not the best picture of him. The other one was worse. :-P It was late, and we needed to get the kids in bed, so I don't think we were being very discerning about picture quality at this point.)

Now, I'm going to go sweep and wipe down the dining table. Any other moms out there ever get discouraged by the never-ending battle to keep the table clean?

On the third day of Christmas...

2008-12-27T11:33:00.008+02:00

I'm going to try to blow through the rest of our Christmas by making several posts today so that you're not still reading about our Christmas traditions on Groundhogs Day. We'll see if I have time to, though, because it's also straighten-the-house-because-we-have-guests-over-the-next-couple-of-days-visiting-us-for-our-holiday day at the K house. While the kids can do a decent amount on their own, I don't think it would be completely fair to direct them from behind the computer (at least not the whole day).

The third day, this year, was "sibling presents." When MS turned seven, we instituted the tradition that your seven-year-old Christmas was the year you started buying presents for your brothers and sisters. He had a great time shopping for them, and has selected some special gifts over the past couple of Christmases and birthdays. JW was a little more problematic, as he does not like to spend money, and he has trouble making decisions for himself, much less others (he's much more of a slow, internal processor; he comes by it naturally). We managed to work around that, though, and they were all appreciative of what they got.

ZL received two new Dr. Seuss books, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and There's a Wocket in My Pocket from his brothers. He's been very into Seuss and similar rhyming books, and I've wanted us to have the full versions of these two for a while (as opposed to the board book versions, which are abridged), so he really cleaned up.

While at an ex-pat rummage sale a few weeks ago, MS found this purple dragon for MA. She loves it and has named it Gabriela after my cousin's daughter whom she had a wonderful time playing with...2-3 years ago. MA has her mother's memory for detail. She also received a gift certificate from JW to purchase a book at one of the bookstores in the capital and bought two new Berenstain Bears books when we were there yesterday.

Knowing JW well, MS chose a book for him. We eventually managed to tear him away from it to put him to bed.

Sticking with the gift certificate theme, JW got MS a certificate to the same bookstore, and he, too, picked out a book yesterday.

Think I'll go sweep under the dining table now...

On the second day of Christmas...

2008-12-24T10:19:00.010+02:00

Our second day of present opening, which has traditionally been the DVD.

This year...

ZL got a season of Super Why! on iTunes. He loved the one episode we'd bought previously to check it out (after MA learned about it playing the game on PBSKids.org). And it's where he is in the learning-to-read process. He knows his letter sounds but needs to sit on how letters go together to make words. The show teaches phonics and word families in a really fun way through familiar stories (Three Little Pigs, Rapunzel, etc.) with a twist.

We weren't sure how Z was going to do with the whole "gift certificate" concept, and I actually meant to have a couple of the episodes already downloaded so that he could go watch one immediately, but I forgot. Fortunately, he was *super* excited! He loved the picture of Alpha Pig and his buddies. He went to sleep with the paper that night and still carries it around the house when he finds it. :-P (Oh, and he's enjoyed a couple of new episodes so far, too. :-)

And while we're on the topic of ZL and Christmas, this kid has really gotten into present opening. He digs the whole open-it-up-get-something-new thing. We have to be careful when he's around other people's presents, or he'll tear into them, too. And the boy who normally does not like being torn away from whatever it is he's doing to do anything else (we're working on that) will come running when we announce it's time to open presents. We all love to call him and watching him speed in.

MA got a Jungle Book DVD. It has both English and Arabic soundtracks, so after the kids (and ML and I) watch it a couple of times, we'll watch it in Arabic occasionally for help with language. Disney is one of the few companies that consistently does quality dubbing into Arabic (most just have subtitles), so we try to get the best of their movies with the dual track option as a fun way to increase our learning.

Honestly, I was hoping for Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella or another of the classic princess movies. MA would have been thrilled. But we only know of one store in-country that consistently sells the original DVD's (there's not much market when they're all available pirated), and they didn't have any of those options. She was slightly non-plussed, but I think once we watch it, she'll be pleased.

The Muppets have long been a family favorite dating back to when my own mom was in grad school and my dad and I would watch the Muppets together on her "class night" each week. My kids love them, and I had to stop myself from going broke buying the horribly expensive three-episode-per-DVD editions they were putting out a few years ago. The seasons are much more affordable. We bought Season 1 as soon as it came out and have fully enjoyed it as a family. So, JW, who chuckles and guffaws almost the whole time we're watching each time, got Season 2 as his DVD gift this year (and they already know that Season 3 is waiting for them to watch at DeeDah's house when we go to visit, so they feel pretty blessed).

And MS got...silly. What you get for asking a 9-year-old boy to smile for the camera.

Actually, he got an Incredibles DVD, which also has Arabic and English soundtracks. We watched it (in English) the other night as a family. I don't think we'd seen it since we went to see it in the theater, and ML and I had forgotten how much we liked it. I look forward to watching it again, both in English and in Arabic. But first, we have to watch the Pixar shorts that ML wouldn't let us watch without him when he had to go to work the other day. :-)

Follow-up

2008-12-22T18:05:00.002+02:00

GfG asked if we all opened presents each day or just one person. It's actually just the kids, and they all open each day. But explaining that made me realize that I left out a tradition: ML and just get each other stocking stuffers. Then, we spend the money we would have spent on each other on something for the home. Preferably something that we will both enjoy/get use out of.

This year, we got new curtains in our bedroom (which actually blesses ML, for those wondering; he has a true appreciation for decor and ambiance), and we're getting a new stereo for the van (which actually blesses me, since I'll be able to plug my iPod directly into it and play stuff on family trips and as I drive around). So he and I only have presents to open on Christmas Eve, usually (from the gift-exchange from dh's family; we draw names). From my family, we usually have gifts that arrive via e-mail (iTunes certificates from my brother) or bank account (my parents). And we tend to save/combine the bank account ones to spend, so they don't go under the tree, either.

For example, we're using our money from my parents to go out to eat as a family on Christmas Eve with some ex-pat friends in a Christian village that has a large Christmas tree and lots of lighted homes. So, we'll eat dinner (at a Lebanese restaurant), and then drive around and see the tree and lights. Finances being what they are this year, we are extremely blessed to be able to have Christmas money that allows us to do this.

On the first day of Christmas

2008-12-22T17:10:00.011+02:00

We usually start with the "book" present of our three gifts from Mommy and Daddy. As much as books are treasured, we wanted to make sure they didn't get overlooked among the more flashy gifts. As our children have grown, I have come to realize we needn't worry about that. Books *are* flashy to them. But we've stuck with the tradition.

ZL's book is actually one ML's mom bought for him several years ago when his older cousin was going through a phase of loving this particular type of book. I put it back, because I just didn't think he'd be interested yet. Well, this was the *perfect* year to give it to him. He has loved it. It has removable figures that depict the story (not that he's sat still for the story yet :-) and can be played with in the bathtub, too, since it's foam rubber. He opened it with gusto, and then played with it with gusto. We even have a cute video. If I ever figure out how to convert and post the videos from our camera, I'll do so.

I saw MA looking at this book at one of the bookstores here and thought it fit her well. Pink. Glittery. Large vocabulary words. That's my girl to a "T." She didn't even remember looking at it previously but has enjoyed it.

JW marches to the beat of his own drummer. And he has definite opinions and preferences. He thinks it's a waste to use wrapping paper just once. I mean, we save gift sacks and tissue paper (as dictated by the genes from the maternal segment of my family), why waste wrapping paper after only one use? This first night, he meticulously removed each piece of tape (you can see the pile on the chair next to him, if you look closely at the second picture). After *all* tape was extracted, he unwrapped the paper and took a look at the book. It was a bit excruciating for some of the members of the family. Others of us found it amusing. Either way, he was very pleased with the present, an Astrix book.

MS also received an Astrix book. Daddy's childhood love for yet another series is being passed on. They finished their own books and promptly exchanged.

Traditioooon. Tradition. Tra-di-tion.

2008-12-22T16:27:00.003+02:00

Thought I'd share a couple of our family Christmas traditions with you all and include a few pictures of the first night of one of our traditions (sorry, Tressa, haven't gotten the decorations photographed yet; I'll try to do that today).

I think I've mentioned here that we have developed a tradition of giving each kid three Christmas presents from Daddy & Mommy: a book, a DVD (or TV show season), and a toy/game. This keeps Christmas to a relative minimum and gives us some structure to our shopping. Plus, it helps us plan ahead when we're buying Christmas presents in June or July when we're in the US or someone is coming to visit.

This tradition is related to another of ours: we open one present per day each day until Chrismas Eve (Christmas morning is stockings).*

The above two traditions are related in that they stem from what we affectionately refer to as The Christmas That Was Way Out of Control (which is better than ML's family's Worst Christmas Ever, but that's a whole 'nother post). MS was two, about to turn three. JW was a baby. It took MS hours, truly hours, to open all of his presents. We were constantly forcing him to abandon playing with one new toy in order to move on to opening the next (all while JW was happily rocking in his Fisher Price rocking chair, laughing at the ripping paper). These were toys from ML and I, toys from my parents, toys from ML's parents, and toys from all three of our siblings (later that day, we celebrated with the other ex-pat family and exchanged more presents :-). Oh yeah, and we had purchase presents on behalf of three great-grandmothers. I think, partly, we were all trying to make up for a crudy couple of years, which had included WM's death and an emergency evacuation. I think, too, that it had something to do with the fact that, at this point, there were only two other grandchildren on one side and none on the other. And MS was still the only grandchild past a babyhood. Even in the midst of the present opening, I remember thinking, "This is way out of control." And I know ML had similar thoughts.

While we didn't whittle down to our three gifts for several years (partially because it doesn't completely work with toddlers), the very next year we started backing up present opening based on the number we had to open to work out to one per day. If I remember correctly, we miscalculated and had a couple to open Christmas Eve, but it was still a vast improvement. Presents, even "less desirable" ones like "just a book" (practically a heretical phrase in our house, but you get the idea) were fully appreciated and fawned over. For a whole day. There was even a year where we were very busy around Christmas time due to it coinciding with a Muslim holiday during which we had many visits to make (the Muslim calendar is lunar, so the holidays move in relation to ours; therefore, this isn't always the case). That year, we were still opening presents through the end of December.

This year, we're on track to get finish opening our presents Christmas Eve. Then, Christmas morning, there will be Advent, stockings, breakfast from our stockings (with scrambled eggs), and preparations for our ex-pat Christmas dinner gathering (which will be Mexican food this year!). I'll write more about those things as they come to pass.

I think I'll close this post and put up a separate one with the pictures. It'll be less cluttered.

*The finishing up of present opening on Christmas Eve was a minor relational bump early on in our marriage as ML's family opened all presents Christmas Eve and did only stockings Christmas morning, whereas my family opened one present on Christmas Eve (a tradition my brother and I conveniently made up one Christmas Eve) and then did stockings and presents on Christmas morning. And when I say minor bump, I mean minor bump. I decided that A) Christmas Eve was as good a day as any to open presents (or finish up opening, as it's developed) and B) ML is *super* easy-going, so if he had a preference on this, I should take advantage of the fact that he was expressing it and go with it.

Check-up...I mean -in

2008-12-18T19:10:00.003+02:00

I know, I know. It's been too long since I've blogged. I've been in the throes of morning sickness (a misnomer, if I ever heard one).

And I actually threw up (sorry, if you didn't want to know that; I won't mention it directly again). :-( I was so disappointed. I'd been tapering off from the up to five-times-a-day with MS down to once with MA and not at all with JW. I came out of the bathroom and announced to ML, "I broke my track record." It was a surprisingly defeating thought. And, I admit, I forgot to thank the Lord that I was sick at that point.

However, I have felt much better from that point onwards. I think part of that is that it made me get serious about keeping food, especially protein, in my system, no matter what ends (read: finances and convenience food) I have to go to to do so. We now have lunch meat in the house. And bread consistently for sandwiches (white ). And Honey Nut Cheerios (the milk being the protein there, in case you were wondering). And lots and lots of eggs.

May I introduce you to egg bowls? Basically, they're eggs scrambled in the microwave with extra stuff thrown in, as desired, and topped with salsa and sour cream, if desired, too. I've been having them about once a day. We first heard of doing this from my aunt and uncle (my mom's brother, but that's not important right now) and cousins one Christmas when we were first married. We were all still gathering at my grandmother's house, but she was already declining to the point that she couldn't cook for us all, so this was the solution for a couple of breakfasts.

The funny thing is that we'd forgotten about them until we were watching the crew of NCIS savor their breakfast burritos on one episode and seriously salivating. This is after having watched them eat take-out Chinese on more than one occasion. Cruel, I tell you. Just cruel. I came up with the idea to have egg bowls as a substitute. That night we had them with just cheese and salsa, but we've since stocked the house with sour cream and lunch meat (it's not just for sandwiches, you know), and we even had them one night for dinner as actual breakfast burritos wrapped in the local equivalent of tortillas. Yum!

Oh, and guess where ML and I went last night on our date night? A Chinese/Thai restaurant in the new mall in the capital that we've been meaning to check out. It was *delicious* and definitely a place to return to.

I'd rather eat Spam for the rest of my life...

2008-12-11T19:55:00.003+02:00

*
Sure enough, I e-mailed the IT guys at dh's home-base office, which is where our e-mail is routed through, and my Blogger comment e-mails were stuck in the spam filter (I almost capitalized "spam"). J "unstuck" them for me, so we're all good now. Love helpful IT people! (Dh included. :-)

Comment away!

*The title is a really obscure reference to the Christian heavy metal band, Trial, that my youth group friends played in when we were in high school. One of their t-shirts said, "I'd rather eat Spam for the rest of my life than serve Satan." I probably still have one in a drawer at my parents' house. And, for the record, I actually like Spam. Especially (well, I guess "only," since it's the only way I've really eaten it) as Mom's Spam salad (basically, tuna salad made with grated Spam).

