In an attempt to keep our identity anonymous from strangers, I have not been using my children's real names, nor pictures of them.  In the process, I have created The World's Most Boring Blog because I only have images of things like burned-out cars and fixer-upper ones -- and very few pictures, period.  So here goes:

Above this text, there should be a picture of "the bunch" (sans DD2, who was inside visiting with Grandma) from DD9's birthday party.  The first time I inserted it, I couldn't remember how to resize it, but now I think I've got it.

I will probably add more party pics later.

At least I finally "bit the bullet". 

-L.

DH and I thought he was going to be finished with our broken-down car on Sunday, but he had an accident and hurt his right middle finger (perhaps a relevant point here is that he is left-handed).  His mother, sister and niece [I wasn't there and he hadn't even called me yet] were trying to talk him into going to get it x-rayed, but to no avail.  He said it really wasn't that painful; mostly it felt "stretched" from the swelling.  When I asked him if he could move it, he said he could bend it in the middle but the tip was pretty swollen, so he couldn't bend the first joint.

Once he was home later that day, I asked him some set of questions that led him to say he was not experiencing much pain, but the nail bed was still throbbing.  I chuckled and said, "For the record, most people consider 'throbbing' to be pain -- just so you know for future reference."  LOL

Well, today, the swelling spread toward his palm, the pain picked up just a little bit, and one of his co-workers, Dave, thought he really should have it checked.  Since Dave has been in both farming and the Navy, DH assumes he is familiar with injury and just "grinning and bearing it" most of the time, so Dave's reaction is what finally motivated him to call his doctor.  He went for xrays about 10:00 this morning, but then had to wait all day to hear the results.  He and his friend looked at the xrays and didn't see anything.

He finally received a call tonight:  it's broken in AT LEAST two places! 

I have always teased my husband about being insensitive (that is, not empathetic toward the pain and discomfort of other people), but now we have "empirical" proof!  LOL

Please don't misunderstand me:  I do sympathize with him, although I do find it curious that he feels so little pain relative to the magnitude of his injury.  I think both of us are just blessed right now to be focusing on the fact that things could be so much worse, and kind of taking this in stride -- even finding whatever humor that can be found in it.

-L.

Well, I was thinking I might not post this because it might just be a boring "laundry list" of household chores, but it looks like Lori2 double-dog dared me, so here goes:

First, I overslept, because I accidentally set the alarm for PM (DH says I'm good at that).  If memory serves me correctly, (although I did wake up at about 7:30 and look at the clock, I rolled back over, fell asleep, and) I finally got out of bed at 9:45 a.m.  My DH and I have a derogatory term for ourselves when we sleep in that late, but it's not PC so I'm not going to blog it. 

I made myself two fried eggs for breakfast, along with a piece of toast -- more like half a piece of toast, because I had sent most of the whole wheat bread with the rest of the family.

I ground three batches of wheat.  I have a Grain Mill attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer (mine is an older version than the one in this picture; I like the looks of mine better because it has actually has a "picture" of a mill cast in the iron on the front, although this one may beat mine for efficiency, I don't know), so I can only grind 6 c. of wheat berries at a time.  Then I have to wait 45 min. before I can run another batch.  I pre-measured two or three loaves' worth into quart-size Ziploc freezer bags, dumped the rest into two gallon-sized bags, and placed all of them in the freezer. 

I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker.

I ran a towel and a hand towel through our faux front-loader washing machine with a cup of Clorox.  I know, something is wrong with this picture, having to clean a washing machine.  But that is what I do, usually about every six days, to keep our clean laundry smelling like clean laundry should smell.

Somewhere in this timeframe, I seem to recall unloading the dishwasher and emptying the dish drainer as well, maybe handwashing some things, and straightening the kitchen somewhat.  Maybe I should go back and read my first post to see where I was...

Okay, true confessions here.  I hadn't cleaned up the eat-in area of the kitchen from the day before when the kids had played with Play-Doh in there.   So I still had to sweep the kitchen floor.  I moved the table and chairs out of the way, and even swept adjacent areas in the family room, dining room, hallway and foyer closet just for sport.  You should have seen the piles of Play-doh, crumbs, etc., that I collected -- er, no, you shouldn't have seen them.  I probably would have been embarrassed.

