Old Fashion Mom: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Saturday 8/31/13 new blog

I have started a new blog. it is www.oldfashionmom.com I am so glad to have people who like my blog and want to share our adventures. Please follow us to our new blog.

August 2013 Bible verse: "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Acts 20:24

Saturday 8/31/13 written Sunday 8/25/13 race track...

We went to the race track last night. We had just watched the movie "Seabiscuit". In this movie the jockeys are on the horses with saddles. At the race track by us the horses pull carts and the jockeys are in the carts. Cart is probably not the correct word. It took my kids awhile to get over the fact that the jockeys were in carts. We had just finished getting the kids school supplies, so we were late. They had already run two races. We sat outside at first. It was warmer that when William and I went. All of the picnic tables were taken so we stood at the railing. After a few races we went inside. We went over to where we could see the horses in the stalls and watched them for a while. Then we went upstairs for a while to watch. The front wall is all glass to watch the racing through. They also have TVs. We could see the names of the horses. We chose which horse we liked and talked about which horse had the coolest name. After a while the kids wanted to go back outside. We saw the last two races outside. Then we took Beth's friend home. It was a long day but we had fun.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Friday 8/30/13 written Sunday 8/25/13 ice skating...

We went ice skating yesterday. We haven't gone in a long time. William went with us. That was nice. He is older and doesn't go many places with us any more. We also took one of Beth's friends. We had a full car. When we got there, there were only about five other people going in. As time went on more people showed up. Open skate is for an hour and fifty minutes. After skating in a circle for that long with the same people it becomes like a neighborhood. We begin to know which people are there as families or groups, which little kids can skate so fast around everyone. We become like a new neighborhood. There together in a small area, but all too new to have spoken and introduced ourselves. We exist together, but separate for a while...then open skate is over. We can't say goodbye to them, we don't know them...we all go back to our own lives. The next time that we go it will be a different neighborhood.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Thursday 8/29/13 written Saturday 8/24/13 art museum and chop sticks...

Last night we went to the Art Museum. I really thought that it closed at ten. We were there for a half hour before it closed. We wanted to go to the glass blowing area, but we didn't make it over there. We saw a lot of the museum and took a lot of pictures.When we got back into the car Maggie said that she can't use the Art Museum as a cultural event because we have been there before. She could use the glass blowing because she hasn't turned it in as an event before. Maggie and I need to be sure that we are going to places that she can turn in. We had fun, but we really need to accomplish this goal. Tomorrow we are going to the horse races.

We haven't been to the art museum in a while. I didn't realize how much I missed it until we walked into the first gallery. We don't know anything about art. But it is fun to go and see all of the pictures and statues. When the kids were little we used to go every Friday. The museum is free and they had a lot going on on Fridays. There was a kid table where the kids could do crafts. Many times there was a play, and musical groups were there. Sometimes they were groups from high schools and sometimes it was more like an orchestra. They also had tours. I didn't take the kids on the tours, they were too young and would have been board. If I ever went alone I would go on the tour and then tell the kids the information the next time that we were there. We liked the plays the best. I didn't realize how much the museum filled me up until we walked in. I took a lot of pictures.

Outside of our libraries, there are a lot of free local papers. They have lists of what is happening in the area. I picked up a copy of all of them yesterday. They have a lot of choices for cultural events and volunteering. We need to get this done soon. Maggie has been in school for a week and the homework will be starting up soon.

Last week we ate dinner with chop sticks. We don't do this very often. It is fun now and then. We try to do this on nights when we are having stickey food, like something with cream soup on it. Stickey foods are easier for new chop stick users to pick up.

When the kids were little I had a list of skills that kids needed to learn . Eating with chop sticks was on the list. I used it as a guide in teaching my kids skills. I can't find my list and I can't find it on the internet. If anyone sees it on the internet, please let me know the link. I would love to go back and see if we have missed anything.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Wednesday 8/28/13 cats and school events...

We have two cats. Last year I was combing our cat Mandy and telling her how pretty she looked. She must have understood me. She started carrying the comb around in her mouth. She started taking all of the combs and putting them in her bed. Lately we have had to cut a few snarls out of her hair with the scissors. Now the scissors have disappeared. We wonder if she took them so that we won't cut her hair any more.

