Hubby and I went to the same high school. He graduated the year before I did, so going to his reunions is kind of fun, because I usually see people I also know!

One friend, Debbie D., took a photo of us together at the reunion, and I think it turned out nicely so I'm posting it here:

I was wondering if you've heard of the relatively new company called Teacher's Book Bag?  They sell items on CurrClick, and I also get emails from them periodically.

Today's email was telling of a Labor Day Sale, and five new freebies on their website.  The freebies are hyperlinked, and below is the content of the sale, for those of you who might be interested. 

Each month's "Book Bag" is actually three books to pick and choose from, at three different learning levels.  The sale items in the brochure below are for the August Book Bag, the Preschool File Folder Game Kits Collection One, and  the Kindergarten through First Game Kit Collection One.

I already purchased one of the August "Book Bag"s myself, and it is absolutely amazing!  It is called "The Sun, Seasons, and our Solar System", and it came available at just the perfect time because it came out right when my son was expressing an interest in the solar system.  If you follow the hyperlink, there is even a FULL PREVIEW of the product, which really sold me and helped me know I wanted it. The preview, for me, is smaller than my full screen, therefore hard to read, is not printable, and I can't find a way to hyperlink it (which are all great product security features for a preview...), so just go there and take a look.  [The other two sale items don't persoanally interest me, because at this point I am homeschooling one, and my student is 4th grade.]

So, here's the sale info:

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It is unbelieveable how quickly time flies sometimes!  I can't believe how long ago my last entry already is!

Anyway, we aren't starting our school year until the day after Labor Day. You would think I would use this time to be preparing for start day, but..... Nah.....  I am actually catching up on some housework (which we know, actually, IS preparing for the first day of school), and have been trying to finish some last UFOs (crafting term for (U)n(F)inished (O)bjects).  I finished knitting a baby sweater (need to sew on buttons), matching booties (need to finish sewing the 2nd one), and want to make a matching hat (a set for a charity).  I also made a nice tote, and hope to get a pair of pajamas and a pair of pants made for my ds.

We have a little local fair that I am planning to add these to; entry day is next week, so that's what I've actually been preparing for!

I'll try to post some photos to show these items, but not today. I need to go get going with my day!

Summer is coming to a close, and some of my responsibilities that have been distriacting me outside of my home as well.  My (deceased) mom's house is finally fixed, cleaned, and on the market. Renovations to my own house are (almost) finished. Time to et back into the swing of things.

Trying to work towards a more normal working schedule for my home and homeschool.

Flylady Mondays include:

• dust all surfaces
• sweep/mop/vacuum
• empty all trashes;
• change sheets
• clean mirrors, sliding door, major windows,
• declutter weekly periodicals

...need to check and see if that is all.  Then there are the Flylady "daily"s. 

Morning routine:

• make bed(s)
• morning shower and such; swish and swipe bathroom;
• feed the critturs;
• start the coffee; make the breakfast;
• unload dishwasher, breakfast, vitamins. Check calendar;
• eat the breakfast; quiet time; then rouse, feed, and do Bible time with my boy;
• a load of laundry started;
• make sure dinner plans have been re-booted.

Later in the day routine:

• Look at or create "To Do" list;
• homeschool;
• hit the hot spots (load the breakfast dishes; clear "hot spot" surfaces;
• lunch and recess break/ email, phone calls;
• homeschool in afternoon/ any appointments for the day

After homeschool:

• Clean up school area;
• make sure everything's on hand for dinner;
• some mom "craft time"
• start dinner

Bedtime routine:

• Leave kitchen clean with dishes loaded, dwasher running, coffee set up, counters wiped, sink shined;
• brush teeth, get dressed for bed;
• snuggle in and read, or do computer or watch movie while knitting or crocheting.

So, anyway, I got the sheets changed. I had to major clean my bathroom, because it had been ages... I pretty much have to dry mop the hardwood every day because of the dogs. I've been able to keep up with the dishwasher and coffee every night, but still need to remember to wipe down surfaces.

