Well, I seem to be falling into a pattern of only blogging once a week. Honestly, there really isn't much interesting to say lately.  KJ and I got back into a regular routine of schoolwork this week after Columbus Day, having people over, and going to the State Fair last week  We didn't have any field trips with the homeschool group since they were going biking and KJ's asthma has been acting up.

 

Waco has a "One Book, One Waco" reading program where they pick one adult selection and one juvenile selection in the hopes that everyone will read the same back and go to discussion groups.  I picked up the juvenile selection, The Breadwinner, for KJ, but it ended up being our read-aloud for the week instead.  (The read-aloud I had originally picked was a good book, but terrible for reading-aloud.)  In short, the story takes place in Afghanistan about a year after the Taliban has taken over.  An 11 year old girl, Parvana,  has to cut her hair and dress as a boy so she can go out into the market to earn a living for her family.  Her father has been thrown in prison, her two younger siblings are too young, and her older sister and mother have to wear burquas and can't leave the house without a male escort. KJ absolutely loved the book and went to the discussion group on Thursday night, which he also loved!  Only two other children attended in addition to the libarary facilitator, but he said they had a great discussion.  The mother of one of the girls also came to talk with the children.  She was from Afghanistan and had left just before the Taliban came into power.  Overall, I'm very happy with the understanding that KJ gained from reading the book.  At one point during our reading, he made some comment about how he was glad that was a long time ago, and was shocked when I explained that the story only took place about 8 years ago.  There are two more books in the series which I picked up yesterday and KJ is ready to start reading.  One note though...it really isn't appropriate for younger children.  The violence while true to the time period, is a bit much for anyone younger than 3rd or 4th grade.

 

KJ had to change to a new horse this week.  His usual horse, Mercedes, is having back problems and is under chiropractic care for the next few months.  His new horse is a beautiful mare named Sugar.  I'll make sure to get pictures next week.  KJ has his hands full with her though.  Mercedes did what you wanted if you just thought about it.  Sugar will only perform correctly if the rider does everything exactly right and like KJ, she is a bit lazy.

 

First, before I forget; Dy, I don't know if the vet would euthanize a chicken or not.  I just assumed that he would treat it like any other bird.  Neither David nor I could just chop its head off...we're weinies.  Anyway, said chicken is doing fine except for walking like it has a peg leg so I don't have to worry about it for now.

 

We ended up not going to the State Fair until Friday, but we had so much fun.  I particularly wanted to see "Dominique and His Flying Cats," but it ended up being a little lame.  The online description had me thinking of cats in tutus walking the highwire, being shot out of pretend cannons, flying on the trapeez, (I was wondering how they would hang on, though)...basically a cat circus.  Well, it wasn't like that at all, and yes, I can't imagine how hard it must be to train a cat; though our three have US well-trained.  The cats jumped through some rings,  walked across a bar, and leaped from stool to stool.  We all LOVED the Kobushi drummers, the TXU Energy Extravaganza, and the fair food.

 

Actually, I wasn't sure that we were going to make it to the fair at all on Friday.  Here is what was supposed to happen.  I drop David at work by 7:00, pick up KJ from his dad's by 8:00, drop KJ at co-op so he could attend his first two classes at 8:30, run to the bank for some money, take my car to Discount Tire for a rotation and balance at 9:00, pick KJ back up from co-op and meet the Tupperware lady with one last payment from my party at 10:45, pick David up from work at 11:30, head through a drive-thru and on to Dallas so we could get to the fair about 1:45.

 

What actually happened:  I dropped David at work at 6:30, remembered that I forgot to feed the chickens so returned home at 7:00 to take care of them, picked up KJ at 8:00, dropped at co-op at 8:30, bank run, and Discount Tire. (so far so good).  I had a pleasant surprise at the tire place when they said that they weren't going to charge me for the balance/rotation in the hopes that I would buy tires from them in the future.  15 minutes later, I was told that I had nails in both of my right tires, both in the sidewall and couldn't be fixed.  I had not had a flat yet though.  Hmmm, two new tires, well aside from the fact that the money wasn't planned for...I only had $50 (balance/rotation and gas money) on me.  David had the checkbook and credit card with him which of course, he couldn't bring me because I took him to work.  They put some sealant in the tires and reinflated them and I left to go get KJ and meet the Tupperware lady.  I got David from work as planned, but we returned home to discuss whether or not our budget could handle fair expenses AND new tires, switch cars, and eat.  We finally got off at 1:00, but hit some heavy traffic and didn't arrive at the fair until 3:30.

 

By the way, I had some friends over for a Fall lunch/Tupperware party on Thursday.  KJ had been looking forward to it all week as some of his friends would be there too.  The boys were so busy playing that we couldn't hardly get them to stop and eat.  He and I were both happily exhausted by the time everyone left.

