No More Shaving

One day a few years ago I was sitting on the floor in the Nursery at church, playing with one of the 3 year olds.  I was wearing a knee-length skirt and had my bare legs stretched out in front of me.  This innocent angel asked me, "Why do you have hair on your legs?"  My reply was, "Because I'm a mammal."  This prompted giggles from the other ladies in the room and a follow-up question of, "What's a mammal?" from my little friend. 

I had decided a few years before this incident that I was done with buying into our culture's obsession with female hairlessness.  Shaving was never something that I enjoyed doing or was totally convinced was worth it.  Sure, silky smooth legs feel amazing between clean bed sheets, but is that fleeting feeling (stubble! grrr!) worth the time, money, and risk of cuts and infection?  For me, the answer was often "no." 

Then in college I took a Women's History class.  One section was spent studying old advertising, and I realized that there was a whole billion-dollar "beauty" industry that made more money when it could convince me that I wasn't beautiful the way God made me.  That made me sick.  (And don't even get me started on the absurd double standard that a man with his natural body hair is fine but a woman with her natural body hair is disgusting!) This was big in convincing me to ditch my makeup (another thing that I didn't do because I enjoyed it) and razor for good.  I've talked about this before in this post.

It did take me a while longer to ignore social pressure and quit being embarrassed about choosing to let my body hair grow the way it was designed to. 

If you're a woman (or man) who loves to be hairless for whatever reason, then that's fine.  You do you.  My point is that both are valid options. 

Here's some good articles on the subject, written by people that are more knowledgeable and eloquent than myself:

Who decided women should shave their legs and underarms? by Cecil Adams

Letting your hair down by Denise Winterman

Why I Will Never Shave My Legs Again by Suzanne Weiss

"The Office" Humor, Brought to You by Dr. Seuss

Liqour Brand Loyalty: (Don't) Start Them Young

For some context: my friend, who is also our supervising teacher, came for our monthly meeting.  She always brings a prize box that the kids get to pick from if they have all their work samples ready for her.  This time she had some of these little calculators, which my kids chose.

I'm a prude in many areas and don't drink alcohol in any form, but this didn't bother me.  It was hilarious!  It reminded me of the Budweiser Beer cardboard box that we had growing up that held movies.  I'm not sure where the box came from...the warehouse club?  We taped a piece of paper on the front to hide the logo, I guess so that we could avoid the "appearance of evil."  Wouldn't want any fellow church members to come over and think my parents were off the straight and narrow!  Of course, we could have just obtained a different box...but this worked.  lol

Primus' Favorite Book Series

I'm so glad that I've succeeded in raising readers! I'm not a "reader" naturally, though I wish I was (starting a book club with the ladies at church is helping!) So it makes me so happy when the kids take a book to the table with them during snack time or stay up late after bedtime with a flashlight. I don't even get that mad when there's a big mess spilling out of the library cubby because it means that the books are being searched through, read, exchanged, and loved.

I haven't gotten the kids addicted to classics like Little House On the Prairie yet, but I wanted to share the series that Primus has been obsessed with. So if you've got a pre-teen interested in fantasy and adventure, here are some you might want to check out!

All the commentary I've included is written by her. Honestly, aside from Harry Potter, I personally haven't read any of these books.  We relied on book reviews and recommendations from friends to determine that these were appropriate and a good fit for her.  (All photos and links are from Amazon for your convenience, though this is not a sponsored post.)

Harry Potter by JK Rowling
I liked Harry Potter because it was full of magic and weird creatures.  Throughout the series you learn wizard history, spells, and Harry Potter's background.

Spirit Animals by various authors (starting with Brandon Mull)
If you like mysteries and animal heroes, this is the series for you.  It's split into two parts.  First Spirit Animals, then Spirit Animals Fall of the Beasts.  Follow the four main characters and their animal companions through both parts.

