Idol Top 7

My opinions tonight may surprise you. But I must start out by perhaps stating the obvious. How is it that 5 adults, several producers, and an entire crew can't rein it in to keep their show in the 1-hour time limit? And honestly, it's their eighth year, the judges should have clued in by now.

Here it is all nice and simple like: STOP TALKING SO MUCH. They go on and on and on and on and on with the first few Idols (and with each other) and then rush through the final 2 as if they're running out of air.

So what happens next? I can only assume that Fringe viewers wrote letters of protest that their show was cut off by Idol. Fox caught grief and passed it on to the Idol producers who then sufficiently scared Ryan into keeping it moving and the judges into quieting 2 of their team per performance, but who apparently didn't get the memo to Lil who felt the need, agaaaaaaain, to argue back to the judges trying to justify why her songs still suck.

And they still went over!! You know what would've saved some time? If they'd STOP TALKING SO MUCH. Why must we sit through such ridiculous numbers of hyperbolic adjectives to describe each judge? We see them twice weekly on every show of every year. Randy, Kara, Paula, Simon. We get it. Hell, the 7 Idols we hardly know barely get a cursory walk on stage with maybe enough time to smile or wave. Take note, Ryan. STOP TALKING SO MUCH.

First off, Kara? Provocative? How exactly? Do you even know what that means? And did we need to spend so much time on Paula's bejeweled ensemble? Or Randy's yellow stripe? Vibrant? Congenial? Are you kidding me?! I don't think you even know what those words mean.

iTunes, Coke, AmericanIdol.com . . . we get it already. And, newsflash, we TiVo these shows. So besides skipping the commercials, we fast forward all the in-show commercial advertising, too. Except the blatant, giant red cups. We just ignore those while the judges don't STOP TALKING SO MUCH. My word, even their explanation of why only 2 of them can talk this week instead of 4 took far too long.

So tonight we got to sit through all of that PLUS the insufferable Quentin Tarantino. Didn't like him when he was on the show before. I was only marginally more impressed this time. Either way, I still don't get why he ever even has a role in this setting. He has no place judging or coaching musical contestants. He's a movie director! Now, maybe if he'd been directing tonight's show instead of "coaching" the contestants, they wouldn't have run over. Who knows. It's just insane that they presented a several minute bio about this guy when they don't have time!! Argh. He's so . . . weird! He's like kinda shifty-eyed psycho, kinda over-the-top manic, and kinda Marty McFly in a bowling shirt all at the same time. Not sure how he pulls that off, but it's odd and a little uncomfortable.

So, songs of the cinema. Or cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Here we go.

Allison Iraheta (Don't Want To Miss A Thing):

Quentin's sage advice: Sing it while I sit in a chair.

This theme week is just not complete unless someone sings this most-overplayed Idol song. This song was too low for her. But despite that this was not at all her best week (and I liked the song even less than I thought I would on her), she finally got the praise she deserved. Let's just hope her number one position tonight doesn't hurt her in the voting. Tonight's song notwithstanding, her performances until now should propel her forward. I have no idea why this girl has even ever set foot in the bottom 3. She is the best girl they have and has been all along. And Simon finally said it tonight. Girls' only hope indeed. Rock on.

Anoop Dawg (Everything I Do, I Do It For You):

Quentin's invaluable advice: Rough it up. (What the . . . ??)

Dude, that was AWESOME. I loved it. Wanna know how much I don't like this song? My first boyfriend held my hand for the first time during this movie and I still don't like this song. And I've grown so very tired of this song over the years that I always switch the station when it comes on the radio. And despite all that, I loved this song on Anoop tonight, Dawg. That was hot! I like it better than the original! By a mile. If this performance were on the radio, I wouldn't switch it like I would the original. It was in key, sung well, and performed well. I really liked it. Not sure it'll save him from the bottom 3, but I'm digging the rumpled up, math geek, Indian, frat boy singer.

Adam Lambert (Born To Be Wild):

Quentin's wise advice: None really. He likes Adam, "only got a taste," and he liked it. (Funny coincidence--I just read a comment on YouTube today where someone wondered what Adam tastes like. What an odd question. I don't know. Pop rocks?). Methinks Mr.Tarantino was a little starstruck with Adam.

If anyone can pull off any song, it's Adam. He was, yet again, freaking amazing. This was not at all my favorite performance by him, but that's mostly because I don't like this song either. Yes, that's 3 for 3 for those keeping score at home (actually, I like the Aerosmith song; it's just so very overdone on Idol). That said, I've got nothing but praise for Adam. I LOVE this guy and think he is one of the hottest, most likable, most talented Idols they've ever had. Ever. Perhaps Paula said it best yet again when she explained that Adam "dares to dance in the path of greatness and fortune smiles on him" or something like that. I like the Monkees wool cap he wears when he meets with the guest mentors. Nice. And his falsetto is insane. INSANE! This guy is supernatural. There is no other explanation for that kind of freaking raw talent.

Matt Giraud (Have You Ever Loved A Woman):

Quentin's shrewd advice: Don't lose the lyrics.

After what Daughtry did with this song, no one should ever touch it again. Including Bryan Adams himself. Because, yes, it's another overdone, overplayed song. And another one I don't really like. But you know what? Matt was awesome tonight (except for that one little part in the bridge where he hit that really wonky note). I loved it! I love his look, his easy manner, his madskillz on the piano, his voice, his arrangement, his touch of soul on songs like this . . . I think it was great. He went into his false when I didn't expect it and I liked it. I'm totally worried for him. If we have another pre-Lil casualty, I might just scream. And it wasn't nearly as bad as the 2 judges said it was. Ugh.

Danny Gokey (Endless Love):

Quentin's prudent wisdom: Put your hands in your pockets. Honestly, I don't know how the Idols would've ever pulled off this week without him.

Urgh. Yes, you guessed it. Not this song! This song is normally a duet. Rickey Smith did this song in Season 2 and it was HOT! Watch:



He did BOTH parts. Danny did a good job with this song, but it wasn't great. It was good. It was copycat (but with a harp). He looks so much like my cousin Little Johnny that it distracts me, especially this week without his funky glasses. But I digress. I don't know. It was just . . . okay. Heartfelt, good, well done, yes. But just okay. And yet again, he didn't follow the mentor's advice. His hands weren't in his pockets. I saw them.

Kris Allen (Falling Slowly):

Quentin's inspiring counsel: Have you thought about playing an instrument? Think about it, but it doesn't matter either way. Aren't you glad I'm here?

Dude, this was DA BOMB TONIGHT!! I loved this performance. WOW! I actually liked it even better than Adam's! I'm telling you, this song during the right love scene in the right movie would MELT me. Day-um! DAY-UM! I really loved this! What a gorgeous song!! Fabulous. Beautiful. Wonderful. I loved it. Kris is utterly adorable and has such a great look and manner. I really, really like this song. It's hauntingly, deeply gorgeous. It started out well and got better throughout and it was raw and it was pure and it was GOOD. Randy was wrong. Kara was SPOT ON! He DID have moments in there. She felt it. I felt it. It was AWESOME.

Lil Rounds (The Rose):

Quentin's most inspiring advice: Commit to singing it straight so that when you switch to gospel, it really soars (this was actually the best advice of the night, even if Lil Diva ignored it completely).

