What a beautiful day it is here. 

Is spring springing where you are?

I was just perusing our plants yesterday and noticed all the baby leaves on the bushes and trees are "freezer burnt" about half way down.  Knowing leaves don't regenerate until NEXT spring ~ I sighed and accepted the fact that they will just have to look that way all summer long.  Still, I was amazed that the deep freeze that happened all last week didn't kill my tulips.  Hearty little ladies~!

Okay, so EEEEMommy gave me great directions on how to upload a picture onto this blog~!  THANKS a bunch, EEEE!  I have tried to get onto any and all hsblogger pages, including my own, for the past couple of weeks and have not been able to.  I am just directed to that icky orangey brown blank screen with a frustrating little "Done" alerting me at the bottom that it had failed to connect to the desired blog.  Aaaack.  But, I fully intend to get some photos uploaded this week.  I have some pretty cool ideas I want to show you.

I think we have been fighting viruses for six whole weeks.  We take turns like every good homeschooling family should do.  So sharing, so giving... I never thought I'd wish my kids wouldn't share.  Last night Zoozoo had a 103.6 fever.  >sigh<   Here we go again.

I've been too busy spring cleaning and weeding out a huge pile for Goodwill to do any artwork.  I'm waiting to get the next painting for a child gone to heaven too early.  I should start that one late spring. 

My Zoozoo was stashing her money.  I found nearly 100 dollars the other day in her room!!!  I asked what she was saving it for.  She said, "A baby sister."  Oh, my heart aches to adopt a new baby... How do you tell your little girl that her saving is in vain?  I just told her that God is the God of miracles, and you never know what His plans are.

Will be window washing today... maybe a little organizing... maybe a little oil painting.  STILL wish I could post pictures here.  I'll look into the "Help" button and try to figure it out ~ again ~.

Here's a cool contest... I LOVE the thought of winning something unique, something I cannot buy anywhere.

Check it out!

www.homeschoolblogger.com/nsremom/296680

Okay, so you have to cut and paste... I think.  Not sure if I did it correctly.  Techno-twit, here.  Why don't I have a little friend next door who is a homeschooled fifteen year old techno-girl/babysitter?  Maybe when we move...  I gotta pray for that right NOW.

Seeing how the only thing I'm intelligent enough to change about my blog is... letters, words and choosing a new template.  Here's a fresh template design.  Not altered of course, because that would take some computer savvy.  I actually tried to change my avatar.  I even found the screen and tried to download a mini watercolor I had done years ago into that little box thingee.  It supposedly downloaded to 100% but then never uploaded.  Is that right?  I'm staring at my screen whispering... is that it?  Do I push "save changes?"  What now?  I'm still represented by that little funky twiggy lady with books on her head and curly legs.  I also have the frustrating little porch right here on my blog... which makes me look at the little pad outside my front door and think, "I wish it were a big, Southern Porch."

I quit.

'Puters frustrate me.

Why can't I just paint my screen and have it magically change???

Okay.  enough of that.

What do you typically look forward to when spring is right around the corner?   I yearn for warm weather, flowers, green grass, spring winds, my kids running in the back yard with their arms flailing, return of the summer birds, my garden, nature walks in the park, flying kites and air hogs airplanes, picking strawberries at the local U-Pick, washing my windows and smelling the sweet breezes through them, hosing out my garage (and van! LOL) and putting a smooth coat of paint on the walls, thunderstorms, spring bulbs peeking here and there, and fresh mulch around my gardens.  Spring sure is a season of "relief".

Ugh, we've been sick for two weeks now with cold/flu symptoms.  I have been making a homemade chicken soup a few times and am thoroughly finished with chicken soup for the rest of winter.  It's a basic soup, you know, a chicken boiled in water with salt, three cloves of garlic, an onion, some carrots, celery, powdered ginger, pepper, parsley, a bay leaf... let it all cook down, remove the chicken, bone and reserve the breasts for chicken salad while putting all the rest of the meat in the soup (amazing how much there is besides those breasts... or like my sensitive friend likes to call them... "chests" >grin<).  So, throw in a few leftover veggies in the end, and voila... basic chicken soup (with no msg or artificial anything) to aid in healing of body and mind!!  Okay, so that's a bit dramatic.  I do have a whopper case of cabin fever.

