Tae Kwon Do has had a lot of unintended side effects. The biggest two are the facts that I am in amazing shape (And if Gary gives me permission, I'll show you pictures of my legs. Wow! I'm just sayin') and that I have a social group that I see on a daily basis. It's almost like being back in school, only better.
Of course, since I hurt my leg (we think it is a sprained ligament in my shin, but since my doctor sucks so bad, we're just guessing) 2 weeks ago, I've been getting a lot of grief. (Grief is one of Dominic's reading words this week. I'll have to let him know I used it on my blog. He'll be happy. Can you tell I have ADD? Oh, did you see that bird? Wow, I need to shave. Think I'll check my email. What? I'm blogging. Sorry...) Anyway, I've mostly been catching it second hand, since all the moms are very sympathetic and I was not there most of last week.
Gary took last week off to stay home and take care of me the boys. Gary has been doing Tae Kwon Do for about a month, and he was still attending classes last week, while I sat at home and wallowed in my misery. Each night, he came home and told me what various people had to say about my 'injury'. My favorite is the 15-year-old boy who said, "Tell her she needs to quit milking it."
He really is my very favorite 15-year-old boy, so I'll let him get away with it. But, really, I haven't caught this much slack since I moved away from my family. I feel like I have found a second family. It's wonderful. (But don't tell anyone I enjoy being made fun of, or I'll never hear the end of it. Never mind that I'm telling the whole world. That's not the point. That I know of, only two people from Tae Kwon Do read my blog. So, I think I'm relatively safe. Ahem.)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
A New Family
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
We Should Stop Grouping Children by Age in School
As part of Xavier's homeschooling, I am reading Understood Betsy by Doroty Canfield Fisher to him. First, this is a delightful book that we both enjoy very much, and I highly recommend it.
Yesterday, I read something that said, much more clearly than I've ever heard before, why we shouldn't worry about what grade someone is in, and just let them learn:
"Why - why," said Elizabeth Ann, "I don't know what I am at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-grade spelling, what grade am I?"
The teacher laughed, "You aren't any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You're just yourself, aren't you? What difference does it make what grade you're in? And what's the use of your reading little baby things too easy for you just because you don't know your multiplication table?
"Well, for goodness' sakes!" ejaculated Elizabeth Ann, feeling very much as though somebody had stood her suddenly on her head.
"What's the matter?" asked the teacher again.
This time Elizabeth Ann didn't answer because she herself didn't know what the matter was. But I do, and I'll tell you. The matter was that never before had she known what she was doing in school. She had always thought she was there to pass from one grade to another and she was ever so startled to get a glimpse of the fact that she was there to learn how to read and write and cipher and generally use her mind, so she could take care of herself when she came to be grown up.
Hence the reason that my children (and I) have no idea what grade they're in. If you ask Xavier what grade he's in, he'll reply with something along these lines...
"Well... I'm doing 4th grade math, 2nd grade reading, and I hate writing." And, that about sums it up.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Our New Gas Guzzler
When Gary got back from Afghanistan, he promptly traded in our little truck for a nice, shiny 4x4 gas guzzler. I was in full support of this. In fact, I attempted to do this before he got home, but had no luck finding a truck I wanted. We got an amazing deal, and I am quite happy with our new vehicle.
It came at a good time, since it has a bench seat in front and I've needed to keep my left leg straight the past couple weeks. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep your leg straight in a car? It is almost impossible. I tried it a few years ago when I feel down the stairs. We had a van, then. I got an immobilizer put on my right leg, then left for D.C. from Kentucky the next day. It was NOT comfortable. There I was, hopped up on drugs, my leg propped up on top of 3 pillows, and my foot barely clearing the bottom of the dash. Even though I am one of those people who are immediately knocked out by most drugs, I still uncomfortable enough that I could not sleep. So, having that bench seat has been wonderful. And, it has made me realize that all vehicles should have a bench seat in the front. Besides, no vehicle should have less than 6 seats. That's just all there is to it.
Then, there's the fact that we now have more room when we go camping. Although Gary has been trying to convince me to do minimalist camping, we are not anywhere near there yet. We would like to do it within the next year, but not as a regular thing. So, the extra cargo space is nice. And, quite frankly, the cab of our other truck just would not hold the 5 of us. Jump seats are not meant to be ridden in by full size people for longer than about 5 minutes.
