Ever See a REAL Dead Mummy?

We did.

One of the very best things about homeschooling is that when you're only trying to teach 3 students, you have time to let them do really cool stuff to apply what they're learning into life-long knowledge.

(Psst. This is not one of those 'why everyone should homeschool' posts. Or an 'I think I'm cooler, because I homeschool' or a 'if you homeschooled, your kid could wear jeans that are too short and nobody would notice, too' post. It's just a 'this is what we did one day' post. I'm glad we got that covered.)

Because we were studying Ancient Egypt, and I heard a rumor we have mummies just an hour away from the Middle of Nowhere, I planned a field trip with the other moms here in the Middle of Nowhere who are also total freaks of nature who homeschool their kids. Yes, there are quite a few of us. Watch out.

And to be totally honest. I learned SO MUCH!!! I swear nobody ever told me this stuff!!

Did you know that many many of the tombs are empty? Like, I know there are movies about Tomb Raiders and stuff. And I know once all the Hebrew people left Egypt and the Egyptians didn't have as much slave labor, times got kind of tough for the Egyptians and they stole the loot out of the pyramids. But nobody ever told me that in the late 1800's a tomb was found with 30 mummies in it. Most of them royal. And that Ramses (you know, the one Moses was talking to) had red hair! Seriously. We saw it. In Imax, so it was like 15 feet tall! And it was red and curly. I really really really thought all the Egyptians had dark hair. Guess what?! They didn't. They wore wigs.


Perhaps, you all knew this stuff. But for me, homeschooling is giving me a whole new education!



We paid extra for the "Guided Tour", which meant this guy stood there and pointed around the room at the different parts of the Ancient Egypt display and told the kids what they were.

And believe it or not, they had two mummies. The one in the foreground is still wrapped and is a male, and over there on the far left, is a female mummy unwrapped. I didn't take any up close pictures of her, because I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

The whole concept of voyeur-izing (my own word) these mummies is definitely love/hate with me. It's so cool to learn about it, and see it, and try to grasp what life was like for them. But I hate that I wonder if they would like being on display for a bunch of homeschool yahoos to come look at them? But then I think, wait a minute, it's just a shell of a body. That person's spirit is not there, why would I care if yahoos were looking at the shell of my body when I'm already in eternity? And then I think about the super intelligence it took to be able to preserve bodies/skin/hair like this. It really is a wonder of the ancient world. Such that we still are not able to reproduce it like they did. And that some of them did it specifically to be remembered for all of time(the movie told us that). So if they wanted to be remembered are we actually honoring them, by taking care of their remains? But is that just justification? Love/hate.
So then the questions during Q&A went something like this:

Topic One
Kid: What do those hieroglyphs say?

Tour Guide: I'm not sure

Kid: How come you don't know what they say?

Tour Guide: Well, I know a couple sounds

Kid: But could you just read part of it to us?

Tour Guide: Umm, I'm pretty sure this wavy line means water, and it's pronounced, 'cuh'

Kid: I don't think that's how you say it


Topic Two
Kid: How did the mummy die?

Tour Guide: The mummy didn't die, the person died

Kid: How did the person die?

Tour Guide: We don't know for sure

hee hee


Then while we were there we, of course, visited the rest of the museum. The mummy stuff is actually just one room. In the basement. (Where else could it be?)

So we pretended to float down the Mighty Mississippi.



And I'll give you three guesses as to how long we had to stand in front of this exhibit.

a. 15 seconds
b. 5 minutes
c. 15 minutes

Do you realize how little some of that print is? I was going hoarse just reading it all!


Then there was this really fun puppet stage.
All the puppets were woodland animals and the kids had so much fun throwing them out the little windows to see which ones drop the fastest. I mean, they loved putting on puppet shows for their mommy.

And at the end, we even built our own pyramid just to bring the whole thing back around to repetitious education.

Belated Bunny

Because some things are just too cute not to post...