Majorly, I have boxes to unpack and declutter.  We had hardwood put in last week, and everthing was boxed and removed from the rooms. Now the boxes need to be unpacked. Realistically, a lot of the stuff that got packed needs to be thrown away, given away, or put away. In other words, when we packed up there were piles that should have been dealt with that were just packed. Now they need to be dealt with.

Anyway, time to get on with my day. I got the breakfast/coffee part done, but not the bed made part, nor the shower, nor the quiet time, nor the dishwasher, etc. Gotta get moving.

~D

Time for me to get back to legit bloging here. Sorry I've been so neglectful to anyone who is still subscribed here... I'll try to make reading my blog worth your while.

To start, today there was an excellent blog entry over at Heart of the Matter -- gave wonderful learning game ideas that I wanted to post here so I won't lose them:

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Looking for some fresh ideas to teach geography to your kids? Try one of these activities and sneak a little learning fun into your day:

• Bingo ~ Put together a list of 9-12 geography terms {land features, continents and oceans, countries within a continents, etc}. Provide your kids with 3×3 bingo boards and have them fill the squares with the different geography terms that you are learning. To play, read the definition of the term, specifics about the continent {largest continent, this continent is an island}, or name the capitals of the countries. They have to mark off the matching answer ~ you can make it as easy or difficult as you like!
• ABC’s of the World ~ Our kids love to play this game. We take turns pointing to places on our world map that start with the letters of the alphabet. A ~ Albania, B ~ Belize, C ~ Canada, D ~ Denmark, until we work our way through the alphabet.
• Destination Jar ~ Fill an old jar with strips of paper listing different destinations. We use famous landmarks we’ve studied, latitude/longitude coordinates or just country names. You can also list famous people: kings, queens, explorers or missionaries. Have your child pick a slip from the jar and find the place that matches on a map or a globe.
• Geography Sleuth ~ Give your child a few hints about a location and then let them discover where it is. For example 1) four of the first five presidents were born in this state; 2) the state bird is the cardinal; 3) the Potomac River runs through this state…Virginia!
• Toss the Globe ~ We recently bought an inflatable globe and play a game of catch with it. Whoever catches it has to name where either of their thumbs have landed. Depending on the kid’s ages, they have to tell me capitals, a famous landmark in the area, important features of that country, etc. This is great for learning map features such as mountain ranges, rivers, and borders as well as identifying the continents and oceans for younger children.

Try out a few of the games and have fun together with your kids. You’ll be surprised at how much they {and you} learn through fun and simple games!

One of my SHS Friends is having a book giveaway on her blog! She is giving away a book by Karen Kingsbury called This Side of Heaven.  Go to her blog and sign up to participate in the giveaway. It ends on Sunday, April 19th, so hurry! Click on the book below:

Today's entry will be a review of a fantastic product created by the makers of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (TOS). 

The Schoolhouse Planner is a digital planning book of 247 pages, chock-full of helpful, useful information, forms, and inspiration.  It is such a large document, and so full of so many wonderful things, that I will have a hard time telling you about all of them... Your eyes will start to gloss over dreamily...  And best of all, it is a PDF document, but you can type in it and SAVE the changes you have typed into it!  You will see why this is so wonderful as I tell you about it.

