More projects than I can shake a knitting needle at

A. observed this morning that I had 3 knitting projects going and was about to embark on a fourth.

Me, thinking: "so??"

I'm just about finished with a scarf (decorative) made out of a ribbony-type yarn--well, I guess it's not truly yarn, is it? It's made in Italy and has green, gold and purple in it. Shiny. I can finish this off in an afternoon. (I'm not a fast knitter, ok?)

I'm finishing up the second sock of S's pair of pinky red purply stripey socks made of Regia "crazy color" yarn. Currently on the heel flap. I can get this done in the next week if I do a little bit every day.

I'm still working on a baby blanket for some unknown child recipient. I don't think I will ever make a full-sized afghan because just a baby blanket is taking so long!!

AND--I went to the Lamb's Ear yesterday and got the requisite supplies for A's Christmas sweater. yes, I'm starting it now, to get it ready in time, I hope. See paragraph #3 above.

Meanwhile, it's a yummy, sunny day and I'm sitting here dinking on the puter while the kids watch Godzilla. Must get in gear to accomplish the day's tasks. S. still needs to finish her schoolwork!!!

Truth in advertising?

...or rather, appearance v. reality! The link above compares the advertising photos of some popular fast foods with actual photos of what you bring home. Delightful!

Real life sure looks drab when compared to Bright Shiny Yummy Photos!


Our Chapter's piano adjudications just finished up this weekend. Select piano students prepared and memorized two pieces from different time periods (or in younger students, pieces that contrast in style: fast/slow; major/minor, etc.) - and presented them to a master teacher, Dr. Leonard Richter from Walla Walla College. S. took part in it, although she was not selected as an honors student this year. I think she's okay with that--she knows she hasn't been putting a lot of effort into her studies recently; not enough to be in the honors recital.

The Daffodil Parade was on Saturday. We didn't go. I had fully intended to watch it on TV later but I forgot. (doh!) I had three students marching in it, too! *sigh*

Okay... off to start the week. Must get D. to the WASL exam. Only today (math) and Wednesday (writing) left, woohoo!

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

I am sitting on the loveseat next to a child who is SOoo TIiiiireed.... and caaaaaan't do her multiplication/division.......who didn't get enough sleeeeeeeep and is tiiiiiiiired. She wants to take a naaaaaap-- but I won't let her until she does her maaaaaaaath. And sciiiiiience. And soooo fooooorth.

Looking ahead in math I see we're about to sally forth into factor trees. And looking at the answer key, I don't see any numeral 1 in the tree. Is this because it's prime? But wait, it's all about prime factorization anyway... so, is it because of the identity property.. that 1 really doesn't make a difference in the factor tree? This is a Crystal question, mainly-- :) unless there are other math genii who read this blog, which I highly doubt.

Here's the example:

45
/ \
9 5
/ \ \
3 3 5

So the prime factorization of 45 is 3, 3, and 5.

I could throw in a 1 and 45 before the 9 and the 5... see what I'm saying? So the prime factors COULD be 1, 3, 3, 5. I haven't found a satisfactory explanation for this yet in the Sadlier-Oxford math book. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah. (In keeping with todaaaaay's theeeeeeme).

I'm also doing lessons a bit out of order....so as the kids are learning the x6 multiplication table, I'm making them do /6 as well to reinforce the concept.

This week D. has begun the WASL - Washington Assessment of Student Learning. He had a good time yesterday... but the schedule originally said he'd be done at 3:15 pm. We were just about ready to walk out the door yesterday at 2:30 to go get him when he called home. He'd been done since 2 pm!! He'd been hanging out and playing, waiting for us to show up. The teachers proctoring the exam said the kids got done much sooner than was expected. So we are readjusting our schedules for tomorrow, when he resumes testing. (Today he has off).


Now S. is huuuuuuuuungry, can she eeeeeeeeat? (No, not until you finish your maaaaaaath.) She's reading as I type this. She just inserted a qw - ah, thank you, dear daughter, but get your own blog. (giggling) Ah, progress!! She's now doing x7 /7!! Good. Once we get to x8 /8, we'll call it done.

Since she is no longer paying attention to her work, but rather to me, I'm closing for now. Seeeeee you laaaaaaaater.

