7 Quick Takes: Volume 42

Well, another Friday has arrived.  Honestly, I'm not sure that's a good thing.  It's soccer season, so Friday just means it's my day to cattle prod the kids into getting ready for their games on Saturday.  By the time I close my eyes tonight, I will need to know the precise location of 6 pairs of soccer socks, 7 jerseys, four pairs of shorts, and two sets of team warm-ups.  Not to mention cleats, shin guards, and water bottles.  And since I'm not supposed to be doing things for the kids that they can do themselves (whatever), this Finding of Things will take forever.

Remember when Fridays were actually relaxing?  Yeah, neither do I.

But here's a relaxing thing to do!  Click over to Conversion Diary, our 7 Quick Takes host; click a few more times to peruse some of the other bloggers who are Quick Taking today, and by gosh -- leave a comment.  Comments are good.

And now...my takes.

~1~

I have been watching Little T "skip" for months now.  Except she hasn't actually been skipping, just doing some weird little shuffle and saying: "Mommy, watch me skip!"

So yesterday, I decided it was time to teach her to do the real thing.  Hand in hand, we mastered the art of the step-hop, step-hop, and then skipped around Sutter's Fort in Sacramento with her two sisters and a fun friend.  And you know what?  I remembered how much fun skipping is.  It's almost like flying, like dancing and flying, and it's very hard not to smile while you are doing it.

And then, today's Writer's Almanac featured the poem Skipping, by Robert Morgan.  I do not have permission to reprint it here, but Garrison Keillor does, so click over to WA's site to read it.  Discovering that poem in my inbox the day after my first skipping in many years and Little T's first true skipping ever was...serendipitous.  Enjoy the poem!

~2~

I wish my kids were more interested in the Greek and Roman roots of English words.  I know, that sounds geeky.  But I can't help it...I wish I could entice them to play around with words and figure out how they fit together like puzzles.

Not gonna happen.

~3~

Halloween is looming.  I am not a fan of this particular holiday.  Too much work for very little pay-off.  In fact, I'm not sure these kids really are turning over all the Snickers they haul home, and even if they are, it just doesn't compensate for the headache that is costuming five children and riding the wave and crash of five sugar highs.  But it's coming.  So I'm preparing.  This year, we are outfitting the following costumes:

• Andy Samberg;
• Funky Clown (nearly done...just need a rainbow wig);
• Jane Jetson (help!);
• Crazy Pajama Girl (easy peasy!);
• and Darth Vader.  For Little T, of course.

Wake me up on All Saints Day, please.

~4~

And speaking of getting Halloweeny, if you need an easy craft idea, do what I did: go visit Secret Agent Josephine!  Click over there to see what inspired me to do this little activity with my girls yesterday while my boys were at math tutoring:

I don't have any good pictures of them in completed form...but Secret Agent Josephine has some great ones, so do click that link up above.

~5~

6 Flags Discovery Kingdom is having this dealy-bop where K-6th grade students can earn a free park ticket if they do extra, non-school related reading.   Nice, right?  I've got a reluctant reader who salivates every time we drive by that place, so this sounded perfect to me.  And that's despite the fact that I detest amusement parks and will have to be either sedated or armed with a flask to spend an entire day at one.

But get this.  The requirements?  Read for 6 hours.  6 itty-bitty, eensy weensy hours.  Between now and March 2012.

SERIOUSLY?  I'm all for achievable goals, but 6 hours of reading in 6 months?  Really?  Do we really need to aim that low?  If I'm going to spend a day at a place like 6 Flags, I'd kind of like the kids to earn that free ticket with something a tad more substantial.  Ya' think they'll hate me when I tell them I'm upping it just for them?

Yeah, I think so too.

~6~

So homeschooling has been a little bumpy this year.  But we had a good week, so yesterday evening, I asked my son if he had had a good day, a good week.  He said yes, and then we had a brief conversation about how homeschooling is maybe not such a bad thing.  I thought that was the end of it.

But later that night, just as the house was settling into sleep, he came back to me and said: "Mom, you know what else I like better about homeschooling?"

Ah, I thought, it's happening!  The positive side is sinking in!  The magic is taking hold!

We don't have to eat those deli sandwiches you used to buy for our school lunches.  I hated those things.  They were gross.

Reality check, mom.

~7~

Raising chickens is popular around here.  I have a few friends who keep chickens in their backyards, and so I've been lucky enough to learn the difference between a store bought egg and a farm fresh one. Much like garden tomatoes and their store-bought bland counterpart, farm fresh eggs make you feel like you are eating eggs as God intended.  They are that good.

I am quite happy that other people are following this trend and that occasionally I get to reap some of the benefits.  I have sometimes felt tugged towards chicken-keeping myself, but I snap out of it quickly when I realize that the last thing I need is more little lives to keep track of.  I couldn't even manage zucchini this year, and zucchinis don't have mouths.

So the eggs are one benefit.  The other is watching chicks grow.  We stopped at a friends the other day and my girls got to spend some time with the chicks.

If you have chance to visit a farm and hold a baby chick, do it.  It's fun for all!  And if you haven't tasted a farm fresh egg, then I have news for you: you don't really know what an egg tastes like.  Thanks Kelli for the peek into urban homesteading!

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