Chuck Norris Redux and Why My Kids Are in a Chain Gang

May 27, 2012 at 11:23 am (Blogging about Blogging, Chuck Norris, E, Family, Homeschooling, Jeff, Lifestyle, Minecraft, N)


My house is a pigsty, I re-realized this morning, while we were feeling somewhat restless in each other’s orbits.

Jeff eventually took the kids to the beach, and I said I was going to stay home and clean the barn we call home.  Like the scrubby kind of cleaning, where you vacuum the vents, use products, and everything.

Shit yes, I love to clean my house. Look how happy it makes me to serve my family.

I was obsessing over blog stuff before they cleared out, metablogging if you will, and read to the kids a list of countries from which my international friends are checking in.  Since February 25, I’ve had readers from 70 different countries.  That’s surprising to me.

Then they started showing up at my house. It was really awkward.

The kids are into geography.  We have 13 maps on the walls of our main living space.  We kinds/sorta homeschool on weekends and holidays to make up for all the goofing and video game playing “we” do on “school” days.  And Target shopping.  And Costco visits.  And all-day play dates, parties, and park days.  And, well…maybe we don’t homeschool so much as we live our lives with curious minds.  They suck everything in.  Especially free samples.

I don’t think he really loves me. He just wants me to spend $300 on frozen lasagna and toilet paper. Costco sells over a billion rolls per year. Saw it in a documentary.

Geography of Vanity lesson done for the day, I was then looking at my most popular post stats.  Far and away, Chuck Norris is the winner.  He brought in almost 1200 readers, while my second place maternity pants invited only 200.  That one is only a couple of days old, so maybe I should give it time.
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N wanted to see if he could find my blog using Chuck Norris keywords.  We think it’s funny that Chuck Norris really does win at everything, even a popularity contest between crap in swimming pools and a pair of pants.

You think it’s a joke, but it’s true. Chuck is badass.

With a couple of tweaks, N found my blog and proceeded to correct my grammar and spelling on old posts, to which E commented “You made all those mistakes in front of everyone!”

Let’s go with annoyed and secretly proud, too. Then let’s also go with an opening bid of $12.50 for the both of them.

These guys are Damned. Lucky. I’m their mom.  Far better people than I would have had them breaking rocks by the roadside by now.  Maybe even in a chain gang.  Instead, I kicked them out of the house.

Precedent set. This kid corrected his mom’s grammar and spelling too.

So, while they were gone, I cyberstalked people online, took a few hours to nap in the middle of the day, made up conversations between the cats *with* the cats, got the brush-off from my mom on the phone, cried the rest of the afternoon because my mom was cheating on me with my other sister…  Then began cleaning the house about an hour before I figured the boys would be home.

Sometimes the conversations are short, so we just make beautiful music together instead.

Apparently it looked like I got a lot done.
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“It looks like you got a lot done,” Jeff said.  He must have really low expectations for my domestic skills.
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It’s pretty shortsighted for me to be admitting this in print, seeing as now he knows how much I can get done in an hour or less.  I only got one room done, but Jaysus H., the Queen of England could suck soup out of the carpet, it’s so clean in here.

Assume the position, Betsy, or there will be no soup for you!
(nods to Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi)

Speaking of weird visuals, N informed me before they left for the day:
“E found a glitch in Minecaft!  He discovered a way for all the animals to lose their torsos.  They’re just legs and floating heads.  The sheep also lost their faces!  They walk around and graze just fine, so it doesn’t look like they mind.”

Bwahaha Ditto on your base.

And a Chuck Norris fact I hadn’t known before today:
“Chuck Norris’ iPod came with a real charger instead of just a USB cord.”
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OMG  I wonder if he took the sheep’s faces, and all the other animal’s torsos?

2 Comments

Scourge of the Mall Wedding, A Booksigning, and Kim Visits Some Shoe Stores

May 26, 2012 at 5:53 pm (Authors, Books, Following Bliss, Literature)


Today was really fun!  The same friend that likes my maternity pants, Dawn, invited me to a book signing for a debut author she happens to know from college.  I’m a sucker for a book signing.

In fact, Brad Meltzer may or may not be the father of my oldest child.  I went to the 2001 signing in Boonsboro, MD with my Noraholic friends, talked a load to Brad (yes, first name basis) in March, popped out a baby in December.  I love booksignings. A lot.

We meant something to each other, once upon a time… Okay, not really, but he’s a really cool guy.

So, fast forward to present day and Jeff Salyards was signing at Barnes & Noble in Oak Brook Center (IL) this morning for his Fantasy debut “Scourge of the Betrayer”.

