My kiddos are quite the fliers. First we flew out to California last month, and now this:

Isn't that cool? It's a teeter-totter / see-saw / whatever you want to call it, and it can seat 7 kids! Someday when we have a little more room, I'd like to add one of these. 

The observant among you might notice from the girls clothing above, or lack thereof, below,  that it has been beautiful spring weather lately: warm, but not abominably hot or humid, and not too buggy yet.

I don't do humid and buggy very well.

Exciting things are happening around here lately, but that will have to be the news of another night! God Bless!

The other day I let the kids play with shaving cream, an activity that is in all the books about Activities To Do with Your Preschoolers. We've never done it before, but I was feeling like Fun Mom, and I figured, while it would be messy, there wasn't anything they could really ruin with it. 

At first, Arianna didn't like it: "I can't get it off my hands!"  But soon the activity grew on her, and she did this:

"Arianna, let me take your picture."

"OK. Mom, you could put this on your blog!"  

You know it, baby.  

It is very late, as in, by the time I finish this post, it may be time for Emily's middle of the night feeding. Well, her first middle, but it's still late! However, I am trying to discipline myself to post more entries, in part to keep people reading. ;) Not that I don't enjoy blogging, I would just rather read others' than write my own.

Anyhow, onto the topic at hand: chores. Aside from our regular clean up time, which occurs at 4:00 pm every day - you know, it's the time when we move all the toys out of the living room and kitchen and off my bed and out from under my desk, oh and don't forget to check under the couch cushions...and back into the playroom. So no, apparently one whole room of their own to play in is not enough, they needs must swarm and stake claim to the whole house. But I digress. Aside from that job, my kids also have other chores to do. The girls unload the dishwasher, not daily, but nearly (I run ours about every day and a half - we're not that big of a family yet). They clean mirrors and scrub the toilet (they asked for this chore, and we use baking soda, not chemicals). And they fold diapers, though I usually do the rest of the laundry (I've got a 'system' you know). Today however, I was feeling a little "behind," and figuring that towels were just like big diapers, I asked the girls to fold a load of those. After watching them struggle a minute, I remembered an opportune lesson we'd had yesterday on How to Fold A Sheet, and at my suggestion, they readily employed this method, which much success (and giggles): 

They got little silly at the end, folding hand towels and even washcloths this way - 

- but it seemed to work alright and got the job done.

The End

I love life with a two year old. HA! You thought I was going to say with a newborn, didn't you? Well, we ALL love that, and here is a picture to prove it:

Surrounded by her adoring fans, with the ever present papparazzi snapping pictures ;)

But, back to what I was saying. I think I mentioned before that 2 years old is (so far) my favorite age, though really I love the whole span from 2-4. Ezekiel is starting to talk much more (all my kids have been kinda late in this area). He has a rather extensive vocabulary, but he only ever uses one word at a time. However, he also has 1,001 expressions to help punctuate his story. A conversation with him goes something like this:

Him: Train. Train. (He usually repeats each word)

Me: You saw a train?

Him: Ya. Crash! Crash! (eyes wide, hands clap to demonstrate the crash. Don't worry, he's talking  about his toy trains. This is a frequent occurance with them)

Me: Oh, your trains crashed?

Zeke: Ya. Broken. Broken (A shrug, hands up and open with a coordinating expression that clearly says "what can you do? these things happen.")

Me: Your trains crashed, and now they are broken? That's too bad.

Him: Yah. Yah. (serious nod, then walks away)  

I think I need to start carrying my camera around all the time, just to be on the ready to catch these expressions. Here is one example though; this look says "AH! You caught me doing something I shouldn't be, but since I don't think its a really bad offence, I'm just going to smile real cute, which will most likely diffuse any anger you might have been inclined to"  (See, I told you his vocab was extensive!)

Now, for the real milestone news, item #1: Arianna can make a pony tail! Whoo-hoo! She initiated the attempts of her own accord, though I'll admit, this life skill was on my list of first-grade requirements. I was so proud, she was proud and excited, and of course I got a pic:

I love that smile! Next is learning to braid :)

MIlestone #2: Emily's cord stump fell off, and to celebrate she got her first bath . Of course, I didn't get any pics of that because I was home alone when I did it and no way was I going to let go of her in that baby tub. She is terribly wiggly and amazed the nurse by practically rolling over at 4 days old. But here is the Obligatory Baby Picture anyway, fell free to AWWW...

