One of the reasons I love blogging:

I love the challenge of solving little Blogger problems!

I've noticed on my blog and others that after putting a block quote in a post, the line spacing of subsequent paragraphs changes. Like this:

Here's a block quote. I'm going to just put lots of lines in here to give you the idea. Maybe I could put a little bit of poetry here...like a sweet poem that my older girls learned when they were little... oh, maybe next time.

OK, now here comes some regular text. Do you see how the line spacing is no longer double (or maybe it's 1-1/2) but is single spaced?

Well, I finally figured out what to do to fix it. You have to go into "Edit HTML" mode, and insert a <> code (but without the spaces before and after the "p") just before the line of text that starts after the blockquote.

Like this. Silly, I know, but those little things can just drive me nuts because I don't understand why they're happening and it makes me crazy! So, to stumble across a solution is just a kick.

Now, I'm going to publish this and hope I got the codes in here properly. The problem doesn't show up in "preview" mode, so I can't test it out. If I messed anything up, I'll just have to edit a few times... so stay tuned....!

"Homer, whoever he was, still speaks to us"

As you know if you've read some of the posts here lately, we are deep into Greek history and literature this year.

So, I was happy to see this article in the Weekly Standard: "Greeks Bearing Gifts." (Most of the article is behind a subscriber wall... and I highly recommend subscribing!)

A few excerpts:

Children are enthralled by Odysseus's adventures with bizarre monsters; warriors are drawn to the violence of the Trojan battlefield; sentimentalists like the affair of Helen and Paris, or the tragic marital love of Hector and Andromache. Feminists, ancient and modern, are attracted to the clever ways that Penelope exercises sexual power over the suitors, and to the whiffs of a prehistoric matriarchy in the poems. (Why, after all, do the suitors think they have to marry Penelope in order to become king?) And entrepreneurial types like Odysseus's indomitable spirit and problem-solving techniques.

Yes! Exactly!

I read this passage aloud to the kids (making a subtle change from "sexual power" to "feminine power" for the sake of the younger ones), and it made me inordinately happy that they knew each of the characters named and could identify with the thoughts expressed by the author. They, too, had been touched by the tenderness of Hector toward his baby son, who cried from fright at the sight of Hector's helmet, and by the devotion of Andromache, his heartbroken wife; they had admired Penelope for her faithfulness and resourcefulness; they had delighted in the cleverness of Odysseus.

There is so much to love about these stories for those reasons alone, but there's more, of course:

The Odyssey, too, asserts the deep value of living a human life. Odysseus, offered the possibility of blissful immortality with the goddess Calypso, is inexorably drawn to return to his home, his son, and his wife. Homer presents us with no transcendent values, but he does celebrate this-world, human ones: the value of achieving excellence, and the value of love--of husband and wife, of father and son, and of one friend for another. Achilles, like most soldiers before and since Troy, finally faced battle not for some glorious, abstract cause, but out of intense devotion to a brother in arms.

At a time when the value of living an earthly life is under attack by violent, death-loving and suicidal religious totalitarians, when a twisted honor/shame culture drives fathers and brothers to murder their daughters and sisters because of perceived violations of family honor, we could do worse than to contemplate with Achilles and Odysseus--the founders of our own culture--what makes this life worth living.

This is why these great works should be part of every curriculum. We have the obligation to hand on the treasures of the past to the next generation; we put our own civilization in peril if we fail in that duty.

The Volcano

Awhile back I promised some pictures of the kids making a kitchen-table volcano.

So, here are the pics!

First, the kids made their salt dough mountain around an old glass jar. Then they carefully measured and poured in water, dish soap, a little red food coloring, and baking soda...



Then, the vinegar, and... LOOK OUT!

I love how they both sort of jumped back, not sure what to expect from this volcano.

Of course, we then had to re-do it several times, just to see the bubbling, overflowing "lava".

Notes on the background: See the plain kitchen walls? We just stripped off all the old wallpaper but haven't gotten around to putting up anything in its place. We will before summer, I hope.

Winter scenes

Can you guess what it is?
A basketball hoop.

Our pear tree.

This is no mystery: icicles on an evergreen bush.

And a snow-covered evergreen.

Link-o-rama

Some good stuff on other blogs today:

My friend Nancy Carpentier Brown has an amazing animal story. A cat, a burning house... well, just go read it.

A blogging friend who I've never actually met, Rich Glasgow, has an interesting post about recalls of products Made in China. My mother has boycotted everything made in China for years; she certainly is vindicated in that by recent events. Anyway, go read Rich's post; you'll probably want to join her in that boycott.