Jeff Salyards, like Brad Meltzer, has no hair.

It isn’t something I’d normally choose to read, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about this book.  My friend has been talking it up my TBR pile for a bit, and I do love an opportunity to buy stuff  support a new author.  I bought my copy and Dawn, Joyce and I roamed the store.  Joyce pointed out that Dolores Umbridge was working incognito, having left her pink suit and collector kitten plates back at Hogwarts.  I wasn’t quite seeing it, so I asked her a question about the signing.  It was Dolores!  Hateful witch.

BN can benefit from some friendliness sensitivity training in some locations.

So, we made our way over, not knowing what to expect.  I enjoy the two different audiences at signings:  the fans who love the work, and the writers who love the craft.  This signing was an interesting mix of both.

These are the sorts of people you’ll find at a Jeff Salyards signing.

It was neat to see the trickle of people who wandered in.  There was a guy front and center who talked and talked.  He wanted balloons, kites, caterpillars and a love story in the second installment.  He was funny, and helped keep the flow going.  Turns out, I think it was Salyards’ uncle.

Uncle Buck was also an uncle.

A BN employee came in late, on her day off, because she was enjoying the book a lot.  She said another employee recommended it.  I loved her comment that she was always the lone geeky girl playing D&D with all the boys.

The Dungeons and Dragons woman must have been the one taking the picture here.

Another guy in the front row sounded like a fellow booksigning junky.  He previously worked at a bookstore and had met a bazillion big name authors.  All of them.  He’s even met me.  He had great things to say about Scourge.  He compared the writing to a lot of names I’m unfamiliar with, seeing as I pretty much only read cereal boxes and smut the classics anymore.  I heard George Martin thrown around a lot, but I haven’t read “Game of Thrones” yet either.

Ah, yes, I did get a pic of him. There he is.

There was a couple there, with the dude writing some legal handbook for family law.  Maybe something else, not sure.  It sounded like blah blah yadda kjhewrj snooze.  I didn’t immediately see how it applied to me and let my mind wander.

There were a few other people, then the three of us.

Dawn knows her books. She says the character development in this one is stellar. Run, don’t walk, to the nearest bookstore…or whatever. Walk if you want. Seriously — I’m not going to know.

Beginning authors don’t have big publicity machines filling seats, so he probably set the signing up and did all the legwork himself…plus a full-time day job and a wife and three kids.

Something like this, but not a groundhog. If this groundhog writes a book though, I’ll attend his signing too. What’s not to love about a groundhog one man band? (One hog band? You know what I mean.)

Jeff talked from 11 to 11:45am, and I was disappointed when he said he was going to wrap up the talk and start signing.  He was really funny, which is a hook for me.  He spoke about his process, and how it was an on and off, ten-year race to the finish.  He spoke about how he had to edit out @ 250 pages, and how working with agents and editors altered the end product.  I find all that fascinating.  Actually, I had a lot of questions but didn’t ask.  I hate that.  I should have spoken up.

But this is how it feels. So I don’t usually.

Though this is his first book, he spoke about the contract being for three books, but he’s picturing a four book story arc.  WTF will we do for book four?!

My biggest take-away was to study screenplay writing for help honing dialogue skills.  As a wannabe, my dialogue skills pretty much suck.  I’ve said before that my characters really just enjoy a good companionable silence.  They just sit together, quietly.  Not talking.  Sort of like a silent film, but in book form.  I rock it, hard.

Sitting in Silence. I wrote this book! These are my characters! Why won’t they talk to each other???

Anyway, my friend really loved the book.  If there’s one thing I know about her, it’s that she knows her books.  Her recommendation goes a long way with me, so I was happy to pay for the hardcover *and* Kindle version.  I think you should too.

Scourge of the Betrayer. Google the title for reviews. I’m not even quite sure yet what it’s about, but it sounds great!

So, I haven’t read “Scourge of the Betrayer” yet, but the reviews are excellent.  I’ll keep you updated, random blog reader, what I think of the actual story, but the cover is beautiful.

Jeff Salyards was a fun Saturday morning date with friends, and I hope he has more local signings so we can go back and listen some more.  I hope I’m not pregnant again.  My mom never did have the talk with me, so it’s all kind of a mystery.

Salyards in action. Booksigning? Nailed it. Can’t wait to see how his story unfolds.

Anyway, in addition to the fun talk, on the way out of the store and into the open air main part of the mall, there was a wedding.  A wedding!