Next, there's the fact that we're doing a lot of yard work this year. So far, we've put up a flag. It is absolutely beautiful. Plus, we've bought the cement, sand, and posts to put in a fort. We've also bought enough sand to put in a patio. The previous owners of our house were kind enough to leave us a stack of about 2,000 bricks. So, we're going to put in a, mostly, free patio. There is no way our old truck would have carried the weight of the sand and cement. We also want to level out our yard a little to make it easier to mow. That will take a couple loads of fill dirt. Fortunately, we have a good truck for that, now.
Plus, there's the towing capabilities. I just want everyone out there to understand that I do appreciate towing capabilities. Just think of the possibilities... Motorcycles, boats, jet skis, RVs, trailers, horses...
Oh my gosh, and winching. Truck winches help enable offroading. Is there any more basic fun thing for a family of boys to do than go muddin'? Every boy should go muddin' at least once in his life. Ah, I love my our truck.
Home Improvement: The Workout Room
When we moved into our house, one of the things we had big plans for remodeling. Unfortunately, Gary has been gone a lot, and the only thing done, before now, was adding a small deck. With the advent of Tae Kwon Do in our lives, it became obvious that we would need some place to work out. Previously, we had a small area in the huge shop that we used to workout. However, it was not sufficient to do our forms or sparring. So, Gary and I decided that we could take the space that we had originally planned to make a 'man room' and transform it into a workout area. This particular project would be fairly inexpensive and easy to accomplish. We had to remove two doors and two walls, cut a new door through the laundry room into the shop, put a door in a new spot for the workout area, and add a wall between the shop and the workout area. Gary started working on it within a week of being home.
The area designated as our future workout area consisted of about half the shop, part of the basement hallway, and our old schoolroom. Our basement is cut up into small rooms and hallways. It included a long, unfinished portion under our kitchen and dining room. We were using this portion as a shop and for storage. It was approximately 30' by 18'. Since Gary does not do as much woodwork as he would like to, he really did not need the entire thing for a shop. Then, there was a small room that was 8' by 7', a long hallway that ran almost the length of the basement, another room that is 14' by 17', a bathroom in the middle of the finished side, a laundry room (with the furnace and water heater) in the middle of the basement with the stairs running down the back of that. There is also a family room that is approximately 24' by 15'. It is quite a large basement. It just was not cut up in a good way. So, we are starting to re cut it. :) Eventually, it will be much better.
Right now, this is what we've got going on. Gary tore the walls out of the room that was 8' by 7'.
And used the wood he took from those walls to build a wall halfway through the shop.
That left him with two doors. He cut a whole for a door in the laundry room, which backs up to the shop. This set up is much better than it was before, since it allows a straight shot out the basement door for larger woodworking projects.
He will be adding the other door at the bottom of the stairs to enclose the workout room.
We got used mats from our dojang. All we really have left to do is add the sheet rock, paint and hang the door. It is already usable. And, it is being used every day. Thanks, Gary!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Personal Responsibility
"Why'd you let me drink so much?"
"Why'd you let me do that?"
"Why didn't you stop me?"
"Why'd you let me go home with him?"
"How could you let me............?"
"Why didn't you make me.............?"
"Why'd you let me................?"
These are questions I hear all the time. Why have the adults in this country given up their personal responsibility to such an extent that they actually rely on their friends to make all their decisions for them? Why are so many adults dependent on other people to decide how much to drink? Why are so many adults willing to give up control over their actions to other people?
I really do not understand this. I can, sort of, understand the need to blame other people for my actions. However, when you blame other people for your actions, you are giving up the ability to make your own decisions. That I cannot understand.
My Not-So-Secret-Passion
As just about everyone knows, I love children. I love them to the depths of my soul. I bleed for children that are unwanted. I wish I could adopt all the teenagers out there without homes. But, my true love is babies. I love babies. And, I love everything to do with them.
Only one of our children had a 'nursery', although each of them started out life in their own room. However, since we were renting those houses, I never got around to decorating much. And, I have always wished I could do so. If I had a baby now, that baby would sleep in our room until it left its crib. So, it would not have a nursery, either. However, I am at peace with that. I realize that the whole nursery thing is probably a little overrated. On the other hand, I do love looking at baby bedding. After all, even though the crib would be in our room, the crib would need baby bedding sets. As I keep telling my husband, a crib and rocking chair would fit very nicely in our room. So, although I no longer lust after the beautiful nurseries in Pottery Barn Kids, I do still peruse the baby bedding occasionally. Some day, Gary will want another baby (ha-ha!) and I'll be ready for him!
