Life With The Stanfords

A Virus-Free November

We haven't been sick, but my computer sure has. I think it's been riddled with viruses for quite some time, but when the pornographic icons showed up on my desktop, it was time for action. I just got my computer back for the first time in a week. I've had serious withdrawal. I figured out that the computer is my "go-to" when I have to do something I don't want to do. So I ended up doing a lot of stuff I didn't want to do this past week. Welcome back, little computer!

Nineteen days 'til Thanksgiving, people! "Let the wild rumpus start!" You have about two weeks to get your grocery and Christmas shopping done in peace. Then...every man for himself. You've been warned.

This year's been a tough one for The Stanfords, economically and otherwise. But the funny thing about tough times is that they make you even more grateful for the blessings you do have, which brings us to this month's playlist...

This month's playlist has a lot of repeats from last year. I still love Diana Krall's "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" and Copland's "Hoedown", and no November playlist would be complete without "Turkey In The Straw".

My favorite addition to this year's Thanksgiving playlist is "Doxology" by the Michael Gungor Band. What a cool version of one of my favorite hymns! You'll also find a wonderful jazz version of "Ode To Joy" (another favorite hymn) by Brian Bromberg. There's even a Thanksgiving song on here by Don Henley. Hmmm, who knew?

Enjoy the advent of this most wonderful holiday season. Be blessed and be a blessing!

It happens to the best of us.

My husband just shaved his head.

He did this once before, several years ago, and I was not amused. He has been under the impression that he is bald for nine years now. I don't think he's bald. Granted, I see the receding hairline. It is moving further back on his head, but he's still got gorgeous, black hair through which I love to run my fingers. Alas, I think those days are over.

Have you ever felt a shaved head? Blech! It is prickly and weird feeling. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Maybe I'll even start rubbing baby oil on his head to make it shine.

I guess I shouldn't give him a hard time about it. I mean, he has to deal with my body giving in to gravity and wrinkles. Too bad I can't just shave off my bad parts, huh? 

Friday Miscellany

How glad are you that it is Friday? Let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief right now...aaah. The weekend is full of promise.

The LSU Tigers have a huge game this weekend against Florida. Everyone here has their Tim Tebow voodoo dolls out and they're sticking the heck out of 'em. Honestly, I can't believe I even know that much about the game. It's amazing how much you pick up via Facebook and Snap Fitness.

We're having dinner with friends tonight; another night of eating and talking. Have I mentioned before that those are my two favorite things?

I was standing at my kitchen window today minding my own business when suddenly I was called outside:

The wind was blowing, the sky was blue and the temperature was still about 90 degrees. I guess these are our dog days, but what lovely dog days they are.

 
Are these weeds or wildflowers? I'm not sure. They're beautiful either way. Can you believe these are in my backyard? I didn't have anything to do with growing them either. God planted them. He does all things well.

I brought some in to share with the family. I call this still life, "Friday".

I guess Claire will let me know this afternoon whether we need to change the name to "Claritin" or not.

That pattern in the picture is for a Renaissance Festival dress for Claire. I've been waiting and waiting for Hancock Fabrics' Columbus Day Sale. Sunday and Monday their decorator fabrics are half off. I'm hoping I can afford the 11 yards of fabric required for this dress.

One last picture:

Homemade caramel. Did you know that if you run out of apples to dip into this, you can just eat it straight out of the bowl? Who knew?

Happy Weekend! 

Negligent blogocide

Poor little blog collecting dust in the corner of my computer. So sorry. Lots of things have been taking your place, pushing you down on the priority list.

My husband resigned from our church two weeks ago. This was a painful decision for us. We had been considering it and praying about it for a long time. It's difficult to write about because I don't know exactly what to say. Yet it consumes almost all of my thoughts on a daily basis. I think one of the hardest things about leaving is the sadness it's caused our family and so many of our friends. We weren't quite expecting that.

In addition, we have no idea where we're going to go to church now. We've always known what the next step is going to be, but not now. We have no clear direction, and it's overwhelming. *deep sigh*

We just finished teaching our Financial Peace University class. What a blast! Our little class of 10 couples paid off over $40,000 in debt during our 13-week class. Wow! Almost all of us have a $1,000 emergency fund, too. It was really neat to be part of such a life-changing event. It certainly has changed us.