Argh. Does it matter anymore? You know why they had her sing last and had Simon critique her? So we can finally be rid of her. It'll stick in people's memories more to NOT vote for her. I actually like this performance on her more than any of her previous ones and at least she didn't do Whitney or Celine (we had predicted The Bodyguard for sure), but it's too little too late. And she's just not as original as so many of the others this season. She has already overstayed her welcome. I would've preferred a little more Lite FM singing from Scott to this drivel. I'm done with Lil. But of course you already knew that since I was done with her like 7 weeks ago. It's so passe already. What did Paula say to her? The road is long? What? Simon was right. And her back talk is intolerable. And she must be frustrated after weeks and weeks of not getting what they're saying, I'm sure. But she's not getting it and it's time to be done.

And still . . . 3 minutes over.

Fringe fans are renewedly mad. Can't say that I blame them. Now that Simon can't blame the girls, who will he blame? Maybe Mr. Tarantino has some suggestions? Sit in a chair, put your hands in your pockets, and don't lose the lyrics.

Heaven help us tomorrow when we have to suffer through a Miley Cyrus performance. Have I mentioned we have TiVo?

Best to worst tonight:

Kris
Adam
Anoop
Danny
Allison
Matt
Lil

Boquinha out.

Let's Go to the Movies . . .

There is so much movie music that it's hard to fathom any contestant making a poor song choice, but alas, every year most of the contestants choose songs that are just (to borrow another judge-ism) "aight" for me. I thought the night went pretty well, and overall everyone did as expected. Admittedly, I was less than enthused about Quentin Tarantino and what he would bring to the table (do his beady eyes remind anyone else of Conan O'Brian?). He was a guest judge back in Season 3, and I was as unclear then as I am now as to why he needs to be involved. I was pleasantly surprised tonight as he seemed to have some decent suggestions and didn't venture too far into areas of music that he doesn't understand. And he kept it pretty positive and relevant (at least on the clips we saw) so all in all it was good enough.

So, why do they feel the need to cut back on judges comments rather than ridiculous, corny, make way for the yellow Steve Urkel (Carl!) sweater Randy's sporting and Simon King of All banter? If this show is really about the singing, why is the majority of the wasted time dedicated to the "look at me, I'm on TV!" nonsense Ryan indulges in with the judges? Yes. I said "indulge." With that said, every year they struggle with time when they hit the one-hour shows so it is no surprise to me that with 4 judges this year they couldn't figure out a way to fit it in. And, in case you were unaware, all of these songs are available for download on iTunes.

Allison: I can't help but think of the Big Mac song when I hear about "special sauce." I thought it was gutsy to pick the song she did since it's been done a lot on Idol in years past, including David Cook last season. It was definitely keyed too low this week and she was shakier on it than I would have expected, but overall she did a great job. She's got the vocal talent to be a legit contender for sure.

Anoop: Awesome! Unfortunately I think he's been treading water for so long that it won't be long before he gets pulled under for good. He had one of the best performances of the night and I'm glad he didn't start barking and peeing on a fire hydrant like Quentin seemed to want him to do. Anoop brought his own R&B flair to a classic song. Nice.

Adam: This guy can sing, and he's got incredible talent. I hate this song, though, so no matter what version he came up with or how great a singer he is I was destined to have a sort of "so what" kind of reaction to it. What I'd really like to do is find the path of greatness and dance a bit down it. I think Simon is right tonight when it comes to Adam: either you love it or despise it. His phone line was the only one with a busy signal tonight so I'm guessing most of America, or at least the voting segment, loved it.

Matt: This guy is destined to be the yo-yo performer of the season. They had the wrong judges critiquing him on this one because I've heard him twice now tonight and it was nowhere near as bad as they made it out to be. He did a great job of spinning the song in the right direction for his natural voice and talent, and overall he gave a solid performance. I'm scared for this guy, though, since he can't seem to get the judges behind him consistently enough.

Danny: Sort of vanilla this week for me. Vanilla is classic. Most people like vanilla to some extent. You can dress up vanilla to suit any occasion, but you usually need to add a little something to enjoy it regularly. If only Danny had added even a few vanilla bean flecks or something. Maybe singing with his hands in his pockets would have added something. Coming out on stage with a harp is the same as adding a little sugar free scoop to your vanilla. Danny is headed for a solid career as an inspirational, adult contemporary kind of performer--probably where he thought he'd be in the first place. (Here are two performances of this song that are better than plain vanilla: Rickey Smith and a surprising duet. Maybe telling us the song was from "Happy Gilmore" would have dressed it up a bit more.)

Kris: This was one of those brave song choices that I think paid off. It was not perfect, and there were a few pitch problems, but not many. I think Kara heard the real performance and Randy was daydreaming about playing with Journey or something since he hasn't had many chances this year to name drop. Kris picked an obscure song, but one not too obscure since it was an Academy Award winner. Anyway, it was one of those songs that haunts you. I've never seen the movie "Once," but I can picture the scene for this song. On a night of predictable song choices, Kris really stood out . . . in a good way.

Lil: I feared this would happen. Lil didn't deserve to make it this far, but now she gives a performance just strong enough to buy one more week. She made a crappy song choice, did something fairly original and appropriate by showing her gospel soul side, and then finished with shaky notes and average vocals. I can't blame her for being frustrated--it's obvious she really tried to do what the judges have been telling her to do, and even seemed to get it a little, and she still got ripped for being boring. See, if we'd gotten rid of her earlier we could have spared her all of this ill will. C'mon people! Let's get it right this week!

OK, just to be clear, these are my predictions, not my personal preferences.

BOTTOM THREE: Matt, Lil, Quentin
FINDING MORE TIME TO GO TO THE MOVIES: Matt

Spread a Little Sunshine

It's rainy. And cold. Again.

I love seasons, but this winter has dragged on and on. I want to cry. I'm craving sunshine and warmth. CRAVING, I tell you!

Please, if you will, spread a little sunshine my way. Via the comments. Make we feel all warm and sunny . . .

It's Thing 1's birthday!

She's NINE today!! Yesterday as we tucked the kids into bed, I said to Thing 1, "Hope you've enjoyed being 8!" And then I looked at Mark and said, "How is our baby already 9?" As we thought about this, I said, "She's halfway from baby to adulthood!" *Sniff Sniff* It's bittersweet. It's almost scary how time flies. Want to wish her a happy birthday? Click here to do it!

What an "unschooling-ish" day looks like

Standard Disclaimer: Lest anyone feel that I'm somehow saying that homeschooling is superior to public education, let it be known that that is not at all what I'm saying. Not one bit. I think there are many, fabulous aspects about public education and it didn't hurt me or Mark any. This is simply our preference. It's our chocolate to some people's strawberry. We look at it as the option we choose that works for us, not as one that makes us superior to those who do not (because that's simply not true). That being said . . . here's my post on this. This is our way to share a little of what we do day to day.

What is Unschooling?

We loosely follow a classical education curriculum and we lean more and more toward unschooling all the time. When I first heard about "Unschooling," I assumed that was code for "lazy homeschoolers." But people who truly unschool are constantly reading, learning, doing. And it's FUN to boot.

The VERY basic gist is that we learn naturally. Children learn (like crazy) before they ever set foot in school by simply asking, experiencing, exploring, talking, hearing, seeing, reading. Adults continue to learn well past college by asking, experiencing, exploring, talking, hearing, seeing, reading, researching. When we want to know something, we look it up, we get a book on it, we talk with others. And we learn. It's not always (though it can be) about taking a class or being formally taught/talked to.