Have any of you had problems with homeschoolblogger?  I seem to have to set a new password all the time, and the new format is difficult to manage.  It seems as if it is always freezing up.  And even though my Control Panel says I can allow comments, for some reason the option has been unavailable on my blog for a while.   grrrrr.   I'm actually thinking of moving to another blog hoster.  We'll see.

Today, while my sickies are sicking, I'm going to try uploading a picture from my digital camera onto this blog.  We'll see how that goes!  (had some really cool photos but can't figure out how to get them here ~ this stubborn woman is actually giving up on this.  What a techno-twit I am!)

Oh, and someone asked about our math decision.  We are doing Singapore math, some math workbooks from Walmart, and the local public school's textbook I picked up at a second hand sale.  We rotate.  It keeps things interesting.

In several weeks the manoftheplace and I are going to our local homeschool convention.  I can't wait to peruse it all!!  After the second or third aisle, my thoughts usually vaporize completely and I zone-out from so much information all at once... so this year I'm going to organize, keep to a list and budget, and stay focused!

We have been busy and sick and holidaying (is that a word? It is now.) and schooling.  Way too busy to blog, but the good news is:  I got a digital camera for Christmas!  Well, manoftheplace and I bought it for each other.  Do you ever do those kinds of things for gift giving with your spouse?  You know, you want something specific but don't "need" it... so the holiday becomes the excuse for buying it?  We do this all the time.

Hey... we have had a serious ant problem on our island in our kitchen.  They aren't IN the island, rather they come out of the half wall on the back of the island and creep onto the countertop.  SICK.  I have tried every product at our local superstore, every remedy, every grandma's potion.  nothing.  The smarties are still coming all the time.

A friend recommended a product only available at our local hardware store.  She promises it will work.  If it doesn't we're tearing out the island, sealing up the foundation, and reinstalling it.  Desperate situations call for desperate measures.

So, I had to laugh out loud like a crazy woman at the hardware store.  I was reading the back panel of the Terro Ant Killer.  Here is what it says:

ATTRACTS AND KILLS ALL COMMON HOUSEHOLD ANTS INCLUDING:
Argentine ants, Ghost ants, Cornfield ants, Pavement ants, Acrobat ants, White footed ants, Little black ants, Odorous house ants, Crazy ants, Big headed ants, and other sweet eating ants.

LOL!!!   
Acrobat ants??? Did they leave their friends, the fleas, at the circus and join a colony??  
Excuse me... CRAZY ants? (shouldn't that be spelled Crazy Aunts?)  
Also, aren't ALL ants "Little black ants", or was this added for the ego protection of the Ant Novice in pretending it's an actual species?  
How did they know their feet were white?  In fact, how would I know their feet were white?
Odorous ants... who smelled them, and how did they keep the ant from flying up their nostril?  
Big headed ants versus what, Big butted ants?  
And, in case they actually die and come back to haunt you... GHOST ants.  

GOTTA love it.

Man-of-the-Place and I have decided to go digital.  I just spent $70 on developing 35mm film... hubby's 40th birthday photos, Thanksgiving photos, TN vacation photos, and Geckmeister's 9th birthday photos... and you know what?  75% of them didn't turn out. GGGGGRRRRRRrrrrrr.  ALL those moments are now only sweet memories with nothing but grainy, dark shadows for film.

So, being completely Digitally Challenged, I was wondering if you might just tell me what camera you use and why you like or don't like it?  Maybe you heard a horror story about why such-n-such camera is awful? Maybe you wished that your megapixelthingees were different~?

I'd LOVE to know!

Thanks,

My friends, The Yoders, think we're liars now. (by the way, yes, they are Mennonite/Amish upbringing... how interesting is that!?)  We invited their family for Thanksgiving dinner with many descriptive warnings about our funky, extended family.  I think they came just to get a bang out of seeing these strange people we have been referring to, but too embarrassed to introduce, for nearly a year.

