Happy Halloween!

We decided to take today off from school. I know, I know. Halloween isn't a real holiday. Marty has worked a lot of hours this week (usually averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night) and he doesn't have to go to work until 3pm, so it seemed like a good day to take off and hang out with dad.

This morning we carved pumpkins. Ethan made a 2 sided scary monster, Alex made a "Woot" Monster pumpkin (Woot is carved into it, and the 2 o's are eyes) and Christian just carved one to get to the pumpkin seeds, his favorite part of Halloween. I will post pictures later.

After the seeds are roasted they are going to work on their Pumpkin Chunkers.

**Urgent Pumpkin Chunker Update**
They had their first practice run yesterday. Practice is a good thing.

Ethan figured out that he needs stronger sticks, Alex realized that just throwing it is not a bad idea, but could use improvement. Christian is still constructing the "megachunker" so hasn't had a chance to try it all together.

I will snap some pictures of today's practice and post them later.

Trick-or-treating is tonight. We are going to go to the mall and then the sub behind us. We are either going to eat at Marty's work or have a spooky dinner:
Guts and Eyeballs (Spaghetti and Meatballs), Witch Fingers (Rosemarry breadsticks), Brain goo (vegetable dip in a head of cauliflower, with vegetables to dip), caramel apples and of course, trick or treating candy for dessert.

Our favorite show, Ghost Hunters is doing a live show tonight. We are going to make hot chocolate and pop corn and see is we can stay up late enough to watch the whole thing!


Last night I had to call the police on the kids upstairs... again. They didn't answer the door because they thought it was me. Ha! One of the officer that came out was here the last time and was pissed. They ended up giving them a citation and told them that if they come out again - ever - they were going to jail. Midland's sound ordinance is pretty strict. They can go to jail the second call, and I guess the fine is pretty big.

On another note, the apartment manager said she walked back here this morning and is disgusted by what she saw. Cigarette butts everywhere , the garage is so full of trash that it smells in my garage, they park wherever they want to - usually blocking people in- and even parked in my driveway.

The guy across the cul-de-sac just got out of the hospital after having 1/3 of his lung removed due to lung Cancer. He should not have to listen to their radio and revving their cars, kwim?

I guess I should feel bad for them, though. They were raised to be this rude. When their co-signers (parents) were contacted about the noise the first thing they all said was "They do realize that they are College students, don't they?" As if that is a free pass to be as loud and rude as they want. They are just spoiled rich kids that have never been taught any different. Its a shame, really.

Anyway, I am off to supervise a pumpkin chunking practice session, and take lots of pictures.

Barenaked Ladies - Wind It Up

Ahhh... the memories.

Pumpkin Chunking

Every year we watch a show on "Pumpkin Chunking" and every year we talk about how much fun it would be. This year we are going to do it.

I gave each boy a budget of $5, free use of most of the stuff in the garage and a small gourd like pumpkin. I was planning to have the "competition" in two weeks, when my brother is here, but they are almost done with their "chunkers" and there is only so much practicing a person can do.

Ethan spent $3.95 for a pack of 10 small bungee cords and is using a dishwasher detergent bottle from the recycle bin and a big stick (yet to be found) to make a giant sling shot.

Christian is also making a sling shot, but is building a base with a "launch pad" of sorts (pointing to the sky to hopefully help the pumpkin along) and two $1.87 large, flat bungee cords.

Alex is using his hand to throw it as far as he can. LOL

There was talk of a trebuchet at one time, and Ethan even tossed around the idea of doing the sling toss thing (which of course I cant remember the name of right now.)

There will be a prize for longest distance, lowest cost and most creative. The prizes will be bags of pumpkin seeds. lol

We will have our first practice tomorrow, using potatoes. I will keep you updated.

It is going to be a looooong day

I slept in. Kind of.

Finally fell asleep at 2:30, had to take Marty to work at 5:30, so I woke up at 5 and didn't get back to sleep until 6. So instead of getting up at our normal time I slept until 9, which of course meant that two of the boys did too. Now they are all dragging butt and don't want to get off the couch. Can't say I blame them... this seems like a hanging out and doing nothing day.

Must. Resit. Urge.

