It's raining sleet, in fact.  And the whole house is snoring.  Today is Day 8 of my new sleep schedule, where I get to bed by 10PM and am up at 3:30AM, and it’s going swimmingly.  I’ve grown to cherish my blissfully quiet morning hours, and I'm equally jealous of my sleep hours.

The rest of the family is growing accustomed to the schedule, too.  Chuck’s been handling the boys’ bedtime book reading and then I make my appearance to “tuck” them in.  After that, if they venture down the hall to our room for anything besides a life-threatening emergency, they face the Wrath of Mommy. 

It used to be that, sometime after the boys had been tucked-in for the night, Alex would send his scout down the hall to see if they could come and sleep in our room.  You see, Alex perceives that Chris, at 6, has already honed the art of argument and is able to construct such a convincing – if illogical – filibuster, that Chuck and I often relent due to utter mental fatigue.

But now, with my new sleep deprivation schedule, the boys are quickly learning that Mom and, to some extent, Dad have adopted a zero tolerance stance toward bedtime stonewalling.  Oh, they might still pad down the hall to test the waters of Mommy Meanness, but they come as a pair now.  Alex is far too good a kid to throw his little brother into that lake without a life-vest.  The good news is that, regardless of whether their attempts are met with a bellow (GET   BACK TO   BED!!!!!!) or hissed through gritted teeth (get.  back. to.  bed.), they no longer cower in fear and peer at me as though they’re seeing the very face of Beelzebub.

I think this is going to work.

I ran across an article, I don't remember where, about the use of sleep deprivation to treat depression. 

What?  Sleep deprivation to treat depression?  The article caught my attention because a) I’ve been suffering mild to moderate depression for the past several years and b) the concept is contrary to everything I'd ever heard about sleep and depression. 

Haven’t we all been drilled on the importance of getting 8-9 hours of sleep every night, and the damaging side effects associated with any less?  I’m a contrarian by nature and skeptical of most “widely held” beliefs, so the subject was begging me to do a little research.

Happy New Year!  I've been gone so long I nearly forgot how to login and update my blog!  This entry is random "stuff," just a warm-up practice to exercise an atrophied muse.

We're trying to get back into a routine after a long holiday.  Our mid-semester break begins  Thanksgiving week and ends after the New Year's week.  We weren't scheduled to start school again until today, but because I enrolled us in a new co-op, we started last Tuesday. 

I've decided that our break is too long.  By the time school starts up again, we're not feeling energized, but rather confused.  It's hard to pick up where we left off in our studies after so long a stretch.  So, I think that, for 2007-2008 I'm going to break our 36 weeks of school into 4 9-week chunks.  This is consistent with the "year round" school schedule and gives us ample time without burn-out.

I checked-out, from the library, "The Well Educated Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer.  In it, Bauer guides her reader through literature selections consistent with the "Classical" education you might not have received.  If you remember, we've structured our home school around the "trivium" based on the book "The Well Trained Mind," written by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. 

It's such a wonderful book that I went ahead and ordered it from Barnes and Noble, along with the first 2 books on the reading list:  "Don Quixote" and "The Pilgrim's Progress."  We are already reading an abridged (for kids) version of Pilgrim's Progress that the boys are totally loving.  Bauer provides instruction on how to read a book, as well.  She provides an annotaded reading list for each of the major literary genres:  Fiction, Biography, Poetry, Screen/Stage, and Historical non-fiction.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions.  Historically, my "resolutions" have given way to "resignations" where, despite all my hopes and plans for the year, I've resigned myself to the reality that:  1)  I ain't gonna lose that weight, 2)  I ain't gonna stick to an exercise program, 3)  I'm a born procrastinator, 4)  my house is still a mess.  I think that covers it, my "2007 New Year's Resignations."

Of course, I'm still hoping this year will be different.

Dear Reader,

Whether you've stumbled upon this site by accident or have arrived by intent, I bid you welcome!

If you follow the links along the right side of this page, you will find some 150 articles, stories, musings, whatever-you-want-to-call-them; enough to keep you idly engaged for a fair piece of your workday.  Enjoy. 

If you're an atheist, agnostic, skeptic or simply consider yourself spiritual, please take a few minutes and accept the Gospel Challenge in the top-of-the-page menu.

In addition to the stuff available to any casual surfer, there's a secret stash of tidbits (but just a few) available by logging into Gooblink.  Don't worry, I won't pester you about sending money to support my kids' college funds, or start e-mailing, or in any way acknowledge your presence.  You will simply have access to more personal information about me as well as excerpts from the stories, novel(s), or other works-in-progress.  As regards these WIPs, I eagerly invite your comments and critiques. 

Which brings me to this:  I'm interrupting this psuedo-regularly scheduled blogcast for a completely nonspecific delay.  I'm taking a blog hiatus and, until further notice, will be posting only to my "Alter Ego," which you can see if you login. 

You may still e-mail me anytime. 

Thank you, again, for visiting.  CUL8ER!