"Old" Is a Relative...

...term, or so the cliche finishes.

But sometimes "old" feels like a person...somebody I'm actually related to.

As my children grow, their curiosity seems to grow with them, which can be fun since they want to know what life was like when Stuart and I were young -- what we did, lived through, experienced. They are continually shocked that we didn't have certain things or the option of certain things. Or even the existence of certain things.

And in that way, I feel old.

I began to recollect about VCRs the other day. (For those of you readers who are too young to remember these devices, they were a machine that allowed you to record a show from the TV onto a video cassette. See example here.)

We were chatting about how easily we can watch TV shows and movies that we've either missed on television/in the theaters or previously enjoyed.

Back when I was young, if you missed your favorite show during the week, you had to wait for reruns. And even then it was by luck that you got to see that particular episode. Sometimes, if you were really lucky, you might spot it listed ahead of time in the TV Guide and write yourself a note to remember to watch it. Otherwise, you had to wait until it was syndicated and played at odd hours...likely years later.

But that was life and no one questioned it or worried about it.

Then came VCRs.

The first type was invented by Sony and used a smaller-sized videotape called a Beta. My dad wouldn't buy one of those because, for one, they were prohibitively expensive and, for two, he knew the technology -- though far better than the alternative that followed -- wouldn't catch on.

He was waiting for the "real deal."

And so we waited another year or so for VHS machines to appear on the scene. Good call, Dad.

We didn't own one to begin with, but they were available to rent. (I was trying to remember the actual cost, and it was somewhere in the region of $30 with a large deposit necessary.) My parents would occasionally rent one for the weekend with several movies. In fact, for my 14th birthday they rented one with the movie War Games for my party. And then later, when we had our own machine, they rented Ladyhawke for my 16th birthday party.

The thing about videos was that you had to wait an amazingly long time for a movie to be available. And I guess because of licensing or copyrights, some movies never made it to video. And television shows didn't get released to video for at least another decade.

So we saw the invention of a device able to record our favorite movies and TV shows and from there we saw DVDs...and some bits available online. And now Netflix and the like. We can watch an entire season of an old show that we might never have ever known about "back in the day." We can watch movies we didn't catch in the theaters.

The options are exploding....and we're along for the wild and wonderful ride of technological discoveries.

It's actually kind of exciting to think that I've lived long enough to remember all of it.

Maybe "old" is more of an interesting "relative" than I thought. More on this subject soon.

Thoughtful Thursday

“A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate.” 

~Flannery O’Connor

Wordless Wednesday

Happy...

...National Peanut Butter Day!

Choosing the Shelter

Dragging out my soapbox........

There are so many misconceptions about homeschoolers.

First of all, our family does not technically homeschool. We school at home.

I know. It seems to be a petty difference, but, believe me, homeschooling families do NOT see us the same. Nor should they.

We belong to a cyberschool, a public school that has all the schoolwork/classes supplied over the internet. Traditional homeschoolers actually plan and buy all their own curriculum. That's not to say we don't buy supplemental stuff. But anyone with school-aged children can do that.

Another misconception is that our kids are stupid.

Hmm... That's "real nice." Like me saying all public school kids are stupid, which I know is not true and would never say.

But, seriously, people think that. As if you can only gain knowledge through entering a school building.

To that I ask: Is everyone who is now walking around and not in school stupid because we're not actively learning in a building?!?

Um, yeah.  Sorry, Einstein and Edison and Beatrix Potter and all those other famous people who were homeschooled. You were all dumb.

We've spent a lot of time instilling the idea into our kids that we are learning all the time. You don't have to set aside a specific time to "do" school. Life is about learning. Otherwise, what happens when we graduate?

Case in point, our Edward (who is in 5th grade and learns on a 6th-grade level for all his math and English courses) was asked last year if he knew what a "legament" was. The boys on his soccer team had just (in 4th grade) learned about these and made a model using them. Edward was confused and said that he didn't. The one replied, "Oh, that's right. You're homeschooled."

Okay. Okay. Breathe. My blood began to boil at that since Edward did indeed know what LIGaments were since he had done anatomy lessons in 2nd grade... He'd just never heard of a LEGament. Hmm...who's the dumb one?

No one.

Everyone learns at a different rate and at a different level. It's easy to compare and feel a sense of pride that our kids are consistently learning above their peer groups. But they would be doing that in a school building, too. They're just smart. Some kids are; some kids aren't.

I'm never sure how to dispel the above ideas without sounding overly defensive about what we're doing. We know what they're doing/what they're learning. We understand it. Somehow other people don't; yet they feel the need to make judgments about it.

