Random Monday

 

Hey! It is Monday. Do you know what? I don’t mind. Do you know why? Because we are on summer vacation. Yes!

Yesterday I noticed a video popping up around Facebook. It is a video of a dad making his baby quadruplets laugh. It is so cute. Oh, I will just link to it.

I am sure many of you have seen it.

Anyway, I watched and giggled. My husband wanted to know what I was watching. “This dad is making his babies laugh. It is so cute. Here.” He watched a bit. He smiled and laughed. Because how can you not? Can I tell you how it warms my heart to watch my husband laugh along with babies?  Anyway…

He gave me back my iPad, and I continued watching the video. “You know,” I said. “I think those babies may be identical.” I continued watching. I reversed the video. “Yes, I really do think those babies are identical. What do you think the odds of that happening are? I mean, identical quadruplets! How amazing!”

“Oh, Tressa. Can’t you just enjoy the babies without getting all mathematical?” he says to me.

“Uh. No.  I am going to find out.”

He rolled his eyes at me and went back to his school work. I googled, and do you know, they are identical quadruplets. Also, they are much older now, and look like very happy little girls from the pictures.

So, in case you are wondering like I was, the odds of having identical quadruplets are 1 in about 13 million. I knew it would be amazing. But I found out something even more amazing.

On the 14th of February a woman in Texas gave birth to, not one, but two sets of identical twins. Is that not amazing?! (I am going to break my rule and use a question mark and exclamation point at the same time.) Two sets of twins. I was astounded. Do you know the odds of that happening? The odds are 1 in 70 million!

It gets better. The mom’s name is Tressa! I love it. I love finding other people with my name. (Did I tell you about the woman I met at World Market with my name? We talked a long a time. I was the only other Tressa she had met.) What are the odds?

Then, while googling for this story to link here, I found that ANOTHER woman in the U.K. also gave birth to two sets of identical twins. What a wondrous blessing.

On another note, since we are speaking of odds, I still haven’t received an answer from the math guys about the odds of my children all sharing the same day of the week for their birthdays.  I still think it is cool since they were not born on the same day of the week. My oldest was born on Thursday, my daughter on Monday, and my Freckle Face on Saturday. Now, it just so happens that their birthdays are always on the same day of the week every year. And because their birthdays fall after March 1, it will remain that way. I think it is cool.

And there you go. A small glimpse of what my poor husband has to listen to all the time. He probably wouldn’t mind if you pitied him a little.

Another year down.

Tags

homeschooling

Another school year has come to a close. I had planned on finishing next week, but the kids have finished most of their work. I called it. The end of the year. We are done. With that news, I have officially graduated one kid.

Graduated. I homeschooled one kid all the way through high school. It is a miracle! They said it could be done, and I did it. Not without a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, but I did it.

I feel bad for the oldest child. They are always such a guinea pig. As an oldest child myself, I know this to be true. Parents try all this stuff on the oldest. We want to be the perfect parent. Do everything right. Sometimes we don’t get everything right. (Isn’t that just the biggest bummer?)

If I had to do it over (and I do), there are a few things that I would do differently.

#1- I wish I had not spent so much time worrying about college, stressing about things, and arguing with him.

We have all seen the stories. The homeschoolers that win the National Spelling Bee. The ones that win the full-ride merit scholarships to the universities. The kids and families that have it all together. I wanted to be that family. I put a lot of pressure on my oldest to be that kid. Instead I wish I would have worried less and enjoyed the journey more because the truth is that if I had done those things we would probably still be where we are.

#2- I wish I had remembered that burn-out is real.

I am not going to lie. I don’t enjoy homeschooling most days. (High school is HARD)  I even went so far to say that “if you love homeschooling, you aren’t doing it right.” The truth was that I needed a break. Sometimes you just have to take a break. Make it a week. Read young adult fiction. Eat chocolate. Let them do what they want. If they want to study, let them. If they want to watch movies all day, let them. It isn’t going to ruin them forever, and everyone will feel better. I didn’t do this enough. I pushed through burn-out, theirs and mine,  because I had to check off the box. In the long run, I think if I had taken that break once in awhile we would have been better off.