So, the basic idea behind unschooling is that the way we learn before school and after college and graduate school is quite simply, the natural way to always learn. That rather than follow a set curriculum, you study what you're interested in. It's inherent in all of us--that curiosity, that thirst for knowledge, that desire to know more, read more, write more. If you think about it, school is more a construct of society over time.

A Classical Education

I'm too uptight to ditch formal curriculum altogether, so we follow a classical education in a college-style approach. For the most part, except for math (which we do more often and regularly), we approach each subject one-at-a-time (history, science, grammar, etc.) by really focusing on it and spending time delving into it.

We like The Well-Trained Mind as a guide for the basic what-to-dos (though we think they're a little over the top in parts and could stand to loosen up a bit). Their format is classical education set up as the Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric). Basically, you learn all subjects in chronological order from the beginning of time onward, repeated 3 times (elementary/middle/high school). Every time you repeat it, you read more advanced writings, eventually using almost only primary sources and novels (so rather than learn about the great depression from a text book, you read, for instance, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and rather than read a textbook about early presidents, you might read David McCullough's John Adams and The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson).

We've always been drawn to the orderly, chronological aspect of this approach--all your subjects flow together. So, you're not learning about dinosaurs in science, modern literature in reading, the civil war in history, and the Renaissance in writing. You're learning about the same time period in all subjects. This just makes sense to us! And by repeating them all 3 times (every 4 years), they are reinforced with more and more emphasis on reading and writing and speaking.

The elementary years are the grammar years--basically, as you study history (and all other subjects), you're mainly focusing on picking up the proper mechanics of language and absorbing information. You don't need to sweat knowing every little fact, just learn as much as possible. Kids are sponges and learn like crazy in this stage quite easily and naturally. You're answering a lot of "who" and "what" and "when" questions in this stage.

The middle school years are the logic years--essentially, as you study history (and all other subjects), you're focusing especially on the mechanics of thoughts and analysis. You're reasoning through the material and making sense of it. You're answering more "why" and "how" questions here. You are reading more and writing more.

The high school years are the rhetoric years--as you study history (and all other subjects), you're focusing on the use of language to instruct and persuade (debate, writing, communicating, adapting learning to circumstances, etc.).

Blending the Two Approaches

So, we like that approach. But we also watch ourselves because we're not homeschooling so that we can replicate a school classroom at home. We're homeschooling for many reasons (most of which simply have to do with the fact that this suits us and our family and we love it) and we are not the types of people to hole up our kids in the house and not interact with others and the world around us. And that's where unschooling comes in. The world is our classroom. We can do anything, go anywhere, read anything . . . any time we want!

Unschooling helps us follow our children's leads and learn naturally. In the past few weeks, we've had more and more of this:

* The other day we were working on some grammar and penmanship and our grammar book had a quote in it by Edgar Allen Poe. This lead to a discussion about him and his works. We then listened to The Tell-Tale Heart (yeah, much creepier than I recall) on audio and looked up pictures of him and learned a bit about his writings and that time period.

* Another day, we were reading a story together. It mentioned a spider. Thing 2 started asking questions about spiders. We grabbed a couple of different encyclopedias and read interesting facts about spiders. This lead to even more curiosity. So we visited the library, did more research, watched a DVD about them, made a lapbook about arachnids, drew several arachnids, and visited a pet store to check out the scorpions.

* The other day while sitting down to do more grammar (that's been our recent focus), the mail arrived, so the kids ran out to get it. As the kids sat down to do some writing and workbooks, I quietly read one of the postcards and said, "Wow!" They asked what it was. I explained that it was a medical practice in Michigan trying to recruit Daddy to join with some pretty incredible incentives, most of them monetary. They initially freaked out at the idea of moving. After I reassured them that we are not moving and that we get these kinds of postcards all the time, they settled down.

But as they tried to grasp the idea of the salary and benefits, the conversation turned into an impromptu 45-minute discussion about money, budgeting, and finances in general. We talked about saving (they're pretty pumped that the bank pays us to keep money there) and checkbooks and mortgages and even interest on credit cards. They kept peppering me with questions and were totally interested in all the things we talked about. By the time we were done, there were pieces of paper all over our kitchen table with various numbers on them, illustrating what we'd discussed and the kids were begging for checkbooks (which we'll do as they get a little older).

* Every day we check the Enchanted Learning Calendar and see what we're recognizing/celebrating/commemorating that day. Whenever something strikes our fancy, we do the accompanying activity. We have so much fun with this! The other day, we celebrated Bach's birthday. We read about him, filled out a sheet about him, and then played on YouTube for a good half hour--there are some fabulous computer videos put to many of Bach's organ pieces! We were mesmerized by the colors and rhythm and themes. They were so excited to recognize some of the pieces. Then we played some on the piano, too.

I like that the curriculum and taking various classes helps expose us to ideas and topics that we might not know about or learn about otherwise (and it helps that we have a fabulous homeschool group and community that gives us so many classes and clubs to take part in). But I also like that unschooling balances that out with really considering the kids' interests and desires and following their lead which always, always feeds their natural excitement and curiosity.

I love seeing our kids wonder about something and jump up to "look it up" or "find out!" That's what we do, isn't it? I know that when we're watching movies and I say, "Who's that actor? Where have we seen him recently?" that I generally jump up and check IMDB.com (if my husband, who seems to have a serious affinity for all things trivia, doesn't already know . . . he generally already knows. It's uncanny!). Or when something is bugging me, I look it up in a book or on Google. Well, kids are no different and I love that we can encourage that and nurture that instead of either ignoring it or tiring them out or forcing them to sit through hours of what may or may not interest them or, gag, "teaching to the test." Every educator I know hates that.

And you can take ANY interest, any, and learn all manner of things. Believe me, we've done it with trains, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter, American Girl, Legos, etc. If there's a hobby or interest that gets your kids all excited, you can learn all manner of things in any and all subjects. Just incorporate it. Voila, unit studies! It's fun, because you get to be creative and have fun all as part of learning. We have done reading, writing, math, cooking, history, philosophy, religion, and science all with Star Wars. No kidding. And it's fun.

For Physical Education, we've decided to focus on a different thing every year--exercise or soccer or tennis or Tae Kwon Do or gymnastics or rock wall climbing or swimming or yoga or biking. The list goes on and on. There are TONS of opportunities around here. We also study music and the arts as we please--sometimes it's classical and sometimes it's the Beatles and sometimes it's studying what is meant by the American Idol phrase "make it your own" (thank you, YouTube).

The other fun thing about this is that we can incorporate everyday skills into our learning, too--budgeting, cooking, cleaning, nutrition, exercise, laundry, service, home repair, volunteering, shopping, money management, the list goes on and on. And we get to read and write like crazy. And see plays, visit museums, enter contests, attend performances, take classes, and so forth (often avoiding big crowds by going during school days when most kids are in school). We get to play games a lot. We get to read and write TONS. And we get to simply hang out together. I just don't tire of it.

Do we have days that are challenging? Yes. Do we have times that it seems really tricky to get everything done? Oh yes! But the life skills we learn as we work together to do this are invaluable--getting along, knowing when it's time for some down time, enjoying quiet time, balance, communication, chores, working together, learning together. We absolutely love this. And it totally suits us. I'm so excited that we have this option and get to choose this! We've met so many fabulous people through this and just in general, we simply love it. Plus, daily I'm freaked out by how quickly time flies. The kids are growing up so fast. I love that we can enjoy so much together.

