… on the internet.

These are the top four things I’m tired of seeing/reading about on the internet (in no particular order, because I’m too sleepy to get that together). I don’t even spend that much time on the actual internet anymore — one to three hours per day max. Some stuff is really getting worn out at an Olympic rate. Here we go.

1. Downton Abbey – People in my feeds talk about this show so damn much that it’s actually playing in the corner of my screen on Netflix right now. I don’t even know how this is happening. The Brits have possessed my “computah.” (Truthfully, I just want to see what all the fuss is about, since I was years late catching up on MadMen.)

2. Pictures and stories from other people’s vacations – This one is largely due to jealousy, so pay me no mind. My last vacation was in 2008, so yeah …

3. Adele – The music is great. She’s beautiful. I’m just tired of hearing about it. Go play your ipod or enjoy your Adele DVD.

4. Real Housewives and Basketball Wives – Really? Is this still happening? You’re punching me in the face.

Mooch is home!!! This week is President’s Week at her school, so she’s off. Yesterday the girls played soccer together outside and practiced hula hooping. Well, Fuss mostly threw her hoop across the yard while Mooch did some pretty impressive tricks.

I’ve kept Fuss’ schedule this week the same, so that I don’t have to do a major attitude overhaul next week when Mooch returns to school. During work time, Mooch brushes up on areas she wants to improve — cursive, geography, and math. We all do snack and lunch together, and Mooch has two hours of free time during Fuss’ nap while I work.

We may do a couple of field trips this week — the California Science Center and the skating rink. Mooch is much more confident on her skates now and she wants to roll out. I haven’t had her help me with dinner at all this week, which is odd. That’s one of the perks of having her here all day. Maybe tonight.

Yesterday, we started building a marble run, but it’s definitely not finished. We also realized that we don’t have any marbles. Ha! Here are pictures from that:

As always, you can read more about Fuss’ learning by clicking this link.

So, we’re still not finished with our Black Love Day project. We did, however, go out this weekend to see a film at the Pan-African Film Festival.  Meh.  The date was followed by a hilarious conversation with our good friends. We didn’t get home until 2am. I should not ever stay up that late again, which is evidenced by the conversation below.

M: I want to put a decal in our new house that says, “There are choices in life. Take your shoes off, or mop the floor.”

H: That sounds good, but I think I want it shortened to read, “Take your shoes off.”

M: Why? That takes the fun out?

H: … because people don’t really read.

M:  That’s not true. Why would you say that?

H:  School systems in america suck

M:  I just wanna take America and shake it.  Let’s not invite non-readers over.

H:  Yeah.

M: I wanna take America by the balls and shake it.

H: No, it might enjoy it.

M: I don’t think I’d enjoy America’s balls, Hannibal.

H: I said *it* might enjoy it.

M: Ugh. Well, balls well that ends well.

H: … and this is our conversation driving off a cliff into tangent world …

M: Or, we could just have sex.

Fun Fact: Sex at 2:30am, when you’ve been up since 6:30am the previous morning, is also not a good idea. I’m pretty sure I need a new spleen.

So, I was supposed to write a blog about this whole Too Short drama last night, but instead of devoting my time to a self-serving nut job, I typed a long Facebook response message to a friend. She was interested in what I’m doing with Fuss in homeschool, so that she can implement those things with her son.

I spent my writing time detailing Fuss’ current daily rhythm, and answering a slew of questions about her son’s development. I won’t put all of her child’s business in the streets, because that is irrelevant. What I will note is that her message was one of MANY emails, chats, text messages, etc. regarding what’s happening with my kids.

WAHMs (Work at Home Moms) have to stick together, because where one of us has a lot of tools the other may be lacking and vice versa. It is through sharing that our kids really benefit, and shoot this woman has cute sons. My daughters may want husbands some day.

I decided to add a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section to this blog, which you’ll now find in the navigation bar at the top. Does this mean you have to stop emailing me and messaging me? Absolutely not!! I enjoy our interactions immensely. This is just a place where you can go to obtain some of my tips, tricks, links, and trinkets for use with your little one.

It seems like every year around this time, I get so busy that I have to remove “Workin’ Wednesdays” from my blog, so that I can actually have time to work!  I originally thought the ramp up and stress around this time of year was related to teaching dance and recital season, but I guess it’s not.

I’m likely going to use my time on Wednesdays updating my website for the year.  I’ve done a lot of new work, and none of it is there, because … well, I’ve been working.  I need to post new portfolio pictures to Facebook, and even update the design section of this website, so you likely won’t hear from me on Wednesdays (unless I have something super spectacular that I have to share) until close to May.

Everything else will continue as planned.  Fridays, I don’t normally show a film unless I find something really awesome that week.  The regularly scheduled posts will be Marital Mondays, Tuesdays with Mooch & Fuss, and Thematic Thursdays.

