Gas Shortage and the Economy

My contractor said he's either going to be late or non-existent today, so I have the time to run to  the store and look for beach towels for our trip this weekend.  But am I leaving the house right now?  No.  I'm staying home until I have to run out for Asher's Yellow Belt Ceremony this evening at 7.  I have half a tank of gas.  When I was out and about yesterday, there were more pumps covered with plastic bags than there were working.  In fact, I didn't see any gas when I was out yesterday.  I have heard that towards the coast, gas availability isn't a problem.  I certainly hope that is the case.   

When this happened in the 1970s, why didn't americans mobilize and begin researching alternative fuels?  Why is it that 30 years later, we are still struggling with our dependence on fossil fuels?  The transportation technology innovations of the 20th century were amazing.  Isn't it time that some 21st century solutions to transportation started emerging?  Have we become so lazy that American Innovation is dead?  How do we encourage the next Henry Ford to invent the next big leap in transportation/energy technology?  

Increasing Science, Math, Engineering education is a good start. Instilling good a work ethic in our children is another.  When the gas well runs dry, I guess we'll all buy horses and mules and convert our SUVs into buggies.  Possibly, we'll start producing our own food again.  I come from a  long line of subsistence farmers and I'm sure I can use the knowledge ingrained in my very being to survive. 

I must admit, the current financial crisis has me worried.  Food prices are rising, gas is so scarce in this area, financial markets are failing all over the world seem to be collapsing.  I am getting a bit scared of it all.

School time...

Okay, so it's been school time all summer - we never really stopped school.  But my kids are doing so well this year, it's always good to report how they are doing.  Asher is doing a 6th grade math book now.  4th grade reading and grammar.  We are doing a unit on elections and the electoral college system for social studies, but will begin NC history after the elections in November.   Josh is doing some science with him in the little science lab they have set up in the basement.  

Evie is reading fairly fluently now and even reads on her own before bed time.  She's in a second grade math book.  I need to incorporate some more science and social studies in for her.  But I will probably have her do NC history with Asher.  We are going to make an NC Notebook like the one I made in PS.  I loved that project even if my final grade was severely marked down due to my poor handwriting and coloring skills...  

Isaac is learning to count and knows the letter 'O' very well.  He is also a pro-drummer on Rock Band.

Asher and Evie are also taking theatre again this year.  Evie is also taking dance.  Asher is taking Tae Kwon Do.  

This year is so busy that I barely have time to think.  Oz now has two teeth!  He and Isaac both kind of hinder our school time on some days, but we manage to get in the stuff we need to do.  I plan on really taking my time with Asher's math because his next book we will begin pre-algebra and I really want him fully understand everything before we move on.

Isaac's Clues

Isaac is a man possessed.  He has come to discover the "Clue".  Everywhere he goes he identifies clues.  If it has a paw, he checks it for clues - be it the cats, the dog, stuffed animals...  He goes around the house saying, "A shloo!  A shloo!"  I swear sometimes he is the cutest kid on the planet.

Too many bodily fluids.

Snotty noses, poopy butts, getting peed on, slobbered on...  Overproducing mommy milk.  None of this is fun.  Seriously.  I mean it.  Really.

Even More Creepy Crawlers...

It's a 50 year old house, what can I say?  The space between the storm windows and the actual windows makes for a great habitat for spiders, wasps, birds, and whatever else can make its way between the panes.

We have a beautiful (but gigantic and scary) wasp nest and a very fat black widow spider inhabiting the same space.  The spider lives about 3 or 4 inches directly below the wasp nest.  Being able to watch their... interactions...  from the safety of the window has been interesting. The black widow has been munching on the wasps.  I suppose it is a veritable buffet for lady widow...

I'm not going to let them stay for much longer as the wasp nest is just in a very scary spot and I do not want the black widow reproducing in my window.  I don't know how small her babies will be and whether or not they would be able to make it into the house.  

My Knight In Shining Armor

Isaac *loves* to pose for the camera.  Oz goes along for the ride sometimes.  

I just thought these were too cute for words:

Busy, Busy Month

This month has been extra busy!  In July, shortly after the demolition stopped, mom and I got to work making a whole lot of tasty salsa.  It's probably the best we've ever made.  
My kids, my sister's kids, my friend and her kids and I all went to Discovery Place to visit the Pompeii exhibit.  It was an incredibly striking exhibit.  We spent a long time exploring the daily life of the Ancient Romans.  Then we entered a dark room that had nothing except the body casts of the victims of Mt. Vesuvius.  I was so moved.
It has been raining since Monday.  A good portion of the county had major flooding.  Public schools were cancelled and all the parks were closed too.  On the way to mom's house today, I had to choose an alternate route after my usual route was completely flooded out.  On the way home, I went to the other end of the block to take a picture.  Notice the car on what *was* the road?

While at mom's Isaac decided to go visit all the spiders in the yard.  Excitedly squealing, "Spiderman!  Spiderman!" every time he found a web.  The funnel spider was really neat!

Bathroom Update

Measurements taken, rough draft of plan drawn up:

Home Improvement Part One

Our big, long awaited bathroom project has begun.  Our contractor came on Friday and Saturday and finished demolishing both downstairs bathrooms.  They removed two 600-700 pound cast iron bath tubs, three sinks, two toilets, tons of tile, lots of dirt and grime, and lots of mold.  It was very scary to hear them working with sledge hammers on my house.  My heart pounded the entire time they were here.  But they did a very good job on the demolition and left it very clean to boot! Now the fun part - measuring and designing my brand new big bathroom.  I'm so pleased that this project has begun.  It has been three years in the making.  Here are some before demolition/after demolition pictures.

