Saving taxpayer money

Daniel, my sophmore, just had a conversation with me that I have had two times before.  I have had the exact conversation with both of my older daughters.  It goes something like this:

Kid:  How much does it cost to go to public school?

Me: It’s free. They have some fees for activities but it basically doesn’t cost the students anything.

Kid: No really, tell me how much it is.

Me: I’m not kidding. Go ask Dad.  He will tell you the same.

Kid: Come on, just tell me.  Is it expensive?

Sometimes this will go a couple more rounds.

I just think it is interesting that all of my children assume that it costs the students a great deal of money to go to public school. But we all know that public school isn’t free. I especially know this because not only do I pay taxes to send all of my neighbor’s children to public school, then I turn around and then pay for my own kids’ curriculum. According to an HSLDA report in 2004, roughly 1/10 of the money is spent on homeschooling that is spent on public school kids.  And the results? The average homeschooler scores in the 80th percentile on standardized tests.

On the more personal side of things, I spend about $250 – $300 a year, on average per elementary/jr high school student. In the 2006-2007 school year, Colorado spent an average of $8,167 per pupil (and we are ranked 40th in the county) I have saved the citizens of Colorado a boatload of money.

Let’s just slap Melvil Dewey and the Library of Congress in the face

Introducing the new Southglenn Public Library

Ok – now I am going to grumble.

The closest library to us recently closed for a month while it relocated.  I was very excited about this. It relocated to the Southglenn Mall . . . just a couple of minutes from my home.  I use the library all the time.  A new library opening is a big event in my life.  I’ve been counting the days.  As much as I hate the “typical homeschooler stereotype”, a love of libraries and books is a part of who am I.  I do not wear denim jumpers. My girls do not wear dresses with tennis shoes. My kids cannot win spelling bees. (If you are reading this Kristin, I want you to know that I am extremely proud of your three who made it to the National Spelling Bee.) Baking my own bread is out of the question. So, other than having an abnormally large family and loving books, I don’t fit the stereotype.

What I found today was just . . . offensive.

I knew I was going to be in a hurry, so I found the call numbers of a list of books that I wanted before arriving.  I thought I would just take the list and pull things from the shelves.  It’s a library. Things are supposed to be pretty standardized.  They have ALWAYS been that way at EVERY library to which I’ve ever been.

Books are no longer grouped according to a number system in adult non-fiction. I had to go to a librarian for help.  (I would like to say that the librarians there were available and ready to help with pleasant attitudes. At least that hasn’t changed.) The librarian told me that they had arranged the books in a way to make the patrons feel like they were in a bookstore.  I can see where this kind of environment has a welcoming warm feeling.  It does look very nice.  IT JUST IS NOT PRACTICAL!

The librarian also looked at my list of books, which contained things like Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, Pilgrim’s Progress and Profiles in Courage. These kind of books should be the staples of a library.  Only one book on my long list was at the library. It wasn’t that the copies of these books were checked out. They simply did not carry those kinds of books.  It was kind of like a kitchen that didn’t have any salt.  This made no sense to me.

The friendly librarian went on to explain that this library wasn’t really designed for students or learning. She suggested that I go to another library if that was what I wanted to do.  WHAT!?!?!? If you can’t go to a library to learn, where are you supposed to go? She did say that I could request books online from other libraries and they would be delivered to this one. I will do that but what if I don’t know what book I want?  I guess the days of pondering over long shelves of books and finding something new and interesting to me will not happen here.

I HATE being lied to . . .

Yesterday a customer lied to Christina, my office manager/daughter. I had a conversation with this person a few minutes prior to the conversation that Christina had with this person. I unmistakenly and disctictivly told her something. This person turned around and told Christina I had said something other than what I had said. There was no “miscommunication” or “confusion” here. It was a lie. It wasn’t a big lie but it was still a lie. About a month prior to this I caught another person in a lie. I “called this person on the carpet” about what she had said and she refused to even acknowledge any of it.

Sometimes it is easy to guess the motivation of the person who is lying. I do my best to look at the person with grace. I try to put myself in their shoes and see the heart behind their words. But I still really, really hate it. I always teach my children that you can’t respect someone and lie to them at the same time. I know different people have different values. But when a person chooses to place his/her own pride above what is true or tries to get what he/she wants at the expense of honesty, it damages relationships. It damages people. And it makes me really sad. I think it makes God sad also.

My husband is tough!

Sure the baby blue surgery cap doesn’t make him look tough, but trust me, he is. Gary had his fifth knee surgery today. He has had three ACL replacements and two arthroscopic surgeries.

And you just haven’t lived until you see him slide into home plate. He still plays softball in the spring, summer and fall. Watching him play is one of my favorite things to do. He coaches our church team, Jubilee Fellowship. Our whole family turns out for most of his games. He has the mind and the body of a twenty-something-year old but the knees of his grandpa.

