Attitude

"E, please get dressed for bed."  "No."  "Please go brush your teeth."  "No."  "Please choose a different attitude."  "No."  "Every time I ask you to do something you refuse."  "No I don't."  Lightbulb...giggle.

Instructions

Tucking H into bed tonight she instructed me,

"Mom.  Tomorrow I don't want cereal for breakfast. 
I will say to you, 'I want a cookie' and you will say, 'O.K.' 
...Good night."

Opposites Attract

Well, Paula Abdul got one thing right in the 80's (and it wasn't her hair.)  "Opposites attract." 

Since I'm a visual learner, I'll illustrate my idea with pictures.

My thought process:

My hubby's thought process:

My mind works like a firework.  I have bursts of ideas, most of which seem disconnected, but all stemmed from the same initial thought.  When I talk, I jump around from topic to memory, to story, to did I forget to turn off the stove all in one sentence.  That filter that most people have to fit comfortably into society?  Yeah, I don't have one of those.  Fortunately for me I can come up with witty remarks to ease the awkwardness of the situations I often put myself in.   

My hubby's mind works like a minutely detailed time line.  He doesn't speak unless he has thought through every possible scenario, linked that idea to past, present and future, put himself in the other person's shoes and rifled through his ridiculously large vocabulary to make sure he incorporates at least six works I will certainly NOT understand into his response.

Communication for us has been a challenge. 

I chat about nonsense.  He chats about complex plot lines for his book that he's writing. 

I talk to figure things out.  He talks because he has already figured it out. 

I say the first thing that pops into my head and then don't remember saying it two minutes later, because it was just part of the process to get to my final thought...ten minutes later.

He internalizes what I say, often putting WAY more thought into my statements than I ever did.

Entertainment for us has been a challenge.

Me- It's your birthday, let's have a party!

Hubby- It's my birthday, I think I'll go to a movie...alone.

Me- You just graduated, let's have a party!

Hubby - No.

Me- We just bought a new van, let's go on a road trip!

Hubby - O.K. 

(See?  Sometimes we agree!)

Agreeing on the idea of our future has been a challenge.

Me-I NEVER want to buy a house.  

Hubby-I can't wait to buy a house. 

Me-I just want to travel and see the world.

Hubby-Sure, but wouldn't it be great to have a house?

Me-Fine, if we ever own a house I want it to modern and minimal.

Hubby - I want a castle.

How is it then, that we have been married for eleven years and have four beautiful girls?  Paula?

"Baby ain't it somethin'

How we lasted this long
You and me
Provin' everyone wrong
Don't think we'll ever
Get our differences patched
Don't really matter
Cuz we're perfectly matched"

If I had married someone just like me, we would definitely have fun, but probably not do anything productive...ever.  If I were just like my hubby, we would have amazingly intellectual conversations and solve all of the world's problems sitting in overstuffed red velvet chairs, wearing corduroy jackets with elbow patches chewing on unlit pipes.

We balance each other out.  Together we become more well rounded people than we ever could alone.  "And you know-it ain't fiction, just a natural fact.  We come together 'cuz opposites attract."

Spontaneous Spring Break

The Hubby and I had one thing planned during spring break.  Get a new van.  I let Lars look for a van on his own because I would rather do almost anything than spend the day running away from used car salesmen.  Around two in the afternoon Lars came back driving a Dodge Grand Caravan.  I got in the van, saw it had a built in DVD player and told him to go buy it.  Except really. 

With a reliable car in our posession we figured we should probably take it on it's maiden voyage.  Thursday we piled into the car and drove out to I-5 where we had to make a choice...north or south.  We went south...and kept going south until we hit Crescent City California.

As we pulled into town I told Lars to find a hotel with a pool.  He pulled into "The Penny Saver".  I suggested looking around.  He suggested saving a penny, so we stayed.  They did have a pool, but they saved a penny by providing towels big enough to wrap around one leg.  They did have beds, but they saved a penny by not washing the blankets.  (I won't tell you how I know that...dry heave.)  They did have a bathroom that doubled as a sauna because they saved a penny by not having a fan in the bathroom.  They did have internet connection, but they saved a penny by not actually letting anybody on their network.  In the end, as Lars said, it was a place to sleep...and not much more than that.  :)

 L didn't want to share a bed with her sisters so she opted for the closet floor.  :)

The other girls snuggled up in bed.