 

On a sad note, KJ's voice is starting to change and is cracking. *sigh* I love that he is growing into a mature young man, but I hate it at the same time.  It seems like he was my baby last week and now he is half-grown.  He is starting to pull away a little and David says that I have to let him, but gosh darn-it, he was still so snuggly and clingy just a few months ago.  He was terrified to be independent and now he revels in his independence.  Yes, I know this means that I've done my job and he is growing up well, but I don't have to like it.

* I've been making up test batches of lotion this weekend and think I may finally have one that works.  It's a hair more oily than I prefer though so I might try changing the oil to water ratio.

 

* KJ and I stood in line for over an hour Monday to enter his drawings and K-Nex model in the county fair.  We all went to the fair last night to see if he won anything and he had three 2nd places and one 4th. :-)  Aside from the exhibit hall, the rest of the fair was terrible.  I'll upload pics of KJ's entries once we get them back.

 

* We're going to the State Fair next Tuesday so KJ and I can actually use our free tickets this time. (We never made it last year.)  David even managed to get off so he can go too.  None of us has ever been and we're looking forward to all the different shows.

 

* The chickens are doing MUCH better since we split them up.  The four that we moved out are filling out and seem much happier.  Unfortunately, the chicken that was limping appears to have very little use of that leg.  I don't think it's broken, more like paralyzed or nerve damage.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain and is eating okay so we'll just leave her alone for now.  Actually, I'm not going to leave her alone...she will get extra special treatment.  We're just not going to take her to the vet to be euthanized.  I love my chickens, but I can't justify spending lots of money to have chicken surgery.

 

*On Thursday, our homeschool group had a field trip to the museum to study ancient Egypt and weather.  KJ's dad, Kevin, was off and was able to attend also.  It's nice when he gets to see some of the things KJ participates in.

 

* Deep Thoughts by KJ*  (Wednesday morning)

     KJ: "Mom, if a person walked by you and said 'Hi' and then traveled back in time and walked by you again; would they have to say 'Hi' again or do they have a choice?"

     Me: "Ummm, well..."

     KJ:  "I mean, do you always have choices in life or does life sometimes choose for you?"

     Me:  "Well, philosophers have been arguing about free-will and predestination forever.  Some people believe that everything is a choice while others think that your life has already been decided where you think you're choosing, but it was really already chosen for you.  Some people believe that before they reincarnate, they get to see their entire life ahead of time.  There really isn't an answer.  It's not something that science can prove, just theories and opinions."

     KJ:  "Hmmm, I think that you have choices most of the time, but sometimes maybe your life will be a certain way no matter what choice you make."

     Me:  "Do you mean that sometimes you have to make a choice within the framework of your life, but that if you could go back in time, you could change some choices?"

     KJ:  "Yeah, I think so."

     Me:  thinking "Where DOES he come up with this stuff?"

 

* I went to a Well-Educated Mind book club on Tuesday evening.  The book for that month was The Scarlet Pimpernel.  I enjoyed most of the discussion about the book, but some of the views expressed were...disturbing, especially when next month's book was brought up.  It's Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis.  I knew most of the women there from The Well-Trained Mind monthly discussion group or from the homeschool group, however, there were two that I had seen once, but didn't really know and another that I hadn't seen in over a year.  Two of these ladies made many comments or shared stories that were so...elitist...prejudiced...I'm not sure how to describe it accurately.  They are fundamental Christians, which is fine of course, but they were very narrow-minded and prejudiced in their views of others; all the way from non-Christians to any Christian that did not totally agree with them.  One lady actually looked around a whispered the word "non-Christian" like it was a swear word.  She slammed the Mormans while the other complained about how PBS put religious people on a show that discussed the existance of God, but SHE knew that the producer must be a liberal and how SHE was sure that none of those religious people were Christians and certainly not born-again.  Of course, she doesn't know the names or religious affiliation of any of those people, but her perception is the only right one. I'm really not doing the discussion justice here, but suffice it to say that the general attitude was that WE'RE better than everyone else, because WE know the truth.  WE don't associate with those OTHERS.  Did I say anything? No.  Those who know me in real life know that I'm the queen on nonconfrontation. 

 

I have friends that are Morman, Pagan, Catholic, Unitarian, and Christian.  Some homeschool and some don't.  Some are conservative and some are liberal.  Some have a traditional, old-fashioned marriage where the wife is the homemaker who submits to her husband, the breadwinner; and some are fairly radical feminists.  Some slaughter their own meat and some are vegetarian.   They all bring their own points of view and fresh ideas to my life.  I wouldn't trade any of them to try and keep my social group to only those who agree with me.

  

Wow, this week has flown by!  There really hasn't been anything to blog about...everything has proceeded along smoothly.

 

We did have a chicken problem, though.  The Americana hens are getting picked on by the rooster and guineau.  At first, I thought it was just the usual pecking order stuff, but two of the hens are getting thinner, their tails are all raggedy, and one is limping from all the bullying.  We spent yesterday afternoon adding an extension to the coop so those four can be moved out, but they can all still see each other.  Oh!  I forgot the most important thing!  We have eggs!!!  Two of the New Hampshire Reds have started laying.