Finally, Althouse (who needs no other name, just "Althouse"), links to a NYT article about how fewer kids are getting their driver's licenses at age 16.

Heck, the NYT could have just asked my hairdresser; she told me last year that kids weren't as eager to get their licenses anymore.

That fits with our experience here: Our 17 yo took Driver's Ed two years ago and still doesn't have her license. But, as she says, why should she, as she wouldn't have a car to drive to work anyway? True; I would still need the van for carpooling while she's at work.

However, her younger sister, age 15-1/2, is now taking Driver's Ed and seems more interested in getting that license as soon as possible. In addtion, the 17 yo knows that she needs to get that license before starting college.

So we may go from 2 drivers in the family to 4 in no time at all.

Reading the whole Bible in one year

I stumbled across a really cool thing earlier this year: an way to read through the entire Bible in one year, using a handy set of bookmarks listing four short readings each day.

If I can remember the blog that deserves the hat tip, I'll be sure to update here.

In the meantime, here are the bookmarks for the first half of the year, and here for the second half. Print them, cut them out, match them up, glue-stick them together back to back, and you're ready to start. Just don't laminate them, as I originally thought I'd do, as then you won't be able to use the handy checkboxes to mark off the sections as you read them.

It doesn't matter if you're not starting on January 1; just start now, and pretend it's January 1st! You'll be done a year from today instead of next New Year's Eve, that's all.

Besides, they've very kindly planned for only 25 days of reading each month, so you have about 5 extra days for "catch-up", if needed. (And for me, it's always needed, sad to say.)

I really like this format: insteading of starting with Genesis and reading straight through to Revelations, each day you read a little from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a little bit from a Gospel, and then a bit more of the New Testament starting with Acts of the Apostles.

The only downside is that this isn't based on a Catholic Bible, but you can always use the extra days for the extra books.

This just in: Hillary seems angry

Some advice for the Clinton campaign:

If your candidate already has an image problem, with people perceiving her as angry, nagging, shrill, and unlikeable, do not have her say the following in a strident tone:

"Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public — that's what I expect from you," Clinton said angrily, waving the mailings in the air.

Shame on him? For what, daring to critizice her opinions? On the issues? Wow.

Here's the scolding.



I don't know who that poor guy is in the background, but I feel sorry for him. He looks kind of scared.

I think most of the real men in this country dislike Hillary because, as P.J. O'Rourke brilliantly put it, she's the "woman who taught the 4th grade class that every man in America wished he were dead in."

Most real women know who she is: she's the woman we're all afraid of becoming on our worst days.

More from the inimitable Mr. O'Rourke:

A man can be a Democrat to the core, going into the voting booth to pull the lever with the donkey label no matter what. Then he sees Hillary's name on the ballot. And it all comes back to him .  .  . the first marriage .  .  . the time he came home a little late, it wasn't even midnight, and he'd only had four or five beers, and she threw his bowling ball down the storm sewer.

Now, if the real Hillary is half as kind and smart and funny as her supporters say, then that's wonderful, and we've all gotten the wrong impression.

But if she's just half of what her detractors say, well, then I feel deeply sorry for her.

About George MacDonald, Lady Aberlin, and Mr. Rogers

This morning, Nancy Brown had a nice review on the American Chestertonian Society blog of the book The Diary of an Old Soul and the White Page Poems, by Betty K. Aberlin.

Well, somehow (don't remember where) I'd recently learned that this Betty K. Aberlin was actually Lady Aberlin of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood fame! So I posted a comment mentioning that fact, and then some googling found that Lady Aberlin had posted a comment on a different blog... and all that got me thinking about Mr. Rogers.

We loved Mr. Rogers in this household when the kids were really little. Many happy half-hours were spent watching his gentle and interesting shows. We loved the tours of factories (I'm a sucker for that kind of field trip). My dad used to watch the show just to enjoy the jazz.

Anyway, the years went by. About three years ago, our oldest gave me this book as a gift: The World According to Mr Rogers: Important Things to Remember. Of course, I got a little teary-eyed. (And wow, according to Amazon there's only one copy available now, selling for over $70! But I'm not selling mine. No. Way.)

Finally, here's a lovely little bit of video; it's a message from Mr. Rogers to all of us grownups.

And Lady Aberlin, if you ever happen to find your way here to the backwaters of the blogosphere, I would be greatly honored if you'd leave a comment....

