* Quirky Quotes

From the backseat ...

"I am not going to have a car when I grow up"

"Why not?" asks the uninformed mother...

"People will just come and pick me up."

Apparently she should have been born a princess, or she thinks she has been, although truthfully that has been her life experience thus far. Reminder to throw up an extra prayer for the man God has in mind for my daughter...

* Pulitzers

I made a list of back logged ideas months ago and I though I would get around to some. At first I thought of doing Disney with some pictures, but found the idea overwhelming so I looked for another topic. I will hereby cross off the yearbook, because it is over, we didn't lose any money, it looked great (in my opinion) and I am not doing it next year, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. I still want to do some of the others and I thought this topic might be the easiest to accomplish while lunch is cooking and my son finishes his learning time. (We are totally on schedule today for those that are interested :) )

Several months ago my best friend did a post on Pulitzers that she has read, inspired by another book loving friend that she has. They are, I believe, in direct competition, while I merely stole the idea for myself. Apparently there is a way to link to the site so you too can know how many Pulitzer prize winning books you have read. I don't know how to link but you can google it!

Thus far I have read the following books...

• 1919 - Booth Tarkington - The Magnificent Ambersons
• 1928 - Thornton Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
• 1932 - Pearl Buck - The Good Earth
• 1937 - Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
• 1940 - John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
• 1953 - Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
• 1961 - Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
• 1988 - Tony Morrison - Beloved(begun but never finished - hated it, but giving myself credit because it was that bad)

I have started The Age of Innocence - by Edith Wharton and it is fairly good, but then I got sick for a month, the yearbook loomed and I had to give it back to the library because I used up my three check outs. I plan to get it again next time and finish it, along with some others as I can. I was surprised how many are not in the library. Being myself I wrote out a list of the books in chronological order, 4 out of 5 were not there.

I plan to get a list of the Newberry winners as well, because they are easier to read! Although I think there are a ton more of them.

Happy reading!

* Summer Schedule

While I do still want to get some back logged posts - I am taking my scrap booking approach and staying current whenever possible. We have set our summer schedule and I know you all were waiting with anticipation. It looks shockingly similar to last years, and I wonder how long it will remain on the refrigerator before the kids take to hiding it again in order to somehow avoid 'learning time' as though if lost the memory of such would fall out of my head. Our schedule for this year

9:00 Breakfast

9:30 Bible/Cleaning

10:00 Outdoor/Free Time

11:00 Learning Time

12:00 Lunch

12:30 Walk

1:00 Craft/Art/Cooking

2:00 Nap/Quiet Reading

4:00 TV/Wii/Computer

The schedule does not continue after this point because dad arrives home shortly after tv time and the evenings could go in any direction. Our odds of following this are relatively low to medium. I will testify that the younger one does not stay on target at learning time for very long and tends to distract her brother form completing his activities. Day one continues...

* Quirky Quotes

My daughter likes to think she can spell. Since she is not yet in elementary school and is not a documented child prodigy, she actually has not spelled anything but her name successfully. This does not stop her from trying or from feeling proud of her efforts. She is undaunted by my statements that what she just spelled is not even a word. --- In my defense I am trying to encourage actual spelling of age appropriate words and not continue to applaud everything she does. She has letter recognition down, and some letter sounds, I need to encourage truth in learning not praise for every effort at spell-scribbling (a newly minted concept from ten seconds ago) --- Today her brother, rather than cutting her down for spelling yet another thing that didn't exist, gave her a helping hand. This is the conversation on the drive home from the library...

"C-R-N-O"......"What does that spell?"

"That is not even a word, honey" says the totally non supportive mother in the front seat.

The supportive brother replies..."Actually if you were saying the word 'crab' and someone asked you a question that you had to say 'no' to, you might say...'cr..no.'


Wrap your mind around that!

* Random mom observations...

It has been yet another unbelievably long time since I posted, but life is as it is, especially during yearbook season and end of school wrap up time. I did however want to get this comparison down.

