Freaky Frugalite

ROFL! I’ve been a cat owner almost all my life. I LOVE cats, but they can drive me insane! Our kitty Fuzzy is nuts. This cat has shredded my wallpaper, climbed my curtains, and woken us all up at 3am with his noisy antics. We used to have him in the house, but he was banished after he attacked my cockatiel bird. The bird was in a cage, seven feet up hanging from the ceiling, but Fuzzy leaped onto the TOP of the cage! Out out out!

So when I found this video I cracked up. The cat is so cute, but… yeah, I know exactly what the guy means. lol

From the All Cute Cats blog.

School’s out and we’ve nothing to do, all of a sudden. Someone please tell me why kids moan and groan about homework all year and then when summer comes, they are “bored”? So we’re trying to think of cool things to do without spending all our life savings on gasoline. I just found out today that we may be able to get some complimentary tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown, NY. That would be so much fun! We’ve never been there. I’m not a huge baseball fan but if it’s free– hey, why not!

I’ve always preferred what I call the “finer” sports– gymnastics, ice skating, and tennis. There is an elegance to these sports, something not found with, for example, football, where men are pounding into each other while they chase a ball. :S When I was a very young lass, I never missed the gymnastics competitions of the Olympics, and I never missed the televised tennis Wimbledon games. How I remember Billie Jean King and her fabulous, athletic style! I’d LOOOOVE to go to the UK– to Wimbledon– to see the matches live. I’d love to daintily eat the strawberries and cream and perhaps get a glimpse of the royal family in the seats. Someday we really are going to go to the UK (I want to research my genealogy), and I’ve heard that Wimbledon debenture tickets are easily obtained. The tickets are calling my name……!

I know I have visitors from the UK to this blog… have you ever seen a Wimbledon match? Is tennis as popular in the UK as it is here?

I’ve moaned and groaned about my various problems with dropping Entrecards. A lot of time the cards don’t show up, and I have to reload and reload to get them to appear. But something mysterious has been occurring ever since I started Entrecards and I think I’ve finally pinpointed the problem. I’d appreciate it if anyone else who is experiencing this would leave a comment. Maybe something can be done.

I have Verizon DSL (ethernet and wireless). We have five computers connected to the network here. They are usually not all on at the same time… usually it’s just two or three online at a time. I am the only person in the household who drops Entrecards. Whenever i start dropping cards, our DSL connection drops- this usually happens after about 5 minutes. The disconnect lasts anywhere from one minute to four or five minutes. The DSL connection affects all the computers in the house. So when I drop cards and the DSL disconnects, my husband cannot surf news or watch videos and etc, and my daughter upstairs loses her IM chat and can’t surf the web. WEIRD. we all have to wait until the DSL goes back on, which is anywhere from one minute to five minutes. WEIRD. This has been going on for the longest time, too!

I think I am finally starting to put the pieces together. I saw this at the Entrecard forum. Apparently, someone else is having this problem, too. All the dudes at Entrecards are puzzled, but so far nothing has been done. The forum thread was initially posted 130 days ago!

My firmware for my DSL modem is updated. And I use the Internet very heavily a lot of times. But this seems to be an Entrecard filtering issue.

I’d like to know if anyone else has this happen? did you find a fix? This is affecting other things, too. When I use Firefox, the DSL disconnect screws with the browser, and Firefox crashes. I have been going crazy looking for a fix on that, too, to no avail.

Any geeks out there have any suggestions?

I’m exhausted today. Usually I am pretty perky, but lately my energy has been rock-bottom. I pulled out my back (*again*!!!!!!!!!!!! grrrr!) and have been off my feet for a few days. So my therapy at the gym has been put on hold until I get better. I drink too much coffee, I know, and that tends to give me instant perkiness, but then saps my strength later. And I’ve gotten out of the newly-formed habit of taking my vitamins. I guess I really wonder if the vitamins do anything?! I never feel better after taking them. I’d read that those big vitamin pills are very inefficient, because your body finds it hard to absorb the ingredients. There is NO WAY I’m ever going to be taking vitamin shots, though!

I’ve been reading and hearing about something called Sublingual B-12, from Trivita. It’s a unique kind of vitamin, because you don’t swallow it. Rather, the little tablet goes under your tongue, where it dissolves. This aids in the absorption of the nutrients. I have been pondering trying them out, and they way I’ve been feeling lately, maybe I should procrastinate no longer. I think I really should try Sublingual B-12 from Trivita today.

Well, I recently criticized Al Gore in a post, and since I’m a fair person, I’ll post something about President Bush. He hasn’t turned out the be the president most thought he would be (he ain’t no Republican, that’s for sure). I guess you could say he’s “falling” in the polls. Check out this game!

LOL!

I’m not a big fan of Al Gore, lol, and I’m getting a little tired of him shaking his finger at people! But I am 100% in favor of conserving energy and being thrifty and resourceful. I hate waste! And it seems that whenever I plug in my behemoth old vacuum, the lights in the rest of the neighborhood dim and my electric meter jumps up (as well as my electric bill). Energy is so expensive here in New York State, so a lot of us housewives have been hunting for ways to save on those big bills. The time has finally come–an Energy Star-approved cordless vacuum! It’s the new Dirt Devil AccuCharge! This thing should have a sticker of a smiling Al Gore. Then maybe he’ll quit nagging and whining, lol!

The new AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac use 70% less energy. That knocks a huge chunk of energy off my bill! We have a lot of carpeting (and it’s old, so it’s harder to vacuum), and every bit helps. It is TERRIFIC that companies are recognizing the need for more efficient, energy-conserving appliances. The Dirt Devil AccuCharge not only gets Energy Star approval– it gets Freaky Frugalite approval!