Bashful Bunny

Bye Bye Bunny

Do y'all see that wrinkled up nose?
Boisterous Bunny

Baby Bunny

Because Sometimes if I Take a Picture of It, I Can See it.

This sorry excuse for the surface of a counter has been accumulating for over a month.


Like I was telling you a few days ago, October was just one of those Mammoth Months. In which I run from here to there and do this thing and that whereby neglecting most household chores and rapidly lose geography in my kitchen. The counter top in my kitchen is a fairly accurate barometer of the chaos level in my house. Do you have one of those places? Where everything gets dumped? Really important bills you put on top get piled over and lost when the American Girl catalog comes in the mail? And various hair things, bath towels, and Lowe's purchases all get clumped together in the "Deal with this SOON" category? I wish my dump spot was not in such an obvious location. I've actually tried (on several occasions) to move it to hutch in the dining room. The pile will hear nothing of being demoted out of it's prestigious position in the heart of the family and quite vigorously reappears right back next to the toaster oven.

Let's look a little closer, shall we?
Starting on the far right, is a pile of things to return to my mother. A bath towel which I borrowed (without asking) one day when I was transporting something messy from her house to mine. I can't remember what was being transported which gives some clue as to how long ago I secretly took it. Also in the pile, is a simple ice cream bucket. Were y'all aware they were making those buckets square nowadays? Anyway, if the bucket belonged to me, I would simply put it in the recycling bin. But my dear, sainted mother loves those plastic buckets, and uses and reuses and reuses them. So I want to give it back to her instead of to the recycle guy. And within the bucket is her apple peeler/corer/slicer which I borrowed (with permission) to make applesauce (3 weeks ago).

Next to that are a card (from a dear friend) and a photo (love you, CW) that Lydia nabbed off the refrigerator, and instead of simply reapplying them with magnets, I put them here. To wait. Apparently for a better time to use a magnetism. (Who DOES stuff like that?!) Then we have our Verse of the Day Cards, which are becoming more like "Verse of Every Other Month" cards. A headband that matches a dress Lydia outgrew this summer and a string of pearls I wore to church in September. If you look hard, you can barely see the edge of our fancy label machine, and extra cartridge. I love that thing! (And you can tell I use it to keep my life perfectly organized). And everybody needs a Ziploc bag of plastic spoons to top off the pile. Another sad commentary is that the usual home of the spoons is the cabinet directly above their current position. They are literally 15 inches from where they are supposed to be.

You can quit now.

I know this is rightfully the stupidest blog post someone has ever written. I'm obviously doing this as some form of weird catharsis. But, seriously, acknowledging my own cluttered-ness for all the world to see is sort of like the Jerry Springer of the blog world. Who wants to know this? Why am I putting my business up here?! So Narcissistic! It's ridiculous and on some level so very immature.


I will finish but, please, you can go on to the next blog in your roll. I can finish this one up all alone.


Here comes the sticky part.

Especially sticky because I'm sure the counter was not clean when this pile of paper was started. But while I'm working out my business here, we'll just start from the bottom.

• manuals for the Flashmaster (if you homeschool you might NEED one)
• composition notebook for Making Room for Life book club (what irony is that)
  
• Pad of paper on which I make plans for the day
• Red notebook of songs for the Women's Retreat (17 days ago)
• Bible :( I do have another one that I use daily, but this one really shouldn't be here
• Clipboard with Claire's schoolwork still attached from the day I taught while cooking
• CD cases (who knows!)
• Kids craft papers
• Map (not really, but that's what the boys call it when they roll up any piece of paper and put a rubber band around it)
  

Yuck, y'all. Why do I do this to myself? But let me get it all over and done with. It's sort of like vomit. Don't stop till you're done or you're just gonna do it again. Here goes.