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT let her sleep on her tummy, or on my bed for that matter. She was placed here only for the pictures, and was afterward returned to her proper place and position. Now that you feel better, isn't she cute? :) 

A baby is coming to our house...

but isn't here yet!

However, we're accumulating quite a bit of 'gear' in expectation. Praise the Lord for good friends, because most of the things in this picture are on loan ;) The rest has been previously loved by at least one of our other children  Though I am expecting a new Moby Wrap (thanks Mom!)  AND a new Moses Basket (thanks, My-Other-Mom!)

Why is everything cuter when it's itty-bitty?

And here is a picture of my current "baby," the only (little) man I could ever love as much as my husband

As of today, it is exactly two weeks since my LAST day working at the library. My very last. I originally thought I would take about six weeks off, and then go back. After all, it is only 10 hours a week, and doesn't require anything physically demanding. Adam thought he could handle a newborn and 3 other kids.  But even though the schedule had been working well enough for us for the past 11 months or so, it was starting to become hard for me. I didn't like being out of my house 3 or 4 hours a day. I felt like there were so many things I could have been doing if only I were home. I am not, it seems, naturally organized, especially with regards to time management (though I like to think of myself as still learning), and I am not very good at things like having meals ready in advance, or cleaning a little bit as I go along, so it doesn't all pile up for the days I am home. I was tired and sometimes a little cranky when I got home.

Last week, my first week off, was much better. I still didn't have my meals planned more than a few days in advance, but I did manage to keep up with all the housework as it came along AND get in a full weeks worth of lessons. This week was even better because Adam has had the whole week off too! It's been so much fun to have him just home here with us, and I have been able to "get more done" with him here to distract Ezekiel. Zeke, in case you don't know, is totally a Daddy's Boy. It's Papa he runs to with an owie, or cries for in the night, or who gets the honor of escorting him to the bathroom ;)  Really, I don't know what Ezekiel (or I) am going to do next week, when Adam has to go back to work. I'm hoping I have the baby before then, so we can buy a few more days with him! Really, in our dream life, Adam has a job that makes a bunch of money and that he can do from home. :) 

It was a great job, working at the library. I liked the people and the work. What I especially liked was the way thousands of books passed right through my hands every week, and I read so much more than I would have had that not been so. And, as a super incredible only-a-homeschooler- can-appreciate bonus  - library employees DO NOT PAY FINES. I know. I went to the library as only a patron today, and had to mark the due date on my calendar when I came home. It was sad to be a civilian once again.

I have used my time off these past two weeks to start reading through the pile of books that I checked out before I quit. This weekend, if I'm not laboring, I will type upa book review post because I am really very excited about a few of the books, and must share. Till then, Good night and God Bless!

Friday night the beautiful ladies of our homegroup BIble study took me out to dinner and called it a Baby Shower, thereby leaving the men and kids behind :) They had a babysitter though, and spent the whole night fellowshipping so really it was a win-win situation  and we did not feel guilty in the least.

The plan was to go to P.F. Changs, which I have never been to, but heard great things about. That didn't really work out though, because  when we got there we were told there was a 2 hour wait! That was about all the time we had, what with husbands and nursing babies at home, lol :) So, the Cheesecake Factory next door got our business instead (still a 1 hour wait), and the ladies blessed our family and our new baby with some of the cutest gender-neutral jammies and the softest blanket I've ever seen, PLUS a gift card to one of my favorite stores, Target. (the other one is Costco of course. Did you even have to ask?)

After my night out with the ladies, I must have been feeling pretty chatty still, because I got online and read blogs (like I do every night) but THIS time I left comments at 5 or 6, instead of just stalking like I normally do . And, wouldn't you know it, everyone says it, but it's really true, when you leave comments, you receive comments, because the next day I had 5 commentors here in my own little slice of blogosphere. How fun! I love comments people, so keep 'em coming!