So, this is my description of the last Thanksgiving dinner spent at The-Man-of-the-Place's Grandmother's cave in the boonies years ago. (Please be aware that after this Thanksgiving which I'm about to describe, we made a firm Pinkie Promise never to spend Thanksgiving anywhere but in our own home): 

First you have The Great Great Grampa who, when spoken to, simply says 'yyyYYYYUUUUUPP!' to everything that is said. 

Then you have The Grump who just sits in the corner, brooding; refusing to speak to anyone. 

Then there was The Aunt whom we had to hide our purses from (who is currently serving 6 years in prison in IL for forgery, drugs, theft, DUI). 

There were her two roommates in attendance... The Lesbian who was eyeing me within minutes, and The Entertainer who was getting jealous as a result of said creepy-eyeing. 

There was The Alcoholic, his wife, and her schizophrenic mother who was making strange noises while eating and chatting to some imaginary person.

Then there was The Gentle Crone who likes "critters" in her swill-like dressing which actually pours from a ladle.  (ie: critters = oysters.  Yeah, scared me when she first called them that the first year.)  She just chews her food and doesn't speak ~ but when she does, she's always kinda pleasant.  A small thing for which to be grateful.

Then there was The Felony-Charged Teenager who shows up tainted by the latest chemical his "friends" have so graciously shared with him. 

Then there was The Cousin, the male teenager who wears makeup, idolizes Liza Minnelli, and wears his mother's clothes. 

Then there was The IcyMIL who has given me approximately nine hugs in nearly twenty years... she's given me eight rubber spatulas, seventeen pots and pans, 30ish Yankee candles, more kitchen gadgets and clothes than I can count... but NO HUGS FOR YOU! 

Then there was The Dog who got smacked in the chops when he peed on the carpet, yet nobody got up to clean it. (Me, the Germophobe Intruder cleaned it up after seeing nobody do it...eeeeewwww) 

Then there was My Man who, thank you dear Jesus, has very recessive genes and doesn't resemble any of them. (NOT kidding here.  They consider him a freak of nature.  145 IQ, college degree, polished, modern and handsome as can be!)

And there was me, holding our little Geckmeister very close and trying to make pleasant conversation about anything which might resemble something normal, but volleying every subject into a haystack.  I really think I could have sold tickets or done a documentary or something had I not been so stunned.  Had Geckmeister been of homeschooling age I might have even made a film directing project of it and put it on this blog just so you would believe it. 

Share Jesus with them, you say?  Yes, we tried that.  Boy, could you hear the crickets chirping and the fleas jumping.  We actually found that to be a great way to empty the room. 

Back to The Yoders.  Five of the afore mentioned people were invited for Thanksgiving.  Guess what?  They actually formed sentences.  They chewed graciously, used napkins and conversed intelligibly.  They said thank you and used utensils.  Nobody shouted or cursed.  Great Great Grandpa said something other than Yup. Of course they left in less than two hours, but still... amazing.  Now we are trying to get a Pinkie Promise out of The Yoders that they have to come to every Thanksgiving from now on, because when they do, giant pods come out of the Mothership and replace our relatives with fairly normal people.

Manoftheplace and I are going to just "rest".  I'm not even "waiting" or "watching" at this point.  I'm so tired of trying to figure out everything and trying to read the signs as to where the Lord *might* be leading.  Know what I mean?  So much of my time has been spent waiting and watching and dreaming for the next thing that I have somewhat overlooked the joy of the moment in my children's lives right in front of me!  I'm always straining to see what's ahead. 

