Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope you get some great treats! ;)

(As for us, the doctor tried to help things along but we may not such a big treat today! If not, the doctor will try inducing tomorrow!) So I may be out with my knight-in-shining-armor and Hannah Montana after all!

I'll try!

Anyone aiming for writing a novel in a month this year? I'm still toying with the idea of doing NaNo again...though with a newborn, this is likely more of a dream than publishing a novel at all!
Anyone else?

My parents are here to help but no baby yet! I'll keep you updated on that front, too!

Still hanging in there...

No--I can't blame my lapses in blogging on actually giving birth. The little bean is still hanging in there! Between making sure he has a clean outfit to wear home from the hospital, making sure that I have a clean outfit to wear home, homework and costumes and reports for the other two--I haven't had much creative energy left!

Yes, my children will be wearing store-bought costumes for Halloween once again this year!
How are you? Are you ready for Halloween?

Rock Star

So the hubbie wants to take the kids to the Hannah Montana concert, along with all the other parents trying all means necessary now to acquire tickets!!

Shhhhhh!

I'm sending you off to another blog today but come back! I promise a post of my own, soon!

For now, go read this wise post over at Lessons from the Laundry!

In other words

Bad spellers of the world--untie!

Take a break from your crossword puzzles to check a few other word-related posts today!

Margie has a great post on favorite sayings and Sweetviolet posted a link to an entertaining lecture from Erin McKean. (I used to take issue with words-that-are-not-real-words being in the dictionary--like "muggle." After listening to this talk however, I've decided I should be much more open-minded!)

Respect

As I was finishing the book, preparing to put some new tactics to use, my daughter won the "virtue of the week" last week at school--for respect! My kids are pretty respectful out in the world already--what I really need is a book to help them remember to be more respectful at home! (Of course, the traits that really irk me --like sarcasm and the eye roll--are the ones she has learned here at home.)

Whether your children are the most or least respectful little people on the planet, Ms. Rigby's book offers some helpful, hopeful advice. Ms. Rigby offers suggestions similar to those I found in Sheperding a Child's Heart but her book is much easier to take. Check it out for yourself!

Simple math

I'm trying to teach our daughter that sometimes an answer is not wrong but you have to consider the context for the best answer. For instance, on a math word problem, your reply should be a mathematical answer.

She brought home "money math"--a sheet of money related addition and subtraction problems. However, at the end there was a word problem:
"If you put the money from each money bag into one large money bag, will you be putting in an amount that is greater than or less than $10,000?"

My daughter's answer: "Yes, you would."

Glamour is in the eye of the beholder

The woman who cut my hair yesterday asked if I worked before I had kids. I answered in the affirmative (without moving my head, of course) and went on to describe a few secretarial and administrative positions. I remarked, "nothing glamourous!"

Then I came home. I was actually happy to find that Sno-Bowl, unlike bleach and various other cleansers and toilet bowl cleaners, actually does remove hard-water stains from my toilet bowls! (Sno-Bowl was only 97 cents and actually advertised that it would remove the hard water stains but I thought I was too smart to fall for the hype on the label).

Then I did laundry and found several pairs of soiled underwear, stuck to the bottom of a hamper.

In the afternoon, I picked up the kids and my daughter--who had stayed up too late finishing a book the night before--burst into tears 4 separate times before 4:30pm.

We made it through homework, studying for quizzes, dinner and bedtime. As I sat down to read a children's book last night (to help quiz my daughter, who has been having trouble with reading comprehension quizzes), it occured to me that I was wrong.

I used to wear heels and makeup, drink coffee with adults and no matter how busy my day was, I could usually manage to still squeeze in a game of computer solitaire. My house was fairly neat (we weren't home a lot and we did not have much stuff) and I could go several DAYS without loading my washing machine. Ah, the glamorous life!

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I was going to insert a link up there for "Sno-bol" from Amazon.com but felt I should add a warning here! When you pull up the product, it mentions a "high acid level" and adds that it "kills Gems!" (Take off that jewelry before scrubbing the pot!!!) ;)

What is the what?

Valentino's father tells the story of creation--the beginning for the monyjang people.

--Yes, he continued, God showed man the idea of cattle, and the cattle were magnificent. They were in every way exactly what the monyjang would want. The man and woman thanked God for such a gift, because they knew that the cattle would bring them milk and meat and prosperity of every kind. But God was not finished.
--He never is, Sadiq said, to a wave of laughter.
--God said, "You can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have
the What." My father waited for the necessary response.
--But...Sadiq said, helping out, --What is the What? he said, with an air of theatrical inquisitiveness.
--Yes, yes. That was the question. "What is the What?" the first man asked. And God
said to the man, "I cannot tell you. Still, you have to choose. You have to choose
between the cattle and the What."

We catch glimpses of what the "What" may be as Valentino's story progresses. Dave Eggers has novelized the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee now living in the United States and working to improve the lives of his family and countrymen back in Sudan. It is an inspiring tale of survival and hope.

Proceeds from the purchase of the book also go to the Valentino Achak Deng foundation, which is working to rebuild Marial Bai, Valentino's birthplace. So simply buying the book helps--and reading it gives you a better understanding of the civil war that raged for so long in southern Sudan and still affects areas such as Darfur.

You can read more at http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/.