While Friday evening was fabulous, I must admit that Friday morning dawned rather inauspiciously. Friday is Adam's day off, but when he is not home breakfast for the kids and I is usually a rotation of oatmeal, eggs & toast or biscuits, or pancakes. Adam prefers waffles to pancakes, so I set to making a double batch, refering to my recipe since I don't make them often enough to have memorized it yet. All was well until half way though when I went on "auto chef" and  instead of separating the eggs and beating the whites for nice light waffles, I simply added the whole eggs to the milk and oil like I do for pancakes, and mixed that in with the flour mixture before I relized what I had done! I was so bummed to have wasted all that AND ruined a meal (NOT the first time) that I wanted to cry (hey I'm pregnant, and I'll cry if I want to!).

However, the resulting mix DID look a lot like pancake batter, with roughly the same proportion of ingredients, and Adam thought it was worth a try, so I added a little sugar and poured them on the griddle. Adam ate enough to convince me that he really DID think they were ok, and the kids didn't seem to notice anything except that they weren't waffles, lol. For my own part, I thought they tasted a little      egg-y,  but still edible, especially with yummy real maple syrup! So I guess all's well that end's well, but really, if I blogged about every time I messed up a meal, the few readers I do have would quickly cry "enough already!" and leave me to my culinary flops. :) So please stay , and my next post will probably be about books or contain cute pics of my kids, with a birth story hopefully following very soon!  

Today, Adam declared, was a good day. After church and fellowship, lunch and reading the newspaper, I decided to finish painting the front porch swing, which we have been swinging on half painted for over a month. When Adam came out to check on my progress, here's what he saw:

(Laugh) Actually, it was very hard for me to let them take over this "chore" because I like to paint, and of course I wanted it done "right." But I also  want them to have fun doing real activities, and anyway, it was only the underside. I refrained from correcting them or grabbing the brushes out of their hands, and a good time was had by all.

When the girls and I went back in the house, this is what we saw:

Ezekiel refuses to take an "official" nap anymore, but it doesn't take him long to fall asleep while cuddling with Papa, which actually works out pretty well. When the Sleeping Beauties slept, the other princesses slipped into their best. When Noelle came to ask me to help her put on "lots of skirts" under her dress to make it "pouf out," I had a sudden idea inspired by the Usborn Book of Living Long Ago and seizing a nearby crib size blanket, I tied it around her waist in the fashion of a roll farthingale, with the extra in back creating an excellent bustle. They stuck silk flowers in their hair and viola!

If you look really closely you may be able to see some white paint still on Noelle's legs :) Arianna's was mostly on her hands.

So aside from a little football (Go Chiefs!), a good dinner, some wrestling with Papa and reading with Mama, that was our Sunday; how was yours?

Try to picture this, because Adam wouldn't  take a picture even though I asked him to: the kids came to visit me at the library yesterday and this is what they were wearing: Noelle was in a purple leotard that is at least as old as she is, (if you know my kids at all, you'd recognize it). It used to have Disney princesses on it but all that remains of them is a big brown stain marking the spot. Under the sheer skirt of the leotard she was wearing pink floral capris that have likewise seen better days, especially around the knees, and  - this is the best part - pink Converse tennis shoes, one in her size, and one two sizes too big, seeing as how it is Arianna's, AND they were both right shoes. Can you see it?  

Arianna was also in a purple leotard, which, like Noelle's, I usually never let out of the house, seeing as how its too low cut in the front and loose in the behind, though she had that part covered up with some little pink pajama shorts; on her feet were brown sherpa boots.  At least Ezekiel was wearing shorts and a tee shirt, though they didn't exactly match, and two shoes of his own on the correct feet. Ay yi yi yi YI.

I have designated Wednesday nights to my picture post day, but my rechargeable camera batteries are no longer holding a charge long enough for me take the picture of Arianna's First Scrapbooking Page that I intended to post. So in all fairness to Adam, who really is a good Papa, whatever his fashion failings may be, here is a picture from last month depicting how the kids look when they are hanging out with ME:

Arianna is in her bathing suit, which she rotates in with her leotards even though no water play at all is on the horizon; Noelle, who likes to go topless, is only wearing a skirt; Ezekiel is wearing only his briefs, which at the time was greatly reducing the number of 'accidents' we were having to clean up in a day, and I am in my jammies, though it was indeed well past noon. We are making a Fall wreath with the silk flowers, and contrary to the way it looks, Ezekiel is NOT making a face at me, but is mearly returning a 'berry' that he decided to taste test.

