Music as Inspiration

I'm so proud of my son.  He's been telling me for a while that he wanted to learn how to play violin, so this coming school year I've enrolled him in a homeschool orchestra in our area. 

I got a really good deal on a violin so he's had it for a month and a half now and he's been picking things up on his own (thank you YouTube and Google)!  And he's been really good about practicing each day too (without me telling him to do it - yay!)

Here's one of the four songs he's been working on.  He's already talking about how he's planning on performing at the County Fair in March.  I can't wait to see his progress over the next 8 months.

Drum Roll......

Today is the last day of the Sarasota County fair which meant that bright and early this morning the kids and I were picking up their projects and prizes (aka. ribbons and cash) and helping clean out the 4H mini building.  I know all you inquiring minds what to know how they did, so here's the breakdown:

MY SON

Items submitted: 10 (canned goods, baked goods, photography, and a general craft)
Demonstrations given: 2
Participation in other activities: 1st place in consumer choices contest
Blue Ribbons: 9
Red Ribbons:3
Best in Show for a para-cord whip he made
Monetary awards received: $72


MY DAUGHTER

Items submitted: 9 (canned goods, baked goods, photography, a general craft, and creative writing)
Participation in other activities: 3rd place in consumer choices contest
Blue Ribbons: 7
Red Ribbons: 2
Best in Show for an original story she wrote
Monetary awards received: $52


And technically we aren't done yet.  In a few weeks, they are having an awards banquet where they will each be receiving a trophy for their best in show items as well as a trophy or ribbon for the consumer choices contest! 

It was a lot of work (for the kids and Mom).  And there was whining going as we were nearing the deadline to hand things in.  Yet, just like childbirth, my kids have already forgotten just how painful they thought it was at the time, and they are talking about participating again next year.  Now that we've been through the process, we have some ideas of how to handle it better next year as well as some of the other activities we may want to participate in next year.

What's first on the list for my kids for next year?  My daughter wants to sew and my son wants to compete in the whip cracking contest (maybe even with the whip that won him best in show this year).  But first, this Mama needs a little down time.

What's Been Going On

I just realized that it's been a month since I posted a blog.  So here I am letting you know what we've been doing that's keeping us so busy:

• School for the kids.  We've had a couple field trips as well as regular school work.
• Preparing for the fair.  Not only are my kids both submitting things for the fair (food items, crafts, and even an original story), but my son completed two demonstrations a few weeks ago.  He got a blue ribbon for one and a red ribbon for the other.
• I've been busier for work lately too.  I've been showing houses multiple times a week. I also had a house close a couple weeks ago and I have another scheduled in the next two weeks.
• I'm taking a certification class for real estate.
• Hubby has been working on the house (the yard in particular) as of late.  This time of year is not nearly as hot and hard to work outside as the summer months so he's taking advantage.

Other interesting items of note:

• My son came up with a joke on his own a few months back.  His Oma and Opa were in town at the time and they told him he should submit it to a kid's magazine.  Yesterday we got a copy of the magazine with his joke in it.  For those interested, the joke is:  How does a yo-yo relax?  It unwinds.
• For years, we've had an issue with the kids cleaning their rooms.  They would clean it and then a couple days later it would be a mess again.  We had a really big cleaning push a couple weeks ago and they're still pretty clean.  Praying it continues.

Hard Work and Perseverance

My regular readers know that my son is a bit of an engineer.  He's particularly interested in robotics.  Considering his father is a programmer and made a robot when my son was only a few years old, it's not really a surprise.

What may surprise some, is that although we homeschool our son, he, at the ripe old age of 10 has been able to participate on a robotics team this year.  We have some homeschooling friends who knew that my son loves robots and programming, and put us in touch with a couple of other homeschool moms who wanted to start up a robotics team.  They needed a mentor (an engineer) so it worked out quite well that my husband is a computer engineer.

A few weeks ago, the team participated in a pre-qualification competition.  The goal was to let the teams participate in all the functions of a full competition without all the stress.  It was great, they were scored and were given pointers on how to improve for the actual qualification tournament.  Being that this was the team's first "competition" they went in with the goal being to learn the process so they didn't feel overwhelmed when it came time for the real competition.  How surprised were we when they won an award for the best research project (out of 11 teams present).  To say the team was happy was an understatement.

The team after winning the award for their presentation at the pre-qualification competition

There are 4 pieces the team is graded on.  The robot design (explain why you made the robot do X, why did you use that attachment to do it, why did you program it the way you did, etc), the research project (and an associated presentation of what you found out with your research), the robot performance (actually using the robot they designed and programmed to accomplish certain tasks), and what they call core values (team work and good sportsmanship).

