Me, Bored? Never!

Today has been a weird day.  For one thing I've been gone almost all day and have not interacted with the fam at all.  I was out the door by 9 (supposed to have been 8:30), home at 3ish and I'm leaving again at about 5 and all I've done since I got home is eat and take a nap.  I did help Joe read a book while I got ready this morning and made the kids' breakfast so I guess I did something but still.  My days usually revolve around the fam and today it hasn't so it feels weird.  I went to a baby shower this morning and then a retirement party.  At the retirement party a woman who has been retired for a long time and lives far away from her kids mentioned that she is usually "miserably bored."  To which I quite callously replied--I'd pay money to be bored right  now.  Wasn't that sweet of me?  Bless my pea-pickin' self absorbed heart.  I apologized to her and explained that I have just lately been feeling like I will never have enough time to do all that I want and need to do.  She assured me that these years will fly by and before I know it I will have more time than I know what to do with.  Hard to believe but I know it's true.  However, I have to say that I don't see myself ever getting to a point that I would be bored.  I have way too many books I want to read, skills I want to learn, people out there that I haven't met.  I absolutely love to "over relate."  I LOVE meeting new people and getting to know all about their lives.  If I ever ask you what you had for breakfast be assured that I REALLY do want to know.  I remember asking my great grandmother, Bum Bum, one time, "don't you get bored?"  She lived in the mountains alone and that could only equal boredom to me.  Her answer--"Darlin' I have never been bored a day in my life!"  I was shocked then but I get it now.  

I'm going to see "My Sister's Keeper," with my book club tonight and I can't wait.  I've heard that they've changed the ending which is just plain stupid.  The ending is what MAKES that book what it is.  But, I'm excited to see the movie anyway and see how they've decided to end it "Hollywood Style."  If you've never read the book, skip the movie and read the book or at the very least read the book before seeing the movie.  You won't be disappointed.  

I'm working on the book for Challenge #1 and it's a rough one to get through.  It's a mystery with lots of killing and guns and men and stuff. Totally not my style of book but I will read it because it's the one I randomly chose and the challenge says I have to read it.  I'm legalistic about stuff like that.  It's helping me get to sleep at night and ensures a nap during the afternoon when I sit down to get some reading in.  Thanks Robert Parker.

At church I am in charge of finding replacements each week if the scheduled children's ministry workers can't serve.  This weekend has been almost ridiculous.  I think I've replaced almost every single scheduled worker.  I think I'm going to quit answering my phone.  

Well, it's time to go to the movie.  I'll let you know what I think, whether you want to know or not.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I just finished up making lunch and dinner.  I don't plan to go back into the kitchen today unless it's to get a glass of water or make myself some iced tea.  I'm hoping beyond hope that Ollie will volunteer to do the dishes.  He probably will, he usually does.  I feel like I spend half my life in the kitchen.  Even more so now that we are working to eat really healthy.  I always have this sense of urgency about eating all the produce I buy quickly before it goes bad.  I especially feel this way every other week after picking up organic produce from the co-op.  It takes a lot of time to cook and process all that produce.  The other day I spent a few hours in the kitchen juicing apples, carrots, celery, and beets.  Cooking eggplant, brussel sprouts, squash and zucchini, making my own healthy version of eggplant parmesan, making ravioli for the kids and Kayla...It's just neverending and it's hot!  I finally sit down to dinner and I'm so sweaty I hardly even want to eat.  Today I got smart and planned ahead and used the "cooler" morning hours to make 4 quiches (should be lunch for today, and breakfast for a couple of days.  I also made 2 baguettes worth of sub sandwiches.  Those will be our two meals for the day.  I'm excited about the quiches.  I made one traditional ham and cheese, one green chile, ham, and cheese, one broccoli and cheese, and one with goat cheese and squash, zucc, and onions (leftover from last night).  I'm still mostly avoiding dairy so I made that last one with mostly almond milk until I ran out and had to add some regular milk.  Since you can't find pre-made pie crust without trans fat and I'm way too lazy to make my own pie crust--I made them all crustless.  I was able to use up some produce too.  Woohoo for me!  I even have lunch for tomorrow planned (chicken taco salad--my new favorite meal).  We will be switching to my summer schedule of our big meal of the day being lunch, this works great because Ollie is off for two weeks and then when he is working he's home by 2.  Enough talk about food...

I have heard two stories in the past two weeks of a man killing himself and his family.  It is so sad and devastating and you can only wonder what was so bad that would make someone do something so horrific.  I wonder if has anything to do with our economy and men losing their job, failing to provide for their family, etc.  

I have so much I want/need to do right now.  I have to continually remind myself to prioritize and not get overwhelmed.  I don't want to neglect my husband and family in favor of marking something off my to do list or my book list or whatever.  That is very easy for me to do, I can be so driven!  

Speaking of books--I am really excited about the adult summer reading program at our public library.  Every time you check out books you get to enter your name into a drawing for an Ipod Nano.  Considering I am in the library checking out books at least 2-3 times a week I think I can get my name in that box a whole lot!  Also, you can earn extra entries by attending these events on Tuesdays at noon called, "Lunch With an Artist."  You watch a biography about a famous artist and have dessert and tea.  I think I may be able to make it to at least a few of those.  Also, at a different library, you keep a reading log and take it in and get it stamped and earn entries into drawings that take place on July 23.  There will be all sorts of prizes there including gift certificates and literary themed prizes.  I would love an Ipod (to put books on of course) but not enough to buy one so maybe I can win one.  I am going to try to limit my computer time in order to spend more time reading.  I have quite a list of books that I want to read.  I also may do a fun reading challenge being hosted on another blog.  More about that if I decide to do it.

Well, my kids just got home from VBS (shout out to Julie for picking them up!!) and are clamoring for my attention so I best go and be a "focused mother."  Just read a very convicting pamphlet about that from Renee Ellison.  

Peace out peeps!  (am I cool or what?)

Monday, Monday...

