I've decided to repost my first blog because... well, I have nothing better to do at the moment.
Blog! Me? When?
I can't believe it. I have a blog account... Will I actually use it?
I guess that remains to be seen.
First Decision in this new adventure... What to name it... ?
Let's face it, there are way to many choices and yet none that seem to work for me. So I did what any other person who's feeling void of any creative vibs at 12:00 on a Sunday night would do... I ran a search on "blog names" - Oh yeah! That should really help... not. Oh, don't get me wrong there were lots of ideas... Lots of freakishly odd, out there ideas-but as easy as it might be to tag myself as the Neon Blazzer, none of these seemed to fit.
So, how does someone who hasn't touched a musical instrument since graduation in 1986 end up with the word "unplugged" in it?
Simple... OK, not totally simple, but try to follow along.
I started thinking about what I would want my blog to be.
It would have to be a place that I can disconnect from life and just process thoughts. *Which brings me to an entirely different question... do I really want to make this public? I'll tackle that another time. For now, I'll stick with the "private/draft" feature.*
Where was I? Oh yeah, disconnect from my life, yadda, yadda, yadda-process thoughts, etc. Got it.
The next step was to figure out what my life feels like and what it might be like to take a step back for a few minutes. That's pretty easy. Most of the time I feel like my mind is going 190 mph. So fast, I can hardly keep up. While I'm working on one thing, I have at least two other thoughts on my mind, something else I'm trying to remember, but getting distracted by something I don't want to forget. (I guess that explains the Ritilan in the cabinet.)
To wrap it all up, I feel like my thoughts/mind need to be unplugged every now and then. I just need to be able to ramble. <- Now if that doesn't leave you screaming for more, I don't know what will.
Seriously, I was inspired by another good friend of ours that we totally respect. He began his first blog session. His is much more spiritual and deeply insightful than mine, but I'm hoping to get there one day. Thanks for the inspiration Hector!
That's enough for now. It's nearing one and I still have to figure out how to save this so I don't have to start over. Well, that and I want to figure out what this "mood selector" does. So if you read this and it sounds "impressed, geeky, or grateful" then I still don't know what I'm doing.
In Him,
Tammy
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Lessons from the animal kingdom...
Dads, this is exactly why moms need a break when you come home...
We cannot run... we cannot hide.... we are followed everywhere!
We cannot run... we cannot hide.... we are followed everywhere!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sum-sum-summertime...
OK then... It's July and I am soooo ready for a break from school.
This is the difficult part of being a homeschooler (for me anyway). I'm not a very disciplined person - I know, complete shocker, right? But I digress, some parents can stay right on track and are very regimented. They start on a particular day (picked out the year before, no doubt) and finish their school year on a certain day (again, previously planned). My world does not work like that.
Don't get me wrong, we work hard, but not super systematically.
One of the wonderful blessings of homeschooling is that you know your child and what they need. One of the most difficult parts of homeschooling is that you know your child and what they need, ergo -and here's the catch- it's up to you to provide it... all! Even when that means working throughout the summer, when you're completely, totally burnt out, ready for a break and mamaneedsavacation syndrome has firmly set in.
It's times like this that I totally need God to remind me that I really love what I do with the boys (errr... young men). I think I'm also a little overwhelmed at the thought of one graduating next month - yes, that's August. Remember, not disciplined, systematic, blah, blah, blah...
This is where the rubber meets the road. Where I have to trust in God to fix whatever I may have screwed up over the years. According to most polls that are out there today my kids will be in therapy for something... at least I gave them something to talk about.
All right, it hasn't been that bad. The reality is that I'm not naive enough to think I did it perfectly. The only thing I can be sure of is that we followed His calling to educate our kids at home.
Anytime I've read blogs about homeschoolers graduating there's lots of "pomp and circumstance", celebrating and the like.
As with so many things, all I can do is sit and think of all the ways I "could/should" have done things differently.