Maggie needs to go to some cultural events for school. It is a requirement. She also needs a certain number of volunteer hours each year. The theory behind the volunteering and cultural events is that in life, just like in school, people are busy. They should still make time to go to local events and to volunteer. During Maggie's first year at this school we did a few events and forgot about them. They never made onto the calendar. Before Christmas the kids got a reminder that half of their hours and events were due in a week. What a mess. Maggie had a lot of homework and didn't have time for this. We could find events, but there were no volunteer hours. Most places don't need help in the winter. It was a struggle. Now we write due dates on the calender and try to get everything done before the homework starts.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Tuesday 8/27/13 written Saturday 8/24/13 school...

Beth starts school next week. She has gotten her school supplies together and has chosen an outfit. At her school the freshmen start school a few days before the other kids. Then they can meet each other and get used to the school. When the full student body comes in they have a week long project to do before classes start on the second week. The kids are put into groups. Each group has a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. They need to build a working robot, set up a web page and do posters. The kids can get to know each other before classes start. This can be fun and frustrating. It depends on if all of the people in their group are willing to help.

Beth is not sure yet if she will need any more school supplies than she already has, so when we go shopping today she doesn't want anything. We can go next week to fill in the gaps.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday 8/26/13 written Saturday 8/24/13 youth group and mission trip...

The youth group at church kicked off their new year so the first week the parents came to hear about the plans for the year. They talked about the topic for the next year, introduced some of the parents who go to the youth group. I guess they would be called advisers. There are some retreats coming up too. Next summer there are two mission trips. The girls went last year and really enjoyed it. They did a Bible study in the morning and went to play grounds in the afternoon to play with the local kids. The girls talked a lot when they got home about how the kids in this area for whatever reason don't have a lot of adult interaction. The kids needed a lot of hugs and liked to be right next to the mission team. It made a big impression on the girls. We have started selling candy bars to pay for the trip. I am glad that the kids have a heart for missions.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday 8/25/13 written Saturday 8/24/13 school...

On Maggie's second day of school she saw a few people that she knew. She didn't tell me about seeing her friends with relief, but with happiness. She feels very secure and comfortable at school.

We went to the bookstore for her books on the second day of school. She couldn't wait until Friday, she had homework to do. When we go to the bookstore, we always have one of the staff help us find the books. It saves so much time, frustration and we get the correct books. The staff all had t-shirts that said "I speak textbook". It was cute and they were easy to spot. Besides the books Maggie also needed a clicker, which looks like a small TV controller that the kids use instead of raising their hands. And she needed safety goggles for chemistry.

We were lucky. All of her books were in stock. A friend of hers was there. She needed a book that had to be ordered from Amazon and the teacher do not give them the ISBN number. So she will not have the book right away and they were not sure that they were ordering the correct book. When I went to school the students could only buy new or used books. Now they can rent books or buy online books. The prices are about $100 and up. Most books are $200 and higher.

Maggie went home and started her homework.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Friday 8/23/13 Maggies first day...

Maggie had her first day of school. Her face was all lit up when she got into the car. She had enjoyed the day. The first teacher let the kids out 10 minutes early so that they could get to their next class. Her first class is math. It is all on the computer, but the students must still go to class to get participation points. Maggies second class is guitar. Maggie is mostly structured. Guitar class is not structured. She said that the syllabus didn't have the usual dates, the teachers said that they would fill it in as they went along. They talked the first day and didn't play their guitars.
Maggie didn't have any homework yet so she decided not to get any books that day. If it was possible, she wanted to go to the bookstore once and get everything. She didn't see anyone that she knew on that day.
August 2013 Bible verse: "But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Acts 20:24

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Thursday 8/22/13 getting ready for school...

The night before Maggie started school she spent a lot of time getting ready. She looked on the map of the campus to see which buildings her classes would be in. She found that on one day she has fifteen minutes to get all the way across the campus to the next class. We talked about the fastest way to get to this class. She packed her backpack and got her lunch ready. On Monday she has guitar class. We..ok I...spent a lot of time talking about not loosing the guitar. Please don't leave it in a room or leave it with a friend while you go get something etc... Keep your hand on it all of the time. She decided to make a sheet out that says which classes are on which days and the times and buildings. Looking at all of the individual papers for each class was confusing. Maggie was ready to go.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wednesday 8/21/13 written Tuesday 8.20.13 school has started...

Maggie started school last week. They had speakers and looked at their schedules. Maggie had English, chemistry, math and astronomy. The school made a change and the astronomy needed a lab. Maggie couldn't fit the available labs into her schedule. She called me to see if she could take guitar instead. I said ok, but pick some other classes as a back up in case the counselor says no to the guitar class. I kept thinking...Maggie keeps talking about the quibbage (spelling?) team at the school. Quibgage is the sport from the "Harry Potter" book where they fly around on broomsticks chasing balls around. I have this fear that she will sign for a quibbage class. About an hour later Maggie called back. She has the guitar class.

