Money makes my stomach hurt

There are times that I feel like I don't understand money at all.  We seem to be getting along just fine--I work very hard to spend only my $100 on groceries, I avoid the running store, and I keep my wallet far away from the computer.  I avoid temptation and if I get the feeling that I absolutely need to spend money, I'll take $5 to Goodwill and decide between a piece of clothing or a few dishes.
If I have to spend large amounts of money, I have to work myself up to it.  We've bought two new cars in the past year.  Two.  I have a difficult time thinking that we spend more per month on car payments than I did on my first apartment, but I definitely appreciate the fuel efficiency and the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly what has happened to our cars for every day of their lives.
When my mother came to visit after I had T-rex (the baby that thinks growling and snarling are hilarious), she took me on a shopping spree at a running store.  I don't see her very often (living across the country will do that) and she works her behind off writing grants for people who want government money to do their studies.    I shouldn't feel lightheaded and have to sit down when she pulls out cash to fund my addiction, but I do.  I ended up sitting on a chair with my head between my legs until I came to terms with her generosity.
The thing is, I know how much I love spoiling other people.  I took a deep breath, told her how difficult it was for me to accept it, but that I very much appreciated her gift.  I also requested that she not purchase anything else while she was visiting.
I don't know if it's that I'm afraid that I'll become spoiled and take it for granted that she'll buy whatever I want.  I want to see her as just my mother, not as a walking present factory.  I think I tend to go so far the other way that I avoid accepting presents so that there's no chance of me seeing her like that.
Ah well.
Now it's tax return time and we've discussed where and how most of it will be spent.  We are very fortunate that the Army wants to keep my DM*.  Most of it is being spent on paying down our debt, but we've set aside some money just for fun for each of us.  DM is planning on getting some archery equipment, I was planning on getting ultrarunning gear, gardening supplies, a new camera, presents for people...I hadn't really decided.  The Kid wants to have a way to film the adventures and stories that she and her friends make up, so she was talking about getting a charger for our camcorder (I know the original is around here somewhere...) and then saving the rest for the cat she's planning on adopting when we move.
The problem is, I just found out that getting my wisdom teeth extracted is not going to be entirely covered by our insurance.  The money that we have set aside for fun is looking like a very tempting way to take care of a large portion of what's left over.  The question becomes: do I tamp down my queasy feelings at spending money on things I want, trust that we'll find a way to pay for the dentist, and spend it on fun stuff -or- do I accept that I'm going to make do with what I have (which would be fine) and spend the 'extra' money on saving my mouth?
I feel strange even writing this; there are so many people who don't have enough to eat and I'm trying to decide whether I really need a hydration pack or if my waist bottles will do.


*DM:  Dungeon Master:  "[T]he game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master

I lack sticktoitiveness.

Written some time in March:
This is going to be a way for me to keep myself motivated and running!

I'm in week 16 of my pregnancy, and plan on running through my whole pregnancy.

I'm even more excited that my daughter is beginning to train for her first 5k, and we're both working to get into shape for a 5 day hike on the AT in Georgia.

Thursday: (2 miles) I ran the first mile and most of the second. Plan to run more with the kid and possibly hike a new trail today.

And that is the last post I did for a long time.
It's now mid January and I'm attempting to start back up again.  I'm not sure what I hope to accomplish with this, but I know I'd like to just...do it.  So, here goes.

Quick overview of pregnancy running:
There were times it was less pleasant than I'd have liked.  I had to walk a lot and I was always worried that something was going to be wrong with the baby.  I feel more comfortable admitting this now that TJ  is here, but I was worried more that people would blame my running than I was that she would be affected.  People who know me are aware of my feelings toward babies.  I think they are relatively boring, but are a necessary step toward getting to be a mom of a kid.  This is becoming a tangent.  Note to self:  continue the baby rant on another post.
C'mon...focus.  I ran a bunch of races while I was pregnant and I mostly loved them.  When we moved to Ohio, I joined the local running club and started participating in as many of their races as I could.  When I got pregnant, I decided to sign up for the 401k challenge (run 401 kilometers on trails in a year) and attempt to finish it before TJ arrived so we could both get credit for it.  Spoiler:  we totally made it.
If I run again in the next pregnancy, I'm going to make a much larger deal of it.  I'm not usually a big attention seeker, but when I'm pregnant running, I got so much support and encouragement that it made the mild discomfort and the decreased bladder size worth it.
The major races I logged were:
Xenia 1/2 marathon:  March 25 (~3 months)
TARC spring classic 50k: April (~4 months)
Little Miami 1/2 Marathon: August (~8 months)
Air Force Marathon: September (5 days before my due date)
Germantown 50k: September (2 days after my due date) DNF  *sad face*

I went into labor two days after the 12 miles of trail I managed to finish of the Germantown 50k.  The race director was incredibly relieved when I removed myself from the course at the 12+ mile mark.  I sat at the finish line and cheered on the first few finishers, designed a logo for another trail run, and strengthened friendships with some of the other volunteers.