When he had his last ACL replacement back in January, the doctor was amazed that he was still active. His knee was hitting bone-on-bone and is full of arthritis.  But this never slows him down. He didn’t even use crutches once after that surgery.

The surgery today was needed because the arthritis in his knee created these big rock-like things. Two large pieces had broken off and were rolling around inside his knee cap. As he would move, they would shift positions and a message was instantly sent to his brain to shut the joint down.  He would be walking and it would just completely give way without any kind of notice.  This was especially dangerous for him as he is frequently carrying heavy fans up and down wet stairs. So, we got it fixed. Here is a pic of the smaller rock. The larger rock had to be crushed in order to remove it. He will be back at work, pushing the scrub wand on Monday. I told you he was tough. I can’t wait for spring ball!

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Cardboard Testimonies

Pastor Ben Binger recently posted this on his blog. I have found myself going back and viewing it several times, so I decided to post it again here. I am constantly amazed at all of the incredible things God has done and is doing in my life. To me, there is nothing more exciting to see God work. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

$11,277.00 Mistake

I am so scatter-brained lately.  Because I haven’t been able to find the right person to work in our office, I have been forced to attempt to run both our household and our business simultaneously. This really isn’t working very well for me at all. My heart definitely is in the house while my body is in the office and my mind is on vacation.

Last Wednesday, I ran a customer’s credit card.  There is a box where you are supposed to input the address and one where you are supposed to input the amount. Instead of putting $400 in the amount box, I put her street address – 11277. This transaction settled, they took the money out of her account and instead of putting it in our account, it is now floating around in cyberspace somewhere. The customer is really unhappy (and I don’t blame her) and I am unhappy because they also are refusing to put all of the credit card receipts that we have ran after than into our account. I did not become aware of this situation until today. I have been writing checks on money that was supposed to be in our account. I shudder to think what this will do with our checking account.

We have spent all morning receiving and sending faxes with our merchant account to try to resolve this. They guy who is in charge and can make the final decision to set everything right, will not pick up his phone. His underlings have done all they can do. I have done all I can do. It is incredibly frustrating.

Lost Sock World

One of the most difficult things that I have to manage in my home are socks. I am so happy that it is almost summer and flip flops (we ALWAYS referred to them as thongs growing up, but my children want to die everytime I say that) rule. Everyone makes fun of Elissa for wearing thongs (aka flip flops) in the winter – but it is truly a gift not having her raid my sock drawer as often as she would if she wore normal shoes. Anyway back to socks. . .

We have a place in our home called lost sock world. I was going to take a photo of how pathetic it was and post it here, but I can no longer do it because ELISSA tackled the enormous job of sorting through it, throwing away the socks with gigantic holes and adding dramatically to the availability of this precious resource for every member of our family.

I was actually quietly savings this terrible chore for the next child that really made me angry. Elissa did this without me even starting to complain about it. She is truly amazing.

Now, my big problem remains . . . what will I use for punishment the next time someone really deserves it? Any ideas?

Passover Seder

Sunday night, Brian and Jeanie Kochis hosted an incredible passover supper for around 30 people.  It was a wonderful experience that I will always remember. Almost the whole family (not sure about little Phoebe) spent hours and hours cooking and preparing for it. Sure, I have gone to church Passover celebrations before but this was the first time I have ever celebrated it as a guest in someone’s home.  They celebrate it every year together as a family and this year they blessed a lot of people by sharing their normal experiences.

The children searched the house for little pieces of leavened bread. (The leaven represents sins.) When they found the hidden pieces, they used a feather and a spoon to scoop it up. Then they took it outside where the fathers helped them burn it.

A piece of matza bread was wrapped in a cloth and hidden from the children. (This represented Jesus.) They searched the house and Sarah and Michaela were the ones to find it.  As a prize, they got five coins.

We ate the things that were Biblically prescribed. One of the Kochis children asked Brian all of the traditional questions and Brian answered them. We drank all the cups and sang the blessings as we did so.

Laurel Cohen explained everything that was happening and the meaning behind it as we went through. She is one of the most amazing women that I know. Her heart belongs to God first and Israel next.  I am excited to see what God will do through her in the future.

She had a power point presentation that included a lot of different depictions of the last supper. We spent a lot of time analazing discussing them. (Yeah – Annette actually got to have an adult conversation!) Of course, there was Davinci’s portrayal. Which we are all so familiar with so I didn’t post it here. Then we looked at some very old artwork. And Laurel explained why so many of these images are so offensive to the Jews. I had never thought about that before. She showed us the following three images, which I find very offensive.

After looking at these, I understood why many Jews are so offended by Christian art. Much of the symbolism in portrayals of the last supper are as offensive to Jews as the above photos are offensive to Christians.  It really made me think. I had never understood it before.

To end on a more positive note: She also showed the photo below to us. I love it.  It is such an incredible understanding of who Jesus really is. 

Almost Spring

Dan Hoff just sent me this photo -

You know that it is almost spring when the girls start to show off their belly buttons!