I Corinthians 13...for homeschooling moms

2008-12-09T10:39:00.003+02:00

I missed this on the SL forums, because I've been hanging mainly on the International Board, but BETHANY posted it on her blog, and I got the author's permission to re-post it here (see Misty's original post).

Wow, it speaks to some of the primary struggles of homeschooling moms. I'm going to need to revisit it periodically.

So, whether you're a homeschooling mom yourself or know someone who is or would just like a peek into that "foreign culture," I present "I Corinthians 13 for the Homeschooling Mom."

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and teach my children Latin conjugations, Chinese and Portuguese, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and no matter what I say, they will not hear me.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know my children’s bents and God’s plan for their lives, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and am the keeper of the teacher’s editions and solutions manuals, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and even keep up with my giant piles of laundry and dishes, but do not have love, I am nothing, even if all the people at church think I’m Supermom.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and my formal dining room gets turned into a schoolroom and our family vacations look more like educational fieldtrips, and if I surrender my body to be burned, never having time to get my nails done, put makeup on or even take a bath, but do not have love, it profits me nothing, because all my family cares about is the expression on my face, anyway.

Love is patient with the child who still can’t get double-digit subtraction with borrowing, and kind to the one who hasn’t turned in his research paper. It is not jealous of moms with more, fewer, neater, more self-directed, better-behaved or smarter children. Love does not brag about homemade bread, book lists, or scholarships and is not arrogant about her lifestyle or curriculum choices. It does not act unbecomingly or correct the children in front of their friends. It does not seek its own, trying to squeeze in alone time when someone still needs help; it is not provoked when interrupted for the nineteenth time by a child, the phone, the doorbell or the dog; does not take into account a wrong suffered, even when no one compliments the dinner that took hours to make or the house that took so long to clean.

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or pointing out everyone else’s flaws, but rejoices with the truth and with every small step her children take in becoming more like Jesus, knowing it’s only by the grace of God when that occurs.

Love bears all things even while running on no sleep; believes all things, especially God’s promise to indwell and empower her, hopes all things, such as that she’ll actually complete the English curriculum this year and the kids will eventually graduate, endures all things, even questioning from strangers, worried relatives, and most of all, herself.

Love never fails. And neither will she. As long as she never, never, never gives up.

Misty Krasawski, December 8, 2008

TCK "I never" statements

2008-12-08T13:52:00.004+02:00

Okay, according to the top google searches, "I Never" is most commonly a drinking game, ala Kate and Sawyer in the jungle. For our intents and purposes, though, we'll go with the Mormon description.

A SL friend, MissKris, is teaching a class at her international weekly gathering about Third Culture Kids, primarily for new members of the gathering whose children are often newly TCK'd (yeah, it's a verb now, too). She asked on the SL International Board for suggestions of "I never" statements, either from the perspective to of the TCK himself (i.e. "I never pumped my own gas.") or from a home country peer (i.e. "I never rode on a camel."). Between us, we came up with 170 "I never" statements!

Some are region specific, and some apply to many/most TCK's. If you'd like to, you can guess which apply to our children, in particular and/or how someone raised stateside (i.e. their cousins or friends from church) might relate to them. I'll post in a couple of days specific ones that they do or will understand from their experiences.

A few of these are repeats, since they were posted at the same time, but you get the idea. And a few don't fit the grammar structure of the "I never" statement. Just suspend grammar critique for a moment or two.

(I just realized that several of these are specific to TCK's whose parents are two different nationalities [i.e. "I never spoke my grandparents' first language."]. This is not uncommon for TCK's whose parents meet working overseas and/or second generation TCK's whose own parent married a national from where they grew up.)

1. I never pumped my own gas.
2. I never rode on a camel.
3. I never ate McArabia at McDonalds.
4. I never watched a goat be sacrificed.
5. I never used the self-check out.
6. I never bought clean eggs.
7. I never had someone else bag my groceries.
8. I never had to pay for a grocery cart.
9. I never had a library card.
10. I never went to a baseball game.
11. I never ate anything that was still moving.
12. I never spoke my grandparents' first language.
13. I never had a bedtime curfew.
14. I never met another person with my first name.
15. I never greeted a family member without a kiss.
16. I never watched live TV.
17. I never watched the Olympics.
18. I never flushed toilet paper.
19. I never separated garbage into recycle bins.
20. I never wrote a check.
21. I never heard of a Wii.
22. I never saw a fire truck or snow plow.
23. I never experienced changing seasons except wet and dry.
24. I never lived where there wasn't cheap public transportation.
25. I never left home without toilet paper in my pocket.
26. I never wore a sleeveless shirt or shorts in public.
27. I never cleaned my own house.
28. I never ate a pop tart.
29. I never drank water from the tap.
30. I never played American football.
31. I never ate a salad before my meal.
32. I never mowed the yard.
33. I never rode a school bus.
34. I've never seen July 4th fireworks.
35. I've never not had a passport.
36. I've never been in a different country as my parents.
37. I've never drank a Dr. Pepper.
38. I never used a dishwasher ... garbage disposal ... vaccum cleaner.
39. I never called adults by their first names - only "auntie" or "uncle."
40. I never thought it was odd that young men sometimes held hands or that girls walked arm-in-arm.
41. I never noticed, much less worried about little insects!.
42. I never got a drivers license.
43. I never got a job (no work permit).
44. I never travelled anywhere without my passport.
45. I've never worn my shoes in the house.
46. I've never eaten raw vegetables without carefully cleaning and soaking them first.
47. I never heard of babies/infants being sent to a nursery during church.
48. I never saw a public drinking fountain.
49. I never go anywhere without taking a water bottle.
50. I never left food lying around in the kitchen because of critters.
51. I never learned to ride a bike until I was much older.
52. I never experienced a cold Christmas, much less a white Christmas.
53. I never had a fireplace.
54. I never saw WHITE eggs.
55. I never heard of people NOT being allowed to hang out laundry in their own backyards.
56. I never had to take a stick with me when walking the dog (to fend off strays).
57. I never threw little table scraps or garbage right out the window for the chickens to eat.
58. I never worried about the power going out.
59. I never took a taxi.
60. I never smelled incense from within my own house.
61. I never had strangers cleaning the house.
62. I never could not continue a phone conversation because the rain on the roof was too loud.
63. I never had to think about "which voltage" an appliance was.
64. I never could NOT read signs.
65. I never got excited about Dr Pepper being in stock.
66. I never saw a dog/dogs walking down the church aisle.
67. I never saw a bat swooping around during church.
68. I never saw men lined-up to "take a leak" off the side of the road.
69. I never "rated" public bathrooms.
70. I never did time zones, never thought about what time it was somewhere else in the world.
71. I (hardly ever) ate out because it was too expensive.
72. I never had to rush out to the clothesline with my mom to rescue laundry before it rained.
73. I never traveled more than three hours in a car without stopping at a checkpoint.
74. I never opened Christmas and/or birthday presents in front of a webcam.
75. I have never eaten something without knowing what it was beforehand.
76. I never translated for my (visiting) grandparent/relative.
77. I have never been shopping by myself.
78. I never played a sport/taken a lesson in a language I didn't speak.
79. I have never been frustrated that a school book assumed that I lived in America.
80. I have never gotten a question wrong on a standardized test, because it assumed I knew something common in my home country.
81. I never got hot water directly from a faucet.
82. I never thought twice about the fact that my mom baked all our bread.
83. I never drank milk from a plastic carton (powdered or boxed only).
84. I never used certain words ("m") in public places.
85. I never used my left hand to eat/give things to people.
86. I never quite realized I could travel within my home country without having to show my passport.
87. I never thought only in "dollars" - I always converted to the local currency (and vice versa).
88. I've never seen a cul de sac.
89. I've never seen those mailboxes with the flags.
90. I've never seen a freeway.
91. I never shopped at a HUGE membership stores.
92. I've never seen such large milkshakes (the super sizes).
93. I've never seen those soft drink dispensers with the "free refills" at fast food outlets.
94. I'd never seen homeless people holding signs ("will work for food").
95. I'd never seen so many cool ads come in the mail.
96. I'd never seen one of those red coupon machines like they have in the grocery stores.
97. I'd never seen more than 1 Chevy at a time.
98. I never saw mail boxes to post letters in for them to be then mailed to an address somewhere in country.
99. I never saw snow.
100. I never knew there weren’t only 2 seasons - wet and dry.
101. I never had a fireplace, no central heating or a/c..
102. I never had the gas is pumped for us at the gas station.
103. I never had the food packed for us at the stores.
104. I never knew you can leave your gun in a locker while you shop.
105. I never knew you say good morning to people even if you dont know them.
106. I never knew men standing with back to you by a wall/tree usually means taking a potty break .
107. I never saw a workman taking a leak into a little plastic bag, tying it up and then putting it in his pocket.
108. I never saw mangy dogs wandering around instead of being rescued and the owners prosecuted.
109. I've never had the accent of your birth country, or from host country but from the majority of expat citizens that we know.
110. I never sharing christmas with extended family.
111. I never knew that tolilets could flush themselves.
112. I never knew that some people would ACTUALLY be offended by the occasional unrestrained burp (even though Mom had warned me).
113. I never knew that forks were ACTUALLY not optional.
114. I never knew that asking if I could push the button in the elevator at age 13 would bring strange looks from other people.
115. I never knew that I could make other little boys cry by just trying to get them to wrestle with me.
116. I never knew that longing for and identifying with the country I was raised in would be interpreted as 'anti American.'
117. I never knew that questioning the way things are done in the States would be considered unpatriotic.
118. I never knew that shoes were truly necessary.
119. I never had a boyfriend/girlfriend.
120. I never thought I was too old to play tag.
121. I never wore makeup at age 12.
122. I never worried about my hair.
123. I never heard of Tommy Hilfiger (or other name brands).
124. I never drank more than one drink at dinner (no free refills).
125. I never knew you could get a refill for free at dinner.
126. I never knew you could eat some foods with your fingers, besides just french fries, and w/o a napkin to hold the finger food.
127. I never had to look out for a motorcycle coming up the sidewalk behind me (or towards me).
128. I never knew that eye contact on the street was considered polite.
129. I never knew that ALL streets have lines dividing the lanes, not just a few.
130. I never got woken up by Grandparents who got the time difference wrong on my birthday.
131. I never realized that there were people who had never seen another culture.
132. I never knew where to shop for almost all the ethnic foods mentioned in a "around the world textbook" easily in our neighborhood.
133. I never knew that in some countries stop signs are more than a friendly suggestion
134. I never knew the English measurements (non-metric).
135. I never knew you could be fined for disturbing the peace by hiring a band to play at an all-night outdoor party in the neighborhood.
136. I never knew people might expect you to actually show up on time for an event.
137. I never could say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the National Anthem without a cheat sheet.
138. I never knew the names of my first cousins.
139. I never knew that red lights really mean stop, even after 7 pm.
140. I never knew that a road might suddenly switch directions, such that you might be driving, come up to a friendly suggestion stop sign and also (hopefully) notice a do not enter alerting you to the fact that *that* part of the road has traffic coming towards you.
141. I never knew that some roads have traffic that goes both ways on the same road.
142. I never knew that people might live in houses, at ground level, without razor wire, or broken glass, or electric wire, or other security features on their fences/concrete walls.
143. I have never asked for the fattiest piece of meat on the platter.
144. I have never asked if it was okay to sit on the toilet seat rather than climb up and stand on it.
145. I have never taken candy from the complete stranger on the bus and enjoyed it thoroughly (without even asking my parents).
146. I have never asked why we don't study any foreign languages like regular kids (when we are already fluent in three).
147. I have never taken my shoes off right at the door when I go to someone else's house.
148. I have never told a perfect stranger that their nose is cold and that they should go warm up.
149. I have never worn tights as a boy.
150. I have never forgotten to wear a hat when it is cold.
151. I have never swallowed the coffee grounds.
152. I never knew that referring to a Hispanic in the US a "Mexican" was considered racist.
153. I never knew some people consider the metric system difficult.
154. I never knew that some restaurants serve ice in drinks.
155. I never knew that everyone doesn't buy kleenex and umbrellas from a guy standing on the corner.
156. I never knew it was impolite to tell someone they're pudgy or have gained weight.
157. I've never petted a tiger.
158. I've never made a bamboo teepee.
159. I've never sat on the neck of an elephant.
160. I've never watched an elephant poop in the street.
161. I never realised the boy in High School Musical was called "Troy" and not "Choy," a far more common name in China.
162. I have never used an old, uninteresting book as toilet paper.
163. I have never taken "semi-legal" to mean "perfectly within the law."
164. I never drove the speed limit.
165. I never parked on the curb, sidewalk or triple parked.
166. I never did a 3 car wide U turn.
167. I never went to Sunday School on a Friday.
168. I never ate camel. I never drank camel's milk.
169. I never heard the call to prayer.
170. I never went dunebashing.

Reading through these, even the ones which don't apply to our children, you can get an idea of how different and interesting the life of a TCK can be. And you can understand how re-orienting to life in the US, whether it be for a few months or a year or the rest of their lives, can be a challenge.

Those TCK's say the darndest things!

2008-12-04T16:46:00.004+02:00

I may have explained the concept of TCK here before, but it's basically a person who has spent a significant amount of his/her formative years in a culture other than that of either of his/her parents. They have their own "third culture," not their "passport culture" (that of either/both of their parents) and not the culture(s) in which they're living. This includes MK's, business kids, oil kids, military brats, and diplomat kids (no offense to the military kids; it's just the term). And, obviously, our kids.

There's a whole book on the subject (more than one, actually; the one I linked is just the place I would suggest as a start), and hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of research has gone into the uniqueness that is this group. Because, you see, the interesting thing is that, no matter what culture they've grown up in, they have similar characteristics. And they relate to each other, even if they grew up in opposite corners of the world.

I could go on. And I might some day. But the point of this post is to share some funny stories that have resulted from the experiences of my own little TCK's (and one from my own big TCK :-). Mama in the City on SL started a thread asking for TCK stories a while back, and here are a few I contributed.