• I bought the best "ice cream" at the store today.  I can't remember what it's called but it is made with organic coconut milk, agave nectar, cocoa, carob, and maybe two more ingredients that I don't remember.  Let me say that it is TO DIE FOR YUM!  I had a couple of bites of it earlier.  I will definitely be rationing it.  I need to have practically no sugar so I definitely won't be serving myself a big dish of it.  And--it's a little pricey as well but a great alternative for when the rest of the family is eating ice cream (my absolute favorite thing just ahead of french fries--which I also am not supposed to have anymore).  
• So, as of Friday I was looking at a whole weekend free from plans and I had made a big long list that included cleaning my whole house pretty thoroughly.  I spent 4 hours in the kitchen on Saturday cleaning and chopping 4 bunches of kale for kale chips (note to self--4 bunches is excessive), making a half gallon of carrot-apple juice (took an hour!), cleaning, and cooking dinner.  After that I wasn't up for any other cleaning.  We ended up getting invited to a BBQ on Sunday so I reduced my list to just the bathrooms and Hannah's room which will be serving as a guest room for the next two weeks.  We ended up being gone from about 9 am until almost 6 and you guessed it--NOTHING got done at all.  We spent today setting up for theatre and grocery shopping and laundry--not a dent in my modified list.  Depending on how tonight and tomorrow morning go my list may become--pour some bleach in the toilet and spray febreeze on the sheets.  :0)  Hey, there's my next "Works for me Wednesday!"
• So, a few words about our guest who is coming tomorrow.  Her name is Kayla and she is 16 and she is visiting from Albuquerque.  I first met Kayla when she was about 3 days old.  I babysat for her family in NM for a year or two before she was born and for 3 years after she was born.  Not just occasional babysitting but like 30 hour a week babysitting.  Kayla has a twin brother named Gray and I spent many an hour holding the two of them.  I never got the hang of getting them both to sleep and laying them both down so I spent many an afternoon watching PBS kids with their two siblings while they took their nap on my lap.  We moved when she was three but have always kept in contact with the family.  I've seen them 3 times since we've moved and the last time was 5 years ago.  I absolutely can't wait to get to know her again as a young lady.  She will be spending two weeks with us and we plan to show her a good time and keep her crazy busy!  She gets to start her visit with a whole lotta family time.  My great aunt also arrives tomorrow from LA (lower Alabama) and my sister, nephew, and mom get here on Thursday.  We will be going to the beach, the theatre (for four shows!), out for seafood, homeschool exhibition and then everybody but Kayla goes home on Sunday.  Next week we will go to Disney and the beach and whatever else strikes our fancy.  I have a few fun ideas.
• I watched "The Red Dragon" last night--a Hannibal Lecter movie.  It ended at 11:45 or so and I was up until almost 1 because I was so keyed up.  It was pretty freaky.  I did get a nap this afternoon thank goodness!
• That's all for now, I have to go take in the laundry off the line, put it away and go assess the mess in Hannah's room.
  

Wordful and Pictureful Wednesday

Wednesdays are the only day of the week that we have absolutely no commitments. I guess that's why my Wednesdays are "Wordful" because I have time to think and time to blog. This one is bound to be a really long post, I just went through my recent photos and found a lot that I hadn't shared yet. Of course, I have to share everything whether I think you want to hear it or not. So, first of all, below is the fabulous patch skirt I made. I absolutely love it, just one problem...I got a little overambitious with how much I cut out and now it doesn't fit. I probably have to lose about 5-10 more pounds just to fit my fat butt in it. I am terribly disappointed but I can't think of any way to fix it so I guess there is some motivation to lose 10 more pounds. I don't know if I can do it though. If, in a year, I still can't fit into this skirt I'll give it to one of you skinny people. I would imagine it's about a size 8.
I love this picture of Joe and some friends--they chose to play in the rain instead of staying dry inside. We don't get to play in the rain much in FL because our rain is usually accompanied by lightning so this was a special treat.
Remember this little girl? After 5 months in Cincinatti for a cord blood transplant Bella is finally home! Praise God! He has brought her through some tough times.
We had a BIG SCARE with these sweet rabbits yesterday morning. Hannah went out to feed them and ran in screaming that the cage was open and the bunnies were gone. We seriously panicked, then prayed, and started scouring the yard. I really figured they were long gone or possibly been killed by some wild animal. We have owls, hawks, dogs, etc. Hannah found Chloe first right by the front door and in the bushes. I looked through the rest of the front bushes and didn't see Rosie but a few minutes later Hannah found Rosie a little further down in those same bushes. It was such a blessing for my kids to see their prayers answered and to give God the glory. I think that the door of the cage didn't get latched even though it looked closed. That door (there are three) had swelled during all the rain last week and had been hard to open.
I know this looks like your average bookcase but you know what it really is? Grace and Joe's science and history curriculum for next year. I had planned to do My Father's World Adventures with them but then decided that might be too much and Joe is a little young for it. It hit me while looking for something on this shelf that if we spent the whole year working our way through all of these books they would learn a ton! And, if one of the topics really strikes their interest we can sit on it for a while and do a lapbook or something. I also have quite a few science kits that we will work through as well as a few more Evan Moor science unit studies. There are TONS of good history picture books that we can read. I'm excited about their eclectic school year. I know they will really enjoy it and learn a lot. I am thinking that after next year I can start schooling them all together in My Father's World. Maybe adding them in with Hannah or maybe starting them in ECC. We'll see.
During our week of rain my kids went fort building crazy. Have you ever noticed that with forts the fun is all in the building. Once it's built it's not nearly as exciting.
Here's Hannah's costume for her High School Musical 2 show next week. She is playing Kelsey--the artsy music girl. I love her costume.

Congratulations to Jayce and Matt! Here's the happy couple.

I took Hannah with me to the wedding and she and Hannah S. had so much fun together.
They danced all night long! I love this action shot. I have some great video too, I'll get to that eventually.
Here is Joe's picture for his and Grace's presentation at our Homeschool Exhibition next weekend. He had so much fun making this and is very proud of himself. He wanted to take it to the park yesterday. Gracie made one too but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. We wrap up their study of Invertebrates on Friday. They have really learned a lot and have gotten really interested in animals without backbones. They both love this kind of thing and it makes it fun to teach them.

