The Moth: Thursday, 15 September 2001

                

We had a giant moth on the wall in our basement staircase this morning.  

Moths have the same life cycle as butterflies. I had to look up the difference between the two.  Of course there are exceptions, but here are some differences:

Differences Between Butterflies and Moths (from About.com)

Insect	Butterfly	Moth
Antennae	rounded clubs on the ends	thin or often feathery
Body	thin and smooth	thick and fuzzy
Active	during the day	during the night
Color	colorful	dull
Pupal Stage	chrysalis	cocoon
Wings	held vertically when resting	held flat against body when resting

Sophia said that her favorite subject is history.  I am so thankful when any of the kids like anything about school.  I think it's her favorite because she's made numerous art projects and colored a number of pictures about what we are studying.  It's her creative outlet. 

Rachel didn't come today-I wish I could afford her to come everyday.  Levi ended up watching some TV this morning...yikes.  I don't want to get him started watching TV, but it worked for today.  He started playing with Army men the other day and likes setting them up in formation.  I'm hoping that soon he will be able to entertain himself and be with us without us needing a babysitter.  Sophia entertained herself when she was his age.  But Levi is NOT Sophia!

Luke doesn't like his Exercise Physiology and Sports Medicine class. I think it's different than he expected.  It's more science than sports.  He says he doesn't get what the teacher is teaching.  I think he has too many classes and needs to spend more time on it.  He may want to take Chemistry instead.  He thinks he may want to take it at a local homeschool coop (FEAST).  I talked to the teacher and he said Luke could join the class.  They met twice already, so Luke would have to catch up.  I think we may drop the debate and keep the sports medicine class.  Next year I can plan for Luke and Josh to do the Apologetics, Speech and Debate.  This year I had just planned for them to do the speech class/club and it seems that I may need to stick to that.  

Darby ran into the Anderson's house this afternoon....they live 3 houses down from us.  Their kids were outside and their back door was open.  Darby ran out and made it down there.  I was following calling for her to come, but she just kept going right into their house.  Kim (the mom) was outside and I yelled, " She'll eat anything that's sitting out!!"  I think their nanny was in there because Darby came right back out.  I went home and put on her training collar and did some remedial training.  She pretty much has the training collar figured out.  If it's on, she knows to obey, if it's off, not so much. 

Luke had his first FEAST high school soccer practice tonight on the field by our house.  We love the FEAST soccer team and families!  They are a wonderful group of homeschooling families.  And it is so great to see so many homeschooled high school boys.  And they are even athletic.  The two coaches are homeschool graduates.  

There are some new players on Luke's club soccer team, and I didn't know all the players and parents on the team last year.  Many of the kids have been on this same team for years.  At the game last week I got all the players' names and jersey numbers and parents' names.  I typed it up and sent it to the parents.  I wanted to have the info so I could yell at, I mean encourage, the players at the games and, so when I see the parents I know their names.  You know when you should know someone's name and you don't, and you're embarrassed so then you don't talk to them simply because you don't know their name?  Did that make sense?  

Apparently there are other parents who don't know the team parents' names, but would like to, and they were thankful for the info.  It really wasn't alot of info, just boys' names, jersey numbers, and parents names.  That's it.  The parents would like contact info too (emails and phone numbers) and hopefully I'll get to adding that.  I don't like being too busy to talk to the people I am around all the time.  We are around these people ALOT.  The boys on the team seem to get along pretty well...they are a good bunch of boys....and I like the parents too! 

We live on Fort Sam Houston in a neighborhood of 100 year old-plus  houses.  I'll try to put a picture of our house on my post tomorrow.  The company that manages the houses are having the porches redone.  Some need more work than others.  The houses have wrap around porches with pillars.  Some of the pillars need to be replaced because they are decaying.  Today, at our neighbor's house, I saw some new pillars on the ground outside of their house.  The pillars come in cardboard boxes.  Big pillars in cardboard boxes.  I should get a picture of that too.  Only in America....