Ok, so it's not 'new'...but it might as well be.  It's  not been put up since I bought it.   Sam is demonstrating..

I just scrolled mouse cursor over my avatar and noticed the date.  I joined 2 years ago yesterday. 

Hard to say which..  people say "it seems like yesterday" or "I feel I've known you all my life".   Truth is it does feel pretty much exactly like 2 years to me.

 It has been a very nice two years.  This site has been company, entertainment, education, source of distraction, escapism, outlet, obsession, cheap therapy and most of all fun, loads of fun.    The best part has been all the minds I've met here.  

 Thanks VS, I hope I get to age along with you.

Look at him.  He sleeps peacefully storing up energy to keep me up again all night for tonight's thunderstorm.  Gotta love him though.  

I can't say much.  There's lightning going on again outside.  I used up what was left of my battery reading comments this morning and it was nothing short of depressing.

 What's going on around here?   What used to be a nice little escape onliine has become a dumping ground for everyone's ills.   The heated arguments and ad homs used to reside around the political threads.. but not anymore.  Even the most innocent of posts generate nastiness lately.

Come on, folks.  Tighten up the rhetoric around here. 

 You can either treat the screenames on this site as faceless entities where you can say and be whatever you like and it doesn't matter squat in the morning.. OR you can treat that avatar you're replying to as a real human being who you respect and would like to meet one day and have a drink.

 Even our regular flamers around here from whom we expect the outrageous need to back off a while.  Go post some vomiting kittens or fat babies with gas for attention.

I'd like to say to our long standing, faithful, POPULAR, outspoken, funny, respected, admired LEADERS in this commnity on this site:

 STOP IT  

Now I want to come back tomorrow or whenever this storm system pass and see some KISSIN AND LOVIN DAMNIT!   You all like each other and someone's going to say something you'll regret one day.  You'll feel like an idiot then won't you.

 Kissin and lovin folks...

This morning the Scouts helped decorate graves for Memorial Day.  It's not much, but its nice  seeing the children do a little something to say thanks.   

This is my little Cub Scout placing a flag.

Sister came to help too.. 

This next photo is the grave of one of our soldiers  fallen in Iraq.  The boys felt compelled to put  more flags here.  

You know back in the day, you used to get a copy of all your software so if you have to wipe your computer clean and start over.. well.. you have your stuff. 

Then the cheap ass tight wads decide that they can have a backup ON the computer.  You're good as long as the entire computer doesn't crash and burn.

 Well, this idiot here (speaking of myself)  assumed that all computers at least has THAT to fall back on.   I was going to "restore to factory settings" my laptop last.   It has something and I don't know how to get rid of it.  I'm about to throw it though a window and then go on a shooting spree.   Well, it's just not working right.. slow.  Eons to load...  browser freezes constantly. 

 Oh, back to what I was saying...    This thing doesn't have a backup preloaded??  We have to back up our own software now?   Welp, I didn't and now I guess I'm screwed right?    I can't very well back up software that has the whatever hiding in it somewhere.   

I can't sift!  Everything loads sooooooo slow soooo damn slow!!!   I don't have time to figure out this damn thing so I  think I'm going to kidnap a smart nerdy fella now . 

I know.. .I'll set a trap out on my front lawn.  What should I use?  I think for starters... a Star Trek collectors Christmas ornament, a pizza, chocolate chip cookies...maybe a stack of comic books or anime...  I just baked a chocolate cake last night, whaddya think?

So guys... can anyone suggest a good WORLD social studies curriculum for my homeschool?

There's not a lot of activity on the sift tonight.  Sigh... and here I am having allllll this time to play for a change. 

 VS grew up...  you know I remember back in the day...  we'd all sift till dawn. Work?  Projects?  Relationships?  What were they?  I've got to check to see if anyone commented on my sift!  Dishes pilling up behind me as the hours flew by..... ignoring the phone..  

The site is sooo big now.  I don't even keep up with the new rules and updates.  Shame on me! 

I should recommit myself to ignoring my responsibilities more often so I can devote more time to to sifting.  After all, I am down to number 15.  How much longer can I keep that up?  Not long I venture!   All these young new sifters will all their tricks..... 

 Ok, I'm not serious at all, I just feel happy and wanted to run my mouth.  Go Team Brandy, YAY!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day here in the U.S.     Since I'm a few states away from my mom, I sent her standard flowers. 

 Are you caving in the commercialism to please your mom tomorrow?  

 Alright, bad weather this weekend.   I sit here like a little old lady watching the weather on the teevee.   Poor Sam has complete meltdowns during storms so early this evening I gave him a couple of Benadryl.   Samwise the Brave.. heheh right.

  We have NO basement.  We saved money buying a house w/o one... but once I saw a 'tornado frequency map" tonight and saw Indiana as a hot spot... I regret it now.

  I thought I'd try and get together some things and put it in the safest place in the house.  There are some tornado watches north of us, so I want to have SOMETHING planned.    I'm not really worried tonight or anything... just thinking about the upcoming summer season.

 Which is the safer room?  I have an interior half bathroom with no windows  almost smack middle of the house downstairs, and I have a closet under the stairs.  The stair case is almost centered in the house... its really in a north/central spot in the house.

 I'm leaning toward the closet.  It's big enough to hold everyone plus pets.  Any suggestions?  

 Ah, I see my son has put his Nintendo DS and head lamp in the closet.  Priorites, right? 

