June 30, 2011 10:22 p.m.

I have to share the contrast between Chips and Sweet Girl.  After a long, active day at orchestra camp, Chips has often come home a very tired boy, while Sweet Girl has come home energized.  There is no better way to convey the difference than to share these photos I snapped today.

A half hour after getting home today, Chips was actually crashed out on the top edge of the sofa.  No, I am not making this up (when he awoke, it surprised him, too).

Meanwhile, in the same room, Sweet Girl was beating the rainy afternoon by doing an exercise video. 

What do you make of the difference?

June 28, 2011 5:49 p.m.

Recently I performed a Feasibility Study to see whether we could manage another West trip next year.  I checked climate date, mileage, campgrounds, National Park maps, and road maps (atlas) and determined that yes, we can!  We can manage a West trip that would last about the same number of days of last year’s trip (23-24 days), see different places, and take in at least a dozen destinations.  We would head out West via the I-70 corridor, and return East via the I-40 corridor, more or less.

Here are the sights we might be able to see…

1. U.S. Air Force Academy – a tour of the campus, that might just inspire somebody.  Hey, you never know.

2. Mesa Verde National Park, in Cortez, Colorado.  This is where some of the Anasazi cliff dwellings are.

3. Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah.  The scenery says it all.

4. Arches National Park, Moab, Utah. So red, so amazing.

5. Capital Reef National Park, Utah. A picture says 1000 words.

6. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Brilliant.

7. Zion National Park, Utah (in October, when the leaves have turned!)

8. Las Vegas, Nevada.  We have never been there.

9.  Hoover Dam, Boulder City, Nevada.

10. Grand Canyon South Rim, Arizona.

11. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Flagstaff, Arizona.

12. Petrified Forest, Arizona, and the Painted Desert.

13. Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

Wow!  Thirteen destinations!  So stay tuned.  We are considering this for October, 2012.

June 28, 20119:45 a.m.

This morning I am people watching at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Orlando.  This is a strange and different world from what I have become used to in the last decade.  I'm in downtown Orlando every day while Chips and Sweet Girl are in orchestra camp.  Has the world really passed so far by me while I have been at our beloved Breezy Point?  Maybe so.

June 24, 2011

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s “house” we go…

June 21, 2011  9:26 p.m.

This post is so long I have added subheadings.  That way you can skip the parts you don’t care about.  It shouldn’t be called a blog post.  It is more like a newsletter.

IT’S HOT HERE!

It’s only the Summer Solstice today and I feel like summer has been here for months.  It has been so hot here.  Florida is one place to be in the summer when there are afternoon thunderstorms.  But in an unusual dry spell, when the sun is high in the sky, and there is no rain at all, for day after day, the temperatures can be brutal.  The past eleven days have topped out in the mid- to upper 90s, and bottoming out overnight around 75-77 degrees.  It is not a fun place to be.

HOMESCHOOL BURNOUT

Besides, it is late June and I am hitting the homeschool wall.  Yes, the same wall that other homeschool moms hit in February.  Well, I get it now.  Not to mention that fact that it is early summer, my least favorite time of the year, when it is too blisteringly hot to do anything outside but soak in the pool – when we can.  Which isn’t as often as I’d like.  Seems like I work all day long.  There is always so much to do and I am perpetually running behind.  That’s why I haven’t been posting here to this blog in several days.  In the small pocket-sized moments of time when I sit down at the computer, I don’t have enough inside me to put together a coherent post.  I am trying to make up for it now.  But I am plain tired.  I am short-tempered and lacking in patience and self-discipline.  I need to get my act together again.

Even though I am starting this post out on a low note, I promise to end it on a high one.  I promise!

We just sent in Sweet Girl’s test lesson 100 for Third Grade.  I have a feeling she did very well on this one.  I can’t always tell, though.  We shall see.  Calvert has been keeping me very busy, among other things.  Sweet Girl is beginning a Social Studies project to write a research report about the history and geography of our local community.  We are gathering resources for this right now, to include 2-3 websites, 2 library books, and a visit to our local history museum.

Chips is in the middle of Earth Science (part of Calvert’s Sixth Grade Science plan) and he is doing a rock collection project.  Part of it includes calculating the density of each rock.  I showed him how to measure the rock’s volume (by measuring water in a graduated cylinder before and after dunking the rock) and the rock’s mass (by using a balance).  Chips complains that it is time consuming, but seems to enjoy it once he adjusts his attitude.