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland
Wings of Fire is about a prophesy, four baby dragons, and three queens.  Throughout the series they travel the world and get into trouble.

Bravelands by Erin Hunter
So far there are only two books in the series but it's amazing!  You get to meet a lion cub, a baboon, and an elephant calf.

The Sisters Grimm
In the Sisters Grimm, we get several surprises.  First surprise: we meet the descendants of the brothers Grimm.  Second surprise: we find out fairy tale creatures are real!

The Books of Bayern
This series follows four kids in their own books.  Follow them through their adventures into unknown lands.

Which books are your kids into right now?

Using Pandora in Our Homeschool

I love the Pandora music service!  Free music, huge variety, and more convenient than a standard radio?  Yes please!  (I swear this isn't a sponsored post. lol)

You can see below that I have 4 playlists that I use all the time.  Not shown is my Christmas playlist and a Halloween one that I made for a party three years ago.  I don't have a playlist for current pop/rock favorites because I find that I'm more interested in listening to that kind of thing on the regular radio when I'm in the car.

I'm obsessed with my Musicals playlist!  I'll listen to that one and the Disney Musicals playlist all day when I'm doing chores or making dinner.  When I've got the Musicals playlist blasting, the kids are being exposed to Newsies, Hamilton, Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, and a ton of others!  It's prompted so many discussions as they've asked, "what's this song about?"  So often the discussion turns to a history lesson (as I've talked about here.)  Homeschoolers look for educational opportunities everywhere!  Plus, I like the idea of raising little musical theater geeks.

My Sunday playlist is filled with mostly Mormon Tabernacle Choir plus various singers and musicians performing songs from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' hymn book.  I try to put this on as everyone is waking up and getting ready for church.  The idea is to set the tone of the day and invite the Holy Spirit so we start the Sabbath right.

Finally, the playlist that we use the most is called No Words.  It's mostly classical music by Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, etc.  But there's also plenty of Piano Guys, Kenny G, Yanni, etc on there.  This plays almost the whole time during school.  I found an interesting article from Psychology Today title, "Does Music Help Memory?"  I think for me, and hopefully my kids, the answer to that question is "yes!"  Although, I think it's important to listen to instrumental music only so we don't get distracted by the lyrics.  Additionally, we read biographies of several classical musicians last school year so I really like that they're getting exposed to this type of music. 

Do you use music in your homeschool?  What do your Pandora playlists look like?

Homeschooling Means...#34

...reading and doing your literature activities while laying on the couch with your feet in the air.

(This series is meant to be mostly lighthearted and fun.  Some may be serious, but most will be silly, braggy, or of the keepin'-it-real variety.  Not every homeschool is the same.  And some of these things could be said by public school parents.  This is just to highlight MY experience with MY homeschool and MY children.  Enjoy these little insights into our life and feel free to share your own "Homeschooling means..." in the comments!)

Trying On Mommy's Wedding Dress

While doing some closet reorganizing with my girls, I pulled my wedding dress off the top shelf in my room.  I hadn't even looked inside the box since it came home from the cleaner's.  

What girl doesn't love ooh-ing and aah-ing over her Mommy's wedding dress?  It was a fun moment to have with my girls.  Looking at wedding photos just isn't as interesting as seeing the dress up close and feeling the beads with your own hands. 

I let both of them try it on and we almost made Hubby cry.  Primus declared that she wanted to wear my dress when she got married one day.  We had to break it to her that, while it's a lovely idea and many mothers wish that would happen, she probably won't feel the same way in 10+ years and the dress is suddenly 20+ years old and out of style.  

When I was preparing for my wedding, I tried on my mom's dress (long sleeves with big puffs at the shoulders) and loved it and wanted to get some photos taken in it, but that just never happened. 

I told the girls that my hope is to pay a talented seamstress to cut it up and make outfits for my future grandchildren to be blessed in.  They really liked that idea! (I'm not holding out any hope, though, that this idea will appeal to my future daughters-in-law.)