MA was getting ready for the staff Christmas party at ML's work. I told ML that we needed to make sure to get a picture of her in her dress that day, because my mom bought it for her (and she got sick before we got a picture on Thanksgiving). MA's response, "I know what we can do, we just have to find some people who don't know me, and they'll take a picture of me with their cell phone!" Can you tell this is a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl who has spent her entire life in a culture that values those traits (too) highly?

Then, there was the time that we were going to a dr's appointment in an upper-class neighborhood in the capital and MS asked what a sound he heard was. ML and I laughed and said, "Honey, that's a lawn mower." Houses here do not have grass, except in that one area of the capital where everyone tries to be as western as possible.

ML's sister and her family were here visiting, and we passed camels on the side of the road. I pointed them out, and our niece got very excited, "A camel! I've never seen a camel before!" MS, in a very bored voice, with a very dead-pan face replied, "Well, I have."

MS has now learned to peruse menus, etc., for English mistakes...just like Mommy and Daddy.

MS was reading a social studies lesson (from his token how-to-learn-from-a-textbook Rod & Staff book) on airplanes (like he needed that lesson). He was thinking out loud a bit as he worked, and then he turned to me and said, "You know, when we fly, I don't really worry about something happening to the airplane. I know that they have lots of high tech things to keep that from happening. I worry about them losing our luggage, because there are so many important things in there." (I promise I have never said a word to him about anything like this. He came up with it all on his own.)

MA came into the kitchen all excited saying, "Mommy, guess what? I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and I turned the handle, and water came out!!!" (We'd been out of water for 24 hours or so.)

And one on the big TCK in the house (ML grew up in Africa, for those that don't know): When they were little, ML was (as usual) aggravating his sister in some way, and she had had it. She told him, very sternly, "M, if you don't start acting better, you're not going to go to Heaven *or* America." Apparently, they were approaching a time stateside and the anticipation had been building.

Things that go verbose in the night.

2008-12-03T22:22:00.003+02:00

Several nights ago, I got up to see why ZL was chattering and wide awake. At 3 AM. Never did figure out exactly, but we're guessing it was a tummy ache from the copious amounts of stuffed grape leaves he ate at a birthday party the previous evening (which he chose over the cookies and cake available).

Anyway, I came back to bed, and it looked suspiciously like ML had rolled over and taken most of my 1/2 of the covers with him in the process (it turns out he had not, but the accusation was not without precedence). When I grumbled/griped about what I thought had happened, his reply was to huff and say, "I have done nothing but show you extravagant kindness!"

Um, I'm used to him saying funny things to me in the middle of the night, but waxing literary is new. I laughed at him and went to sleep. And he laughed at himself the next day when I told him what he'd said.

Turns out it's an epidemic.

Last night at around 2 AM, a short shadow appeared on my side of the bed. I asked JW what the problem was. He started with, "As you can see..." (which I couldn't, but that's kind of beside the point) and proceeded to try to describe his predicament. He then followed me to the bathroom as I heard, "yet I was not aware of how it happened" and "the worst part of the situation was." At 2 AM. Think this seven-year-old reads a bit?

Grr.

2008-11-30T22:37:00.002+02:00

I just discovered that Blogger has not been e-mailing me comments from my posts for the past week or so (and I just thought everyone was extra busy with Thanksgiving :-), so I'm just now seeing several. I promise I wasn't ignoring you all.

Off to check my settings...

The Miniature Earth - a global village, if you will

2008-11-30T22:21:00.003+02:00

I promise not to go video happy on my blog. As I said, I don't often even watch videos on others' blogs, because of download issues/the way it streams.

However (and you knew that was coming, didn't you? [especially since you can see the video below]), I thought some of my readers might find this video interesting. I subscribe to a podcast called "Best of YouTube" (thanks to our friend MV, who came to visit a couple of years ago and introduced us to it, straight from the deserts of N. Africa). Usually, it's stupid pet tricks and stupid human tricks. Often amusing. Every now and then, though, it's something deep and remarkable, like the autistic man who can be flown over a city skyline that he's never seen before, and then reproduce it in detail by hand.

Or a video describing the composition of the world population, if it were represented by a village of 100 people. It's not a new video. The research is from 2000, the video from 2001. I think I remember seeing it way back when. It's still fascinating. And touching. And challenging.

(It was also obviously done by someone with an amazing command of English...for a second language. There are (at least) two errors. Homeschool moms will want to have their children not only watch the video but look for the mistakes. :-P)

Consider this my bonus post for the month of November. I have one/day. Plus one.

Thank you, Lord, that I feel sick right now.

2008-11-30T12:37:00.003+02:00

I remember reading somewhere that morning sickness (always a misnomer in my case) could be viewed as a sign that the pregnancy is progressing healthily, that the hormones are present in the right quantities, that all is actually well. Now, just because you don't experience morning sickness doesn't mean that your pregnancy isn't healthy, just that, if you do, it most likely is.

I've been trying to remind myself that lately. I experienced two days of all-day nausea a few days after we found out we were pregnant, and then several days without any at all. I admit, I worried a bit those healthy-feeling days. As I mentioned, we've never suffered a miscarriage, but we know that that's always a possibility, especially as we get older.

Not to worry, the nausea has returned. :-l I'm trying to say a prayer thanking the Lord for the assurance that everything is progressing as it should. At least at the onset of each wave.

On a related note, I fed my kids Ramen noodles (Del Monte, actually; who knew they made noodles?) today for lunch. I very carefully explained all of the health hazards and that it was only an occasional option, but that we were going to have to resort to those a little more often while Mommy's not feeling well (all the while carefully instructing MS as to how to do each step).

Tomorrow, I will make peanut butter to replenish our stock, and we will be back to the homemade peanut butter/apple butter sandwiches that have been their standard fare recently.

Why tomorrow? Because my housekeeper comes tomorrow, and she will clean the food processor for me after I make the peanut butter. Come on, you know, if you had someone to wash your dishes, you'd schedule things like that around it, too.

The good news is that my energy levels do not seemed to have waned like they did last pregnancy so that, when I'm not feeling sick, I'm able to get things done around the house. I would appreciate all possible prayer that that continue.

And I've not yet closed the door on the possibility of having my housekeeper come an extra morning for a couple of hours to keep things moving along, either.

Just for fun.

2008-11-29T23:06:00.000+02:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2008-11-28T17:32:00.004+02:00

Since today is the official, lawful beginning of the Christmas season (shame on those of you who have listened to music or [horrors!] decorated before today), we are, of course, decorating. And drinking hot chocolate. And listening to Christmas playlists from my iPod (some things change, some things stay the same).

I was commenting today that we're blessed not to be hauling in from a road trip and needing to decorate this weekend. There are little benefits to not being near to family at holiday time.

So, as part of the process, we're switching out an equal number of plates for the Christmas-themed ones (what a blessing it is to have a melamine seconds store here in-country where we can paw through and find perfectly good plates and bowls originally intended for sale in the States, and we have a whole set of miscellaneous Christmas dishes from there), storing wall and shelf decorations from the rest of the year and replacing them with Nativity sets from around the world, and packing up one of our two picture-book shelves to put out our selection of Christmas books.

The latter inspired me to do a good old-fashioned list post. Here are the books on our Christmas bookshelf (in the order I found them).

• The Tale of Three Trees
• An Amish Christmas
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• Santa Cows
• The Saint Who Became Santa Claus
• The First Night
• The Legend of the Poinsettia
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Christmas Star
• Jacob’s Gift
• Too Many Tamales
• The Legend of the Candy Cane
• Christmas is a Time of Giving: a Joan Walsh Anglund book from my childhood
• Who Was Born This Special Day?
• How Do You Know It’s Christmas? (I am so not a Precious Moments-type [no offense to those who are; I'm just not], and I have no idea how we ended up with this silly little book, but I laid aside my pride and included it in the list, because it's on the shelf.)
• Christmas in the Big Woods
• The Story of Christmas
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
• The Night Before Christmas
• One Wintry Night
• The Nutcracker Ballet
• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet
• A Christmas Carol (just for Mary Grace)
• The Saturday Evening Post Christmas Book: a cultural treasure trove and link to a distinct time in our nation's history, specifically our parents' childhoods
• A Little House Christmas
• Messiah: Wordbook for the Oratorio
• The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury
• Christmas in America (The book linked is not actually the one we have, although I wish we did. Ours is one done about 20 years previous and is rather dated but still interesting.)
• Michael Hague’s Family Christmas Treasury

Some of the books were deliberately acquired, some were gifts, some picked up at used and/or half-price bookstores (so semi-deliberately acquired, as opposed to specifically sought/ordered).

The last several were bought at a half-price store before we left the States originally. They have been great for orienting the kids to traditions that they might not get to participate in in person being halfway around the world. It is important to ML and I that they have a grid for things like that so that they are able to relate, at least in a cursory way, to conversations and experiences of their peers at whichever point they "re-enter" their passport culture. We're trying to do a good job of this raising TCK's thing, and the holidays are an important part (waking MS to watch the Cowboys' game at a friend's house from 11pm to 1am last night was another little part :-).

The Kids at Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T22:07:00.009+02:00

While I helped lay out the dishes at our Thanksgiving celebration with our ex-pat friends (mostly co-workers of ML and their families), ML took on the task of getting pictures of the kids in their nice clothes. While they were still nice. So, here are four of the blessings I am thankful for today. Five, if you count the man behind the camera.

Not the best photo of MS, but the best we got today. He actually looked quite dashing. I was particularly proud of the shirt. It's a striped Gap oxford-cloth button down, which I pulled out of a pile at the flea market area in our town where they sell used American and European clothes. It was in perfect condition, didn't look like it had ever been worn, and I paid all of the equivalent of $0.70 for it. Not bad. It's a little big, but that just means it will last him two winters, if not three.

A fairly typical smirky smile from JW.

Not photogenic at all. Nope.

I just loved his posture and expression in this one.

A better face shot of ZL

What blessings!

A must-see for all married couples!

2008-11-26T23:09:00.002+02:00

Just watch it. You'll understand.

The K Family Code of Conduct

2008-11-26T22:48:00.003+02:00

Inspired by a thread on Sonlight a couple of years ago, I decided our family should have a "Code of Conduct." ML & I talked through what we might include, I made up a draft, and he, of course, took it, reformatted it, changed all the graphics, and made it look 100% better. Cause that's what he does. He even put the K family crest that he'd found when researching genealogy a few years ago in the center. Very stately.

You'll just have to take my word for it, though, because Blogger does not like .tif files, apparently, and ML's not home right now to show me how to make it into a .jpg (read: make me move out of my chair and do it for me). However, I'll list the items on the Code of Conduct for you, because you weren't likely to be able to read them on the tiny photo attachment, anyway.

Obey God, your parents, and other adults in charge...Quickly, Cheerfully and Completely.
Honor one another with your...Words, Actions and Attitudes.
Listen carefully.
Rule your spirit.
Work diligently.
Help and encourage one another.
Think and do what is right.
Talk to the offender, then to an adult.
Ask your family for hugs.
Don't speak to strange giraffes.
Be thankful.
Don't roller skate in a buffalo herd.

The first two are the rules emphasized by the preschool and children's divisions at our home church, respectively. They, in and of themselves, pretty much cover everything, but we had a few specifics we wanted to add in. They're the things that we find ourselves saying over and over again throughout the day.

Theoretically, we would refer back to the Code of Conduct and even ask the child which one they're violating when they get in trouble. We're not so good at that, although it does hang on our refrigerator.

I am planning to print a copy on nice paper and have it framed to hang in a prominent, central place (the kitchen is actually kind of out of the "flow"), so that we can refer to it more regularly.

Bet you're wondering about the last one and the third from the last. Those were my mother's generic advice statements to us as we would leave the house when my brother and I were teenagers. Basically, it meant: you know what to do and what not to do, just remember to choose the right ones. It sure beat getting lectured repeatedly on the same things. And my kids love it when I similarly admonish them.

Wii Fit, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

2008-11-25T21:02:00.002+02:00

*

I am seriously enamored with our Wii Fit. Seriously. If it died tomorrow, I'd be depressed. Why? Well, let me try to explain.

1. I can exercise inside. A) I have young children who can't be left alone, and one or more of whom usually need supervision with their schooling most of the daylight hours, anyway. And B) although, I could get out and walk/jog/run, it is not at all culturally common and would make me seem even weirder than I currently come across.

2. I weigh in every day. For me, this is a good thing. It means I immediately see the consequences/rewards for what I am eating. And it makes me think twice. It's also incredibly encouraging to see my weight going down (which it has 10+ lbs. since I working out on our Wii Fit). And it keeps track of and charts my progress for me, including having me set goals and noting whether or not I meet them (I'm shooting for -1 lb. every two weeks and make it more often than not).

3. There are a variety of activities I can choose from, including Yoga, aerobics, balance games, and strength exercises. Okay, so I often choose the same thing day after day (lately, 20 mins. of step aerobics and 10 mins. of rhythm boxing), but I could choose something different (like 30 minutes of free steps while listening to a sermon file).

4. It gives me feedback as to how well/poorly I'm executing the task at hand. Is my balance perfect on my yoga move? Am I exerting the right amount of force on my strength exercise? Am I keeping perfectly with the rhythm and using the correct foot at the correct time on an aerobic routine? This, to me, is one of the huge benefits to Wii Fit over a DVD or even a class. If you care about your score (which I do...just a little; see #13), there's no room for slacking of for a rep or two or wobbling too much.

5. It gripes at me when I miss a day. And really lets me have it, if I miss more than one day. I know, it's just a computer/game, but I am motivated by that.

6. It adds up my time and keeps track of that, as well, so I can piece together a workout totaling an amount of time I have as a goal or a time slot I happen to have that day.

