Changing course

We've been "schooling" for almost 2 months now.... and what a crazy two months it's been.  During the month of September Ken & I were out of town together for 10 days & the kids were out of town for 4 days.  We also had 2 birthday parties to plan & gather all the supplies.  We have done school but not at the level that I had intended initially.  One of the areas that I was unsure about when I started planning for our year was reading.  It's her least favorite subject (we can add spelling to that list, too) and I feel the least prepared for teaching it.  I looked at curriculum over the summer and never found anything that made me happy.  I'm hoping that maybe I've found something I like.... and here we are in October figuring this out.  Math has been very easy but she doesn't have her math facts down as well as I'd like her to have them.  We're about half way through the math book because we skipped so much of the review.  I'm all for drilling stuff you know well but the beauty of Saxon is that you continue reviewing.  We're going to try an oldie but a goodie, Ray's New Primary Arithmetic which I believe was originally published in 1907.  I'm not 100% unhappy with Saxon so I think we'll continue plodding through it but will add Ray's to the mix.  The same friend that told me about Ray's also told me about Memoria Press.  I've looked at their reading program and really like books used for the 1st grade curriculum.  How can you go wrong with "Make Way for the Ducklings" and "Blueberries for Sal" ?  I like that they've done the hard work of picking vocabulary words & comprehension questions for me.  2nd grade has her reading "Little House on the Prairie" & "Mr. Popper's Penguins".  I'm already looking forward to that.

I haven't pressed Lincoln nearly enough this year.  The stinker has been reluctant to do work and I've let it slide since he just turned 4 and he's a boy.  It's not worth a fight.  Then he started reading words.  At Sea World, he looked at the map and said, "Daddy, it says 'sea lion' right there."  And, he was right.  It did.  There was no sea lion in the picture.  Tonight he said, "That says, 'Go team, Go!'"  Clearly I need to take advantage of that.  Like Coralee, he wasn't fond of Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  I'm thinking that we need to back up and start over again and do the kinds of activities I did with my 4 year olds at OLC..... gluing things on the letters, etc.  I can do all the things from OPGTR without having the book in front of him.  My goal is to pick our 4 activities for the week and do pretty much the same thing every week.  I plan on doing that while Coralee's working on things that don't require Momma's attention; handwriting, Latin & spelling.  I really liked Memoria Press's reading curriculum but he doesn't have the fine motor skills to trace letters.  Clearly another thing we need to work on before next year.  I'm thinking of using at the McGuffey Reader Primer for him.    For Math, we're going to look at what is further on in the book and attempt to teach him something he doesn't know.  You can only count 5 counting bears for so long. 

Since we've been back from France, all this has been bothering me so I feel very relieved to have something new to try.  After all, that's the beauty of homeschooling, right?  If it doesn't work, try something else!  Poor Coralee, she's my guinea pig!

Coralee is 7!!!!

I'm rather late with this but the past two weeks have been a whirlwind.  On the 20th we celebrated Lincoln's birthday and on the 22nd, we headed to Beaumont so Ken could do recruiting for NI at Lamar.  On Friday we headed to San Antonio.  NI has rented out Six Flags for the past few years and so we've made it a weekend to celebrate since it usually falls near their birthdays.  We started the day with Ken bringing Coralee breakfast in bed (a waffle from the buffet downstairs) and cupcakes that I toted along on the road trip.  I feel badly, earlier in the week, Coralee asked if she was going to have breakfast in bed and I totally forgot it was her birthday.  I remembered before I said, "No!"  What did she think she was, a princess? ;-)  We went to Sea World to celebrate her big day.  We saw all of the shows and she got to ride her favorite ride... the Shamu roller coaster.  She was even brave enough to ride Atlantis with Ken & Lincoln.  We ended the day with burgers & shakes at Cheesy Jane's.  My phone ended up in a milkshake, too, so we stopped at the HEB for rice.  Unfortunately my speaker still doesn't work. 

