Surprise!

I successfully pulled off a surprise birthday party for my husband on Saturday!

I didn't want to attempt the delicate dance of timing it such that everyone arrived while he was away, however. Instead, I just didn't tell him about it. He did know that his mom was coming over, but she usually does for a birthday, so that wouldn't give it away.

He commented several times on how hard I was working that day... he wondered about the size of the pots I was using, but I wouldn't let him look and told him I was making something special for his birthday dinner. (It was really just spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread, but enough to feed over 20.)

Eventually, one of Doug's brothers showed up with his wife and kids. At that point, I think he figured that maybe I'd invited them for dinner without telling him. He did make a comment about that explaining the large pots on the stove. The next to arrive was our pastor and his family, and that is when the light bulb turned on... I heard him exclaiming, "My wife is a sneak."

Happy 45th birthday, Sweetie. I love you.

Almost there!

Over a year ago, I started the process of editing and revising Free Indeed. I only have the last few chapters to go, though they will be the toughest as the ending needs revision, rather than just editing. Unlike a lot of writers, I enjoy doing it, but I'm still excited to be almost done.

My goal is to have it done in time to enter Christian Writers Guild's 'Operation First Novel' writing contest. The deadline isn't until October or so, so I'm pretty confident I'll be done by then.

Short Story

Another story I wrote; this one is titled NEMESIS

Terry looked up as Marsha crumpled her burger wrapper and expertly tossed it in the trashcan two feet away. “Would you like me to check again?” Marsha asked. “It’s been about fifteen minutes.”

Glancing at her watch, Terry nodded. Principal Hawthorne and some teachers were counting votes in Room 126, not far from Room 123 where she waited. She knew her nemesis was also waiting in a room nearby, accompanied by his best friend, Tom. The campaign had been fun, but tonight she wished she had never thought of running for senior class president.

Steven: she had been competing against him for as long as she could remember, and usually she lost. Her mind drifted back to one of the earliest times she recalled competing directly against him. She remembered how painstakingly she had worked on her picture for the third-grade art contest. In the end, she had to admit the judges were right. She had never been able to best him in drawing ability. Fortunately, she had more musical talent. A slight smile curved her lips. She was often the featured soloist in school shows; Steven was just another face in the choir.

Marsha returned. “It’s good. You’re still ahead, but he has caught up a little.”

“What are the numbers?” Terry spoke a little more slowly than usual, trying to keep the tension from showing in her voice.

“You have 175 votes; Steven has 138. There are only about three stacks left to count.”

Not trusting her voice, Terry nodded without speaking. She glanced down at her largely uneaten dinner. Although she usually liked fast food, most of her hamburger and half her french fries remained. Terry picked up a fry and nibbled as memories of the most painful defeat of all rose in her mind. Her eighth-grade teacher had announced that the school was hosting a spelling bee. She could still remember the excitement she had felt as Mrs. Wood told them that the winner would get his name and picture in the paper, and would advance to the tri-county bee, with the possibility of competing at the state level and beyond. Terry had always been a good speller and was determined to win. For weeks, she had pored over the word lists in the booklet her teacher had distributed.

On the day of the bee, she had felt ready. Her confidence increased as the bee progressed. She was able to spell every word with ease, even words given to the other students. Most were eliminated in the early rounds. In the end, only four remained, including Steven and Terry. Terry was able to spell each of the words her competitors received, but the pronouncer gave her a word that seemed unusually difficult. “D, A, N, S, E, U, Z., danseuse.” Her heart had broken when the buzzer signified her error. Sorrow turned to resentment as she was able to spell each word for the remainder of the contest, including ‘eglantine,’ the word with which her nemesis had sealed his victory. Terry stood up and paced around the edges of the room, avoiding tables and chairs haphazardly left by the departing students earlier that day. She glanced at her best friend, and Marsha rose without speaking and left the room.

They must be almost done with the counting. A sick feeling tightened her stomach. Her nemesis would beat her again. She was certain he would win – Steven the golden boy. Suddenly, she winced at the conviction that her heart and her attitude toward Steven were completely wrong. “I’m sorry, God,” she whispered. “Your will be done. Please help me have a better attitude.”