The bride wore some trashy blue shoes, people were stopping to watch, strollers strolled by, some weirdos were taking pictures.  It was…odd?  I don’t understand why a woman would decide to tie the knot at the mall, unless she was in a contest for least romantic place to shackle yourself in matrimony while wearing ugly blue hooker shoes.

Mall wedding. Nailed it.

I thought about that a bit while strolling the too-expensive-for-me shops.  I went into two different stores that were just shoes, which was life altering.  This past year I wore my Keens every day except maybe three snow days, from last summer to present day.  I realized today that I can wear other shoes, not just my lesbian hiker shoes.

I bought two shirts and two tank tops!  They aren’t from Target!  My sister didn’t pick them out!

I’m making all kinds of progress as a human being.  I was out with friends.  I bought clothes.  I was inspired to write more.  I was locked out of my house.

Oh yeah.  Thanks to Kelly for helping me get back into my house without having to throw a brick through the window.  If your husband hadn’t shown up, I was going to wet my pants.

Just like that.

3 Comments

Swimming Pools are Full of Urine and Feces: Don’t Go in the Water!

May 26, 2012 at 3:36 am (Education, Genetics, Lifestyle, Personal Injury, Science, Sports, Tragedy)


So my friend posted on FB that my blog makes her “cry and pee a little.”  That’s cool, and I admire her honesty.  It was a good share.

Some people like to share their toys, thoughts, feelings…incontinence. It’s all very powerful.

That also got me all spun out on a Google Images binge.  I always learn so much while googling random keywords.  Today I learned that at least one of your friends is a filthy animal.

Is it this one?

In a slightly outdated (2009) online survey of 1000 adults, 1 in 5 confessed to peeing in the swimming pool.  Not sure which pool, but if you’ve been in *any* pool with more than four other adults…  One of them whizzed all over you for free.  Lucky you!

My quick bit of research uncovered costs ranging from $10 to $50, probably more if you leave the alley, but some people are willing to do it for free. They pee in the pool too.

At least two in five were probably lying.  So, odds are good that of the four others, two more are too embarrassed to admit they use any captive body of water as a toilet.  Years ago I remember reading about some guy that relieved himself in the coffee pot at his office.  He’s probably peeing in your pool too, as well as the vat of sangria you made for later.

I’m not saying it’s not a nice toilet. It’s a unique and fabulous toilet.

(Side note: didn’t find the original story I remembered, so subbed a different one…)

So, what’s the big deal?  Pools are filtered, cleaned, chemically treated.  It’s safe to have four friends over to swim at the same time, not to mention their babies in non-absorbant swim diapers, their “potty trained” toddlers and young children…  They swim for a couple of hours, get liquored up on juice pouches and hose water, and don’t need to use your bathroom?  Riiiight.  They are *so* using your bathroom.  The one in your backyard.

See how happy? It’s because they love those thermal vents.

That cute baby has loose, mustard-seedy, breastfed stools.  He’s wearing a swim diaper.  He shat in your pool.  It’s in your eyes.

Since a lot of your friends don’t shower before they get in the pool (35%, check the link above), there is also a lot of contamination from make-up, hair product, lotions, dead skin, toe cheese, old sweat, and all of that other nasty stuff I’m too damned polite to mention.

This is not a bad idea.

When is the last time you cleaned inside your belly button?  You are swimming in your friend’s scabs and puss.

Calm your shit down though!  The pool is chlorinated.  The chemicals make it safe to swim in the cesspool of your friend’s yeast and smegma.  Your open wounds (bandaids are in the skimmer with your neighbor kid’s 10 feet of hair) are safe!

Michael Phelps admitted in an interview with some late night guy that he pees in the pool. So, go ahead and pee in the pool too. You might win Olympic gold one day.

Not true!  You’re not safe!  I read another article, thanks to my keyword searching and insatiable curiosity, that all that organic matter is reacting with the pool chemicals and will give you cancer.  And make you sterile.  You know what?  Your unborn children might one day be born with genetic mutations.  I’m pretty sure you already have asthma.  Michael Phelps might have made you sterile with all that Olympic kidney waste.

This dog’s mom and dad made sweet love in a chlorinated pool. She was born in a bun. IN A BUN! With condiments, even.

I learned all about it in this feel-good article, also from LiveScience.  Check it out and let your friends know their unfortunate pool diseases won’t be covered by your Homeowner’s policy.

Raymond and Joyce don’t care anymore about what happened in the pool. They never really cared, but now they *really* don’t give a flying whatnot.

Wait.  What did it say?  “While the new study did not examine actual effects on humans, it suggests such research might be warranted.”

