My Absent Mind

Blogging Again

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:34:00 +0000

I have a new blog! If you would like to join me over at According to Jolene I would love to have you! I blog about everything, but mostly about plus size clothing(including outfit posts) and cooking/baking right now. I've been blogging there for months now, but thought maybe some of my old readers might be interested to know I'm blogging again, I miss interacting with my old readers!

Ciao Babes!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:57:00 +0000

Well, as you can see I have pretty much abandoned my blog(maybe the Christmas background still up was the first clue LOL). I hit a stretch where I just didn't have time to blog regularly and lost all my readers. After that even when I did try to blog the readers were few, I guess everyone moved on :(. I'm very grateful for those of you who did still read me, thank you so much, I very much appreciate you!

It's just hard to find the motivation to keep blogging anymore, before it was my readers that kept me going. Life is busy as always, we are on the move again(this time not by choice, our landlord has decided to sell so we must move from this lovely house :( ).

I really would like to blog again in the future, but I honestly don't see it happening anytime soon. I have started trying to use Twitter more again though, so if you're on it you can find me via the Twitter widget over to the right.

So, I guess that's all I have to say :), just thought I would leave some sort of closing post for now so y'all know I'm still alive and kicking. Depression has been kicking my butt lately, so that definitely doesn't help get the excitement for blogging to flow.

I guess it's not goodbye, but see ya later!

post signature

Whatever

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Doesn’t matter what I title it, nobody reading anyway. I don’t miss all the time Entrecard took up, but I miss the readers it brought, guess I’m not a good enough blogger for anyone to read without incentive. Oh well, whatever. Story of my life apparently. You think that once you reach adulthood you would no longer have to worry about fitting in and all that crap….but you do. I’m well into my 30’s and have actually found “fitting in” even harder than it was back in school. So whatever, I don’t think I really even care anymore.

So this is just for my own tracking then.

	Bought	Ideas
Bear (9, Boy)	Soft Cat Blanket, Watch, PJ’s
Jman (almost 12, Boy)	Soft Dog Blanket, Watch, PJ’s
Jman & Bear	Nintendo Wii, Extra Wii controllers, Wii accessory kit, 3 Wii Games
Alex (hubby)	PJ’s	Camcorder
Prestin (under 1, boy)	Rock N' Ride Brown Pony
Madalyn (2, girl)	Doll Gear(Stroller, P.Pen etc)
George (4, boy)	Hungry Hungry Hippos, Crayola Pip-Squeak Thin Markers
Ian (almost 8, boy)	Monopoly City, Crayola Pip-Squeak Markers
Mom & Dad(Old! LOL)	Christmas Ornament	The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Gift Card
MIL & FIL(even Older! LOL)	Digital Photo Frame, Mini-Frames

Camcorder Helllp!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:11:00 +0000

So, as I mentioned in my previous post(ok, I start way too many sentences/paragraphs with “so” LOL), I plan to get hubby a camcorder for Xmas. Way more than I should be spending, but nobody seems to be talking me out of it, more talking me into it LOL.

But anyway….I’ve looked up lots of reviews and I *think* I’ve decided on which one to get, I would love to spend about $100 less than that(would be a much more manageable amount), but you get what you pay for right?

So(there I go again!) if anyone owns this camera I would like to know what YOU think about it:

JVC Evario GZ-MS120

Buying Gifts = Frustrating!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:37:00 +0000

Omg why does figuring out gifts have to be so darn frustrating? Or is it just me? LOL

I guess I have always had this thing for wanting to give the perfect gift, but have never had the money to give me a lot of choices. For most of my gifts for others this year I chose to go pretty simple, when I look back at all the time I spent trying to figure out a great gift I just don’t feel it was worth it because it was no better received than any other gift. So either the gift wasn’t as great as I thought, or the recipients really didn’t care. So it’s pretty much first thing I see that I think is good(or my kids have said, hey get that for them), that is what I got. My niece is different because for some reason she is so easy to buy for! For her it’s hard not buying up everything, but I had an idea leftover from last Christmas and her Birthday because I couldn’t find it, well I found it this time! So I have to force myself not to buy anything more for her.

Anyhoo, for my hubby and kids it’s different, I still want to get great gifts(not that my kids honestly deserve something so fantastic LOL, they have not been so great this year!, but they’re still my boys and I love them). So I decided on a Wii for the kids, really it’s for the whole family, I think it will be great for all of us. By the time I get the Wii, games and accessories for it, my usual PJ’s for everyone, and stocking stuffers, I will already be over what I ever spend on Christmas. So I stressed over where to buy everything from. I finally got that figured out, so far we only have the actual console itself, but that’s the important piece anyway LOL. So now I’m trying to figure out hubby’s gift. Normally our limit is about $100 to spend on each other(at least for the years we actually have money LOL). Well, what I really really want to get him I am not going to get for under $100, so after input from friends on Facebook I think I am going over our limit and buying him a camcorder. We have wanted one for a long time and always say “next year”, well as we keep saying “next year” our kids are getting older and there already have been so many memories I wish we had recorded, we’re only going to keep missing them until we actually get a camcorder. It looks like I can get a fairly decent one for under $300.

