Not Much. what's a woodchuck with you?

On the way home from Awana today, my son asked me why a woodchuck is called a woodchuck. I told him, I did not know but would find out.

And the thing is I did . . .




groundhog day! Originally uploaded by NapaneeGal


I originally thought that woodchuck was just an informal version of Wood Charles. It turns out, a woodchuck is just another name for a groundhog. It comes from the Indian name for groundhogs and other similar animals, wujak. The name evolved into woodchuck. I don't believe the animal evolved, but I can believe the name did.

I also found out that woodchuck isn't the only alternate name for groundhog. There is also Land Beaver and Whistle Pig. It reminds me of that old tongue twister (I just made up):

How many names would a ground hog have if a ground hog could ground names?

Keith Time: Memories From the Funeral Part I

Sunday at the Rollers

And now, a word from our sponsor....

What does Sunday at the Roller's house look like? Maybe much like your house. Wake up, make breakfast, run around getting everyone cleaned and dressed for church. Go to church. Enjoy worship, preaching, and announcements about our pastor search. During second service, divide up into our various classes where we're serving. Don't forget the donuts. Get home by 1:30. Have a nice relaxing lunch, then everyone scatters for their Sunday down time. Some are reading, some are playing Lego's, some are watching tv, some are sorting coins, some are devising ways to get the others involved in her dramatic/comedic play that they will write later. Sundays are generally spent doing all of these things. Then, someone remembers that the fish are almost out of water (they tend to die if we use tap water), and we're almost out of tp and dishwasher soap. So, a quick run to Walmart to pick up the essentials. Obviously, a LOT of other families had the SAME idea! Not before the dog and sheep dramatic/comedic plays. Some of us had better roles than others: Dad and older sister were crawling around as either dogs or sheep, younger sister (author and director) also "got to" crawl around as dog and sheep, brother was the clown to make the animals happy (did his job with gusto) and mom had the cushy role of looking for the lost dogs and lost sheep. Evening spent watching Hulu: Extreme Home Makeover, and Supernanny. More coin sorting by some. Oops! Forgot to have dinner. Dad to the rescue, picks up our favorites! Thanks dad! One more Sunday gone by...tune in next week for another episode of As the Rollers Roll...

Keith Time: The International impact of Keith Part II

Six words for vote for me @ HSBA

http://www.showmyface.com/ has arguably the best blog meme ever. Six Word Saturday is all that and a bag of chips infinity. It is also one of the few memes with a day in it that doesn't broadcast a day before it's name sake. WTG in the truth in advertising game, Show my Face!

My Six Words today could easily be surmised from the above button. But I'll be glad to reiterate . (reiterate v. - To iterate again) :

2010 Homeschool Blog Awards. Vote Now!

The HSBA Post is again hosting the awards. There is about a week to vote and for the purpose of full disclosure, my blog is nominated in 2 0f the 20 categories. Yes, I have been nominated for best Home School Dad blog again this year. Since the name of my blog is Home School Dad, you'd think I'd be a shoe-in. Tell that to Families Again who won last year. I say vote for me and let him win Best Families Again Blog.

And as surprising as it may sound considering the last paragraph, I am also up for funniest home school blog. You can vote for me by clicking here. I strongly urge that you browse all the categories. You may find some new favorites (fav-o-rites n. Irish Rapper).

To get back to more Six Word Saturday or just to get away from me click here.

Keith Time: A Summertime Remembrance

The Great Pizza Battle

The basic idea is to share a number of different tidbits that you'd generally not waste a whole post with. It's kind of like my old 3 Things Thursday meme, except it's on Friday, and people read it.

I thought I'd begin these fragments with some local flavor. The Chicago area is renowned for it's great pizza. When we moved to this town 9 years ago, we found a great local pizza place. Local, it's actually only a block from our house. It's a really cool place with a hunting lodge decor. The pizza is great, but they also have great hot dogs and polish sausage. They have complimentary peanuts and insist you throw the shells on the floor.

I don't know all of the exact details that led to the situation I am about to describe. I have heard many conflicting reports, so I am going to be vague to insure I don't pass on misinformation. The pizza place was located in a small complex that includes a hair salon and 7-11. Last year the owners of the pizza place bought the two houses across the street, and had them razed. I thought at the time that this was merely an expansion. In truth the restaurant had let its lease run out and was rebuilding across the street.

A few months later a new pizza place opened in the old one's former location. It was started by a former employee, who wanted to have a place of his own. I tried it a couple of times. The secret to a good pizza, is the sauce. This sauce was not close to the quality of the former tenants.

This summer the building of the new establishment started in earnest. Yesterday they opened. Now we have two pizza places a block's walk from our house. The only time I have ever seen two pizza places so close to each other is in downtown Chicago, and those are generally filled up with tourists. Our small suburb doesn't get a lot of tourists. It's just going to be a short time until there is only 1 pizza place on the block again. I'll keep you posted.


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This week we are finishing up our ed 5 week study called Passport to India. It was a Sonlight class and everyone really liked it. Each session we watched a video like this one. We collected $25.00 for Bible Clubs in India. This would generally allow 25 Indian children to attend bible clubs. Sonlight matched our gift, which will allow another 25 children to attend.


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We play a lot of games in our family. One game we really like is Mastermind. For a game that reinforces logical thinking, the box is packaged most inefficiently. In the olden days (when I was a kid), the mastermind game which has a rectangular shape, had a box to match. These days they have put the rectangular game in a square box. The packaging was obviously not designed by a master mind!

Speaking of which, the blog Thrifty Jinxy is giving away a Mastermind game and a new game called Animal Mastermind (I'm not sure how that one is packaged.) Click here to enter the contest.





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Those are all the fragments, I have for you today. Make sure to hop on over to all the other particpating blogs.



Keith Time: The International Impact of Keith Part I

Big 40 minus the birthday boy

My brother Keith would have turned 40 today. He died 18 months ago so he never quite made the milestone.

When My Mom turned 40, my Dad put a banner across our garage that read "Jeanne's 40 today. But don't tell anyone!". We lived across from the local library at the time and man people people became aware of the event.

When I turned 40, Amy had a surprise party for me and had one of my favorite musicians, Alan Levi, fly in from Alabama and sing at my party. He performed the following song among others .

When Amy turned 40, relatives teamed with me so I could give her 40 rolls of quarters. (Amy love quarters)

Keith died 18 months ago, so he never quite made the milestone. Keith was born on veteran's day and loved that his birthday was celebrated by many people even though they might not be aware they were doing so.

Today as you reflect on the men and women who served our country in the military. Reflect also on the men and women boys and girls who left the party before we had a chance to throw them one.