A few moments later, Marsha rushed into the room, her smile lighting her face. Terry sank into a chair as her friend announced, “You’re still ahead, 216 votes to 189, and they were almost done counting the last stack. You’re going to win!” Marsha threw her arms around Terry and hugged her tightly. Besides Steven, Marsha was probably the only person who knew how much this meant to Terry.

“Do you want me to go back and wait until they’re done counting?”

“No,” answered Terry. “Let’s just wait until they come tell us.”

They did not have to wait long. After several minutes, her twin brother walked in the room, a rueful smile on his face. “Good campaign, sis. You won fair and square. Congratulations.”

Terry stood up and hugged her brother. “Thanks, Steven.”

Jaw-dropping Astonishment

Several weeks ago, I decided to stop lurking and get involved with the FaithWriter's website... for me, that meant registering for the site and the forums, and entering the weekly Writer's Challenge.

Every Thursday, a prompt is given, and participants have one week to respond with a 150-750 word story, article, or poem. Winners are chosen in four categories: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and masters. Beginner was the obvious choice for me, having never been published or won any contests. (Actually, it was only the second time I've ever entered a contest like that.)

The prompt was to illustrate, without quoting, the saying, "Behind every cloud is a silver lining." Having had a storm deposit about a quarter-inch of ice the day before writing it, my story dealt with God using a traffic jam and a near-accident on a highway to reach a stubborn teen's heart. Perhaps my writing was influenced by the immediacy of the weather conditions, as well as living with two teenagers, because all the comments I received were very positive.

A few days after the close of the contest, the winners were posted, and (here comes the 'jaw-dropping astonishment) my story took first place in the beginner category! It gave me a big smile on an otherwise unpleasant day. (To me, it's a sign of God's goodness that the details of why the day were unpleasant are completely gone -- I just remember the incongruity of smiling that day!)

Gee... may I should post the story here! It's called 'Icy Day.'

For the third time, Sherry checked to make sure Arianna was wearing her seatbelt properly before turning her attention back to the icy road. She eased up on the gas and glanced at the dashboard clock. Gripping the steering wheel with both hands, she leaned forward slightly.
“Do you think we’ll get there on time?” her daughter asked.

“I hope so, sweetheart, but I didn’t realize the roads were so icy,” Sherry said. “Are you sure you brought everything? Do you have an extra copy of the scholarship application and essay?”
“Yes, Mom.” As usual, her daughter’s tone was insolent and slightly contemptuous. “Although they wouldn’t have made me a finalist if they didn’t have my paperwork, would they?”

Sherry clenched her teeth to keep an angry denunciation of Arianna’s ungrateful attitude from escaping. Unexpected brake lights glared in front of her, and she pressed the brake pedal hard – too hard, as the sedan immediately began to skid toward a concrete barrier on their left.

“Mom?”

Sherry ignored her daughter to concentrate on her driving, taking her foot off the brake and steering into the skid before gently pressing the brake pedal again. Her fingers were claws gripping the steering wheel as she tried desperately to stop the car before hitting the bumper of the black SUV now stopped in front of them.

“Hold on, honey!” Sherry tried to speak calmly as she braced herself for the sickening crunch of metal on metal. It never came. The SUV rolled forward a few feet, and the sedan slid to a stop a few inches behind it. Sherry lowered her head to the steering wheel and silently gave thanks for their safety.

“Arianna, are you alright?” Sherry could tell that her voice was shaking to match her hands.
Wide eyed, Arianna nodded. When she spoke, her voice was also shaky. “I can see now why you always bug Dad about tailgating. If you hadn’t left so much room, we’d have hit him.” They both looked at the imposing black SUV in front of them.

Sherry took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh. “I guess God’s watching out for us today.” Arianna did not answer at first, and Sherry glanced over, expecting to see the usual angry reaction to anything religious.

After several minutes, Arianna spoke and Sherry leaned forward to make out the quiet words. “Yeah, Mom. I guess you’re right.” They drove in silence for about twenty minutes, but the traffic was bad and they were going slowly. Finally, Arianna spoke again. “We’re going to be late, aren’t we?”

“Yes, honey. I’m so sorry. I know you had your heart set on this scholarship.”

