Sunday, May 31, 2020

Isaac Goes to College

Well, he already has gone to college this year.  He took 3 classes at Clark State University and did well in all of them.  I am very proud of him as all three classes were writing intensive and he isn't a natural writer like his older sisters. But in the end, he did a great job.

Isaac is a super diligent student. He is not a procrastinator.  He just forges on ahead. Personalities differ and I adore my procrastinating children but I have to admit it is super awesome that he just does his thing without me prodding him.

This week, I came to the conclusion that if at all possible, Isaac needs to take a couple of courses at Wright State University this coming year.  I was originally intending that he take a full year of courses at Clark State and then transfer to Wright State in pursuit of, yes,  yes, yes, a Material Science degree!

(Gotta love Materials Science!!)

But...there are a couple of classes that he should take this year at Wright State that aren't offered at Clark State.  If he doesn't take them now, it'll put him behind.

So we are working on getting him accepted to Wright State.  He hasn't taken the ACT or SAT so he needs to take Wright State entrance exams.  These are different than the Clark State entrance exams. Of course. (They are standardized tests, but they aren't the SAME standardized tests.)

Isaac also needs to take the math entrance exam again at Clark State in the hopes of doing well enough to take Calculus 1 in the fall.  He's been working really hard on pre calc. We'll see.

So there is a lot going on and various deadlines to meet, so I feel a little stressed. 

Racism


On a national level, many people are protesting and rioting over the death of George Floyd at the brutal hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I haven't watched the video of his death. I know that what happened was unconscionable. It was murder.  Of course, many people are legitimately horrified and outraged at his death. Regrettably, while many people are protesting peacefully, others have turned their anger into an excuse for looting and violence.  Or maybe some people aren't really outraged, they are just thinking this is a good excuse to steal stuff.

I have been unsettled about what went down.  If I saw someone attacking someone else, I hope I'd have the courage to intervene.  But what about when it is a police officer? We are supposed to be able to trust the police. Not that I do, entirely.  There are bad people in every profession.  It's just a struggle to know what the onlookers should have done.  3 other cops were there.  A crowd of people apparently was telling the police officer to let up on Floyd and he refused. So what were the onlookers supposed to do? Try to wrestle a cop off a man?  And get pepper sprayed or arrested?  Because a policeman (or woman) has societal authority, he or she has extra responsibility to be careful.  Thankfully, I am certain most police are far better than this man. 

Really, it was flat out murder, though not first degree murder. I'm guessing the cop didn't intend to kill him, but he used brutal force.

It is horrifying and very, very sad. 

We live out in the country and away from the rioting.  We are very removed from it all in a geographic sense but it does break my heart that something like this happened.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Kittens

Lydia will be turning 19 soon, and she requested kittens for her birthday.

Kevin was scrolling through Facebook and a friend mentioned he had found 4 feral kittens, which had been given to someone who would raise them and get them spayed and then would be adopting them out.

We were like, Ok, yes, let's get four kittens!

And then, that very day, within hours indeed, a neighbor posted that she had found feral kittens of her own and was desperately searching for homes for them.

So we're like, hmmmm....

Hmmmmmmm....

Ok, let's get 5 kittens.





They are tiny and cute.  Very tiny, very cute.

Lydia weighed them all today and they are about 1 lb apiece, which means they are about 5 weeks old.

Really too young to be away from Mama, but they are old enough. They are able to lap kitten formula replacer and are learning to use the litter box.

We will get them fixed when they are old enough. Thankfully, there are several local places that provide low cost spays for rescued kittens.

We are over the moon with delight over how cute they are.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Book Review: The Saint, the Sinner(s), and Eddie by Eddie Love and Christina Ledbetter

I bought this book on a whim and am almost done with it but since I'm in the mood to write a blog, I'll write a random review now.

I'm not saying buy this book, necessarily.  It's very amusing, which is nice.  It's also fascinating in the horrifying way that, say, a train wreck is.

The Eddie in the title, a middle aged man with a much loved wife, a few kids, and a passel of grandchildren, decided to submit his spit for DNA testing.  He wanted to find out if he was Italian, or Irish, etc. etc.

