Dinosaur Camp, Day 1...

Seth and Grace left for church camp today.  In an attempt to help Caleb, Ian, and Miah get excited about this week without their oldest siblings, I decided we should have our own camp - specifically, "Dinosaur Camp".  And wow...  they did get excited.

We had a few little mishaps as Seth and Grace left... like Miah's tears that almost could not be stopped because she will miss Grace so much and Ian's request to move into Seth's room while he is gone.  However, Dinosuar Camp is a pretty big hit, so far, so they are coping...

On Day 1, we ate dinosaur toast for breakfast (and limes... long story...  the limes are not going to be a new family favorite).

We did dinosaur worksheets, and learned about dinosaurs on the Internet, and drew dinosaur pictures, and read (very educational... ahem...  OK, maybe not) dinosaur books:

Undoubtedly, the biggest attraction of the day was the dinosaur scavenger hunt, during which each of the kids was allowed to find two dinosaurs, and it didn't really matter in the end, because I set that rule up so that Miah would have a fighting chance, and she found her dinosaurs first, anyway.  It's a good thing we did this in the morning, because the primordial grass has now been mowed:

 

I felt a little sorry for the dinosaurs:

It is our sincere hope that the dinosaurs will reproduce and hide eggs for us to find tomorrow:

Oh, come on... of course there are eggs...  I made them myself:

We have watched more "Dinosaur Train" than I care to admit, and we even snuggled down to watch the Bob the Builder Dinosaur movie.  Since I am amazingly creative, we ate more dinosaur shaped carbohydrates for lunch.  No one seemed to mind.

I think we might survive a week without big siblings, after all...

L.

Beautiful Day...

I couldn't have asked for a better day to kick off our summer vacation!  Snuggling in the morning with Miah, followed by lots of Saturday morning cartoons (Darkwing Duck was our cartoon of choice today), a great workout, homemade Chinese food for lunch, and some good time outside with perfect weather.  Back inside for showers, some silent reading time, dinner, and now it's time for Garfield and Friends.  With any luck, everybody under age 10 will be in bed by 8:00, we'll all get some good sleep, and we can repeat this over... and over... and over again...

Somebody loves her new "toy":

Seth made a pretty awesome landscape on the stairs:

Miah continues to love the fact that she is allowed to 

color "on the floor"

Adding paint to the mix was a huge hit:

L.

It’s Been Awhile…

… since I’ve reviewed anything.

To be completely honest, I didn’t make it to the theater too many times in 2012.  In fact, of the 2012 movie releases, I have only seen three of them…  The Hunger Games (which I did review… in depth… over several days), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (which I don’t feel as if I can review properly until the other two films come out, and until I re-read the book), and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (which I just saw on DVD a couple of weeks ago).  No wonder I’ve slacked in the review department!

At any rate, I don’t know if this is really going to be a traditional type of review, either, but I have to take a few minutes to talk about my favorite (current) TV series.  Please keep in mind that our television does not get a single channel, so I’m working with Netflix here.  This is, in no way, a complaint.  There is almost nothing that I would actually want to watch on television.  I cannot justify paying for cable so that I can watch the Olympics in prime time every two years!  But over the past few years I have been previewing shows that I think the kids might like to watch sometime, and my absolute favorite is, “Good Luck, Charlie”.

Please do not misunderstand.  I know this show is marketed to twelve year olds.  I fall way outside the target group.  But I actually don’t understand, myself, where this shift in family entertainment came in.  I have always maintained that the death of family television was the demise of “The Cosby Show”, but why?  When I was a kid, my parents enjoyed watching family sit-coms with me, and although many of the Disney Channel shows are more in line with the genre of “Saved by the Bell” (which I am also currently watching with Grace… and loving it…); “Good Luck, Charlie” definitely falls into that old, 1980s style, family sit-com category. 

I am currently part way through season 3 and have found only two episodes that contain objectionable material, both misuses of God’s name.  When I finally sit down to watch the show with my kids, we’ll just skip those.  But I’m not sure the show is going to be as meaningful… or as funny… for them, even though they most certainly do fit right into the intended audience.  

Maybe it’s because I’m a mom of five.  Or maybe it’s because the fictitious Amy Duncan does stuff that is just outlandish for a mom, and I find myself taking mental notes on what not to do… in the future… again…  But this show often has me laughing so hard I am almost in tears.