So there we are in all our glory, and all I have to say in my defense is, at least we are in the privacy of our own home. Sheesh. :)

*My father in law (whom I call Dad, lacking a relevant one of my own) is coming to visit tomorrow! Yeah! He is always fun.

*This conversation took place between my brother and I last night. I will name him because I do not want him hiding from you:

ME: Ezekiel is really smart, but he falls and hits his head so much, I am afraid he's going to do some serious damage...

RONNIE: (laughing) Naw, Naw...I used to hit my head all the time...(laughs again as he realizes where I am about to go with this)

ME: Um,  are you refuting or supporting my theory?... LOL :)

*Yesterday we: 1.  We "discovered" a new part of town, which boasted some cute little cafes that may beg our return  2. made a new friend and 3. began negotiations to buy a "new used" van. Not bad for an evenings work.

* Earlier this week we began our study of ancient Egypt, and the girls were intrigued by many things (mummys of course) but also, mud houses. Which of course they wanted to try to make on their own. Since I'm pretty sure that this is suggested by someone somewhere as a great hands on activity when studying ancient Egypt (along with play-doh cuniform, which we will also do) I went with it, and was pleased that they generated this activity theirselves.  

We were momentarily distracted from the mud pile when we stepped outside though, because it had started to sprinkle.  Dancing in the rain is also a favorite activity of ours, but there simply wasn't enough this time, and Arianna declared that she had "wanted it to pour." "Pray," I told her, and so, in our front yard, she got down on her knees and clasped her little hands and prayed for it to pour. As soon as she got up, she said, "Mom I prayed, but IT"S NOT WORKING." Wherefore she got to hear my little speech on how, while God hears all our prayers, He Does Not Always Answer Them and He Knows Best.  But in the end I also threw in a Give it a Few Minutes clause, after which they advanced to the mudpile. And wouldn't you know it, not a minute after the first mud wall was erected that rain came POURING down - I mean buckets. At first they all (with me in the lead) ran for shelter, but when Adam reminded Arianna that she should thank God for answering her prayers, and added a caution to Be Careful What You Pray For, they decided to venture back out - and sat there for quite some time, wallowing in the mud in the pouring rain. I wish I could have gotten a picture, because Ezekiel especially was too cute.

Next time, which will be sooner than last time, I promise, I will tell you a REALLY random story that should have you saying "God is so good to us, and His ways are so awesome." Because, you know He is, and they are :)

Well, we had a wonderful week with my mother-in-law visiting, it is really fun to see the kids so excited to see her and show her all the things that have become quite commonplace to Adam and I!

And now we are on to our next adventure - we are spending this week visiting with my Father-in-law and his wife, and our 14 and 12 year old brother and sister. It was a l-o-n-g 12 hour drive yesterday (but hubby did all of it - YEA ADAM!) but we made it here easily and safely, Praise God. AND as an added bonus we stopped by The House of Igarashi and made the real life acquaintance of the whole Ig clan, except for Mr. Igarashi himself, who was away at work. It was such a nice visit, Adam and I had a great time chatting with Jen and Coie, James was nice enough to share all his toys with my kiddos, and the other kids were great fun, both playing with our girls and talking with us, and sharing the intricasies of life on the farm.  Oh, and Ryann made some excellent zuccini bread! I hope we can make a return visit soon, it may be the start of a beautiful friendship!  

Tomorrow, Adam's older sister is also coming to visit from Missouri - a rare treat! So, you may not hear from me from me much this week. But next week it will be back to school and work as usual, so I'll see you then!  

I am way overdue for a new blogpost, but I have, what I think anyway) are fairly good reasons: first we had family visiting for a good, though short visit. The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie and Uncle (Dh's teenage sibs). Even though it was hot, we made good use of their hotel pool, and even ventured out to the park on their last day. AND Adam and I got them all to watch Fiddler on the Roof, one of my favorite movies, and I think it was enjoyed by all. After they left I didn't feel very well for a couple of days again - my allergies have just been brutal the past 2 months almost. I am allergic to pretty much everything that grows here on God's green earth, but at least I had had 26 years to build up tolerance in Califronia: here everything is new and my poor immune and respiratory systems just don'[t know what to do. Ah well, even with all my miserableness, I am so glad God has brought our family to this beautiful state, and I am not hankering to go back to Cali anytime soon!