Wordful Wednesday

I have lots and lots to say so if you don't feel like reading a book today you might want to visit a different blog. Trust me, you won't miss much. No deep thoughts happening here. I am actually still schooling. Grace is finishing up the work she does with me. I have my laptop in the Florida room so I can multitask. First thing I want to say is that I am about sick of sitting in Joe's pee every time I go to the bathroom. Could someone please teach this boy to lift the lid or at least, "be a sweetie and wipe the seatie"? Today is my partial fast day and all I've had to drink today is a juice I made this morning out of carrots, beets, celery, apple, blueberry, spinach, and parsley. That juice has me full of energy and in a great mood. You would think I would be feeling tired because I haven't had many calories. I'm also in a good mood because I had a great school day with the kids. We are getting a ton done and I am not stressed at all about taking 6 weeks off. I have a really good dinner planned tonight--some sort of indian cabbage, spicy mung beans (like lentils), perch cooked in coconut oil, cooked carrots, and chapatis (Indian flatbread) for Ollie and the kids. Poor Joe is so tired of eating fish. He doesn't love fish but tolerates it in small quantities. We've been eating fish just about every other day and the other night he didn't finish his dinner so didn't get a dessert. At bedtime, in tears he told Ollie, "everytime I look at my plate there is fish!" Poor kid. I know we eat a lot of weird food but I always try to include at least one thing that I know they really like and give them a break from weird food a couple of times a week.
The picture at the top of this (for some reason on my laptop I can't seem to type above the first picture) is from "Annie" last Thursday. It was the first time my kids were in a real school. A little weird for them but interesting.

Grace read like crazy last week to finish the Abeka reader, "Open Windows." She read 5 stories in one night! Just a mere two months ago it would take her half an hour or more to read 1 story. Her motivation was that I had bought her two books and she wasn't allowed to see them until she had finished "Open Windows." It was a big accomplishment for her and she deserved a reward. Now she and I are reading her new books, both of them from the "Puppy Place" series. They are a challenge for her but she is doing it and I am so proud!

I love this picture of Hannah and our little friend, Nate. I took it sometime last week but it hadn't made it to the blog yet. He's a cutie isn't he?

Another pic from last week--Tyler and Levi. We have had such a good time playing with our old friends, it's so sad to say goodbye again!
You can't really tell in this picture but that is our rain gauge showing about 6.2 inches of rain. Since then we've had at least 3 more inches and it is pouring down rain again right now. I LOVE it! It started Sunday night and didn't stop raining until sometime overnight last night. Then has started back up again today. I could totally live in Washington. I love the rain, it puts me in a good mood and makes me feel relaxed.
Here are my kale chips baking. They were pretty good. Unfortunately, I made more than we could eat at one time and the leftovers are soggy and gross. I may try rebaking them tonight or tomorrow and see if they get crispy again.
I have finally updated my other blog, "Cleansing my Temple." For those of you interested in what I have been eating (I've been asked that a lot), I did a whole post on that on the other blog. Here's the link-Cleansing My Temple.

Weekend Wrap-Up

We have had a crazy busy--make my head spin weekend. It's all been so fun though that I cannot complain, I'm exhausted but it's a good exhaustion. These pictures go in backwards order so I guess I will too. After church we went to a local park for a picnic and some time to visit with our VA friends. The men were not content to just hang out and talk. Ollie brought his bathing suit because he wanted to swim in the lake--just a reminder--we live in FL and we don't swim in lakes here because the alligators own the lake. That wasn't stopping Ollie though and he bet Ben $5 that Ben wouldn't swim across the lake (not a big lake). Ben wasn't playing but Ollie decided to swim across anyway. He went about halfway and was tired so headed back. When he started there was a gator pretty far from him but as he swam back the gator steadily made its way toward Ollie. Thankfully it didn't seem out to catch up with him and Ollie made it back safely. After being called a chicken, Ben decided that he was up to the challenge so he swam across the lake and Ollie picked him up on the other side. While Ben swam no one knew where the gator was. Just another confirmation that men are just not normal.
Here are the boys watching as their daddies talked about wrastlin' with gators and swimming out in the gator water.
Since we were already out that way, we decided to go blueberry picking after we left the park. I was planning to go at some point this week so today seemed to make sense. The blueberry fields that we went to are a good 25 minutes away from our house and the park is about halfway there so even though I was tired we did it. We got two buckets, half for my aunt and uncle and 1 1/2 for us. That's a lot of berries but we will eat plenty of them and freeze the rest. They are great in a smoothie with a frozen banana or in pancakes.
Now back to yesterday--we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and then to Cirque de Soleil. That show was absolutely amazing! Those acrobats can do the craziest things. The music was beautiful and the show was hilarious and amazing. We had dinner at Bongo's--a cuban restaurant. I was a bit of a cheater pants as far as my diet goes. I had black beans and rice and sweet plantains. I'm not allowed to have the rice or plantains at this stage of my diet but it was a special occasion and I wasn't going to miss out on those. They are classic cuban food.
And, before we went to Disney--we had a shower for Marissa. We had lots of ladies there and I think everyone had a great time. It was fun to get to visit and bless Marissa with lots of baby boy stuff.
I was also out Friday night way too late so I started the weekend with a bit of sleep deprivation. Needless to say that at this point I am about ready for bed and it's only 7:30. I'm going to try to hold out until 8. I have to make something to eat first. Should I have scrambled eggs or a spinach smoothie? So, my goal for the week is to mostly stay at home and be productive on the homefront. Think I can do it? If you know me at all you know that this is the area I struggle with most. It is very hard for me to not want to be at everything and be involved in everything. I have two weeks that are my calm before the storm of summer. I am hoping to get through 4 weeks of My Father's World and just plug away at all the other subjects as well. We are not taking a full summer break but we will be doing a lot less schooling each week than what is normal for us.
I'm off to eat, shower, and go to bed. I think I've decided on eggs with spinach and goat cheese. Amy--should I save you a plate?

Here, There, and Everywhere

The last few days have been especially busy both at home and out and about.  I feel like I have been here, there, and everywhere.  Today was supposed to be a mostly at home day but of course things never go as planned.  We had an opportunity to go to a local school this morning and see a dress rehearsal of "Annie, Jr."  Since Hannah was just in that show in December I thought it would be fun for all of us to see the show and see how a different theatre (or school) did it.  The show was at 9 and we found out about it at about 7:30 so it was a hurried morning trying to get out the door.  It was worth it though, the show was cute.  I don't think my kids have ever been in a real school so that was an experience as well.  The whole 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade came in to watch the show and the MC welcomed us homeschoolers.  I asked Hannah later if that embarrassed her or if she is proud to be a homeschooler.  She said she felt a little weird but mostly felt proud to be a homeschooler.  Anyway, after leaving the show we went to the organic produce co-op to pick up our veggies and fruit.  This is our first time doing this and I was very impressed with the organization as well as the prices.  I spent $30 and came home with 4 tomatoes, 3 bunches of kale, 1 pound yellow squash, a 3 pound bag of apples, 5 pounds of carrots, a pound of spinach, a head of broccoli, celery, and that might be all but I can't remember.  Not bad for organic produce.  I plan on using the kale to make kale chips.  I absolutely can't wait.  I've heard that they are really good and anything salty and crunchy sounds wonderful to me right now.  Even if it is a salty, crunchy leaf.  We made a trip to Goodwill, a swing through McD's drive thru (for the kids), and then to Publix.  Home by 1:15 and I had to tutor at 2.  My plan was to tackle the dishes still on the table from last night but I was just too tired.  So, I crashed for twenty minutes or so and then got the table cleared and dishes in the sink soaking.  The dishes never got done last night because I was up until 11 making cheerleading skirts.  I made 7 of them yesterday.  They are costumes for the upcoming High School Musical 2 show.  Needless to say, after sewing all day yesterday, being out half of today and then tutoring in the afternoon--my fresh, clean house is a mess!  The stuff I brought in from the park two days ago is still sitting on the piano bench along with three days' worth of mail and that's just the beginning.  I told Ollie tonight that I'll get to it on Sunday.  That's my next free day.  Seriously.  It's one of those weeks!  Tons of fun but totally exhausting.  I have lots of pictures to share but tonight is not the night.  The Office is on in 4 minutes and the last few weeks have been HILARIOUS!  I hope tonight doesn't disappoint.  

