Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Incognito

As you may have noticed, the frequency of my posting has declined. The truth is, my life has had some extra stress the last few months and I've been unable to come up with anything much to blog about other than the "less than fun stuff" that we have been going through.

In fact "BlogHer" actually pulled my ad account, due to the infrequency of my posts. Not that I blame them, they are running a business. It may end up being a good thing because now without their restrictions, I'm open to take other opportunities and reviews, that I have had to refuse in the past. So you may see some changes here in the future, in order to makeup for the lost income.

As for my life, my son is now nine years old ( 9yrs old! I can hardly breath when I say that) and I have hit some road blocks with him that I am working on. Educating a highly gifted child has many challenges and I am learning that he also has some social behaviors that make working with others challenging. It's appears that he may be what they call "2e" or twice exceptional. Meaning he is gifted but with learning and/or behavioral difficulties as well. I'm in the process of figuring it out and will hopefully share what we are doing on the blog.

At the same time, my younger sister has been very ill with end stage Lymphoma and has spent much of the last six months in the hospital. She is stable at the moment and looking into clinical trials to maybe give her a little more time on this earth.

My pet sitting has been hit and miss, hence the need to bring in more income. I have spent what time I have in-between other things, working on my Etsy shops and trying to boost the sales there.

So that's about it. Just thought I should let you all know what's up and why I've been absent, without dwelling on it. I plan to continue to post about our home education and about my world, as soon as I get a handle on a few things. Thanks for listening, DJ :)

Here We Go

So it's 2012. How, when or why it happened, I don't know.  The New Year completely caught me off guard and now I feel like gasping for air and begging for part of 2011 back again. I wasn't finished with it yet, I didn't end it on a high note or any note. It's just gone.

I want so much to believe that 2012 will be a better year for everyone, but my gut tells me I'll be clawing my way through it as well. Between the economy, the election year and personal family health troubles brewing, I think most of the country, like myself, will still be struggling to keep our heads above water.

My son and I will start world history study this year, with the nomads up first. Perhaps their trials and travels will inspire me to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I'll also keep creating things to sell in my Etsy shop and hope my pet sitting clients are still traveling and in need of my services.

Florida is suppose to get the coldest weather so far this winter tonight, maybe even freezing and that always cheers me up and makes me more creative. I know, you guys up north think I'm crazy, but I find it hard to do crafty things when it's eighty plus degrees out. Valentine's Day and Easter are coming soon, so I better get to it!  Wishing you all the best 2012 you can have, and that we all survive it.

Conversations with My Son

Son: Mom, stop the car!
Me: Why? Please don't scream like that when I'm driving.
Son: I lost a lego piece behind the seat.
Me: How many times have I told you not to bring legos in the car? I can't remove the seat.
Son: But I neeeeed that piece!
Me: Well, whose to blame for it getting stuck behind the seat?
Son: Darn gravity!

Me: If you keep using the wrapping paper to wrap up your cat and dog gifts (not really, he's just re-wrapping old toys), there won't be any left for your presents.
Son: That's ok because we need to save the trees by not wasting paper. Just put them under the tree as is.
Me: What about the paper you just used to wrap the cat toy?
Son: That's ok because he mostly plays with the paper, so it's not wasted.

Me: I'm making you eggs and bacon for lunch ok?
Son: What have I told you about eating eggs?
Me: What?
Son: Chicken eggs are supposed to hatch into chickens.
Me: Not these eggs, they are not fertilized.
Son: Well then, we need to get a rooster.
Me: Uhmm, yeah, no.

Dead Pumpkin Walking

See that perfectly beautiful pumpkin in the picture above? I have a confession to make. I couldn't do it, I couldn't carve it up. There it sits, still a whole gourd, complete as it is.

Halloween came and went and so did our tradition of carving a spectacular jack-o-lantern.

I don't know what came over me. We were busy getting ready for the holiday and I kept looking at it, trying to decide what it would become this year.

It just sat there, looking perfect and almost regal. So I gave it a reprieve, no carving.

I know what your thinking, "but DJ, it won't last forever". I know, I know!

Now Thanksgiving is around the corner and the question becomes, how much do we really want pie?

Because It's Beautiful!

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Steve Jobs, His Company's Words...

They help me teach my son every day. This quote is on our wall and gives me courage to see my son with a clearer lens :

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." -- Apple / Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Thank you Mr. Jobs for your inspiration. May you rest in peace.

Are You A Homeschool Hoarder?

You might be if :

1. You get a library card to save money on books and then come home from said library, with books you bought from the library book sale section.
   
   
2. You have bookmarked 400,000 websites in your computer's favorites, in case they might be useful at some point.
   
   
3. Instead of presents, you have asked friends and family to give your child gift cards to Staples and Michael's Crafts for holidays and birthdays.
   
