While Dad is away...

Corey was out of town for business from Mon-Thurs last week. We had a busy week with school, dance, tumbling, writing, SRL practice, helping Mom & MJ out with the dogs 1 night, and a field trip 1 morning. We managed to get through just fine. Maybe even better than fine considering the number of late nights (for my kids) and a couple of early mornings. We even dealt with *no* internet connection the whole time (darn router) and Mama having a stomach bug the 1st day. There is nothing like a crazy week to make you really appreciate a wonderful, actively involved partner when they aren't here. You realize just how much their support and co-parenting really means.

We went to see The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at Nashville Children's Theatre on Thursday morning. What a fabulous show! I know I sound surprised and I'm really not. We have yet to see a show that I didn't consider fabulous. LOL! :-) This show runs through October 11th. So if you are in the Nashville area, go see it.

Corey came home exhausted but is currently on vacation. He definitely needs the break as they've been working like crazy for a while. I'm hoping we can get some relaxing family time since we can't go anywhere.

Schoolhouse Rock Live wrapped up today. They had a great run. The kids & adults involved did a wonderful job and put in many hours of hard work. It paid off. :-) Morgan is already talking about the next auditions. We will see...

Book giveaway

They are on the last book giveaway and they are good books. :-) Check out
On My Bookshelf to read about the books and enter the drawing for the books. I particularly like this giveaway for the green guide.

How do you kill chicken noodle soup?

I've managed to do something that I didn't think was possible. I killed homemade chicken noodle soup...a whole crockpot full of homemade chicken noodle soup. Talk about a tragedy. The waste! It still makes me sad/mad thinking about it. I put in a whole chicken, vegetables, salt/pepper, and stock into the crockpot this morning. Several hours later I pulled the chicken out to get the meat off the bones, removed the "dead" veggies...they had given their flavor to the stock, and put fresh veggies & the chicken meat back in...let everything continue to cook. About 4:30pm I add a whole bag of egg noodles to it and head out to take Morgan to her writing class & Schoolhouse Rock Live rehearsal. I get home about 6pm and scoop up bowls of soup for dinner. I notice that the noodles aren't very noodle-y. Hmm....okay. We sit down and take a bite...Oh the disappointment! The noodles had turned to MUSH...seriously "wet bread" type of mush, ick! The flavor seemed to be completely missing. I was so sad, mad, and disappointed. A whole day, 1 chicken, carrots, celery, noodles, stock...all for naught. How can you do this? How do you screw up chicken noodle soup in the crockpot?

Let me tell you how. You forget the onion, garlic and HERBS (darn it Kelly!), you put the noodles in TOO early, and most of all....you assume that you can NOT screw up chicken noodle soup in the crockpot so you don't double check yourself. Yep, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this will get you every time!

We could see no way to save it. With great sadness we dumped it. And then made grilled ham & cheese sandwiches for dinner and ate them with heavy hearts. I will make a delicious, homemade chicken noodle soup this fall or winter. I will! I am determined.

Book give-a-way

I was just introduced to this blog that celebrates books. The 2 co-bloggers, Allison & Holly, are giving away books on their blog for BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week). You need to stop by, give them a read and check out their book give-a-ways. On My Bookshelf .

It is starting to feel like...

Fall. No, it isn't officially Fall yet and our weather has warmed back up after our Fall teaser...but it is still starting to feel like Fall. You can just feel it coming on the wind. Football season has started..NFL, college, high school, middle school and pop warner. I saw pumpkins at farmer's stands today while out & about. My husband made chili in the crock pot today and the kids are starting to ask for "warmer" foods...soups, casseroles,etc. I *love* Fall. It is my favorite season of the year and I didn't even know until I moved to NY in November 1997. Living in NY for 5 years allowed me to fall in love with Fall...the weather changing, the leaves changing colors (oh the glorious colors!), going apple picking in wonderful apple orchards,going to a real pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin out of the farmer's field, and starting to wear jackets to keep the chill out.

This year I can add knitting to my list. I'm starting on my second little project, another washcloth. But having completed one and it looking good, I have confidence. If I complete this one with no messed up stitches (slipped off & not p/up correctly...I think) then I'm going to start working on the purl stitch. Look out world, I'm knitting! :-) Morgan is on her 3rd little project and has less messed up stitches with each one. I'm trying to get her to slow down so her stitches will be neater and she might not make the mistakes she is finding later. Once I feel okay with the purl stitch than I'm going to make a scarf. That will be my first "big" project.

Fun Education

Most of us remember School House Rock. Those of us that grew up with it on Saturday mornings can still recall at least some of the songs. Several years ago, we purchased the 2-dvd pack of School House Rock. It brought up a lot of memories for me, as well as Corey. The kids fell in love with it. And as a homeschooling family it fits in great. We can play it for fun and it reinforces things they already know or are learning. To top it all off, Morgan will be in a local production of Schoolhouse Rock Live! which is a musical that was written bringing many of the songs together. She is very excited about it and has worked hard learning her songs and dance steps. We can't wait for the performance.

A friend of our's is very big into kids' music. They have a website, Gooney Bird Kids , and we were introduced to They Might Be Giants and their latest CD, Here Comes Science . The kids and I watched & listened to a couple of songs and I just had to order the CD. It was mailed out today! I can't wait until it arrives and we get to listen to the whole thing. I am especially excited to see how Alex enjoys the whole thing because he is SOOO into science. He just loves it. If we could do science every day, all day he would be great. Tuesday night at HP Club they had Messy Science night and did all these fun, cool, messy science experiments. Oh my goodness, he was so in his zone. It makes me so happy to see him excited and happy about things. He has always had a harder time finding things he likes.

Knitting 101

One of my goals in my 101 Things to do in 1001 Days is to learn to knit...other goals include making something. ;-) Over a year ago, a friend started teaching Morgan and I how to knit while we were in Tampa for a weekend. Unfortunately that lesson wasn't long enough and we didn't have any repeat lessons, back up or support when we got home (knitting support, knowledge) so it slipped away. I finally decided that I needed to take some steps to teach myself because who knows when I'll get to Tampa again to learn from Aimee. LOL!

I picked up a knitting dvd and a book, Stitch 'n Bitch to help us. I also got some bamboo knitting needles because I hated the aluminum ones we had from a kit. I started this morning and have managed to cast on, twice, and get several rows of knitting done. Morgan asked if I would teach her and told me that she had already read through the first part of the book. So, I sat down with her and guided her as she worked through the steps for making a slip knot, casting on and her first knitting stitches. She had some trouble and got plenty of practice casting on...seven times...but remained patient throughout (yea! big step for her) and now has a nice little swatch of her knitting. We had to get her attention several times to get her to come to dinner...and then she was begging for more time to knit at bedtime. LOL!

Here are a couple pictures. :-)

Morgan casting on

Morgan knitting


Proud of herself or what?


Kelly's swatch so far

What to do?

What do you do when you have finally had enough with the town/area in which you live?

We moved just over 3 years ago. For the first year (at minimum) I was ready to move back to Tampa at a moment's notice. If I could have picked up our house and taken it with us there would not have been a second thought. After that we settled into a routine the best we could. We found activities for the kids and we have a few friends. None of us have the close friends that we had in Tampa. We miss that. As a homeschooling mom, I miss like-minded friends HORRIBLY! I have tried and tried...have made a couple friends...but no one really close. The one or two times I've found someone that I really think I can get along with and love their personality, they've lived here for a long time & have lots of long time friends and I'm an outsider looking it. Let me tell ya...it sucks!! I'm an outgoing, social person and this sucks. Just how am I an outsider...let's see..."new" to the town (3 years), not Christian, not conservative, not Republican, am a homeschooler..and even in that group I'm an outsider due to the previous 3 things. So, you can see how it is. I guess I have more than 3 strikes...so I'm out.

So, what do you do when you've moved somewhere and you regret it? How do we make it right? Even if we were ready to leave right now nothing is selling so we couldn't. Frustrating & depressing. Heck, we aren't even able to take a vacation to see friends right now. Blech!

I don't believe that everyone has to believe the same, think the same,etc. I am a full believer in "agree to disagree" and "live and let live". But I don't know how you can live completely surrounded by people that don't believe or follow either of those. If you don't believe what they believe, live like they live,etc...then you are wrong and your mind must be changed...or you are shut out. I don't want my children raised around this. :-/

Now, if things improve with the housing market and if it becomes something that we can do. Where should we move? Liberal, open-minded, progressive, and green? Is there any such town, city, or area?