7. I can ramp up the intensity with weights. We purchased a 3 lb. wrist/ankle set (so, 1.5 lb. each) to wear on our wrists while we're working out (dh does yoga, strength and runs**). When we got used to those, we moved them to our ankles and bought a 2k (a little over 4 lbs.) set to wear on our wrists. When we got used to those, we bought a 3k set for our wrists and moved the 2k set to our ankles. I was planning to buy another 3k set (the heaviest we've found) for our ankles soon, but now that I'm pregnant, I'm thinking I may stick with what we have until afterwards. It's amazing how heavy and awkward the weights feel when we first start using them compared to how they feel once our muscles adjust. And rewarding to think about the muscles we're building up. I've noticed that someone got smart and started bundling weights and a "Wii Fit yoga mat" together. Smart, but neither are any better than what you can buy for yourself at Target.

8. My kids have a fun indoor option for exercise. Although MS goes to Taekwondo three times a week, and they have bikes that they can ride downstairs in the common area, I want them to learn lots of different ways to incorporate exercise into their lives, so that whatever their life circumstances in the future, they will have an option to draw on.

9. With their weigh-ins, the kids are getting a healthy understanding for what a normal weight is (it tells you, based on your height and age, what is underweight, normal, overweight and obese). This is not something I have had a grid for most of my life. I think it would have helped me a lot to know where I fell on the curve at various points. And not just when I've been overweight. There was a whole season in my life when I thought I was overweight, and I wasn't. I didn't notice when I became overweight, because I thought I already was, if that makes sense. Obviously, I'd like for my kids to avoid that "little" pitfall.

10. My kids see me exercising. They were seeing that some the past couple of years (as opposed to hardly at all before that), but it is much more often and consistent now. I shoot for 4-5 days a week and make it most weeks.

11. My kids tangibly see and know that I am overweight (okay, so my goal at this point is "overweight" :-l but I'm almost there!). I know, this is a strange thing to be grateful for. But I want my kids to know that my weight, at this point, is not normal. And that I'm not happy with that (although not obsessed with it, in spite of how this post might be coming across :-). And that I'm doing a lot to fix that. I saw this, to an extent, growing up, but I still think I needed a stronger message that overweight=bad (for health reasons, if nothing else).

12. They're developing more and more game/exercise options for the Wii Fit, so we can hopefully continue to challenge ourselves as we master the basic options included with the unit. One, in particular, we're pretty sure we're going to get while we're in the States.

13. I can be better than ML at things. He's smarter than me. He knows more than me. His Arabic grammar and vocabulary are far and above better than mine. But, by golly, who's the entire top ten list for Advanced Aerobics? Yeah, you know who.

I know I've come across like a commercial. I don't mean everybody has to go out and buy a Wii Fit (and the necessary prerequisite Wii system), especially given that the Wii Fits in particular are scarce right now. I was just thinking today, though, about how blessed I feel to have it (we pre-ordered on Amazon early enough to actually get one [they ran out of pre-orders, even]). So, I thought I'd share.

* I know. I missed yesterday. I don't even really have a good excuse this time. I mean, it was the finale of the season of NCIS we were watching, and it went longer than I thought it was going to, and I was really tired. But a good excuse? No, I don't have one. Hopefully, I'll squeeze in an extra post here in the next few days to make up for it.

**Yes, you can run with the Wii Fit. It doesn't use the balance board. You put the remote in your pocket/hold it in your hand. It's one of the kids' favorite things to do. You run past other Mii's along a path that winds through different types of scenery. You're following a trainer that acts like a pace runner. We've discovered, though, that if a dog runs past (yes, that happens, too), and you speed up and run past your trainer, you get to follow the dog and go on an entirely different path. They've had fun following different dogs (there are several on each length run) and seeing the different scenery.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

2008-11-23T21:41:00.004+02:00

Somebody over at By The Time I Count To 3 has been blogstalking me (it's okay; I told her I didn't mind, although I do hope my mom isn't reading this; she has this thing about stalkers). I have to call her Somebody, because she's being internet-cautious, and I don't know her name, but By The Time I Count To 3 is too long to type out every time, although I've used ByTheTime once or twice. Maybe that will do. Maybe Somebody has a preference. Maybe I should ask Somebody.

Anyway, I digress. So, I decided to blogstalk ByTheTime (I think that works for me) right back. And something she said reminded me of something ML said the other day, and I wanted to share it here.

One day not too long ago, I was venting to ML about the fact that our children can't seem to do *anything* without me being right.there.with.them. Whether it be school work or chores or putting their shoes on, if I step out of the room, chances are, when I return, it won't be done.*

This is kind of an on-going rant (although I've developed some coping mechanisms, like having them do school wherever it is I need to be; except the bathroom), but ML had a very insightful response this particular time. After I finished wailing, "Why can't they do anything without me keeping an eye on them and being right there with them?" (and I know that there are people who's children work independently at least at the age of my oldest; on chores, if not on schoolwork; I know, because I read about them on Sonlight!) ML replied, "Because they're our children?"

Oh. Hm. Yeah. Guess that kind of makes sense.

You see, neither ML nor I are super self-motivated people. We're actually kind of lazy. We really don't get a lot done without accountability and sometimes some hand-holding. Of course, there are exceptions (and those are the things we blog about usually :-P), but we are, to use a more gentle term, rather laid back.

So, I guess it stands to reason that we're going to have children with the same tendencies. Children who can put a lot of focus into building a Lego world or an imaginary zoo (or knitting or writing) but struggle with getting done when it comes to math or science (or housework or finances). I guess I should be glad that they, like their parents don't naturally stress a whole lot. That they, like their parents, naturally assume that they're going to be able to get "it" done in time, even though, if they looked at things realistically, that might not be the most accurate assessment (hello! Curriculum project, senior year; every paper/project either of us ever worked on, for that matter).

Does this help the situation? Surprisingly, it does. I no longer (well, I try not to) look at my children and expect them to behave like other people's children. I look at them and accept the fact that they are my children (and his) and understand that it is my job to teach them the skills they need to make these tendencies work in this life. The motivational skills, the time management skills, the break-taking skills, even, that are going to enable them to meet deadlines the rest of their lives. Even when they don't feel like it.

It's actually made me desperate to get those skills into them, because I don't want them to have to continually experience the stress I experienced (okay, so it's only mostly in the past, but it mainly is) until I learned them (or at least began to learn them).

It really did help.

*Now, we're seeing some progress in this area, especially with MS, but I guess this was more like a couple of weeks ago, because I was not seeing any progress at the time.

FAQ

2008-11-22T20:26:00.004+02:00

If you missed yesterday's post, you might want to scroll down and take a look. Otherwise, you're going to be a little lost. I'll wait.

There. So, we're pregnant. Or I'm pregnant. Or we're expecting. Or whatever you prefer. I interchange all of the above, because I'm just that PC.

From in-person/on-phone conversations and the various places I've posted my "announcement" picture, I've received the same several questions, so I thought I'd go ahead and gather them all in one place and answer them. Some were answered in the comments from yesterday. Feel free to make use of your scroll feature (or your nifty two-fingered track-pad move, if you are privileged enough to have a MacBook).

How far along are you? According to that wheel due date predictor thing that doctors use (what is that called, anyway?), I'm currently 6 weeks* along.

When are you due? Again with the wheel thing: July 17th. Give or take a day.

How are you feeling? Actually, already a little nauseous off and on, but I'm trying to combat that by keeping my stomach full (eating lots of bananas, healthy protein) and by drinking lemon ginger tea (just dried lemon and ginger in a tea bag), since ginger is supposed to help with nausea. So far, that seems to be doing the trick. I have been progressively less sick with each pregnancy, so I'm hoping and praying that that trend continues.

What do the kids think? MA is delighted and keeps referring to the baby as "her...or him." She'd really like a little sister. MS thinks that, to be fair to MA, it should probably be a girl but would be happy with a boy. JW is nonchalant. ZL is clueless, although he keeps looking at us suspiciously when we talk about him not being the baby anymore.

Is this going to affect your trip to the States in the Spring? We are still planning to travel the same dates (don't have tickets yet, but we're making reservations soon), mid-March to mid-June, although I'll probably need a doctor's note to travel back. We feel fine about that. We've always talked about handling our own birth, anyway. We never planned on it being the back of a plane, but...

Just kidding. Most often I go over my due date by about two weeks, so it really should not be a problem.

***Are you going to find out the gender? (Added for GfG's sake) Yes, we've found out each time so far. With MS, it was very helpful, since we were moving overseas six months after he was born, so that I could spend my pregnancy pre-shopping for his first couple of year's worth of clothes. With the ones born overseas, it's a little difficult *not* to find out, since you have an ultrasound each visit (and, no, I don't want to know the potential harmful effects; I'm not dying on that hill; I save my hills for delivery preferences). And, then, with MA, who'd pregnancy we were back in the States for, it was again helpful to do all of that little girl shopping while we were there. This time, I have to know which set of bags of clothes that I'd *just* culled through to give away to actually give away and which to keep. (I literally spent last Monday going through all of MA and ZL's outgrown clothes keeping only what I absolutely could not part with, which means all the practical stuff was set to be given away, reasoning that someone else should be getting use out of it. Fortunately, I hadn't actually followed through on that yet.)

Are you crazy? (okay, so no one actually said/wrote this out, but you know some of you were thinking it.) Yes.

And my favorite comment on my Facebook: Awww...another dependency exemption on your tax return (I'll make a note on your file!!) from our accountant. :-P

*Yes, I know it's early to make an announcement. We have never had a miscarriage, but we are keenly aware that it is always a possibility. I have maintained since my first pregnancy that, for me personally, I'd rather people know and walk through that with me than not know. So now you know.

Wordless, um, Friday?

2008-11-21T10:30:00.002+02:00

My Outstanding Person

2008-11-20T15:33:00.001+02:00

Amy over at working title has posted a contest. Share about "a person in your life who has stood out- you may not see him/her often, but knowing this person has left an impact." If you leave a comment on her blog sharing how someone has impacted your life, she'll enter you in a drawing for one of the cool magnet sets pictured above. Lower-case or upper-case. Your choice. If you win. Post about the contest on your own blog, and she'll enter you twice. Getting suspicious as to the reason for this post?

I haven't been getting around the blog world for that long. I usually come across contests too late to enter them. Or it's not something really practical to where we live. But I know Amy. I mean, we've known each other for years. I've prayed for her. She's blessed me. We're friends. Okay, so I've never actually met her. That's just a little detail, right? Amy's an e-maginary friend. Someone I met on the Sonlight discussion boards. I have prayer for her. And she has blessed me (okay, so I passed the sling that she sold me at cost on to a new mom who needed a sling more than I needed a second one, but I also knew that Amy would want me to). But I digress.

So, in my comment on Amy's post, I wrote: Okay, I will cheesily claim my husband as the person whom I've known who's had a great impact on me. There are many others, but, above all, he's walked with me through the valleys and to the mountain tops and (mostly) understood and (always) supported me the entire way.

(And, don't worry, I'll save you the shipping and pick these up at the BFM*, if I happen to win. :-)

And that's my answer. I'm sticking to it. There are many people who have impacted me over the years. Many. I could do a post a day for at least a month. No, longer. Some of you are even reading this post right now.

The thread through it all, though, has been ML. And I am so, so grateful for him. Just this morning, he "proved himself" again, and it was so sweet (more on that soon).

I love you, honey!

*For those scratching their heads, I'll explain about that later.

'Tis the Season...

2008-11-19T15:37:00.004+02:00

Sometimes, I forget how commercialized and overdone Christmas is in the US. And then I see someone's picture of their kid with all of his/her presents, and I'm just bowled over.

Then again, I remember the year we did that. MS was almost three. It was the year after WM died. I think we were compensating (and by "we," I mean ourselves, my parents and ML's parents). He had a lot of presents. JW, though, had the best time watching him rip all of the paper, so I guess it wasn't a complete loss. :-/

Since then, we've worked on reigning ourselves in. And we've always emphasized the Reason behind it all (e.g. our family Advent service, as well as many books and videos that come out after Thanksgiving).

Consequently, I'll admit, I kind of ho-hummed when I saw Grateful for Grace's post on how we celebrate Christmas. Not that I thought it didn't need to be said, just that I thought I'd kind of gotten the message already (yeah, yeah "pride goeth" and all that; I know). Plus, videos usually don't play well for me on blogs. They're choppy and don't stream well (the joys of "high speed" internet access outside the Western world). So, I skipped watching it.

Then, Mary Grace posted the same thing. Please believe me, GfG, it had nothing to do with the fact that MG was posting it. Just that it was the second time I'd seen it. If you'd have posted it second...

Anyway, I watched it. Wow. Not only was the video well done, but it had a point I hadn't pondered. Maybe we shouldn't just cut back in the name of the Reason. Maybe we should do something in the spirit of the Reason. Hmmm.

I don't know exactly what this looks like at this point for us. I'm thinking we'll probably do something local, since there is a lot of hidden need around us (it is to a family's shame to be out in the open with need, but it is there, if you look). Maybe finding a family to buy a heater or coats for. Or an anonymous scholarship to a secretarial training program for the woman I visited with this morning who's husband left her with three daughters and no education and no income. I'll talk it over with ML, and maybe we'll discuss and come up with something as a family.

Whatever it is, though, I'm grateful I caved and watched the video. Oh yeah. The video. Here it is (hopefully; this is my first experience with imbedding video):

And the original site for the video. And a sister/spin-off site with a similar message.

I'd love to hear what other families do, if anyone has anything to share.

The Big Read

2008-11-18T14:47:00.005+02:00

I discovered the list of the top 100 books printed on Melody's Vita et Vertas blog and thought it would make for a good post today. I've succumbed to a form of the Mystery Virus, and this was a relatively simple post to make. While I sip on my chicken noodle soup. At 4:00 in the afternoon. The first thing I've dared put in my system. :-l

The Big Read has determined that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books printed. How do you stack up?

The Rules:
1) Look at the list and put one * by those you have read.
2) Put a % by those you intend to read.
3) Put two ** by the books you LOVE.
4) Put # by the books you HATE.
5) Post.

I, of course, couldn't leave the rules alone, so I added one: Put a ? by the books you think you might have read. I did a *lot* of reading in Jr. High and High School (ask my teachers; I often had a book in my lap in math, science, band, even*), and I'm not positive whether I did or didn't read some of these.

