Month: September 2006

  • Help!

    You guys have been so wonderful and encouraging. Your prayers for me have been incredibly helpful as I’ve been motivated, efficient, and all those adjectives. But, my wrist has given out! Yes, too much time typing and using the mouse has caused a lot of pain in my right wrist. Right now I’ve got a rubber spatula Ace bandaged tightly to the offending joint to help. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do?  I’ve got one of those nice mouse pads with the gel wrist rest.  Sigh.  I’ve got a new item for my prayer list, a traitorous wrist.


  • It Pays to Be Reliable?

    I’ve been hard at work on the Saxon writing, and I got a phone call yesterday from the managing editor. “Mary, you’ve been so dependable and reliable that we’d like to offer you the option to write more lessons.” MORE lessons? I’m barely keeping up with what I have!   It seems the other two writers on the project failed to meet the Tuesday deadline, only turning in one lesson between the two of them, and they have an absolute deadline of Saturday at 8:00 a.m.  If they don’t have their work in by then, the editor wanted to know if I’d write the remaining lessons.  “Well, I could, but there would be no way I could meet my next Tuesday deadline for the second set,” I answered.  With multiple assurances that my deadline would be changed, I agreed to spend my Saturday chained to the computer if need be to finish the project. 

    Today, the kids and I head to Curwensville as Nathan is going to spend the night and go hunting with Pap Woody (my dad). It’s bow hunting for deer season here in PA. I’m going to take along the mending that has piled up during my writing frenzy.  I’ll be busy tonight since I won’t get to work all afternoon and evening, but visiting will be such a nice treat.

    I’m reading my first Jasper Fforde book. What a treat! I’ll review it when I’m done.



  • Busier than a Wooly Bear on the Road
     
    My apologies to all for not being more faithful in updating.  Lately,  most moments  which haven’t  been filled with homeschooling and driving people hither and yon has been filled with  work on the  Saxon  teacher’s manual. I’m pleased to report that I now have a contract and have made my first deadline.  This week (or by  next  Tuesday), I have the next set of  ten lessons and one investigation to complete. So, your prayers are still invaluable. I know they made such a difference in my being able to get the first set done.

    The kids and I took a walk in the State Game Lands this gorgeous fall day.  The leaves haven’t really started to turn yet, but it was still quite lovely in the woods. I’ve heard it is supposed to turn icky tomorrow, so I wanted to get as much sunshine as we could today.

    Thanks to everyone who answered my question about Xanga names. The answers, even the so-called dull ones, were wonderful!


  • Xanga Names  

    I’ve been pondering what everyone’s Xanga names mean and why you might have chosen them.  Some are pretty easy to determine (kristenloescher), but some aren’t so easy.

    I chose mine because I’m a homeschooler, an online teacher, and an erstwhile college professor (okay–adjunct).   I just liked how “teacherperson” sounded.

    Who is she?
    Oh, she’s that teacher person.
    Oh, that’s right.

    So, please, tell me what your name means and why you chose it. Even if you aren’t a “regular,” I’m still curious!

  • What a Pleasant Day

    Usually, when I have to get in a whole day of school and a whole day of running around, I’m a mean, nasty mother person.  But, today, someone must have sent up many prayers on my behalf because it was a lovely day.  (I keep singing the children’s song: “Today is my favorite day! God made it in a special way. I love tomorrow and yesterday, but today is my favorite day!”)

    Instead of packing the van all at once, I took all morning in little bits to take our needful supplies to the van: library books, food for supper and the cooler, dryer parts, dry cleaning, football gear, water bottles, returns, school books, jackets… Then, when it came time to get ready to leave, we were all ready and relaxed. The rest of the day, I was ahead of schedule and didn’t once have to say, “Hurry up! Let’s go!”  It was such a blessing.

    In addition to being relaxing, the day was quite productive.  I dismantled the dryer to see if the heating coil was burnt out and took it to be checked. (I always feel empowered when ripping apart household appliances.)  We got three weeks worth of school books at the library. I actually found a shirt, skirt, and pants that  fit Libby,who is in that not-really-teen size, too tall for girl’s size age, and jeans and pants for David. I didn’t realize he had been wearing shorts all the time because all his pants were above the ankle! To avoid being tedious, I’ll refrain from listing the other twelve things we did.

