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Happenings

This week is finally falling into place, now that it's almost over.  I decided to finally take Josie's pacifier away.  I made this decision on Sunday, planned to do it Monday, and didn't get around to doing it until Tuesday at nap time.  My plan was to snip a little bit off her pacifier every few days until there was hardly any left and she didn't want it anymore.  I used this method with Jack, and it worked fairly well.  So, I snipped a small piece off the end of her pacifier to break the ice a little.  I put it in her mouth.  It promptly came out of her mouth.  She hated it.  So she cried and fussed her whole nap time on Tuesday.  She was perfectly pleasant the rest of the day, however.  The rest of us were rather weary of having to listen to her, though.  She fell asleep Tuesday night fine.  Wednesday she again cried and fussed through her entire nap time.  Again she was pleasant the rest of the day, but fussed a little more than usual at bedtime.  Today - hallelujah! - she took a nap!  Joel had taken to hibernating in the garage to get some peace and quiet, so he is very thankful.  I knew exactly how he felt and just let him stay there.  Hopefully reposing to the garage will no longer be necessary.  I must say, though, that Little Miss is not happy about this, as one might expect.  She is ticked.  When I laid her down tonight, she turned her head away from me on her pillow, didn't want her blanket, didn't want her Lambie.  Sorry, honey. 

I have embarked on a new plan to actually clean my house.  Let's just say it hasn't been a priority lately.  Since the move I have come up with several plans to try, but not one has panned out.  This week my latest plan has been working.  In the afternoon when school is done, I generally have a small amount of time.  It's not enough time to really get into a project, but it's also too much time to just take a break.  So I decided to take 30 minutes after school work is done to clean.  So Mon-Fri for 30 minutes after school I clean.  I broke the rooms of the house down so that I wouldn't purposely avoid certain rooms forget anything, printed up a list and it's now on my fridge.  I have had a good first week with it, although tomorrow will be awash, but I don't feel bad about it.  If I can keep up with this plan it will all get done in time.  It has actually been a good stress reliever.  Scrubbing sometimes has that effect. 

Don't worry, it's just mud. 

Ever since Easter I have been trying to dye eggs with the boys.  I decided to silk dye eggs this year because of a great blog I found.  It hasn't been high on the priority list, though, so they are still not done.  However, this week we finally blew the eggs so that our beautifully dyed eggs could last a long, long time.  This was a first for me.  If you've ever done it before, you know what it's like.  We didn't have any sort of tool to blow the eggs with, so we did it the good old fashioned way.  It's gross and hilarious all at the same time, and it made me think of childbirth the whole time we did it.  It was very odd.  James was the best blower, but he blew so much he made his throat sore.  Joel blew so hard he made himself light headed.  Jack enjoyed it the most.

I am now off to hang a shelf above my faux night table so that I'm not constantly trying to avoid knocking down stacks of books when I make my bed or grab the diaper bag.  It will also be useful in keeping little fingers from pulling bookmarks out of place, and grabbing pencils and the like. 

Our house came with three tires filled with mosquito infested water on the side of the house.  I almost got rid of them, but then googled what things we might be able to use them for.  This is what happened to Tire #1:

Assigned Reading

When we first moved, one of the first things we did was go get Library Cards.  I could hardly contain my astonishment when my mother-in-law pointed to a flyer and said, "Oh, look at that!"  There was a flyer for a Jane Austen Book Club!!!!!  It meets once a month on a Saturday morning, which means Jason is usually able to watch the kids.  I tried to go earlier this year when they were discussing Sense & Sensibility.  I even read the whole book so I could really be a good book club member.  Then something came up and I couldn't make it to the meeting.  I kinda gave up on going, but then realized on Thursday that it actually would work out for me to go on Saturday!  The discussion was going to be on Pride & Prejudice, which I have read before.  But just be sure I downloaded it from Librivox and listened to the first 11 chapters Friday night (which is basically the first VHS video of the BBC 6-tape series).  I was relieved when pretty much everybody there hadn't read P&P during the past month because they had read it recently or once before, etc.  There were 8 people there including myself, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Librarian/Moderator gave a fun quiz at the end which I won!  There wasn't a prize, but I didn't care.  We were sent home with the book for next month's meeting: The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough.  I've only read the first chapter and I hate it.  Literally.  But I'm going to press on and maybe I won't view it as a waste of my time once I'm finished.  I will read it to remain relevent in my new book club if nothing else.  I'm just saying at this point I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.  One of the ladies who is a member of the JA Book Club moderates the Classic Literature Book Club at our Library, too, which meets just prior to JA  Book Club so I might try to do both.  Anyway, she sent me home with the book they are reading - Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.  I've never heard of it before so we'll see how it goes.  In the meantime I'm going to finishing P&P, and continue CM's Volume 1 with Ceridwen.  I am quite out of breath. 