Auditory and Kinesthetic Learning (a.k.a. Playmobil Time During History Read Aloud)

While reading aloud from The Children's Homer this afternoon, we heard about Hephestus, the blacksmith of the gods, making a new set of armor for Achilles. So, the two youngest set about making a smithy of their own.

Here, our little blacksmith is pounding out a breastplate on the anvil:


Below, the shield and some weaponry, as well as the forge (that's the orange blobby thing on the left):

A tropical island, with rats (eeew) and a bag of booty:

Why is that tropical island in there? I have no idea.

From ancient Greece to current events

So, this afternoon I'm reading aloud from Padraic Colum's The Children's Homer, and we get to this line:

But when he began to speak we saw that no man could match Odysseus - his words came like snowflakes in winter and his voice was very resonant.

Says 10 year old son:

"Just like Obama."

Total eclipse of the moon: some mediocre photos

Last night, a couple of us bundled up and went outside to see the total lunar eclipse. I took a few pictures with 16x zoom, which is great compared to my old camera with a measly 2-1/2x, but it doesn't really buy you a whole lot of close-up when the object is a quarter million miles away.


And then the moon jumps around like crazy in the view finder because the zoom is so great and the tiniest motion -- say of pressing down the shutter button -- makes it bounce around like a super ball.

Most of the family was content to peek out the living room window once in awhile. There was a chess game going on, which required much concentration, of course, so those two couldn't really take a lot of time away to bundle up and run outside every few minutes.

Besides, it was darn tootin' cold out there, even with coats and scarves and boots. It was about zero or maybe a hundred below, I'm not sure which.

But we won't be able to see a total lunar eclipse around these parts for another 2 years, so it was worth braving the elements to gaze upon the eerie red loveliness of the earth's shadow slowly, silenty, gently covering up the moon.

Even if the pictures don't really capture it all that well.

Some winter pics

Rosy glow barberry in winter:

Our neighbor clearing several more inches of global warming from his driveway:

Good news from Baghdad = Bad news for Democrats

Contentions, a blog of Commentary magazine, says progress is being made in all areas:

We are now seeing extraordinary security gains from the last year translate into both political reconciliation and legislative progress. Within the last week the Iraqi parliament passed key laws having to do with provincial elections (the law devolves power to the local level in a decentralization system that is groundbreaking for the region), the distribution of resources, and amnesty. And those laws follow ones passed in recent months having to do with pensions, investment, and de-Ba’athification.

This is good news for the Iraqis, good news for Americans, and good news for all those who value liberty. But not for the Democrats. From the same post:

Progress in Iraq means life is getting progressively more difficult for Democrats and their two presidential front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Having trongly opposed the surge, Obama and Clinton have been forced by events to concede that security progress has been made. But until now they have insisted that the surge is a failure because we’re not seeing political progress. That claim is now being shattered.

Soon Obama and Clinton will have no argument left to justify their position on Iraq. It will become increasingly clear that they are committed to leaving Iraq simply because they are committed to leaving Iraq, regardless of the awful consequences that would follow. It is an amazing thing to witness: two leading presidential candidates who are committed to engineering an American retreat, which would lead to an American defeat, despite the progress we are making on every conceivable front.

h/t Instapundit.

Names that will always be missing from the ballot

While lamenting the sorry choices on both tickets yesterday, I realized that this is the first year that one of the victims of Roe v. Wade could have run for president. Those children aborted in 1973, the first year that abortion was made legal, would now be men and women 35 years old.

True, perhaps no one who would have been born that first year would have run for President at the very young age of 35 ... but maybe 5 years from now? Or 10? Or 20?

Each year that we complain about the choices before us, we should realize that there may have been men or women much more suited to lead -- but our country's highest court permitted them to be destroyed in the womb.

Sin plants seeds of destruction. The sin becomes its own punishment. How long can we allow the holocaust of abortion to continue before we all are aware of the punishment it will bring?

So who did I vote for?

I'm not telling. It's a secret ballot, right?

Tom and I went to vote together. We'd talked about it on the way over there, but neither one of us knew for sure how the other would vote. Heck, we weren't even sure about it ourselves.

I stood there looking at the ballot for a long couple of minutes.

Reflected on the long list of names, all of whom save 2 in each party have withdrawn from the race. (Who is Duncan Hunter and how did I miss hearing anything about him?)

Considered putting my mark next to "Unassigned delegates".

Considered wailing, weeping, and gnashing my teeth about the choices before me.