You’re publishing an article, LiveScience, that incites mass hysteria at the pool, telling all these bleeding, skin cell sloughing, incontinent people that they’re going to die slowly and in great pain because their organics are not playing nicely with the disinfectants…but you haven’t studied “actual effects”?  No proof?

The camel knows.

Ahh.  Deep sigh of relief.  The armies of stringy, green-haired people with chemically burned skin peeling from their calcium-stripped skeletons DOES NOT EXIST!  Hells yes, it’s safe to go in the water.

Turns out swimming with four or more of your friends, and their disgusting children, probably won’t kill you.

I always heard about a dye that reacts to urine in the pool water, but it turns out I was being told yet one more lie as a child.  Adults should really stop lying to children.  It’s not nice.

Lies adults tell children.

One pool fact that I wish was a lie makes me glad my sensitive skin and allergies to chemicals has kept me out of swimming pools since I was a kid.  Sit down on your crusty, ill-wiped poop because this is disgusting enough to die from.

“Most people have about 0.14 grams of feces on their bottoms that, when rinsed off, can contaminate recreational water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”  I read it online.  It’s true!

The article continues to entice us into Washington D.C. pools with an estimate of 50 pounds of shit accumulating in their area swimming holes over the course of a summer.  Not all at the same time, in the same place, but it’s a little like swimming in a port-a-potty, no?  Well, it’s happening in your local pools too.

It accumulates. It’s not just from one person, but from the deposits of many.

Centennial Beach is full of germy, bacterial crap.  No goggles?  It’s in your brain.

A man made crap hole in picturesque downtown Naperville, IL. Bring the whole family.

I hope this post has been informative and helpful.  Now that the hot weather is upon us, I just want my friends to be aware of the dangers of swimming with four or more friends at the same time.  Obviously, if you only have three friends with you…the pool pisser is likely still at home and you’re going to be fine.  I can’t help you with the fecally crusted substructures, or the smegma for that matter, but I do recommend you leave the fourth friend at home.

And if your friends are absolutely not the type, take a critical look at your partner’s friends.  They are totes the most disgusting, feces encrusted despoilers of the water *I’ve* ever seen, and I just wanted to warn you that they’ll be whizzing on you for free, right out there for all the world to see.  Take precautions.

We never even hit on the crustacean concerns. No joke, just stay home in the A/C this summer.

Also, please use sunscreen.  It’s important to me and I want you to be safe.  Your lotion-in-the-water may cause your friend’s future child to be born with an arm growing out the top of his head, though that’s kinda iffy at best.  I’m almost a doctor and I think it’s worth the risk.

Have a wonderful summer.  Let me know how it works out for you.  And all those future babies.

I’m sure everything will work out fine.

3 Comments

Maternity Pants Time!

May 24, 2012 at 4:40 pm (Blather, E, Family, Jeff, Lifestyle, N)


I know what you’re thinking.  “Gosh, how awesome that Kim’s having another one of those sweet Beeler children!”

But you’d be WRONG!

Those Beeler children are not sweet!  Err…  I mean, I’m not knocked up!

These are *not* the Beeler children. These children will kill you while you sleep. The Beeler children will wear you out until you just lay down and die. In your maternity pants.

My OB agreed with me, after E was born, that I’m not a good candidate for more pregnancies.  But I have this pair (seriously, I just wrote it pare, then pear, then pair) of maternity pants from 2001 that I AM STILL WEARING!  Yesterday I took them on their maiden 2012 voyage in which I played tennis with my husband and kids.  Today I wore them again to go roller skating with the kids at homeschool skate.

It’s not that I’d be a bad mom, quality-wise… Just a terrible vessel. Also, it might kill me. These parents are terrible parents quality-wise.

I know it’s summer when I get to wear my maternity pants.

They frickin’ rock, in all their lime green glory.

This maternity pants sighting proves at least two things.  One, I wear clothes more than once before washing because it’s great for the environment, YAY Environment!,

Not super funny, but a diagram instantly makes this post more scientific. Plus, it’s a VENN! Venn diagrams are very helpful in sorting information.

and 2) we are an athletic bunch of Beelers this week.  N was outside, under the wide open sky, with sun shining and no electrical outlets.  None of us perished from the grass, trees, breeze, or solar flares.  We almost perished from E’s very bossy tendencies, however.  He’s definitely one that has ideas and opinions, and likes to bark them at all of us from the comfort and safety of family.  He’s pretty quiet outside the family.

