stupidhippy.com

As I mentioned earlier, I made pizza balls for dinner (sorry, we just can’t call them anything else, pizza balls pizza balls, we think it’s funny!). While I was making them, I was thinking, this is lame, so much easier just to make pizza! We put mozzarella, mushrooms (I cooked them in a tiny bit of olive oil first) and pineapple in ours, per Rebecca’s pizza liking. I made 24 of them, about 2/3 sprinkled with garlic bread seasoning and the rest with parmesan cheese (the kind in the can!). Because it’s what I had, I just used a can of plain marinara for the dipping sauce. Well, they were pretty good. Definitely pizza-like because of the ingredients and flavors, but lighter, with fluffy bread, different than pizza. I think they were worth the effort (which, really, wasn’t so great an effort, it seemed like a pain when I was done making 24 little pizza balls, but it didn’t actually take very long).

I’ve been a bookworm since – forever. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a nose in my book, a stereotypical book addict. I never imagined I would have a child who wasn’t the same. I guess I thought my influence meant my daughter would automatically be a bookworm. Surround a child with books and reading and she’ll just bury her face right in there with me, right? Ha! It goes to this dumb idea I had in my head when I was pregnant that I had an “open mind” about parenting. I’ve sure had to face down a lot of those preconceptions I “didn’t” have.

Rebecca is like Ed when it comes to books. Ed appreciates literature, likes to hear about what I’m reading, and he reads books regularly. But he reads non-fiction and he drives me nuts by not reading them front-to-back. Rebel freak that he is, he reads them all out of order! Imagine! The nerve! Rebecca, well, she’s just the same. She loves stories, and books. I read to her every day and she reads some to herself.

She’s not like I was, though. I was constantly immersed in novels, still am, always loving the worlds and words within the pages. A good day for me would be an endless pot of tea and a stack of books with no interruptions. I would lie on the couch, barely moving all day, reading. Even when I read to her, Rebecca can’t sit still; she fidgets, she gets up and does things, plays (quietly), flips through other books. It makes me sort of crazy, I feel like she isn’t listening. But I know it’s hard for her to listen if she sits still. If she isn’t doing something small to keep her mind still, it will wander too much and she won’t be able to listen. I think when she tries to read long pages of text without pictures or other breaks, it’s the same for her, her mind wanders too much. It’s not the mechanics of reading that frustrates her so much as her busy mind. Or something. I’m still working on these thoughts.

It’s been an adjustment for me, figuring this stuff out and finding the best way to help Rebecca enjoy books. It obviously has a big impact on homeschooling. For now, at least, it means I read to her – a lot. While she can, and does, read on her own, we read together far more. My feeling is that as she gets older, she’ll figure a way to read when/what she wants with more ease than she does now.

Cleaning the stove until it gleams has left me with a sore arm (well, it was sore already, but it’s more so now!) and an intense desire to order pizza. Instead, of course, I’m going to MAKE pizza. Well, not pizza exactly, but pizza balls. They won’t make any mess in the kitchen at all, I’m sure.

I finished The Sea of Monsters, book two of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I picked up book three at the library today. Currently I’m reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Andrey Niffenegger, which is pretty good but not great like her first book. I also got Heave Wave by Richard Castle, for a giggle. The show makes me laugh, Nathan Fillion is a hoot.

J. D. Salinger, Enigmatic Author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ Dies at 91 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com.

Goodbye to an amazing man.

Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves | Video on TED.com.  TED Talks are cool :)  What this guy did was pretty nifty.

I made bread again today. It still took longer than usual to rise, and there were no interruptions today, so I don’t know. Except after the first rise, when the dough was split into loaves, the second rise went better and they turned out normal.

Rebecca made the drawing of Pikachu and I carved it into a stamp. Cute, yes? Yes!

Neko can really be a pain in the ass. Since he “matured” (puberty in parrots, who knew?), he can really be a pill. But he’s still terribly cute and sometimes he’s also still sweet. I got him out for a while earlier and he was happy hanging out, straightening my hair for me and picking at the seam of my dress. Then Handy came and hopped up in my lap. She didn’t even notice the bird, but boy he noticed her! She promptly laid down and closed her yes, but Neko really wanted to investigate that cat! I didn’t let him have at her, but I put him in my hand with just his head sticking out of the O of my thumb and pointer and then brought her tail up to him so he could check it out. Nirvana! He was in preening heaven with a bit of cat tail to fluff and straighten! Crazy bird. Handy never did notice it was a tasty snack fussing with her tail.

Here he is messing with my bra strap. I know it’s all blurry, but you can see his bright blue wings and his beautiful red tail.

School Bans Dictionary « FreeRangeKids.  Seriously?  This is crazy, very crazy.  Super extremely nutjob crazy.  Banning ANY books is pretty much the epitome of stupid.  In my experience as both a voracious reader from an early age, and mother to a curious child, I can honestly say banning books is superbly stupid.  As a kid, I actually did a pretty good job of self-regulating the books I read.  My mother didn’t limit me, I had access to anything on her shelves and I KNOW I read some things that weren’t technically “age appropriate.”  But I wasn’t damaged, or prompted to violence or some shit.  And really, things that might not have been a good idea for me to read?  They weren’t actually interesting to me.  Sane boundaries are sane!

See the pretty goddess? You might think she’s the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, Goddess of Good Fortune. “Lakshmi is such a special Goddess. She’s magical, and practical. Her mate is a God and her best friend, a guy. She is a living Goddess, worshipped around the world. In these times of challenge as in all times of challenge, she can be a comfort and a healer; she brings a sense of greater fortune even in the darkest moments. She is a powerful cosmic connection; a divine female who looks like us, and offers a sense of courage, of hope, of power.” Yes, you might think that. But no, no that’s not Lakshmi, that’s Andrea, beautiful geek goddess friend who fixed my blog for me.