In the end, I made my mark for the candidate who I really think would make the best President of the United States of America.

And it turns out Tom and I didn't cancel each other's votes out.

Who I'll vote for today

Yesterday I had a little fun posting about the candidates' robo-calls here over the past few days. But I'm actually taking this primary election much more seriously than that.

I'm still not 100% sure who I'm going to vote for today, but I'm going to say a prayer about it this morning and decide by this evening. (We have till 8 p.m.!)

For a few minutes, literally, I considered voting for Hillary because I think she's very beatable in the general election, and because I think Obama is a runaway freight train that really needs to be stopped. I also figured that there was no one left to vote for on the Republican side, as McCain seemed to have it pretty much wrapped up.

But then I thought, I could never forgive myself if Hillary actually won the general election and I had even the tiniest role in that.

I also realized that McCain doesn't really have it locked up, and that Huckabee is still in there fighting. I admire him for that. And as I said the other day, I've received many emails from people outside of Wisconsin urging me to vote for Huck.

So, I spent some time looking into his positions on the issues. While he's right on all the important issues, and though he doesn't have the liberal baggage that McCain does, I still have some concerns.

My biggest problem with Huckabee is a trust issue. For example, he talks about eliminating the IRS and I think we all know that's an impossible goal (though goodness knows the tax code ought to be trashed). It seems like a little too much pandering to the voters, honestly.

So, I lose a little trust in his judgement about which issues he should go after.

He also doesn't seem to be as strong on the war against terror as I'd like him to be; I think McCain has the edge there. McCain seems to "get it" more than the other candidates. While Huckabee's website says exactly the right thing about the war, it's way down on his list of issues. Immigration is his highest priority; that doesn't mesh with mine.

Now, I might consider voting for Huckabee as a protest against some of McCain's liberalism, but I don't know if that's the best use of my suffrage.

Still, McCain bothers me for a number of reasons, too. McCain-Feingold: horrible law. His position on amnesty for illegal immigrants: questionable. Rumors float about his temper. Do we trust those rumors? Is that a bad thing? Perhaps a president with a bad temper isn't such a terrible thing, if he's on the right side of most of the issues. Do people really think he's going to drop a nuclear bomb on somebody just because he gets annoyed? I don't think so.

So... that's where I am right now. Mostly I'm wishing I had better choices.

But, we have the choices that we have, and that's it. This is a hugely important election. God help us if we end up with a President Obama or Clinton.

Going courtin'

I'm so flattered. I'm being courted! I've had three gentleman callers in the past few days.

Barack called yesterday. He's so smooth... his voice so deep and mesmerizing... his words so calming... his message so hopeful...

Blech.

OK, then there was the call from John. I've known him for such a long time that he's like an old friend.

Really, really old.

His voice is a bit more gravelly, a little less suave but much more experienced... the voice of someone who knows suffering, and courage... and Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold.

Sigh.

Finally, today, Mike called. So unassuming... so honest and just such an ordinary guy.... a great role model for our overweight society (he lost over 100 pounds, you know)... and the governor of the great state of Arkansas.

OK. Yeah.

What's a girl to do? I can't say yes to them all.

Hmmm... now, if one of them would send me flowers, like these:

And by the way, I wonder why that gal Hillary didn't call?

Huckabee

Here are a few problems I have with him, though as I said, in theory I tend to agree with his views:

1) He's going to be the President who abolishes the IRS? (That's what his local TV ad says.) Yeah, right. Let's deal with reality and not fantasy, OK? I would love to see the tax code destroyed and start from scratch with a sensible tax system, but I think we all know that's not really going to happen.

2) He didn't govern in Arkansas the way he says he would govern as President. I heard one report (Mark Belling) that he raised taxes something like 47% (I'm assuming this includes increases in fees, gas taxes, etc.). A quick read of this Wikipedia page on his career is a mixed bag of some good and some bad. I really don't like that he passed a law requiring that school kids have their BMI's measured. (And that's even though we homeschool and my kids are slender and fit!). Can you say, "Nanny State?" Overall, I'm not all that impressed with his record, to be honest.

3) He was the governor of Arkansas. Maybe this is unfair of me -- yes, I know it's completely unfair --but we already had a president who was the governor of Arkansas, and we know how well that turned out.

Yes, he's firmly pro-life, and that's very good. But so's McCain. Yes, he's more conservative than McCain. But is he more electable than McCain? Should we consider that?

So I'm still not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow in the voting booth.