I also spent more time in the playroom, but not nearly as much as the day before.  Maybe 45 minutes on the playroom and the schoolroom.

I think I started cleaning myself up for the wedding at 1:45, so the above is supposedly 4 hours' worth of work.  I know, once it's there in black and white (or white and purple, in the case of this blog), it doesn't seem like much.  My 85-year-old mother probably could have shaved 1:15 off my time.  Just call me Slacker Mom -- oh, wait, that's Lori2's old blog.  Guess you have to call me Coaster Mom.  LOL

God bless,

Lori.

Okay, I think I need to rewind to last Saturday morning at 9:20, so you know why I am joking that I am on summer vacation tonight.  Bear with me, as I am probably going to "chase a few rabbits" before I actually get to tonight.

Last Saturday morning, DH left early to run some errands and I was home with the kids.  He called at 9:20 a.m. to say "the Big Burg" (our nickname for the car he was driving) had broken down.  Well, the car is only 12 years old with about 150,000 miles on it, so I was not surprised -- I expect it to happen periodically, and just pray that it won't happen at 65 mph on the highway.  When he told me where to come pick him up, I immediately said, "Thank you, Lord," because he was in a parking lot about seven minutes from home!

He was cutting through two rows of parking spaces in between a Panera Bread and mobile phone store, lining himself up for the drive-thru ATM at the bank next door, when the ball joint on the front driver's side of the car suddenly gave out.  The car just went SLAM!, right down on the left front tire.  The slightly funny part of the story is that there was a guy washing the windows of the mobile phone place, and the loud THUD directly behind him, just about made the poor guy jump out of his skin!

So, the kids and I hopped in our other car and headed over to pick him up.  I almost cried when I saw the car sitting diagonally in the middle of a bank of empty parking spaces, again thanking God that he was safe.  Several hours later, the car was towed to my MIL's house about 45 min. away.  She has a barn and DH keeps a lot of tools out there, so it's easier to work on cars there than it is here.   Soooo....DH has been at his mom's much of his free time since then, working on the car.

Tomorrow night, DH and I have a wedding and reception to attend, so we had already asked his mom and sister to keep the kids overnight.  Since the car is still not finished, he decided to spend the night out there, so he worked on the car tonight and will continue to work on it tomorrow.  While he was going to be there, he figured he might as well take the kids out tonight, too.  Soooo...that leaves me with the house to myself tonight and most of the day tomorrow, which -- as you might imagine -- doesn't happen very often.

So what did I do?  First, I took a nap.  An hour-and-a-half nap with about 30 minutes of hitting the snooze.    I stayed up late last night, so that I take full responsibility for, but then as I was going to bed, DD2 woke up.  She kept scratching her wrist (she has eczema), she wanted "muk" [milk], she was a bit poofy so I changed her diaper...she finally yawned...then eventually she turned over on her left side, which is usually a sign she will fall asleep shortly...but every time I would think she was back asleep and I would make one small move to get up, she would roll onto her back again and say, "Mommy..."  About two hours after she awakened, she did go back to sleep.  So I had roughly half a normal night's sleep, and I was very tired by the afternoon.  I decided I would be more productive later if I took a nap. 

Second, I drank a lot of water because I felt dehydrated after my nap.  I probably ate something then, too.  I don't remember for sure, but I eat practically all the time, so it's a good guess -- LOL.  The pickin's are rather slim in our kitchen right now since I have been without a car all week (DH had to take the other car to work, of course) and we have not made a full grocery run, so I probably ate twice as much as I actually needed because things that I wanted were not here.  Then, with having drunk so much water, you can guess where else I was a few times .  I also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.

Third and foremost, I put away and threw away things in the basement where the playroom, schoolroom, and storage room are.  I am ashamed to say that things had gotten so out of hand down there, I'm not finished yet.  Unfortunately, DH and I have never managed to make the "one thing out at a time" rule, stick.  Hopefully that will be our resolution for this summer, to better train the kids in this regard.

