Roommates

Last night we finally moved Caleb's bed into Jonathan's room, and the first night went quite well. I heard them talking and giggling around 8:00 this morning. I went in, and Caleb beamed, "Now we're just like you and Daddy and Nathan and Luke!" LOL! I guess they were feeling left out, not having anyone to talk to in the mornings! I think the whole situation will work out well--it's quite convenient to have all the boys in just 2 rooms. I'm still on the lookout for nice bunkbeds, preferably with a full on the bottom and twin on top, but for right now, Jonathan is doing well on the futon. And Caleb is not really ready to be on the top bunk, no matter what he might tell you!

This week, you may recall, was also supposed to be the week that I started Jonathan wearing underwear, but I just can't do it right now. I guess I'll blame the pregnancy, but I'm not multitasking real well, and it just seems overwhelming to think about having to remind him to go potty and also change clothes in case of accident. I'm just feeling so ungainly and large that I don't want the bother. On the plus side, we had a great day of school today, and I want to get in as many of those before the baby comes and we take a break! Stopping all the time for potty breaks would definitely put a damper on that, not to mention me having a hard time popping up and down off the couch!

Overall, I really am feeling pretty well--just large, as I said before. I carry so low and so right out in front, that all the pressure is right on my pubic bone, which always aches in the end. That's really my big complaint right now. Everything else is fine. I'm sleeping well too, and all my exercise has helped me not have much back pain unless I really stand a lot during the day. But I'm still tired, with not much energy. If I exercise in the morning, do school, and then do something else after lunch (run an errand or something), then I am just pooped. Dinners have not been too inspired lately. I'm also getting crabbier, unfortunately! Oh well, about 3 more weeks . . . Hard to believe.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like . . .

. . . a baby is coming sometime in the near future! We had a very productive weekend. Our friends Ed and Brian came over Saturday to help us do a complicated furniture-swap. Now the futon is in Jonathan's room, the crib is in the old futon room (which is going to be where the baby sleeps), Caleb's dresser is in Jonathan's room, Jonathan's dresser is in the baby's room (since we use it for a changing table), and the computer desk is in Caleb's room. Tomorrow night we're planning on moving Caleb's bed into Jonathan's room, and they'll be roommates like Nathan and Luke, something that makes everyone very excited. Hopefully that will still translate to lots of good sleep! So Jonathan had been sleeping his big boy bed since Saturday, and he's been doing just fine. In fact, he likes to tell me that he's tired and then go up to his bed and just lie there. I think the real thrill in that is that he can suck on his binky. I still haven't taken away his pacifier, although he only has it while sleeping. If it seems like he's wanting it during the day after this first bit of novelty has worn off, then I'll just put it up on a shelf--out of sight, out of mind! He looks so cute and tiny in that double bed though.

After church on Sunday, the ladies there had a little shower for me. We went out to lunch at a nice Italian restaurant close to the church. Frankly, I was more excited just about the chance for good grownup female conversation than about the possibility of presents! It was really a lot of fun, and I did receive many nice girls' things. I'm not going to wash any of them until after the ultrasound on March 14, though! I haven't had a shower since Luke was born, so it was just so nice if them to think of it for me! The restaurant was great too--one of the ladies brought a cake from Costco (the kind with strawberry filling--yummy!), and our waiter made the way-extra effort of drizzling strawberry syrup on each dessert plate, then putting the slice of cake on that, putting a dollop of whipped cream next to it with a real strawberry on top, and then drizzling that with chocolate syrup. Wow! And there was no extra charge for it! Pretty fancy!

