Life on the Road

Thanks to all of you who have expressed your concern…  and yes, they are pretty close. 

At present we are in no danger, and do not expect to be. 

There is so much smoke in the air, though, that they are actually recommending staying home if you can to avoid being out in it!  In the house with everything closed and the a/c running it smells awful and is making our eyes burn…  Yuck!

I have two friends that live between us and the fire, as well, and both are families with small children, so please include them in your prayers.  Our church is also closer to the fire, so it is not yet clear whether there will be services tomorrow.

Again, please pray - but don’t worry!! 

No, not that there are now 20 Commandments…

First, however unlikely, a musical version with Val Kilmer in the lead role:

I agree with the many other reviews on Blockbuster.com that said the acting, singing, and stage effects were mediocre…

But what was most disturbing to my family and I was the inaccuracy of the story itself.  And we’re not just talking about making up dialogue to make it a full-fledged story, we’re talking about wholesale changes in a true and well chronicled series of events.

It’s a great story . . . why change it?  And if you do,you might want to say that it’s, “LOOSELY BASED ON the Biblical account of the life of Moses” or something, so we know it’s not something we want to watch.

Then for something completely different, a CGI-Animated version with Christian Slater as Moses:

I’m not crazy about the CGI, personally…  Not that it was bad - in fact it was often quite stunning - just that it often felt like being in a video game.  Maybe that just shows my age.  LOL 

The acting was surprising - Christian Slater brought a depth of character to Moses of which I would not have thought him capable.

I was also very pleased with the storytelling, which was much truer to the Biblical account (even the less “glamorous” or “exciting” bits) than anything else made in the last few decades.

Are there any other good versions out there, besides THE The Ten Commandments?

Just so that we’re all on the same page, here are the definitions on the movie rating classifications straight from the MPAA

The first thing that I found interesting is that the PG-13 rating contains very absolute and specific standards - right down to “which word” and “how many times.”

None of the other ratings have anything concrete.  This means that it’s up to the shifting standards of the “panel of parents” who are assigning the ratings.

Take Cinderella.  Rated G.  No sex.  No foul language.  Violence limited to wicked step-sisters ripping sash off dress, and stepmother tripping the Page with the glass slipper.  Intense and scary scene - ummm… well, it’s creepy when you first see the stepmother in bed and it’s all dark…  Right.  No biggie.  Very “G”.

Now there’s Ratatoille.  Everyone said it was a good movie, and it’s rated G, so surely it will be okay to watch as a family.

Ummmm, no.

It starts with a woman with a shotgun blowing up her house in an attempt to kill the rats - who are already established as our cute, furry “good guys.”  Then our hero is separated from his family, goes through a dark and frightening almost-drowning rapids experience in the sewer…  And that’s all in the first ten minutes.

Jewel cried, and pretty much the whole rest of the movie was spent either watching bad things happen or worrying about bad things happening.  <sigh>

A “G” rating from today is not the same as a “G” rating from the days of yore…  The standards of society have changed, and the ratings board reflects that.

But how accurate a measure of even society’s standards are they?  Who are these “parents” on the ratings board?  Who chooses them, and how?

I found it very interesting when my Blockbuster Online membership asked me for a rating, what the other user reviews said.  I found MANY other parents that felt the movie amply warranted a PG rating for the violence.  So apparently we are not as far out of the mainstream as we thought, and perhaps it is the ratings board that missed the boat.

Hmmmm….

Went to the midwife on Sunday for my routine prenatal visit, and things are even ickier than I thought.

She basically called it “borderline pre-eclamptic.”

My blood pressure was too high, although after some discussion she sent me to sit in the (not stifling hot) lobby with a glass of water for 10 mins, and it came down some (not nearly to my norm).

The swelling in the ankles is getting worse, not seeming to be helped by the alfalfa they recommend (I’m up to three tablets three times a day, so you’d think it would be working if it was going to).

They also found some protein and keytones in my urine sample, so I had to do a 24-hour urine catch (yesterday morning to this morning), and now have to drive the big sample jug back to them - over an hour each way, and an icky drive into Miami, so that’s NOT an appealing prospect.

