Math - Algebra word problems
Language Arts - New vocabulary words and a test
History - The Puritans, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer and the Quakers
Science - Sudoku - she solved her first real sudoku and kakuro puzzles
Japanese - more Kanji, getting ready for a big kanjo test
Art - Painted clay model figures
Read Aloud - Poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Sphinx, A Letter, and Each and All - discussed rhyme scheme, metaphor, simile and meaning. Added vocabulary words Benison ad Cumber.
Lightning Lit
Piano - she really loves her Ragtime piece.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Actual lecture I just gave Z
Zoe, life isn't always going to come to you easily. Sometimes it is going to be frustrating and difficult.
Right now you are not just practicing piano. You are practicing how you are going to deal with things that are frustrating. You are practicing for real life. One day you are going to have a child and they are going to be frustrating and huffing and crying and getting yourself even more worked up is not going to help the situation.
Someday you will have a job and it might get frustrating and the frustration might not go away quickly. So you are going to have to learn how to deal with it. You are training right now for that day.
So, think about who you want to be. Think, who is Zoe and how does she handle things when they don't go well or when they are difficult. Think about the person you want to be. Feel it inside you.
Now, when you are ready, start the piece again. And if you can't get the piano piece right, you can feel still feel good because you are also practicing becoming the person you want to be.
Right now you are not just practicing piano. You are practicing how you are going to deal with things that are frustrating. You are practicing for real life. One day you are going to have a child and they are going to be frustrating and huffing and crying and getting yourself even more worked up is not going to help the situation.
Someday you will have a job and it might get frustrating and the frustration might not go away quickly. So you are going to have to learn how to deal with it. You are training right now for that day.
So, think about who you want to be. Think, who is Zoe and how does she handle things when they don't go well or when they are difficult. Think about the person you want to be. Feel it inside you.
Now, when you are ready, start the piece again. And if you can't get the piano piece right, you can feel still feel good because you are also practicing becoming the person you want to be.
Happy Birthday Pere
We celebrated Pere's birthday last week. He got presents for his main two hobbies, music and cooking.
Zoe started doing dance again. I wanted her to take a break from gymnastics and try something else for awhile. This new dance school as a performing dance group that she can audition for. She is looking forward to doing that.
Last week was also our first week of school for the new year (that went well!) and my first week back running for the Couch to 5K program. I also got very close to hitting my goal of writing for 4 hours a day. I fell a little short do to a banking error that had me on the phone for hours over two days.
Zoe started doing dance again. I wanted her to take a break from gymnastics and try something else for awhile. This new dance school as a performing dance group that she can audition for. She is looking forward to doing that.
Last week was also our first week of school for the new year (that went well!) and my first week back running for the Couch to 5K program. I also got very close to hitting my goal of writing for 4 hours a day. I fell a little short do to a banking error that had me on the phone for hours over two days.
Snowing Again
This is what it looks like outside already. And it is snowing again. The snowflakes are falling slowly. It's beautiful.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday
Math - Algebra word problems
L.A. - Vocabulary test, Correct Essay Structure, George Orwell and Thomas Paine
Writing a essay on wordiness.
History - Puritans, the Massachusetts School Laws, education in Puritan settlements, and blue laws
History test - miss two about the Mayflower Compact so we went back and studied it more.
Music - Trills, connecting octaves, super drill, Arthur Rubenstein and Picasso, repertoire
Science - Einstein, George Washionton Carver, Problem Solving, Mazes, Patterns, the theory of multiple intelligences and logic.
Japanese - Kanji Test (100%) and more Kanji
Literature - Symbolism in The Christmas Carol and the Hobbit, Lightening Lit webinar
Lafcadio Hearn - Reflections, video, vocabulary and lesson on symbolism
Lunch - Dr. Who and Looney Tunes
Reading - Little Women
Read Aloud - Poetry - Robert Burns, Lord Byron
Hebrew
Mommy Time - Little Big Planet
L.A. - Vocabulary test, Correct Essay Structure, George Orwell and Thomas Paine
Writing a essay on wordiness.
History - Puritans, the Massachusetts School Laws, education in Puritan settlements, and blue laws
History test - miss two about the Mayflower Compact so we went back and studied it more.
Music - Trills, connecting octaves, super drill, Arthur Rubenstein and Picasso, repertoire
Science - Einstein, George Washionton Carver, Problem Solving, Mazes, Patterns, the theory of multiple intelligences and logic.
