What kind of coffee am I?

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe

But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites. And your dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear.

What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Some interesting quotes from Grace Paley

I just finished reading the book Just as I thought (well, honestly, I skimmed over the last 1/3, but I really enjoyed the first 2/3!), essays by Grace Paley. She was born in 1922 and died in 2007 after a battle with breast cancer. In addition to being a writer, she was a political activist.

I especially liked the following quotes:

I don't think the thing for me has been civil disobedience so much as the importance not asking permission. For instance, we had kids in our public school who had trouble reading or writing. A few of us just got together and said we'd better go ahead and help out. We suspected that the principal wouldn't want us around. So we simply went into the school and scattered ourselves among the teachers and began to work with the kids. It's true that three months later we were kicked out, but we got a lot done, and methods and forms were created so parents could come back and be useful. People will say to this day, "How did you women do that? Who did you talk to?" We didn't talk to anyone. We just did it. So I can't say it was civil disobedience. It was just an effort to make change by making change. We talk a lot about living in a free and democratic country but we're always asking permission to do very simple things.

and

[She was in jail as a result of attending a protest, and heard women singing and long song and wanted to write it down because she didn't think she cold memorize it, but she had no pen or paper.]

...Which is how I finally understood that I didn't lack pen and paper but my own memorizing mind. It had been given away with a hundred poems, called rote learning, old-fashioned, backward, an enemy of creative thinking, a great human gift disowned.

This second quote makes me think of all of the time I wasted learning "things" that someone else thought I should "know" -- and grateful for the things I've learned that have been useful, like music and sewing and writing. The first quote reminds me to be brave, and not give away my rights, I'm thinking especially as they pertain to my children and family.

Random photos from this fall and winter

For sharing Bret with the team for 12+ weeks, Sabine and Vivian got flowers at the Swimming and Diving team banquet (so did Carolyn). Sabine and Vivian also picked out their "special outfits" to look pretty at the dinner.


Chirstmas tree "hunting" photos. We got our permits from the Forest Service and went out with the Klomparens clan. We found a tree that had been cut, but left on the ground (so yeah, it's a little Charlie Brown-ish, but just right for us!).



Sabine getting ready for her second ice skating performance as a Snowflake in The Grinch on ice...pretty darn cute. And can you believe I put all those curls in her hair? It holds a curl about as well as mine does (or doesn't). Thank God for hairspray!

What's in a meme?

I found this meme over at ZenMomma's Garden.

Here's what you do: Type the answer to each question into a Google image search, and then pick an image from the first page of results. Here we go!

1. Age At Next Birthday: 38 – This cracks me up. She looks horrified – not how I feel about 38 – just the best picture on the first page. Upon further investigation, I found that it's page 38 of some document...phew!

2. Place I'd Like To Travel: someplace warm (it’s snowing right now)



3. Favorite Place: a library (ohhhhh, the possibilities!)

4. Favorite Object(s): books, my Taylor guitar

5. Favorite Food: butter (not by itself, but oh…it makes everything better...and don't even think about offering me margarine)

6. Favorite Animal: cat

Love the colors on the above picture, just couldn't resist the fairy eating cat, though...

7. Favorite Color(s): green – OK, this photo was at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Scary!

8. My Nickname(s): Little Grover, Puddles, Groovy


(so, that's not the Little Grover my high school friends were talking about, but I figured no one needed to see a picture of the muppet to get the idea)

9. Town I Was Born In: Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland

10. Bad Habit I Have: (where do I begin…) multitasking

That was fun! Tag! You’re it!

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

(Click on the title of this entry to view the list, from Secular Homeschooling Magazine) OK, so this is a little blunt. But dang it's funny. We don't get all of these questions, because Sabine's so young, but I've heard a lot of them...and would add a response to the question we have heard a lot, "So...just how long are you going to homeschool her?" I usually just say we're not worrying about later...just trying to enjoy it now...but I'm thinking there could be a better response. Suggestions?

Two of my favorites on the list are:

11. We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

and

17. Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

Read and enjoy!

Cause and Effect (aka Water is Fun)

Halloween party animals

We didn't really plan this, but here they are: Axel, Sabine, Birch and Vivian. Up until about a week before Halloween Sabine and Vivian were going to be Barbie Princesses (oh my!)...but the animal costumes (on loan from friend Kristin) were perfect for Trick-or-Treating on a frosty Wyoming night.