A Quote to Start Things Off

Somebody told me there was no such thing as truth. I said if that's the case then why should I believe you" -Lecrae - Gravity

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

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Sunday, October 17, 2010

In Praise of The Carnival of Homeschooling

If you have been following this blog you know that since I hit post 300 earlier this year I have been writing some tribute posts to my top 25 labels over that time period. Now with 12 posts left until # to 400 I am inching to the # 1 label.

Tonight's Episode: # 7 The Carnival of Homeschooling.

I have been a contributor to the Carnival of Homeschooling since January 2009, my first month in the blogging business. It was a little ditty called No Child left Ahead. I have also hosted the carnival 3 times since then. My last time was with reflections on the panorama of homeschooling. I need to move on because this is teetering towards self promotion, and I am really here to talk about the carnival. Here are a few reasons why I like the Carnival of Homeschooling:

1. It's better than a meme.

I say this because, while I love a good meme they can have 100's of linked articles. Good luck reading 1/2 of them and having any semblance of a life. The carnival has a finite amount of submissions each week and can usually be read cover to cover without abandoning your loved ones for weeks at a time.

2. It covers a lot of bases.

While all the articles are home school related, the carnival is generally an eclectic mix of ideas, opinions and insights. Homeschooling flakes are a lot like the snow variety as no two are exactly the same. It is good to have a 1 stop shop each week that will cover such a vast spectrum of home schooling issues.


3. It is an excellent networking tool for home educators.


Since there is this vast spectrum of home school banter, the reader is exposed to many great ideas to implement in their own classrooms. From field trips, to curriculum, to coping skills the carnival has been an invaluable asset.


4. It helps unlock the Internet.


Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that each issue has Easter Eggs with cheat codes on how to unlock the Internet. I'm not saying that each issue doesn't either. So knock yourself out if you want to search for them. What I am saying is that in many ways the Carnival of Homeschooling has helped me better navigate the web. If you look at my blog roll you will see many frequent contributors to the carnival who I am only familiar with because of said carnival. I also have picked up followers to my blog because of some of my submissions here.


I became aware of the HSBA that I wrote about in my last post through the carnival.

I have nominated many blogs this year that I learned about from this carnival. You could nominate your favorite home school blogs by clicking here. My great humility and desire to not promote myself prevents me from mentioning that you could also nominate my blog if you wanted to. Good thing for my legendary humility.

5. It's a blast and a half (kaboom, kab.) to host the carnival.

Honestly, hosting the carnival is a lot of labor. But anyone who's ever done it knows it's a labor of love. It gives you the opportunity to get the first look at all the articles before hand. It also gives you a back stage view of the carnival. If you have never hosted, you would be surprised by how many non home school related carnivals come in each week and how about 1/3 of the submissions come in the last day (including this one). Hosting is also good for me because a theme topic is usually one that I would not have written about otherwise.

So there we have it, I like the Carnival of Homeschooling. If you are reading this from the carnival, I imagine it that you like it too. You can also click here to check out the most recent edition.

Next Time: The United Guitar Trilogy

Saturday, October 16, 2010

HSBA Nominations have begun



Join Me at The Homeschool Post!


Show my face dot com has Six Word Saturdays each and every Saturday. I am a regular contributor. Sometimes my six words are funny, sometimes they are windows to my soul. Today they are purely self promotional:

Nominate me. I homeschool. I'm funny.

The Homeschool Blog Awards nomination process began today. Last year I was nominated in the best Homeschool Dad blog category and with a blog called Homeschool Dad that is a good fit for me. If any of my readers see fit to nominate me again this year in that category I would be very grateful. However there is a category of the 20 or so that I covet more than that. It is the Funniest home school blog category.

Funny is definitely my love language. I worked at a company for almost 10 years and always received very good annual reviews. The part I always highlighted to show my wife was the Dave has an excellent sense of humor comment that seemed to get written every year. I know that in the world of business a nice sense of humor comment may seem to some as akin to saying that a homely person has a great personality. I never took it that way. I often tell people that my job aptitude tests in high school said my ideal profession would be court jester. I love making people laugh and this blog among other things is an opportunity to do just that. Also one thing that I have found in my 2+ years of being the lead home educator in the family is that a good sense of humor is as important as a good curriculum.

So if you are up for it feel free to nominate me for funniest home school blog and be sure to nominate other worthy home school blogs in other categories. Click here to participate in the nominations.

For more six word Saturday head back to http://www.showmyface.com/. Also As a show of good faith I will teach you one of my favorite jokes that I have created over the years. Here's how it goes.

On a rainy day when you are around some people that you know. Get their attention than run outside in the pouring rain. Lift your right hand over your head and close your fist in a way that looks like you are holding something in your hand. While holding the pose turn to your audience and say "Why mimes get wet."

Next Time: In praise of the carnival of homeschooling.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A Lucyism by any other name

Before I decided to give the kids nicknames here on this blog I called them by their real names and even the labels reflected that. Amidst all the real stuff I do off line, I have been trying to clean up past posts and labels. I have changed all the posts about the ways and sayings of my youngest to Puppyisms rather than her nameisms. But let's face facts they are Lucyisms!