We need to find some baby pictures of Maggie for graduation. The schools like to have a slide show of the graduating classes baby pictures. It is good to have some notice this time. When William graduated we didn't know that he needed baby pictures. William came home on a Monday and said that he needed pictures. We were in the middle of trying to move and a lot of the house was packed to make the house look bigger. I had no idea which boxes the pictures were in. I asked William if we had some time before the school needed the pictures. He said yes, they didn't need to go in until Wednesday. We did find a lot of pictures that were not packed. Everything is so startling with the first child.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Monday 8/19/13 written Tuesday 8/13/13 school starting...

Tuesday 8.13.13 Maggie started school today. This school year really snuck up on us. Last night we went out and got school clothes before the girls went to youth group. While they were in youth group, I realized that we didn't have anything for their lunches and that we had not filled out any of their schools paperwork. I went shopping during youth group. When we got home, Maggie made her sandwiches and we signed all of the papers.

This morning we took Maggie's picture. We take the kids pictures the first and last day of school each year. Someday we can get these pictures together and get them into a frame. We usually pray over each child as they start the new year, but we forgot last night. I said a prayer for Maggie in the car this morning. We can say a prayer together tonight. We stand in a circle together and I say a prayer that God would watch over them and guide them through the year, and I ask if the kids would like to say anything. They all say no. Then we all say Amen.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday 8.18.13 written Monday 8.12.13 ping pong paddles and school starting...

We got ping pong paddles today. The kids play ping pong before chuch and have a great time. We can play ping pong at home now on the dining room table. Our dining room table used to be my grandparents. We have heard stories that they had it set up as a ping pong table for a while. I still can't picture a ping pong table at their house. But we have heard that story from more than one person.

Maggie starts school tomorrow. She will be senior. She is very excited. She has come a long way. When she was little, she refused to scoot, crawl and talk. When she was a few years old Maggie decided that she would be the moon when she grew up and refused to learn the alphabet because she said that she had looked up into the sky and had never seen a book up there for the moon to read. She has decided not to become the moon and has learned to read.

Maggie started the countdown for school to start about week ago. When she was in junior high she would do the countdown on how many days she had left in the year.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Saturday 8/17/13 written Monday 8/12/13 church youth group, McDonalds...

The girls are in youth group at church tonight. I think that they call it by another name. Maggie is with the group that she started with in the beginning, a year or two ago. She settled right in. Beth wandered for a long while and has now found a group. She is not in Maggie's group any longer, they split the group by grade. Beth said that this didn't bother her, she was happy with her group. Cheer, cheer, do the happy dance...now to get William plugged in. .

After youth group the kids go to the McDonald's. While waiting for them in the car...they need some time without me with them...I found that my Nook has the game chess on it. I am not very good at chess. I played part of a game. The computer has been taking all of my pieces, and when I try to make a move, it says 'wrong move' and puts my piece back. When the kids were young we had a computer game called 'Learn to lay chess with Fritz and Chester' it looks like I need to get a copy of that game. Maybe there is a copy on e-Bay

Friday, August 16, 2013

Friday 8/16/13 crocheting...

I have started crocheting again. It is very relaxing. I like to crochet Granny squares because they are mindless, I only need to be able to count to three as I make them. Then I can watch the kids and crochet at the same time. I can't read and watch the kids and I don't like sitting there doing nothing. Crocheting was a good solution. When the kids were young, we used to go outside and the kids would play on our street with their friends. I could crochet and watch them at the same time. Soon the kids wandered over to see what I was doing and we taught them to crochet too. It was a fun neighborhood. We all learned to crochet, sew, cook, plant flowers, make compost and so many other things. On our dead end street we had between twelve and twenty kids. They mostly got along. Almost everyone has moved away. We miss them. The people that have moved in don't have any kids

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Thursday 8/15/13 written Friday 8/2/13 homework...

Beth has been logging onto Google chrome. She went back to Outlook and the computer is working now. She has lost a lot of time on her math homework. Hopefully she can get it done.

