Our Top Reasons to Homeschool

10. Great student teacher ratio.
9. No school shootings
8. Cleaning out the refrigerator can double as chemistry lab.
7. You don’t have to wear shoes!
6. If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you’re having a PTA meeting.
5. The teacher gets to kiss the principal in the faculty lounge and no one gossips.
4. You don’t have to fix lunch in the morning.
3. Children will be better adjusted if they don’t learn social skills from the street gangs.
2. No need for a pass to be in the halls or the restroom.

And the number one reason to homeschool is…

You get to go on a Disney Cruise right in the middle of the “school year!”

That’s right, folks. My in-laws are taking our family on a 7 day Disney Cruise to the Caribbean in early December. We are all so excited that we can barely contain ourselves. I just glance at my husband and he says, “Disney Cruise!” which sets me off on a happy dance. No, I won’t show you and yes, I’ll try not to hurt myself.

I see one of those expensive, custom-fit Land’s End swimsuits in my future. And since we’ll have just celebrated our 15th anniversary the week before the cruise, perhaps Philip will be surprising me with the fresh-water pearl necklace with Mickey Mouse pendant for our formal dinner night.

So if I seem more highly distractable than usual, you’ll know why. I’m busy planning our vacation…

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So did you hear what happened in Washington, DC on the 4th of July?

Our weather forecast was for scattered thunderstorms, but that itself was not cause for worry. It’s pretty much the forecast everyday during the summer, but it certainly doesn’t rain everyday. The day looked pretty decent in the morning. We hung up our flag, the kids rode their bikes, all was well. I made pasta salad for the party we’d being going to later. After lunch I put Bip down for a nap, Philip took Boo and Pumpkin Girl to the Freedom Fest on base. I snuck away from Bip and came downstairs. I happened to glance at our computer…ok, I was checking my email…and I saw that our Weather Channel alert button was blinking. Not good.

Turns out we were under a tornado watch until 10 pm! I checked the radar and it was clear, but still. I am terrified by tornadoes. I don’t like knowing that a day holds the potential for deadly destruction. I worry all day. Then the sky darkens with the approaching storm and my stomach gets in knots. The severe weather alert signals start sounding and I’m glued to the tv, watching the Super Cell of Death approaching. I watch the sky for signs it’s about to puke. I try to figure out where in my hastily built, WWII era, basement-less house I’m supposed to hide. Children? I have children? Sorry, it’s every coward for themselves.

I tend to panic during tornado watches. Tornado warnings? Let’s not go there.

By the time I met up with Philip and the children at our friends’ house, the sky had darkened and the radar was showing a couple of big red storm cells heading our way.

The other adults at the party were a little less concerned than I was, but were still monitoring the weather radio. By now a tornado warning had been issued for a county north of us and an even larger, angrier storm was coming at us.

By 5pm we decided to start grilling while we still had a grill before the storm arrived so that the kids (15 of them) could eat outside. By 5:45 a tornado warning had been issued for the country directly to the west of us, for a storm heading…East! And now the National Mall was being evacuated for the storms.

Evacuated - as in run for your lives, Big Killer Storm on the Way! OK, it was a little more orderly than that. Park police in golf carts telling people who’d staked their prime firework viewing spot hours ago to pack it up and move it out. People were put into 21 surrounding buildings to wait out the storm. They were anticipating letting people back on to the Mall by 7:30, if we weren’t all swept away to Oz, and have the fireworks display as scheduled.

As for me, I was quite anxious. Being around other, calmer adults helped. Listening to them tell their tornado horror stories didn’t help at all. Two different people separately suggested that perhaps I’d feel better with an amaretto slush.

Since everyone at the party was Catholic, we prayed a decade of the Rosary.

And then the approaching storm just sort of fell apart. It passed just north of us, hitting the abandoned Mall, but it was much smaller and we got only a few drops of rain. I’m telling you, prayers worked.

The rest of the evening passed without drama. We had a wonderful view of the fireworks from a grassy spot along the river, just 2 blocks from our house. We listened to the simulcast music on the radio and ooh and ahhed appropriately. The storm brought cooler temperatures and bit of a breeze. We returned to the party for round 3 of desserts and finally came home and put the kids to bed much too late.

Another Fourth of July not to be forgotten. I’m hoping next year will be far less stressful.

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Would you believe that we had two separate Scout events at the Washington Monument on Saturday?

Our day started off with a ride on the Metro. Any adventure that involves the Metro is a good one for our children. Not having to find parking in downtown DC is good thing for mom and dad. For our train obsessed toddler, seeing the Metro trains zoom in and out of the station was almost too good to be true. That we actually boarded one of these “choo-choos” was heavenly.