My grandma is in the hospital again. She fell again and has bleeding on the brain again. They are doing a Cat Scan again, and won't know anything until this afternoon. Again.

I have to get these boys off the couch or we will get nothing accomplished today.

Gilgamesh, again

Gilgamesh Study Guide
Epic of Gilgamesh - Study Questions
Epic of Gilgamesh - Study Guide
About Babylonian Mythology


Reading mature themes with high schoolers:
Some of the content of The Epic of Gilgamesh is shall we say, mature. In my humble opinion, the "mature" topics are no worse than the "mature" topics of the Bible, so it should be read and discussed on the same level. Meaning, if you would not let your high schooler read the Bible because of the content then I would do the same with Gilgamesh, and vice versa.

The reason I chose to have Christian read this is for the historical significance. The Epic of Gilgamesh is thought to be one of the oldest - if not the oldest- recorded stories in the world. As a history fanatic, I couldn't pass that up.

We also happen to be reading about Mesopotamia in Speilvolgel's The Human Odyssey. He is doing a Civilization Worksheet for Mesopotamia (Thank you, Virginia Dawn!) and when answering one of the questions, read

Although historians (and your textbook) tend to emphasize Hammurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the first civilizations, focus rather on Gilgamesh and the legends accruing around him to explain, as it were, themselves.

We decided that since we covered Hammurabi in depth and skimmed Gilgamesh during the Logic stage we would cover Gilgamesh in depth and skim Hammurabi.


The above quote came from the article Gilgamesh Summary from the website World Civilizations and was written by Richard Hooker.

Dog tired

Today I got a lot done around the house... so much that I am too tired to type it all out. I haven't been this tired in a long time. I wanted to pre-read the retelling of Gilgamesh that Christian and I will be reading tomorrow but I don't know how far I will make it.

I'm going to bed.

HGP Update

Last week was Kitchen week. I didn’t have much to do in there, since it was the one room I was sure to do right when we moved! I mostly deep cleaned and rearranged a few things for better storage.

This week is Closets/Pantry week. My "pantry" is a large restaurant shelf in my utility room. I just added shelves to it a few weeks ago so I cleaned and organized then. I use the extra time to catch up on frozen meals and holiday goodies. I am still looking for some good freezer meal recipes, if anyone has one to share.

Archery

Last night was the first Archery meeting. Ethan was so excited yesterday he could barely stand it. Once we got there he was so in his element. He got to shoot quite a few times, qualified to shoot at the 20 yard line and made a new friend (and even exchanged phone numbers) so all in all it was a pretty good day as far as he is concerned.

Alex and Christian didn't go, because Alex still wasn't feeling well and Christian offered to stay home with him. They will go next week, and I think they will have just as much fun. Alex really wants to do some of the other shooting sports, but I don't know how I feel about it. We'll see.

Just another manic Monday...

Alex is sick today. He managed to get math done before he had to lie down. - That's how I know he is really sick. He did the subject he hates the most. If he were faking it he would have not bothered to do math. - He is in my bed now watching TV. Every so often Christian will go ask him to breathe on him so he can get out of his math test. Nice try, buddy!

The weather is still pretty cold here. This morning it was 44° when I took Marty to work. It is supposed to rain all through tonight and into tomorrow.

I need to go grocery shopping later. Fun! We are still doing pretty well with eating from the pantry and freezer. That means that either I am an expert cook or I buy way too much. I'm sticking with expert cook. lol

I am on the lookout for a middle school science program. We are using Kingfisher right now and they love it, but I just think we need something a little more meaty that I don't have to spend my evenings searching for the "meat." Any suggestions?

If you are so inclined you could also suggest a middle school history program. We are using Kingfisher for that too and same thing. They love it but I need more.

Overheard at my house

In a sighing voice "I will never be a size 13." - Ethan, when discussing Christian's *almost too small* shoe size.

As the mother of all boys I never thought clothing or shoe size would be something important to them. Boy was I wrong.

The Drunk Canadian

That is what Christian has started calling one of the neighbors from upstairs. First of all, the kid is a moron. How he got into Northwood University amazes me. Oh wait... Mommy and Daddy are loaded. Well, I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.