The other night, Grace actually came to check on me… from another area in the house… because she wanted to make sure I was OK.  I had to pause the show, and I still couldn’t get enough control to let her know I was alright!  Several minutes later, Grace was looking at me as if I had completely lost it.  I just waved her off, finally managing to get something out like, “this show is so funny”.  With an eye roll, she went to bed.  

And so it just occurred to me that maybe other adults don’t find “Good Luck, Charlie” to be great evening entertainment, because they think it’s unrealistic.  I know that reality TV is pretty popular right now, along with shows with titles like, “The Office” (which I have never seen).  And I’m suddenly swept up in this “aha moment”.  Oh, wow!  Hahahahaha…  Other people think this kind of stuff doesn’t actually happen!  Oh, wait!  Let me compose myself!  Ahem…  I’d better just quit while I’m ahead…

L.

St. Louis Vacation, Day 6...

… Definitely a “down time” day… In fact, you might call this “TV Day”, because the kids watched a ton of TV! You have to understand that for our family that is kind of a treat seeing as our television at home gets exactly zero channels… no exaggeration! Now, we have DVDs and video games up the wazoo, but actual TV… just isn’t there…

To give an example of how this affects my children, Ian was actually irritated with me last night, because I couldn’t “play” Elmo’s World again from the morning Sesame Street show. He has no earthly idea how TV shows and schedules work… pretty darn funny for 3 ½ years old…
Anyhow… we watched everything from Clifford the Big Red Dog to the Beverly Hillbillies (and Word Girl… Super Why… The Andy Griffith Show… Sesame Street… you get the point). We drew the line at Barney. There is a point at which you have to reserve some brain cells, even on vacation…

Grace, Caleb, and I also played another game of UNO. The original plan was to finish our game from a couple of days ago, but Ian mixed up all the cards. I have to take some blame for this, because we left them sitting out in an Ian accessible place, and they were just too tempting. Caleb was not happy. He was, however, quite pleased when Grace won the game today and he came in second… anything to defeat Mommy, I guess!

Late in the day, we took a swim. Below are some pictures highlighting that adventure:

As soon as I got into the hot tub,
all of my "big kids" came running:

Lovin' On My Baby Princess:

My Beautiful First Princess:

Then we went through the Culver’s drive-thru for dinner, explored some run down St. Louis neighborhoods (ahem… I think there were supposed to be trains there or something)… stopped at Quiktrip for my nightly frozen juice fix (black cherry again… mmm…), which I forewent last night due to the milkshake… and now I think it’s time to continue the trend of the day with some Get Smart: Season 4!

Lisa

16 and Pregnant...

... A Review

It would probably come as a shock to most people I know to have me admit that I’ve been watching a lot of MTV lately… Heck, it kind of comes as a shock to me. But I have… and this is why…

Near the end of my pregnancy with Miah, I was keeping a ridiculous sleep schedule, and I logged a lot of late night hours on facebook (even more than usual). During this time, I started seeing a lot of references to the show, “16 and Pregnant”. Many of these references were coming from teenagers we work with who are in the 13-16 age range, so it piqued my interest, and I was concerned enough about them, and bored enough at 2:00 in the morning, to check it out…

My main interest in the show, at that point, was that I wanted to know what these kids were watching. I wondered if this show was portraying a realistic view on teenage pregnancy or if it was glorifying the trend of teenagers getting pregnant on purpose (and if this is a new concept to you, I’m not kidding… that’s how it works now)…

So, I opened up an Amazon widow and paid $1.99 for the first episode. Thus began an interesting education for me in 21st century television… and life…

*Note: I later found out that you can watch the show for free at MTV’s website… uh… I found this out after I’d purchased the full first season, I think. This is one case in which my self proclaimed title of “cultural moron” didn’t really serve me well. I didn’t even know I was watching MTV at first…

Overall, I’m not sure I can recommend this show. I certainly can’t recommend every episode or recommend it without caution. But I will probably be able to use clips from it in certain teaching situations. The show does not, in any way, meet my standards for entertainment (although I would be lying to say that it’s not entertaining at times). I’m not sure that entertainment is the purpose of the show, however… And truthfully, I have had a bit of difficulty deciphering what the purpose of the show really is…

As a basic rundown, the show comes on with a girl introducing herself and giving the viewers an idea about what her life is like… what she is involved in at school… what kind of family she has… what her relationship with her boyfriend is like… Then, at the end of this mini introduction, she says something to the effect of, “but that’s all going to change, because I’m pregnant”… she turns… the camera gives us a profile view of her growing belly… and then the show begins…

Over the course of the next 40 minutes or so (if you buy from Amazon, it’s 40 minutes… if you watch on MTV, you have to endure commercials, so it’s longer), we follow the pregnancy. For the most part, I think MTV has done a good job of making this real. Generally speaking, the girl has to give up a lot of the things that she loves to do. Many of them drop out of school. A lot of the guys disappear. The reactions of the families have ranged from supportive to irate, but an awful lot of these families are just really sad to begin with. I have certainly had the most difficulty sorting through the parents who cuss their kids out or even physically harm their pregnant daughters. But there are subtleties, too, that I think sometimes go unnoticed.

