Seven Quick Takes

1.  Wow, what a week!  I'm worn slap out.  I have been in my industrious mode and boy have I ever been industrious.  I have cooked, cleaned, schooled, visited, and lots of other various small tasks.  At this point I feel like I could go to bed right now (it's 7:45) and sleep until morning.  You would think that after all my industriousness there'd be nothing left to do but no, the kitchen and living room are trashed and the bunny hutch has been calling my name for weeks.  But, for today I am done.  Hit the wall.  Stick a fork in me.  I'm hoping to stay awake during family movie night.  We are planning to watch that movie that is on tv tonight.  Something about a mountain. 

2.  We had a birthday party for Grace today.  If you weren't invited I apologize--I tried to keep the invitation list narrowed down to girls about her age and their siblings.  If we invited all of our friends it would be just way too many--we definitely do not fit the stereotype of unsocialized homeschoolers.  As it was I made two cakes and a pan of brownies and only had a bit left over.  I really stink at birthday parties.  I keep it super duper simple--a park, some cake and tortilla chips, and pretzels, and water and kool-aid.  I didn't even bother to bring candles today, the wind always blows them out anyway. 
3.  So, blogger has done something new and I am having a hard time with my pictures.  I can't seem to drag them where I want them.  That's annoying...
4.  We are listening to Ramona the Pest on tape in the car.  We are all into Ramona books right now since we are going to see "Ramona Quimby" on stage in a couple of weeks.  The cool thing is that at the same time I checked out the tapes I also checked out the book and Joe has been sitting in the back seat following along as the tape is going.  Since he is a sight reader and learns by seeing as opposed to sounding things out I am thinking that this is going to boost his reading skills big time.  I sure hope it is.  He is actually doing really well with reading and knows more than I realized he knew.  It's so exciting to be so close to being done teaching reading!  Teaching my kids to read has been hugely rewarding but hugely frustrating and intimidating as well.
5.  Speaking of reading, I still haven't had time to do my cool book post.  Maybe this weekend...
I plan to spend plenty of time with my nose in a book, my favorite way to relax, maybe that will inspire me to blog about my latest library finds.
6.  I really need some new recipe ideas for vegetarian meals.  I am so uninspired in the kitchen right now.  What I want to find is about 10 easy, tasty, healthy meals that I can rotate without much thought.  I made fried rice and sauteed vegetables this week and it was oh so good.  I went to a Japanese steakhouse this week and really watched how they made their rice and then I copied it.  It is not lowfat but it is tasty--butter, garlic, soy sauce, and egg.  Yum!  I did the veggies on the side and everybody loved it.  That will be one of the recipes for sure.

7.  Wal-mart is sponsoring this family movie night and the kitchen is full of "Great Value" products.  No subtlety there.  So far the movie is pretty good though.  Okay, commercial time is over...