Junior Year vs. Senior Year

My Junior and Senior years of High School were very different.  Junior year represents the height of my ambition and overachieving. During Senior year, on the other hand, I knew what I wanted to do with my life and decided to not waste my time with classes that I didn't need.

I've always been a good student, took Honors classes, and got mostly A's (the only B's I ever got were in weighted classes.) However I wouldn't consider myself a nerd and wasn't interested in going to medical or law school or anything like that.

During 11th grade I had 3 weighted classes (as opposed to 2 weighted classes each of the 2 years prior), an advanced math class, and 3rd year foreign language (plus PE.) Lots of homework! On top of that, I had seminary before school (scripture study class provided by my church), weekly piano lessons (plus practice), and worked part-time at Baskin Robbins.  I also spent a couple months accompanying a second grade play (which meant skipping 6th period-then all class work had to be made-up), and I served as class President of the Laurels (church youth group.)

It was too much for me! In fact, after I was asked to be Laurel President, I sat in my car in the church parking lot and cried and cried and prayed. Also, I had to make the agonizing decision to discontinue piano lessons.  (It helped a little that my teacher had been saying that I was reaching the limits of what she could teach me and I had no ambitions to become a concert pianist.  A couple years later she convinced me to come back and learn how to play the organ.)

Twelfth grade was a breath of fresh air after burning myself out the year before! I still had seminary, part time work, church responsibilities, and the 2nd grade play, but here's my schedule for 1st semester:

1. Honors English (I could have taken the AP class, but didn't feel it was worth the pressure.)
2. Honors Physics (I'm not especially talented at science, but this teacher was legendary and it was such a fun class!  I couldn't pass up this opportunity!)
3. AP Calculus (Just like physics, I didn't "need" this class.  But it was a matter of pride since I was capable of succeeding in it, my older brothers took it, and my dad is a math buff.  Plus, I was lucky that this year the Calc teacher made a deal with a community college so we would get college credit at the same time as high school credit, no AP test required!  Having assurance that I wouldn't have to take math classes in college was so worth it!)
4. Government (Required. This class was kind of a joke...I calculated my grade before taking the final and found that I could get a D and still have an A in the class.  I didn't study for that final at all!)
5. Econ (Required.  No big deal.)
6. Elementary School Aide

That 6th period School Aide "class" was awesome!  I literally got high school credit for leaving campus after 5th period to go help my favorite Kindergarten teacher for an hour!  I got school credit for playing with 5 year olds and doing all the fun things that I wanted to do in my future career!

2nd semester was even better!  I got to drop my 1st period English class and instead take English 300 after school twice per week.  Since it was taught by one of the high school teachers, I got college and high school credit at the same time!  I know some of the kids who took 300 kept their regular English class but I couldn't understand why?  Such a waste of time!  Instead, I would take that time to finish homework at the library or hop in my car after seminary and run over to the Elementary School and help out there for about half an hour before going to school.

I still had science and math, but that was ok.  Government was only one semester so the second semester I took Psychology.  That was an interesting class!  And totally relate-able to my college path to become an Elementary School teacher.  In fact, the next year I took a Childhood Development class at Community College and a lot of it was just a review of what I had already learned!

Ok, so here's the best part...Econ was a one semester class so second semester I had 5th period completely open!  So I got the Elementary School Aide "class" expanded to 2 periods.  I got even more credit for just doing what I loved (plus, it would have looked really nice on a resume if I had followed through and received my teaching credential)!  

That's 3 regular classes, 2 or 3 classes spent in the Kindergarten, and then college English after school twice a week! 

It was the perfect balance for me!  I wasn't spending Senior year stressing out about classes that I really didn't care about or need for my future.  I wasn't spending Senior year with "Senioritis" and an eagerness to graduate so I could "get on with my real life," either!  I was doing things I loved, learning the things I wanted to learn, and working toward my future college degree all at the same time!  

