Life on Planet Caddick

Erik is now officially a working civilian. I'm going to be honest, finding a decent job was hard. We had a couple months where I was worried (really worried), but everything has worked out. And although he's not really loving  his job, it's something. There were a few things that completely caught me off guard with his new job: The paperwork! Oh my goodness! I thought the military had a lot of paperwork. Yikes. There was all kinds - health insurance, vision, dental, HSA - all on forms that didn't look anything like forms I was used to filling out! Talk about things I had to ask about (and made me feel stupid) - there were a lot of them. First, the above mentioned HSA (maybe it was a FSA? Either way "WTHeck is this?") Long term and short term disability. I honestly didn't know this was something that had to be paid for. Sad, huh? I guess that's what happens when you grow up military and then spend the next 20+ years still in (or around) the military...

Weird title, but let that be your warning. I've been away for so long and have so many things running through my mind. This post is just going to be me thinking out loud, wondering about stuff, and basically dumping all my thoughts out so I can decide what needs to be put back in and what can be discarded. Brain Barf - zesty To the government please quit screwing with the military, gun owners, and former military gun owners. You won't get our guns - you may have signed away our entitlements but now we're mad Veterans. No, that's not a threat - just pointing out the obvious (that all of y'all might have missed). Military trained, pissed off gun owners. Paul Ryan and John McCain - I'm embarrassed that I voted for tickets you were on. And I'm embarrassed that after you screwed us Vets you asked for money. No, I won't vote for Hillary - but I guarantee I will not ever vote for any ticket either of you are on. Anyone who lives your states that has ever se...

The first time I ventured into homeschooling my little man was in second grade. I was really good about pictures then. *sigh* now I'm just lame about pictures, even though I always have my phone close by and pictures should be easier to take. Today I was looking for a picture for Throw Back Thursday (which I love - you never know what you're going to see!) and I chose this winner It's from second grade - when we were studying Ancient Greece (or maybe Rome - I don't remember now). Dang, we really use to have a lot of fun. I need to fix that.....

Antiques Chop by Barbara Allan My rating: 4 of 5 stars This series cracks me up. Although a lot of people get offended because the authors poke fun at mental illness, I (coming from a family with bi-polar and members on anti depressants) can say that sometimes we do make fun of ourselves and each other. Is it right? Probably not, but let's face it, the world isn't right and some families deal with stuff this way. If you are overly sensitive to this type of thing, stay away from this series. All that aside, I found this book a wonderfully quick (two day) read. The writing, as always, flows very well and makes it hard to put down. Of course, I rarely come across a cozy I don't like! All in all, a good series and book. View all my reviews

We are visiting family in Ohio for Thanksgiving. We came up a little early, since everyone is still in school (so are we), we decided to take a field trip today to the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus - AKA COSI. This is a perfect field trip for us because science is Zach's favorite and spending hours upon hours doing nothing but science stuff makes not only a great school day but a fantastic family day! And Oh My Goodness what a fun day it was! Yes, many pictures are coming your way! I linked their page above, so you can get some idea of what we were heading into today. Ocean and Life and Space oh my! Bonus, we finally got our hands on a Newton's Cradle too! Do you know how hard it's been to find one of those? Holy Cow! So much to do the boys had to make a plan! Our first stop (and third stop too!) Inside part of the ocean lab.  Using a pulley system to lift himself up Inside a submarine mock up These last three were a step into social studies. It was called Pro...

We have mostly drifted away from our regular curriculum and now are doing unit studies. At least for the time being - everything is subject to change around this house! Math is still Teaching Textbooks. Although it's starting to annoy Zach (he hates the reviewing stuff in every lesson), I told him when he can get 100 every time on every single thing he's reviewing I'll switch his math. Yep - holding on to TT still. Also, unless we are doing a science unit, we work out of our science every day. We worked on a Veterans Day unit study. It took us until just past Veterans Day, but that's ok. I got it from Amanda Bennett many many moons ago. With our limited library (and short notice) I did have some trouble finding books about the people in the unit, but we managed to substitute some other interesting Veterans in their place. When all was said and done he decided he liked learning about Theodore Roosevelt and Arlington the best. And even though it's been discussed plent...

We have been doing school - I swear! I'm just being uber-lame about my blogs these days. I guess because we aren't doing super fantastic wonderful things I figure "why write about it?". But I'm going to anyway :) We've made our way through Early Explorers and are now working on Colonial Times and the beginnings of the American Revolution. Zach's math is getting more complicated, so I've been reading up on some of that so I can help when there are questions (and there are always  questions!). But I've been losing him. So I decided to write my own unit study. Was it about the American Revolution? The Incan Empire? Taking a trip on the Mayflower? Nope - it wasn't about any of those things at all. When the eyes glaze over you know it's time to do something else - so I chose one of his favorite interests - Pokemon! I took about a week and made up some math, science, geography, and history questions all related to Pokemon. We learned how to make ...