Hell’s Half Acre

Musings from the Caribbean

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Entries from July 2008

Beads, jewels and whales, Oh My!

July 27th, 2008 · 4 Comments

We finally made it to Bead Beach! I had to wake the boys from a deep sleep at 2pm, but they were happy to be included. They only stayed up to 5am this morning. We used to go to Beach Beach somewhat frequently until Hurricane Dean last year, and then all the [...]

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Tags: Kids · Mexico

All the news that’s fit to print

July 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Yesterday I went on a date with my husband.  I NEVER call him “my husband” but it was simply too delicious to write.  He was stomach-virus addled for much of his birthday so we arranged with the kids to take an afternoon off and go to his favorite fish taco place.  The fish wasn’t the [...]

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Tags: Family · Homeschooling · Mexico

To do list

July 24th, 2008 · No Comments

Hopefully organizing here will put it all in one place
1) Decide on an art curriculum and purchase it. (Artistic Pursuits) K-3 book 1, 4-6 book 2
2) Find and purchase art materials
3) Decide if I’m doing grammar with the boys and choose a curriculum.  Easy Grammar, Analytical Grammar and Growing with Grammar.
4) Decide if I’m going [...]

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Tags: Homeschooling

The Sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace

July 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

(to a tango)
the rolling boulder crashing down the mountain
thaaaats kinetic energy
KINETIC
the boulder sitting high upon the mountain
thaaaats potential energy
POTENTIAL
energy in motion is kinetic
energy that’s waiting is potential
but whether its kinetic or potential
both of them are energy
ole!

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Tags: Homeschooling · weather

Alerta amarillo

July 20th, 2008 · 4 Comments

TS Dolly is heading through the channel and onwards to the GOM.  We’re stocked on Rum (first thing I checked!), water for showering, drinking and are now putting everything away that is outside.  Since more than 1/2 our house is outside it is a project.
More later.  Just a tropical storm, so no huge biggie, but [...]

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Tags: Mexico

the day in numbers

July 14th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Yesterday was a rather numeric day…
30 - the number of minutes I jogged.  Jamie and I generally exercise WALK but yesterday I turned our hour walk into 20 minutes of walk and 30 minutes of jogging.
84 - kilos today.
4:30 - the time Pike got up for the “day”
5:00 - the time Jesse got up for [...]

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Tags: Mexico

Trampitas

July 13th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Mexico is full of little tricks and traps and unless you have a smile about your face and a willingness to laugh you can get very frustrated.  Someone recently wrote that one way the culture shows how downtrodden it is is in the form of asking for things.  I caught onto that early on in [...]

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Tags: Mexico

(runs skipping through meadows of wildflowers)

July 11th, 2008 · 2 Comments

OMG I”m ALIVE AGAIN!  I must have either picked up something at the 4th of July bash or some weird viruses attacked me because I have been 1/2 dead since Jesse’s birthday.  I had the headache of death, very Typhoid-like, incredible weakness (couldn’t even hold my head up), constant fever/chills/fever/chills/sweat buckets/chills (you get the picture) [...]

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Tags: Homeschooling

Free books

July 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Ellen has fallen in love with the Oz series ever since I found “The Marvelous Land of Oz” at a thriftstore and read it to her. I have since found the Gutenberg project and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is, in our life which precludes libraries, to read classic literature without filling [...]

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Tags: Kids words

and so the journey began…

July 5th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Fourteen years ago I became a mother and my life changed so profoundly, I hardly recognize the woman I was before. I hadn’t planned on motherhood at 34; when I was 9 I remember very clearly telling my grandmother that I would NEVER marry or have children. She wisely told me I’d change [...]

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Tags: Family · Kids