I was throwing away spilled peanuts (one of the older kids took a practically brand-new jar down there, but let DD2 get ahold of it and she spilled it ) and chunks of Play-Doh (now, I don't let the kids play with Play-Doh in the carpeted playroom, so why someone took red Play-Doh down there and left it on the navy blue carpet, I haven't the foggiest idea, and two pieces are firmly stuck ) and broken crayons and scraps of paper and string cheese wrappers, sorting Legos and Lincoln Logs and Lauri puzzles and Little People and Pop-Onz and Gears into their proper containers (why was there a large pile of little Legos waaaay across the room from the Lego table??), tossing plastic plates and fake food in the general direction of the toy kitchen, rewinding VHS tapes, deciding we can finally get rid of the wooden and plastic blocks...

The fun part was, I had my iPod on, so I was free to belt out my favorite tunes at the top of my lungs.    With other people in the house, of course, I don't do that; every once in a while, I will hum or sing verrrry softly.  I love to sing, so it was nice to be able to cut loose!  LOL

I also spent a little time reading e-mail and a little bit of news, and blogging (obviously).

Maybe tomorrow there will be a Part II to my essay.  Hopefully I will get a good night's rest and hit it hard again tomorrow.

G'night,

Lori.

Typically, I plan our menu for a week or two at a time, then grocery shop for about a weeks' worth in one fell swoop.  Since Memorial Day weekend, though, when we went out of town for a funeral, I can't seem to get my act together.  So last night, the plan was for DH to call me on his way home from another viewing, to find out what to pick up at the grocery store.

He called and asked, "What do you want me to pick up?"

I asked, "Do you have paper?"

He answered, "No."

So I rattled off a few obvious day-to-day items that he would probably remember, then said, "Hmmm..." when it came to the ingredients for tonight's dinner.  Could I find a way to make them logical so he would be less likely to forget anything?  There were only five ingredients, so that made it easier, but still.  If there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to them, he might miss something.  Thankfully, I had a brainstorm.

"Okay.  I'm going to walk you through making the recipe and see if that helps.  It's only five ingredients."  Now, DH is usually not the one at the stove, so this was a little far-fetched LOL!, but he loves to build things (or fix things up, like houses and cars), so I figured the best way to help him remember was to have him mentally "make" the dish.   "It's Potato Sloppy Bake, which we have eaten many times.  First, you take a pound of ground beef and brown it."

"Ground beef.  Got it."

"Then add in a can of Sloppy Joe sauce -- picture a 14- or 15-oz. can of Manwich -- and a can of cream of potato soup."

"Manwich and potato soup.  Okay..."

"Now, dump that on top of a 32-oz. package of hash brown potatoes -- picture one of those red Ore-Ida bags."

"Ore-Ida!  All-righta!"

Then I realized we already had the shredded cheddar cheese, so he didn't need to remember that.

So off he went to the grocery store...

When he returned home......

He had remembered everything! 

Later, he seemed very proud of me when he said that I had used a "trainer trick" to help him remember.  Perhaps I did, as developing and running training was about two-thirds of my job before I became a stay-at-home mom nine years ago.  To a certain extent, I simply found a way to help him "link" the items to each other, a memory-management technique.

BUT I also [maybe mostly] credit homeschooling DS7, who is a kinesthetic guy just like his dad.  DS7 is the child most apt to be found helping his dad with a construction project or helping me make dinner.  I think helping him learn on a daily basis made it easy for me to think of how to help DH, since they both love to create with their hands.

I took DD8, DS7, and DS4 to the library today for the kickoff of ReadQuest, the summer reading program.  They get to do a craft -- this year it was decorating "back sacks" -- and have refreshments (last year's refreshments were much better; this year was just bowls of M & Ms and pretzel Goldfish).  While they were working, I noticed the saying on a little boy's t-shirt:

My parents are exhausted

My first thought was, "We need one of those for DD2!"  She is our resident Houdini; I think she has escaped from the premises more times in the past two months than the other three have in their combined lifetimes.  I also think she has spilled and broken more things in her not-quite 2 1/2 years than any of her siblings have in their lifetimes.  She definitely keeps me on my toes.