Now to talk about my big girl.  She's awesome.  My Daddy used to tell me that we were more fun as we got older.  I'm starting to see how that is true.  She has always been the "other mother" for Lincoln & Lauramae but she seems to be more and more helpful as time goes by and has the sweetest servant's heart about doing it.  I really think her kindness sets the tone for the relationship that the three of them have.  It shocks me how well they get along and how much they love each other (not trying to make it sound like it's peaceful & happy all the time at our house; it isn't, they definitely have their moments).  I am incredibly thankful for that and I hope it never changes.  She is doing really well with her schoolwork.  She's started writing her first name in cursive.  She is much more willing to read which makes me happy but math still seems to be her strongest subject.  Most imporantly, she is eager to learn and do her work.  That makes things much easier for us both.  She loves to draw and make things which thrills this Momma's heart & also makes me want to scream sometimes with the mess that comes with it.  She's started making her own breakfast & her siblings as well.  She helps with the dishes & laundry although she'd honestly rather play some times.  I've tried to be really honest about the fact that Mommy doesn't like doing those things either but the quicker we get started the quicker we're done.  She's in her fifth year of dance which is hard to believe.  This year the class is longer and includes jazz.  I'd like to say that I've hung out to see what they're doing but there are two classes at the same time and the waiting room is crazy.  She's in her second year of Sparks and spends all her time at church upstairs.  That was a hard transition for Momma.  All my babies are supposed to stay in the preschool area indefinitely.  Her birthday party theme was dogs this year.  She has always liked dogs but I think getting Eva this year really sealed the deal.  She thinks of Eva as her dog and loves to sneak her into the bedroom during naps.  They're quite cute together.     

Lincoln is 4!!!!

I think this is the first birthday that I haven't sobbed about for several weeks in advance.  It's probably because the last month has been absolutely nuts.  Getting back from Paris and instantly stepping into the craziness of fall activities has thrown me for a loop.  Wow, what a year it's been for my little man.  I'd like to say we're 100% potty trained but that isn't quite true.  When I would ask him (in frustration) when he was going to be "done", he would tell me "When I four."  I reminded him of that today.  So far so good.  We had all the drama of his seizures in January.  Thankfully he hasn't had another since then and starting anti-seizure medication.  We saw the neurologist a few weeks ago and she said that the further we get away from those seizures the less likely he is to have another one.  We have attempted to do some homeschooling with him but I'm not pressing him too hard since technically he has 2 more years until he'd start kindergarten.  He is in an Abecedarian class for CC and is really enjoying it.  The fine arts lessons for drawing have really motivated him to draw.  It's exciting for me to see him motivated to learn.  I can't wait to see how he's going to grow over the year.  He's learned the first 8 timeline cards and there is nothing cuter than hearing him say, "Unification of Upper & Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes".  He's also big enough for Cubbies now although he told Ken he wasn't a Cubbie yet since he doesn't have his vest yet.  As for personality, he loves to make anyone & everyone laugh.  He can be super stubborn at times; usually when he's embarrassed.  I've also noticed that he's a perfectionist which explains a lot.  He rarely puts his shoes on the right foot but it's something he's done since he's been able to attempt putting on shoes.  He is a very sweet boy but is all boy.  He plays well with Coralee but she's always given in to him.  He & Lauramae don't always get along as well.  He told me, "I'm nice to big Issy but I fight with little Issy."  He loves to play cars but it seems like Little Pet Shop animals get in there somehow.  He loves to eat pasta but that's really nothing new.  We have adorable pictures of him as a toddler with lasagna all over his face.  Not much changes.  One of his favorite TV shows is "silly show" aka Wipeout.  The only trouble we have while watching it is that he likes to jump all over the couches & whoever is sitting on them.  He also loves to watch our friend Chet's show, "The Daytripper".  He's ready to go everywhere Mr. Chet does and talks about how silly he is, too.       

