What Homeschool Looks Like

Great Day for Oatmeal!

We woke up to a surprise this morning! We had had two days of rain, and most of the snow had melted. Yesterday after stake conference, we purposely drove through a gigantic puddle as we exited the parking lot, just for fun. When we got home, the kids were commenting on how green the big patches of exposed grass were.

It started snowing at about 3:00 or so yesterday afternoon. I didn't really think much of it, but North American Weather Consultants called me and told me to turn on the cloud seeder at about 6:00pm and leave it on until they called me this morning. The cloud seeder doesn't really affect the weather right here, but it burns propane and puts silver iodide into the atmosphere, aiming for a certain altitude and temperature pocket. They don't call on every storm, but only when the conditions are just right. What they are hoping for is that the water particles will collect around the silver iodide and fall down (precipitate) instead of just passing over. That could happen as far as 100 miles away. This picture shows the cloud seeder with the propane tank behind it. The tank on the bottom of the thing with the flame is where the silver iodide is kept, and I release it by opening a valve until the guage shows the right level.

This morning we woke up to 6-7 inches of snow by my estimate---Russ says it is 8 inches. Since I haven't lived in Idaho for 20 years, it seems like a lot! A big branch broke off one of our trees in the front yard under the weight of the snow.

I started the oatmeal before I looked outside, but later I decided it was a perfect day for oatmeal. It's nice and warm and it sticks to your bones. While the kids were eating I decided to go outside and take pictures. Matthew was still in bed.

The suburban had a nice layer on it! Thankfully, we have a very nice neighbor who uses his four-wheeler to plow our parking area.

Joshua, Molly, and Matthew went out immediately after breakfast and chores to work on a snow fort that had been in jeopardy because of the rain.

Hannah shoveled and now says her back is sore, unfortunately! She's so tall and so far from the ground that she has to bend over quite a bit. Katie went out just to revel in the white stuff!

Music, music, music!

I finished the music for the General Young Women's Meeting and sent it on the deadline date they gave me, January 10th, which was Sunday. I didn't hear anything back, so I called Monday to follow up and make sure they got my email. Diane Bastian, who is over the church music committee, said they would review it Tuesday afternoon and call me back. I talked to her Tuesday night, and she told me they really liked it but they wanted to request a couple of changes/improvements--a longer transition on the key change, and more movement in the accompaniment in the last verse. I had to smile when she told me the key change was "Wilberg-esque." She said the big key changes that just move into the new key right as the singers come in is how Mack Wilberg does it. She said it was getting common, and besides, she thought it would be better for the amateur young women's choir to have a little time to hear the new key before they sang. She was asking for a change, but little did she know that the fact that my music sounded "Wilberg-esque" was just what I wanted to hear. I love him! It's okay. I can dumb it down. (Go ahead, laugh at the picture)

Sister Bastian said they would be presenting the music to the Young Women's presidency the following afternoon and they would love to have the changes by then. So, I went to the church at 7:00pm and got on the organ and hammered it all out in about 2 1/2 hours. My kids stayed at the house and made pizza, and Russ was out of town with work. I went home that night and got it on the computer, reviewed it a couple thousand times, and emailed it.

The next day in the afternoon (Wednesday, January 14th), Sister Bastian called and said they played it for the YW presidency, and everyone loved it. They especially loved the changes I made......BUT......the YW presidency thought it would be really nice to have a cello with one of the songs in the meeting, and they thought mine would be best! Argh. Back to the drawing board. But this time I knew for sure that they had decided to use it, so I was more than glad to attempt a cello obbligato. It was much harder than I thought it would be, mostly because I would have constructed the accompaniment differently had I known there would be an instrumental part.

I decided to give myself a few extra days; she didn't give me a deadline and I had a hard time being satisfied with what I was coming up with. I sent the final copy last Sunday night, January 17th. I don't really love the way the cello part turned out, considering it was an afterthought, but I suppose it will do. I haven't heard from them. They are extremely busy at their office, so I didn't really expect to hear from them, unless they were dissatisfied with it. Maybe they will decide not to use the cello part! At any rate, the General Young Women Meeting is on March 29th, and Emily, Hannah, and I will be there, live and in person.