Back in the Saddle, Again

The kids and I took a trip to DFW recently, and I was able to be immersed with  CM homeschoolers, which was wonderful.  Lots of deep and thought provoking conversations, and I have come back really ready to take it all on.  On the top of the priority list: Math.  There is this central theme which haunts my thoughts, but has actually made me have greater purpose -- not "ugh, do we really have to do math now?" -- DO NOT GET BEHIND IN MATH.  Next on the priority list: Get back to doing Morning Time.  Lynn Bruce introduced me to MT last spring, and sent me Cindy Rollins' way, which made a huge difference in how things were going with me/us schoolwise at the time.  Towards the end of the year I shifted gears a little in order to do some catch up work with Joel, and we hadn't gotten back into the habit.  I have been wanting to begin morning time again, but it's just like any other habit - hard to get started.  I finally realized that I would just have to sit down and PLAN it out or I'd never begin.  I did, and we are back into it.  It is really such a wonderful concept.  I love, love, love it.  A sample of what MT looks like with us is this. 

Sing (Hymn of the month, Patriotic songs, folk song, anything else the kids want to sing.  They love this part, which is why I start with it.  They are always ready to get started.)
Pray
Bible (We alternate between OT and NT each day, reading small sections at a time.  I have one of the boys narrate, not both older boys)
Artist Study (once a week)
Literature selection - this is when we do Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, D'aulaire books, James Herriot, etc. And I'm really stoked because between now and June, we will be able to work through THREE, yes, three Shakespeare plays.  Only reading two pages at a time!  It's just wonderful. (Caitlin, Joel likes your Shakespeare book better than ours, we have the Nesbit one.  I think I agree with him.)  Again on these I only have one child narrate, not both on the same passage.  That is just better for us.  Or I have them narrate later, privately. 
Poetry - one selection for each child
Composer Study, when I play our selected composer in the background while we read

That's it.  It usually lasts between 40 minutes and an hour.  It doesn't seem like that long while we are doing it, but it takes so much time to do anything with four kids, that the time really flies by.  It is a pretty intense time, just keeping everyone's attention, and keeping everyone's arms and legs to themselves.  But it is so worth it.  I love what my children learn in MT, and in MT I make sure we do what I love about the Ambleside Online curriculum.

A Story In Pictures

These chopsticks have been sitting in the drawer or in a box for years now. I thought we would use them some day. But were they worth keeping until then? I mean, are we really going to eat chicken curry with chopsticks? What a mess. Enter: Jason and goldfish. Yes, Pepperidge Farm goldfish.

Thank you, Rudyard Kipling

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views;
I know a person small -
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes -
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

-from Just So Stories, The Elephant's Child, by Rudyard Kipling

I'm not too good at this...

I finally finished my post about books read in 2011, but it's posted according to the date I originally began writing it. Don't know how to change that, but you can look in my archives (ha!), or go here if you want to read it. It's real short.

I have realized how illiterate I am with computers in coming back to the cyberworld. Sigh. It's just one more thing I don't have time for. Sigh. I am not giving up.

In other news, I have decided to rename the blog. Look for changes soon. I am taking inspiration from a Christmas card a year or two back from one of the dearest of friends. This card remains on my refrigerator to remind me every day. I have never loved the name of my blog anyway, but I love this.

For Joel's Birthday

This blog post is for those wondering what Joel needs/wants for his birthday. You know who you are. Invitations are going out next week, but just so you know the party's on the 17th.