Don't get me wrong:  I love her every bit as much as her three older siblings.  She is absolutely adorable, and I love her baby-ish sayings and mispronunciations.  Take, for instance, this past Thursday, when we were eating spaghetti (okay, technically lasagna noodles cut in pieces with a pizza cutter after the noodles were cooked, because I was low on spaghetti noodles ) and meatballs.  She asked for more "eatballs".  I thought that was soooo cute!  Sometimes, when I do something for her, she says, "Oh, dank you!" very enthusiastically, as if it's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her, which always warms my heart.  She is precious!  She just happens to be a precious-but-curious busy-body that probably has more opportunities to get into trouble by virtue of being the fourth child, and she takes full advantage of them!

Just writing about her makes me tired  -- LOL!

For dinner tonight, I made Peanut-Crusted Chicken (for a similar recipe, click here; in particular, mine didn't call for lemongrass nor a hot/sweet sauce) .  I planned to make it a few days ago, but for one or more reasons I don't remember at the moment, it was postponed until tonight.  Strangely enough, I noticed the date the recipe was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer:  5/24/98, exactly 10 years ago today.

Saturday is the day I typically grind wheat, so it was easy enough to grind some dry corn kernels into cornmeal.  Too, I decided to grind some pastry berries (wheat) into flour to use that instead of all-purpose flour.  Little did I know how the clock was ticking.

First, DD2 woke up from her nap, and she and DS4 took turns interrupting me from dinner prep.  Then, when I went to grind the peanuts in my mini food processor, I read the instruction manual and realized the peanuts were supposed to be chilled first.  OOPS.  I forgot about that.    So I asked DH how long he thought I needed to refrigerate them in order for them to be sufficiently chilled.  He said he really wasn't sure, but then guessed half an hour.

Sooooo...I put the bowl of peanuts in the frig and found something else to do for half an hour.  Then I chopped the peanuts.  Easy enough. 

Then, when I finally had the oven pre-heated, all the ingredients prepped, and the three bowls staged with the flour, buttermilk, and peanut/cornmeal mixture respectively, DH came rushing into the kitchen saying, "I hear crying."  Eventually, we traced it to the basement half bath, where DD8 lay sitting on the floor in tears and bleeding.

[Before I go on, I must explain that our basement potty is one of those that was not pre-planned, so you walk up two steps before you can sit on "the throne" .] 

At first, it wasn't clear where the blood was coming from, but then she explained what happened:  let's just say she miscalculated on her dismount and leave it at that , and hit the back of her head either on the edge of one of the steps (that's what she thinks happened) or the edge of the sink.  In the end, the cut was very small and not gaping open at all; we just had to figure out how to get the blood out of her hair.

So after we finished tending to her, I went back to dinner.  It really doesn't take too long to "triple-dip" chicken like that, although I probably take a few more minutes than most people trying to get every square millimeter completely coated.  But soon, the chicken -- initially, covered with aluminum foil -- was in the oven and the timer was set. 

I took the foil off at the specified time, and put it back in the oven for the coating to bake.  I checked it when it should have been finished, but the coating didn't look golden brown yet  and still looked rather dry to boot.  So I put it back in for another five minutes.  I had to repeat this several times, as it just did not look done.  I don't know if my chicken was not completely thawed like I thought, or if it was because I used the whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose (which probably made the crust a bit thicker).  I did notice in the online recipe, that it does say to cook it about 10 min. longer than mine does once the foil is off.  At any rate, it finally looked done enough, so I took it out.  Then it had to cool for a while in order for the crust to dry out somewhat. 

I think it was 8:45 by the time we ate dinner!

That is not unusual for some people, I'm sure, but for our family -- who often eats at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30 -- it was...

I thought about taking a picture of the chicken when it was finally on the table, but (1) there were some chunks of coating off, so it wasn't picture-perfect and (2) we were ready to EAT.

A friend from church in another state, Kelly, is newly pregnant and recently blogged about the strange baby dream she had.   I was about to post a very lengthy comment at her blog, so I decided to post an entry on my blog instead and leave the link at hers.