This brings me to the next part. I think Sunday the 17th was that same day that my sister, Barbara, called me and asked me to arrange "Called to Serve" for the funeral of a recently returned missionary, Josh Jenkins, who was killed in an avalanche. He was my nephew's close friend. His companions and other returned missionary types were going to sing it as the only musical number at the service. Initially she just asked for a beefed up introduction, interlude, and ending. The hymn has only two verses, but they were going to sing the first verse twice with the second time being in Thai, the language of Josh's mission, and then sing the second verse to finish. Well, I have a problem with doing things in a small way, so I set out to write a whole arrangement. I kept choking up every time I went to the piano because of what I was writing for, so I went to the internet and looked up everything I could find about Josh. After I read several news reports about the accident and talked to Barbara some more, I was able to be calm about it. I worked on it over the next few days. Thursday afternoon was my theater class dress rehearsal, and when I left for it, I still had 10 measures to come up with. I called Barbara and told her I wouldn't be home until 6:15pm, and her practice was at 8:30pm that night. Talk about stress! My husband says I work best under pressure. At about 6:45, my friend called and invited all of us to come eat with them because she knew what was going on and that I probably wouldn't be cooking dinner. I sent the kids--how convenient!

Barb called me around 8:00 and when the phone rang I was literally putting the last note on the paper. I listened through it one more time and then emailed it to her by about 8:10. Nothing like living by the seat of your pants. Thank goodness for email! It makes so many things possible that wouldn't be otherwise! Barbara liked it, and the piano player liked it....it went well the next day with about 40 men singing, 20 in Thai.

I think I am done writing music for a little while (at least a month or so). My children always breathe a little easier when I finish a project because there is always a period of intensity right before I finish. It's always rewarding, though, and I am extremely blessed to have the ability to write music in an edifying and useful way.

Chore Woes

Well, I re-vamped the chores this week. So far it is good and bad. I added in Katie (7) and Molly (5) so they can have formal, every day chores. Katie's reaction was one of instantly being overwhelmed, even though she started out on collecting garbage and sweeping the kitchen. I didn't think it was that bad! Molly was smiley, but then just quietly and conveniently avoided it all day. Hers was filling the water filter and putting away clean dishes. I put one person on as Molly's helper, but that didn't go over very well. I don't know what I'm doing wrong! Here's the breakdown:

Mom--breakfast and lunch dishes, wash and fold laundry. Saturday, mop kitchen, clean inside fridge.

Bathroom--clean one bathroom each day including floor. Help Molly follow through with her chores. Saturday, do both bathrooms, wash tub, re-stock TP and soap.

Garbage--empty all garbage in house every day. Sweep the kitchen floor every day.

Laundry--collect and sort all the laundry in the house daily. Start a batch if there isn't one going. Put away folded laundry that doesn't belong to people (like towels, etc.). Saturday, dust, help fold laundry if needed.

Kitchen Detail--Put away clean dishes. Fill the water filter. Wipe up kitchen countertops, especially around the toaster. Saturday, clean off back porch (where we feed the cat our leftovers), sweep front porch, put away groceries on shopping day.

Vacuum--upstairs (all rooms) one day, downstairs the next. Stairs and entry rug as needed, but at least every other day. Saturday, vacuum under couch cushions and under couches. Vacuum entry rug, stairs, front room and hall again Saturday night if needed.

Dishes--Clean up dinner and finish any dishes in the evening. Saturday, wipe walls, wash outside of fridge, wash kitchen sink with ajax, wipe stove.

Everyone puts away his or her own laundry and is responsible for his or her own room.

So, am I being unreasonable? I put help Molly on bathroom because in the past, it seemed like that was the easiest chore. When Molly rotates onto bathroom, she will be on her own or Mom will help her. Now I am hearing arguments that bathroom isn't easy if you do it right, which one person says she does, and it is too much to have to "do" Molly's chores, too. The idea wasn't to "do" Molly's chores, but to lead her to it and help her do the things that are a little too hard. Argh. In my mind it works. Oh well, we are only in the third day, so I'll keep trying to make it work for a little while longer before I re-work it again. We have had the same chore routine for about, oh, three years or so, so it's no wonder that everyone is a little shaken up about it!

On Second Thought, I Haven't Got Time

Here's the picture I have on my desktop for inspiration. Most people probably don't know who this is, but for me, this is who I want to be when I grow up!

Okay, learning how to make a beautiful blog will have to wait. I am writing music on a trial basis for the next general Young Women's Meeting of the church. If they like what I do, it may be used in the meeting. Last time this happened, they just asked me to do it, and they used it--no trial basis that time. Don't know what's up with that. I have to have it done tomorrow.