This is how our kitchen table sometimes looks after a good morning of learning

Sometimes school looks like this

Sometimes it looks like this

Sometimes when the weather is nice, it looks like this--our friends and neighbors (who also homeschool) come over to play and skateboard and generally hang out

Friends

Sometimes it looks like this (at Theater Class, no less)

Here are Thing 1 and Thing 2 busy at work in the clinic--they are both employed and earn money by helping out with things in there

Thing 2 especially enjoyed helping put together binders for my anxiety group/class

Sometimes school looks like this (this box has been a rocket ship, a simulator, a house, a time machine, and even a place to campout/sleep at night in their room--it wasn't so comfortable)

This one cracks me up--we made these for St. Patrick's Day and Thing 2 decided to celebrate diversity by making his leprechaun black

Sometimes our fridge looks like this. See that flat guy with the blue magnet on his head? That's Flat Stanley. The kids' cousin Andrew sent us Flat Stanley so we can take him on an adventure and then mail him back so he can share the adventure with his class in school! We're so excited to show Flat Stanley a good time!

Tracing Thing 2 for our fun project

Some days aren't so productive and some days are more of a challenge. But some days totally click and flow and are SO much fun. Today has been one of those days. People ask me what a typical day is like. They vary from day to day (some days we're home all day, some days we play outside all day, some days we are with our group all day, some days we do playgroups (we probably get together with friends in one way or another 4-5 days/week), some days we have writer's group, some days we visit museums, some days we run errands, some days are a mix . . . ), but this'll give you a basic idea. Here's what we've done today:

* We got up and got ready.
* We tried a new recipe--breakfast pizza (delicious to me and Thing 1, not so much to Mark and Thing 2 as it was too egg-y for them) and the kids kept trying to get us to sit on a whoopee cushion
* Thing 2 is reading really well and so we're reviewing sounds and writing by doing the letter of the day (today is D) - we review writing uppercase and lowercase Ds and then the kids go on a treasure hunt with buckets to find 3 items that start with the letter D, then we do a mini Show and Tell with said items, then we do a craft that we've been working on (we plaster a page with the letter "D" on it with various pictures, magazine cut outs, stickers, and drawings that begin with the letter D), then we have a snack that starts with the letter D (Thing 2 suggested we cut an apple in half and call it a "drum" and hit it with pretzel sticks and eat both--sounds great!)
* Thing 1 and I worked on the proper way to write a thank you letter (and one of our blog readers will be receiving that in the mail in the next few days) and address an envelope, we reviewed state abbreviations, and made sure we have our own address memorized.
* We had fun coming up with homonyms, homophones, and homographs (various papers on our wall)
* We had fun coming up with compound words (also on our wall) -- we have time lines, maps, various fun things on our walls . . .

Our fun time line - we add our own flair to it

* We filled our bird feeders and used our bird book to identify the first few visitors to our bird feeders (a GORGEOUS cardinal -- did you know that only the males are bright red?--and several finches so far). Thing 2 loves the bird book. We also follow birds on webcams online. He especially likes to check out the Bald Eagle (let me know if you want a link--it's pretty cool). Mark and Thing 2 listened to bird calls online, which totally threw Thing 1 and me (we excitedly called them to the kitchen so that they could hear what we thought were the birds telling each other about the bird seed. We couldn't figure out why it had stopped. The boys burst out laughing that it was them listening to bird calls online in the other room.)

I took this picture at night - click on it to see it bigger. The cardinal is so beautiful. Colors like that only appear in nature. Gorgeous!

I took this one earlier today - see the little finch on the feeder?

The brain, heart, and bones
(we'll keep adding to it as we keep learning and researching)

* We did some math lessons and computer games
* We talked nutrition at lunch (just came up in conversation)
* We did a fun human body project where we got a big roll of paper and Thing 1 traced Thing 2 on it and then we taped it to a door. We're learning about the systems of the body and drawing and cutting out various organs and bones and such and gluing it to the paper as we do. Today we researched the brain, the heart, and bones.
* We watched a bunch of Schoolhouse Rocks clips (we LOVE these--Mark's brilliant idea to purchase it and have it on hand . . . we use it a lot!) and sang along to some of them.
* We made a "Contests" folder with calendars stapled to the front and rules of various writing and cooking contests inside the folder (Thing 1 can NOT get enough of writing contests and also loves to cook--we're especially inspired that a 10-year-old in our town recently won $25,000 and several trips to NYC to be on the Today show, Rachel Ray, etc. for winning a national cooking contest--the only rule was to use 3T of peanut butter in the recipe)
* Mark gave both kids piano lessons

-----We did all this by early afternoon--------- (People often ask how long it takes to do school at home--again, this varies, but no matter what approach you take, you can do it in a matter of a few hours really due to more focused attention . . . ideally, it's simply part of your lifestyle--easier said than done sometimes)

* We started our week by celebrating Palm Sunday with friends--we reenacted paving the road with palm leaves and cloaks.

Palm Sunday

And a friendly game of croquet

Today we studied both Maundy Thursday (a day of service, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane) and Good Friday by talking about it, looking at pictures, and having pita bread and grape juice together.

Learning about Judas

We're having fish and soup for dinner and driving downtown to see the beautiful big wooden cross that a church down there puts out every year--they drape it with a big, deep purple cloth and it stays there all week. On Sunday, they replace it with a white cloth. It's really beautiful. We're also attending an Easter Mass on Sunday. I've been itching to attend a Catholic Mass since my Dad died. I've just felt drawn to it, feeling nostalgic for seeing what my parents experienced growing up and what I did, too, as a child.
* Thing 1 and Mark are making dinner as I type this. Thing 2 is playing Harry Potter on the computer. We're going in to help in a bit. Oh, Thing 1 is done and is now watching "I Love Lucy."

Now, confessions: our house is pretty messy and we haven't done much cleaning today (or this week in general), we have a ton of projects to do both inside and out, I got to some emails and calendaring today and managed to wrap a couple of birthday presents and start working on the lesson I'm teaching next Monday to my anxiety group. Haven't gotten to much beside that. That happens, especially on full days like this. This is our usual homeschool group day, but since many in our group recognize Good Friday in various religions, we decided to postpone our field trip for today. Several of us were going to go to DC this morning to see the Cherry Blossoms (peak week), but decided not to because of the rain forecast. I'm kind of miffed, because it hasn't rained at all. Hmph. Anyway, I think one of the most challenging aspects is trying to get to everything and keep up. But still, it's totally worth it to us. We love the flexibility and eventually, stuff gets done.

But there you go. An idea of what it's like. It's fun and we love it.

Here is a bonus video for grandparent and aunt and uncle types. Here is Thing 2 reading me a book about Transformers--he's doing such a great job!

Nerds R Us

We (we, Wii, wee) put up several sheets of paper on our kitchen wall. On each piece (peace, piece) of paper, we (we, Wii, wee) are (are, "r") listing homophones as we (we, Wii, wee) think of them. I (eye, I) am loving this since I (eye, I) am a total grammar nerd and think homophones are particularly fun.

Some (sum, some) of our conversations so (sew, so, sow) far this morning (mourning, morning) include:

Me, standing and writing some words: Hare! Hair!
Thing 1 laughs and shakes her head.
Daddy: And the truth is, Mommy could stand here all day doing this!

Me, a little later: ooooh! Wait! Weight!
Thing 1, considering: Ohhhhh! Wait like "Wait a minute" and weight like how heavy something is.
Me: Yep! Oh! It's! And its! Isn't this fun?!?!?!
Thing 1: You keep coming up with stuff when we're coming up with them!
Me: I'm just getting you going. I'll rein it in.
Thing 1: I don't think you can.