You know, I was hit hard with this very thing... and my eyes flew open to my tendencies to run ahead.  It was during our trip.  We went to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN (awesome aquarium, by the way. You would all love it.).  My kids were peeking at one thing and running off to the next in warp-speed.  Then we saw an opening on the bottom floor to which Geckmeister said... "No!  I wanna go see these fish again!", pointing to a little aquarium to the left which was nearly empty.  We insisted he obey and dragged him along into the opening.  We found ourselves in the glass tunnel which went under all the giant fish tanks.  I started walking and the woman attendant told me to stop and stand on the conveyor belt, please.  It was going so very slowly... I mean slllooooowwwwwlllyyyy and the tunnel was very long and curvy.  My initial thought was, "GREAT... this will take all day and I wanna see the Next Thing." There were many other people of all ages on the belt and do you know what?  It was nearly silent in that tunnel!  We were all calm ~ all staring at things which we would have never seen had we even been casually walking.  We were letting the creator of the museum dictate how quickly we were moving through the tunnel... how amazing!  How relaxed we all were.  How MANY things we would have missed had we hurried.  We noticed and enjoyed even the smallest movements as we went along.  We noticed colors and shapes of fish we had never seen before.  We observed how differently all the fish, sting rays, sharks, sawfish move and glide and interact with one another.  Those creatures actually came alongside the glass and LOOKED at us and STUDIED us because we weren't whizzing past.  God speaks in mysterious ways, my dear friend!

So, I'm standing on His "conveyor belt" and absorbing what He has in front of me.  Yeah, my desires will always be there, but He will have to do the work this time as our strength and resources are tapped out.  I can't believe time hurries along so quickly.  I'm so so so convicted by this.  Sometimes I think I have a lot of work to do to try to slow down.  Then I remember it is just simply stepping onto a conveyor belt... HIS conveyor belt.  I don't have to DO anything to STOP and REST.  Silly me  :o)

Hey!  Here are some crafty ideas...

Check out craft stores now for discounts on craft kits.  I just picked up VBS craft kits suitable for 12 children for less than $4.  I plan on inviting friends over with their kids to put these together while the mommies chat.

Check out dollar stores for scrapbooking stickers, ribbons, buttons, punches, paper, etc... I have found some tremendous deals, even bought pricey stickers in bulk for a dollar per giant pack of 12 sheets, up to five dollars per pack of 50.  I plan on swapping them with other scrapbooking friends for their excess stickers or paper!

Right now there are some really neat school items at Target Stores in their dollar section.  Great for unit studies on America.

Check out Hobby Lobby, if you have one close to you.  They are liquidating their furniture items right now.  I found a cabinet for 16 dollars today.  And it's beautiful, to boot!

Try craft stores right now and stock up on their liquidated items.  They are, believe it or not, making room for Christmas items and need the room.

Check out the floral department for big bags of petals, flowers and stems which have fallen off of the original branches.  They usually clean those bins out right now and you can buy a whole bag for a couple dollars.  They are fun for glue-ons, or to decorate purses, hair clips or flip flops (which are on sale now, too, by the way!)

Stock up on those back to school paints/glue/crayons/markers.  You'll kick yourself next January when you have to buy new ones at full price.

Do you know I do decorative painting professionally on the side for some extra cash?  Do you know what kind of paint the "pros" use?  Plain old bottles of craft paint found everywhere.  Special note... try to stay away from Apple Barrel brand as they are thin and inconsistent with their colors. Also, pay special attention to "matte" or "glossy". 

I painted butterflies on a client's kid's bathroom walls.  The painted butterflies were simple, single colored, about 1 square foot in diameter.  Just a simple butterfly shape.  Then I went to my local office supply store and bought transparent plastic folders in pastel colors and cut out 10 inch butterflies.  I folded them in half and thumb-tacked them right onto the painted butterfly on the wall.  Then I glued a big glittery gem for the head (found by the bag full at craft stores) and finished it off with painted curly antennae and curly-Q's here and there on the walls.  It was cute as a button!

When you find craft stuff cheaply, BUY IT and put it in a plastic tote box.  If you can't figure out what to do with it, I'll bet your kids will.  You see, their brains aren't cluttered with all the junk our adult brains are!  They are so much more creative than we old people are  :o)  If you find a friend who also has a bunch of crafty junk she doesn't need... maybe you could swap?