Japanese - Kanji Test (100%) and more Kanji
Literature - Symbolism in The Christmas Carol and the Hobbit, Lightening Lit webinar
Lafcadio Hearn - Reflections, video, vocabulary and lesson on symbolism
Lunch - Dr. Who and Looney Tunes
Reading - Little Women
Read Aloud - Poetry - Robert Burns, Lord Byron
Hebrew
Mommy Time - Little Big Planet
Saturday, January 2, 2010
the last decade 00 - 09
New Years Eve '00 - I spent it with friends at Pere's house. We weren't dating yet but by March we were together.
In 2001 Pere and I were living in Virginia. I was doing copy writing and tech writing. I gave up my job to become a stay-at-home mom when we had our miracle baby, our precious Zoe.
In 2002 we were living in Los Angeles. Over the next six years we lived in the city, by the beach in Oxnard, on the grounds of what used to be the Camarillo State Mental Asylum (now it is a University), and in The Valley.
In 2003 and 2004 we lived a block from the beach and on a water channel and Zoe and I spent many afternoons watching the sunset over the water. The pace was slow and the living was easy.
2003 was when I found Hoagies Gifted and realized what my problem was. ;)
Summer of 04 I bought the bookstore and named it Book Nation. Do you remember it Wendy? Did I still have the bookstore when we met?
Zoe tried out a year of preK and really liked it. Except for that mean faced girl... That was her only foray into a school setting. It wasn't one of those academic preschools but one where they sing songs and bake and take nature walks, etc.
In 2005 I got Zoe tested, we were thinking about sending her a the school for Highly Gifted children. The tester recommended her for Davidson and we realized that school wasn't going to be a good fit.
I also sold the bookstore in 2005. When I was working I felt like I was a bad mom and when I was with Zoe I felt like I was not getting enough work down. I realized that having a start up retail store that is open 7 days a week and trying to homeschool a PG four year old was more than I could handle.
2006 we moved to The Valley and made a lot of new friends. We went to our first Davidson Gathering and made even more wonderful friends. Zoe turned five and I started blogging.
I finished Nanowrimo and wrote my first book!
The highlight of 2006 was vacationing in Paris and Antibe, France. It was the trip of a lifetime!
Zoe started acting and by Jan 07 she had been in 2 commericals, a print ad and two voice overs.
2007 we moved again, this time to the Midwest. We bought a beautiful house in a historic neighborhood, one block away from my mother to the west of me and one block away from my older sister to the east. A couple months later my oldest niece and her son came to live in our little Midwest town too.
With my mother's help I made our first Halloween party. We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and I had my mother, father, sister, BIL, two nephews and several other family members filling up my new big dining room. That Thanksgiving was also our first snow.
07 was the first Christmas with my family altogether. But already the cracks were starting to show.
In 2008 my mother wouldn't stay in town to celebrate Zoe's birthday. In May, on Mother's Day in fact I remember sobbing in the shower and wondering why, Why, WHY did I ever move to live near my family. Mother's Day is when it all started to go bad, and it went bad very quickly.
In September I confronted my mother (first time in my life) and was painfully punished for stepping out of line.
September 08 - July 09 - Those 11 months were very dark times but I was changing for the better almost everyday. It was struggle. It still is. But I have become much more the person I want to be.
I went No Contact with my mom when she left town Nov '08. I broke No Contact a few times since then. No Contact has lead to me not being able to talk to or see my step-father. One casualty I should have predicted. My mother is the gatekeeper. Since then I have also gone No Contact with my sister.
The official decision for total NC came in the summer of '09 and by that time I had worked through most of my situational depression. I realized at some point that I was able to stop obsessively thinking about them and start thinking about my future.
In 2009 I started writing the novel that I have been developing since 2003. I started running. I started protecting my time and my feelings. I stopped having time and patience and endless amounts of understanding and forgiveness for people that just weren't going to change.
Fall of 2009 I was finding my happy self again. I, not only came out from under a cloud of grief over losing my mother, I also came out from the cloudy thinking she had oppressed me under for 36 years. I saw that I was lovable and realized the goals I had gone to therapy for.
So 2010... On New Years Eve I was driving to Chicago and thinking. Thinking, that is what I always do. I am always analyzing, picking apart, wondering, theorizing, predicting, and fixing. I ask a lot of questions and diligently find the answers.
But I realized one thing I rarely ask is "What do I want?" Really, I don't. I ask "How should this be? 'What would make this better? "What is the right thing to do?" "What do I believe about this and given that what is my next step?" and "Why would someone do something like that?"
But I never ask the simple question 'What do I want?" And it is simple. At least the answer is.
What do I want?
I want to love my husband. I want to treat him well so that he knows I love him.
I want to spend time with my daughter and give her a joyful childhood. I want to share life with her while I still can.
I want to spend time with good people.
I want alone time to write my book.
When I ask that question and listen to the answer I find that things can be much simpler than I have ever allowed them to be.