I guess the “good news” out of this is that at 37+ weeks with a 3rd baby, she basically said that with the added stress there was a better and better chance that my body would just decide it was time, and the baby could come “early” (both the others were within 2 days of “the date”)…

I’ve been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions (never did with the other 2), and even pain in the cervix (man, that sounds funny).  Sundy at church another pg mama said, “Oh, wow, look, you’ve dropped!”  So who knows?

At this point, I would be much relieved to have the baby any time…  I’ve even gotten over my desire to wait until my mom gets here (scheduled vacation & cross-country flight = no flexibility on that).

But……. if she (I say she, we don’t know!) shows up today, or this week — she’ll have NO DIAPERS!!!  I wanted to make today into “Sewing is Job #1″ day, but in addtion to icky and achey, I’m feeling kinda paralyzed, I guess…  Bleah!!

Your prayers are appreciated! 

Welcome, one and all, to the 109th Blog Carnival of Homeschooling!

Thanks to Why Homeschool for allowing us to host the carnival, and to all the many bloggers who contributed.  And with such colorful and self-explanatory post titles, you all have made my job so easy! 

Being 8 months pregnant, there’s not really much else that spends a lot of time on my mind these days (have you voted in my Baby Pool?), so naturally the theme of the carnival had to fit in with that somehow.  A tall order, you say?

Children are a gift, and the responsibility we have to the future is so huge as to be overwhelming.  As homeschoolers, I feel we are taking a far more active role in the training of our children, and have far more opportunities - with every moment of every day - to impart the knowedge, wisdom, traits and values that we feel are important . . . to leave a legacy.

As today (1/29) would also be my father’s birthday were he still alive, this seemed a doubly appropriate theme.

We can encourage our children to reach out in a variety of ways, and leave a legacy of thinking out of the box.

Karen talks about Fostering an Entrepreneurial Spirit at Leaping From The Box. 

Amy Cortez uses travel as a part of her educational program in Travelin’ With The Kid in 2008 posted at Travelin’ With The Kid.

Saralee Sky presents Homeschooling vs Public Education posted at Womb To Grow.

Rose presents Greening up your curriculum posted at Learning at Home.

Joe Hitchem presents Stamp Collecting For Beginners posted at Stamp Collecting.

Carol presents HomeschoolCPA - The best jobs for teens (from a tax perspective) posted at HomeschoolCPA.

April presents Homeschool Hacking Tips: Make your own Nature Journal! posted at Lunablog.net.

We can stay aware of the issues that impact our lives, and leave a legacy of civic involvement.

Susan reminds us to stay civicly aware in State Legislatures are Back in Action, at Corn and Oil.

Timothy Power presents a very thoughtful Thoughts on Banita Jacks, Homeschooling, and Liberty at Sometimes I’m Actually Coherent - a post I think everyone, homeschooler or not, should take the time to read.

Activities Coordinator presents Mississippi’s Messing Up a Good Thing And Failing to Fix a Bad One posted at Life On The Planet.

Barbara presents a public school shocker in I Am Not Making This Up…. at Barbara Frank.

Miss Jocelyn, although not even old enough to vote, brings us a look at the Candidates of 2008 as based on their views of homeschooling at A Pondering Heart.

We can revel in special moments whenever and wherever they occur, and leave a legacy of spontanaiety - and gratitude.

Laura captures a fascinating experience, thanks to her prepared spontanaiety in Serendipity posted at I Ate The Sandbox.

Melissa shares the joy of knowing your kid “gets it” in The Things Children Say posted at Melissa’s Idea Garden. 

Not for those - like my hubby - who are spider squeamish!  Cristina presents Tales from the Tuffet posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Barbara presents some thoughts and ideas on Homeschooling With a New Baby at Fuel.

We can show our children we value their uniqueness - encourage them in their weakness and their strength - and leave a legacy of true self-acceptance. 

Adso of Melk shares Invisibly Gifted: The Problem of Being Profoundly Gifted, but Not in Math on Lorem Ipsum.

Katherine deals patiently with her reluctant writer in furiously writing, at No fighting, no biting! 

Janice Campbell declares that Our Students Need to Write More posted at Janice Campbell: Taking Time For Things That Matter.

christinemoers presents My little one has found her way through a crack posted at welcome to my brain.