Doctor's Appointment

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. I was 36 weeks on Tuesday, so it's getting closer, and now I have to go back every week. Bleh. It's hard to get excited about something that messes up our routine so much (as well as the routine of whoever is watching the boys for me!), and is so anticlimactic. I mean, what are they really going to be able to tell me each week?! "Hey--your baby is moving, and you are measuring just fine!" That's pretty much what she said today, although she did confirm that the head is down. She checked my cervix for some reason, and I am proud to be 2-3 cm dilated, 20% effaced, and soft. Of course, since this is #5, I've probably been that way for the past 2 months! The doctor is concerned because my last 2 babies were 9# 5 oz and 9# 6 oz respectively, so she definitely doesn't want me to go past my due date (sorry, Mel--I think an April Fool's birthday buddy for you would be great, but oh well!). In fact, she wants to schedule an induction right around my due date (March 28) in case I haven't gone into labor by then. Of course, I am less than enthused about that, so hopefully it won't happen. I'm going to "push" (ha, ha, what a punny) for no earlier than my due date, if an induction has to be scheduled. I mean, I haven't had any trouble at all pushing out my big babies, and it didn't take very long--maybe 30 minutes or so for them. Nothing got stuck, and I didn't tear or anything, so I am not concerned. The doctor wants me to have another ultrasound, this time at an actual radiology place instead of at her office. This is scheduled for March 14 at 2:00. I have never heard any stories about ultrasounds at the end being accurate for weight estimates, but I have heard plenty about how they are totally off! So I am not holding much to whatever estimate comes out of the ultrasound, and hopefully it will not err on the side of estimating too big, pushing the doctor towards inducing me earlier. We'll see what happens. . . This is where I start to really wish I had a midwife!

Commissary Report

Time Spent (Round trip)-- 3 and 1/2 hours

Cost-- (a new record) $664.78

Carts--2 filled completely to the top

Total Number of Boxes of Cereal-- 32

Potty Breaks in the Store-- 2

Total Number of Brown Paper Sacks That Barely Fit in the Minivan-- 40

Things Broken During Unloading at Home-- 1 jar of beef bouillion cubes, due to bag being to full and the bottom bropping out. Amazingly, I was able to catch the jar of pickles!

Number of Splinters Incured While Cleaning Up Said Jar of Bouillion-- 1

Amount of Chocolate Eaten to Fully Recover From the Whole Thing-- Enough to make me not want to weigh in tomorrow at my doctor's appointment!

Dinner Tonight-- Bob brought home Boston Market. What a guy!!

Is everything put away in its proper location? Ha! Make me laugh--am I Superwoman? All that is put away is the cold stuff. Tomorrow is another day! In the meantime, any burglar that tries to get in through our laundry room will find himself knee-deep in cereal boxes and canned goods. LOL!

Yay!!!

We have our new refrigerator! It came about 6:00 tonight, to much rejoicing and excitement. It's big, it's silver, but most importantly . . . it's cold inside! It's one of those new stainless ones that have a special coating sprayed on to "repel fingerprints" and also to be magnetic, so we do not have to give up our magnet-dependent lifestyle just to look "cool". I have to move everything into it tonight after the boys go down, and tomorrow we are off to the commissary to restock. This will hopefully be the last time I go before the baby comes (well, maybe I'll go one more time, as I think that through), but anyways, this is going to be a big trip. My list is a mile long!

Also, since this is such a happy post, I want to let everyone know that the surgery for Amy's dad went really, really well! The doctor said there was actually less damage than they had thought, praise the Lord. He'll be in the hospital for 4 or 5 days, Amy said. Thanks for praying!

Prayer Request

Please pray for my best friend Amy and her family tomorrow. Her dad, Don, is undergoing open-heart surgery (a quadruple by-pass, I believe) starting at 7:00 in the morning. He is really nervous about it, and I know Amy would appreciate everyone's prayers. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Finally, today is the actual day! I woke up to go to the bathroom at 3:25 last night, which is right around the time he was born, so I was quite on top of celebrating! Luke was lobbying for no school for him today, but I told him we just had an almost 2 week break, and we will be taking another break when the baby is born, so he was out of luck. He pointed out that we did Latin and math a few days while we were in Ohio, but I wasn't swayed. We did have strawberries with our cereal this morning, and for lunch I made his favorite of grilled cheese sandwiches (grilled turkey for Caleb). We even had apple juice with lunch, with pretty much never happens. After lunch we watched the video of his birth. The boys have never seen any of our birth videos, so I thought it would be good preparation for the upcoming birth. Luke's video is the best one we have. The hospital at Wright-Pat wouldn't even let you take a video of the actual birth, so for Caleb and Jonathan, we really don't have much video at all. The boys were very interested, especially as I started pushing. I'm not a "loud" birther, by any stretch of the imagination, but they could see me pushing (the camera was by my shoulder) and making little whimpering noises as Luke's head crowned, and they were pretty riveted. Nathan's conclusion: "I am SO glad I am a boy!" I told them that hopefully their wives will have babies, so they need to watch these videos to see what they need to be doing--which is, of course, whatever their wives tell them to do! Bob was a great example, rubbing my back, sitting behind me while I pushed to prop me up, and so on. I actually got a little nervous watching it. Maybe it's not a good ideas for someone within a few week of delivering to watch her own birth tapes! Umm, wait . . . that doesn't look like fun! Oh well. I'm obviously not yet at that totally uncomfortable point where you are willing to go through anything just to get that baby out! Another few weeks . . .