This and That

• It is not a good idea to go on a walk around the block with bunnies in bags.  They might want to jump out of the bags and so you might have to end up carrying one who regularly decides she doesn't want to be carried and scratches the fire out of you as you struggle to hold on to her.  Just sayin'.   That's "this".
• Did you know that there are all sorts of cool old shows on Hulu.com?  Grace and Joe are watching Mrs. Piggle Wiggle shows right now but as I was searching the site I saw Silver Spoons, Different Strokes, Flipper, the Munsters, Woody Woodpecker, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Speed Racer, and lots more that I can't remember right now.  Free way to entertain kids when you want to have some alone time.  And this is "that".

Cinco de Mayo, Simon Cowell, and Elisabeth Elliott

We just got back from a taco party at a friend's house.  I had my taco, tacoless.  Meat and salsa and lettuce and tomato isn't too bad.  I got on my computer with the intention of e-mailing some people back and haven't the brain power so I thought I'd blog instead.  If you are waiting on an e-mail from me--tomorrow, for sure.  I'm so far behind on so much.  I feel a teacher work day coming on tomorrow.  We will probably just do the very basics--reading and math and then I will have a work day and I'm thinking I'll plant the kids in front of the tv so they don't interfere with my work or mess things up as fast as I can clean them.  They haven't watched tv in over a week (except for a couple of hours Saturday morning) so I don't think it will hurt.  I know, I know, I should have them work alongside me but honestly when I'm feeling this behind I just want to work alone.  The house isn't even that dirty it's mostly paperwork and organization that needs to be done.  

Does anyone get the TV guide magazine?  There is an interview with Simon Cowell in the latest one that I'm interested in reading but I am not going to buy it just to read that article.  The front page said he was leaving American Idol.  What is Idol without Simon?  He's the guy everyone says they hate but his opinion is valued much more highly than anyone else's.  I like the guy.

I've been reading a great book of essays by Elisabeth Elliott compiled in a book called, "Keep a Quiet Heart," (It drives me crazy to put a book title in quotes when I know is should be underlined but blogger doesn't give me the underline option, just sayin').  I'm reading two or three each morning and they have really spoken to me right where I am at.  Elisabeth doesn't mince words and she can be a little tough but I just love her.  Today's essay was about suffering and waiting for God to answer our prayers and give us what we want most. We tend to want what we want right away and are stubborn and unwilling to accept that we must suffer for a time.  One quote that really stuck out for me was this, "The wilderness experience leads to the Promised Land."  She went on to talk about suffering and how God uses suffering to bring us closer to Him.  How we can be so stubborn in resisting this time of suffering, not realizing the refining power of suffering.  She ended with this, "If we reject this cross, we will not find it in this world again.  Here is the opportunity offered.  Be patient.  Wait on the Lord for whatever He appoints, wait quietly, wait trustingly.  He holds every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in His hands.  Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there.  Lord you have assigned my portion and my cup.  Shall we not gladly say, 'I'll take it, Lord! YES!  I'll trust you for everything.  Bless the Lord, O my soul!'"  It is true that during this time of dealing with health issues I have drawn closer to God and "rejoiced" in my weaknesses.  Before this I was getting too busy and drifting away from regular quiet times and from relying on God's strength.  I believe that a key component of healing my body is for me to calm down and eliminate stress from my life.  Only God can help me do that.  

Random Thoughts on a Saturday Evening

• I had a really full day today.  I was just logging in what I ate today (I'm keeping a food journal to see if anything specific causes a flare up in my arthritis) and had a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast.  I was actually thinking that what I ate today was yesterday.  Wanna know what I ate for breakfast?  Of course you do--a fried egg and a strawberry-spinach-wheatgrass-flaxseed smoothie.  The smoothie was just made with water though and I have to say it wasn't very good.  I usually throw in a banana and that masks the flavor of all the greens but I can't have bananas during the first two weeks of my "diet."  That breakfast lasted me for hours though.  I wasn't hungry again until about 2 and I ate breakfast at about 8.  I'm usually hungry within a couple of hours of eating breakfast but not today.  
• I spent about a half hour lying out in the sun today.  I really do not like lying out in the sun but did you know that most of us (even Floridians) don't get enough Vitamin  D.  Dr. Mercola has a theory that the reason we have the high rates of skin cancer is not because of too much sun but because we actually don't get enough sun.  We don't spend enough time outside in direct sunlight and when we do we are slathered in sunscreen.  Time in the sun (about 20 minutes a day) is part of my new "diet," I am also finding that it is a great thing to have that time to just rest and slow down in the middle of the day.  I tend to run myself ragged all day and seldom slow down to rest.
• We went for a bike ride this evening and it was so nice.  I find that I panic a lot less now that the kids have had more experience biking on the road.  Tonight I didn't yell to stop or slow down at all because everyone was doing it on their own.  We had one slight scare though, a teenage boy pulled out of his driveway very fast and came uncomfortably close to Joe.  So, we had a lesson about being aware when a car is backing out of their driveway.  
• I finally made Injera (African flatbread) with Hannah.  It didn't turn out that great but everybody liked it and it went well with our meal of spicy lentils and chicken.  We are finally done with Africa and are moving on to Saudi Arabia now.  
• Good news--both of my cameras are working!  The one that fell in the lake has decided to come out of it's coma and the other one decided to work too.  So, in the past few weeks I've gone from two cameras, to one camera, to no camera, back to two cameras.  Ollie did a little fiddling with them, changing the SD card and they both responded by working.  Woohoo for Ollie!

