Homeschooling the Doctorate?

Friday, 10 July 2009

  • Data Loss

    Laptop's hard drive is unrecoverable.  Two weeks' worth of writing and notetaking gone, although not much else, thankfully.  (All the pictures are on the desktop, and I did back up my data a few weeks ago.)

    So, now I'm trying to decide whether to dig out all the back up disks that are already half packed somewhere, or if I should just wait until we move.

    *pathetic sigh*

Thursday, 09 July 2009

  • Sing-a-long

    I've always sung to my kids, and I try to get them to sing along with me. 

    This is partly because I just enjoy music, partly because I feel responsible (as the one adult in the family who can carry a tune) for teaching them how to sing, and partly because it's just one more way to brainwash them.  (I always sing "Jesus songs.")

    When Isaac was two, our sing-a-longs went something like this:

    Me: Oh worship the . . .
    Isaac: . . . . . . . . . . . . King

    Me: All glorious . . .
    Isaac: . . . . . . . . . above.

    Me: Oh gratefully . . .
    Isaac: . . . . . . . . . . sing

    Me: God's power and God's . . .
    Isaac: .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . love.

    See?  I would sing all but the last word, and he would chime in with the missing last word at the right time.  He got to be very good at it.  And then when he was four or five, I started focusing on hymns that had choruses, and I would make him sing along with the chorus, while I sang the verses alone.  Very tidy, very organized, very effective.

    It's hard to represent graphically what singing with Theo is like.

    But I'll try.  Each pair of lines represents a single time period, like above, with dots where there's no singing and words where there is.  So, if we were singing in unison, it would look like this:

    Mom: Jesus loves me,
    Theo: Jesus loves me,

    Mom: This I know,
    Theo: This I know,

    If I were singing by myself, it would look like this:

    Mom: For the Bible,
    Theo: . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Get the picture?

    Okay.

    Here's us singing This Is My Father's World

    Mom: This is my Father's world, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: Dis . . . Fah-guh WORGUUUUUHHHHH!!

    Mom: And to my listening ears, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo:  . . . . . . . my years . . . ears, Mommy, ears, ears, Mommy

    Mom: All nature sings . . . . . . . .
    Theo: MOMMY, I HAVE EARS

    Mom: Yes, Theo, you have ears. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: Ears, mommy, mommy, ears, ears, have ears . . . okay.

    Mom: All nature sings and round me rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: . . . Nay-chur sings . . . . . . . . . . ROUN' MAY RINGGGGGGG

    Mom: The music . . . . . of the years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: . . . . . . . . . . MOOOOOOSIC YEEEEEEEERS.


    Jesus loves me is his new favorite.  It goes similarly:

    Mom: Jesus loves me, this I know, . .
    Theo: . . . . . Love mayyyy . . . know,

    Mom: For the Bible tells me so, . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: Bible bible bible . . . SOOOOOOOOO

    Mom: Little ones to him belong,
    Theo: Little ones are STRONG,

    Mom: They are weak but he is strong, . . . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: Day are . . .  Isaac is strong.  ISAAC is strong.

    Mom: Yes, Jesus loves meeeee,
    Theo: Isaac is strong, Mommy,

    Mom: Yes, Jesus . . .
    Theo: MOMMY, ISAAC IS STRONGGGGGGGGG.

    Mom: Okay, Isaac is strong, Theo. . . . .
    Theo: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yup.

    Mom: Yes, Jesus loves me,
    Theo: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Mom: Yes, Jesus loves me, . . . . . . .
    Theo: . . . . love MAAAAYYYYYY

    Mom: The Bible tells me, . . . . . . . . . .
    Theo: Bye-buh TELLL MMEEEEEE

    Theo: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

  • WIP Wednesday

    Alert the media!  Sarah has finished another project!!

    Okay, everybody remember the project you couldn't quite figure out?  Here it is, all finished:

    DSC_0003

    Awww . . . isn't that special?  I made this for a cyber-friend with a Calvin-and-Hobbes-loving daughter.  I love how it actually looks like the Hobbes that Calvin's parents see: slightly bedraggled and certainly well-loved.

    Unfortunately, Theo and Isaac both decided that they must have one for themselves.  So now I've got to make two more.  (Maybe I'll have Isaac's done in time for him to take it to college with him.)  I wish I'd gotten a picture of Theo holding it--it's HUGE.  Almost half as tall as Theo.  And very huggable.  He kept saying, "Hug lion?  Kiss lion?" and "Dat Fee-oh's lion, Mommy."