First Day of School 2011

The summer went by so quickly!  We started the year early to make me feel better about skipping school most of December....honestly, how much real learning goes on in that month at school anyway? Still, starting early gives us flexibility.  I've tried to get my head around the new stuff that we're adding this year but you never know how things will go until you actually do them.  It's also a transition since I'm starting preschool stuff with Lincoln.  I made up a schedule that I thought was really good but didn't work.  Most of that was because I had some "grammar" to work on with Coralee which left the little ones with too much time on their hands.  She was also a little upset that her cousins had just left and I couldn't blame her.  There's no such thing as enough time together.... and my cousins only lived in another state not on another continent!  We started the day off with a Bible study/discussion about diligence (one of my weaknesses is making sure that's always a part of our day) & praying.  We did our calendar stuff and then moved on to Geography.  We're working on the "Great Circles" of the Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn & Antarctic Circle.  I had Coralee copy all of the words which took a good bit of time.  Lincoln was a little antsy waiting for her to finish that.  Then we took time to do handwriting.  I had read a good large motor skill practice was to have kids erase their names off of the white board.  He used his fingers to trace and did pretty well.  I should've realized he couldn't do stuff on paper but tried anyway.  We'll be using something else tomorrow.  Coralee, on the other hand, did well.  We're working on re-learning how to write numbers correctly.  Laziness about that made her have issues with writing 6's backwards.  Amazing how starting in the right place fixes that.  I sent Lincoln & Lauramae to play for a little bit and then had them come back to do Lincoln's phonics/letter recognition.  Coralee read to Mae at that time and then we read about Shakespeare.  We finished the day with Math.  Lincoln got to play with pattern blocks while Coralee worked on her first assessment.  Made me realize that I made the right decision on skipping the first few lessons.  She made a 100 on it with little effort.  We'll definitely do math last since she does so well with it.  Reading causes us attitude issues.    

Cousin's Visit

The girls decided to dress like a "princess".  Oh how I love having girlie girls!  Lincoln didn't want to be left out, either.

Seriously, could she get any cuter? 

Cousins playing together. 

Mmmm..... sushi for lunch!

Riding the train at Zilker

Ken noticed that it's hard to tell which set of siblings since their hair is the same color and the boys' hair cuts are the same.

Hanging out at Philosopher's Rock

Waiting for Footloose

More waiting pictures.  We stopped by Whole Foods for picnic dinner.

Playing at the Quarry Splash Pad.... even better since we didn't show up until an hour before they closed so we didn't have to pay.

It was a little sunny!

We had a fabulous visit with Keegan (albeit short visit with him), Gyorgyi & the kids.  They headed here on Saturday and had really bad traffic on I10 so it took longer than expected.  The good thing about that was that the kiddos got a really good nap!  We made pizza for dinner on the grill and the kids played.  Keegan was leaving on Sunday evening so we decided to skip church to spend time with him.  After breakfast, we headed to Sheplers to get the Hungarian kiddos boots.  Lunch was sushi at How Do You Roll and then we went shopping at Barton Creek Mall.  Keegan left from there and we went to Sno Beach for sno cones & picked up dinner at Whole Foods.  We drove over to Zilker Park for picnic dinner, a little play time, a ride on the train & finally Footloose.  Monday morning we took a trip to IKEA to browse & the kids had fun at the kids' area.  It was our first meal there since Lincoln had his seizure.  Lincoln was tired & hungry and was a bear.  I think we spilled more beverages at lunch than we have in months.  The kids took a nap and after dinner we went to the Quarry Splash Pad.  Such a neat place; it was my first time!  We'll definitely be back.  Tuesday was the pet parade at the library complete with popcorn & sno cones.  Wednesday we headed to the LBJ library & had lunch at Chick-fil-A in Georgetown with Grandma & Grandpa.  Poor Belian got sick there and then Adelynne joined the party that night.  I'm so glad we had such an extended visit.  Coralee & Adelynne get along together so well.  I have such good (well mostly good) memories of visits with my cousins and I'm glad they'll have the same.  Maybe one day Belian & Lincoln will have fun together. 

A year ago today.....

A year ago today we closed on our house.  We rented it a few days before closing so we were already in the house that day.  To make myself feel better about the projects we haven't completed I'm making a list of what we have done around here in the last year.....