I have been praying for a while about how in the world to have a more peaceful home.  Amidst the neighborhood kids scooting in and out, my kids squawking at each other from time to time, the stress of being a commission-only family income, health problems, PMS, The Man of The Place going through some extra projects at work, and me trying to keep the too-big Castle from either growing fungus or crawling away... well... let's just say I've been a bit overwhelmed.  I actually find myself longing for a quaint little cottage with a wrap around porch, a white picket fence with some sweet smelling roses intertwined here and there, a not-too-big not-too-little yard with stepping stone paths peeking through soft grass, and about 1/4 the junque we find ourselves "needing".   Doesn't that sound like a wonderful place to rest? 

So, as I was "daydreaming" and "feeling so sorry for myself", something jolted me back into reality.  It was a shout directly from the One Who is always so patient with me... my Father... the One Who made me and knows my heart better than any person alive.  Here's what happened...

Today I was driving on a street which goes over the highway near our home.  I was traveling slowly as I was not too eager about getting to the grocery on triple coupon day any faster than I had to.  Well, just as I started to go up onto the bridge, I happened to look to the right onto the highway below.  What I saw just really struck a chord in my soul.

 On the pavement there were giant semi trucks, cars and all kinds of exhaust-spewing vehicles zooming by at speeds surely exceeding the speed limit.  Just beyond the rumble strip... beyond the gravel strip... and down the grassy embankment in the water-swelled ditch... there she was.  A Mama duck and her little duckling were swimming peacefully.  There she was, amidst the noise and chaos of the traffic, the awful smell of diesel fumes and probably the occasional piece of gravel or cigarette butt flying towards her little world.  There she was swimming gently with her baby.  Her peace amidst the chaos!  It hit me between the heart-chambers that we ALL live somewhat amongst the semi trucks, the gravel, the foul smells and the Big Things flying past all too quickly. We live here in this sin-torn world and must find peace through the Lord within its chaos.

That Mama duck wasn't packing her feathers and waddling to the nearest cottage beside a peaceful pond.  She was teaching her little duckling how to survive within a racing, ravaging world!  She kept that little one safe amidst the chaos!

So, there you go.  Now instead of daydreaming about my little cottage, I'm daydreaming about how to be as good a Mama as that little duck is.

So, the Mayor had a quintuple bypass... ouch.  Too many doughnuts, the cardiologist said.  I've made a mental note to avoid doughnuts.

The trip went okay.  It was a long drive... longest I've ever taken by myself.  We woke that morning to massive thunderstorms (figures), but they cleared up by the time we were ready to go (Praise God!).  Unfortunately, I got a migraine headache and had to leave the moment the Mayor got out of ICU.  But all is well and he is resting comfortably at home... being a pain in the neck to his wife as usual  :o)

Well, we have been having a Popsicle Summer... not much planned.... just hanging out and having fun in the sun. But all this lack of structure is getting to my kiddos.  I'm going to start implementing some serious structure this Monday.  First, I'm going to eliminate all but a couple of hours a day with the neighborhood riff raff.  Boy, are those kids poorly behaved, and it's rubbing off on my kids.  Not a good one in the bunch!  Then, we're going to have "organized fun"!  Yeah, typical controlling obsessed homeschool mom....

So, we were driving yesterday, and geckmeister shouts from the back seat, "MOM! DAD! An injured BIRD!!"  and then silence.... and then.... "keep driving... I don't wanna see him die like Speckle did.  I can't handle it."   I didn't know whether to cry or laugh!  (If you're wondering what I"m talking about, scroll down to my other entries)

Yes, it's true.  Our Nasty Mole has decided that the grass is greener three houses down from us.  He is currently feasting on the fortune cookies he brought back from digging a hole to China in their back yard.  Not a good way to keep neighbors from getting ugly.  They are actually blaming me... as if I whispered subliminal suggestions into the little mole's ears about their yard being more delectable than ours.  I gave them the Juicy Fruit idea...

Well, I'm driving four hours with my kids tomorrow to stay with the Man of the Place's grandmother.  The Mayor (her husband) is having triple bypass surgery tomorrow.  Please pray for him... he's 83-ish and is frail.  Please pray we get there safely as the route is a typically dangerous one... and it's supposed to be thunderstorming on top of it.

On a lighter note... I just won a math game from JenIg's blog!!  She's a nutburger, just like me.  What fun to know there is someone out there just as odd as I am... and just as crazy for curry.  Dangerous!!

