This is why I love Regan!

If it was up to me, she would have a perfectly matched outfit from one of our favorite stores. As it is not up to me... she is wearing a pink sweater, a yellow VBS shirt, khaki shorts, turquoise socks, and brown shoes.

As you can see, Regan has developed her own, very personal sense of style. I'm not sure what she calls it, but it is unique to her! And this photo perfectly captures it.

I love that she is such a free thinking child. She likes what she likes and is unafraid to let you know. That confidence in herself leads her to oftentimes outrageously crazy behavior and the ability to make friends wherever she goes.

Everybody loves Regan. How could you not?

I don't know any of these people...

... except of course, my mom and my daughters, yet apparently I am related to them.

Cool.

Do you think they's loan me $50 if I asked?

The girls are in Oregon

Chandler and Regan are up in Oregon with my parents for a Peeters family reunion.

Apparently they are very bored...

Here's my latest update:

What a relief!

I love shooting weddings because the brides are so beautiful and you can get some amazing shots. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. But weddings are also incredibly nerve-wracking. After all, you can't go back and restage the thing if you screw up the pictures.

So, I shot this wedding a few weeks ago and the order just came in. Apparently, she loved the pictures as she ordered almost ALL of them.

That's the good news and the bad news! I'm so happy to see that she liked them, but that meant I had to do a lot of painstaking color work on each picture. You see, if you just buy one picture, it can look fantastic by itself, but when you buy all of them, they have to match each other.

So, lots of work and technical difficulties later, I am ecstatic with how they came out. Still have some work to do to get them completely finished. I wish I could post all the rest of them here, but that kind of defeats the purpose! So now you know what I've been up to.

One Hour, Eleven Minutes, Eighteen Seconds

That's how much time I just spent on the phone with Rosetta Stone trying to figure out why my software isn't working.

It's still not working.

I have to uninstall and reinstall. We'll see.

It's not like I had anything else to do today!

Regan's Birthday Haiku

Ruby's for birthday

Jo Bros, Hannah, Camp Rock rules

Regan has turned twelve

Do I really look like Popeye?

I was searching through my random Halloween costumes box and found my prom dress from when I was 16 - in a size 3, no less! I thought it'd be fun to have Chandler try it on. It fit her just fine. So then I thought I'd try it on - just for fun!

I knew it would be too small, but I figured it would get hung up on my hips or ... ahem... other parts. Nope. That was fine.

I couldn't get the fitted sleeves over my forearms!

Great, now I'm going to go to my high school reunion next month and all the talk will be about my "Popeye" shaped arms, "Her forearms were much skinnier back in the day."

How do you slim your forearms? Lay off the spinach?

These were the days!

Imagine a ham sandwich and a banana split for 55 cents!

I'd weigh 500 lbs if these prices were still good!

If only this was what homeschooling really was...

One of my favorite blogs is Stuff Christians Like. He's very funny and hits on so many topics near and dear to Christians. He finally touched on homeschooling. Although he states unequivocably that he and his wife are not going to homeschool, if they ever did, he offers an average week:

Monday = Science
If you came to this school on Monday, you should heed Thomas Dolby's 80's song warning, because you're about to be blinded with science. Topics would include:
1. Profusely Perspiring Pastors– Can we stop sweat, the silent saline assailant?
2. Liquefying God's Love – Is water the best expression of God? Should we make it rain?
3. Drinking coffee in church. – The science behind sneaking a cup into the sanctuary.

Tuesday = Gym
Kids need to get the wiggles out, and I'm not talking about that brightly adorned, octopus hanging out with, smiley Australian gang, "The Wiggles." I'm talking about running my kids around until they take champion naps. Activities would include:
1. Frisbee – How to throw the "holy hammer"
2. Hand Raising – Good for worship and working out your "core".
3. The "please turn to" Bible race – Where agility and spirituality intersect
4. Fist fights in church softball games. – It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you knock out the music minister for sliding into home with his cleats up.