I think it's time for me to go to bed now.  I have run out of random thoughts.

Let's chat

I've only got about 15 minutes before I have to leave again to go pick up Hannah and Joe from theatre and my body really wants to sleep so I'm trying to do something to keep myself awake.  Sounds like a good time for a random thoughts post.  And, to make it even more fun I'll use bullets.

• Speaking of bullets, I now know someone who has been shot.  By a BB gun that is.  One of the ladies at the park was shot in the arm by some 13 and 14 year old boys after a soccer game this weekend.  Unbelievable.  Why in the world did these boys think this was OK????
• I got three place settings of Fiestaware!!!  My sister gave me a pink set that she had and she and my mom gave me an early birthday present and gave me a yellow set and a green set.  I can't wait for dinner time!  I think I will have my dinner on a green plate tonight.
• I took the kids to Walgreen's today to buy a Lil'Kinz.  Grace recently got a Lil'Kinz for her birthday and Hannah and Joe were feeling terribly left out and had some money burning a hole in their pocket.  The pets were regularly priced at $6.99 but two of them had a big, yellow $3 sticker.  When the cashier went to ring them up the bar code wasn't working and I guess that's why they were marked $3.  Wouldn't it make more sense to mark them the same price as all the others?  We weren't complaining though.
• I'm excited about American Idol tonight.  I wonder what the theme is and what kind of person Adam will be tonight.  He seems to change his hair and clothes to match whatever the theme is.
• I'm eating a Tbsp. of honey and a 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon morning and night.  My dad had some info from the internet (so of course it is true) that this remedy is helpful for arthritis.  77 out of 200 arthritis patients found some relief using this remedy.  Will I?  Only time will tell.  
• Grace's finger is healing quite nicely.  Thanks for asking.

I'm off to pick up the kiddos!  Nice chatting with you.

Good Morning!

It's Saturday morning and I'm feeling all sorts of lazy.  I am loving my new laptop.  I'm in my comfy chair, laptop on my lap, just surfing my favorite blogs.  I have real work to do, lots of it but I'm in no mood to start anything like that.  Here's what I really need to do today--clean out the bunny hutch (fairly big job but kids help), laundry, grocery shopping, check on the yard sale I worked at yesterday but am avoiding this morning, get the family's help to de-clutter the house, clean G and J's room, find someone to work in the toddler class tomorrow and find three helpers for tomorrow, go out on a family adventure.  The family adventure is the only thing I'm looking forward to--we are going to see some art in a hotel that a friend of mine has on display and then to the "big city" to find an Indian grocery store where we can get some Indian food supplies.  Specifically, various types of lentils--red ones, green ones, and black ones.  We are all into Indian food around here, even the kids.  Last night I made Indian Salmon Stir Fry.  It had cumin, mustard seed, onions, turmeric, garlic, tomatoes, and salmon in it and my kids loved it!  Joe had seconds all the while exclaiming how good it was.  The day before that Ollie made a dal (a lentil dish) and flatbread and we ate almost the whole pot.  It's so healthy and tastes really good.  Hannah asked him to always have a pot of dal going so she can have it anytime she wants something to eat.  There are tons of different dals and we are looking forward to getting the supplies to try more.  You can make a really good dal with just the regular lentils you can get at any grocery store.  I can post recipes if anyone is interested.  

We are heading into major healthy mode around here.  I'm signing up for two produce co-ops, looking into where I can find grain fed beef (any ideas), and thinking about getting raw milk again.  I've been reading a book called "The Maker's Diet," that is getting me pumped up and excited that I can overcome my joint pain, psoriasis, and arthritis by drastically changing my diet.  We are also making a rule that we will not keep candy in the house.  My kids eat enough sugar as it is and I get so tired of them asking for a piece of candy all the time.  Once they finish their Easter candy they will join the world of kids who don't get candy regularly (at least not at  home).  I'm excited about the produce, I can't wait for my first delivery.  

And to rapidly change topics--The Office was HILARIOUS this week!  My favorite Michael Scott line--"Green is for go ahead and just shut up about it and orange is for orange you glad you didn't bring that up."  I love it!  

Pretty random with pictures!

We spent our whole school morning on Friday talking about and reading about the Passover, Palm Sunday, and Easter. We went through the Resurrection eggs retelling the story as we opened each egg and then made these pictures that Peters Peapod had given me the idea for. I was so pleased and blessed with how each of them turned out (even mine, I am so not artistic!) that I went out later and had them scanned and made into 4x6 size to make cards out of. I'll be sending Easter cards to our family this year, just need to get them put together... Mine is top left, then Grace's with all the stickers, Hannah's below on pink and Joe's on blue.
How many months ago did I take down the Christmas decorations? These were still up until the other day. I just hadn't gotten around to finishing that job. Nothing like having company coming in to motivate you to take care of all of those things that have been left undone for months!
Here's a picture of Rosie with her nightly bowl of greens and other veggies.
I love this picture of Grace, I can't say why. Maybe because she is in mid-sentence which is how I see her most often?
We had a sweet overnight guest last Saturday night and Hannah played hairdresser and flat-ironed her hair.
Here is an example of some of the "weird food" that I cook. Hannah was telling someone the other day about the different types of food influences she has in her life. Her Grammy cooks Southern and her Grandma cooks Italian and her mom cooks "weird." In spite of my tendency to cook weird--Hannah loves my cooking best. Sorry Grandmas! She loves weird food, a girl after my own heart. The plate below was from last Saturday night when we had our guest over. I felt so guilty giving her a plate of weird food. If I had thought ahead I could have made something normal like spaghetti. But, instead she got perch, creamy brussel sprouts, and whole wheat pasta with butter and parmesan. I left the avocado-mango salsa off of the kids' fish. Amazingly enough, they all enjoyed this meal. The brussel sprouts were cooked in cream and bacon. Anything cooked in cream and bacon is going to be good.
Keeping with my reputation for weird food...tonight is the night for Mamba Lasagna. It better be good! This was one of those meals that takes a lot of preparation. I've got it ready to go in the oven now though, just a big mess to clean up. In case you are wondering--Mamba lasagna is black beans and rice layered with fried plantains and shredded pork. This should definitely be interesting. I'm feeding it to the family and Ollie's parents in a little while. We'll see how that goes!

