Inevitably, this leads to parties, gatherings, and just fun moments for the family.  But how do you fit it all in?  Aren’t we all too busy?

Party planning doesn’t have to be a daunting task.  Keep it simple, keep it easy – and make sure YOU enjoy the party too!

Have a theme

Planning a party around a theme makes all of the planning that much easier.  The holidays make the “themes” all the easier!  But, you CAN go even further!

• Think colors!  Christmas Red & Green are great, but so are blue and silver, gold and mulberry, silver & gold!  Halloween just begs for Orange & black – but what about Red & Black or Black and White?   The combination possibilities are endless.
• Try something fun and different – have a Hogwart’s Yule Ball!
• New Year’s Party?  Try a “Hollywood”, “Casino” or “Decades” event.  Want to try for something more “high-tech”?  Think Andy Warhol or Christo!

Keep it Simple!

• Pre-cook or cater your event.  You want to enjoy the time with your guests – not in the kitchen!
  • Pot-lucks, of course, take away some of work, but there is no telling what types of things might walk through the door.  If you want to keep with a theme, its simplest to handle it yourself.
• Offer a variety of beverages.
  • If you are offering soda, offer caffeinated, diet and non-caffeinated.
  • Offer a decent red and white wine.  Merlot & chardonnay are easy.  Syrah and Pinot Grigio offer a twist.  Think about your menu and plan accordingly.
  • If you would like to offer other types of liquor, consider creating a “Signature Drink” for the event.  It will help limit the variety of liquor you need to buy – and make the drink you do offer, memorable!

Enjoy Yourself!

Don’t work yourself to exhaustion.  Plan a few fun things to do with your guests.  This can include games (check out the “Games & Activities” tab), sing-a-longs (yes, I said “sing-a-long!  People DO have these – it’s not just in the movies).

These are just a few of the tips I have for making the holiday season the most fun for you and your guests!

There is an election coming up soon.  Superintendent of Instruction for the State of California is but one of the positions we voters will be looking at and making a decision on.

This guy is one of the candidates.  As a homeschooling mom, it’s important to know what the candidates think of homeschooling.  We don’t expect them to whole-heartedly want everyone to homeschool, but knowing that no ill-will is harbored toward our community, is important for us.

When queried about his view of homeschooling, this guy forwarded this response:

Home schooling’s appropriate for children who have special difficulties that make it impossible for them to participate in traditional schooling. But under California law, a parent has the right to home school provided the parent is qualified to offer instruction. Personally, I believe nearly all kids would benefit more from being in traditional schools. Many parents home school for religious reasons, because they still hold outdated views on race or ethnicity, or for what they consider to be moral reasons.  Since we have provisions for students to attend a school outside of their local community when there are legitimate reasons to do so, home schooling as an alternative to “unsafe” campuses is hardly a legitimate alternative. For the most part – overwhelmingly – the public schools of California are not only safe but are providing a high quality education. Yucca Valley should be no exception. If it is, as Superintendent I would like to hear the
complaints.

There has also been a tremendous amount of fraud connected with home schooling.  Corporate organizations have sprung up to drain precious taxpayer dollars from the state budget to “supervise” home schooling.  That has been to the detriment of those children, who by necessity, must be home schooled.

My advice? Send the kids to a traditional public school.
http://leonardmartin.us/wordpress/
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=353608
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/17/BA1J1DF1CR.DTL
FaceBook Profile:  http://www.facebook.com/stevegdoesloans#!/profile.php?id=100000011360041&ref=profile
Best Regards,
Leonard J. Martin

The fact that he makes the un-wise decision to include his *home* phone number on such emails seriously makes you question decision making process.  To protect the stupid – I’m choosing to drop that information here.