I had to knock on the door again last night. He was drunk and loud. His roommates shushed him the second I rang the doorbell but it kills me that they didn't think to do it before then. I mean, it is 1am and the kid is screaming. Why would it dawn on them that he was being loud.

So now we have the issue of the kid getting drunk and being loud. The next time it happens I am calling the cops. This is small town Michigan. The last time I called, the officer that came out used to live here. He said that if he comes out again, someone was going to jail. Hopefully it is the drunk one.

Party time!

Last night we headed to the library and walked into a Lemony Snicket party. Maybe if I read those notes they give me at checkout I could have planned to go instead of just stumbling into it, but it is me after all.

Ethan got to do all sorts of cool LS things. (Christian and Alex were there but are entirely too old and too cool.) He got to write secret messages with lemon juice, make a Count Olaf mask, have a Count Olaf's Eye race, a LS scavenger hunt, guess how many lemon drops, invent like Violet does and even got an eye "tattoo" just like Count Olaf. Of course there were cookies and lemonade.

Today we went to an open house for our neighbors 60th wedding anniversary.

When we first moved here one of the elderly residents sort of "adopted" us. Sometimes she hangs out at the pool with us, and sometimes we hang out at the clubhouse and do puzzles with her. We see her (and her husband) on their daily evening walk and always stop to chat.

We had a great time today, chatting with other residents and hanging out. After the party we headed home for a bit and then went to the pool. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Tomorrow will be spent finishing up a few small cleaning/organizing projects, and possibly starting a big one. (Well, big for me. Sewing is not my strong suite.) We are almost done with the garage. It seems like no matter how much we get rid of, it is never enough! I swear this crap multiplies.

As a side note, Alex and Ethan are turning into old women! They like to go to the clubhouse and put together puzzles with the elderly women that hang out there everyday. Of course, the fact that those women don't see their grand kids often, so they like to make cookies and bring soda for them has nothing to do with it, right?

Quote of the Day

"Cannibalism is the art form of eating another human." - Alex

What am I feeding this kid??

(He corrected himself immediately by saying "Not art form, just people eating other people.")

Snow!

Let me remind you that it is only October 12th.

It is a beautiful fall day!

The boys are outside playing football and I am inside working on a few projects.

We have a big "Metro Shelf" (think restaurant shelving) in the utility room that we use as a pantry. We also have a bakers rack, made with the same shelves that we were planning to Freecycle. I took the two shelves from the bakers rack and added them to the shelf. Now maybe I can move some stuff out of the kitchen.

I am almost done swapping out summer for winter clothes. Just a few more things that are in the dryer, then I will be able to put the tote away. The boys had almost nothing in the "Winter Clothes" tote... mostly just gloves, hats and a few fleece pullovers.

HGP
This week is Guest Room/Bath Week. I don't have a guest room and the guest/boys bathroom is only going to take a few minutes (there is nothing in there lol) so I am going to just work on the garage. There are still some totes I need to go through. A lot of it is stuff I don't want to get rid of, but don't necessarily want. I hate doing this.

I am reorganizing our school stuff. I had (62 packs of) notebook paper in my closet, 3-ring binders in the garage and other miscellaneous supplies scattered. Now they are all together in the blue cabinet.

Freezer Meals
I used to do a lot of Once a Month Cooking but have gotten away from it in the last few years. I am going to start again, at least for the holidays.

I don't really do "Once a Month Cooking" but will double or triple recipes and freeze the extra in meal sized portions. I also do "sessions" when the mood strikes. Anyway, I am looking for some good recipes that the whole family can eat. So far, the list is mostly soups and beans to use in other dishes.

Friends
Tomorrow our friends G and V are coming up to hang out. Oh yeah... they are bringing their mom L, too. :o) We are going to do school in the morning and then when they get here we will probably head to the pool. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Scrapbooking Area
I am still trying to think of what to do with my "scrapbooking area." I love scrapbooking, but never had the chance to do it at the old house. I had no extra room to store my supplies, so they ended up being shoved into the back of the closet. By the time I dug them out, took them out of the container and set up an area to scrap, I didn't want to do it anymore. My bedroom is huge so I set an old drop leaf table in the corner to use as a scrapbooking area. All of the pictures and my supplies were piled on the table when we unpacked, so just the thought of organizing it all is a bit daunting. Heck... just the thought of sorting through 15 years worth of pictures is enough to make me sweat, never mind trying to organize the space. I need to just buckle down and do it, though. I know that once it is done I will use the space often. (And maybe will get caught up with all of my old pictures. Or at least make a dent.)