Emily went to seminary this morning, but Caleb didn't want to go and have to be wiping his nose the whole time, so he stayed home. Emily was dying to wear some new clothes she bought the day she came down sick, so she was motivated to get well quicker, I suppose.

When I write music, it is hard for the little ones to understand that I need uninterrupted time. It didn't work very well today, but I tried to be patient and just have faith that even with my responsibilities, I will get this done. Tomorrow is the day they asked for it. I have 20 measures to go out of 65 total, so I am more than two-thirds done. I made a lot of progress when I went over to the church and played on the organ. It makes a lot of difference to be able to use the instrument I am composing for!!!

Hannah was feeling much better today, but she still had a very pesky cough at bedtime that was keeping her awake. She broke down and took some Robitussin. We tend to be a non-medicating family, and I am sure that comes from my background as an "herb and suppliment using chiropractor's daughter." Yesiree....it's hard to even get anyone to take a tylenol around here. Molly's doing well, Joshua's still got a lingering cough, but he doesn't even notice. Katie was a little low energy, but doing well. Matthew is still as pale as ever. I guess I need to get him some vitamins or something. My lungs still hurt and the cough is terrible, but it isn't constant, just every once in a while.

We got a bunch of snow last night, maybe another four inches on top of what was already there. The piles on the side of the sidewalk are probably a foot and a half high.

I need blogging lessons!

I NEED BLOGGING LESSONS! Everyone else's blog looks so good, and I can't figure out how they do it!! Somebody tell me please!

I went on some site trying to find a cute background, but when I found one, I couldn't download it. I want the family picture off to the side and the latest blog entry right on top.

Anyone have any advice? Harmony? Jaimie, Chelsea, Heidi, Jan????

Starting the New Year off right.....(not really)

Well, we started off the year right. Actually, Joshua started it, and the rest of us finished it....I hope. I think we actually had the real "influenza." What a nightmare! Joshua started getting sick on Friday right before he left on an overnight campout in the snow. Matthew and I got sick on Sunday, and four more followed on Monday, with Katie as the tail-ender on Tuesday. Deep painful coughing, aching all over, shivering, feverish---and that was just the "first phase." "Second phase" included profuse sweating, runny nose, sneezing, more coughing, fever, and aches. Katie decided to make it interesting and throw up in my bed. I called Russ and told him not to come home from work (he leaves Monday at around noon and usually comes home in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesdays and goes back to work Wednesday night until Friday morning). He agreed with me, and went and stayed at his parents in Murray. Picture it---seven children (ages 2 to 17) and one mom, all draped over the couch and sofa, and on a makeshift bed on our pile of clean laundry. There was a mountain of it that needed to be folded, so we just covered the five baskets with several quilts and pillows for the kids to lie on. I know that sounds like we are just lazy, but nobody could do anything but drink herbal tea and sleep and watch Bing Crosby movies while we tossed the tissue back and forth amongst ourselves. On the upside, the whole ordeal saved money on groceries and gas because no one was eating and no one was going anywhere.
Here's Matthew next to some of the aforementioned laundry, and Joshua blowing his nose---he holds the record for how many times a person can cough in one minute, and for sustaining that rate of coughing for 72 hours. It's enough to drive a person crazy! They should try this at Guantanamo.



Matthew was so pale all week!

Here's Hannah showing off her protruding hip bones. The girl is 5'10" and today weighed in at 138, if I remember right, after hardly eating for four days. We were all comparing notes, and we collectively lost almost 35 pounds. I decided next year, for our after-the-holidays weight loss program, we'll try something else a little more pleasant!


This is the best group shot we have--Matthew on the left, Katie with the thermometer under her arm, me on the phone, Emily under the quilt, and Caleb on the other end of the couch behind the camera. Notice the piano bench serving as table with drinks and hand sanitizer on it.


Ya gotta love these pictures, but they just don't show the level of misery!! I posed for this one. No one can ever accuse me of being proud....



Here's Molly looking unrealistically chipper. Emily is on the other end of the couch taking the picture.
Today, Thursday, everyone was feeling almost human. Tea consumption has slowed. More people are asking for solid food. The laundry bed is no more. It's snowing outside, and Russ is on his way home right now, and we hope he has dodged the bullet!