For example... It took until the 12th episode I watched to hear a parent say, “I taught you not to have sex!” Uh… duh… if you never bother to teach your kids to wait to have sex, it is probably pretty reasonable to assume they just might make you a grandparent earlier than you’d imagined. Even so, the parent who finally proclaimed this was pregnant, herself, with her live in boyfriend, so perhaps there is something to learning from examples that are set… Still, she was one of the more reasonable mothers on the show. Episode after episode, though, I heard parents telling their teens, “We taught you about protection”! Seriously, think this through… Are 15 and 16 year old kids really thinking, “Hey, let’s slap a condom on it,” when they are in the heat of the moment? Uh… no… they’re not! It’s ironic, but I have heard time and time again that kids who are taught abstinence are more likely to get pregnant, because they are all having sex, so the kids who haven’t learned about “protection” are more at risk. Maybe this is true, statistically speaking. I don’t really know. But based on the sampling from this show, I would say that the kids who are taught abstinence are less likely to get pregnant, because they aren’t having sex… just a thought, of course…

Perhaps one of the most shocking quotes came from one of the pregnant teenager’s friends who informed her that you really can’t do anything to prevent pregnancy. I was glad the pregnant girl looked back at her and informed her that you can not have sex. Unfortunately, all of the girls in the room kind of looked around nervously, as if that was the most ridiculous thing they’d ever heard of, and giggled… wonder how many of them will be sporting bellies of their own soon…

I think that one of the most intriguing things, for me, is to watch the relationship between the parents to be as it unfolds. For the most part, either the guy or the girl (sometimes both) has been severely immature or just plain nasty. A lot of the guys walk out early on. And the ones who stick around are often treated pretty badly by the girls. The guys who make it (still in the relationship) all the way to the delivery room often check out once nighttime feedings and diapers become a reality. And in a lot of cases, grandmas and grandpas are left raising babies they didn’t really want to deal with to begin with. This is not always the case, and a few of the girls have done a pretty remarkable job.

I have followed the stories beyond “16 and Pregnant” to the spin off series, “Teen Mom”. I am not going to take the time to run down what I think of every participant in these series, but I am going to say that the one couple, of all of them I have observed, who seemed to be the most mature and capable of making adult decisions, gave their child up for adoption.

Now, I have had several friends and family members who have been on either the giving or receiving side of adoption, and I do not think that adoption is the best choice for everyone. However, I do think that it is a beautiful alternative to trying to raise a child that you do not have the capacity to raise, and there are so many couples out there who dream of children and are amazingly blessed by the gift of adoption. The fact that many people have commented on how selfish this couple was to give up their child is just astounding to me. True, by giving their child up for adoption, they have been able to retain some normalcy in their teenage lives, but in reality, I think it was the most unselfish choice possible, because they have given their child a chance to have everything they could not provide. It has been obvious that they have suffered emotional distress over this decision, and they will never really be “normal” teenagers again, but they made a loving choice, nonetheless.

I have to admit that I’ve gotten kind of “hooked” on the shows. I find myself wanting to know how things turn out for these kids… and their kids. I have always had a soft heart for teenage parents, and I find myself rooting for them to make the right choices for their babies… and for themselves.

And then I stop and take a step back and try to remember why I started watching in the first place… I know a lot of teenagers. In fact, I know a pretty good number of teenage parents. And what we really need to do here is to provide a support network for them and a means of prevention for those who are headed in that direction.

I never would have thought that MTV would come up with something productive. And, again, I can’t really wholeheartedly recommend the show (especially not for preteens, who are often the ones watching). But I can recommend putting your arms around a hurting kid and steering them in the right direction…

Lisa

History Is Made...

I really have to begin with yesterday...