As I said in Luke's birthday post from last year, he had some complications when he was born from aspirating meconium during the birth. It was hard to see him on the video with all the wires and tubes coming out of his tiny little body, but it reminds us of how thankful we are that God spared him and granted him health. He certainly doesn't have any problems now from that whole situation! He's such a special addition to our family. He's so loving with the little boys, and frankly Nathan would never be able to find anything or spell much without Luke around to help! He has a similar personality to mine, which can be frustrating, but at least I know where he's coming from. He is still so painfully shy, but hopefully he will grow past that, as I pretty much have. He's a lot of fun, and he's turning into a very formidable checkers player! I guess he gets that from Papa and from Bob's dad--certainly NOT from me, anyways.

Tonight we'll have sausage roll, broccoli, and probably pears for dinner, and then Bob, Nathan, and Luke will go off to Bible Study Fellowship. Bob is planning on stopping for frosties at Wendy's afterwards. There was only a very small piece of cake left from Friday, but I did have some leftover pieces that I didn't use to make the cake, as well as some leftover frosting. I'll probably frost those pieces so we can have cake again tomorrow night and finish up the ice cream. That's what everyone is pushing for anyhow. Just one piece of cake a few days before your actual birthday is not enough, apparently!

Okay, here is a picture of Luke's B-2 Stealth cake. The weird indentations on the top (if you can even see them) are from the candles, since we didn't think to take a digital picture of the cake before singing. Yay, it finally uploaded, but we had to really make it a much smaller file, so the picture quality is not great. I think the problem might be our dial-up connection. We don't get broadband in our little area, so to improve that, we would have to do a cable thing. Maybe we will at some point, but it hasn't been a big priority. So I guess in the meantime you all are stuck with fuzzy pictures! Sorry!

Picture Help Needed

Okay. I tried to post a picture of Luke's B-2 cake. The pictures are on the computer, I clicked on the "picture" button where you create the post, I browsed and selected the one I wanted, it said it was uploading the picture to Blogger . . . and then nothing ever happened. Although the screen said "Done" on the bottom, the actual screen never changed, and it continued to say that it was uploading my image. In fact, it still says that, many minutes later. Nothing ever appeared on my post. So what am I doing wrong?! I need to figure this out before the baby comes, so we can put pictures on here!

Savory Criss-Cross Pastry ("Sausage Roll")

Here's the recipe--it is just so easy that I can't keep it to myself! I got it many years ago off of a puff pastry box. Originally it just called for one of the two sheets in each box, but I use both sheets, doubling the recipe, and even then I don't usually have left-overs.

Savory Criss-Cross Pastry

1 package Pepperidge Farm Frozen Puff pastry Sheets (2 sheets)
3 eggs
1 Tbsp water
1 lb. pork sausage
2 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped

Thaw pastry sheet at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Mix 1 egg and 1 Tbsp. water and set aside. Mix sausage, stuffing, remaining 2 eggs, onion, and celery thoroughly (I usually use my hands). Unfold pastry on lightly floured surface. Each sheet creates 3 sections. Do not separate sections. On one sheet, cut 9 strips in the two outer sections, about 1 inch apart. Spoon half of the sausage mixture down center of pastry. Starting at one end, fold pastry strips over sausage mixture, alternating sides, to cover mixture. Place on baking sheet. (I actually do all of that on my baking sheet so I don't have to move the thing, and I don't flour my surface either--what a rebel I am!) Do the same thing with the other pastry sheet and the rest of the sausage mixture. Place on same baking sheet. Brush with egg mixture. Bake 35 minutes or until golden. Slice and serve warm.

