Sorry that ya’ll weren’t able to see the pics.  They were such a comfort . . . basically all “beeeyoutiful” celebs pre-makeup artist and post-makeup artist.  It’s a comfort to me to know that the likes of Christina Applegate, Cameron Diaz, Pamela Sue Anderson, Alicia Silverstone, etc. don’t look a whole lot different from me from the neck up until some Max Factor type works his magic . . . Seriously!  If I had a movie star makeup artist and Jose Eber work their wonders, I could do the red carpet stroll, too! 

Anyway, hope you all are having a great week — things are well here and so it goes . . .

I am so relieved.  We’ve done our lessons every day and my girl seems to be enjoying them.  I decided to simplify our schedule in that Latin is going to be a summer elective.  And my man, God bless him, has agreed to take over the mathematical instruction.  A recent change that made this “doable” occurred earlier this week.  He went back on Monday to find that beginning on Tuesday his day would run from 4:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.  He is home from work by 11:30 a.m.  Incredibly awesome.  Granted, he turns in for the night at 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. (at the latest).  But he was usually heading in that direction by 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. before the shift change, anyway.  And he used to get up at 5:00 a.m., now he gets up at 4:00 a.m.  So it’s really not a HUGE change in that regard — but now he has a good six or seven hours after work to do other things.  (His old schedule was 7:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., because he had a lunch break and conference period smack dab in the middle of it all.  Now he has a 20 minute break between his two classes and then, as long as there are no staff meetings, he can leave when his second class dismisses.  Yeah, baby!)

So knowing how much I dislike math, and how crappy of a math teacher I am, he agreed to take this part of Jami’s education over.  Hallelujah!  (And I say that with the utmost sincerity . . . )  So our days go like this, now:

• Bible (5 days a week)
  
• Penmanship (5 days a week)
  
• Spelling (5 days a week)
  
• Grammar (5 days a week)
  
• History (3 days a week)
  
• Science (2 days a week)
  
• Art (1 day a week)

When my guy gets home from work, he has lunch and takes a little break while we finish a lesson and then he does her math lesson with her.  Once a week I take her to ballet and also to recorder band classes.

With his new work schedule and the math thing off my plate, I am feeling soooooo much better about all this.  I’d felt like I was drowning and now I feel like I can do it.  (Doing the dance of joy, I am!)

The other thing I did was to move the “schoolroom”.  Before we started in the fall, we fixed up the room where the computer is, but it just wasn’t working  very well.  The lighting is not so great and her desk was against one wall and my desk against another and when she needed help she had to come over to me or I had to go over to her.  And because all my business stuff is in that room, I’d try to multi-task working and teaching and neither was getting done very well.  So I moved all her schoolbooks into the dining area.  There is a cabinet with open-backed shelving separating the living and dining areas.  I displayed my Fiesta ware serving pieces on the shelves and her schoolbooks are neatly arranged on the cabinet top beneath.  Then on the opposite wall of the dining area I’ve placed her baby dresser with hutch.  Before you go, HUH?, the dresser is kind of a white pickled finish with a stained cherry top and a matching two-shelved hutch with stained cherry top — it doesn’t look babyish at all.  I have table linens and sewing stuff in the drawers.  Cookbooks are on the uppermost shelves and more school stuff is neatly arranged on the dresser top below the hutch shelves.

We hung a calendar and some posters on one wall and it looks very nice, bright, and cheery.  The lighting is better there, we can sit side-by-side at the kitchen table to do her work — it just works better all the way around.  We put our stuff away when we’re done and the table is available for meals or whatever else we may need to do there.  My guy has been teasing me about moving the schoolroom and my “office” around so many times — he said the only room I haven’t set the computer up in is the bathroom — smart aleck.  I’m feeling good about the current set-up for school.  Now I seriously do need to get the former schoolroom arranged for business and possibly crafts and then, shock of all shocks, I may actually turn the back bedroom back into a GASP!  bedroom.  But we’ll just have to see.  There’s a lot of contemplation regarding furniture arrangement, storage, etc.  This is an old house with little bitty closets (you know the kind where you open the door and, whoops!  There’s the closet . . . ALL OF IT?) so I have to really think this through.  Once I get it all organized, I don’t want to turn around in a few weeks and think, “You know, this just isn’t really working that well.”

It’s almost 11:30 p.m. and we have a vertical blind installation in the a.m., so I’d best turn in for the night.  Have a great Saturday and maybe I’ll be back before the weekend’s up.  We do have a nifty science thing we’re going to do tomorrow — we’re going to dig a hole, put a glass jar in it with a cover kind of propped over the opening so things get in, but don’t get out.  Then the next day we’ll go check the jar and see what kind of critters we may have caught!  I’m hoping for interesting without being too gross.  I don’t care for bugs much, but it’s in the name of education, so I’ll get over it.

