no time

This post-every-day-for-a-month thing has made certain that I don’t have time to blog. Just typing that sentence I heard Trixie and Gloria scream at each other and had to go sort it out. Twice.

I have to choose each night between solitude and sleep. Even if I do choose solitude I’m in no shape to blog; I write things like “Home day kids played me go sleep now” and even more incoherency.

Not that I’m better than that now, either.

The toilet was faking and was actually still broken. It was fixed, briefly, this afternoon but is broken again now. It’s usable but really slow, and the guys who temporarily fixed it today are coming back to try to fix it better tomorrow.

Bede has been having a really tough time lately, for reasons unknown to me. He’s been sensory seeking and very easily upset. In the past, these times have presaged periods of intense developmental growth for him so I think that might be what is happening now. In any event it’s difficult for all of us but especially Bede. I hope it passes.

Faith is really enjoying the Warriors books. They’re full of war and angst and love – with cats. Like Watership Down. Abby spends most of her time drawing and making things out of cut paper. Gilbert is growing up but still has many little boy traits. He wants to play sports. Trixie and Gloria are delightfully themselves.

That’s all now.

gosh

Today the bathroom pipe was clogged in such a way that the entire system was backed up: sink, tub, and most importantly, toilet. We have one bathroom for eight people,  so it’s more than just an inconvenience. Sean fixed it.

Sean also had a job interview today, wow! I am simultaneously excited and filled with dread at the idea of Sean working fulltime outside the house. On the one hand: money. On the other hand: no husband. Bede, Gilbert, Trixie and Gloria have never had a daddy who leaves every day. But interviews aren’t job offers, so I’m trying not to be anxious. Much.

Oh would you look at that, the pizza is ready.

Hi, how are you doing today?

Today I left the house with no children!

I’ll just let that sink in a bit.

My mother and I went to the fabric store, the drugstore and the thrift store. We emerged with fabric for Christmas presents, some toys, and winter pants for Gilbert and Bede.

I was universally assumed to be a store employee everywhere we went. I like to think it was the air of calm I have in situations where I dont have six children clamoring about my feet. Anything is easy when you’re a Mother Alone; all the effort I usually expend in keeping my ducks in a row was just there for the taking. But… it was mostly due to my attire, no doubt: blue dress shirt, tan cords and Chucks. Instant non-personhood. Thanks for calling B. Dalton Booksellers, this is Phoebe.

Have you ever answered the phone at home like the one at work? Heh.

Vaccination plans

No, not pig flu. Very unlikely to get that one. The other lot.

We selectively vaccinate on a very delayed schedule. We don’t start til seven at the earliest, for one thing, and we don’t get any that the kids could just as easily decide to get for themselves later. That gives us DTaP, inactivated polio, MMR, and varicella. I’m really hesitant to get the MMR vaccine (specifically the rubella component) and the varicella vaccine because both are human fetal cell vaccines, so I’ll keep waiting on those, but I need to get the other two for the >7 Glees.

Finding a doctor in the Oklahoma City metro who

a.) takes our poor people insurance and
b.) is accepting new patients and
c.) won’t harrass me for our vaccine choices

is turnng out to be damn near impossible. We have been going to the family practice we were defaulted to when our old doc closed shop a few years ago and we have never seen the same doctor twice. It’s the training clinic for the Resident-O-Matic of Saint Anthony’s Hospital here and the physicians are uniformly young, pleasant, and, well, inexperienced, I guess is a nice way to put it. And I don’t mind that, honestly, but between that and never getting to establish a history with the same doctor I’m tired of it and I want to go somewhere else. Which is turning out to be difficult, QED.

More phone calls tomorrow, I expect.

representing my day

Gloria gives it her all.

Bede threw scores of leaves and called them flying birds.

Gilbert steps up on the logs. Best play structures ever.

Gloria hopes for a pull. She sat there optimistically for a good five minutes…

…and Faith obliged her.

Abby and Faith also looked for a dirt fairy, in the style of Five Children and It.

Trixie was delighted by everything.

Gilbert was too. He saw a rainbow!

Sometimes it’s all so beautiful I have to close my eyes.

I’m Phoebe Gleeson, and this is my perfect life.

