You May Already Be a Winner of Jen Merrill’s “If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?: Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice Exceptional”


…also known by me as: “ITiaG,CISiB?:SitLotGaTE” published by Gifted Homeschoolers Forum (GHF).  I love a good abbreviation.  Simplifies things, no?  Sorry for the delay in contest results, btw.  My life is unmanageable.  I blame the kids.

Anyway, I was finally able to finish the book I was reading, and its sequel, so I could get this contest put to bed.  I meant to do the drawing last night…but I started the book, and then needed to know how it ended.  It didn’t end well!  Neither did the sequel!!  I can’t wait for the third.  My 24 hour accidental internet detox was successful, in case you were wondering.

That, however, is not what you care so much about.  On to the good news, as well as the confirmation that you might be a loser.  It hurts, I know.  Keep reading my blog to feel better about yourself, your life, your kids…

Unless you are:

15 Cass post comment
100 Marianne M. FB LIKE
287 Rebecca W. FB LIKE
53 Secret Identity FB LIKE
183 Meredith FB Share
172 Jen C. FB Share
301 Tara L. FB LIKE
227 Brian F. FB LIKE
27 DiAnna M. post comment
42 Holly R. post comment
86 Kathie S FB LIKE
73 Heather C. FB LIKE
255 Jody M FB LIKE
24 Rodney post comment
224 Dawn D. FB LIKE
Kelly Close proximity auto win
Mom/Jen Close proximity auto win
2nd Round:
205 Wendy H. FB LIKE
130 Mia K-N FB LIKE
42 Erin S FB LIKE
202 Tedra O FB LIKE
67 Ellen E FB LIKE
67 Heather G. FB LIKE

…in which case you are a winner!  Congratulations!!  You can keep reading my blog anyway, to feel superior and stuff.

My process for choosing winners was easy.  I opened an excel spreadsheet and pasted in the names of people who met the qualification criteria.  I copied the names as many times as necessary, and my kids named 15 random numbers between 1 and 309.  I deleted winners and my kids named 5 more random numbers, between 1 and 209.

Special Note:  “Secret Identity” won, which is actually a long ago FB account I used for Mafia Wars.  It was a cheap FB like in the early days, so I’m naming my own winner for that copy:  Congrats to Carolyn K!  Duh, she’s Hoagies.  Of course she gets a copy.  🙂  Also, 67 happened in a confused manner, so there were two winners there.

N said it wasn’t so random, and not so scientific.  Whatever.  It’s also 23 copies of the book given away so far, instead of 15, and 8 winners are complete strangers to me.  Cool!

I don’t hear any of the winners complaining, now do I?  I don’t pay much attention to losers, because, well…

Aww. So sad. Loser.

Another Special Note:  If you still want to win a copy, I will post about the Chicago Gifted Community Center (CGCC) giveaway later in the week.

Congrats, again, to the winners!  I will contact you for shipping info.  Please read the book and post your reviews everywhere: Amazon, Goodreads, BN…

My apologies to the losers.  🙂  Your cats still love you.

Maybe.

Contest Extended to Saturday…Homeschoolers Gone Wild!!


No joke, I can’t even hold a proper contest!

The last couple of weeks have blurred by and I’m losing my mind already. We homeschool around these parts, as you may know, and N’s OnlineG3 classes started on Monday. Coincidentally, Monday was all drama, all the time. One family member cried for two hours because he discovered a conflict in his schedule that denies him *more* class time. He always needs more. He has clear expectations and doesn’t respond calmly on the first pass when things are not to his specs.

I have no idea from where that fantastically noisy trait originated on his family tree.

Pictures of cute kitties make us calm.

Tuesday and Thursday classes were smooth and he had a blast, though we then had a difficult discussion about dropping a science activity we were both looking forward to…but we already see the writing on the wall. He’s a year young for it, and they’ll have a full team, so maybe it’s not fair to have him participating anyway. I don’t know. It brought on more tears though. He wants to do all of it.

In a few weeks we’ll start Friday co-op in Skokie, which kicks off our Beelers on Wheels grand tour for both boys.  This co-op is not negotiable for them.  They love it like a diabetic loves low blood sugar readings.

Monday Science Spectacular begins a couple of days later–4 hours at the Chicago Botanic Gardens for them both as well, with a friend thinking about some fun opportunities for the kids to hang out even more. Tuesdays are always our local unschool group, which is our home base, so that leaves Wednesdays and Thursdays home. Oh wait, Wednesday is for gymnastics, swimming lessons, field trips, and scouts. So, we’re home on Thursday. Part of the day. Sometimes. Homeschool skate is Thursdays for 4 hours. E’s favorite, next to gymnastics.

OMG We’ll never make it.

Calming kitty *and* puppy….

E is technically going into 2nd grade, but he wants to take all of the same classes as his brother. He’s pissed he’s not in Online G3 also, so I sense our lives are only going to get more complicated as E gets older and more joiny.

We also have trips to Iowa and South Dakota this Fall, as well as Symphonic concert, Opera, a one woman play about Marie Curie, and … ?  Some other stuff I can’t see on my calendar because my eyes are bleeding.  Why can’t I say no to those people I ever-so-craftily made myself at home?

We have a very ambitious schedule this Fall. I’m not really sure we can pull it all off, so I’m stressed. I’m always stressed. Last night I had the mother of all hissy fits because Jeff brought home dinner and my order was wrong. How dare he?! How dare Quiznos run out of Au Jus for my sandwich?! WTF is going on with this crazy world? He was surprised at my, shall I say emotional, reaction to the disappointing news.

