Creativity

I've been encouraging the kids to write more for their school time lately, and after reading my nephew Daren's awesome poem, I was inspired to post a sampling of their work.

Stephen:

I saw it with mine own eyes,
In the woods by the mines.
It was big, furry, and drool came from its mouth.
I saw it in my youth.
And years later, about 5, I think,
I saw it in my bottle of ink!
It growled, it gnashed its horrible yellow teeth,
It kicked me with its ugly feet!
I smashed into the wall, and saw the thing fall!
I looked out the window, and saw the thing in a telephone stall!
The thing pushed a button, and was sucked into the telephone!
And since then, I've looked and looked, but I haven't found a bone!

Gareth:

Once upon a time there was a troll baby and a good troll baby.
Troll baby: Goo Goo Gaa Gaa Dag! Dag! Boo!
Bad Troll Baby: (Goes to jump on good troll.)
Good Troll: (bites bad troll's b**.)
Bad Troll: Owwwwwwuch! (smacks good troll in the head.)
Good Troll: (jumps on bad troll's b**.)
Bad Troll: (jumps on good troll's head but misses and falls into the river.)
Good Troll: Yahoo!

Jacob (as dictated to me):

Once upon a time there was a red skeleton. Then Dad was running around with his brothers, and one of his brothers saw the skeleton. Then Dad saw the skeleton too, and he ran to punch it in the stomach. Then the skeleton ran fast back into his cave and he baked some rice pudding.

THE END

What a day. . .

It's been one of those days today. It started with retrieving 2 pairs of pants, three shirts, and various other small articles of clothing out of the toilet (Gavin), followed by some laundry time, of course. Later on, Gavin climbed up in the bathroom and opened all of the essential oils I have in there, replaced the lids loosely, and left them on their sides on top of the counter. Right before bed, he emptied a hot water bottle on top of my living room "coffee" table. I saved my laptop just in time. A plate broke in the kitchen. At the same time, we spent all day sorting a garbage bagful of legos into different colors. I helped Stephen with some memorization and Gareth with math. I played puzzles with Jacob and Gavin, and read lots of stories. Wow. I was a little short with everyone at bedtime, as I just wanted EVERYONE TO GO TO BED RIGHT NOW so I could go relax for a bit. Hallelujah. I think they are finally all asleep now, even Stephen. Hooray for home adventures! Did I mention it was bedtime? Good night! ;)

BTW, if I have too many more days like this next week, Christmas might be late. . .

Crazy Ballet

Here is a clip Stephen asked me to put on my blog because, frankly, it is funny. As a homeschooler, I occasionally do random, unprecedented things like making clown costumes out of t-shirts and silly clown hats out of fabric remnants when my kids ask me to. (Most of the time I say "maybe sometime.") I was glad I took time out of my own concerns on this occasion, however, because they staged an awesome "Mother Ginger" on our deck for the neighborhood kids. My only regret is that I ran out of camera memory. . .

Presenting Stephen, Gareth, and Jacob Millsap in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker 2006:

Lief Pirates

Dale purchased a Jolly Roger flag a few weeks ago, and the result was interesting. I needed a heavy weed-smothering mulch for the north end of the back yard, and was asking around to see if anyone would mind us raking their leaves, as we don't have mature trees yet. Then, one sunny garbage day, we had the bright idea to harvest the bounty of leaves that had already been raked and bagged! The leaf pirates made three circuits of the neighborhood, and made off with around 16 bags of freshly raked leaves from our neighbors' curbs. I have never seen a leaf pile quite as large as what we created from those bags. . .


Unfortunately, I allowed a couple of days to elapse before I documented the pile. By then I had already raked half of the pile out, but you get the general idea!

Webcomics!!

My awesome friend Colby has, in my opinion, one of the best webcomics out there. I remember having discussions with her about drawing anime waaaaay back when we were both living in Virginia throwing steak knives at trees in the leafy woods, and she showed me some of her very first drawings in pencil and watercolor (no, not while we were knife-throwing). Click on the banner below to visit her site and spend an enjoyable hour or two catching up on the archives.

The Rake Brigade

I love how intensely children apply themselves to chores when, in their own minds, that chore has an important purpose. A good example of this is when they ask me to be Miss Hannigan and shut them up in the closet if they don't get their chores done before the timer beeps. A few days ago, the neighbors had raked up a large pile of crunchy leaves, and my four elder kids, Stephen, Gareth, Jacob, and Gavin, asked if they could play in it. They also asked for a leaf rake in order to keep the pile tidy and large. They eventually moved the pile next door into our front yard for more convenient jumping, carrying it in large armfuls. Not at any point during the hour or so they were involved in this activity did any of them say, "I'm tiiired!" or, "This is boooring!" or, "This is too hard!" I couldn't resist taking some autumn leaf pictures.

Here is Jacob demonstrating the amazing tunneling ability of Spiderman:


And Stephen is being buried. . . ALIVE!!!

He seems to be enjoying it, however.


This is what happens when an older brother tries to help a younger brother pose for a picture.


And. . . Jacob loves leaves!

Spiderman, spiderman. . .

Have any of you heard that They Might Be Giants Song, "Spiderman"? My kids have been singing it the past couple of days. Dale bought me an mp3 player because the cd player died in our van, and I just loaded it up with whatever I had on my computer. I am rather partial to songs with obscure and inane lyrics, so there were several TMBG songs (including "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas. . .") and several Star Wars songs by Weird Al Yankovic. (I can't keep my happiness to myself every time I hear, "Y-O-D-A Yoda".) Anyway, after brainwashing my children with these great songs, they dressed up in their spiderman suits and walked around the house singing "boon, big ba-boon, big ba-boon, big ba-boon, big ba- SPIDERMAAAAN! SPIDERMAAAN!. . ."

Tonight we had two spidermen, one Russian peasant baby,

an intense Harry Potter,
a small Darth Vader who wouldn't keep his costume on,
and a unique "Jackie" Sparrow (who wore the Russian peasant baby in a wrap during the trunk-or-treat). Aaaargh! Watch out, world!

Soap operas of our lives

I've been reading the super-mega Wheel of Time soap opera by Robert Jordan. I began in the early summer, and am currently on book 9 of 11. It started out as a typical tale of the hero--he comes out of obscurity, learns who he is, works through denial, gets some skills from a mentor, and accomplishes something great. The first couple books were fun. Now they are a bit tedious. I keep reading, however, because I want to find out what happens at the end (if there ever will be one)! The later books each take 500-600 pages to cover a period of a few weeks, with not much advancement of plot. Will Rand ever save the world? Will Mat ever marry the Princess of the Nine Moons? Do the men in these books ever get some guts? I don't mean to intentionally offend those who think these are classics, but the only thought-provoking material in these novels for me is the way Jordan portrays women as insufferable nagging know-it-alls! I would lief drop these books by the way and get on with something more meaningful. . . but alas I am addicted to the story and I suppose a few more thousand pages won't kill me. :)

Useful Skills

Jacob agrees that we should all develop useful skills.












At the same time, Stephen seems to be handling his solitary confinement rather poorly.

Entering the Forest

This blog is intended for promotion of the use of the antiquated adverb 'lief'. I would lief as not chronicle the adventures of the Millsap 7. And now a poem to commemorate the occasion of the creation of my first blog:

My blog, my blog, my premiere blog,
I love to write in you!
My blog, my blog, my only blog,
You'll tell my exploits true!

Write on, blog on forever,
As chronicler of me!
Write on, blog on forever,
Enjoy it while it's free!