I conclude as Strem did, that you don't have to be pregnant to have strange baby dreams.  Here's my experience: 

While I was in college, I dreamed that I gave birth to quadruplet boys; named them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and gave one each to my mother, my two sisters, and my sister-in-law to raise!  LOL  When I related the dream to someone else later, she remarked, "You didn't keep one for yourself!"  I said, 'No -- I gave them to four women who know how to raise boys!"    [Of course, I had no earthly idea at that point, that I would end up raising two boys -- and two girls -- of my own.]

Another night (still in college), I dreamed that I was babysitting a two-year-old boy who was getting too rambunctious, so I opened the top of his head (you didn't actually see gory gray matter when his head opened; it was more like a flip-top on something plastic) and took his batteries out , and then he was very calm...

What on earth did I eat before I went to bed those two nights?!?!

Strangely enough, I can't think of any strange baby dreams I had while I was actually pregnant.  I guess those two took care of it!

From what I recall of the study of dreams in Psychology classes (of which -- as many of you know -- I took waaaaaay too many), there are two basic theories of dreams.  One is Freudian, so I won't get into it here; the other is Activation-Synthesis Theory.  Activation-Synthesis makes a lot more sense to me.  It states that neurons in your brain continue to fire, somewhat randomly, while you sleep at night, and your brain takes the various persons/places/events that are brought to mind and tries to make sense of it.  So that's why you may suddenly have a dream that includes someone you went to high school with, someone you may have only known by name and never even met...the neuron in your brain that contains that person's face, fired, and there you have it.

I think because a first-time mommy's mind is preoccupied with thinking about the baby during the day, it makes it more likely that her brain will fire a neuron that triggers a baby thought, and then your brain tries to make sense of it that night.

[I know, I know, I have disappeared from the blogosphere for a few weeks now.  The last week of March and the entire month of April were very busy.  But hopefully I will start posting at least once a week again.  Maybe even PICTURES -- I know, what a concept for me and my blog LOL.]

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a moment to check my friend and fellow homeschooling mom Kim's blog ("Nuttier than a Fruitcake," in case you viewed it at some point)...lo and behold, her blog was GONE!  So I e-mailed her and asked what had happened.

She said that keeping it updated was stressing her out, so she deleted it.  Anything in her life that was stressing her out and could be removed from her life, was.   

To her decision, I say, "YOU GO, GIRL!!!"  I admire her for having the courage to do that.  If she's anything like me, she has that little "tape" playing in her head, telling her to "finish what you started" -- "you can't quit".  But guess what -- if something is only a hobby (although she is in business, too, so she probably did have customers looking at her blog), by all means, opt out if it is causing you stress rather than relieving it.

I occasionally evaluate my blogging for the same thing.  So far, I am okay with the fact that I may not post an entry for three weeks at a time and may not produce anything noteworthy even when I do.  I am okay with the fact I may have the world's most boring blog.    If I ever feel myself succumbing to "peer pressure" (whether real or contrived), I hope I will be brave like Kim and pull the plug.

Ditto scrapbooking.  I love scrapbooking because it is a creative outlet that gives me some free time, and yet it keeps me connected to my family (because I am scrapbooking pictures of them).  I have often said, though, that as soon as it becomes just one more thing on my "to-do" list, I will stop.

Well, this post wasn't exciting, no pictures, no links, no nothin' LOL, but I'm back.  Now, onto lesson planning...

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.            ~Matt. 6:33

-Lori.

• DS4, reading from the jar, informs DS6 that he knows how to spell 'applesauce,' but it sounds like something straight out of a commercial:  "M-O-T-T-S, applesauce..."
• I recently had a birthday, toward the end of March.  When we changed the calendar to March on the 1st of the month, my kids immediately noticed my name written in crayon on the appropriate date, so they sang "Happy Birthday" to me.  They sang it practically every day this month, sometimes two or three times, sometimes when they had just sung it and I only left the room to get a pen or something...
• DS6 and DD8 take a once-a-week science class at a local church building.  One day, DS6 arrived home with a small pot in which he had planted a sunflower seed.  DS4 asked him, "Did [DD8] build a flower, too?"
• DS6 asked me how to say 'juice' in Spanish.  I said, "It depends upon whether you're in Spain or Mexico.  In Spain, you say, "zumo"; in  Mexico, you say, "jugo".  DS4 chimed in and asked, "How do you say  'juice' on [our street]?"