Calming kitty picture……

Week One of our rabidly over-scheduled and mostly unschoolie-yet-eclectic homeschooling 2012-13 year has begun, and I’m already overwhelmed. I’ve almost forgotten my church bingo wins with my parents and sister this weekend, and that was a spendable cash euphoria!  I will be blogging in the future about the FREE goldfish.  Thankyouverymuch, Aunt Jen and Uncle Tim.

Long story short: you have an extended period to try and win Jen Merrill’s (link to Laughing at Chaos blog) new book:

If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?: Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice Exceptional

Read back a post for contest details. I’m way too comfy (lazy?) to grab the link myself. Work for it, people!  I will draw names on Saturday.  She signed them a week or so ago, so they’ll be ready for the mail in a jiffy!

Also, still not sure how the contest will go for the Chicago Gifted Community Center, but I’ll be giving books away there too. 🙂 CGCC is new and awesome, so check us out and help us grow!

DAMNIT!! WTF is the kitty doing in the toilet???? What is wrong with that cat?? I’m not calm anymore.

I’m Crazy and Unphotogenic


So lately I’ve been in a weird place.  I’m volunteering my time in excess of what some people give to their full time job.  I gave up a leadership role for another of my kids’ activities because I was going crazy with all the demands.  No one is happy once mom rounds the bend into insanity!

The descent is particularly dramatic around here, as we all feed off of each other’s energy.  So, crazy mom means the kids are regularly hysterical, the cats get needy, Jeff ends up carrying the whole household… Oh, right.  He already does carry the whole fricking household.  Dishes, laundry, cat vomit.  He does it all.

Just like that.

More time for the rest of us to be batshitcrazy.  By “us”, I mean “Kim”.  It is what it is.

I kind of enjoy that Sarah Palin was the first several hits for “batshitcrazy” on google images.

Enough about him and that, let’s talk about me some more.  I’ve been hyper-focused on helping my homeschool co-op find a new space for the fall.  It has taken over my home life, though some of that is due to my complete lack of organizational skills.  Some of it is due to a perfectionism streak I try to tell myself I don’t have.  Some of the occupation is because I am wildly in love with this group and my children both say they can’t live without it.

I’ll do whatever it takes to help make this happen and insure it’s there for my kids.  Well, other people’s kids too.  Co-op is no fun without friends.  I should amend that to read, “I will stop short at prostituting myself on Craigslist.”  Everything else is probably okay, or mostly okay.

Nah. Just kidding. Sounds like way too much work.

Now that co-op is straightening itself out though, another group I’m in LURVE with, Chicago Gifted Community Center, is picking up speed again for me. We’re a new non-profit just about to open the doors for membership.  I’m on the board.  I needed to submit a Bio for the website.  I suck and am a big loser.  Well, not really, but this is my blog post and I can say whatever I want.

Seriously though, I feel a little intimidated by the women I’m working with.  They are all amazing, accomplished, passionate women.  They’ve done incredible things with their lives, while also raising their high needs, fabulous kids.

Then there’s me.  I skipped a shower this morning, Jeff brought home take-out for dinner, my butt made a permanent crater on the couch today, and I didn’t graduate from college.

I was close, but I got married and moved to California instead.  I went back to school for photography a few years ago (OMG, 10), but then I dropped out again and had a baby.  I’m a cliche!

A cliche that also cannot multitask.  Lots of people finish their degrees while raising families, yo.  Some people drop out of school and launch billion dollar corporations from  cheap rental apartments.

ZUCKERBERG!!!!!

I mostly got over myself earlier tonight, sent my bio, and found a Photobooth pic that E and I took several months ago.  I cropped E out and realized I look possessed in my remaining half of the picture.

The pic is small, so you can’t see my RED GLOWING EYES!!!

Possessed is as good as it gets, since I look like a moose in all the other pictures.  All four of them.  Apparently I’m in Witness Protection and cannot have people taking my picture.  My friend made a Face-in-Hole of me as the Queen of England, and it’s actually one of the few photos of me in existence!

This is one of the few pictures of me in existence.

So, I’m wallowing in self pity here.  I have B.O., but no degree.  I don’t have a building, bench, or calendar day named after me.  I’m disorganized and overscheduled.  I don’t have any good pictures.  Sigh.  I didn’t launch a billion dollar corporation when I dropped out of school.

Maybe I should cut myself some slack.  These kids I have are a lot of work.  They are always going, going, going…nonstop.  Juggling their extensive, discordant needs is exhausting, and I do a pretty good job.  I’m not saying great, but pretty good is not bad.

My kids are relatively happy.  As long as the older one isn’t in the sun, heat, cold, darkness…and as long as it’s not too noisy or chaotic, either, for him, he’s happy.  Oh, and as long as he has access to electronics, books, magazines and, shit, I don’t know.  It’s a long list.  He’s happy when his needs are met.  He has a lot of needs.

N’s most finely developed / over-worked organs.

The younger is happy when all of the opposite is true.  He likes to be outside, in the noise, creating the chaos, embracing the bedlam.  He does enjoy the electronics, too, but frequently loses his stuff and then pretends he doesn’t care.  I admire that.

The spirit of E. This is what I think he looks like on the inside.

What was the point here?  Did I have a point?  I’m not sure.  Maybe my bio is the point? And my happy go-lucky attitude?  LOL

Here’s my bio:  Kim Beeler has some kids.  She’s crazy, volunteers a lot, has B.O., and no college degree.  She didn’t make a billion dollars when she dropped out of school.

This post is a disaster.  I don’t care.  I’m posting it anyway.

Next time will be brilliant.  🙂

Well, maybe.