Right before starting this post, I took a look at the stats for yesterday. We got four people reading our posts yesterday, but no new visitors. Given this is a site for homeschooling my daughters, I'm really not surprised. We do no marketing for the site and we don't even think to tag our posts for better hits from Google or any of the other search engines.
Maybe in a few years I will teach Maddie a class on marketing and we'll try and get a little more fancy. For now, we'll write for posterity, and as a good record for school officials to show that my daughters are doing some school work. For Maddie, that's easy. She has essays to write weekly, as well as two blog posts a day on this site and her main site Maddies Think A Thought. Meanwhile, her essays and book reports can be found on The Bookstack. She also has two science-related sites: Maddie's Minerals and Absolute Animals. As Ashleigh gets older, she will have additional websites to write on as well. Ashleigh has made great leaps in learning over the past two months. She has started reading simple sentences and she prints remarkably well for her age. Each day, Ashleigh has to decide what she wants to write about for this blog. We then help her to write it out so that she can read it as she types it. She enjoys the process, and gets really excited when people leave her comments. If you are reading this, then please leave Ashleigh a comment on one of her posts. Believe me, she will be delighted! To finish up, I believe all children should be home schooled. I find I learn just as much as my daughters...although what I learn is much more precious. I learn about life, about what makes my daughters tick, about myself and about what really matters in life. Did I have to give anything up to be able to do this? Yes. I gave up the rat race. I gave up living for money and a daily commute, which I hated. Some of my friends say "oh, I could never teach my kids!" I always feel like asking them "Then why the heck are you a parent?" Parenting is all about two things: Loving and teaching. If you can't do one, then you can't effectively do the other. While a child can learn reading, writing and math at school, their most important lessons they learn at home...presumably with you. My reccommendation...Be there for them and teach them what you can.
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I love Legos. I made a farm. It was big! I like playing with legos.
Ashleigh It's official! Spring has sprung! This is our third day of warmer weather and I can actually see some of the roof shingles on my house. The driveway has also melted a bit and we have pavement all the way to the road now. It has been months since that has happened. The final hint that Spring is on the way is that the lake on the way to karate now has puddles on it. Each winter, the local race club holds ice races on the lake. The cars move fast and the races can be exciting. The puddles on top of the ice nearly guarantee that racing will not occur again until next year now.
Many people around here complain about the snow. It seems to be a New England past time. I try not to though. As long as the plow on my truck is working, the snow doesn't really bother me. I work from home and I only really venture out during the week to train at the dojo. There are worse things in life that being in a nice warm house! When I do go out, I find the cold refreshing! With that said, I do enjoy the Spring, too. In fact, I enjoy all of the seasons. The Spring is beautiful with all of the trees around here sprouting new leaves. The flowers come out and leave marks of color all across the lawn. I leave a large swath of lawn unmown during the Spring and Summer so that my girls can enjoy the different flowers that bloom as well as the wild strawberries and blackberries. I won't kid myself and say that the fact that my lawnmowing duties end forty five minutes earlier by skipping that part of the yard has nothing to do with it! Summer is a time for fishing, hiking, and going to the parks with my daughters. It doesn't get very humid up here in Rindge, so the hot weather isn't as miserable as it can be in New Jersey. The daylight lasts longer during the summer and Maddie and I make the most of it by going fishing right after karate. We can usually get a ful hour in before it gets dark. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I love the autumn leaves and the nice cool breeze that begins to develop in September. Halloween is always a special time for the girls, and who doesn't love Thanksgiving! If we are lucky, we can get through Thanksgiving without a snowstorm. On three occasions since we moved up here, we have had snowstorms on the day before Halloween. Ouch! Winter for me is a time of reflection. It will always hold a special place in my heart. A warm fire (maybe once or twice a year...too many and they become a chore!), strong coffee and an extra blanket to snuggle in at night. Many people look at winter as a season of death. I don't. I look upon it as a season to reflect. A season to step back and look at what you have done. Where can you make improvements, what mistakes can you avoid while filling your life with all that is best for you. Death comes to us all eventually, i doesn't matter if it is winter, summer, spring or fall. Winter is cold, but as I age, I more and more feel the warmth of friendship and family. While I don't think I am moving into the winter of my years yet, when I do, I will meet them with open arms. You are as young as you feel and as you act. Act like you are enjoying life, and you will, no matter what your age is! If you do ANYTHING online, it's more than likely that you've made a username for a site. My usual username is Rosika Forn, and has been for years. That username originated from back when I used to play RuneScape with Dad. I literally have no idea how I came up with it, but I'm guessing my subconscious was thinking of roses (Rosika and then Forn instead of thorn). My Dad usually uses something having to do with Saxon. I don't know why, I think it's just because he likes the name.
