Next Time

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what nots of Home School Dad.


Tonight's Episode: Next Time

On January 6, 2009, I started this here blog. Just a couple of pictures of our 3 children answering the titular question Why do we home school? Not exactly the stuff of legend. I did start a tradition on that post that I have maintained now for 56 subsequent posts. I always end each post telling the reader what is coming next. It is the journalist and talk show host in me. I like you, the bloggee, to know what's coming next.

If you page back to my first post, then page forward looking at all the next time tags, you will see that I am never wrong. If I say Next Time: Swimming Lessons, by golly the next post is about swimming lessons. Incredible.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, I cheat. Often when I say what is coming next, I have not yet written that post. Sometimes all I have is an idea. Sometimes, I decide I'd rather post about something different than what I advertised. Well if this were a magazine, newspaper or weekly television program, I would just have to live with my mistake and make some disclaimer type announcement. Here at blog central, no such problem. I write my new post and then simply edit my old post and put in the new title. When my devoted readership comes back and I am writing about newts, they may be a little bewildered and say, "Hey, I thought he said he was going to write about hippos!" They will go back to my previous post, and there for all to see, it will say: "Next Time: Newts." Amazing!

Well, I don't use it very often. But I am glad it's there, obsessive as I am. I was going to write about this my last time out, but this week my two oldest children rode their bikes without training wheels for the first time. So, I wrote about that instead and just changed the next time information on my prior post. The only place where there are any discrepancies on my future issues, is on my face book page. I feed these posts directly to my face book page. I have the feed set up automatically. What you see there is the original next time message.

Next Time: Announcing the Quarter Winner. (Or will it?)

The Kids Bike

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate cyclists! Cyclists! Go cyclists! It was Tuesday afternoon and my 7 year old and I decided the training wheels needed to go. So I took them off and I've been riding without them ever since. Kidding! They were his training wheels.

We took them off and went to the church parking lot, down the street. There was quite a bit of falling and after a while my sad, dejected son wanted to give up and go home. I told him 3 more falls and we would go home. The next time up he got it. Here is some footage.

When my 9 year old, also still in training wheels, got wind of Charlie's achievement, she wanted to be part of the act. So here she is earlier today.

They are getting better and better and I am really proud of both of them. We plan to do a lot of biking as a family this year sans training wheels will be best.

Next Time: Next Time

Song Parodies

If you haven't figured it out already I am unusual. A former seminary professor described me recently as marching to a different drummer. That's putting it mildly. That's why I am using this household hints/time saving carnival to tell you why I like song parodies. But bear with me before you move on to the next post, I do have a WFMW method to my madness.

It all started with my upbringing. The music I remember most vividly listening to when I was a child was Allen Sherman, most famous for his song Camp Grenada (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah) also known as a Letter from Camp. My siblings and I had all of his songs memorized. Sherman would take simple songs like On Top of Old Smokey and put a bizarre twist on:

On Top of Old Smokey
All covered with hair
Of course I'm referring
To Smokey the Bear

Down by the Riverside became Don't Buy the Liverwurst and there were so many like that.

My Mom and Dad celebrate the holidays by writing their Christmas Letter to the tune of popular Christmas Carols. Thus for Christmas 1974, the year when their final child, my sister, was born their friends and family were treated to this reworking of Hark The Herald, Angels Sing

January 27
We were 6 and then were 7
On that day in early morn
Bonnie Eileen, at last was born

She is Kathy's pride and joy
'Specially because she's not a boy.

As I continued to grow I began to shift from Allen Sherman to a weirder Al, that being Mr. Yankovic. Being a big fan of Billy Joel, I liked how Yankovic skewered him in "It's still Billy Joel to me." ...

Bought a couple of his record albums and they're starting to sound the same
It might be Elvis and it might be the blues
It might sound like the B-52's
But it's all Billy Joel to me.

Song Parodies work for me first because I am a man with a passion for song writing who can't carry a tune, with or without a bucket. So my melodies do not sound, when I sing them, like they sound in my head. If I write a straight song, I need to find someone to write music for my lyrics. If I write a parody at least the public knows what it's supposed to sound like.

Parodies, don't have to be funny. I have written touching songs like the time one of the girls the college group moved away. I wrote a farewell to the tune of Hakuna Matata called Hakuna Renatta. Her name is Audrey, so it didn't work that well. Her name was Renatta, I'm just kidding about Audrey.

I got to thinking about song parodies recently when one of the contributors here, dropped out of blogging last week. See my post Danger:Blogging for further details. Instantly the first stanza and chorus of a song to the tune of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love" hopped into my mind. Now this person came back to blogging less than a week after she left, ruining my second verse and chorus. Real life gets so much in the way of the creative process. But I went back to the drawing board and I present in homage to the fine upstanding mother of 5 pirates and a princess:

Bye Bye Blogs

She was a blogger

A virtual friend

'Til her days of blogging

came to an end

Her blog was helpful

And filled with mirth

But her 6 children

It was not worth

So she said

Bye bye blog

Hello family

Do you remember me?

I used to blog about you

Bye bye blog

I'm sad we had to part

You're not my children's heart

I'm not called to care for you

Your not the love that's true

'Twas not a fortnight

Less than a week

Her blog came back

With a few tweaks

Blogs can be useful

When in their place

She'll find the balance

with our Lord's  grace

So she said hello blogs

You're not my idol now

Won't make you a golden cow

I know what matters most

Hello blogs

My blog's not what I am

If it was, it would all be spam

I won't forget my post

Or I'd be a bad host

Song parodies work for me, to find out what works for normal people, go to We are that Family and check out Works For Me Wednesday.

Next Time: The Kids Bike

Our Star Wars Names

My son loves Star Wars. He would spend all his time playing Star Wars if I let him. Amy and I usually don't allow guns or shooting in the house. But I have assured Amy that this all took place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

I was in a bargain basement aisle at a local store today, when I saw this clone trooper outfit. He absolutely loves it. Star Wars is not the same passion for the rest of the family as it is for Char Char Binks, but we like it because we love him.

This is why we all adopted Star Wars names recently. Charlie is no longer the aforementioned binks but is now Clone Captain Chuck.

Before I divulge the rest of our monikers here's a joke Charlie made up for any Star Wars junkies out there. Q: What happens when a clone captain gets in an auto accident? A: Clone Captain Rex (wrecks) .

I am Daddy wan Kenobi
Amy is Amy-kins Sky Walker
Emma is Emma the Hut
Lucy is the nefarious Count Lulu

Charlie must have real issues with women. The men are the good guys and the women tend towards the darkside. Hmmmmmm?????

Next Time: Song Parodies.