She says so many of them I can't always recall them. One of my recent favorites was when my wife commented on the fact that Puppy is always hungry and asking for food said that we were going to give her a meal every 10 minutes. The next morning and for the next few days Puppy would come up to me and say has it been 10 minutes yet I'm hungry again. I had to finally explain to her that we were not, in fact, going to feed her every 10 minutes. She was less than thrilled.

A few weeks ago I was having a little trouble with my oldest daughter talking back to me. So I called her into my room and was having a private conversation with her about her attitude. Now Puppy doesn't know what a private conversation is so she just wandered in. Here is a transcript from that convo

Me: Bunny you need show me respect.

Puppy: Daddy do you know what spect means?

Me: No, I don't. Bunny and I are talking right now.

Puppy: Daddy you shouldn't use words if you don't know what they mean!

After a few more interchanges I realized that she was asking what spect meant because I said respect and she heard the word spect.

Call them Puppyisms, call them Lucyisms, I just call them precious snapshots of a very special person.

Next Time: Nominations

Monday, October 11, 2010

Death disrupts order

I have been systematically going through my top 25 labels as of post 300 and breaking them down label by label. I am up to # 8 and was about to wax eloquent on the many and various sayings of my precious little puppy.

This was until I saw the topic of the latest Men's Monday Meme, How do you handle the death of a loved one. This made me jump all the way from daughter at # 8 to brother at #2 with Keith for 300.

I will return to the puppyisms next time. For now let's turn to Tim the author of Families Again. He reported in his last post that his mom is possibly terminally ill and he's not quite sure how to handle things like last goodbyes and tying up loose ends. In his meme he raised these questions for any men who wanted to answer them:

How do you fellow men deal with things like this? What are your secrets? Is it okay to be weak sometimes?

As I alluded to, this reminded me of my brother Keith. Keith passed away in April of 2009. Coping with his death and remembering his life have become mainstays of this blog. Keith's death took me by complete surprise. However, he had been in and out of hospitals with kidney and heart ailments for almost three years. Some of the hospitalizations lasted for months. When he was in the hospital, I would visit him at least once a week, sometimes even staying overnight in the hospital. My purpose for visiting him so frequently was three-fold: helping him pass the time with games and watching shows together, being an advocate for his health care, and there is something compulsive in me about visiting people when they are in hospitals. Even though I never expected him to die, you never know.

When I was out of work in 2006, Keith became ill. Within a month, he was at the Mayo Clinic. I had found a job that didn't start for a few weeks, so I was able to take the entire family and Keith's daughter to visit him. After that, Keith's health and well-being was like a family project.

I found that the more I got involved, the easier things became for me. Especially after he died. I never find myself thinking, "Why didn't I do more? Why wasn't I there for him?" As for being weak, that's a difficult one for me to answer because I've never been one of those Let's Chop Down a Tree and Not Talk About Our Feelings, kind of guy. Even though at some points, Keith had only 10% heart use and 10% kidney use, I never felt like his death was imminent. Perhaps that's why when he was living, I never felt weak.

I did often feel drained from the frequent visits. At the same time, Amy's dad was also having months long hospitalizations and at one point, my dad had a hip replacement and spent several weeks rehabing. It seemed we were always visiting someone in a hospital. Amy was especially encouraging and understanding during those times. I was working outside the home at the time and would often be at home only to sleep.

After Keith died was when much of my weaknesses showed. In some ways, I'm still in shock. Today I looked at a picture of Keith and me taken when I was living in Russia. The first thing I thought of was I couldn't believe he was dead. The initial grief was seemingly omnipresent. I would cry for no reason. Some of those moments are well documented in these posts. My family was a tremendous blessing to me during those times. I remember a time where my oldest daughter wrote a letter to me that was incredibly encouraging.

When Keith was in high school, I was his youth group leader. Several times he came forward saying he wanted to follow Christ. I was always unsure whether he was genuine or just trying to please me. When he was in college, he began to grow in his faith. My grieving for him is lessened knowing that he is in heaven now and someday I will be reunited with him.

Since Keith died last year, I have been active in the lives of his widow and children. Spending time with them and helping them as they need it, has also helped me move on to the next stage of life.

If you are interested in participating in the Men's Monday meme, click here. If you want to see more things I wrote about Keith, click here.

Next time: A Lucyism by any other name

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

My son the action hero: the slide show

Talking about my children is one of my favorite things to do on this blog. In terms of labels the # 9 through the first 300 blog posts has been posts about my son and his action hero ways. Here is an interview conducted by his sister this past winter . . .

He has many facets ...

Teammate



Fashion Plate
















Athlete















School Project assistant


















School Project Model
















































Day Laborer



















Goofball




















Big Brother





















Goofball





















Military Archivist

















Did I mention
goofball?



Next Time: A Lucyism by any other name.

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