Riona's Birthday Shirt

We have lots of traditions with Ri's birthday. We interview her about her favourite things and post them on our family blog, we have a special Happy Birthday pillowcase that we sneak on her pillow, we have a special plate for birthday cake, and when Poppa and Achoo come visit we take Ri to Red Robin. But that's never enough, right? So this year, i thought i would embroider a birthday shirt for her.

She loved it!

Almost as much as she enjoyed the whipped cream on her sundae!

What do November Showers Bring?

This is SOOOOOO not good! Storm after storm has piled up in the Pacific, with Western WA name written all over them. Two windstorms in a row...2 rounds of rain down, about 3-4 more to go. Thankfully the Howard Hanson Dam has been repaired enough to increase our chances of adverting a majour flood in the Valley from 1:3 to 1:24. Hoping to have a few pictures of the flood preps around here in the area for you soon. When Boeing's local Space Center is erecting an 8 foot wall around it's perimeter, you know people are scared!

And by the soundtrack to this video, you can deduce that the FFA has gotten the problems fixed and the birds are back in the air...atleast in Seattle anyway. :O) Every 5 seconds is another roar of an engine past our house.

If only adults could view such icky weather with child like eyes. When Ri read the title of this post she said, "That's silly, Mom. November showers bring Christmas cookies. Didn't'cha know that?" :o) Isn't my girl just the most precious little optimist?! Love THAT!

State of the Homeschoolin' Address

Oh boyo. October. Yea, not such a great month to homeschool. Oh yeah, and by the way, if you're Moose, don't read pass the next sentence. I love you, Hubbie!

Okay, is he gone? look left, look right Okay, coast's clear.

Well, when other people commented on October being a downer of the month for schoolin', they weren't kidding. The newness has worn off. The books are almost boring already. The pencils don't smell so good anymore. Half the crayons or coloured pencils are missing. And to boot, we've misplaced a library book or two.

We need a shot in the arm (or a boot to the rump might be more appropriate.)

A total number of 36 school days have transpired between Sept 14th - Nov 17th. We've taken a total of 4 "official" days off of homeschool. As you'll deduce, the rest were just wasted.

Here's the skinny on how our 2nd month of homeschool panned out:

Numbers in ( ) are the amount of lessons we are behind

Math: 29 lessons done (7)

Engl: READING GUIDE: 61 lessons
FIRST LANG LSSN: 35 (1)
SPELLING: 30 (6)

History: 7 lessons done (3)

Science: 6 animals studied (4)

Religious Ed: 18 lessons (14 more lessons before class on Dec 2nd)


Truth be told, we probably aren't as bad off as the kids in public school. Especially those in our area where the teachers were on strike the whole 1st week of school--until a judge ordered them to return to work or get thrown in jail. Seriously.

But the part that is really challenging us is consistancy with our reading. We read all the time here in our house. But the tough part is getting down to tasks like required reading. Why does that always make it sound like you'll be dumb if you don't read it? Personally, i really hate that phrase. They should call it something different like enlightenment. Or something. I don't know. Maybe that's because i haven't done most the required rads and i am dumb. Ha! :o)

All i know is unless we want to be homeschooling during the best part of summer, then we need to get a move on!!

Finally!!

Last night Pride & Prejudice was on for the 24th billion time and since i couldn't sleep, well....

And, although i didn't understand some, well, okay, most parts of it, i feel like i atleast walked away with bit of understanding about the whole story. Ei yi ei! Now i know why Cliff Notes were invented!

I do need to read the book someday though. But for now, i think i'll stick to Maeve Binchy and craft mags. :o)

In other news: we're readying to start charging the chickens rent. No eggs since Sept have been laid. I presume they're molting, but the explosion of feathers happened back in late August. And the most dreadful thing happened while my parents were here. Oh, i don't know if i should tell you here. It's oh so most dreadful and horrific! Okay, grit your teeth, here it comes....

We had to....

BUY EGGS.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!

Like Moose says, "We can't buy eggs! That's like having to pay for air!!"