Kevin presents Emotional Intellect and the Homeschooler posted at M4K Homeschooling & Education.

Michelle Kennedy presents Organically Inclined » To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool? posted at Organically Inclined.

We can truly lead by example, and leave a legacy of integrity.

Summer ponders Just What Is Mom Teaching? at Mom Is Teaching.

Elisheva Levin presents Unschooling Anxiety and Adjusting Our Routine posted at Ragamuffin Studies.

SupUrbanMom encourages us all to give thought to our daily school habits in Save a Tree, Would Ya? posted at ROCity Family Adventures.

Lori re-examines her motivation for homeschooling in Re-evaluating Homeschooling posted at The Simple Life at Home.

Tea Party Girl offers a timely word of encouragement: It’s Not All Up to You–Wednesday’s Heart of Tea posted at Tea Party Girl.

Tammy offers her insights on Arrogant Homeschoolers, at Life Without School.

Lori explains How Homeschooling is Like Investing in the Stock Market at MORTpiphanies.

NerdMom explores the famous Yeats quote on education in Heart of the Matter posted at Nerd Family.

We can teach whenever and wherever works best for our family, with whatever materials work best for our family… and leave a legacy of flexibility, open-mindedness, and resourcefulness.

Enjoy the story of an audio-book road trip - Reading On The Road posted at On Living By Learning.

Sheri discusses scheduling in schooling through life posted at Shades of Pink.

GrrlScientist shares her review of Attenborough in Paradise posted at Living the Scientific Life.

Joanne presents Deschooling For Parents posted at An Unschooling Life.

HappyCampers shares a fascinating field trip to A Dairy Goat Homestead? No Whey! posted at Reese’s View Of The World.

Looking for something to read?  The Winter Reading Challnege brings us two submissions:  (Homeschooled Senior) Miss Amanda presents My 2008 List Of Books To Read posted at The Daily Planet, and Jacque presents Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths - Winter Reading Challenge: My Books 2008 posted at Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths.

L presents SCHOLA: Homeschooling With Ben (that’s Benjamin Franklin!) posted at SCHOLA.

Kathy expores boy-focused history with What a Night for a Knight posted at My Quivers Full.

Alasandra presents We Are Celebrating Robert E. Lee’s Birthday Today posted at Alasandra & The Cats.   (Hubby is from Mississippi, so we enjoy the “rebel” side of things here, as well!)

Julie presents an introduction to Visual Mnemonics at Home Education Resources.

Rebecca presents some great - and free - homeschool resources: Free is good! posted at The Upside Down World.

Kathy reviews the 2008 Caldecott medal winner in The Invention of Hugo Cabret: Homeschool Review posted at Homeschoolbuzz.com Reviews.

Beverly shares resources for Groundhog Day Fun at Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog (About.com).

Sol Lederman goes against his math grain and shares some anagramming fun with Male Nerd Sol posted at Wild About Math!.

We can just plain teach our children well, and leave a legacy of competence.

Denise teaches us to play Euclid’s game on a hundred chart posted at Let’s play math!.

Renae shares about Dominion, Reason 2 of Why Study Math posted at Life Nurturing Education.

Alvaro Fernandez explores inner space: Looking inside the Brain: is my Brain Fit? posted at Brain Blog.

Eric Koshinsky introduces Computer-Assisted Language Learning with Give CALL a Try posted at Teachers Call.

ChristineMM discusses the opportnities of a Free Phonics Curriculum Online at The Thinking Mother.

Sunniemom presents some Random Thoughts on Home Education posted at A Woman On Purpose.

Rebecca shares the fun results of a homeschool group event: Mid-Winter Tournament posted at Little Homeschool on the Prairie.

Phil shares about his education in report-writing, with Tales Of A Fourth Grade Something at A Family Runs Through It.

We can train up our children in the ways of our spiritual heritage, and leave a legacy of faith.

Dolfin presents Tu B’Shevat - book review and learning board posted at Lionden Landing.

And an interesting finale, in which homeschooled students have a chance to express the legacy they see developing in their lives:

Why Homeschool presents The Laurel Springs School video contest winners.

Thank you for reading…  Of course, please let me know if you find any errors or broken links!