If any readers have kids going to junior high soon, have them learn to type. This skill will help them so much. Most or all of their papers will need to be typed and learning to type in grade school without pressure is a lot easier than learning in junior high when the paper is due. William didn't need to type. I think that all of his papers could be hand written. Maggie didn't learn to type and struggled for a long time until she got good at typing. Beth has been texting for a long time and already knew the layout of the keyboard, so typing was easy for her.

I would like start posting every day...this is my goal. If I can write seven posts a week and load them in on Saturday, it should be ok. But...saying that now when summer is still in the air, school and homework and all of their clubs have not started yet is easy. I enjoy writing, but it isn't first on my list...so I will try. What I am going to do to help myself is to keep my Nook with me so that writing can be done whenever there is free time. I am also going to try to keep paper and pen with me to write down ideas.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Wednesday 8/14/13 written Thursday 8/1/13 math and minecraft...

Beth is doing math on the computer. She has until school starts to finish. The computer is starting to move slowly. As each day passes and the computer slows down more and the number of topics she must do per day grows. The stress is growing. The added problem is that it is summer and people want to play. It is difficult to keep up the pace. Also...after every ten hours of work, there is an assessment test. She is at the computer now.

Maggie has a new phone. She plays Minecraft. She builds houses in this game while zombies chase her. When she gets a second story built on a house she is safe from the zombies. The zombies can't climb ladders or stairs. The game can't be saved so she plays until the phone resets itself or the phone shuts off. She is so happy with this game.

We need to get Maggie's drivers permit renewed. She drove over the summer and was getting good at it. But we didn't drive enough that she could get her license. Maggie needs to get letters of reference from her teachers this year. She is a senior and will need them in future years for scholarship applications and for employment references. She needs to have them written on school letterhead.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Tuesday 8/13/13 written Saturday 8/3/13 cats and school...

The cats have started playing together. Sometimes it looks like playing, sometimes it looks like world war three. The little cat, Stella, likes to pounce onto the bigger cat, Mandy, and play tag with Mandy's tail. Mandy looks at Stella like...really, why can't you just take a nap. Stella is getting bigger. When we got her she fit into our hands. Now she spills out of our hands. She doesn't look like a kitten any more. She has a lot of energy, not as much as at first, but still a lot. Mandy has had to adapt to friends, wrestling and sharing her family. Most of the time she doesn't look happy about any of this. But she has started to play and wrestle with Stella.

The papers from the schools have started coming in, the emergency forms to fill out, the schedules and the school supply list. How can summer be almost over? We had a lot of plans that we never got to. When school starts we will have a few weeks before the large amounts of homework start...I hope. We can still do some of out summer projects. We need to go camping again, work on our family tree that is on the dining room wall, have game night...we like board games...go ice skating...there is so much that we want to do.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday 8/12/13 written Saturday 8/3/13 trees...

William cut down a pine tree in the back yard. He had gotten it from school on Arbor day in about third grade. We planted it in the yard and kept it watered. When we decided to move, we talked about the tree and decided to take it with us. It was only about a foot tall. About five years later we moved again. The tree hadn't grown much and it was now like the furniture, always there and mobile, so we dug it up again. The yard at this house is small, and we wrongly thought that the tree would stay small. It was planted by a fence and by the backyard gate. We have been here for about ten years. In the last two or three years the tree has grown to over fifteen feet tall. It is up on the fence and is blocking the gate. One day we decided that the tree needed to be cut down. There is now a big empty area of sunshine. William will cut it up. We have another pine tree in the back of the yard, but it must not get enough light. It is healthy, but only about a foot tall. William cut down a tree from behind our garage. They grow so close to the garage. Some shade the garage roof so that the roof doesn't dry after a rain. We cut the branches back about once a year. Others are right next to the garage and when the wind blows in the summer, the roof of the garage creeks as the tree sways in the wind. This tree has almost completely been cut down.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sunday 8/11/13 written 7/23/13 camping and fishing poles...

We are going to go camping with my sisters family. The planning has been fun. We haven't decided on a weekend or a place but we do want to pick a place that is between us. We would like to take fishing poles. It will be a new adventure. We haven't gone fishing since the kids were in grade school. The kids have started planning what they want to take.

We got fishing poles. Two of them need new lines. We have never put in a new line. Also we got hooks and bobbers. The poles are short, but we think that they are adult poles...I am not sure if it makes a difference if they are adult or child poles. We needed poles that would fit into the trunk of our car. The flee market didn't have any that came apart in the center, so we got shorter ones. We have a library book on repairing fishing poles on order. It should be here in a few days. I hope that it has directions on how to put a new line onto the pole.