Sorry and What I want my kids to learn

I didn't get around to finishing my "a day in the life..." post. I'll try that again at a different time. I was reading on another blog where this lady was saying that she was glad that of things her parents taught her (that she may of thought useless at the time) and that got me thinking...what was I taught by my parents or grandparents that I want to make sure to teach my kids...
My grandpa H. had a salvage yard, well this was every kid's dream. My brother and I learned how to start a car, drive a standard (well Grandpa never let me go past second gear back then) and we were allowed to drive around in the fields of Grandma and Grandpa's 40 acres. Grandpa showed me where to look to check all my fluids, where the alternator, starter, radiator, carburetor were. Grandpa made sure I could go from first, to reverse drive backwards and frontwards with a standard transmission without killing the car. He taught me how to shift gears without popping the clutch (too much, lol I still do that). He taught me how to change a tire. OH and he taught me how to cook sausage.
My Great Grandma H taught me how to cross-stitch, OK so its not a useful task really but it's something I enjoyed and created fond memories of her.
I think my love of reading came from my Grandma H. She has a room full of books and I think I read every one of them growing up...of course now she has more and got rid of some of the really old ones. Grandma also taught me about saving money and balancing a bank account. She set up all of us kids with a savings account when we were younger and taught us how to fill out the deposit slip and keep track of our balance in the little ledger book they give you.
My Grandma B taught me how to sew, even though I still don't sew very straight, I can do it.
From my mom I've learned, gardening, crochet, cooking, how to get dishes really clean, how to do laundry, to watch over those younger then me.
I want my kiddies to learn these things and more, I want them to also learn:
To respect the elderly, the Earth and learn that everything is connected
To respect themselves... always watch what and how much they eat, do not be lazy, get up, get out and do something, brush their teeth, wash their hands and keep a clean home so that they remain healthy.
To learn the truth, no matter how hard it may be, is always the best thing to tell.
To make whatever job(s) they have in their life seem like the best job ever. Attitude is everything, you may only flip burgers for a living, but be the best dang burger flipper you can be, be nice to your co-workers and when you move on you will have good memories of the experience.
I want my kids to know that education is everything. They may not have to go to college, but they do have to do something. Whether it be a vo-tech school or an apprenticeship, you cannot get anywhere with just a high school diploma.
Family is important, no matter how many times they hurt you, never hate them. You may have to be wary of them, but always accept them in your life.
Have fun...work and jobs are good, they keep you busy and give you money and a sense of accomplishment...but, take time to have fun as well. Only thing you'll really get if you work all the time is a shorter life and less memories and a tired mind and body. Take the time to get out, play, spend time with family and friends, make messes, make noise. Life is too short.
Never burn bridges...no matter how much you might want to...you never know when you will need to cross them again.
Budget your money. 'nuff said.

Well, I'm sure there is much more I want them to learn in the next few years before I turn them loose on the wall, most of all I want them to be kind considerate, respectful, responsible, independent adults.

A Day in the Life

I was reading another blog where the writer did a day in the life. Well, my life is not very exciting or anything. But, I've decided to go ahead and try it so I'll start with so far today...
5:05am
Turn off alarm, tell Hubby it's time to get up. Stumble into the kitchen, grab 3 bottles of water (our water was brown last night, it's clearer this morning but I still do not trust it to drink), pour water into coffee maker, take out coffee grounds from yesterday, put in fresh grounds.

5:31 am
Kiss Hubby good-bye. Lock front door turn off living room light and decide to go back to bed for a little while. Lay in bed for 1 minute and hear key in door. Go into living room, to see Hubby coming back in to get something he forgot. Kiss Hubby good-bye one more time and go back to bed.

8:00 am
Youngest son comes in bedroom, "Mommy I'm hungry". Try to talk him into a few more minutes of sleep. Doesn't work. Get up, he says "You haven't had your coffee yet, right?" (my youngest two say "right" after nearly every sentence, don't know why). I tell him no I haven't and to get a bowl for his cereal as I pour myself some coffee. I take a quick drink of coffee and as he grabs his bowl and then says he's going to get the milk. I pour his rice krispies in the bowl and he comes over with the milk saying "Now we get to wake up the cereal" (last week when he had rice krispies he put his ear next to the bowl to hear them talking to him after I had put the cereal in, I told him they don't say anything until we wake them with the milk.)

8:10 am
Rest of the bunch hear youngest son getting his breakfast and come up to get theirs (amazing how good their hearing is until you want them to listen).

9:00 am
Breakfast is over, the kiddies are watching cartoons until I call them up to begin lessons, I'm finishing my emails and blog posts while thinking about everything that needs to be done today. Hoping to get an answer from two ladies that have responded to a babysitter wanted ad I have placed (I begin a new job next week, hurray for me:).

9:38 am
Well I'm done with this for now and need to go and get all the materials together for today's lessons. I'll post more later.

I'm so glad I'm not a math teacher

I couldn't handle it, lol. I was teaching my the two oldest kiddies their math yesterday, and I think I may have some bald spots now. If not then I should, as I was ready to tear out chunks of hair. What they were doing was relatively easy, place values. Whats so hard to understand about where the hundreds place, thousands place, millions place, etc. are? I think the problem was that it is easy. The kids were waiting for some trick to it. I understand that parts of it may look hard. For example my oldest ds had two write in standard form a number like this: 900,000+20,000+5,000+20 . It looks like a big addition problem to him and he didn't quite get that he should just pretty much ignore all the zeros, they are just telling him what place the number is in. I tried to explain that they were just pretty much writing numbers. With the above problem he would of had to write 925,020, and he would of been done with it. Whats worse is we did place values and standard and expanded forms like 2 months ago for like a month or so. My daughter was just wanting me to give her the answers I think, and thats why she was being difficult. My oldest son has always had problems understanding math, mostly because he never asked for help in school and now that we are homeschooling he still tries to get by without asking for help. He just thinks if he muddles through it he'll still pass, just like he's done year in p.s.
Well I guess thats enough for today. I need to get the kiddies on to the next subject, History and Geography.

New Blog Name

I like this name better and since I don't seem to have anyone reading it anyway I decided to change it. I'll write more later I think. After I come up with something to blog about.

Free Pearls?

I came across this in another blog and thought I would post it here and try it.
Pearls, pearlsand more Pearls

You Go Mom!!

Seems this local mom has had too much of her daughters disrespect and attitude. After various other attempts at discpline did not work she resorted to shaming her. She had her daughter sit out with a poster listing her various "crimes". It says in the article that the punishment didn't work to well until the media showed up. Lol, nothing like a little unwanted publicity to make a teenager shape up. Many people may frown upon this type of discpline. I guess they are thinknig that this is normal teenage behaviour or something. This girl was not hurt, abused or neglected, the mom just wants her to change her ways before the girl makes some huge mistake that cannot be fixed. You do what you have to do to try and raise your children and teach them consequences of their behaviour.
Link

I'm such a slacker

I'm trying to get and keep this blog going but I keep slacking off. In my defense I am a busy woman. Between kids visiting their grandparents, turning in their end of the year grades and just trying to keep the house clean, my sister visiting and a million other things, sometimes smaller things get lost in the shuffle. But anyway. Things are going ok, I'm hoping to start looking for a part time job next month...actually I know the one I want to get I just gotta hope I get it. It would be perfect if I say so myself. Until then I 'm trying to think/ look for little ways to make money on the side. It'll all work out in the end, I think everyone and their uncle is hurting for money right now.