That's the bag of toiletries I took to the retreat that was 17 days ago. Good thing I have extra deodorant and toothbrushes upstairs, because who knows how long it would have taken me to find these! And that little spray can with the orange top is orange hair spray I bought for the kids. None of them needed it for their Halloween costumes, I just wanted them to experience orange hair. But we haven't done it yet, much to their disdain.

Then, in the coveted On-Top-of-the-Toaster-Oven spot, we have a pile of recipes.

The one on top I made just over a week ago. My friend, Cathy in TX gave me the recipe and it is YUMMY!

All the recipes underneath it, are simply there because when I reached for the recipe out of the cabinet, I just pulled down the whole stack. I know, that's very wrong. And I shan't do it again.





Hi Mom! Hi Mother-in-Law! I'm sure you two are the only ones who actually made it all the way down here. And I would just like to say, yesterday, I cleaned off my counter. All of it. Except the orange hairspray.

Not to be Outdone by Her Older Siblings

One for the money...

Two for the show....

Three to get ready....

And Four to go!




That's my girl! I love who she is!

LifeSavers: Please Pray for Mark's Mom

Hello again internet friends. Please pray for Mark's mom, Karen, today. And every day for the next six weeks!

She's having surgery on her knee again today and will continue to recover from infection for at least the next 6 weeks. Please pray specifically that the infection would be completely eradicated from her body. That her body would be restored to health. And that surgery and the recovery from surgery would be without incident.

Not every woman is blessed to have a Mother-in-Law who is supportive and unconditionally loving. So a brief word to those that are Mother-in-Laws who read this blog, be like Mark's mom. Know that your son's daughter doesn't need fashion advice, or tips on parenting, or career motivational discussions. She needs your love, your cheerleading, and your presence in the lives of her children. I didn't know that's what I needed until it was given to me. But, I'm so thankful for who she is in our family. One of the best parts of moving back to the Middle of Nowhere 2 years ago, has been her availability in our lives. She's quick to lend a hand when we're in crisis or offer babysitting for date nights. The past month, as we've been fighting illness in our family and she's been fighting infection in her knee, has felt very disjointed because we've haven't been around Grandma Karen.

Mom/Grandma, know that you're in our prayers today and we're gathering up as many prayers for you as we can. We love you and can't wait to see you back running errands and bringing lunch and cleaning out the toaster oven. Ok, just kidding on that last one. :)

Blast from the Past: Timing is everything

One year ago today I took this picture.


But how I took this picture is what I'm gonna tell you about. I took an antique chair that I got for $7.50 at a sale and I put it out on my lawn and let my daughter do her thing. This time I didn't call her name or make funny noises to capture an expression or a twinkle in the eye. I just wanted realness. I love that the toes of her shoes are wet from the grass. I love the coolness of the color. We were in complete shade and I didn't take any measures to warm it up. It's one of my favorite photos of Lydia's Age 1 portfolio.

Then I took this one because I wanted to capture that curl. The one right there at the base of her head. It made her hair turn to the left side. My mom tells me she has the same trait. Again, I love the realness of it. And you can see we moved locations and the sun was peaking out around a cloud. Totally changed the feel of the photo.

Which do you like?

I Forgot to Tell You

In an effort to make all (2) of this week's blog posts completely about me, I wanted to tell you what Mark got me for my birthday. Which was over 2 months ago. I'm a little behind in the blogosphere.

I'll give you some hints.

1. It came in a box.


2. Packed in dry ice



3. From the Cheesecake Factory (you should be really close to an answer by now)


If your name is not Gretchen, you may try to guess what flavor it was. A prize may or may not be given to all the lucky winners.

Not just any kind of husband orders (read: pays for) cheesecake to sit on your porch in a box all day in the middle of August. Not just any kind of husband listens to and acts upon all the hints a woman drops about not really liking regular cake. I think it may be one of my most favorite birthday presents yet!

Thank you, Mark. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(We froze some and I even shared a piece with him this week. Yes, I know, that is sacrifical love defined.)