Commander and I enjoy Homeschooling boys (Herogian, Hawk and Gluten), raising chickens, ducks, and dogs ( Penny and Casey), eating gluten free, surviving breast cancer, coach track and field, and loving God for every minute that He gives us to cherish our family.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Happenings

Red Tail Hawk - chicken thief - killed one of our banties today. The predator couldn't get enough lift to clear the back fence and dropped "Camo". The boys just happened to be at the back door (not at the table doing schoolwork) and saw it all transpire. One ran out screaming at the hawk, another grabbed the airsoft gun, and the third stood with his mouth open in the back yard. I happen to be on the phone in the bedroom and heard enough commotion to look out the window just as the hawk cleared the neighbor's trees.

Camo is now buried at the site she was dropped. T12 took care of burying her between tears. He went out in muck boots, pajama pants, and no shirt. I didn't know this until he was coming back to the house and I was going out to find the rest of the birds. One of the black layers was squeezed between the black leaf bags we have piled up around the north side of the coop. She scared the daylights out of me when she ran out. The birds stayed in the coop the rest of the day. Even the ducks didn't want to come outside.

****
We had our first official track meeting with kids from the fall sports. Coach was giving them the spill about being late, just don't come if you can't be on time. Anything else? .... I jumped in with NO SWEATS, NO PRACTICE. We're not here to train like high schoolers, we will train to run in conference, nationals and Olympics if anyone has that desire. We don't need to mess around with pulled hamstrings, because someone doesn't want to wear sweats.

The kids told me today, that some one whispered, "Coach Deskis must be a H.A. (clue: donkey).
The ones working out with me started laughing as I handed them each a pair of $1 gloves. Yeah, coach - your a real H.A. giving us gloves, making us cookies. We told them you make us run 2 minute 800's for warm up.

A long time ago, Commander said we would compromise - I wanted three kids, he wanted six, so we would have nine. The last few weeks have filled those numbers with the college teenagers I'm coaching. A great group of kids to work with, and it was actually hard yesterday, when we split into groups, to see four of  "my" athletes follow Coach Williams down the hall to meet with her - sprint coach. But they were all back out at the track today ready to run, jump and throw.

Please pray that I make an impact on these kids with God's light shining through me. It's a private Catholic school, but that doesn't mean the kids have faith in God. I want them to see their potential  being put to use by God - how great it is when He is in charge of the body. I want to be the light that shines.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Celiac Stats - FYI

--- On Sun, 11/27/11, * Angie - GlutenFreeClub.com * wrote:


I've been doing research again and found some interesting statistic about celiac disease and gluten intolerance. I thought you'd be interested in learning some of them.



I usually stay away from numbers, but I realized that the numbers can be a great way to prove to you how NOT alone you are in dealing with a gluten free lifestyle.



Keep in mind these are not just numbers but each single digit represents a living breathing person like you and me. By the way, all numbers are for the USA.



•It's estimated 1 out of every 133 people have celiac disease

•Out of every 100 people, 97 remain undiagnosed (horrors!)

•Over 3 million people have celiac disease

•It takes an average of 8 to 11 years for a US celiac to be properly diagnosed (oh horrors again!)

•Up to 10% of people with celiac disease also have type 1 diabetes (another autoimmune disease)

•Women have a celiac disease at a ratio of 3 to 1 when compared to men

•There are over 250 possible symptoms related to gluten intolerance

Well, that's enough stats for me. I've got to start thinking about what's for dinner tonight!



If you're thinking the same thing here's an idea for tonight's dinner.



http://www.glutenfreeclub.com/g/StuffedHerb/Chicken



Enjoy,



Angie.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Messed up mentally due to holiday

Does having a holiday break in the middle of the week mess up your mental calendar?  I don't know what happened to Friday, it's been a repeat Saturday - Commander watching football on tv (yuk), boys playing with Cam., and I've been writing lesson plans for three boys and workouts for 4 groups of athletes for next week, and putting together puzzles.