And, because I wasn't familiar with all the books and really just needed something mindless to do, anyway, I decided to put Amazon links for each book (I'm choosing the cheapest, often, to link, although occasionally, I'm going with the most visually appealing cover), in case you were curious, too. I think the kids and I will watch a movie...

As I'm working through the list, I've contrived another symbol: %%. Books I learned I would like to read from researching them for this list. Some of them I'd heard of before. Others are completely new to me. But none marked %% would I have said for sure I'd want to read before looking at the plot summary today.

And then, of course, I had to know which of the 100 are included in Sonlight cores (not that I think they all should, just that I was curious). So, the bolded ones are.

*1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
%2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
*3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
%4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling (well, I read the first one, does that count?)
*5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
**6. The Bible
*7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
**8. 1984 - George Orwell
%9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
?10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
%%12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
%13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
%14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
%%15. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
*16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
%%18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
%%19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
%%20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
?21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
%%22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
%%23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
**25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams -
%%26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
*30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
%%32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
**33. Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
*34. Emma - Jane Austen
%%35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
**36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis -
%37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernières -
%39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
**40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
*41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
%42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
%%43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
%%44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
%%45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
*46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
*48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
%%50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
%%51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
%%53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
?54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
**59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (hated it...)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
**65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
*70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
%71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
?72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
*73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
%%74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
%%76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
%%77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Émile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
%%80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
*81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
%83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
%84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
%%86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
%%88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
**89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
%91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
%92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
%94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
**97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
**99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
%100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

ETA: So, that means I've read 33-37 of the 100 books (you'll notice that most of the ones I'm not sure about have movie versions, so I can't just check to see if I recognize the plot :-/). And now, I have a list of books to check out for myself when we hit the library in the US in the spring. This process also made me think that an electronic reader is likely in our future. Especially living overseas, the instant access to so many of the books via a Kindle or some other reader is quite tempting.

Oh, and I couldn't find a copy of this list on The Big Read's website, so I had to clean up Melody's list myself (and just to make it look "right," I had to put a "." after each number; I'm a little anal that way). If anyone wants to post the list, let me know, and I'll put up the "clean" version to save you the trouble.

* Case in point: in 8th grade, I worked very hard to get my English teacher's "Outside Reading Award" for which we catalogued all books read outside the ones she assigned to us. It was neck and neck between Katie Shelton and myself, if I remember correctly, but I won (sorry, Katie, wherever you are). Only some of my other teachers protested. They claimed that I had could not win an "Outside" reading award when in fact the reading had been done "Inside" their classes. :-P (They were kidding. Sort of. But I still got the award.)

Healing.

2008-11-18T00:52:00.003+02:00

We have a mysterious virus making the rounds at our house.

Warning: non-specific, but repetitive discussion of children throwing up. Read at your own risk.

Last week, Saturday through Tuesday, ZL threw up once each day. For the first 24 hours or so, he was lethargic, but after that, he was his normal self (read: sometime fussy, sometimes fine). Only he'd throw up. But only once per day. And it didn't seem to matter how much or what he ate. Poor kid, we even took all the kids to the dentist on Monday, thinking he was finally fine. He fussed through his cleaning. And then threw up on the floor at Schlotsky's (yes, we have a Schlotsky's; it's new; it's right next to a new Starbucks; I told you they're everywhere here, too).

So, after much agonizing, and another "incident" on Tuesday, ML and I cancelled our overnight away last weekend. Okay, so canceled is a bit dramatic. We rescheduled to December. We just couldn't count on ZL being better by the weekend, and we didn't want to do that to our (childless, so far) friends who were going to watch the kids.

ZL, of course, has been fine since Tuesday.

We had arrangements with some other friends to swap date night babysitting sometime this month, so we arranged to go out Saturday night, at least, if everyone was healthy at that point. Everyone was, and we had a great time. Gathered the kids from our friends' house (ZL was asleep in his playyard, MA in our friends' bed with her daughter; the boys were awake).

Got home, put the kids back in bed, put ZL back in bed, watched some NCIS, put ZL back in bed (apparently, he'd gotten too much sleep previously just to drift off, that and being sick threw off his sleep schedule, watched some more NCIS (because it's generally not a good idea to go to sleep before your three-year-old), put ZL back in bed. ZL drifts off, MA throws up, ZL wakes back up. MA goes back to sleep after being moved to a sleeping bag on the floor and assigned a lined trash can. ZL is up for a while longer. Sigh.

Yep, you read right. Round two of the mystery virus. A complete week after the beginning of the first round. That was Saturday night. She threw up again last night. And again tonight. A little sluggish during the day, but otherwise, fine. Eating bland foods. Resting. Doesn't seem to make much difference.

And, in the midst of this, I earned the Mother of the Year Award: I kick into practicals when my kids get sick, but still, do you think I could have remembered to pray for either one of them before last night? Sigh.

I have since then, though. Want to join me?

Goofball.

2008-11-16T21:37:00.005+02:00

A few months ago, we began to get a little concerned about ZL's communication skills, or lack thereof. Okay, I got a little concerned. ML was pretty sure there was nothing wrong. However, he admitted to not remembering the "talking timeline" of our other kids, so he was willing to do some looking into the situation.

Thinking back, I distinctly remembered having a conversation with JW (our other in-house introvert child) about what he wanted to exchange his pacifier and "buddy" (his bear/blanket thing) for. And I know that we've never had a kid make it to three with a pacifier (well, until now). The "discussion" part is my heads-up that we can get rid of the security items. I feel like I owe them an explanation, since it was really for our convenience that we attached them to the things in the first place (and, boy, is it convenient sometimes; instant comfort on-the-go is a high-value commodity in our life).

Here's the rub: I don't feel like I could have that kind of conversation with ZL right now. Not and know for sure that I was being understood. So, I began to worry. I started with some on-line research (read: I outlined the situation on Sonlight and asked for opinions).

He does not have any tell-tale signs of autism (one of the first things to look for with speech delay at his age): he's snuggly, he doesn't fixate, doesn't do repetitive motions. He obviously has a high level of receptive language: he knows all his letters and letter sounds (from videos), shapes, colors, etc. And he uses appropriate phrases that he's been taught or has heard. When prompted. He just doesn't initiate conversation that much. But he does repeat phrases, whole sets of lines even, from videos he's watched. After watching them just once or twice (then again, he is genetically related to his Uncle CB, so that alone could explain that).

I went so far as to ask my in-laws to bring a book by Dr. James McDonald recommended by the Sonlight ladies. Probably not the best idea. A) They couldn't find the book. B) Grandparents get a little overly concerned about things like this. We're still working on calming them down.

I also called our wonderful pediatrician and made an early three-year check-up for after my in-laws left. I wanted her opinion of the situation.

Of course, even in those few weeks his verbal skills advanced. And, armed with the questions the Sonlight ladies (some of whom were Speech Language Pathologists by profession/training) asked, we noticed a lot of positives: he plays imaginatively, he makes things talk to each other, he initiates affection, he only lines things up once or twice a week (normal for his age).

And it turns out kids who don't feel totally at ease socially (read: introverts) often use lines from videos/TV shows, because they're predictable and can be slotted into the appropriate social setting based on the original context from the show. Makes perfect since to me now that I think about it.

Fast forward to the doctor's appointment: ML hangs out in the living room with the older kids while ZL and I go into the office with Dr. A (love a doctor with a clinic in her home :-). She does the normal measurements, asks the normal questions, and then we get to the whole talking thing. She asks about affection, fixations, repetitive behaviors, and I laugh as I check them off, knowing what she's fishing for (a reaction she expects from me, because she's gotten used to the well-researched-mother type that I am, and bless her, she puts up with it). Then, she interacts with ZL a little while and watches me do so, as well.

Her diagnosis: an introverted fourth child of a mother who is busy homeschooling the older three but in tune with her fourth child. The introverted part meaning he doesn't have much incentive to talk. The busy homeschooling mother part meaning he doesn't get as much of my attention as the older three did at that age. The in-tune part meaning that I know and anticipate what he needs, and he doesn't often have to ask (see "not much incentive to talk"). Turns out, her third child didn't even talk as much as ZL does at this age. Very similar circumstances. He ended up with speech therapy and is fine now.

Since ZL is talking as much as he is and making progress, Dr. A says let's give it six months. If we're still concerned, we can do an initial visit with a speech therapist. Oh yeah, big part of the appointment: the part where she tells me that there's a great English-speaking speech therapist available in-country. Big sigh of relief. It's the same one they used with her son, and she speaks highly of her.

Prescription: be more purposeful in interacting with him and make him talk more.

So, we've been doing that. Do you know how easy it is to let an introverted fourth child just do his own thing? Too easy. We're overcoming that, though. And he's blossoming. He's initiating conversation more. He really is a delight to be around, and I'm glad we're being more focused about getting to know him and helping him make himself known.

As for the making him talk, I was trying to do just that the other day when I was sitting on the floor playing with him (see? I told you I was being purposeful). He was enjoying being tickled, so I tried getting him to ask for more. I got, "Tickle, please." Good, but we're working on moving on from two-word phrases, so I asked him to say, "Tickle me, please." In hindsight, that's a little hard to insert that particular word in there, and I probably should have picked a different hill to die on, but I persisted. After a minute or so, he said, "No, that's alright," and moved on. Goofball. I think the child who can appropriately use the phrase, "No, that's alright" is going to be fine verbally, even if he can't be bothered to get the "me" into, "Tickle me, please." :-P

And I think he's just Uncle CB's nephew (Uncle CB being the person who for years had to label sentences as "original thought" lest everyone assume it was yet another Simpsons line). The other day, I asked him if he wanted some bread, and he started mumbling something a little indistinctly. I asked him to repeat it, and it made me laugh. He was saying, "A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter." Yes, my kids, including ZL, have been very into classic Sesame Street these days.

Mama Merit Badges

2008-11-15T12:16:00.014+02:00

I've been blog stalking this cool lady named Mary Grace (not her real name, but I think I heard a rumor she actually answers to it IRL). I love her writing style, and I find the foster/adopt process interesting, and, well, mainly, I like her writing style.

So, as I was combing her archives, I came across a post she did on Merit Badges for Mommys. I love 'em! I'm actually, seriously thinking of getting some to put on the tail of my Maya Wrap next time I have someone to carry in it. Okay, maybe not, but it's a cool thought.

Until then, I thought I'd steal the idea and share the ones I feel like I've earned*. In no particular order (actually, they ended up in alphabetical order, because that's how they were where I saved the images), they are...

Birthday: For the themes thought up (with no repeats). The presents coordinated (often months in advance to ensure their presence in-country on the appropriate date). The cakes baked. The icing ideas given (because, you know, I don't do the decorating, but I do give ideas). All with very little ready-made available.

Diaper: For the multitude of diapers changed, mainly in locations without changing tables. And, most recently, for using cloth, especially in a country where I am probably literally the only one. Nah, I'm not a rebel or anything.

Medical: For coordinating doctors visits on at least three continents in as many languages (German being the third, in case you're wondering). Keeping my own records so as to be able to pass information along to the doctor-of-the-month (or at least that's how it felt for a while; it's much more settled now; we only have two or three peds). Oh, and giving birth in a second language.

Travel: Do I really need to elaborate? Okay, in the summer of '07, I traveled internationally with four children ranging in age from 18 months to 8 years. Alone. And this last summer, we flew without a lap child for the first time in 9 years (you can travel with children under 2 in your lap). And, when we came to this country originally, we had two lap children to save money on airfare.

Shopping: I don't deserve this nearly as much as many of my international peers. I now shop at Safeway (and Cozmo and Carrefour when we get to the capital). But I have chosen live chickens and gone home with them warm in the bag. And I have gone shopping less than a week in a new country with almost no language skill. And I have spent two hours in HEB jet-lagging after having just arrived in the US, yet unable to leave without examining each and every aisle, just because there might be something that we might need (a very common occurrence for internationals upon returning; either that or leaving in tears due to too many choices). So, I guess maybe I've earned this badge, too.

Sleep: The Lord blessed us with one phenomenal sleeper as a first child. I would share an example of his daily schedule from when he was 6-8 months, but you would all hate me, so I won't. Even Second Child, WM, (the one who is no longer with us), slept through the night at 2 weeks. And then came JW, who, due to undiagnosed medical issues, slept horribly for about the first year of his life. MA was good. And then came ZL, who, probably due to food allergies that we didn't know about, slept horribly until, oh, last year sometime. I know I'm blessed to have had some good sleepers, but, still, there were the months on end of sleep deprivation, so I'll claim this badge, as well.

Storytime: Whew, I'm glad there was this badge, and not one with blocks or dolls or something, because, well, I'm not the best about playing with my kids. I struggle with this. Be it board games or Legos or Polly Pockets, I have to force myself to enter in. And it just doesn't happen that often. But books? Oh, yeah. I'll read books. For hours on end. Or at least until there's another meal to be made or an appointment to keep. Heck, our whole homeschool curriculum is books to read. So, "Storytime," yeah, I've got that one down.

How about you? Which Mama Badges have you earned? I'd love to hear.

*Now that I read back through this, it sounds an awful lot like I'm tooting my own horn. I hope it doesn't come across that way.

Reading Day

2008-11-14T23:38:00.003+02:00

As I have mentioned before, I don't require my kids to read their readers on any particular schedule. I put them on the shelf, give them a list of books to check off, and let them loose. Their list includes their leveled Sonlight readers and the multitude of period-related history novels and non-fiction books I've bought to correlate with the given quarter of history for that year (this year being the "modern" quarter).

At some point during the year, I usually have to crack down and push reading through their list. The problem is not that they don't want to read. It's that they want to read one of the myriad of other interesting books in the house, especially when grandparents show up several weeks into the school year with all sorts of great new books. Or they want to re-read some of the books from their list that they picked already and really liked.

