haiku tuesday

Kids watch Godzilla

It rains like winter outside

Greg is nearly home

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The bees were more absent than present this year in my garden. The bee keeper at the fair encouraged us to start our own hive. All bee allergies aside I might get into that with the amount of pumpkins I have lost.
  About two weeks ago I discovered the beautiful little baby pumpkins were turning orange and dying! All of them. Brilliant as I am, I turned to this stuff called blossom set that helps pollinate tomatoes.
 "Hey if this can help the tomatoes its sure to solve my problem!"
spray spray spray.
"Tomato...pumpkin, its all the same to the bees!"
 oh contraire. More shriveled on the vine. That's when I turned to google. It took me a few tries before I found the right information. Apparently, pumpkins have a male and a female flower. News to me. When I studied them more closely they did look different. I just thought the flowers without bumps on the bottom were good for nothing shoots that the confused pumpkin produced. Nope.Those are the boys. The ones with the rounded bulb underneath the flower are the girls.
Now I knew what to do, I had to BE the bee. Quick as I could change into my black leotard and striped yellow sweater, I buzzed into the garden and pollinated the life into them. No cotton swabs for me I just yanked the male pollen from the helpless flower and took care of business. A week later fat healthy baby pumpkins!
  After everything, I learned something new about plants and discovered the only place I should wear stretch pants is in the garden...or to an 80's retro night party.

reasons to not blog

As most of my readers have silently noticed, my blogging has been close to nil. Its hard to explain in a post.
  Several months ago my writing began to bug me. I started posting things that were not proof read or spell checked because if I took the time then all my evening would be shot. Writing crappy when I could do much better is annoying. So my posts dwindled and soured.
  All I could ever think of is what I do every day and lets be honest, stay at home moms do the same thing over and over again. Groundhogs day is nothing compared to me! I like my life, but if it were a book it wouldn't be on the best seller list.
  My kids have reached the age where telling cutsie stories about them online could get me into trouble later, just look A.A. Milne's son. Everything was fine till boarding school. I still share from time to time, but the blogosphere isn't privy to my kiddos personal quirks.
  School is starting soon and with it my ability to function outside of the box. I'm such an eclectic that, unless I focus intently on school, its feathers to the wind.
  Greg is working twice as much in order to go on his mission trip. He needs to get away every so often and refocus. After he gets back his view of life is so much better. With that said, Greg being gone for a whole month makes me want to turn on my auto pilot mode and just 'exist'. "Sorry kids, mommy is not here right now...but she can still cook you food." Yes, I am exaggerating!
  That's the skinny version of life. Plain and simple me. And yes the punctuation in this post is horrid..and yet you survived. I suppose I can too.
 
 

haiku

Spent the day sitting

A good book can not be rushed

Haiku Tuesday, fail

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practical joke

Yesterday my three kids did it again...they got me.
 I was in the kitchen making dinner and my daughter runs in followed shortly by the boys. The middle child says, " Mom you have to come see Ginger (the duck) because she is swimming in the pond all by herself!"  My Girl says, " yeah we put her there...she is swimming kind of funny." By now I'm thinking she was 'put' there vigorously and has suffered an irreversible injury. I stalked out the door hastily thinking through scenarios of how to finish it off when I realise they had put the plastic duck in the kiddo pool. They all three were SO pleased with themselves, literally roaring with laughter, that I couldn't spoil their fun. I played along enough for them to feel fully satisfied in their pranking ability and went back inside. Those funny kids, what would I do without them?

Hiaku

My sister challenged me to do a haiku every Tuesday. Do I remember how to write one? No! Fortunately wikipedia does that for me. Writing them takes me back to an episode of the Tick where an angry vengeful dolphin forces his previous trainers to write a Haiku while in a pool. He scolds them for copping out and counting syllables. Funny funny episode. This week might be a cop-out but hey I tried!