I've been working out now for almost two months at Snap Fitness. Guess how much weight I've lost? None. I haven't changed my eating patterns, but I thought because I've been working out about an hour a day that I would drop weight. No such luck. Good thing I'm not doing this for the weight loss because I would have quit already. No, this working out is part of my "do the right thing just for today" mantra. I need to exercise my body because I have a responsibility to God to care for the "temple" and to my husband and kids to be around for awhile. I do feel better even if I still look like a 40-year old who has birthed five children.

After two months, I am still doing school. Yeah!!! This is my best year yet. I am actually still teaching a full day of school to my children every day. I am almost enjoying it, too! Classical Conversations has been a godsend. What a wonderful program it is. It has really helped me stay on track. My kids are learning so much.

So, little blog, that's where I've been all this time. Don't feel rejected. After all, you're the one I tell all this stuff to, you know?

A nice, quiet read...

Hi. I'm Jennifer and I'm a magazine addict.

There's a lovely day that comes but once a month at my house. Claire usually heralds it's arrival upon her return from the mailbox. "Mom, you got magazines." I love this day.

Currently, I have three subscriptions because I can't get away with more - Southern Living (One cannot be a true Southern Belle without access to this particular magazine - in my opinion), Better Homes and Gardens (They usually have great decorating articles.), and Progressive Farmer (What? I could have cows one day.). 

Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens often arrive on the same day. Then I hatch my plan. I will wait for the kids to go to sleep. Then, I will brew myself a cup of Cafe' Vienna and cut myself a little treat. Then, I will savor every page of each magazine, soaking up each beautiful layout, perusing every delectable recipe for possible future use.

On this particular day, the weather was lovely. There was a soft breeze blowing, the humidity was down, and the sun was shining bright. Yes, I would have my monthly magazine moment (A+ for alliteration, Jenn!) outside today.

  

There were just a couple of glitches in my plan. 1) Ethan and Evelyn don't take a nap when Blythe and Owen do. 2) The dog lives outside.

 

Ha! What do you think of my quiet, meditative spot? I'm sure this will be one of those "You're gonna miss this" moments...one day.

Ah well, if I have to choose between quiet meditation and this:

 

Well, alright. Fine, then.

Welcome September

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer."
-   Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

 

I'm only a week late in changing my blog from August to September. It's no small task to sit here, even now, and turn the page. My life is a whirlwind around me, albeit a lovely one.

September is an odd month. Nothing really happens in September, does it? It's kind of the month of rest between Summer and Winter holidays, I suppose. Our weather is beginning to change very slowly. We've had a few cool, pleasant nights and mornings enclosing the still hot days.

These cool nights are such a playful tease. I feel God hanging them over us, luring us into Fall like a good Father hiding a treat for His children behind His back. His Southern children are so very ready for a change in the seasons.

With every season's change, a new hope springs up in me. Change, hope, something new, all my best memories float up to the surface. All remind me of a good God who knew ahead of time how much we fickle humans would need a change every now and then to keep us alive.

Music this month is headlined by Earth, Wind and Fire's September. I consider this my anniversary song. Jade and I were married on September 23rd, just a couple of nights later than the one they sing about.

Wynnona Judd's Only Love is a good song for September. It's hopeful and sweet and restful.

I threw in some other songs I discovered and liked for your consideration. Enjoy the quiet pause of September before the drama of Winter and all its holidays begins.

Grandma: How was school? Napoleon: The worst day of my life. What do you think?

We interrupt this extremely tight schedule to bring you a brief post. Let me just say, school is SO HARDCORE, MAN!

 

"Why in the world would anybody put chains on me? I've paid my dues to make it. Everybody wants me to be what they want me to be. I'm not happy when I try to fake it. Ooooh, yeah, that's why I'm easy, easy like Sunday morning..." --The Commodores

Anyway, what I'm saying is, I struggle with schedules. I think I was supposed to be an independently wealthy, free spirit. I'm not sure where the miscommunication occurred.

