Simply Silliness

In case you've ever wondered about my sanity (If you've ever met me, I'm sure you have) :), here's a good example that I can be pretty abnormal:

I was putting fresh sheets on my bed this evening, and I (for some reason) had a pencil in my hand that kept getting in my way. I looked around for a good place to set it, and the first thing I saw was the fan blade. Yes, the fan blade. I can reach it pretty easily from my top bunk, so I set the pencil on there while I made my bed. I hadn't quite finished putting on the sheet when Mom called me for something, which led to another something, and another something, so that it was some time later that I finally came back to finish. Anyway, I was just untangling the chains from the base of the fan where Cecily put them yesterday so that she could jump rope without getting the rope tangled with them (All kinds of strange things go on in the Peterson house!) when I saw my pencil, still resting on top of the fan blade! I had been looking for it earlier, so I exclaimed, to the great astonishment of Cecily in her bunk across from mine, "Oh, here's my pencil! I was wondering where I had put it!" and waved it in the air, almost losing my balance and falling out of my bunk in so doing.

By Mom

There are distinct advantages to being the mother of a superb blogger-daughter. She does a wonderful job of chronicling the life of our family. Alas, she has declared that it is time for Mom to pull her weight on our "family" blog and comment on our trip to Springfield this past Tuesday.

This past week, a bill was introduced (SB136), which would require all Illinois students not attending public schools to register with the state. We homeschoolers cherish our freedom to teach our children without the hassles of paperwork and government interference! We therefore banded together to flood the offices of the members of the Senate education committee with phone calls and e-mails, and all who were able travelled to the capitol on Tuesday to be present for the hearing of the bill. I believe that Senator Maloney was surprised at the response to his proposed bill (that is a major understatement!). Capitol security has documented that over 4,000 homeschoolers crowded into the building in a peaceable yet eloquent protest. For me, the most awesome part of the day was joining with 4,000 others in singing patriotic songs in the wonderful acoustics of the Capitol building, while waiting for the hearing to begin.
We just received word that SB136 has been tabled. We are rejoicing, but remaining vigilant!

Pictures from the capitol

The line in front of us... at least, part of it

 Friends from our group

  

Papa did some 'exploring' and found out that there was hardly anyone at the west entrance. We hurried on over, with a whole crowd following!

 Almost there!!

Everyone is finally inside...

 Papa is taking pictures with his camera from the balcony 



The Senate gallery

  

One of the buttons that were being handed out  

More about why we were there to come soon!

A Week

It's been almost a week since I've posted! Well, that usually means that there's a lot to blog about that has kept me busy!

Wednesday- Church, usual TGIW activities

Thursday- SCCCHE meeting: a video for the adults and a Valentines party for the kids. I stayed at home to watch a writing webinar.

Friday- First Lyceum!!! We're all really excited with our classes this semester. We're only staying three hours this semester... last semester it was really a little too much staying 5-6 hours for Knut's (looong) FLL meetings! We're taking it easy this semester. :) (another Lyceum post coming soon!)

Saturday- Mom's birthday! In the morning, Papa took her out shopping and to lunch while we kids cleaned the house. In the afternoon, Papa, Mom, and the boys went geocaching with the Woolevers... at least, with Pastor Woolever and Landry. Mrs. Woolever and the little girls stayed at home, and Cecily and Gloria played there. I went home to finish the cleaning and read a book. :) For dinner, we went out to Red Lobster!

Sunday- Church in the morning... we got to sleep in until 8:00 since Mom didn't need to play for the early service this week! In the afternoon, we just rested and relaxed, and watched movies (Jonny Quest and a couple school videos) in the evening.

Monday (today)- Mom made a delicious breakfast of waffles and fruit sauce, complete with candles and m&ms on the breakfast table! This evening she and Papa will have a date at the 'Peterson Gourmet Restaurant' (in our lovely attic/library).

Tuesday (tomorrow)- we go to Springfield! More about that tomorrow evening, or possibly on Wednesday. :)

Bright Lights, Babies, etc.

I had a lot of schoolwork to do today... we went sledding yesterday afternoon and I got behind. :( I still have one more math page to do this evening, but that won't take too long.

This is going to be a non-picture post. I forgot to bring the camera to Bright Lights this evening, and I certainly regretted it, especially since on the way home Rosemary was sooo cute! We had the Let My Life Be a Light CD playing from my MP3 player, and she was dancing! It is very difficult to dance in a car seat, but she was bouncing up and down as much as the straps would let her and wiggling her little legs and bobbing her head up and down! For awhile she even tried to sing along! Cecily and I laughed until we cried, and I would have given a lot to have been able to get a video.

The topic at Bright Lights tonight was Mercy. When Allison asked if there were any times when it was hard to show mercy to siblings, there were a lot of hands raised! At the beginning, we broke into groups to do skits of parables Jesus told about mercy. My group kept forgetting to say their lines, but it was still fun! :)

I just heard a thump, thump, thump of someone coming downstairs. I thought at first that it was Bjorn out of bed (again) and that I would have to scold him and bring him upstairs, but then Rosemary came into the room! After I greeted her, she stared at me for a minute and walked back into the kitchen. Now she's coming back in... I think she's playing peekaboo. :) Yes, she is!

Forget about this being a pictureless post... :)

To continue about Bright Lights...

Like I said, I didn't get photos tonight, but you can check out Allison's blog for her photos.

Cecily went to Bright Lights tonight with a cute Swedish hairdo. It's one I've been trying to learn to do (at Cecily's insistence) for quite awhile now, and as we were getting ready to go late this afternoon I finally figured it out! Sadly, I didn't think of getting pictures until it was too late, but I know she's going to be begging me to reconstruct it, and I'll get some shots then. :)

Superbowl

Our family isn't really into football- I don't think I've ever watched the Superbowl before!- but some friends of ours, the Woolevers (bibleonthebrain.com) invited us over for a party on Sunday. I didn't understand what was going on half the time, but it was fun to talk and take pictures. :)

 The little girls would much rather dress up than watch football!

 Rosemary isn't too interested in football, either.

Neither are these guys!

Or Mom either, for that matter. :)

Doing Princess Gloria's hair

Is Paster Woolever going berserk???



Saturday

Yesterday was quite a full day for us! In the morning, we cleaned house until about 11:15, when we (Papa and all of the kids except Rosemary) went downtown for the annual Mascoutah Sweetie Pie Day, where a number of businesses from Mascoutah make pies for the public to sample, and then everyone votes for their favorite pie.

At 1:00, Mom and I left for Bright Lights. Mom and Papa had a meeting here in Mascoutah at 2:00, which is why Mom took me to Bright Lights an hour and a half early!

Some Pictures from Sweetie Pie Day...

The downside of homeschooling

There has been a lot of snow and ice for the past couple weeks, so the public schools have had a lot of snow days. I'm the only homeschooler in my Sunday school, so I keep hearing about how everyone else is having so many days off, what they're doing with their free time, etc. This is one of the things I do not like about being homeschooled- we don't get snow days! My homeschooled friends have been talking about how they're trying to convince their parents to get snow days... one girl said that she asked her mom if she could have a snow day if there was ice on the stairs! We've tried many ideas, but nothing works. :(