I want to go finish reading my book now, so I'm going to keep this post short- but I'll end it on a question. What usernames do you often use, and what is their significance, if any? Maddie
Topsy turvy
Upside down Spinning, twirling, round and round Look in the mirror But shatter the glass No one wants to see What lies in the past Zoom in, Zoom out, The perception has changed My mind is gone, torn apart and deranged. Todoy I played with my Ipad. I was reading using "Learning With Homer". I like that program. I
like Homer. Ashleigh Busy is as busy does, Today is the beginning of press week for me for my telecommunication stocks. In general, most of the work was done last week. While I wrote up an industry report this morning, I wrote four reports last week, while also doing all of the spreadsheet work that goes hand in hand with the reports.
For the rest of the week, I will be making minor edits to my reports as press day approaches. Most of the changes, will be minor, such as adding a missing comma or correcting a transposed number. The rest of the time I will spend updating my estimates for my issue eight stocks since that press day is also quickly approaching. Outside of my work, I am home schooling my daughters. Maddie is working diligently in my office, while Ashleigh is working in the kitchen. If I don't watch Maddie, I find her production drops off markedly. She does good work usually, though. Later, we will all go to the dojo for our workouts. Ashleigh is in the Little Ninja class at 4:30, while Maddie and I take the adult class at 6:00. After class, I plan to go home eat dinner and relax. A nice end to a hectic day! I love dessert.Ice cream, donuts and cookies are my favorites. I forgot that I like fruit, too! Apples,
bananas, cherries, and oranges are on my list! Ashleigh Be
Be the branch that supports the twig Be the twig that gives life to the leaf, Be the sun to nourish the tree Be the rain to water the ground Be the wind, to uproot the flowers, Be the wind to carry away the leaves Be the storm, to rip down the ornaments, Be the lighting to torch all the trees Be the fire to light up the sky Be the light to guide me through the woods Be the one I can look to for comfort Be the whisper to reassure me I'm okay Be the thunder to crash down around me To tear down the walls I built up Be the one to put me together again, When I fall from the wall and break. Today is one of those days where I have more work ahead of me than I have time to do it! I wrote a report this morning and then quickly got started on a spreadsheet for my next stock. The company had already reported fourth-quarter earnings and has their 10k available so all of the information is here. Getting it all into the system is the part that is slowing me down!
My personal spreadsheets for the companies I cover are fairly easy to take care of. The information flows from income statement to balance sheet to cash flow statement with no areas that are too complicated. Adding the information to my company's database is where things get tricky! The system is antiquated and most functions are not mouse friendly. Thus each field has to be moved through with the arrow keys, even if there are pages of data to go through. Ugh! Even so, I have to admit I like going through the 10k and digging all of the information out. By looking for obscure little bits of information I actually get to know my companies better. My problem this week is a lack of time. I had a doctor's appointment on Monday morning, and another set for tomorrow. These have kept me away from my work, and thus I feel like I am under the gun to get work done quickly. Currently I have about 60% of my work done for next week. By Sunday night, I will have it all done. Even so, the database work is slowing me up and making me feel stressed. I'm looking forward for karate tonight so I can take out some of my stress on the heavy bag. A few kicks before a workout can do wonders! On a positive note, both Maddie and Ashleigh have their schoolwork done for the day, and I have already reviewed most of it. My thoughts here are now done and its back to the database. Talk to you tomorrow! This weekend, I am going to be competing in a karate tournament. It has been about a year since I last competed, so I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. I'm competing in black belt co-ed 16 and under sparring and black belt 16 and under weapons. I've been practicing a lot, especially for sparring- I want to be able to go in a surprise people. I've heard from one of my friends who goes to every tournament that our division is pretty tough and that in sparring a lot of our competitors are tall.
Since I'm likely going to be the shortest person there besides my friend Nick, I've been preparing myself and working out different strategies. I'm pretty confident in myself, and I just hope that when I go out to fight, luck is in my favor. I know this is a short post, but I'll keep it short because I need to write another blog post and I'd like to get a jump on my schoolwork. Maddie I like butterflies . Some are orange , some are blue and some are yellow. Their wings are big
to help them fly.I must not touch them. Ashleigh Ever feel like you are on one of those exercise wheels that people set up for their hamsters? Me too! It happens to me when I let a lack of variety creep into my lifestyle. It's easy to have that happen during the winter, when there are less options for outdoor activity. Currently, my life follows a monotonous pattern. Changes to my schedule are welcome distractions, although I can't allow them to last too long if I want to get all of my work completed for the day.
