February 5
“What being homeschooled is actually like.” (Buzzfeed)
Kimberly Kingston Eames Great stuff! I was on correspondence (what home-schooling was called then) part of Kindergarten, all of 1st and 2nd grade, and part of third. I was then placed in advanced math and English for the rest of schooling. I think my at-home learning made a huge difference.
Becky Castle Miller Josh Hutcherson FTW.
Amy Jane Helmericks Becky— I don’t know what that means. Other than FTW. I suppose it would mean more if I knew who Hutcherson is.
Becky Castle Miller Oh, the gif set of the boy on the late night show saying he didn’t like regular school because of the early morning wake up. That was my favorite part of this list. He’s Peeta in the Hunger Games movies.
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I really should be allowed to laugh during speech evaluations when the evaluator says “nice body.”
It’s worse/harder when the lectern has been mentioned recently, either blocking or not-blocking my physical body– this always seems to get mentioned no matter what I do.
For context: I gave the speech for my old TM club’s evaluation contest at their meeting today. Three contestants evaluated a speech I gave, and I prepped really well.
I recorded everything, and think it’ll be really nice for my “self-esteem file.”
*happy sigh* It’s neat to be noticed when you work hard on something.
February 8
February 10
4,000 words since yesterday, and only 4 scenes left to write on my rough draft. [Written when I was working on Sherlockian Daze. Didn’t stop at the end of November.]
Kati Armbruster WHOO HOO!!! Way to go! Keep up the momentum, lady, you’re almost there!
February 13
Natasha said how she was feeling bad and asked each of her sibs to tell her “five good things about the world.”
She was slouchy and shoulder-slumped-dejected as she said she could only come up with two, Elisha four, and Melody one.
“Can you tell me five good things?”
“Baby goats, kittens, horses, snowmen, and fresh rain for dancing in.”
I was having a internally-crummy day, too, so it felt good to smile together.
Halfway through February. It’s all better from here.
Amy Jane Helmericks Can I just say how proud I am as a parent that she thought of that “five-good-things” exercise on her own?!
Laura Frame Tormey Thanks!! This made me feel better too. Coffee, snowflakes, friendship, fire, and the ocean.
Becky Castle Miller Cobblestones, fabric, lanterns, lap cats, and cheesecake.
Kati Armbruster yummy books, fresh baked goodies, lilacs in bloom, favorite songs, and puppy kisses.
February 14
Elisha is so his mother’s son.
Last week he was reading the movie picture book of Frozen and explained to me that “Movies are just so *daMAtic* and scary and sad and [coming at you fast] that it’s useful to read the whole story ahead of time. Then you’re ready for the movie.”
Today I finally sat down and read all of Sherlock season 3/ep 3 (the transcript), and I’m like Elisha here: now that I’ve read the whole thing, I’m ready to sit through the actual show.
NB: when I actually TRUST a show/its writers I don’t have to do this.
I’ve decided this is why I do spoilers: I want to decide how I feel at my pace, not try to sort out the feels while taking in the story, too: those are separate processes for me.
Amy Jane Helmericks This morning, for group reading we did chapter five of The Secret Garden.
When we got to the bit about Mary confirming her friendship with the little bird, Elisha jumped off my lap, “Pause the story!” He shouted. Then he just stood there for a moment, shaking his hands. “It’s just just! so!” and he trilled his tongue.
Then he climbed up in my lap again and was ready to listen again.
February 15
So *SO* happy he see a mainline Christian writer addressing this: God Hates Domestic Violence
Yes “God hates divorce,” but he hates Abuse just as much.
From the article:
“Sometimes, it seems like we are more concerned with keeping the marriage going than ending the violence, when in reality, violent men need to understand that in order to keep the marriage going the violence must stop, now. Notice how we put the onus on the woman instead of the man: “Wife, stay in the marriage,” rather than, “Husband, we cannot support your wife staying with you as long as you harm her.”
We won’t counsel like this until we hate domestic violence as much as God hates it.”
Becky Castle Miller Yes! I read this when Sallie posted it earlier and loved it. The comments are great too. Several people asked him to expand violence to include verbal and emotional abuse, which I think would be helpful.
Amy Jane Helmericks Including other types of abuse w/ violence would be a huge step for someone in Thomas’s position: he has the fresh ache (strongly implied in the comments) of an avoidable (or warning-signs ignored) murder, and that seems to be what prompted this post.
Physical violence is quantifiable in a way that few other kinds of abuse are, and the b&w thinkers that these reform types tend to be– they seem to need empirical evidence, which makes it hard for them to know what to do with emotional and mental stuff.
Including mental health– as we’ve spoken of, before.
February 16
“The Faces of Figure Skating.”
Wow.
Beth Zapf Hahaha. I just feel bad for them that these pictures exist, though. As one commenter said, “You try rotating faster than a helicopter blade and see what your face looks like.” But funny!