The results were unexpected.  It turned out the man he thought was his father (Edwin), wasn't his father. His biological father Marshall was another businessman in their small community of Orange, Texas.

His official dad (who wasn't really his father) and his bio father were both deceased when all this came out.

Eddie discovered he had a whole bunch of half siblings.  His biological father was extremely promiscuous.  (And actually, his father Edwin was too. Both families were extremely dysfunctional. Eddie himself, until he met his wife, was also promiscuous though he was totally faithful to his wife, which is a good thing.)

It is a very, very funny book. You wouldn't think it could be, but the main author (Christina) manages to infuse a whole bunch of humor into their hunt for answers.

Here's the unnerving thing, though. At some point, one of Eddie's true half sister's handed him a huge box of letters, which were filled with love missives from a whole bunch of different women to Marshall, Eddie's biological father.

These women were apparently crazy in love with Marshall. They were sleeping with him, they were sending him heartfelt letters, they were over the moon about him.

And he was playing them all. He was just all about scoring, all about seducing other men's wives, and the more important the man, the better the score. It was totally disgusting.  In the case of Eddie, his mother (while married to someone else) was impregnated by this Marshall person.

As a Christian, I am firmly of the belief that sex is meant for marriage.  So yeah, I think any kind of sex outside of marriage is unhealthy.  I realize in this day and age, this is an unusual perspective.

The especially tragic thing with Marshall was that he wasn't just having one night stands with women who knew it was a one night stand. He (while married) was having numerous affairs with various women who believed he and she had something really special going on, that he was going to leave his wife for her.  And there were so many women like this.

Yuck.

I guess I'm thinking that having an affair with a married man is just always a bad idea.  How is this not obvious?  He was married to someone else, he had kids with other women. 

I am a cautious person.  Of course, my religious beliefs are a big part of how I view sexual relationships but even apart from that, I just can't imagine taking the RISK of having an affair with a married man.  It just seems STUPID.

I'm in a mood, obviously.  I probably sound rude. But it is just crazy to me.  I guess I have a deep and abiding skepticism about people. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like a lot of people.  I do. But when I think of this smarmy, very charming man managing to get a whole bunch of women to sleep with him it makes my skin crawl.  You really can't trust people if you don't know them pretty well, I think.  And I believe that if a man is willing to have an affair with a woman, that shows his morals are skewed from the start.  And if a woman is willing to have an affair with a man, her morals are skewed.

It does go both ways.

Off track a bit -- I just finished Elementary, a fun mystery series about Sherlock Holmes in modern times in New York City. Mostly it is great except, you guessed it, for the views of the main characters about sex. They do have random sex with various people.

But interestingly enough, even in that show, where random sex is considered normal, affairs are always portrayed negatively.  Often they are the root cause for a murder.

So I think even in our very sexually free culture, affairs are usually frowned upon. So don't do it, anyone!

Ok, enough. This was a weird post. 

It is a very funny book though.



Pool Open!





Kevin and the older kids opened the pool today, which meant death to many hundred tadpoles. Very sad.  We still have some tadpoles in our sun room.  None are frogs yet.  So we'll see if they ever turn into frogs or just die ignominiously. Yes, I am feeding them and doing my best, but I'm not a tree frog and maybe I'm doing something terribly wrong.


This evening, after a few hours to let the chemicals do their work, Kevin said the kids could go swimming.  Isaac, Daniel, and Rose were excited.


The pool temperature was...

59 degrees.

That is a new record in liquid iciness. That is AWFUL.

I had to force the three kids out at the 10 minute mark. That is hypothermic temperature but no, they wanted to keep dunking themselves and shivering.

The water should heat up fast as we have a few days in the 80's ahead of us.

On to a fun summer of swimming!



Sunday, May 17, 2020

May 17th

Ohio is slowly opening up.  Naomi is back to work at Goodwill.  Kevin may start going back to work some days next week.