MLK Jr. Day probably doesn't mean as much as it ought to. We typically take the day off of school, but we really couldn't afford to do that this year, because we took a very nice vacation, and then we took a very nice Christmas break. So yesterday we went to school. We read a book about Martin Luther King, and I got to thinking that I'm not sure I have ever heard his famous "I Have A Dream" speech in it's entirety. I sat down with youtube and corrected that.

Figuring that it would be a bit much to ask the kids to sit through almost 18 minutes, I brought them in later on and played just the last five minutes for them. Originally, I was just going to have Seth and Grace watch this, but Caleb filed in, as well, so I didn't say anything and just decided I'd let him stick around until he was bored and then he would find his way back to his toys. Caleb jumped up on my lap and sat, riveted, during Dr. King's address. Seth and Grace payed attention... sort of... but they were pretty wiggly. As Dr. King finished with the famous, "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last!" Grace said, "Is it time for Yogi Bear now?" And I said, "Yes," and she and Seth proceeded to run back to the living room. But Caleb turned around and looked at me and said, "Mommy, can't we watch the whole thing?" And you know... I think he actually took it all in. The child baffles me, really...

So today we went to the library and then kind of rushed home for the inauguration. We usually take our time at the library, but I think presidential inaugurations are quite educational, so I didn't want Seth and Grace (again) to miss this, and frankly, I wanted to see it myself. So... we gathered around the computer again. (For those of you who don't know, our TV doesn't get any channels... literally. We watch videos... and DVDs... and whatever we can get on blinkotv.com...) Anyway, we started watching around 11:30. By the time President Obama made his speech, Seth and Grace were all but dancing around the room, so bored they were... and Ian (who also felt the need to join in on this occasion) was playing with the mouse and pressing so many computer keys I thought I'd lose my mind... if not the broadcast! But there sat Caleb... takin' it all in again. When President Obama finished speaking, i told them they were all free to go do other school work, and Seth, Grace, and even Ian made like lightning for the rest of the house. But Caleb got mad at me, because it wasn't "over"...

Now, I've got to say, you might be thinking that all 4 year olds love TV and that it is natural for Caleb to want to stay glued to the screen at this age, but the truth is, Caleb has never really liked TV that much. I am often hard pressed to get him to sit still in front of his favorite cartoons for half an hour so that I can take a shower in peace or do the dishes. This was all rather uncharacteristic for him.

I think I underestimate Caleb sometimes. He is really going to be something... Heck, he already is...

So... change in America... I still like Barack Obama. I was pleased with the inauguration, although I thought the guy who gave the benediction was a little corny. I hope change is really on the way... the kind of change that is good... We need that. Time will tell...

Gotta go. Cookies are in the oven, friends are on the way...

Lisa

TV... and the Olympics... and Politics...

I almost never watch TV... this is partly due to the fact that our television gets no channels. I am not exaggerating in any way, whatsoever. We literally get NO channels... not even local stuff... or PBS... or anything! Our 17" television's soul purpose is to play DVDs... through the PS2... yeah...

Anyhow... I absolutely love the Olympic Games. If you think I am retarded because of this, well... that's your problem! For the past week+, I have been finding alternative watching sites, so that I could take in all of the exciting Olympic moments... no TV, but hey, I watched each of Michael Phelp's 8 gold medal swims, the women's team gymnastics competition and all-around, the men's team gymnastic competition and all around, the end of the women's marathon, and a few rounds of beach volleyball... live. So far, I've only set off one alarm, causing a building to be thoroughly searched at 1:00am. Oops... long story... Hopefully I'll get to catch some track and field next week as well as the women's beach volleyball finals.

In addition, I am finding that it is increasingly easier to watch certain things via the Internet. It's not perfect, but it works most of the time. To tell you the truth, I was about 95% sure that I had finally made my presidential decision... until the civil forum on Saturday. Now I am up in the air about it again, and this is rather unsettling, since I have never waffled for this long about a vote. I am not necessarily giving this information to get feedback. I know that half of you think that Obama is the anti-Christ and the other half of you think that McCain is a killing machine... doesn't matter. I still haven't decided what I think yet...

Hmmm... Perhaps this post is kind of pointless... like TV...

Lisa

I need to make some changes...

OK, so that's always true, but I am referring specifically to my blogging format at the moment...

I currently have two xangas, a blogger, and a myspace. Technically I have some other site, too, but I only signed up for it in order to read Sheri's (my sil) blog. And this is not working for me. It's way too much to keep up with.