I hope I can help guide my kids on a school path in high school that will be the best use of their time, like I was able to do!  I'm already working to convince them of the benefits of homeschooling through high school and taking Community College courses as soon as they turn 16.  But we'll just have to wait and see what they want for their future!

Halloween Picture Wall

I'm kind of obsessed with hanging up pictures of my kids. I'm also obsessed with my kids' Halloween costumes and like to show them off!  I recently rearranged the area where these photos were hung so I would have room for a couple more years' worth of costumes.  

I printed all the photos from each year in 5X7 size.  Then I gathered and bought an assortment of gold, copper, black, and dark brown frames.  In a corner of each frame I stuck a glittery foam cat sticker with the year written on it.  

Here's what the area looks like with everything hung up (including two empty frames in the bottom right corner for 2018 and 2019).  As you can see, it's a tiny section of wall between the two kids' bedrooms.  If I was more artistic or talented in interior design, perhaps I would have arranged and spaced things differently (I did in fact switch a couple frames after I took this picture in order to fix some spacing issues.)  But this works for me and I'm just happy that they're all up and I can look at these everyday in amazement at how much my children have grown and changed over the years!

Holy Poop

This lovely image is brought to you by Secundus.  We don't swear in our house, though I do say things that might be considered bad to other families (crap, "you suck," etc.) One day after hearing me say "Holy Crap" a couple times, it got Secundus thinking about what that means.

The kids have heard me go on rants before about how stupid people who swear sound.  For example, how can something be "as hot as hell" and "as cold as hell?"  People also use "hell" as a benchmark to describe things that are both wonderful and terrible.  These people don't know how similes work!

Also, I don't get how people can take a curse word, like the unsavory cousin of the word "freak," and use it as a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb! And sometimes all in one sentence!  And use it to talk about how wonderful and terrible something is!  It just doesn't make sense.  Words have meaning!

So the kids have heard and laughed at these rants before and apparently I sound like a hypocrite when I declare things like, "Holy Crap!" :)

We Finally Got Our New Family Support Group Manual!

We've been waiting so long for this to be in print!  When I helped get the Spouse and Family Support Group started about 6 years ago, it was the first of it's kind in our whole region.  It was also considered a "pilot" program because it was such a new program church-wide.  We went through two or three versions of a manual (that was emailed to us and we had to print copies to share with our attendees.)  Then that manual was scrapped entirely and we were told to just use the same 12-step manual that the regular Addiction Recovery Program (ARP) uses while the church's curriculum department worked on something completely different.

Some time after that, the new manual was created and released on the website.  It was great to finally have a fully approved, official manual.  Unfortunately, it still wasn't available for purchase so we had to print out copies for everyone or read it on our devices.  Kind of a pain.

But now it's here!  And it's beautiful!

I really like the "notes" sections in the margins.

And at the end of each chapter there's the "Gospel Study" and "Personal Learning and Application" sections followed by one or two pages with blank lines for recording thoughts and impressions.

I was ridiculously excited when I found out this was finally available!  I love ARP and the Family Support Group!  I'm so thankful for the positive changes that have come about in my life because these groups have taught me how to apply the Atonement of Christ.

Homeschooling Means...#33

...doing math in a Batman cape.

(This series is meant to be mostly lighthearted and fun.  Some may be serious, but most will be silly, braggy, or of the keepin'-it-real variety.  Not every homeschool is the same.  And some of these things could be said by public school parents.  This is just to highlight MY experience with MY homeschool and MY children.  Enjoy these little insights into our life and feel free to share your own "Homeschooling means..." in the comments!)

Secundus' First All-Night Binge Read

I estimate that she stayed up until around 4 AM.  On a school night!  I had no idea that she had stayed up that late.  I woke up late, she got up after me, and started apologizing before I even realized that she hadn't been up for a while. I'm not even mad; I think it's pretty funny and she'll learn through natural consequences that it's not a great idea to do again.