Pregnancy Woes

I just haven't been very faithful about blogging lately. I'm going to blame it all on pregnancy--I feel big and uncomfortable, my back and pelvis are starting to get achy--you know the drill. Four weeks to go, and I'm not motivated to get anything done, not even blogging! Frankly, napping and reading brainless books are about all that appeal to me right now. Could someone just make the world go away please?! LOL!

There have been some postive developments around here. We have purchased a new refrigerator from Lowes, and we even got 10% off, thanks to Bob's good memory and lack of hesitation to speak up about bad service. When our garbage disposal broke back in December, we bought our new one at Lowes, and there was some problem with the register. It wouldn't print out a receipt, and the cashier wasn't too worried about it or helpful, so Bob asked to speak to the manager. His name was Danny, and after getting everything straightened out, he told Bob that the next time he needed something at Lowes, that he (Danny) would give him 10% off. So Bob called Lowes on Thursday, and Danny was on duty. Bob reminded him of what he had said, and Danny came through with the discount. Thank you, Lord! So we didn't end up with the cheapest model after all. Actually, we haven't ended up with anything yet--the one we picked out is of course out of stock. We should get it maybe Wednesday. It will be a nice change of pace to not have to step out to the garage every time you want ice or butter!

We celebrated Luke's 7th birthday at Bible study on Friday, although the actual day is Monday. He wanted a bomber for his cake, so I made a B-2 stealth cake. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself, and there were lots of jokes about how you couldn't even see it. LOL! Monday, Luke has requested for his special dinner what we call "sausage roll"--it is puff pastry filled with a sausage/dressing mixture. It's good, and a real favorite of the boys'. He has had several celebrations of his birthday already, since we also went out to Olive Garden with my parents while we were home to celebrate there! I think he takes after his aunt by knowing how to stretch out a birthday!

Wrapping Up

Well, we're back home again. Bob flew back to Ohio on Saturday and spent most of the day at the base auto hobby shop. He replaced the oxygen sensor and the brake pads, and he changed the oil. The "check engine" light is still on, but we think the problem is fixed. We're not taking it back to the dealer just to have them charge us another $100 to turn it off!

We left Sunday morning to drive to Bob's hometown in PA. We had a nice visit with his parents. His brother Paul and his family came over too. It was great to see them again, since it has been several months. One of Bob's brother-in-laws also came over, bringing lots of big Christmas gifts for the boys. All the new things kept them occupied. We went back over there Monday morning. Luke and Nathan enjoyed playing checkers and Chinese checkers with Bob's dad. It was a beautiful day, and we drove out to the cemetary with Bob's parents to see the grave of Frank and Marsha, Bob's oldest siblings that died in a car accident when they were almost 5 and 3. I had never been there--it was moving for me. I wrote more about that whole situation in this post from last August . After that, we went out to eat at Old Country Buffet and then left for home. We had a good drive, and we were able to finish listening to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsberg. It always amazes me how much more quickly a drive goes when you are listening to a good book!

We did not have such good feelings when we got home--we quickly discovered that our refrigerator had died sometime over the weekend. Fortunately, it hadn't been such a long time that all the food was smelly, but we had to throw tons of stuff away. All I could think about as I tossed out frozen vegetables, meat, etc., was all that time in the commissary and all that money that was wasted. And being 35 weeks along and emotional, it was pretty hard for me, which in turn upset the boys. Luke started crying too. Actually it could have been much worse. I don't keep all that much meat in my inside freezer; most of the meat plus almost all of the chicken and ground beef and other meals that I had cooked in preparation for the baby were outside in my big freezer. And at least we have an extra fridge out in the garage. But still . . . it's hard to throw stuff away.