Are any other chicken owners having this problem out there? Granted the weather hasn't been too nice out here in the Pac NW lately, but our girls were pretty reliable last year for at least a couple eggs a week during the moderately cold temps. Thankfully, we haven't lost power yet with all the storm blowin' in, so we are keeping the lamp on in the evenings to help cut through the cold and wet mornings. I just hate lighting up my chickens like that though--i know they aren't getting their beauty rest with a hot, bright blub shoved in their faces. The storms themselves have been bringing 50 degree temps, which is a welcomed change from the frost on the grass last week! Hopefully, after the tortential rains move through, we'll be able to ditch the lamp and have dry, self heating chickens again. :o)

Hope you all have a great day, wherever you are!

Gotta Love This Kind of Homeschoolin'

You know when not being able to sleep but 5 hours a night is a good thing? When it translates into a bunch of brainstormin'!!

I had this idea yesterday that while Ri being introduced to fractions in her Math lessons, i should make them practical ones too. In the lesson, we split paper circles in half with the scissors, crayons, and manipulatives, but nothing that has practical everyday use.

So, i had this idea while i was reading a blog that included a recipe for Nutter Butter Banana Pudding Trifle from Southern Living. "Place half of pudding mixture in bowl...." "Break cookies into thirds...."

***Shazam!***

Genius! So that was our math lesson for today. Oh, and what a delectable math lesson it was! You'll notice that Ri thinks she's doing an infomercial. She's a big fan of Billy Mayes, bless her heart. :o)

Whirlwind: Musings of the Past Few Days

Man-o. It's been crazy around here. But good crazy! Well, maybe bittersweet crazy. Oh, i don't know. Thankfully, my parents came to visit for a long time, enabling me to take it a little easy while i was sick with a cold, however they were sick with colds too, so... Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

They have a delightful new cat, a humongous Maine Coon, that is simply a doll. Except that he likes all things plastic and even at 15 pounds, he's a leaper...and a clumsy one at that. And in a workroom with opening shelving....with plastic bags, plastic drop clothes, items balanced precariously on said open shelving, etc...well, you get the picture. My parents were less than pleased. Quite frankly, i'd rather the little guy stay a while and help me clean out lots more garbage out of my house. Mom and Pop are going to loan him to us when it's time to baby proof the house again. ;o)

But we had a lot of errand running--fun and not so fun errands. I'm really sick of shopping...and we're taking it easy this year, since the economy is so uncertain. And people aren't really making it feel more "holiday-ee", every few seconds all you hear around here are horns honking and people grumbling at the cashiers or each other. Huh. 'Tis the season...but i don't think that's really what it's supposed to mean, eh?

Is there a time when grocery shopping is ever fun? Especially nowadays when the stores are bombarding you with all kinds of Christmas crap that you really don't need, much less want to look at as it leaves you feeling your inspiration has been sucked dry. Makes me want to grab a megaphone and ask the entire country, "Um, excuse me, but have you seen Thanksgiving? I know it's around here somewhere. It's got to be!" When did Christmas become a holiday that retailers decided that whatever ugly stuff comes in from overseas to sell to customers and fits on three aisles in a small corner of the store is the extent of the Christmas decorating they'll need to do for the year? Has anyone told the retailers that even if they offer every gadget and toy in the store for $10, that it's still too expensive for households that DON'T HAVE JOBS and are quite possibly ABOUT TO LOSE THEIR HOMES?!?! They need a weeks worth of groceries for $10, how about that!?!? And who decided it was a good idea to start selling formerly live Christmas trees a week and a half BEFORE Thanksgiving? What happened to celebrating Thanksgiving, eh? Frankly speaking, won't the tree be brown by Christmas?!? And practically speaking, what person wants to vacuum up pine needles everyday for that long?? Sheesh!

Shoot, i'd settle just for the Christmas displays of my youth, dog gum it! Where's the "window displays at Macy's" kinda spirit of yesteryear?