#3- I wish that I would have sat down and helped him more.

Self-education is great! I am a firm believer that high school is a great time to let the kids learn how to teach themselves. It made my life easier, and I figured it would prepare him for college. While this may be good in theory, there comes a time that I have to put the effort in an learn the material. This was very important in Advanced Math. I wish that I would have purchased material to help me learn the material better. I wish that I would have helped my son more often rather than relying on him to teach himself so much material. He ended up being pretty amazing. He taught himself so much Latin. He taught himself Trig and Pre-Calculus. I know he was capable, but I don’t think it was always fair.

There are also a few things that I know that I did right.

#1- I picked a math curriculum and stuck with it.

When we pulled our kids out 10 years ago, we chose Saxon Math. I have never changed. I haven’t even thought about changing. I think Saxon is a fabulous choice, but I think there are other good choices too. Pick a good choice and never waver. Don’t switch around.

#2- I help my kids focus on their relationships with their siblings.

Since we are a military family, there have been time when my kids have only had each other. I have always told them that friends may come and go but their brother and sister (or brothers) are forever. No, I don’t make them say that their siblings are their best friends. Friends are very important too, but I am glad to say that my kids like each other. Oh, they irritate each other at times like all good siblings do, but it melts my heart when Freckle Face asks to play Minecraft on Matthew’s computer, and he says sure.

#3- We have daily devotions.

I am almost positive that my kids listen intently only 5% of the time. The other 95% of the time they are probably thinking about Pokemon, what they are going to eat for breakfast, or I don’t even want to know. However, I listen 100% of the time, and it makes a difference in my attitude. Sometimes it starts a good discussion. We have had some good theological discussions from the 5% of the time that they are listening. I am so glad that we started doing this 4 years ago. I wish that I had started sooner.

Now I am off to read some twaddle, but only after I help Freckle Face sign up for the Pokemon competition. Oh yeah, that is how we roll. Happy summer!!

Your Homeschool is Showing.

I should have put this with Random Monday, but it is funny enough to earn its own place. I don’t agree with his comment about  finding other homeschoolers to hang out with, but hey, he is still pretty funny.

Random Monday`

 

Annnddd…it’s Monday. Again. I need another cup of coffee.

Happy Mother’s Day! I hope that you had a nice day. My day was nice. We grilled some burgers and watched movies. My husband bought me a new Messiah CD. My older two bought me a necklace, and Freckle Face bought me a giant chocolate bar because “a lady can never have too much chocolate.”

These are the flowers that my husband bought me. Kind of. My daughter and I had to run into the grocery store after church. I saw them and bought them. In line she says to me, “Mom, isn’t dad supposed to buy those for you?” Honey, he is.

My mom received some very good news last week. She has no new growth of her cancer, and even a little shrinkage. This is a miracle! I am very happy about this. She will continue with her chemotherapy and have another scan in three months.

I am mentally putting together our next school year. Do you know how much this pains me to do? This school year isn’t over yet, and I have to think about next year. It is enough to make me want to crawl into a hole and come out in three years. No, six years.

I want to read this book. This woman is a genius. She is right. During deployments, dinner time is the hardest time of the day. More often than not, my kids ate chicken nuggets by themselves because I needed a break. I could never have pulled this off because having someone over for dinner breaks me out in a cold sweat, but I admire this woman for doing this. What an amazing gift to give you to your children.

If you haven’t seen the gas pump practical joke, you must go watch it now. 

Hope everyone has a great week!

 

 

Military Spouse Appreciation Day- Looking back

Tags

mil spouse, military life

Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day. I think this is a fairly new day. It is a nice thought, and I am going to use this nice thought to look back on my journey.

I have been dealing with Navy crap stuff for 20 years. Let me tell you. I had no idea what was in store for me. I was a homebody. I would have been content to live in the same town for the rest of my life. Besides, I grew up in a Navy town. Marrying a sailor was way down on the “to do” list. No, wait. It wasn’t on the list at all. I was not going to marry a sailor. Ever.