I initially separated this blog (which I call my "personal" blog) from my ministry related blog, because I felt that what I had to say about religion and the church might not be suitable for some of my younger readers. I wasn't saying anything inappropriate. It was just more mature content that was better geared toward readers who were interested in such topics and wanted to discuss them without reservation. In reality, this separation of blogs proved relatively worthless, because within a few posts some people who don't care for what I have to say very much were reading several times a day and leaking my new site (probably without knowing it) to the young readers for whom it was not. But I kept the sites separate anyway.

Over time, I have gained an international reader's list at my ministry related blog. I am not claiming fame or popularity. The list is small, but the point is... It's diverse. I am enjoying the people I'm "meeting" on-line, and it's all good. I, however, do not wish to combine the sites at this time, because I am not too interested in plastering pics. of my family all over the place for people I do not know. That said, if you read this site, I know it...

I also eventually set up www.blessedmommyof4.blogspot.com, because I wanted a place to specifically write about my kids, and because... as you probably already know... I earn money off of my advertisements on that site. So far I have earned a little under $9.00... hehehe... Don't any of you people shop at amazon?

At any rate, these are the three places I blog... primarily... And here's what I have decided to do about it...

From now on, I am going to make this my main blog. OK, so it has basically always been my main blog. But what I mean by that is that everything I blog will be posted here! If I make a post that is specific to religion, I will copy and paste it. If I make a blog that is specifically about my kids, and I think others might want to read it, I will copy and paste it. If you read this blog, you will not have to check each of my blogs anymore for new updates, because it will all be on here. (But you should still go click through to amazon and buy stuff... hehehe...)

With that, I have much to write about and precious little time tonight, because... hey... I want to watch The Cosby Show. If you find this pathetic, well... you're probably right. But I am too tired to do anything more interactive at the moment.

I will leave you with a couple of funny thoughts, though...

Tonight, we were doing our family devotions, and they were about the ten commandments. One of the questions for the kids was, "What are some of the rules at your house?" Caleb's answer was, "We have to eat!" He is a bottomless pit!

Another question was, "Why are rules important?" Seth's answer, "Well, rules about school are important so we won't be dumb." That cracked me up.

Well, I'm out for tonight.

Lisa

Totally random and unrelated thoughts...

... I do not like being marginalized
... 50 more pages
... My blog posts are lacking the enthusiasm I was hoping for
... Cosby seasons 3 & 4 just hit the shelves
... It's after midnight. Why am I awake
... Caleb wants to be a "choo choo" when he grows up
Lisa

Today was busy...

...but actually quite fun... in a lot of ways. It wasn't all fun (rarely is), but I think I'll talk about the fun stuff... mostly.

This morning I actually spent time with each of my three "big kids", talking about God... and reading the Bible... and praying. That was a real plus, because it doesn't always happen in the individualized way that it happened, this morning, and it doesn't always happen first thing. I think it was a good way to start the day.

After breakfast, I introduced them to TaleSpin... great cartoon! You may notice that that is not what I've listed under "currently watching". Please... go ahead and make fun of my choice of entertainment. I was ten years old when "Saved by the Bell" made it's debut, so clearly I was obsessed with the show. I am enjoying the flashbacks to the late '80s/early '90s. So, sue me...

But I digress (per normal)...

We went on to paint and color the driveway, which is always fun, and we even stayed off of the "grass".

Later in the day, I found out that Caleb's 3 year old pics. were in, so we went to get them. Here they are:

You've gotta love the "stinky face" with Thomas...

We had a bit of an adventure at Ponderosa, and I have to say that I do not intend to ever eat there again. It also came to my attention that my kids are utterly unaware that people in this country do not only speak English. Apparently, Seth heard someone speaking in Spanish, and he asked (rather loudly I might add), "Why would someone from Mexico come to Ponderosa for lunch?" So I sat there wondering whether to laugh or crawl under the table, and in the end I didn't do either. It's not that Seth had a problem with Spanish speaking people eating at Ponderosa. He just honestly thought they'd come all the way from Mexico, and he couldn't figure out why! It wasn't a fantastic dining experience, or anything. We are clearly going to have to talk about this...

But the quote of the day came from Caleb, who has become increasingly interested in school busses over the past few months. It was, "It's the cheese... Hello, cheese!" Yeah... He's pretty funny...

I went on to buy several cheap, junky things that will be fun to use outside in the coming days. Other than that, the trip was uneventful.

The rest of the day has bordered on boring, and I'm kind of tired, but I need to know whether or not the Pistons are going to put the Bulls away before I go to bed, so it might be a long night...

Lisa