So, I took Exploring Creation with Zoology to bed last night to look over before I went to sleep.  I.am.impressed.  Honestly, I was dreading it.  I mean, how long can you possibly spend learning about birds?  Obviously much longer than I thought.  lol.  I think the girls are going to LOVE it.  I don't think I'll mind it either.  It's broken down into managable lessons, and the experiments are fairly simple as well.  We haven't done as much notebooking as I had planned to do by this point.  I'm hoping this will really jumpstart the girls on notebooking.  I plan to have Benjamin listen and play along too.  He does fairly well with read-alouds as long as he has something to do quietly (he loves to color) while I"m reading.  I am thinking through the whole notebook thing though.  I really, really don't want to use a plain old binder.  So, I'm thinking about putting together the pages for each lesson that we'll need and taking it to Kinkos to be spiral bound with a cover.  I think the girls would much prefer that over a binder.  Let's just say they are horrible about actually putting pages IN their binders.  :-)  We're actually thinking about starting fairly soon, rather than wait until September.  They're already thinking ahead to Zoology II, Ocean Creatures.  :-)  I'm trying to give the kids more input as to what curriculum they want to do.  I spoke with Devin on the way home from our errand this morning.  I told him what we've ordered, and what I have left to get.  He's fine with everything so far.  I asked him if he wants to add a literature program this year.  I told him we could, but I didn't want to hear any whining about his increased work load.  He agreed.  We'll see how well that works.  HA!  :-)  So, I'll be ordering the Lord of the Rings literature study.  I'm actually quite excited about it.  I did tell him we wouldn't have to do it all 4 school days of the week though, we could just do it 3 days a week if he wants.  So, I guess I'll be ordering that soon.  :-) 

I LOVE surprise phone calls.  Rarely do I get them.  lol.  The only people I talk to regularly are my Mom and Heidi.  :-)  I wasn't expecting to hear from my husband for a few more days.  But, he called my cell on the way home from our errand this afternoon.  Since he called from Kuwait, there was no delay!  Yahoo!  :-)  He only had 10 minutes to talk, but he sounded so good.  It's amazing how good they sound when they're away from you.  lol.  He was super excited about Starbucks.  Go figure.  :-)  He drank THREE VENTI frappucinos while he was at the base they draw tanks from.  THREE!  :-)  It's OK.....I know there won't be a Starbucks where he's going.  I hope anyway.....we might be even broker than we are now if there is.  lol.  He's super excited about the brand new trucks they were issued too.  His uparmored hum-vee has 44 miles on it.  That's it.  It's about time he gets some nice equipment.  More often than not, he gets the bottom of the barrel stuff.  He had to tell his driver to turn down the A/C today.  He was cold.  Heehee.  It's always nice to get a phone call when you aren't expecting it.  :-)  Until next time......................