Winter Apocalypse 2010 Update

Sooo....this picture shows what my front yard looks like. It iced overnight, about  half an inch.
Wait, I have to interrupt myself here to share something that I heard the weatherman say earlier. You know how they always talk in that very serious tone of voice, regardless of what they are talking about? Well, I was watching earlier today, trying to see when the snow was going to actually hit, and he said, "SOME  places in town have reported up to SIX TENTHS  of an inch of ice."
 Now, Reilly has just started doing equivalent fractions, something which I had never heard of before...OK, well, maybe I heard it waaay back when I was in school, but when it comes to math, the teacher often sounded a lot like Charlie Brown's teacher....ANYWAY. (Don't you love how I even interrupt my interruptions? I do that in real life, too. I'm sure it's not annoying or anything.) It makes me wonder if the weather men have mathematicians sitting around coming up with ways to make really little numbers sound like really BIG numbers.
Weatherman: "Oh, no, Ernie. We didn't even get an inch of ice. After all the hype and after causing the stores to completely run out of toilet paper, we didn't even get an INCH. In fact, we barely got over HALF an inch! We've got to do something, otherwise some random housewife is going to come in here and strangle us!"

Ernie the Mathematician: "Well, you know there are ways to make that sound better. The bigger the number sounds, the more justified people feel in their TP purchases. So, we'll say SIX TENTHS OF AN INCH  and that will sound huge! And if that doesn't work, we'll bump it up to twenty-four fortieths. Easy peasy, rice and cheezy!"


Wait. I lost my train of thought.
Anyway, I guess this whole post is to say that it did indeed snow, probably at least six inches, so I no longer feel like I need to strangle a weatherman. 

My Lack of Techi-ness

Sorry about the layout of the photos in the previous post. I thought it would be fun to add some random pictures and apparently I don't know how to actually get them into the posts without them looking all weird.
So, it is snowing a bit here, I'm thankful to report. Thankful because, honestly, if it weren't snowing, I'm afraid that I would be in the closet having a nervous breakdown. They've been talking about it for SO LONG, getting us all worked up, and I thought that if it doesn't do SOMETHING, I'm going to head down to the news station and strangle me a meteorologist! And I think that going to prison would delay my Girls Only Weekend a bit longer than a snowfall will.

The Weather, It's A-Changin'!

In the interest of NOT going three months between posts, and because I'm sitting here at the kitchen table, waiting for the Winter Apocalypse, I decided that I'd just write a little post about what's going on here.
So...
Hmmm...

• Apparently some nasty weather is heading our way. You don't even have to watch the weather to know this. I could tell just by going into Wal Mart and realizing that people have been stocking up on...everything, actually. One would think that the weather is somehow directly related to everyone's bowel and bladder evacuation because the TP aisle was looking a little thin. "Edna, snow's comin'. Better stock up on some toilet tissue! Oh yeah, and git some soup while you're up there!"
• I had to cancel a Girls' Only Weekend with two of  my best girlfriends because of the weather, so I'm a little bitter about that. OK, a lot bitter. As in, I'll lament about it to anyone who will stand still for thirty seconds.
• The ONE good thing about Winter Apocalypse 2010 is that every single stitch of clothing in our house is clean, with the exception of the clothes on our backs. I decided that if we were going to lose power - which I feel we are destined for because if someone so much as sneezes hard  in their backyard our power goes out - I at least wanted to be sitting in the dark in clean clothing. 
• We are also well stocked up on propane for our little indoor space heater. Which may guarantee that we don't, in fact, lose power because I think that my level of preparedness directly affects whether or not bad things happen. It's not that I'm actually preparing  for power loss, it's that I'm thwarting  power loss by being completely prepared. If I were sitting here with no propane and a single can of soup with which to feed the entire family, then  we would lose power for sure. I'm maybe a little superstitious about this, I think. 
• On another note, I'm getting ready to make cookies, which feels really domestic. I don't just usually make cookies out of the blue, but a friend of mine from church made these FANTASTIC cinnamon cookies for a party last weekend and she sent the recipe to me. I realized that I had all the ingredients and thought, "Why not?!" Is it the equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns? Baking while the city freezes?
• Last note: we had history co-op yesterday and I hosted. We made charoset, which is an apple/cinnamon/honey/nut mixture used in Seder meals to represent the mortar with which the Jewish people bonded bricks. I also bought some matzoh for the kids to try. I've now finished off the remaining matzoh, thankyouverymuch. Apparantly, I really like the taste!

It's in the blood!