And then I met this cute guy. After 6 months of dating, three of which he was gone, we married.

See? Isn’t he cute?

He was stationed aboard the USS Camden (AOE-2) now decommissioned. There are a few things I remember about his tour on the Camden. I remember 3 section duty with duty weekends. Duty weekends sucked, people. He left for work on Friday and came home Monday night. I remember our first Valentine’s Day. He came home and told me that he had reenlisted. They Navy was different then. There was no PTS. You wanted to reenlist? They drew up the papers, and you signed them.  He left on deployment three days later. I was pregnant, but didn’t know it yet. He found out that he was going to be a daddy standing at a payphone on a beach in Hawaii. During that 6 month deployment,  I went 8 weeks without one word from him-no letters, not a phone call and certainly no email since it didn’t exist for us then. I had a $300 phone bill (in 1994 dollars) from his visit to Australia when we made up for missed days. I was 8 months pregnant when he returned from deployment. He didn’t recognize me at first. Who could blame him? I had gained 40 pounds.

Shortly after he arrived home, he took orders to Singapore. He didn’t discuss this move with me before he accepted the orders. He had a lot to learn. In the end, I am so glad that he took those orders because it would be the duty station that would define our marriage and bond us. Because we had spent so much time apart (9 months of our first year were apart), living together every day was a learning experience. We were also one of the most junior couples at COMLOG WESTPAC. Most of the people stationed at this command were officers, and their wives became my closest friends. I learned so much from them. I know they looked at me as a young wife. It irritated me at the time, but I was young and dumb. I am just glad that I wasn’t so dumb that I couldn’t learn from then. I did learn. These wonderful people taught me so much. My daughter was born here, and I was spoiled with love and attention. I can say without a doubt that this was my favorite duty station.

From there my husband applied for a tour as a Recruit Division Commander at Great Lakes. He was one of the first from his rate to be accepted to this job. This was the hardest three years of our marriage, but the most rewarding for him in his career. He worked 80 hour weeks. I never saw him, and when I did he was sleeping. The kids and I would take him dinner. We were not allowed to go into the “ship”, so the recruits would be on Barney watch. (we drove a purple van) He would meet us in the parking lot for a quick hello and a kiss. Some days that would be the only time the kids saw him. My youngest was born while we lived here. He was born on a night he put his recruits on the bus. My husband’s senior chief gave me a fake award for waiting until the recruits were gone before I went into labor. Do you see how dedicated I was? haha!  Once during a particularly tough week, he started yelling at me in his sleep. He told me my uniform was a mess. I remember soothing him and telling him I would work harder and get it together. He went back to sleep.  Another fond memory is the day I had an allergic reaction to a medication. My neighbor took me to the ER. This was in the day before everyone had a cell phone. I called his “ship” to tell him that I was on the way to the ER. He remembers it was all over the base that his wife was in the ER. Every time he passed another division on the street, they would yell, “Your wife is in the ER!” He couldn’t come to me because he couldn’t leave his recruits, but it was fine. Just another day at the office.

From there we moved to Jacksonville, FL where he was stationed aboard the USS John F. Kennedy. For the record, that ship was haunted. Just saying. Anyway, the memory that sticks out in my mind the most is Sept. 10, 2011. I dropped him off at the ship because they were leaving early the next morning. Have you tried to drive on a base the morning a carrier is leaving? It sucks. So we always dropped him off the night before. Anyway, I had to take my oldest to the doctor that morning and I watched the ship pull away from the pier as I heard on the radio that planes had crashed into the towers. I barely made it off the base before they closed the gates.  That was the longest day. He came home 6 weeks later. The best memory from our time aboard The Kennedy was my birthday 2002. We found out that he had made Chief. It was a heck of a birthday present. He was deployed at the time and he called me at 2 AM to give me the news. There were now sat-phones on the ship that he could call on. How far we had come!