While I try to get over the fact that I’m spending so much and knowing I’m going to have to do some real number crunching and budgeting in the new year, I’m totally stressing and frustrating myself over what camcorder to get! I have like a dozen tabs open on my browser looking at different cams and reviews and all that. It seems every one of them has a good number of people that like that particular model as well as a good number who didn’t. I can’t figure out which one to go for!! Of course I would rather spend less, but I don’t want to buy something and find out it’s one that takes crappy videos, or it’s one that is a headache to actually put your video on discs from….or whatever of the many other complaints I see here and there about the cams. Add on top of that that I have never had one so I don’t quite understand some of the differences of what they record onto and how to transfer that to the computer and onto DVD’s. I don’t want to buy something that we will end up having to buy expensive cassettes for, or something that we will have to buy a specific program to convert things.

I guess we are having a good Christmas this year LOL(hubby already got me a Dyson, early gift, I was in BAD need of a new vacuum), making up for the many years we have not. But it still doesn’t mean we can necessarily afford it LOL. I get told a lot that I stress way too much over this kind of thing. We don’t smoke, we don’t drink, we don’t do drugs, we don’t go to bars, we don’t even go on holidays to spend money on, so I shouldn’t feel bad spending money on something like this….but I do….guess it’s from spending so many years with no money LOL.

Anyone have anything to say good or bad about some of the under $300 camcorders on the market I would love to hear it!!

Winter Blahhs

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Yes, it’s technically not Winter yet. But what else do you call it when it’s –30 and deep snow everywhere? We had a wonderful Blizzard on Friday, and while the snow stopped falling Saturday morning, we are still have what it left behind, and extremely cold temperatures. Thank goodness our street isn’t as bad as some, we had to go out Saturday for a bit to return library books and get some food and we got stuck briefly but myself and 3 wonderful guys who I think had already been pushing people out all day got us out fairly easily. I have seen pictures friends have posted on Facebook and seen pictures on the news of some communities where the snow drifted so high that cars were almost completely covered.

I have great thoughts of things I want to get done right now. I want to do some baking. I have a basement that is in complete and utter chaos that is going to remain that way until I do something about it, because I know nobody else is going to do it. My pantry yet again needs completely emptied and re-organized, I made my kids do it only a week ago because they are the ones who make a mess of it, but they didn’t even clean it well in the first place and had it a disaster again within 2 days. I have blinds that need pulled down and cleaned, curtains that could use a washing, walls that need a scrubbing. But instead of doing all that I’m stuck sitting on the couch with a heating pad because my back and hip are in such pain I can hardly walk without crying in pain after each step. All of last week I was in pain, but this morning it’s worse than ever, even just sitting here I want to cry it hurts so much. I don’t know if it’s so bad because of the cold, or it’s something more than that. It sucks though whatever the reason for it. I know pushing the car out on Saturday didn’t help, but while it hurt bad afterward, it didn’t hurt as bad as it does this morning.

Since the storm ruined my plans to go out and do some Christmas shopping this weekend I ended up ordering a few things online, one thing I really wanted to get was on sale and I was worried we wouldn’t get there before the sale was over or they sold out of it, so at least I was able to take care of my niece and 2 of my nephews gifts. Found what I want for my other nephew too I think, but it wasn’t on sale and would have cost extra shipping, so I’m taking a chance I will be able to go buy it next weekend. So here is my updated Christmas list.

	Bought	Ideas
Bear (9, Boy)		Wii Game, Soft Cat Blanket
Jman (almost 12, Boy)		Wii Game, Soft Dog Blanket
Jman & Bear	Nintendo Wii	Wii accessories
Alex (hubby)
Prestin (under 1, boy)		Rock N' Ride Brown Pony
Madalyn (2, girl)	Doll Gear(Stroller, P.Pen etc)
George (4, boy)	Hungry Hungry Hippos, Crayola Pip-Squeak Thin Markers
Ian (almost 8, boy)	Monopoly City, Crayola Pip-Squeak Markers
Mom & Dad(Old! LOL)		The Pioneer Woman Cooks
MIL & FIL(even Older! LOL)	Digital Photo Frame

Tassimo

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +0000

I’m sure you all have seen and heard about the Tassimo Brewing Systems. Well, I WANT one of these!! I LOVE my coffee, but I’m rather picky about it too. I’m also the only coffee drinker in the house, which makes it kind of a bummer if all I want is one cup of coffee. I find that regular coffee makers don’t make the coffee well if it’s less than about 6 cups perked. So the Tassimo would be perfect for me so I can make my one cup at a time whenever I actually want it.

Even better though, with the Tassimo you can also make Lattes, Cappuccino, and even Hot Chocolate! Which means it is incredibly useful for the whole family since hubby and kids love Hot Chocolate. I’ve never really tried Lattes or Cappuccino to be honest with you, but I’m sure I would give them a try with one of these since I wouldn’t have to pay what coffee shops are asking for them!

So, why am I blogging about a coffee maker? Because I want to WIN it from My Organized Chaos! That’s why! LOL. You can mosey on over to her blog and check it out(it’s a great blog and she always has lots of great contests)…..but pleeeeeeeeease let me win it ok ;)……hey, it’s been yet another rough year, I think I deserve it :).

It’s That Time Again!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:35:00 +0000

Well, I’m going to try to make more of an effort to blog. I really want to and have been thinking about it a lot lately. And I thought what better way to start off than to do my Christmas List like I did last year!

