Saturday Confessions

~erica

*I have a bonus day, I wasn't planning on being home today, we are in the middle of a baseball tournament, but right now I'm sitting in my warm house. We had our first game at 9 a.m. this morning, that meant the coach wanted us at the field at 8 a.m. I layered in wool and long underwear; packed lots of snacks, 2 blankets, a bucket of bubble gum, and my camera. We were there before the tournament organizer! As soon as the schedule was posted I was antsy- if we won then we got to go home until tomorrow morning same time, same place. I know its not about winning and losing, yada, yada. But if we WON.... When it started pouring during the second inning all I could think about was going home. We won. The other team had to stay at the field in wet uniforms and wait for their next game at 1. We got to eat a warm lunch at Burger King where they had warm toilets and warm water in their bathroom. It's the simple things that make me happy.

Jonah

*Baseball season makes me very thankful we share a home with my parents. I can go to tournaments and events and leave everyone at home, but the child who needs to be there. Granted the kids are now old enough to stay home alone, for the most part, and Ryan's here sleeping, but to not have to worry about them or worse, get them all up to go when its wet, cold, and muddy. It's a huge blessing!

*So, since today was not on my plan I don't have to make it count for anything. As soon as I'm done with this post and link it to Melissa's over at A Familiar Path, I am putting my pajamas back on and snuggling under a quilt and reading a real book, not a schoolbook. I did my housework and my homework yesterday since I knew this weekend was going to be spent at the ballfield (tomorrow we'll be there until at least 3 since we can't go home until we lose 2 games).

*I've been awful about posting this year. But by the time I finish my homework and housework and spend a little time being a mom I'm drained. I get on the laptop at night and play mahjonng or Spider Solitaire until I'm too tired and then I crawl into bed. This quarter I'm taking 2 online classes and it seems like I'm never done with the homework, I'm terrified of falling behind so I'm always reading chapters or typing up assignments. The laptop and textbook are in the bedroom and I can't get them until Ryan is up for the day so I can't do anything about WA State History (I can read Health, but no...)

*Thursday I took Arin on a date. We went to the college to see the Kenya Safari Acrobats and then to Dairy Queen. He doesn't play sports or chess so this time of year it seems like he never gets to leave the house or do anything. We had a great time, he proclaimed the show "Awesome."

*I have pictures lined up in my photo file for blog posts. I managed to get the birthdays posted but that's all. I write posts in my head all the time. I'm seriously considering Dragon Software for my laptop but I don't think it's waterproof and I do most of the writing in my head in the shower.

*The kids and I are going to The Dalles for Easter next weekend. I am really hoping its warm and sunny there or it will seem like a waste. Not really, the kids love going and I'm glad they like to go. Several churches put on a Passion Play (not sure what else to call it) all week. Friday night is the big event and they do the trial of Jesus on the courthouse steps, then make him carry his cross up the hill, crucify him, and take his body to the tomb. Half the town is in costume (and character, don't mess with the Roman soldiers). It's very powerful and the kids ask to go back year after year. Sunday morning they do the Sunrise Service at the empty tomb, too.

*Tovah and my mom walked down to the Greenhouse, it opened yesterday. I should go too but I'm still heading for the couch with my book...

Playing Hooky and Isaac's 13th Birthday

~Erica

I should be doing something right now. Studying, laundry, being with my family, anything. What am I doing? Sitting in my bedroom with the laptop watching Phineas and Ferb until its time for CSI. I had a Spanish test this morning so I don't have any homework (the oral test is not something that can be prepared for) and we went on our first Botany field trip this afternoon and don't have class tomorrow. I could be typing up my Pacific Northwest History notes or reading the next chapter in my Health & Nutrition book, but, no. I'm doing nothing, and it feels good to just sit and do nothing.

For Botany I have to prepare 30 specimens in a collection. They have to be native plants. My mom went through the book we are to use as our guide and found 43 plants that we have in our yard or across the street. There are another 5 or so that she just considers weeds that would count too. I don't see this collection project being a problem. My PNW research paper? whole nuther story.... I'm considering doing it on something about how the settlers brought in a lot of plants that have changed the "native" landscape from what it looked like when Lewis & Clark came. Finding sources is the issue.

Isaac turned 13 last month. That means 2/3 of my children are now teens (or if you want to be technical, half are currently teens since Nathan is almost 22). We made cupcakes I heard discussed on facebook- chocolate cupcakes with Lindor truffles, glazed with nutella. The truffles would have been better if we had just eaten them but the nutella glaze- YUM!

I wrapped his money in layers of tape and ribbon.

Rush tries to help his get the money out but they finally had to resort to scissors

Put the Nutella on while they are warm (or stick them back in the warm oven)

and spread it when it starts to melt.

