DragonBlog

Orange

This picture turned out really well. He was so crisp in the image I couldn't help but play with it, masking out all the background. I love how it turned out.book quick services

I did it a couple days ago, but I just had to share!book quick services

I've been working on getting images of the beaded earrings I've done so far and cleaning them up for the web. I've also taken some "stock images" to use on the site, now I just have to do something with them. My brain is all full up with HTML code and stuff right now. Oof.book quick services

Current Mood: creative book quick services

On Board with Waldorf

On Saturday, we went to visit the preschool that we hope to enroll Jareth in soon. It's a Waldorf school, based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. In a very basic summary, it is a curriculum that centers around the development of the child, and teaching them things as they are ready to learn them, along with nurturing child as a whole. I found out about these schools when I was looking into curriculums for homeschooling, but have since decided I'm not going to go that route. While I liked the idea of homeschooling, I'm not confident enough in my ability to pull it off, and life just gets in the way far too often for me to be sure I'd be able to give it my full attention as I ought.book quick services

We toured the whole school while we were there and I left with a few things pointedly stuck in my mind:

1. If we can put them through this schooling, my kids will definitely be smarter than me
2. I wish I had gotten to go to a Waldorf school
3. It's important to get the kids in early, since that's when they are going to teach them how to learn

I'm not generally one to jump onto a bandwagon for much of anything. There's always something I can point out and say "hey, I can see the other side of that" but I have to say that this curriculum and philosophy just feels right. It meshes well with what Brian and I seem to believe in and want for the kids. In fact, it seems as if they will be taking some things to the next level. I'm excited.book quick services

Of course the cost of private schooling is going to be a bit tough to manage, however there's no doubt in my mind that it's worth it. There's no way I want to put my kids in the public school system, that's for sure. And the added bonus of how focused on the Arts the Waldorf system is will add to the kids' thriving there. They are bound to be creative with the parents they have. They will learn music, art, a couple of languages, and a whole lot of other things. And, based on the projects and such that we were seeing, they are taught each subject both in relation to one another and with many different approaches. So, whatever learning "style" works best for my kids (I tend to be a visual, hands-on kind of learner myself, as opposed to an auditory or textbook learner) they will have that covered so that they can better absorb and retain what they are learning. So much of what I've learned over the years had slipped away because it wasn't really committed to hard memory, but stored long enough to pass a test or write a report on it. Once I was past the test or report, it wasn't necessary and was dumped along with so much else. There are those who say that everything we see, read, or hear is stored forever, but we just can't always access it when we want it. Whatever part of my brain is storing all that crap must have gotten knocked further into my brain when I had my head injury too, since I have even more trouble now than I used to recalling things. I make lists more than ever these days, so that I can keep track of what needs to be done, and I've found my capacity to read something has been lessened, making it much more difficult. Remembering facts and figures is a lot harder than it ever was. I'm usually good at remembering concepts behind things though, and that has even gotten more difficult. It's as if everything just gets jumbled together sometimes and my brain starts to hurt sorting it out. I don't remember it always being like this, and I'm not exactly getting "old" yet, so I can only assume I did more damage than I'd realized when I took that tumble on the pavement in July of 2001.book quick services

Helmets, people. Helmets when rollerblading. Yeeeeessss. Learn from my mistake.book quick services

Anyway...I'm totally sold on the Waldorf school now that I've seen one. Of course I was mostly sold before going in there, but I had that warm fuzzy confirmation I was looking for. And Brian, who'd heard about it from me and done a little online poking to learn more, is sold too.book quick services

So, as soon as we've got Jareth potty trained, he's going to start going. The school has an open enrollment, so he can start anytime but he needs to be able to go to the potty first. He's been slow on it, so I've gotten a book on potty "parties" and we're going to try that method to get him excited on the potty thing. Hopefully it will work. He's otherwise been oblivious to the idea, except for a brief spat which prompted me to buy the potty in the first place. We've had him in pull-ups for months now with nothing. He's not interested in sitting on the potty and has yet to DO anything on one yet. So I'm going to switch my approach. There was another book for "one day potty training" that I looked at on Amazon.com, but from the parent reviews I gleaned that it basically involved shaming your child into wanting to go. I am NOT going for that approach, and am amazed that anyone would even pick that option these days. While I've mentioned to him that he's old enough to be going on the potty now, and that his friends are ALL potty trained, he doesn't seem concerned. I am not interested into guilting him into learning, however, or pushing him too hard. A potty "party" on the other hand, might just work. I have the book, and now I've got to try and read it quickly and get to planning the little party. We'll see how it goes. Apparently, I have to go get one of those dolls that pees though, since part of the process involves him teaching the doll to use the potty first. *raises an eyebrow* I'm a little dubious, mind you, but I'll have to do my best to get enthused so it has a chance of working...book quick services

Keep your fingers crossed. I'm hoping I'll be buying him some Cars underwear in no time!book quick services

Current Mood: hopeful book quick services

Pictures, the six-hour-screwing, and other tidbits from recently...

