I took the dogs for a walk this morning as the sun was rising.  It was actually a warm morning, crisp, clean and for the first part of our 3 mile walk no one was out.  Then the school kids started moving toward their bus stops.

“Good Morning”  I shout out in my most pleasant voice.  “Have a great day at school!”

There’s no reply.  Never is from any of the kids.  Sometimes there might be a nod but that is rare.

I walk on, walking on the opposite side of the 2-lane street from the kids at the bus stop.   This area I’m walking through is my development, these kids have seen me walk my dogs for over a year now, always shouting a ‘Good Morning!’ to them, wishing them a great day at school.  When Michael walks with me it is the same story, backs turn, heads are down, and never an acknowledgement.

Last week one group was playing ball, throwing it from one side of the street to the other.  Since our development lacks sidewalks we walked in the middle of the street, the dogs walking at my sides totally engaged in walking.  I say my ‘GOOD MORNING!’

No reply.  Just the vacant stares of -are we supposed to say or do something?’,  Aren’t these kids public schooled?   Everyone tells me that if I want my kids properly socialized I must send my kids to public school but the last time I checked when a neighbor greets you and says ‘hello’ the proper response is a ‘hello’ back.   My kids know to do this, they know how to say hi to a neighbor, to wave, to respond to others.      Yep, unsocialized homeschooled kids!  LOL!!  Just another reason to keep them homeschooled.

The boys entered their first inline speed skating outdoor competition on Saturday.  We left home at the early hour of 5am, before the sun was up.  It was cold, foggy, and boy were they ever excited.

We met our team at the local rest area and drove north for almost 2 hours.  The first race was at 8am, a recreational class with folks from age 3 to 73, I kid you not.   The boys skated around with their coaches, getting a feel for the inner and outer tracks that went through the woods, through the meadow, up and down little hills.  The first course was a 5km race.

Lined up with the other skaters, suddenly a large man on skates came FAST at the line, grabbed onto Michael and used him as a pivot to help him stop, taking him down with Michael underneath him.   WTF!!!   Why do things like this always seem to happen to Michael?  Thankfully he wasn’t badly hurt, just a torn up hand, but why the guy didn’t go off the track and into the grass, or grab the coach–a bigger guy—next to Michael?  ugh!

The organizers soon started the race and the 50+ skaters took off down the chute.  We waited and soon saw Michael coming first around the curve and completing his first lap.  He was drafting off of the #1 guy and enjoying himself.   Mark came soon after with a pack of little kids all around him.  He later said that they wouldn’t let him go by or he would have finished in a higher spot.

The race continued and with one lap to go Michael was way out in front of all the other racers and finished in first place.  He had won his first race!

Two hours later Michael had his second race;  Advamced Mens.  These guys were experienced and as the coach advised would trip and push so Michael needed to be very careful.  We just suggested to Michael to have as his goal to finish the race without getting injured.   50+ guys lined up, the race began and by the time we saw Michael again he was at the end of the pace line but then he (got) tripped, rolled across the asphalt, got up and continued lap after lap, to complete his first 10K coming in about 500yds behind the leader.  His knees were bloody, his arms were torn, his shirt ripped from three tumbles in the first lap!  We saw the third tumble which he claims was not really the one that hurt.  And he’s ready for his next competition.  Me?  I have a hard time watching them race, it is just so fast.

This morning I heard the coach praise Michael in front of his team for his efforts and persistence.  Lots of positives about the day, the race,  Michael’s win, and how he got up after falling and kept racing hard.   HA!  And he has a medal for his win.

I was chatting with a neighbor, a school teacher, about her position, classroom stuff, and soon the topic moved to science.  She expressed how she loved doing experiments with her little cherubs and I shared how I was turning Mark onto science this year by doing Chemistry experiments with her.   She was quite interested in what I was using and had never heard of Wild Goose Company Science Kits.  I pulled one out of the house and began to show it to her.  The label says, Real Science-Real Fun.

Suddenly she caught herself, and exclaimed, “Oh no, no I can’t use this.  It doesn’t meet the DE State Standards for what I’m to teach in the classroom.”     There was no teasingly sarcasm in her voice, but dead seriousness.  She closed the box and handed it back.  In case you aren’t familiar with Wild Goose products they are totally secular, very safe kits, clearly laid out procedures with easy-to-understand explanations including how these chemicals are used in real-life to produce other items or help ease our lives, and their experiments have all worked for us.  Every time.