Ideally I wanted to be done by now, last year I was done by the first weekend of December. But it has seemed even harder to get out for shopping lately than normal. Yeah we go to Walmart like every weekend, but that’s with the whole family and it’s kind of hard for me to buy gifts when we’re all together. So I’m hoping I can get it all done within 2 weeks….we’ll see if I can make that work LOL.

As I did last year, here is my list and I will try to keep it updated. I will link to sites that carry the items, but that is not necessarily where I got them or am getting them from. Maybe I can help some others out with their Christmas Lists with some ideas!

	Bought	Ideas
Bear (9, Boy)
Jman (almost 12, Boy)
Jman & Bear		Nintendo Wii
Alex (hubby)
Prestin (under 1, boy)
Madalyn (2, girl)		Doll Gear(Stroller, P.Pen etc)
George (4, boy)
Ian (almost 8, boy)
Mom & Dad(Old! LOL)
MIL & FIL(even Older! LOL)	Digital Photo Frame

Ok, going to have to add the rest later, computer has turtles in it.

Super Duper Funny!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:27:00 +0000

I know I’m far from the only one who is so sick and tired of the H1N1 this and H1N1 that crap. And noooooo I absolutely will not be getting my family vaccinated, in fact in all the research we have done about vaccines since checking out to learn more about this one I am now very very upset with myself that I didn’t do the same before giving my kids any vaccines and very much regret ever having them get any. But anyway, one of the pages I’m a fan of on Facebook shared this video and we had a HUGE laugh over it! I shared it on Facebook too, but just had to post it here!!

Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:02:00 +0000

I need to find some good homeschooling blogs! I’ve found lots, but not quite what I’m looking for. All the ones I find are either families with younger children than mine, or don’t seem to do schooling quite the way I do….not that I really have a “way” though LOL. I want to find new ideas and stuff to make it more exciting, or something. I don’t know, I guess I don’t really know what I’m looking for, inspiration of some kind I guess. But most of the homeschool blogs I find are for the little ones, or they are very religious based, which we sooooo are not and I don’t want religion in my kids school….for us it’s a separate topic and they will learn about all religions so since hubby and I are not at all religious the kids can learn about all of them and decide for themselves if they want to follow a religion of their choice, or just remain neutral like us.

Wow, what a totally run-on rambling paragraph that was LOL. That’s what happens when you can’t get 5 minutes of peace and quiet to get your thoughts out properly haha!

Happy Halloween!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:48:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a great time trick or treating tonight!

The weather returned to real Fall weather for us, and while it was cold enough and windy enough that my legs and behind were pretty chilled, it was great! The snow we got earlier in the week was all melted, and the temperature was actually above 0.

My boys had a great time, as always. There were not many kids around though, wonder where they all were? LOL.

Wayyyyyy too much candy though!! OMG, each boy carried a bag the size of a pillow case and each bag was FULL!! And of course full of mostly chocolate and chips….my biggest weaknesses!! LOL

Here’s my Pirate and my Vampire. (my Vampire kinda scared me, no not his costume, but in it he looked like a teenager!! Yikes!!LOL)

****just a little footnote here unrelated to Halloween…..all ignorant people, and anyone who has some holier than thou attitude or anything of the sort piss off!! LOL. Sorry, but I blog for me when I feel like it. I don’t blog to debate things. I don’t blog to please anyone. Take your small little minds elsewhere and get a life!! Some people in this world are just so sad and really need to grow up or shut up. I don’t even want my kids to act immature, and they’re kids! It’s so sad that there are people who are supposed to be adults and they can’t act like proper human beings.

Stupid Entrecard

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

LOL, ok, so it’s not really stupid, EC was great when I really into blogging. But now try as I might I just can’t get back into blogging on a regular basis. When I do blog nobody reads it anyway(except for Sandee, Callie and I think occasionally Rene that I know of…thank you guys!). So instead or worrying about making sure I post once every 3 weeks in order not to get booted from EC I was going to just get rid of it.

Thing is, I have over 21, 000 EC credits built up!! I don’t want them just to disappear. I have checked their marketplace several times to see if there was something in there to spend them on, but found nothing. So I thought maybe I will just divide up my credits between some of the blogs that I really like and/or support from when I actually read a lot. Only to see that there is a limit! You can only send out 1,000 EC credits in 7 days!!! WTF!? I sure as hell don’t feel like going back there every week fro 21 weeks and then have to worry about posting every few weeks, but I also don’t want them to disappear. Grrrrr!!

Now, I don’t know if it will actually let you send the credits and then you just get in “trouble” if you oversent, or if it won’t even allow you to send them. Since the plan was to leave EC anyway I guess I should just try, because it doesn’t matter if I get into “trouble”. If it won’t let me send them, well I guess here’s a post and I’m good for another few weeks LOL.

**update** Well it seemed to work! I sent out chunks of credits to a few bloggers, big time fees it took off but at least not all the credits were lost. Now I’ll remove my widget and just blog when I feel like it….which could be months, who knows LOL.

I Can See Clearly Now

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Nope, not because the rain is gone!(It’s actually been snowy rain, yuck!)

BUT! Because I finally got my eyes checked and got glasses! I got glasses when I was 13, that excitement was short lived and I hardly wore them. I knew my eyes were pretty bad, but they were even worse than I thought…..hehe, oops. Guess that happens when you don’t get them tested for a dozen or so years.