I've been trying out Google's "Picasa" lately, as a means to an end to easily manage my image files. Thus, I'm also trying out the Picasa web gallery too. I've put a few pictures up in there for now. Consider it a bonus while you keep waiting for the several months worth of images I still want to sort through and post. If I ever. have. time.book quick services

Meh. Having time? What's that like again? *blinks*book quick services

I might just put the ones I've been meaning to post up in the Picassa gallery instead now. We'll see. Picassa doesn't seem to let me resize pictures, or maybe I just haven't found where yet. I might stick with it, or I might go back to the regular gallery. Eventually I'm going to run out of space on my server and have to take some of my own gallery back down, so putting some stuff on Picassa instead would resolve that issue at least.book quick services

Oh yeah, the "six-hour-screwing" thing? No, get your mind back out of that gutter, it's not what you were thinking. Sadly, having kids doesn't allow for that sort of entertainment around here. I did, however, get a new desk! It took us about six hours and a whole helluv a lot of screws but it's assembled in our living room now, along with my new jewelry workbench. The workbench only took a few minutes to assemble, since all I needed to do was put the legs on. But the desk was a lot of work. I literally had bruises on my hand from the screwdriver, despite using one of the ratcheted ones.book quick services

I take up a lot of space in the living room now, but it's how we've got to work it until the family room is fixed downstairs. We did, however, get the check from the insurance company that accounts for the carpet, so we need to get cracking on painting it and then finding someone to put new carpet down for a reasonable price. Meanwhile, we've been working on demolishing the bathroom/laundry room area down there. Okay, by "we" I mean Brian mostly. I had a happy time peeling the wallpaper off most of the bathroom walls, and doing a few other small bits, but mostly he's been the one pulling the panelling off the walls and getting the icky shower out. We have to cap off some plumbing before we can remove the wall framing between the two areas (it's horribly water-damaged at the floor too) and then we'll be able to start determining what all we have to do to get a new shower in there and figure out where the two rooms will actually begin and end. The upstairs bathroom is only a couple of steps away from being "finished" too - mainly just trim around the door and at the floor, and fixing some plumbing under the sink. And gluing one of the pieces of linoleum tile back down, but that's what? like a two-minute fix, including time to find which toolbox has the glue in it? Then again, finding that two minutes tends to be the tough around here. As evidenced, by my gaps in between blog posts...book quick services

Now that the holidays are over, the moms' groups events have started back up again, including our Friday playgroup. I'm also going to start talking to the preschool we're thinking of sending Jareth to in the spring. They've got a tour coming up soon and Brian might take the morning off so we can both go take a look at the place and make sure it's all we're hoping it will be. Anyone who's been following this blog a while or who's known me in person knows that we originally planned to homeschool the kids. However, I honestly don't know that I'd be able to do the best job of it with all the other interruptions that life tends to throw at us, so I decided I'd hand over the responsibility to someone more qualified. I was planning on following the Waldorf curriculum, however, so I'm looking at a Waldorf school. There's going to be a bit of driving involved to get him there on time, as well as the money factor, since it's a private school, but I think it will be well worth it. I'm also thinking the kids are going to need more social outlets. Despite my best efforts, I think Jareth still hasn't been getting enough time with other kids yet, although I have noticed him getting better about playing with others more instead of always playing on his own when we go to playgroup and other stuff. I think it's helping that he's starting to see the same kids over and over again and becoming familiar with them.book quick services

Well, enough rambling for now. It's naptime here and I have plenty of other things I need to get done during this short period of two-handed quiet...book quick services

Current Mood: working book quick services

And So It Goes...(and so have you then, I suppose)

I find myself surprised today. Surprised to find myself shedding a few tears over a man I hardly knew. A man who died over a year ago, in September of 2005. But no one thought to tell me until now. No one remembered to let me know that my grandfather, Herrick Goodwillie, passed away. Until another of our yearly newsletters reached his widow and she was kind enough to send me a note and one of those cards you get with the newspaper clipping laminated on it. Where I assume I am included as one of the unnamed eight grandchildren. My father's name is on it, as are my two aunts, one of which I've never met.book quick services

I will give my grandfather credit, that even after his first wife, my grandmother, died he did keep contact better than anyone else in the family has bothered to. She had been the one to keep the family tie intact, and my mother's opinion of my grandfather was less than stellar. But he'd usually send a Christmas card each year at the very least, and amongst my possessions are a music box bird that he sent after she died, something he said she had wanted me to have. I have wondered, these past few years, that I stopped getting his cards. But then I assumed it might have something to do with the last letter my father sent me, effectively indicating that he has no interest in me whatsoever. Maybe it was partly that. Maybe it was just illness creeping up upon him. It is likely I will now never know.book quick services

Perhaps I mourn the loss of that last thread of connection to a family I've never known. Perhaps I mourn the loss of what could have been if my family hadn't been so shattered and filled with drama. Perhaps I feel that with the death of this man dies that last possible chance that my own father will remember my existence in this world. Perhaps I just don't know.book quick services

And so it goes...book quick services

Current Mood: melancholy book quick services