Exciting Post--A Must Read

Gotcha!  This will not be an exciting post but you are here so you may as well read, right?  I borrowed the title from Ann Marie.  She just thinks it's hilarious to use that as a title and trick everyone into reading her whole post in anticipation of something exciting.  At least I have let you know from the very beginning that the title was a big fat lie.  After reading about the fun easter projects going on over at Peter's Peapod, all of a sudden I was like, "AAH!  Easter is in about a week and I've done nothing eastery with my kids."  So, I've spent the last hour surfing online for some interesting, God centered, not too hard or crafty ideas.  And, I found a great lapbook based on the Resurrection eggs.  AND--we just got a new laser printer today and I can print as much as I want to for the first time in a couple of years so I've been a printing fool tonight.  There is so much free stuff online.  It's awesome.  I'm excited about this Resurrection egg lapbook and we may do an Easter lapbook but I'm not sure about that yet.  I found this site with a free lapbook and some great readings to read to the kids during this next week leading up to Easter.  I've printed out the readings but not the lapbook part yet, we'll see how far we get.  I can get all into big ideas in the dark of night when the house is quiet and I'm all optimistic that my children will wake up and be cooperative angels all excited to do whatever I ask.  Then I wake up and reality hits.  So, we'll see how tomorrow goes.  We have no plans until theatre at 4:30 so we should be able to accomplish something.  I've linked to a few things in this paragraph but unless you run your mouse over it you won't see the links.  So, if you want to check out some of this, use your mouse to find the links.  I can't figure out how to make the text a different color for links.

I was reading Family Fun magazine the other day and in the "My Great Idea" section there was an article about this woman with two little girls.  The little girls would get bored and whiny on errand day and so the mom had a great idea to help her girls deal with errand day better.  She made them each a "passport."  She would cut out pictures of items they were looking for and make lists and all sorts of other time consuming things and then the girls could mark things off as they got them.  Also, she would ask each cashier to stamp or mark in the girls' books just like they were going through customs.  Maybe I've become jaded in my old age but wouldn't it be a lot easier to just train your kids to behave while you run errands or get a babysitter or something.  Who has time to write in little notebooks every time you want to go on an errand?  I have been reading parenting and kid magazines since before Hannah was born and I've seen this idea or one like it dozens of time and I've never gotten why it's such a great idea.  Sorry for the rant but I just felt like ranting...

In answer to all the razzing I'm getting about being an Adam fan--here's why I like Adam Lambert.  #1 He can sing like all get out.  #2 He is creative in his song choices and the way he dresses and styles his hair to match his song choice.  #3 He is so big and tall.  #4 He is always respectful to the judges, Ryan Seacrest, or whatever famous person is mentoring them that week.  #5 He is humble.  I have not seen a trace of arrogance.  #6 He is fun to watch every week. #7 He looks like he could be a vampire and I'm all into vampires.  (Kidding...you guys know I'm kidding about this one right?)  And Julie--I wish I could picture Adam as Edward but I just can't.

Okay, one more thing.  I love to read, I love to talk about books and share my favorite books with other people.  I had this idea about getting a group of people to read "Pride and Prejudice,"  this summer.  Especially if you've never read it.  Then we can have a sort of book club meeting and have a tea party and watch the movie.  Anybody in for this?  (Sorry to exclude my non-local blog readers...do you want to make a trip to FL?) If you have never taken the time to read a classic like this you really should.  As much as I have enjoyed Twilight and as much as I love Jodi Picoult, there is just nothing like classic literature.  Some of my all time favorite books are Great Expectations, anything by Jane Eyre and the Bronte sisters, Anna Karenina, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  Those pop novels hardly compare.  I'll leave you on that note.  I am going to go read. :0)

Bring on the Janette Oke

I'm exhausted.  I've read the first three Twilight books in the last week and truly I need a break.  They are so good, but so oh-my-goodness-I-can't-put-this-down-no-matter-what-else-I-should-be-doing-including-acknowledging-that-I-have-a-family-just-one-more-page-or-chapter-or-100-pages-I-think-I-can-finish-if-I-just-don't-sleep...I had the fourth book but I went ahead and loaned it to Amy, I am forcing myself to take a break from the vampire world and focus on the real world around me.  There is a lot to do around here before we have family arriving on Saturday.  We have yet to get any good schooling done this week except our lessons in spider capture today.  So, tomorrow we will be hitting the books big time.  I have a new lapbook for Hannah to start on Africa and Joe and Grace start their unit on Night Creatures.  

I spent too much time today trying to help Joe understand what a fake birthday is.  You see, when my children have their birthday party on any day other than their real birthday they call this day their "fake birthday."  Well, Joe just wasn't getting it and when Joe isn't getting it nobody gets a break from the questions until he has a full understanding of whatever the topic is.  After explaining and explaining, he finally got it.  I think the misunderstanding stemmed from him thinking he might be having a fake birthday coming up and might get some more presents.  He was disappointed.  Right on the heels of the fake birthday discussion--Hannah had to start on her little issue.  She just cannot get the whole "Pizza Hut/Wing Street" thing.  Are they two restaurants or one?  Why is it called two things?  Why did they make the sign that way?  And on and on and on.  We've had this discussion multiple times and it never ceases to annoy me that she has such an issue with it.  Today it was brought up because we were driving behind a delivery car.  And, once we settled that, I nearly ran over a woman who was jaywalking and happened to mention that she was jaywalking.  Yes, you guessed it--another LONG discussion about what jaywalking is.  I wish I had more patience for these conversations where I am educating my children on the things they are most interested in.  But, I don't.  

Woohoo for Adam Lambert tonight.  He is my American Idol!  Love him!  I'm thinking Megan or Anoop are going home.  Megan has been my fave but not so much anymore.  

TV talk and Other Random Thoughts on a Friday Morning

I can tell it's Friday because I don't want to do anything.  Now that we do Home Ec Tuesdays I do not have the freedom to take Fridays off from school.  For our first 4 years of homeschooling we always took Fridays off.  Not anymore...but, we do often get a late start on Fridays.  I've just given the kids an extra half hour to goof off while I pull myself together.  I've got the water boiling for some yummola instant coffee.  It doesn't even compare to Starbucks but it's fast and easy and will do.  

After school I want to head downtown to the Village Antique Fair.  Two years ago there was a trailer there full of Fiestaware.  I'm sure a lot of it is expensive but I'm hoping to find a bowl or two that is not expensive.  I want to start collecting Fiestaware random piece by random piece.  I can't afford a whole place setting but I can start piecing it together.  