We picked up my glasses on Friday and OMG!! The world was once dull and blurry, it is now clear and sparkly! I cannot believe the difference!! I was to the point that I couldn’t even read the guide on the TV from the sofa anymore….on the weekend I was reading the score of the Football game from the Dining Room…which is on the opposite side of the house!!

See my cool pink glasses(excuse the grainy webcam snapshot LOL)….my husband picked them out!

After I ordered them from Walmart to try and get something cheap I found out about a website here in Canada that I could order them from for CHEAP!! I know I’ve done posts on Zenni Optical in the US before, but not knowing if or what I would get dinged for duty on them I opted not to order from there for now. But this other site is here in Canada, so no worries about duty, AND they have a 30 day 100% money back guarantee…and you don’t even have to pay for 15 days. I could have got 2 pairs from this site for what I paid for my glasses from Walmart…even though Walmart was WAY cheaper than anywhere in town I knew of. So I ordered some prescription sunglasses from the website. For $98 I got a pair of Carolina Herrera frames that normally retail for $400. For $98 I got the frames, upgraded to tinted lenses, and shipping….and I got them 3 days after I ordered them! I was totally impressed! I’ve tried them on and they seem fine, the prescription seems the same as these glasses.

And NO, this is not any sort of paid post or anything like that. But if anyone reading this is in Canada and you need glasses or contacts you might want to check out their site, it’s www.clearlycontacts.ca . I get nothing for you visiting there, I just like sharing good deals with other people :).

Hey, I think I’m slightly improving on how often I post to my blog! Still have a long way to go to post even close to as much as I used to, but hey, at least I’m better than I was for a while! :)

Wife Swap and Homeschooling

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Oh my my! I don’t watch this show all the time, but if there is nothing else on I will sometimes watch. They sure pick complete opposites for this show.

The one I’m watching right now has one family that home schools and pretty much keep their boys away from society. Now I don’t agree with keeping the boys away from everything and everyone, they are way too extreme when it comes to that. The other family is, excuse my language, but pretty much a big clusterfu**! They all do whatever they want, no responsibilities whatsoever. The ignorance coming from that family is astonishing, I can’t believe people act like that! They have no respect for themselves or anyone else. It’s just disgusting the way they live and that they are letting their kids be so immature and irresponsible. I won’t even begin to say what I thought about the mother of that family…lets just say she is the complete opposite of classy.

So anyway, while the home school family is a little extreme with some things at least they are raising very well rounded children with morals…which is so seriously lacking these days. But the mom has this sort of token system that the boys do chores to earn certain things. I have been trying to see if maybe they have a blog or something where I can find out how they do this system. I would love to plan out something like that, though with my own twist. Her boys can use tokens to buy time to listen to a radio show LOL….ummm, I’m thinking TV or video game time is a little more suitable for my family LOL.

I decided to check out the ABC page and see if on their discussion forum there was any mention of it. Well instead I came across complete ignorance!! People on there are commenting that homeschooled kids are so far behind public school kids and that they don’t speak proper English. That kind of ignorance makes my blood boil!! Not only is it obviously not true, in a room full of homeschooled and public schooled kids(heck even throw in some private schooled ones), I guarantee you would not be able to pick out which ones go to which school….with one possible exception….homeschooled kids often are more well mannered because they don’t pick up some of the habits that other kids do from their classmates. Homeschooled kids in fact usually score higher on tests than public schooled kids, and learn a much much broader range of topics. My kids do all the same topics that the public schools do, and much much more!

I am so not for the homeschooling vs. public school debate, every parent has to choose what works for their family and nobody has the right to say the other is wrong with their choice. But it pisses me off when people who are clueless go on spewing some crap that is completely false. The sad thing is that the people commenting on that thread had horrible spelling and grammar, but they were criticizing the education of others?

I hate getting on topics like this, but when I see garbage like that I need to make sure that people are aware of how FALSE the thought that homeschooled kids are less educated is. Homeschooled kids tend to do better in College or University as well because a big thing they learn while homeschooling is self-educating themselves. That is not something public school teaches though.

I am not saying my kids are smarter than a public school kid, in fact I classify my kids as average with potential, but of course all kids have potential. Mine just choose not to live up to their potential at this point LOL…they are typical boys who lose interest fast and whose minds are first and foremost on what THEY want it to be on, not what you want it to be on LOL.

Ok, that rant is over for now LOL….now to search for ideas for this token system thingamajig….

Is it Fall?

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:32:00 +0000

They said it was but I’m not sure if I believe it. Today is supposed to be a record breaking day, we are a week away from October and our high today is 32 degrees Celsius(89 for you ‘Merican Folks :) )!! Our normal for this time of year is only 16(60)! Double, yes DOUBLE what we should be!! LOL

Temperatures like this are too hot for me! I wish it could be 20 degrees(give or take a few degrees) all the time! That would be perfect weather!

So the boys and I went for a walk this morning before it got too hot, of course it got hot fast and by the time we were heading back home the sun was already too hot for me. I came home with sausages for fingers they were so swollen. I actually remembered to take my camera this time though so took some pics of our walk through the community.