Whoa! There’s so much to catch you up on. Let’s see. Mooch and I participated in the Itty Bitty Art Sale at her school, where people submit tiny works of art on postcards to be sold anonymously at the Itty Bitty Art event. The artist’s name and message are on the back, but when purchasing, the buyer doesn’t know who the artist is. There are always celebrities, famous artists, and politicians who contribute pieces as well, so one never knows who they’ll get. Here are our submissions — now that the event is over.

Mooch’s Toyota commercials also aired. I didn’t have time to figure out copying/embedding from the site they’re on, but you may visit this link to watch them.  Mooch has become well acquainted with her face paint set since her punishment began, so here are a few shots of that. She’s off punishment next week, but she says she’s gotten used to entertaining herself.

Fuss went on a field trip downtown last Friday, where she perused fabrics, and admired flowers. We went with a friend, who was searching for fabric for a couple of projects. It’s quite expensive, I noticed. Anyway, I think Fuss’ favorite fabric was satin. She also liked this fabric, but it was $20 per yard. Umm no.

Number recognition and letter recognition are out of the park, but colors — not so much. We’re working on it throughout the day and with activities on the shelf. She knows what purple is — that’s for sure. Fuss is selectively breaking out of her shy phase. It really just depends on the person now. Sometimes she screams bloody murder, and sometimes she’ll offer a hello or even willingly walk away with the person. She reads energy.

Her favorite thing to do lately is put random crap (and I mean random) in her little shopping cart and push it around the house like she’s going somewhere. Missing an earring? It may be in there. The remote control, socks, Elmo, and a few tortilla chips, yup, they’re in there, too.

Random: I’ve been co-washing her hair almost twice per week, and it is so much easier to manage! I just thought I’d share.

If you’d like to read more about homeschooling Fuss specifically, you can do that here.

As a family, we went to Lakeshore this past Saturday for their free arts and crafts session.  It was pretty cool.  Both girls made flowers and (paper) purses.  On Black Love Day (Feb. 13th), we surprised them each with these little baskets.

There are strawberries to grow, African-American paper dolls, a Star Wars coloring book, and a card signed by each parent.  Mooch also got a journal in hers, because she fills them really quickly!  They got plate sets, because they’ve been needing those for a while.  Hannibal wasn’t supposed to buy me anything, because of our art project, but he cheated and bought me the most awesome earrings from a Black-Owned business in Leimert Park.

Today is Black Love Day. No, I’m not making that up. Another woman did. It is a day to focus on love and unity in the family and the community — not to buy Hallmark cards and candy (no offense if that’s your thing). Hannibal is off today. Don’t freak out, you didn’t miss a national holiday. Black Love Day is relatively young. He took a floating holiday, or personal time off, or whatever nine-to-fivers take when they stay home and aren’t sick.

Our community commitment will likely be displayed by attending the Pan-African Film Festival, but our project today will bond the two of us in a unique way. Hannibal has a lot of toys and comic books. He generally keeps just about everything — receipts from 2001, stuffed animals from childhood, promotional CDs from random artists, business cards — all of it. He’s obsessed with keeping things. I, on the other hand, purge constantly. I organize. I fight to keep an environment free of clutter. I input the data from business cards and then toss the cards. CDs go into iTunes and then to the recycling bin. I’m obsessed with keeping stuff neat. We both have the same illness, though. I really have a stronger tendency towards keeping everything, so I fight that urge by throwing everything away. I vaguely remember trying to address this with a scrapbooking hobby, which I also never have time for any more.

This didn’t dawn on me, again, until I was on a website that featured toys from the eighties. I saw these plastic junk charm necklaces that my sister and I used to collect religiously. I had to scour the net for one, so I went straight to Ebay. The tacky small collections of radio and sunglasses charms and Coke bottles charms that I used to get out of bubble-gum machines for a quarter were going for a whopping sixty bucks! I couldn’t believe it. I totally still contemplated which of my kid’s shoes I could pawn to get one of those necklaces.

It was the nostalgia of it. The picture of it alone brought back so many feelings and memories. I remembered Baby Sitters Club books resting on my stuffed gremlin, Gizmo. “Baby Skates,” a doll that showed off less than stellar derby moves rolled through my mind. Then there were Ring Pops and Kissing Koolers and jellies shoes! Oh, and my Gameboy (I still have that, actually, but I never play it).

When my house burned down in the sixth grade, all of these memories went up in smoke with it. I was devastated, but didn’t really realize what I’d lost until right now — well a few weeks ago. I mean I cried at the time, but at eleven years old, I just didn’t understand the magnitude. Nothing would ever be the same. As a result, I didn’t form attachments to things very much. Throwing stuff away meant nothing. I’d lost it all before. Couple the house fire with the fact that my father was a hoarder (he’s actually recovering), and you have the prime set up for my OCD ass!

The problem is, I went to Hannibal, with that crazed look in my eyes, a few weeks ago and said, “I want to start collecting eighties toys!”

He didn’t have a problem with it. He actually dove into the conversation with, “Ooh! Which eighties toys?”