Wednesday = Bible
I'd get struck by lightning if I didn't have a whole day that was just strictly Bible. So in addition to our daily convocations, we'd spend Wednesday engaged in some hardcore theological debates such as:
1. Backsliding, a Christian thing or an Indiana Jones move?
2. NIV vs. KJV vs. ESV (Bible wars told via GI Joe)
3. Taking 2 years to do a read through the Bible in one year program.

Thursday = History & Social Studies
Kids at the SCL Homeschool would get a healthy dose of both the past and the present. In addition to having a library with a rolling ladder that you could sing from the top of, (a personal dream of mine) we'd discuss:
1. Booty, God, Booty – Where is it happening in our culture? Where is it happening at home?
2. Postmodern – What does it mean? How can we use it at least three times in every sentence?
3. Confusing Ben Franklin with the Bible. – God helps those who help themselves. Or does He?

Friday = Music & Art
In the last twenty years, it seems like these two departments have taken a beating when it comes to getting funded at school. So in my log cabin homeschool, that's right I said "log cabin," I would make sure Friday was jam packed with music and art such as:
1. Christian Tattoos – A how to guide from the "Mercy" winner.
2. That Dude with the Guitar – How to steal his guitar and where to hide it.
3. The Choir Side Step Dance – How to dance without looking like you're dancing
4. Bulletin Bored Art – Professor Curtis shows you how to draw Jesus' jeans.



Don't I wish we didn't have to do all that other stuff like math and grammar or foreign language!!!

Wow! Has it been this long?

Yes, I feel horribly guilty because I've been away from my blog for so long. You see, this summer, I was determined to scrapbook... a lot. But the weather was so beautiful, and my pool kept calling... so, no scrapbooking at all.

Then school started and I'm back to being stuck in front of my computer. I got the bug. I've done 23 pages in a few days, and hardly done anything else!

So I thought the least I could do is share them.

I love reliving all the memories as I scrapbook them. But Hawaii hit me hard. I WANT TO GO BACK!

I beat out the average Harvard Senior!

Americans knowledge of American History is dismal at best.

In fact, on this quiz, put together by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average Harvard senior scored 69.6%. I scored 90%. Of course, I love history and I can honestly say that most of what I knew to help in my score I have learned as an adult.

Not a single college broke the 70% correct barrier, therefore, not one passed with a C or better!

Why is this important? I believe so strongly in America and what it stands for. We are in danger of losing our identity and what makes us a great country. Even today, there is no sense of perspective whatsoever. For example, when Cheney accidentally wounded his friend in a hunting accident, the press went ballistic. Where was the corresponding reminders that while Aaron Burr was Vice President, he KILLED Alexander Hamilton and was indicted for murder? As politics today has devolved into a bigger and bigger hatefest, I think some historical perspective would help tremendously.

We can't even remember our recent history. So when presidents and legislatures make decisions today, we cannot even think back to the headlines of just a few years ago. Man-made global warming is accepted today as gospel fact, but so was global cooling just a few decades ago. If Bush lied about WMD, so did every major head of state, head of intellegence, and our own Bill Clinton. Anyone remember that?

The summary of the findings can be found here. Most interesting is that the more higher ranked and more expensive the college, the worse the score. Taking more history classes wasn't the answer either. Apparently, more classes led to lower scores.

I don't know what the answer is, but an uneducated populace scares me.

Take the quiz. See if you can beat the miserable 52% average!

Surfing

On Saturday, Tim and his brother took the kids surfing. Regan has really been wanting to go and even Chandler thought it sounded fun. My nephew Jordan has been in a surf camp with his church, so he's an old pro! The boys got up, but the girls are still working on it. While one was on the surfboard, the other rode a boogie board, so both were having a good time.

Here what happened:

Chandler - riding the boogie board,


of course, Tim was helping to get her launched.


And here she is cruisin on the surfboard.



Tim got Regan going on the surfboard as well,

and she almost managed to stand.

Jordan did very well and got up a number of times.

