I would label this family "accidental home schoolers". They only did it after a traumatic experience. But they rose to the occasion and did what they had to do. Though both parents were highly educated, they were not educators (at first). It is inspiring and honest.
If you're considering home-schooling or actively doing it you can't take the summer off. As the teacher, you must use this time to prepare for the year ahead. I'll keep you posted on what I'm up to all summer as I gear up for our official first year. My 3 year old can read, but it was too early to begin real reasoning and handwriting because her hands and brain aren't at that point. But in September she'll be four so we are moving foward into our Kindergarten curriculum.
This is a new series I'm working on. I am trying my hardest to be more "green". Each week, I'll give you insight into the challenges and triumphs of this journey.
The first major step I took was to begin taking my own bags to the grocery store. Most stores sell them for 99 cents or 2 for $2.
What's surprising is the amount of food you can get into them. I'd say on average, we get 12-16 plastic bags on a weekly shopping trip. I now get all of that into 4-5 reusable bags, if packed properly.
The biggest surprise was that you get rebates! At Kroger for instance, they credit you 4 cents for each bag used. So I get about 20 cents each trip. How nice. The bag was only 99 cents so 20 trips and it pays for itself! At Whole Foods they give you a wooden nickel. Then you take it to a drop box and you can pick one of three local charities to give the nickel to. They add up the nickels and the organization gets a check!
The Challenge: I thought I would forget to use the bags. So, after unloading the bags I take them back to the vehicle and I keep them in the back seat so I can always have one on an unexpected trip. I now even use them when I go to Target or other stores.
Sustainability: This is something I could do for the long haul. It's not a burden and its better than trying to remember to take my old plastic bags to Kroger for recycling.
I had to cover Michelle Obama's appearance in the city on Monday. I wanted to share the photo above because I love how everyone behind Mrs. Obama is taking her picture, LOL! (if you click on it, it will blow up. If you use it, credit A. Gerton as photographer)
Tuesday morning I was on Santita Jackson's radio show in Chicago by telephone to talk about the primaries. (She's Rev. Jackson's oldest daughter and is The Queen of Chicago talk radio :-)
Tuesday afternoon, I had to do some exit polling for my story. (Everyone I interviewed was for Obama, he won Lexington and Louisville despite the crushing loss of votes in KY)
Then I had to get photos and quotes to the Black newswire.
Tuesday night I had to watch results while putting away laundry and eating.
This morning I had to review final numbers from the Secretary of State and do Santita's show again (which was actually the highlight of my day).
I had to go grocery shopping and am about to cook some dinner.
And now I have 36 hours to turn out my next issue of the paper, do some lessons with baby girl, feed my family and sleep a bit.
I am just in love with my daughter right now. She is finally becoming a Mommy's girl and I love it. For a while, I was third in her life behind her Dad and Daddy (she loves him so much you can count him twice). But now, she's my new running buddy and I just love it.
Of course I've loved her since I prayed for her to be, but today I feel like I'm falling for her all over again!
The first photo is about 3 months old. The next one she's 3 years old.
I was tagged by Itiel McVay, aka The Smell Good Lady. She has tagged me for this 6 Quirks Meme. She tagged me about a month ago. But it was my holiday season, so give me a break :o)
Rules: Link the person who tagged you. Mention the rules in your blog. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.
First of all, I don't have 6 people to tag but I'll come up with somebody.
Next, I had to get a definition of “quirk”. It is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “a peculiarity: idiosyncrasy”.
Six of them… 1. I must set the table to eat. Even for breakfast I use a placemat. We set the table fully each night for dinner. Even if I have take out, like fried chicken, I put it on a platter and put the coleslaw in a serving dish. I even own a soup tureen. I didn’t think this was a quirk but EVERY person who comes over for dinner comments on it.
2. I can eat off of the plates and use the utensils in a restaurant, which are used by a ga-jillion people, but I don’t buy used plates or silverware from garage sales or thrift stores or accept dishes from well meaning people. It creeps me out. (Side story: People give me egg plates. I have three and they all were given to me when someone’s mother or aunt died. I’m the only person they think would use them, but I haven’t. They are just in my china cabinet looking pretty because they’re icky!)
3. If I scratch my head or under my arm I sniff my fingers. ROFL!
4. I can’t eat around people with physical deformities. I remember when I was about 4 or 5 there was a retarded boy at a table next to us and I cried so bad my mother had to take me out. But otherwise, I can talk to them and be around them. Something about eating near them.
5. I cry whenever I take family to the airport. When they leave in a car, I’m cool. When I fly out, I’m cool. But when they walk through security and give me the wave, it’s a wrap. I’m tearing up!
6. I have a jewelry rule. No more than one ring per hand. No more than one bracelet or watch per wrist. No gold and silver mixing (except my wedding ring which compliments both). And gold goes with wood jewelry and earth tones. White and light gray and pastels you wear silver. Pearls require wearing gloves (yes I still wear satin gloves on occasion).
I think I'll tag Brother Omi, and the great mommy at Me and My Three. I remember Don doing one of these a few months ago so I'll quit there. Remember to be "unspectacular" in your post!
I'm going to be scarce. This is a press week so I have deadlines and we are in negotiation to move my radio program and finally do some real advertising. These are the times that I really feel like I'm in business.
Most days I just feel like a normal stay at home wife and mother except for the fact that people are calling asking where their paycheck is and people are calling and asking me for assignments and people are calling me asking me to do a story on their prize winning poodle, LOL, and I'm looking at group insurance plans and, and, and,...I think I need Kimora's staff and I'd be the BOMB! A cook, a house keeper, a stylist...WHAT!?