Clothes/Shoes
Jeans (size 8 reg)
Khakis, or dress pants
Longhorns t-shirt
Flip flops (size 2)

Books
Anything unabridged by Howard Pyle, such as The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron, Otto of the Silver Hand. Also illustrated by Pyle is a plus. Hardback. Used is a plus.
George MacDonald books; We already have The Princess and the Goblin, but there are plenty more.
Abraham Lincoln by Edgar & Ingri D'aulaire
Any of the Little House books, especially Farmer Boy

Other
Pocket knife
He loves gift cards
Art supplies and books as seen here (having trouble with the link, here it is: http://www.squidoo.com/artsuppliesforkids), especially the Drawing with Children book, and You Can Paint Pastels book.
Anything to do with bugs, animals and birds. He loves bug farms, i.e. growing ladybugs, raising butterflies, etc.
A large magnifying glass
Critter keeper, preferably not plastic

He really doesn't need a lot. No toys, please. We have too many toys.

It Never Stops Nor Slows Down

Today we had internet service installed in our new place. Yea!!! It's been two years since I've been online with this computer. It's good to be back.

We have been in our new place a week and a half now. I think we are doing a fair job on unpacking, not that it really matters - it is what it is. Last Friday night we were involved in a auto accident, and now two of the kiddos have had a stomach virus. Translation: huge mess. No, Huge Mess. Hmmm. HUGE MESS. I am so thankful for washing machines and dryers and chlorine bleach and vacuum cleaners and insurance and leftovers and donation-pick-up-trucks.

Yes, for a moment amidst the HUGE MESS I am very thankful.

Now I Know

A great book to read to your kids is "They Were Strong and Good" by Robert Lawson. The boys and I always get a kick out of the names of the dogs in the story: Sextus Hostilius and Numa Pompilius.

I never knew that those dogs were named after real life famous Romans.

For several months now I have felt the need to go ahead and begin reading Plutarch, and all Shakespeare that I haven't read. I have already begun reading more Shakespeare with the help of Librivox. Even I can see how and why Shakespeare is so important. I suppose whatever happened to Plutarch's Lives is what is slowly but surely happening with Shakespeare. It is becoming obsolete. Will Shakespeare ever be obsolete? No, not really. Just like Plutarch isn't obsolete. But fewer and fewer people know his works, fewer and fewer people understand even their own language in his writings, and it's simply not valued by a huge majority in our society. So yes, I personally can see the same thing happening with Shakespeare as has happened with Plutarch.

I have a few friends whose children are older than mine, and so have already begun working through Plutarch's Lives. It's not easy. But I really believe that if I become familiar with it, it will make the way much easier.

I read Edith Nesbit's Macbeth (Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare) last fall, and I was reading for the first time in addition to reading it aloud to Joel. Can I just recommend that if you plan to read Shakespeare to your kids, you read it yourself, first? Some of the plays are just downright hard to follow. It can be a huge help to familiarize yourself with the story beforehand. I have been learning the stories right alongside Joel, but I can see how it's much easier to read these stories with James just because I know them now. And I think I could've done a better job with Joel had I prepared myself better.

(As a side note, this week we read in Genesis about the death of Sarah, and Abraham asks the children of Heth for a burying place for Sarah. In his narration, Joel called them the children of Macbeth.)

So I've got Plutarch on my reading list for this year.

BTW, the reading list from last year is in the works, as is the plan-to-read-this-year list.

The Evolution of Menu Planning

Sunday is my menu planning/grocery list making day. In the afternoon or evening when we've settled down from the day's activities, I pull out my cook books and wrack my brain coming up with seven breakfasts, seven lunches, and seven suppers for the week. Plus snacks. Plus fit the budget. Plus be somewhat interesting. It really is gruelling, and I don't highly recommend it. But it works for me. I actually hate doing it. It's just one of my jobs that I don't really care for. The plus side is, however, quite wonderful. I don't have to think about what I'm doing for meals for the rest of the week. So instead of agonizing over meals daily, I just agonize of them once a week and have done with it.

Menu planning may not stay this way for ever, but I don't foresee a change any time soon. I have found something that actually works for me/us for now. As life changes, I'm sure it will change though. I began by just writing down on my calendar each week what we'd have. But somehow it never had a grocery list to go along with it. Then there were the times that I didn't calculate the prices of my groceries too good. I took cash to force myself to stay in budget, and embarrassed myself a number of times by having to tell the cashier to pull back groceries that had already been scanned in order to get back to my price limit. Anyhow, it took me several weeks, but I finally managed to end up making a plan and working the plan. I am probably way behind in this area. I think that most people probably do this, or have been doing this masterfully since their first weeks of marriage, and I didn't begin until way into our 9th year. I do wish I had begun sooner. Like before kids, or at least before four kids. But for better or for worse, here I am doing it. Hating it and loving it all at the same time.

