If You Give a Homeschooler a Computer…….

We are doing school a bit differently this year, and we got Nora, our 12-year-old Colombian princess, her own computer for her work. She was SOOOOO excited! Like she’s a big kid now, or something. The other kids never got their own computers! FINALLY! Something that she was FIRST for! Because in her world “that last shall be worst!”

Okay, so a new computer means that she needs a desk to work on, because this mama ain’t sharing. I am the sharing type, but not work space at a computer desk. I do have my limits. Up in the loft, that is only used for book storage and sewing, there sits a perfectly good desk that was holding junk that never found its true home. I decided THAT could be Nora’s desk. But then, I need a desk in the loft too, to work along side her [so I don’t lose my ever-lovin’-mind while she takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to sound out moss-quit-toe (mosquito) and mett-hodd (method) repeatedly incorrectly while my eyeballs cramp from trying not to roll into my brain.] I love that kid!

My son has a desk in his room that matches Nora’s new desk. They should be twinsie desks in the loft, I decide. One quick trip on Swip-Swap (a facebook garage sale group) and I find a new IKEA desk for my son for $10. Perfect. An hour later there is a blonde desk sitting in my dining room. BAM. (Too many things have to move before it can go up the stairs.)

Then I realize I must put away all the fairy garden paraphernalia from Nora’s birthday party that is on her new desk, but the craft closet door is dragging across items hanging out of their designated boxes. I must organize the craft closet FIRST.

Then I notice the horizontal blinds have somehow been missed on the spring cleaning list …. possibly for the past six years. That is sadly not an exaggeration. Sorry, Mom. Don’t judge me. My kids are fed and one chicken is still alive. And the windows in the loft…. have they ever been washed on the outside? We’ve lived here for 10 years. So the windows and blinds are all sparkly and shining and clean now. DOUBLE BAM!

But as I washed the blinds (and had to rinse the rag after only four slats each time….ewwwww) I noticed the walls are sorely in need of paint. They WERE white……. ten years ago. So I need to paint the walls before we set up the desk for the computer.

There was a day-bed in the loft…. it got posted on Swip-Swap and left my house within 24 hours. CASH in my hand for wall paint! But with the day-bed missing, we need something cozy to sit on. Back on Swip-Swap I find a red loveseat and within 24 hours it is sitting in my living room next to the blonde IKEA desk…. with cash to spare STILL! (Does anyone else hear angels singing or is it just me?)

Then I notice the drab, tired-looking tan/pinkish color of my curriculum bookshelf and remember the can of darling light turquoise mis-matched $9 can of paint in the garage. A homeschool-room-vision-of-lovliness is materializing in my head. An oasis of higher learning. (“Higher” = upstairs.)

After 27 hours on Pinterest, (just KIDDING!)(kinda) I found homeschool rooms to die for. Seriously… death by darlingness. So adorable… makes me WANT to teach my kids for HOURS if I could just sit in THOSE rooms. The vision is ALIVE!

Turns out my red loveseat is really a brick-rust color. Shoot. Red and turquoise are so cute together. But after a redeeming trip to JoAnn’s Fabrics (my mother ship) all is well and curtains and pillows will now tie together the rust mini-sofa and the soon-to-be-painted light sea-mist turquoise shelf in the loft that will be painted off-white tomorrow.

Tomorrow is homeschool day #5. We are SOOOOO close to setting up the computer!

I love Little Kids

Luke, our nephew, came for a hike with us last weekend.  I am SO entertained by the sayings that come out of his little 7-year-old mouth!  This was a hike on a preserve where there are also mountain bike riders as well as people on horseback pounding the trails with us pedestrians.  Nora and Luke were hiking a bit ahead of my husband and I, when we noticed that they stopped and were analyzing something on the trail that lay between them.  As we approached, we saw the it was horse poop.  I asked, “What in the world is that?”  Luke answered right away, “It’s poop from a cow.”  We have never seen cows on the hills behind our house!  Ever!  And we’ve seen the horses getting in and out of their trailers at the trail head.  It made me laugh.  Obviously a city-fied boy…. once you’ve seen a cow pie, you could hardly mistake them for horse droppings!

A half hour later, we had come to a T in the path and turned west, having never gone that way previously.  My husband suggested that we take a picture of the trail map (from the trail head) when we get back so we could figure out where we had hiked.  I remarked that the trails are probably on a state website and we could just look them up on the computer.  Luke chimed in stating the obvious that I had obviously missed, “Auntie Linda, there aren’t any computers out here!”  As if to say DUH!

Last year when Luke was in kindergarten, every time I saw him I would ask him if he went to school that day (even on holidays and weekends.)  Did his teacher show up?  Did she teach him anything he didn’t already know?  And I tried with great effort to get him to raise his hand in class and ask, “When are you going to teach me something I don’t already know.”  I coached him.  I prodded.  I modeled. But he never asked.  Smart kid.

How to be an Awesome Parent!!!