Then, I become Mean Mommy, who makes them read nothing but "school books" (and, I have to specify, school books that they haven't read yet). Books that they wouldn't pick up themselves. Books that they can't put down once Mommy makes them pick them up.

You see, it's not that it's torture to read the books. Just start them.

I can think of exactly one book so far in MS's school career that he actually didn't finish because he didn't like it. And, because I was reading his readers along with him, I didn't fight it. I thought the book was insipid myself. (And, no, I'm not telling you which one it was. I don't want to turn someone else off to a book that they might actually like.)

So, today I declared a Reading Day. The idea occurred to me when I was pondering both what to do with our day and what to do to prod the kids along their lists.

ML was leaving about 1 to go on a picnic with some friends and wouldn't be back until this evening. We had a leisurely morning. MS and I made muffins. The kids watched a few DVD's.

And then ML left, I put ZL down for a nap, and we dove into reading. I sat down with MA and JW and went through their lists, updating them. MS updated his own and chose a book he wanted to read today. I then picked a couple of books off of JW's list that I knew he would like and sent him off with them. I also picked a stack from MA's list and told her to get started on those. Then, I picked something for myself. I'm roughly keeping up with MS's readers, so I picked All-of-a-Kind Family and went to join the kids.

We read in the family area and in the play area. We read through lunch. The kids moved into the kitchen and read while I baked cookies. MS made hot chocolate, and they read while eating their cookies and drinking their hot chocolate.

And then I released them. They probably read for 3-4 hours today. And they all found new books that they're enjoying. And they all are aware of new books on their shelves that look interesting.

It was peaceful (mostly) and fun (a lot of the time).

All in all, I think my mission was accomplished.

And I think we definitely have a new family tradition. Reading Day is going to become a regular part of our life.

Oh, and I loved the book I read. I was able to finish it, and I'm really glad I read it.

You know you live overseas if...

2008-11-14T00:57:00.003+02:00

Tracy/LatteMom on the SL International Board started a thread with the theme "You know you live overseas if..." along the lines of Jeff Foxworthy's "You know you're a redneck if..."

Because it's late, and I think they're funny, I'm going to cut and paste my contributions as my blog post for today.

...your children are considered smart for having learned English at such a young age.

...you have to coordinate two sizes of paper in your homeschool records.

...your child already speaks and/or writes the "exotic" language featured in this week's history project.

...you can explain in two (or more) languages why you are not even attempting to potty train your approaching-three-year-old yet.

...your children make "falafel-men" while playing with their dinner (think a stack of three).

... even your elementary-aged children think in years when planning ahead, and it's always more than one year out (as in, "We'll see so-and-so again in 2010." "We get to go to Disney World in 2012." etc.)

...you've ever send an e-mail of numbered items with a de-coding key similar to the following:
1=please bring
2=bring, if possible
3=bring, only if there's room
4=bring, only if you need something to take up room

...you have names and addresses in your Amazon address book of people that you only vaguely remember (so and so's cousin's aunt's sister's stepson who was coming on a tour and offered to bring something to you).

...you read threads on what people consider to be ridiculous products and totally see a use for them.

Full disclosure

2008-11-12T21:12:00.004+02:00

Anyone remember a while back when I wrote about the elaborate behavior system we were using with the older three kids?

Well, um, we chunked it. Actually, it was a little tapered, a little chunked, but it's gone. I figured, since I'd had a decent amount of interest in it, in all fairness, I needed to report that.

And part of its demise was related to that talk we heard this summer, the one I mentioned a post or two ago by the two young ladies regarding parenting, based on how they were parented, etc. Wanna know what #1 was? "Spank your children."* Seriously, they said it was the most significant part of their upbringing and in the upbringings of the kids they babysit and went to school with.

Now, this was to a crowd of people who'd all had plenty of teaching on "how." This was just a reminder "to." And "how" includes not in anger, with reconciliation, and a host of other things. But it was significant enough for them to put it as #1.

We'd already been tapering the whole elaborate system, but that kind of put the final nail in the coffin. We needed a lot more immediate consequences, so we announced that spankings were back (not that they completely went away, just that they had seriously declined). And, just to clarify, spankings at our house are usually swats on the back of the hand or the palm. Only in severe circumstances (lying, mostly, but repeated disobedience, as well) do we spank on the bottom. That's just how we've shaped our discipline system.

And you know what? Life's been a lot more peaceful (I said "more peaceful," not "peaceful;" you take what you can get). And that includes my own heart. One of my famous sayings with my kids is, "No, I'm not going to get angry [a little self-talk there]. I'm just going to give you spankings." Consequences, reconciliation, and move on. It works wonders for my stress level.

Basically, boundaries are firmer, obedience is up. I think it's working for us.

There. I said it. Now, you all know I'm not nearly as erudite as previous posts might have suggested. But we're going with what we feel led to do, and I guess that's more important than my esteem in the eyes of the internet world. :-P

And, just to balance the heaviness, I'll share a fun incentive system we used this summer when we were traveling: each older child got a mini package of Skittles per day (12-15 Skittles included). For each act of disobedience, they gave up a Skittle. At the end of the day (which turned into the next morning, because we were having some bedtime issues), they got to eat what was left. The best part? Guess who got the Skittles they gave up?

*Caveat: If you have anger or past abuse issues that prevent you from being able to safely (whether that be physical or emotional safety) spank your children, or even if you're just flat opposed to it, please hear me: I'm not saying that your children are not going to turn out. I think any child given firm boundaries and a lot of love is going to be fine (okay, I'm not promising that they're not going to make sin choices, not promising that about my own children, either, but I just don't want this to come across as a formula; just our choice for our family at this point).

He's got mouse skills.

2008-11-11T21:14:00.003+02:00

My just-turned-three-year-old has mouse skills. I've never had a three-year-old with mouse skills. I've seen them (LGG and AJM come to mind). I've just never had one.

From about age 2, Z knew that hitting any key on the keyboard (kids' computer; he's pretty well trained to leave mine and ML's alone) would take it out of sleep mode. He liked to see it light up. He also learned around that time which button turned the screen on and off, in case it was off when he was hitting said keys.

At about 2 1/2, Z figured out that pushing the space bar would stop and start whatever episode iTunes happened to be resting on. If he was lucky, someone would have left the computer on iTunes and an episode clicked. Then, he could just tap and watch. Only once did he watch a teensy weensy bit of a LOST episode.

A few weeks ago, he discovered the scroll wheel on the mouse (he'd realized a long time ago that the mouse did something; he just hadn't coordinated it all yet). If the computer was on iTunes with either "Movies" (mostly things I've ripped off of DVD's) or "TV Shows" clicked, he would use the scroll wheel to select what he wanted (from the "album cover" shots), and then press the space bar.

Last week sometime, I realized that he had discovered which button on the screen took the "album covers" to full-screen mode so that he could see them better. And that he could maneuver the mouse to that button, click on it, and then use the scroll wheel to pick the show he wanted to watch (LOST was off of their section of that computer a long time ago, don't worry).

So, I decided to give his Dr. Seuss's ABC CD-ROM that I'd bought as his "school software" for this year a trial run. Sure enough, he totally got moving the pointer around the screen to get the different items to do their thing (it's just a point-and-click software; no game to it). And he got that clicking on the arrow in the bottom right moved it on to the next screen. That is, of course, if it wasn't the "B" screen with the bubble that was blown huge and popped. That screen we do.not move on from. Unless forced. Which happens when the rest of us in the room can't take it any longer.

After reading on someone's blog that their three-and-a-half-year-old was playing on Starfall.com, I was curious. So, today with a little extra time I had (read: when I had planned to exercise), I sat Z in my lap in front of the computer, and we checked out Starfall. I really had a hard time believing it. He even gets the fact that you can't click when the cursor's not a hand. Where did he learn that?!?

I let him choose which letters he wanted to play through. One of them had a puzzle as the final section. He very deftly clicked on the pieces and put them in their places (just a simple shapes puzzle, lest anyone be too impressed). (Fortunately, the program grabs the pieces when you click on them. I think click-and-drag would be a little much even for Mouse Boy.)

I apologize to anyone who's thinking, "What's the big deal? All my kids were playing on the computer already at that age." None of our older three were, although they're all fine with it now, so it just took me by surprise.

Plus, it's really cute!

I'm sure some day some girl will be impressed with his great skills.

Cute Sayings

2008-11-10T23:23:00.003+02:00

I received the following e-mail from my father today: Would you send me some cute things the kids, you, and/or ML have said lately? We were talking about that at lunch today—me, S, and B—and I was having to dig a bit.

S & B are the ladies he works with. S has elementary-ish-aged kids at home. B has grandkids. Apparently, to be cool, you have to have cute kids sayings to share at the lunch table. Kind of like junior high, only different.

Seriously, S & B are awesome ladies and love to hear all about my kids and send them things when my parents come to visit, etc. I wouldn't want to let them down. Plus, I recognized the potential for a two-for-one: an e-mail to my dad, and a blog post topic*. Cha-ching (in spite of the fact that I write that out all the time, I actually never/rarely say it IRL [in real life], just so you know).

So, here was my response (only I typed out the names; I'm not so concerned with security in my e-mails to my father):

Cute things the kids have said recently:

ZL, when asked how old he is will say, "Ba three!" I have no idea what the "Ba" means, but he says it every time. He will also sometimes say, "Ba three!" when you ask him how he is. You have to really emphasize, "How are you?" if you want to get "Fine, thank 'oo"

We did some Christmas shopping this past weekend. While agonizing over a selection of Berenstain Bear books for JW to choose from to buy for MA (he has enough trouble making choices for himself, much less others), I had the great idea that he could just get all of his siblings iTunes gift certificates. They would all love getting to choose show episodes, and he wouldn't have to make any choices himself. His response? "Do I still have to spend any money?" :-l The child hates to let go of a single kirsch. He's saving it, because he might need it when he's an adult, you know.

MA, after reading a couple of the American Girl books, now has a Polly Pocket named Jo-Hanna. I gently explained that, even though the name is written Johanna, it's pronounced Joanna. Nope. The Polly's name is Jo-Hanna.

MS, hm, he doesn't say that many "cute" things anymore. Witty, yes, but none are coming to mind right now. Unless you count the fact that he delights in holding up gruesome video games or DVD's at stores and saying, "Look, I found one that's just perfect for our family! Let's get it!" To which I always reply (with false cheeriness), "Oh, wonderful! Let's!" or something like that. Kind of a reverse psychological way of letting me know he's internalized the family values.

So, there you go. I realized as I was cutting and pasting, that he asked for cute things that ML and I had said, too. Not too many off of the top of my head. I'll have to ponder that for a little while. I'll get back to you, if I think of anything.

*Beats telling about the dental visit today during which all six of us got our teeth cleaned and only two threw fits (not me, this time!). Although my dad would probably be pleased to hear that I'm taking care of my expensive, more-straightened-than-they-would-be-without-those-braces-that-mom-went-back-to-work-to-pay-for teeth, too. No cavities! Woo hoo!

A new van!

2008-11-09T15:30:00.006+02:00

(Read the title with a game show host voice, and you'll get the emphasis I was going for.)

No, the van's not "new," but it is the newest car ML and I have ever owned, and it is truly above and beyond what I could have asked or imagined. I never dreamed I would be driving such a vehicle here in the Middle East.

A little background: we arrived in this country in May of 2003. In October of that year, we finally had enough money to purchase a vehicle. And I use that term loosely. :-P It was a 1985 Peugot 505 station wagon (and I love the fact that I found a link with great pictures and a reference to which movies the car had appeared in :-).

Okay, it was a vehicle. And it was a very strong vehicle. One that collectors groups form around, especially on the internet, and people seek out parts for to keep theirs going. It was just that ours had apparently previously been a long-distance taxi (unbeknownst to us at the time of purchase), and had been jury rigged to no end to avoid putting money into true repairs. It was not super reliable. However, it had nine seats, three in each row, and we knew we wanted that.

At the time, only gasoline vehicles (as opposed to diesel ones) could have seats for more than six passengers to keep people from running illegal taxis. Diesel was much less expensive, because it was government underwritten, and the theory was that no one in their right mind would run a taxi on expensive fuel. For the most part, that was true. We think ours was used in another country. Or between ours and another country.

Oh, and did I mention that it was the best we could afford at the time that would fit our family (with a little room for expansion/guests)? And that we were really tired of taking taxis with three small children? And the little fact that we felt strongly that we were being led to purchase this particular type of car and even this specific one, warts and all?

Slight problem, though, it was a standard, and I didn't know how to drive one. However, to get an automatic, which would have meant a newer, much more expensive car, was out of the question. I made a couple of attempts at learning, but the car was never really reliable enough for me to want to risk being out with the kids and it breaking down, so there wasn't much incentive. ML does all of the driving while I ride along, bum rides, or take taxis when I need to be somewhere while he's at work or home with the kids.

Fast forward a few years: it's 2006ish, and we're thinking we might be about ready for a larger, more reliable vehicle. We start looking into the options, and a Mitsubishi L300 or a Toyota Hiace are what meet our specifications. Again, we want ample seating, but this time we're looking for a van. The above to options were the only ones sold locally at that time without looking at the American mini-van imports, which are way out of our price range.

And even the Hiaces are a little expensive. Slight problem with the L300's: they didn't make them past 1985. Newer would have been nice. :-l

However, once again, we were led to just what we could afford, and it was being sold right in our neighborhood. So, we bought. Again, nine seats, three in each row, and a "bench" behind the front row on which children can perch in a pinch, to boot. We took six adults and four children on a road trip to Jerusalem in this van one time. Oh, the memories!

Only, once again, it's not super reliable. And it's very difficult to shift gears. For people who already know how to drive standards. Not the best car to learn to drive a manual on. Did I mention that the gear shift was on the steering column (reminds me of the Aggie joke about the brights dimmer)? ML continues to do all of the driving (riding, bumming rides, taking taxis continues).

Fast forward again to this past spring: we go through an evaluation point at which we seek to understand whether this is still where we're supposed to be. We feel like it is, but we feel like a part of staying and thriving, both for the kids and for me personally, is me being able to drive. That would either mean us buying an automatic vehicle or an easier-to-drive manual.