I have the Mother Of All Schedules this school year. A few new features in our schedule this year: 

• Dropping off and picking up Claire from school every day. (For a free spirit homeschooler like myself -- this is huge. I have to get up at 6:30 a.m. Ack!)

• Two trips to town each week for classes for the little ones. (These are to ease the educational burden on me. That's good, except my gas bill is crazy now!)

• Working out every day at the gym. (I've been working my bo-honkus off every day at the gym, but it keeps following me home and making me eat large quantities of food.)

Despite the above "schedule bitterness", this is the best school year we've ever had - so far. I'm such a great mom when I'm on a schedule. School gets done, dishes get washed, rooms get cleaned, and bo-honkus's get worked out.

I think this is the longest length of time I've ever managed to "do the right thing" on a regular basis. I think God gave me a revelation last week. It's very simple, and I've heard it for years, but I finally understand it. God told me, "Do the right thing - just for this moment, just for today. Don't worry about what you're going to do tomorrow."

So now when I'm on the Elliptical Trainer at the gym and I hate my life and I keep thinking of a reason why I need to quit early, I just tell myself, "Do the right thing, just for the next 15 minutes." And when I really want to skip Phonics altogether and leave my kids to their own devices, I tell myself, "Just recite the 70 phonograms right now, just for today."

I'm afraid to say it's working, because I don't want to ruin it. I'm so afraid I will give up any day now. I'm really pleased by what I see in my family, though. It makes me want to keep going. My total and complete reformation (and love for school) would be God's biggest miracle to date.

So, enough about me. How's school going for everyone?

A Night at the Observatory

Every Friday night our local observatory lets people come and look through their telescopes - for free. Friday night I found out that our parks system is the only one in the country with an observatory that is open to the public. That's pretty cool! Jade and I decided to treat the kids to a picnic supper on the grounds and then go look at stars.

I forgot to tell you the other cool thing about the Highland Road Observatory. That's where Jade and I were married. They only charged us $60.00 and they gave us access to their restrooms. That's a good deal. Here's a picture:

  

We were married under the trees by the Observatory. It was late September, but the day we married was so hot and humid. There were also about a million mosquitoes that showed up for the wedding.

Here's that same spot almost nine years later:

 

I know - you guys endure my very wide sentimental streak so well.

The fam had a great picnic under the trees. Jade and I told stories about the night we were married. It was fun. We had time to kill before dark, so we played around outside the Observatory for awhile.

While Ethan and I were walking, we saw the cutest little rabbit eating. He wasn't the least bit disturbed by our presence. We went and got everyone else to come see.

"Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits."

 

Vewy, uh, I mean, very exciting!

 

The rabbit finally got tired of us and hopped away. So we decided to show off all our awesome headstand skills.

 

 

 

 

 

Applause! Applause! What a fun night. It's too bad Claire wasn't with us. She was spending the night with cousins. It ended up being too cloudy to really see anything that night. We still had a lot of fun together AND it didn't cost us a thing.

By the way, we'll be back at the Observatory on August 11th for the Perseid Meteor Shower! They're staying open until midnight. Please, please, please let the sky be clear.

Garage Sales are for losers!

Would you like to see what 12 years of hand-me-downs between five children looks like? Behold, the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World:

 

I'm sad to say this picture really doesn't capture the height and depth of the pile. How does this happen? I'm not a hoarder, and yet, what the heck??? This is enough clothes to start my own consignment shop!

I should do a blog contest. Guess how many pieces of clothing are in this pile? Closest guess gets a prize. Would you believe about 500 pieces of clothing here?

You would think I would've made a killing at my garage sale. Second contest - Guess how much money I made after individually tagging all this merchandise? Drumroll please...

$53.00

Yes, that's right. Any wagers on when I'll EVER do another garage sale? Yes, that's right - NEVER!

My stepmother said I need to do another garage sale on payday weekend in the Fall.

Everyone please make up your own clever response to that statement.

Leaving home(school)...

Geez, where have I been??? How can a Summer with NO planned activities be SO busy? I just don't know. We have so much to do to get ready for school.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we've decided to send Claire to school this year instead of homeschooling her. This was and is a huge decision for us. I've been homeschooling my little Claire since kindergarten.