So, out of curiosity, and to learn just a little more about a topic he CLEARLY has little real information about – I emailed him personally.  I invited him to learn more about homeschooling, the people who choose it and the myriad of reasons why we choose it.  Here is his response:

I did not expect any home schooler to be satisfied with my response. Nor will I
change it to appeal to the thousands of home schoolers who are voters. If this
election were in the 1950s I would have received a question from someone
representing tens of thousands of parents who opposed the racial integration of
our public schools.  They would have been looking for a candidate who
agreed with them.  My response would have turned them off and they would
have urged me to read all the arguments in favor of segregation.  I know
those arguments, as I know the arguments for home schooling. Now, I’m not
equating home schoolers with segregationists, but the situation is the
same.  As I would not edit my response to the segregationists to win their
votes, I will not shape my response to home schoolers to seek their votes
either.

I explained before that there are legitimate reasons for home schooling.
If you meet those conditions, I fully support home schooling.  But that is
not why most home schoolers engage in it.  And while they have a legal
right to do so, I do not support home schooling in those situations.

Best Regards,

Leonard J. Martin

WOW!!  Inflammatory, accusatory and still so INCREDIBLY wrong about the topic.  Is ignorance bliss?  Well, I don’t know about that – but it certainly is IGNORANT.

Yes, Mr. Martin – you’ve lost my vote.  And as the emails about your responses spread, like wild-fire, throughout the homeschooling community, you can rest assured – you’ve lost the vote of all of the other homeschoolers on the state as well.  And the vote of ALL those that support the homeschooling family.

I have simply discovered that I enjoy the world of Facebook far more than the blogesphere.  I’m just not a writer – i’m more given to smart-ass thoughtful quotes and remarks of less than 140 characters.

So, will I post more often?  Maybe YES!  Ok, perhaps “maybe” is a truer statement.  I always feel like it’s doable, and then I don’t.  So, I won’t even bother making promises…

But, I think I will post more often.  Or maybe, I will think about posting more often.   Is that ok??

I’ve been mightily busy this past year.  Longing to move on my business, but being fully engaged in the homeschool world.  My time and loyalties are torn.  But, I will – someday – figure out a balance.

For now, I promise to try posting a bit more often.  Minimally, I’ll try to get photos up to share…

*******************
last night was my high school’s “mini-reunion”. it was a BLAST! i attended such a small school that while class reunions are fine, it’s really a lot more fun to attend with other classes there. after all, you weren’t in the school with just the folks in your grade! you were a community. so i headed off last night to see lots of old friends – all of whom have managed to reconnect on facebook. getting caught up with your old high school ‘posse’ is always a lot of fun. and last night was no exception!

******************
hope you have a great week! I know I will!

not just today

EVERYday is EARTH day!

and I’m going to Disneyland…

So – ALL product on the Enchanted Magpie shop has been marked down by 50% and includes FREE shipping! All product must be sold by April 30th. I will not transfer the items to my regular shop – Enchanted Musing – so this is the last opportunity!

Items include:
** Child ID kits – pocket sized and easy to store in a purse, luggage or safe deposit box! Only 3 left!

*** Altered Journal “Wishes” – filled with lined paper and covered in archival scrapbooking paper. Perfect for long running projects requiring a special notebook.

***Tags! Two sets available. Comes in a variety of tags to use for many, MANY occasions.

Remember! Everything is 50% off and FREE shipping.

http://www.EnchantedMagpie.Etsy.com

i’ve just been over-whelmed with all i do and needed to stop doing something, somewhere.  it was never conscious to leave you, it wasn’t a deliberate act.  i just stopped.  i’m sorry.

but i’m finding other places to taper down, to refocus and simplify.  the first part of that is this.  a new blog.

i know, sounds counter-intuitive.  starting a new blog when you stopped working on two others because you were too busy?  haha  yes.  but this is how this is going…

EnchantedMusing.blogspot.com is going away.  for all that blogger allows you to do – i simply prefer wordpress for my blogging.  so i’m moving it all over.

also, paper2yarn will also go ‘bye bye’.  i’m merging them together.

it will likely take some time for me to get back into the groove of blogging- but along with Twitter & Facebook, I’ll make it happen – regularly!

so – for Day 1…