I have commited a bloggy foul. I answered a meme and despite being so proud to be tagged myself, I forgot to tag anyone else!

God forgive me, I can be so self centered sometimes.

Anyhow, I will tag Anne, Jen F.

10 Random Fact about Meme

10 random facts Meme
I was tagged by sweet Suzanne (who's daughters look like angel cherubs from some renaisance painting) at Gladdest Hours to answer this meme. I am ridiculously pleased to be tagged, so here are my 10 Random Facts about Meme

1. I will not sleep with socks on.

2. I do not shave my legs when Lee is out of town during the winter.

3. I like to buy old, out of print board games at yard sales. My favorite is 'Acquire'. I love it not only for the oh so high powered executive looking business man on the front, but also because it is a fun game. I recently discovered that a fellow Acquire nerd built an online version of this game, Get Hostile It is addictive. People, be warned.

4. I am the handyman of our family. I fix the toilets etc, and I am known as the Pretty Pink Plumber around these here parts.

5. I like to do arts and crafty things and I have a passion for vintage stuff.

6. I always wanted a Barbie mansion as a child, the one with the elevator. I never got it but I know I had more fun playing with my friend Marcy and making homes for our Barbies with stuff like shoeboxes and pillows than I ever would have had playing with the plastic monstrocity.

7. As a girl, I believed that Chevrolet would be a perfectly beautiful name for a future daughter.

8. I vividly remember swinging so high on the swingset when I was 5 that I was terrified I would go all the way around, but still pumping with all of my might.

9. I love spinach and most squash.

10. I always wanted to be an actor and I can make myself cry pretty much whenever I want.

Learning about other cultures

Last night at dinner Lee let out a loud, obnoxious burp. Of course the kids laughed, even MC, and I hid my smile. However amusing bodily noises can be, I feel that as the mom I do have to teach my kids good manners and appropriate behavior. I don't want to be a nagging manners harridan, but I don't want my kids to embarrass themselves (ah who am I kidding, I don't want them to embarass me!) and I want them to understand appropriateness. For instance, boys in the company of other boys may express any manner of bodily noises both real and pretend and all is well and good. On the other hand, these same noises are not appropriate at dinner or most other places really, say Holy Mass for instance.

I decided to take the opportunity last night to share some motherly wisdom with the family after Lee's, ahem, outburst.

"In some countries, burping after a meal is actually considered very good manners." I said

This got their attention and interest immediately.

Lee joined in, "Yes, in fact in some places if you didn't burp your host would be very offended."

There were lots of ooohs and ahhs and a couple of well performed fake burps for me in appreciation for the good meal.

"Sadly, in our culture and in our home, it is considered very bad manners to burp so loudly and obnoxiously." I said fairly sternly looking at all of the kids in the eyes, including Lee.

He just grinned sheepishly and nodded and I knew he understood me and he really is going to try to remember to set the example.

Jake just smiled and cut his eyes over to Lee and said "You better start packing, Dad."

Bird studies

We began a special study on birds last week for homeschool. I was inspired by Elizabeth Foss's example of an in depth 'rabbit trail' unit her family followed. EF is my hero! I love her blog, she has beautiful ideas and her book Real Learning is one of my favorite HS resources.

Anyhow, following her example we set out to attract the birds first. We hung 2 feeders and the boys painted a simple wooded one from Michael's that I hung as well. Every morning last week we checked to see if we had any visitors and we were getting a bit sad I admit. Last winter right before we left for China, we renovated our yard and that included cutting down tons of trees. Our entire property was overgrown with ivy and gargantuan pines too close to the house so we cleared 'em out. We did leave several trees, but I feared the birds were boycotting our feeders in protest to the thinning of their habitat. I didn't really blame them.

On Friday morning I was relieved to see that they have forgiven us! Now we have many birds to observe and feed. So far we have seen; chickadees, white breasted nuthatches, robins, blue jays, cardinals, downy and red bellied woodpeckers and possibly some mockingbirds. The boys are just as excited as I am and we are looking forward to learning more about these wonderfully entertaining creatures.

