Q. What is better than spending time with beloved sisters, dear friends, and good food?

A. NOTHING!!!

I am feeling loved, pampered and refreshed by a great long weekend (starting Thursday) spent in the company of people I love.

I loved the General Women's Conference. You can watch it here: http://www.lds.org/broadcast/grsm/0,6220,285-1-41-1741,00.html


I also got an incredible halloween costume!

Much better now!

Last night, poor SmallDaughter fell asleep around 6:00 (on the living room floor, under a blankie--I had to search all over for her!), and I was asleep by 7:15, so we were able to get a lot of sleep (no seminary this morning, so I slept till 7:00! YAY!). There were a few little interuptions (the phone ringing/answering machine, Mr. Prism coming home from Boy Scout Court of Honor with LargeBoy--and attempting to converse with my comatose form, and him leaving for work in the wee small hours of the morning). Interruptions notwithstanding, I am feeling MUCH BETTER!

So, today I am off to go field-tripping with the Fiber Fanatics (YAY!) and tomorrow, I am leaving all my people home, taking my best girl-friend, and going to see my sisters for a weekend of them spoiling me (one is in culinary school, and the other is in massage school--lucky me!!!)! We will go to the Womens Conference together and I am excited!

Where am I, Exactly?

Several years ago, when SmallDaughter had her first EEG, because we didn't know they would be doing one, they neglected to tell us to keep her from sleeping--so I ended up holding her screaming, fighting WELL RESTED body perfectly still for them, for an hour and a half as they ran the test. It was one of the worst chunks of my life. Looking back, it is pretty much the 7th circle of hell.

Today was merely the 3rd or 4th circle. Yep, I kept her up all night (videos, waffles and stroller rides at 3 am). Yep, we kept her awake in the car (thanks to a loving auntie and lots of times through "The Wheels On The Bus" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"). HOWEVER, during the actual test, she still only slept for 1 1/2 hours, and I had to hold her down for the rest(2 1/2 hours). She didn't scream as much, and she did get to watch TV this time (and she is better at holding still), but she was pretty fed up, and kept signing "all done" to me.

We will tackle the superglue remnants in her hair tomorrow.

I am now running on 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours--but I still have stuff I have to get done. I will go to bed soon, though. Thankfully it is overcast, which makes it much easier for me to sleep during the day.

Events and Happenings

The first (joyous) event happened in the early morning hours today, when I became an Aunt (again!) to such a cutie-sweetie boy!



He weighed 10 lbs, 4 oz, which happens to be what I weighed at birth also! His older sisters are thrilled to welcome him to their family, and his proud papa N says that he is "healthy and strong. And hungry. And active." How I love new babies!

In my less exciting life (well, this might be exciting, but it isn't fun)SmallDaughter has to go in for additional testing tomorrow morning. They are going to do the "extended video EEG", which means they need her to sleep for at least 4 hours.

To get her to sleep 4 hours without any drugs or "assistance", I was given the task of waking her up at midnight, and not letting her sleep again until she was hooked up for the test. Including the hour and a half car ride there.

Why, oh why do they have to do these tests at 9:00 in the morning instead of say, 8:00 pm (bedtime)? So, if you run into me, and I am babbling and incoherent--at least this time I have a good excuse!

Cooking Adventures

Because BigGirl is currently staying in a land far, far away, I have been doing a lot of cool stuff with LargeBoy. Mostly cooking. This is the boy who, when he was four years old, preferred Food Network to Cartoon Network (YAY!) However, shortly thereafter we got rid of our cable subscription, so his cooking show watching days were curtailed.

However, he recently discovered "Iron Chef" and "Kitchen Nightmares". They have captivated him, and inspired him to try all kinds of yummy stuff. We made French Onion Soup the other day--one of my very favorite restaraunt foods that I have been afraid to try. Silly me! It is SO easy, and even better than in a restaraunt--and healthy!

A Laugh

I have had a lot of busy stuff going on in my life. Not bad--just busy (for example, the boys & I picked about 10 gallons of grapes and made homemade grape juice this week--SOOOOOO much better than store bought! But lots of work.)

Anyway, I just wanted to post 3 things that made me laugh this week:

1) SmallDaughter has started to tell knock-knock jokes. It is pretty funny to watch, since she can't actually say the words, but she knows what to do--so she knocks on something, you say "who's there?", she says "OOH", you say "OOH-who?" and then she laughs hysterically! Then, she does it again. It is very cute.

2) One of my favorite blogs posted one that just made me laugh, so I am going to quote him:

"I'm late again, but I just had few points that I thought were kind of interesting, that I wanted the world to be aware of.


1. A bad simile is like a unicorn on a motorcycle fighting a grizzly bear in a hang glider: It just doesn't make sense... No matter how good it sounds.

2. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but when you combine them, you can make a catapult. I think that further experimentation may be required.

3. Often, people make me do things I don't really want to do at all. When I ask them why, they tell me it's because I need to learn how to these things for later in life. I respond that I don't mind paying other people to do things I hate, and they tell me to get to work. From this, I deduce the following:
People like to watch me doing things I hate."

Thanks, genghiz cohen over at "I'm not Longwinded, You're Short".

3) (and you know I'm a geek when I tell you this made me laugh my pants off!) I found this little jewel:


Lines from Star Wars that can be improved if you substitute the word "Pants" for key words...


We've got to be able to get some reading on those pants, up or down.

The pants may not look like much, kid, but they've got it where it counts.

I find your lack of pants disturbing.

These pants contain the ultimate power in the Universe. I suggest we use it.