I have found that forcing myself to make a menu has made me be more creative. For awhile I tried a new recipe every week. That can tend to be expensive, so I slacked off on that for awhile. Staying here at my in laws, I am using my mil's cook books, so I am again trying new recipes. It's really a lot of fun, and helps to vary the menu. Jason and I tend to like a variety of foods. There aren't many meals that we like to have every week. Well, maybe not any plain and simple ones that we are familiar with (except crunchy tacos). Since I haven't always been creative with the menu, I have burnt us out on quite a few things. We can only eat these a few times a year (this is tongue-in-cheek, or course. We make do with what we have). Such as chicken and rice. Josie is the only one who LOVES chicken and rice. She missed out on the chicken and rice marathon. I guess that's the only dish that we really got burnt out on. That I remember. But things like oatmeal, spaghetti, beans and cornbread, split pea soup. If you possibly can, they need some creativity to put smiles on our faces. Cook books help a lot with that.

A friend at church told me that she lets her children plan one meal's menu each week, and has them find the items needed for it as they are doing their weekly grocery shopping. I have just now tried to begin doing that, and I let Joel plan a supper menu this week. (All of our boys are really into food, probably because Jason and I are really into food. As in Food Network junkies, basically). So he tells me, "bacon, ham, sausage, hamburgers, hot dogs, eggs, biscuits and gravy." Okay, you can only pick one meat, honey. We don't buy that much meat for a whole week. So he picked ham. Thursday's supper will be ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy. And I will have him help me cook, too. I snuck to the grocery store tonight while Jason was at home just to have a little break from the usual Monday show down. So Joel didn't pick out his menu items, but there will be plenty of other times for that.

I am now thinking of Benjamin Franklin's father and mother, who raised 17 children, and taught them to be content with little, and a simple diet. That is truly something to aspire to.

A Good Season

Jason was remarking last night that he feels that the Lord is giving him/us "a good season". It's been a hard few years, and things *seem* at this point to be making a turn for the better. Not that we aren't working hard anymore, have gotten rid of all our problems, or have all the money we will ever need. But our familly is together again, and that is very, very good.

Let's see....

I've had a cup of coffee with Jason every morning before he goes to work. The boys sometimes wake up early enough and see him before he goes to work. He's come home at every lunch time. And we've had supper together every evening. It's surreal. He has been putting the kids to bed, and my mother-in-law has been washing the dishes every night (because I do the cooking since she's working full time, and she says if you cook you don't have to do the clean up. Sweet!)

Last week Jason and I decided to begin looking for a rent house. We liked the first house we found, and are signing a lease on it today. We liked it for a few specific reasons. First of all, it's .6 miles from Jason's office. It's 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage and it is just well laid out. Spacious bedrooms and closets! The kitchen is smallish, but I think we'll be able to manage fine as there is a nice size pantry. Also, there is no carpet in this house which some people may not like, but we love. We can bring our dog, and the price is just right! We just felt like what more could we ask for? So we put in an application and here we are signing the lease. Yea! I get giddy thinking about where we're going to put furniture!

The kids are adjusting well to the move. They have made friends with the kids in my in-law's neighborhood and are learning about the do's and don'ts of living in the city. For the first time yesterday they played a long time in the backyard contentedly. They are used to much more space, so they have come in quite a lot asking to go out front or just not knowing what to do in the space they have. Joel has been finding snails, and that has helped a lot.

Don't know a good way to end the post, except with one of my favorite poems.

Keepsake Mill by Robert Louis Stevenson

Over the borders, a sin without pardon,
Breaking the branches and crawling below,
Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,
Down by the banks of the river we go.

Here is a mill with the humming of thunder,
Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,
Here is the sluice with the race running under--
Marvellous places, though handy to home!

Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,
Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;
Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,
Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.

Years may go by, and the wheel in the river
Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,
Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever
Long after all of the boys are away.

Home for the Indies and home from the ocean,
Heroes and soldiers we all will come home;
Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion,
Turning and churning that river to foam.

You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,
I with your marble of Saturday last,
Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled,
Here we shall meet and remember the past.

