violamama
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Posts posted by violamama
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My boys do it together. The 5 yo totally keeps up with the 7 yo and is very verbal. We'll probably just plow ahead with book 2 when we finish 1 (which should be within the week). We do all the supplemental/additional stuff but my 5 yo doesn't write much yet so I often write for him and he traces it. Or he does a short version of any writing.
He memorized all the poetry almost as easily as his older brother, but he's a bit more shy about reciting it.
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Every hobby we've had so far has come with lots of little collections of stuff, both made and found. No help there.
We've enjoyed bug studying, including collecting them and we're planning to do the butterfly thing and maybe the ant thing soon.
We have a microscope for which we regularly bring home tidbits to examine. I've thought we should start a science journal of what we see there. Last week one son was so excited that his slightly sunburnt arms peeled (gross, I know) because it gave him pieces of skin to look at. The other brought home sand and a leaf he liked from a week at the beach.
They both have mini leatherman tools and I think they would like to whittle- maybe yours would, too. As a musician, I will have to get over my issues with knives + fingers.
The knitting thing (well, finger knitting) was HUGE with our campers last year- especially the boys!
Bookmaking or those cartoon-making journals (if yours are into drawing/writing).
We've done lots of things for the wildlife around our townhouse. We did peanut butter/seed cones, seed feeders, planting stuff with little rocks and stuff to make scenes (not really a hit until they finally saw them sprout).
ETA:
I'm thinking we might get this if we're in this yardless house this winter: http://www.amazon.co...rds=indoor fort
Okay, here it is: I want to make my boys something like this: http://strongarmor.blogspot.com/2013/01/thanks-for-letting-me-be-guest-blogger.html
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Okay, that was my instinct. Thanks!
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My 7 yo said something totally insensitive and somewhat offensive today to some new friends who are African American. We are caucasian and live in an area with very little diversity.
May I ask you all, how do you deal with something like that? What he said was said to the mom but the child was within earshot. I did address it there and then. It had to do not with a learned stereotype or anything like that. It was a childish uncomplimentary comment about the color of her skin compared to some coal dust he had on his finger from his mineral collection.
We've invited the family over to dinner in a few days. Would you bring up the comment? I thought about asking the mom how she would like other moms to deal with something like that... but I didn't want to force her into the role of reformer just then. I also didn't want to make it any more of a big deal in front of the kids, who were merrily oblivious.
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I just want to thank you for being classy and leaving a note. It's nice to see that.
If I were the girl's parent I would pay in full. If I were the person with the broken mirror I may not charge you, might just let my insurance cover it.
Anyway, you are awesome.
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Have you seen a hematologist? Not a GP but a specialist? My FIL claims the GPs never know how much to really prescribe... but I'm no expert at all and that's totally hearsay. I would take the whole story to somebody else if my doc was not taking this seriously. It's soft-sand-running miserable. Sorry!
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Our 2002 Suburban is so completely awesome. It seats 8, bench seats all the way and only the middle row is split.
We got it this year, with 80,000 miles on it in excellent condition for just under 10,000. It was literally a smoking deal- it smelled like crap and we paid another $800 to rip out all the upholstery and replace it after "ionizing treatments" left the heavy-smoker smell hanging around.
We camp in it, we travel with grandparents, we hit a deer this year at about 50 mph and had nothing more than cosmetic damage. We only have 2 kids (third in the works) so we don't drive it daily, but I love driving that thing.
ETA: Actually, ours seats 9 and the very back row does have a shoulder strap, but the middle row does not. It's split in the sense that the passenger side 1/3 folds down to let the back row people enter. Nobody sits on a crack.
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It wasn't a causal relationship, but yes. I have a Mirena IUD and love it in part because of the absence of periods. I have been mildly to extremely anemic my whole adult life with wildly irregular periods. I got the Mirena because my family laughs at birth control and I hoped it would work better than the pill (my 7 yo is a pill baby). It's been great.
Sorry, it's a terrible feeling.
FWIW, my father in law is an oncologist and hematologist, and the last time I was anemic he put me on a super high dose of iron. It was much higher than my GP would have prescribed. It worked much better (duh) and helped me avoid the shots.
Being anemic always seemed to lead to low level depression for me. Miserable! Get better.
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Thanks for the vote of approval. I have a few boxes that I will take with me to our 4-H meeting on Friday. The folks are all homeschoolers so I'll let them take whatever they want, and whatever is left I will donate. One less thing to deal with.
If you go the goodwill route you can claim replacement value on your taxes. It makes it zero guilt for me on most things- we live in a small house but have somehow been donating truckloads for the past 3 years.
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To do:
Everything. I mean, it's a where-do-I-start situation over here. We've been up until 2 the last couple of nights trying to dig out...
Bedroom- put away clothes from trip, wash sheets, dust & vacuum, clean bathroom floor (where did all that hair/dust come from? Looks like Yeti lives here and we have no hairy pets.
Boys room- figure out where to put big box of storage clothes- garage?
Garage- tie a rope around my waist and tackle all the recycling and goodwill piles i have started there for the last 3 months. Throw out most of the chest freezer antique foods, purge ALL THE THINGS. (Would the police really come if I start a bonfire in the parking lot? Hmmm.)
Music academy- give camp schedules to teachers & make tweaks, get newly hired piano teacher's summer figured out, find one more location in Lake O, order new lawn signs and brochures, cross fingers that the guitars, keyboards & ukuleles we ordered get here in time for camp, test out hand-made instruments and pick 7 projects for campers.
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Happy birthday, Plath. Feel better, Jean! Congrats to all you list tacklers out there. I love these threads.
I'm baaaa-aaaaack from two weeks away at "work" on the coast. It was lovely. I do appreciate that my family comes out en force to support me & my kiddos a few times a year so I can run off and play chamber music for 8 or 10 hours a day.
But.
Coming home to work and school is hard. I know we're new... does it get easier?
Done:
Reading
Mailed 40 packets to campers
called 3 people
Took boys to a park
To do:
Everything. I mean, it's a where-do-I-start situation over here. We've been up until 2 the last couple of nights trying to dig out...
Bedroom- put away clothes from trip, wash sheets, dust & vacuum, clean bathroom floor (where did all that hair/dust come from? Looks like Yeti lives here and we have no hairy pets.
Boys room- figure out where to put big box of storage clothes- garage?
Garage- tie a rope around my waste and tackle all the recycling and goodwill piles i have started there for the last 3 months. Throw out most of the chest freezer antique foods, purge ALL THE THINGS. (Would the police really come if I start a bonfire in the parking lot? Hmmm.)
Music academy- give camp schedules to teachers & make tweaks, get newly hired piano teacher's summer figured out, find one more location in Lake O, order new lawn signs and brochures, cross fingers that the guitars, keyboards & ukuleles we ordered get here in time for camp, test out hand-made instruments and pick 7 projects for campers.
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Nope. It has disappeared from my history and I can't find it even when I search terms I know we used. Bummer!
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CONGRATS!!!!!
I'm an IUD baby and my older son is a pill baby (and I never ever missed a dose). You speak the truth!
But mostly... CONGRATS!!!!!!
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Bachelors Viola Performance (yes, it's a thing)
Masters Viola Performance
Doctorate Viola Performance with a special project in Arts Administration
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I love talking about rudeness because sometimes I feel like such a Pollyanna in the real world. I'm sure I myself am rude all the time, too, but there are so many lame things people do and do proudly that I often feel like a misfit even noticing it!
Don't you think it's all much more noticeable when you have children?
I've noticed my sensitivity to rudeness being heightened since having kids. I think trying to constantly explain to them how to treat others well and be considerate makes me realize how many times this ain't happening all around us. The second part of that lesson (for our house) is to always point out that one form of good manners is to let the infractions of others just slide on by without comment and without scorekeeping. We talk a lot about giving grace and that being friendly means trying to not notice small rudenesses in others and definitely not repaying them or pointing them out.
My sister is like me with similar personal "rules" and a sensitivity to poor manners. For her, however, each thing becomes a personal affront and she will relive and retell the stories many times over. I really try not to end up on that slippery slope- I know it's in my nature.