So did Nathanael.

But here is a sequence of shots I love. Notice the closeness of the two boards as Nathanael approaches Jordan...

Jordan almost gets up, but quickly wipes out.

Only to have Nathanael blow right by his fallen brother.

I guess all's fair in love and... surfing.

Until next time. I'm really hoping the girls learn to stand. I never did...

Well that didn't help

I loved Sarah Palin's speech last night, and you have to know that I am not a fan of women politicians. But as soon as she came on stage, I had to remind Tim that he is married to ME and just so he wouldn't forget, he could rub my feet during her speech.

While she was speaking, Tim told me I had to "step it up a notch" if I want to keep him from running off with her. I told him her husband is a commercial fisherman. He can't compete with that. He fishes the tiny lake in Heartwell park with rare success. As long as it is not revealed that her husband "catches" all those fish at the grocery store and then fakes the fishing shots, I think I am safe.

That she is a huge threat to our marriage does not deter me from saying I really liked her last night. Yes, I am sad that she is a working mother of five. I would have preferred a Sarah Palin clone without the kids. But unlike those that have screamed for so long for women's rights and then scream when she exercises them, I will respect the choices she and her husband have made. I certainly don't condemn the other moms I know who have chosen outside employment, so why should I start now.

I thought she was a great speaker, lots of funny lines, lots of confidence. I think I could be her friend. (Well maybe not, if it means Tim gets to meet her.)

This race just got interesting.

Homeschooling - Year 5

Yesterday, we began our fifth year of homeschooling. After spending the first several years making a year by year commitment, I am finally in it to stay! I already have high school planned out and I am excited about what the girls will be learning.

I feel like an official homeschool family! I suppose now we will have to only wear organic clothing, eat vegan, become socially unacceptable, and have 12 more children. What a life we have ahead of us!

But before I get cracking on that list, I think I'll start with a couple of cute shots of us doing science. This is the first time we have used a science textbook. I know what you are thinking, "See, I knew all you homeschoolers did was go to Disneyland." But that's not true. Well, it's kind of true...

But that is not my point. Everything I have read indicates that science textbook fail at the job of teaching science. They are boring and inacurate. So for four years, we relied on experiment-intesive books to guide us through the basic principles. It's been fun, but as the girls are approacing high school, I felt something a little more formal was in order.

After two days, I have to report that I LOVE our new science textbooks. They are written so conversationally, they are also experiment heavy, the girls are liking them, and the best part, they are written to the child. I am letting them do much of the learning on their own. They even performed these experiments on their own. I'm just there to clear up any questions.

So far so good. You cannot imagine how good it sounds to have your child explain to you what they discovered in experiment they just did - not because you asked, but because they are excited to share. Plus, they look so adorable in the goggles that are apparently required for every project.

It's not all scientific bliss all day long, but I'll take my joy where I can find it!

Expounding on the car...

That last post did not do our new car news justice. I knew it wouldn't, but I was literally heading out the door and had about 1 minute to post... something. I figured I'd add to it later...

See, this new car thing is a really big deal. The last new car we bought was in 1993. I was a huge fan of used cars until I discovered that the story of "instant depreciation as soon as they drive off the lot" is a myth. All I had to do was check out carmax.com to see that the used cars were selling for the same or MORE than the new version. I don't understand it, but it's true.

Oh, but this decision was a struggle. We haven't had a payment for years and when we bought the Maxima, it was absolutely top-of-the-line. We knew we couldn't replace it with something as nice. (After all, homeschooling just doesn't pay the way it used to!) But we were pouring thousands into the Maxima.

When Tim refused to drive it to work (and it is HIS car) and said it was giving him an ulcer, I relented on my hard core drive-it-until-it-falls-apart-in-a-pile philosophy.

I do enjoy this new car. It smells great. It runs great. It has about a million twins on the road, and several in any given parking lot. It's beyond practical.

Yet, even though it seems silly, but I do mourn the loss of my first grown-up car.