They moved him to another command after he made Chief. Just a side note. I think that I deserve a freaking medal for making it through the initiation process. It has changed since then. It Sucked. Yes, I capitalized that on purpose.

We stayed at Mayport for another 2 years. Then moved back to Bremerton so we could live close to my family. He was stationed aboard the USS John C. Stennis for three years and then moved to Naval Region Northwest. The last 6 years of our Navy time together haven’t been as significant as the first years. I think it is because it has just become a part of me. I don’t notice it as much. Deployments and separations were the name of the game. But I have to give credit to my friends who listened to me whine because whine I did.

I don’t know how this whole journey ends. If the Navy would ever release the blasted Master Chief results, I might have a better idea. I am ready for his retirement. Call me a bad wife, but I am hoping for a retirement date rather than a promotion ceremony. I have done my time. I am ready to be selfish. I do not want to share him with the US Navy anymore. I have met amazing people. I have done amazing things. I wouldn’t change any of it because it has made me into the person that I am.

Happy Military Spouse Appreciation Day. Like we need a day to tell us how awesome we are? Am I right?

Chemistry-Apologia Module 8

Tags

apologia chemistry

After Module 7, we move into Module 8. Module 8 discusses molecular structure which should have been covered in the very first week of class. This module is important. It is important to understand how atoms bond. Understanding this module is important for all Chemistry.

I do have good news. It isn’t hard. I touched on it a little in my discussion of Module 7. If you have explained the periodic table in detail, your student shouldn’t have any difficulty with this module.

I wrote about nomenclature in my post about on Module 3. You can find some links there to help you write the chemical formulas. Remember that all the atoms want 8 valence electrons in their outer shells. It makes them happy. They want to be like the noble gases. The cool kids on the block. They want to grab electrons. Some more than others. Some are happy to share as in a covalent bond. Some are takers as in an ionic bond.

It is easiest for me to remember that two non-metals form covalent bonds, and a metal and a non-metal form an ionic bond.  If you are still have trouble check out this page to compare the two. Here is a quiz to check your knowledge.

Lewis structures

Drawing Lewis structures is not difficult. You only need to know the number of  valence electrons which you get from the group number of the element. That is all you have to know.

For example, let’s take Oxygen.

Oxygen is in Group 6A. This tells me that Oxygen has 6 valence electrons. See? Easy. (My lovely drawing in Paint)

I just drew six, happy little dots around an oxygen atom. Now, I know that oxygen is a diatomic atom, meaning that they never go it alone. So, if I want to draw the Lewis structure for the oxygen bond, I just match up the lonely electrons.

Yes, this may look like your face while you study Chemistry, but it is really just a Lewis structure showing how an O₂ is bonded.

You don’t need to draw all the electrons after you know how they are bonded. It is redundant. We know all the other electrons are happily paired together.

Let’s do one more because it is fun. How about PCl₃

Here are the Lewis structures of Phosphorus and Chlorine.

Phosphorus has three unpaired electrons. No, you can’t pair up two of the singles. There must be an electron at each of the spots on the compass before you start pairing them up. If I were to pair up two electrons, there would be an empty spot. This is how we draw the Lewis structure in order to get the correct bonds.

Chlorine has one unpaired electron. Phosphorus wants three. One chlorine atom can’t give a Phosphorus atom three of its electrons. Remember, it wants to have a full 8 as well. (the octet rule). So, instead two more Chlorine atoms join the party.

 

Does that just look like a bunch of red dots? It does. But let’s draw the bond lines.

 

Remove the rest of your paired electrons.

And there you go. There is just a little more that you will have to learn in the next module about bond shapes. This is the foundation of drawing Lewis structures. I hope this helps.

 

Random Monday

It is Monday again. It seems like it comes around every seven days.

I made a dentist appointment for today. It is at 8:30 in the morning. I don’t know what kind of day I was having when I scheduled this appointment, but it must have been a good one. I am not sure what makes 8:30 am sound like a good time for a trip to the dentist.