Take care,
Tammy
This is the difficult part of being a homeschooler (for me anyway). I'm not a very disciplined person - I know, complete shocker, right? But I digress, some parents can stay right on track and are very regimented. They start on a particular day (picked out the year before, no doubt) and finish their school year on a certain day (again, previously planned). My world does not work like that.
Don't get me wrong, we work hard, but not super systematically.
One of the wonderful blessings of homeschooling is that you know your child and what they need. One of the most difficult parts of homeschooling is that you know your child and what they need, ergo -and here's the catch- it's up to you to provide it... all! Even when that means working throughout the summer, when you're completely, totally burnt out, ready for a break and mamaneedsavacation syndrome has firmly set in.
It's times like this that I totally need God to remind me that I really love what I do with the boys (errr... young men). I think I'm also a little overwhelmed at the thought of one graduating next month - yes, that's August. Remember, not disciplined, systematic, blah, blah, blah...
This is where the rubber meets the road. Where I have to trust in God to fix whatever I may have screwed up over the years. According to most polls that are out there today my kids will be in therapy for something... at least I gave them something to talk about.
All right, it hasn't been that bad. The reality is that I'm not naive enough to think I did it perfectly. The only thing I can be sure of is that we followed His calling to educate our kids at home.
Anytime I've read blogs about homeschoolers graduating there's lots of "pomp and circumstance", celebrating and the like.
As with so many things, all I can do is sit and think of all the ways I "could/should" have done things differently.
Take care,
Tammy
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
So Long Chatter...
Recently, we had a death in our family.
Chatter the guinea pig died.
She really was a sweet little thing (as far as guinea pigs go anyway).
If you would call her she would come. She would talk to you (in little squeaks of course). Chatter even picked up bird sounds from a clock we have - that was really wierd, but very cool.
We'll miss her, not the smell of her cage, but we'll miss her.
As with the passing of any pet, this brings up the age old question of whether there are animals in heaven. To be honest, I think I lay on the minority side of it (theologically speaking).
I just can't imagine being in heaven and not hearing the birds singing, and if there are birds...
Friday, May 04, 2007
The Adventure Begins
Since the time my son (Ben) heard there was going to be a Spiderman 3, he has been tracking its progress and release date.
As the date crept closer, it was time to find the best theater for such a momentous event. After many, many phone calls the Alamo Drafthouse was chosen as his top pick.
This is a very important decision. As a mom of a movie lover I have come to truly appreciate a theater that will entertain you for three to six hours before the start time of an opening picture.
For you non-Austinites, the Alamo is a restaurant/movie theater that is known for its pre-movie shorts. Most of them I wouldn't even think of taking my kids to, but for this they were showing the old Spiderman cartoon and - my kids loved this - in the opening credits it boasted the fact that it was IN COLOR!
Another fun element to the theater is that if you would like to order food, you write what you want on a paper and stand it up on the table in front of you for the waitress to pick up. (This is an important fact as you read on.)
Over the past week:
At least several times a day Ben would give us the countdown for the start time, including what he would like to order to eat, and when in the movie he wanted to write it on the paper for the waitress to pick up. It's a science really. We're holding out that there is a scholarship fund somewhere for students with this talent.
The Big Day:
Ben called the theater at six to find out the best time to line up. They said it shouldn't be bad since we already bought our tickets and an hour or so is all we should need. This seemed very daring to the boys, who wanted to be there around nine. Despite their overzealous excitement, we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave at ten for the midnight showing.
We carefully chose our seats. Wrote out our food order and held on to it until just the perfect time (which we figured to be about five minutes before the movie started).
It was a lot of fun. We watched shorts on spider specialists giving us the low down on the creepy crawlies. They showed international versions of spidey, and those old cartoons - which were to fun to remember! I sat bouncing in my seat and singing the song, "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can. Can he swing on a thread? Take a look over head..." as my son tried to hide behind his menu and pretend he didn't know me.
OH, c'mon I know you're singing it now too!