The Washington monument is about 3 blocks from the closest Metro station. Not bad for an adult or the one in the stroller, a little harder on the 6 year old who is prone to complaining anyway. Still, we made it to the base of the monument with 5 minutes to spare.

Our first event was a tour of the inside of the Washington Monument with Boo’s Cub Scout pack. They do have public tours, but it’s a hit or miss thing. You have to be inside the monument, looking through the windows and hear them announce a tour to get in on it. Or you can pre-arrange one for a group, like we did. Be warned though, this is not for the faint of knee. There are 897 steps inside, and we walked down every single one. So what’s the point of taking a tour down the stairs? Well for one, you can’t just walk down by yourself, you have to be escorted by a Park Ranger. Second, the inside is lined with memorial stones donated by all 50 states, many foreign countries and other private organizations. Some are very elaborate :

(from the Sultan of Turkey)

and some are very simple.

Actually, this one isn’t as simple as it appears. It is made of jade and is worth a 3 million dollars. It is the only memorial stone that you are allowed to touch. Because of vandalism like people carving their names into the stones or breaking off pieces of marble, you may not touch any of the other stones. Not even if you ask nicely.

My legs were getting a little quivery by the end of the tour, but I survived. This morning, though, my calves are quite sore.

By now the whole area was crawling with Girl Scouts arriving for the annual Sing-Along on the Mall. I was a little hesitant about attending this event. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like heat and humidity. I have about zero sense of adventure. But Pumpkin Girl wanted to go, plus this is Sing-Along was celebrating 95 years of Girl Scouts. And it was right here in Washington, DC. How could we pass up this opportunity? Plus, Pumpkin got a patch for her new Brownie uniform. And if you know any Girl Scouts, then you know it’s all about the patches!

We found ourselves a shady place to eat lunch. In the shade and with the wind, being outside was actually pleasant. Pumpkin got a chance to exchange swaps with the other Girl Scouts from around the country. I helped her choose a simple but cute little swap to make. I suspected that she would be hesitant to go up to girls and offer to swap, so we limited ourselves to making just 10 swaps. I thought that would be what she could handle and I didn’t want to end up with a whole bag of unused swaps. Turns out that other girls will happy to make the initial swap offer and we probably could have used another 10 or 20 more of our swaps. It was OK, though. Lots of the older girls offered her one of their swaps, even though she had run out of her own. I thought that really spoke well of the Girl Scouts as a group.

When the festivities got started we couldn’t hear from where we were sitting, so we moved out of the shade to be closer to the stage. We ended up sitting directly in front of the White House. I heard that they were expecting over 100,000 people that day. Seeing all the girls moving in groups toward the stage reminded me a little of Moses and the Exodus, without the unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Boo and Phil were still in their Boy Scout uniforms from the earlier tour. They got a lot of notice and waves from the Girl Scouts. Boo, being at that age where he’s not really sure about the whole girl thing, didn’t know what to do with all the attention. Once when he waved back, he set the whole gaggle of Girl Scouts giggling (say that three times fast). I overheard one of the moms say “He’s one in a million here today.”

The sun was intense and we only lasted about an hour until we needed to go home. Pumpkin was ok with that, being quite tired and hot herself. She got her patch, did the swap thing and sang for an hour - it was a good day. We only made it halfway back to the Metro station before we needed to buy some ice cold liquid refreshments. I was getting a headache and by the time we got home, I was also feeling nauseated. Doesn’t Philip know better than to let me go outside during the summer? No matter how much water I drink, I’m destined to become a heat casualty. If God had wanted me to be outside, he wouldn’t have provided me with all this indoor air conditioned goodness.

I’m doing better today, but my legs need motrin!

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My dear husband has been promising to take me back to Paris, France for going on 15 years now.  We went there for our honeymoon and I’ve always wanted to go back.  But you know how it goes, work, children, Michael’s craft stores and all the fun of the internet have gotten in the way.  This year, though, I’m insisting!  And I don’t even have to worry about airfare.  Check this out - and believe me, it’s worth the minute and a half it takes to do this:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Click on Maps
3. Click on Get Directions
4. Type in from Washington, DC to Paris, France
5. Check out line #21

I’m on my way!

(Hat tip to An Island Life)

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We took a somewhat impromptu trip to Mount Vernon on Thursday.  It was tentatively on the schedule, depending on what the weather did, then off again when the children misbehaved, then back on again when I decided to show them mercy because it was really my bad mood that caused me to cancel the trip.  Thursday morning dawned cool and clear, with chance of rain in the afternoon, and good moods and behavior all around, so we hit the road.