My knee is really hurting today, not sure why but that doesn't mesh well with my plans to go walk around the antique fair looking for cheap Fiestaware.  Hoping time and Tylenol will help with that.  Because I'm going, in pain or not.  

The Office was a good one last night but I'm confused.  If anyone can enlighten me that would be great.  Why is Michael leaving?  Did he get fired and why?

I can't believe Matt Giraud was in the bottom three last night!  He's not as charismatic as some of the singers but is really good and should not be in the bottom three.  I loved Michael Sarver and hate to see him go but he was the right one.  He had a fab attitude--excited to be going on tour.  

Hannah and I have to make a BOATLOAD of Norwegian meatballs.  I am extremely intimidated...I think I will have to do that first and get it out of the way.  That's how I always handle things that are intimidating to me--dive right in and get it over with as soon as possible.  After my coffee and our Bible time we are going to be elbow deep in raw meat and egg--fun!

We finished our display yesterday and we are really happy with it.  It turned out great!  We have really had a lot of fun with International Day.  We did a Viking lapbook to go with it and I'm happy with that too.  Doing the research for it got me all excited about lapbooking.  I ordered one for Hannah to do about Africa.  It looked like a lot of fun.  Lapbooking is such a great way to learn!  

The kids just called me out to see a woodpecker.  It was a Pilleated one I think.  Does observing a woodpecker count as school?  Can we be done now?  

Everybody say hi to my friend, Peggy, from New Mexico.  She is my newest "mystery" follower. Peggy and I went to the University of New Mexico together both learning to be math teachers.  Peggy would totally appreciate my math geek shirts! 

I'm dying to do a puzzle, I need some quiet-focused-slowdownthebrain-puzzle time.  Maybe after I finish the second Twilight book.  I'm embarrased to say that I'm hooked.  Although it is about vampires, it is not gory, totally clean (no swearing, no sex) and a very gripping story.  I highly recommend it.  Try it, you'll like it.  C'mon Mikey.  

Saturday Evening Post

Catchy title, huh?  The whole family is asleep and I'm not.  Maybe because I slept 10 and a half hours last night and then took a two hour nap this afternoon.  Amazingly I do feel tired and feel like I could sleep if I went to bed.  Maybe I've had too much sleep?  I think I feel tired because my eyes are burning.  They are burning because I've been wearing my glasses all afternoon and they always burn when I wear my glasses.  I obviously need a new prescription but I want to wait until I use up all the contacts I already have which is taking forever.  I should probably open a new pair every two weeks like suggested instead of wearing them until they get a tear or become uncomfortable which could be as long as a month or more.  Anyway, I'm wearing my glasses because my contacts were really bothering me today.  I think I will open a new pair tomorrow, that will be one more pair down and that much closer to going to the eye dr. and getting a new prescription.  We had a pretty good day, very relaxing.  We went to a bakery for breakfast, a german bakery with live music.  When we got there it wasn't terribly crowded and we got a table fairly close to the stage--front rowish.  After devouring our pastries (ham and cheese croissant, marble cheesecake, a Josephine which is a strawberry napolean, and a chocolate ganache cake) and a couple of slices of raisin walnut bread, it was only 9:30 and the music wasn't due to start for half an hour.  So, Ollie took the kids on a walk.  From that point on the place starting filling up with people and many inquiring about the extra 4 chairs I had around my table.  The concert started and still no Ollie, he didn't return until about 10:40--a good 40 minutes after the music began.  I have never felt so self conscious--here I am, right up close to the stage, sitting alone with 4 empty, coveted chairs, and a multitude of people behind me.  Not to mention I was the youngest person there by a good 20 years.  Finally Ollie and the kids returned--and I could actually enjoy myself.  As we headed out I got a bratwurst with sauerkraut to eat on the way home.  It was good but not as good as Epcot's.  We stopped at a playground on the way home and the kids played for a bit before we came home.  Then I crashed on the couch for two hours and who knows what everyone else did.  The kids were very involved with some game outside and played together nicely all day.  I love days like that!  Dinner was easy--we cleaned out a cabinet--bread, chips, hummus, crackers, dried fruit, rice cakes and peanut butter.  I made two tapioca desserts and so we feasted all evening then played a bit of Nancy Drew and now everyone is asleep.  Oh yeah and I took Joe to the real barber.  It's the first time he's been since his first haircut when he was one.  Ollie has been his barber and has done a good job but I wanted Joe to have more of a real haircut, not just a buzz.  The barber was about 6 foot or taller, a young man--probably in his 20s, fat, pierced, and his pants were falling down.  I'm not sure what I expected when I walked into the barber shop but it wasn't him.  He proceeded to do a great job.  I'll post a picture when I take one.  Joe likes his hair cut but wishes he hadn't taken so much off above his ears.  I am reading the famed "Twilight," I must say that I am enjoying it.  I see why people like it.  It's a mindless read so far and that's just what I was ready for.  I'm starting to feel myself getting into a cooking mood.  This is good for my family.  We've spent the last few weeks eating a hodgepodge of odd meals as we've tried to declutter our cabinets, fridge, and freezer.  They are about decluttered so I'm ready to clutter them again.  One thing I still haven't found a use for is apricot filling.  I bought it YEARS ago and should probably just throw it away.  I don't know what to do with it.  It's not pie filling, more like some sort of pastry type filling.  I also have poppy seed.  Any ideas???  I also have about 6 cans of pumpkin.  I don't know why I have 6 cans, a little excessive I'd say.  I'll have to make a very big batch of pumpkin muffins this week, twice.  Or maybe three times.  I'm off to go read my book.  Goodnight ya'll!

Thoughts on a Tuesday Evening

It's late and I should go to bed but I thought I'd empty my brain onto my blog first.  Don't you guys love when I do that?  

