9.18.2010

team sports? i think not.

here are the pics from today's game.

here's dash (#10) on the sidelines not wanting to play

here's the coach trying to get dash out on the field. notice he's not moving in a forward motion.






















here's dash running off the field before the play even starts.

3rd kid we've tried.  i'm guessing team sports are not gonna happen for this family.

o, and here's marz being grumpy on the sidelines.  following in her brother's footseps...

9.10.2010

fun friday delegated

as you know, we only school 4 days a week.  typically it's monday thru thursday. but there are occasions where we switch it up if there's a holiday or we're on vacation or the doc is home during the week, etc., etc.  i tried leaving the hands-on stuff to saturdays and treating it like non-school stuff so i didn't have to be involved.  but it just didn't work.  to have doc M do science experiments with such an unpredictable schedule turned out not to be such a great idea.  experiments sort of went out the window, along with any type of hands-on history or art project.  i hate cleaning up messes.

this year we're trying something different.  luigi is in charge of the science experiment every friday.  Z is in charge of a craft project every friday.  they teach the littles and help them along.  we sat down and worked out a bunch of project ideas.  science experiments are easy since they're built in to the curriculum.  Z picks what she wants to do each week and at the beginning of the week they each email me to let me know what supplies they need.

luigi built a solar system with balloons today.  and Z supervised custom clip boards.  here is the result of the art project:


9.03.2010

one more sheep in the herd

you know how you have dreams for years and years and finally come to a point where you have the guts to attempt at making them a reality, and then you investigate the process and come to find out that your dreams aren't unique at all... they're just like everyone else's?  no.  i didn't figure you did.  but i do.

i really cherish 'uniqueness'.  not to the point of living as an outcast. but i just hate not having anything to call my own.  no style that defines me...no talents that set me apart...no experiences that others haven't had. 

i've always loved to write. but come to find out, so does everyone and their dog.  and now that it's harder to find someone who DOESN'T blog, than it is to find someone who does... i just don't feel so special anymore.  i have been longing for a full-blown website of my own.  one with creative graphics and actual links to other pages, not just a scrolling blog.  but it seems in this day and age that they're a dime a dozen.

i've always loved the feel of a camera in my hands.  i've always loved the idea of capturing a moment in time...forever.  and i've always thought it was kinda keen that those loves ran in my family.  then in comes the digital camera to just screw everything up.  i never wanted to be a professional photographer.  it would take all the fun out of it.  but now the whole world loves to take pictures.

i like it goes back to that saying "jack of all trades, master of none".  i don't do any one thing really well.  i have lots of loves.  and dream of being some creative pioneer in some realm.  but it seems the herd was already moving a certain direction and the destination wasn't even my idea to begin with.

9.01.2010

how to recover

in my old age i've gotten pretty paranoid.  i've always wanted to expose my children to so many things so that they have choices in life.  i want them to choose what they want and what they like, and not only know what i know.  it's been over 2 years now since we discontinued cable tv coming into our home.  and it has been even longer than that since we quit allowing the news to come into our home.  it had just become so violent, and it would scare the kids.  and it was always so depressing.  the media seemed to go for the shock value and wanted to find the greatest tragedies to report on. with that said, i seem to base my fears on what has happened to others.  i guess i figure if it happened to someone else, it could happen to me.  thus, the paranoia.

while we were living in SD, a teenage girl was kidnapped, raped, and murdered.  it has become a nationally known story.  and there is now state legislature in california that has passed because of the case.  while the girl was missing, it really hit home for me.  partly because people we knew from church knew her.  email came through my inbox while they were looking for her.  she was found just a few minutes from where we lived.  and we now have teens approaching her age.  i became obsessed with making sure we didn't have a set routine each day.  i worried that anyone could be watching any of my children walking anywhere at any time.  this girl was a junior in high school and was kidnapped in broad daylight.

tonight i read an article about the bill that was passed in CA as a result of her death.  you can read it HERE.  i really hate getting involved in politics.  it seems there just is never any great solution.  only decent ones that satisfy part of the people while the rest whine and complain because it didn't go their way.  i hate that some people feel cheated out of their rights or that you just can't make everyone happy.  i always feel bad for both sides and end up just wanting to keep my opinion to myself so as not to offend anyone.  but i do love a good debate.  not an argument per se, but just a great intelligent conversation being able to share viewpoints without anyone getting offended.

anyway... getting back on point.  the argument of the article is that CA is already in deficit that they can't afford to reform sex offender laws and should not be trying to do so just to appease someone's grief.  on that specific point i totally agree.  but how do we change things if we 'can't afford' to do so on a state level?  isn't the country and the state government always in a deficit?  won't it continue to be like that?  and haven't they continued to progress and pass laws in that situation for years and years now?  why beat a dead horse?  but is it really necessary to name a law after your child, especially one that doesn't provide much solace to the situation?  and chelsea isn't the only girl this guy killed.  what about the others that suffered at his hands because he wasn't kept in prison long enough?  and keeping sex offenders in prison for life doesn't really seem like it will ensure our children won't be hurt or killed.  some people change and reform.  to guess which ones have and haven't seems like an impossible task to me.

but all politics aside, i also agree that a parent would probably have to feel like they were making some sort of changes after a tragedy.  i wonder if a parent could ever completely recover from an event such as this...