Christian
I gave Christian a box full of old computer parts to take apart yesterday. He has been going at them ever since. I got him outside for an hour and he took an hour computer turn, but after that he went right back to the parts.

He has decided he wants to build a robot. Alex has the book Build Your Own Combat Robot but let a friend borrow it.

Alex thinks that for Christmas we should get Christian a "bunch of metal and computer parts." Somehow, I don't see that happening.

Alex
Alex has decided that he wants to learn to program computers and make a game. He has always said that he wanted to be a programmer as a career, but now he is realizing that his hour+ a day Runescape habit isn't enough preparation for a career in computers. I'm not sure where to start or what books to get him or anything. I see a trip to the library in our future.

Ethan
Ethan is just being goofy old Ethan. He hasn't made any earth shattering or life changing announcements this weekend, so I guess that's a good thing.

Uncle Mike
Today was Marty's brothers 30th birthday party. We made the decision not to go, for the same reason we decided not to go to Shelby's 1st birthday party. Just like missing Shelby's birthday, we feel guilty but we know it is for the best. Like Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else!" I can't wait for the day that we can call Dave Ramsey and scream "I'm debt free!" Ok, I doubt we would call, but just knowing that we could would be a huge weight lifted.

Auto Show pt. 2

Alex and Christian chose to stay home and finish their school work instead of going to the auto show.

Christian and I had a deal that if he finished certain things and passed his Biology test with a certain % he could have a box of old computer parts to take apart/study/rebuild. He wanted to make sure he did what he needed to do. He did, so as soon as his room is clean tomorrow

Alex thought the auto show was "those old cars" so he didn't want to go. After he saw all of the cool stuff Ethan brought home and heard about all of the cars he decided he really wants to go. We will probably go back Sunday.

Ethan and I had a great time at the auto show! We saw all of our neighbors, found out some interesting things about cars and Ethan came home with two bags of loot. Alex is currently hanging posters in their room and Ethan is watching one of the demo DVD's he got.

Some of the displays were really, really good. The Ford display was a huge tent "wrapped" with wood to look like a jail from the old west. They had a covered wagon and other "old west" props. They had Reward posters for the cars. Another one was made to look like a golf course. Each car on display was a hole, and they had golf props all over. One of the students asked Ethan which car was his favorite, so he could answer questions about it, and he said "The golf cart!"

Some of them were obviously done by college kids. (The one that was just a dark tent are really, really loud, inappropriate music comes to mind.)


Tomorrow we have a pool party to go to and then we are just hanging out for the rest of the day. I will probably work on the rest of the HGP stuff for the week. The only thing I need to do is organize Christian's room and that will take just a few minutes. He isn't quite the pack rat that his brothers are. Close, but not quite.

Auto Show

Tonight we are going to the 2006 Northwood University International Auto Show

Our upstairs college kid neighbors each have a display there that they are being graded on. It is a pretty big part of their grade. So big that the parents of kid #1 are coming from Boston to see the displays. I assume the parents of kid #2 (Ontario) and Kid #3 (Detroit) will be there too.

We are going to go cheer them on.

Fried ethernet card

Had a bad storm Tuesday night. After 6 calls to my ISP, we finally figured out that the lightning fried my modem and Ethernet card. Traded the modem in this morning and replaced the Ethernet card this evening.

I'm not complaining... could have been a lot worse.

One of the tech guys I talked to last night is a beta testing Windows Vista. Too many bugs in Candidate 1 for my old computer to handle, I think. Maybe a later release? I can only dream...

School
Christian wasn't happy with his math test so I told him he could retake it and keep the best grade. He did really well today. I think he missed one?

Ethan is just kicking ass on reading. He still isn't there yet, but he is so close. He is breezing through the books we get from the library, but they aren't grade level books. It seems like every week he just improves by leaps and bounds.

