Thrift Store

On a whim we stopped at our thrift store this afternoon. We weren't looking for anything in particular. But we found a couple of good buys.

We got a white coffee mug with little Apple logos in red all around it. I wasn't familiar with the all red logo, so I wasn't 100% convinced it really was the Apple logo. Violet was sure, and she has better eyesight than I do. We got it for Mr. Incredible who is a huge Mac fan. Mr. I. looked online when we showed it to him. He didn't find a date or origin, but did find a dealer selling one as a rare collectible for $25. We paid $1.

(Which by the way, is a little high for thrift store prices. Our thrift store is a boutique thrift store and tends to be a bit pricy. But their profits go to some really great local organizations including one that helps adults with disabilities get job training and learn to live on their own or in small groups, and our county homeless shelter. As another "by the way" our homeless shelter is trying to build a permanent facility. Currently it is a "traveling" shelter. It is housed at 7 different churches, each one night a week. They need all the $1's they can get since they really could do more great work with a permanent shelter. I feel good shopping at our thrift store.)

Where was I? Yes, great find number 2. Violet got a box set of 3 books, still shrink wrapped. The series is called "Three Swishy Mermaid Tales". She had read the first book but didn't know there were more. The original Borders price tag said $17.95. We paid $5.

I bought graduation thank you cards, an unopened box of 20 cards for $1. You see, I keep talking about how next Spring we'll have an 8th grade graduation party for Violet. After we had the cards at home for about an hour, it finally connected in my brain. Violet is starting 7th grade this fall. She won't graduate 8th grade in the Spring. I mean, homeschoolers are smart and Violet is tops, but gosh that would be pushing it.

Talk about your brain lapses!

Now I just need to not lose the cards in the next year and a half! If I don't lose them and she gets to use them, then that will also qualify for a great find.

Feel the power

The storms early Monday morning have wiped out power for about 800,000 people in our area. We are extremely lucky, our power flickered a few times, but never went out. We think it was flickering again during the night last night as our smoke detectors (wired into the electrical system - local ordinance) kept bleeping LOUDLY very briefly. New power outages seem to be occurring here and there, including stop lights, making traveling interesting. You never know if you will be able to get where you are going and if the power will be on when you get there. We've learned to call ahead.

My parents had no power for over 24 hours, but it is on again. They have well water, so no power to run the pump, so no water as well. They have an office not far from their house with power and running water, but no shower. Mom called this afternoon when the power came on, after she'd taken a shower and started the washing machine.

Violet has an art class this week at the community college. We showed up yesterday, less than an hour after the storm to find the power out there and the college closed. She did get to meet the instructor and really liked him. Today the college was open and she loved the class. He is teaching another drawing class in 2 weeks and she had me sign her up for that too. This week it is mythological characters, the next class is fantasy and sci fi.

It isn't as hot today as yesterday, but still humid and sticky. People are milling about businesses if the power is on. Our library was advertising on its website that they have power and to come on over and recharge your cell phone and laptop there. It is supposed to be much cooler tomorrow, that should help everything get back to normal.

The electric company is telling people it could be Thursday before their power is back on. Most of the branches are cleared from the roads, but it was pretty bad Monday morning. I think branches coming down now are what is taking out power in new places. I think generator sales in the area will be sky high for quite some time.

The storm was so brief and no one I've talked to has thought it seemed very bad. But, boy did it do some damage to the power grid.

New Hat

I bought a knitting book called Kids Knitting. It has a lot of neat, easy projects for beginning knitters just like me. I did some experimenting first, and tonight I finished my first project: a hat with tassels. If you click on the link above and search for page 38, you can see how the hat is supposed to look. This is how mine turned out:





It looks better on Violet's head. She can make anything look good!

There is a scarf that goes with it, that will be my next project. My stitches are not perfect, my seams are particularly bad. But I am improving greatly.

I used to do a lot of embroidery. I mean A LOT. When I look back at my first pieces compared to my last, there is a vast improvement. I'm hoping that will happen with knitting too.

In other news, Violet turned 12 on Sunday. We had a nice family day. We got her a big Lego set, a teen cookbook and a pillow pet. Her party is this weekend. We've tried having her party closer to her actual birthday, but since her birthday is on the holiday weekend too many people are always out of town or otherwise tied up. She's having her Girl Scout friends over to watch the Yogi Bear movie, plus classic Yogi Bear cartoons. Pizza and cake will round out what we expect will be a fun evening.

Remember my promotion? Turns out quite a few people got promoted at the same time. I was pretty disappointed that the promotion might have just been because everyone was moving up, but I feel better now. Mental had some great advice. Thanks for being a sounding board for me. I'm going to enjoy my new title. Let everyone else worry about their own new titles. I'm a manager!

I'm not getting nearly as much done this summer as I'd hoped. (Maybe if I didn't spend all that time knitting, eh?) I am doing a lot of reading too. I'm working my way through the Dortmunder series by Donald Westlake. They are comedic crime novels. Quite entertaining and not deep. Perfect summer reading. I'm also working on the readings for Classic Moms at Abigail Adams Academy for next year. I've read the John Holt and am working on Pride and Prejudice. I really ended up enjoying Classic Moms last year and am looking forward to the new year.