THINGS BROKEN

Poor Self-Reliant Man is confronted with another fixit job this week.  He just got his Jag fixed by replacing the fuel pump.  I mean, he just barely got it fixed after pondering its problem for about a month or so.  Just got it working, the other day…

… when I told him yesterday that the alternator failed on the car that I drive every day.  It happened on the way home from music lessons.  I was in another town with about fifteen miles left to drive home when I noticed strange behavior in my car.  Chips recognized immediately what was happening (he is sharp that way) and told me to shut off the a/c (see the part above about the summer heat) and the radio, and anything else voluntary that consumed electricity.  Well, as I continued my drive home, my poor car lost more and more of its functionality.  Eventually the instrument console up and quit, I knew there wasn’t much left, but thank the good Lord we did make it home and get the car into the garage.  But Poor Self-Reliant Man never gets a break.  He is on the floor of the garage even as I speak taking out the alternator (you know, the one he just replaced two years ago).  I’m not shocked.  It is an Auto Zone part, not a Hyundai part (which would have lasted 7 years more).    Should have gotten a Hyundai alternator.  Live and learn.  Now he will be reinstalling another Auto Zone part because it is free.

WHAT?  A COMPUTER GAME AT BREEZY POINT?

You know, I allowed Chips to purchase and install a computer game on our desktop PC.  I know it should make him a happier kid, right?  But I reminded him that he not only had to have his lesson work done, but he had to earn the tokens he needs each day to be able to spend a half hour (max) on the game each day.  I can’t say it has made him a pleasanter boy.  He tends to get obsessive about it.  We will have to observe and ponder some.  It’s not that he isn’t using his spare time in good ways – he often reads, repairs things, creates music on two instruments, helps his Dad fix things, etc.  But I know if I give him free rein with this game he will lose his ability to think of alternate things to do with his spare time.  I just have to stick to my guns, but it does contribute to my weariness.

BATTLE OF THE DOG FLEAS

We are still trying to beat the flea situation.  We discovered the effectiveness of Comfortis for dog fleas.  This amazing pill does a tremendous job of killing the fleas on our dog, but ridding the house of them (entirely) is taking time.  We have been working on this problem a month, now.  Don’t get me wrong, most of them are gone, but there are still a couple we see in the house every day.

As an aside note, we discovered this year, to our detriment, that Frontline Plus is now useless for fleas, at least where we live.  It was not an enjoyable thing to discover this year, believe me.  Sweet Girl is allergic to flea bites.  Anybody want to buy some unused Frontline Plus from me?

STANDARDIZED TESTS

We got our standardized test results.  This was Chips’ fourth time taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  This was Sweet Girl’s first time.  Each year, Chips’ scores have gotten better and better, so I was disappointed this year to see that his Math scores tanked.  I truly don’t know why.  All I know is that his attitude toward Math has gone downhill this year.   Also, this was the first time he took this test away from home, with the distraction of other kids.  So we had a talk about it; said we weren’t too happy with the situation.  He has complained so bitterly about Math this year that he had negotiated himself out of doing the Practice Workbook problems that Calvert includes.  He hasn’t done them all year.  We let him know that this omission will be ending right now.  After all, most of his aspirations in life involve careers that are heavily Math dependent.  So he needs to change his attitude about Math.  It’s not that our curriculum is bad, it is just that there isn’t a lot of room to fudge when it comes to Math.  There is actual real work that needs to be done, and done correctly, and he has been resistant to that.

Sweet Girl had a great test score for her first Iowa Test.  I was really pleased with it.  I know she tried hard to do a good job on the test, and it showed.  Her Math score wasn’t super, but it was mainly because of the timing of our school year.  She was less than halfway into Third Grade and she was being normed against kids who were testing in April of their school year (otherwise, near the end of Third Grade).  She hadn’t even been exposed to multiplication and division yet.  We understood this situation, and feel she did very well, considering. 

The fantastic news is that both our children pinned the scale in Reading and Language Arts – 99th percentile.  Both kids.  How “cool” is that?

SUMMER CAMP

Next week, we take a much needed break from lessons to head to the big city for orchestra music camp.  This will be our first time experiencing this, and we are looking forward to it.  Maybe it will do something to change my outlook.

MUSIC IN OUR HOME

We are proceeding with a new batch of new music selections to work on this year.  Chips is especially enjoying working on his Haydn Violin Concerto.  I love it; I just love hearing him learn and practice it.  It is a wonderful concerto, full of joy.  Chips has dreams and aspirations of playing it with the orchestra next spring.  Wouldn’t that be something?!?!