Since I have been away from the blogosphere  so long there are a lot of little tidbits of news to share. I guess I Will continue witht he oldest first: Ezekiel is starting to potty train! He is only 18 months, but everytime he sits on the potty, he pees. Yea! Now he just has to learn to ONLY go when on the potty! He does sometimes let me know when he has to (or has already) by tugging on his diaper, so I am not without hope that he will be an easy trainer, boy that he is.  More updates as this story develops!

Second, yesterday, we bought these very cool Planet Earth DVD's at Costco. The series is all about getting shots of hard to reach places ( like the Andes) and rarely seen animals (snow leopards). There are five discs, and three episondes on each disk (I think). So far, we have watched  From Pole to Pole, which was very good, and Mountains. Both had just enough commentary that it didn't distract from the gorgeous views, but the latter did mention some "old Earth" views. Consider yourself forewarned :>

I think perhaps I will stop here, just to keep you coming back for more! Love, V

You know you're a parent when that *pebble* in your show turns out to be a Cheerio

AND

You get a splinter - from a Lincoln Log.

That splinter really hurt. Yes, they both happened to me and on the same day, no less. (tiny sigh)

I love how  Ali always signs off on her blog: Enjoying them, because of Him 

I really am, and that's why it was just a small, delf -deprechiating sigh :) more later, Veronica 

Some people have this idea that homeschoolers, or christians, or christian homeschoolers, ;) are wierd. Gena just recently commented on this, and Dell has mentioned in the past that her daughters looking forward to a visit to the dentist might be considered abnormal in some circles :) .Up for your consideration I have two items that I'm guessing wouldn't occur in every household in America, but I could be wrong:

A few days ago I was slicing carrots for stir-fry and Arianna (who loves carrots) came in and kept stealing them, excited and calling them "carrot cookies," their round shape apparently making them much cooler and yummier than the sticks I usually give them. So yummy in fact that Noelle, who usually uses her carrots only to scoop more ranch dressing into her mouth, ate nearly a whole carrot herself! I did encourage her a little, occasionally asking if she'd like more carrot cookies. I had to peel more for our meal, but whatever works!

This morning, Arianna was channeling Olivia from this very cute book (with great illustrations) Super Completely and Totally the Messiest. Olivia is the neat one, with the super clean room, so to stay in character, Arianna cleaned up her room, and very well I might add, singing the whole time. I for my part encouraged her imaginative endevours by not forgetting to call her Olivia and pointing out small messes to her, LOL. Whatever works. Noelle, for her part decided to be Sophie, who is *totally the messiest,* but rather than make new messes, she just opted not to help clean up :)

And finally today, my kids, whom I think are SO blessed to be able to homeschool, thought it would be fun to walk around the house wearing big heavy backpacks stuffed with books, then had me move their little table from the kitchen into the living room where we normally have lessons so they could "sit at their desk and *play school* "  Too goofy. I should have given them a long boring lecture  

so what do you think? Normal or not so much? I guess you'r enot thinking about us at all, judging from the lack of comments to this blog.....

Last weekend at small group Ezekiel got ahold of a juice box and was poking the straw in the little hole and pulling it back out again. It wasn't an accident - he did it very deliberately several times, and everybody was remarking on how that was actually pretty impressive for a 17 month old.   We all strarted laughing  (good naturedly) however when I mentioned that his gross motor skills had yet to catch up with his fine motor skills. And as if to prove that point, Ezekiel started to walk away - that is, his upper half started to go, but his feet forgot to move, and he would have face planted on the deck had Adam not caught him.

Ah well, I suppose there will be plenty of time to perfect walking later. He might get more practice if he wasn't always insisting, as only a toddler can insist, on Adam or I carrying him. :)

After having two girls it is fun for me to watch Ezekiel and realize how different boys really are. He is such a smart little cookie (not that that is what makes him different from the girls, 'cause they are smart too) and I have so much fun watching him learn and explore everyday - this is one of my favorite ages I think (he is 17 months). Anyways, here is what, in my book, makes him such a BOY:

* He instinctively knew how to both crawl along while pushing a little car/truck AND how to make vehicle noises that are surprisingly (to me anyway) realistic. You can be sure that neither I nor the girls taught him these things, and Adam likewise claims innocense.

