2014 interviews/multiple good day

Sarah and I went to the grocery store and had this conversation on the way home:

S:  I get to make cupcakes!  It's a good day!
M: And the cupcake liners were on clearance.  It's a double good day.
S:  I'm going to make peppermint frosting!  It's a triple good day!
M:  And we got a great parking spot!  It's a quadruple good day.
S: We're also going to make pretzel turtles!  It's a....what's it called?  Oh yeah!  A quintuple good day!
M: And the price of gas is under two dollars per gallon!  It's a sextuple good day.

S:  I got a new folder!  It's a...what's 7?
M: Septuple?
S: It's a septuple good day!
M: And it was only five cents on clearance!  Octuple good day.
S: What's 9?
M: I don't know.  Let's just say it's a multiple good day.

I did an end of the year interview with each kid.  Sarah's was almost nine minutes long, and Noah's was barely six, and I had to prompt him with additional questions.  For example:
M: What's your favorite holiday?
N: Christmas.
M: What do you like about Christmas? 
(etc.)
__________
M: What's your favorite holiday?
S:  My absolute favorite holiday is Christmas!  Oh my gosh, I love Christmas!  I get presents, and there's so much good food...and the ham!  I love ham.  I don't like turkey as much, because it gets kind of dry, so that's why I don't like Thanksgiving as much as Christmas.  I just love Christmas!

Philosophy/education

Yesterday's discussion in philosophy class was about knowledge.  Think about something you know. How do you know it's true? How do we really know anything? Firsthand knowledge, personal experience?  But what if our whole lives are just a dream?  Do you know something because you can detect it with your senses (seeing is believing?)?  You can't always trust what you see (optical illusions).   That led to a good chat about doubting Thomas.  A lot of what we think we know is just what others tells us.  Do we trust that?  How do THEY know? 

At this point, Sarah said, "Well, I KNOW that seven times nine is sixty-three."  I told her that's one thing I like about math.  It is absolute. Seven times nine is always sixty-three.  It makes sense, and it never changes.  There's a definite right answer that everyone agrees on. No gray areas. You know when you get the right answer, and then you're done.  Everything else is rather ethereal and unsettling.

My astronomy professor in college asserted that the universe is expanding all the time.  He said if you wake up in the morning and everything is twice the size as it was when you went to bed, how would you know?  You can't measure it, because even your measuring stick doubled in size. That blew my mind and made me want to do a page of math problems.  I like thinking about abstract ideas and trying to wrap my brain around concepts, but after awhile, I feel like the rug is being pulled out from under me, and I want to get my feet back on solid ground.

Noah and I had this discussion:
N: What is the point of doing math? When will I ever use algebra in real life?
M: Maybe you won't ever use this specific skill, but the point is learning how to THINK, which you will use all your life.
N: Not really.  If I need to know something, I can just google it.
M: That's disturbing.  We are not robots.  God created us with brains.  It's just FUN to exercise them!  Doesn't it feel good to think and solve problems?

I don't really care if my kids memorize state capitals, do busywork, do advanced math, know the periodic table, or diagram a sentence.  I want them to be able to read well, communicate well, and love learning.  I give them the structure of classes to help them focus and do their best with a good attitude, even if it's something they don't want to do.  I think that's a good skill to develop, because don't we all spend a lot of time doing things we don't want to do?  Besides if we didn't have "school time", they would default to staring at their screens, becoming more robotic than human.

Quotes heard around the house today

N (to me): Why are you looking at me like a mother hawk?

N: I'm going to do everything with my knees together all day.

S (to me): Waitress!  There's a hair in my waffle!
M: I'm sorry.  You can have your entire breakfast for free.

And from a few days ago:
N: I love you, Mom, even though you're difficult to work with sometimes.

I told Sarah to clean up all the clothes on her closet floor and she responded that she put them there on purpose because Marty sleeps there. That didn't fly with me. Then she said, "You're not only being mean to me, you're being mean to Marty!"

I asked Noah to please be more mature, and his response was, "Hey! I just realized 'mature' is only one letter off from 'manure'!"

And one final one from Sarah:  THINK fabulous, and you'll BE fabulous!

The eternal sources of food

I made lasagna tonight, which is Noah's absolute favorite food.  As he was blissfully shoveling it in, he said, "You know how lasagna came to be?  They were having a birthday cake in heaven and it dropped down through the clouds and became known as lasagna."  A few bites later, he said, "And kale was puked up from the opposite place."

Where's the garlic?

I found myself with a couple bucks in my pocket and a few minutes to kill before picking up Noah from a party, so I pulled into Burger King and ordered onion rings and zesty sauce.  The onion rings are just a vehicle for the sauce, which I could just eat right out of the package.  I love zesty sauce.  Since I was alone with nothing to do, I read the label on the zesty sauce. 

Seeing that picture of two delicious looking garlic cloves, I thought, "There must be lots of garlic in this sauce.  That's probably why it's so good."  But when I read the list of ingredients, guess what?  No garlic.  Not even garlic powder. 

Boilover

Will I ever learn to use the right sized pan for the job?  Will I ever learn not to walk away and leave it on the stove?  I was cooking apples in caramel sauce and got bored waiting for them to get done, so I went to the living room to do something else.  From the living room, I heard that sound.  The one that sounds like sizzling, spattering, about-to-boil-over-and-make-a-huge-mess.  I'm all too familiar with the sound.  I yelled "NO!" and ran out there, but too late, as always.  This is the burned nastiness that's left after I cleaned up the sauce. 

Bloody telemarketing

This morning I read on Facebook that the next time a telemarketer calls, you should pick up the phone, whisper "It's done, but there's blood everywhere!" and hang up.  Noah and I thought that was funny, and we agreed that the next time we got a call, he would do it.  We didn't have to wait long.

Within two hours, the phone rang, and we eagerly checked caller ID to see if it was a telemarketer.  It was the American Red Cross.  Perfect!  They often call and ask for blood donations.  I bet they were surprised when Noah said, "It's done, but there's blood everywhere!"