Yikes, I am now an official crazy old bird lady!

Happenings

I have been a slow blogger lately. Lots of stuff going on, but not much I really feel like blogging about. My sister started a blog and it promises to be interesting. She is a first year middle school art teacher at an 'at risk' school and she is also a newlywed. She has tons of bloggy material!

My best friend from Fl is coming to visit w/ her 3 kiddos and we can't wait to get our babies together. They are only 6 days apart in age. B was pregnant w/ her son when I told her our plans to adopt Mary Clare. She was so thrilled for us, probably one of the most excited people besides Lee and myself. One of the reasons being that she and her husband are hoping to adopt from China as well, something they began discussing right about the time we did, but neither of us knew about the other's interest.

I am also hosting a 30th b-day party for another friend in Nov. We will be breaking out the kareoke machine, Lee is ready to start his vocal exercises now, just to be at his peak for the big night ;)

Oh and the prep for Halloween, costumes(1 ballerina, 1 ladybug *hey it was a free costume people*, 1 bat, 1 spider/super man, 1 army guy) jack-o-lantern carving party. Also our co-op is having an All Saints party with games, food etc.. the catch is dress up as your favorite saint so that means more costumes.

Speaking of costumes, I also have to get/make a donkey and a sheep costume for the nativity play. Maybe I can combine them somehow, there is a story about St. Francis and the Christmas Donkey so maybe one of the boys can be St. Francis and the other the donkey? What about the sheep? Anyone have any ideas on what Saint I can use to go with a sheep? Then I would have 2 less costumes to come up with!

  

  

  

  

  

Kamping with the Kulloms: the Aftermath

We had a great time. Really.

It was so freaking cold at night, but that was really my only complaint. Lee was able to get up there first and set up the tent, that really set my heart aflutter I have to say! I arrived with our stuff which included everything but the kitchen sink. I was even able to bring my coffee maker bc the site had an electrical hook-up. Some might say that is cheating but I say it was necessary for my own health and the health of others that I was able to get my morning dose of speed, er, caffeine.

We roasted hot dogs and had the requisite s'mores and wandered around socializing with the other families. There were over 20 and there were billions of kids. The next morning we started up pretty early and enjoyed our fresh brewed coffee and the sunrise. I had to run home bc while I brought everything, I mean everything, including the kids special glow sticks and extra socks etc....I forgot my own damn bag. But, lucky me, I hurried home and even had a hot shower, hee hee. I was back around 10 and everyone gathered for a nature walk led by some Dads around the water. Our sites were on the Lake Lanier in a surprisingly quiet area and it was very beautiful. Jake found two crawdad skeletons and Laine gathered lots of shells. Luke and Ryan found sticks and rock hideaways. Another family brought a huge canoe and let us take it out, the kids all loved that and I got a great workout!

Saturday night a wonderful priest came and celebrated Mass on the beach for us and then we had a potluck dinner with bar-b-que and a big bonfire. A dad brought out the guitar and we all sang campfire tunes.

Sunday we actually slept later and I made an awesome breakfast of eggs, biscuits and bacon on the campfire. I am so proud! Lee and Ryan left early to get to Ryan's football game and the others kids helped me pack up the rest of the stuff and sadly said good-bye to all of their buddies.

This week I have done 400 loads of laundry, but I finally realized it is our sleeping bags that still smell of smoke. We were all so, so dirty (not so much moi bc I had that cheater shower) and those first showers felt great.

The kids are asking when we will go again and are ready to head out this weekend. I think there will be another trip in the spring so they can look forward to that. Maybe I will be done with the laundry from this trip by then.

Alert! Luke and Laine's preschool calss will be on the radio LIVE!

You can listen to them recite the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:00am Central time. Their class is Mrs. Noble's pre-k 4. Click here to listen live!

Camping this weekend

We are going camping this weekend for the first time, ever. We will be with a group of over 20 families and I think there will be over 100 kids there. This will be one wild weekend!

This is a group from our co-op and I am actually looking forward to it believe it or not, becasue I haven't had time to get to really know many of the other families. In co-op we are busy with te kids so ther eis not much mommy socializing happening. The kids are so excited. I am putting on my happy camper face and preparing for lots of dirt.