And just one more

I really need to get up and do something PRODUCTIVE instead of sitting here goofing off so this is the last. I think.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So Andy, it's official. I DON'T HAVE AN ACCENT. Not the Michigan nasal "aah" (Father God="Faahther Gaahd"), not the Wisconsin "oa" (about="aboat", oh, and can't forget bag="beg"). Don and Dawn are pronounced the same. Nyah.

ooh, a new quiz

Stolen from Sarah-Over-the-Pond :D

AND LOOK at the anti-American bias here! LOL :) Old chap, forsooth.

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

For the record, I did not pay attention during 100% of high school; this quiz just happened to be over subjects that I rock on.



And I could not resist the next link to the quiz below--this IS where my specialty, after all. But it proves nothing--the test was easy.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

Lose the battle, or win the war?

Wednesday afternoons have long been a bane to me. I can homeschool, at best, for about 2 hours before I begin teaching piano lessons at 12:45.

But I do not allow my children to just play all afternoon, oh no. I give them SEATWORK to do. Nothing arduous; a spelling lesson (copy words or fill in the blanks), a vocabulary lesson (ditto), reading chapters of their current book--stuff they can do with little to no parental guidance. They get it completed before dinner and Wednesday night prayer meeting.

Well, that's the idea, anyway. In reality, they go to the library with Dad, then come home and goof off the remainder of the afternoon while I teach piano lessons, ignoring their existence and trying not to reveal my growing frustration with their lack of compliance with The Rules.

Today, I vowed, it would be different. At noon I announced: "I have a pizza waiting in the refrigerator. If you complete your seatwork by 6 pm, you may have pizza for dinner. If you do not, you will have oatmeal." Then I went ahead with my stress-free, piano-teaching day!

You can guess which two children are currently working on seatwork, panicked, regretting the time spent goofing off today. The pizza aroma is permeating the house, and there's a pot of boiling water on the stove just waiting for oats to go in...

Wonder how this scenario will play out? Me too. I'll update later.
(edit)
UPDATE: D., enraged, refused to eat dinner. S. wasn't having it either. So they accompanied us to Wednesday night church anyway, hungry.

By the time we returned home, the children cheerfully and gratefully ate a fresh pot of hot oatmeal. With raisins and brown sugar.

We had pizza for lunch on Thursday. Getting schoolwork done was not a problem.

Stayin' Alive

Meh. I fell off the earth! Last week was spring break and I Had Plans. Plans to get that front bathroom finished Once And For All.


Okay, so it's half finished. We were blessed and surprised when Audra's hubby Matt came over and put up new plywood, 2x4's and installed a new window. (We were planning to do this ourselves--actually Andy was, heh)-- so then we had to wait for the flooring plywood, which we now have. All Andy needs to do is put it in place, pour a leveler over it, put the tub back in place (cast iron, a real bugger to move---just like in the master bathroom remodel we did a few years back where Richard helped move that one... oy!)----then insulate, sheetrock, do the tub enclosure, and redo the laminate floors.


Yeah, I wanted it done during spring break when I wasn't teaching anything. Now my participation will be limited to Saturdays. BUT. I am not complaining!! The water damage was not as great as we had feared.


Meanwhile, D has gotten glasses. He is mildly farsighted, and the optometrist wants to try glasses for a year to see if it will help. I invested the extra $$ in the flexible titanium frames, not realizing that within 14 days their flexibility would be put to the test~!


See, we went to the park on Good Friday. It was 77º and gorgeous out. While at the park, a ranting, angry man was arrested; a biting Canada goose was carted away by animal patrol (S was a victim), we saw a bald eagle wheeling and soaring overhead, and BEST OF ALL, D. caught a frog AND got his glasses stepped on by some overeager kid.


Here's the frog - with S and D, glasses PRE-stepping:

I am grateful that Costco's optical department got these back into their rightful shape after the trouncing they received. Not a happy camper, I was. (Yoda) Lori tells me that Pearle Vision has some warranty deal for kids' glasses that I will def. look into if D. continues to need glasses after this year. The kid is hard on stuff.

Hm, what else? Life has been moving along and I've not been blogging, as you see! Trying to get my focus back where it should be. I've baked some cakes, had a tree taken down, gone shopping at the mall (you have no idea how big a deal that is, I NEVER SHOP THE MALL), made Easter dinner a day early, and stayed up with a kid who had a bad dream.

Yep, it's normal around here.
How's things with you all? I think I'd better go and read up on your lives.