In the morning we loaded back up in the car and headed south again into the Redwood Forest.  We meandered up and around the scenic highways and byways.  

  We stopped at all the historical markers (just like my Dad always did) and the girls groaned (just like I always did).

 We stopped along the road to marvel at the big trees.  Isn't that what you do in the Redwoods?

At some point we turned around and started back North again up Highway 101.  The night before and all that day was pretty windy and rainy so there were a lot of rock slide and washed out roads.  We stayed the night in Gold Beach because 101 was closed.  Our hotel was advertised as "rustic".  It reminded me of my parent's basement. 

 Saturday we spent some time in Bandon, Oregon's Cranberry Capital.  We saw some of the cranberry bogs and sampled some cranberry candy (o.k...lots of candy) and ate a cranberry bagel sandwich (yum!) and took lot and lots of pictures of a cranberry lighthouse.  (There's nothing cranberry-ish about the light house.  I just really like cranberries.)

Eventually we made our way safely through all of the high water and rock slides.  The girls are happy to be home and I'm itching to go again! 

Sunshine at Ona Beach

Monday was the only day this week of Spring Break with sunshine in the weather forcast.  Naturally we took advantage of it!  We jumped in the car and drove the ten minutes to Ona Beach.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

snow day!

Last Tuesday we got snow; honest to goodness big flaky soft packable snow!  And not just a little bit either, six inches.  That's amazing.  There still wasn't very much down by the water, but up on the bluff where we live it stuck around for two days.

It didn't start until Monday night at about 9:30. We hauled the girls out of bed because we weren't sure if it would still be there in the morning. 

The next morning I woke up early and headed down to the bay.  I got some beautiful pictures there.

Color Curriculum

My latest project has been putting together a curriculum for a six-week after school art program.

I am going to take this curriculum to the elementary and offer to teach an after school art class.  I have had so much fun putting this together, learning about artists and coming up with projects!  Next week I am going to practice my first lesson in a kindergarten and 2nd grade class.  this will give me a better idea of skill level, interest, timing etc.etc.etc. that you can only learn by doing. 

This curriculum is all about COLOR!
Week 1:  Introducing color- Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, warm and cool
Week 2:  Creating an illusion of blended colors with Pointillism-Artist: Georges Seurat 
Week 3:  Complimentary Colors in Pop Art- Artist: Andy Warhol
Week 4:  Color and Emotion- Artist: Vassily Kandinsky
Week 5:  Color without form-Surrealism-Artist: Jackson Pollock
Week 6:  Color without association-Artist: Henry Matisse

I've tried out the first two lessons on my kids and have been impressed with their work and excitement about the artists so far. 

Leah's color wheel

Leah's "warm and cool" flowers

What do you think?  As a parent would you be excited about this curriculum for your child?

My favorite dish...crow

Pretty much any time I vow I will NEVER do something.....I inevitably do. 

Example:

I will NEVER marry a red head.  Check

I will NEVER drive a mini-van.  Check

I will NEVER home school my kids.  Check

Technically I'm only home schooling ONE kid.  Leah.  For the past two years Lars and I have been concerned with her performance in public school.  Granted we have probably contributed to the problem by moving so much.  L really takes a long time to adjust to new environments.  Her problems really started in third grade...when we moved the day before school started.  (Oops) 

I don't have a problem with public school, in fact I truly value and appreciate it.  Leah has had spectacular teachers.  I've been really very pleased with them, it's more the class size that I have a problem with.  She started this school year with 30 kids in her class.  There have been several move-ins during the year and last week L came home and announced that their class was up to 38!  I don't care who you are and how many years you've been teaching, once you have 38 fourth graders in one class it just turns into crowd control.  The few disruptive kids get all the attention and the sweet, quiet ones...like Leah, are appreciated but overlooked. 

I was expressing my frustrations to my sister on the phone who home schools her seven brilliant children.  She told me about Connections Academy which is in essence, public school on line.  http://www.connectionsacademy.com/home.aspx  They follow your state public school curriculum, have kids do the same state standard testing and assign the kids to "classes".  Each child is assigned a teacher and talks to them on the phone.  They even have art in their curriculum which all public school in Oregon no longer have because of funding...or lack of.