Sherry glanced at her daughter, and was amazed to see a genuine smile on her face. “It’s alright, Mom. I’m sure they know about the traffic and the icy roads. Remember? God’s taking care of us today.” Tears pricked Sherry’s eyes when her daughter added, “Thanks for bringing me, Mom.

I am officially...

a veteran homeschooler! Of course, if doing it for ten years didn't qualify me as one, I'm not sure anything would. On Saturday, March 8th, we made the decision to pull Becky out of school and bring her back home. By Monday morning, I had her course of study for the next 12 weeks laid out, all the materials foun either at home or at libraries, and my notification form filled out and ready for the school district.

Although I'm very glad to have her home, it will affect my writing. I'd been trying to write at least a little every day, as the advice goes, but I doubt it will be possible. As an example, she's interrupted me about half a dozen times just in the time it's taken to type this entry...

patience, patience, patience!

A little respect and admiration...

As a woman, I think I sometimes lose sight of how powerfully I can affect my husband. I've been told many times how much his wife's respect means to a man, but it's easy to forget... until I get a reminder.

One morning last week, at 6:30 a.m., I was sitting in my warm bed drinking coffee when my husband came in from shoveling a foot of snow off the driveway so he could go to work. I wasn't particularly eloquent, but I told him how much I admire and appreciate his work ethic, or something like that.

I probably wouldn't even remember having said anything if he hadn't mentioned later that those simple words had bouyed him up all day. I want to try and remember to tell him how much I appreciate him more often.

And, if my admiration can be such a lift for him, what a blow it must be when, in frustration over silly, meaningless issues I express the opposite.

Being Prepared for High School

How should the parent of a middle school aged student prepare the student for high school work? What should the parent of an 8th grader make certain is covered?

Much of what students must learn is content-driven, but some is more skills-based. Even in content driven areas, possessing certain skills makes mastering the content easier.

Let me try to put this in practical, though generic terms. Overall, since these courses won't go on their high school transcript, worry less about making sure this, that, and the other curricula is covered; instead, make sure the student is ready for high school level courses. In English, and this may be the most important area, make sure the student can write and write well, and has a grasp of standard five paragraph essay structure. I would make that a priority. Second, work with your student on strengthening his grasp of literary analysis. (Many high school courses teach this, but knowing it ahead of time will give your student a head start.)

In Math, make absolutely certain the basic concepts are rock-solid, and if ready, it's a good time to begin Algebra. If not ready, do whatever it takes to get ready.

Other skills I'd consider important to have at least a good start on before entering high school are logic, and understanding how to do good science. In addition to the scientific method, this would include how to carefully, systematically perform an experiment and write an excellent lab report.

For those of us who've homeschooled all the way, high school is the last lap. What a simultaneously terrifying and exciting thought!

Family Matters

Two snow days this week... As a homeschooling mom, snow days have never been necessary, so I've never given them. This year, it's a little hairy! Day One of little sister not having school, Tim handled it pretty well. Yesterday, however, he was a little grumpy. It doesn't help that these last couple of weeks have been unusually heavy for him, and his schoolwork is taking longer each day than he thinks is fair already.

Next year, assuming we stick with the plan of bringing Becky back home and skipping a grade, I'll have a 9th grader and a 10th grader. I've been focussing on planning the last month or so and this is what I have so far:

Tim - 10th grade
Language Arts: We'll definitely do the literature component of the American history curriculum, adding in literary guides like Progeny Press and Sparknotes for 4-6 of the books. We'll continue using Vocabulary for Achievement, and Rod & Staff for grammar work. I'll decide about the writing component after I see how the online writing course he's taking goes this spring.

Math: This one's easy. We've loved Videotext for Algebra, so we'll continue it for Geometry.

Science: Physics, but where? Science is one of his strong points, so I think a good choice for him to take outside of the home. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to locate any co-ops around here that teach Physics, so we may end up trying it at Cuyahoga Community College.

History: Notgrass's Exploring American History, with Teaching Company videos added in. Thanks to Sharon in MD for schedule dovetailing the two!

Computer Science: Another uncertainty... possibly an online Visual Basic class at The Potter's School.