So now we are trying to find a new refrigerator. Caleb, Jonathan and I spent the morning yesterday out at Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. doing some scouting while Nathan and Luke were at co-op. Of course we discovered that refrigerators are expensive, and since we hadn't planned on replacing ours anytime soon, it is not easy to spend a lot of money on it. It looks like we are going to buy a cheap one and hope that we aren't here for too much longer. In the meantime, we are thankful that we have one right out in our garage, and we're not like pioneers, who would have had to go to the cold cellar out by the creek to get their cold stuff.

Science Fair

Dad and I had a great time judging the Dayton Christian Middle School science fair on Thursday. The 8th grade students all have to do a project, so there were 84 projects to be judged. Dad and I judged 5 of them, and to be honest, we were a little disappointed at the quality of them. None of them were really superior projects that we would expect to do well at the county level, not to mention higher levels. I wish I could have walked around to take a look at the other projects so I would have a better feel for the quality overall. Having done a science fair project in 8th grade myself under Mr. Belue, and having received a superior at the state science fair that year, I can certainly say that Mr. Belue really teaches and stresses the scientific method, so maybe we just got a bad batch.

The main problem we encountered was that the projects did not yield any kind of objective data, so there were no real results to graph or whatever. For example, one girl's question was whether fabric softener or dryer sheets were more effective for eliminating static cling on clothes. She washed clothes using fabric softener, and then she also did some loads just using dryer sheets. But she couldn't measure the amount of static left on the clothes, so she didn't have any real results--just her opinion that "both products made the clothes smell nice, but the dryer sheets got rid of a little more static". I asked her if she had tried different types of dryer sheets and softeners, and she said that she had. In fact, some worked better than others, she felt, but this wasn't stated anywhere on her project, and certainly not in any meaningful chart or anything.

Another girl did a project comparing the stain removal properties of Resolve and rubbing alcohol on carpet. She used 5 different things to make stains, but all she could do was take pictures to show how the products did--there was no quantitative way to measure her results. I questioned why she picked rubbing alcohol, of all things, to compare, and she didn't have any good reason. In my notes I suggested using water as a control, and then also trying dish detergent, vinegar, other cleaning products, etc. It seems like in her research she would have come up with better substances to test and compare!

The other 3 weren't all that much better, although at least they did have some results. It seemed like people just wanted to do an experiment that they could finish in an afternoon or so, without really going any deeper or, in some cases, thinking about why their project would even be useful. One girl's question asked if adding substances like salt, sugar, or baking soda to boiling water would raise the temperature of the water. She was sort of tongue-tied when I asked why that might be important or useful.

On the positive side, it was wonderful to see familiar faces, like that of Mr. Minor, my high school chemistry and physics teacher. I can honestly say that he looks the exact same as he did when I graduated from DCHS in 1991! He was one of my favorite teachers, a good teacher as well as a wise and godly man. He always encouraged me to reach my potential academically, but to consider raising godly children to be an even worthier goal. He was delighted to hear that we're expecting #5, and that I am homeschooling them. I must say I never thought I would end up here, but I am sure that his encouragement in high school when I started thinking about my long-term goals played a big part in this. I am sad to report that Mr. Minor is retiring after this year, his 36th year teaching at DC. I guess he's earned a rest though! Mr. Belue also looks the exact same as I remember him from 8th grade. Is there some secret anti-aging thing going on in DC male science teachers?! Mr. Belue was excited to hear that I was teaching Latin--always a nice thing to hear! There were many other familiar faces to visit with. For someone who moves around alot, it was nice to go to a place and have people remember you! Wow!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Well, blogging just hasn't been a big priority lately, but I want everyone to know we're having a great visit! And I also wanted to say that I had a great Valentine's Day too! I was surprised to find a card from the boys when I got up for breakfast on Tuesday. It turns out Grandpa took Nathan and Luke to Meijers on Saturday while I was in Columbus so they could pick one out! Looking back, Nathan was dropping big hints that he had been to Meijers before Monday, specifically in the card section, but my pregnancy-addled brain was NOT picking up on them then! LOL!