I thought about her reaction and once again concluded that I am so happy that we homeschool and have the freedom to choose the materals we wish, when we wish too.   This morning Mark and I did all the experiments in the Slimey Chemistry kit by Wild Goose Company.  He was engaged and thrilled making slime and learning about polymers and monomers, and foam.  The kit meets our homeschool standards and that’s what is important here.

Today at the Y while working out, striving to get into better shape and lose weight, I saw the t-shirt I want.

TO DO LIST

* BE THE BEST

Well, actually the t-shirt I saw didn’t SAY that, but when I first saw it I thought it said that.  It actually was a West Virginia shirt, and while it did say TO DO LIST, it said below that, Be the Best Beat Pitt.  I like my saying better, sorry Michele.  I’ll still cheer for WV except when they play my Buckeyes, or a Big 10 School, unless it is UM.

ugh!  I feel like I am pushing a rope trying to teach Mark math.  At moments I feel like he gets it and then he doesn’t.  Three steps forward and 5 steps backwards is often how I feel it is around here with Mark and Math. Right now he doesn’t get negative numbers,  or combining like-terms, or adding, or subtracting….. he’s frustrated by it all too.   I think he’s not ready for it either.

Since he missed most of the adding or subtracting negative numbers on the Key to Algebra Book 1 test, I had made up drill sheets of equations like this:

  -4 - 8 =

for Mark to do, let him practice working with negative numbers.   No way could he get it.  

Last week he had taken expressions such as this:

-4+ -8  and changed it to  -4 - 8   but now!  No, he doesn’t believe that you can reverse it and go back to -4 + -8    Yesterday we spent a good 15 minutes talking about how and why that’s possible.

He does get it really fast if I say; you owe me $4 and then you owe me $8, as I point to the negative sign as I say OWE.   “Oh, -12 dollars.” he shouts happily.

OK I can play this game.  Mark, you say OWE outloud as we read the next equation.  Nope, he cannot do that.  Mutters.  Won’t speak loud.  Nope, he doesn’t get it.

We do a page of equations with me saying You owe me, whenever I see a negative number, and he flies through the sheet.   Oh, I’m fooled, I think he gets it. but if I walk away he is at a lost to what to do.

We move back to the Key to Algebra book Mark is working through.  He’s up to doing equations such as   4(3x - 8)   distribute the 4.  He gets it and makes very few mistakes, even when the equation is  -3(4x - 8).

Then we move on to  equations with extra terms where you will have to combine like terms.  Mind you he has already done several pages of combining like terms and did it with missing very few.  So here we have   5x -4(3x-8) - 15     No, he can’t distribute the term, no he can’t combine like terms….

Frustration is mounting here….. I even spent some of the evening looking over other math programs.  I pulled my 7th grade Pre-Algebra by Mary Dolciani off the shelf and looked through it.

This morning I had him do the first lesson in Dolciani’s Pre-Algebra book.  He breezed through it in about 10 minutes, doing 37 problems, transferring the equation from the textbook into his notebook, and having a non-frustrating math day.

I’m going to give his brain time to grow somemore, before we return to the KTA books.  Who knows, there might be some truth to the idea that when a kid’s body is growing forget teaching them new material.  And oh boy, is he growing fast right now, probably 3 inches this summer, and one of those inches this past week.  The 12yo stands close to 5′ 5″ now.. 

Our friends had decided to advertise the Brutus-Snowball pups as “designer dogs”.  Oh please, I asked them ,don’t do this, just find the pups good homes.  No, they went forward, put a really nice website together with photos, put ads out, ….. and I sat wondering how long it would take before Brutus’ Breeder community would find out. Wondered what they would do……  then Brutus’ Breeder community came across the ads, and the website.  The emails flew, our friend’s phone rang and rang,  the emails  within that community were nasty, vulgar, mean.  I never knew dog breeders could be such………   No, won’t write that, if Dad was here Dad would remind me how an intelligent ‘man’ does not need to use four-letter words.

All the puppies found loving homes and several stayed in contact with my friend.

These three lucky puppies still get to see each other and have play-dates with each other.  They puppy bow to each other and then fight over who gets to play in the water.

They sink their heads fully into the water just like their dad.  And paw at the water just like their dad.  All the other dogs have bone-structures just like their dad.  And are gentle-sweet-loving dogs just like their dad.

It is tough to get a photo of these 3 sisters when they are all dry.

Instead they like to be all wet.

And the more of their body in the water the better.

I never would have guessed all this back in January ‘07 when we picked up Brutus, or when I received that phone call one year ago on September 7th at 8:30 pm

Now, what decision have you made recently that will have a ripple effect through your life?   And more than likely you won’t even know it for months or years to come.   Scary thought…..   I can only imagine the ripple effects I have made by homeschooling my sons, by blogging, and even by deciding to purchase a little puppy.