A few weeks ago I was reading with my daughter and the book had some trucks in it. On one particular page she pointed to a 'back-hoe' and asked what it was. I thought she was kidding. But apparently we have never taught her the word 'back-hoe' before, or 'bull-dozer' for that matter. She has been completely deprived of large earth moving equipment knowledge. This seemed weird because I don't think it was through intentional neglect. She is terribly girly but lives in a world surrounded by boy things. This disproves the osmosis theory.

A few days later while looking through some silly bands (which by the way is the weirdest fad I have ever seen and participated in...) My son pointed to some and asked what they were. My daughter used her best 'duh - are you stupid?' voice to say.. "a perfume bottle and that one is lipstick" Now apparently my son is lacking girly shape recognition as well.

So I have come to the conclusion that I am subconsciously raising stereotypes. However I believe there is hope, because I clearly recognized the lipstick silly band, as well as know the difference between a back-hoe and bull-dozer. Judah can change spark plugs and we are working on his ponytail skills. (For being the gender that is supposed to be good with their hands boys have great struggles with little girl ponytails.)

These are the thoughts that flow through my mind...

Views on Capitalism, Again

Recently, the big wigs at Goldman Sachs were brought before Congress to explain their role in what appears to be questionable practices in hedge fund management. There was a lot of swearing by congressman, accusations of breaking the law, vehement monologues that nothing Goldman did was illegal, and in short, nothing was actually accomplished. All can agree that what Goldman Sachs actually did was immoral, but not necessarily illegal. Also recently, Obama actually made the statement, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” Unfortunately, the fact that he made this statement is not surprising. But there is something in these two topics that I believe need discussing. That topic is the concept of capitalism and the MORAL responsibility to those that "have enough."

What is “enough”? Who “has enough”? Can you honestly say that if someone makes $_________ per year that that is enough money? The answer is no. Most everyone will say, "it depends on a number of factors such as, location, standard of living, debt to income ratio, dependents, etc." There is no absolute number that will fit all people. Now, I can say that recently Michelle and I had the conversation of “where did it all go this month?” Granted, we were able to identify where the money went, but it got me thinking again: “what is enough?” Truth is, I don’t have a very good answer. I find myself thinking that I don’t have enough on a not too frequent basis. I have to remind myself that there is a significant majority who don’t even have a home on this planet.

Historically, as people gain more and more money, they strive to spend more, give more, and save more. This is the beauty of our society, and this concept helps it to thrive. In short, as I am paid more, I will spend more and give more. Those who I give to spend more as well. This spending and giving improves the economy. As the economy improves, I make more money, thus spending and giving more. It’s a beautiful circle….

Our commander and chief would have us believe that he knows what the finite amount is that someone can earn. But do we really want to live in a culture that actually has a ceiling on financial growth? My answer is no. Unfortunately, the Goldman Sachs fiasco has led people to believe that our free market can (or at least should) have laws attached to it that force people to do the moral thing. This is not true. No amount of laws will force people to ALWAYS do the moral thing. Restricting someone's income, for any reason, will only force them to focus more on themselves, than on others.

If someone has a lot of money, they should give a lot of money to those in need. We all know this to be the case, because it is the moral thing to do. We all have a moral compass built inside of us. There should not be laws in place to force people to do the right thing with money. That‘s my problem with Obama’s statement and congress wasting tax payer money trying beat up executives taking advantage of rules already set forth in the financial arena. Because here is the question: “how much money do I give?” Would I really give enough if I am forced to give?

We want billionaires to give away as much as possible. We don’t want entrepreneurs to be limited to a certain value. That defeats the purpose. What we want is for billionaires to recognize that the money actually isn’t theirs in the first place. Its God’s. He wants you to do wonderful things with it! So, instead putting laws in place to restrict growth, let’s start encouraging those with more to give more. How do we do that?