Ciao!

Getting the lesson plans done so we can go back to enriching our minds after a season of jolly fun.  However, the wonderful thing about homeschooling is that we can still have jolly fun WHILE enriching our minds . . .

I’m going to check into the Princess Di exhibit that is being held in Houston right now — I can’t remember which museum is displaying it, but I’m sure I’ll find out.  I think Jami might enjoy seeing all that “royal” stuff.  It will also be an opportunity to talk about how “stuff” is no guarantee for happiness.

Well, gotta’ get back to work — in two hours I also have an appointment to measure some windows for a blind quote.  Looks like 2006 is coming in with a BANG! 

So we’ve had Christmas at my mother-in-law’s house, our good friends’ home, our home, my other mother-in-law’s home and now we’re off to my mom’s house.  A break tomorrow, then my aunt’s, and the next day I think my dad is coming in from N.O.  The 30th we go to Houston to visit friends, and then New Year’s Eve some good friends of ours are coming for dinner and fireworks . . .

I hope I live to see January 1.  Ha!

read this article on a teen in Jackson, Missouri that wanted to wear a kilt to his high school dance.  I personally don’t see what the big deal is.  The kid apparently has a genuine interest in geneological research and the heritage of his family after seeing “Braveheart” in 1995, and I’m sure his friends know of this interest.  Therefore, his wanting to honor that heritage wouldn’t be a disruption (like the principal fears).  As long as he wears some boxers, the kilt comes down to his knees, which is a lot more decent than what I’ve seen a lot of high school girls wearing.  Seriously, have you seen some of the dresses girls wear to prom these days?  Low-riding skirts and belly-baring tops . . .

That principal needs to have his head checked if he thinks this is “disruptive”.

A coincidental sidenote — we were visiting Jackson, Missouri in 1995 and saw “Braveheart” while we were there.  I wonder if we were in the theater at the same time this young man was?  Hmmm?

Just don’t know how much more we can take . . . and yet, we always seem to come out okay with God’s help.  I am so ready for this year to end and 2006 to begin.  My guy’s dad had to have another surgery today (his appendix ruptured two months ago and his recovery has been wrought with complications).  My truck’s transmission went out end of last week.  Of course, it required a complete ($1600) overhaul.  Right before Christmas.  Fortunately I had some blind orders coming through that almost covered the expense.  Everyone is so stressed and no one is ready for Sunday.

I’m about ready to say “Stop the world, I wanna’ get off!”  Not really, but just slow it down, for crying out loud!  I’ve been reading a little book called “The Hundred Dollar Holiday:  The Case for a More Joyful Christmas” and I would love to put some of what it talks about into practice.  It’s difficult to do something so revolutionary without the cooperation of one’s family.  Actually, I think my husband would cooperate and my daughter would get used to the idea — but the rest of the family . . . well, that’s a different matter!

I’m going to contemplate ways that I can improve things for next year, though, because I honestly don’t enjoy the season anymore.  Too much pressure, too much stress, not enough relaxing and family time.  And by family time, I mean my immediate family of three.  Love the others, yes I do, but we are so crazy chasing all over the place for the benefit of the rest of the family that there’s nothing left for the three of us.  Not.  At.  All.   The.  Way.  It.  Should.  Be.

Not at all.

Well, I’m going to go get a good night’s sleep.  The transmission shop is supposed to deliver the truck to me in the a.m. and I’ll have lots of rubber to burn getting caught up from the two days that I’ve been without wheels.

If you think about it, sure would appreciate prayers for my father-in-law — both for healing and salvation — not necessarily in that order, as salvation is definitely the more important of the two.  Thank you.

1. What time did you get up this morning?

All I can say is WOW.  We went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia” this afternoon and it was simply wonderful.  Jami was so enthralled by the story, the visuals, the whole enchilada . . . it was a blast to see my girl leaning forward in anticipation of the next moment and then cuddling against my shoulder during a particularly tense scene only to lean forward again as if she could get closer to the action by getting closer to the huge movie screen.

All in all, I feel like they were incredibly faithful to the overall story and I LOVED the fact that they didn’t pussyfoot around the whole concept of Aslan’s taking Edmund’s place (the parallels between the story and Jesus taking our place were very clear, at least for those familiar with the Truth). 

An absolutely beautiful movie that pays honor to the classic literature from which it comes.  I think C.S. Lewis would approve.  I recommend that you see it as soon as possible, and maybe even more than once.  Jami asked if we could see it again as we were walking out the door of the theater and wanted to start reading aloud again as soon as we got home!  I promised her that we would do some more reading Saturday evening before we finish decorating the Christmas tree . . .