Thing 1: Maybe we can put a big piece of tape over your mouth that says, "Sorry, I'm not allowed to say any more homophones!"

I'm trying to restrain myself from writing rein and rain. Oooooh! And reign! I thought of it when I said I'd rein it in . . .

Next Week's Theme

The top 7 theme is "Songs of the Cinema" (YAY!) with guest mentor Quentin Tarantino (URGH--he stunk it up so bad as a guest judge in the past). And Miley Cyrus (heaven help us) is singing on results night.

I'm so not excited about most of this. What do you bet Lil does something from The Bodyguard that she can't even sing?

BUT I can hardly wait to see what Adam will do! And Matt, too. And Allison. But not Lil. I'm bored with her now.

Recipe Organization

We love Allrecipes.com and reference it frequently. I love the pictures, recipes, comments, reviews, and ratings. We've found some great recipes on there. We enjoy trying new foods and mixing up the tried, true, and familiar with some new added spice and variety.

Often, when I find a new recipe, I scribble down some notes at the computer on a random piece of paper and then I take it into the kitchen where we, obviously, cook. As you can imagine, we have little pieces of paper with recipes on them all over the place.

We often dream of how cool it would be to have some sort of drop down computer that is mounted underneath our cabinets that opens up and, with the touch of a button, gives us recipes to read and follow. But since we're not George and Judy (Jetson, c'mon, keep up), we have random papers.

We also have a recipe box that holds 3X5 cards. It's the same one I've had since starting college. It is cute and labeled, but filled to overflowing.

So now, what to do to organize the recipes . . . we've contemplated (and lean to) making a recipe blog. That way it's online, easy to locate, easy to navigate, easy to share, and handy for when our kids have their own kitchens. Plus, Thing 1 would probably thoroughly enjoy being our data entry worker with that and we'd enjoy her enjoying that, too, not to mention the benefit of getting it done. (We'd pay her. We're not total task masters.)

But even with the blog, you still have the computer-isn't-in-the-kitchen issue. One might suggest a laptop, but our laptop is often in the clinic with the doctor and the patients and in use. So that wouldn't always work. Our other computers are desktops.

We also like having a book of some kind with paper recipes to read and hold tangibly in our hands, you know, like a book! None of that new-age hand-held Kindle stuff. So, might there be a way to do both? Should we blog and print up each recipe and put it in our book? And how should we put them in the book? Hole punch and put it in? Slip into slipcovers? What to do! Can you tell we're doing a lot of organizing around here?

So, what do you do? How do you organize your recipes?

More on the results

Magistra is one of my favorite columnists who writes about Idol. I read her stuff every week and have for years. I was so excited for her when she got picked up by Philly Burbs. Her results recap was particularly good this week and worth a link.

Here is my favorite paragraph that totally made me laugh out loud:

And finally, there were your results, America. This week, you decided to be totally un-PC and put the African-American girl, the Indian guy, and the blind guy in the bottom three. When all was said and done, America decided that they no longer liked the blind guy.

Read the rest here. Subscribe to her newsletter if you like. It's so worth it. She's really good.

And then there were 8

You know what? Scott wouldn't win this. He wouldn't be in the finale. He probably isn't even top 4 material. But by golly he deserves to outlast Lil. And was she dressed like the Epcot ball?

Argh. I'm so frustrated. I'm happy that Matt and Anoop are safe and that Allison finally didn't sit in the bottom 3. But Lil deserved to go. Now we have to watch more performances where she doesn't do what she's been advised to do and where she then gets well-deserved criticism from the judges and then she promises us that she'll do better next week. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

My only other thought about tonight's show is . . . did Pickler get a reversal of her breast augmentation? She looks much better. But she still can't sing. Scott sang better than she did.

Oh the injustice of it all. Every year there's one who lingers even when they can't sing. And when I hear them on the radio, I shake my head at the off-keyness (cough, Kimberley Locke, cough). So Lil joins the ranks of Kimberley Locke, Syesha Mercado, and the like. Sigh. I'd rather watch Scott quite frankly. Or Alexis Grace. Oh well.

Farewell, Piano Man.

Fweeha! A Tag!

Bythelbs did such a fun post that I asked for a letter assignment. The tag is “10 things you like that start with the letter _” and she was kind enough to assign me the letter F.

So, without further ado . . . here are 10 Things I Like That Start With “F”:


1. Family. This one is a total no brainer. My husband and kids are my absolute favorite people in the world. I am constantly, constantly, constantly amazed how lucky I am to have it so good.


2. Friends. A night out with friends once in a while does wonders for me. I love being able to laugh, play, or talk about deep stuff with my friends. And friends with whom you can do all three? Those are the best. And bloggy friends are pretty wonderful, too.


3. Food. Omigosh, I love good food. Notice the qualifier "good." Mac-n-cheese and anything made with disgusting marinara sauce does not count. But our seared tuna with wasabi butter sauce that we had for dinner yesterday? Yeah, that counts.


4. Fish. I love seafood. I love fish. Raw and rolled in seaweed with rice? Even better. Sushi is my favorite food.


5. Friends. This time I mean the TV show. I quote this show all the time. Ask anyone. It's amazing how many things I can relate to a clip of this show. Though this clip doesn't really relate to anything in particular, it's my favorite--David Schwimmer is awesome at slapstick and Joey is hilarious filling out the hospital form:



Wait, I love this scene, too. And I quote this one all the time:



Oh oh. And this one. LOVE when Phoebe goes all ballistic like this:





6. Foreign Films. I should get some kind of bonus for this one. Like in Scattegories. Because I used 2 Fs. But yeah, I like foreign films. I like the music. I like the simple story lines. I like the feel of the films. I like the cinematography. I like the gorgeous views they often have. I like the ambiguous endings. I even like the subtitles. One of my favorite things at BYU was the International Cinema. I have several favorites, most of them French (oooh, another F -- French Foreign Films). Here are some of them:

Jean de Flourette
Manon of the Spring
My Father's Glory
My Mother's Castle


7. Fromage. I love cheese, but especially the French variety. Brie and Camembert are two of my favorite soft, spreadable cheeses. They're particularly delectable with some good accompanying bread. Mmmmmm. My Dad used to eat cheese for dessert--he can do that; he's European. And he is the one who introduced Mark to Queijo Sao Jorge, Mark's favorite sharp cheese. Oh and I love goat cheese, too. Cheese. Cheese is good.


8. Freaks and Geeks. How in the world shows like Full House, Saved by the Bell, and Family Matters ever even air, let alone continue past one season while pure genius like Freaks and Geeks gets inexplicably dropped before it even completed one season is one of the greatest mysteries of the pop culture world. This show had brilliant writers and producers. Unfortunately, this show also had a lousy time slot and poor marketing. This show should've never been canceled. Never. Its cult following is huge (have you seen the show's ranking on IMDB.com?) and it is totally worth owning and watching again and again, especially if you're a child of the 70s and 80s. And that's coming from people who don't generally own a lot of movies or TV shows. This one is a gem. It's like "high school for the rest of us!" The selection of music on this show is nothing short of truly awesome. And every time we watch it (all 18 episodes, *sniff*), I swear I tear up a little at the thought that anyone could be so supremely stupid as to cancel this show. Seriously, that level of moronic ineptitude just makes me sad.


