A Sad Day

Today is such a sad day for me and all the other fans of "The Andy Griffith Show." On the front page of my Sunday paper are the words, "Barney Dies." That is so far from the truth, though. Barney will never die. Don Knotts was the talent that brought him to life, but Barney will live forever. He was truly the best television character ever. It is really sad to watch the TV stars of today even try to live up to the standard set by people like Don Knotts (not to mention the beloved Lucille Ball.) The writers do not have the heart and soul for it, and the actors don't have the understanding. They are reduced to stupid insults and sex jokes that only cause the kind of uncomfortable laughter brought on by embarrassment.

I am just grateful that my family and I can still share a little bit of what was Mayberry. A huge part of that was the talent of Don Knotts.

Mayberry.com

In my mailbox this week...

I finally got the COOL thing I ordered a while back. It is a DVD set of "The Electric Company" episodes. I really don't know why this is so entertaining to me, but it is hilarious. Now it seems very low-tech and corny, but I'm sure they were as well-done as they could be back then. It was still PBS and all. You can see clips of it here You have to click "Audio and Video Clips." I guess you would had to have watched it back then to appreciate it. My kids are young enough that they find it very interesting. They really like the "Silent E" song. It starts out: "Who can turn a "can" into a "cane?" I think Peanut just likes it for the music, but Junior is fascinated by the fact that there is a letter that doesn't make a sound.

Scott, you need to get one of these!

Todd doesn't remember this show. At all. I don't know what the deal is! I think he watched plenty of TV as a kid, I guess not daytime TV. He was probably listening to the radio. Whenever we hear a song from way back in the early seventies, he'll say, "Remember when this song came out?" No, hon, I don't remember when "An Old Fashioned Love Song" came out. How can you remember '71 or '72? He probably was listening, though.

Going through my pantry

Today I got I burst of energy (or maybe it was insanity!) Or both. First, I just meant to go through our medicines because I knew some of them were probably expired. That went well, so I decided to go through my spices. I have heard that you can keep spices for a very long time, but I think they do lose some of their flavor. Anyway, I got on the Internet and tried to find out how long you are really supposed to keep them. McCormick's website says 3 to 4 years for whole spices and 2 to 3 years for ground spices. Then the question is, "How do you know how old they are?" They don't have a date on the bottle. But McCormick has a decoder on their webpage that you can type the code from the bottom of the bottle and it will tell you the date it was packaged. Pretty cool. I noticed that the newer bottles actually have an expiration date on them.

The weird thing is that they have a little blurb on there where they say if a bottle says "Baltimore, MD" on it, it is over 15 years old. Well, I had one of those bottles. But here's the thing: I remember buying it, and it was not 15 years ago! It could have been 8 years, maybe. But think of how long it must have sat on the store shelf! The little decoder gave me the date of 1981, but I know that can't be true, because the label says "Copyright 1985." But still!

Homeschool stuff in our state.

Yesterday I got an email from the Home School Legal Defense Association. This is a great organization - they do a lot to protect our rights to homeschool, this is the first thing they have sent along that I am not too sure about.
Here is what they have to say: (This is for the state of Oklahoma.)

Calls are needed immediately to stop Senate Bill 1690 which would prohibit 16 and 17-year-olds from obtaining a driver's license unless they first pass a state-approved math test. The bill is scheduled for a hearing today at 2:30 p.m. in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

A student would be required to pass either the state-wide 8th-grade math test, or another test approved by the State Department of Education. Homeschooled students would be at a tremendous disadvantage since they don't use the state's math curriculum and would have no control over the alternative test the Department of
Education might approve.

I can see part of their point. This looks like just another hoop to jump through to get a drivers license, and I wonder what 8th-grade math really has to do with being able to drive. But I can't see calling and identifying myself as a homeschool parent and then saying I was opposed to this. What does that say? That I'm afraid my kid will not be able to pass the math test and might not get a driver's license? At 16 or 17, they had better be able to do 8th-grade math! I am not sure that homeschooled students would be at a tremendous disadvantage.

Of course, I'm one of the people that doesn't think it is a terrible idea to raise the driving age to 18, so what do I know?

Peanut's Report

Monday at co-op, Peanut went to public speaking class. This is the first time she has gone. The theme was "Space," and she chose The Sun for her topic. I had her tell me some questions that she might have about the sun. Then we went online and looked up the answers. Now mind you, I read all this stuff to her and kind of pulled out the important parts. She asked some really good questions and this is what she came up with:

My talk is about the sun. I had some questions about the sun, so we wrote them down, and then tried to find the answers.


When was the sun created? The fourth day of creation.

God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. Genesis 1:16 – 19.

The sun is a star. We are just closer to it, so it looks bigger.


How do scientists study the sun if you’re not even supposed to look at it.

Scientists use a satellite called SOHO that orbits around the sun. It has telescopes and other things that help scientists study the sun.


What is the sun made of? Mostly hydrogen and helium.


Why do things orbit around the sun? The sun is so big that it is always pulling the planets around it. The reason they do not fall into the sun is because they are going so fast. They would go straight out into space, but the sun pulls them so they go around in a circle instead of straight.