No, I don't mean that my nieces and nephews are finally going to think I'm great -- LOL, I mean that one of my nieces is due to have a baby, making me a great aunt for the first time.

Her blood pressure was elevated at her appointment yesterday, and apparently she's been having trouble with it recently, so they decided to admit her last night and induce her.  She is now 6 cm dilated, decided she'd had enough of natural labor and wanted an epidural.  Her husband is very interested in seeing everything that happens, to see what his wife does for a living (she's in her third or fourth year of residency in OB/GYN), but he admitted that the epidural freaked him out a little bit.  I e-mailed back that feeling a little freaked out while watching someone stick a needle in your wife's back is understandable, that I'm just proud of him for not passing out like I might have done.  [Yes, I have given birth to four children, but I have never had an epidural.]

I gave the children an update this morning and asked to pray.  We held hands and I asked DS4 (since he's crew chief today) to pray, but he declined.  So I decided to ask DD8 if she wanted to, and she said yes.  It was a most precious prayer.    She first thanked God for this beautiful day, then prayed for her cousin and the doctors (that they wouldn't make a mistake).  She also prayed for all the sick and afflicted in the world, then prayed for her cousin again. 

The soon-to-be new dad said that the estimated time of arrival is 3:30 - 5:00.  Please pray for my niece, her husband, and the baby -- and my sister (the soon-to-be grandma) who is probably biting her fingernails.  

-soon-to-be Great Aunt "Lo". 

I will probably expand upon this entry later...

DS6 lost his first "official" tooth!    For those of you who have seen him IRL, you know he already has a missing tooth.  You may not know, however, that he lost it through trauma, not rite of passage.

Well, DD2 is yanking on my arm, so I will have to finish this and post a picture later...

-L.

Although this will be brief because it is already past my bedtime and my brain is fried, I have been feeling that maternal guilt associated with not giving my children equal blog-time.     DS4 is the one that keeps saying such funny things lately, I could write an entry just about him every day.  And I wrote recently about DD8, so now I need to write about DS6 and DD2.  For tonight, a brief entry about DS6's reading progress will have to suffice.  I'm not sure this will even count as the Cliff's Notes version, but here goes:   

DS6 has improved tremendously in his reading over the past few months.  He has learned 68 out of 71 of the Orton-Gillingham phonograms, so he has most of the "code" that he needs in order to "crack" English words.  For a while, the poor guy was about driven crazy by the fact that the same letter can make multiple sounds, and the same sound can be produced by more than one letter (or sets of letters), but finally he came to terms with the facts and began progressing nicely.

Formally, we are working through a set of A Beka readers, but he also enjoys deciphering other things.  He read a few verses of the Bible to his dad, and he likes to try to read other things for school that I typically read.  For example, he started wanting to read his daily poem.  To a certain extent, I let him because I certainly don't want to quench his enthusiasm, but I usually have to limit him to a few sentences in order to avoid taking time we need for  other subjects.  He is picking up speed, though, and his comprehension actually seems to be better when he reads than when I read to him.

It is so exciting to see a child, especially your own child that you are teaching, learn how to read.   

First, I guess I must explain what a "crew chief" is.  In our home, each of the children is "crew chief" one day per week.  With this designation comes both additional responsibilities and additional perks.  The extra chores include taking the dirty laundry into the laundry room each morning, setting the table for dinner and helping with dinner preparation, sweeping the eat-in area of the kitchen after dinner each night, and various "go-for" requests from Mommy throughout the day.  The added benefit is getting to choose the video/DVD if one is watched that day, the fruit we eat at dinnertime, and possibly other things depending upon the day, as well as getting "first dibs" on things like treats.