Today was the qualification competition.  You go through each stage without really knowing how you were scored.  You can figure out the robot performance on your own because they assign in advance the points for each task, however you don't necessarily know how all the other teams did (unless you have someone watch all the matches - which we didn't).  So you have to go based on your gut, as well as compare how you did this time to last time.

• They came out of robot design feeling pretty good.  They were asked some detailed questions, but they were able to answer them, so they felt pretty good about that one.  
• They performed a skit which they wrote as their method of presenting their research project.  They'd made some improvements based on the recommendations from the judges at the pre-qualification and felt those changes reflected in their presentation so figured they'd score high on that one (especially since they won that category at the pre-qualification).  
• The core values is actually one of harder pieces for the team because there are 8 of them and it's often hard to get them to agree on a plan of action (they are give a task to perform and they have to work well as a team and not bicker).  Apparently this went well too, so again, they felt pretty confident.  
• The robot competition was the last thing they did for the day.  In the pre-qualification their highest score was 110.  Today they scored 185!  Not only did that end up being the highest score for the day, earning them the award in that category, it's also the highest score on the west coast of Florida so far.  There are multiple weekends of competitions just because of how many teams there are so that could get broken.

The team with today's award for the best robot performance

So what happens next since they won the robot performance portion today?  That depends on an appeal that has been lodged by the team's coach.  Although we won the robot competition, our overall score (adding up the scores for all 4 categories) was not high enough to advance the team to regionals.  We knew going in that could happen.  In fact, there are many stories of the winning robot performance team not advancing.

The issue is why we didn't score well.  What area did we score lowest?  The research project.  The same research project that won them the award at the pre-qualification (keeping in mind they won without the improvements made for this competition).  After looking at the scoring sheet from pre-qualification and the scoring sheet from the competition today, our coach feels we should have gotten a higher score than we did.  If we'd have gotten that higher score, we may have scored high enough to advance (the top 3 scoring teams out of 13 advanced).  Our scores in the other 3 categories were pretty high, so that category is definitely the culprit.

So now we wait to see what comes of the appeal.

In the mean time... our team has so much to be proud of.  They won the robotics performance piece today, and they also won the research project award at the pre-qualification.   They also handled themselves very well today.  They were very supportive of the other teams throughout the day, and after winning the robotics performance award, they handled not moving on to regionals pretty well.  They were certainly shocked (as was the coach and many of the parents) and they questioned why they didn't advance (as in wanting to know if they did something wrong), but they didn't have a bad attitude about it.  

If this is the end of the road for the team this year, they should be proud of themselves.  I think it's safe to say they had a great time learning all kinds of things about robots, teamwork, and even the medicinal benefits of herbs (what they chose as their research project).  And to see all their hard work pay off by winning two awards whether they advance or not = awesome!  Way to go team!

My son holding the award and the team robot.  I think he's happy  :-)

Late night yesterday, followed by an early and full day today = crashing HARD on the way home.

Ignore the Naysayers

I have a friend that I have known for many years.   I met her while working with my dad right after high school.  The business was expanding rapidly and she was hired to take over some of the work that I had been doing.  Being the only ladies there at the time, we tended to gravitate toward each other.  Even better, we got along quite well.  In fact, J was in my wedding.

Well, she did something she was told for years she would not be able to do.  She just completed her graduate degree (she still hasn't gotten her final grades, but knowing her it was just a matter of submitting her final paper on time - which she did)!  Unfortunately, years ago she had someone in her life who convinced her that she wasn't capable of getting her associates degree much less anything more complicated than that so for a time she had actually given up on college.

Luckily, she now has someone in her life (her husband) that has supported her through this process.  I am so proud of her for following her dream and for not giving up even though to so do would have made her life so much easier.

And for those of you out there who are listening to those voices (people) telling you that you aren't strong enough, smart enough, rich enough, or X enough to follow your dream... Go find a new voice!

That's Just NUTS!

I've been virtually stalking someone today.  I even got his wife's permission.  In fact, she asked me several times for updates.  You see, today my brother-in-law was competing in his first Iron Man competition.  He's done a few marathons and I even think a triathlon or two but an Iron Man... that's HUGE.  She's been waiting for him to finish, but the cell service where the race is hasn't been that great so I've been texting her updates.