I relied heavily on my pregnancy running belt, my Nathan fuel belt, and the patience of my family.

Now, I'm posting this.  I'm not going to set a bunch of goals for continuing to keep it updated.  I'm going to just...relax.  I have enough other goals in my life that I don't feel the need to add an arbitrary, seemingly useless goal of posting to a blog I haven't told anyone about.  We'll see if that helps.

And we're back.

Yesterday, we got together with some other homeschooling friends and played with revolution and rotation concepts while we talked about moon phases, length of the year, and time between full moons. Then, we transitioned to wavelength and light. As we got ready to go home, the youngest friend brought down his rock collection and we talked about sedimentary rock formation.

The Other Parent's Army buddy came over the day before to do PT with us. Cross fit is fantastic because it just uses just your body weight. That makes The Other Parent's workout just as challenging as mine is despite the 170 lbs wieght difference. That also means that I'm just a tad bit sore.

Today, we're going to do our workout, then focus on history/geography and art with a little bit of math review. TOP and I have noticed some behavioral changes lately that may or may not be related to fears about growing up. I'm thinking about doing a journal topic about changes and/or behavior to see if I can get something without making a big deal about our concerns.

So, here's the plan:

Math:
Review decimals and metric conversions. I was thinking we'd do conversions between decimals, but it might be easier to change between deka, hecto, and kilo since we've been working with place values on ixl.com.

Social studies:
Work on resolutions
Practice state recognition, transition to geographical features, focus on mountains

English:
superteacherworksheets.com; comma worksheets (using commas and yes, no, sure)
editing first draft of fable
quick review of interogative, declarative, exclamatory sentences

Art:
Painting three dimensional objects

Science:
Powerpoint slide for modified inclined planes
Game for simple machines: www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/

What the plan was for yesterday

We're on our way to my grandmother's nursing home. I have a stack of worksheets for The Kid to work on and hopefully we'll get some things accomoplished and she won't be bored.

I woke up early and printed worksheets from the following:

http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/as/technology/2/ast2_1a.html

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/order/simple.shtml

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/measuring.php

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/us_nl.pdf

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/synonyms-antonyms.html

We're going to focus on decimals today since she seems to be very excited about them. It also links to our study of the metric system.

I'm going to have her put the initials for each of the states into their outlines on a map.

Waffle Day in Actuality

And here’s what actually happened:

I finished the last in the batch of waffles as The Kid woke up. We snuggled in her bed while she ate her waffles and I read two chapters from the Oz book. Her new nickname is Pampered Pimbly (for the alliteration).

We straightened the house and did our chores, then decided to do the activities that we didn’t do yesterday.

First was talking about the parts of a story. She reviewed the chart she made that is hanging in our living room and we discussed her fable.

We got distracted by some egg cartons that could be cut to look like reindeer, then wanted to learn how to draw a reindeer. (http://video.dragoart.com/tuts/773/1/2/how-to-draw-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer.htm)

We used this opportunity to talk about shapes, lines segments, parallel lines, difference between reindeer and Midwestern deer (female reindeer have antlers)

We used an economics book that I found at Goodwill for $.70 (Economics for the Elementary Classroom by Elaine C. Coulson and Sarapage McCorkle). It gives an overview of basic economics for the teacher to supplement any knowledge and help brush up on terms. It’s intended for grades 1-8 and has activities divided by basic age level. The lesson plans include objectives, guiding questions, and worksheets. We talked about opportunity cost as the choice that was given up. Then we did two activity that involved weighing options and making choices based on a variety of criteria.

The plan is to review with the other activities tomorrow.

Worked at ixl.com to practice place value

Spelling practice: tossed ladybugs back and forth while we spelled, then she practiced throwing a ball in the air and catching it with each letter. Success!

The Kid chose to practice decimal addition with two worksheets

Then, independent reading while she ate red beans and grapes.

She worked on her powerpoint presentation and completed the information for inclined planes.

We got a whole lot of nothing done with social studies so far, and we’re both pretty burned out, so she’s going to play the water game (http://www.freepoverty.com/), then we’re going to run around and get the house cleaned up so I can fool my mom into thinking I’m not as messy as I was when I was a kid.

The Kid just said she wanted to learn about shadows. I adore having a kid that wonders about hings and wants to find out the reasons behind the mysteries. I’m off to find cool resources to teach about light and shadows! It will fit perfectly with the guest activities I’m planning when we go to our friends’ house to talk about moon phases. AWESOME!