* When he sees a pile of dirt, he plays in it. Since we are putting in a fence, we have several piles of dirt currently conveniently located around our yard (where the posts are/will be), and while the girls couldn't care less, Ezekiel has been completely content to sit and poke at it with his hands, a shovel, a stick, whatever. Too cute, though in the end he sometimes resemble the "noise covered in dirt" that you so often see as the definition of boy.

*He sleeps with an ever rotating group of cars, trains, and trucks in his crib.

However, lest you think that he is all brawn and no brains, I will point out his intellectual side as well: aside from the trucks, he also insists on a book or two with him every night, which he reads very intently upside down (always upside down, I don't know why). His current faves are the little Beatrix Potter books - classics, of course.  

He also has a sensitive side: he is a super cuddly baby (which I love, of course) and he will hold and hug (his sisters) dolls very gently and sweetly. I caught him doing this yesterday, right before he "fed" the doll a wooden train.  

What can I say? I love this little guy. And after reading this, don't you too? Anyone who wants to talk arranged marriage, just drop me a line :)

*  

There is a lot I *should* be doing right now, but I just wanted to get up a quick post. Ezekiel Has been kind of cranky lately because he is getting molars in - it seems like 3 at once, and I felt the top left had actually broke though today. Poor little man, he was fussy fussy fussy till I finally realized why and gave him a little pain reliever , then I sat down held and in no time at all he had fallen asleep right in my arms at like 6:00 at night! He hardly ever falls asleep *off schedual* so that was a big deal. He slept for an hour and seemed to feel better when he woke up, and best of all, he still went to be on time! Well, actually a half an hour late, because it was such a nice day today we were paying out side and Adam barbequed, and we ate outside, then while we were chatting with our neighbors the girls had fun running and rolling around on thier lush think grass (much nicer than our prickly weedy lawn. give us time, we just moved here) so we didn;t get inside till 8:00 - and we still had to take baths! But we made them quick. 8:30 seems to be the new summer bedtime, and I guess I can live with that. I have never changed bedime before - its been 8 since the day Arianna was born (though of course, back then, she woke up again at 10, and 12, and 2...). But the kids are getting older and it seems to be working for us.

Poor Noelle got two bad splinters today at the same time, right in the pads of her hands (is that a place? the soft part right below her fingers?) and she was such a trooper, she held real still while I worked at getting them out, but she cried! Not loud howling wails or anything, but sobbing words "it hurts, mama, it hurts, owie mama, owie..." Break my heart! I tried to be so careful, and the first one came out real easy, but the second one broke THREE times, and the third little piece is still in there. I hope it will work its self out on its own, but otherwise I will have to go at it again tomorrow. :(  

When we were putting the kids to bed tonight, Arianna told me "Mom, when you were getting Noelle's splinter out, and she was crying, it made me almost cry too." :( She is a very empathetic child, which is very sweet, and also makes it easier to discipline her gently, because she can imagine "how it would feel if that happened to her."  However, while I was working on the splinter, Arianna told me, "Mom, when I get a splinter, I want you to give me some medicine to put me to sleep THEN you can take it out" !!! funny girl, I don't know where she got the anasthesia idea from, but I did explain to her that only a doctor can administer THAT kind of medicine. Then at beditme she was still thinking about it, and wanted to know if it was a medicine that she could chew or not :) She's a cute kid, and she's all questions lately. I try to never never answer *just because* or some such nonesense, but sometimes, I must confess, my answers are not as well thought out as they could be. I hope I don't squelch her desire to learn. :)

This week we read about ants (something we have in abundance around here, though thankfully, not in the house.) Arianna wanted to see them eat, so we set out a cookie on the driveway and they were all over it today. Then the handy man came and ran the cookie over, which I think helped the ants because now it is in smaller pieces, even though some of the ants were unfortunately sacraficed in the process. :) More on why the handyman was here next time. Ooo - can you stand the suspence? :)

Well, this wasn't a very short post, but I typed it quickly, so no doubt it is full of typos and grammatical errors, and for that I am sorry, but I just want to get it posted and jump in the shower, so thatnks for bearing with me!  