NaBloPoMo is November

I did it one year and really liked it. I’m doin it again. I’m tired of fast food Facebook. It tastes great, satisfies momentarily, and leaves you wanting more vapid, empty knowledge. I’ll still be checking it, but I’m going to try to blog more meaningfully here instead of just posting a status update on Facebook.

So. National Blog Post Month. I’ll be posting every day in November.

Who’s with me?

domesticity

In the last 24 hours I have finished knitting a sweater for Beatrice and started one for Gilbert, hung many loads of laundry in the lovely St. Martin’s summer we’re having, homeskooled the Monkeys Six, and baked two loaves of bread.

Golly I love this time of year.

Hello, hello

I was wondering, if you don’t mind, could you leave a comment? No content necessary – a simple “yo” will suffice. I’m curious how many people read me from a feed reader, or from the Livejournal feed.

I know it’s a pain in the neck. Pretty please? No pressure to be either witty or relevant, just say “hey”.

Sharing is Caring day 4

Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Today is a Site. I’m going to send you all to The Baldwin Project. It’s a fantastic collection of public domain children’s literature, all formatted nicely and so forth. It’s an invaluable resource. We use it for read-alouds all the time.

Sharing is Caring day 3

Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Today I’m doing all three, lucky reader!

Book: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I sat back just now and tried to think of the one book I’ve read in the last few years that really surprised me, really stayed with me, and that was it. Heinleinesque first person military mindbender.

eBook: Little Brother (available as a free download at that link, courtesy of the author, Cory Doctorow.) This one’s near-future dystopia.

Fanfic: The Chaosverse, by earlgreytea68. Of course it’s Doctor Who, what else would it be? “And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby.”

Sharing is Caring Meme: Day 2

Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

Gotta be Bwavo Bunny.

My contribution to health care reform

I wish that the primary caregiver of children who qualify for Medicaid could get Medicaid too. Maybe you could opt for either subsidized daycare or subsidized health insurance. I could get free daycare for all my kids, but I don’t, because I’m not employed outside the home. Since I’m not employed outside the home I have no way to get health insurance. See?

Even my conservative husband agrees with me, and yall, that is huge.

Sure would be nice!

Sharing is Caring Meme Day 1

via earlgreytea68

Sharing is Caring:
for one week, recommend / share
Day 1: a song
Day 2: a picture
Day 3: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day 4: a site
Day 5: a youtube clip
Day 6: a quote
Day 7: whatever tickles your fancy

The Decemberists: The Engine Driver has been haunting me lately. It’s such an autumnal song.

I hope you enjoy it. Here are the lyrics:

I’m an engine driver
on a long run,
on a long run.
Would I were beside her:
she’s a long one,
such a long one.

And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.

I’m a county lineman
on the high line,
on the high line.
So will be my grandson:
there are powerlines
in our bloodlines.

And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.

And I am a writer,
writer of fictions,
I am the heart that you call home.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones,
my bones, my bones.

I’m a money-lender:
I have fortunes
upon fortunes.
Take my hand for tender.
I am tortured,
ever tortured.

And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.

And I am a writer,
writer of fictions,
I am the heart that you call home.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones.
I am writer,
I am all that you have hoped of.
And I’ve written pages upon pages
trying to rid you from my bones,
my bones, my bones.

And if you don’t love me, let me go.
And if you don’t love me, let me go.

photos uploaded

I uploaded some pix from the last few weeks to flickr, including Bede and his Acorn Hat, playing in the backyard, drawing and reading in the dining room and Sean’s recent haircut.

And even a few of me!

nudgeschooling

The school year is upon me! We don’t stop schoolin’ in the summer. As unschoolers we neither stop nor start the whole “formal learning” gig, but keep about the same non-pace throughout the year. However, when the conventional schools are in session, I try to get a little more nudge-schooly in my approach. I like the kids to do something measurably academic each day, and if they don’t do so themselves I nudge them into it. Hence, nudgeschooling.

I’m definitely going with Teaching Textbooks for Faith’s math. She wants to stay at grade level for math and not fall behind her friends who are schooled, and she really enjoyed the website preview for Math 4. When we can afford it we’ll be getting it, probably early October.

Abby liked it as well, but she’s a little behind Faith in math. She likes Miquon and hasn’t yet finished the whole set of books so that’s probably going to be her thing this year.