ODDS AND ENDS

This is the guillotine Chips made.  Thank goodness we made it before I became ill with Fifth Disease.  It was for a world history video production we were participating with our local homeschool fellowship group.  Our family had written and planned the scene for the French Revolution.  We did have a load of fun with this, but it included a hot day in a city park.  Nevertheless, it was enjoyable and we are looking forward to seeing the finished composite video!

A photo with a good friend of ours, taken at our end of year Suzuki Recital.  We will see more of him this coming year, in orchestra.

Sweet Girl has been blessing us with an abundance of her special baked goods lately.  Messy, but tasty.  She loves to bake, and she loves to surprise us with instant pudding. (note the long pants – she has to wear them as long as we think fleas might still be in the house).

I am convinced that Chips can do about anything at the same time as the hula hoop.  He can read a book, he can put on and take off a shirt, and he can even play piano, all while doing the hula hoop.  What a guy!

And finally, here is Self-Reliant Man opening his Father’s Day gifts, including some professional photos.  I think my husband had a nice Father’s Day.  We went out for Brewster’s Ice Cream, need I say more?

Next post is a good one – I did a “feasibility study” for another trip out west next year.  !!!!!  Smile Smile !!!!!  Just thinking about it brightens my day.  I told you I would end this post on an up note.

 

June 16, 2011  7:46 A.M.

Dear Readers,

Happy Summer, everybody!  It certainly is summer at Breezy Point these days.

I am sending out this blog post to my readers via email today.
Since readership has slowed to a trickle, I have decided, at the suggestion of one reader, to create a new public blog that will indicate when a new posting has gone to this blog.  The new public blog is located at: http://breezypointer.blogspot.com/ .  Please go over to that blog and sign up as a Follower (preferred).  Or, subscribe to it by email or any other way you prefer.  It will let you know when a new post has appeared at this blog.  Hopefully that will breathe new life into this blog here.  Thank you ever so much.  I really appreciate the fact that you all check in here.  You all are the best!

By the way, as year round homeschoolers, we are still going at it here.  We hit the books harder in the summertime than we do at any other time of the year.  It is simply too hot to do much else.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

<3 Breezy Point Mom <3

June 11, 2011 8:16 p.m.

Yesterday evening, Sweet Girl and Chips participated in the end-of-year Honors recital at our local Suzuki school.  Sweet Girl played Bach’s Gavotte in D major, a piece from the Suzuki Book 3 repertoire.  We have never heard her play such an advanced piece before, and so cleanly and “in tune”.  We were really proud of her performance.  She told me in the car she was going to do her best.  She truly did.

Since this recital wasn’t scheduled until mid-June, we decided to have Chips do a new piece.  The competitions ended in Mid-May, and to tell you the truth, we had had enough of the music he prepared all year long.  So three weeks ago, Miss S gave Chips this piece to learn, Song Without Words, by Tchaikovsky.  I like it because it is very different from anything he has played before, and gave him an opportunity to show a different level of expression.  However, he was annoyed by the piece because of all the “unnecessary shifting”, in his words.  But he did okay with the shifting, I think. 

Health issues: our violin teacher was suffering from a particularly bad migraine, and didn’t make any promises regarding her piano accompaniment yesterday.  And Chips, too: as I have been complaining this week, Fifth Disease has affected my fingers, toes, and lower legs, causing weakness and intermittent pains, even now.  Well, Chips has also complained that his fingers (and feet) showed more fatigue than usual this week.  He seemed to get a bit of a more “adult” manifestation of the virus than Sweet Girl did.

Summer is finally here.  It is time for a little rest for us all!

June 9, 2011 12:56 p.m.

This is twice in the same year!  I found out last night that my Discover Card was counterfeited by a complete stranger and used three times yesterday, in Texas, to purchase gasoline.

It began after dinner when I saw an email on my computer tell me to call Discover immediately about suspicious account activity.  Since I didn’t even trust the email (I am usually called by phone from those folks) I didn’t open the email, but instead went to the Discover.com website, only to “discover” that I could not have access to my own account record.

At this point, I telephoned 1 – 800 – DISCOVER (always the easiest phone number to remember) and entered a few facts about my account, which resulted in my being transferred to the Fraud Detection department.  The computer had me verify recent activity (“Uh, Self-Reliant Man, did you go to a Shell station today? – pause – you didn’t?”)  Well, you get the idea.  Long story short, someone in College Station, Texas  had used a counterfeit credit card to purchase gas from three different pumps, and was declined when they attempted to purchase from a fourth pump.

