Upward Journey
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Posts posted by Upward Journey
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Continuing to pray.
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I just found a new one last week, Rosemary & Thyme.
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We've found that the cheapest way to buy canvases is to go to Michael's on Boxing Day, with coupons in hand, and then stock up!
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You'd never survive in my house, LOL! We have tons of kids in the neighborhood, they traipse in and out of my house all summer for pool towels/snacks/whatever, and sometimes they get *really loud*. We host a New Year's Eve party for the neighborhood kids every year. Someone is often spontaneously over for dinner. At one point last summer, I had to ask my DS who the blond kid was in the kitchen. Seriously, I had never seen him before and he was in my refrigerator retrieving something to drink. The kid chaos makes me happy; I'm glad my kids have friends to play with. With the exception of one family, who has one very quiet and tame tween girl, most families on the block are the same way. So if my kids aren't here through my house, then they are running around in the neighborhood or in someone else's house. We all play together that way; sometimes even the adult stay at home moms spontaneously knock and hang out at other mom's houses. The moms visiting each other has eased up in recent years, though, as the kids have gotten older together and some moms have returned to the workforce.
ETA: These are all decent kids and I haven't had a whit of trouble with any of them. But I am a no-nonsense disciplinarian and I have no compunction about tossing someone out or telling them they are not welcome if they are acting like an ass or causing real trouble. But I don't consider general kid chaos real trouble.
It's interesting reading this thread. I wish I were a lot more like you, Reefgazer. I wish I didn't mind chaos and that I could be more welcoming, but like other posters, kid-chaos stresses me out. And it's been hard for me to accept this about myself because I want to be a certain way, but it's just not part of my temperment. And I'm not saying that as a cop-out. I am working on it, but it's definitely not something that comes naturally.
I seriously grew up just like Reefgazer's kids :) It was wonderful. I so wanted to duplicate that for my own children, but I found that it was beyond me. It brought too much stress.
It is a quality of my mother's, that I very much admire.
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Yeah, this. I am glad a few people know where I'm coming from. :) I like adult friends over when it is planned well in advance, but drop-in visiters = my personal idea of hell.
"Safe bubble" -yes! That!
P.S. General alert to everyone: I'm outta likes again. So don't take silence for lack of agreement.
Well, it's nice for me to finally meet someone like myself as well :)
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Eh. Not really. I realize some people will object to what I am about to say, but I don't want to put in effort to get to know the neighbors. I have a passing acquaintance with the nearest-by neighbor (the mom); we've talked a few times because our mail carrier is dyslexic. ;) This family, the kids from today, it sounds like they are the next-farthest neighbor from the one I "know." I guess I just don't want to put effort into getting to know them. I don't want to be buddy chums with neighbors; I don't want to be enemies, either. I just prefer, "Yup, there they are. The Smith family." That kind of aloof interaction.
In a contest, I would prefer my son plays with them in my yard, over him going there (even if he were only in the yard there). But my first choice would be neighbors don't come over.
P.s. I can't see their house or yard from my house. You have to hike through the woods and it probably takes a 20-minute walk from their yard to ours. So...just saying that to establish that telling DS he can only play in their yard would be up to him to obey me. I would have no clue what he's doing over there.
Haven't read through the whole thread yet.
I get you. I am the same way. The idea of knowing my neighbors is kind of nice in the abstract, but the effort that that would take? Not going to happen. Fortunately my Dh is not an introvert like me, so he runs interference ;) I only know my neighbors because of him.
Growing up we were THAT house, you know, the one that all the kids played at, and I loved it. But I am not my mother. Having children (that are not mine) in my house stresses me out. SO MUCH! I've been blessed with mostly introverted children who only have a few friends and are content with that. But when neighbor children happen to come by, I feel exactly what you are describing. It's my safe bubble, and I don't really want anyone puncturing it, not even kids. Don't get me wrong, we do have kids over, it's just not random.
I don't invite adults over either, unless I absolutely have to.
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Has anyone seen this? A mother, afraid allowing her children to read Harry Potter would turn them into witches, is rewriting HP so her kids can read it. She calls it Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10644439
A sample paragraph from chapter 2:
This was written for the Onion, right? :blink:
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Yeah I don't like that book so I don't read it.
:laugh:
I do like that particular book, but this made me giggle for some reason.