Spanish: We'll continue with Rosetta Stone, but somewhere along the way I need to add the written workbooks in with the computer time.

PE: He'll continue in Karate, and I'll find some health books to read and call it a half credit in PE.

That comes to 6.5 credits, which is pretty standard. It's also very similar to what he's doing this year.

Becky - 9th grade
Language Arts: ? I may have her do that entirely as an online course. This is her strength, so she probably doesn't need the level of intensity in English that Tim has had this year. I'd like her to be challenged with a strong course. Of course, she's doing the same history as Tim, so that's a literature component right there...

Math: Her private school math this year was a joke, and I will not consider her to have mastered Algebra 1 at the end of it. I'm planning on having her use Videotext. Since she's had some Algebra at school and is so darn smart, I think I'll try to get her through Alg. 1 & 2 in one year. That way she won't be so behind, having wasted 7th grade at VCA and then skipping 8th.

Science: Also a big question mark. She never wants to do the 'expected' in science. She could do Physical Science. It would be the logical science after what she's done this year, I think. She could also repeat Biology, since in 6th grade she took the course and comprehended it, but didn't take tests or do all the experiments. She could also take some kind of advanced Biology like Marine Biology or Human Anatomy. Of course, she says she wants to take Geology, but I haven't managed to find a source for that yet. It's not a standard high school course, I guess.

History: Also Notgrass American, which of course means there will be times when they both want the book at the same time and I'll get to play referee. Maybe some day they'll grow out of the bickering?

Foreign Language: She says she wants to learn Chinese or Swahili. Rosetta Stone has both, but I can get the Chinese, at least, online through Potter's School or similar programs.

That's only five credits. I'd like to find an art class for her, and she'll also probably be involved in Karate next year. Perhaps we could find some computer applications course for her, instead of computer programming? Also, she hasn't had as much Logic or Ohio History as Tim has. Not having her home this year has really caused problems academically!

So, I've made progress in planning for next year, but I'm far from done.

Writer's Retreat

The Writer's Circle at the Twinsburg Library hosted an all-day retreat on Saturday, Feb. 16th. Cari Dubiel arranged it and did a great job. A couple of professional writers attended: one who writes mysteries and one who writes children's books.

After presentations in the morning, we took at lunch break. I found the presentation on agents particularly helpful. In the afternoon, we split into two critique groups. One went with the children's author, and critiqued a children's story one of our members had written. The other half stayed in the room to critique my 'Jairus' story. Actually, only part of it -- which was a good thing since I had to read it aloud... whew!

It's always good to get feedback. My need to get a better handle on POV was confirmed. In general, the group was encouraging. The mystery writer, Annette Dashofy, did say that she felt my writing was good enough to try for publication.

I guess I won't quit yet!

Oh, my!

I knew it had been way too long since I'd posted anything, but I just looked to see what was under today's post... I didn't realize it had been that long.

I should give the update on my first ever NaNoWriMo... I did it! I'd basically given up, and on Monday of the last week of November I had 32,000 words to go. Here's how it went:

Monday: almost 6K

Tuesday: about 7K

Wednesday: about 7K

Thursday: about 7K

Friday: a little over 5K

I was exhausted at the end of it. I told my husband, "I'm tired; my soul is empty; and I have no more words."

Identity Crisis?

I have to confess that I've always regarded agonizing over one's identity as a kind of unnecessary and narcissistic navel gazing. Now, however, the decision to have my daughter start 9th grade instead of 8th next year means that both kids will be in high school.

So, having been first a SAHM (stay at home mom) and then a homeschooling mom for the last 15 years or so, what will I be in five years? Or I could even ask (here comes the narcissistic navel gazing) who will I be in five years?

Fortunately, there is an easy answer to the second question, and it takes care of the first question, too. In five years, I will be what I was not just five years ago, but even twenty five years ago: a Christ-follower. I find that comforting because I know that the journey of motherhood has changed me in many ways, so it is clear that there's no going backwards. Going forwards is a question mark. I'd love for my writing to succeed, but I don't have to get my identity from that.

I was, I am, and I always will be... a Christ-follower. Everything else will fall into place around that.

AAARRRRGGGH!