1)  Removed wallpaper in the kids' bathroom
2) Painted kids' bathroom
3) Painted our bedroom
4) Put new shelves in the pantry
5) Replaced many of the light switches/outlets
6) Removed the wallpaper border from the laundry room
7) Switched the girls' bedrooms & painted Coralee's room pink
8) Removed the wallpaper in our bathroom
9) Painted our bathroom
10) Built a hand rail for the 4 steps coming out of the back of the house
11) Replaced the 2 attic fans (just this week.... the house is amazingly cooler - Yay Ken!)
12) Painted 3/4 of the laundry room
13) Installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms
14) Painted the shutters on the front of the house (there are 14 shutters, 3 coats of paint and they still need one more.... ugh!)
15) Flower beds in the front of the house (hopefully we'll be able to keep them alive in this heat)
16) Got rid of weeds in the front rock flower bed.  I kept thinking it was looking bad this spring but then I saw the pictures from last year. 
17) Bought riding lawn mower.... used it twice
18) Picked up lots of random junk from the yard
19) Removed the satellite dish from the roof
20) Sewed curtains for the kitchen
21) Sewed rolling shades for Lincoln's room
22) Drove to many Hobby Lobbys to get 40% off curtains for our bedroom
23) Assembled/installed playscape in the back yard
24) Removed some of the plants that were in weird locations or were just plain ugly
25) Spray painted front porch furniture black
26) Pillows for front porch
27) Killed lots of scorpions, wasps & one nasty centipede inside the house
28) Found really good pesticide to spread around outside
29) Built dams to keep water out during tropical storm Hermine
30) Dug out some of the dirt around the slab to prevent drainage issues (still work to be done.... in the fall)
31) Replaced 3 light fixtures/reused the one from Coralee's room in the laundry room
32) Rearranged living room furniture 3 times
33) Had the hot water heater replaced/set up to drain properly

I'm sure Ken has things he'd add to my list that I've forgotten.  Before Cotton ISD starts up again, I'd like to finish the laundry room and paint over the stencilling in the hallway.  The rest of the list is quite overwhelming.  I won't type it all out because it'll be depressing. 

Cotton ISD 2011-2012 School Year

In retrospect, our first real year of homeschooling was all about surviving the year.  As we ended the year, I could see so many things I wanted to differently.  Regardless, we came out of Coralee's kindergarten year with her reading (my #1 goal) and completing the Saxon 1 Math Curriculum.  Oh, and how could I forget all that she learned in CC?  We both came out of the year knowing much more than we did before.  I think I know more now than when I graduated from college.  Embarrassing, huh? 

I've heard that the first year of homeschooling is about learning how your child learns.  We had many battles about phonics.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  I should have given up on Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading long before I did.  Reading is where I feel the least prepared so I clung to it.  I taught 3rd & 4th grade.... my kiddos came to me knowing how to read. I've never taught someone else how to read and I'm not 100% convinced I taught Coralee.  I think learning to read is a mystery... kind of like long division. ;-)  All of a sudden, you just get it.  This year, we'll be taking a different approach to phonics.  We'll be using Spelling Plus by Susan Anthony & the dictation book that goes along with it.  As for what we'll actually read, my goal is to tie what I read aloud to her to our CC stuff; particularly the history sentences.  My goal is for her to read more books this year.... easy ones for her siblings and ones on her level as well. 

People who brag about how smart & gifted their children are get on my nerves because many times it isn't true.  There isn't a "My xyz is smarter than your honor student" bumper sticker for no reason.  That being said, I am seeing that Coralee is really good at math.  She rarely missed a single question on any homework or test.... with the exception of those days she was in a bad mood or occasionally when her siblings distracted her.  In talking with a veteran homeschooling Mom, she mentioned skipping the lessons and doing the assessments until they started having problems.  I sat down not too long after we finished our year and scheduled out math for the fall semester and used that idea.  She should have the Saxon 2 completed in the early spring and we'll move on to Saxon 3.  It makes the teacher in me a little nervous.... you have to go through each lesson, don't you?  But, I think it's the right thing to do.  The things we're skipping are the things she firmly mastered in Saxon 1.

Last year I noticed that keeping the little ones busy with us at the table seemed to work better than letting them run around & play.  Not only were they staying out of trouble but Coralee wasn't pouting about not being able to play.  So, this year I'm going to try to keep them with us.  Lincoln will start Saxon K & will be learning to write cursive along with Coralee.  We'll be using Cursive First by Elizabeth Fitzgerald.  Obviously there will be a different approach for each of them but the idea will be the same.  I'm also going to start Lincoln with the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading which I think will go better since most of that is new to him, unlike sister, who already knew that b says "b".  He pays more attention than I think he does.  He may surprise me with what he knows already.  We'll also do some book units for the two little ones.... I know we'll do some fun things with Brown Bear, Brown Bear & Chicka Chicka Boom Boom but I haven't gotten any further than that in my planning.