We joined the other gazillion people and saw Iron Man 3 this weekend. It is so fun going to these movies with my family. I don’t mind Pixar movies so much, but I lost interest in the cartoons a long time ago. This is much more fun. I liked Iron Man 3. It was better than the second Iron Man. On the way home we hashed out our favorite parts of the movie.  Matthew said,  ”You know, the Colonel is a pretty good shot for being in the Air Force.”  (No offense to any Air Force reader, but THAT is funny.)

For my homeschool friends. Something to show your kids. Writing Methods that Work 100% of the time-Except when they don’t. It is true. The grammar check in Word hates you.

Still no results. Maybe this week. I am so over the Navy. Have I mentioned that lately?

Oh my gosh! I am going to be overrun with cicadas.

We are coming into graduation season. Matthew officially graduates at the end of this month, but we aren’t doing anything except sending out announcements. He isn’t walking in a ceremony. He doesn’t want to walk in one, and I am fine with that. And not just a little fine. A lot fine. My high school graduation was so boring, and it was mine. There were 550 kids in my graduating class. I don’t remember anything about it. I don’t even remember walking across the stage. I am trying. Nope. Don’t remember it.  I think I may have a picture somewhere.

In the spirit of graduation ceremonies, I leave you with this.

My first zentangle

Deb told me that she introduced her daughter to zentangles. I had never heard of zentangling or whatever it is called, so I did a quick Google. And in the 3 minutes it took me to learn of zentangles, I decided that I wanted to blow off book work for the rest of the afternoon and doodle with my kids.

We watched a couple of YouTube videos and doodled for a couple of hours.

This is my final project.

I am not an artist, so I am pretty pleased. Not too shabby for a first try, if I do say so myself.

My mom has been also looking for something to do. She doesn’t have much energy, and unfortunately, chemo is wreaking havoc on her eyes. I thought this would be perfect for her. I called her and shared this zentangling with her.

Thanks, Deb. It is fun!

UPDATE: I showed my picture to my husband. He said, “Oh, that is nice. Is that like a stencil or something?”

“No,” I said, “I drew this myself.”

“Freehand?”

“YES, freehand.”

“Huh, didn’t know you had it in ya.”

Thanks, babe. I will remember that. (but see? I am not artsy at all.)

Pinterest Fun

I don’t go to Pinterest very often. I find that it breeds discontent in my heart, but lately, people have been posting things they find on Pinterest to Facebook. I spend plenty of time on Facebook, so I get to see all these things that pop up.

This has been popping up a lot on my friends’ pages. Water that has been infused with fruits and herbs. Personally, I don’t get it. Why not just eat the fruit? Look at all the fruit you are basically wasting by sticking it in your water? If the fruit leeches into the water, aren’t you getting the sugar from the fruit but none of the good fiber? It is lost on me how this is a weight loss plan. Look at the citrus jar. Isn’t that just unsweetened orangeade? Couldn’t you just eat the fruit and drink the water. It seems wasteful to me. Herbs? I get the herbs.

This is hilarious. I want to bring this to my next senior spouse function just to see what they would say. I think I will bring the Grouch. For no reason in particular.

Has anyone tried this one? I have had a can of coconut milk in my pantry for who knows how long because of this exact picture. Yes, I bought a can of coconut milk over a year ago, and it still sits in my pantry because I am not organized enough to stick it in the fridge. If only I had the energy for that.

This. Who really eats like this? Be honest.  Are those three-leaf clovers on that salad? I am thinking there may be a radish on there too. A. (As in one.) Radish. Maybe some Craisins. If I ate that salad for lunch, I would be a starving monster raiding the potato chips one hour later. May as well eat the potato chips at lunch and kill two birds with one stone. I am all about a salad. I eat a lot of salads, but I am sorry. This one isn’t my cup of tea. (Side note: Do people pin these so that other people will think they are eating it? Hmm..)