Here's my story:

When Jade and I got married back in 2000, Claire was just three years old. We both wanted me to stay home, but we just couldn't afford it. We worked really hard to make that happen, and in 2002, I turned in my resignation at the bank where I worked.

We had just moved to New Orleans for Jade's job and figured out very quickly that we could not send Claire to school in New Orleans. The public schools were scary and the good private schools were too expensive.

Now, up until this point I thought homeschoolers were a pretty weird group, and I had no intention of being part of that. However, when I began taking a serious look at homeschooling, I got very excited about it. Here are some great things about homeschooling:

• I choose the curriculum. My children have access to the most beautifully done, well-written curricula around. Most of the curriculum I have chosen have a Christian emphasis - even the grammar!

• I get to choose what's best for my children. If we need to spend two hours on Phonics and 15 minutes on Math, we do. We also don't have to study all year for a silly LEAP test. If you're not from Louisiana, email me and I'll let you know what that is.

• I get to be there for all of my kids' "A-ha!" moments. I love to see when my kids finally "get" some concept. Pretty cool stuff.

• My kids don't have to catch the bus. I'm sure many of you have fond memories of riding the bus to school - I don't. It was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. The meanest kids and the nastiest words were on the school bus. Anyway, my kids don't ride the bus. Yeah!

• No class birthday parties. Wahoo! I'm really not an anti-social person, but class birthday parties kill me. There are just so dang many of them! And we would have to buy presents. And most of the parents are SO excessive. Yuck!

• We spend our school days learning how everything relates to God and how all learning points to Him. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" and all that. Love it.

O.K. That's my short list of why I love homeschooling. I did figure out that indeed, homeschoolers are weird, but then I also figured out that I love weird.

So began our little homeschool in the year 2002. Then we moved back home. We fully intended to enroll Claire in the local public school for first grade. Then Claire and I went for our school tour. As soon as we walked through the double doors, I knew God was telling me, "No." He wanted us to keep homeschooling. Here are the thoughts that went through my head:

• "Are you kidding, God? My family is going to think I'm crazy!" (They did.)

• "How am I going to homeschool Claire with two babies in the house (Ethan was three months old and I was pregnant with Blythe)?" (O.K., so I really didn't do a whole lot of homeschooling for awhile, but I had good intentions.)

• "This is going to be hard!" (It was and it is.)

Jade didn't have any problem with me keeping Claire home. Good thing, since God clearly said that's what we needed to do. I never questioned homeschooling again until a couple of years ago.

Claire and I have always butted heads. She has an ironclad will. I won't go into all the details, but it is tough to teach her. Jade finally made the call at the end of the school year to send her to private school. He said we "needed space" from each other. I was heartbroken.

The truth is, though, I think he's right. But I'm nervous. I haven't had to "deal with school" for a long time. I'm nervous about how I'm going to handle conformity, other people's rules, other people's schedules, other people's curriculum, and other people's kids. I'm kind of rebellious in a way. Like, in a "if I'm not the boss I don't want to play" kind of way. I know that's bad and I work on it constantly.

Am I worried about Claire? Nah, not really. I think she's going to do great. I think the structure will be very good for her. She's looking forward to making new friends and having teachers that aren't me.

We went and got her a sassy new haircut today, and we bought school uniforms. That was weird, let me tell you. She looked pretty cute, and it's hard to look cute in school uniforms. I'm talking Dickie's brand khaki shorts, ya'll! Yuck.

Oh, and we got these last week:

They cost the same as a year of school tuition. Yeah. That's why Ethan's not going to school this year. His tuition is on his sister's teeth.

Wow. Lots of changes happening around here. I don't handle change very well. It scares me because I don't know how it's going to turn out. I like for everything to be tied up in a neat, little package with a big bow on the top. I sometimes feel like the dog got ahold of the neat, little package and ripped it to shreds. But like Steven Curtis Chapman says, "This is the great adventure!" Right? Am I right?

Right. This is great. I just love adventure. Mmmm-hmmm. That's me.