This year Lincoln will be an Abecedarian in CC and Coralee will be an Apprentice again.  The ladies that tutor the Abecedarian classes are incredible & have little boys about the same age so whichever class he is in will be wonderful.  He'll do wonderfully for them.  Not sure I'll be asking for him to be in my class later because it just doesn't seem like he does as well when we're in his classroom.  I'll be tutoring Coralee's class again and I'm really looking forward to feeling like I have more of a clue about how things should be done.  I am SO excited about Cycle 3.  In looking at all 3 cycles of the memory work, I've decided this is definitely my favorite.  The history is American history, Science is the body, the first 12 elements on the periodic table & different beliefs about how the earth was formed/evolution/natural selection.  Geography is states & capitals as well as land features.  Latin & Bible are learning John 1:1-7.  Math is the same in all cycles - skip counting 1-15, squares & cubes, geometry formulas & the laws (commutative, associative, etc.).  English is all about verbs (irregular tenses, participles, infinitives) & sentence patterns (including definitions for each part of the pattern).    We'll be learning about Grandma Moses, Rockwell, O'Keefe, Wyeth, Lichtenstein  Davis for artists this year and Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Stravinsky for composers.  Good stuff!!

The plan right now is to start school on July 25.  We'll be reading about Shakespeare in the beginning, read a kid version of "Taming of the Shrew", hopefully listen to it on CD and then go see it in Houston the first week of August.  I almost forgot, too, that we'll be using Song School Latin to learn a little more vocabulary and we'll spend the weeks before CC starts learning to draw the "Great Circles" (Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn & Antarctic Circle, Prime Meridian, International Date Line), Continental Blobs, & labelling the oceans.  For CC, we are working towards the Challenge program (12-13 year olds) where they will be handed a piece of paper to draw maps.   

Lauramae is 2!!!

As a Mom, I hate birthdays.  They make me cry.  I can't believe my sweet little baby girl is 2 today.  The days don't pass quickly but the months & years do.  To say that Lauramae is a joy would be an understatement.  From the moment I found out I was pregnant with her there was joy.  After infertility, being one of "those" people with kids close together was amazing to me.  Sure, that first year was crazy and I felt like I just did what I needed to do to survive but that's mostly over now.  Speaking of joy, I think that should have been part of her name.  She was the happiest baby and she's generally happy now.  She has always let you know if she's offended or irritated but thankfully that doesn't happen often.  We call her the "Whambulance" because when she gets hurt (and the poor baby falls down SO much still), it sounds like a siren!  While she is two now, she will gladly tell you, "I baby" and for right now, she is the baby and she'll always be my baby even when she's 50.  We're still clinging to the paci.  No child of mine has had theirs this long and really it's my fault she still has it.  Yesterday morning she woke up early and kept trying to stuff the paci into her pajama top.  I took that as a clue that she wasn't ready to get up and put her back in bed.  I try to limit paci to bed but the little sneaker likes to grab it out of bed whenever she can.  She remains the easiest child to put down for the night/nap.  You can't cuddle her at bed time; she lunges towards the crib because she's ready to sleep.  She loves her siblings and they love her, too.  Coralee has always been the second mother and there are times when I don't give Lauramae enough sympathy so she'll go to her sister for more.  She & Lincoln play together well for the most part but there are times when he's mean to her or she hits him or steals his toys.  Like Coralee, she's a talker.  Recently we were at Firehouse Subs and she grabbed Ken's face and said, "I want cookie".  This is similar to her "I want taco" & "I want see outside" when we went camping in March.  As for food, she's a good eater for the most part.  She seems to be coming out of her voluntarily gluten limited diet.  Not sure why she hasn't liked bread but she hasn't. Kind of makes lunch time difficult when you cut out all sandwiches & anything on a tortilla!  She is in full baby obsession mode.  We had friends over the other day and she wanted so badly to hold their baby girl.  Yesterday we took Lincoln in for an ear infection and she could hardly contain herself with all the babies in the sick room.  One thing she doesn't like much at all is dogs.  Of course, what did we get last week?  A dog.  And a big one at that.  She does gradually get used to them and they're acceptable but generallly she doesn't want to pet them or get too close.  She'll tell my sister's dogs, "Stay" and "No".  I don't really blame her.  I'd be afraid of anything close to my size (or bigger) jumping above my head!  As is the norm for Cotton babies, she has come out of her first year tiny-ness.  I don't know where she'll be on the charts tomorrow for height but she will be on them.  We got out of going to the endocrinologist for height issues after she grew a good bit in two months.  She just wanted to make sure that all of the pediatricians & nurses in the office knew about our kiddos' strange growth patterns.  Weight wise, she's probably 7 pounds lighter than her big brother (who is a skinny little thing).  Our kids chunk up in the second year and then settle in to a spot on the charts.  As crazy as it may sound, we are on the potty train with her.  The crazy child (in her attempt to solidify her favorite child status) stays dry at night and nap and for that matter, most of the day.  Our stubborn streak is about actually putting the pee/poo in the potty.  It's an odd place to be since the other two were more of a struggle to get on the potty and we had accidents for a good while.  She may be done before Lincoln.  Insert Momma slapping her head & saying "Doh!" in frustration.   Like her big sister, Lauramae is a social butterfly (with moments of shyness).  We went to the Veteran's Day Parade in Austin last fall and she plopped herself down in a strangers lap.  I mean, she talked to me, seemed nice and I just wanted a better view.  The ladies at the Y & teachers at church talk about how loving she is.  She'll back up and sit down on your lap.  Last weekend we had family in town for her birthday party and she walked around the room giving hugs.  Such sweetness!  Oh, I just love this little girl!  I am so thankful that God gave her to our family! 