Kids are out from school today. Even though we homeschool, we stick to a regular “school” schedule. So my kids get summers off (and I do, too!). We work on projects during this time– gardening, home remodeling, etc. I haven’t started any projects yet, due to lack of funds and time. I’m REALLY hoping I can renovate the kitchen in the near future though. sighhhh But I have a hunch this is going to be a lazy summer.

My kids absolutely LOVE dressing up. They will dress up as anything– David and Goliath, Arabian sheiks, Pilgrims, Founding Fathers, or cowboys and Indians. I loved dressing up as a kid, too. I really liked the cowboys and Indians (I was always an Indian!) and I remember liking to dress up as Laura Ingalls Wilder, with her prairie dresses. As a teenager, I was a huge, huge fan of the Star Wars movies, so I always made my own Star Wars halloween costumes. My kids don’t celebrate halloween, but they love to dress up and I don’t mind it. Except when they use my makeup for “Indian paint.” Heh. They put on some great plays which we have incorporated into our homeschool, under the “drama” and literature subjects.

Our favorite kind of dress up is period costumes. We LOVE history and there is nothing more fun than making history feel “real” by acting out favorite scenes from the Bible, from American history, or ancient history! My eldest is 18 years old, and she still loves to dress up. Therefore, we’re always on the prowl for some good, inexpensive costumes and dress up props, like wigs, hats, and gloves. Halloween Adventure has a terrific promotion going on right now– 5% off an entire purchase! Costumes are for all year ’round!

Holy guacamole! I saw this an my jaw dropped open. The lady makes this look so easy, lol. Can the average person do this?

Love the music, lol. HT My Interesting Files. Now I’ll be haunted for the rest of my life.

Update: Oh here’s a much better video! I think I can do this…..

2 Second T-Shirt Fold!! - video powered by Metacafe

I’m finally going to begin what I’ve promised I’d begin– a series of posts about our homeschooling routine and our resources. The hardest thing about homeschooling is getting started. I know a lot of young moms and dads are completely baffled about how to begin, and the thought of educating their children is terrifying. But I believe in you– you can do it!

As I’ve stated very clearly before, reading is the most essential element of education. Reading is much, much more than looking at letters and words. Reading comprehension is absolutely crucial. You can read more about my reading philosophy by clicking the link in my sidebar. I am 100% in favor of phonics when it comes to reading education. Two of the best books I have seen are Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade. These books are available by Cedar Valley Publishing. They cover more than teaching reading– they are a condensed summary of the first two years of education. Educators (and to you homeschooling parents– that means YOU) can use them as a scope and sequence for the basics, for what the child should be learning that year (colors, numbers, etc for Kindergarten; subtraction, geometric shapes, etc for First Grade). I like these books a lot, and wish I’d had them for my own children when they were young.

Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten addresses the basic curriculum for kindergarten. You could even use it for preschoolers. The book is extremely durable (laminated thick cardboard pages). I love the bright colors and very clear illustrations. This book covers the alphabet, colors, basic shapes, numbers and counting, money, opposites, seasons, weather, telling time, the calendar, and more. Each page is very basic- you should develop your own activities based on what is addressed in the book. For example, there’s a page about the different seasons of the year. What you can do is– throughout the year– start a notebook and fill it with words, pictures, and leaves throughout the seasons. My kids had a three-ring binder that we filled with the leaves of spring, the weather we saw during the spring season, and the birds and bugs we noticed. We looked up the different kinds of leaves and birds in the encyclopedia and drew pictures of them, and wrote their names in the notebook. We did this for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. This fulfilled the requirements for science (noticing weather patterns and collecting leaves), for language (by using the encyclopedia and watching mommy write letters), for art (drawing the birds and flowers), and more. Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten will not teach your child for you, but will give you the tools and basic information you need to know what to teach the child. And because the pages and the book in general are durable, the child can flip through the book himself, too.

Let’s Get Ready For First Grade is similar, and advances to the next step of development. Now that the child has learned numbers and letters, the child can advance to learning basic addition and subtraction, and learning the phonetic alphabet. I love that these books emphasize phonics for reading. This book addresses things like vowels, consonants, punctuation, compound words, ordinals, graphs, solar system, money, measurement, shapes, and government structure. You can really get creative with this. For example, print a picture of the Supreme Court building, and allow the child to find the different shapes that form the building (the columns are rectangles, the pediment is a triangle, etc). The child can trace the shape and color them. As he colors, you can explain what the Supreme Court does. This fulfills requirements for art (coloring), spacial skills and geometry (finding and drawing shapes) and civics (government function). Let’s Get Ready For First Grade takes the very basics of what is necessary for First Grade (or sooner, if you want to get ahead), and you can go from there. The only limit is your own creativity!

In the next few posts, I’ll talk about other helpful books and offer tips on what worked for us. Homeschooling is very fluid and flexible. People have asked me how on earth I find the time to do everything that I do. I can only answer that homeschooling is a lifestyle– you find out ways to educate your child with everything you say and do. It grows on you, too. In the beginning of homeschooling, structure is very important. The child must have a set time to work and a set time to play. The child must accomplish goals and he must realize from the start whether he is accomplishing them correctly. Expect to spend a lot of time with the child for the first 4 to 5 years of homeschooling. After that, however, the successful discipline really shows and the homeschooling child becomes independent and responsible much quicker then the public-schooled child.