this post is brought to you by the Florida summer

[be_themoon]

A few things I found through my f-list and am passing on:

From almostinstinct -
cereta on rape and men. I was reading through some of the comments and realized that I'm very comfortable around men once I've sized them up and considered whether or not I could fight them. I'd never really consciously considered it before, but I'm very comfortable around short people and weaker guys, and I tend to be more tense and uptight around big guys. I generally am fairly comfortable around men, though, because a) I'm a tall girl (5'9" and possibly still growing), b) I grew up playing sports and running and wrestling my siblings (all 5 of them) and fighting in the water, and c) a large majority of the guys I know are homeschool Christians and guys that I trust. And yet, even then I'm wary, which shouldn't have to be necessary.

From lassiterfics -
Merlin Season Two Press Release OMG YAYYYY! I can hardly wait for Season Two - I'm really, really looking forward to it.

From marycontraire -
A Jack Knifed Juggernaut (I am born again) by arenotvalid 
I've never watched T:SCC, though I've been meaning to try it out for a while, and know only the barest basics of the premise, but this fic is brilliant and beautiful and gorgeous. Everyone should read it, for serious. For very serious. WALK DON'T RUN. MOVE IT Y'ALL.

Also today, a list of randomness.
1. Received in mail today:

a. one beginner's bobbin lace-making kit, courtesy of my mother. I'd been remembering doing it three or four years ago at the Florida Folk Festival and being wistful and she found this on eBay for me.

2. Places I want to go:

a. The Florida Folk Festival. There is square dancing, y'all. You dance with strangers because it's just that much fun (last time we went, my sister and this guy totally had a crush on each other, and it was very sweet and adorable, and they danced turkey in the straw together), and you listen to music and look at practical exhibits and traditional dances  and Seminole beadwork (which you can also buy if you want) and make crafts and listen to story-tellers and lecturers and if the bobbin lace lady is there you can make bobbin lace at the one she has set up for others to try and there is kettle corn the way it was meant to be made and it's like some sort of fair, only with a lot more cultural stuff and not nearly as much inanity. It's awesome, okay? But you have to bring a skirt that swirls.
b. London. 'Nuff said.

3. Ways my mom was awesome today:

a. the bobbin lace kit.
b. not pushing me to go to the baseball games.
c. getting us to clean the schoolroom (trust me, this is a feat of amazingness).
d. WAS AWESOME.

4. Things my mom and Kat and I cleaned today:

a. about half the front yard.
b. THE SCHOOLROOM, WOOT. Well, it's floor. It's not really the schoolroom anymore, but it's still got the bookshelves that are pretty much around the entire room (we installed bookshelves on the walls two years ago around), a computer, our game shelves, all of our sewing materials, knitting materials, craft materials, SO MANY BOOKS. And it was a freaking mess.

5. Ways my sister was annoying today.

a. whined about coming home after work instead of going to see her GOLDEN LOVE MATT.
b. does not seem to appreciate the fact that he is immature and has no backbone, despite the fact that everyone else in the family sees this very clearly.
c. apparently mom 'asks him too many questions' when he comes over, and it makes him not want to come over. OH NOES, QUESTIONS. GASP. WHAT'S HE GONNA DO? ... damn, he's going to make a horrible brother-in-law someday if he doesn't hurry up and grow up.
 

Comments

[marycontraire.livejournal.com]

OKAY, FIRST THINGS FIRST, BB. YOU NEED TO WATCH TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CHRONICLES LIKE YESTERDAY. (I can actually email you download links for the episodes on the sly, if that's a problem for you.)

And now, on a more serious note-- I've been meaning to ask you about your homeschooling situation for a while. It's something that I really know nothing about. I had a very liberal upbringing (not because my parents are hippies or anything-- they're actually semi-conservative Catholics) just because I happen to live in New York.

High school for me was all about getting up at bloody hell o'clock in the morning to catch a bus across town, academic competition with my peers (I went to an extremely competitive school), chasing my friends around the windowless hallways, and, like, skiving off chapel to write a Spanish essay in the bathroom. That kind of stuff. I often didn't get home until 8 or 9 at night, because I would be doing tech for a play, or taking an after-school photo class. I just can't imagine having my education be something that's part of home life.

