Que Rica Vida Goodies Winner

Thanks to all of you lovely commentors commentators folks who left a comment for the Que Rica Vida goodies. I truly like knowing what General Mills products you use. (I'm genuinely curious about these kinds of things...or maybe stalkery? But that's not important right now. =D)

As usual, I entered the names into a list on Random.org and it gave me a winner.

So, congratulations to:

jackie said... Cheerios! I have a toddler! :)

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Jackie, please send me an email with the headline: HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG. (So I don't accidentally delete it.) Include your snail mail address so I can get the package of cool Que Rica Vida stuff out to you ASAP.

Querica stuff
By the way, I totally get the whole toddler-love-affair-with-Cheerios-thing. With four kids, I made sure I had Cheerios with me at all times. Seriously, I was always armed and ready with my Cheerios ziplock. ;-)

In fact, someone I know was all uber-excited to have won this Cheerios tshirt, because she had such happy childhood Cheerios memories. In fact, we had to very purposefully hunt down the Cheerios Bee for this photo op...

Amy&thebee

As a mom, I seriously loved this moment. (I know. Shut up.)

Que rica vida, right? ;-)

Homeschool lesson #247 - How to Promenade in style

Lucy was in 4th grade and Jonathan was in 1st when I started homeschooling them.

Believe it or not, even back then, when people found out we were homeschooling them and that we intended to do so for as long as necessary, some would very sincerely ask:

"What about prom?"

Yes. They did. I don't think it ever crossed any of the nay-sayers minds that perhaps my children would grow up more secure and comfortable in their own skin by not having to negotiate the battlefield of what currently passes for public school education.

I think back to my own high school years and I remember the proms I attended. I remember being scared and excited and yet, feeling incredibly awkward. I had never dressed up in a formal gown. I had never been given a corsage or had pinned on a boutonniere. (Nobody teaches you this stuff, do they?)

I look back at my prom photos today and I see myself in satin formal wear and gloves (gloves!) and I think, "Wow, we both look supremely uncomfortable."

Prom flower1971003

Me & my date, Terry B. - (I had never seen an orchid up close and personal before this moment.) May 1971.

In the formal portrait we are positioned in the classic pose that I'm pretty sure is called: "Awkward Prom Pose #1.  (You want him to put his hands where?? No. I obviously wasn't breathing here and to top it off, I forgot my gloves. I had gloves, people!)

Prom 1971002
But going back to the original well-meaning question: "What about prom?"

How were my poor homeschooled kids (which I was already so obviously depriving of a normal life and education) going to be able to function in the "real" world, and how would they be able to survive in that world if I kept them from experiencing the joys of promenading in formal attire?

Well, for those of you that may be worried about the socialization of my children and how that would play out if they didn't get to go to prom, you can rest easy. The independent learning high school that Lucy attends sponsors a prom each year. (You may now breath a collective sigh of relief.)

  • It's a lovely event held at the Disneyland Hotel. (Win!)
  • I didn't make her wear gloves (gloves!) like my mother made me back in 1971, so her wrist corsage was easier to put on.
  • And yes, I taught her how to pin on the boutonniere. (Hello...Homeschooling Mom! I teach stuff! =D)

Lucy & matt boutoniere 

Lucy looked lovely. Her not-boyfriend (He's a boy. He's her friend. He's not her boyfriend. Shut up.), Matt (who was also homeschooled, but that's not important right now) looked extremely dapper in his tux.

She wore her favorite footwear and, unlike many of the other girls who got brand-new-trendy-yet-painful-prom shoes and had already taken them off before the dance began, she was comfortable in her shoes the entire night. (Win!)

Miss lucy 

I'm glad she got to go to prom. Not because I believe in the sacredness of the ritual, but because I love so much that both of them had such fun together and were obviously so very much at ease.

Let me turn your attention to Exhibit A:

Lucy & matt mustaches

"Those kids look so relaxed together and they're wearing fake mustaches. EPIC WIN!"

And that, my friends, explains the difference between promenading as an awkward teenager and promenading as a secure teenager with someone who is a good friend. These two are are obviously very comfortable in their own skins.

I'm pleased.

(But now I'm thinking she might have liked some gloves. =D)

Today's lesson in homeschooling is complete. ;-)

You can't stop the beat...

So, if you're a regular reader, you know that my kids are all theater geeks. And I know I'm the mom and everything, but they really are pretty good. (No. Really. They are.)

Can I just tell you how much I love to sit in the audience and applaud them? Because I get to see all of their hard work to get to that moment when they're on stage and going for the laugh. And I'm always holding my breath and crossing my fingers hoping they get it.

It's not just the performance that makes me happy, it's when I see them doing something fearlessly. Like Eric often says, "I could never have done that at that age....or even now!"

Jonathan was in a Broadway-type review for this year's play. There were 24 kids in 18 numbers and I managed to costume them all (with a little help from my friends - actually with A LOT of help from my friends, but that's not important right now).