First we walked around the big storm pond near our house, I’ve seen these in some communities and they’re really yucky, I like that this one they keep it nice all around it and it’s part of the park. This time of year the pond is full of Canadian Geese. Yesterday afternoon there were a ton of them, not quite as many this morning though:

Tried to catch some as they landed in the water:

The boys running ahead of me:

Pretty fall trees at the acreage across the street: (I love living at the edge of the city where you get and see it all; full city communities and pastures of horses side by side)

One bad part of all the Geese is that you need to watch where you walk, because there is plenty of this: (that is Goose poop in case you can`t tell LOL)

Then we followed the path up and along the another side of the community. Next to the path is creek-like flower beds, this year they have lots of Pussy Willows. I don`t know why but I have always liked them, funny looking things though:

The boys walking the rocks on the other side of the ``creek-bed``(yes, Jman on the right, my 11 year old has started the ``I must hunch over because I`m tall and I`m a teenager`` pose….even though he is not yet a teenager):

Some reminders that not too long ago we would drive past this area and it was still someone`s farm. This borders the community and separates us from a highway:

This used to be part of a cow carcass. We first found this carcass in a lot when we moved to the community, but I never remembered to bring my camera along on our walks before today. Unfortunately the lot has turned into a dumping ground for the construction crews in the area. There are now only pieces of the carcass spread around…it was whole the first time we saw it….ok, yes I have boys so this was rather exciting LOL.

And lastly, this one of a couple of traffic circles in our community. I highly suggest that everyone learn how to use one of these. As shocking as it is a LOT of people are clueless as to how a traffic circle works. I don`t drive and I know how it works, so people, please learn since this is not a high traffic area yet we have almost been hit a few times by people who did not know they did not have right of way(or didn`t care, could very well have been that too).

That was our Fall walk on a very Summer-like day….notice not a cloud in the sky…normally we are preparing for our first bit of snow to arrive within a few weeks….which could still very well happen. We had a late but extremely cold and snowy winter last year. We also did not have a super warm summer(which is totally ok with me!)…but it seems we are making up for some of that now LOL.

Mesopotamia Scrapbook

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:26:00 +0000

Well we did it! We started the Scrapbook today!

Bear got a little bored after a while, he thought it was taking too long…and we only did a front page today LOL, it was only a title and pictures. It was a little difficult trying to do it when neither of the boys have Scrapbooked before and of course they each had their own opinion of what should go where and what they put on it…which usually wasn’t the same as the other wanted LOL. Jman wanted to use everything I had on the one page I swear LOL. He pulled out ALL of my Scrapbooking stuff and was ready to use it. I didn’t want to go too overboard though, I want to keep it fairly simple since they are going to have MANY pages to add to this thing and if each page is going to take us hours they will end up getting bored of it.

So here is just the front page, they are pretty proud of it!(Yes mommy helped with the cutting and placing of stuff LOL).

Bad Start = Good Year?

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Well, usually we actually get our homeschool year off to a great start, but then it quickly seems to fizzle out and I spent the rest of the year threatening to send them to public school(which I know in my heart I would probably never do), and simply pulling my hair out. This year so far has started the complete opposite though, I am so disorganized it’s not even funny! So maybe does that mean that this year things will work themselves out and turn good? Gosh I hope so LOL. Strange logic, but hey I need to hold on to some hope here folks.

I had decided that we would take a completely different approach to school this year. In years past I always aligned Math and Language Arts(which means I followed the provincial curriculum requirements), Math normally is not much of a problem(well for Bear at least), but Language Arts is ALWAYS a problem simply because I have 2 boys who HATE writing with a passion. And as we all know writing is well, a major part of LA. So this year I decided not to align anything at all, which does mean less funding for supplies, but I think it will be in exchange for less stress. Everyone is willing to say that boys are different and just don’t mature or learn the same as girls, but unfortunately when it comes to the education system nobody is actually willing to do anything about or even accept that it’s that way. Even our homeschool facilitator, she’s a sweet girl, she’s young but has surprised me (I was very unsure about taking a facilitator so young and inexperienced at first). When she is sitting in front of me she agrees with me of the difference of boys, but then she turns around and sends all these “comments” back with their writing samples of things I should do that she knows bloody well I’ve tried because we have gone over that all with her.

Basically we will still follow a normal math program, we have been using Singapore Math for a few years now and it works well for us, so we will keep using it. But for all the other subjects, we are rolling them all into one! We are starting with Mesopotamia, and basically we will cover Social Studies, Science, LA, Health, Music, Art….all of it we will do on this subject. When we are done with Mesopotamia we will move on to the next and once again cover everything on it.

About as far as we are so far though is signing out library books on Mesopotamia(which I must add, their selection SUCKS! There are so many other good books out there on the subject that not one library in the Province of Alberta has!). So the kids have been reading the books and I have been stuck with knowing in my head what I want to cover, but I can’t seem to figure out HOW I want to cover everything and how I want to put it all together. Just today I finally think I have figured it out. Part of my reasoning for not aligning anything and doing things as we are this year is to try and figure out how to convince my kids that learning can really be fun, and lets face it, in general the way schools cover these subject are definitely not fun. Soooo my big solution!? We are going to Scrapbook!! THAT is how we are going to put everything together! I know a lot of homeschoolers are doing lapbooks, we tried those last year, my kids HATED doing them, I could probably convince them to do double their chores before they would want to do another lapbook. But when I used to Scrapbook they always had an interest in what I was doing, so I think we can make this exciting and make it work!