I assigned the kids in chronological order, so DD8 is the crew chief on Monday, DS6 is crew chief on Tuesday, and DS4 is crew chief on Wednesday.  In theory, DD2 is crew chief on Thursday, but she is limited, of course, in what she can contribute.  {I think she did ask me one day, "Croo-chee?"  As if to say, "Am I the crew chief today?"} 

So yesterday was DS4's "crew chief" day.  Although all the kids like the perks of being crew chief and usually respond well to the extra requests made of them, DS4 seems especially enthusiastic about his crew chief day.  I often call him by his nickname and tack "crew chief" right onto it on his day, and his face just lights up to hear it.  He listens to my request and springs into action! 

Yesterday afternoon, he was helping me make corn muffins for dinner.  We ground the corn kernels, then the wheat...added the baking powder and salt...stirred the dry ingredients together...added the milk and an egg...throughout the process, he was acting very much like a drill-sargeant would barking out orders, I suppose, except with happy excitement.

Then I said, "Okay, we need to add 1/4 cup of oil and 3 tablespoons of honey." 

He responded, urgently, "Okay, I'll add the oil and the cup of spoons."

[There needs to be an emoticon for LOL'g...]

I am very excited to see DD8 becoming an avid and more rapid reader.  It took her a long time to read Heidi, but once she finished it, she read one of the Little House series and Water Babies in very rapid succession.  When she made a comment about how reading "opens up new worlds for you" or something similar, I knew she had become a reader and was very thrilled. 

Before I left for the library tonight, I asked the kids what books to return and what ones to keep.  As we went through the stack, it turned out that DD8 had read a lot more books during her free time than I realized.  HOORAY!

DS4 still uses a "w" sound for his r's and l's, and "b" for v's.  It is so cute, of course.  My extended family particularly gets tickled by how he says DVD:  "DEE-Buh-DEE".

Yesterday, we were running a quick errand when snow suddenly began to fall in large "flakes" (what do you call it when a whole bunch of snowflakes fall from the sky in one mass?  Please help me out if you know).  He exclaimed, "Mommy, wook how many snow it's waining!!!"

As I mentioned yesterday, we bought Girl Scout cookies from the girls in our church, even though we chose American Heritage Girls for our daughter.  Today, I received an e-mail from AHG with a link to an article at World Net Daily, written by someone who was once proud to be a Girl Scout herself, suggesting "Don't Buy the Cookies".  I'm not going to provide the link here since children read and blog here and the article mentions some topics best left for parents to broach with their own children at their own discretion if possible, but it is available at either World Net Daily or the American Heritage Girls website.  

Although I, too, was a Girl Scout for many years, I recognized that they had strayed considerably from their foundation in "God and country", so I knew American Heritage Girls was the way my daughters would go.  I just didn't quite realize the extent of the situation, although I am not surprised.

The good news is, the Boy Scouts have not changed.  We plan to sign up DS6 for Cub Scouts next year.

-Lori.

...while there are Girl Scout Cookies in the house??  Although DD8 is not in Girl Scouts (she is in American Heritage Girls), three girls in our church are, so DH and I purchased two boxes of cookies from each of them.  This year, DD8 and DS6 even bought some boxes of their own!  DS4 opted to save his money and just eat Dad and Mom's cookies.

It has been a time of great temptation for me because one of the girls didn't bring her cookies to church yet, so I don't have my Caramel DeLites -- but DS6 ordered a box from one of the other girls, so he has them already!!!  I will try to remember that with every temptation, there is an escape hatch...in this case, I have to open the other cabinet and choose from either Peanut Butter Sandwiches, which are DH's favorites, or Thin Mints, my other favorites.  I did "borrow" just one cookie from DS6, promising that I will pay him back when mine are in my hot little hands, but from now on, with Peanut Butter and Thin Mints, let me therewith be content...until Sunday, anyway... 

Yet again, I have fallen silent for about two weeks.  Part of that was because we were about to leave on a two-week vacation, so I was busy with planning menus, grinding extra wheat, printing packing lists and packing in addition to the typical home keeping and home schooling routine. 