I'm so messed up that I just looked over at the Commander watching TV and asked him why he was watching it muted. He isn't - I've got headphones on. I'm listening to Pachabelle.

We have one more week of workouts with the track team before we have to turn the kids loose to study for semester exams. The break from going to workouts (for me) will be filled with writing workouts for the winter break, putting together a Track clinic which will include Dynamics, Active Drills, Plyometrics for upper and lower body, weight training without a weight room, individual event training sessions of what to do before you get on the track,( winter training), how to make some training equipment. We will have groups for sprinters/ hurdlers, throwers, jumpers, and distance. So if you know any high school athletes or coaches,  have them contact me. The clinic will probably be late February.

These are our obnoxious practice javelins the boys helped me make. Then they broke the pink handled one and didn't tell me until Thanksgiving Day when I wanted to try it out. The nerds.

This year I've made hurdles to hops out of fencing from T.S.C. and lattice strips for our plyometric hops.  The hurdles have a five inch spike and stake into the ground. Cool.  I still need to make hurdles out of PVC piping for indoor practice. In the past, I've made plyoboxes, and plyoballs out of basketballs and water/sand. Just gets messy if they bust inside the gym. Oops.

Anybody else not ready for Christmas - cards, shopping, putting up a tree, baking, kids out of school. Right now it feels like a 400 meter hurdle race coming up next and I'm out of breath already. Oh well, one hurdle at a time.

I think I'll go put together another puzzle.
Anyone else like 1000+ puzzles?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A time for Thanksgiving and prayer

A free nation UNDER GOD. How THANKFUL we should be for the freedoms granted to us by our constitution. One freedom that was never put into the constitution - because our Founding Fathers never thought there would be such a need, is the freedom to keep our parental rights.

Did you know that our parental rights are not locked into the constitution? The post at The Homeschool Apologist will make your heart flutter. The rights of the child that the U.N. is backing and wanting the United States to accept will take away your rights as a parent. It will give the schools the right to determine what education is appropriate for your child and at what age - to include acceptance of homosexuality in kindergarten. It will allow a thirteen year old to determine how many time a week his family can take him to church. It would allow a child of any age to decide for themselves what is their entertainment for the day - to include the internet.

Please check out the video at  The Homeschool Apologist, or go straight to http://www.parentalrights.org/ . We need to make as many Americans as we can aware of what the government is trying to do to our God given rights. Our children and grandchildren need parental rights solidified into the Constitution of these United States.

I give thanks to God the Father for being our Father in Heaven, for loving us first, for giving us families, parents, and children. I also give thanks for this nation which we live. Please, God, protect our country.  I pray that no man will be allowed to destroy the parental rights that hold our families together, and in turn hold our nation together.

Happy Thanksgiving America. May God Bless You.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

More Vacation fun

Or maybe I should say - Field Trip, yeah, it was a field trip.
Can you find the face?  Kinda hard from this angle, it's winking.


Can you see the Garnet?  We panned in the stream at Sabino Canyon with a couple of convervation specialist. Let's just say they didn't want any of the garnets leaving the canyon. You do it the same way as panning for gold. Something I could spend my day doing. It is a lot of fun. They also had a magnet for you to sweep through your find to get the magnetite out - think of those bald headed board games where you move a magnet over the metal shavings and give the guy a beard, or hair.  It was cool.




If you are sitting this high at a football game, shouldn't you just go home and watch it on the TV? They were ten rows from the tippy-top. Hawk held onto the seat behind him  when the wind blew.  T12 just laughed. Thank goodness I was already back home.

Super Mom, not..... One big plane, though.


THis one had me steaming. A restaurant in Tucson advertised free gluten  - I was hoping for a clearer picture. I really wanted to call the main company office and let them know that two boys and  I  weren't happy with their making fun of our auto-immune disease that we have to live with daily. Other than the last one we had a good time.
*** I found the restaurant and emailed the main office. I was nice, sorta, let them know that a menu of pizza topping on a plate with a salad would be better than hacking off celiac sprue customers.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Field Trip, Vacation, Homeschooling

Nothing better for homeschooling than a field trip. This one just happened to be in Arizona. Where you come across signs like this one while hiking.....