• I really enjoyed American Idol tonight.  Everyone's performances were good.  Who will be going home?  I really can't say, I liked everybody.  Even Adam's very weird version of "Ring of Fire."
• Yesterday at Publix my cashier was a teen boy, he was probably in high school but might have been a little older.  I was buying beer for Ollie and the boy asked me about it.  I said I had no clue about it because I didn't like beer.  He told me I should start drinking beer and my nights would be better.  I think my nights are just fine and didn't appreciate that sort of nonsense advice from some kid.  I'm sure he was trying to be cool.  Didn't work for him.
• Home Economics Tuesday is working wonderfully.  My kids are learning to clean, not in the most organized fashion--I just dole out jobs and teach as necessary--but they are learning.  Today Hannah was miffed that she had to do the disgusting job of sweeping.  Since she had such an attitude she will definitely be sweeping from now on until she can do it joyfully.  She also got the vacuuming job and said that that was her least favorite job.  Her words, "I want to do something with soap!"  We are not getting anywhere close to really cleaning the whole house on Tuesday mornings but we are making a big dent in the work and at least decluttering.  Someday I will have real, consistent, specific chores.  Someday...
• The bunnies are doing great.  They are getting tamer and tamer.  Joe had Chloe "singing" "Holy, Holy, Holy," yesterday.  It was pretty funny.  They love their outdoor hutch.  We are still bringing them in at night but I think they would probably rather stay out there.  

Well, that's all I can think of to say.  I thought I had more but I can't remember...

American Idol and Stuff

Last night was another rather disappointing Idol.  I'm so ready to be done with these preliminary rounds and get into the good stuff.  I only have one prediction tonight and that is Lil Rounds.  I really have no idea who the other two will be.  We'll find out soon though.  Alex's dancing was quite comical.  Poor guy, trying to be somebody he's not.  He kind of made a fool of himself but the judges weren't as ugly as I thought they'd be.  

Hannah is back to her normal self and so far no one else is showing any symptoms.  So, maybe it will start and stop with her.  I am hearing of so many families all getting sick.  The creeping crud is rampant in these parts right now.  Shelly's son, Micah, was in the hospital the last two days because he was looking septic and was just plain sick and they gave him IV antibioitics.  To go visit him I was required to wear a mask, gown, and gloves to protect myself from the flu.  They are really trying to stop the spread because they are seeing so many people in the hospital with complications of the flu.  I hung out for a few hours and wore my mask and smelled my own stinky breath all evening while watching American Idol.  It was fun.  Well, not smelling my own stinky breath.  

We went to the pet store today and purchased a few things for the bunnies.  One of those things was a leash.  So, the bunnies have been outside today on the leash.  Of course this has just added to the fun of having bunnies.  I wonder when and if these kids will tire of these girls.  I doubt that Grace will.  Animals are definitely her thing.  The kids went to a "Creepy Crawly" presentation at the library today and apparently the speaker asked Grace if she was on Animal Planet after she answered a whole bunch of really hard questions correctly.  She may not be so great at reading but she does have quite the mind for all things animal related, and science in general.  I love that with homeschooling she doesn't have to be ashamed about what she can't do and is allowed to work at her own pace.  At the rate she's going I imagine a year from now she will be caught up with her peers.  So far I don't think she even knows she's behind.  And, we can spend extra time on the subject she loves--science!  Don't quote me on this but I don't think the public schools in our area are able to spend as much time on science because so much of the school year is spent preparing for the standardized test that they take in early March.  

That's all from my frazzled brain for now...

Random Thoughts

I am so glad that tomorrow is Monday. It has been a very fun but very hectic last 4 days and I'm ready for some normalcy. I'm ready to get up and pack in a full school day and maybe a nap to boot. We'll see...Hannah was sick last night, she had a fever of 102 but today is fine. I didn't give her anything for the fever because she was going to sleep anyway and we try to not give our kids medicine unless they are miserable. I guess the fever fought off whatever but she was trying to get because she woke up with no temp and has been fine all day. She started with a bit of a cough tonight but still no fever. I really hope that was it. We've managed to avoid both the flu and stomach bug that are running rampant around these parts. But, she did spend all weekend packed backstage with lots of kids carrying lots of germs. The show was great, show weekends are always fun and exhausting. I'm always glad to see them end. The kids and I went shopping to Wal-mart tonight for bunny stuff. We got them Timothy Hay, some interesting food, some bunny treats, and some little plastic balls with bells that some website said bunnies liked. We needed litter stuff but WM was out so I will have to check again on Tuesday. We are good for a day or so. The bunnies are doing well. The kids are having such a blast with them. They definitely have two distinct personalities. Rosie is sweet and calm and Chloe is sweet and adventurous. They were making up some funny songs about them today. Joe isn't into holding them but loves being around them and petting them. The main reason he doesn't want to hold them is that he doesn't want to touch their butt or have their butt touch him. Here is a picture with Grace and Chloe. Chloe was totally relaxed, all stretched out on the couch. These bunnies spend considerable more time out of their cage than in, at least this weekend they did. Tomorrow they will get more cage time though.

This is my latest stack of books in no particular order. I have a very eclectic taste in reading as you can tell. I have my book club book on top, "John's Story, the Last Eyewitness." Book club is Tuesday and I'm only about halfway through the book. The story is okay but not terribly gripping. Next on the stack is "A Song From L'Abri." I love stories from L'Abri. L'Abri is a place in Switzerland or Sweden or some European mountain country. It's kind of a place for people to go to find themselves, find God, etc. I am looking forward to reading this book that I found at a thrift store. Then we have, "Mimosa," by Amy Carmichael. I'm not sure what it is about but I love Amy Carmichael and just had to borrow this from Ollie's mom. Next is "Tales of Beedle the Bard," a Harry Potter book. I am a Harry Potter fan and can't wait to read this. Next is "The Messies Manual," I got this from Ollie's aunt. I need all the help I can get!!! Then we have, "A Clearing in the Wild." I got this from the library, apparently I had requested it but have no memory of requesting it and can't remember why I requested it. I'm curious to start reading this one to find out why I wanted it. The next three I may never get to, they are "self-help" books and I have just read a few self-help books and I don't really even like self-help books so I don't know if I can get into them or not. Two are parenting--Love and Logic and Boundaries. The other one is yet another one about what might be causing my inflammation and joint pain. And lastly we have two that I picked up at the library this week. One is by Joan Aiken and the cover looked interesting. It was actually in the Young Adult books but I usually enjoy young adult books so I may get to reading it. The other is a James Patterson book, "Sundays at Tiffany's." I have only read one other James Patterson book but this one has my name in it so I should read it. I hope to get some serious reading time in this week so I can start wading through this stack. There are 7 other books I'm dying to read but I'd like to get through these first.

Isn't this a cute picture? It's all the grandkids on Ollie's side of the family except for one--Dani. He's in the military and was not there when we were in Chicago. We went to Portrait Innovations and they took about 200 and some odd pictures and in the end there were only 2 that we really liked. It's hard to get 8 kids to cooperate!!

That's it, I'm off to bed to read until I fall asleep. I probably won't make it five minutes!