Half-Pint House

Psst...Homeschoolers, Go HERE!

Veritas Press is giving away gift certificates right and left! I posted about it here.

A Few Favorite Children's Books for Valentine's Day

I listed five of my favorite children's books that are appropriate for Valentine's Day (or ANY day!) over here. Go check them out! Let me know some of your favorites as well!

December 17

This is the desk of a school headmaster on the first day of Christmas break. It's covered in Christmas love from a bunch of families. He doesn't really care too much for the trappings of Christmas, but he appreciates the love very much. He also hates having his desk cluttered and today you could mistake it for mine. Ahem. But as it's the first day of Christmas break, he left it like this all day and doesn't care. He'll care tomorrow. I know it. But first I'll help him out by sorting through all the gifts those sweet families gave me. I mean him. *grin*

DDP: Day 17. Check out more from the December Photo Project here.

December 16

VCA Staff Party. I did not make these, but I definitely will in the future. So easy and so yummy.

DDP: Day 16. Check out more from the December Photo Project here.

2nd.md

Thank you to 2nd.MD for providing me with a $200 stipend to test-drive this revolutionary online medical service.

Last Monday I took E8 to the doctor. We got dressed and walked over to the computer for our 9:20am appointment with Dr. Zaks through 2nd.md.

Sounds crazy, huh? It's an interesting concept to be sure and one that would take some getting used to. The premise behind 2nd.md is to provide a "revolutionary new alternative to accessing top medical specialists when you need them most and on your terms. You choose the specialist. You choose the time. You choose the location. And through face-to-face video chat, you get the answers you need about your most pressing medical concerns. It’s just that simple.

No waiting weeks or months for appointments. No office visits or waiting rooms. No wondering if there is a specialist you can talk to. No travel costs or inconveniences for others."

I think this video provides a pretty compelling case for the concept of this new medical experience:

 

The appointment I scheduled wasn't one that necessarily needed a specialist, but I was definitely interested in trying the service out. I'm skeptical by nature (sometimes to a fault) and would never have spent the money to take a risk like this, so I was happy to get the chance to try it for free.

Setting the appointment was a little tricky for me to decide on. These doctors are all specialists and the issue with my 8yo I wanted to talk about didn't necessarily need a specialist. I was able to choose a doctor and send a VERY brief question to see if he was the right person to ask our questions to. He responded back by saying he was willing and able to meet with us. This was a relief to me because the issue I wanted to talk about? Warts. Yep. Warts. And I felt 1,000 kinds of silly for scheduling one of these appointments for that, yet it is still the major issue I wanted to find more out about on behalf of my daughter. I scheduled the appointment.

The day before our appointment, I logged in to make sure I was all up to speed on the Flash requirements. I totally thought I was. So imagine my major surprise and a bit of stress when 9:10am rolled around and I suddenly discovered that though I had downloaded what I thought was the latest version of Flash, I wasn't able to get into the video chat room for our 9:20am appointment.

This is an example of the page you will see when you are getting it all set up. My page kept telling me I didn't have the latest version of Flash. Right before our appoinment was set to start, I called that number in the top right corner in a panic.

I didn't need to panic. 2nd.md was ready to help. I ended up having a fairly lengthy conversation with Brent Phillips, the CTO for 2nd.md. It appears that my 2008 iMac is still on Leopard or some other archaic operating system that won't accept 11.0 Flash. We only figured this out after Brent asked me to trust him with my computer and I gave him access to the inner depths. I figured I didn't have much to lose here. My computer files are about as chaotic as my actual physical desktop, to the major dismay of my husband. If he'd wanted to snatch something from me he would have had to have hunted really REALLY hard to find it.

Okay, that's ignorant. He could probably have just copied the entire thing flat and I would never have known it. But I really don't think he did that. In short, I trusted him.

Once he discovered that my computer wouldn't take the latest Flash, he changed a few settings on his end to still allow my session to go on. But before all this happened, he called the doctor for me and explained our technical difficulties. The two of them rescheduled my appointment to a time later that morning. Whew!

E8 was watching this entire process and she asked who it was that was moving the arrow around on my computer screen. Once I explained who he was and what [I thought] he was doing she said, "Oh. He must be pretty smart, huh?" Yep. Pretty much! So here's my big nod in the direction of the 2nd.md technical help. They really want to make this work for you and are willing to get their hands dirty in the process.

So, our appointment? It really wasn't one that needed the services of 2nd.md, though I'm not sorry I was able to use it. Dr. Zaks wasn't able to see the warts in question very well through our Skype-ish kind of chat (due to my not having the latest version of Flash), so he gave me his email address and told me to send him a photo. Wanna see it?