Please take a moment to post a link to the carnival on your blog, as well as adding it to any social bookmarking sites you use (the “Share This” link, below, will make it easy for most of them!) — help spread the word about homeschooling, and the carnival, and send some traffic to all these terrific bloggers who took the time to share their lives with us.

Don’t forget to send in your post for next week’s carnival, as well, hosted at Beverly’s Homeschool Blog at About.com!  Just click on over to the easy submision form at Blog Carnival…

So, I’ve noticed over the time we’ve been in this house that our front porch has a really unsafe step at the bottom.  There’s a single cement “tile” in the dirt at the end of the actual porch steps, with varying levels of uneven dirt around it.  Over the last few months, all of us have stepped off the edge just so and twisted our ankle…  And we keep thinking, “Gosh, we ought to do something about that.”

Well, Thursday my pregnant (im-)balance and loose joints got the better of me.  I stepped on that edge just so, and my ankle bent totally over underneath me.  I even heard a “snap” kind of noise, which was really sickening and scary.  (The worst part, of course, was trying to contain myself, as I had both kids there, coming out of the house to leave). 

When I was able to pull myself together a little, I determined that it will bear weight, so is not broken, but boy is it ugly…  Swollen out past the ankle bone, and bruise coloring came up immediately.

I am *SO* thankful that it isn’t worse!

But I am going to be relatively immobilized for a bit, and there are few options for medication because of Baby.

I’d sure appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery, as well as somehow keeping my household running in the meantime…

A while back I posted my thoughts on the Offering Envelopes our church provided when we joined…

Well, the plot thickens!

With the start of the new year, new boxes of offering envelopes have been prepared for all members.  The Holley household received … FOUR.

Wolf’s box, Tiffany’s box, Nick’s box, and Jewel’s box.

My earlier post discusses how I feel about having my own box.  I will not use it, so it seems to be a terrible waste of both paper and church funds, and thus not good stewardship. 

Now, I can understand that even the little ones can and should be taught to give even before they may REALLY understand.  And once they go to AWANA (beginning in September once they’ve turned three) an offering collection is taken up in their class. 

But babies in the nursery aren’t solicited for tithes…  So why does she need a box of envelopes?  (Ditto thoughts about my box)

From a practical point of view, I know they’re just using all the names off the roster.  But couldn’t they leave “prepare them a box of envlopes” as a default, but allow us to “Opt Out” like any good list manager?

Someone at church mentioned that they are also used for “other things,” including tracking attendance…

Which sounds nice, except that it doesn’t DO that, if I don’t turn it in.  And I’ve talked to several other moms at church who say they turn in neither their own nor their small kids’.  It’s not as though Pastor has made announcements requesting that we turn in the envelopes for attendance…

So that reason is a complete non-starter.

Don’t get me wrong… I realize that this whole thing is not a BIG DEAL.  It just frustrates me to see money wasted like that, rather than going to further the Kingdom Work for which it was intended…

Breech! 

Well, the good news is that Baby Blessing is healthy and has all the appropriate parts, AND that there are no fibroids apparent that should interfere with delivery in any way.

The bad news is, in spite of the fact that at both of my last two appointments the midwives palpated and told me she (that being still a pronoun of convenience, not a fact) was head-down…  Baby Blessing is sitting snugly breech. 

Granted, at 31.2 weeks, there’s still time and room for her to turn over.  And Miss Jewel layed sideways through my whole pregnancy, and only put her head down in active labor.

So, intellectually, it’s easy to see that I don’t need to worry about it.

But, emotionally, I’m terrified.  If I go to the birth center in labor with a breech, they are required to transfer me to the hospital. 

If I go to the hospital in labor with a breech, they will wheel me into surgery without asking questions.

I kid you not, my midwife had a client recently who came to them with a second baby, after being C-sectioned with her first when she arrived actually pushing with her baby in the birth canal - but breech! 

Luckily, the midwife at least cares.  That woman’s second labor happened in much the same way, but this time she arrived at the birth center with a breech on the way out.  So they complied with the law by dispatching one of the apprentice midwives to SLOWLY go to the office and call the hospital.  By the time they arrived to collect her for the trandfer, the baby had been born.