More camera fun

All in the name of learning, folks. Just learning about something new. Good for brain development. Good for memory retention. Good for helping us homeschool moms remember how hard it can be to learn something new....

I've learned how to do color accents (though not well enough to do it without the help of the manual):

And macro zooms:

Wow. Love that macro zoom.

Now, back to school. This morning we built a volcano mountain out of salt dough. Pictures tomorrow.

This afternoon, history and literature, spelling and penmanship. We'll see if any of that is photogenic.

Wisconsin Primary tomorrow

I thought that by this time the nominations would be pretty much settled and we'd really have no one to vote for, other than as a formality.

I was pretty sure that McCain would have things locked up -- and while the media want to portray it that way, he really doesn't -- and I also thought that by now either Hillary or Barack would have it wrapped up, but they're in a dead heat.

(Do I dare say it... the choice for Dems is between Barack and a hard face? Oh, that's absolutely terrible. Let's pretend I didn't really say that, OK? OK. Good.)

I've recently received emails from homeschoolers in three different states begging me to consider Huckabee.

They make the case that he's an advocate for homeschooling. But that's not a good enough reason to vote for someone for president; it's too small of an issue in the grand scheme of things.

However, after reading this voter's guide, I have to say that I agree with Huckabee on most every issue.

And to those vocal Republicans who say that there's no difference between McCain and Hillary, please, read that guide, sit down with a cold compress on your forehead, and then tell me again: there's really no difference?

*********************

OK, I actually did make that horrible play on words above... so let me just say, I don't think Hillary has a "hard face" in the sense of being hard to look at. As a woman, I resent the nasty things some people have said about her looks; they're mean-spirited and not even true. Come on, you have to admit she's at least better than average on the attractiveness scale. Have you been to the mall lately? Ooh, that was kind of mean-spirited against the mall-dwellers, wasn't it? Sigh. I'm sorry.

What I meant was that she's had to set her face hard against her husband's humiliating and repeated infidelities; against the embarrassment of his impeachment; against the women who have claimed they were assaulted by him. So that's what I meant. Just for the record. Now let's go back to pretending I never said it, 'k?

Maybe I should stick to posting photos....

My birthday gift

My husband, the sweetheart, bought me a new camera for my birthday. We'd been limping along with a painfully slow, incredibly frustrating digital camera that was about 7 years old.

Which means it was about 100 tech-years behind the times.

This new camera -- a Canon Power Shot -- is pretty cool. It's tiny, and fast, and takes great pictures. It actually does all kinds of amazing things that I haven't had time to learn about yet.

I'll ask my kids to show me. They'll only need about 5 seconds to figure it out.

Here are some of the first photos I took, of some of the gorgeous flowers in the house right now (I love that my birthday and Valentine's Day are all in the same week!)

Mourning for those lost at Northern Illinois University

Another tragic episode in one of our universities.

This one hit pretty close to home: my husband's niece and nephew both attend NIU, and both were on campus that day.

A few phone calls last night reassured that they were OK, thank God. Our niece had a friend who was supposed to have been in that very class yesterday afternoon, but for some reason decided to blow off class that day. Our nephew had that same class (oceanography) in that same building last semester.

My prayers go out to those who died or were wounded and to their grieving families and friends.

For my Valentine

Let the rants begin.

This blog began in the last presidential campaign season, four years ago, as an outlet for my political opinions. The blog header said something like "Exercising my right to free speech in a blog instead of emailing rants to family and friends"... or something equally succinct and catchy. :-/

Then I abandoned it. After blogging my heart out for Terry Schiavo, which included getting some attention to her cause from Hugh Hewitt, I think I was burned out. I didn't feel like posting about trivial events... or maybe it was just that lots of things seemed trivial after her death and the death of JPII. Besides, I was busy. (Who isn't?) The number of posts per month dropped precipitously, and petered out almost entirely in 2006.

But, obviously, last year I decided to start blogging again, and when I did, it was less of a political blog and more of a Catholic homeschool mom's blog. (There are quite a few of those, and if I had more time, I'd have lots more of them in my blogroll!) I think I'd developed a serious distaste for all things political, and also it just seemed like a lot more fun to blog about what I love best: faith, family, and homeschooling, a.k.a. the Domestic Bliss that I doggedly pursue and, happily, quite often catch.

But we're now deep into another presidential election season. I find my blood pressure rising over the dangerous proposals, false assumptions, and utter drivel coming from both the candidates and the citizenry. I can't resist the siren call of political debate, even though it goes against what seems to be a code among my Catholic Homeschool Mom friends to avoid politics in our posts.