I am looking forward to the Spring, I like to fish and hike with my daughters and go to the parks. This, year, I want to add a couple of museums to our agenda as well. Remember, although life is sometimes like a wheel, we still control where it rolls and how fast. If you feel like your "wheel" is caught in a rut, then make little changes each day that will help to move you in another direction. In other words, wear away at the side of the rut and make a new one. Find something a little different to do everyday, and you'll quickly find that you are not "always" doing the same thing. What am I doing today that's different? Thinking these thoughts to start. Writing my blog post earlier in the day than usual, and looking forward to an interesting discussion about Robert Browning once my daughter decides on which poem she will use for her writing assignment today. Last night was different too. After karate, my daughter and I headed over to Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart to pick up stickers to put on Ashleigh's school work when she does a good job (I find that the stickers help to encourage her to do her best). While in Wal-Mart we had two converations with complete strangers. It's funny, at karate people tell me I look intimidating. It must not really be the case, though, since nearly every time I go out in public people seem to stop me to chit chat. One guy just rolled up in his wheel chair and started talking to me and my daughter about movies and TV shows from the 50's. He told us about his life over the past twenty years weaved between snippets about the movies we were looking at and old TV shows. He was an interesting guy. Next, as we were in line paying for our purchases (and yes, I did end up buying one of the movies the guy spoke about) the checkout girl started chit chatting with us as well Not about the weather or the stuff we were buying or anything like that...No, somehow the conversation turned to how she had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to wake her boyfriend up so that he could go to work. She implied that he was too incompetent to actually use an alarm clock properly. It seems her boyfriend worked with her Mom and that if she didn't wake him up, her Mom would call her looking for him since she gave him a ride to work each morning. She was working to 10:00 that evening, so she wasn't looking forward to having to wake him at 3:30. A third person had also tried to strike up a conversation with me in the aisle while I was looking at DVDs, but her son seemed to be a cretin and she quickly rambled off to catch up to him. So what does all of that have to do with being in a rut? Well, if I didn't change my schedule a bit, none of that would have happened. Was it a life-changing event? Not by a long shot...but it was different and proves that the wheel can change directions on occasion. Song
The song you sing is disguised Hidden behind a catchy beat, Disguising all the lyrics so That no one else can see No one takes the time To hear the words you speak, Just dancing, dancing oblivious Attention to the words is all you seek Try removing synthesizers, Slowing down the song, Taking out the edginess, Please see where you've gone wrong. This post was inspired by my daughter's last post. My daughter and I talk a lot during the day and we started to speak about memories. Thus, that is why you are being subjected to two posts about memories in one day, although both with a different slant.
you said. But there is no way that they can feel the emotions that the memory holds for you.All of that belongs to you, and you alone. Throughout this post I am putting up pictures of people and animals that spark memories for me. The pictures are a poor reflection of memories. In fact, so many pictures are now being taken, that I truly think that they hold little meaning for anyone...the people who take them, or the people they are taken of.
the tickets. During one of those many games, I brought a friend who never went to hockey games. While the game was fairly uneventful in my mind, twenty years later my friend remebered it like it was yesterday and was even able to recount two of the goals scored by Ron Duguay that night! What was a casual event for me, was a seemingly huge event for him. Did we watch the same game? Yes. My memories of the event ran more towards the drive in to the city, the walk to the Garden and the beers and laughs that we shared. Funny how memories work! It's the same with family. My memories of my wife, my father, and my dog are radically different than either my Mom's or my daughters' are. Everyone views life through their own rose-colored glasses. My good memories of these people are likely very different than my Mom's good memories, or my daughters' or sister's. Does that mean any of us are incorrect with our memories? No. It means that we all see things slightly differently. Things that are/were meaningful to me, likely are different than what was/is meaningful to someone else. Are any of us wrong? Probably. Although I think you would have a tough time convincing any of us. Rest in peace Sharon, Barkley & Dad. My memories about each of you are special to me. While I can leave your pictures up on this blog for posterity, my memories of you will die with me. In the end, I'd have it no other way. My advice to everyone is to make little memories each day with the people that you love. You never know when you will no longer have the opportunity! As you get older, you'll find that your memories mean a lot more to you than the bundle of fading photographs you have crammed in a box somewhere. I like flowers. Flowers are pretty. It will soon be spring. Flowers will grow again.
Ashleigh I'ts funny how the smallest, stupidest little things can trigger odd little memories- have you ever been doing something during the day when you see something that triggers a memory of something you haven't thought of in YEARS? This happened to me today- I was drinking a cup of tea this morning as I have a sore throat and am pretty sick, and I noticed my tea cup had a crack running down the side of it. This reminded me of a book series I used to read when I was younger, 'The Boxcar Children'. The memory is associated with the fact that one of the characters in the book was quite fond of a pink teacup that had a large crack down the side, and it was a central object in most books.
My mind tends to associate anything to everything- while making my tea, I had quite a few memories pulling in the back of my mind: an anime show I watch where the main character is always brewing tea, my mom's old tea tins that were always overflowing with tea, how I used to not drink tea because of the caffiene content, and a vague memory of watching my mom make tea when I was God-only-knows how old. I also tend to think using pictures, so each of these memories was in a different 'corner' of my mind, per se. I can ALWAYS create an image to go along with a song, or a poem, or really anything I am reading or listening to and I attribute this to my reading from such a young age. I started reading pretty young, and at the age of 3 was already reading Harry Potter books on my own. What makes reading so interesting for me is the power to create whatever scene I want according to what is happening in the book- something that a movie does not allow you to do. I often-times find books better than movies because I go into movies with a certain expectation that it will overcome whatever I have pictured in my mind- and when it fails to meet this standard and my mind does a better job of portraying the story, it is dissapointing. But that's enough rambling for today- what odd memories do you have? Leave me a comment. Maddie |
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