I think I tried every “home remedy” on the planet to get Miss J to turn during the end of my pregnancy with her:  slant board, headstands, swimming pools, shining a light down where her head should be, having Papa talk to her down there, some Oriental Medicine remedy that involved burning a specific incense-like thing near a spot on my little toe, putting an ice pack on her head…  Did I miss any? 

She apparently wasn’t impressed.

Luckily, my midwife’s backup ob - with whom we consulted a couple of times because of the issue - was a very seasoned, very laid-back man.  He was actually trained to deliver a breech baby, and did so in the past, which is something not even covered in “modern” ob training.  Anyhow, he assured me that secod and later babies will often “hang out” in a comfy position rather than putting their head down at the time first babies typically do, but will typically move it on down once labor starts.  Since the uterus has already “been there, done that,” there’s not the same kind of spatial urgency, aparently. 

So, again, intellectually, I can reason that there will probably be no problem at all.  But, boy…  Pregnancy emotions are no time to have to worry about things like this…

As you know if you follow the blog at all, we are fans of old TV shows that are wholesome family entertainment.  We are accumulating a large collection on DVD: Andy Griffith, Little House on the Prairie, Wonder Woman, The Waltons, etc.

We recently rented “Family Ties”, remembering it as a fun and wholesome Michael J. Fox show… but it appears that by the 80’s “wholesome” was already a thing of the past.

On the first disc alone were episodes about a womanizing high school boy, and Alex’s “first time” - yes, a whole episode that glorifies taking that step through a casual affair as a teenager.  Not to mention the now-usual declines such as adults being disrespected and portrayed as dumb.

I guess we’ll have to make sure we go back further than the 80’s to look for Family Values - “Family Ties” sure doesn’t have them.

Anyone have any idea when that boundary line is?

This is NOT a political blog, but I just can’t get over Hillary Clinton…

First, there are the things that seem fairly straightforward about her that I dislike.

In order to avoid rehashing things that have already been well-stated, let me first direct you to Crystal’s great posts over at Biblical Womanhood about Hillary’s un-Christmas Ad, and a follow-up about family finances versus government interference.

But my biggest problem with Bill’s better half is that I don’t believe anone really knows what she believes, or who she is.  She’s made a career out of remaking her image to take her where she wants to go.

During the Billary presidency, she was seen as harsh, and un-feminine.  Heck, at one point she alienated every homemaker in the country with her derrogatory comment about not wasting her life “staying home and baking cookies.” 

She decided this was bad, so she got a cat to soften up her image.  There are a lot of photos of Hillary with Socks at the White House, and they look quite chummy.

But when they left the White House, did Socks come along to the luxurious new digs in New York?  Why - when nobody was there to photograph it?  Nope, Socks got dumped on Bettie Curie, the longsuffering Clinton aide who had a pivotal (if embarrassing) role in cleaning up some of Mr. Clinton’s “little messes” at the White House, as well.

I enjoyed the take on it in this article from Fox News.

Clinton’s treatment of Socks cuts to the heart of the questions about her candidacy. Is she too cold and calculating to win the presidency? Or does it signify political invincibility by showing she is willing to deploy every weapon to get what she wants?

“In the annals of human evil, off-loading a pet is nowhere near the top of the list,” writes Caitlin Flanagan in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine. “But neither is it dead last, and it is especially galling when said pet has been deployed for years as an all-purpose character reference.”

Flanagan’s article, titled “No Girlfriend of Mine,” points out that Clinton wrote a crowd-pleasing book “Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets,” in which she claimed that only with the arrival of Socks and his “toy mouse” did the White House “become a home.”

Being Clinton, she also lectured readers that pets are an “adoption instead of an acquisition” and warned them to look out for their safety. (Buddy, the chocolate labrador in the Reagan White House, bounded into a road soon after leaving the White House and was promptly run over.)

That’s it in a nutshell, for me.  Not that she ditched a cat, which is a cruddy thing but not the end of the world, but that she’s so false and manipulative about everything. 

Needless to say, I’m neither surprised nor disappointed that Hillary did poorly in the Iowa caucuses…  Although having her on the Democratic ticket might have been the best thing that could happen to the scattered Republicans.