Oh, I just got an email from Nancy over at Homeschooling Is Life. She's posted  pictures up of what she and the kids entered at the fair this year. I insist you stop reading this blog RIGHT NOW and go read this entry:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ByHisGraceInColorado/565218/?#c1108936

Way to go, you guys!

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"Nesting" doesn't quite cover the urge to completely re-organize around here before the baby comes. It's not just me--even hubby has caught this fever.  While he's working on finishing the garage, shed, planning to re-do the kitchen and bathroom floors and painting the inside of the house before the big day, I'm sewing, crocheting, and having a "TOTAL PAPER MAKEOVER."  A total physical makeover wouldn't hurt, either.  Yikes, it's time to renew my driver's license photo and I just realized looking at the old one---I'VE HAD THE SAME HAIRDO FOR TEN YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regarding my last post on homeschool organization. I certainly didn't want everyone to think I had detailed lesson plans done for the year, or even the next few weeks. NOT SO!  Real life creeps in too easily and can upset overly detailed plans.  We have orderly textbooks for some subjects [ admittedly I may play fast and loose with the teacher's guides/lesson plans with those] and general goals for everything else. I just try to have a notebook to keep plans, grades, attendance, and lists together for school. 

Our  weekly goals include books to read and lessons to cover in various subjects.  I purposely leave time at the end of the school year with no plans at all in case we need to play catch up.  Our textbooks have very detailed plans, but the subjects I plan out myself don't. For example, we have a very relaxed and informal approach to reading. However, both children love to read, we have  flexibility in this subject, reading isn't turned into a chore, and the older student has consistently tested very well in reading skills. 

On another front in my never-ending battle against clutter and disorganization, I've added a new section to my planning notebook.  Sewing patterns! Why I didn't I think of this before? I've often trusted my memory too much when I find a good sale on material. I've tried making a list on notebook paper with the pattern number, a brief description of the pattern, yardage, notions and such.  but would look up the pattern at the store to view the picture anyway. I needed the pictures.  So,  my  six year old daughter was given the job of copying the front  and back of my sewing patterns using our printer/copier.  Now I have a picture and all the details for each to carry in my planning notebook.

My planning notebook is simply a three ring binder with paper and tab dividers--but no calendars. After years of trying to keep everything in one notebook,  I  have found a small purse size calendar to work the best for me. The big planning notebook is where I put prayer requests, household information [clothing sizes, what type battery the cordless phone uses, printer cartridge numbers, etc. ],  running to-do lists, book lists, sewing patterns, grocery shopping/meal planning forms, our church's prayer chain list & address directory, and lots of blank paper to write, doodle, and plan. It stays at the house or comes with me on shopping trips only.

Since hubby has the home improvements well in hand, the school plans are good to go, and the house is being decluttered, all that's left is to get baby-ready again.   One side of my daughter's dresser has been cleaned out to make room for baby clothes. It's time to set up the baby bed and get the linens out of storage.  The baby  stroller and car seat need cleaned.  Whew--I'm glad I kept eveything from the last time. A friend is bringing by a changing table next week.  Now that will be oo-lah-lah, considering I just changed the other babies  on a towel on the bed!

Besides diapers, wipes, and rash cream, the only new purchase I'm planning on is one of those dirty diaper storage thingys.  I know I'm not being environmentally friendly here, but I have NO desire to put dirty diapers in my washing machine, bath tub, or even Great-Granny's cast iron wash kettle. Yes, I've read all the "dangers" of disposable diapers, but I'm a decent enough mother to not let my child sit in a dirty or wet diaper forever!

I have great respect for folks that do the cloth diaper thing and are back-to-nature kinds of people, but I'm not one of them anymore.  We were "back to nature" when it wasn't "in"  for financial reasons. I like modern advances in technology that allow us to have indoor toilets [didn't have that where I lived when I was younger], washing machines [Mom didn't have one until I was in middle school], dryers [didn't get that until I was nearly out of high school], central heat [ carrying wood and emptying the ash bin were not my favorite after-school activities], and reliable electricity.   It's kind of like the story a tour guide in Charleston once told me. She drove a horse and buggy giving tours of the city and upon telling her Grandmother of her new job, heard , "But honey, our family has worked for years trying to get out from behind a horse's rear!"

So there you have it----Doehill this week in a nutshell or nutcase as the situation warrants. Speaking of nuts, I just made the best cake.  It tastes like a peanut butter cookie.  Here's the recipe:

Nut cake:

Don't preheat the oven, but do grease a 12 cup bundt pan and set aside.

Cream two sitcks butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Be sure you use real butter not margarine.

Chop in the blender [ on low or you'll have peanut butter] 2 1/2 cups mixed nuts. [about 1 small can].  Add 1/2 cup flour to the nuts and set aside.

Alternately add 6 eggs and 2 1/2 c. self rising flour to the butter/sugar mixture. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, then fold in nuts.

Spoon batter into the pan, bake at 300 degrees for an hour and half. Cool and unmold. YUM!

Have a great weekend y'all!

You're on the top floor and the building is burning. You don't know which way to go: the stairs, the elevator, the roof, a window? Which door do you take to get to a hallway that's not on fire?

With the smoke, the confusion and the sense of urgency, it is hard to know what to do. You don't know how much time you have and the wrong turn could be disastrous. Suddenly, a man shouts, "I know which way to go. Follow me!"

What do you do? If the person is a complete stranger, you won't know whether or not to believe him. If he is ignorant, it would be foolish to follow him. If the man set the fire himself, then it would dangerous to listen to anything he said. But if the man is the architect of the building and an expert on fire safety, not only would you believe him, but you would do exactly what he said because you'd know that your life depended on it.

Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking
by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and
explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been
before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended.

But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could
not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he
understood that their time would come, when they, too, would
know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off
into his joyous new life!

From JoJo's Purple Crayon...

Where's FIMM?  Did you find himm this week?
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