The Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor is coming via UPS tomorrow. I feel like a geek, all excited about this thing. Maybe I’ll work it into our homeschooling.

We spent 4 great days away from home and the computer. I didn’t miss it at all, no withdrawals or anything! And I caught a fish at Lake Texoma (first time for real!). I took Justice in the Burbs with me so I’d start reading it (I’d been on a fiction kick and needed to get off). Now I’m about halfway through. I like that word - justice. I want to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.

Then Thanksgiving came and we got to enjoy my brother’s hospitality for the day. I played Guitar Hero for the first time on my nephew’s Wii (Hit Me With Your Best Shot was my selection because I know it soooo well, dating myself, I know!) and that was fun. My brother’s MIL brought a cranberry salad that was delish!

Got started on some Christmas shopping but there’s much more to go. *sigh* It’s hard being a person that doesn’t like shopping this time of year.

Today we played at Free Rice and increased our vocabularies. I think we played enough to get over 4,000 grains of rice donated. We’re seeing some repetition in the words (we’ve played a ton) but it’s still good.

It’s past my bedtime!

…it’s hard getting my 4 year old to wear his eye patch every day without messing with it. we get to do this until he turns 9.
…moving the computers out of the living room has been great - our 9 year old remarked at how big the living room is now.
…i need a notepad and pen by the bed so i can write down the stuff keeping me awake at night, the stuff i’m afraid i’ll forget to do the next day.
…a declutterer’s best friends include craigslist, freecycle and the local charity.
…i like my house more and more as we go through this process.
…having lunch with a couple of friends is fun.
…i miss the days where you could take your kids to the airport gate so you could watch planes pulling in and out and being loaded/unloaded while you waited for Daddy’s flight.
…we finished Boyhood and Beyond. Wow. It’s great. My four year old calls it Boys from Beyond, lol. My older boys are complaining that we’re going to read the next book called Created For Work. They don’t like the concept. lol again.
…we’re going camping for a few days before Thanksgiving. this only works because Thanksgiving is not at my house this year.
…i wonder why the wii is so hard to get ahold of. is it because it’s so much cheaper than xbox360 and ps3 and is in more demand because of that? it does look like fun.
…i need a tree service to come out.
…i hope the baby back ribs come out good… never made them before.

Hoping to get that learner’s permit this week - I wonder how long it will take at the driver license office? Every time I go there the lines are long for renewals. I love the interstate one in this comic!

Maybe it’s sad that a silly music video gave me a smile. Maybe I’m just really glad it’s Friday. Maybe I’m glad I never, I repeat never, ever wore leg warmers.

Here is “The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List” from Secular Homeschooling magazine. Sometimes, you get really tired of hearing some of this stuff. It was #7 that got me started on here… an impromptu quiz. #17 happens ALL the time.

The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List

1 Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is — and it is — it’s insulting to imply that we’re criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words “socialize” and “socialization” mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you’re talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we’ve got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don’t assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a “reality” show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You’re probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you’ve ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we’re religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn’t go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn’t have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don’t need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can’t teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there’s a reason I’m so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid’s only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he’d learn in school, please understand that you’re calling me an idiot. Don’t act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word “home” is right there in “homeschool,” we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word “school” is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we’re into the “school” side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don’t have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, “But what about the Prom?” Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don’t get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I’m one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don’t ask my kid if she wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, “Oh, I could never homeschool!” Even if you think it’s some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you’re horrified. One of these days, I won’t bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child’s teacher as well as her parent. I don’t see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he’s homeschooled. It’s not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she’s homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won’t get because they don’t go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here’s a thought: If you can’t say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

If the slick women’s magazine that comes to my mailbox every month is any indication, I don’t really fit in here. It’s mostly advertising, even some of the “articles” are advertising something. One of the articles this month is titled, “Are You Managing the Maid or is the Maid Managing YOU?” I don’t care if people have maids, but if this is representative of a problem in my area then I’m out of place.

There are many ads for different cosmetic procedures - skin, hair, dental, even plastic surgery. That’s probably also representative of my area, but not me. I’m not saying I’m content with my body but I’m not very willing to go under the knife to fix it. The ad for the spa for little girls bothers me. The focus on outward beauty starts young.

Most days I’d just throw the magazine directly in the trash can. I’m just in a mood today. Have a nice day.

Tomorrow is election day. There are 16 state propositions on the ballot, plus my town has a few items. What makes it hard is understanding what these propositions are saying. Do you have to be a lawyer or politician to know what this is all about? I have had to start reading voter guides to try to figure it out but I would rather just be able to understand it on my own. It really irks me!

So I braved the fireplace. First I had to open the flue - I used the end of the lighter to do that and 2 wasps/yellowjackets fell out onto the tile hearth and were squashed before they could take flight. I lit the fire (this is a time when gas logs are very nice) and noticed another one in the fire box so I held the lit lighter to him and he fell on the tile, too. He was bigger than his buddies so I grabbed a boot for him instead of using my flip-flopped foot. I could still hear buzzing in the firebox so I believe we’ll have a nice long fire today.

It’s 63° outside and I don’t need this extra heat in the house so I opened the windows in there, too. It’s hard to tell from the picture but a fire and open windows:

I imagine the cost of the gas for the fireplace is cheaper than paying a pro to get rid of them, right? And once I get over the heebie jeebies I’m going to feel much better!

We found this guy in the house at supper last night.

He was on the windowsill at the time. I told him we didn’t need any insurance but he stayed. We had to run errands and when we got home he was on the blinds like this. I looked at him, walked away and went about my business. Now and then I’d wonder how on earth I was going to get him off the blinds and out the door. I finally decided he wasn’t a threat and left him in peace for the night. This morning he wasn’t on the blinds any longer. I found him on the floor and decided to try to shoo him around the wall to the back door. It worked and there were no injuries to either party in the process.

Yesterday I killed a wasp - no shooing those guys! We already had one a couple of days ago. I believe I’ll need to fire up the fireplace to get rid of those. They seem to find their way down the chimney once a year.

And I still have the &#!% ants that I can’t get rid of. Grrrr.