OK, now I know that some of you who read this blog PROBABLY spend a fair amount of time thinking, "What in the world is WRONG with Lisa that she acts the way she does?" (I certainly know that poor Troy probably wonders that on at least a weekly basis, if not daily!)
Well, we - meaning my side of the family tree! - often attribute our...ummm...quirks?...fun?...to The Reilly Gene. No, not Reilly as in my daughter, but the Charley Reilly for whom she was named. There is a distinct uniqueness to the Reilly Gene, and it is universal and strong within anyone who shares that bloodline. (Case in point would be the Christmas Gifting of the Billy Bob Teeth and Ensuing Hilarity.)
The following video  is of my mom's sisters family and is a perfect example of how deep running is this Gene. I also want to point out that THREE of the people in this video (my uncle and two of my cousins' spouses) are not actually of the Reilly bloodline, but are still active participants in the Festivities. Which leads me to believe, in all of my scientific research, that The Reilly Gene is actually catching, making it unique among the gene...species?
ANYWAY, watch and learn, and then tell me that you DON'T want to go and spend Christmas with them next year!

Skool

I've been terribly lax in posting things about school on this blog. Apparently, my lack of blogging about school over on Morning Star was not  due to an inability to maintain two blogs, but was actually due to the fact that I find it more fun and interesting to blog about random things like cheese and poetry. (Not that I've actually blogged about cheese, but that was the first random word that popped into my mind.) I think that I also hesitate to blog about school because it's as though I jinx myself whenever I say that school is "going well". No sooner do I say that things are going "great" or "fantastic" or "smooth" than gremlins seem to take over and things go to pot. I find myself fantasizing about locking myself in my room and watching "Little Miss Perfect" all day long while The Kids run amok and swing from the chandeliers. (Ha! You thought I was going to say "fantasizing about sending them off to school elsewhere", didn't you?)
So, at the risk of putting a pox on our homeschooling journey, I will say that...things are going pretty well! It's not been at all like last year, with lots of fighting and strife, and I honestly have to say that the duct tape I make her wear over her mouth during school has worked wonders.  *snicker*
Oh, I kid! I kid! 
So....what are we doing in school that I can dazzle you with? 
*crickets chirping*
You know, here's the thing, and I may have mentioned this before. I think that the reason I don't blog about school very much is that I don't really feel like there's anything blog-worthy that we're doing. I mean, it's just school. Reilly does grammar, math, spelling, science, history, handwriting and map skills. In the last few months, she's written two five-paragraph expository essays and one three-paragraph persuasive essay. (Them's sum big 'ol  words there, huh?) They were well done for her age and she did them almost  independently. She's working on her multiplication facts and doing fairly well in that department. I mean, what else is there to say? It's school. The most fun thing that we do by far is our history co-op that we go to every other week. (However, I'm fairly sure that that meeting is as much for me and my girlfriends to get to be around other grown-ups as it is for actual history education.) 


OK, wait, wait! I DID have a funny moment today when I was giving Reilly her spelling test!  The format of the test is that I read the word and then use it in a sentence as she's writing.  Sometimes it becomes a race to see if she can finish writing her word before I finish my sentence. She often wins because sometimes I find it hard to find a use for, say, the word  nobleman. Today, one of her words was preacher. So I said the word and then promptly belted out, "THE ONLY BOY WHO COULD EV-ER REACH ME...WAS THE SON OF A PREACHER MAN!"  
She thought it was hilarious. Then, on the word teacher, I said, "I love being a teacher." 
She responded, "Even though you're a weird one!"
And I switched the sentence to, "Your teacher can flunk you at a moment's notice."
That was equally as hilarious.

Random Dozen

You know, it seems kind of silly to come back after not blogging for an eternity and make you read a "Random Dozen" list when so much has happened since I blogged last. I mean, we had a major holiday, people, yet I somehow have failed to write even one jot or tiddle about it. (Not that I would actually know a jot from a tiddle. I'm just trying to make you think that I'm all Bible-y and stuff. I do, however, know a semi colon from a semaphore.) 
So, before I get to my randomness, which we all know is what I do best here at The Karate Mom, here's a run down of the holidays for you.
Christmas Eve - delicious ham at my dad's house. Yum.
Christmas Morning - kids awake before 6:00, but stayed out of our room. Got them at 6:15. Many packages ripped open. Lots of "Yay! I love this!! My favorite!"  (My family is very gratifying to buy presents for!)

Christmas Day - over to my mom's house for more package ripping and "Yay's!" Lots of laughter when my brother, Erin, gifted us all with "Billy Bob teeth". We are, if nothing else, a silly family. I just KNOW that Troy looks around sometimes and thinks. "What in the world have I gotten myself into?" 
Other Christmas Noteworthiness - It was a white Christmas, so we got to go sledding. Awesome! We spent time with Troy's dad and sisters on different occasions, which was fun. Although no Billy Bob teeth were involved. I wonder...maybe I should invest in some for next year's festivities?
Now everything is back to normal. (HA! Did you see that? I just referred to us as NORMAL right after I posted pictures of us in Billy Bob teeth!) So I'm going to do a Random Dozen!