• Articles:  So far I have read inspirational articles on teaching math, the importance of teaching foreign languages, and how to use unit studies.  Articles I am still looking forward to reading on teaching Geography, Solving Science Struggles, communication, "Hands-on" History, Chore Training Tips, how art enriches our lives, and Homeschooling through High School.
• Recipes:  The Planner is divided into months of the school year, with a two-page-spread calendar for each month which can be printed (pages back-to-back) and put into your 3-ring Planning Notebook.  Between each month there are, among other things, yummy recipes for you to try out.
• There are information pages on famous composers and artists, countries and capitals, the Periodic Table, United States and state capitals, U.S. Presidents and their wives, a history timeline, 7 Wonders of the Ancient World and of the Modern World, important U.S. documents (such as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, etc.). 
•  Forms:  This is where the type and save feature is really wonderful!  The Planner has in it so many, many wonderful forms.  There are forms for annual plans, yearly goals, curriculum planning, courses of study, a twelve-year planning page, recording sheets for curriculum recording, yearly grades, daily grades, progress reports, crafts completed, and on and on.  For the 12 year planning pages, you can add to it/adjust it each year.  The other forms can be filled in and saved, and reused each year, enterring the changed information for each new year.
• There are pages for descipleship records, Bible reading and memorization records, audio/video re and book reading logs, field trip planning, nature journal pages, Science lab sheet pages, and website and vendor information pages.  There are actually also resource recommendation pages in each month's section throughtout the entire Planner.
• There are pages to comple important personal information such as phone number and addresses of contacts, information for babysitters, family health records, schedules and reminders of homekeeping chores for mom and for kids, daily and family chore charts, many different formats for chore charts. There are pages for budgeting, financial inventory, gift budget, prayer journal, Bible reading, important dates to remember, garden plans and checklist, inventory of major appliances and electronics.  There are pages for keeping track of things borrowed or loaned, vacation plans, pet health visits, agift wish lists, and on and on. 
  

Improvements I would suggest for the creators to make to The Schoolhouse Planner:

• Table of Contents:  I would like to see the Table of Contents linked to the rest of the document so that when the reader points the cursor to an item in the TOC, one point and click would take the person immediately to the desired page.
• Table of Contents, again: The contents is listed by order, but page numbers are not given, so I have to scroll through the entire document to find out where something is and I can't just enter the page number into the top of the form where there is a nice little feature to do just that to get to the page you want...
• Two-page calendar spread: It would be very helpful if page two of each spread said somewhere, even in very faint print, what month it went to.  Repeatedly I am second guessing if my printer has messed me up, as I try to make sure that page one of November is on the back of page two of October, etc.
• Calendar (again): I would like to see the calendar pages presented in a changeable format, so that this resource can truly be used year after year. In other words, the place where it indicates on a calendar that August 14th, for instance, is a Thursday, should be typeable so that next year it could be changed and used to have the dates for August of 2009.

Overall, while this was a long, yet brief, overview, I just want to say what an awesome resource this is.  For it's price, I personally would have appreciated having a hard copy given to me with a compact disk included, which would have the pdf document on it.  I'm not a super computer whiz, so I don't know if a document that size would fit on a disk in pdf format, but it was just a thought.

So, everyone, go to The Schoolhouse E-Store and download the free sample pages to peruse, and think about investing in the wonderful resource for your homeschool (link below):

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=145&products_id=2629

Diana

Today Mama's cookin Bison Chili.  Okay, okay, you can make this with your meat of choice, but Mama's makin it with ground bison.  Mama's makin this to go in the freezer for two meals sometime in the future, but Daddy's gettin home late tonight, and it looks like Mama might just serve the first dinner from this chili tonight, since Mama doesn't much like to cook dinner twice in the same evening.

Here's the recipe.  This is a CORE recipe on the Weight Watcher's plan:

2 pounds ground bison

1 onion, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

3/4 tsp. chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 15-ounce can dark red kidney beans

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 15- ounce can tomato sauce

non-CORE optional ingredient: brown sugar

Brown meat with onion and green pepper in large Dutch oven; add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 2 hours, or in a crockpot for 6 hours, stirring occasionally.  Serve hot with fat-free sour cream, and for non-core eaters, shredded cheddar cheese. 

Serve with salad.  For 2 Weight Watcher points, cook up some hot muffins (in paper baking cups) and crumble into your bowl of chili.

Also a great meal in the following ways:

• Stuffed Baked Potatoes:  Bake potatoes and serve covered with steamed broccoli, Mama's chili, fat free shredded cheddar cheese,  and fat free cheddar cheese.
• Chili Dogs:  (not CORE) Cook up some Hebrew National all-beef hot dogs and serve in hot dog roll, smothered with Mama's chili and more chopped onions and cheddar cheese, with baked beans and saurkraut on the side.

