Ship Full o' Pirates

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That’s pretty much all I’m willing to commit to until my headache is gone.  Well, and laundry, a crockpot full of beans and some cornbread after while.  Oh, and I need to plan the menu and make the grocery list.

*Note: I am not teaching math while I have a headache.  I’m sure this headache will pass before the kids are grown, so I’m not gonna loose any sleep over the lack of math this week.

But, for lunch and some sort of stab at academics today I need simple.  And my part needs to be brief.  And quiet.

Baked potatoes are very quiet.  As long as I remember to preheat the oven by 10:30 or so we can have nice baked potatoes for lunch.  Left over beans warmed in the m’wave go good with that.  Easy and packed full of nutrition.

The quick and easy bit is after you poke the ‘taters full of fork holes, spray ‘em with your spray oil (Pam or whatever) then sprinkle coarse sea salt on ‘em before baking for an hour at 400°.  Super easy, super nutritious, super cheap-o, super yummy.

Journaling is something I have read about forever.  Heard great advice concerning this from Aunt Victoria.  Made a couple of half-hearted efforts to get going with it, and let it fall off the map.  Well, we’re all over the journaling these days.  The younger three are doin’ it.  Yes, even Sally Mae (the girl was born with a pencil in her hand!)

Turns out, journaling is the most powerful language lesson I have ever seen.  I say “seen” because I hardly have to do a thing.  I provided compositions books and pencils.  I explained the type of thing they were to write about.  (You know, current events in their own lives.)  And I use my white board to help them figure out how to spell what they want help with.

Some of the time we start off with a Bible verse.  Sometimes not.

Sometimes they’d like me to believe their lives are too boring to write down on paper.  I tell them to write down what they ate for breakfast.  At that point they come up with more interesting stuff.

They started off thinking they needed a ton of help with spelling.  Confidence was very low.  But day by day, since it matters to them, they are remembering words I previously taught them.  I can’t say that about words from a spelling list.

I’m writing a journal too, setting a good example and all that.  We all sit at the table together and do this at the same time.  I don’t mind them interrupting me to ask how to spell something, I’m a big girl, I’ll remember what I was doing (pretty sure).

The thought that cracks me up, is that someday, far in the distant future, when I’m (sniff) gone, some Cowboy of mine is gonna go through my closet, find a stack of 237 composition books, open one up and say to his brother, “Hey, Dusty, I bet you don’t know what Mama ate for breakfast on October 7th, 2009.”  (snort!)

And just because they’re cute, here’s Slim and Sally Mae.  BTW – do not buy your son one of these unless you are willing to hear him ask, “Hey, where’s my do-rag?”  Gr-r-r-r!

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