1. When was the last time you craved a food--what was it, and did you cave?
Ummm, probably some time last month when I was craving something salty. Troy and I decided that it might be that my BODY was needing salt, so he went and bought some Gatorade for me. I think it helped.

2. M & M's or Skittles?
Hmmmm...depends on what mood I'm in. The only think about M&M's is that there's really not all that much chocolate in them. So it's kind of a let down.

3. Have you ever read the Bible completely through?
Not yet, and I'm only seven months behind in my current "Read the Bible in a year" plan! I keep on trucking, though, because I figure it's the content that's important, not the time frame.

4. How long does it take you to really wake up in the morning?
Not long, actually. I do get up much earlier than The Kids, though, because that way I have a couple of cups of coffee in me before I hit "Mom Mode". 

5. Have you ever been on a cruise? If not, would you like to?
Yes, several back when I was a kid. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go on another one!

6. Who is your favorite actress?

I don't really know. I like lots of different ones, so I can't really narrow it down!

7. ______ is something that I will just never understand.
I want to put something really profound in here. But I'm all seeing, all knowing so there's really not anything I don't understand. Hey. You can stop laughing. Honestly, even though I'm signed up, I don't understand Twitter. I mean, I know HOW to do it, but I don't get why anyone is interested in the tiny little boring details of my life. "Just walked it to the kitchen and got some water! Yay for hydration!" 


8. How much of a technology junkie are you?
Oh, I like new things alright. I'd probably buy more techie things if we had the MONEY!

9. Do you enjoy selecting greeting cards for people, or is it more of a cultural "have to" for you?
They're just too expensive! However, when I am picking one out, I know it's the right one if it makes me laugh out loud in the store. Because, honestly, I rarely buy serious cards. They're just not my style.


OK, apparantly this is actually going to be the Random 9 because for some reason, the last questions didn't get copied and pasted. And I've got a mountain of laundry waiting to be folded. I hate for Troy to get home from work and have the only fruits of my labor be a new blog post.

Poetry

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

  Long time the manxome foe he sought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.

OK, my favorite part? "O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!" Because, really? I use the term "frabjous day". Laugh if you want, but sometimes, in the end, it's the words that aren't real words that end up making the most sense!

I remember my mom reciting this poem to me when I was a little kid. (Not reading it, reciting it from memory.) The poem painted a picture in my head that is still there, unfaded through time, and if I had an ounce of drawing talent I'd try to render the image that I see. But I don't, so the picture will stay where it is. Recently, she shared "Jabberwocky" with The Kids, and it captured Declan's imagination as well. I wonder what picture he  sees?

I do know, however, that when Deco comes out of his room in the morning? He's definitely  galumphing!

NOW it can be Christmas!

Well, if you've been reading here for any length of time, you might recall that I've posted in the past about making Million Dollar Fudge. This is absolutely the number one Christmas tradition in our family, bar none. In fact, it might be safe to say that Troy would rather do without presents on Christmas morning than do without M.D.F. (The Kids might not agree with that, though.)
Last year, I posted the following regarding M.D.F.:


"Making Million Dollar Fudge is an exercise in science because there's a whole lot of boiling of sugar and butter and evaporated milk to the exact perfect temperature for the exact length of time while the moon is in the seventh house of Jupiter and fairies and leprecauns dance on the lawn and it can all go south very quickly. Apparently on Friday, I had fairies and gnomes dancing on the lawn because when I poured the butter/sugar/milk mixture over the chocolate, I could tell very quickly that it wasn't going to turn into Million Dollar Fudge. It was, in fact, going to turn into Million Dollar Crap, because the temperature was very wrong and the chocolate went all wonky - that really is the best way to describe it. Honest. - and I had to throw it away. There's nothing that pierces the heart more than tossing seven pounds of lumpy, greasy, curdled-looking chocolate mixture into the trash. (Well, look at that. Apparently there is a better way to describe it than "wonky"! Who knew?) Especially when you know that the reason that it's called Million Dollar Fudge is because it costs about a million dollars to make."


I'm happy to say that this year, I succeeded in making the fudge on the first try! No lumpy, greasy, curdled-looking chocolate mixture to be found in MY kitchen!
However, as it was mixing, Troy called me out to the livingroom to watch a video on "free running" (which is amazing, by the way), so I stepped out of the kitchen for about 3 minutes, leaving the fudge to mix in my favorite kitchen appliance, the Kitchen Aid mixer. When I returned to the kitchen, what I DID find was the mixer with blade stopped and smoke pouring out of the back of it. 
Yes, I killed the mixer.
The fudge survived. So, for Troy, it now officially feels like Christmas.