“All of them!” I responded in my best Brain voice from Pinky and the Brain. He laughed at the thought, but was excited that we shared a common interest. We sat and talked for two hours about how the toys made us feel and why. I think it was the first time I almost saw him cry (It didn’t happen, though, his eyes just water when he gets excited about a point). Eventually, we came back to reality and recognized that we can’t house the eighties in a three bedroom living situation. Moreover, we don’t play with, look at, or have time for the stuff we do have. We don’t even have anywhere to display it. We are saving for another piece of property now and spending on a childhood museum wouldn’t make sense.

Enter our idea: Since the pictures alone bring out such emotion, why not take pictures and/or print pictures of all the things we want to hold onto, and only keep physical versions of the most precious things (like the Transformers collection, The Transmetropolitan collection of comics [which even I love], my Gizmo plush, etc.).

We’re going to use a large canvas and Mod Podge to adhere the pictures. Then we can embellish with paint and actual tiny toys, CDs, glitter and anything eighties we can find that fits our aesthetic. Our eighties artwork masterpiece can hang in our hallway for us to drool at whenever we like. Hannibal LOVED the idea, and keeps reminding me about it (he even wants to sell large amounts of toys and comic books from his storage on Ebay) so we decided to do the art project today. We can talk and laugh and remember together.

If it gets finished today, then part two of this blog will post this evening with pictures of the piece. If not, I’ll post it next Monday.

P.S. Remember these?

Alright, peace, I’m about to go print my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I literally just went to Google and typed in the question, “What century are we in right now?” I’ve never failed history class, and my shower head didn’t turn into a Flintstone-esque elephant trunk during my mid-morning scrub either. It’s the incessant whining of those not in favor of the prop 8 overturn.

I’m so tired of reading people’s status updates about the Prop 8 overturn asking, “Why even vote?” Should every cockamamie unjust law that’s put in place remain simply because it was voted in? If certain laws hadn’t been overturned, many of us wouldn’t even be able to vote in the first damn place. So public transportation should still be segregated? That law passed in 1881 in Tennessee. By 1914, every Southern state had passed laws that created two separate societies — one for blacks and one for whites. So, Jim Crow should still be in full effect? Before you start, I’m in no way comparing the gay rights movement to the struggle for civil rights, because as this USA Today article so eloquently outlines, the two battles couldn’t be any more different. I’m simply using Jim Crow laws to refute the idea that once a law is put in place, it should never be changed. Hopefully, I don’t need to go into women’s suffrage or Prohibition (for all you anti-prop 8 folks, who love you some liquor at happy hour) to prove this any further. I could go on all night about how amendments are necessary!

It’s time to join us in the 21st century. Some people are actually living and breathing a spiritually evolved culture, while others hold onto hate, discrimination, prejudice, and condemnation. When will the fucking paradigm shift? When will I be able to enjoy a cup of tea in an environment where I don’t have to wonder what century I’m in.

This is who I’m studying right now for “work” purposes.  He was 2 million dollars in debt and turned his life around.  He’s wrong more often than he’s right, but when he’s right (investing in companies like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Kickstarter), he makes millions.  He’s a venture capitalist.

Source: Revision3

MOOCH

Mooch is making great social and emotional strides since we implemented monthly family goals (last month: “Look for the great things” and this month “Random words of kindness”). She received her school assessment (like a report card but in essay format) yesterday, and at school she is showing improvement in conflict resolution, speaking up for herself, and complimenting others when they are pleasurable. She and her friends design clothes out of scraps from the art teacher and have little fashion shows. I’m so excited that a parent/teacher conference could turn our whole family around.

She enjoyed her Shakespeare class a great deal this past Saturday. She’s been walking around the house spouting out such phrases as, “Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown” and “The cry did knock against my very heart.” She’s been practicing her keyboard religiously since last Tuesday, so we’ll see how that class goes today. It seems as though she is still warming up to the voice class.

FUSS

Fuss has been under the weather for the better part of this week. She’s like a mucus fountain. She doesn’t like chlorophyll or apple cider vinegar, which are both go-to remedies for our family. Today, I kicked it old school and made her some lemon and honey. She went for it, so I slipped some fresh garlic (a natural antibiotic) into it. Then I steamed up the bathroom and gave her a warm bath, followed by a eucalyptus rub down. She’s napping now with her head and chest propped up at a forty degree angle. Poor thing.

I’m a little outdone, because I chopped up a bunch of spinach and stirred it into some orzo that I’d prepared, hoping she would eat a little something. She wasn’t interested. Well, I’ll add some diced fresh tomatoes and serve the dish for dinner. No biggie, I guess.

She spent most of the morning in her remodeled book nook. We did circle time, and then she just wanted to hear serial stories — What Makes a Rainbow, Go, Dog. Go!, Shades of Black, and Who Says Moo? I ordered a spice rack to present several books at a time facing forward. Check it out below. I got the idea from Pinterest, where a user had placed Ikea spice racks on the wall as book shelves, but Ikea was out of them. I can’t wait until theirs are in stock, though, because mine has a book height limitation on rows two and three.