As for math, well I’m trying to figure out where to order our stuff from right now. We have a homeschool supply store here in Calgary, and that is where in years past I got everything I needed. But last year I was less than pleased with their customer service and their stock, and my complaints about both received nothing but whiny excuses. I was going to go ahead and order just my math stuff from there anyway just to get them and get started, but I emailed them a week ago with a question I needed answered before placing my order and nobody has replied, which I think is unacceptable, a week is plenty of time to answer what was a very simple question. I worked in retail for a number of years and it’s probably because of that that I won’t accept anything less than top notch customer service, there’s no excuses for anything but. I will not spend my family’s hard earned money(ok, so I will get reimbursed, it’s the principal though right?) at a place that makes me have to work for their sale when they should be working for their sale. So now I’m trying to figure out where else I can get what I need….hence the delay in getting math started for the year. Fortunately math is usually finished early anyway, so I’m not too concerned.

I have been checking out some homeschool blogs today and can’t get over how organized some people are! I want an actual schoolroom to do this stuff in and organize everything in….it’s soooo not fair that I don’t have one! LOL. I’m tired having having books and stuff all over the house and the kids working on the only eating table we have LOL.

Win a Dyson!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:26:00 +0000

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been into entering contests lately. Well normally I sort of avoid the blog ones because they take a lot more time to enter than most of the ones I enter. Sometimes the prize is too good though so it’s worth the extra work.

This is probably the best blog prize I have seen yet! You can win a Dyson!! Like WOW!!

I’m currently saving Canadian Tire dollars(Canadian’s know what I’m talking about LOL) to buy myself a Dyson because the cheapo vacuum I have right now just doesn’t do a good job and I can’t keep buying crappy vacuums. So if I could win one and use my Canadian Tire dollars for something else that would be amazing!!

It’s a fellow Canadian who is doing this contest, but it is open to both the US and Canada!

So jump on over to My Organized Chaos and enter too! She has given several ways to enter!

Farming Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Most of my online time is spent on Facebook. It has been for a couple of years now, almost all of my closest friends are on there so we keep up with each other there. I use Facebook more to talk to friends than I do email or IM’ing.

As everyone knows Facebook has lots of applications you can add, I can’t even count how many different ones I’ve tried. Stupid little quizzes that you know are just BS…I mean do they think they have us fooled when the spelling is so atrocious on them LOL. For a while now I’ve been getting constant invites from my friends to these Farm games, Farmville and Farm Town. I did so well ignoring them, thinking I spend enough time on the computer and on Facebook, like I need more to keep me on.

Yikes, Friday night I gave into them…..stupid me! LOL. There is something so fun and addicting about these things, on Farm Town just since Friday night I have already made it to level 24, how pathetic am I? LOL, yep, pretty pathetic. I even have my kids clicking for me to do some of the things because my hand was getting sore from it…..lord help me!

Well, talk to y’all later, I’ve got some grapes that need harvesting, plowing to do and figuring out what I want to plant next…….

What’s With the Attitudes?

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:45:00 +0000

So, as most of anyone who actually reads my blog knows I’m a homeschooling mom. This will be our 5th year homeschooling. In those years I have tried to find other homeschoolers to get friendly with, both for the kids to have other kids to play with who live similar lives and for myself so I could have other homeschooling parents to discuss the life of homeschooling with. You would figure this would not be a difficult thing. But apparently either it is or I just come across the wrong ones because almost every homeschooler I’ve come across has had an attitude of some sort!

When we lived in Texas I joined a group and could never quite figure out why I was not feeling a good vibe from this group, only to later find out that they were a mega Liberal bunch politically which I totally am not! Which they claimed to be my fault when I got so sick of some of the crap they were saying in the group and finally spoke up. The description of the group mentioned about liberal homeschooling, which to me I did not at all take to mean as in politically Liberal. I mean I think I’m very Liberal with our homeschooling, but absolutely in no way am I Liberal politically. This group felt these are one and the same, which I and many others I have discussed this with disagree with, being Liberal with something or other does not mean you are Politically Liberal. What I really couldn’t figure out is how for such a Conservative state like Texas this “Liberal” homeschool group was the only real Homeschool group I could find, ok well there was one other, but it was Christian which I am not, I’m not religious at all and I don’t teach my kids based on religion. We teach them about all religions as we come across the topics, but I don’t integrate it into say Language Arts or something like that. So anyway, when I decided to speak up on this group it became a total bash Jolene thing because I wasn’t Liberal. Like are you kidding me?? Thank god I had already lived in Texas for several months at that point and knew there were some really great people there, because if this group had been my only taste of Texas it would have left a very sour taste in my mouth for the people and the place LOL….thank god this attitude is of the minority there!(oh and btw, I KNOW there were others on that group who were not Liberal, so I wasn’t the only one who took their description that way)

So why am I on this topic right now? Because my local homeschool group that I am a part of though not really a participant of LOL, I have tried to meet up with people on there, but they will send me a message and say oh well we will try to meet up after such and such, and then I never hear from them again. So I sort of just gave up on even trying to get together with anyone, I don’t drive so I can’t go to any gatherings they may have planned. And as a “lurker” I have seen many discussions get out of hand because some of the people have such a “I’m right and you’re wrong no matter what you say” attitude and get downright ignorant(ignorance p’s me off BIG time!). But anyway, in the past week or so there was someone talking about these things called Galileoscopes and that they were going to place an order before the price goes up and who else wanted one because we can all save on shipping and if we got an order of over 100 the price drops as well. I had planned on possibly this year using some of our funding to get a good telescope so upon seeing this thing I though well if it’s as good as the bigger more expensive ones maybe I should get this, it’s smaller so won’t take up as much room and it costs a lot less than what I would probably get so will save some of my funding for other things.