And I think it's something I used to be really judgmental of, partly because of the whole red state/blue state thing, we all thought home-schooled Christians must be crazy. But I've recently done a 180 on this perspective, because, of all things, I stumbled across this random blog when I was looking for recipes online. At first I was just reading this woman's recipes, but that sort of spilled over into me reading back over loads of old personal entries because she's a good writer and I'll kind of read anything that's in front of my face. And the way she described educating her kids just sounded so idyllic to me. And completely different from what I experienced. And, you know, some people take it to extremes, but there are clearly worse things to be in the world than an Evangelical Christian. New Yorkers tend to forget that.

IDK, IDK. I just wondered if you thought homeschooling was a good thing for you, and would you do it differently for yourself if you could? Do you plan on homeschooling your own children?

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

*amused* I'll probably have time this summer, and I'm actually watching the first episode tonight (feeling iffy about the level of bloodshed but liking it a good deal because SUMMER GLAUUUU). So far I'm good with sidereel.com, which has generally worked for me, but if it doesn't I might ask for those links. XD

Homeschooling... oh god, I could write a thesis paper on this. Short answer (not really that short XD). Homeschooling was the best thing for me, really. I'm sure this is completely untrue for some people, who really enjoy a public school atmosphere, but I'm not all socially-oriented, in that whenever I'm with people in RL I'm always acting to some extent, which stresses me out hugely. So for my personality type especially, it was perfect.

Routine-wise, it's been great. My mom's a very 'early to bed, early to rise' person, and wishes we all were, but she lets us sleep in when we need it and during school days we don't have to be up and moving until 8:30 (now I'm getting a later wake-up time if I need it because I'm a bit of a night owl). When I was younger my school time was pretty strictly set apart from my play-time. Now that I'm older and have more school and am doing more other activities they tend to bleed into each other a lot more, but I've never minded and it's really a personal choice (my sister, for instance, has separated her school and personal times pretty strictly).

I think the biggest thing most people don't realize about homeschooling is that it's very individualistic. We're very close friends with a group of two other families, and each of us families has a very different way of homeschooling. It's something that can be changed to fit any kid, and really you can do it any way so long as at the end of each year they pass an evaluation by a state-certified teacher/evaluator. I know a lot of families and people that are very happy and comfortable with their teaching style, and their kids are around the same level as other students their age in a public school would be, and some are behind.

The main homeschooling 'trend' that I greatly dislike is the one where the parents are too busy pushing their kids to skip grades and be smarter than everyone else to individualize and see what their kids want to do. I really, really hate it when that's done. D:

The only other thing I can say I don't like about homeschooling is the tendency for Christian homeschooling parents to be very black-and-white about political views and passing this down to their kids, something thankfully my parents chose not to do.

In short, I love my style of homeschooling, if I ever have children I would do my best to homeschool them unless they hated it, and it's pretty much awesome, but at the same time I acknowledge that there are flaws, mostly depending on the parent and the child. I will say that it takes a very strong mother to homeschool her child/children.

[sgrio.livejournal.com]

I've gotta say, a lot of my discomfort with men and dodgy situations boils down to the fact that I'm small. If I felt like I could win, or defend myself in a fight, I'd take a lot more risks. *shrug* C'est la vie.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I can definitely see how that would make you more uncomfortable, since a lot of my ease comes from my height and confidence in my ability to defend myself at least fairly well.

Though! I agree with the person who commented on your post, that you should try traveling anyway. Take some Mace, maybe a self-defence class to boost confidence. I think you could be reasonably safe so long as you didn't do stuff like walk into shady parts of towns you don't know at night. :P

[rabidline.livejournal.com]

YAY YAY MERLIN SEASON TWO.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I KNOWWW! I AM SQUEEING MADLY YAAAY!

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

now i wanna go to the florida folk festival :(

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

Sometime I'll have to find a way to get you there. XD Because (have I mentioned this enough yet?) it is awesome.