The book she was binging is number one in The Land of Stories series.  I had picked up the audio book about a month ago and we were listening to it together in the van. Unfortunately, we didn't start it until we had about a week left on our check-out, and it's a popular book so we weren't allowed to renew it.  After returning it, I reserved both the book and the audio book.  The paperback arrived first and before I even got a chance to put a bookmark in the place that we left off, Secundus snatched it up and put it in her bed.

She, and all my kids, love to read and read constantly.  Picture books, graphic novels, and chapter books.  But this is definitely the thickest chapter book Secundus has ever attempted!  She usually goes for all-fluff-and-no-substance series like "Dork Diaries" or something way below her reading level like "The Rescue Princesses."  So while she regrets reading for at least 7 hours straight, she's excited to read the others in the series.  I can't even describe how happy I am that she finally found a series that she loves and will challenge her!

Uncle Sam Costume

Finally I present Tertius as Uncle Sam!  His was the trickiest because the traditional Uncle Sam costume always includes a blue suit coat with tails.  Tertius doesn't currently own a suit coat of any kind!  And I don't know if you've noticed, but when I make these costumes for my kids each year, it's extremely important to me to use what we have on hand as much as possible.  In total, I spent less than $10 this year for costumes (that got me Secundus' shirt, Quartus' vest, some white felt, and elastic.) I was not willing to buy or sew (ha!) a coat for him so I had to get creative.

He's wearing a blue and white striped long-sleeved dress shirt and a navy blue sweater vest.  I absolutely covered the vest in white felt stars.  (Another thing you should have noticed by now is that my preferred costume-making materials are felt and hot glue!  I can sew, but when it comes to costumes, the sewing machine stays in the closet.)  

The beard is a triangle of fake fur with an elastic strap to go over his ears and around his head.  He probably won't wear it on Halloween because he keeps complaining that it's too itchy.

For the bowtie, I stacked two rectangles of red felt, pinched them in the middle, and then wrapped the middle with another strip of felt.  Elastic is fed under the strip and velcro is glued onto the ends.

Tertius owned these red pajama shorts so I added long white stripes.

The final piece of course is his top hat.  I was going to make one out of an oatmeal container (the instructions can be found on my Pinterest board.)  But that would have been way too small.  Instead, we went way-too-big with a gallon ice cream bucket!  It's all covered in construction paper with a cardboard brim. The inside hole of the cardboard brim is smaller than the opening of the bucket so that it sits on his head in a comfortable spot.

What are your plans for Halloween?  Does your family do a united theme?

Statue of Liberty Costume

Primus is our Statue of Liberty.  We were super lucky that we had so much of what we needed on hand!  Seriously, this is such a weird green color and we happened to have a long-sleeve sweatshirt, 2 twin sheets, and a scrap of fabric all in roughly the same gross color! 

The first sheet starts behind her, is pulled under her arms, and then crossed and pinned behind her neck, as shown in the pictures. 

The second sheet is gathered up and draped over one shoulder, pulled down to her other side, and tied together with a bit of rope.

I used Mod-Podge to cover an empty cereal box with fabric.  I'm pretty disappointed that it ended up so discolored and wrinkled, but oh well!

The book/box is open at the top so she can use it to collect trick-or-treat candy.  She wanted the option to hold it like a purse so we reinforced it on the inside with extra cardboard scraps, poked holes, and added a rope strap.

I hot-glued tissue paper to the top of a flashlight and wrapped the whole thing with fabric for her torch.

There are so many different ideas on how to do the crown!  I pinned a couple of them here. This is what I came up with.  The points and the front piece (with the windows drawn in sharpie) are just cardboard wrapped in fabric and glued to either side of a thick green headband.

You can see from the back that each triangular point is attached individually and they're slightly overlapped as needed.

 In a couple days you'll get to see our final Halloween costume: Uncle Sam!