Totally random.

1. Did you know that baby oil is an excellent cleaner for stainless steel surfaces (like on refrigerators and microwaves)? Hal at Home Depot told me so. He swore me to secrecy, though, so don't tell him I told you.

2. I love Monday afternoons. (Yes, I know that sounds weird.) After I pick up the boys from Options, we mostly go out to grab a snack. It's tradition. During that, they take turns telling me (in detail) about their day. I love that they want to do that.

3. Micah's kindergarten words of late have been Star Wars, technology, uranium, vector and war. (Vector, in case you were wondering, comes from the villain in the movie Despicable Me...not any precocious knowledge of geometry, lol.) 

4. My exercise "habit" hasn't yet reached habit status and I'm a bit behind on my goal of 3x a week, but I'm going to go out on a limb and claim that I'm making progress. One of the biggest hurdles was figuring out that I really just need to shift my entire schedule to getting up earlier *every* morning. (Keep in mind here that prior to coming up with this whole, crazy "I should exercise more" idea my schedule was definitely that of a night owl. I'd stay up late after the boys were in bed...and they go to bed late to start with (around 11 pm) for varying reasons that work for us...and then not worry about getting up earlier than them in the morning.)

Anyhow. Trying to get up early only 3-4 mornings a week just wasn't working because then I was staying up late the other nights and sleeping in those other days...which meant that getting up earlier to exercise was, um, not fun. (Okay. It's still not to the "fun" stage, let's be honest here, LOL!)

5. I love that Micah, though being the shortest kid at Options, considers himself "just one of the boys" and is more than happy to hang out with his big brothers and their friends (all the way up to 6th graders). I love it even more that those other boys all totally accept Micah and are genuinely delighted to let him play with them, happily adjusting their skill levels to give Micah a fighting chance. (And, obviously, I love, too, that Noah and Asher think this is perfectly normal and wouldn't even think about not including Micah.)

6. Legos are awesome. They once again came to my rescue this week during Asher's math lesson. The lesson was about volume (specifically cubic units). Once I explained things in terms of lego bricks, it all made sense. Whew.

7. Is it weird that I almost always eat M&Ms in this order: yellow, brown, red, blue, orange, green?

That was all. Told you it was random. ;)

FCMOA

On Saturday, we visited our local Museum of Art (FCMOA). They have an Ansel Adams exhibit we'd been wanting to visit, and it will be departing this month. Plus, we'd never been inside this particular museum before, even though we drive past it all the time and have lived in Fort Collins for years now. ;) 

So. We went. We started out in the main gallery area, looking at lovely big oil paintings on canvas that reminded Nathan and me of eastern Washington, where we grew up. We then headed upstairs and followed the awesome guide around the exhibit as she did her tour. In wandering and looking more individually at the photographs, the boys decided that these were their favorites:

Asher liked the sand dunes in CA...Micah liked Yosemite...and Noah liked the Grand Tetons. I think they were all terrific choices and couldn't decide on a personal favorite, myself. ;) 

And, here we are in front of the museum:

(I actually like the color version of this picture better, but black and white seemed more appropriate in front of the big Ansel Adams banner, lol. And, yes, I'm standing one step higher up than Nathan is. Gotta take advantage of the opportunity to appear taller when I can.)

So. That was part of our Saturday. It's rather rewarding to finally be experiencing more of the offerings right here in our hometown (like about a month ago when we visited Anheuser). Anyone have any recommendations for what we might tackle next?

Quote #10.

Wow. Already ten weeks into 2011? Here's this week's quote:

Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy. – Ms. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus series

As is usual, I’ve been thinking about homeschooling a lot lately…tweaking our plans and approaches. I’m very much looking forward to continuing down this path we’re on. This quote will help me. You see, on the whole, I’m a rather low risk sort of person…I prefer to stick to things I know and keep my feet on the ground…to *know* and not guess…to keep things orderly. In this, at least one of my boys is just like me. At least one is, um, not. I’d be lying if I said there aren’t times when this poses quite a challenge for me. I’ve struggled with it. Plenty. Trying to figure out how to think differently, how to be okay with getting things wrong, how to embrace exuberance. 

What I’ve found is that it works out much better for me when I choose to look at this difference in approach as an opportunity to learn rather than as a challenge to be overcome. (Incidentally, over the weekend, I came across this blog post that says it so perfectly.) So. While I love tidiness and security, I know now that I want to encourage my boys to take more chances…to make their own mistakes…and to (occasionally) get messy. I want to arm them with the courage to think outside the box and try new ways of thinking…to grow. To do that, I have to do it also. Here goes…

Ditto.

Just a few homeschool blogging posts I've seen lately that I wanted to share. They said it so well, I figured I'd just direct you to their posts. ;)

Think before you buy. I totally wish I'd have read something like this back when we started homeschooling. ;) I've gotten better, but still feel drawn to shop first and examine later, lol. Plus, I'm a collector. Things sold in sets just scream my name. You have no idea how hard it is for me to resist just buying an entire set of something...or three entire sets. ;)

The Public School Parents' Guide to Homeschool Parents. I just liked this one. Very well said and so true.

Keeping Up With the Joneses. I know I still struggle with this from time to time, especially when I read homeschooling blog posts online, LOL. But. I also know that I'm doing better now than I was back when we started. That helps. 

That was all. Just stuff that I've been thinking about. ;)

Full Splits Club.

I've been meaning to take a picture for months. I finally got one after the karate tournament last weekend. ;) Months ago, Asher became an "official" member of the Full Splits Club at his karate school. You can see why:

Yeah. The kid's incredibly flexible. He can do the splits the other direction, too. After this obviousness in class, his instructors informed him that he could try for this "club" and earn a patch for his uniform. He, um, did. :)