Originally, we toyed with the idea of getting a small automatic for me to squish the kids into for daily running around as a second car and keeping the L300. The L300 was having more and more mechanical problems, though, so we decide a newer, better van is the best idea.

In our price range, the Hyundai Santamo or the Kia Joyce seem to be the best options. Both have three rows, but only seat seven, because the front and back rows have just two seats. The Joyce is roomier, but supposedly less reliable (as in, a dealer who had both to sell told us not to buy the Joyce, even though it would have netted him more money). The Joyce is also available newer, as the Santamo's imported into this country only go up to 1997 (apparently, the demand increased in some other country, and the importers here stopped being able to find them). We were hoping for something newer.

We also looked at a Kia Carnival, but it was just flat out out of our price range, so we dismissed that option.

At this point, our plan was to transfer all of the money we'd saved/been given into the country, and then head out to the "Free Zone" where all of the imported cars go first. The advantage to shopping out here is that they are all in one place. The disadvantage is that it is huge (as in, a couple of square miles of individual dealers with a variety of vehicles each). However, we thought that this might be a good opportunity to practice learning to listen to "to the right or to the left" with the kids, so we're up for it. :-P

However, while we're waiting for the first part of the process of transferring the money, our ex-pat friend LAKG saw a mini van for sale along the route she takes back and forth to her kids' school. She wrote down the phone number and reluctantly passed it along to us (while she would love to have a new van herself, they've decided that this is not the right season).

It was a Kia Carnival. And the asking price was just above what we'd been hoping for (significantly less than the other one we'd looked at). And that was before negotiating. And it was a pretty color. :-)

We took a friend of ML's with us to look at the car. We *loved* it. The price was fair (he came down a little, but it was really a good price to begin with). It had nine seats (sensing a theme here?). And we felt like it was truly a gift. As I said, I never thought I'd be driving this kind of vehicle in the Middle East.

Then, began the arduous process of transferring the money into the country to pay. I won't bore you with the details, but the whole thing went much less smoothly than we'd hoped.

ML's parents arrived September 30th, and we still didn't have the money/car. So, we took one last trip to Petra in the old van, which was probably just as well, because at least we already knew its quirks/what to look for.

Finally, on October 8th, we took possession of our new van! What a blessing! I've enjoyed being able to take the kids to the park, drive to visit a former neighbor at her new house, run to the grocery store, etc. Yay!

Hanging out in the new wheels.

Saying goodbye to the old. We annointed it with bubbles. And we had to have at least one picture of ML where he has spent many, many hours getting us (and himself and our various paperwork, etc.) to and fro.

Do all things...

2008-11-09T14:56:00.003+02:00

A few days ago, I came across the following verses in Psalms: As for me, I shall call upon GOd, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice. Psalm 55:16-17

And my first thought was, "Now there's some grumbling and complaining I could put up with!" :-P

You see, we have recently cracked down on grumbling and complaining in our house. We've never allowed a lot of it, but after hearing two godly young women (16 & 18) speak this summer on what they felt like their parents had done right (as the oldest one was leaving to go to college) and what they were grateful for parents doing well when they babysat and what they saw their friends struggling with (without naming any names or being in any way specific) due to ways they'd been raised differently, and one of the top things was "Don't allow whining," we took a good look at what we were allowing and started calling a spade a spade. No huge punishment crackdown. Occasionally there's punishment, but mostly it's just pointing out that someone's grumbling, complaining, or whining and that it's not allowed.

As per Philippians 2:14-15a (I used to hate it when people truncated verses that way, until I realized that it's not like the numbers were put there from the beginning or anything. :-): Do everything without finding fault or arguing. 15 Then you will be pure and without blame. You will be children of God without fault in a sinful and evil world.

And, of course, the Steve Green song (which was apparently a paraphrase, since I can't find a version that says exactly that): Do all things without grumbling or complaining. And prove yourselves to be blameless children of God.

So, when I read that verse, it made me smile at first, but I also realized I should help them to make their requests known to Him (as well as their thanks).

My Day Yesterday

2008-11-08T16:49:00.003+02:00

So, I don't think I'll be as specific as I was yesterday about day-before-yesterday, but here's a basic outline of how our Friday went (which is like Saturday in the US, without the soccer games).

Up at 7:15ish (that Monk episode, remember?). Abbreviated devotionals and Bible reading. Kids had muffins and peanut butter, applesauce muffins this time. I grabbed a Larabar, and ended up eating 1/2 of it in the car (hm, gotta remember to eat that other 1/2 before it becomes mush in the bottom of my purse...). ML and I showered. Various kids were directed as to what to wear.

8:19 out the door. I noticed the time, because we said we'd leave at 8:00 or 8:15. Not bad. For us. Picked up JF & JBF and RH & SEH. They sat four across in the middle of the van (oops, still need to do that post), MS sat in the middle up front, and the three younger kids sat in the back-back. Love having a nine-seater van!

9:15ish arrived at W. Academy, a small school for ex-pat kids in the capital. in spite of the fact that a good friend was the principal there for several years, we'd never actually seen the building. And if we hadn't had directions, we certainly wouldn't have seen it this time. Ex-pat schools don't exactly label themselves prominently these days. :-/ For a rummage sale, though, we will go to the ends of the earth.

Seriously, we were hoping to find a few things being sold by those leaving or not needing them anymore. The school does this yearly as a fund raiser. You pay a registration fee to have a table, and they have a bake sale, so that's where they make their money. Specifically, I was hoping for a crockpot. I'd love a 220 v. one, but I'd even take another 110 one, since A) I'd really like to have two, and B) the lid of my current one is cracking (which, if you know my cooking style, is traumatic).

No crockpot. Nothing much of value to us, really. I got a couple of Dr. Seuss books I'd been wanting us to have. ML found a couple of books for himself and a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book that MS and JW have been devouring. Actually, MS made out the best of all of us. He found several Star Wars figures that they've been having the best time with, and he got MA a purple dragon beanie for Christmas (shhh, don't tell).

The F's and the H's made out pretty well, though, so I guess it was worth coming. Oh, and I got to have some fresh, homemade sushi! I discovered about a year ago that I love sushi, so this was a nice treat. Although the majority of the kids that attend the school are from the US, many are from other countries, and apparently, some are from Korea, because this was touted as "Fresh Korean Sushi." It had crab, tuna, carrot, yellow bell pepper, and cucumber. It was so yummy!

From there, we had to decide what to do with the rest of the day. The F's and H's had other plans and were splitting off at this point (after stashing their purchases in our car, which was quite a feat, because I had about 10 bags of give-away clothes waiting to be donated as well as our stroller in the back already; fortunately, ML has good genetic packing skills).

If we'd made a good haul at the rummage sale, I would have been willing just to head back home. It was killing me, though, to think of having spent all that money on gas for the trip ala fadee (sorry, for nothing). Even though gas prices are going down here, it's still a chunk of cash.

So, we decided to drop our friends at the park where they were going to picnic and head to the mall to get some Christmas shopping taken care of. Dropped them off. And then remembered: it's Friday, it's 11:00 AM, and the mall doesn't open until 2:00. :-/ Well, the food court opens at 12:00, but the stores, not until 2:00.

Fine, we need a few import items only available in the capital, and MS wants to get JW's Christmas present at the bookstore at Cozmo (a British department store/grocery store that now has a bookstore and an electronics store). We head there. Traditionally, ML heads to the bookstore with the older three kids, while ZL and I do whatever grocery shopping we have to do. This time, MA decides to stay with me. This probably has something to do with the cute kiddie-sized carts they have and the fact that she spotted one as we entered.

I don't have much to get, just MA's rice milk, and I check for a few things that have been mysteriously absent from grocery stores here recently. Nope, they don't have baking spray, yellow cake mix or decently priced wheat pasta either. This happens here. Something that's always been available will just disappear for a few months. And then reappear. With no explanation. Except when there's new packaging. That's apparently an explanation. Here, they can't quite seem to time getting old packaging off the shelf and new packaging to replace it without a several month gap. But these items are made elsewhere. They're imports. Guess the shipping was off this month. Whatever. We can definitely do without them. At least they had tricolor pasta. I'm holding onto the illusion that that, at least, is better than white.

They also had mild salsa, a cheaper Oxi-Clean alternative, and the rice milk. ML & I went back and forth as to whether it was cheaper/better to get things to eat at the grocery store or eat fast food at the mall. There is Subway, so we at least wouldn't be eating greasy, but we decided on lunch meat, cheese (for everyone, because this is one of the two stores in-country that carries goat cheese now!) and crackers from the store. I was also able to get some pro-biotic yogurt drinks for the non-dairy-allergic ones among us and 100% orange juice for all of us. Oh, and the crackers were organic stone ground wheat (on sale BOGO; cha ching). So, I think all in all we netted a better health benefit than eating at the mall.

The two little shoppers and I joined the other three upstairs at the bookstore. ML chased ZL through the store (the reason why I normally take him shopping with me; I think life will be a lot more peaceful once he learns how to read, which doesn't look to be too long at the rate he's going) while I priced a few potential Christmas gifts. I didn't end up buying anything, but MA spent some of her money on a Berenstain Bears book, and MS bought JW's Christmas present (hm, I never did ask him what it was; ML approved it, so maybe I'll just wait and be surprised).

We had lunch in the car. The weather was beautiful, so it was actually a pleasant experience. Then, we drove to the mall.

Hm, it was only 1:00 when we arrived. Remember that Monk episode? ML and I were a little sleepy, and ZL was dozing off, so we instructed the older three to read quietly, reclined our seats, and took a power nap. :-P I'm sure the mall guard at the nearest entrance (we were in the parking garage near one of the doors into the mall) thought we were crazy foreigners. Oh, well. Guilty as charged.

Refreshed by our power nap, we head in at about 1:30. Just enough time to herd everyone to the bathroom, change Z, and start hitting the early-opening stores. We head to the British Hastings-type book/video/CD store and check out a few more Christmas options. We decide on Asterix books for the older two boys (shh, don't tell that, either).

Oh, I forgot to say: our family tradition is a book, a DVD and a toy/game for each child, hence all the book shopping. Next, the DVD shopping.

We were telling JF the other day about having a couple of kids' movies that had soundtracks both in Arabic and in English. We bought each of the older kids one a couple of years ago for Christmas. We have a Madeleine one, Treasure Planet, and Monsters, Inc., I think. They were supposed to help their Arabic learning. Turns out they don't just spontaneously watch them in Arabic. Imagine that. Guess we should push that more.

Anyway, I wanted to add to that collection, both for their benefit and for ML and I to watch to further our Arabic (I also know that these will be cool for them to have as they grow up; souvenirs of their childhood in this area of the world), so we headed to a store I remembered having original DVD's with actual multiple soundtracks (as opposed to copies, which usually only have English with Arabic subtitles or only Arabic, which seems kind of cruel to give as a Christmas present: "Here, have a movie that you really like in a language you mostly don't understand." :-) We ended up with Jungle Book and The Incredibles, with the understanding that we'll skip that weird demonic JackJack scene at the end. (You know by now that you're not supposed to tell, right?)

The power nap was wearing off, and all our feet were getting a little sore, so it was time for coffee. Starbucks, here we come. Yes, Starbucks. There's one on every corner here, too (not opposite corners yet, but practically every corner nonetheless). Fresh squeezed orange juice for the kids. I love that about Starbucks here. They all have those big orange juicing machines. Nice to have a healthy option. For the kids.

While there, we ran into the national manager of ML's center and his brother. We knew they were meeting JF and RH to watch a movie, but it was going to be at another mall cinema. Turns out the times at this one were better, so they were waiting for them. Also turns out that it was the manager's birthday, so we bought him a frappachino. He is one of MA's favorite people in the world, so they had a great time being silly while we wait together.

JBF and SEH were just about to head back to our city on public transport, so they were happy to hear that we were leaving and could give them a ride back. Perfect timing. We hit one more store to look for cheap toys to go in the kids' "sussy bag" that they get to pick from when they finish a workbook. None to be had, so we headed to the bathroom one more time and loaded up the kids.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We dropped our friends off at their houses (deciding that the guys definitely got the best end of the deal, since the ladies had to carry all of the purchases up to their houses, which are on the 4th and 5th floors), went home and vegged. Oh, and ML and the kids talked to his parents on the computer, a weekly tradition. No Monk episode this night, though. We were a little tired.

(I hope no one's expecting such novels from here on out. I think this is going to be an exception, rather than a rule. Just trying to keep everyone's expectations realistic.)

Excuses, excuses...

2008-11-07T21:14:00.003+02:00

Our internet was down yesterday, I promise! I unplugged the modem when I went on a visit (MS was home, and we try not to leave the internet on when kids are here by themselves), and it never recovered. Thank goodness a guy who works for the phone/internet company owes ML a favor and gave us a replacement one he had. Otherwise, it could have been a week before we would have gotten the problem solved (it's a company-issued ADSL modem).

So, my plan for yesterday was to post a day-in-the-life-of rundown of what happened. I guess I'll just have to do that today (for yesterday, because it was slightly more interesting/typical than today, although today was interesting, too, so maybe I'll just do both to make up for the lost day).

6:15 Wake up: I want this to be earlier (see next item), but when I was setting it earlier, I was going back to sleep and not getting the kids up on time. Hopefully, I can progressively move it backwards.

Go to the bathroom (read two Psalms; hey, if I didn't multi-task, I'd never get anything done)

6:30 Get kids up: Yep, that's when we get our kids up. Why? Because we're sadistic, slave-driving, up-with-the-sun kind of people. Um, actually, because we discovered that, for some reason, this was the magic hour at which they have to be up in order to fall asleep before 11 PM consistently. And, trust me, it is *not* good for children to be awake until the hour that their parents need to go to sleep, because, either the parents (especially the mother) get no time to themselves or they stay up past when they should to get that time. So, we get the kids up at 6:30.