9. Firth, Colin. My dear Mr. Darcy. Oh man, I love Colin Firth! He is one of my favorite actors. His quiet delivery and easy manner make him unable to resist. I've enjoyed everything I've ever watched that has him in it. And when I look at his list on IMDB, I see there's so much I haven't yet seen (how exciting!). With a beard, without a beard, in a suit or just a loose white shirt, it doesn't much matter. There's a reason all women swoon over Mr. Darcy.


10. Feelings. I'm an ENFJ. I'm a person who feels deeply and makes decisions based on feelings and after much thought. I don't make major life decisions lightly. I delve deep. I genuinely feel for people, care about people. And I feel strongly and deeply about many things. And I'm learning how to handle this to help keep depression and anxiety at bay while also living authentically. This has been gruelingly difficult at times and incredibly empowering.

We have a really great book club (about 14 people, men and women) and at a recent meeting we were discussing a character in our book selection for that month. As we were talking about her perspective and approach to life, the Myers-Briggs personality test came up and we all started talking about our various scores on the test. One man in our group mentioned that he leans way more to logic than feelings. He went on to say that he doesn't ever feel really excited and sometimes he thinks he misses out on what that's like, but then he looks at the flip side--he doesn't ever feel very down and he's glad to avoid that.

I'm one of those he describes. I can feel so genuinely giddy and excited that I'm overflowing with happy energy. When I am with those I love, I know what it means to feel "love so much that it hurts." I love fiercely and passionately. But yes, the depths to which I can go have also at times been profoundly intense. My love runs deep. My spirituality is something I constantly hone and daily feel. Fear is scary to me. It's a blessing and a curse. However, I don't know that I'd trade it. It definitely has lead me into what I do professionally--counseling and teaching. I genuinely enjoy people and am totally charged by the energy I feel in both individual and group settings. And it contributes to who I am as a wife, mother, friend . . . I think it's part of why I love to think, to write, to read, to meditate, to live, to love.

Anyway, FUN post. Thanks, lbs! I won't tag anyone either, but if someone would like to do it, let me know in the comments and I'll assign you a letter, too! :)

Am I Really That Old? (Idol Style)

When one of the contestants on American Idol was born just months before I graduated high school, I start to realize that I've put in enough time to earn the grays I'm sporting. These birth year theme nights are really cool because they are broad enough to sample a lot of different sounds, but yet narrow enough that the contestants don't (necessarily) make such rotten choices. As we've seen, some contestants still find a way to make poor selections, but they just can't help themselves. Some people can't dress themselves. Some people don't know what song to pick. It's just how it is sometimes.

I'm glad the judges just appeared magically in their seats rather than walking through the ridiculously slow sliding stage doors. It's like when you try to rush through the automatic doors at the grocery store and they don't quite open fast enough and you're left with a dented milk jug and sore forehead. Never happened to any of you? Yeah, me neither. I thought they were trying to conserve time but we see that wasn't the case. Stacy was talking tonight about how cute she thinks Paula is, and how sometimes what she says is so flowery and 'round about, and I had the thought that she is like a Portuguese greeting card.

Non-sequitor thoughts begin, here--> To illustrate, when my Portuguese mother-in-law goes on a trip, all of her sisters and brother and nieces and nephews and neighbors and Portuguese grocers call to wish her a good trip and much happiness and much love and big kisses to all of her family and safety and the grace and protection of the Lord and . . . and . . . Add in a Happy Birthday and you've got Hallmark, the Lisbon version.

OK, on to the recap . . .

Danny: I loved the arrangement and interpretation of the song this week. I'm starting to feel a little sorry for Danny, though, only because he's a great singer who actually has some originality and understands who he is, but I'm afraid he might get lost in the shuffle with the laud and praise some other contestants are getting each week. I hope once there are less contestants (and when the first performance slot isn't the predetermined "spot to forget") Danny will continue to wow us.

Kris: Simon was a bit harsh and indulgent in his own critique, but Kris was definitely off his game tonight. He needs to find a way to bring it again next week. And how about his family doggin' on the taxi drivers of the world. Good thing this show isn't taped in NYC or he'd be hoofin' it all over town. "Sorry. Off duty."

Lil: The best part of the performance for me was finding out that "Lil" is her actual, given name. Very cool. When they announced she'd be singing a Tina Turner song I thought to myself, "Oh, OK. Another diva." I just don't think Lil knows how to make a song original. She's a great singer who does a nice impression of some other great singers, but week in and week out she makes the same plea and promise to America. I just need to see Lil the Artist, not Lil the singer.

Anoop: Simon's yo-yo analogy was a decent one. He really does change from week to week. I agree that this was a better week for him--perfect song and perfect interpretation. I could completely hear Anoop in this one this week. Anoop dog is in the house tonight! (As an aside, I loved how Simon told Anoop to not worry about--to borrow a Wally Cleaver-ism--giving the judges "the business.")

Scott: I've gotta give him props for stepping out from behind the piano, but I wasn't a huge fan of the performance. The guitar wasn't impressive enough to be worth the change. I like Scott, and I would love to keep hearing more from him. I think sticking to the piano is the best bet for him and gives him the greatest chance of continuing on for a few more weeks.

Allison: Where did this girl come from. And was she really singing a song from her birth year that I heard at my senior prom? Ouch! I'm getting old! I loved this song choice, too, because it was restrained and controlled, but yet showed the rocker side that we've come to expect and love. She keeps singing like this and she'll be sailing through to the finals. I love her mother's comments about talking too much. Classic!

Matt: I was a bit worried when Matt chose a song by The Greatest Singer in the Known Universe (per Randy), but he worked it out! This was the right style for him, especially when he infused his own jazzy, soulful side to the song. He needed this performance tonight. I think it may have been the hat.

Adam: This guy is in a league all his own. He is not my favorite singer as far as his natural genre, but I've got to admit he is the most original and talented of the group this year. He has a knack for taking songs and making us feel like we're hearing them for the first time. Too bad most of America missed his performance on their DVRs.

So, realizing that so many of the contestants are really good this year, here is MY BOTTOM THREE: Lil, Scott, Anoop (simply a prediction, not preference)
RELEASED OF THE PRESSURE TO BE ORIGINAL: Oh, please let it be Lil.

P.S. Did you catch each of the "Judge-isms" in the contestants' recaps?

Idol does birth year songs

Every year. Every year they run out of time for the top 8. And yet they continue to make it an hour-long show. And they continue to fill it with nonsense at the beginning. And they continue to rush us through the wrap up, making us feel dizzy and used by the time the "19" fireworks flash.

People who only TiVoed one hour tonight are going to be SO. MAD.

Before I get to anything about tonight, someone please tell me who the cyborg is in the audience tonight. Who is he? Why is he there? Why doesn't he move? Why doesn't his master make him applaud? Or blink?

I was glad to see them dispense with the judges' dramatic stage entrance and while they were all adorable babies (particularly Randy), I could've done without this segment in order to hear more Adam praise. Stupid producers.

Danny - So Gokey is the oldest and he was born in 1980. Where is my Geritol? I didn't recognize that version of "Stand By Me" but it rocked and he started out the night very, very well. There are some clear front runners in this competition and Danny is one of them. And he did a little scatting. I happen to love that.

Kris - Oh man, so that mini-interview on the stools with Ryan about the judges' awesome praise was like a really bad foreshadowing. I think he did well. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. Boring song, yes, but he'll be fine. I'm not tiring of him. I am, however, tiring of Simon's indulgent use of the word 'indulgent.'