   
4. You no longer have a dining room table or a dining room, for that matter. All those supplies have to go somewhere!
   
   
5. There is never anything to put out in the recycle bin because you may need that doohickey, thingamabob, or whatnot someday for some as of yet, un-named science project.
   
   
6. You stock up on blank notebooks, just in case the entire world decides to go "paperless".
   
   
7. You finally have a reason to hang on to your parent's thirty year collection of National Geographic magazines.
   
   
8. You child doesn't understand why the telephone pictures in his textbooks, have really long cords attached.
   
   
9. All of the photos, on all the walls and doors around your home have been replaced with charts, posters and diagrams.
   
   
10. You have three plastic leaf bags full of empty toilet paper and paper towels rolls in your garage because... well, just because.
    

Vaccines Please, No Shots For Me.

While at the pharmacy yesterday, my son noticed the "Flu shots" sign posted. Being that I've worked in veterinary medicine for twenty plus years, using the word "shots" instead of vaccines or vaccinations, has always been a pet peeve of mine.

So I couldn't help but smile when my son mentioned to the pharmacist that his sign wording was incorrect and that it should say "Flu Vaccines". The pharmacist agreed with him and told him that using the word "shots" was probably too scary for some people (especially children).

I'm sure there was some eye rolling after we left, but I didn't care. It was a proud mommy moment for me!

Mom Questions

Why can't six year old boys sit straight, on the whole chair ? Do they always have to sit half-on, half-off, ready to bolt at any moment?

Why does my son pack enough of "his stuff" to play with in the car for a three day weekend, when we are only running a twenty minute errand?

Why don't the shoes I bought for him, two sizes too big last winter (on sale) for this summer, only fit for one month?

How can he eat chocolate ice cream and drink grape juice at the same time! Eeeee, it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.

What happens to my son's hearing while he is playing Wizard 101 on the computer? Does the wizard world come with magic "invisible to moms" headphones to help tune me out?

Will he always look like my sweet little boy when he's asleep with a book tucked under his arm, even when he's not a little boy anymore? I hope so.

Vulcan Logic Abounds

Recent conversation with my six year old son:

Son: "Mom what does it feel like to be a mom?"
Me: "Most of the time, wonderful!"
Me: "What does it feel like to be a boy?"
Son: "Amazing!"
Me: "What do you think it would feel like to be a mom?"
Son: "Well first I'd have to be a girl, so I can't say".

Did I mention I'm raising another Dr. Spock? Logic rules above all. Sometimes I wish for just a little Dr Seuss, but alas he's just "too silly". Sigh....

Wildfires!

Yesterday was a scary day around our house. As some of you may know, we have had a serious drought in South Florida for what seems like several years now. Water restrictions never seem to be lifted and fireworks have been banned on the 4th for the last four or five years. Brush fires and forest fires from carelessness or lighting strikes, occur regularly all over the state.

We have been safe so far until yesterday afternoon, when lighting started a brush fire half a mile from my house. It was mid-afternoon and I heard thunder coming. It did not rain, all we had was dry lighting and thunder. Looking out the window the clouds on the horizon slowly started to turn beautiful shades of orange and red. For a minute I thought, "what a pretty sunset", then I remembered it was 2pm.

In less than five minutes the skies turned black and the neighborhood children started running down the street towards the smoke. Within another five minutes, sirens could be heard coming from all directions followed by helicopters. It finally dawned on me: the woods were on fire! My first thought was to stay calm and try not to scare my son. He wanted to go follow the firetrucks not really knowing what a wildfire means.

I went online to listen to the local police scanner and they were calling for more trucks and thinking about evacuations. So we had to think fast about what to gather up and get the animals ready to get in the car. After I got everything in order that I thought was important, we waited and watched. The turnpike (which runs along side my neighborhood) was shut down and bulldozers came in to try and create a boundary.

After five hours of work, the firefighters got it about 50% contained. Only one house had some damage and the back yards of many were scorched. We did not have to leave, but I was ready to go.

This morning it's 90% contained with the ashes still smoldering. I was awake all night, watching the skies and wondering how we would cope if a fire destroyed our home.

I have been through about ten hurricanes in my life, including the 2004 storms that took the roof off my house while I was in it, alone and eight months pregnant. They were scary, but not like yesterday. I was terrified on the inside and organized mommy on the outside. My son now has a new respect for fire, which is a good thing. Tonight I hope to sleep again.

Firefighters have to be some of the bravest people around and I'm am so thankful they are willing to risk their lives for us! Today they are calling for lightening storms again and I sure hope some rain comes with it this time. Meanwhile, I'm going to get a few new hoses hooked up to the house and then maybe teach my son a rain dance. Stay safe everyone this summer, safe and prepared.