Well, looking at the last week of November, I got the bright idea yesterday morning, that if I just average a little over 6000 words a day for the week, I could actually come out on top with 50,000! I came in just under 6000 yesterday, so now I need to average 6500 for the next four days. I've done over 3000 today and I'm TIRED. My hands are tired, by eyes are tired, my brain is tired. I really don't have time even for this short of a post, but I just needed to complain a little.

I can't forget to mention...

... on this particular day: I am thankful for Doug, and our 17 year journey which began on this date in 1990.

I always think of Doug when I read in Proverbs 20, "A faithful man who can find?" and I'm very grateful to God for finding him for me!

Thankful

Well, we got through another Thanksgiving! Actually, I really enjoy hosting our family dinner, but since cooking and domestic activities are not one of my strong points, I always approach the date with some degree of trepidation. Added to the sheer amount of work involved, and I'm always glad it's over.

We did not have a dinnertime discussion of what we're thankful for this year. If we had, after acknowledging the primacy of gratitude for the Lord and my family, I'd have said that I'm most thankful for freedom.

Perhaps that's because of the current story I'm writing, which envisions America in the future as a very statist nation with little respect for privacy or freedom. It definitely causes me to think about things.

Nano is not gonna happen this year!

O.k., I'm making dinner tomorrow for 12-15, which, taking into account the shopping, cleaning, and cooking, means I'm losing about 4 days. Last weekend we spend three days at Niagara Falls, and the weekend before that I was sick for a couple of days...

All of which means, I'm just under 18K words, and probably won't get much above 20. I guess 50,000 words in a month is not in the cards for me until I no longer have kids at home and/or I no longer host the family's Thanksgiving Dinner.

I'm still glad I'm doing it. First, it has the potential to be a great resource in terms of asking questions on the forums. I haven't done it yet, nor spent much time reading there, since I didn't discover them until November had already started and time was precious. I noticed that a lot of folks post in October, so that might be a good opportunity to get some information.

The biggest benefit, though, is getting my Jairus story out of my head and onto paper. I don't know if I'll ever do much with it. At the moment, it's short-story length, and I'm inclined to leave it that way. Like most Nano writing, it's pretty awful, but I want to use my editing time on Onesimus. I also am quite enjoying the new and totally different story I had to begin when Jairus petered out. It's unlike anything I've done before, and does have potential to be a book-length story, although perhaps not one I'm capable of writing.

Oh, well... lots of housecleaning yet to do. I've done four things on a list of about 50 for today, and I'm already tired, so this was just a break. I'll get out the whip and try to spur myself on, now.

Yesterday's Election

Okay, here's the scenario: You're standing at a voting booth, reading the ballot. Three tax issues are on it: One is a school tax. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it was pretty straightforward. It also failed. They just raises our school taxes a year or two ago.

BUT, the other two both had at the top, "Tax replacement and decrease." Doesn't that make it sound like the tax will go down? But, no.... in both cases it goes up. One of them approximately doubled the tax. Surprise, surprise... they both passed.

Argghh! No wonder Ohio is one of the most heavily taxes states in the country.

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad

I was so pleased when my 12 year old daughter decided to do her own NaNoWriMo. I'd never have thought of doing something like that at such a young age! And she was doing it well. Three days into it, she had over 5000 words written, which put her a little ahead of the pace. She's been ahead of me a lot of the time.

The first night, we backed both of our stories onto a flash drive... but neglected this minor detail the next two days. (Can you guess where this lovely story is going?)

Morning #4: her laptop is completely dead.

There's a little history here. First, you should know that she used three years of paper route savings to buy this laptop over the summer. Second, you should know that this is the fourth time it has died like this. They keep replacing the hard drive (taking weeks in the process), but clearly something else is causing this.

So, I'm MAD at myself for not backing her story up every day, and I'm MAD that this keeps happening, and I'm MAD that something she sacrificed so much to buy turned out to be such a lemon, and I'm MAD that her story is lost, and I'm MAD that even if it's recovered, it will miss the November NaNo window. I'm also really hoping that her wonderful talent and interest in writing isn't discouraged by this setback.

sniff.

And They're Off!