Han will have those pants down. We've got to give him more time!

General Veers, prepare your pants for a ground assault.

I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants back home.

TK-421... Why aren't you in your pants?

Lock the door. And hope they don't have pants.

You are unwise to lower your pants.

She must have hidden the plans in her pants. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally Commander.

Governor Tarkin. I recognized your foul pants when I was brought on board.

You look strong enough to pull the pants of a Gundark.

Luke... Help me remove these pants.

Great, Chewie, great. Always thinking with your pants.

That blast came from those pants. That thing's operational!

A tremor in the pants. The last time I felt this was in the presence of my old master.

Don't worry. Chewie and I have gotten into a lot of pants more heavily guarded than this.

Maybe you'd like it back in your pants, your highness.

Your pants betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially one... Your sister!

Jabba doesn't have time for smugglers who drop their pants at the first sign of an Imperial Cruiser.

Short pants is better than no pants at all.


Yes, pathetic I know...but they all made me laugh!

September 11th

My mind was so full of many thoughts and ponderings on Sept. 11th, that I never got around to posting any of them. Thoughts about the wonder of life and birth (and birthdays!), comments I read about people who feel the whole thing was a government conspiracy, thoughts on terrrorism in general, thoughts on grieving for those we love and also for those we don't know.

But I didn't. Sorry.

Well, that was a nice idea (sigh)

So today, in a mad fit of organization (they come upon me sometimes, like "fits" in old novels) I was cleaning out files on my computer. You know the to-do lists from last year, flight information, and stuff like that, and I found this little jewel:
(Which I will now transcribe in its entirety.)

Blog plan

“A Prismatic Life”

Explanation
Homeschool
Home birth
Parenting
Weddings
Organization
Life Skills
Makeup artist
Fiber arts
Parties
Costuming
Gratitude
Life Answers
Special Needs Parenting


WELL...

Boy isn't THAT optimistic! Yes, those are all things I feel strongly about or have skills in/ideas about. Out of 14 items I planned to blog about, my blog only seems to contain 4 of them. FOUR! And, while I was counting, I went to my "contents" list, to check how many labels I have--158! WHOA!! And none of those seem to be "costumes", "makeup artist" etc...

Well, at least I know now what the heck I thought I was doing!


However, if you are looking for the "explanation"--you can find that as the first post (March 2009). It explains where the name came from, at the very least.

So, what about their socialization?

“Whew, I’m so glad school is back in session so my kids are out of my hair, they were driving me crazy!”

This is such a common response to the first week of school in our culture that most of us don’t even think about it. How sad for our society that the forced separation of children from their parents is greeted by those parents with joy and relief—“whew, someone else is taking over my parental responsibilities, indoctrinating their values and beliefs in my children and teaching them that the only true success is looking, acting and behaving just like everyone else—only just a little bit better.”

Where do you think our society's preocupation with the idea that you have to be thinner than all the other women, prettier or stronger than the neighbors, have “better” clothes, house, tools, cars, stuff…comes from?

And in our society, this is accepted as “normal”—no one even questions that sending your tiny little child off to spend the majority of their life with strangers is the “right” way to parent. Every homeschooler is asked at some point (and new homeschoolers are asked ALL THE TIME), “what about their socialization?” as if you are going to keep them in an isolation chamber and never allow them any social interactions at all!

I find it very interesting that I have NEVER—in all the time I was homeschooled, my siblings were homeschooled or my children have been homeschooled, have I been asked “but what about their academics?” because at some level everyone knows Public School is about social interaction, NOT about education. Interestingly, while I do know a few socially maladjusted homeschoolers, the MOST socially incompetent people I know were in public school with me.

Why should my beautiful, kind, creative, intuitive, intelligent children be placed in a pressure cooker of artificial standards, peer pressure and negative influences—not to mention bullying (and yes, bullying is done by teachers as well as by other students)? I firmly believe that the ONLY people who were not bullied in junior high were the ones doing the bullying, and that probably most of them were picked on by someone “higher” on “the social ladder”.

Why is this normal in our society? Because as humans we carry on the script that we were raised with. That is why terrible cultural traditions like female infanticide, Chinese foot binding, female genital mutilation and multi-generational child abuse are carried on from one generation to the next.

I am always amazed that the same people who insist that the best thing I could do for my children is to put them back into the artificial world of public schooling so they can be “socialized”, go on in the next sentence to tell me how hellish their school experiences were! I suppose that subconsciously they feel that they are rejected if their suffering is avoided---“it was good enough for me, it should be good enough for you!”

However, I don’t want my children to have something because it was “good enough”—I want my children to have infinitely more! I rejoice in watching them interact well with people of all ages (not just their "peers"), of different cultures and beliefs, and believe that true socialization comes from interacting as a functioning, contributing member of society.

My mom always said, "If God had wanted children socialized in groups of 30, we would have litters. Instead we have extended families and communities, so that is what I want my children to be "socialized" with."

Chicken Update

The cute fluffy little chicks have turned into stately chicken matrons, who spend their days commenting on everything around them, and behaving in the most chickenly way possible.



They are much prettier than the photos show, because their feathers are actually iridescent, with mainly green, but some purple highlights in the sun.



They have started to lay (5 eggs so far!)--cute little pullet eggs, about 2/3 the size of a regular egg, but very lovely.



Today one of them even layed her egg in the nesting box!



I tried to get one of the "ladies" in the nesting box, but she hopped off so fast my picture turned out fuzzy! (darned digital slowness!)