Phew! for the past week I have been up to my ears in painting. This was the result of several converging factors: 1) the previous owners/painters of our house did a SLOPPY job  - all the walls were painted in various shades fo decent colors, but those colors are also on the ceiling, the chair rail, the baseboards, the door frames/trim, even on the switch plates and outlet covers! And the latter is just plain laziness, because all it takes is the removal of one little screw to get those things off and out of the way. oy vey.    2) we bought a new bookshelf, to match the other totally beautiful one we got in January (Costco, of course). But the thing is a monster, so we thought, better paint before we put it together, to save having to move it when it came time to paint (clever, huh?). 3) That little extra tax money that helped with the financial aspect of this endevour. BUT - I am so excited for the result because the room looks so much nicer now - I even have a little reading corner set up now with my rocker and ottoman next to one of the bookshelves; all it needs is floor lamp to complete it. Well, really it *needs* nothing, but of course we still have big plans for how it could be further improved!

We also spent all day Saturday driving around to look at some properties. Like many of you, we dream of a small homestead (like many of the rest of you are already living) and Adam thought we could actually afford some land at this time, though we would not want to build our dream house on it for 4 or 5 years at least! Still thats so exciting! We were working poor growing up and I always kind of doubted that i'd ever even OWN a home, let alone get a chance to design my dream one! And to clarify, we're not talking castles in spain here, just something simple, but room enough for 4 or 5 kids or so :) (NO, I'm not pregnant). BTW, in our meanderings Arianna caught a tick, but luckily we caught it crawling on her cheek (shrudder) before it bit her. She didn't seem fazed, and i predict a lot more tick checks as the weather warms up. sigh.  

And lastly, we have been thinking of getting a dog for quite some time actually, but didn't really want to yet because we have a small house and a small unfenced back yard, and a small daughter who is afraid of most critters that move. But today in the local paper we saw an ad for a free 7 year old German Shepard that  "needs kids." Thats what it said. so we'll see. there were also free lab mixes, but they were puppies, and I don't want a puppy unless adam is serious about training it, because there is nothing worse than a big, uncontrollable dog, and don't know if the Dog Whisperer does the east coast. Anyway, that's all the news thats fit to print. Back to lessons tomorrow, we took the *day off* to catch up on the one billion and one birthday, graduation, and new baby cards i have to make. Please don't ask how many I got done, it was not a very productive day, and there is still laundry to fold and dishes to do. What I am doing here then?!?! :) good night!     

This week I had two fun days at the library and one slow one (today). Since I know you all are just dying to know, I will commence to give you a little glimpse into My Life as a Library Page.

I arrive at work a few minutes after 3:00, not becuase I'm lazy or irresponsible (as I know some of you are thinking) but because as soon as Adam gets home, I kiss him and get in the car, and still that is as soon as I can get there, especially if, like today, I get stuck behind the mailman, a schoolbus, AND at all 3 red lights.) Anyhow, it's no matter that I am not perfectly punctual; there is no time clock, so I simply stay a few minutes later and my conscience is assuaged. The first thing I do (after stashing my purse) is check in any books from the inside book drop, and cart them. Carting is not so easy! Each cart is organized like a section of a mini-library, but they must be created from scratch, without all the cheats of the surrounding books that you get when shelving books. When that is done I check the outside book drop, and cart those. If then I usually spend about an hour cleaning up the library: picking up loose books, strainghtening out shelves, browsing for books to use in our homeschool...ooops, maybe I shouldn't have confessed to that! After that I will shelve a cart or two (easiest to shelve: adult fiction; hardest to shelve - juvenile fiction: it's always a mess, and there are too many series). Then I check in more books till my shift is up. There! - everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask!

In an email to a friend the other day I mentioned that despite a plethora of good books at our library, the kids around here seem to check out nothing but SpongeBob and Captain Underpants. And she wrote back something that in the past my husband and I have also said, and that is:

"At least they're reading."