Eventually I'll start the cleaning and organizing I need to do. I've done a little. But I've done more goofing off.

That Old Thing?

A few weeks ago we went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois. We'd studied the Civil War and Lincoln this past year and it seemed like a perfect end of year field trip. We stayed two nights in downtown Springfield and loved it. We also did the Lincoln home, law office and the Illinois State Museum.

One of my favorite things on the trip, the thing I talk about most, was a coffee urn in the treasures section of the Lincoln Museum. The sign said that they had acquired it a few years ago and up until about 10 years ago, it was still being used by the owners to serve coffee. President and Mary Lincoln's coffee urn, still being used to serve coffee at family holiday parties and funerals nearly 150 years later! That's exactly what would happen in my family if we had an antique with a great historical connection.

"What, that old thing? We always use it. Just put the creamer and sugar bowl next to it. It'll be fine."

The 7th Grade Plan

It is done. Most of it is ordered or here. It took several meetings of the curriculum committee and administrative approval, but the plan for 7th grade is complete!

Here it is (keep in mind that not all items listed in each subject will be done at the same time, many will be more like quarter subjects or one semester):

Math:
Key to Algebra
Key to Geometry

Science:
Story of Science (second half of book 2)
Botany Adventure

Language Arts:
Word Roots
Sequential Spelling (maybe, we might discontinue formal spelling because I'm just not positive it is helping enough to keep at it, we may just incorporate it into writing assignments in other subjects)
Editor in Chief
Punctuation Puzzlers Run-Ons
Punctuation Puzzlers Commas and More
Reading Detective
Jabberwocky Poetry Studies for Junior High
Shakespeare's Stories for Young Readers
Miscellaneous classics read aloud and independently

History:
A History of US
A Pioneer Sampler

Logic/Critical Thinking:
Building Thinking Skills
Balance Benders
James Madison Critical Thinking Course

Government:
You Decide!
Various library books on Federal and State government

P.E.:
Open Swim

Art/Music:
School day theater performances
Arts and crafts
Various art shows, music concerts, movies, etc.

I think that will keep us plenty busy. It is likely some subjects will flow into 8th grade, which is perfectly fine. Some may be dropped and others picked up. It is a more challenging curriculum than we've ever had, but it is time that we pick up a little bit. I'll have to come up with a schedule and have some curriculum committee meetings to see what Violet wants to do first, etc. We'll probably alternate some every few weeks just to mix things up.

So, with a plan like this, how do I call us unschoolers? Because Violet prefers using curriculum and has a very big say in what we use. I usually find samples and suggestions, but she gets the final decision on whether or not we try it.

Now the only question is, how do I wait until fall when we get to start all the fun!

Well, what do you know

You might remember about a year and a half ago, I was pursuing being promoted to manager at work. Here's where I wrote about it. Then a few months later I found out that they had too many expectations for managers that just don't mesh with a good family life. In my head at least, I withdrew my intentions of being promoted ever. And was pretty much told by them that I couldn't fulfill the duties as they expected them. I couldn't find a post about the rejection part, I might not have blogged about it. I was pretty disgruntled at the time.

And in the last few months I've been trying really hard to take a slacker approach to work. Get my job done, do it well, but not let it interfere with home life as much. (Yeah, I know that isn't really slacker, but it is as slacker as my type A personality will allow.) I've been slower to respond to e-mail, not letting myself be on call 24-7, speaking up when I am at my limits and asking for assistance.

Well, guess what phone call I got last night. My boss calling to tell me they've decided to promote me to manager. The job I didn't think I could ever get and didn't think I really wanted. At least not on their terms. It gets announced on June 30th and I think becomes effective July 1st.

I did tell her I hope I can meet their expectations. She assured me, I just have to keep doing what I've been doing. (I didn't ask if she meant the slacking off part or the part before that.) She said in the HR meeting the realized I've really been doing the work of a manager for a long time now and it is about time they give me the title and the authority. Well, duh, that's what I told them a year and a half ago.

I'm not sure what I think about this yet. If it is true that I've been doing the job for a while now and nothing will change except my title, then great. I'm happy about that. If however, what they told me before is true, then I'm not. One example they gave me of expectations for managers was that they could get a call at 6 am and be told someone was sick and they'd have to fill in at a client meeting or something else, that day, 2 hours away. Yeah, that isn't going to happen. I'd be happy to call the client and reschedule or help over the phone, but same day travel two hours on no notice doesn't work. We'll see.

Hopefully, if this doesn't work out they'll just demote me back to my current position. I'm going to be pretty pissed if I get fired because I couldn't handle I job I was promoted to that I no longer wanted.

I don't think this is the reaction you are supposed to have to a promotion.

Who knew, quit trying, do your mediocre instead of your best, slack off, quit caring and get rewarded. Now I know what I've been doing wrong this whole time.

Parade

This morning we went to Mr. Incredible's new office. I hadn't seen it yet. It is really nice, the rooms are much bigger than I'd been picturing. It is going to work out well for him.

Anyway, we went there because there was a Memorial Day parade through the town square on which his office is located. We thought about watching from the window, but when we saw all the excitement down on the square we went down too. Violet had never been to a town parade. She really enjoyed it.

We were home in the afternoon. I didn't get a thing done. Just like a holiday is supposed to be!