    And, to add to the excitement, the Saxon lesson writing is going better.  Somebody must be praying for me, and I thank you very, very much!

  • I Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese

    Does anyone else remember Time for Timer?  GhostFroggy inadvertently sparked a memory!

  • Fall Rambles

    Do you like the new look of the site? I was feeling fall-ish, but I think I’ve got a busy-ish look instead.  Oh, well. At least it’s orange and brown.

    I’ve begun writing the Saxon stuff. It’s taking me a lot longer to write, type, and format than I thought it would.  I worked for about four hours and only got one lesson done.  Yikes!  I have to complete ten lessons by Tuesday, and last time I checked, I didn’t have a spare 40 hours this week to work on a writing project.  TGD suspects I’m doing too much. I surely hope so.  Since he’s my editor, I guess he gets the final say.

    In other news, I’m feeling better with the head cold, but now I have a putrid throat.  Aren’t 19th century disease names more interesting than ours?  Strep throat–bah!  Putrid throat–interesting.  Actually, I don’t know that I have streptococcus, but it is going around. One good thing about this cold is I’ve had no appetite and it hurts to swallow. Therefore, I’ve not been tempted into my usual gluttony.

    What’s your favorite disease or disease name?

  • Got It!

    And what is it that she’s got?  Is it a miserable head cold?  Yes! It is!  Is it a bunch of uncorrected homeschool papers in a box which even though she vowed that THIS year, everything would be corrected and put in the portfolio every weekend?  Yes! She’s got that, too.  How about that contract to write half of the Saxon grade 3 teacher’s manual?  Yup, she got that one today.  Woo!  Now I won’t have the time to file those papers, at least for the next month or so.

    Football went quite well with two major victories for both boys’ teams. It was such a gross mismatch for David’s team that we felt bad for the team being crushed and for our own team who had to play well below the level they could have played. (The league gets fussy if there is a 20+ point difference in the scores.)  David scored the first touchdown of the game. Actually, at first the mighty Centre Bulldogs scored every second or third play. Then they had to run really slowly, pull out all the best players, put the linebackers in as quarterback, etc.  Ah, well. It was still fun.

    Sorry, Katia, I read another book. 

  • Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

    Boring, Old Update

    Okay, so nobody wants to talk about miracles except the usual suspects. (Thanks, guys!) I’m still thinking about it, even if no one else is. 

    Today, I took a five-mile walk with my mom on a bike path near her house.  We alternately hit each other in a humorously violent way to kill the little bloodsuckers that attacked often.  It’s always a good time with my mom. Tomorrow we have football and cheerleading to watch, which should be a nice time as it is supposed to be sunny and close to 80 degrees–a nice change after all the gray days we’ve had.

    I’m reading the most interesting book.  Ruth, who is known to some as Mrs. G and to some as Mom,  gave it to me. Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life is like reading someone’s lists, someone’s blog, someone’s diary.  There is no story being told. There is no fantastic moral or allegory. Instead, it’s just musings on an ordinary life arranged in alphabetical order.  Why do I find it so fascinating? Well, I suppose her writing and listing mirror how I think. Also, I enjoy snippets of lives. So far, it’s been an entertaining, quirky read.

    I’m in the mood to watch Tuck Everlasting or an action adventure flick. Instead, I think I’ll ablute (which really isn’t a word, is it? I have to say “participate in ablution.”)

  • Miracles

    I was just thinking about “magical” things that occur in stories and fairy tales and relating them to things that happen in the Bible.  The sun going backwards, amazing healings, people flying (caught up in a chariot of fire), UFOs (read Ezekiel), teleporting (Philip, caught up in the spirit),  and so on.  Then, I came to time travel and was stumped. 

    Do you think when Satan took Jesus to a high  mountain and “showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 3:5) is time travel?  Am I missing any other time travel episodes?  I thought about John’s vision of Revelation, but that is described as a vision and not as time travel. What do you think?

    PS–I never considered “Math Nerd” thinking instead of “Mary Nerd.” Strangely, we could have been on the A-T-H path because the name I had chosen IF we ever had another girl was “Anna.”