I disagree. If a child ate absolutely nothing but candy and cookies all day we wouldn't expect anyone to say "Well, at least they're eating," and consider their nutritional needs met. Books like those mentioned and many others are just that - junk food for your brain. Kids need to feed their brains with good ideas and characters: faith, honor, nobility, bravery, respect, modesty, etc etc. What kind fo model is Captain Underpants to emulate? And don't even get me started on SpongeBob. Reading books like that is NOT better than watching t.v., I don't care what anyone else says. If all you're reading is junk you might as well be watching t.v. and save a tree. By the way, this goes for adults too: Do you know how many romance novels I check in daily? I guess they are for the hours when soap operas aren't on.

(whew). Ok, I think I'm done. I had planned on writing more, but I think this is a good stopping place. Here's a work related anecdote: But first the background: I work two 3 hour shifts, and one 4 hour shift at the library weekly):

Tuesday I stayed a little after my shift to talk with one of the other pages, and I thought Adam would be wondering why I was taking so long to get home. But when I got home he was like "What are you doing here?" "Huh?" I was genuinely confused, so he spelled it out for me: "I thought you worked till 7 tonight?"

D'oh! Well, so I did. But, like I mentioned, they're flexible so I made up the extra hour today. Still, I felt pretty silly. :) Ah, but this reminds me of something I really did want to blog about, and that's this: I came across a book today in which the author (a woman) argued that life was too risky for women NOT to work. One should not "depend on a man for money."  Your husband could die! Lose his job! Leave you! And woe to the woman who finds herself thrown into the workforce with no marketable skills.

In my opnion, this argument is flawed: life is risky either way. But for me, the risks that would be encountered by letting someone else raise my kids either in day care or public school, the risk of losing my authority over them, of losing them to the world, far out weighs the few benfits I can see of working outside the home. (Ok, yes I have a job now, but c'mon it's 10 hours a week, it deosn't feel like a *real job*). Plus, what price could you put on all the things I'd miss  - all the smiles and laughs and new accomplishments and funny sayings? No thank you, I think I'll stay home, enjoying them while I can, and taking lots of pictures too look back on when they're grown (in between visits :) )

Although Noelle did say last night that she didn't want to get married, she wanted to stay with us forever. Ok by me :) 

Well, when I started this blog I anticipated adding a little entry at least every other day, but that obviously hasn’t happened, and this last break was the longest yet. Truthfully, I just have not felt like using the computer at all lately. But for those of you who may still be reading, here are a few highlights from the last week or so:

Last weekend we went to a historic beach community not too far away. We toured the city, then got a hotel room right on the beach, played in the sand a little, ate out, got some funnel cake at a local street celebration that just happen to be going on at the same time, went to bed, and woke up and played on the beach some more before heading home. It was a nice mini vacation and a fun way to explore our new home state.

While the cat is away, the mice will play.

We found this out when we came back from the beach and discovered mouse droppings in more than one room of our house, though he thankfully did not get into any of our food. My mom thought this odd, but later I thought, even though I sweep at least twice a day and usually 3 times, there is generally enough food on our kitchen floor at any given time to feed a small army of mice. There is just no keeping up with a one year old boy who seems to think that food tastes better while eaten on the go, though in his defense, I am a messy cook. J Anyhow we set a trap for him, and the first night he didn’t show up, but on Tuesday morning Arianna (who generally prowls the house o’ a morn before the rest of us wake) woke us up with “Papa, I saw the mouse in your trap, but I didn’t touch it. I just layed down and looked right at it, but I didn’t touch it.”  It was a strange thing to wake up too, and only later did I start thinking, I REALLY hope she really didn’t touch it. I generally trust her but, “methinks the lady doth protest too much!”

After three weeks of very warm weather, we thought it was safe to garden, but I guess we have more to learn about this new climate, because no sooner did we get some sprouts, did we get another frost! I’m pretty sure those baby veggies are lost, but we have more seeds. We also lost something else: last fall we had some pumpkins around for decoration (we don’t carve them) and when it was time to make way for the holly and evergreens Adam took the pumpkins and buried them in the backyard where the grass was  nonexistent, thinking it couldn’t hurt as a fertilizer. Well what do you know, the other day in that same spot are 4 little pumpkin sprouts popping up! I was excited for our surprise crop, but like I said, I think they were lost too. Considering the amount of seeds in any one pumpkin, I have not given up hope that more will spring up. J