One thing the boys learned about the Desert around Tucson, is that everything can bite you back - including the plants.



There is also a lot of beauty in the desert.
The cactus in the area are called Saguaro and they are indigenous to the area. You won't find them anywhere else.
This one is a young one. Only about 50-60 years old - the little arm starting on the side gives the age away.
Have you hugged your Saguaro yet, today?

The Sonora Desert Museum has a hummingbird pavilion and a larger bird pavilion that you walk into and spend time with the little buggers buzzing your heads. They are so cute. Hard to take a picture of, yet they don't seem camera shy. THis little one gave me a nice profile shot.

Just be careful about being friendly with the wild critters. Don't panic, there is a plate of glass between Herogian and the Rattlesnake.

Nineteen years ago, I snagged on to this 'fine' find in the desert. He's a keeper. This is Sabino Canyon behind us at the top of the tram ride.
More field trip pictures later.
Have a great weekend.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Random

Monday was hunting, track practice, and picking the guys up at the airport in a scary rainstorm. Herogian and his hunting partner, Mr. J. had a great time cleaning up at the hunting preserve. They came home with 10 -12 birds. They hunted with two of Mr. J's dogs and Penny for four hours. The rain started as soon as we arrived home. I had time for a quick shower (well, it ended up being longer than it should have been) and dashing out the door for track practice.

Track practice - interesting, when it rains where do we get to practice. We are the low sport on the totem pole - being our first year. We ran circles around the Cheer leading/dance quad on a basketball court. They are the other new team at the bottom of the totem pole. We managed to wear the athletes out for a good practice. Spontaneity, flexibility, making it up on the spot, -- three skills of coaching.

That evening the Kansas City area had a horrendous thunderstorm. Or, that's how it felt while trying to drive to the airport to pick up Commander and the other two boys. I realized as I drove into the airport that their flight might have been cancelled in Texas due to the size of the storm. I was ready to sleep in the van instead of driving back home. It took thirty minutes (flight delayed) for my heart to calm down and head to clear. Praying without ceasing.

Archery tonight was a bust. I needed to adjust my sight just a hair. You might say it adjusted itself when it slipped out of the groove and bounced to the floor - I had loosened the wrong screw. It is like trying to look in a mirror and unscrew something behind your back - that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. The screw on the part you want to move is not the screw to undo. I lost to Herogian again.

Today is Veteran's Day. Thank God for all our heroes who have fought for freedom in the world. I love you, Commander. I love you Dad.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

A hunting we will go.

Herogian had a great day at the Youth Pheasant and Quail hunt. He hit three pheasant and three quail. One of the pheasants sailed into an adjoining property and we never found it.  Herogian had a 17 inch tail on one of his pheasants. The last group of the day had an 18" tail.  
We are going back in the morning with our hunting buddy Mr. J to do clean up. We get to hunt for anything still in the fields, and give our dogs training. Praying the skies will stay clear.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Time, time, time

Yesterday I was on Arizona time - 2 hours difference. Today, Central Standard Time. Tomorrow - daylight savings time ends. I think that will put us closer to Arizona time again. Does that mean we get the sun in our eyes when driving west at 6:00pm?  I think so.

We came home yesterday to find a young raccoon curled up on our front porch trying to sleep in the corner out of the breeze. We put a dog crate out there for the little one (planning to catch it and let animal control take care of it) and some bread. He used the cage for at least a while - left a present. We will try again tonight. If we don't catch him, the coyotes might. We are getting quite a few of them in the area. We can hear them hollering and partying after dark. It's kind of a freaky sound. The city is trying to decide if land owners can shoot the intruders on their property....... I had my bow adjusted at Cabela's today.  Ooops, off topic.

Tomorrow, Herogian has the Youth Quail and Pheasant Hunt with the post rod and gun club. Only problem is that it isn't on post this year due to all the heavy flooding along the Missouri River. We have an hour drive northwest of here to a hunting organization. Herogian is bouncing with excitement.