Here’s the children waiting with George and Martha. They are in their scout uniforms because I thought scouts are free during the school year.  Turns out that it was just in February.  They got a lot of attention wearing them.

On our way up to the mansion we met another homeschooling family that also uses Sonlight!  Phil was wearing our Sonlight backpack, so the other mom started talking to us.  They were visiting from Idaho. 

This is the mansion and the bowling green right in front.  Ol’ George sure knew how to live!   Below is his view of the Potomac from his back porch.  Very nice. 

Here are the children sitting on the back porch, enjoying the view.  They’re having a good time, really.

Washington added a cupola on the roof.  He would open the cupola’s windows in the summer to let the heat out.  I can’t imagine living here without air conditioning!  On top of the cupola is a weather vane made to look like a dove with a twig in it’s mouth.

To keep all the animals at Mount Vernon from getting too close to the mansion, Washington built a low wall into a hill.  It was better than a fence, because you couldn’t see it!  If you were playing on the lawn and didn’t know the wall was there, you might fall off of it and everyone would laugh.  This may be why these walls were called Ha-Ha walls.  Here are Pumpkin Girl and Boo about to fall off a Ha-Ha wall.

Here’s  Pumpkin Girl laying a flower on Washington’s grave.  She didn’t attract nearly as large of a crowd as President Bush did.

We stayed until lunch time and still didn’t get a chance to see everything.  We bought annual passes so we can go back as often as we like.

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Living in Washington, DC has given us such wonderful opportunities for family adventures. We have tried to take advantage of Federal holidays by visiting some of the sites. Our original plan for President’s Day this year was to go to the National Gallery of Art to look at the Renoir paintings. We’ve been studying Renoir, especially his works that are at the National Gallery. However, we heard that Mount Vernon was having free admission today, so we headed there instead.

Our plan was to arrive at about the time they opened at 9 am. We were just a little behind schedule and arrived about 9:20. Already the parking lots were full and we were being directed to overflow parking half a mile down the road where we could board a shuttle. We could see that there was a long line to get in. We do not like crowds and the thought of standing in line all day just didn’t fit with our idea of fun. Plus, it was about 20 degrees and a good portion of Mount Vernon is outside. So we kept driving by the overflow lots and back to DC.

We decided to return to our original plan of visiting the National Gallery. We decided to take a risk and not stop at our house for our GPS or directions. We had a general idea of where we wanted to be so drove on. We found great parking right across the street from the Gallery. Even with that short walk we were practically frozen and very, very glad to have chosen an indoor activity for the day.

The National Gallery is a true gem and is very beautiful inside. Lots of fountains and gardens and places to sit and enjoy life. We were really happy to find these Renoirs, copies of which are hanging in our dining room.

I was also excited to get a preview of the Monets and Mary Cassatts and even a Raphael that we’ll be studying in upcoming months. I deliberately chose these artists and their works knowing we could see them in person at the National Gallery.

We had lunch at the Cascade Cafe, right there in the museum, with a view of their indoor waterfall. We’ve eaten there before, at Pumpkin Girl’s request. After lunch I had wanted to see an exhibit on Paris, but the museum had been overheated and stuffy and I was developing a migraine. I really wanted fresh air, so we left and went to look for the outdoor skating rink.

A part of the outdoor sculpture garden at the National Gallery is turned into skating rink during the winter. None of us skate, but the children enjoyed watching everyone skating.

We also enjoyed the sculptures.

This one, called “Typewriter Eraser” needed a bit of explanation that started with, “Back in Grandpa’s day…”

We arrived home to the dripping of the snow and ice melting. Bip had fallen asleep and my headache was terrible. He and I slept for 2 hours, then I slept another hour and by 5:30 my headache had subsided. I think it’s time that I go see a doctor for these headaches. I’m pretty sure they are migraines.

But we had a great day overall. We have rain in the forecast which will hopefully get rid of this dangerous ice.

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So what do you suppose is right in the center of one of the world’s most secure building?

A secret entrance to a tunnel? An ultra secure briefing facility? A fall out shelter? Jimmy Hoffa?

Would it surprise you to know that right in the center of the Pentagon, the worldwide command and control center for the United States Armed Forces is…a hot dog stand?

It’s true!

From a DefenseLink News Article:

“Rumor has it that
during the Cold War the Russians never had any less than two missiles
aimed at this hot dog stand,” Brett Eaton, an information and
communications officer for Washington Headquarters Services, said while
standing in front of the building. “They thought this was the
Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a
large fortress built around this hot dog stand.”

Reportedly, by using satellite imagery, the Soviets could see groups of
U.S. military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about
the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance
to an underground bunker. “They (Soviets) thought the officers were
going to get their top secret briefings in a protected area, but really
they were just going to get lunch,” Eaton said with a chuckle.