She's had that little one on her toe for a LONG time and for the longest time it looked like a tiny rock embedded in her toe. Only recently had it taken on a more wartish appearance. I primarily wanted to find out if that's really what that was and if so, what could we do about it? I also told him that the one her thumb was one I'd tried a few over the counter things on but it's a pretty stubborn wart.

He confirmed that the one on the toe was also a wart and was honest with me when he said that warts were really the one thing that coming to see the doctor about doesn't really help. Any treatment they do is about as effective as any treatment we can buy over the counter and either of those (in-office or over-the-counter) are only effective about 50% of the time.

We chatted some more about this and he sent me a detailed report with several things we can try on our own to take care of these.

Now it's up to me. I've been to the store three times since this appointment and have walked out each time forgetting to get the stuff I'm needing to get. I can't blame 2nd.md for that. It's my own darn fault.

Some quick thoughts on this: For $159, I would never have paid that for this particular concern. But I'm understanding that 2nd.md really isn't intended for the casual medical question, though it can certainly cover that should you so desire. I think the major purpose of the site is to allow easy and instant access to a specialist or second opinion doctor to confirm or question a diagnosis you've already received from your local doctor. While I wouldn't use this service again for something like I used it for the first time, if someone in my family received a concerning diagnosis and the only way to get a second opinion was to fly across the country for an appointment that had to be scheduled 2 months out, I would DEFINITELY use this service. In a heartbeat.

Thank you again to 2nd.MD for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about 2nd.MD. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. #Clever2ndMD #spon

Why Do We Call It Christmas?

 

Buck Denver Asks...Why Do We Call It Christmas? This is not a promo post here. I paid $9.99 for this DVD from Amazon, yet I feel compelled to share it with you anyway.

These are the questions I ask every year.

I've loved the entire What's In The Bible series thus far and was just super excited when I found out about the Christmas one. It's good stuff. And I wanted you to know.

A Word on Revision and Smugness

My older girls have learned some valuable lessons this year on the importance of the rewriting process. They've also learned some hard ones in the form of less-than-stellar grades on projects turned in that should have received a second pass through the editing machine before submission.

I've learned a couple of those same lessons this year. The one from the summer doesn't sting anymore, but I will never forget it. More recently, I turned in a biography project last week that just didn't cut the mustard. It came back to me with suggestions for revision.

Nobody likes to be told her work doesn't meet the expectation, but you know what? Mine didn't. And had I given it the time it needed and a more thoughtful second glance, I would have known this before I hit "submit." As it is, I'm thankful for an editor who is gracious enough to return it and say, "Hey, nice try, but please do this again." He also suggested I take a break from it for a couple of days before taking my second stab.

So yesterday I sewed.

But today I tried again. Both M12 and C11 came to me at different times to see what I was doing and I told each of them that I had turned in a writing project that didn't receive a passing grade and I was being given the opportunity to try again. They both knew exactly what I was talking about as they gave me knowing smiles and quietly left the room so I could work.

When I was in college I took Freshman Composition and aced it with very little effort. The notes from my TA glowed and I wrongly assumed I didn't need to put much effort into Comp 2. Guess what happened to my grade in Comp 2? Yep. I was too smug to put in the work, which was reflected on my grade report in May.

Two points here: 1) Nobody is above the need for an editor and a second draft. Smugness is never our friend when it comes to writing. 2) Our kids need to see us flub up from time to time so they know it's normal. They also need to see us revise our work without complaining. This is part of the writing process and a skill that they will need their whole lives.

Oh, and a third: Surrounding yourself with good writers and careful editors is golden. It especially helps if you marry one.

The Tale of the Animals

By E8 Dunham

Once upon a time there were some animals. A cow, some squirrels, a bunny, and a dog. They had tickets to go to a race. They all liked each other very much, but mostly they liked to read fairy tales, tree tales, tales about cats, dogs, bunnies, and all sorts of stories. Their favorite thing to do was to watch races. They really, really, really loved to watch cars race. They all voted for the reds. They loved the reds. They ate red ice cream, they painted their houses red. Then they went to the race and the reds won. Then they went home happy and went to bed.

The End

Cartoon Kid

K9 has taken to drawing cartoons lately. She showed us this one and honestly, I laughed and laughed. I thought it was pretty darn clever.

 "I am going on a walk"

 [Stop Sign]

"Oh, a stop sign. I have to stop."

[Stopped]

"This is taking long."

"My walk will wait."

[Later, 5 minutes]

"I am back!"

"Will you move!"

[Kick]

"There!!!!"

"Now I can go take my walk."

That's my girl.

Classical Education Utopia

Remember how I showed you our homeschool perfection the other day?

I now bring you a bit of our homeschool reality.

Really, though, reality doesn't look too shabby, does it?