The randomness of this week:

My 17 year old son is finished with 11th grade, except for state tests of which his last is Friday morning.

My 14 year old daughter finishes 8th grade tomorrow, except for her foreign language test on Monday, and graduation rehearsal on Monday.  Then, graduation next Wednesday!!!  She will then officially be a high school freshman!

My 12 year old son finishes 7th grade next Tuesday.  He might have Lyme Disease.  I’m bringing him to the doctor after school today.  I can’t stand tics. 

I had to fend off two hawks yesterday morning.  This is ridiculous!  I let Timmy outside and a couple of seconds later heard the screech of a hawk.  I ran out (in a towel because I had just gotten out of the shower!) and two hawks flew over.  One was making a circle, so I waved my arms and yelled at it to go away!  It did.  Thank goodness my backyard is private!  I hope Google Earth’s satellite wasn’t taking a photo at that moment!

I’m subscribed to my own blog by email and I just realized I don’t receive my posts!  I wonder if I somehow marked myself as spam.  Sigh.

We bought my husband the game Molkky for Father’s Day!  It looks like a cool family game.  Hope he likes it!

I’m knitting something!  I have trouble with knitting, but I’m really liking the simple pattern.  It’s the Long Beach Washcloth by Lion Brand.  (I didn’t make this a link because I think you have to be registered and logged on to Lion Brand to view it.)  I’ll try to take some time this week to take photos of what I’ve been making to show you!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

We went apple picking last Sunday.  We really lucked out because it wasn’t too crowded but as we were leaving there was a line of cars driving in.  It’s a pretty small place with not much parking, but apparently this year it was discovered.  Maybe they advertised.  We tried to go a couple of weeks ago and the line going into the parking lot was huge, so we just drove right by.  I know it’s great for the owners but I feel a little sad that it has become so overrun with people.  Sigh.  There weren’t even many apples left on the trees!  There were plenty of apples on the ground under the trees – in the poison ivy.  You know I stayed away from the poison ivy!

My oldest son didn’t come with us.  He was at a friend’s house practicing with their band with the goal of performing in our high school’s rock concert in January.  It is a very big fundraiser for the junior class.  He has had a tough time getting his band-mates together.  I’m hoping that they get enough practice in to perform and to feel proud of their performance.  In February of this year he and two of his friends performed at our high school in a fundraiser for the people of La Carpio, Costa Rica.  That performance came off with not much practice at all!

As soon as we got home I made Apple Crisp!  Next I want to try Christina’s Apple Crostata!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

My son is on the left, I used soft focus on this photo.  I didn’t want to be showing his friend’s faces too clearly without permission!

They were the second group to perform, right after a female barbershop quartet!  They did a lot of practicing at my house before the show and they did an amazing job!  They didn’t use their own guitars, so that made things a little more difficult, but they did a great job anyway.  They were told that only acoustic guitars were allowed and they all only have electric guitars.  The plan was to borrow two acoustics from one of their teachers that was also performing.  When they arrived, they discovered that electric guitars were allowed.  So my son borrowed an electric and his one friend borrowed an acoustic, and their singer…sang!  They performed Nothing Else Matters by Metallica.  Their guitar playing sounded so beautiful.  I can’t tell you how proud I am of my son!  I sure do love that young man! (I was going to say boy, but he’s going to be sixteen this month!)

I want to give a special thank you to Shelli at Shelli Pabis Photography for giving me some really great pointers to get some wonderful photos of the event!  Thank you, Shelli!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Happy Weekend!

Check out more of November in black in white at Springtree Road!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

He is fifteen, sixteen in February.  He is passionate about his guitar playing.  He started learning about two years ago and is quite a good guitarist now.  He is self-taught. I love to listen to him play!

He came home from school yesterday and enthusiastically told me about how his English teacher plays guitar and he invited my son and one of my son’s guitar playing buddies to play in front of an audience on Monday night.  Where?  He doesn’t know for sure, some coffee house?  Maybe?  What time?  He doesn’t know.  Any details?  He doesn’t know!  So…I’m hoping to hear some details after school today.  I’m excited for him and if he and his buddy do it, I think it will be great!  I’ll let you know!

Don’t forget to check out more November in black and white!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Happy Love Thursday!

For my youngest son’s birthday we gave him Rock Band 2 with the guitar controller.  He is having a great time with it!

He also got some money and a gift card to a game store for his birthday from relatives.  He decided to spend it on the drums for Rock Band 2 so that his sister or brother can join his band.  I’m guessing that my daughter will join in.  He has given her turns on the guitar and she really enjoys it.  My oldest son plays a real guitar, so he’s not so interested.  The game’s drum set might be a different story.  Why do I sense that three children are all going to want to play the drums?

Unrelated, I am going to my youngest son’s Meet the Teacher night tonight.  The night for my daughter’s grade is Monday and then the high school one is the week after that.  I like going and meeting the new set of teachers, but I really don’t like going out at night.  I’ve never liked driving at night.  We have a lot of deer around here and at this time of year they are quite active.  On my entire drive home in the dark I’ll be on edge watching for animals.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Why, oh why, do my children have to do homework?  I don’t like to use the word hate, so I’ll say that I really, strongly, dislike homework!  Here is how things go in my house after school:

• My teen-aged son gets home one hour before my middle schoolers.  He has a snack and plays his guitar and enjoys his one hour of being the only kid in the house.
• My Middle School daughter and son arrive home.  This is when the fun begins.
• Both younger children want my attention.
• My youngest son wants to be loud and crazy for a little while after being cooped up all day in classes.
• My daughter wants me to sit with her so she can tell me about her day and show me her homework.
• Meanwhile, my youngest son doesn’t want to go outside to be loud and crazy, because he would be alone out there.  No, this needs to go on in my living room where my daughter wants me all to herself.
• Snacks are eaten and then all three of them need to start on homework.  At this point, it is time for me to start cooking dinner and I am feeling frazzled already.  My daughter is already peeved because my youngest is annoying her.
• My two sons sit down to the dining area table to do homework.  My youngest son is not ready to go back into work mode, but he has a lot of homework, so if he is to have any free time in the evening, he’s got to start the work now.
• My daughter settles down in the living room to do her homework.  She wants complete silence. Hah.  She needs my help. Another Hah.  Now, I was a good student and I think I should be fine with 7th grade work, but some of the stuff she comes home with is so confusing.  This week she brought home a Science worksheet packet.  I had to read over some of the questions again and again for them to finally make sense to me.  Am I getting old (yes, but not that old) or is this stuff just written really poorly?
• At this point, I am trying to cook, help my daughter, and quiet down my youngest son.  A little while after this is when my teen-aged son starts telling my youngest to be quiet or leave the room, because he has a lot of work to get done.
• This fun continues until dinner.
• Homework is removed from the dining area table so we can eat.
• After dinner everybody gets back to work, but now more seriously because they really want to have a chunk of free time before showers and bed.

While this is going on, I think, do their teachers spend hours working/sitting sedentary at a desk when they get home?  Why do they expect a kid, that has been working hard for 6-1/2 hours at a desk at school, to do more work at home?  I don’t know what the answer is.  It seems like it’s all work, work, work.  Where is the time for daydreaming and playing?  It is limited to a couple of hours in the evening (if we’re lucky) and weekends (of course working around weekend homework.)  I realize that our kids will have to be able to compete in a world market.  I guess I’m just missing those carefree days of summer.  Sigh.

How does your family handle homework overload?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites