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Sunday, March 23, 2008Free Stuff Is GoodFor my homeschooling readers who also happen to blog: This is your chance to win a free Rosetta Stone language program. We use Rosetta Stone for Latin. It's fabulous. So fabulous that we're planning on purchasing the French version for this fall (Maggie's passionate to learn French -- how cool is that?). Read below, follow the links, enter if you will. I'm hoping this is my lucky week: Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian. This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff! Labels: fun, homeschooling Monday, January 14, 2008There's Weird, And Then There's......Barbie giving a weather forecast.  Yes, one of my daughters took this picture. No, I haven't any further explanation. You're on your own. Thursday, December 20, 2007Amazed By My Own SonAnd no, I'm not taking any credit. His "engineering mind" -- or whatever the heck it is -- is well beyond my comprehension. He's completely self-taught, too, so I can't even claim any kudos from a homeschooling standpoint. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. The kid's got the makings of a successful entrepreneur at the ripe ol' age of fifteen! And his balloons are pretty cool, too. Tuesday, November 13, 2007Too Easily AmusedWhile driving with my husband and daughter to an early appointment this morning, I happened upon a van, sitting at a red light, that sported the name "Twin Brothers Electric." The name itself wouldn't have caught my eye -- it was the incredibly dorky logo that went along with it; namely, two lightbulbs, side by side, with identical, goofy faces on them. "Look at that!" I tend to sneer too quickly at less-than-clever things, which isn't a good example to set for my impressionable, way-too-much-like-her-mother daughter. "Is that dorky or what?" Maggie agreed that the lightbulbs were dorky. I rambled on about the dorky lightbulbs and the fact that I'd never noticed a vehicle advertising "Twin Brothers Electric" before, despite the fact that it was a local company. Eric was less than interested in my early-morning diatribe, but on I went -- until it occurred to me that there might be an actual reason for the company's name. So as we pulled out and drove by the still-waiting van, I craned my neck and squinted my eyes to get a good look at the people sitting behind the front windshield. There were two identical men inside the truck. No, I'm serious. "Twin Brothers Electric" really is what it claims to be. The brothers in question were as alike as the dorky lightbulbs painted on the outside of their van. It was a weird moment. I gasped. I shrieked. I exclaimed with uninhibited delight, "Ohmygosh they really are twins! They're identical! I mean, they're identical!" I laughed like an easily amused toddler. Then, expecting him to share my glee, I turned to Eric, whose eyebrow was raised in a distinctive, "Do I need to ask you to calm down again?" attitude. How could he not find this even remotely funny? Am I that sleep deprived? "Maggie, you saw them, didn't you?" I wanted to make sure I hadn't dozed off and dreamed up the whole thing. "Yes, I saw them, Mommy." She wasn't laughing much, either. In fact, I think I was simply hearing sympathetic chuckles. Honestly. What were the odds of noting the silly company name and then discovering identical twins driving the van? It's me, isn't it? Yeah, it must be me. I'm way shorter on sleep than I'd like to admit. Humor me, will you? Tell me how amusing/unusual/interesting/fill-in-the-blank it is to discover twin brothers driving a van advertising electrical work by "Twin Brothers." Because I'm still not over it. I mean, twin brothers inside a "Twin Brothers" van! Ya know? Okay. Never mind. My next blog post will be about something slightly more intelligent. I promise. Tuesday, October 23, 2007Boehme HeadlinesLook at me! I'm chipper. I'm lucid. I'm stringing more than two words together at a time. Why? Because.... Molly is sleeping through the night! Sure, she still has her little "I'm awake but I don't really want to be" crying spells around 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, but she gets herself back to sleep. Today she didn't wake up again until 7:00, which is her ideal Wake Up Time. And she dropped her 3 am nursing three nights ago. No, we're not just "lucky," and yes, she is an angel -- but the reason she's doing so well is the tried-and-true success of Parent Directed Feeding (think Babywise). My little dolly is happy, growing fat, and sleeping when she's supposed to sleep. And oh! Her wake times are astounding. Alert, pleasant, smiling at everyone. Delight personified. Story Number Two: My husband was on the news on Sunday night. I'd gush about how darn cute he looks with those inane bubbles floating behind him, but I'll let you judge for yourself. Remember, Eric's the one squinting in front of the bubbles. I make no claims on the other gentlemen. That's it, really. A sleeping baby and a broadcast husband. It doesn't take much to make me crow a bit. Before you know it, I'll be blogging regularly again. Thank you to my faithful readers who keep checking in every day (yes, I'm watching you!). I promise there will be more to read soon. I promise! Friday, October 12, 2007Luke-Warm Mommy BloggerThat's about all I can muster these days. There isn't much that feels "hot" about being postpartum, unless you include sweat-soaked nursing bras and a nursery that basks in the late-afternoon sun. Tepid though I may feel, someone has been kind enough to nominate this blog for the Blogger's Choice award of Hottest Mommy Blogger. So if you love me -- or if you're just in the mood to be a suck-up - please take a moment to register over at Blogger's Choice and cast your vote for The Write Way Home. I've even got a pretty button over in my sidebar to accentuate the point. So despite the fact that I'm nursing round the clock, catching spit-up on my shoulder, desperately needing a haircut, and am still eight pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight, somebody thinks I'm a "hot mommy blogger." Whew! That's a lot to live up to. I may have to shave my legs or something. And now I'm off to make some turkey barbecue, which I suppose falls under the "hot" category, since I'll be cooking it. Happy weekend, all! Friday, September 28, 2007And the Genetic Link Is VerifiedMy mother bakes wondrous things: Christmas Nut Tussies, Rhubarb Pie, Poppy Seed Roll, Zucchini Bread. She arrived on Sunday evening, fresh from the airport, bearing a loaf of homemade, pre-sliced zucchini bread, which our family absorbed into its various digestive systems within minutes. So Mom graciously announced that she would bake two fresh loaves of zucchini bread as soon as we picked up the necessary ingredients. Two days later, I happened upon my mother in the kitchen, stirring a congealed mass in my lime green plastic bowl, her face reflecting consternation. "What's wrong, Mom?" "Ohhhhhhhhh." (That was a Class One whine.) "This didn't get right. This is supposed to be thin. I pour this stuff into the pans. But this! This is..." She lifted the spoon. The brownish stuff in the bowl in no way resembled a thin, pourable batter. It looked more like a dough ball bathed in oily slime. "I think maybe it's your flour," Mom continued. "When I first looked at it, I thought, this isn't as silky as it should be." Silky? "Uh, Mom, it's just flour. Are you sure you measured everything right?" "Yes, I measured everything right!" Mom's tone was only slightly defensive. "Maybe it's the humidity. Maybe it just makes the flour, you know, flat." Flat? "Well, is there something missing from the recipe? Something you didn't copy?" "This is my original recipe! I've gone over and over it. Maybe it's the sugar. I couldn't find that other sugar..." "What did you use?" "It was in here." She sidled up to the pantry door and began to peruse my haphazard collection of Tupperware containers. "This one. I think." She handed me an empty container. I bent my face to it and sniffed. "This smells like rice," I said. "It wasn't rice! I know what rice looks like!" She grabbed another container. "Here. This one." She swiped her finger over a slight, crystalline residue on the bottom of the container and licked it. "See? Sugar." She offered me a taste, which I declined. There was no telling what had actually been stored in said container -- or when. I didn't keep my current sugar supply in there. "I don't know what to tell you, Mom." Actually, I wanted to tell her that she had obviously made a big boo-boo, and it wasn't the fault of my flat, non-silky flour or mysterious sugar supply. But I had no answers for her, so I left the kitchen in the hope that everything would turn out all right in the end. Later, I sauntered downstairs, drawn by the delightful scent of cinnamon. Two golden loaves sat cooling on the kitchen counter. "So, did they turn out okay?" "Oh." Mom's expression was half disappointed, half sheepish. "Well, remember you said the container smelled like rice? Jonathan figured it out." She took a breath. "It wasn't actually rice rice. It was Cream of Rice." "You added Cream of Rice instead of sugar??" "Well, it looked just like sugar. It's white!" I wasn't sure if it was okay to laugh at this point. "Mom. Cream of Rice doesn't look anything like sugar." Nope. She insisted that the Cream of Rice did, indeed, look precisely like sugar. Which is why she added it to the bowl. And of course, the whole thing was my fault for not keeping my sugar in a well-marked container in the first place. I just never dreamed someone would try to sweeten a recipe with Cream of Rice. Otherwise I most certainly would have labeled my staples in bright red lettering: "FLOUR" and "SUGAR" and "CREAM OF RICE -- NOT TO BE USED TO SWEETEN ZUCCHINI BREAD." Yes, we tasted the bread. I had to spit mine into the garbage can. It was that bad. My dad, on the other hand, ate an entire slice. "MMM. It's not bad." The man's taste buds are dead. I swear. Naturally there have been a string of we-can't-let-this-one-die comments. You can't make a mistake like this in a household of snide people and expect to not be reminded hourly. We've offered my mom Cream of Rice for her tea; we've asked her to make another loaf of Zucchini/Cream of Rice bread; we've asked my dad to remember to pick up some more Cream of Rice at the grocery store. Poor Mom. Not really, though. She was kind enough, after all, to pass the genetic code for this kind of thing directly to me. I am allowed to laugh at her, you see, because it's like laughing at myself. And fortunately, my mom laughs, too. She finally did make two fresh loaves of zucchini bread this morning. Less than a minute after she'd popped them in the oven, I heard her moaning and lamenting to herself. "What happened, Mom?" "Ohhhhhhhh." (Another Class One whine.) "I forgot to add the zucchini." And so it goes... Tuesday, September 25, 2007To Be BluntLong time readers will be well aware of my son Spencer's penchant for blurting out whatever happens to be on his mind. No matter how bizarre. Or blunt. So he was happily chatting with his grandparents yesterday afternoon (who, by the way, are his "two best friends" and don't you forget it!). "When I'm a grown man," he said, "you're welcome to come and visit me." Pause. "If you're still alive." I clapped my hand over my mouth and left the room, leaving my parents to respond without my making choking noises in the background. My mom didn't miss a beat. "Well, sure. It would be a little hard to visit you if we weren't still alive!" Never a dull moment. Tuesday, August 28, 2007Just So You All Know......that there is still no baby OUTSIDE my womb, I am taking this opportunity to indulge in a little tag from my loving doula Nicole, who tagged me, no doubt, in order to give me something useful to do with my hands instead of wringing them over the fact that I've still not gone into labor. Wise woman, she is. So here goes. You know I'm not going to follow the "tag this many people" rule to the letter, so I'm asking you to post your name in my comment box if you decide to participate. Though I do have a few "must be taggeds" in mind... The rules: Post the rules before giving the facts. P layers start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag (hopefully) six people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog. The random facts/habits about me: 1. I have a small birthmark in the middle of my right forearm. When I was little, I sincerely thought that everybody had a small birthmark in the middle of their right forearms, just like everybody has a bellybutton. 2. As a child, I once got sick to my stomach after eating a disgustingly fluffy food product called "ambrosia," which consisted of cottage cheese, mandarin orange slices, crushed pineapple, jello, and pastel-colored miniature marshmallows. To this day, I will not eat raw marshmallows. They have to be toasted over an open fire or melted into a mug of hot cocoa. If they're raw, I gag on them. 3. My first grade music teacher was so impressed that I could sing the entire first verse of O, Come, All Ye Faithful in Latin that she brought me over to her fourth grade class and had me sing it in front of them. I'm sure they were all thrilled beyond belief. 4. In 1994, I had out-patient surgery to remove a cyst from my left breast. Though I had been given "happy forgetful drugs" for the surgery (instead of going under), I clearly remember the surgeon taking my face in both of his hands after the surgery was complete and saying, "You probably won't remember this, but it was benign." 5. During the first trimester of my fourth pregnancy, I had continual, 24-hour-a-day nausea -- the kind that feels like heavy-duty motion sickness. One night it was so bad that I was literally moaning in bed. Eric woke up, heard my moans, and rolled toward me, laying his hands on me and praying that the sick feeling would lift. I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning, the nausea was completely gone. It never came back. 6. My sister and I used to fill the upstairs bathtub with water, dump in a good quantity of our mom's blue-colored bath salts, and go "swimming" in our bathing suits. (Overflowing with creativity, we were.) Once, in the midst of our swim, one of the wooden shutters on the window by the tub came crashing down into the water. That one was a little hard to explain to Mom... 7. In college, I sang for two years in a twelve-voice chamber group that was hand-picked by our choir director. After having sung at a local church one Sunday afternoon, we were enjoying a pot-luck lunch with the members of the audience. An elderly woman sitting across from me smiled and said, "You look like Rosemary Clooney." Having never seen White Christmas, the only reference point I had was the gray-haired, beefy, smoker-voiced woman on the Coronet paper towels commercials ("Extra value is what you get...when you buy Co-ro-NET!"). I was highly offended. 8. While peeing in the high school girl's lavatory one day, I discovered some scrawling graffiti on the side of the stall that read, "Jill Schafer sucks cow balls." Highly upset, I ran to a friend and told her what I'd just read. My friend rolled her eyes and replied, "Well, that's really stupid. Cows don't have balls." And I'm tagging: Jamie, Wendy, Dave, Thomas, Ken, and any of the ladies from Hearts at Home who feel like playing! (Just leave a comment here letting me know that you're playing, and leave your eight facts over on the boards.) There. I've done something. Now it's back to waiting for contractions to begin... Thursday, August 16, 2007Announcing: The Big Guess-The-Birth-Day Contest!It wouldn't be half as fun if we didn't make a little game of it, right? So here's the skinny: If you want to play, please leave your guess in the comment box of this post. Don't post anonymously; use a screen name that will make you easily identifiable. Your guess must consist of two parts: The DATE of birth and the WEIGHT of the baby. We already know it's a girl. Judging criteria are as follow: Contest entries will be based FIRST on the date. If two or more entrees have the correct date, the winner will be the one with the closest WEIGHT. Getting the weight correct but the date wrong does not a winner make! You can add any other "guesses" you'd like, just for some fun conversation. However, the actual contest will be based solely on the above criteria. What's the PRIZE, you ask? It's a cool one! Jenn at The Virgin Bean will graciously supply the winner with a free Coffee Sampler, consisting of three, four-ounce samples of some of the most scrumptious, organic coffee beans you'll ever experience. (See the little red "X" to the right? That's supposed to be a logo for The Virgin Bean. We're still working on it. In the meantime, it's clickable, so head on over and check out their web site!) As far as making educated guesses? Anything goes. My "due date" is September 5. I'm not known for going late. My earliest baby came at 38 weeks. That's all I've got for you. Sweet Baby Girl will make her appearance when she's ready. Want to play? The contest begins now! Wednesday, June 13, 2007Tell Me a Story While I'm Away....It's true. The Write Way Home is going dark for two weeks while my family and I enjoy a much needed vacation. I hate inactive blogs, though...don't you? So rather than let my poor blog wither away to nothing, I thought it would be fun if you'd all contribute to a "you write the next part" story in the comments box. (Well, what did you expect -- Whisper Down the Alley? I mean, I'm a writer. Stories are what I do!) Jumping with glee? Oh, good! I'll start, and then you just keep it going in the comments box until I get back on July 1. Just imagine the possibilities! Just one request: Keep it clean. Weirdness allowed. (Dave is breathing a sigh of relief.) And, oh yes, naturally it's got to have a fantasy flavor. Much easier to break rules that way. I'll be back with beach stories and, if you're incredibly lucky, a pregnant photo or two. It all depends on whether or not the photos evoke the response, "You mean there was a beached whale at Cape May? No kidding!" So, here you go. Have fun, and I'll see you when I get back! A Group Story, happily authored by the Mad Commenters at The Write Way Home: Zane knew it wasn't an ordinary "thud," the kind that signaled something boring, like a book falling off a shelf or a carelessly slammed cabinet door. He knew because he didn't just hear the thud. He felt it. It was the same "inside his head" feeling that always accompanied the unexplainable. Like the music that came from the fire in his grandmother's hearth, or the eyes embedded in the craggy bark of the trees on the western edge of the forest that only he could see. And like every other