So I emailed the woman who was doing this all and asked her a few questions, basically asked if these things are as good as the bigger expensive ones, and I asked her if she would provide a copy of the receipt to people so they can submit it for reimbursement(for our funding we submit the receipts to our school and once a month they send us a cheque), my email was very friendly and respectful. So she emails me back and I found her response quite bitchy, I even read it to hubby to see if maybe I was taking it the wrong way and before I even told him my opinion of it he said “omg, what a bitch”…so obviously it wasn’t just me. She almost seemed pissed because I even asked her anything and thought since she was ordering these she might know something about them. She said she didn’t know anything and it was more work that she had the time for to order these for everyone and if I wanted a receipt to just order it myself. Well geez, wtf lady, if you’re going to get so bitchy and put off by the whole thing why are you offering to do it? So you can make people bow at your feet for all your hard work of clicking to order and telling people to come and pick them up and pay you?

I just don’t get people, maybe this is why I don’t have many friends because I refuse to bow to snotty or bitchy people. And I don’t understand why I can’t find normal everyday friendly people in the homeschooling community. Most of them too are constantly talking about homeschool bashing and stuff like that, which I have never really had a problem with. Yes, I have had the occasional person ask me if I’m going to send the kids to school, but most of those people are asking out of concern for my own sanity because they know I don’t get a break. But mostly when people find out I homeschool the response I get is more in awe that I find the patience to teach my own kids. Lots will say that they would so much rather have their kids homeschooled, but they just don’t have the patience to do it. So do some of these homeschoolers have these attitudes because their back is up because they think everyone is out against them because of what they do? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just coincidence. Maybe there are lots out there like me but I don’t meet them because they too have chosen not to be a part of these groups for the same reasons I have LOL.

What do I need to do?

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:59:00 +0000

To get back into blogging? I want to blog, I really do. So why am I having such a hard time getting back into it?

It seems when I have time I don’t think about blogging, when I think about it I either don’t have time or I’m just too tired to concentrate on it.

Any tips to get out of this funk? Because I really really do miss blogging! Maybe I just don’t know what to blog about anymore. I hit a point where I felt like everything was so negative going on around me and my blog just seemed like everything I posted was negative and depressing. And I didn’t like that, so that is where I first got turned off from blogging anymore.

So somehow I need to get back into this. Not losing my Entrecard credits is what has kept me posting what little I have, if I go to long I will get deleted and I have so many credits accumulated I don’t want to lose them then end up back at it and wanting them. I would like it if I could do some paid postings here and there again too, mostly because while hubby was out of work we had to put a lot of things on the credit card to survive and now I would like to get it paid off. Just off hubby’s pay it will take a while, I would like it if I could help out and get it paid off sooner. My sister is on mat leave so I’m not babysitting anymore, if I was I would use that money. Not sure when she’s going back or if she’s going to want me to babysit when she does.

I miss reading other blogs too, I do still read some, but nowhere near what I used to. I guess what I don’t miss is the time it took for me to post, read and drop cards LOL.

Been a While

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Yes, I truly have not found my blogging groove again, as is evident from my long absence from posting LOL.

Last time I posted was with the good news of hubby finding a job, and he was to be going between here and Ontario for 6 weeks for training. Well, that changed to 4 weeks, but then was bumped up again to 5 weeks….which is over today!! Yayyyy! He will fly back home tonight and next week he starts working here in Calgary finally. I’m sooo happy! I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels again to see his cheque go into our account and for 2 weeks of work it is what he go in an entire month for unemployment. To be able to go shopping and buy real food and not just whatever crap is cheapest is sure nice too!

So, I mentioned before that I had taken up entering contests. I’ve been doing that for a couple of months now and have a few wins, only one bigger win so far though. So far my wins are: iPod Nano 8GB(oh I so love it!!), The 39 Clues book for my boys, $35 to be used towards a night of bowling, Master of the Game DVD and some sort of food book, I haven’t received it yet so not exactly sure what it is. Oh, I won passes to see The Hangover, we really weren’t interested in seeing it though. Strange thing is that it did so well in the theatres, to us it looked really dumb from the commercials and we even tried to find someone to give the passes to, we couldn’t find anyone interested in seeing it.

Well, we’ll see if I can slowly work my way back into blogging…no promises though LOL. Oh! Some more good news! In the past week or two I have lost 7 lbs!! I wasn’t even trying to! I have tried so hard to lose weight so many times and not lost a single pound, and now all of a sudden I drop 7 without trying!? I have found though since hubby has been away so much I have not been very hungry, so even though I never really ate that much for size in the first place, I’ve been eating even less. Question now though is whether or not I can keep that 7lbs off and lose more now that he will be back LOL. He says he really wants to focus on losing some weight, he’s put weight on because for the past 5 weeks he has had to eat restaurant food in his hotel, so it has not been great for him. So hopefully we can both lose some more weight, I’m sure the reduction of stress now that he’s working again will help a lot!