And so Chloe came into our home.  Brutus shared his bones with her.

And let her bite his nose.

And laid and took her rough-housing.

And let her walk away when she had had enough.   He has taught her much over this last year and they still play just like they did when she first came into our home.

She has her Dad’s coloration but the only one of the seven puppies to have her mom’s body shape.

When Brutus was 5 months old we had to go to the National Science Olympiad competition and leave our little puppy for a week.  I could not bring myself to put him in a kennel for a week so I turned to a friend who had a 3yo large-size dog, and who knew how to handle an active, alpha-type puppy.   In exchange for Brutus staying with her we agreed to take her dog over the Christmas Holiday when they went off on a vacation.

Before we knew it December had arrived and Kaiser came to our home for a couple weeks.   We had never had two large, active dogs in our home before and while it took a few days for the two dogs to get along, we soon learned how much easier it was, then to just have one dog.  The dogs played, they entertained each other, they tired each other out, and yes, we still took them on their twice-daily walk, but they were the ones enjoying each others company.

When Kaiser went home we missed him.  We missed how he played with Brutus, and Brutus missed him.

All through this time our youngest had repeatedly asked for a puppy.  One of Brutus’ puppies.  A little one, just to be his.  He even drew up a contract and then his Dad said yes to one of Brutus and Snowball’s puppies.

Who would have known how our decision to leave Brutus with a friend in May, along with leaving him with another friend in September would lead to us having two dogs.  How do we ever know the ripple effects of our decisions?

A year ago after my Dad’s funeal we tried to start school, we went through the motions, and soon we were back into the groove of doing school…..  And then as things happen a phone call came.   From my friend.  The one who had taken care of Brutus for a couple days.    Her bitch was expecting and Brutus was the proud Daddy.

Adhering to my Dad’s strict code I refrained from using the words I really wanted to use.  It seemed that Brutus and her one rather small bitch had connected several times during the 3-day visit and puppies were due to arrive.  I don’t know if I was more shocked by learning that she wasn’t fixed or that my friend was excited and happy about this.

No, I was not thrilled.  No, I was not thrilled to be referred to as Grandma.   And no we did not want a puppy, and no we did not want them to sell the puppies.  We just wanted them to find the puppies good homes.  This was not supposed to happen.

Over the coming weeks we chatted, we came to terms and agreed to disagree.

Oh, and right after I received ‘that’ phone call Brutus was scheduled and then went to our vet’s office and was fixed.  Regardless of what Brutus’ breeder community advised, I was not going to take a chance again.  He was not going to contribute to extra puppies in this world, ever again.

Then the phone call came.  On my mother’s birthday no less, that the puppies were coming.  One had arrived.  No, wait, two had arrived.   We went over and held our friend’s hand, and watched this miracle.  Conceived during my Dad’s funeral and born on my mom’s birthday.  I’m sure both were either rolling over in their graves or having a belly laugh over the entire circumstance.

Puppies.  8 of them but then one died during the first night.

Many times during that fall I questioned my decision to leave Brutus with this family but what was done was done.  Puppies.   And no, we were not going to take a puppy into our home.

No, the puppies did not all look just like Brutus, nor just like their mom Snowball,  but they all sure acted like Brutus.    All but one had Brutus’ big bone structure, even if they did not have his black face or his coloration they were all his.

Brutus is a giant dog, a gentle giant.   I had had a gentle giant before, Benson, a Great Dane who stood 39″ at the shoulders.  Imagine, a dog, in your kitchen whose shoulders are 3″ above your kitchen countertops….Yes, Benson counter-surfed with ease.

So when I read online that there was some evidence that neutering giant-breed dogs early can lead to excessive long-bone growth I listened and wondered if that was why my Benson had grown so tall. 

Wanting to do what was in the best interest of the dog, as a caring dog owner wants to do, I asked the folks who know, Brutus’ breed-community when I should neuter Brutus.  Shouldn’t I listen to my vet and neuter at 6 months?  No, they advised, wait until he is 12 or better yet, 18 months old.  Oh my….OK, I convinced myself that since Brutus was always by my side, constrained on a leash he would not get himself, or some bitch into trouble.  If this was what was best for Brutus then we would put off neutering him.  Afterall, I wanted a gentle giant but I didn’t want another Sasquatch who might die from bloat at age 3 due to an extra-large chest cavity.

And so on that Saturday afternoon I took my 9mo Brutus over to my friend’s home for him to be loved and cared for while we traveled to and were at my Dad’s funeral.