The Calamity Day That Wasn't

So I guess the spoon under the pillow thing does work, if you count a windchill-below-zero-so-we're-cancelling-school a "snow" day. I think they actually call them "calamity days". I wasn't aware snow or cold weather is a calamity. I think some man who never had children came up with that one because if a calamity is all it takes to check out for the day, sign me up. I'm checking out on account of a calamity for the next 15 and a half years.

And I thought one of my mom's students made that whole spoon-under-the-pillow-turn-your-pjs-inside-out thing up but for fun I Googled it. 147,000 hits people. Try it. Never heard of it until about a week ago.

Last night we knew the cancellation was eminent...we got the 2 hour delay call around 9:00 pm. I thought I was being all smart and good by pushing my classes back this quarter and not scheduling an early morning class. But turns out I didn't actually do the math and I didn't really help things out. Mr. Steady had to travel to the state capital today to take a test for a possible job opportunity so I offered to take my turn rearranging my schedule to suit the childrens. It honestly took no twisting my arm because I know my first duty is to make sure the children are taken care of.

God has the greatest sense of humor because I woke up around 1:00 this morning with the Eye. Consider yourself blessed if you've never woken up with the Eye (or heaven forbid, the EyeS) or had a child wake up with the Eye. Crusted over, dripping who knows what. I've been battling allergies for the past week or more and don't tell my mother but I'm pretty sure it's a full blown sinus infection now. And when I get a sinus infection my eyes feel left out and decide to have their own infection too.

So instead of emailing my profs "Sorry I can't make it to class because my children are out of school today" I got to email them "Sorry my eyelid is the size of Texas and I have molten lava coming out of it". Okay, not really. Usually profs are pretty cool with a "I'm sick and won't be there."

Except my math prof is a little too cool and emailed me back with a "That's fiiiiiiiine (emphasis mine, I know how she talks and I'm sure she emails the same way). You can wait and do your presentation on Tuesday, I'm sure your group won't mind," Um, ok. Thanks.

Turns out the "group" didn't mind because one guy didn't show up and one girl was late and then, of course, I wasn't there. Which left poor Courtney. But then again, I don't think Courtney minds anything. She emailed me and said "Hope you feel better! Z let us wait until Tuesday to do our presentation".

Then I guess my Ed prof is a little too cool too because he signs his email "Me, Kris" and then has some quote from Yoda in his signature. After reading his email I began to think I might have taken an extra dose of Mucinex.

The children are off tomorrow too, for a Teacher Work Day and of course Monday is Martin Luther King Jr day so we have a five day weekend!!! Yay!!!

After a dose of ophthalmic antibiotics (because if your family usually gets the Eye you keep these things on hand) and an hour of vertical drainage (I don't know what that even means) I started feeling better. I made the boys a batch of chocolate chip pancakes and myself a bowl of Banana Split Oatmeal (cooked whole oats topped with chocolate chips, 1/2 sliced banana and three sliced strawberries). Mr. Steady came home and did fabulously on his test (I knew he would). The boys and I never got out of our pj's all day.

Chocolate Chip pancakes and a whole day in your pjs. Told you it wasn't a calamity day.

Snow Dance

What do a spoon and inside out pajamas have to do with each other? They are the ingredients you need to create a snow day! My mom told the boys recently that she heard if you wear your pajamas inside out and put a spoon under your pillow while you sleep you will have a snow day.

So while your children are asking for one last drink of water, mine are raiding the silverware drawer!

Can you save $1 a day?

Mr. Steady recently came home with a challenge...don't spend any $1 bills for one month. He had heard Neal Boortz **talking about this and thought it was a great idea.

As we lay in bed that night talking about this challenge I posed the question of what we would do with the extra money. We are in a season of our lives where every penny is needed. Mr. Steady, as usual, had a great idea. We take every extra dollar bill and apply it towards a nasty, ugly, stupid loan we have hanging over our heads.

Do you know how many dollar bills you spend in a week? Boortz describes it this way: If you have $5 in your pocket and you want a coffee and a newspaper, you don't buy it because you need that $5 for lunch. But if you have $7 or $8 in your pocket you don't think twice because you have the extra $2-$3. What if you saved that $2-$3 and only spend $5, $10, and $20? or if you're blessed the occasional $50 or $100?

We have been credit and debit card free for the past two years. We use cash to pay for groceries, gas, nearly everything that isn't a bill to be mailed. So this would work for us. And we stopped using our pocket coins about three years ago so we've essentially just upped the ante. We saved almost $100 in three years just by not spending pocket coins.

I had to buy a few needful things this week as did Mr. Steady and in the course of 1 week we were able to save $29 in $1 bills only. Think of how much faster that ugly loan will be gone if we continue to do this. Once the loan is gone we can apply the extra to some medical bills we have and then maybe when we're old and gray we can actually put the extra in a savings account and watch it grow. Or use it to bless someone else, the way we've been blessed by other's generosity.

What about you...can you stop spending dollar bills for one month? What will you do with it?

**Please note that I am in no way endorsing Neal Boortz, I honestly can not stand to listen to him and I am perpetually offended by him and his website. I only linked to his website in case someone doesn't know who he is.

What I've Learned From My Children This Year, Volume 1

Today we went to Trader Joe's for a few things and the boys asked for this peculiar snack called Applesauce Crushers. It is basically applesauce in a fun little foil pouch with a twist off cap that you suck the applesauce out of. I also bought cookies but they begged for the applesauce on the way home. After the applesauce I asked if they wanted cookies, and they are children so of course they did. But they made no bones about telling me they liked the applesauce better.

After dinner I offered ice cream for dessert, basically because I'm just trying to get junk out of the house, and The Reader asked if he could have another applesauce instead of ice cream. I think if I hadn't offered them cookies they would have forgotten all about them and never even asked for them.

Trader Joe's also had carrot applesauce that lists carrots and pumpkins in the ingredients. I'd like to get them to try that but am not going to push my luck.

I would like to remember to choose healthier, fun foods over junk more often. Lesson learned.

Our Trip To Australia

We set aside last night to virtually visit Australia. This was our second stop in our passport, the first being China. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to show you and even sorrier (is that a word?) to report that I didn't serve an Australian meal (and dinner at Outback was out of the question).

If you've ever seen Finding Nemo you'll remember that Nemo was being kept in Australia so it was fun for the boys to learn more about The Great Barrier Reef and Sydney along with all the other great history and facts of Australia.

I think next time I will offer to let the boys look at the book ahead of time and see how much the can remember when it's time for our "trip". I like to keep the destination a mystery but I'm not certain they soak in as much information as I would like for them too. Here's hoping that Mom's top secret mission of having fun while learning doesn't get found out too soon.

The Presidential Parade

Every once in a while I get a great itch to homeschool again but that's just not happening right now. Since The Thinker was complaining not too long ago that he doesn't have a formal history lesson in school (I know, right?) and the inaugaration of our 42nd President (but 43rd Presidency) I thought it would be fun to learn one president per week over the next year.

This week we started George Washington but I introduced the unit to the boys by reading What Presidents Are Made Of. It was a clever little book with fresh and fun illustrations, the kind you can look at three times and find new things each time. And now it will be fun to remind the boys of the little quirks talked about in the book as we discuss each of the presidents featured. Not every president is talked about but it is a neat way to introduce the everyday human side of our presidents.

Sayonara 2008

Hello 2009! I don't know about you all but I am SO ready to see what God has in store for my family this year. I am not making any resolutions because I cannot do anything on my own apart from God. I am opening ALL my closets and inviting Him in to the deep corners. What revelations are you looking for this year?