..then we held hands & sang "Kum Ba Yah"

I went to church today with my parents in rural PA.

The pastor of the church spoke of how secular versions of the Christmas Spirit are already packed away for next year. But the true work of Christmas begins after the hub-bub goes away and the reality of God's love takes hold in each of us. God's Spirit stirs us to serve and love one another all year long. Where, instead of just sending Christmas cards, we send notes to one another all year to communicate how much we care. Instead of giving Christmas gifts, we give to one another all year out of the abundance we have received through God's generosity. People don't stop needing us to reach out to them just because Christmas has passed. The year 2008 is essentially over. We stand at the threshold of next year...how will we spend it, how will we celebrate it, how will we join God in telling others that he loves them each dearly?

After the church service, we all went downstairs to the church basement to have a New Year's Party. We got to be the first in York County (or anywhere for that matter) to do a countdown, with hats, noisemakers and all.

















As a local-ish tradition (it's actually a Baltimorean tradition) we all ate pickled Herring. It's kinda like German sushi on a toothpick. It was salty and vinegar-y, as I expected, but it had an unexpected sweetness to it.










Just so no one could get out of taking a taste, Pastor Henry had everyone stand in a circle and pass the plate of herring around. Allison was worried she was going to have to taste it. I told her don't worry, even some of the grownups didn't want to try it.
(see pic of my dad, not wanting to try it)

When it was all over, we sang Kum ba yah. Yes, we were standing in a circle, holding hands and singing Kum Ba Yah. It's not just a cliche anymore, it's a New Year. Welcome 2009!

Housework can kill you......

Beware of dirty dishes.

Cleaning them can kill you.

Zaap. zzzzaaaap. zzzzzzaaaap.
After feeling an electric shock for the umpteenth time from my kitchen sink, I decided to call an electrician. (the first few times I felt a shock I wasn't sure if I was imagining things, but today, I got a shock off the edge of my microwave.)

I knew there were some....funky.... things about a few of the plugs around the house, and we needed to install ground fault protection in the ones near water sources. But...

Today I learned that I had 120 volts of electricity soaring through me every time I: touched the kitchen sink, the microwave, the garbage disposal, and the stove. A little bit more can stop your heart.

Can I be excused from all kitchen-related housework now since its hazardous to my health?

Luckily the helpful electrician made some modifications to keep me safe short term. Now I can wash all the dishes I want (do I have to say Hooray?). We turned off all the electricity to that part of the kitchen. That means my microwave is plugged into a heavy duty extension cord, and I have no light over the kitchen sink. But I'm alive and well, ready to tackle another chore.

First Place - It's the "tooth"!

Allison entered the Project Fair at the Homeschool Co-op and won 1st Prize!

Her project, titled "The 'Tooth' About Drink Stains" was about how different drinks stain the teeth. She used hard boiled eggs to simulate the enamel of the teeth and soaked the eggs in various drinks overnight. Afterward, she used a toothbrush and toothpaste to clean each egg to see how brushing removes some stains.

The eggs were soaked in: water, milk, grape juice, red juice, and soda. The most stained egg was the one in grape juice. (I couldn't believe how stained it was).






For the project fair, she had to give a presentation to the group and the judge. It was fun to see all the kids crowd around her and her project wanting to see what it was about.

I'm so proud of her hard work. Congrats, Allison!

School of Box

How do you unpack a house and still do homeschool at the same time?

You don't.

What's my secret? I started school a month early so I could take time off when we moved. Still, we've needed to return to our school routine recently. I couldn't find all our school stuff (it already takes up more than one box) so we didn't have a flag to say the pledge.

That's ok. Homeschool Mom will save the Day!

I just found a moving box with a flag printed on the side.
We said the pledge to a box.




In my head, my pledge went something like this:

"I pledge allegience to the flag
on the United Van Lines box,
and to the housefull of boxes in which it stands.
One family, under boxes, unpackable, with bubble wrap and tissue paper for all"





That being said, we've made some great strides in school recently, with the addition of a new math curriculum. Here you see the blocks that we used today to learn place value (ones, tens, hundreds). Julia plays too when we play "Math blocks" Before we know it, she'll be learning about the ones, tens and hundreds who live on decimal street.

The (Silverman) History of the Renaissance Festival

Long before we ever considered dating, Eric had invited a group of friends (including me) to go the the Maryland Renaissance Festival on a particular Saturday. Sounded interesting to me, I'd never been so I said I would go.

Turns out, I was the only one who said yes.

Several friends had other plans, or just didn't want to go for whatever reason, so it just ended up being the two of us. This wasn't so weird to us, we were good friends. We hung out regularly at "the guys" apartment. No biggie. Hangin out with my pal, my bro, my bud Eric. Off to the Renaissance Festival.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival is in Crownsville, Maryland. It's about an hour drive (which we did together) from Baltimore.

Soon after we arrived, we strolled past a vendor selling flower crowns. We stopped to browse, and Eric pointed to the crowns saying "I think either this one or that one would look beautiful on you".

I was surprised by his use of the word BEAUTIFUL in a sentence concerning me. After all, I was just "one of the guys". He offered to buy it for me but that was more of a gesture than I was willing to accept at the time....this NEW time.

So, faster than a wink I whipped out my cash a bought the flower crown that would look BEAUTIFUL on me.

When I got home, I told my roommate, Wendy "I think I like him, like him."

We started dating about a month later.


The following year, we were quite serious in our dating relationship. Eric suggested we go the RenFest. Fun times. I said yes.

All my over-zealous co-workers had me convinced that he was going to propose to me there. I knew we'd eventually get engaged, but I wasn't ready yet. I have to get used to an idea for awhile before I commit.

So our whole visit the the RenFest I was a little....nervous. Is he going to do it now? How about now? I kept thinking he was going to propose. Finally I started to get annoyed that he wasn't doing it. This was the perfect place to propose, wasn't it? Perhaps that was his strategy.

We got engaged about a month later.


Several months later, during our first wedding, I wore the flower crown he had picked out for me.

Fast forward 10 years to present day. We took our two girls to visit the Maryland Renaissance Festival with some friends. Here are the pics.

Discovered a new beach

We live on a peninsula, surrounded on 3 sides by water. I knew intellectually that the easternmost side was ocean, but it never occurred to me that there would be a BEACH there. Duh.

I just kept thinking I had to drive an hour south to Virginia beach to see waves and sand. It is true that if I want the whole beach, boardwalk, t-shirt shop experience, VABeach is the way to go.

But just 15 minutes away is Buckroe Beach, with a wonderful playground on the sand and lots of waves. We visted there recently with Eric's Dad and Roberta. There was a rough storm a day or so before we visited, so there were some larger items washed up on the beach. Allison found a red seasponge (or maybe it's coral), a horseshoe crab shell, and lots of large seashells. Julia did her usual...she picked up fistfulls of sand and dumped it in the water over and over.

Recent pics

Here are some pics of Allison on her first day of Kindergarten at the co-op. Julia, who also attends the co-op is also ready for learning too. The squinty face is what she does when I say "smile".