Today I had a whacko-nutburger day.

 I got up at 7am and mowed 1/2 acre, then pulled out everything from the garage, swept, scrubbed, hosed the floor and cleaned and sorted all the stuff and reorganized it all.  

Then went to take my Dad to the PO in a nearby town to register and deliver his bulk mail... boxes and boxes of it.  

Then got a flat tire on the way home... actually jacked up the car, removed the spare underneath, changed it (fix a flat is worthless junk), took it to be fixed, took my now exhausted from the heat father home, took my mom to get their van at the mechanic, went to have a new tire put on (couldn't be fixed), went to buy a mole trap and set it.  Poor little destructive nasty mole.  (My neighbor told me to put Juicy Fruit gum down the hole.  He'd eat it and it would get stuck in his gut and he'd slowly die.  I like the skewer-kill-instantly idea better. Can't stand to think of something suffering slowly)  

So, after this kind of day, I feel like I'm growing a cape and an "S" is emerging on my chest.  TAAA DAAA!!!!   Wonder Woman.  

Of course I'll feel like a herd of elephants danced the tango on me by morning.  

Sunday morning we took the day off of church... our little girl had a fever the day before, and our church has that 24 hour no fever policy.  So, that beautiful morning, our son comes rushing in screaming, "THE MULCH IS MOVING! GET ME A SHOVEL!  GET THE CAT CAGE!! COME QUICKLY!!"  Yep... we have a most industrious, most destructive MOLE in our most beauteous garden.  I'm not kidding when I say that prisoners should smuggle one into jail with them... they would be free in about 10 hours.

So, our nasty mole has dug channels and tunnels all through our garden and is now venturing into our yard.  What on earth should I do~?????  Really, if you have any ideas, I would be most grateful. 

 Geckmeister the Valiant has been promised $50 if he catches or kills said mole.  He's out there right now with shovel in hand staring at the mulch... been doing it for a half hour now.  I'm starting to think he might be getting obsessed.  But dagnabit... that mole must die!  Ohmygoodness... wait... now he has taken a cardboard box and propped it up with a stick a-la-Christopher-Robin waiting to "trap" the mole! LOLOL!!!  TOO funny.  Now he just came in and asked me, "MOM!  What do moles like to eat??"  He ran to get a carrot  :o)

Zoozoo just stomps on the "squishy spots" and giggles.  Fifty bucks?  She's rather have a fist full of quarters than a flimsy rectangular piece of paper with "50" in the corner any ol' day.

A week ago, The Man of the Place, the kids and I were on our way to church.  We saw a robin get hit on the highway.  Well, the robin didn't die, he just flip-flopped around, much to the horror of my kids.  Daddy the Brave turned the car around and ran out into the four lane highway (CRAZY thing to do, I know!) to rescue the bird.  So, we tended the little bird for three days; feeding worms and berries every two hours. 

Well, then the kids came downstairs sobbing on the third night.  "Speckle died!  Speckle died waaaaaahhhhaaa!"  So, we talked about compassion, and how this little bird was God's, and how He got to decide what to do with him, and on and on.  Then Zoozoo looks up with a tear stained face and says, "We will always help animals who are hurt... except for hippopotamuses because, well, they're just too big."  Then she went on to say, "If Speckle had lived we would NOT have let him go at the zoo because an elephant might have sniffed him up his nose and then he would have died for SURE."

Gotta LOVE kids... I could have a houseful  :o)

So, that is what has been happening so-far this summer vacation.

By the way... I still would very much appreciate any mole help or mole stories...

Just thought I'd give my favorite art supplier FYI...  It's called Prizm Art Supply  (www.prizmart.com).  Good grief, their stuff is cheap ~ and I'm not talking cheap quality, either!  I have no idea how to paste a link in here (I'm ARTSYmama, not TEKKIEmama!), but I'm quite sure it will be easy to find on the web.  Ooooooo... I just inserted the actual website and it turned all pupleish... did I do it????  Did I actually put in a link???  wow.  I'm amazing myself.  We have a store here in Indy and I consistently find things there more cheaply than any other store... and any other resource.  Sometimes CheapJoe's is cheaper, but rarely... and then you have to pay those weighty shipping costs.