Journal and worship while supervising the kids with their devotionals and Bible reading. Worship music playing on my computer at the table nearby (having closed the e-mail program earlier so that it wouldn't tempt me).

7:30 Serve kids breakfast: Pumpkin muffins with peanut butter (ZL had a plain muffin and a banana, since he's allergic to peanuts). I'm pretty sure this was the morning I had bananas and homemade peanut butter and milk. Yum!

8:00(ish) Start School: This day, we had "kitchen school." I had a pile-up of dishes to do, because we'd been without water earlier in the week, and I still hadn't gotten back on top of them, so the boys (and MA occasionally) brought their school books bins into the kitchen and worked on the floor/stepstool. ZL watched Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers on the computer in our room (he got these on DVD, but wasn't really watching them, so I pulled them off into iTunes, and we're getting much more use out of them), as he has been doing recently while we get school started.

10:30 Break to Get Ready: I get myself dressed, and direct MA & JW as to what they need to change into.

11:00 Ready to Go: I have a visit with a new neighbor that's recently moved into the building. All of the women in the building are going to visit her. Change ZL and put him down for a nap.

11:30 Go: My downstairs neighbor and landlady is finally ready to go, so we head upstairs. I leave MS at home working through his schoolwork list (JW brings the rest of his non-computer work with us) and looking out for ZL, who will sleep for 2-3 hours.

The visit consists of Saudi coffee, tea, cake, more Saudi coffee, pudding, and Turkish coffee. And lots of chattering. The women in the building love this opportunity to catch up on what is going on with whom as most of them don't see each other outside of these large group visits (they all have 4-5 children and are very busy). Occasionally, someone actually asks the new neighbor a get-to-know-you question, although she is actually in the room for very little time, because she is busy serving all of the above.

JW works nearby until he is finished, and then goes to join MA, who is watching cartoons. I call MS a couple of times to check on him. He's fine. ZL's still asleep.

Once the Turkish coffee is served, we are free to go but stay to visit a few more minutes. I hear from ML that Z is awake downstairs, because he has been out running errands and dropped by to leave me some items I'd asked for. Z is watching Blue's Clues, so is not likely to wander and get in trouble, but I know I need to leave soon. We stand to go but then need to tour the new house, so that takes a few minutes. There is much postulation as to whether the rooms are larger or smaller than the ones in our own apartments, especially the kitchen, although the landlady assures everyone that they are all built to the same specifications (which makes sense, since the building's sides and stairwell go straight up :-).

1:45 Arrive Home: a little wired from all of the sugar and caffeine. Direct JW and MA to do their computer school work (memorization songs and Rosetta Stone Arabic). MS has worked diligently while I was gone (Thank You, Lord!!!), so he is almost done with his schoolwork.

2:30 Lunch: Apple butter, butter sandwiches for the kids; a little cottage cheese and salsa for me, but I'm not really that hungry after the visit, even though I didn't eat all of the cake I was served.

3:00 See MA Off: a friend called and asked MA to go to the park with her, so she goes downstairs to wait once her mother calls to say she's on the way. This was the first time the girls handled the entire process themselves on the phone (although we got on at the end to confirm the details). It was very cute.

Miscellaneous: supervise schoolwork and switch out some more summer and winter clothes of mine (the kids' are done; yay!)

3:30 Back in the Kitchen: finishing dishes and making Applesauce Muffins to have for breakfasts and for the visit that ML is having at our house tonight.

Kids are straightening living areas (MA put away dishes before she left and straightened the visitor's area, I think).

4:30 MS is Done: He has worked diligently today, and we already did science read-alouds earlier in the morning (oops, forgot to put that in there), and we're done with history for the week, so I postpone literature read-alouds to the weekend and let him have some free time (although I have to call him back several times for math corrections and/or a job that I see is not complete).

5:30 Transition: MS gets into his Taekwondo uniform. I finish up in the kitchen and do some straightening. He leaves about 5:40 on the bus.

6:30 Exercise: While monitoring the muffins, which are still baking and grilling eggplant for dinner. Not easy. Especially when over 1/2 the time I'm wearing wrist weights. :-P

7:15 MS and ML Home: ML brings MS home when he comes home from work, because the TKD center is in the same building (plus, the bus home tends to be more rowdy than the bus there).

7:30 Eat Dinner: grilled eggplant sandwiches (with grilled onions for the adults and mozzarella for everyone except MA & ZL, who get goat cheese). The kids eat in our room, since the living area of the house is already clean for the visit. They watch TV show episodes while they eat. I read one of MS's school books, since there is no internet (normally, I would do some blog/post reading, since it's not a big sit-down family meal).

8:00 Get Visit Things Ready: I made up some Crystal Light, since ML's friend is diabetic, arranged the mini muffins on a plate, took glasses from the china cabinet to the kitchen so they could be ready to serve in. ML got the coffee maker ready, since we decided it was okay to serve American coffee, because he's been to our house before and had Turkish coffee here. I ended up being able to just set the things on the dining table for ML to serve himself, since they got themselves tea from our tea/coffee set-up when they arrived (RH, one of ML's co-workers came, too; the visit was with a student friend whom they've come to enjoy for his deep thinking and literary knowledge; they read Arabic folk tales together last night). Often, I will come out and make and serve the tea, baked goods, and coffee. Tonight, I just stayed back in the other end of the house (I love how this house is set up to make that possible).

8:30 Visit Starts: The guys hang out in the visitors area while I continue reading and the kids watch episodes and eat, if they're still at it.

9:00 Put the Kids in Bed: Usually we do this at 8:30, but I got a little bit of a late start.

9:30 Continue Reading: I venture out for some chocolate at some point in here. :-) Although I cover my head when out on the street, I do not in my own home, so I just make sure I have on a long-sleeved shirt and am not dressed slouchily when ML has guests.

10:30 Visit Wraps Up: ML & RH are nodding off (fortunately, this is a good friend, so he understands), so they call it an evening.

10:45 Watch Monk: For some strange idea, ML and I decided that it would be a good idea to watch one of the Monk episodes that RH & SEH loaned us before we go to bed, even though we've both already been nodding off. It was a decent episode, but I think we would have been much better served by going to bed.

11:45ish: Go to Bed.

So, there you have it. A day in the life of CBK. And now it is time for me to go to bed again.

Cake for Breakfast

2008-11-05T21:21:00.003+02:00

Dad is great! He gives us chocolate cake! (reference old Bill Cosby routine [just listen, if you click; the video is just some guy lip-synching to it])

We have a family tradition that evolved from the need to get rid of leftover birthday cake. :-P We never ate it all, because after the sugar-rush of the party, I was loathe to feed it to the kids again. And ML and I didn't want to eat it all by ourselves. In ML's family growing up, his dad would eat the leftovers for breakfast until they were gone. I decided that cake was no worse in sugar-content than donuts or pancakes with syrup, so we now have cake and eggs for breakfast the morning after a birthday party (I've discovered that morning is actually the best time to feed sugar, if you're going to; it gives them time to work it off before naptime/bedtime; really). Cake leftovers? Taken care of.

Seriously, it's no worse than many other sweet breakfast options (although those particular options are just treats for us, we have a limited number of birthday cakes to do away with, too). And, truth be told, I think the main reason I chose to institute this tradition is that I want to go down as a fun mom. Hopefully, this will balance slave-driver mom who rules during school hours (and even she is trying to reform to become more fun, so maybe there's hope...).

Happy Birthday, Z!

2008-11-04T23:54:00.003+02:00

This is going to be close to a wordless post. Today was Z's birthday party (his birthday was last Friday). Several friends with young kids came over, we had cake (yay, ML; his cake decorating just keeps getting better & better), and we opened presents. Short but sweet (like this post :-).

Pardon the quality of the photos. We win Mother and Father of the Year Award for not being able to find our camera for the entire party. ML found it later, but it was, of course, not charged. We'd been looking for it for several day in anticipation of needing it for birthday stuff, but today (after all of the birthday events, of course) ML went back and looked in the drawer where it was supposed to be and...it was there. It was just buried. :-/ So, we took pictures with ML's camera, hence the graininess. Sorry!

I have a confession to make.

2008-11-03T22:58:00.003+02:00

I hope that no one reading this will decide to stop being my friend, but...(no, this doesn't have anything to do with the election; however, don't ask me about that; you probably don't want to know)...I have a housekeeper. Not like Alice, but a lady comes once a week (Monday mornings; this is a timely confession) and cleans my house. There, I said it.

She washes any dishes that are dirty, and, although I try not to leave a huge pile, there are weeks... She cleans the floors and vacuums. She dusts. She cleans the bathrooms. She brings in and hangs out laundry (otherwise, that is [recently] the kids' job; yay!). And she folds any clean laundry (notice I make no such disclaimer as to not leaving a huge pile there; I do sort the laundry afterwards, though). Oh, and she changes any sheets as needed (I put out clean sheets on the beds that need to be changed).

Anyone ready to disown me?

Here's the deal: I've discovered, during the times when I've been without househelp here, that I can A) keep the house clean/straight and B) homeschool the kids or I can do A) and C) meet with people here or there's the A) and B) option. However, I cannot do A), B), and C) for a sustained period of time.

Therefore, we budget to bring someone in once a week to clean (roughly $15 each time, in case anyone's curious; up from around $12 when we first started having someone come almost 5 years ago). I'm okay with that. Especially on Mondays. When my house gets a big ol' "re-set," as I explained to my friend one time. I'm very okay with that on Mondays. I breathe a huge sigh of relief and actually relax for most of the day (okay, so I front load our week and hit school hard and heavy that day, but I relax on the housekeeping side of things).

Some other random details for the curious: we had a wonderful Indonesian lady who cleaned for us for 3 years from around Christmas of the first year that we lived here. She was *amazing*! She cleaned perfectly, tackled projects like cleaning curtains on a rotating basis without having to be asked, and had a very happy disposition. She disappeared around Ramadan last year. My best guess is that she was trying to get out from under the man who brought her here. Not an abusive situation, but he controlled the jobs she took, and I'm sure she wanted more say and may very well have fulfilled her obligations to him and needed to make a clean break. Unfortunately, I realize in hindsight that I think she was asking for more money to stay on with us (she was very cultural in asking in such a round about way that I didn't figure it out until I put some things together later). It was not until I tried to replace her and learned how much the going rate was that I understood. I would have gladly paid her more to keep her on, but hindsight and 20/20 and all that.

So, I fished around for someone new to come while struggling to keep my head above water doing it all myself, encountered a couple of examples of what I was not looking for. And finally, an ex-pat friend who was also looking for some help thought to ask a lady she knew who has three live-in housekeepers/nannies (hey, go to the one who knows, right?). Rich Friend knew of an Arab lady looking for just such work. She wanted to be selective in who she worked for, so she could keep her dignity (it's not a popular job choice), and Rich Friend promised her that we would be a perfect option.

She's been coming since late Spring/early Summer, and I'm pleased. I've had to do a little more directing than I had to do previously, but that's hardly a hardship. She's now cleaning for three of the four ex-pat moms in our little circle, and the fourth is trying to figure out when she can work herself into the schedule. Oh, and today she asked me to teach her to cross-stitch, which means she considers me enough of a friend to ask. She's been shy, so I was blessed by that.

Well, my secret's out (okay, not so much a secret, but you may or may not have known). I hope everyone's okay with that. If it makes you feel any better, I met my challenge to myself of keeping the house clean for the three months we were in the US last time with only a little help from ML. Of course, I wasn't homeschooling during that time, but we did have a big social schedule. I guess not all hope is lost for me. :-)

A new restaurant

2008-11-02T23:25:00.002+02:00

We went with some other ex-pats (one family, two couples) to a new restaurant here in town tonight. No, you don't understand. We went to a.new.restaurant. in.our.town. *Not* a common occurrence. Well, there was when Burger King opened, and Pizza Hut remodeled a while back (we also have Popeye's, but that's it). No, we're not suffering too much in the fast food department (unless you count not having Taco Bell, which we do count and do consider suffering). It's just that it's A) unhealthy and B) expensive (maybe 1 1/2 x's what you'd pay in the US).

It's one of the things that's very different about where we lived in the West Bank and here. There, the town was more isolated/self-contained. Therefore, you had pretty much everything you could want/need from furniture to restaurants. Here, with the capital only an hour's drive away, if you want a nice restaurant or a wide selection of furniture, you go there. The furniture example has been changing for a while now, and you can find so much more than when we first moved here. Hopefully, the restaurant situation tide will turn, too.

So, this new restaurant is called Saj Wok. Roughly translated: "kebob wok," maybe? "Saj" is related to the grilled meat that they do here, which may or may not be on a skewer. It's an attempt to introduce a new concept but relate it to a familiar one. Familiar is necessary around here. So, they have huge woks, which they light on fire and then cook the meat in (the fire in the pan itself is gone before they put the meat in; I guess this is to superheat it?).

The meat is all chicken, but you choose different flavors of sandwiches, and they wrap them in a bread very much like a large tortilla. The end result is kind of like a chicken burrito. They have Mexican, Indian, Barbeque (as in grilled, not the sauce flavor, much to ML's disappointment), Spicy, and Chinese. I tried all but the spicy. ML was coughing and choking as he ate it. If it had that effect on him, I'm not touching it. I liked the Chinese, the Indian, and the Mexican. They had a variation of veggies (i.e. the Chinese had cabbage, like an egg roll) and each had its own sauce/spices. MS and Z had mexican. MS came back for seconds, so he apparently liked it. JW & MA had Indian, and JW came back for seconds. MA later, though, asked to come back to the restaurant again, so I think she enjoyed hers, as well, but may just have been too distracted to ask for more.

We ordered a *ton* (a "wejhba" or "meal" of each kind, which was two good sized "burritos" each), so we have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, even, which is always nice.

Bottom line: it would be a good option for an in-town date night (we usually drive to the capital, but occasionally are just not feeling like the trek or would rather save gas money), and we might take the kids occasionally. We could probably put it as one of their options for Mommy/Daddy dates.