No worry, I am guaranteed to not have to pay these charges, and Discover has a terrific system for recognizing and flagging suspicious activity.  So, they cancelled my card and are issuing me a new one, which I will receive tomorrow through Fedex at Discover’s expense.  I have to hand it to Discover; they see this stuff and take action fast.  I have already had my Discover card fail to work while on vacation for the very reason that they are so careful.  We knew why, though, and were able to get the matter cleared up by phone from Kentucky (yup, it sure is handy to be able to remember 1 – 800 – DISCOVER while you are on the road).

Lessons learned?  I suppose in an indirect way it is my fault that this happened.  We do use our Discover card to make many, many online purchases in a year.  But shopping online does save us bundles of money and gas, since we live in a somewhat remote area and often buy items that would be difficult to find in a store nearby.  However, I am not likely to change my habits.  I will just continue to use my Discover card as often as possible, and be alert to communications from them.  They were the ones to alert me last December to the unauthorized use of my card by a restaurant waitress.  Remember that situation?

The sad thing is that credit card fraud costs credit card companies so much time and money.  I am certainly happy to be using a Discover card.  (and no, I am not an employee of Discover/Novus, just a satisfied customer).

June 8, 2011 4:11 p.m.

Our church finally updated its website, a job that needed serious attention.   This new website has several views of the interior of the church. as well as information about out beliefs and ministries.  Keep in mind that this church construction was completed in summer of 2009.  That scroll in the photo  – that is a 300-400 year old copy of the Torah.  It is on display in the narthex.  I’ve been meaning to share this website for a few weeks and am finally getting around to it.  Early summer in my life will be occupied by preparations for VBS, followed by another week of music camp.  These weeks should be a nice break in the routine for everybody.

June 8, 2011 3:49 p.m.

After staying home a lot this week. this coming Friday is definitely going to be music day here. 

Chips won a scholarship!   A local music organization had scholarship money for local music students to attend summer music camp.  Chips and Sweet Girl each filled out the applications, pretty much all by themselves, with little assistance from me, and mailed them out.  Well, on Saturday, we were notified that Chips would receive all the money needed for tuition to a local music camp at a major city near us.  So, at the end of June, both our children will be attending this music camp.  They are really looking forward to it.

Also, this coming Friday evening is the end of year honors recital for our local Suzuki school.  Sweet Girl will be playing Bach’s Gavotte in D major, from Suzuki Book 3.  Chips will be playing Tchaikovsky’s Song Without Words, which only took him about two weeks to learn, and ventures into a different form and style of music from which he has been accustomed to playing.  Anyway, assuming all goes well, I will be recording this performance on video.

We were also supposed to be attending a violin Master Class at noon on Friday, taught by a local violin master.  However, at the last minute, the class had to be cancelled when it was learned that he suddenly departed on Monday for Israel so that his wife could swim float in the Dead Sea – therapy for arthritic joints, I am assuming.  You can’t swim in the Dead Sea, you can only float.  Apparently, it is renowned for its therapeutic healing powers. 

Well, anyway, no Master Class on Friday.  When Friday passes, then it will really be summertime here.  Although homeschool lessons will continue as normal through the summer, all the other scheduled events have ceased for awhile, especially since this is also the last week of school for most public schools in this part of the country.  When does your “summer” begin?

June 8, 2011 3:20 p.m.

Little by little I have improved each day.  Each day I have more energy and less joint pain.  Today is the best day yet, although I still need to recharge my batteries once or twice a day (usually I can keep going all day long on an “overnight” charge).  Anyway, Fifth Disease really surprised me.  I had scarcely even heard of it before this year, never realizing how insidious, and how commonplace, it is.  Yesterday evening I was able to remove my rings from my left hand (my fingers had swollen up so much that it was impossible).  My knees are still a little stiff, and my fingers and toes are weak and sore to use after awhile, but I am not in any severe pain.  As you see, I can even type!

Anyway, my children have been very helpful, volunteering to serve me in any way they can (even as Chips has been dealing with the rash and swollen feet from this illness, himself).  The other day, Chips just began to straighten out the lower shelves of my pantry.  He did it on his own initiative, without even a suggestion from me, and it made a big difference.  Sweet Girl has cheerfully brewed some iced tea and made some instant pudding.  Chips is really maturing.  This week, when Sweet Girl claimed not to be able to find a library book  anywhere in the house, and after hearing that we would have to pay for the book, Chips went into her room and did a thorough search – enough to recover the book.  He also did not hesitate to telephone his violin teacher after leaving music at her home and request that she mail it to us.  When a friend of mine could not open up a Word file I sent to her, Chips went ahead and converted the file to a different format and sent it back to her.  So you see, Chips is really growing up.