Fresh Paint

Ok, here it is finally, the new house colors! Yeah, I know, kind of blah in this photo. However, when the grass turns green again and the light is better, it will look a lovely shade of tan and white.

The old siding was vertical planks and it was yellow and white. I also have the old shutters in the garage but I'm not sure I will put them back up. I've been told they are passe'.... plus they are dark green.

No outdoor Christmas decor this year, I'm not attaching anything to that new siding and paint anytime soon! Not until my bank account stops smouldering anyway.

Lights are On, But No One's Home

Argggg! My son has landed in the space cadet zone! How do I know?

1. Almost any question is answered with a blank stare.
2. Son gets into car and forgets pants.
3. Son remembers pants, then forgets shoes.
4. Meals are optional.
5. Stories have to have multiple endings (can't decide on just one).
6. Son walks into walls while reading.
7. Mom has to shoot off flares in the house to establish eye contact with child.

8. Son spends a lot of time "thinking", while staring at ceiling.

9. Breakfast takes 1 1/2 hours to finish because, see number 8.

10. The most repeated sentence in our house is, "Are you listening to me?"

He's not even six yet! How on earth am I going to make it through his teens?

Waiting To Exhale

Does it ever stop? The worrying I mean. My son is almost 6 years old and I still hold my breath when I see him take off running. When he was learning to walk, he used to take falling in stride. He just laugh and get back up.

The first time he got really hurt was when he was about 3 and he tripped on the tile floor, fell on his face and busted his lip. He was a bloody mess and his mouth was sore for days. I remember that it took a while to convince him that brushing his teeth would not hurt after that.

Then there was the first time he skinned his knees falling on the road. He cried and limped for hours. I know it really hurt because I can still remember the pain of skinned elbows when I was learning to roller skate (no protective padding in my day).

He always healed up quickly of course, but I still haven't. The image of my baby's perfect body and skin, bruised and broken, never leaves me. Nowadays he spends most of his time trying to defy gravity in some form or another. I spend most of my day with my heart in my throat.

Don't get me wrong, I love to see him sail through the air and land on one leg. I love to watch his "cool new" dance moves and how he fails to see danger anywhere. I just want to know, when can I stop holding my breath? When he's 10, 15, 20 years old?

I fear I know the answer. The answer is never. As long as my baby is within my line of sight, I will rejoice in the way he moves and soars during the day but not feel completely safe until he his tucked into his bed, all in one piece, at night.

Educational Inspiration

I was in need of some inspiration to push me forward.
I found in here, in these two videos.
I can breathe again now and continue to educate my son, in whatever unconventional way that also inspires him. Even if it kills me.
Take a minute to watch and maybe you will breathe a little easier too.

Hello World, We're Back!

For the last four days, we have lived in a cave. Not literally, but it sure felt that way. I recently switched phone/TV and Internet providers and have had a lot of service interruption since the very first night of installation. The whole system finally went down Tuesday and would not come back.

A small army of technicians have been marching through my house since, looking for the problem. Turns out after many failed attempts, they discovered that squirrels or maybe rats had been chewing at the ends of the buried cables outside and across the street, that have been unused for years.

It seems to be fixed now (fingers crossed) but what a nightmare. I would love to say that this time away from technology and information was relaxing and refreshing, but I can't. We still had to be here during the time they were trying to fix it, so they could keep testing the lines from house.

My son has now watched every holiday DVD (Halloween and Christmas) we own, twice. I've had enough Charlie Brown for the coming holiday season, thank you very much and it's only August!
I do have a cell phone (not a smart phone), so I could check on my mother, but my clients don't have that number and I don't want them too. I could not get any business calls or even their emails.

It's so brutally hot and dry here, that spending time outside was limited. Not to mention difficult, as I had to keep an eye on the animals with the technicians going in and out of the doors endlessly. I'm exhausted from doing nothing. Nothing but waiting and listening to one explanation for the problems after another, and another.

So we are back now, yea! The phone is ringing again, Discovery Kids is back on and I have back my reason for living...the Internet. May it live long and prosper!

Are You Listening?

It annoys me to no end when adults ask a child a question and then don't wait for an answer.
We were at the pediatrician's office yesterday for a routine checkup and a vaccine discussion.
The visit was fine and my son is as healthy as a horse.

I suppose it's because they are very busy but if you ask my son a question, please have the courtesy to wait for him to answer before you either finish his sentence or ignore him an address me. My child has a brain and an opinion on his world. He would appreciate it if you treated him like a human being, rather than an inanimate object who is in the room to look cute and nod his head.

This is not the first time he has felt like he is being ignored by adults. I realize that some adults don't have experience interacting with children, but the pediatrician's staff should know it's important to acknowledge a child and listen to him.

Every time he tried to answer a question (most of them, silly questions at that), he barely got three words out before they cut him off. It was obvious to him that they were not really interested in his answers.