Consider yourself forewarned.

A birthday celebration for Dave

On January 31, we celebrated the birthday of a very special friend, Dave. I made a cake (funfetti with butter cream frosting), we sang happy birthday, and there were some homemade presents for him. We had a very festive evening.

It was especially nice - even a little bittersweet - because Dave doesn't come to visit too much anymore. In fact, I have a feeling that the day is coming soon when we'll never see or hear from him again.

We've known Dave for several years now, and have learned a few things about him.

• His brother's name is Joe Fitzship.


• His sister's name is Elena.


• His mother is Chinese.


• He is Jewish.

Oh, and one last thing about Dave:

• He's our youngest daughter's imaginary friend.

40 Days for Life

Please join in the 40 Days of prayer and fasting for Life.

Today's Bible verse:

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.
– 2 Chronicles 7:14

Fat Tuesday / Ash Wednesday

I love Mardi Gras. No, not the crazy Bacchanalian parades and festivals in New Orleans, just the ordinary "Fat Tuesday" that comes every year the day before Ash Wednesday.

Our Fat Tuesday yesterday started with delicious paczki (a Polish custom), and then ended with our traditional Mardi Gras dinner: Jambalaya with shrimp, andouille sausage, and chicken, corn bread, and cole slaw (that last one's weird, I know, but the fact is I forgot to serve it on Monday with the barbecued pork sandwiches).

Tom and the kids remembered to get our "Cajun Party" CD so we could play it during dinner. Nothing like a little New Orleans style music to set the mood.

Today we went from feasting to fasting. It was an odd Ash Wednesday as the storm meant we couldn't get to Mass. But we know it's definitely Ash Wednesday: our stomachs are all growling from the fasting. Why is it that when you know you're not supposed to eat much, you're hungrier than you ever would be on any other day?

The very best thing about 12 inches of snow:

I don't have to drive anywhere today!!!! Oh glory, oh joy, oh jump-up-and-down glee!!

This has been the most delightful of days. It's been snowing here for almost 24 hours now, which is something to behold. Everything is closed: all the schools, the shopping malls, the churches, day cares, everything ... including my children's Tae Kwon Do school ... which means, I DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE ANYWHERE!!!

Husband worked from home, which was really nice. I'm glad he didn't have to drive in this mess, and it's been nice to run up and talk to him every so often, or have him be the principal if I started to get attitude from anybody.

For the most part, though, he just worked on his laptop upstairs and mostly stayed out of my hair. Gosh, that sounds awful, but it's true. I love having him home, but honestly, if I'm trying to get some school done or just do my normal work, and he's hanging around, following one step behind me everywhere ... practicing for retirement, as he says ... it kinda drives me crazy. What can I say.

Right now, he's out there in this near-blizzard, manning our monster snowblower. It's the first time he's used it all year; we'd been using the very old-fashioned and very eco-friendly shovel and some kid-power for every other snowfall this season. But not today! Not when the piles of snow at the end of the driveway are about 3 feet high.

In spite of all the other schools being closed, we didn't shut down. Oh no. I'm far too mean for that. Mwahahahaha! True, sometimes in the past I've called a "snow day" just for fun, but there was too much I wanted to get done today.

And what a great day we had. (Now, as I read on someone's blog the other day, I'm not going to start posting my helpful homeschool tips just because I strung together two good days in a row.... but if I get a third one tomorrow, look out, I'll be an expert.)

We did Mapping the World by Heart, and discussed the Constitution, and did Latin and Math and Bible Study and Greek Literature. My high schoolers did more on their own, and our senior is studying her brains out for a biology scholarship test this Saturday.

Now I'm sitting with a cup of tea at the school table in front of our big living room picture-window, watching the snow continue to fall and blow and drift, working on portfolios.

And did I mention, I DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE ANYWHERE TODAY!??

Bliss.

An Instant Message conversation with my 8 year old

Were I as techno-literate as my kids, I would have cut-and-pasted or saved it somehow, but I didn't, so I will try to recreate it here:

Daughter, on the upstairs PC: "mom can you cut and paste chapter 4 of the story i'm writing on the laptop and send it to me in a message?"

Me, on the laptop: "Uh, dear, there isn't any Chapter 4... it only goes to Chapter 3"
Daughter: "oh. maybe i didn't save it before"

Me: "Oh, Sweetie, that's too bad! I'm sorry."

Daughter: "its ok, mom"

Daughter: "writers must suffer"