Jon was in a few of the numbers, but this last one pretty much brought the house down. He didn't quite remember the choreography, but it didn't much matter. When he came on stage, you couldn't take your eyes off him.(Possibly because he was wearing a sparkly red gown....)

P3105408

I love that he was completely fearless and comfortable enough in his own skin to pull this off.

So here's Jonathan, my 14 year old son, playing Edna Turnblad (the John Travolta character) in Hairspray.

WARNING: Put down whatever you're drinking, or it may just come out your nose. ;-)

Drama is My Life.

"You haven't been blogging very much lately."

The criticism is accurate.

I figured out that even though I do a lot, I can't do everything. (But I'm still doing a lot!)

So, besides cooking and laundry and educating my kids and doing life, what else is going on?

Well, Jonathan and Lucy are both in Drama Productions, so I can say with complete certainty that right now:

Drama is My Life. =D

The show Jon is in is called Give My Regards to Broadway and includes a cast of 24 in 18 numbers. And I'm in charge of costumes for them all. Do the math. That's like 400 costume changes.

Table 

Lucky for me, I'm just overseeing this madness, and not really having to sew much. I have a crack team of Costume Helpers Goddesses who are making adjustments and fitting these beautiful pieces to each kid.

Moms 

Not to mention my Embellishers. (Hey, that works on multiple levels!)

Costume details 

My job is to oversea this craziness and make sure those young thespians look wonderful. (All I need is a tiara and a scepter.)

Skirts

So, if you're wondering where I've been....

You can find me somewhere between the band uniforms...

Costume hat 

and the fake beards....

Beards 

Right in the center of it all with a big grin on my face. =D

Costume room copy

Bon Voyage

I'm putting these two on a plane today.

Luza & amy

I have super-mixed emotions about them traveling to Cuba, but like Amy said in her post, family trumps politics.

They will be in Miami for the next few days and then fly to Cuba next Monday.

I am FINE* with it. Really I am.

Ay, Dios mio. *heavy sigh*

*FINE - Freaked out. Insecure. Neurotic. and Emotional.

The apple does not fall far from the tree...

For those of you who were guessing yesterday's Who was Who, (or should it be "who was whom?" - oh, never mind...) the correct answer is:

Jonathan on the left. Eric on the right.

Jon & Dad 

And they sound alike on the phone now, too. 

I demand to know - WHEN EXACTLY DID THIS HAPPEN??

Intellectually I know that my son is quickly becoming a man, but seriously, (and Jon's going to hate me for it, but...) this is what I still see:

Jon & dad 06
I know. Shut up.

*heavy sigh*

Who's Who?

The other day, Eric (my husband) and Jonathan (my 14 year old) were going to our local YMCA to go play racquetball. (P.E. in our homeschool usually means a trip to the Y, but that's not important right now.)

They came downstairs and got their racquets. I was aware of their presence, but was into what I was reading, so I just caught a glimpse of Eric (or so I thought) out of the corner of my eye and proceeded to ask him to remember to pick up something for me after they finished their game.

As is usual for anyone when there is an intimate and casual familiarity with someone, I didn't even bother to glance up from my book when I spoke to him.

And then.....

"Umm...Mom?"

It was Jonathan. Not Eric. HUH??

Before you judge me for not realizing it was my teenage son and not my husband, please allow me to present Exhibit A:

Legs

See?

So let's hear your best guesses....Who's who? ;-)

Nature and Nurture

I homeschool my kids.

Lucy is now 16 and a junior in high school. Jonathan just turned 14 and is in 8th grade.

We've been at this wonderful, terrifying, exasperating, delicious experiment for the past 8 years and in retrospect, I don't, for even a moment, regret our decision to take on this mighty task.

Lucy was in the 3rd grade in our local (highly rated) public school.

Jonathan was in Kindergarten.

Jon, my easy-as-pie, roll-with-the-punches kid, HATED Kindergarten. I wondered how that could be possible. Isn't Kindergarten supposed to be a beautiful world of finger-painting and growing bean sprouts and art and taking care of the class mascot rat and playing chase with your friends?

So I started volunteering in Jonathan's Kindergarten class one day a week. And I found that there was a big academic push in Kindergarten. To learn to read and do math and PRODUCE RESULTS. (I started to hate going to Kindergarten myself.)

Lucy had already tested in the gifted category. I think that just meant that she could already read well and understand what she was reading. She was a pretty articulate child. But what did "gifted" mean?

In this particular (did I mention it was highly rated?) public school, it meant they gave her individual busy work and sat the class behavior-problem next to my sweet and quiet girl. The expectation being that she would get her work done and be a calming influence on the resident classroom devil-child.

Needless to say, Lucy started to dread going to school.

What was happening here? Kindergarten through 6th was supposed to be the most fun time of anyone's life! Not so in our little world. I had homeschooled Amy and Adam for a couple of their elementary years, so I knew I could certainly homeschool these two. But did I want to?