Sadly (for her!), MC will not be joining us. She will be having a weekend with the grands. This will be our first time away from her and I am a bit anxious, but she has bonded and attached so well and it has been 6 mo. since we returned home this weekend. Wow! The neat thing is that my MIL is working late on Friday, but my FIL volunteered to still keep her. He will be solo sitting from 12pm tomorrow until whenever Jojo gets home. This is huge people, he actually suggested this. I am busy packing and listing stuff. MC adores Gampy and reaches and smiles for him so I know she feels comfortable and we will not be more than 2 hrs away so we can come if there is an emergency or something.

I think this will be a great weekend for all of us and the grands are looking forward to some special one on one time with Mary Clare.

What do we do all day long?

I started a brief blog to motivate our HS adventure. I have found that by chronicling our days at the end, I can see all that we are accomplishing. So often at the end of a day I was looking around and thinking I am so tired and I have been busy all day but WTH have I done?! Usually it is bc the house is wrecked ;) After doing a 'done' journal for several days I am happy to see we are actually accomplishing quite a bit! Here is is: Homeschool Diaries

Apple Pie Day

We have been trying to make an apple pie for like 3 weeks now, but someone kept fogetting or didn't have the proper ingredients but today we finally did it! I must say it looks yummy but we'll have to wait until after dinner to check it out. I found an awesome peeler,corer, and slicer at a garage sale for less than a dollar! That spiffy tool made it pretty easy to put a pie together.

Also we started Nature Journals today. It is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi so this makes today an auspicious day to set out to discover and learn about the wonderfulness of nature. We decided he will be the patron of our nature and science studies.

here is the book we used to get our creative juices going. It is great for beginners like us and has simple drawing exercises to get you started.
The examples are inspiring too.

*******A Great St. Francis Quote********

"What a man is in the sight of God, such he is and no more."

*******Mary Clare Trivia***********

We chose the spelling of Clare not only to differentiate from my cool cousin (the great photographer) but also in honor of St. Clare of Assisi, who co-founded the Poor Clare religious order with St. Francis.

A Day Outside

MC loves the swing and to play outside. Here she is pushing her car. The cutie pushing Mary Clare is our neighbor Grace, who happens to be from Guangdong too!

Nay to YOU, you naysayers!

I don't know what it is about my life that seems to attract so many Naysayers. "What in the world is a 'Naysayer' and furthermore why is Tracy breaking out the 19th century dictionary?" Is that what you're thinking?

The Nasayers are those who are constantly telling you "Oh things are great for you now BUT just wait until ....." Do you have any such cheerful and uplifting people in your life?

I seem to come across an inordinate amount of Naysayers. It began back when Lee and I started dating. We became very close very quickly and I know our cheese level was high. We were giddy in love and didn't care who knew! Several people would go out of their way to let us know that "Just wait, once you have been dating awhile ..." I can't really blame them even now, we were pretty annoying ;) Thus began my bizarre ability to attract friendly, outgoing Naysayers in my life.

Lots of couples get the Naysaying treatment while engaged so I know we're not alone in that. However, it seems that the Naysaying has continued throughout our marriage. We really are happy and in love still after almost 10 yrs of marriage *gasp*! Nevertheless, people can't resist the "Just wait...." or even the "Well you never know....."

Of course having children is a sure way to get some Naysaying. Having twins really gets them going and then adopting a 5th baby!, leaving a fun, popular non denominational mega-church for the creaky Catholic Church!, Homeschooling! man I might as well just carry along a folding chair so I can at least get comfortable when the Naysaying lecture begins. Oh and maybe some paper and pencils for notes too!

*BIG GIANT SIGH*

The good news is I have my smile and nod act down ...most of the time. Sometimes, I cannot help from breaking out into my full on genuine gush of overall love, happiness and satisfaction I feel in my life. I can and have rambled on and on about the peace and joy I realise abundantly everyday. But usually I try to reign it in a bit becasue I wouldn't want to make them feel bad, now would I?