time, Zane couldn't remain still. So he quietly folded back the rough blanket and slipped from his bed, careful not to step on the sleeping cat as he made his way across the floor. Monday, April 02, 2007I Write, Therefore I Need a MacBook ProWell, it's only fair. Eric has one. I think that he and "MacBoy" have a kind of symbiotic relationship going on. (Not that I really want to know.) I've got a good list of reasons why I need to have a MacBoy, too. Want to hear them? 1. MacBooks are the new "cool tool" for real writers. Seriously. Why, I'd fit right in. 2. Since much of my time with Eric is now spent with MacBoy on his lap and a glazed look in his eye, I would at least be able to IM him or something on my own MacBoy. It might foster a hint of real intimacy. Maybe. 3. I could write anywhere. The screened-in porch, McCreary's Pub, Starbucks, the beach, the toilet. Imagine my increased productivity. (I shouldn't have typed that last sentence after the word "toilet.") 4. Did I mention it's the new "cool tool" for real writers? 5. I wouldn't have to listen to Eric's silly rants about Why Bill Gates Is The Antichrist anymore. We'd be on the same team. Comrades. Fellow Mac-odians. 6. The glowing apple is really neat. So is the little light that snores when MacBoy is in standby mode. (You didn't know that MacBoy snores? Oh, what you've been missing.) 7. People would see me with my MacBoy in public places and automatically assume that I was a Real Author. I could practice smiling mysteriously while raising one eyebrow. 8. My children would stop favoring their father just to grab a turn on MacBoy. Anyway, it's not going to happen. Not this year, anyway. I'll have to keep plugging along on my e-machine-with-Sony-monitor. And I'll have to find some other way to get Eric's attention when he's idolizing his MacBoy instead of endlessly doting on his wife. I'll have to think of another (cheaper) way to be a Cool Writer. Or not. Friday, March 23, 2007A Friday Meme: ONE BOOKI know, I know, I don't "do" memes. But I really like Tarie, and this meme is LITERARY! So here goes (with thanks to Tarie for tagging me): 1. One book that changed your life Hmm. Well, God's Word has changed my life and continues to do so, but for the sake of this meme I will stick to fiction. I would have to say that it was probably Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz. Her books are the ones that propelled me into the world of fantasy novels. And since that's what I'm writing now, I guess that would be fairly significant. 2. One book you have read more than once Just ONE? Well, I'll have to choose Pride and Prejudice, then, since Jane Austen is my favorite author. But for the record -- I've read most of my favorites at least twice. I mean, that's what favorites are for, yes? 3. One book you would want on a desert island Assuming I'd feel like reading in that oppressive heat, it would have to be a one-volume edition of the entire Lord of the Rings. That would keep me busy for a good, long time while I waited to be rescued. 4. One book that made you laugh. Okay, now I'm breaking my own "fiction only" rule, but I'm going to have to say Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss. 5. One book that made you cry Well, I've mentioned this before, but I cry every time I read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey out loud to my children. Every time. 6. One book you wish had been written I wish that Jane Austen had lived long enough to complete Sanditon. I have read the novel as it was completed by another author, but it was horrible. It wasn't my Jane speaking. I would like to know how she would have fleshed out the book herself. 7. One book you wish had never been written Wow. There's an awful lot of stinky schlock out there for middle graders and young adults. I wish there were more quality children's authors, like Diana Wynne Jones and Kate Constable. 8. One book you are currently reading I'm reading (slowly but surely) Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. 9. One book you have been meaning to read I've never read Anne McCaffrey and feel as though I ought to, being a fantasy reader/writer and all. Except that, every time I go to Borders and start reading her jacket flaps, they don't draw me in. So I haven't begun. I've got some Dickens on my "to be read" list as well, but I have to be in a particular sort of mood to read Dickens. Okay, dear readers, it's your turn. I refuse to tag anyone, so here's my request: Take a few moments and answer the meme right here in the comment box! I look forward to reading your responses. Happy Weekend! |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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