DarjeelinGirl

in a backyard near me:

Noodle-Bearing Pirates vs Fisher Woman and the Cheerleader from Iowa.

That’s exactly what they call it!

AYIE mateys! Thanks to Josiah, there’s been a pirate invasion at my house. You aughtta hear Anna threaten to make me walk the plank when I say “no” to some of her requests. Who knew that fort could be so versatile?

Aaarrggh! It’s the Jolly Roger, ye smarmy varmint!

Usually yard work is the bane of my existence, but, boy, did we get a lot done today! Besides moving 15 wheel barrows full of black dirt off my driveway, I got the landscaping updated and reseeded. We still seem to get some leaking in J’s room whenever we have a hard driving rain - so wisdom and prayers would be appreciated on that one. Nonetheless, it sure will look nice when the crime scene tape comes down, don’t you think? My neighbors will be so proud of me when they see that pile of dirt gone!

After Josiah mowed the lawn, we tackled this nightmare:

Before:

It looked much worse in real life.

After:

TA DAA!

Moving that compost bin was interesting. It aint dirt yet, that’s fer sure…

Oh yeah, as long as I was out there with the camera, here’s a picture of the tree house that we had been praying for for a few years and then one day, my neighbor pops over and says friends from church are looking for a new home for their old wooden fort and would we like it? It’s kind of like the good alter-ego version of The Little Red Hen: friends of my neighbors gave to us, Dave and Connie Beckman hauled it for us, and Luke Bryant put it together for us:

Now we all can have sleep overs in it! Incidentally, God provided a piano for Zoe in much the same way last summer!

Zoe and Anna cleaned around that, as well as picked up fifty thousand twigs from the brush pile with me.

Finding satisfaction in my toil - this is a gift of God indeed. I may start to like yard work, yet!

It’s been a low-flow blogging week. I just realized that I have only 2 weeks until my classes start! That means finding all the models and preparing all the handouts, checklists, making sure I have enough notebook dividers and other supplies in stock for 265 students, blessing Sir Speedy with frequent orders, lesson plans, record keeping, etc, etc, for 11, maybe 12 or 13 classes.

And although I think I have all the books my kids will need for the year, and I have a master plan mapped out on the white board in the school room, the school room itself looks like a bomb blew up in it. Clean that up, get kids’ work organized, more checklists, nail down the schedule - independent work, together work, music class, piano lessons, Lego robotics club, guitar lessons?… We will be doing some trial runs this coming week with our new books and routines.

Furthermore, we are WAAAAAY off kilter on a summertime schedule. Read: go to bed when we get there; get up when we do… It’s like an extreme reaction to our strict and sometimes relentless schedule throughout the rest of the year. It also has to do with my natural rythym of 10am to 2am and/or the singlemom factor that by 10pm I’m usually too tired to care. So I realize that God has been asking me questions about the good in routines and discipline. And then this morning I read Ecclesiastes 3:

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

So I realized that fall is upon us and that has always meant big changes, but maybe this year the changes are happening deeper within. At this point, the schedule still looks a little daunting until next May which will probably mean less blogging among other things. But that’s ok. I really like my job, I love my kids, I am committed to homeschooling, and the Live and Present God makes everything beautiful in its time.

Someone got into her sister’s glitter make-up kit…

and I think she’s proud of it!

thanks to Chewymom:

YOU KNOW YOU’VE HAD TOO MUCH COFFEE WHEN…

You can type sixty words a minute…with your feet.

Instant coffee takes too long.

You chew on other people’s fingernails.

You answer the door…before people knock.

You sleep with your eyes open.

You go to sleep, just so you can wake up and smell the coffee.

You don’t even wait for the water to boil anymore.

You’re the employee of the month at Starbucks Caribou and you don’t even work there.

You lick your coffeepot clean.

You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee.

You’re so wired you pick up FM radio.

You have a picture of your coffee mug, on your coffee mug!

Click the image to buy it!

Born singin’ kum ba yaaaaah! That’s the way the song should have been sung to begin with - ala Bruce Springsteen.

Humor that is truly funny without being raunchy is hard to come by these days. Paul Aldrich’s Mock ‘n’ Roll is a gem and I am delighted that this cd is the focus of my first Mind and Media Review! Not since Ken Davis have I laughed so freely without having to guard my heart at the same time. Let’s face it, its hard to relax and enjoy yourself with your finger on the mute button - just in case. But the trouble with too much “Christian” comedy is that it’s simplistic and sometimes downright cheesy. Eschewing all cheddar, Aldrich goes straight for the edge (and some would say right over). Humor has a way of popping our bubbles of pride and there are no sacred cows with Aldrich - either inside or outside the Church. Gilligan’s PC Island and Denomination Blues are case in point.

Therefore, keep in mind that although his material is clean, it is not juvenile. I would caution that it is for families with teens, not for *all* ages. My kids are avid Gilligan’s Island fans, so of course, that was the track my kids (ages 6, 9, and 11) noticed right away. They will have to wait a few years to listen to it again, though, so that I don’t have to explain what a “lesbian and her wife” is before their time. Other topics include dating, marriage, transgender issues, other religions, therapy, Rogaine - all over their heads, but great fodder for any one familiar with America’s last 40 years and Time Life’s latest offer: Legends: Ultimate Rock Collection.

Consequently, Paul’s material will appeal to a variety of audiences, and not just church groups. Wild with the electric guitar, Aldrich revels in classic rock and vintage TV sitcoms. Some would have a problem with that, but I liked it. I’m tired of the Cheesianity that keeps Christians separated from the rest of the world in a way that shuts down any dialogue or deeper thought. Aldrich does a great job of finding the funny in a variety of venues, not just the “Christian” label. But he doesn’t do the “I’m ok, you’re ok” seeker sensitive crap either. Far from it. At the close of this cd, the whole point of the live performance was to challenge the audience (a church group in this case) to change - to grow up in Christ - not just “get saved and live happily ever after.”

With the cd, I also received a promotional dvd with a selection of live performance clips. He has got to be even funnier in person. Aldrich’s facial expressions had me in stitches. He does great impressions of Jimi Hendrix, Bono, and others. His parody of Adam Sandler is priceless. He even has appearances on Showtime and The Improv to his credit. Rumor has it, Paul Aldrich is coming to my backyard in September! See him live if ever you can, but until then, you can buy all his cds and dvds at www.paulaldrich.com!

Disclaimer: The cd and promotional dvd were given to me from Mind & Media as a gift from the publisher who donated the stuff so I could review it. Cool, huh?

You could be a reviewer, too! Just click the Mind and Media image for more information…

Who (except Jen, Jamie, Kari and Jessica) can tell me how I nearly died Saturday night?

Here are the clues:

my left arm:

my left ribs:

my left thigh:

my right arm outside:

my right arm inside:

my left toe:

the weapon:

the scene of the crime:

It would be riotously funny if it didn’t hurt so badly!

Garage sale tomorrow and Saturday.

Come one, come all! Help clear out the crap stuff from all the bluerites who moved this summer. All proceeds go to bluer.

UPDATE:

Garbaaaaajjjj sales are hard work, but these 2 gals, Jessica and Amy, and my neightbor Terri could make running the country seem easy:

Here’s what it looked like:

We had a steady trickle for 2 days - not quite as much as expected, but we still earned a nice bowl of change for bluer. The guys’ group can do it next year!

Here comes ZoZo.