P.S. Nathan's home! He came home from Afghanistan almost 2 weeks ago. We've seen him once and I may have taken pictures but I don't remember. I didn't expect to see him until at least Wednesday and the kids called us Monday afternoon while we were shopping at Walmart to tell us that they were at the house. We hurried home but the kids had taken over the conversation and wanted to show him all the XBox games that they had gotten this year. We took them out for Mexican and were joined by my parents and Cheyney's folks. Ryan's mom and her friend stopped by to say hi. Oh, I did take pictures! They're still on the camera, but I did take some of Nathan and Cheyney with Great-Grandma Hendrickson that evening.

Project 365 Week 11

~Erica

Oops- I need to fix the title, if the last one was week 9 then this has to be week 11...

7- This is the final picture of my hazelnut shrub. Most of the amends are open now but this one is still tight. After following it all quarter, because of the lost week of school, we didn't actually finish the project and do the write up. Oh well.

9- Jonah's friend bridged to our Troop. It was on a Wednesday night so only Arin and Isaac were available to go. They look so grown up, it's hard to think of them as young men rather than boys.

11- Our Pack spent the night at Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium for a ZooSnooze. We got to sleep next to the shark tank, it was cool but a little unnerving to see sharks glide past your head as you lie there in your sleeping bag. We did a night hike through the zoo, spent time in the aquarium and touch tanks, did a craft, and had a snack before bed.

12- After breakfast we went into the elephant yard to place treats for them. This elephant is getting her pedicure before going out into the yard. Actually, they weren't really interested in going out, it was rainy and cold. We had a great time, Arin and Rush went as Den Chiefs and I took Tovah as siblings could also be included. Isaac enjoyed being the only one at home for a night.

Project 365 Week 9

~Erica

February 27- Another icy, cold day. We're ready for it to warm up and life to get back to normal, with school's cancelled all our outside activities are also cancelled.

February 28- Knit 2 baby girl hats in one day. The one on the left is a seashell pattern for Baby Faith, our friend, Michelle's neice who is up at Children's with kidney issues. She wasn't expected to live and is defying the odds still.

February 28- Rush started baseball today (the snow melted enough to actually see the grass). He needed his annual haircut before the first game. Michelle came over late to give him his haircut- she had been up with Baby Faith. I haven't taken his "After" picture yet.

Tovah turned 8- In January!

~Erica

I've had the pictures from Tovah's birthday in my export file for weeks but just haven't gotten to writing the post. It's hard to think about my last baby no longer being a baby. She dresses herself, does her schoolwork independently, and can pretty much keep up with the boys. The only thing she really needs help with is brushing her hair and being sent back to her room for more appropriate clothing choices...

Not a happy face! Cheyney met us at the mall in Olympia and sat with Tovah and Ryan while she got her ears pierced, (I walked the mall with the boys, it's like shots- I try to avoid needles if Daddy is available...)

The Thinkers waiting outside Claires. They wouldn't come into such a "girl" store.

After getting her ears pierced we went to Chuck E. Cheese's.

After dinner at home we did cake and presents (the pink yarn is for a sweater for her American Girl doll, Emily)

A Timkerbell watch to go with the new Tinkerbell movie

New earrings and a new necklace kit from Great-Grandma Colleen. I was supposed to print this picture to send to Grandma. Tovah's done really well with her earrings, she took over their care after the first week and hasn't had any infections. It's been long enough to remove them now but we haven't boughten any other earrings yet so she's just left them in. My mom and I have to use gold or sterling silver posts so I'm hesitant to buy her hypoallergenic earrings. Maybe this calls for a browse on etsy to find some cute earrings for her.

Disaster Preparedness

~Erica

Tsunami '04 | Christchurch | Haiti

Hurricane Katrina | Nisqually Earthquake, WA

Lewis County Flood, WA | Mount St. Helens | Snowpocalypse

My partner in my Speech class and I gave our final speech on disaster preparedness, less than a week before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We introduced our topic with these pictures on a power point. The last four we introduced as disasters that happened to "us," the horrible things we see on the news can and have happened here.

You just don't need to be prepared for major disasters: wind, snow, or ice can be just as devastating if you aren't ready to cope with no electricity or undriveable roads.

We found several good sources for information on what you need to have on hand.

FEMA website

Red Cross

This is my favorite of the sites I found: The Emergency Dude "Stuff Happens... Be Ready!" He has some good ideas for food, stuff you can get at the grocery store and won't break the bank to stockpile. A great quote I found on the site, "Being prepared means you aren't living in fear and you aren't living in denial - it's a perfect middle ground."

Here are the basics you need to have ready at all times:

Several gallons of water

food for 3 days of no water or electricity

flashlight and batteries

warm clothing

first aid kit

Prescription medicines

diapers (okay, so we don't need these anymore...)