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Perhaps this will not be a popular opinion, but I do not think homeschoolers should be allowed to play for their public high school's teams. If I were a principal or superintendent or whomever has the authority to make this decision, I wouldn't permit it. Offering an occasional use of the school's resources for AP testing or PSAT is one thing; having a non-student representing the school in inter-school competition is another. If homeschooled students are on the team, why not private school students? Why not students from other public high schools who just like your coach better?
Although I recognize that this is something upon which reasonable minds may differ, it hardly speaks ill of the coach's or principal's moral character if he fails to support homeschoolers' inclusion on his team. The "I pay taxes" argument is solid not not a slam dunk. I can see plenty of potential for cheating--pulling a failing kid out to "homeschool" him so he can still play football? Pretty sure that one has been tried. Not that anyone on here is doing that; my point is just that there are valid reasons to want only the school's actual students on their teams.
Yes, our schools have the option, but they choose not to allow homeschoolers to do sports. They have cited the problem of "shopping" schools and tight budgets.
Some of the private schools are willing to take homeschooled kids, but the norm among my friends seems to be to just enroll them full-time if they're at all serious. That gets them better coaching and a higher level of competition than offered by the private schools.
Where we lived you were only allowed to compete for the high school that you would have actually attended boundary wise, so no shopping; and grades had to be submitted in order to maintain eligibility.
I suppose you could game the system if you wanted to {shrug}. That doesn't really bother me too much. Most people aren't going to, so why penalize everyone because some people are jerks?
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I seriously doubt someone not attending a school could play sports for that school in AZ
Not true. Oldest was a varsity swimmer, and completely home schooled. There were hoops to jump through (paperwork to submit), but nothing that wasn't doable.
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Helping out on a short term basis when an otherwise functional, healthy parent goes back to school or work is not the same thing I was talking about or that LuLu was talking about. I took on that role from the time I was 7-8 for a brother who was barely two years younger than me. My brother lived with me and not our parents from the time I was barely 18 until he was 20. Providing care is not the same thing as consistently having to parent yourself and your sibling.
I agree. Sorry that I misunderstood.
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My personal experience has been that when an older sibling is parenting a younger sibling, in any non-marginal way, it is because there is dysfunction and/or abuse in the family.
I would agree. I was a surrogate parent figure for my brother. My parents weren't abusive per say but there was a lot of dysfunction and some neglect. Not only was it not fair to my brother, it was not fair to me. Our relationship is fundamentally different than it could be.
I'm going to have to disagree.
I'm a good deal older than my youngest brother. I took over as primary caregiver for about a year and a half when he was around 8, because my mother went back to school and I was available to fill that role. Yes, it did fundamentally changed our relationship, but not in a bad way. It created another bond that still exists to this day. It had nothing to do with abuse OR neglect.
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We've gone to brother laser printers as well. It's SO much cheaper. I loved my HP, but the ink was getting ridiculous ($$$) so I bought this for all my B&W printing needs.
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2320D-Mono-Laser-Printer/dp/B00LEA5EHO/ref=sr_1_9?s=office-electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1433545455&sr=1-9&keywords=brother+laser+printer&pebp=1433545497465&perid=0E0257XRZR1V6X3Y86X6 It's super fast if you have to print a lot at one time. We got it on sale last year for $50!!! Crazy cheap.
And then my HP all-in-one died, so we got this http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFCL2720DW-Wireless-Networking-Printing/dp/B00MFG588Q/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1433545802&sr=8-11&keywords=brother+laser+printer+color This one is a monster and not so fast, but I've been very happy with it. I've done quite a bit of printing and I still haven't had to replace the toner that came with the machine ( I haven't been using my B&W because I haven't done any bulk printing since I got it). It was also on sale at the time, maybe $130? I don't quite remember.
Unless you have to print photo quality pictures a laser printer is the way to go.
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It's much less than half the state.... but anyways, this is a major reason a lot of Northern Californians want to become a separate state. Southern California does have a problem with water use. Those of us in Nor Cal don't like getting lumped in with them ;-)
And yes, a lot of water gets shipped out as produce -- much more than is used to irrigate lawns. Much of what is grown in the desert areas is HAY that is shipped to CHINA. So we basically sell So. Cal water supplies to China. That's kinda messed up, IMHO. But such a huge portion of the economy depends on ag -- such a huge mess!
I'm sorry. I think it would be very frustrating to be a N. CA resident.