Things Are Looking Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Well, finally I have a happy post!! About a week shy of being laid off for 6 months, Alex has a job!! There are no words for the huge relief we feel! I have no idea how we made it 6 months and still have a roof over our heads, and didn’t starve LOL….ok, yeah, actually I do, because this is far from the first time we’ve been through this and we knew from experience how to handle things. Now I hope we never have to go through that again! Seriously, it’s not fair for someone to have to go through that crap over and over, I understand some people just don’t do anything to try to improve their situation, but we did, luck just was not on our side as usual LOL.

Ok, so the bad part….he is now in Brampton, Ontario for training :(, for the next six weeks he will be in Brampton during the week, then home Friday night and fly back out Sunday. In the 17 1/2 years we have been together we have only been apart once, and that was for almost a month while he was away on job training :(. I hate not having him around, and of course so do the kids. At least he gets to come home for Friday night and Saturday night, so we get to see him between each work week. It will still be a hard 6 weeks though! Thank goodness his mom and dad are here for the summer, they live less than 5 minutes away and will be over a lot, that will help the time pass a little faster.

So we’ll see, maybe I will have a chance to blog a bit more, I think now it’s more of a matter of whether or not I can get back into it! LOL

Oh, and guess what I’m listening to right now? My new iPod Nano 8GB that I won entering contests!! Cool win huh? I could never afford one of these things!

Not Sure What to Do

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:23:00 +0000

ugh, I don’t know what to do about blogging. I guess not so much my blog itself, it can just sit here and wait for me. But I guess Entrecard is my issue. I love EC, but I know I’m probably nearing them removing me if I keep up with no new blog posts. The biggest problem with it being that I have a very large amount of EC’s accumulated and I don’t want to just lose them. They don’t allow you to sell them anymore, and even though they have their new thing where they will buy back EC’s I would be far down on the list because I haven’t been actively blogging or dropping cards, now where was this option back when I was? I guess I could *try* to post on my blog just enough to not be deleted by EC and then my credits should remain, I think it’s blogs that haven’t been posted on for over 3 months that are on the risk of being deleted list. I just have not had it in me to blog lately, not sure why exactly, but admittedly I do feel a little bummed that it seems no one really reads by blog unless I’m dropping cards, and even then I think very few are actually reading.

For those one or two that might be reading lol….nothing really has changed here. It has been 5 1/2 months now since Alex got laid off, resumes sent out in that time is now well above the 600 mark. Interviews seem to come in spurts, he might have 2 or 3 one week, then nothing for the next week or two. The thing that gets us is, everyone likes him, so why can’t he get a job? We thought we had it “figured out” that part of the problem is that he seems to be either over qualified for a job or underqualified, he seems to be fitting right in the middle somewhere…but at the same time, he has applied for dozens of jobs that according to what the ad says he is perfectly qualified for the position, yet he doesn’t even get an interview…in fact he has received “thanks but no thanks, you don’t fit our qualifications” letters from positions that he PERFECTLY fit the qualifications they stated, for jobs almost identical to what he was doing before. I just don’t get it.

I have signed up to sell Regal in hopes of maybe being able to bring in something extra because we are almost out of money and I don’t want to have to ask anyone for help. If you’re in the US you probably don’t know what Regal is, but if you’re in Canada you should(they’ve been around for 80 years), if you don’t know what they are you can check it out, www.regal.ca

Well, that’s about all I have to say for now…..

Big Boys Big Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Jolene) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:37:00 +0000

Watcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when they’re bigger than you?

Ok, maybe I watch a little too much Cops!

So, it has been a while since I measured the boys height or tracked their weight. I did it a few days ago, Jman at 11 years old is 113lbs and 5’2 1/2” , he weighs more than I did all through High School! He’s not fat though, he’s just a very solid kid. Bear at 9 is absolutely ecstatic because I finally agreed that he’s more than big enough that we can take the booster seat out of the car, he’s about 81 lbs and 4’9”.

As I’m marking their measurements down I got to thinking about those charts that they would give you when the kids were smaller and tell you their Percentile. It’s been many years since my kids have had their measurements plotted on those things, but they were always big boys and never dropped below about 85th percentile, in height they each even had a turn where the nurse had them marked over 100%. So I looked online to see if these charts existed for the big boys, yep they do! Jman is 94th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for height, and Bear is 89th percentile for weight and 96th percentile for height…obviously his height must be what makes his weight higher, because Bear is skinnnnnny!

I’m not one of those people who has issues with getting older, age is just a number to me and means nothing really, physically I feel more like 60 lol, but mentally I still feel plenty young. My problem is dealing with the fact that I’m not short for a woman(I’m about 5’8”) and my 11 year old has less than half a foot to go before he’s taller than me!LOL. I just can’t believe the totally weird feeling when you’re child is still young enough that in a crowded place you still want him to hold your hand, but you can look at this same child eye to forehead lol. I’m glad I’m not short or he would already be towering me, at least I hope I have a couple of years before he gets there. He’s already wearing mens size 10 shoes, and I’m pretty sure when I can afford to get him some new clothes again that we might have to check out the mens department for those too now….fortunately at least then I might be able to find some plain t-shirts and not all those god awful skull shirts that seem to be all that exist in the big boys clothing section!