Unpatriotic My A**

I know, I know! This is the longest I have EVER gone without blogging. What can I say that won't be terribly disappointing? I had sick kids (see previous post) and that resulted in my becoming sick and that resulted in a really gross house and piles of laundry and catching up and...you get the idea. No time for blogging. But I'm back! Woo Hoo!

So HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!! Oh man, if I could strike up a band I would. We are huge Presidents' Day fans here. And not just because of the current president. We were fans even before the O-man.

When I first started homeschooling some 7 years ago, I was rather enthusiastic. Everything was a learning experience. Let me rephrase that: Everything was a "forced" learning experience. Most of these experiences were floppers. But a couple were quite successful and our Presidents' Day celebration was one of them.

So for the past 7 years my kids have woken up to Lincoln / Washington activities. We've done lots of things in the past, but today the two little ones made table decorations out of Lincoln logs. We read history books and then enjoyed the very best part of the celebration, which is a dinner in the dim light of an oil lamp and candles. That's right - we ate and read by candle light just like Abraham Lincoln. We read the Gettysburg Address. And for dessert? Jeff's delicious cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream, of course. Followed by the story of Washington and the cherry tree, which was followed by my boys' explanation that it was just a story and never happened. They googled it or something. Because they are party poopers. Whatever.

Then we played The Patriot Game. I won! The Patriot Game is a great family game. Well, the little guys were bored - so we played Conga with them. But for older kiddos The Patriot Game is great. The game board is decorated with US stamps, and it was given to us by a stamp-collecting cousin. We all answered high school level questions (we are so smart!) and the neat thing about it is that a lot of the questions at this level require argument and oration. So like, it will ask a question - you answer it, and then you might be required to argue for or against the answer (or both). And you can pick from 3 levels - elementary, jr. high, and high school. I doubt that my elementary kids could answer any of the questions, but we kind of encourage learning that is born of natural inquiry, and I don't think that little kids are actually prone to considering the causes of the Cold War....or really anything beyond Sponge Bob, Greek Mythology, Video Games, etc...Talkin' about boys here, of course.

Speaking of games, here is a picture of Ellie and Juliana playing Twister with Ranger earlier this week. I think Ranger won.

And of course, speaking of holidays, we also just celebrated Valentine's Day. This day is just a big old love fest, and a crowded one, at that. Our table was set with candles, rose petals, and hearts, hearts, hearts made by Camille. Camille on a sugar high. While Jasper, on a MAJOR sugar high, ran around like a rabid dog drooling chocolate - tearing up hearts as fast as Camille could make them. Here is a bad picture of the table (by candlelight) with Juliana, Ellie, and Joel (refusing to take a serious picture AGAIN.)
And here is Jasper on a sugar high.
Yeah, it was awesome. By the way, I am thinking about a candy ban. Seriously. I'm already worried about Easter. When I was a kid? No Stupid Plastic Eggs. We had REAL eggs to hunt, as in dyed hard-boiled eggs and we were thrilled to have them. No candy. Just a couple of kids tickled pink with stinky hard-boiled eggs. It don't get no better than that, folks. So the most important part of Valentine's Day is ME receiving YELLOW ROSES from JEFF.

My absolute favorite flower is a yellow rose. Which is appropriate because I am a born and bred Texas girl. Of course, The Yellow Rose of Texas is famous for distracting Santa Anna with tent sex...but whatever. A patriot has to do what a patriot has to do. Which brings us back to Presidents' Day! Wow. I didn't even plan that. See how I came around full circle? And to think that some people have had the nerve to suggest that I'm unpatriotic. As in being a Not Republican Person. Otherwise known as a Progressive. Which is a code word for Liberal. Which is not popular in this here state of Texas. Ha! Who's unpatriotic now? Huh? I WON THE PATRIOT GAME. So the question of my patriotism is officially settled, folks. Beat that. Not that I'm bitter or anything. About being called unpatriotic. By people. Who supported George Bush. Til the end. Which ended in a whimper, not a bang, by the way. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm ending my post with a sad announcement. A week ago, today, we lost our dear Uncle Billy. We will miss him. He was a well-respected member of this farming community where he lived for 83 years. People respected him because he was a dang good peanut farmer, past president of the Peanut Growers' Association, and an all-around good guy. He could grow anything and had an awesome garden nestled behind his house that was surrounded by trees he planted, himself. One of the trees was grafted from the oak tree that grew over the house in which he was born. He married the beautiful love of his life, and she is missing him tonight. She is blessed to have 2 of their 3 children living on the family farm with their spouses. Her other daughter is close by. And just down the lane, sits a house full of 7 people who love her and miss Uncle Billy. That would be us. We can see his house, the one that he built himself and then surrounded by a little forrest of the trees he loved, right in the middle of the peanut patch. He is not in it tonight. And we are sad.

Sardine Mama