Lil - Ugh. Tina Turner? A step up from Celine and Whitney, but still not Mary J. Blige. I think Lil is on her way out. And deservedly so. I predicted she'd get boring. And I was right. Listening to her say she'll do it next time for the umpteenth time is just painful and uncomfortable at this point. She's done. There is no next time. She's run out of time. You can't wait until 8 weeks in to show us that you'll listen to the judges' advice and do what suits you. Pack your bags, Lil. Nice hair, though.

Anoop - Dude sang True Colors. That rocks. The interview before was a little painful from Ryan's awkward attempt to talk about sports to his Tyra Banks wannabe attempt to stir up controversy where there is none. And Anoop can somehow pull off an Easter ensemble while still looking like he just came from math class. But dude can sing. I loved it. I love what Anoop did with this song. He done Cyndi Lauper proud. And he went beautifully into his false. Perhaps Paula said it best, "You did show your true colors, just like a rainbow." Classic. Classy. Well done.

Scott - He plays guitar? Okay, before everyone gets grumpy about his off notes, I want to say that I love this song and think it's one of THE most romantic rock ballads of the 80s. Okay, so his performance was reallllllllly painful at times. And I'd like for him to succeed, but after Lil, he's next. And then it'll be Allison and the boys battling it out for the finals. I'm LOVING this season! But we're talking about Scott. Nice kid, decent voice, rough performance, great sense of humor, a little out of his depth. He's bottom 3, but Lil should leave first.

Allison - I love that her pediatrician was so clairvoyant and that her mother totally bought into it. Her mom is so cute, you want to carry her around in your pocket. Oh! With Anoop's mom! Wouldn't that be fun? Little live dolls with cute accents. I love the idea! So, Allison did brilliantly tonight. She was wearing the head cheerleader's prom skirt from the year of her birth, but maybe I'm just shocked that she was born in 1992. The same year I graduated high school. Allison is nothing short of amazing. 16? She's brilliant. And deserves to stay around for a long time. This girl doesn't deserve to smell the bottom 3. And Simon's a self-indulgant idiot. She does so have a personality. You just have to not be so wrapped up in yourself that you miss it.

Matt - Scott setting up haunted mansions. Matt as a sassy angel. Who got these clips? I totally dig the hat on Matt. I've been hoping he'd break that out soon. I love it. I totally dig this guy. You know what? I can't stand this song and yet he made me like it tonight! He totally "soul"ed this song. Did he just look like he was going to cry when he got the (well-deserved) mad praise? I'm so happy for him. He's SO done with the bottom 3 this week. The girl judges were totally digging it. Well done, Matt. Well done indeed. And he scatted. Doesn't get cooler than that.

So, anyone else notice that when Ryan ran the numbers, they were already out of time? Or, if you're like some people, that's where your TiVo cut out? (A little hint: always set your TiVo to run over about 15 minutes during Idol). At least do that if you're as crazy for this show as we are. Hey, it's pretzel night! People were going crazy looking for it on the web. Here it is if you missed it. Or if you saw it and simply must see it again because it's brilliant:





Adam - Um, need I say more? I feel like I've already gushed about how awesome he is in my chat with my brother-in-law Greg tonight. But I'll do it again. He was phenomenal. PHENOMENAL. I had this massive sense of anticipation the whole show to see Adam and what he'd do and in NO way did he disappoint. Plus I love when they interview his mother and she's all, "Oh it's okay if he's not successful as long as he's happy, even if he's driving a taxi!" And then his Dad says, "It'd be nice for him to be successful, too." They're hilarious. But this performance! WOW! Talk about song choice! MAD WORLD?! Tears for Fears?! Is he freaking kidding me?! Who has done that?! NO ONE, that's who. NO ONE. And he did his own BRILLIANT take on it. UNbelievable. He slowed it down a bit. From the very first notes, I was freaking out that he was doing that song. He is BRILLIANT. Well done. Standing "O" from Simon. Well done.

And I love Paula. I love how she gets up and dances to every song. She reminds me of people you see who drive around singing at the top of their lungs, devil may care. I love her comments. I love her rhetoric. I love her sense of humor.

I'm not any kind of crazy stalker, but I often think it would be fun to host her for a weekend. You almost feel protective of her. People can be so cruel. So she seems like she's on drugs sometimes. I like her. I think she's adorable. Plus, I'm one of the millions of little girls who sang and danced along to "Forever my Girl" and "Straight Up" with reckless abandon. And I'm totally proud of it.

So, Best to Worst tonight:

Adam
Matt
Allison
Danny
Anoop
Kris
Scott
Lil

Going home: Lil

A Daily Universe Boo Boo

Hilarious. There are comments all over the web and some people are so over the top uptight. I bet the 12 themselves are getting a kick out of it. I mean, a copy editor should have caught such a blatant mistake. But it happens. Print a correction the next day. I hope the poor person who did that isn't getting fired over it. So funny. Apparently getting an actual copy is quite the score since BYU is scrambling to collect all the copies with the typo.

You can read more about it here. (h/t cousin Jill and my friend Rebecca who has informed me that she would've told me first if I had been sitting at the computer today when she was trying to get a hold of me to tell me!!)

It's snowing . . .

. . . and I'm VERY grumpy about it.

Stupid groundhog.

Toys, Paper, and Stuff

We are in the thick of organizing and cleaning. Our move to our farmhouse was pretty harried and we did it right after starting our business and shortly before my Dad died. It was a very busy time for us. We didn't get to do a lot of the normal "cleaning out" you do when you move. And we are still doing that and unpacking.

Some rooms got moved into nicely--the kitchen, for example. And the living room. But other rooms . . . not so much.

People think I'm neat and organized. And in many ways, I am. And when I'm organized, I am organized. But in many ways, I'm not. I've relaxed over the years (quite frankly, I think Mark's glad). :P

I'm the kind of person who, when a room is clean and neat and tidy, is NUTS about keeping it that way. But when it gets out of control, I sort of shrug, shut the door, and toss more stuff in there now and then because "it's already a mess."

Basically, I'm Monica and we have what we call our "Monica Closet." As illustrated here:



(Stop at 1:28--the rest has nothing to do with this post and will likely get you fired if you view it at work. And don't let that bait you into watching either. You've been warned).

So, now we're organizing. And sorting. And cleaning. And it makes me wonder how people handle things like this.

I mean, I think we have WAY too many toys. I always swore we wouldn't have more than could fit in a toybox. But we're way overloaded. When we look at most of the toys, we take some comfort in the fact that we haven't bought most of them. And we're really grateful for them. But we're a bit overloaded and I'm not sure what to do.

Why do I save this stuff? Well, I can think of a few reasons:

1. The cost. I know people who just toss stuff. They clean out and throw out and Goodwill and give away like they're on a mission. But then, many of them buy the same toys again later. I'm fundamentally opposed to that because of the expense. If you're going to use it again later (having more kids, giving to your grown children/grandchildren, etc.), then save it!

2. Plus I get attached to stuff sometimes. I don't like that I do, but I do. I get attached to the thought of who gifted it to us, etc. (I totally know that's one of the no-nos from those people who go on Oprah and tell people how to declutter, but what can I say . . . therapists can have issues, too).

3. Also, most of my childhood toys got tossed by my parents (sorry, Mom, but it's true), because my Mom is an impulsive thrower-outer. She can quickly deem something as "garbage" and toss it out before you have time to blink or say, "That's my Sesame Street Clubhouse!" (Yeah, still a little bitter about that one--even replaced that one through eBay for the nostalgia factor).