I agree. It's a very big mess, with no easy answers.
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This might seem a little nit-picky, but CA isn't a desert, and doesn't need to do things the way "desert states" do. A few parts of it are a desert, but there FIVE major climates in California. Much of the area suffering drought is the Mediterranean climate area. That means that we USUALLY have more than enough rain during the winter to store and use for the dry summers. This type of climate does not occur anywhere else in North America, so I know it is difficult for most Americans to understand why we irrigate out here as we do. Although it is not a desert, it is necessary to have water storage facilities to keep up with the population and agriculture. Because of environmental concerns, this has not always happened.
This current drought is the worst drought in 1,000 years. It's "exceptional." This is a totally different thing than the problem with the Southern Californians who DO live in a desert and get their water from the Colorado River, where lawns aren't sustainable even without drought. But that is a small portion of California (maybe not in population numbers, but in land area).
Regardless of what we technically call it, 1/2 of CA gets less than 10" of rain a year, on par with AZ, UT, NV & NM. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/pcpn/westus_precip.gif
Because of this, their conservation methods should also be on par with their neighbors, BEFORE they start asking the other states for a larger water allotment.
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Living on the other side of the country, I cannot imagine what you Californians go through. But, California water shortages have been going on as long as I can remember. Why isn't there a water pipe going from California to other states with more water? Why isn't water trucked in? Living in the Midsouth, I have always had water that came from far off locations and some relatively local. Why can't California do the same? I remember Texas and California got into a little water spat a few years ago and Texas cut them off. Please educate me.
The whole of the western United States is in a drought. Where exactly would CA pipe it in from?
I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone that has lived in a neighboring state for over a decade, where it is quite normal for people to have dirt yards. Yes it is dusty, no it's not as pretty, but desert and green lawn do not even belong in the same sentence.
I don't think piping/trucking water into CA should even be mentioned/considered until conservation measures in CA are on par with the desert states that surround them.
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I'm using Miller-Levine as a text and RSO 2 for labs.
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The poll seems to have worked.
As to purging books, I'm not much help. I'm in the same place right now.
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I made myself sick crying over 'Fiddler on the Roof.' How do you people cope with that?
Les Mis will be my first favourite love forever, but I do enjoy the soundtracks to Chess and Martin Guerre too. Not really sure why, but I do. :)
The music, I absolutely love the music.
When I'm already down, it reminds me that things could always be worse.
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Awww. I'm sorry. :(
Even though I'm the kind of person that can manage to forget their OWN birthday, I'd be sad too if my dh or kids didn't remember. My mom frequently remembers after the fact :rolleyes:
Congrats on the weight loss!!!
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Dd just reminded me -- Addams Family. So very amazing last year at the Muny.
Concur with Jenny on Hairspray. Also, Billy Elliot.
Wicked! Yes, definitely belongs on the list!
My "Want to See" list includes Matilda and Newsies, both of which are coming here next year.
Love the stage version of White Christmas.
Nunsense.
Really, a lot of these depend on the cast. I've been forever scarred by a really bad Sound of Music. I've seen productions of Joseph and the Amazing Tech. Dreamcoat that I liked, and others that really were ... okay, older dd's new phrase is, "you really made brave choices in your performance/lighting/blocking/directing/casting/etc," to give obscure feedback when you don't really want to come out and say, "wow, that sucked." So, yeah, performances just chockablock FULL of brave choices.
Younger dd is voting for Tarzan, but it depends on the cast, because it can really be a slog.
Book of Mormon
Billy Elliot is a musical ?!? Must.tell.dd.
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Now I'm embarrassed I like Grease. Terrible message for girls, really fun music.
In my defense, I also like Les Mis, Phantom, and Wicked. My all time favorite is The Producers, though.
I love Grease (enough that I introduced it to my daughters...)
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Haven't read through the thread yet. Looking forward to reading what everyone says.
My absolute favorite is Fiddler on the Roof, seconded by Sound of Music. In fact I put on Fiddler just to cheer me up some days :)
I recently saw Into the Woods (movie version). It was so good! But a friend said that it was only a shortened version of the stage production, so we have a different version on hold at the library.
We're also looking forward to Phantom of the Opera coming in next week. :)
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:ohmy: :laugh: :lol:
Urgent Prayer Request for DS
in The Chat Board
Posted
Praying