Anyway, it's now five minutes before. We place our order up on the table and take our last run to the bathroom - so as not to be interrupted.
Finally, the lights go down, the previews start.... and stop.
Yes, that's right, the projectors busted... or something.
The managers came out about every fifteen minutes to tell us that it would be another five minutes or so and they've figured out the problem.
Some people left after a half an hour, but not us. I drank caffeine after nine, I was in for the long haul.
I told my boys that if we don't get home until four, there would be no school the next day. Suddenly, it didn't matter how long the wait was.
Finally, six free sodas and an hour later, the movie begins.
We didn't ask for freebies, they just started giving them out. Now, I'm really awake.
The movie was actually pretty good. Not a lot of bad language or awkward scenes. Lots of fighting, but these were pretty bad guys, right?
Several good points to the evening:
Lots of laughs
Smiles
Good memories
Free soda
We now know what the Japanese Spiderman looks like - Spiderman, who knew?
We pulled in at 3:50, but that's close enough - no school!
Another plus:
They gave us free movie passes and the third edition of Pirates comes out in two weeks! Guess where we'll be?
As the date crept closer, it was time to find the best theater for such a momentous event. After many, many phone calls the Alamo Drafthouse was chosen as his top pick.
This is a very important decision. As a mom of a movie lover I have come to truly appreciate a theater that will entertain you for three to six hours before the start time of an opening picture.
For you non-Austinites, the Alamo is a restaurant/movie theater that is known for its pre-movie shorts. Most of them I wouldn't even think of taking my kids to, but for this they were showing the old Spiderman cartoon and - my kids loved this - in the opening credits it boasted the fact that it was IN COLOR!
Another fun element to the theater is that if you would like to order food, you write what you want on a paper and stand it up on the table in front of you for the waitress to pick up. (This is an important fact as you read on.)
Over the past week:
At least several times a day Ben would give us the countdown for the start time, including what he would like to order to eat, and when in the movie he wanted to write it on the paper for the waitress to pick up. It's a science really. We're holding out that there is a scholarship fund somewhere for students with this talent.
The Big Day:
Ben called the theater at six to find out the best time to line up. They said it shouldn't be bad since we already bought our tickets and an hour or so is all we should need. This seemed very daring to the boys, who wanted to be there around nine. Despite their overzealous excitement, we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave at ten for the midnight showing.
We carefully chose our seats. Wrote out our food order and held on to it until just the perfect time (which we figured to be about five minutes before the movie started).
It was a lot of fun. We watched shorts on spider specialists giving us the low down on the creepy crawlies. They showed international versions of spidey, and those old cartoons - which were to fun to remember! I sat bouncing in my seat and singing the song, "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can. Can he swing on a thread? Take a look over head..." as my son tried to hide behind his menu and pretend he didn't know me.
OH, c'mon I know you're singing it now too!
Anyway, it's now five minutes before. We place our order up on the table and take our last run to the bathroom - so as not to be interrupted.
Finally, the lights go down, the previews start.... and stop.
Yes, that's right, the projectors busted... or something.
The managers came out about every fifteen minutes to tell us that it would be another five minutes or so and they've figured out the problem.
Some people left after a half an hour, but not us. I drank caffeine after nine, I was in for the long haul.
I told my boys that if we don't get home until four, there would be no school the next day. Suddenly, it didn't matter how long the wait was.
Finally, six free sodas and an hour later, the movie begins.
We didn't ask for freebies, they just started giving them out. Now, I'm really awake.
The movie was actually pretty good. Not a lot of bad language or awkward scenes. Lots of fighting, but these were pretty bad guys, right?
Several good points to the evening:
Lots of laughs
Smiles
Good memories
Free soda
We now know what the Japanese Spiderman looks like - Spiderman, who knew?
We pulled in at 3:50, but that's close enough - no school!
Another plus:
They gave us free movie passes and the third edition of Pirates comes out in two weeks! Guess where we'll be?
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