So, as a way to do this, you can

1. Eat chili for dinner, and place the left overs in a heavy-duty freezer zip-lock-bag, mark it either "Stuffed Baked Potatoes" or "Chili Dogs", and plan to serve it for dinner two weeks later (so the family doesn't feel like they are eating "leftovers".
2. Using a Once-a-Month-Cooking mentality, make up the whole thing and freeze 6-cups-worth in a gallon-size freezer bag marked "Mama's Chili", and the rest of it bag in a 1-quart freezer bag and mark it either for dogs or stuffed potatoes.

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my madness today. I love to serve this with a Hot Muffin recipe I will have to post later.  While I was posting this Daddy called, and he plans to swing by a Vie de France store and pick up some salad and French bread to go with tonight! He spoils me so!

D

Greetings friends, family, and other readers!  I am gearing up for a brand new school year and a fresh, more thorough year of blogging.

I am going to begin my new year of blogging by reviewing a product which I was recently given the opportunity to review, The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine.

I have been a subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for years; it is my favorite magazine.  In 2007, when The Old Schoolhouse launched their digital magazine, they offered (and still do) a free sample download for people to use to look over the magazine.  I downloaded the magazine and looked it over, but did not give it a thorough perusal, because most of my magazine reading occurs where my laptop cannot/does not go. I often find time to read in a short, warm bath, or when I sneak away to a basement bathroom where I might steal a few moments of respite before returning to my responsibilities.

However, recently TOS asked me to review their digital magazine, and to write up my review for others to see.  So, receiving a current copy, I immediately looked it over, and this my review.

First, obviously, it is still true that I will not be taking my laptop with me when I take a bath, and it is not with me when I sneak away to that powder room for a few minutes break.  The digital copy does not come WITH the hard copy, so if I only subscribe to the digital copy, I do not have that wonderful glossy magazine to enjoy, to touch, to smell, ...you know what I mean...

That being said, here are the things I liked.

TOS Digital Magazine is internally linked.  From the moment I saw the front cover, I was amazed.  Where the magazine cover tells you some of the articles within the magazine, they are linked! I point my mouse to the topic, I click, and it takes me to the article! Whereas in the hard copy, if I am interested in an article on Charlotte Mason mentioned on the front cover, I then have to flip to the Table of Contents, find the page number of the article, and then find that page. I must be somewhat ADHD when it comes to this, but frequently I never get to the article I was interested in. I'll start flipping pages, but get distracted by a different article or advertisement, and suddenly my time to look at the magazine is gone and I never got to the initial article I was interested in!  ::sigh:: So the Digital Magazine helps me because I can quick click to the article and read it.

To save friends time looking, I am going to list links of free paper models you can download, print out and construct.  Here we go (in no particular order):

7 Wonders of the World, The Great Pyramid:

http://www.delta7studios.com/pyramid.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/Great%20Pyramid.pdf

7 Wonders of the World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon:

http://www.delta7studios.com/garden.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/garden.pdf

7 Wonders of the World: Temple of Artimis:

http://www.delta7studios.com/artemisian.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/tempartemisA.pdf

7 Wonders of the World: Tomb of King Maussolus

http://www.delta7studios.com/tomb.htm

Model: http://www.delta7studios.com/images/TOMB.pdf

7 Wonders: The Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria

http://www.delta7studios.com/pharos.htm

model:  http://www.delta7studios.com/images/pharos%20model.pdf

The other 2 of the 7 Wonders do not have models or pages yet:

The Great Statue of Zeus and The Colossus at Rhodes

The general 7 Wonders page is: http://www.delta7studios.com/wonders.htm

My friend Karen Solomon, Support for Homeschool Yahoo Group, just posted these great teacher appreciation offers. I thought I'd put them here for others to also see, and so I can delete the other email and not lose the information.  Here it is:

OFFICE DEPOT®
> Office Depot® is hosting the 13th Annual Teacher Appreciation
> Breakfast. Stop in for free breakfast, a free tote bag
> (while supplies last) and 10%* off everything all day. Visit
> www.school.com and click on "Star Teacher Program" to find the
> breakfast near you. Not a Star Teacher yet? Visit your local
> Office Depot® store to sign up today!
> Note:*10% instant discount is not valid for purchases from
> www.techdepot.com, purchases of Gift Cards, computers, wireless,
> satellite, Internet or shipping and mailing services. Quantities
> limited. While supplies last.
>
> MICHAELS®
> Michaels thanks teachers for inspiring creative young minds every
> day. Come to Michaels August 20th through 26th and receive a
> teachers-only 10% discount off of everything in the store, including
> sale items! (School ID may be required.) Also, enter online for a
> chance to win a $1,000 Michaels gift card, a classroom full of cool
> Crayola products, or other great prizes! Enter at Michaels.com between
> August 19th and 26th. For more information about the Michaels teacher
> appreciation event, visit www.michaels.com
>
> WAL*MART®
> Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will be hosting Teacher Appreciation Events
> throughout the country from July 21 to July 31, 2006 at more than
> 3,000 locations. The Wal*Mart Teacher Appreciation program, now in its
> 9th year, is designed to help kick off the school year by showing
> appreciation to America's teachers.
>
> Each teacher who attends the event will receive a gift package
> containing samples from Crayola and other manufacturers of
> school-related supplies (while supplies last). For more information,
> contact your local store or visit www.wal-mart.com
>
> STAPLES®
> Teachers are invited to celebrate the new school year at Teacher
> Appreciation Day events in Staples stores nationwide. The first 200
> teachers at each event will receive a free canvas goody bag, teacher
> planner, and valuable coupons. Find the event near you at
> www.staples.com/teacherday (Teachers may be asked to
> present school ID.)
>
> OFFICEMAX®
> OfficeMax is hosting Teacher Appreciation Events in the last week
> of July and mid-August, depending on when school starts in your area.
> Teachers can call their local OfficeMax store or 1-877-OFFICEMAX, to
> find local dates and locations. Visit OfficeMax.com to find a
> store near you.

I was reading AllisAlley, and the song she had posted really hit me hard today, but it also ministered to me.  So, I thought I'd post it here as well and let you all enjoy it.  Blessings to you, my friends!

Third Day - Cry Out To Jesus
From the album Wherever You Are

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

Chorus:
There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They’ve lost all of their faith in love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

Chorus:

When your lonely
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight

Chorus

Label: Essential Records

Oh, and anyone reading this entry today, please remember to pray for Emily throughout the day today as she is having surgery.  For more info, click on the link to the right.

Not that I have time for this, but I'm thinking of transitioning my blog colors to something more blue-ish, more in keeping with the fact that I am homeschooling a boy. (I have an 11th grade, too, but she mostly homeschools herself...)

Today I did next to no estate work. Hubby took today. I manned (woman'ed) the homefront. Swept kitchen and laundry room; loaded and ran dishwasher; read to both kids from Understood Betsy, folded towels; dried yesterday's darks, ran another load of darks...  Outside the rain did pour.  I cleaned old food out of the fridge, made my bed, did some blogging, did some bank business, and the rain did pour.  Took daughter to activity at church; hubby got home with groceries, and I put them away. The boy went outside and got all wet, the dogs got all wet, my house got all wet, and the rain did pour.  Made dinner, served it, ate it, put away, and the rain did pour. Hubby put boy to bed tonight, I went out, got a Starbucks and a Blockbuster movie, and drove home again, and the rain did pour.

Off to watch Mission Impossible II.  Blessings,

D

There are new posts on CrystalStar's blogspot. Click on the "Pray for Emily" button for an update, and please, please pray for Emily (and her mom and dad, Crystal and Scott).  They are going through a very difficult time right now, and hope is shaky right now...

Diana

Today's FlyLady day:

• Make bed, shower, dress to my shoes;
• Unload dishwasher, breakfast, load dishwasher, shine sink;
• break; email; blogging;
• playing w/ds, sorting and building w/Legos;
• encouring ds as we spend time flinging from toybox;
• "Taxi" daughter to work;
• postoffice to mail book, bill, deposit;
• Church to drop something off;
• time wasted searching for keys, which I had set down in the grass when I knelt down to tie a shoe!
• To bank to close out daughter's savings and do certain other time-consuming transactions;
• To car dealership to get tires aligned, but they weren't able to do it today, so back tomorrow;
• Home again; pick up rooms where toybox flinging got scattered
• vacuuming LR, DR, Hall, 3 bedrooms;
• cleaned MBR Bathroom;
• Dinner: Bisquick oven-baked chicken, smashed red potatoes, fresh steamed green beans;
• Evening email update;
• ds bath and bedtime;
• Leftovers, dishes, shine sink
• Down time watching SuperNanny and Miracle Operations (or whatever it's called).
• Off to bed. ::whew!::