I have to wonder how many of these same parents really know and understand all that their own kids are learning.

We entrust our kids to a school with teachers who may or may not agree with our core values and beliefs. And how much are they actually learning in the course of a day?

I went to public schools (many different ones), and there was A LOT of busy work. Of course, I learned. But much of the time, when I should have been listening to the teacher's voice reading from a textbook or lesson plan, I spent drawing and writing. Did I learn anything? I guess so. But maybe I would have learned more at home just doing the schoolwork and then moving on to my art and writing? Who knows. Neither way is wrong. Just different. And in either system I would have learned.

The question we get most often is about socialization. What exactly is that? I mean, really. Isn't it just a buzzword somebody made up to sound educated?

Show me a homeschooler, and I'll show you a kid that can usually (not always) look you straight in the eyes and chat with you about just about anything. Edward, more so than Emily, is a bit shy at times. But we remind him to be polite. That doesn't happen with 90 percent of the kids I talk to who go to public or private schools.

And there's a difference between socialization and socializing.

Think about it.

When kids are in school are all the kids they are mingling with really the kind of kids you'd like them to be around? Where in life will you ever be with 30 people your same age? Maybe in a church or social group. But usually? Ding-ding-ding. That's right!  No where.

So they socialize (maybe not directly but within earshot) with kids who chat about sex and drugs and use words that would make your ears curl. They swap stories about their parents' sex lives or the latest episode of a show that they should NEVER be watching or an article on orgasms in Seventeen magazine. Or they share the lyrics to the latest Katy Perry or Lady Gaga songs.  Or, worse, they kiss each other. Girls to girls. Because, after all, Katy Perry did it and sang a song about it. They do it on TV shows...in color...so it must be okay, right?

Um...yeah.

So, while our kids know about all of this stuff and we have had many many great conversations about it all, we choose the shelter of staying away from it because we find it to be drivel. Mindless garbage.

And as Emily said to me, who would choose to live in a dumpster when you have a nice house to live in?

But we're not sheltered because of ignorance. We are sheltered by choice. We know all the worldly stuff that's out there, and we choose to stay away from that kind of thinking, to stay in the world but not of the world.

Our choice...not anybody else's.

I just wish others could respect that.

"Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me..."

How Do *I* Spell Relief?

There used to be an ad on TV that asked, "How do you spell relief?" And then it panned to various people who said, "R-O-L-A-I-D-S," which is a brand of gas medicine.

It perplexed me when I was younger since I was very literal and thought, "No. It's r-e-l-i-e-f." But I didn't get the adult sophistication of "play-on-words" humor yet.

Today was a day. Yes...a day.

I'm not sure if it was the hormones currently waging war against each other in my body or just the moon phase. But it was a bit stressful merely from the energies being exchanged on the Internet at the moment.

It's an election year. I despise election years. The news, the mud-slinging, the anger.

All I can say is...Ugh.

So I've been avoiding the news and trying hard to let it all roll off. Later in the spring I'll need to read up on the characters involved so that I can vote intelligently in the primaries. Until then...

But..............

Somehow, someway, somewhy our school has been the brunt of everyone's anger at the moment. We even made the frontpage of the New York Times. The New York Times? Our cyber school is in Pennsylvania.

We've been doing this type of schooling for 10 years. Why now?

Well, that's the subject of another post.

But that's the reason I felt SOOOO stressed today.

So I spelled relief: F-I-N-G-E-R-P-A-I-N-T-I-N-G with my boys.

Fun times!!

Sweet Sunday

We sang this song at church on New Year's Day. Ethan "sang" along (as best as a 3-year-old can sing without being able to read), and when we got to the last line he reached around to his back and said sadly, "But I don't have any wings."

I smiled and whispered that God would give him special wings when the time came that he'd need them.

On the way home, he randomly said, "I don't want any wings. I don't like them. They're made of chicken."

It was hard not to laugh after that thought.

Special song...special boy! Have a very sweet Sunday!

If I Close My Eyes...

and breathe in the remnants of fragrance after I empty a box of Earl Grey tea....

...I am transported back to England to the coastline of Cornwall where I am sitting in the garden of the old Victorian hotel where we are staying, having a cup of tea with my sister and pretending to be old married women conversing about our grown children.  We are proper and polite and speak with "frightfully nice" accents.

...I am hugging the t-shirt my sister brought me from her trip to England with Teen Mission International. She has all kinds of goodies from her trip, including Earl Grey tea, and everything in her luggage smells of it. It is my first time smelling it, and I know immediately that I love it, even though I am 11 and don't really like tea yet. Five years later, I buy a box of it to put in my own luggage on my trip to England with Teen Missions International. I enjoy a few cups of it along the way, too.