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Done:
Breakfast
2 phone calls
Math & LA school
Pack boys & myself
Take (last batch of??) papers to secretary of state
Have a beer wine with my mom
My feet are KILLING me! We did the sec of state, plus managed to ge the money order & copies all in order to FedEx to the consulate. It may be our last batch for a while... and with that and a glass of wine, I am DONE!
To do:
Make to-do list for husband (gonna be a schmaltzy email- we hate to spend nights apart and we're facing SIX of them!)
Congrats on all these super industrious threads. Inspiring!
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Done:
Breakfast
2 phone calls
To Do:
Math & LA school
Think about Johnny Depp (this forum is forever contributing great ideas to my daily life)
Pack boys & myself
Make to-do list for husband
Take (last batch of??) papers to secretary of state
Have a beer with my mom
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The laptop I use for hours a day everyday and have had for close to 2 years is a refurb. I didn't get the applecare. They say they check out the stuff even more thoroughly than the newly-builts.
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I would recognize it if I heard it or saw the sheet music, but I have no idea if it's part of a longer work or opus number or anything like that. I'm thinking my next step might be going to a music library near me and paging through all his compositions that they have there. Thanks everyone!
Did you check the imslp link? It has pdfs. Hope you find it!
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Meet new school director about music academy coming there
Math
5 yo letter tracing, counting game
LA with 7 yo
Make fliers for new school & run them over there
Tidy bedrooms/put away laundry while making 3 phone calls
Practice
Teach 4:30-9pm
Start packing for 10 days at coast festival
Got a call from the Chinese Consulate and had to fax over one more document. Did it!
Got an unexpected email that we are now on the list of active families for our agency's special needs program and they will start looking for a match. I thought we wouldn't make that list until our immigration pre-approval paperwork was back from the dept of homeland security. Had to reply with 5 more attached documents/photos. Did it!
Turned out to be a wayyyyyy better day than I had anticipated. We'll have a lot of cleaning & packing to do tomorrow...
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Meet new school director about music academy coming there
Math
5 yo letter tracing, counting game
LA with 7 yo
Make fliers for new school & run them over there
Tidy bedrooms/put away laundry while making 3 phone calls
Practice
Teach 4:30-9pm
Start packing for 10 days at coast festival
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You could look through these: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Tcherepnin,_Nikolay
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OMSI is pretty cool. You could walk over the bridges to get there, very nice with views of the dragon boat races. They have an IMAX theater.
If you like books, Powells is great and walkable from anywhere downtown. The whole area around downtown Powells has lots of neat little shops like this which is WAY better than VooDoo (but you have to do VooDoo once): http://saltandstraw.com/
There's a rock museum just west of town if you're into that.
There's a killer aviation museum about 40 minutes out of town (car only) which also has a small wave park.
Lots of groovy walking tours- This looks fun and mentions the food carts, which are groovy: http://www.discoverportland.net/maps/4-maps/540-the-4t-route
Not sure how mature the content is, but this underground tour is supposed to be rad: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g52024-d663253-Reviews-Portland_Walking_Tours-Portland_Oregon.html
The zoo is great, accessible by Max train.
I like the art museum downtown, and the blocks around it are neat for walking around, but that kinda depends on your particular 11 yob.
You can take a boat ride through the downtown corridor and I think you can also kayak and such.
Have a great trip!
s/o of the Christianity and Judaism thread
in The Chat Board
Posted
That's weird. The site is saying that imperfection is different from sin, and then with this redefinition of the words "original sin" pronounces Baptists non-believers in that doctrine. Which is total hooey. The site has an agenda, but I didn't stick around to figure out what. Why is a Jewish library commenting on Baptist theology in such a stretching-truth way anyway?
If you'd like to know what Baptists are like doctrinally, listen to John Piper or read some of the things he wrote. I will say the Bible says Jesus was no "Plan B" but that he knew how things would go and intended to be our savior "before the foundations of the earth" for the glory of God. If you are stuck on that point, it may be helpful to read some of these if you're interested:
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/what-is-the-biblical-evidence-for-original-sin
http://www.monergism.com/_original_sin_depravity_infect_1.php
HTH.