Three kids run and play

Mother finds some quiet time

school is coming fast

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To the fair

I was going to skip the fair this year but my parents wanted to take the kids. I said yes and we headed out. Only Mr. Steel has retained my fear of fair rides. He sucked it up and rode the kiddo roller coaster countering his looks of terror by an ocasional had wave. I could tell by the look on his face. Kudos to him for overcoming it. *flashback to me riding the carousel over and over and over again* My Girl is my husband all over again. She was screaming and waving her hands in the air. She wanted to ride one of the fast rides by herself, I offered to go with her and she asked, "well,... could you ride in a different seat?" I was thinking "Why don't I just NOT ride" but the carnie told me she had to have an adult. Dan hopped in too.  My girl looked longingly at other nauseating rides but she will just have to wait till she is tall enough to ride the zipper by herself or bring daddy along.

life in general

Things are fairly normal around here,..well as normal as life can be. Greg is working like crazy in order to take all the days off in October for his mission trip to Vanuatu.. I cant spell it without spell check. Fortunately for me last year my girl did geography, so at least I know where it is! I'm not looking forward to a month of Mr. Steel bemoaning his favorite parents absence or enduring daily home school drama without a let down. *sigh* With that said, I am more than happy Greg gets to go. He comes back a fuller person. Anyone who has to watch people suffer every day of work needs a chance to step back and take a bit of time off. 
  The last few weeks of this month are finding me deep in week by week planning of the next few months. Two kids in school is a bit of a stretch and I want to get it right. Stressed? A little? Excited? Ya that too. Hoping I somehow morph onto a super human/ super hero teacher in the next few weeks? OH YA.
 

harvest

Today we harvested all the potatoes (20lbs) Digging them out of the dirt is quite fun! On top of everything else we received the school supplies in the mail!!! Every year I am overwhelmed by quality of materials. This year was no different. The next few weeks I will be reviewing the materials so for once I can be ahead instead of keeping up.

of kids and gardens

One of the things about having a garden that makes it so fun is my kids being a part of it. They love to help out planting the seeds, watering and their most favorite harvesting. On occasion I have a very large blond rabbit 'help' me before things are ready, but of all the kids he has ended up being the best at making things grow. The bachelor buttons and a few other flowers have run their course so I pulled them only to find that they had reappeared in his garden spot. Today we pulled carrots up. Nothing to special, but the three kids stood around and rejoiced like it was new years. This is such a fun stage in their lives..for myself and for them.  I am so grateful for the time I have.

summer days slipping by

I love the summer, especially this one. The fact that we have seen the sun this year makes it all the better in my book. The days are starting to shorten again and I find myself realising that soon it will be fall and two out of three kids will be doing school. You don't understand that every time I think that a ginormous weight falls from the ceiling and hits me square in the back. Another year of being responsible for my children's education...okay okay NOT the sole person (k12 gives me a teacher/overseer) but its up to me to do the foot work...to me, this is scary. Teaching is a big deal not to mention fitting in housework and wifely type duties.
 This fall I have resolved to utilise our public library more. Last year we went once a week.This year I am planning  on knowing the curriculum enough to pre-order books to match what we are studying.
 OMSI is on my passes to buy list.  I am fairly tired of looking at the same animals, so no zoo pass. I also remembered release time at our local school. Once a week my two kids will attend good news club.
 This morning's e-mail notified me that k12 was shipping the kids' items! This excites me!! Homeschooling may suck all my free-time but I LOVE books. Especially new ones. I'm happy they are shipping so early in the year so I can have a good grasp on what to teach. Thomas is in kindergarten. His books are old hat. My girl starts second grade. That is uncharted territory.  I'm guessing it will be more geographical world history etc. Studying ancient civilizations was so fun last year. Why was it fun? Umm because history was my least favorite when I was young. Its not nearly as boring the second time around. So, I suppose I am saying hooray for a new school year...and OH NO soon my life will become singularly focused again. Enough chit chat for now. Have a great rest of the summer! Ps. I welcome any organisational tips from you schooling moms and grandmas out there!