...I am on my honeymoon in Windermere, England. I am sitting across from my new husband, enjoying a milder day on our honeymoon...and a pot of Earl Grey tea.  Stuart isn't a "tea drinker," per se. But he enjoys it for me. That's true love.

...I am holding a small gray baby bunny, from the second of Bonny Bunny's litters. He is small and gray...unlike his brother and older sisters at the same age. I wonder at his coloring given the fact that both of his parents are Himalayan Netherland Dwarfs. He is the one that Emily chooses for her 4-H project. He is the one with the most determined personality. He is the one that she names Earl Grey in honor of her favorite tea. He is the one who lives up to the nobility of his name. He sits proud and tall when she talks about him in the 4-H meetings. He loves his hut and sits on the roof like a bunny version of Snoopy. He uses his litterbox with pride and munches on hay whilst sitting in it.

...I am holding a long white bunny, no longer strong and proud. He is sick and dying. It is the middle of the night. I awaken his owner, his "mommy" and the one that he loves more than any other person. She holds him and pets him as he slips away to live with Jesus....

Earl Grey = a tea, a bunny, and so many memories.

Farm Show Fun, Friends, and Photos

And a good time was had by all! 

Great time with awesome friends and yummy food! And the weather stayed mild! A rare occurrence during Farm Show Week. *wink-grin*

Friday Funny

Since we're heading to the Pennsylvania Farm Show tomorrow, I thought a farm-related funny might be good. Enjoy! And I hope you had a fun Friday!

A "Little" Lapse...and a Recap

So I lapsed again...a little. *wink-grin*

Since I can't go back and recapture 2011 through 300+ posts, I'll do a photo summary of the year.

January:

We headed to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg with the kids -- a first for Stuart and the boys. Emily and I went there a LONG time ago. It was such a treat...and a definite "walk" down Memory Lane.

February:

A very sweet Valentine's Day as Edward turned 10...double digits! And Emily and I hosted a Mother-Daughter Valentine's Tea.

March:

The month of Spring and fresh beginnings. We enjoyed St. Patty's Day...and a fun "half-birthday" for Ethan...and first birthday for the piggies.

April:

We celebrated another half-b'day for Emily, soccer, and Easter -- and my very first trip alone (as a mom) to New York City!

May:

We celebrated my parents' 50th anniversary with them (a month early); we said goodbye to my grandmother, my last living grandparent; we celebrated Mother's Day and our 15th anniversary with a trip into West Reading, complete with a postcard to the kids.

June:

School ended -- Emily and Edward move on to 9th grade and 5th grade, respectively. The kids hosted an Alex's Lemondade Stand. Emily danced in her final recital. My parents had their actual 50th anniversary. We celebrated Father's Day and my grandmother's life in a Memorial Service at her home. Summer started.

July:

Independence Day and summer. A slower time of life.

August:

Camp Woohoohaha! was a blast! We enjoyed the final weeks of summer before Emily started HIGH SCHOOL! Our school books arrived, and we finished the library summer reading program.

September:

School started. Stuart celebrated turning "40-something" (41), and Ethan had his 3rd birthday with his very own birthday adventure to Crayola. It was the 10th anniversary of 9-11. Autumn arrived with all its glorious colors and smells. Soccer officially began for the season.

October:

Emily and I celebrated our birthday by turning reciprocals of each other: 14 and 41. We had hoped to go to NYC but decided against it because of weather and the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. We enjoyed Ballocity instead. Stuart was away, so we had a "staying-in" Halloween after it snowed 9 inches and turned icy. Some people lost power for over a week.

November:

A British feast was enjoyed with Sandy and Tim for Guy Fawkes' Night. We had a bonfire and lots of goodies. My mom celebrated her 70th birthday. Thanksgiving ended the month with another yummy feast at my aunt's house.

December:

The last month of 2011. Emily and I travelled back again to New York City to see the NYC Ballet do the "Nutcracker." We enjoyed some shopping and just hanging together. I had my annual shopping trip (#17) to Schuylkill Mall with my friend and former co-worker from Highlights. Christmas Eve's Eve included a "picnic in the park" in our living room. Christmas Eve was special. Christmas Day spent in bed. Boxing Day enjoyable with another feast. And Pagoda Day we moved the photo to the morning so that we would avoid the rain. New Year's Eve we spent as a family, enjoying some snacks and playing some games. We watched the ball drop together and reflected on the beginning of another new year.

*  *  *

There are so many other things that happened over the year...but these are just a few of the highlights. We try to always remember how blessed we are...and celebrate God and each other.

Happy 2012, everyone!