This morning as I was struggling to get in my 4 miles on the treadmill (training for my first half marathon) I kept thinking of him and how grueling it must be to train for and complete an Iron Man.  For those that aren't aware, it involves 2.4 miles of swimming in open water (in this case a lake), followed by 112 miles on a bicycle, and finishing up with 26.2 miles of running.  I'm tired just typing that.

As I was interrupted by one of my children, I thought about how hard it's been for me to find the time to train consistently.  Then I thought about how hard it must be to train for an Iron Man.  So not only am I going to give props to my BIL, I'm also going to give props to my sister-in-law too.  I know there have been MANY days when she handled everything alone so he could train.  But today it all came together when he finished in 11:00:12 hours!  And he finished 59th out of 305 in his age category.  Way to go! 

An inspiration to me for sure.  Is there an Iron Man in my future?  Certainly not.  But a couple days ago I was thinking of giving up on trying to even do the half marathon, so he's at least inspired me to keep training for that. 

Macschooling

I'm sorry this is so late in coming.  I went looking for pictures that apparently I don't have.  Rather than make you wait further, I figured I'd post what I could.
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In a recently (for me) post, I mentioned that my son has become quite the tinkerer.  I wish I could say he's gotten this joy and talent from me but I admit it's mostly from his father.   Yes I can come up with some interesting solutions to problems (and patterns for knitting), but my husband... well, he's awesome when it comes to such things.  In fact he was hired at his new job to help fix electrical and computer components rather than just replacing them.  To say he to tinkers is an understatement.

In fact, for at least a week after I met my now-husband, I knew his as MacGyver.  As in the guy from the TV show.  Why?  Because when he started working at the summer camp we met at, he had a Swiss army knife and used duct tape to fix things.  Since then, he has upgraded to a Leatherman knife and he uses other things besides duct tape as well, but the nickname still works for him.

I've asked my husband how he learned to fix things.  What I was told was that when he was growing up he started out by going through people's trash looking for electronic things for parts.  He would take parts from various "broken" pieces of equipment that he found and he would get one item working.  He also fixed Walkmen for people at his school (for a fee of course).  During college he worked at a computer store fixing and assembling computers.

So, it came as no surprise to me when my husband came home from yard sailing with a broken Billy the Bass for our son to mess with.  I WAS a bit surprised however, when my son got it working in less than an hour.  Since that day, my son has started going yard sailing for the sole purpose of finding things to fix or use for parts.  He was given a circuits kit for Christmas a couple years ago and he's even mixed parts from that with parts from "real" electronics in order to make new things.

I am a firm believer that hands-on learning is the way to go for many things in life, and this is no exception.  Thankfully, I have an electrical engineer in the house to help make sure our son doesn't hurt himself while tinkering.  If any of my local friends have any broken electronics, contact us before throwing it out.  I MIGHT know someone who would like to play with it.  :-)

Son watching Daddy fixing our washing machine

Son looking at the "broken" electronics panel from our new fridge.

Light-band son made from the broken panel from our fridge (Mac[Gyver]schooling at it's finest)

Paying the Piper... Yet Again

My regular readers know that over the last 7 months, my daughter has been to the dentist MANY times in order to get fillings.  To the tune of $1000+.  Today we got to add another $200 to that amount. 

Why?  Because when she was 2 she bumped her tooth.  And a couple years ago when we were living in our camper she bumped it again.  But apparently that time she damaged the nerve and last week the nerve revolted.  It started to swell and her gums started to turn dark red.  Never a good sign. 

Friday, I got in contact with her dentist and sent her a picture slightly more detailed than the one below (I love email and tech save medical professionals).

You can see the swelling above her left front tooth.

After she looked at it, she confirmed my suspicion that the tooth was going to need to be pulled.  Luckily, it wasn't too bad yet so we didn't have to schedule something over the weekend.  So, first thing this morning I was able to get her an appointment for this afternoon to get her tooth pulled.  She did great (as usual)!  She is somewhat of a pro at this point with all she's had done.

What you may not be aware of is that my daughter is 7.5, and until today she still had all her baby teeth.  That's right, she hadn't lost a tooth yet.  And I will say this, it's gross interesting to see a tooth pulled that wasn't set to fall out on it's own for some time yet.  It still had the root on it!  Of course my son thought that was a little cool.

Although I am a bit bummed this tooth cost money to come out, we were able to catch it in time to prevent damage to the adult tooth.  And apparently it had a small cavity that was starting to affect the tooth next to it.  So I'm just going to tell myself that it saved me some money.  Yep.  That reasoning works for me. NOT!  Anyway...

And of course, there's the joy in my daugther's face when she smiles and shows her missing tooth.  At the rate her teeth are going, that would have happened in another year or so if it happened naturally.