How hot is the sun? 10,000 degrees. There are stars that are hotter than that, and stars that are not as hot.


Yay Peanut!! She did a great job. She spoke up nice and clear, which was no surprise from her. She had some visual aids as well, two balls out of Junior's toy box, but they did not turn out to be that helpful.

Today is Tuesday

It hasn't happened yet, but Peanut is about to ask me what day it is. I will tell her that it's Tuesday, and then this song will go through my head:

Today is Tuesday, you know what that means...
We're gonna have an extra special guest.
So get out the broom, sweep the place clean,
And dust off the mat so the welcome can be seen.
Roll out the carpet, strike up the band,
And give out with a "Hip Hooray! (Hip Hooray)
Wiggle your ears, like good Mouseketeers.
We're gonna present a guest today.
'Cause Tueday is guest star day!

The sad thing is, sometimes I will actually sing this song. That will throw the kids off like nothing else. "What does that mean, Mama?"

We had friends over for a little while yesterday.

Yesterday was a dreary day, lots of clouds, it was cold, plus we were getting ready for Dad's trip. Still, something happy for me in the midst of all that. Two words: Seed Catalogs! I just love those crazy things. I don't really order that much from them, but they really brighten up the days. I think I like the pictures of strawberries the best.

Jingle Bell Jukebox

This is cool: Jingle Bell Jukebox. I had never heard of it before. You can look up the Christmas song you want to hear and it will usually give you a choice of several people singing it. They don't have everything, but there's a lot on there.

Speaking of Christmas songs, I love listening to the radio when they are playing all Christmas music. They do that on one of our stations on the weekends. I noticed something disturbing this weekend, though. You know that song, "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon? (It's the one that starts, "So this is Christmas...") Well, I really don't like that song. It is way too preachy, and it's also not that good. I think radio stations feel they need to play it often, but I wish they wouldn't. Anyway, the chorus is sung by some kids and that's okay. There is always this one kid who cannot sing, but they leave him on there, and I've always thought that is cool. Except that for the first time, I realized "No, this is not a little kid, it is actually Yoko Ono." ugghhh. And she CAN'T sing. Not a lick! Listen to it sometime and you will see what I mean.

Laryngitis

I have a really bad case of laryngitis. I have never had it like this before. Usually I call it laryngitis when my voice sounds really bad or it hurts to talk. This time it is just gone. I mean, nothing is coming out. It doesn't hurt much. Doesn't even feel very scratchy. I think it is some kind of a virus, because my temp has just been barely above normal. I don't really feel bad, although I was pretty tired this afternoon. I cut Peanut's school day short and we watched an "educational" video while Junior was sleeping. And I managed to doze off during the video, which I don't usually do.

I have been whispering to the kids all day. It is very hard. When I want to say something to them, I always forget and try to talk, which doesn't work. Then I snap my fingers, like that is loud enough. Then I have to go get right up to their ear to talk to them.

Junior doesn't understand. Well, neither one of them do, but I think Peanut kind of gets it a little. She knew that I was hoarse on Sunday and Monday, and it got worse. I had not thought of explaining it, I just said my throat was scratchy. I guess I said something about losing my voice, because tonight Jr. said, "Did you lose your voice?" I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Well, where is it?" I almost thought he was teasing, but his face said he wasn't. Then he said, "Did it go down into your stomach?" Hee hee. Bless his heart. I tried to explain it, then I told Todd he better talk to him tonight. I am not sure he is hearing me that well. He also told me that someday he will lose his voice too. I wonder if he thinks I will never talk again?

I found some extra Tang Tea. It tastes good, but doesn't seem to help so much. I am trying some "ginger tea" which has a little more of a tingle to it. And I've taken a lot of vitamin C. I am hopeful that tomorrow will be better.

Peanut and her AWANA club thing...

Did you know yahoo will remind you to update your blog? It will. So it has been reminding me and I've been ignoring it, but I decided I ought to update today. We have not been doing anything new and different in school. Peanut went to Awana's tonight and finished up learning the books of the Old Testament. Pretty good for a little first grader. Yay Peanut! I taught her the "Let Us Sing the Books of Moses" song, I was pretty surprised that she was able to finish tonight. Next thing for her is to memorize the 23rd Psalm, which she learned last year, so she will just have to review.

Junior had to stay home tonight, though. He had a stuffy nose this morning, but acted like he felt fine. Then he woke up grumpy from his nap, which is normal, but this time he did not get better. He was just having a really hard time, but I had already promised his teacher that I would help with his class. So Peanut and I went to church and he and Dad stayed home. I figured he would have already gone to bed, we didn't get home until almost 9:00. Nope. When I walked in his was singing and giggling in the bathtub. He was acting like his old self! But he probably needed a Wednesday night break. Sometimes you just do.

New Drawings

Table with Flowers and Violets
This is a new drawing that Peanut did. After this, I gave her a nicer sketchbook so she can draw without the background lines. I notice today she is still drawing in a regular lined notebook, but I guess she will get used to it sooner or later.

The Big Bad Wolf
Here is another that she did in the same notebook, but I cleaned it up on the computer. I think this reminds me of something in a book. Maybe Maisy, but I can't remember. He looks a little bit crazy, anyway.