My Two Blessings

J ames had his 5 th swimming lesson today. Last week he refused to get off the step and trusted no one to hold him in the water. D was getting a little frustrated with him, but being patient. Monday, after his lesson in which he spent 15 minutes arguing with her, she asked if he disliked the water for some reason.   I explained that he loves the water and swimming and talks all day long about his swimming lessons and what he is going to do. It is just when he gets there, that suddenly he starts fussing. Soooo…..one of the guys decided he was going to practice with James and not take no for an answer. James came over to me and P called him to come back into the water. Of course, James refused. P came out of the water, picked him up and took him back into the water. He told James that I would have to go upstairs if he continued to argue or yell. Wow, good idea. I could be upstairs in air conditioned comfort instead of sitting by the humid poo...

James 8th birthday is coming up and boy is he excited. James 8 th birthday will be on August 5 th . He has been working on his birthday wish list for the past month. The first draft (yes, the first draft) contained practically all Godzilla movies. We told him Godzilla was banned for a while, so he worked up a 2 nd, then 3 rd and now final draft. At least I think it is final. He adds to it daily. James wish list Apollo 1 dvd Apollo 7 dvd Apollo 8 dvd Apollo 10 dvd Apollo 14 dvd Apollo 15 dvd Apollo 16 dvd Apollo 17 dvd Apollo Soyuz dvd Project Mercury dvd Project Gemini dvd Challenger dvd Herbie the Love bug (old version, not the remake) STS-26 Return to Flight Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Apollo 8 special package Must have it all combo package ( at $800 I don't think this one is a possible, but James ask me to list it anyway) Larry boy and the Bad Apple Video Game Dora the Explorer summer explorer dvd Ratatoulli Toy Story cd game A Dog...

The Post office just delivered.... Yeah!!! I have to be good, I have to be good. As soon as I finish my Oceanography project, then I can read it. You'll know where to find me for the rest of the weekend.

Folks have been asking to see what our school room looks like. We don't actually have a school room per say...everything is set up in our kitchen dining area. We have a rather small house - approximately 1100 square feet. So I turned our eating area of our kitchen into our school nook. This is my desk - the command center. I also have a laptop computer which use more than the desktop. Father uses the desktop most frequently. The poster above the printer is "Fruits of the Spirit" Our schedules for the next 4 months which include all birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, bills due, appointments, events, school schedule, when business taxes are due, etc. James daily schedule for the current week is just beneath... He loves his schedule and checking off everything when the day is done. So, he is constantly reminding me all weekend to write up the new schedule for the new week. The map wall. We have the United States and the World map with a compa...

James is taking swimming lessons at the local dive center. His lesson is for 20 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12:00. His first lesson was on Monday. We arrived 15 minutes early to watch the trainers and the other kids. The center has things running like clockwork and it was interesting to watch. As one lesson ended, the next child would sit on the steps in front of their instructor to begin their lesson. Each instructor seemed very focused on the child with whom they were teaching. The children were all ages from two years old and up. James first lesson was spent getting him acclimated to the water and having him dip his ears and face into the water. He dislikes getting his face wet and kept wanting to hop out and dry off his face. He wanted to do things at his pace and kept telling D “I’ll do it myself”. He wanted me to sit by the edge of the pool while he took his lesson, which kept me involved in the process, versus D being able to c...

Last night we went to a fund raiser for M.I.N.K.H. Musical Instruments ‘N Kids Hands given by Flip Kirby, who is a friend of Father. Flip also happens to have toured with Bobbie Brown in the past. M.I.N.K.H. is a program Flip organized that donates new musical instruments to underprivileged kids. Musical Instruments ‘N Kids’ Hands wants to promote community involvement by identifying aspiring youth ages 8 to 17 that are unable to afford an instrument. Through greater community awareness, M.I.N.K.H. aims to build partnerships with local sponsors and organizations to produce funding for the M.I.N.K.H. Instrument Give-Away Campaign. Their goal is to provide instruments to 5,000 underprivileged kids nationwide to cultivate a passion for and fulfill their music aspiration. A few of our friends played in the band as backup for the kids who played drums, piano, sa...

 Wahoo!  I got an A! Just received the grade for my English Literature for Children and Young Adults class. I earned 100 for "Giver" analysis and 100 for the midterm and final. Total combined Grade: A So for your reading pleasure (grab your glasses, maybe a cool drink, put on your thinking cap and boggle your mind.) The Giver by Lois Lowry The Giver is a story of an isolated nameless community sometime in the distant future, which at first glance seems to be a perfect utopia society, but as the story unfolds reveals it to be distinctly dystopian. A dystopian story centers on a hero who questions the society, the conflict in which the hero decides to take action or escape and the final climax. In a dystopian society, it has at least one fatal flaw. The story centers around Jonas as he learns about the true nature of his society and realizes something must be done to change his world. In a dystopian society, the social structur...

We had fun Wednesday. While Father rested and enjoyed his day off, James and I did some fun lessons learning about Independence Day, drawing Godzilla, doing math lessons and whatnot. Lessons were spread through out the day to prevent boredom from creeping in, plus creating a distraction from the impending fireworks in the evening. Both Father and I bought big packages of fireworks. In the past all the neighbors in our court came out to do fireworks, but this year it was only us and the gal across the street with her son. This actually worked out quite well and was more relaxing, since we didn’t have to contend with the foul mouth friends of one neighbor. Didn’t miss them at all! We started about dusk and ended when James decided he had had enough around 10:00. We cleaned up our mess, read stories and James was asleep in an instant. Yesterday was a wonderful 109 degrees at our house and fortunately our air conditioner didn’t have a problem keeping up. I...

Isn't she adorable!!!! We have had Luna a couple weeks now. We are all adjusting to have a kitten in the house such as carefully shutting doors, cleaning small toys and crumbs off the floor immediately and getting up earlier (Yawn!) She can get into the narrowest of places, so we are "baby proofing" as we go. We have lost her twice. The first time, she crawled up into the shelf behind the drawer of the TV stand in the kitchen. Took a half hour to find her because she didn't answer to my calls until she woke up and discovered couldn't get back out. The 2nd time she was just sleeping in back of the couch. She discovered the narrow opening in the shelves next to the dishwasher and fortunately I caught her before she disappeared into it. That has since been covered up with cardboard and duct tape. She discovered the opening in the cabinet underneath the stove which has also been covered up. James is discovering the art of gentleness. (hint: requires lots ...