February 17
Sherlockian Daze process/breadcrumbs [Here there be *spoilers.*]:
Marybeth/Kassi: “I learned from the newspapers. I— I wasn’t even listed as next-of-kin to inform, and found from a NEWSPAPER that my entire family had been killed! [in the Indian Railway terrorist attacks the year before].”
The happy-brilliant moment when I realized *this* (already planted) line is why she never knew her mother was miss-identified as one of the deceased and correspondingly was never informed when her mother was found alive. Lovely twist that complicates things as much as it comforts.
Got another [much later] scene written this weekend. Chipping away; making progress. Still excited. Still Christmas.
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That moment when you’re trying to find the stroganoff recipe from your childhood, and you realize you never really liked it, anyway.
Kati Armbruster hahahaha…. When I went to Germany a couple years back to visit my Mom, she asked me to make Shepherd’s Pie for her for supper one night. I told her that I don’t have any shepherd’s pie recipes because I never liked it. She didn’t understand how I couldn’t love what was her favorite meal, and surely, given how much cooking I do, I MUST have a recipe of it on hand, even if I’ve never made it. Was really quite funny, if a bit frustrating.
February 19
[From Jen Sparks]
Lorde of the Rings, people!
February 20
I don’t trust medical professionals anymore.
Or, put more politely, my automatic stance is suspicion and prove-it-to-me.
I don’t remember who posted it on Facebook, but the article was written by an affronted pediatrician who said that parents who don’t trust vaccinations are parent she can’t work with.
“Because if they don’t trust me when I assure them that x, y, & z vaccinations are perfectly, without qualification safe,” (not a direct quote– I don’t have the article in front of me), “Then how are they going to trust my judgement on anything else?”
And I (who am not energetic enough to be *anti* vax, but do question the necessity of the timing of some vax) felt a light go on: this is absolutely the case.
So much of the medical experience I have had (with the notable exceptions of pneumonia, a referral for physical therapy, and discovering a migraine medicine that works most of the time) has been useless at best, and belittling/insulting at worst.
(In this I will quickly acknowledge I’ve had it better than many, whose “worst” slides deeper than mine.)
The point being, I’ve been asking why I put up with feeling sick and weak, or why I don’t seek a formal diagnosis for the kids, or whatever, and it comes down to intense frustration: they don’t have anything better to offer me than I am already doing, and they’ll happily charge me $$ to say so.
Stomach aches, fatigue, depressed mood, all these are “more tests” and head-patting entryways to a system that invites you to be a guinea pig, then tells you what you already know: sleep more, reduce your stress, eat better.
Only their idea of “eat better” is painfully wrong for my body-system, reinforcing my own awareness over their recommendations.
*sigh*
And I’m not even depressed/whatever right now, just looking straight at the issue, thinking how tired I am and wishing I really could trust anyone enough to just delegate health care decisions to, but I can’t. Not yet.
Because I didn’t start out anti-established medicine. I started out 100% standard care, and after repeated, painful “Oops, my bad”s, one starts to agree, “Yeah, you are bad. Tell me again why I should trust you?”
And once more I’m faced with the question of *How much can I really do on my own?*
The answer: Not as much as I want to.
Ashley Peck Borrego Wow I really resonate with this. Aside from pregnancy, I see doctors for myself very infrequently. This summer I tried to find the cause of a mysterious pain, and with everyone I saw I felt stupid and belittled. Even the hematologist I saw about a clotting disorder that I *have* made me feel stupid. Yes, yes.
Amy Jane Helmericks I end up wondering how much gets/goes unchanged or unchallenged because the medical professionals shame so effectively.
It makes me think of “those parents” who shame children for being childish, or having needs they (the children) don’t know how to meet (yet).
I’ve had an argument/lecture with parents about how babies crying is not evidence of their “sin nature” and that it is not “sin” for children to inconvenience their parents, it’s their existence.
This makes me think so much about other parts of our culture, too, how assault victims are assumed to be liars, that mental illness isn’t acknowledged, or is shameful. How “spiritual” experiences are always suspect to somebody…
We are a process-based, experiential, empirical society, and that which cannot be observed, explained, or repeatable (all means of “proving”) are either questioned, undermined or ignored.
We are so afraid of being “taken in” that we cannot take anyone in to the shelter of our trust and support.
And the super-sad thing about all this is how significantly therapeutic all that trust and support is being proven to be BY those empirical, observable tests.
Jen Sparks I think the internets don’t help society with the whole mistrust issue, either; way with all the scams and hoaxes.
Amy Jane Helmericks I haven’t been burned by a hoax yet, Jen. It’s all been the humans-being-human.
February 22
[Ernie laugh]
I was just *waiting* for someone to make this.