The Dog's Diary

The Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity

    My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

    The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards!

    There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

    Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

....and it never once walked out and shot someone.  I own pistols too.  They are legally owned and I carry a permit allowing them concealed  on my person. You know why?  Because it is my Constitutional right to own them.   

Oh, and I absolutely LOVE over-the-top, larger-than-life, knows how to work their overacting muscles, egotistical leading men.    I am paying tribute to my favorite (yes more than Shatner) this week.

I expected gun control comments of course, but  do not understand the immature "good ridance" comments.  How childish.

What gives?  Are you (negative commenters) so miserable that you have to trash someone after they've died?  Especially one who hasn't done a damn thing to you, and has accomplished more in his lifetime than you'll ever dream to.

I rarely get into your political pissing contests, so stay clear of threads I generate please if you're going to try to spoil the fun.  Generally they are positive and are meant to be FUN. 

Fun you know?  That's what happy people have to do with their time. 

Off my soapbox now 

Since I'm sooooo damn late in saying my propers...  THANKYOU!  You guys are great to leave those nice notes.  VS is the best slice of escapism online

I thought I was like 40 from getting that??  Seriously, did the rules change on posts, or did someone save a bunch of my my old discarded 70s cheese?

 My husband took a "vacation" this week.  Truth is we're sprucing up our new house.  I've had paint swatches and bottle of port in my hand all week!   I knew if I got online, I'd never get anything done.

Thankyou again for the votes.  Sometimes the stuff I dig up is a  hard sell.   (thankyou Vintage channel.  )

You know...the only think I miss about living out in the middle of nowhere N.C. is I don't have all that free time to post sifts!   

Heheh I just finished hiding plastic eggs filled with treats.   I put a note on the fridge telling them there are 39 eggs in all.... many of them have money.  

The money ones are hard to find.  I put one in the lawn tractor engine..tee hee.  One is taped inside the piano.  Another is buried inside a large can of oatmeal.   One is taped inside a communion chalice wrapped in plastic in a case put away in a packed closet full of WW 2 books.. heheheheh

 Muuuaaahahahahaaaaa

Greetings Friends!   I just love how this place changes exponentially when I'm gone :-)   Seriously what's the "Beggar's Corner"?  

 After a 3 week course of steroids (yuck) I'm over a bout of pneumonia I developed after two weeks of bronchitis I just couldn't shake.  My kids and husband caught the flu as well two weeks ago.  Fun huh?

 Well all better now!  I've had a hankering again to sift and chat  so you'll be seeing me around again.

Ok...now for all the juicy gossip I've missed.  Spill it!   

Since we moved here, my daughter is trying the school (we hated the schools where we used to live), my son decided to stay home still.   It's weird now.  One kid in public school and one home schooled.

It's strange seeing her get on the bus while my son is here.  He's so cute over there squatting on a stool, not sitting, wearing a pair of blue camo thermals working on his second bowl of cheerios.    Yeah, I should  be giving him some oatmeal or something, but he found my husband's secret box of cereal.

He knows I like to hang out at the Sift a bit while he has his morning feed   We sometimes play a book on cd during this time.    

 Anyway... once the extended family heard my daughter was going "back to school" they were thrilled and secretly wonder why I'm not making my son go too.  

 There is more to choosing homeschooling as a way of life other than 'crappy local school' or religious reasons.  It really burns me up when folks assume I'm homeschooling for religious reasons.  

Summing up: We've LOVED homeschooling since moving to the Indy area.  There's been SO MUCH to do!  Anyway, I think once the novelty of going to public school wears off, my daughter will want to come home again, but if it doesn't and she's doing well then fine...   My hat's off to her for independance..   My son will never want to go back though.

 I've ran across this article a few times and it makes me smile.  I share some of her sentiments on the topic and I'm feeling especially ornery this morning so:

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

1. Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is — and it is — it’s insulting to imply that we’re criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2. Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you’re talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we’ve got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3. Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4. Don’t assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5. If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6. Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You’re probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you’ve ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7. We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8. Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9. Stop assuming that if we’re religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10. We didn’t go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11. Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn’t have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don’t need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can’t teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there’s a reason I’m so reluctant to send my child to school.

12. If my kid’s only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he’d learn in school, please understand that you’re calling me an idiot. Don’t act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13. Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

14. Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we’re into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don’t have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15. Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don’t get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I’m one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16. Don’t ask my kid if she wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17. Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it’s some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you’re horrified. One of these days, I won’t bother disagreeing with you any more.

18. If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19. Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child’s teacher as well as her parent. I don’t see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20. Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he’s homeschooled. It’s not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21. Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she’s homeschooled.

22. Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23. Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24. Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won’t get because they don’t go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25. Here’s a thought: If you can’t say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List was written by:

I've loved you all from afar these past few weeks.   I've been enjoying our new local so much lately I've been taking the kids to museums, exhibits, libraries and such that I've missed quality sift time!

 Now there's this Sift 3.1???   Sorry I missed the unveiling, Lucky.   

There's been upgrades and Gold Stars awarded.....  What else around here have I missed?  Births? Deaths? Marriages? Blogs?  What?

Oh, and it's Bourbon Saturday (if you didn't know...so pour one) and I'm especially warm and fuzzy tonight!  All step up for a big hug!  

Baby Jesus didn't want me sifting for Christmas.  I haven't been able to access the site in 2 days.    A BIG sorry to all of you that sent me videos to add to the Christmas list during that time.