For tomorrow’s trip to visit my grandmother:

Bring journal, pencils, extra drawing paper, multiplication flash cards

Print out worksheets for metric system of measurement, decimals, resolutions for translation, Newton’s laws of motion, sound worksheets, rock worksheets for review, blank map of the United States for labeling

Ahhh, liquid sleep.

Basically, coffee is amazing. It’s perfect for those mornings when you stayed up until a bit past 0300 knotting a quilt for your mother who’s going to be arriving the next day. Fortunately, I have a very understanding boss who agreed that we both needed an extra hour of sleep. And now: the schedule.

Language arts:

Practice misspelled words

Write an entry in her journal (side note: find journal)

Review parts of a story

Work on fable

Science:

Continue to work on powerpoint presentation for simple machines.

Introduce term “lever arm”

Create and finish slide for inclined planes and screws.

Social Studies:

Continue to translate resolutions

Read about what life was like in 1848 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1597503,00.html)

(http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/19thcentury1840.htm)

Math:

Review metric system prefixes and discuss powers of ten; focus on positive powers. Side note, if decimals are a number multiplied by ten raised to a negative power, does that make them the supervillians of the numerical universe?

Practice multiplication facts with flashcard spaceships (I have they fly across the room at her and she has to shoot them with her properly calibrated eye lasers)

Practice place value and which metric unit of weight is appropriate on www.ixl.com

Practice addition with decimals (http://www.mathsisfun.com/worksheets/print.php?w=1848&ID=30963)

Other:

Practice sign language (www.aslpro.com)

Paint spoons

Go for a walk and exercise

Economics (opportunity cost)

The Kid is still zonked, so I have a few minutes to whip up a batch of homemade Super Chocolatey Waffles (waffles with cocoa powder and chocolate chips) before she rises. The plan is to drink another cup of coffee and be ready to snuggle and read a chapter from the latest Oz book while she eats. Wish me luck!

What we actually did today

We didn’t hit all the things I had planned for the day, but she was incredibly patient when I got distracted by ixl.com and wanted her to complete a few more skills. She’s been well fed, well read, and I’m dead, so we’re stopping school for now. It’s a beautiful day outside and we may still take Dog for a walk during which time we’ll probably sing our Buffy song and dance around. Now that I’m officially ‘off work’, it’s time to get the house ready for my mother and sister’s visit, finish the presents for the cast of the play the Kid and I are in, put the finishing touches on the quilts for my mama and my fantastic MiL, knit the rest of the scarves for my family and wrap some books for Christmas presents. I might find time to make dinner in there somewhere.

I’m happy with what we did today; The Kid learned a lot of new skills, practiced some old ones, got to read quite a bit, ate a ton, she’s still happy, her chores got done this morning, and we’re heading to the grocery store to get some bread flour for home-made bagels.

And here’s what we actually did:

Read a chapter of The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Independent reading during breakfast: Schroeder, Music is My Life (Peanuts)

Presented schedule to the kid, let her pick the order of the activities

Decimal worksheet (compared to money, fixed misconception that 10.6 =$10 and 6 cents.)

Ate snack of bananas and milk

Stopwatch for addition facts worksheet

Drawing while practicing multiplication facts

Got distracted with card manipulation, still practiced multiplication

Finished all multiplication practice, discussed metric prefixes and powers of 10.

Played with dog while we did related subtraction facts and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division terms on IXL.com (discovered ‘minuend’ is fun to say, even though I had no idea what it was before we started practicing)

Practiced identifying states by region, then took a lunch break (independent reading of Peanuts while eating lima beans and black beans with corn)

Note: One of the things that she has repeatedly mentioned about homeschooling is how wonderful it is to be able to eat whenever you want so her brain can keep working

Took a 15 minute break to digest; she used it to draw

Counting patterns and skip counting stories from ixl.com

Practiced identifying states without the regional boundaries

Translated two resolutions from Seneca falls convention, focused on prefixes and suffixes to decode words (example: indelicacy in- = not, like inhuman, impropriety/im-proper/not-right)

Danced around while the kid threw Christmas bows at my butt. She had to calculate her ‘hit percentage’ with each throw (1/2=50%, 4/6=2/3=66%, 4/8=2/4=1/2=50%), then we switched and I threw at her.

Danced around to “When You’re Smiling”

Introduced kid to Powerpoint to record her learning about simple machines. Used search engines to locate images, taught basic mouse and keyboard commands, finished slides about levers, included two examples for each

More independent reading while Chicken Ramen was cooking and being eaten

Had The Kid tell me about the story she just read, then she asked if she could read it aloud to me. Uh, heck yeah!

Did not:

Practice spelling (wanted to throw stuffed moose while we take turns saying letters of spelling words)

Practice sign language song

Work on her fable

Introduce formula for simple machines

Introduce economics