7-Quick Takes

Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary

1.  I had a busy week trying to get back into a schedule after spring break – which is a good reminder to me about why I do not want to take a long summer break!  I know a lot of my homeschool friends are winding down for the year but I don’t like to feel pressured, and besides, I have a lot of other fun things planned for the kids – and closing down for a long unproductive summer break is not one of them!

2.  A couple of weeks ago I took Gabe down to a local charter school and got ready to sign him up.  We had been butting heads about how late he sleeps, and not getting his school work done, and just about anything else we could fight over.  This particular charter school didn’t seem to have a problem with his coming from a homeschool background and so I was hoping this would be a good fit.

And then I started hearing more and more about this Core Curriculum and what it’s impact on education is going to be, and I decided that I just couldn’t go through with it.  But more importantly, Gabe started looking up information about Core Curriculum and decided that HE couldn’t go through with it either!

 And ever since he has been making a lot more effort on his school work.  So in a round about way, it’s been a big success.

3.  The interesting thing about Gabe is that he can think things through, but he has a difficult time translating his thought onto paper.  He just took the soccer ref course for the third time and once again did not pass the exam, although he came really close this time.  The examiner took him aside and gave him some questions verbally and Gabe gave extremely detailed and correct answers!  It appeared to the examiner that the problem with the written exam is that Gabe is over thinking each option and then running out of time on the test -(which is probably why I need to test him more just so he has test-taking practice!) Anyway, after passing the exam orally with the examiner, Gabe got his patch for 2013 and will be reffing games this spring. Kind of the hard way to do it, but it worked.

4.  My camera died!  and I feel as if I lost an arm or something.  This was the expensive Pentax I bought with money I got after my mom passed away.  Luckily I found the exact same camera on eBay last week for half the price I paid for this one!  So I bought it and I am sending mine off for repairs.  Hopefully if all goes well, I will have two good cameras in a few weeks.

5. Rosie is making her first communion in a couple of weeks.  I found her a lovely dress at Gabriel Brothers for under $20 (couldn’t make it for that!) and I bought a nice veil on eBay.  Rosie is a big fan of the old show, The Nanny, starring Fran Drescher, and when she saw the episode where Fran gets married, she wanted a veil just like that one!

I think I came pretty close!  Of course Rosie doesn’t have that much hair to put into a big buffant hairdo! But she will have a nice ballerina bun with her hair slicked back and I’m sure she won’t notice the difference.

Meanwhile I can’t believe my baby girl is making her first communion…

6. When I was a little girl, my Mom told me that I had Indian blood from my Father’s side.  For a while she told me it was Apache .Then later she said it wasn’t – so I wasn’t even sure if I had any Native American blood at all!  But through the wonders of Ancestry.com I found the answers for myself!

The full Indian in my background is my great-frandfather:

He was a Taos Pueblo Indian and his death was recorded on this official record.  Died at age 85 of a strangulated hernia!

7. Then through the wonders of FindaGrave.com – I found his grave site. And I said a little prayer for him.

I appreciate the mountains and sun at the top of the grave stone.  That type of art work is so important in New Mexico.

The inscription reads,  Que Descanse En Paz (May He Rest In Peace)