It is very frustrating for him to be a beginning reader at the age of 11. Especially in this family. All of us are always reading. Because of this, he tries to rush through, and will read the first sound or two and then tries to guess the word. When he doesn't get it right he gets more frustrated, so he does it more to try to hurry. Right now we are working on getting him to slow down. It seems to be working.

HGP
This week is Kids Room Week. It seems like no matter how neat and clean the rest of my house is, the kids rooms are, well, not. All three of my boys are pack rats, so it might take some time.

We went through dressers today. Tomorrow we will unpack winter clothes and pack away summer. Once winter clothes are packed I will make a list of what they need.

Yesterday I made 2 double batches of cookies. Pumpkin Oatmeal and Applesauce Oatmeal. I will freeze them to pull out in December. Any tips on freezing cookies?

I will be working on freezer meals either tomorrow or Thursday. Haven’t decided what to make. Any suggestions?


Day Off
Marty was off today so we just did the core subjects today and went to lunch. After lunch we went shopping for really exciting things like shoes for the boys, Halloween costume parts and a birthday card for Uncle Mike. (Marty's little brother turns 30 on the 10th. Feel free to tease him that his little brother is 30. I know I do.)

After dinner we headed to the pool, then came home just in time to pop popcorn and watch the season finale of our favorite TV show. (Eureka)

Fall?
The weather was getting cooler but today it was 77°. What's up with that? I am all ready to make soup for dinner from now until March and it is 77°. It is supposed to be 64° with thunderstorms tomorrow, so I'm not putting away the soup recipes just yet.

Grandparents
My grandma is out of the hospital and they are both moved into the new nursing home. I haven't talked to them to find out if they like it (they don't answer the dame phone!) but my mom said that they seem to.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

These are in the oven now and they smell good!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt (opt.)
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
3 c. oatmeal (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together pumpkin, sugars and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices; add to pumpkin mixture, mixing well. Stir in oats. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 9 minutes for a chewy cookie, 10 to 11 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack. Store in tightly covered container. 4 1/2 dozen.

Notes:
* My cookies take 10 minutes
* These do not spread (no butter) so you can crowd them. I use a small scoop thing and lightly flaten the balls with ta lightly sprayed measuring cup.
*This is just the Quaker oatmeal cookie recipe with pumpkin in place of the eggs and butter, and pumpkin pie spice added.

A crisp fall day

School
All subjects done and all papers graded (except for grammar, which I will do as soon as I am done here.) Christian did really well on his history test and *pretty good* on his math test. He thought he did better, so he is bummed.

The boys finished up the day by watching Discovery Atlas - China Wow! We can't wait to see the other three countries - Italy, Brazil and Australia. Watch the preview movies... you will feel the same.

Christian has two documentaries to watch this week. Lascaux revisited and Mysteries of mankind.

HGP
My Freecycle ads were finally posted, so the lawnmower and weedeater (with bonus shovel!) and laundry sorter are finally gone. We have two Rubbermaid storage thingies that I think I am going to post next. We are either keeping them or the bakers rack, for storage in the garage. We need to see what works best for the stuff we have left.

We are starting on the boys rooms tonight. I need to get the shelves put up in Christian's room, and need to get shelves for Alex and Ethan's room.

Fall
The weather is getting colder. It is sooooo nice to live in a house that the heat actually works.

One of the best things about fall is the food. Donuts, cider, soups, pumpkin anything... Yum! I am getting all of our fall food recipes out. Tomorrow we are going to make pumpkin pancakes.

Halloween
The boys are getting excited about Halloween. Ok... really they are looking forward to the candy that comes with Halloween, not the holiday its self.

We have decided that we had so much fun at Dana's house last year that we are going to do the same thing here. The plan is: "Halloween food" pot luck > Trick-or-treating > Homemade caramel apples and hot cocoa> then a Halloween movie. I want Hocus Pocus but they want something scary.

Other Stuff
Nothing else new or exciting is happening. The upstairs neighbors are being more respectful of the fact that other people live here, the pool is still empty (which is not a bad thing!) and the boys are still goofy!