Nice to have:

alternative cooking method w/ fuel for 3 days

baby wipes (I prefer these to hand sanitizer, they get off dirt better and aren't as drying)

activities for the kids

radio w/ batteries (in the flood our radio stations went offline the first day)

The hardest one for me is the 3-day supply of water for your family. It's a gallon of water per person per day. That means I need to have 27 gallons of water stored somewhere that won't flood! After the Flood in '07 we had no water for about 3 days or maybe even longer and we didn't have drinking water for 4 months. We had plenty of sources of water once the flood waters went down and we could get to town but it was a pain. We got really tired of drinking bottled water, it has no taste. The hardest part was how much water it took to cook (we could run our dishwasher if we used the "sanitize" setting). I had a 5-gallon jug we filled in town or at a friend's but cooking spaghetti took almost 2 gallons!

I went through the house and put together an emergency kit with stuff we had on hand. Other than the water we already had everything we needed, I just had to raid the winter gear and the outdoor supplies we have for Boy Scout events. As long as we keep at least one of the 3 propane tanks filled we can use the stove in the trailer or the BBQ's side burner to cook. My partner brought in a Commercial Disaster Kit with water packs and nutrition cubes. It was in a cool duffle bag but I'm not sure it's worth the cost and I think the kids would have to be pretty hungry to eat the cubes unless I could convince them they were Star Wars or Star Trek rations. I can't find them online to show you, she didn't know where they came from since it was her boyfriend's. His family has one for each person in the house and they keep them in their bedrooms if they have to evacuate.


By the way: I was 9 years old when Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980. We got inches of ash on May 24, it was the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. The experts had no idea if the ash was lethal or even dangerous if we breathed in too much of it. It covered everything and had to be washed off roofs and cars. Because they didn't want us out in it and it was hard on vehicles to drive in it, they cancelled the rest of the school year. We went in one day and cleaned out our desks. Our parents sent Matthew and me to California to spend the summer with our grandparents because they just didn't know what else to do with us and didn't want us cooped up inside all summer. It was scary before the mountain blew, I remember one night we had an earthquake and I freaked out, I told my mom we needed to move back to California before we all died. She told me that when she was my age they started saying that California was going to break off at the San Andreas fault and fall into the ocean, but her parent's didn't move. I'm not sure if I was supposed to feel better or be more scared! We traded a volcano for earthquakes that summer, but Disneyland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, fast food, and the beach made it worth the risk...

Spring Break Whine pt 2

~Erica

This past month I've been frequently asked, "If you homechool why does it matter when the public school takes spring break, you set your own schedule?"

It does matter... I'm on Spring break this week and next, Ryan is off half of next week and the week after, then the following week is the school's spring break (first week of April). We have Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Wednesday night church activities, Chess Club, and 3 kids in Baseball every week so we can't just drop everything and take off to the beach for a couple of days. The week the kids don't have any activities both Ryan and I are back in classes.

I'm going to try and fit in some extra fun stuff in the next 3 weeks but I'm having a hard time scheduling it:

* An XBox game they preordered is coming on Tuesday so they'll probably get an extra XBox day/ time to try it out.
* Tulips should be blooming soon and we'll make our annual visit to DeGoede's, that day we'll try and go on up to Morton to get 1 lb. Ollie Burgers at Spiffys.
* We can't go watch Rush play in Toutle next week and go to Papa Pete's with the team but maybe we'll just go one day for lunch.

After Spring Break we won't have Wed. night activities other than High School youth group. Rush's last high school game is May 5 unless they make it into post-season play. Chess is also over May 5. Cub Scouts is done May 16. Jonah and Tovah will play into June but I don't have their game schedules yet. Jonah will play at least 2 tournaments on weekends. Rush wants to go on the 50-miler this summer so he needs to go on as many training hikes as possible. Isaac also wants to go on those hikes but he won't be eligible for the 50-miler unless they make an exception (he won't be 1st Class because he's going to have to wait until the September Car Camp to do the cooking requirement- we have a Chess Tournament the weekend of Spring Car Camp).

I do have some plans for this week between activities:
-cover the hole in the bathroom with something other than cardboard
-vacuum my bedroom behind and under all the furniture (painting just isn't going to happen)
-work on a StoryBook for a graduation gift
-organize my art in StoryBook, I've got a ton that I've downloaded but never brought into SBC
-figure out what needs to done to bring the kids' baby albums up to date
-answer emails that have been piling up about the homeschooling loop and cub scout questions
-write up some of the blog posts I've listed in my notebook.
-catch up my Project 365 pages
-get back on track taking a photo a day

I couldn't have 2 posts in a row without a picture, could I? I had to write an essay about Monroe's Motivated Sequence and Aristotle's Theory of Persuasive Appeals for Speech last weekend. I used the Allstate commercials for my example. Cause I'm funny like that...