Category Archives: Family matters

In which we discuss matters of the family.

Family matters, Homeschool

A first grader writes a fairy tale

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We’re reading about Gilgamesh these days, and our accompanying “Story of the World” activity was to write a fairy tale. Poppy worked on this for two days, and then she asked me to post it here. And so I present to you: “The Cat Crusaders” (which I suspect was heavily influenced by “My Little Pony.” And also, no cats were injured in the writing of this tale).

The Cat Crusaders (a fairy tale)

by Poppy

This is the first adventure. This adventure is called: The cats set off to find new homes.

Marsha is a smart cat, and she always thinks up ideas to get them out of trouble. Hercule is a kind cat, and he always cheers them up when they’re sad. Cinder is a fighter, and she is good at kung-fu. Perrie sometimes gets shy and doesn’t do anything, but the Cat Crusaders help him do it! Boo Radley does everything he can to fight.

Chapter One: The cats and their original homes.

Marsha was resting on a blue couch in the middle of the living room, and her owner, 6-year-old Poppy, was patting her. Then she was thinking in her mind, “I should set up a crew called the Cat Crusaders and set off to find a new home.” (We don’t have time to describe why.)

Hercule heard this idea with his super-sense ears, and he thought the same idea to join that club.

Perrie heard this idea and decided to join it.

Boo Radley heard this idea, and he decided to join the club, too.

And then Cinder decided that she would join the club, too.

(They all have super-sense ears.)

But that’s just the beginning of the adventure!

Chapter Two: The cats plan their club

When they met at the place they were going to meet, they decided to make their club right there. They decided to shape it like a cat, and only the cats were allowed to come in. New members had to say the password. The password was: Daddy’s Big Tummy.

Chapter Three: The cats set off

The first adventure in their club, they set off to find new homes. Marsha was the first one to find her new home. It was old, and it looked haunted. But it wasn’t haunted. It was very nice inside and had nice people. There was even a little 6-year-old girl named Rose.

Hercule was the second. Hercule found a nice home, and inside it was nice too. It had a little table, and it had a little cat play set, and it had a scratching post. It even had a little cat clubhouse. There was even a little 4-year-old boy named Pete.

Perrie was the third. He found a nice, warm house with two little girls named Arabella and Janet. They were both 3 years old, and they loved kitties. Every time Perrie walked past them, they would say “Kitty kitty kitty” and grab him by his neck without permission. Perrie didn’t like them.

Cinder was the fourth. She found a very nice little cozy cottage, and the girls named Janet and Joanne were both very nice to the cat because they knew not to pick her up without permission.

Boo Radley was the last one. He found a very nice cozy little cottage. Inside there was a mother and father and one little boy named Julian. He was 7 years old, and he was very nice to cats.

Chapter Four: The reason they shouldn’t have left their original homes

In Boo Radley’s house, Julian sometimes picked him up without permission and held him by his neck, and Boo Radley didn’t like that. He thought he should’ve stayed in his original home.

Marsha was the next finder of reason. Inside, Rose picked her up and put her on a window. Marsha didn’t like that. She had to stay up there all night until Saturday, and she did not like that. She thought she should’ve stayed with her original family.

Perrie was the third to find a good example. Since Arabella and Janet said “kitty kitty,” they picked him up by his neck and put him on the dryer. He did not like that.

Pete wasn’t nice to Hercule. One time when he was painting a house for helping, he put the cat on wet paint. Then Hercule was pink for three days.

Cinder was the last to find a good example. Janet and Joanne did the same thing, but this time Cinder was red for three days! She did not like that.

Chapter Five: They set off to find their original homes

So they got together in the place their club was and split up to find their original homes. By the time Marsha found her home, everything was the way it was when she was laying on the couch and thinking up the idea.

Hercule was the second to find it. His house was just the same.

And so on.

And so on.

The End of Adventure One.

Family matters

Friday night’s alright for eating apple crisp and playing board games

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I think I’ve mentioned here before that I have chronic tendonitis in my left foot. It doesn’t hurt all the time — in fact, it hasn’t bothered me at all in several months. When it does hurt, though, it starts as a dull ache in one of my toes and, if I ignore it, ends up as big sharp shooting pains that run up my shin. It might be the world’s most boring injury. Anyway, it decided to show up again this week, and I’d been taking the “ignore it” route until yesterday, when it was bad enough to think about taking an anti-inflammatory. But the only anti-inflammatory in the house when I decided to do that was a bottle of 800-milligram ibuprofen, which is a bit too strong for me to take and expect to carry on as normal.

(I’m ridiculously susceptible to medication. Normal-dosage Sudafed knocks me out cold. Did I tell you about the time I couldn’t breathe because the anesthesiologist gave me the correct-by-his-chart dosage of whatever they gave me when I had Pete? It was scary.)

Anyway a play-by-play commentary on our Friday would just be a lot more of “My foot hurt, I limped around the playground, it was very windy, and then we had pizza and caramel apple crisp, played ‘Pandemic‘ and chased the cat around the yard,” so I thought I’d share a little about our media consumption for today’s Week in My Life post (see Adventuroo to peek in on other people’s lives! blogging = spying, only without the creepiness sometimes!).

3 TV Shows on The DVR (Kid Edition)
“Phineas and Ferb”

For some reason, I put “Phineas and Ferb” in the same category as “SpongeBob” when I first heard of it. And then I watched an episode, and it’s hilarious. I’d watch it without the kids.

“My Little Pony”

I would definitely not watch this one without the kids. In fact, I’m thinking about banning it from the house. The ponies generally display some unpleasant characteristics before the show’s “happily ever after,” and Poppy seems to be on the crabby side after she watches it.

“Strawberry Shortcake”

This one’s right up there with “My Little Pony.” Poppy loves it; I could do without it. It doesn’t make her cranky like the ponies do, though, so it has that going for it.
3 TV Shows on the DVR (Parent Edition)
“Parks and Recreation”

Makes me laugh over and over again. I don’t even know which character I love most. I’m pretty sure it’s either Ron Swanson or Andy. Or Tom. I love them all.

“Modern Family”

This one makes me laugh a lot, too. (See a trend?) I’m a big Phil Dunphy fan.

“Psych”

We didn’t watch this show until early this summer, when we watched it on Netflix on Demand. Like, all of it. Everything that was available. Now I love it kind of obsessively.
3 Most Visited Sites on my Browser
Facebook

I joined Facebook to play Scrabble. Now I can’t stay away.

Twitter

I’ve technically been on Twitter since May 2007, but I didn’t start actively using it until 2010 when I went to the Type-A Mom conference. The people I met were somewhat aghast that I couldn’t remember what my Twitter name was.

Google Reader

I read a lot of blogs, and I keep up with all of them via Reader.
Most Played Songs on My iPod
“Alanson, Crooked River” by Sufjan Stevens

192 plays. Sufjan actually took the top four spots. I didn’t realized I listened to him that much. The other three were: “Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie” (184 plays); “Holland” (180 plays); and “He Woke Me Up Again” (160 plays).

“I Was a Kaleidoscope” by Death Cab for Cutie

Again, I didn’t think I listened to this one that much. I think the iPod must play it a lot on shuffle.

“Be My Covering” by Bebo Norman

This is one of my mother-in-law’s favorite Christian musicians. He’s entirely pleasant.

“Love and Communication” by Cat Power

This is not my favorite Cat Power song. I’m thinking it’s another one of the iPod’s favorites.

“Right Down the Line” by Gerry Rafferty

This, on the other hand, is one of Rockford’s favorites. Which would explain what it’s doing here.