New ticker!!!!!

This December we celebrate our 15th anniversary.  I can't believe it's been that long!  Anyway, in celebration of that and because I'm a Disney World nut..... we're going to Disney World in November!  We went to Disney World for our honeymoon so it seems like the perfect year to go.... plus I couldn't wait too much longer!  I need to ride the tea cups. ;-)  We took a short trip in December this year and it just seemed like it made things too crazy and we missed out on some fun stuff.  So, we decided to go for the week before Thanksgiving.... one of the slowest weeks and the Christmas decorations should be out in all their glory!  Yay for homeschooling and having that flexibility! 

Sleepover!

Our first time to have Riley spend the night didn't go well.  I slept through the crying but Ken ended up calling Teresa who came to get Riley.  Ken either called me or IM'd me to let me know that she wasn't there the next morning.  Talk about feel bad!  This time went better.  All the girls had their toes/fingernails painted.  Lincoln wasn't so thrilled with being excluded.  Ken took him outside to work on the car which seemed to help some.  Poor middle child doesn't like to be left out of anything!

Day after Christmas - dressed up for church

The kids wore their outfits from Aunt C's wedding for Christmas.  Everyone thought they were adorable..... especially Lincoln. I'm a sucker for a man in a suit. 

Chrismas Dinner

We have no definite traditional Christmas dinner.... maybe I'll eventually figure something out.  Since I cook Thanksgiving dinner, I don't feel the need to make a turkey or ham and all the sides.  It's just too much for 2 adults and 3 kiddos who you can never tell what or how much they'll eat.  This year's recipe to try was Beef Wellington.  It was good but I don't know if I'll ever make it again.  For dessert we had Sheet cake with peppermint ice cream.  Needless to say the kids really enjoyed it.  You can see the smiles on their faces!

Playing with Christmas presents

I don't know that Santa did all that well with Lincoln's gift this year.  Poor Lightning McQueen hasn't been ridden all that much.  I figured that he'd be all over the place riding with big sister but he'd rather stick with his little trike.  Regardless, he looks too cute in his little helmet and eventually he will be more into his bike.  After all, sister is.  

No time like the presents....

We had a really nice & quiet Christmas morning.  Our kids haven't gotten to the point of waking up super early on Christmas morning yet.  I'm sure that day will come.  Well, it probably doesn't help that they're usually exhausted from all the Christmas Eve fun.  They have become more efficient in opening presents so it didn't take nearly as long.  Breakfast was cinnamon rolls (which Coralee didn't like because they tasted like pecans).  They all enjoyed our traditional Orange Jubilee (OJ, milk, powdered sugar, vanilla & ice) and it got spilled on the tablecloth.... yet another tradition.