Another word of praise I have is for the Calvert curriculum, once again.  Even when I was fatigued and sore, I was able to continue to homeschool without missing a beat.  I barely even had to think about it.  Chips, as you know, does most of his work independently, but Sweet Girl was able to assist me in teaching her because of the layout of the Calvert Lesson Manual.  All she had to do was look ahead to the next subject, go get the materials, and sit next to me as I did some “recliner homeschooling”.  She could then get the answer keys and wait while I checked over everything.  In this way, we have been able to keep up our normal pace of a lesson a day, with allowances for me to recharge (nap) as needed.  So that has given me real peace of mind.  All it takes is a week like this to make me really appreciate my health, and my kids, all the more.

June 4, 2011 9:26 p.m.

I definitely have fifth disease.  There is now no question in my mind.  Yes, I have quite a bit of fatigue, and there is some rash and itching, but another disturbing symptom is that I have aching, swollen joints, especially my hands and knees.  I did some reading online and discovered that this usually resolves in a week or two, but in some cases can last for months or more!  I must be among the 50% of adults who has not developed immunity to this virus.

Another thing is that Chips is noticing a rash on himself and feeling swelling in his feet.  Three of us in the family, and each of us have a different manifestation.   (Sweet Girl seems to have bounced back completely, thank goodness).  I feel the worst of the bunch.  Please pray that this virus resolves quickly for me.  The thought of functioning for a long time with this amount of fatigue and aching is a very unpleasant one.

June 3, 2011 10:43 p.m.

Sweet Girl has always been such a good sharer, even when she was only two years old.  And this week has been no exception.  She must have shared her virus with me because now I’ve got something similar.  I have an itchy rash over many places on my legs and arms, and feel very fatigued.  It is a viral rash.  Fifth disease?  Maybe.  I even took a nap this afternoon, I was so tired.  The symptoms are not that bad, but the rash is annoying.  Did I say that it itches?

June 2, 2011 10:10 p.m.

Sweet Girl has been having a time.  It started back in late April.  We kept noticing that she was getting these raised, itchy patches around her ankles and calves.  She was scratching, scratching, and scratching, and really messing up her skin.  She tends to react strongly to any kind of insect bite, and we couldn’t figure out what was biting her each time as she had no recollection of the bites.  By early May, it was getting ridiculous.

Then one day, while our dog was sleeping, I took a very close up look and discovered that he had a case of fleas.  As in: “My dog has fleas.”  Not fun.  Thinking back, I had given him a dose of Frontline Plus a few weeks back (he has been on it for the 6 years we have had him) but I realized that over the winter, I had not religiously kept up the Frontline schedule as I ought.  Now I would regret allowing this seemingly small detail to slip between my fingers.

Then last week, Sweet Girl was watering plants for me and got bitten by a deer fly on her right hand.  Her right hand swelled up quite a bit for a couple of days.

By the weekend, her entire body developed a red rash.  It began on her forearms, and by that evening had spread over her thighs, upper arms, back, and her face.  Her face, in fact, had two bright, rosy cheeks – due to rash.  And she was itching, too.  She was not looking good, although she was not appearing ill in any way.

So, on Saturday, we spent several hours in the waiting room of the walk-in clinic.  When we finally met with the doctor, he thought that Sweet Girl was either allergic to something, or had had fifth disease and was getting over it; hence the extensive rash.  As she did develop a very low grade fever later in the weekend, I think fifth disease was the culprit.

Thankfully the rash is gone and she appears to be fine, now.  But that doesn’t stop the fact that she is very sensitive to flea bites, and we are having a hard time ridding the house entirely of fleas.  It is something that cannot be achieved overnight.  They are so small as to be virtually undetectable, but we know we are getting the bites because of tiny pinprick red spots on our ankles.  Unfortunately for Sweet Girl, they become swollen itchy welts.

So, every day, I am doing all I can to eliminate the fleas.  Our dog has taken to being an outside dog for nearly two weeks, now.  I am continuously vacuuming the tile floor.  We are laundering everything in sight, over and over.  And I am making Sweet Girl wear long pants, layered tops, and knee socks, day and night.  It is crazy, I know, but what’s a Mom to do?  Never a dull moment, right?