What a great games night!

Our games night was great last night.  We only had one cancellation, so it was a full house.  Here are our totals:  17 adults, 12 children, 2 wonderful baby sitters, about 8 different games played upstairs, about 20 games of Bananagrams, lots of video games played downstairs, 20 BBQ Chicken Wings (not nearly enough), a metric ton of food and drink consumed, bunches of shiny tasty veggies and fruits from both Teleah's and Mom's gardens, and a lot of fun had all around.     All of this with just one bathroom small bathroom! At one point during the evening we had 4 games going at once.  Almost everyone played at least one game and those that didn't, watched and had fun anyway.

Next Games Night will be August 23rd which is also Josh's birthday!  Can't wait!  After nights like that I wish Games Night was every weekend.  (Though I'd probably burn out quickly doing that!)

Games Night

Woohoo! Our Monthly Games Night is this Saturday. Can't wait! Josh has some new games (some of which he tried out this past weekend with a bunch of the guys). And while he is out and about this week, I am painting our front entry way. We are also headed to Discovery Place tomorrow for a fun filled field trip. (Say that 5 times fast.) Add in all the cleaning I have to do for Games Night and I have no idea when I'm actually going to get it all done...

Reminder to anyone coming to games - we are starting 2 hours earlier than we normally do - please come around 2:00-2:30. Folks are welcome to stay until 10 or 11, but with the new baby, I'd really like to get to sleep after that.

More Creepy Crawlers...

I was in the yard picking up sticks this evening so I could mow the grass.  Had a really neat creepy crawly experience with the kids.  I looked up and thought a branch on one of our pecan trees had some really weird looking moss growing on it.  Then I noticed that the moss was crawling all over the branch.  (shiver) Caterpillars - these things were carpeting the branch all in one spot.  This branch is about 8-10 inches thick and the caterpillars are about 2 inches long.  They were a writhing mass of fuzz.  Neat, but very creepy! We think they are Walnut Caterpillars that turn into a little moth.  It's a relatively small outbreak and they look like they are in their final stage of development.  It doesn't look like they've done too much damage to the tree, it is still full of pecans and leaves.   They have a lot of natural predators, succumb to illness easily  so hopefully nature will take its course and they won't harm the tree too much.

Chocolate Nativity? Ooookay!

Somehow eating the baby Jesus as he sleeps on his hay is just plain wrong...

To Sneak or Not to Sneak?

I've been having a discussion with one of my online groups about vegetables - how to get the kids to eat them, specifically. We've been discussing recipes that sneak vegetables into the mix so they are not as noticeable for kids who say they don't like vegetables. My kids are pretty good at eating their veggies, but I still find myself 'sneaking' the veggies into things just to get the extra vitamins. I put zucchini and carrots into muffins; I put kale into fruit smoothies; I even put pureed or finely chopped spinach, carrots and zucchini into my tomato sauce sometimes (though only when my husband is NOT eating it, because he'd know). I'm not really sneaking, because I do tell my kids that there are vegetables in it. I just may not tell them until they've said that it's good! Asher was very excited today when I told him he'd had kale in his smoothie.

I'm so fortunate, so far, that my kids eat a good variety of foods. So many kids have picky eating habits. It's definitely NOT my parenting that has made my children enjoy vegetables. I've always made them try new things, but I don't make them eat it if they don't like it. My kids don't like french fries (weird kids) very much, so we don't have them very often. Potatoes are not some of their favorite foods, so we just don't do those as often. But when we do, they always take at least 2 bites off their plate because that has just always been a rule in our house. Once those two bites are taken, then they don't have to eat something they don't like.

Oh, and I believe firmly that almost any vegetable can be put into muffin form: Zucchini, Carrots, and pumpkin make great sweet breads. Making Pizza muffins is fun and I add Spinach and tomato chunks to those along with some mozzarella cheese.

I don't know why any parent would think it wrong to 'sneak' vegetables to your kids. We make our children bathe, we make our children take medicine when they are sick (and I sneak medicine into drinks too when necessary). Why wouldn't we sneak in vegetables? They are good for them and unless they have some anxiety issue over certain types of food, I don't see it as a bad thing to do something that is good for your child! But I have heard folks argue against sneaking vegetables to their children because they see it as a breech of trust. The only time it's a breech of trust is if you've promised them that you wouldn't do it!

Summer Science

We did a science project this summer with Asher and Evie on Praying Mantises and butterflies. We ordered an egg sack and caterpillars from Carolina Biological Supply and grew some insects. It was really neat - especially the praying mantises - though it took a lot longer for them to hatch than it did for the caterpillars to grow into butterflies. There's no real way to describe what a praying mantis egg sack looks like as they emerge from the sack, but it's pretty amazing to watch. But be sure to NOT let them hatch inside your house! There were hundreds of tiny little mantis-nymphs spread all over the habitat and we promptly released them onto my pear tree. My pears are thanking me for the carnivorous little guys by growing to plump edible fruits with almost no bug bites. I may order another egg sack for each of my fruit trees next year along with some form of organic tree fertilizer for fruit trees to make all my fruit nice and plump!

New Blog!

I used to have a blog on our web site (www.newmyths.org) but alas, it went the way of the dinosaur and something new must evolve. So, here I am trying to find things to say on a new one... I'm a mom of four kids ages 10, 6, 2 and infant. We homeschool, play, and make our lives in the piedmont of North Carolina...