    I used this pattern.  The pattern is quite good, although the instructions aren't quite clear enough for a rank beginner.  I don't crochet much anymore, and there were several places where I had to fiddle and figure.  Still, the end result is just right, even if you don't use the expensive yarn the pattern calls for.  (I used Plymouth Dreambaby, at the request of my cyber-friend.)

    Despite several weekends at the lake, I haven't gotten much other knitting done.

    My socks look more like socks and less like the bikini top you all thought they were before:

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    And I'm up to square 451 on the Blankie of Unusual Size!!

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    Doesn't it look cool?  So, I'm just shy of halfway finished with it!

    So, there we are.  All the knitting that's fit to post.

Monday, 06 July 2009

Monday, 22 June 2009

  • Currently
    Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter
    By Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
    see related

    Books in Review

    Just finished reading Yarn Harlot, a book by a popular knitting blogger.

    My main impression was that it read like a collection of blog entries, rather than a book.  The individual entries ("chapters," "stories," even "essays" would be misleading) were cute enough, and occasionally even funny, but they weren't as polished or as complete as I was expecting.  They were just so . . . little.  The author kept calling herself a writer, and I kept wanting to cross the word out and insert "blogger" instead.

    (I didn't, though, because it was a library book, and I would never deface public property in that manner.)

    I don't mean this as an insult, by the way.  It's just a category correction.

    In fact, my only real complaint is that the format--small, odd-shaped, paperback--made it impossible for me to prop it up in my bookstand and read it while I was knitting.  Which, duh.

    But, otherwise, it was a light, easy read.  A good keep-in-your-purse-for-when-you're-standing-in-line kind of read.  (Although, myself, I keep knitting in my purse for that.)

Sunday, 21 June 2009

  • Happy Father's Day!


    I don't know why I do this--he's not my father!--but I made a nice dinner for Stephen for Father's Day.

    DSC_0004

    Rumsteack au poivre (thanks for the steak, Mom!) and patate douce puree.  Plus a little wine.  He says it tastes just as good as at a restaurant.  (It better, with all the cream I used!)

    I was looking at all of our "nice dinner" pictures and noticing that I'm not in any of them.  So, just to prove that I really do exist, I jumped in this one:

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    There we go.

    Happy Father's Day to you and yours!

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Friday, 12 June 2009

  • A refreshing nap . . .

    Anyone who knows me knows how averse I am to 1) spending money on things that aren't necessities, 2) patronizing fast food chain drive-through places (especially ones that spell it "thru"), and 3) feeding my kids sugar of any kind.

    (For birthdays, I make them pies sweetened with concentrated fruit juice, savvy?)

    Well, I was feeling pretty exhausted after lunch today, and more than a little depressed at the state of the kitchen.  (How the hell it got that way is completely beyond me.)

    So I went to take a nap.  It was a long, delicious nap.

    When I woke up, I went to get a glass of water and found that Isaac had cleaned the kitchen.  Not just, like, put the dishes in the sink and wiped the crumbs off the table onto the floor.  He cleaned.  the.  kitchen.  Everything but the mopping.

    I drove to the Starbucks Drive-Thru on the corner and bought that boy a Frappuccino.  Swear.

    Why do people complain about their kids growing older?!?!

Thursday, 11 June 2009

  • A Study in Contrasts


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    Aww . . . look at the sleeping little angel.

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    Look at the busy boy!

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    See how his little hands are folded, as if in prayer?

    awake0

    See how his hands are all dirty?

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    Wonder what he's dreaming about!

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    Wonder what he's messing with!!

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    What a sweet boy!

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    What a helpful boy!

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    Sleep, Theo, sleep!  (Mommy needs a little rest, too!)

scsours

About Me

  • Sarah is a knitting, gardening, singing, cooking, homeschooling-mama, ordination-track doctoral student in Theology and Ethics. Stephen is running, basketballing, Theology doctoral student and pastor, who is jealous that he can't collect hobbies the way his wife does. Isaac reads, swims, rides bikes, and asks God why he had to be born to a clergy couple with an unhealthy interest in metaphysics. Theo thinks that 'Digger scoops rocks' is the rough social equivalent to 'I'm pleased to meet you.'