I want the Christmases of fairy tales, where Christmas is celebrated with the start of ADVENT, and ending on the Epiphany. Where generousity oozes from people like grease from bacon in a warm pan; and not just for a few certain weeks out of the year either. What i need is Charlie Brown's rant about Christmas becoming too commercial on a tape recorder. :o)

I did see one cute and surprising decoration yesterday at the regional "One Stop Shop". In the paint/"hardware" section, someone had strung the big C7 Christmas lights thru the rafters and dangled them there just over head, with one end of the strand in the palm of a huge stuffed teddy bear balancing on a ladder. Of course, it would be waaaaay more adorable if they had waited a few weeks before they put it up...like in December! Yet it's simple, cute, and jolly. Makes you giggle to yourself when you see it. Just what commercialised Christmas should be.

I'm just getting so sick of Christmas already, Lord! What a horrible revelation, eh? I really need to get a grip on it...we're in control of the holidays in our home, so now i need to find a way to block out the Christmas stuff during shopping trips. I've certainly must try to stop taking Riona shopping til December--limit the exposure, you know?!

Here's hoping you all are having a wonderful Fall (still!), and your planning for the Thanksgiving holiday is going well and in full swing! I get off a little easy around here these days, as my sister-in-law hosts Thanksgiving at her place. My mother-in-law goes a few days ahead and gets the prep work done and cooks in the kitchen that morning; by afternoon all the kids and a few of the older family members show up with our potluck of dishes and sit down to a feast. My dish...a salad. Not only because i love making extravangant salads, but also because then i know it's something i can eat and not feel like i've amassed 40 lbs after devouring Thanksgiving dinner. :o)

I miss not having Thanksgiving at our house. I did it all myself once...it was soooo gratifying! Sure, the turkey wasn't cooked perfectly, but we just ate more stuffing. And the potatoes were a little dry, so i had to learn to make gravy. We still had a great dinner, sitting down to eat together and playing games after.

Kinda like how i grew up....

I miss those days! My parents kept it so simple!

You can be sure wherever we celebrate Thanksgiving in the years to come that i will always be thankful for those quite Thanksgiving holidays growing up, where we pulled the TV into the dining room, Mom asked me to help with little cooking chores while we watched the Macy's parade while Pop peeled potatoes or worked on one of his model trains, and by afternoon we were sitting down to a wonderful meal together. Thanks, Mom and Pop!!

Manga!

One of our favourite restaurants to visit once a year or so is Buca di Beppo. Have you ever been to one of these restaurants? If not, and your in the vicinity of one, please treat yourself. Thankfully, someone had the divine inspiration to ask my parent's during this visit if we had ever taken them, and even more "thankfullier" they hadn't ever been. Oh, the shame and the horror!!

So, we remedied that situation pronto and took them to Beppo's for dinner on Vet's Day.

The beauty of the Beppo is that everything on the menu is Italian & served family style.

It's expense is right in line with usual casual dining--including 5 dishes, 4 drinks, and 1 dessert for Ri, including the tip was about $15/person.

And we still had enough food left over for two lunches for Moose!

Now when they say that a dish serves 2-3 people--they really mean that by the time you order 3-4 items on the menu, you'll still be taking a boat load of food home.

As you can see, it's just as famous for it's atmosphere as it is it's food.

Well, if some dodo brain (me) would have remembered to take a picture of the food, then you could have seen, eh? The list of delicacies included prosciutto and mozza stuffed chicken breasts in pesto sauce, an autumn salad with apples, walnuts, cranberries, and gorgonzola, baked ziti with spicy Italian sausage, garlic mash, and green beans.

Num, num, num!!

Back to the decor though...

Here is the infamous "Pope's Table" (it seats 12,of course.)

When we first started going to Beppo's, the bust was of Pope John Paul II.

Now you can see that they've actually changed the bust to resemble Pope Benedict XVI

The coved ceiling isn't quite the Sistine Chapel now, is it, but it's sweet.

Then there are the posters plastered everywhere...we were dining in the room with the Italian movie posters on the ceiling.

And, although i couldn't get a picture of the framed Maidenform bra with all the framed adverts for it from the first years of it's inception, i was able to get a couple shots of these pieces. I think they're a riot, but maybe that's only because of my medical field background and my affinity for the word "caca".

And of course, if the wait list is a mile long and the lobby is full, you always have this beautiful view to dazzle you while your table is readied.