It's five o'clock in the afternoon on November 1st, and I've been writing off and on all day. I got almost 900 words done during my son's karate lesson this morning. I skipped lifting weights, shortened my walk, and didn't do either the Grammar or Spanish study I normally would. (I've also ignored some pending housework, but I'll keep ignoring that, thanks!)

So, my current grand total is.... (drum roll, suspense, etc.) 2106 words written! It's fun, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep this pace up for a month.

I'm enjoying my story, though I'm having the same problem I've had with the Onesimus stories. I have an overall direction for the work, and several 'stops' on the journey in my mind, but I sometimes struggle with connecting the dots. I wonder if that's normal for writers?

Okay, I'm truly sick of typing, so I'm done now.

Two more days...

Okay, I was pretty iffy about the NaNoWriMo. It's difficult to imagine where the time to do this will come from, BUT... I was poking about the website today, and noticed in the rules that although you're not allowed to start writing until Thursday, working on a plot outline beforehand is allowed (and even encouraged!)

Trudge, trudge, trudge. As I walked my pleasant, but not too exciting circuit through our neighborhood this afternoon, I turned off my radio and started thinking through the plot of the story I'm planning to write. WAY COOL! Now I'm all kinds of excited about doing it.

I'll try to put updates of how I'm doing. I figured out one would have to write 1666 words per day to reach 50,000 in thirty days. Since there will doubtless be days I can't do it, that means I'll need to have quite a few 3K plus days... Yikes.

Language Arts

Everyone has their own strengths, and Language Arts isn't Tim's! Unfortunately, while someone who isn't good at science, or even math, can often thrive in well-chosen career paths, being able to write and speak well is important in any occupation. (Fortunately, his weakness doesn't include reading, except that he's somewhat slow.)

So it seems that this year, in an attempt to begin compensating for this weakness, we are spending about one-third of our time on it! His primary curriculum, the one that we are following exactly, is called Put That In Writing. As you might guess, it's a writing course. For some reason, although IEW is big with a lot of homeschool families, it has never appealed to me. Fortunately, I've been very pleased with PTIW. Level 1 teaches the paragraph. It takes a very systematic approach to writing; perhaps more so than would be necessary for a student who is naturally a good writer, but it's perfect for us. We began it last Spring, and in just that short time, I noticed decided improvement in his writing. So, this year, we went back to the beginning and are going through it again. I did skip through some of the early parts we'd done last year, as I'm hoping to get to Level 2 (essays) in early 2008. I'm especially grateful that the creators of PTIW have a yahoo group to which I can post questions about using the curriculum.

In addition to PTIW, we're going through the first half of Rod & Staff English 8. The current plan is to finish it next year. Don't let the '8' fool you. We're using this primarily to beef up grammar and do fun things like diagramming sentences, and it's more in depth than some high school texts in those areas. R&S is only done three days per week.

Of course, in high school, one ought to be doing some formal literature study, so he's also doing most of Lightning Literature and Composition 8. We skip a lot of the composition; although as he gets further along in PTIW, I'll start using LL8 to practice writing skills learned elsewhere. In this case, the '8' level is a bit of a problem. Since this is a weak area, I wanted to start him off more gently. I'm trying to beef it up with high school level literature guides for some of the books he has to read for Notgrass Exploring World History. Fortunately, from his perspective at least, the pace of LL8 isn't too difficult.

And just in case that isn't enough... vocabulary is important, too, right? With ACTs, PSATs, SATs and whatever other alphabet soup tests looming, he also does a separate vocabulary program each day -- Vocabulary for Achievement. I've used both this and Wordly Wise. I don't have a strong preference for either; I just managed to get these very inexpensively (used) at Follett.

He rarely spends less than two hours on Language Arts, and usually more. I feel like this both subtracts from his ability to give his best work to other subjects, and also causes him to feel/be overloaded at times. I'm hoping that we'll be able to lessen this load over time, but it seems both necessary and beneficial for him at present.

He does have a lot of strengths, by the way. In 9th grade, he's taking Chemistry and Algebra II and doing well in both. (He will do Geometry next year.) A year and a half ago, he built his own computer, buying the components with money earned from a paper route. (I just had to add all this, after talking so much about his weaknesses above!)