I read a wonderful article about the coronavirus this week.


https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/church-dont-let-coronavirus-divide/


Basically, it is all about how we need to not be crabby with one another and not be arrogant about our knowledge. This whole coronavirus thing is extremely complicated.  Yes, it is deadly. Yes, it is highly contagious. No, we can't just stay closed forever. Yes, mental health is suffering for some people. Yes, people are losing jobs and businesses!  These are all huge deals. We need to patient with other people who have a different perspective on the whole business.  Our church has a high number of elderly in it and they are very much at risk, so our pastors are definitely praying and seeking secular wisdom about when and how to open back up.


I keep praying for wisdom for our leaders and we continue to be cautious. Naomi wears a mask all the time at work.  She is required to do so.  Kevin says at work he doesn't have to wear a mask in his office but if someone comes into his office, he does. If he leaves his office and is interacting with people, he will wear a mask.  My work sent me a couple of masks in the mail yesterday, which was nice.  I haven't heard yet when my company will send us back to work on base.


Our library has started curbside service. We order books online, then drive to the library, park, call inside, open our trunk, and they put the books in without interacting with the driver at all.  That is exciting. I have missed the library SO MUCH.


The last week I have been feeling kind of blah.  I am a homebody extraordinaire but even I am getting tired of this. On the other hand, I had to take kids to the optometrist this week and it was strenuous.  We had to wear masks and while I don't mind, it just adds another layer of complexity. Taking the kids to doctor appointments is kind of wearing anyway.


But yes, day after day after day, week after week after week, month after month, year after year -- I have been doing this parenting thing a LONG time.


I am so blessed. I know that and I feel it. But when I get, frankly, bored with it, I cling to the following verse:


Galatians 6:9, NIV: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."


I am weary of doing the basic "good" of mothering.  I am tired of making sure people eat and do laundry and do chores and are doing their school.

But.


This is my job.  My role. Every job has its boring aspects. I feel very blessed to have THIS job, that of raising a baseball team of kids.



A National League baseball team. No designated hitter.


Tadpoles

Every year, enthusiastic tree frogs lay their eggs in the water on top of our pool cover. Every year, tadpoles hatch and grow. Every year, we eventually open the pool and all the hapless tadpoles are siphoned through a hose into the yard, with fatal results.

Poor tadpoles.  But it is not our fault that the frogs are stupid.  

This spring has been weird.  Warm, cold, warm, very cold.  I wondered if the frog eggs would be happy.

The answer is yes, they were. They were very very very happy.




It is a tadpole swarm.  I have never seen anything like this.  So many nice tadpoles.




We extracted some and are trying to raise them as a science project. They like cucumber. I also bought special tadpole food.


We gave them a rock so when they grow legs, they can climb out.  Right now many of them just like to hang out on the rock.  It is probably restful?

So we'll see how they do long term.  We have tried and failed to raise tadpoles to frogs in past years but I hope this is our year.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Daughter Switcheroo

On Wednesday of this week, Kevin and I abruptly decided to move all the girls around. 

The precipitating factor was that Rose and Sarah were sleeping in the room directly above the family room, where Kevin and I usually spend our evenings.  If they were just sleeping, that would be fine. But EVERY night, in pursuit of shenanigans or using the potty or late drinks of water, the little girls would hop, skip, and thump their way across the floor.  We would just be sitting peacefully and suddenly -- BANG.  It was loud, in spite of a carpet and other sound deadening attempts. 

So we decided to move Rose and Sarah into the room above the dining room.  That meant Miriam and Angela had to move into Rose and Sarah's room. Lydia was in the room with M and A, but we decided to move her into the study downstairs and Naomi into our 5th wheel.

For a couple of days we worked our tails off. The kids did most of the heavy lifting with help from Kevin, but I worked very very hard as well.  I ache.

But of course in the midst of all that moving, we found plenty of things that were out of place or useless, so we decluttered a lot in the process.  For a brief moment, we had 4 lovely bedrooms.


The boys stayed in the same room, but Daniel inherited a bed frame.  Previously, he just had a mattress on the floor.


It's beautiful.


Also beautiful.  I love clean floors.  It is a rare sight.


Lydia's room now.

Argh.  So now I am recovering from all that work but I am also happy at what we accomplished in a frenzy of activity.