When we got back in the car, he said he was sorry he didn't speak up loud enough to be heard.
I felt so bad for him, that I apologized for the doctor and nurses being rude.

So please, doctors, dentists, nurses and anyone who works with children, realize that the child wants to speak and be heard. To do this, sometimes you have to wait for the words and listen to that soft voice with more attentive ears. You never know what you might learn or what you might be missing!

Does Your Child Have His Own TV?

In order to save some money, I have switched from satellite TV to Cable (combining with one company will save me $30 a month, hard to turn down!). Now I have to decide if I want them to add cable outlets to my son's room.

Before I had my son, I thought letting a young child have a TV and computer in his room was ridiculous. But just like many of the plans I had for raising children before I actually had any, I have already eaten my words when it comes to the computer.

When he started using my mouse at 2 1/2 to navigate around Starfall.com, I knew I was in trouble. Turns out, giving him his own set up was the best thing I could have done for a gifted child. By three years old he was pointing and clicking, and dragging and dropping like a pro. Now whenever he wants to know more about something, he heads to Google for research. The Internet has been a huge blessing when it comes to dealing with his education and interests!

The technician for the cable company will be here next week to install my new service. So I have to decide whether or not to have his room wired for cable now, or wait and have them do it later. They are offering me six months of free service for the second hook up, to entice me.

I'm just not sure that giving him his own TV is a good idea. The thought of us watching separate shows in two different rooms, is sad. I don't like the idea of isolating our lives at such a young age. Then again, the way his mind works, I know how well he learns on him own, he would enjoy the responsibility and the freedom.

I suppose I could place restrictions on it and still have times set aside for watching things together. I just wish he didn't have to grow up so fast. I know every parent feels that way, always have and always will. Compared to other homes, he still has much less "stuff" than many children we know. We don't have a game system (I know nothing about them) and he's starting to ask about playing games he sees on the TV. The only games he plays now, are free ones on the computer.

So do I test the water now and let them install cable to his room while they are here? Or do I ignore the discounted deal and wait until he is older? I remember when I first put a computer in his room, in the beginning I couldn't get him to leave his room for anything (even food). Then over a few months, he did start hanging out with me again. Maybe the initial novelty of his own TV will wear off after a while too and he won't become a cave dwelling teenager before his time.

Our Government at Work

I have heard of some pretty ridiculous things our government employees do to waste taxpayers' money and this is one of those that hit home. A family in Connecticut is being investigated for allegedly violating child labor laws because their children help out on weekends in their family pizzeria.

The children are all under the state's legal age for employment of fourteen, and apparently the Dept. of labor was sent there on an anonymous tip. Mind you, this is a family owned restaurant that has been in the community for fifty five years, each generation learning from the last. A family, passing on a culture and a trade to the next generation on weekends or after school.

I can't believe, after the investigator visited the restaurant that a report was even filed. After seeing it for what it was, a family teaching their children how the business works and spending that ever important "quality time together" doing it, the case should have been closed right then and there.

What is good to hear is that the family is fighting back, as well they should. Whoever tipped off the Dept. of Labor should be ashamed of themselves. As far as I'm concerned every family business should have their children helping out part time, the earlier the better. The pride a child feels from a job well done is something that will benefit them their entire lives. Not to mention, may also keep them off the streets and away from trouble as teenagers.

Children and Advertising

For the longest time my son use to ignore commercials on TV. Mainly because I didn't let him watch channels with a lot of them. Now that he is older and we are watching more documentaries, nature shows and such, he is seeing ads for all kinds of things.

It is somewhat surprising to me just what catches his attention, and I mean really catches it. So much so that if he hears one from another room, he comes running. I now get regular updates from him of just what new things we "need" right away!

• I need to get better organized.
• I need to lower my cholesterol (this may or may not be true, if I can ever afford health insurance, I may get that checked).
• I need to get more sleep (don't we all).
• We need a new car.
• We need a vacation (maybe when I retire).
• He needs a toy puppy that swims in the pool with him (he has a real dog that can do that).
• I need to be a - insert big name store here - shopper.
  

As amusing as this sometimes can be, I also find it disturbing how fast he is sucked into the ads. Even though I have explained to him what TV ads are for and he gets the fact that they are just trying to sell something, anything to anyone that will buy it, he is still captivated by them.

Thank goodness they no longer have ads for cigarettes, but I also wish a few more categories were eliminated or at least not shown until after 8pm.

I'm sure I'll be having discussions about why I don't need to "regrow my own hair" or be ready anytime "the mood is right", with my five year old son any day now. I don't want him to grow up thinking there is a pill to fix everything.

We already have too many adults with that problem and based on the increasing numbers of "accidental" drug overdose deaths, clearly there is not a pill to fix everything.

*vintage art from Karen's Whimsy.com