I'm a book junkie.  I crave books.  I don't even have to read them, but I want them.  I especially love used books.  Oh, the smell.  I go from second hand store to second hand store, scouring the shelves for anything good.  I always look for kids books first, but I like books for me too.  Anything at or above my childrens reading level.  I have wondered if one of my reasons for homeschooling my kids somehow revolves around the books we would need. 

I subscribe to the local newspaper only because I am afraid of missing the local library book sales.  I am thinking of joining the "Friends of the Library" just so I get to go to the book sales early, and I am not a joiner.  I have actually scheduled vacations around library books sales. 

I keep lists of books that I want to read, that I want the kids to read, and of books that we have so I don't buy (too many) doubles.  My current list of kids book that we have is well over 700 in number.  The list of books I want my kids to read is over 600, and it doesn't include books that we already have. 

I keep library card numbers of all my family members at my computer so I can special order and re-new on-line at the drop of a hat.  One library system has actually reprimanded me for over-requesting books.  I regularly frequent four different libraries.  When my girls got their library cards I wrote it down in their baby books.  If I reach the limit on my library card, I check out books on the girls cards.  I consider it a great date if my husband takes me to the library. 

My books shelves are over full.  They have layers of books that can't even be seen unless you remove other books.  I have an entire shelf reserved just for library books and it's almost always full.  On my book shelves right now I bet there are at least a dozen books that I have a book mark in because I couldn't wait to finish one before starting another. 

One recent overcast afternoon our lights were flickering, making me wonder if the electricity might go out.  This prompted me to slip into a fantasy where my power goes off and I take my kids (who are scared when the power goes off) to spend the night with their Grammy and come home and read in bed for hours by flashlight. Sounds like heaven to me. 

We must be doing something right.  This is just one of the MANY dinosaur drawings that M has done.  This was the picture she drew for the front of her last birthday party invitations.  She has been dinosaur crazy for more than a year now, maybe two.  Is that strange for a girl?  Does anyone else have a dino-crazy girl?  She picked up a "How to draw dinosaurs" book at the library one day.  The next morning I woke to find her at the table with a stack of dinosaur drawings.  Not only had her drawing improved literally overnight, but she was trying to sound out the names of all the dinosaurs she had drawn.  She wasn't getting them correct, but for a four year old "stegusores" was pretty close.  And "paceseflusorus" was about as close to pachycephalosaurus as I could probably get.  But I made the mistake of pointing out that the dinosaur names were written at the top of each page in the book.

My neighbors are out of town and we are feeding some of there animals for them.  It doesn't really involve much, just feeding the dog, the cats, a couple of pigs, and a bummer (or bottle fed) lamb.  We did this for them a couple of weeks ago too, and we all really enjoyed it and were thrilled at the opportunity to do it again.  Himself really likes to feed the pigs.  But today it was really hot outside and I don't like the heat.  As I stood and watched the pigs eat I could feel the sweat running down my back.  I also have been having really bad hay fever this season and the barn full of hay wasn't helpful.  As I drug the heavy feed wagon back to the barn, wiping my nose on a scratchy paper towel (must take more tissues tomorrow) I was feeling a little grumpy. 

Just then my two little girls ran past me to see the sheep.  Is there anything cuter than chubby little legs that still haven't perfected running.  Even the five year old (who is suddenly no longer chubby) still isn't good at running yet.  I suppose it's one of those things that I will miss when they are grown.

Like the dimples they have instead of knuckles. 

Or the way they would fall asleep on my shoulder with their little faces in my neck.

Or that fold M had in her thigh that is only cute in a baby. 

Or the way A used to pull her belly up so she could try to see her belly button.

My two year old daughter is on the fourth day of potty training.  It has been going really well.  She had two accidents on day one, and one each on days two and three.  Today has been great so far, but soon we will need to leave the house for gymnastics.  I don't want to put her in a pull-up because she has always treated them like a diaper and wet them right away.  But I also don't want her to wet on the gym floor.  I know it sounds trivial, but I am really torn.  I know she is proud of her accomplishment and wants to show off, but I also know she would be embarassed to wet herself in front of her beloved gymnastics teacher.  I guess I will just ask her what she wants to wear.  It was her decision to potty train, it should be her decision 100%.

When my older daughter (now five) was potty training I didn't have this problem.  She was just shy of four when we finally got her to potty train.  I suspected that she was just being stubborn, but at her 4 year check-up her doctor thought she may have a physical problem.  The doctor gave us one more month to get the job done before she started running tests.  When I told my daughter she would have to have tests done she quickly asked if there would be any shots.  I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure.  I told her it was possible there may be some kind of shots, and she immediately started using the potty and never looked back.  So, basically I threatened her.  I'm not proud of it, but I'm not going to hide it either.