So on the one hand I'm trying to be the opposite and not throw stuff out because I miss some of my toys. But on the other hand, I sort of envy my mother's ability to so easily part with stuff as it makes for less clutter. And less clutter is good because there's less stress, better chi, and, you know, you're not a slave to things (to clean, to organize, to find, to fix, to put away, etc.).

(For the record, I'm not like those people you read about in magazines who pay hundreds of dollars for storage space for loads of stuff they store. It's not nearly that bad. We don't pay for storage and I'm talking fairly typical household stuff here).

So I'm a dichotomy: I don't like clutter and I don't like to throw stuff out. Hmmmm. Conundrum.

I think in general, my time management and organizational skills have gone downhill. 99% of the time, I'm fine with it as this is a result of my learning to relax and go easy on myself in order to help myself heal from depression and anxiety. And I really am happier and healthier. But 1% of the time, I feel frustrated.

Some rooms are not cluttered--our kitchen, for example. And our bedrooms. But our playroom and den get overloaded sometimes.

So I read up on how to organize and declutter and many of the tips work. And we do them!

But sometimes in the midst of these paper piles and toy piles, I think, "Do other people deal with this? How do they handle it? What tips could they give me that would take into consideration my slight attachment (attachment isn't good, I know) to stuff, my financial conerns (don't want to buy twice), and my guilt factors (I don't want to throw out the kids' toys so that we can give them to them when they get married and have kids)."

I don't want to make the kids feel badly by throwing out their stuff and yet I want to teach non-attachment and how nice it is to have less stuff and more order.

I did see a cute idea for saving kids' drawings--save several from every year, make a nice cover with name and year, and bind them in a book at Staples.

And for stuffed animals, check out The Zoo. (Stuffed animals we have aplenty, but no word of a lie--they are played with almost CONSTANTLY).

So, how do you handle this? What do you do with their toys? Their drawings? Stuff in general? Are you organized? When do you organize? (If you're one of those people who has always been organized and just keeps it that way, you can just keep your comments to yourself. :P) What are your organizational challenges? What helps? What works? What doesn't work?

Caw! Caw!

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

I've got the Hallelujah Chorus ringing in my head. And it's so totally appropriate. It's about freaking time that Megan goes home. And tonight was so off-the-charts uncomfortable that I might've cried if she hadn't left.

What was with the weird dancing and freaky facial expressions and the squawking and the flying?? Is she cracking up?? I'm not sure what other explanation there could be at this point.

She looked almost glad to go. After her little episode of mouthing off to the judges, I was so turned off. After she got booted, when she said she had some things to say, I thought she might just say, "See ya, suckahs!" and invoke the federal broadcast 2-second delay safety mechanism with a hand gesture.

She's ready to go home to her baby. I'm wondering if she might give Alexis, who looked none too pleased to be in the audience, her spot on the tour.

Tonight was WILDLY uncomfortable. From Ryan's manhandling of Scott (again) to the HORRIBLE lip synching to the matching dog tags (what's that about?) to the mics picking up everything the contests were saying and doing to that Lady Gaga performance to the close up on Lady's zipper eye patch to Megan mouthing off to the judges to Megan making weird faces to Megan thinking she's a bird to Megan's swan song (Ha! I get it!).

There were some bright spots:

* Matt's save
* David Cook's performance and award
* The contestants' camaraderie
* Anoop showing some humility
* The dramatic intro to the show to recap yesterday's performances (MAJOR improvement to Ryan's voice overs, Idol Producers)

And I'm left with questions:

Allison should NOT be in the bottom 3. What is with America? Why has she been there twice? She needed to switch places with Lil. On the 2nd time hearing it back, Lil was very, very off. Painfully so.

What other desserts does the Idol chef make?

Was Scott really playing the piano or was that fake, too, like the singing?

What about the guy with the guitar?

Is Kara going to hate that her little "Boo" routine showed that her arms could use some toning? (I'm one to talk. We could all take lessons from Michelle Obama on the arms).

Could Kris's teeny bopper fans scream any louder?

Why don't we ever see these Ford commercials on TV?

Does Paula really think they all have the same potential as Adam?

How'd they get those bubbles in the piano?

Can she zip that patch shut if she doesn't want to look at something with that eye?

Was she dressed in a party ribbon or metal casings?

Who the heck is she?

(Loved the violin dude with the awesome dreadlocks, though).

April Fools and All That Jazz

The kids have been very excited about April Fools' Day this year. I don't know if it's the condoned fibbing or just the chance to prank everyone in sight, but they've been pumped. Stacy's been hard at work trying to come up with a number of tricks to play on them, and she came up with a few. In no way should you be surprised that they are mostly food related, with a little bathroom humor tossed in, you know, for the kids.

We don't have a picture of breakfast but we planted a few drops of food coloring in the cereal bowl so when the milk went in Thing 1 and 2 were staring down at red and blue Rice Krispies. They got a huge kick out of it and seeing that simple things got such a rise out of them was quite encouraging.

For dinner we decided to serve dessert, and when we told them we were having dessert for dinner, they got very excited. We did have a Caesar salad, too, because you need something healthy after all. Thing 2 licked his "frosting" and immediately made a face and said, "These are potatoes!" That's right--meatloaf cupcakes and mashed potato frosting. At first glance they were pretty convincing, too. Thing 2 took it all in stride, actually not minding about the trick because we had Caesar salad, his favorite. Thing 1, not surprisingly, enjoyed the meal since it was delicious.

Mmmm! Cupcakes!

Stacy took the kids out tonight since they had theater class. Stacy runs the class so she went, of course. I stayed behind to make some sushi and pretzels to enjoy during the American Idol results show. Of course, being April Fools' Day, the sushi was not all it seemed . . .

The picture online looked a bit neater

Those are Rice Krispie Treat sushi. You take gummy worms, wrap them in Rice Krispie Treats, slice them, and then wrap the whole thing in fruit leather. As Thing 2 would say, "The thing like Fruitabu that isn't real fruit and is full of sugar and artificial colors." Gee, what do we discuss around here at mealtime?! The "sushi" fooled Thing 1 for about half a second before she said, "Hey! What is that?!" She tells me they are quite good. I, however, couldn't imagine ingesting that much sugar in one bite and feeling good about myself afterward. The pretzels I mentioned were really pretzels. No trick. No prank. Just pretzels. Yum!

Thing 1 really wanted me to use the bathroom near the kitchen tonight. She kept telling me to go, as if I couldn't manage my own toilet schedule, but I figured there was another trick coming. Here's what I found in the bowl:

So things really DO live in the sewers and leave messages for me in my toilet!

She and her partner in crime, Stacy, left some messages in various toilets (apparently there is still one at large). Thing 2 ran into our office to use the bathroom. I hear him yell, " Who put this 'Who Goes There' thing in the toilet?" The girls put a few sheets of toilet paper in the toilet with that message on it. Thing 2 was thrilled that he was able to read it and I reminded him how much more fun life is when you can read. I thought that was a very clever message to send and a unique messenger. The "Don't Get Me Wet" was Thing 1's idea, all her own.

So, that was our April 1st. I think it lived up to the hype in our children's eyes, and in the end that's what matters. It was really cute to see and hear them all over the house today trying to come up with the next big prank. I'm sure Thing 1 is already making a list of tricks for next year. We'd better be prepared.