I went to my first yoga class yesterday and I wasn't too embarrassed. If you've never done yoga but want to try it, go into it with respect for the amount of concentration and strength it takes. That downward facing dog is damn hard at my weight! But the stretching and relaxation techniques are right on time for my overworked nerves.
I'm good but may not be posting for a bit. But I'll stop in to check on my crew!
And SG Lady, I'm going to do the 6 Quirks as soon as I slow down (it was hard to come up with 6!)
(Press play while reading..It's long so you may need a drink too! :o)
Can you stand all this fuggin' happiness?! I tend to celebrate EVERYTHING. I love life and love the euphoric emotion we call happiness.
I celebrated my 100th post, my 1 year blog anniversary, my birthday and now.......MY EIGHTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!!
About a year ago, I posted "our story". I''ll do a repost so you can keep listening to the music :o) :
""""There was a 17 year old college freshman who was "saved, sanctified and filled with the holy ghost". She really went to college to find a husband. Since she didn't have a career goal, she wasn't sure of what to major in but had a band scholarship, so she chose Music Education.
In the music department there was a music library. It was actually used as a lounge and was a hangout for the choir members and music majors. There was a really handsome senior who locked and unlocked the doors each day. He was a business major but played the trumpet and was a member of the music fraternity.
The freshman and the senior hung out with the group of students that frequented the library. They all went bowling together, ate pizza together, typical college stuff. But the senior was much more serious and had deep feelings for the freshman who was just "dating." They'd have deep conversations about their upbringing and religious backgrounds and could not have been more different. Freshman was "saved", though she didn't know what it meant, and Senior didn't know who or what he believed in. But they keep talking and "dating". So when senior gave freshman a solid gold dome ring for Christmas, he was showing commitment and she saw it as just a gift. Well....
Freshman had been in the band and was tied up all of Fall quarter so she really didn't get a chance to socialize with the rest of the folks until football season was over. After Christmas break, Freshman realized she was HOT! She was being asked out by football players, other freshmen and frat guys. She was totally ignoring senior and began to lose interest because he wasn't as much "fun".
Some "he said/she said" foolishness made Senior really upset with Freshman. Senior tried to get her attention by starting an argument but it backfired and Freshman didn't speak to him anymore. So for the next year and a half that he was on campus (double major) they rarely spoke. But deep in his heart, Senior was hopeful.
Fast forward........
12 years after they met, the guy who "hooked up" freshman and senior committed suicide. The funeral was in the town that Freshman was now living as a recently divorced single woman. The suicide made Freshman realize that whatever problems she had with anyone were petty and she resolved to squash any feuds.
When senior didn't make it to the funeral (he was living 400 mi. away) Freshman asked around until she found his address and wrote him a letter basically saying that she didn't remember what they argued about but she wasn't mad, heard he was Muslim and hoped he was at peace.
Shocked that she found him, he wrote to her back but couldn't wait for the letter to reach her and called her on the phone. They began talking again and found that they had much in common and had the same goals of entrepreneurship and children and home schooling. He was already a Muslim and she had been studying Islam.
During their courtship he explained that he had never been married because freshman was the only girl he ever imagined himself married to.
Fourteen years after they met and two years after they reconnected, Freshman and Senior married, started a business and a family.""""
To my husband....I hope this life of ours is better than you imagined! Love you more, Sister P
I've been getting so much love lately, I forgot about my list...but I'm back.
#15- I love how my birthday, my wedding anniversary and Mother's Day are close together. They are close enough to keep a happy feeling going for about 3 weeks straight but not so close that I have to get combined gifts! #16- I love that I appreciate simple things like flowers (even from the grocery) and cards that are mailed the old fashioned way. #17 - I love that I am still "Detroit fabulous" and enjoy trillion cut diamonds, fur coats and Cadillacs. But I'm not "Detroit Stoopit" and I haven't gone into debt to get them. I've got one (none of yo bizness which) and will work on the other two, patiently.
Funerals are really humbling. They always make me think about my life, where I've been and what else I need to do before checking out of here.
It has really been on my heart and mind to create a will. I think I need to do that.
Today I paid my respects to a local pastor. The funeral was one of the biggest I've seen. I was unusually comfortable there. It was a baptist church but they are different. The women and men both dress modestly. They even have HUGE bible conference each year.
Back to that feeling...
All the brothers and sisters wore all white for the funeral. I think the uniformity of the white made me feel at ease. They also sang many songs to God and not just Jesus (please don't take offense). They were sad but not falling out sad. It was just a good funeral and I felt fine there. I don't mind going to church as a Muslim. I grew up in the COGIC. But often, the preacher tries to stare me/us down and preach to us. I guess they think I'll rip off my head piece and cut 18 inches off my dress and yell "Save me Jesus!"
But not today. Everybody just said, "Hello Sister Muhammad" and let me just "be". Even other pastors waved at me and smiled and left me alone to pay my respects and feel the moment.
I couldn't stay longer than about 90 minutes. It was a 3 hour funeral and I had to come 45 minutes early just to get a spot in the chapel next door and watch it from the BACK of a screen way up in the balcony. But I wanted to go and pay respects because the members read a lot of our papers each week and I know so many people who go there. I never had the opportunity to meet him in person but did enjoy hearing him on the radio on Sunday mornings.
I guess I'm saying all this to say, never miss an opportunity to pay your respect to someone even if you respected them from afar. And never miss an opportunity to share in the moment with some people you care about. I didn't see all the people I knew but when I DO see them, I'll be able to talk about the funeral because I was there. It's about being a friend and a friend of this community that has welcomed us with open arms (mostly).