Well, this hot dog stand has not been used for a few years and it’s days are numbered. It’s being replaced with a new eatery that will have indoor seating and restrooms and serve breakfast and lunch. It’s scheduled to open in September. (I’m hoping I can finally get my husband to give me a tour of the Pentagon and we can have lunch there.)

You’ll be happy to know that the owl that perches atop the hot dog stand to ward off birds will be placed on the new building.

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If you are in the Washington, DC area, let me give 10 thumbs up to the Festival of Lights at Watkins Regional Park in Maryland.  For $5 a car, the entire family is treated to a wonderful display of holiday lights.  Everyone in our car enjoyed it, thus the 10 thumbs up, even Nicholas, who squealed in delight the whole time.  It took us about 30 minutes to drive through the whole thing and about another 30 minutes to get home, just inside the District.  The Festival goes through January 1st and is free on Christmas Day.  If you’re up for a drive, this is a don’t miss!  Looks like this is going to become an family tradion while we live here.

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So which pictures do you want to see first, Disneyland or our damaged house? How about the fun stuff first.

Our Disneyland trip was a great one, despite everything. We went all out this year and got a suite at the Disneyland Hotel. The extra expense was well worth the convenience of being right there to return as needed, being able to have our souvenirs sent to our room, and the chance to swim in the Peter Pan themed pool, complete with pirate ship. This was the view from our room.

Now that Boo is 8, he was able to go on many rides by himself. He was most excited about solo-ing on Dumbo. He also rode alone on the Gadget Coaster in Toon Town and in a moment of parental lapse of judgment, I let him ride alone on Big Thunder Mountain. We all love Big Thunder Mountain, but I haven’t ridden it in years because I have been pregnant each of the previous 3 Disneyland trips. So I was really excited to ride this time and Phil stayed back with Bip. I must have been overcome with anticipation when the attendant asked us if we wanted 2 cars. I said yes and Boo climbed into the car in front of me and Pumpkin Girl. Then it started to dawn on me that I had just let my first born son sit by himself on a roller coaster with just some bar holding him in. No seat belt, so safety helmet, no 5 point harness. He’s buckled in more safely into our minivan! And while he is indeed old enough to ride alone, he’s really tiny and likely to slip right out of the “safety” bar and go flying off. All these thoughts went whipping through my head in the split second before our train started going. My enjoyment of the ride was extremely deminished by worrying about Boo. Every time we slowed down, I would lean forward and beg him to hold on. He’s fine of course. Me, not so much.

The rest of the trip was blissfully uneventful. Besides the whole house flooding thing. Pumpkin got an opportunity to meet several of her favorite princesses. This is my very favorite picture of her having a heart to heart talk with Jasmine.

Jasmine told her that she was a very pretty princess. I think she walked on clouds for the rest of the day. It was well worth the 40 minute wait, complete with an eye-rolling, bored-out-of-his-mind older brother.

Boo got to meet several of his Disney favorites, too.

Bip really enjoyed seeing all the sites. He leaned forward in the stroller and pointed to all the things he liked . Sometimes, though, the expression on his face clearly said, “Does my Nana know I’m here?”

He didn’t enjoy the YoHo-ing Pirates as much as Boo did at the same age. He squeezed Phil tightly every time it got dark or he got nervous. Unfortunately, It’s a Small World was getting a Christmas make-over while we were there and was closed.

I think Bip would have liked it.

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We are back from a great Disneyland vacation! Pictures and details will follow soon.  Sadly, we got a call from a neighbor while we were gone that our house had flooded and was damaged.  We finished out our vacation and came home to see the damage.  We’re now in the process of moving into another house and trying to assess the damage.  Most of our personal property is fine, some papers and books are a total loss, but nothing important like pictures, scrapbooks or Longaberger baskets.  So while we’re dealing with having to unpack our whole house just in time for the holidays, I may not be able to blog as much as before.  In fact, this is the first time I’ve even powered up our computer since we left.

All of our house is packed up and waiting to be moved into the new house, which will occur Monday and Tuesday.  We’ll work Wednesday at getting the bedrooms suitable to move in and hopefully be out of our hotel on Thursday.  We’ve already ordered our Thanksgiving dinner from the Officer’s Club on base, so we’ll be over-stuffed as usual this year, in spite of the circumstances.

On top of all this, I’m fighting a cold and Nicholas is cutting two molars.  I’m little tired and worn out, but ok.

Did you hear on the news about a cruise ship having 700 people come down with some virus?  My parents were on that ship!  My dad got sick and was quarantined, but it sounds like they are ok, too.

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