Now this! This! This is what I am talking about. I am going to make this for my son to take to college. Right? Isn’t that a fabulous idea? I am sure that he will just love me forever if I gift him with this. Ok. Maybe not, but if he was 10 years younger I would make this. For sure. Because what Star Wars nerd wouldn’t love a R2-D2 garbage can? It is just carefully crafted duct tape. They make duct tape in all different colors now for the crafty people. Scratch that. I am making it, and he will LIKE it. How do people come up with the stuff? My gifts are not in the creative department.

But that is why we have Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest. You do make me laugh.

 

 

 

After 7 years of physical therapy, it is over.

Tags

Toe-walking

I haven’t posted anything about Freckle Face recently because there hasn’t been much to report. But now, I am frustrated. I am going to use this space to vent my frustration. Be prepared.

Since we moved here, we had to change our insurance. You would think that Tricare would be standard across the United States, but it isn’t. We still have Tricare, but it is under a different contract than our Tricare in Washington was under.

Here Freckle Face has been forced to be seen in the Army hospital physical therapy clinic. A place that focuses mostly on the troops, as is right. My frustration began when the clinic refused to acknowledge or to view any of his past medical history. A decision was made in 5 minutes that his needs could be met at the Army hospital even though the physical therapist disagreed. It is about the money. (It was also curious that no children under 12 are allowed in the clinic. Funny that Freckle Face was 11, but he could be seen there. I always found that dumb.)

So we met with a nice Captain once a month to monitor his progress. There was no therapy at his appointments, but she measured his flexibility and monitored any changes in his feet. I resigned myself to the fact that his physical therapy was going to be more of a monitoring system rather than any kind of therapy. I convinced myself that this was fine. We knew what needed to be done at home. We could do it, and the therapist could keep us accountable.

Now, the Captain has PCS’d (moved), and he was assigned a new therapist. We met her yesterday. In less than 10 minutes, she decided that his range was satisfactory and at a +10 degrees. She decided this without measuring. She may be good, but I know that she isn’t that good. The only time that Freckle Face measured a +10 degrees was immediately following surgery. We have been lucky to remain at neutral for the past year at times even falling below neutral.  I expressed my concerns that while it looks that he might have that kind of range, it is only because he is compensating by rotating his hip and his ankle. She conceded that this was true, but he could work to strengthen his outer hip muscles and that problem would go away. She then gave him an elastic band, showed him how to use it, and printed off a paper with the exercise on it for him. Then she told us that we didn’t need to come back. Unless of course I noticed that he was losing range. Then I could call her. Oh, and I can email her too if I have any questions.

He has been dumped.

Freckle Face still walks on his toes. He needs new orthotics which Tricare will not pay for unless I get a letter of medical necessity. She told me that it would be easy to get. Just call the doctor in WA because he will print one out for me. All doctors have a standard letter. It won’t be a problem. Not so fast. I called. It isn’t that easy, and in my gut I knew it wouldn’t be. He needs to be seen again by a physiatrist.  No one here will send Freckle Face to the right doctor. I don’t see new orthotics in his future.

I need to give a shout out to his last physical therapist in Washington. He has been wonderful even after we moved here. Supplying Freckle Face with shoes and inserts. It is above and beyond anything that we deserve. I miss that office. All of them.

I understand that my son can do anything that he wants to do. He runs, jumps, rides a bike, and manages himself very well, but I see things. I see how he walks up the stairs. I see how he compensates when his feet don’t cooperate for him. And since the medical community here is not interested in these things, I have to do it. Fine. I get it. It is time for me to put on my A game.

My main gripe is with Tricare and the Army medical system. We are limited. We have no choices. I am not stupid. I may not be a physical therapist, but I have learned things in the past 6 years. I know what I see and know what my son needs, but it doesn’t matter. I am not capable of finding my own choices. If I don’t think you are meeting my son’s needs, well, that is too bad.

I wasn’t asking for much. I was asking for 30 minutes once a month. I was asking for you to care about my son. I am frustrated and outraged. Right now I just don’t know if I have the energy to fight the system. I know what I need to do with Freckle Face. I guess that I just need to do it and pray that it is enough.