So, my resolution is to remember to ask myself what I want. It is such a simple question. I am kind of shocked I never really thought to ask myself that before. It is simple question but it is a big one.
In 2001 Pere and I were living in Virginia. I was doing copy writing and tech writing. I gave up my job to become a stay-at-home mom when we had our miracle baby, our precious Zoe.
In 2002 we were living in Los Angeles. Over the next six years we lived in the city, by the beach in Oxnard, on the grounds of what used to be the Camarillo State Mental Asylum (now it is a University), and in The Valley.
In 2003 and 2004 we lived a block from the beach and on a water channel and Zoe and I spent many afternoons watching the sunset over the water. The pace was slow and the living was easy.
2003 was when I found Hoagies Gifted and realized what my problem was. ;)
Summer of 04 I bought the bookstore and named it Book Nation. Do you remember it Wendy? Did I still have the bookstore when we met?
Zoe tried out a year of preK and really liked it. Except for that mean faced girl... That was her only foray into a school setting. It wasn't one of those academic preschools but one where they sing songs and bake and take nature walks, etc.
In 2005 I got Zoe tested, we were thinking about sending her a the school for Highly Gifted children. The tester recommended her for Davidson and we realized that school wasn't going to be a good fit.
I also sold the bookstore in 2005. When I was working I felt like I was a bad mom and when I was with Zoe I felt like I was not getting enough work down. I realized that having a start up retail store that is open 7 days a week and trying to homeschool a PG four year old was more than I could handle.
2006 we moved to The Valley and made a lot of new friends. We went to our first Davidson Gathering and made even more wonderful friends. Zoe turned five and I started blogging.
I finished Nanowrimo and wrote my first book!
The highlight of 2006 was vacationing in Paris and Antibe, France. It was the trip of a lifetime!
Zoe started acting and by Jan 07 she had been in 2 commericals, a print ad and two voice overs.
2007 we moved again, this time to the Midwest. We bought a beautiful house in a historic neighborhood, one block away from my mother to the west of me and one block away from my older sister to the east. A couple months later my oldest niece and her son came to live in our little Midwest town too.
With my mother's help I made our first Halloween party. We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and I had my mother, father, sister, BIL, two nephews and several other family members filling up my new big dining room. That Thanksgiving was also our first snow.
07 was the first Christmas with my family altogether. But already the cracks were starting to show.
In 2008 my mother wouldn't stay in town to celebrate Zoe's birthday. In May, on Mother's Day in fact I remember sobbing in the shower and wondering why, Why, WHY did I ever move to live near my family. Mother's Day is when it all started to go bad, and it went bad very quickly.
In September I confronted my mother (first time in my life) and was painfully punished for stepping out of line.
September 08 - July 09 - Those 11 months were very dark times but I was changing for the better almost everyday. It was struggle. It still is. But I have become much more the person I want to be.
I went No Contact with my mom when she left town Nov '08. I broke No Contact a few times since then. No Contact has lead to me not being able to talk to or see my step-father. One casualty I should have predicted. My mother is the gatekeeper. Since then I have also gone No Contact with my sister.
The official decision for total NC came in the summer of '09 and by that time I had worked through most of my situational depression. I realized at some point that I was able to stop obsessively thinking about them and start thinking about my future.
In 2009 I started writing the novel that I have been developing since 2003. I started running. I started protecting my time and my feelings. I stopped having time and patience and endless amounts of understanding and forgiveness for people that just weren't going to change.
Fall of 2009 I was finding my happy self again. I, not only came out from under a cloud of grief over losing my mother, I also came out from the cloudy thinking she had oppressed me under for 36 years. I saw that I was lovable and realized the goals I had gone to therapy for.
So 2010... On New Years Eve I was driving to Chicago and thinking. Thinking, that is what I always do. I am always analyzing, picking apart, wondering, theorizing, predicting, and fixing. I ask a lot of questions and diligently find the answers.
But I realized one thing I rarely ask is "What do I want?" Really, I don't. I ask "How should this be? 'What would make this better? "What is the right thing to do?" "What do I believe about this and given that what is my next step?" and "Why would someone do something like that?"
But I never ask the simple question 'What do I want?" And it is simple. At least the answer is.
What do I want?
I want to love my husband. I want to treat him well so that he knows I love him.
I want to spend time with my daughter and give her a joyful childhood. I want to share life with her while I still can.
I want to spend time with good people.
I want alone time to write my book.
When I ask that question and listen to the answer I find that things can be much simpler than I have ever allowed them to be.
So, my resolution is to remember to ask myself what I want. It is such a simple question. I am kind of shocked I never really thought to ask myself that before. It is simple question but it is a big one.
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