Everyone else will just tag along and do what they do with no formal plan. We’re still working through the Sonlight Core 1+2 we started in February, so I’ll pick back up with that. We all love it since it’s reading together and discussing stuff as a family. I kind of forget it’s “school”, frankly! It feels like we’re cheating. Abby’s favorite thing to do for dinner conversation is “Let’s everyone tell about the book they’re reading, and why you like it.” Love me some Sonlight.

Bede has been wearing clothes (!!) I’m still processing. I told Tabitha now he won’t be the weird naked kid, he’ll be the weird kid who wears men’s trousers belted and rolled up at the cuffs. An improvement!

ICE AGE: a desperate plea

My oldest son, Bede, has developed a deep and abiding passion for all things ICE AGE MOVIE. Most super especially SCRAT, the little acorn-obsessed squirrel. Bede is 6 and a half years old and is autistic, and has *never* had this sort of reaction to anything traditionally child-oriented. (His usual thing is fonts and type design.) I am also excited about this because he wants to wear clothes with ICE AGE themes and he does not usually want to wear clothes at all. (He has been naked 90% of the time for the last 3 years. No kidding!)

We are Very Very Poor. We own both movies on DVD. BUT. If anyone has any ICE AGE stuffs they want to get rid of I would love to have it. Any toys, from Happy Meal on up, any clothes (adult sizes fine too), any books… anything! I can’t pay you a single cent because I don’t have it.

A million thanks in advance. I can be reached here or at phoebe@gleeson.us

(crossposted: like whoa, sorry)

Ask the Internets: midwife edition

So, Internets!

Friend of mine is knocked up with her first babe. She’s interviewing homebirth midwives and wants to know…

I’ve pretty much decided i’d like to do a natural birth, at home if possible, so what kinds of questions are good for midwives? i don’t know where to start!

What say you?

tidiness is not among them

My darling husband has many sterling qualities. He is a wonderful father who reads to his children every night before bedtime. He makes excellent rigatoni.

He is a really great kisser.

But the car he drives hadn’t been cleaned since before Gloria was born in January 2008, coincidentally the last time I rode in it. I just cleaned it out though, lots of bits of paper and empty cigarette packages and old Weekly Standard magazines. Why would I undertake such an endeavour, you may ask? Why, because I will be riding in it again this very evening, thanks to two facts.

Fact the First: Under Oklahoma law, only front-seat occupants and children under 13 need wear seatbelts.

Fact the Second: My oldest child is over five feet tall and therefore big enough to sit in the front seat, even with an airbag.

Leading us to the conclusion: I will be sitting on the floor of the van, recklessly but legally unbelted, as we drive to my parents’ house for dinner. I feel like a sixteen year old, only with grey hair and no abdominal tone.

(Don’t worry, we won’t make a habit of it. It’s just one drive a week.)

last but not least

I’ve recently switched to last.fm for my music moochery. I was using Pandora but I kept hitting their listening cap, and if I’m going to fork out money there had better be no ads. So far I like it fine, but I’m not sure if I like it better than Pandora. They are pretty different systems. I think Pandora may be more flexible in terms of crafting a particular station’s sound, but I don’t really know.

My music tastes aren’t very eclectic. I like The Police and bands that I think sound like them, or who remind me of them in some way. Lots of jangly melodic guitars, clever lyrics, strong percussion. So I like U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, and bunches of more recent bands that honestly sort of fade together in my ears and all seem to get tagged ‘indie’, so I guess that’s what the kids are calling it nowadays.

Who do you like?

midsummer, math musings

I love midsummer. The cicadas are crooning in their robotic way, the air is viscous with heat, the days are long.

I don’t like my electric bill, which was obscenely high. I mean, it was bad. I have not been as good about hanging laundry as I could be – mostly days where it “looked cloudy” – but even accounting for that it was awful. I’ve renewed my dedication to not using the dryer and we’ll see if August’s bill is less than July’s. Dude.

In other news I’ve been geeking out over Doctor Who, listening to indie rock, and planning our school year. I’m leaning toward Teaching Textbooks for math since it’s self-taught and on the computer, both things Faith and Abby appreciate. It is a bit pricey though.

We’ve become sort of Charlotte Mason unschoolers. I coined the term “nudgeschooling” and it seems to fit. As always, it’s a journey.

How are you?