“Nasa warns solar flares from ‘huge space storm’ will cause wide-spread chaos.” So be careful if you leave your house. Ever.

I have no idea where E gets those bossy traits.

Not from me! I swear! Jeff is a lying liar.

Moving on, back to the subject of my awesome pants…  A friend commented that she liked them a couple of years ago.  I ‘fessed up that they were maternity in nature.  The ground didn’t swallow me up, so I kept wearing them.  Last year, my sister saved me from myself and helped me get some new clothes.  I think she felt sorry for me because I was still wearing a brown, v-necked shirt that she couldn’t even remember how long ago her store carried…  Ten or more years, at least.

I love that shirt, too.  I can’t wait until lime green and brown are acceptable together in public.

Half my target t-shirts were stained with movie popcorn butter.  Thanks, Jeff!  (buy same size as husband wears, in men’s = two wardrobes for the price of one!)  My favorite pair of jeans actually wore out in the crotch last year!  There was nothing left!  I was sad (dual meaning) and wore them a couple of extra times before declaring them toast.  I’m painfully shy, so the juxtaposition of not being able to talk to people due to diagnosable mental illness, plus my hoo-ha hanging out…priceless.

The rip started like this. Then it grew, and kind of gaped down a little. This is not my hoo-ha. This is a stranger’s crotch, thanks be to Google Images.

Did I mention the social anxiety?  One-two punch, shyness *and* social anxiety.  Maybe they’re the same thing?  Whatever.  “By the power of Grayskull…I have the POWER!”  But I save it for Facebook and blogging.  Sorry.

Word.

But my maternity pants stand the test of time.  They also hold three tennis balls per pocket.  PER POCKET!  That’s right…  Pregnant women need bigass pockets to hold their crap.  Car keys, water bottle, a sandwich, plus whatever else is necessary to be pregnant and on the move.  Non-pregnant people wearing maternity pants could also benefit from bigass pockets.  Skating?  I had a pear of socks, unusually large smart phone, folding money, and an electric generator for my laptop.  And my laptop.  It was glorious.

This year I have a couple of shirts and pants that are younger than my oldest child, which is almost the same as me being in the front row of Paris Fashion Week.  I’m pretty jazzed, actually.  I will continue to wear my maternity pants, however.

I think they look a little bit like clown pants, and I hate clowns, but sweet baby (insert favorite deity name here), I love those effing pants.

I don’t love *these* effing pants.

I just read this to my creative writing critique group (N & E), and the feedback I received is that it needs more bad words.  I love those kids almost as much as I love my maternity pants.

For N and E, who like it when I swear.

26 Comments

I’m Crazy and Unphotogenic

May 21, 2012 at 1:42 am (Attitude, Blather, CGCC, E, Homeschooling, Jeff, N, Parenting, Sensory)


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.

7 Comments

The Fort Must Be Defended Against Alien Forces

November 11, 2011 at 2:22 pm (E, Education, Family, Fear, Field Trips, Following Bliss, Homeschooling, Jeff, Lifestyle, N, Parenting)
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So I just posted about E’s joy.  Now I’ll post about N to keep balance in the universe.

Different kids find their delight in different places. Read the rest of this entry »

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11.11.11 @ 11:11:11am

November 11, 2011 at 11:11 am (Following Bliss, Homeschooling, N)
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N’s Math Games class is having a moment.

They are cheering.

For a moment.  For a minute.

He’s not staying up late to do it again though.  🙂

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It’s a Wonderful Life!

November 11, 2011 at 10:01 am (E, Family, Following Bliss, Jeff)
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E is a kid who likes to celebrate.  He likes to get excited about stuff and get mired in the details of things he enjoys. There is a reason Jeff tagged him as our Enthusiast…he’s quite Enthusiastic when he chooses to be.

There’s always that caveat.  He is, after all, a Beeler.  We are a mercurial bunch. Read the rest of this entry »

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Funny How That Works

October 28, 2011 at 2:45 pm (Attitude, E, N)
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Just when I was all blah, blah, wah, wah, wahhhh….  I had the most interesting and hopeful conversation with someone at lunch.  It was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. Read the rest of this entry »

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When Kimberly Was In Egypt’s Land…

October 28, 2011 at 12:05 pm (Blather, Jeff, Lifestyle, Overexcitabilities)
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Today I’m glum, stressed, sleepy and defeated.

It’s been a stressful week and I’m kind of burnt on all the drama.  Everything seems to be such a struggle for us, though I don’t usually post about that stuff.  It’s what I spend the bulk of my time pondering, regardless.   Read the rest of this entry »

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