Towards the end of that particular year, we made the decision to bring them home and commence their education here. Childhood goes by so fast. Did we really want them to suffer through it? As you can guess, the answer was a resounding 'NO!'

I researched all of our options and read everything I could find on the subject of homeschooling. We didn't make the decision quickly or flippantly. And yet, when we brought our kids home, we got nothing but grief from friends and family.

Somehow, they figured we were depriving our kids of a major social experience. They would ask the ridiculous, "What about socialization?" question.

"Socialization" is not, as most people believe, providing our kids with a social life. It's giving them the skills that will help them function in most areas of life and with all kinds of different people. We realized early on that a classroom full of peers was not the place we wanted for them to be learning how to behave. 

So we brought them home. And we RELAXED.

We did not try to recreate a classroom situation at home.

We read lots of books and did art projects and talked about lots of things. We (Eric and I) didn't really teach, so much as facilitate. We didn't try to pour information into their heads for them to regurgitate on a test. We taught them to love to discover and learn. This was the great success of this social experiment.

P5147811

Jonathan and Lucy. May 2009. Federal Hall, Wall Street, New York.

Last year, we had this mini-drama play out just outside our front door. (It applies, I promise.)

Just outside our front door, under our eaves, we noticed a pair of birds building a nest. We were privileged to be a part of the process from when they first started to scope out the location...

Bird1 

To when they actually built the nest. The mom was committed and would spend hours covering those fragile eggs.

Bird2 

The dad would go get food and pace nervously near the nest to ensure there were no predators nearby.

Bird3 

One morning, like magic, we heard a new sound from the eaves. The babies had hatched and were making feed us! noises.

Bird4

We were delighted to watch the drama unfold. (As were other members of our family.) =D

Bastet

We began looking forward to the times of the day when we would hear the noisy kids demanding to be fed, the parents dutifully providing for them, and then they would go quiet for a while. It was a fascinating process.

Weeks of this went by and then one day we noticed that the mom had booted one of the babies from the nest. They were getting big and strong. And were crowding themselves out.

She no longer had to feed them. They could survive on their own. They had outgrown the nest and were standing on the edge, ready for flight.

Bird5 

And so it was. They flew away. We felt a kind of joyful sorrow. "Good for you!" we thought. "We knew you could do it on your own."

So we provided a feeder in the garden.

And they kept coming back. With friends.

Bird feeder 

It seems that the early protection and nurture had served them well to socialize with the rest of the birds in the "real" world.

We're finding that the same has been true for our kids. I don't fret as much anymore about whether Our Great Homeschooling Experiment has worked. I know it did.

They have grown into lovely people, with good morals and standards. They love to learn and are interested in many things. They are smart. Book-smart and socially-smart. They're curious and are constantly learning. And they can look you straight in the eye when having a conversation.

When I see them interact with others (which is often - they have lots of friends), I see confident, self-possessed people. ("What about socialization?)

Let's see the (highly rated!) public school system duplicate those results.

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

We're having weather here in So Cal.

According to the Weather Service, it's Severe Weather. (Which is weatherman speak for it's-been-raining-like-crazy-all-week-and-we-don't-know-what-to-wear-or-how-to-drive, but that's not important right now.)

In the past two days there have been tornado watches and sleet and hail. It's been very dramatic and, well...severe.

A friend sent us this photo of the Huntington Beach Pier, along with the question: "Doesn't Amy live right there?"

Waterspout 

Yes, that seems to be a waterspout that looks tornado-ish. And yes, my first-born lives just blocks away from the danger!

All of my Cuban Mother synapses start to fire.....

I imagine her apartment building being ripped from its foundations and being swirled off into the spout, up, up, up and over the rainbow, landing her somewhere in Oz. (Minus the blue gingham dress, the little dog, and the Munchkins.)

Seriously, I was pretty worried. What if she's hurt?? What if she's dead?? (Not dramatic, at all, right?)

But then I receive this photo from her:

Bustelo & cafetera

And the following text:

Hi Mom!
I'm alive!
I have only left the house to get a quick bite . . . and I've been very safe!
I'm staying dry and warm.

She knows me so well. =D

Auntie em

Fourteen.

14 years ago today my doctor spoke those magical words, "it's a boy."

Jon's image

And asked The Question: "What will you be naming him?"

Me: "Jonathan Edward Darby."

Jonathan after his paternal grandfather, John. (Eric's dad.) Plus it means something. It means God's gift. Or God is gracious to give.

So God, himself, was gracious to give us and allow us to name this wide-eyed miracle that I held in my arms that day and even gave us his name. "Jonathan Edward." Yes, after the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God guy.

We have great expectations for this kid to fulfill, but right now, he's just Jon. And he's 14 today. And I love him just as much today as the day we brought him home.

With the others there is a shred of doubt as to whether I'm the best person to be raising them. But with Jon, I am absolutely sure that I am the best mom for the amazing task ahead.

I'm fully aware that I'm not just raising a boy, I'm making a man.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan Edward.  I love you so much I could spit.  =D