2011 Books

So here's my list of books read in 2011. This is taken from memory, so I could have left something out or gotten the timing wrong on a few. Some I began last year and finished up during the first two weeks of this year so I am including them. On one hand I think it's pretty meager, and on the other hand I think, "not bad, considering". You can decide for yourself.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (great reader on Librivox here)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (another great reader)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - the boys and I listened to this together. I had never thought of reading it to the kids, I just thought Dickens was (for the kids) ... out there ... still ... for now. I was wrong. I have to credit Brandy at Afterthoughts (see blog roll) for giving me the idea, as she reads it to her kids annually during the Christmas season.

Julius Ceasar by the one and only - William Shakespeare

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

The Man Who was Thursday - my first Chesterton. Loved it. Wild.

The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

Parents and Children (CM's Volume 2), just half of it.

A New Year

We are moving in two weeks so this will probably be the last you will hear from me for awhile.

There's so much I want to write about, but just can't right now. Also I know that once we move I can blog with an actual keyboard!

I really want to blog about what I read in 2011, something that I think is a lot of fun to reflect on, especially since 2011 was an especially difficult year.

So until we meet again.... Love from the J Crew!

Let Me Clarify This ...

*Bonnet tip to Ceridwen for the title of this post. It was just too appropriate*

Let me begin by making one clarification. I want to be sure everyone knows that I do not think that it's wrong to get help, ask for help, offer help, lend help .... I am not an anti-help person. I do believe that people nowadays feel the need for more help than in previous generations, but I have a theory on why that is so -- which is not the subject of this post, so let's just not go there. Also I tend to be a very independent person, and people who ask for lots of help when I believe them capable if doing things on their own irritate me. This is probably very judgmental of me, I'm sorry. I have little patience in this area. However, I was not in my previous post trying to discourage people from getting help or asking for help. Or asking something of me. My point was this: help isn't someone else doing things for you, it's someone showing you the way so that you can do it for yourself.

Something I remind myself of a lot lately is that nobody ever starts out doing housework perfectly or having a perfect school schedule. When you see someone who is successful in a particular area, it is probably because that area is of relative importance to them, and they have worked hard to get where they are.

For quite awhile I have been searching for a system that would take care of the constant mess that is a room multi-tasking as a bedroom to three boys, a playroom to three boys, and a schoolroom to two of the three boys. You know the conclusion before I even say it. There is no system that will take care of this. I could try every system known to mankind and it would not work. Why? Because not one person in our family is in the habit -- again I repeat THE HABIT -- of putting things away right away. I finally realized that this was our problem about a week ago. This is definitely something that I don't think you can teach your kids unless you lead by example. Unless you have a child that just LIKES to clean up after themselves. (And if you do, I don't wish to know about it. Thank you!). I don't think this is one of those do-this-for-30-days-and-you've-created-a-new-habit kind of habit. I think it's more like teaching you're kids to not interrupt. It's going to be a continual thing. For years. Perhaps until they're adults. It's rather exhausting to think about it that way, but it's better than becoming frustrated and angry with them because they haven't "gotten it" yet. I think this habit is good for them. It's good for me, and I like the results. But it's good for them too.

The habit I am working on now in addition to putting things away immediately, is having an evening routine. It includes the pajama, teeth brushing typical getting ready for bed stuff, but also includes setting out clothes for the next day. This is important for me because I tend to save all these things until I am so tired that I don't really care I get them done or not. So I am giving myself a time and a list, which are the evening routine tasks. This is still under construction. Meaning I'm working on it and I'm not very good at it yet. And since I am about at the tired point where I start to not care about those things, I will end here and just go get them done.

Self Discipline

Organization has always been a hobby of mine -- that is not to say that I'm even moderately organized, it's just something that I have enjoyed doing when I have free time (before kids), and now wish I had more time to do. Recently I have despaired at how unorganized I am, while all this time I've been telling myself that I must be reasonably organized because I *just like* organizing so much. But I have come to the conclusion that this area of life is no different than any other in that necessity is the mother of invention. Over the years and with reading emails from FlyLady off and on over the last year and a half I have established three habits. Now if I had known that it would take me so long to actually make these things habits I would have been mortified. This was my pride. Guilty of thinking myself above such a lack of self discipline. Me??? I've always been highly motivated. But isn't it easy to be motivated to do those things you like to do? Isn't it convenient to put off things that we dont enjoy till tomorrow or next week or next ... ? Can we change the subject?

