It appears today was destined to be 'one of those days'. This morning, after loading the dishwasher, I hooked it up to our sink as I always do (we have a portable dishwasher). Today shouldn't have been any different. The dishwasher sounded fine as I left the room. However, about ten minutes later my eldest daughter came running up to me telling me that water was EVERYRWHERE in the kitchen! She said it was spraying out from the dishwasher! Holy cow. Great...just great. So, both my husband and I ran into the kitchen to see what it was. Yes, water was everywhere. That water sound that we had thought was water emptying into the sink as it usually does was water actually being sprayed out from under the sink itself. It had actually forced open the lower cupboard doors. It was scorching hot too. My hubby had to get on a pair of shoes to walk over just to turn the lever to shut the water off. Evidently, our landlord, upon doing the plumbing himself (he told us when we moved in), decided to use the real cheapy plastic fixture on the end of one of the main hoses under the sink. This lil old plastic fixture couldn't withstand the water pressure of the dishwasher on it any longer and busted wide open. Nice, eh? So, we had to replace it with a metal fixture today...AFTER we used every towel in our house to mop up the massive pond in our kitchen. It even pooled behind the stove. Ugh. Yep...that's how I spent my morning folks.

At least tonight was better. I got to go to church tonight with the girls again for their Awanas. They all had a terrific time and I sat in the lobby reading my TOS magazine. I never get tired of reading TOS.  My eldest was very excited tonight since she completed 15 sections in her T&T book (3 Discoveries) just tonight! She is now new competition for some of the guys in T&T and she is looking forward to taking on the challenge!

Steve's grandpa passed away last week at the ago of 96. He was a quiet man compared to Grandma. Everyone has stories to tell about Grandma and her love for shopping and chocolate. But the memories of Grandpa are of a different nature.

What I remember about him was his routine at breakfast. When you were a guest in their home, Grandma and Grandpa would always put out a special breakfast in the morning. And then, at some point during the conversation, Grandpa would always read a devotion and then say a prayer for the day ahead. Steve says that throughout his whole life, every breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa included time for God.

He was a quiet man, but his actions were loud.

Week of September 28

School is actually going better now.  He is not complaining as much about the writing and I have seen some of the books that are coming up and know he will be challenged then.  I still plan on "after-schooling" but I do have to work around his schedule and required homework.  This week we spent a lot of our extra time making an "All About Me" book for a parent/student project for school, so it was a light after-schooling week.  I was the parent reader Friday afternoon in his class and saw some of the other books.  I am proud of the fact that his book was not as polished as some of the others and that it really was mostly his book.  I am also waiting on some books from the library.

Bible

·    Memory  - Genesis 2:8 “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.”

·    Reading – Genesis 2, I Samuel 2  (NIV)

Math

·    How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara - I had hoped he might want to repeat this experiment, but he said no.  I will bring it up again when we are carving our pumpkins.  Hubby likes to carve fun designs and I like to roast pumpkin seeds....we did this even before S joined our family.

Reading/Writing

·    Finish DK Wild Baby Animals by Karen Wallace

·    Begin DK A Trip to the Zoo by Karen Wallace

·    Rockin’ Phonics video, Volume 1 

Literature/Poetry

·   Finished A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E. Erickson

·   Began A Bear Called Paddington by  Michael Bond (read by Daddy and I am really excited by this) 

History/Geography

·    Little Firefly: An Algonquian Legend, written and adapted by Terri Cohlene

Nature/Science

·    DK Wild Baby Animals by Karen Wallace

·    Henry and the Great Flood by Gary Richmond.  (“View from the Zoo Stories” written by a zookeeper)

Art

·   Van Gogh – Saved The Mulberry Tree as computer wallpaper and asked S if he could identify the artist and he could.  He said it had swirls like The Starry Night and that's how he knew.

Maybe you remember my out-of-control wildflower garden. It would be really cool if I knew how to put a link here so you could read that post.

Well, I'm back to working on it. Did I tell you I had quit? Oh, well, I had quit but now I'm back. And I've discovered that gardening in the fall is so much more pleasant than summer gardening. I can do much more work because I don't get as hot.

What I have been doing is pulling everything out by the roots. No flowers will be saved. Once everything is out I will put down landscaping fabric and have a clean slate to work with in the spring. I would say that right now the garden is about 1/5 cleaned out.

Coming sometime this fall: pictures!

I have been cleaning out my closet recently, bagging up the clothes I don't wear. And I have noticed a pattern.

Last spring I bought myself six items from the Kohl's clearance rack. I was so proud of myself for getting shirts and sweaters for only $3 each.

But guess what? I am getting rid of five out of the six because I don't like or wear them.

So the lesson to me is that, while clearance racks can have some great finds on them, you still have to be discerning. Some clothes are on the clearance rack because they are just ugly.

It was 3:20 a.m. and the phone was ringing. This can't be good, was my thought as I raced to check the caller  i.d.

The caller i.d indicated that the call was from an 800 number. What? I hung up on them. Of course, I did not get back to sleep. Once that adrenaline kicked in, I was awake.

So in the morning, out of curiosity, I googled the 800 number. Turns out it was an automated caller from Continental Airlines which was calling to confirm Steve's flight.

Lovely.