My Big Girl

This year my kids are taking karate together and my son gets to take robotics class from his father.  So in an attempt to keep things a little bit equal we decided our daughter could sign up for something on her own.  She decided to join a Girl Scout troop.  She already knew the leader and one of the girls pretty well, so that made it a little easier (for those that don't know, she's shy).  But there were some other things that drew her to the idea as well.

There's the uniform.

Doesn't she look proud?

The fun activities.

We got to make potato stamps = fun and easy

Making new friends.

Story / coloring time = only time they are quiet  ;-)

And earlier this week, my daughter had her first Girl Scout ceremony where she received her first badge.

1st badge earned = so excited she didn't stay still long enough for me to get a good picture.

It's a bit surreal, because it brings me back to my time in Girl Scouts.  And can I just say, remembering the pledge and songs... just like riding a bike  :-)
 
Oh, and consider this your notice.... my daughter will be taking cookie orders in January.  If you'd like some, she'd be happy to help you out.

Maturity

As my regular readers know, my daughter recently went to the dentist and got her first filling.  Something I didn't mention was that after her filling she was given an opportunity to go to the treasure chest and pick out anything she wanted.  And what did she pick?  A toy for her brother.

This just shows something I've known about my daughter for quite a while.  My daughter is one of the most considerate, compassionate, kind, and caring children I know.  She thinks of other's feelings more than most kids her age.

Especially considering that tomorrow she turns 7!   Where has the time gone?!?

Money in our house has been tight since about this time last year.  We are not the type of people who tell our kids all the details, but we think they have a right to know why we don't eat out as much as we used to, why we didn't renew our Busch Garden's passes, and why they aren't getting as many toys as they used to.  So that means our kids know that there won't be many presents at the various holidays.

My daughter has the smallest bedroom in the house (probably close to half the size of her brother's room) and the only way to give her more space was to go up.  So earlier today, we picked up a loft bed for her room that I found on Craig's List.  As we were walking to our truck after picking up the bed, she grabs my hand and says in a very energetic voice, "This is the best birthday present EVER!"

And what did my daughter do after we got the bed put together tonight?  After climbing in and testing the bed for herself, she climbed down and let her brother take a turn.

That girl, just melts my heart.

Happy 7th Birthday to my not-so-little girl!

Ouch! That Hurt...

... my heart and my wallet that is.

Well, my daughter got her major filling done a little while ago and she was such a trooper!  Didn't complain once.  Cooperated with the dentist.  Was talking and making them smile and wonder at how well she was handling everything.

Apparently her nerve was more swollen than the dentist was expecting.  To the point where she used multiple treatments to help relieve the swelling.  Luckily, the dentist doesn't think the tooth will need to be pulled any time soon.  It may need to come out before it would fall out on its own but the goal now is to make it till the adult tooth right behind it comes in.  Can I just say how glad I am that we got a cancellation rather than the appointment that is 23 days away still!

So how did my heart survive?  By taking a book to read so I had something else to focus on.  That and hearing the dentist and her assistant keep mentioning that she was the best child patient they'd had with a filling of that depth and location.  She even mentioned that she had adult patients that didn't do as well.  Hearing that, certainly made me feel more at ease.

If only there was something that helped ease the sticker shock on the way out the door.  Ugh!  Having dental work is not cheap.

Whirlwind of Emotions

Guilt
Anxiety 
Peace 
Stress 
Joy
Love
Pride

These are all emotions I experienced yesterday because of my kids teeth.  You see, yesterday both of my kids had their teeth cleaned for the first time in longer than I'd like to admit.  Let's just say, this is the first time they've been to the dentist since we moved to Florida.

Part of the reason is because money has been tight.  The main reason is because the last time they were at the dentist it didn't go well.  They tried to get x-rays of my son and he gagged non-stop (no vomiting thankfully) and they weren't able to get anything worthwhile.  My daughter did better, but only because I told them not to bother taking x-rays of her teeth.

So how did yesterday go?  Better and worse all wrapped into one.  My son's teeth got a clean bill of health.  No cavities and they were even able to get x-rays.  He didn't complain at all.  They did recommend that we see an orthodontist because his teeth look like they will be crowded, but nothing that's particularly urgent.

My daughter did great getting her teeth cleaned and x-rays as well.  Even with the cavity we knew she had.  Unfortunately, I learned that my daughter's "perfectly straight teeth" are actually so tight that she has cavities between two teeth in 4 different places.  We knew she was going to need one filling but we learned she's going to need more.