As I was saying, necessity is the mother of invention. And that is how I am establishing these habits amidst the chaos of daily life. I believe that these sorts of things have to be mostly figured out on your own. I mean obviously I have benefitted from some help - namely from FlyLady and also Peter Walsh - and there are the Buried Alive types who need more help than the average person. BUT. There is no system out there that is going to fit your lifestyle to a T. Everybody's personality is different, everybody's situation is different. The constant(s) are philosophy and principles. "I always put my things away that I may find them another day." You cannot expect a random system to know how often your children will run out of clean underwear, or can take into account the homeschooling aspect. At least nothing I have seen can. And nothing I have seen claims to be able to do so. But I see so often people (at times myself included) just wanting to be told "how to do it". Here we live in the United States of America, where we are free to live our lives and we just want someone to tell us what to do. I'm sorry, but I think it's pathetic. I can't imagine Susanna Wesley or Harriet Tubman or Laura Ingalls Wilder's Ma or William Wallace or Queen Victoria asking someone, "just tell me what to do, just tell me how". How does anyone figure it out? They try. They fail. They try and they try and they try again. They take responsibility for their lives and face it head on. I think so many times we ask for help because it's easier to blame someone else when we fail or things don't work out the way we thought it would.

Maybe soon I'll post about my established habits. Sorry to rant. Kinda.

Giving Thanks

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Busy. Split between families (which we're planning to do away with -- the splitting part, not the families). My sisters and I went to the outlet malls for Black Friday. Usually we get there at midnight, but this year we decided to go early as some stores were opening as early as 9:00. I got some really great deals including a $250 Pottery Barn quilt for Josie for $32 and a $70 Timberland coat for James for $20. That was exciting.

In other news we are moving in January. This is, ultimately, good news but at the same time overwhelming. First off, packing. And with packing comes an enormous amount of cleaning out and decluttering. Then there are children. Moving with children is a different animal from regular moving. Inevitably, everything you organize gets gotten into, and everything that needs to be discarded is a treasure of sorts. I feel like I really must clean out a good deal, and I have actually been pleased with the progress I've made.

However, the week before Thanksgiving we finished a lot of school. I have been pushing (myself) hard to get caught up with Joel by year's end. But two weeks ago, I completely lost all steam. I kept having panic attacks over nothing, and trying not to have panic attacks about the really important things. Is was just a complete oh-my-word-I-can't-do-this-anymore about everything. Enter: the thought of moving. Result: mental and emotional roller coaster.

I had not planned on such a holiday break from school, I felt I couldn't afford to take a break. But what's done is done. We've had a two week break. I needed to reassess. At first I didn't think I could pack and do school, but I have found a balance I hope. With the good progress we've made since August I think we shall still be able to finish the main books I had planned for us to finish, and just a few to finish during the *unpacking*.

I am also trying to get rid of the ironing pile before we move. I am listening to a couple of chapters of Withering Heights off of Librivox each time I iron. I have never read it before, and it's been great. I've also started reading The Help, and a Cesar Milan book as a refresher since I haven't read any on the subject (dogs) since our black lab, Raven, was a puppy.

And I think Jack wants to learn to read.

And it came to pass ...

I'm up while everyone else in the house is asleep. They're all tucked away, and I'm up waiting on the cinnamon rolls I baked for breakfast to cool so I can put them away and go to bed. When I'm up late (this, of course, is only relatively late) I sometimes begin to think of the days of having newborns. Translation: being up at all and any times of the night. Since I do not have to do that these days, I am thinking of my friends who may be up. If you're awake, dear friends, I am thinking of you.

You may or may not want it to, but this too shall pass.

Farmer Boy

Warning: If you read Farmer Boy to your sons, they may want to become farmers. Joel now wants to be a farmer. And he is practicing for it. He has planted a fall "crop".

Beets.

Thus the younger brothers wanted to plant something too. James at first thought cabbage until he saw turnips.

And we have kept Jack's violet plant alive, which I think is something to be proud of. I have an extra pot that I think he'll plant something edible in.

Go Dog, Go!

Jack: Hello, and now do you like my hat?
Me, trying to play along: No, I do not like your hat.
Jack: Yes you do!