Life in the Fish Pond

I am not a patient person. This was illustrated this morning as I fought with Blogger yet again to try to switch over this blog to my new Google/Blogger account. I gave up and made a new one. It's here: The New Fishy Blog.

Today must have been Theater Day.

This morning I was treated to a puppet show that featured an adorable fuzzy duck who was rather maniacal and cannibalistic (but willing to go beyond his own species and sample the members of the audience) and a very rude and insulting raccoon who would have made Tony Clifton proud. After that, Lilly & Maia put on a performance of Cinderella, complete with many wonderful costume changes and great sound effects. (Lilly made this "ripping" noise and then whispered to the audience "that was the sound of Cinderella's dress ripping...wink,wink.) (And yes, that "wink,wink" was verbal).Both actresses played many roles and improvised with props very nicely. In this updated version of Cinderella,it wasn't a Ball they were doing to but the Prom. Prince Christopher (that's the Prince's first name, in case you didn't know) and Cinderella danced to a Dixie Chicks song and in a very daring and edgy move, Dmitri the Naked Toddler was cast as a mouse lacking fur scurrying about the stage.

All this before Noon. I feel like I've gotten enough culture to last me through until Tuesday.

Tuesday is Maia's Teatro Pequeño performance. She's a tiger....a red one with black stripes. Creative licensing and all that,you know. Sometime before then I have to decide on a vegetarian dish to take that's preferably Mexican. The very first thing that came to mind was Apple Flautas. However, I have never made Apple Flautas...I've always had The Schwan's Fairy put them in my freezer. How hard could they be to do myself? Not very, I'm sure. *ponders*

Funny (ish) story....

I was in my son's room last week and I saw something ....odd....laying on top of his bookshelf.

Now, finding odd things in our house isn't really that odd but this just wasn't something I recognized immediately.
This is what I saw



I think I did the 180 degree head tilt.

I took a closer look and realized what it was.It's hair. Not just hair, a dreadlock.

If I hadn't remembered him telling me a few days earlier about
his friend who was cutting off his dreadlocks to raise money for cancer, it might have taken me a bit longer to figure it out exactly why my son had a severed dread on his bookshelf.

From the above link:

Trumansburg high school junior Brad Slocum has been selling his dreadlocks to raise money for cancer. He had been planning to cut his hair in anticipation of warm weather, but decided to turn the event into a fundraiser by selling and cutting each dreadlock on demand in return for a donation to the American Cancer Society. He is hoping to raise $150.

He had seven dreads left on his head as of Thursday, but one is reserved for grandma.

WTG,Brad.

:: The Current Stuff::
Reading:info about Raw Milk and Cow Shares
Listening: at this very moment, the acoustic version of Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in A Small Town by Pearl Jam is playing
Wearing:frumpy neo-housewife clothes
Watching(ed): Amores Perros (review at my blog)
Project:reorganizing girls' room and sorting through ALLLL the kids books

I had a funny thing happen to me last week,though. I was searching at a curriculum site for some new ideas and found a lesson plan that I made. I remember having posted it on our home school blog and must be someone liked it so much that they snatched it....and submitted it to a lesson planning site as their own. I don't know if I should be flattered or pissed. I happened to have been pretty proud of the activity that was snatched". It was pretty original and a lot of fun for the kids. Sure, someone possibly could have had the same idea but the way it was written was too close to the way I explained and worded it on my blog.Except they claimed "authorship".

It's not THAT big of a deal. I mean, this person submitted it to a free site and wasn't paid any money for the idea. If they had, then I'd probably be on a rampage.

Just kind of funny that I stumbled upon it,I guess.

(and yes, of course I sent a well worded email to the web master ;) I don't mind if someone uses something and does it with their home schooled kids or in a classroom setting .After all, that's why I post those things...to share!It's just pretty wrong for someone to go,"Wow, now THAT'S a great idea!" and claim it as their own)

Recent Good Things

1. My Grandmother's health improving
She's set to be released from the nursing home on Monday or possibly Tuesday.I'm so glad...she's miserable there. Dylan really hates the nursing home she's at. He says it's dirty and the staff are snotty,impatient, and "dumb". There have also been issues with one or two of the nurses being very unprofessional w/ my Grandma. Yesterday she had a doctor's appointment that my mother was going to take her to and they tried to make my Grandma get on a bus by herself and go to her appointment alone. Ummm....my Grandma gets lost in my house going to the bathroom and around a town she's lived for 40 years and they were going to put her on a bus in an unfamiliar place to go to a doctor's office she didn't even know where it was? WTF are they thinking?Thankfully ,just a few more days of that nonsense...

2. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
I absolutely LOVE this book. It's one of the best children's books I've read in awhile. A lot of books being published these days in the "Fantasy" genre for children are just copycat versions of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings with unoriginal characters and a plot that follows a certain template. Inkheart has a great story with wonderful characters and the fantasy aspects are very original even though they're familiar concepts in fantasy writing.

3. Hugh Jackman Double Feature
Flushed Away followed by The Prestige. I enjoyed Flushed Away, as did the kids. The Prestige was interesting. Interestingly enough, both films also had Andy Serkis in them ,so maybe it was also an Andy Serkis double feature? Oh...and Andy Serkis is playing the Bad Guy in the movie of Inkheart. Maybe this whole list is a 6 Degrees of Andy Serkis.

4. The Departed
Wow, what a great movie. I really hope Scorsese gets his much-deserved Oscar finally for Best Director for this one.

5.Vegetarian Night at The Rongovian Embassy
Julie Jordan cooks on Wednesday nights. it was a daring move on our part but we took the whole family out to dinner this week. Thankfully, they were all on best,best behavior and we had a wonderful dinner. I'm not even going to attempt to spell the entree that I had because when I tried, spell check can't even find the word so I must be WAY off LOL...but it was a delicious pasta dish. I think I need to buy one of her cookbooks so I can make the salsa we had as an appetizer.

6. Snail Mail
I got a lovely card in the mail from Carrie (Moody Cat) "just because", which is always a nice thing Thank you :)
The card had frogs on it and Dmitri was captivated by them.This morning he saw the card on my desk and started hopping around and ribbitting. I told him he was a silly boy and he said,"No boy...frog!". Well, I tried to get it on video but with all cute things kids do, they never do them when you have the camera ready but this still was a cute video.


7.Maia's Birthday
At the end of the day, she told me it was her best birthday ever. Awww. All 6 of them and this one is the best LOL She's such a sweetheart,really she is.

8. My Washing Machine Working

The landlady had turned the water off not realizing it was connected to my washer. All is right in my world again now that I can do laundry.

9. Quinceanera
Magdalena's upcoming Quinceanera (a "coming out" tradition for young latin girls when they turn 15 )is a bit complicated by the fact that she's pregnant and adamantly claims to be a virgin. Winner of Sundance Festival's Audience Award and Jury prize.And deservingly so!

10. Now the Day is Over ,The Innocence Mission
A really wonderful kids CD with soft and soothing versions of some classics and also originals. Maia has been listening to it when she's falling asleep at night.

11. A Chicken Recipe that was a hit
Pasta al Forno
12 oz penne pasta (I used ziti)
12 oz swiss chard(I used spinach)
1 jar Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
1 can diced tomatoes(I used fresh)
1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan
1/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 tbs olive oil
(I also added basil,oregano & garlic to the tomatoes)

Cook pasta and drain. Preheat over to 350. Trim and cut swiss chard (or spinach)

In large bowl, combine sauce,broth,and pepper.Add pasta,greens,chicken,tomatoes,and 1/2 cup mozzarella (and add spices if you care to). Transfer to 3qt baking dish.Sprinkle with rest of mozzarella. Combine paresan and breadcrumbs and oil. Sprinkle over top. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

12. Being over the Stomach Flu
Oh my gods...that was soooo,soooo bad.That's not do that again....

I have that song stuck in my head. Lilly was trying to teach herself to speak Japanese earlier today and that song popped into my head and stuck there.

Dmitri is such a verbal little guy. Lilly had him repeating words in japanese. Not that he has any clue what the words he said correspond to in English .It's all mimicking ,really but boy,it sure does sound impressive to say that my nearly 20-month old can say Mother,Father,Child and count to three in Japanese.

Yeah, there not a whole lot he won't repeat, which isn't exactly great. His older sister says,"Dmitri,say 'Butthead'"...and he does his best to meet the task. Wonderful.

In the quiz of "What TV show family are you most like?", I have a feeling we'd be most like Malcolm in the Middle.Maybe The Addams Family. Definitely not The Waltons. Well, maybe a little. Can we cross The Waltons with Malcolm in the Middle and The Addams Family? Then we'll have it right.

I love that there is actually a lesson plan on comparing TV families to real families. We may have to explore that a little bit.

Hey, any opportunity to make TV educational,right?


Knowing my luck ,Emily will choose Hannah Montana as her TV family. I'm so sick of that show.



No Random Facts today. Just my 5 Favorite Sites of the Day (thanks to Stumbleupon)

1. Make your own Jackson Pollack...without the mess. Strangely cathartic. Click the mouse to change colors.

2. How to Become a Republican...Since one of the things I have to give up in order to become a Republican is my beloved imported beer, I don't think I'm going to get very far but it was an entertaining guide all the same.

3. Hendrix singling The Wind Cries Mary...Dmitri sat transfixed through the whole song. If it makes a toddler sit still for that long, it deserves to be on some sort of list.

4. HyperHistory...If you need to know what a map looked like during Greek Colonization or who ranked as a celebrity in 600AD or what made the news in 1924, this site is pretty damned handy.

5. Kittens... It should be illegal to be so cute.

So far today,I have spent way too much time:

1.Playing paparazzi

2.Showing off what a Queen of Useless Trivia I am at funtrivia.com.
(Dylan is making fun of me for getting all the answers right to the Panic! at the Disco lyrics quiz)
(and I was mad that my old account is no longer there with the new system....BUT all the quizzes I made are still on there)
(oh...and I made a Homeschool Families group on there, if any other Trivia Geeks who also homeschool would like to join.It's group # 7093,Homeschool Families.)

3. Trying to get warm. I'm fuh-reezing.

4. Working on this puzzle:


It's not as hard as it looks. The hard part will be keeping Mr. Destructo Baby out of it.

5. Admire my new wall and door...and tried out my spankin' new light switch and outside light that will now NOT cause a fire
(Holy cats, Homeskooled Boy schooled me on faulty wiring yesterday. I didn't understand a word he said but what I gather is that he knows a lot more about electrical wiring than I do and because of that, we now have a non-hazardous light)

6. Watched the new Hamster Coco race around in her new(to her) Race Car (that I picked up this morning off of Freecycle) and her hamster ball.


7. Read some more of Gruel and Unusual Punishment by Tamar Myers. I am not usually one for the standard mystery novels but I really like these! The main character is a Mennonite Inn Keeper in Penn-Dutch country (my Grandma's birthplace) and there's recipes scattered throughout the book that relate to the story. The main characters are quirky and funny. The story would make an awesome TV series.

(and read the novelist's bio: About the author Whoa.



I'm also reading an older National Geographic from October 1991-"1491:America before Columbus". We collect National Geographics and about once a month , I pull one off the shelf and read it cover to cover. If you've ever done more than browse through a NG to look at the pictures, you know how rich and textured the articles are. They're good brain food.


Speaking of National Geographic, our local homeschool community is gathering students to enter the Geo Bee. No definitive word from either of the twins whether or not they'd like to participate but I think it'd be fun. But then again,I'm the geek who plays stupid trivia games online :P


This our latest "game" here at home:


Yes, it's wide ribbon and a bunch of little toys.But it's more than just ribbon and toys! It's a Storytelling Game.

(although I have to say,the objects we have used before were a little bit more exciting than the ones pictured )

I choose a handful of random small objects from around the house (there is never any shortage in this house). I unroll a length of wide ribbon (I think that crepe paper would work,too) and starting at one end, hide an object on the ribbon,roll it up and insert objects intermittently untill the whole ribbon is completely rolled up.

Then,the "storytellers" take turns uncovering the objects by unrolling the ribbon.As each object is uncovered, the Storyteller who's turn it is, inserts the object into the story.


None of that made sense,did it? Well, it made sense when I explained it to the girls when we tried it for the first time earlier this week and they enjoyed playing it several times since then :)



Must go. Child staring at me.I think she wants a turn on the computer. Hmmph.