I bought a tiedye kit to do with my kids.  We're going to the local thrift shop to buy cheap all cotton shirts and things to tiedye.  The kit I bought (at Prizm) was $12 and it will dye 15 large shirts!  What fun!!!!

Just thought I'd pass this along

I made about $80 at my garage sale yesterday.  As my dad used to say, "Hey, that's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"

So, I was wondering at what point, exactly, do you hold the stick and say, "Hmmmm.... should I have the garage sale, or should I impale my eyeball with this here stick?"  In retrospect, I'm not so sure I should have chosen the garage sale...

My mom and I have agreed that it would be much more fun to just have all our junque with a big FREE sign in front.  Then we could meander through the crowd and talk about how "hardly anything is free anymore... except for air... this garage sale junque... and salvation... by the way, do you know anything about Jesus?"   That'd be fun!

Speaking about the Free Gift... our pastor spoke on Romans chapter 8 today.  I LOVE this chapter!  Such undeserved grace, people!  If you don't remember what's in that chapter, read it sometime before bed, okay?  LOVE it!

We put in our little garden today.  Yep, we call that relaxation around here.  We have tomatoes (only 4 plants this year - "Geckmeister" is allergic!), eggplant (oooooo... eggplant parmesan!), butternut squash, zucchini (does anyone ever spell it correctly?), garlic, radishes... all surrounded by those orange, yellow and red, daisy-looking marigolds.  Oh, and then I planted four strawberry plants ala "ZooZoo", my daughter.  And then planted zinnia seeds, dill and basil.   Yep.  That's it. 

We then had chicken legs on the grill, corn on the cob, green beans, baked potatoes, lemonade, watermelon, and my homemade pecan pie with whipped cream.   Oo lala.  It was tasty.

Then we finished the day by bathing the monkeys and dousing them in Gold Bond medicated powder until they were little ghosts padding around trailing puffy white clouds, slurping Benadryl down their throats, and then reading, smooching and tucking them in.  Did I mention our kids are COVERED in poison ivy?  So much for the fort-building the other day.  Their fort definitely fell into enemy hands... the green, three leaved fuzzy type. 

Any suggestions on how to keep them from scratching?  They remind me of little bear cubs rubbing up against corners of walls all around the house because I won't scratch the unreachable areas on their backs.  NO SCRATCHING....Poor little monkeys!

My goodness... time sure does fly.

I have twelve more days to complete homeschooling for this year. We are so excited for this summer ~ we have so many plans!  Nothing big, just fun projects and such.

My kids made a big fort in the back yard using limbs cut down by our neighbor.  The funny thing is they took vines with thorns and put it all around except for one "secret" entrance... just in case they are pillaged by some offending club :o)   you never know~!

My son is on the end of his allergies... he's only allergic to soy, cola, tomato and salmon.  YAY!!!  I can work around that.  His allergies to the other 28 foods have cleared up... even wheat and dairy.  God is soooooo good!

Having friends over for some fun and pizza... a "white" pizza and a "red" one.  yum!

Having a garage sale in a week and a half.  My whole dining room is flooded with "junque"....  I said last time I'd never have another one.  Here I go again....

Well, the verdict is in... the Man of the Place and I have calculated that it has taken nearly 50 FULL days of work per semester, plus 100's of dollars to be in our co-op... wow... so, The Man of the Place has decided in all his wisdom to back me up in leaving the co-op!   YAY!!!!   A handful of moms and I are "between co-ops" for various reasons, and have decided to have a science project / art project / fieldtrip / fun group which is totally not megastructured.  Sound like a lot of fun!  Our kids are all around the same age, so it should be a blast.  God is faithful!   Leaving the co-op has not been an easy event, as they have not let me just "go" without meetings, interrogations, etc... (yeah, a real interesting pack of ladies), so the "fun" isn't over yet.  However, Manoftheplace has offered to go with me to keep them from any funny business.  Whatta guy!!!!  Boy, do I love that man....