Star Trek Interruptions

Word Count Wednesday: 100 Words or Les

The Carnival of Homeschooling is hosted at The Informed Parent this week. One post by Home School and Etc. entitled Star Trek Homeschooling caught my attention.

I have been slowly indoctrinating my children into the world of Star Trek. Last month, we watched several episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. We were watching one episode when two of the characters started kissing. Charlie was outraged. "Who interrupted a perfectly good Star Trek Episode with kissing?" He shouted at the screen.

I was very proud that he has his priorities firmly in place.

Narnia Update

This semester I am teaching two classes at the kids home school co-op. They are both classes about C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. One is for first through third graders the other is 4th through 6th graders. Last week the family was ill so other parents filled in for my classes. This week I am having the older class do an art project. I am going to have each student draw title art for one of the chapters in Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. For the younger class we are going to make Reepicheep masks based on one of the most endearing characters from the series.

While I am very creative with words and ideas. I am not exactly what you would call artistic. Teaching a craft/story class has definitely been out of my comfort zone. For the older students it has been more along my comfort level. But to challenge the students and myself I have had 3 projects (1 writing, 1 drawing and 1 acting) along side the regular course work. Students (and teachers) all have different strengths and weaknesses. By giving myself and the students opportunities inside and outside are areas of comfort and expertise I think we are learning more than what we may have signed on for.

Happy Birthday Charlie! I Miss You Keith!

Today my son turns 8. It's an exciting day for me and also a difficult one. This is the first day of my Brother's birth month. He would have turned 39 this year. He died in April. I have blogged extensively about it here.



I have decided to celebrate my brother's life in a small way by separating all my posts this month by 39 hours. I will not be blogging about Him each time but He will definitely be on my mind. I will interrupt that cadence on Midnight November 11th (his birthday) to share little remembrances every 39 minutes. It is the kind of mathematical pattern that I think Keith would enjoy. To my facebook friends and family who remember Keith I encourage you to send remembrances to me and I will include them in my salute. I'll edit the montage afterward and make it available to you in a more accessible format.



Now back to my birthday boy. Let me give you a couple connections he has to Keith. Like Keith he is very logical and loves strategy games like Chess and Risk. Charlie was the last of my children to see my brother alive. I brought him to visit Keith and Keith helped him with his Chess Homework.



Charlie is in the same Cub scout pack as his cousin Bobby. I am taking them both together so Bobby has a male influence there. I hope to have a good picture of the both of them soon in scout uniform but here is one of Charlie for the time being.


Happy Birthday Charlie! I miss you, Keith! I Salute you both!

Pictures from captivity

Some pictures from our recent illness.

The past week the kids and I have been sick. Even though I hear some coughing in the background. We all seem to be for the most part well.
I thought I would just share a few pictures of the week that was.





Emma and Lucy baked cookies over the weekend. Lucy wanted one at bedtime. She fell asleep with it.

Here is a closeup.










On Wednesday the kids called me into Charlie's room. Here is what Charlie had picked out to wear.









Here is how I looked after being basically locked up with 3 sick kids for a week.









Here is how I felt.







So that's our week. I am glad we are all finally well and that I lived to tell the tale. I showed my face again this week. Now it's time for you to head over to Show my face dot com for more 6 word Saturday.

Next Time: Celebrating Charlie and Keith

The Most Wonderful Thing About Tiggers

Fits me to a T.

My Life in T-Shirts

When I was in college, my sister bought me a real cool Tigger shirt. I won't describe the front as you should be looking right at it. But the back had the Tigger song printed on the back: You know the one . . .

The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers

Is Tiggers are wonderful Things

Their Tops are made out of Rubber

Their Bottoms are made out of Springs

They're Bouncy, Trouncy, Flouncy, Pouncy Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun!

But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I'm the only one.

It continues (although I'm not sure it continues on the shirt)

Tiggers are wonderful fellas

Tiggers are awfully sweet

Everyone ellis is jealous! That's why I repeat repeat

I loved that shirt. That shirt got through college, made it through 2 years in Russia. There's a picture of me wearing it in my yearbook from seminary. My wife wore it on a missions trip to Turkey in 2000. Sometime after that it came up missing. It had a long and storied life so I didn't grieve too much for it, but I sure do miss it. It would have made quite the adult t-shirt turned kid's pajamas.

This post is one in a series of remembrances of t-shirts past. Some people may wonder why I'm so nostalgic about t-shirts. The truth is, I'm nostalgic about everything. I'm nostalgic about the future. Here is a quick ditty I just composed to the Tigger tune that may explain my love for t-shirts.

The most wonderful thing about t-shirts

Is t-shirts are quite fun to wear

They're great to roll up your sleeves in

They help you let down your hair

They're cool, they're stylish, some think they're childish and while I will not bicker

the most wonderful thing about t-shirts is they're frontwards bumper stickers!

Well that's it for me for today. I like t-shirts. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Head on over to Half Past Kissin' time for more fragmented Friday fun.

Next Time: Pictures