The one we knew about is the worst of them all and it looks like we caught it before it got to the nerve.  Moments ago I found out that there was a cancellation that will mean she can be seen on Monday rather than 4 weeks from now (when she was originally scheduled for).  Praise God!  I'm so happy we have an even better chance of getting it dealt with before it gets to the nerve.  Pray for us that Monday will go well.   That we did catch it in time and that we both make it through witout any mental trauma. 

It may have been a whirlwind of emotions for me, but thankfully, my kids seemed to be even keeled all day (and my daughter is looking forward to being able to eat pain-free again in the very near future).  And I think it's safe to say we found a dentist (and team) we all like and trust.

So Proud... And Guilty

I am a working mom.  Most of my work is done from home, but the nature of real estate means occasionally I need to show a house (or a few) or go to an inspection, walk-through, or closing.  Two nights ago, I was contacted by a client who I knew was seriously looking, asking how soon we could see a property that had just become available.  Because of my schedule and her work schedule we met at 5:45 yesterday.   That is right around when my family normally eats.

And here is where the guilt comes in.  My hubby had 5 hours of sleep the night before so he had gone to take a nap.  I didn't want to bother him since he's been working hard on a project lately.  My kids are very obedient and know what they are and are not allowed to do (they don't even eat candy they are given at church because they know they need to ask), so off I went leaving them with instructions on what they could do while I was gone.

The house I was going to see was 15 minutes from my house, so I figured I wasn't far away nor would it take long.  I left at 5:30 after having my kids eat a snack, thinking I should be back by 6:30 to feed them (I was going to bring back pizza so no waiting for me to cook would be involved). 

As if I didn't felt bad enough that I was going to make them wait till 6:30 to eat, my client saw the house and decided she wanted to put in an offer... NOW!  So rather than go to my house, I went to my office to work up an offer.

And here is where the pride comes in.  When I realized I was going to be late, I called the house (note: I have not given this number out to anyone.  I don't think my hubby even knows the number.  Not because I don't want him to, but what's the point really).  The only other phone calls we get on this number are phone spam.  I recently taught my 9 year old how to tell if I'm the one calling.  I also programmed my cell phone number into the phone so he could call me if he needed.

Well, he picked up the phone right away (I was thinking I'd have to call a couple times back to back before he answered).  I told him that I was going to be later than I though and that they should try to find something simple and small to eat to tide them over till I got home.

As I'm on my way home from the office, I realize that my son had called me, so I called him back real quick to see if I needed to go to the house rather than the pizza place first.  He said he and his sister were hungry and wanted to know when I would be back.  I told him I was planning on making 2 stops (pizza & gas - I was running on fumes).

He said that was ok.  They understood that what I was doing was important for the family and that they could wait a little longer.  Needless to say, the pizza was a hit (I didn't actually tell them where I was getting dinner from).  The doughnuts I bought at the gas station as additional guilt appeasement didn't hurt either I'm sure.

Oh, and the offer I worked up....I should hear back on that tomorrow morning. 

Melting This Mommy's Heart

As my regular readers know, my son was recently given a computer.  As part of setting up his computer I set up his email account with the email addresses of family and his closest friend back in Virginia.  He's been sending quick message back and forth with his friend as well as some family members.  How surprised was I when I got this message in my Inbox yesterday?

I'll admit it, I teared up.  Not only did he send me this on his own, but he figured out how to put the emoticons in the message and he also figured out how to enlarge it.  This is one proud mama.

The Joy in Her Eyes

Today was a good day.  Nope.  Today was a great day!  After 10 days of helping our friends pack we decided not to get back on the road just yet so we had a day of leisure... the kids and I actually got to use the pool at the campground.  Boy was it an expensive swim.  But it was SO worth it. 

You see, today my daughter overcame her fear and she put her face in the water.  Not only that, but she completely submerged her whole body under the water.  And then she swam about 10 feet before inhaling water.  But you know what?  That didn't deter her and she tried again.  She still has a long way to go, but today was the turning point.  Today she overcame her fear and there will be no stopping her.

The shear joy in her face as she shivered her way back to the camper to tell Daddy that she could swim was a sight to behold.  Days like today make all the rough days as a mom worth it. 

Proud

I just want to take a moment to let everyone know how proud I am of my hubby.  The last few days have been a bit stressful and sleep deprived for him.  He's been working on a project for a while and found himself facing a looming deadline.  He got everything done last night and the customer is happy!

Down side... they want him to add a new feature to the product in the next week or so.  I guess he's going to be holed up for a while longer. 

Up side… continued income when I know finding a job is hard.