This appealed to me because I know myself...structure and follow through are not my strong suits.  All of the lessons are already planned.  I am not the teacher, I am the "learning coach".  Any questions about the lessons can be directed to the teacher through email, a phone call or video chat.  I can still be the good guy :)

Monday Leah got approved for the program and she started Tuesday.  They are shipping her all her books, supplies and a personal computer this week.  She is super excited about it and so am I.  It will be so nice to know exactly where she is at with her subjects and know that she is getting the one on one attention that she needs to get caught up.  More than that though, I hope this really builds her self confidence.  She compares herself to everyone else, so working solo for a while may eliminate that problem. 

A TOAST, to another hearty helping of Crow.  May this one go down more easily than the last.  :) 

  

storm warning

Leave it to a country song to get me thinking!  I don't usually listen to country music, but there is one stretch on hwy 101 between Newport and Waldport that drops every radio station except for opera and country...therefore, I now sometimes listen to country music.  :)  Anyway, a song came on that I had never heard before by Rodney Atkins called, "If you're going through Hell".  (full lyrics here http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/atkins-rodney/if-youre-going-through-hell-16751.html )

One part caught my attention and brought to memory an experience I hadn't thought of in a long time.  The chorus is,
"If you're going through hell
Keep on going, don't slow down
If you're scared don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there"

(I did not take this picture)

The memory this conjured up was from a road trip my husband and I took about eight years ago when we drove from Idaho to Iowa for my sister's wedding.  On the way back to Idaho we took I-70 rather than I-80 hoping that Kansas wouldn't be as painful to drive through as Nebraska was. 

It was worse. 

It was a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine.  Because it was Kansas, and there is not so much as a hill in Kansas, we could see for miles down the road ahead of us.  We noticed a dark haze in the distance.  We figured it was just a nasty little rain cloud and kept on trucking.  As we got closer the clouds kept getting darker and more dense.  Then the rain started.  Soon it was raining so hard we couldn't see the road even with the wipers on high. The rain turned to hail; big midwestern hail, not these pansy west coast pellets.  On the radio all of the stations were interrupting their regular programming for a severe weather warning.  "Anyone on Interstate 70 between mile posts...(wherever we were)...need to take cover now.  Tornado warning.  Get off the road!"

Being raised in the midwest I knew we needed to get under an overpass.  Well, everyone else on the road must have also been from the midwest (or just didn't want severe hail damage to their car) because the overpass looked like a parking garage on black friday.  There wasn't a chance we could get under cover unless we got out of our car and ran up the embankment to hide under the bridge.  We pulled our little Ford Focus to the side of the road and sat there for a few minutes trying to decide what to do.  We had our baby in the back seat, black storm clouds around us and hail beating down on us.  Drawing upon problem solving skills learned in childhood we realized if you, "Can't go over it, Can't go under it, You gotta go THROUGH it!"

We decided to take our chances and gun it out of there.  Lars hit the accelerator and we barrelled through the hail.  Thirty seconds later we were out of the storm and back into the blue skies and sunshine like nothing had ever happened.  I kept staring out the back window at the think black wall of clouds watching it look smaller and less intimidating until it looked again like nothing more than an angry rain cloud.

For the 90 seconds that we were surrounded by darkness and fear, our situation looked completely hopeless.  It was only after we made the decision to get our tails out of there were we able to "see the light".  So when I heard that country song, "If you're going through hell, keep on going, don't slow down..." This experience came to mind and gave me a powerful reminder to "KEEP ON GOING!" 

I need to stop being paralyed by fear.  Things look the worst when you're in the middle of it.  I'm going to get out of the darkness of self doubt, feelings of inadequacy, confusion and fear faster with my foot to the gas pedal rather than sitting fearfully under the storm clouds.

A friend shared this poem today and it spoke so much truth to me.

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?You are a child of God.Your playing small does not serve the world.There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that otherpeople won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne WilliamsonReturn to Love by Marianne Williamson, Harper Collins, 1992  

I found myself a new mantra, "This little light of mine....I'm gonna let it shine." :)

That's just nasty

E: Sometimes I like to bite my nails.
Me: Yeah?  That's kind of gross.
E:  Well, I don't do it too much anymore because I have a loose tooth.
Me:  Oh, that's good.
E:  It just means that I have to use my back teeth instead of my front ones.
Me:  That sounds tricky.
E:  Not really.  I just wait until you clip my nails, and then I pick them up and chew them.
Me:  (dry heaving)


A different night

Me:  Hey E, look at the moon!  Isn't it beautiful?!
E:  It looks like a giant toenail.