Hello, Rick here again.  Linda gets back later today and she can write about something other than Hockey.  But I thought I would share a couple of thoughts about what I think is important on being a Dad.  I just finished an email to the parents on Austin’s hockey team.  I wanted to make them aware of what is really important this coming Hockey season.  The following is the body of what I wrote but it doesn’t just apply to Hockey moms and dads…it applies to all parents, grandparents as well as anyone who wants to make or keep friends.  The art of conversation seems to be taking a back seat in our culture and it is because we are letting it!

“Travel Hockey is a long season but the reward will happen along the way as well as at the end of the year.  The progression of our hockey players will definately be noticed come March but the reward along the way will be in the form of a closer relationship with your girl or boy.  The travel time to the rink is such an important time and I feel it should be used for our benefit as parents and the benefit of our kids.  What I have tried to do especially last year was to turn off the radio and not allow Austin to play his iPod while we travelled.  This in turn, forced both of us to have to dialogue with each other.  At first there was a lot of dead air but as the year progressed we talked in depth and I learned more and more about my son.  Don’t get me wrong, there were times when all I wanted to do was to go to my “empty box” (as my wife, Linda calls it) and veg!  I began to realize that he had goals and dreams that I had no clue about.  It was fun to get closer to Austin on a level different than that of hockey.  When we as parents take the lead and put our focused time and effort into our most prized possessions, the year won’t feel so long and we will have fun a long the way!”

So hang up the cell phone, put away the iPod, read that book when they are in bed, get off the computer, exercise before they get up, take them with you when you go places, have them cook/bake with you, have them fix the car with you, take them out for some one-on-one time, take them to church, schedule time at the end of the day to tuck them into bed and talk to them, read the Bible to them, if you are doing something and they ask a question stop what you are doing and look at them in the eyes and listen, don’t let your mind wander when talking with them, don’t be impatient, answer softly, pray with them, hug them daily, kiss them daily and tell them you love them constantly!!!

RUMOR: MORE Bags for Zaza posting on June 3rd

http://bagsforzaza.blogspot.com/

The first eight Bags for Zaza sold in 36 hours…. but now there are online vultures awaiting the next flock of bags.  I read in the National Enquirer that FIVE more original Bags for Zaza are hitting the web on Tuesday night.  Don’t tell anyone… unless they are computer illiterate… or very slow typists.

Zaza is the nickname of our little girl that we are waiting to adopt from Colombia.  Bags for Zaza is a fundraiser that our sister-in-law schemed up and is tantalizingly successful. 

On your marks.  Get Set.  GO!  http://bagsforzaza.blogspot.com/

Frazzled Mother Goes Ballistic at City Dump

All I can say is, I was SO close to being that headline in tonight’s nightly news.  Thank God, I’m not.

In the middle of the night last night, when my brain full of buzzing wires was still at work, I figured out that 440 copies of my new book will be delivered here VERY SOON.  Intervention was needed in the garage to make space available.  I rounded up my strong sons and we loaded the back of the van for a trip to the dump….. an old, HUGE TV, a dead computer monitor with all the attachments, a broken sled from 1970 (made me sad… it was mine), a bike frame, another delapatated bike, a warped piece of plywood and some crutches minus the large rubber stoppers from the bottoms.

Once a month at the Phx. City sanitation transfer station (the dump) if you bring your water/sewer bill your trip is free instead of $20.  I dug out a bill from the file cabinet and we were off.  The area that surrounds our home is in the heat of roadway reconstruction.  The dump is 2 miles straight north of our home, but I had to head south for 2.5 miles first. 

I’ve only been to this transfer station once about two years ago.  I forgot that the drive up window lane is on a gigantic scale.  So I mistakenly drove up on the scale behind the guy in front of me.  The dump lady hung out the window and flapped her arm at me to get off the scale.  I s-l-o-w-l-y backed down the skinny ramp.

The guy in the white truck currently at the window was having issues…. not just crazy-woman-driver-behind-on-the-scale issues…. other issues.   Five, maybe eight-minute-long issues.  I finally backed out of my lane and went to the next lane.  Then the aforementioned white truck drove through…. and so did four other trucks behind him…. while I waited for the gentleman in the gray truck who had issues.

I eventually arrived at the window, only to be told that the water/sewer ticket in my hand was three days passed the 60 day expiration limit…. and VOID.  Bummer, dude.  I drove seven miles back home, dug through my husband’s top dresser drawer filing system and found a current ticket to the dump.  The boys and I grabbed snacks, drinks and got back in the minivan full of junk.  Another seven mile drive to the city facility…. and when I pulled up to the same window with the same nice lady….. I COULDN’T FIND MY TICKET!  I almost cried.  We searched high and low.  Nada.  The angel-lady watched us search for about five minutes (maybe this was the issue with the other men??) and she finally said, “What’s your name, honey?” 

“Linda Crosby.” 

Then she made my frazzled day by saying, “I’m so proud of you for not yelling at your kids.  You give kids something to hold and they lose it every time!  I know you made the effort and went all the way home.  You can go through this time without a water bill.”  I thanked her 27 times.  (I didn’t tell her that it was ME who left the bill at home.)

My son said to me, “I thought we were going to have to go home and come back again and I was going to stay home this time!”  I think I would’ve stayed home too!  God bless the lady at the dump.

www.LindaCrosby.com