When we go on vacation, we almost always stay in a condo with a full kitchen and choose to eat in all but one or two meals during the week, so I planned menus for the two weeks we were gone plus a few days after we return.  This time, I even packed little containers with the spices premeasured for the dishes I planned on making, so as not to have to carry so many spice jars, and many Ziploc bags of wheat flour (also premeasured) to make bread.  Normally, we don't make homemade bread on vacation, but my system had gotten out of whack the weekend before our trip (which I thought was a result of more white flour than I usually eat), so I decided we would haul the breadmaker and wheat flour on vacation to avoid a repeat performance...

Further, the Wednesday morning before we left, DD2 spilled approximately 3 CUPS of HONEY on the kitchen table, herself, the chair she was sitting on, and the floor -- not just the kitchen; she had also tracked it into the foyer, which is where I heard her announcing, "I kicky"  [I'm sticky].  As you might have guessed, I had a nervous breakdown when I discovered it.  I could post an entire entry on the conversation I had with DH while I sat on the floor of the kitchen, DD2's arm in my left hand and the phone in my right, wailing -- but I probably won't, because I probably don't remember half of what I said and surely some of the things I said do not bear repeating, ever.  The good news is, I did get up off the floor and get busy cleaning.  After going over the floor with the Swiffer Wet Jet twice and OxyClean in warm water and a rag once, socks and shoes no longer stuck to the tile.

We have now been away from home for ten days.  The resort we were at the first week, wanted to charge $30 for week of Internet access; as much as DH wanted to check his work e-mail, we declined.  Where we are now, we have free Internet -- ah, much better.  We enjoyed a wonderful week last week, visiting with friends Lepidoptera, Old Baldy Top, and their children and attending a church meeting in central FL; this week, we six are on our own at the beach.  Sunday evening and yesterday morning, we thoroughly enjoyed the sea and the sand.  As of yesterday afternoon, I seem to be coming down with the cold that is going around, but I'm hoping that won't put too much of a damper on things.

Well, I guess we should round up the troops for the beach before it's lunchtime.

-Lori.

I know, I know, I should have posted this last Thursday.  But once you hear how that day went, maybe you'll see why I waited (or maybe, once you hear how last night and this morning went, you'll wonder why I'm at the computer keyboard and not in the funny farm today -- but that's a different entry...).

Another homeschooling mom had this as her e-mail signature text:

Silence is golden.  Duct tape is silver.

                              ~Unknown.   

I got a very hearty chuckle out of that, so I shared it with my extended family via e-mail.  I warned them, though, that perhaps I thought it was so funny because I had so little sanity left.  You see, last Thursday:

1)  DD2 got up half an hour too early (not unusual, but still, we're off on the wrong foot).

2)  DS4's nose was [still] running like a faucet, and I had to keep telling him to get a tissue.

3)  DD2 vomited two places in the playroom, and after I cleaned and scrubbed three times in a row with Resolve, it was still not completely out.  I don't think she was sick; it's a problem that she and DS6 infrequently have had with a particular kids' chewable multivitamin, one which we are not going to buy anymore.  There is something in these vitamins that leaves an orange stain when it is, um, er, regurgitated onto carpet.  I have eventually gotten it out elsewhere with something else besides Resolve, but I forget what. 

4)  During Ambleside reading, DS6 whined that he was hungry (again, not unusual, just adding insult to injury). 

5)  DD2 talked (she plays pretend with little figures like Bob the Tomato and Laura the Carrot) and tossed, around but never fell asleep at naptime.

6)  DD2 got into a trial-size antiperspirant/deodorant that, unbeknownst to me, was in DD8's top dresser drawer.  I think she thought it was lipgloss, so she wiped it across her lips.  I assume she decided it didn't taste very good, so she proceeded to wipe it all over the edge of the dresser, then crumbled the rest of it on the floor.  Even though I didn't think she ingested much, I called Poison Control, of course.  The good news was that it was "benign", although it still could have caused oral irritation, diarrhea, and vomiting. 

There's actually a little more to the story, but that ended up on the "cutting-room floor", so to speak.  The above will have to suffice for the general blogosphere.

God bless,

Lori.