--D

Boy, who'd a thunk March would be so busy for me?  And when I'm so busy and don't take notes, the end of the month comes and I'm left asking myself, "Where did the month go? What did I spend my time doing?"  And since I didn't blog through it, I really don't remember... (Signs of aging!...)

Anyway, last night was our homeschool co-op end-of-unit Sock Hop (Tapestry of Grace, Year 4, Unit 3, approximately 1950-1975, included 1950's and we made the '50's the theme for our end-of-unit celebration!).  My daughter and I each made poodle skirts for the occasion, shopped at thrift stores to find genre-appropriate sweaters to wear with the skirts, raided my jewelry left me by my grandmother and my husband's aunt and grandmother, and dressed up in penny loafers and bobby socks, pony tails and poodle skirts...  I don't have any photos of myself, but I can post a photo of my skirt and a photo of my daughter in hers, as soon as I get them downloaded to my computer. 

My other daughter came for the event from college (25 or so miles away) and brought a friend, and my 6 year old went as a 50's 6-year-old, in a cowboy outfit with the hat and a vest, stick horse and popgut (provided by college-sis).  Dad went as dad.  Jeans always look like jeans, right?  A fun time was had by all.

6 yo has a cold, though, so I'm home from church with him right now.  Well, guess I should get off the computer for a bit and do motherly things for a few.  Blessings!

D

Sorry I am short on entries right now. My state requires annual reviews of the homeschool program, and my review is tomorrow night. I haven't kept my records very up to date, so I am getting things ready for my review.

I'll try to write after that.

D

My poor son...  Day after day, time after time, he goes into the hall bathroom and uses it without closing the door.  His sister, grossed out, screams, "Close the door!!!!"

So, today I'm coming down the hallway and I hear the door to the bathroom closing slowly, quietly...  Suspicious that he is has scissors or something and is cutting his own hair (again) or cutting the shower curtain (again) or something like that, I slowly open the door and quietly say, "What are you doing in here?"  As you have no doubt concluded by now, he was doing what he was supposed to do: closing the door before he used the bathroom.  Poor boy.

He can't win. If he leaves the door open, we want him to shut it. If he shuts it, we want to know why.  When he starts coming up and announcing, as we are talking to the neighbor or sister or talking on the phone, "I'm going to go potty."  We're all saying, "TMI!" (Too much information....)  He just can't win!

Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! Unbelievable! I went to take my daughter to her co-op, and the temp. is, like, 65 degrees, headed toward 75 for the day. (Don't feel bad, northern states. Just come visit, if you want!)

DD was so delighted with the weather, and ds (6) was so funny...  We walked out the front door, and he had put on his winter coat,... He stopped, and put both hands up, palms up, like to check the weather, and said, "What?!!!"  And he shed his coat and threw it at me like, "I'm not going to need this!" and whooped and hollered on his way to the car!

So, we figure to spend some great time outdoors today. Finally we'll get in a good CM nature walk.  We listened to a cardinal's song, while we sat in the car waiting for dd to get there. Why do I have so much trouble remembering which song goes with which bird?  I'll take my digital camera with us on our walk, and we'll try to keep track of the birds we see. Hopefully we'll be able to note more than just how much trash we pick up! (That was the notable notation in my blog of our last significant nature walk...)

I'm itching to get in the yard and bag those leaves and find that yard. (Yeah, we must have only bagged 200 bags worth of leaves in the fall. What were we thinking? We needed to continue bagging after the temperature had reached 20 degrees...)

Well, I'm definitely not going to spend all day on homeschool blogger today, so I better get off to my laundry and such, which really needs to get started before I can go outside and "play".

D