The boys and I went off to ladies' Bible study at Faircreek. It was wonderful to see all those women again. I really miss that fellowship in Virginia. Then we drove over to Amy's house to have lunch and play. When we were almost there, my cell phone rang, and it was Mom telling me that I had a delivery of flowers from Bob! What a huge surprise! She put them in water and a vase for me. They're really opening up beautifully--red, pink, and white roses, as well as baby's breath. Funny story--last night Amy was over here while the older boys were at AWANA, and she was pointing to each color rose while Jonathan said the color name. He got red and white just fine, but when it came to pink, he was stumped and finally had to answer "I don't know". LOL--that shows how much pink we have around the house, since I am definitely NOT a "pink" person, but I have a feeling he will be much better acquainted with that particular color by next Valentine's Day, if this baby does indeed turn out to be a girl!

We stayed over at Amy's for the rest of the day so the boys could play with Zachary after he got home from school. He got a new Playmobil castle for Christmas, which was a big hit. It was also nice enough for everyone to play outside for a little while and run off some steam. All 6 boys got along very well, although it did get a little loud at times! Now Caleb and Jonathan ask every day if we are going back over to Aunt Amy's house.

Just 2 more days until Bob flies back in! This afternoon Dad and I are judging the middle school science fair. It's been awhile since I've judged one, so that should be fun. I'm sure I will win the prize for "most pregnant judge"! : )

What can you get for a penny?

Well, at Meijer (a super-Walmart-like store), you can get a horsey-ride! For a penny! It's truly one of the last great bargains of our modern times. The boys always want to ride the little cars, horses, etc. outside of the Walmart back in Virginia, but those cost the kingly ransom of $.50, so I always pass and tell them that when we go to Grandma's house, we can ride the penny horse at Meijer. Today was that day, and everyone had a great ride. Jonathan was thrilled to actually "be" the Lone Ranger (no, that phase hasn't passed yet). Caleb was a little scared, but after Luke and Jonathan had theier turns, he decided it must really be fun after all. I thought Nathan, at the ripely mature age of 8 1/2, might deem himself too old for such amusements, but no--he rode last and enjoyed it just as much as his brothers. I'm glad he isn't too grown-up for horsey rides yet!

Finally!

I have been wanting to post, but I couldn't get logged in here at my parents' house. I finally realized today that I had the wrong username, so hopefully now the problem is solved . . .

We had an uneventful drive out, although our "check engine" light came back on again. Thursday morning Bob and I went over to AutoZone to see what the code was reading. It said we had a faulty oxygen sensor, which is a $100 part. Quite a difference from replacing the whole darned catalytic converter at about $1,000! So we ordered the new part, and Bob will hopefully be able to change that out when he flies back in next Saturday. We have not totally decided that the Honda dealer back in D.C. was out to cheat us, but if it does indeed only turn out to only be an oxygen sensor (which they did not even mention in their estimate), then we will be pretty unhappy with them and certainly never go back! More on this story later.

Amy and I had such a great "Moms' Get-Away" in Columbus Friday and Saturday. We left here around 3:00 and drove straight to the Easton shopping center, one of those ritzy outdoor shopping centers. We wandered around Barnes and Noble, and then we decided we would eat an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I had a delicious burrito (with lots of sour cream and guacamole, my pregnancy cravings). We were done about 6:00, and by then there was a tremendous wait, so we made the right choice there. plus, it gave us enough time to walk off dinner so we could come back later and have dessert! We walked about 2 hours. We really didn't buy anything, but it was fun just to look and talk. We came back and ate dessert at the Cheesecake Factory around 8:30. We got a slice of coffee Heathbar crunch cheesecake, and a slice of Snickers cheesecake. YUM! I personally liked the coffee one better because the Snickers one was not a "chocolate" cheesecake, which I prefer. Still good though! It's a good thing we did all that walking! We went to our hotel and watched the Olympic opening ceremony while calling home to check up on everyone. Saturday we slept in, ate breakfast, and then went back to the shopping center because I really wanted to check out "the Container Store". What a great store! All I need is tons of money and little containers, and I know my life would be perfectly organized! LOL! I did buy a nice big plastic pouring container for the honey nut cheerio bags we buy at Sams. We drove back here around lunchtime, had the soup and salad at Olive Garden for lunch, and then went to Kohls and Once Upon a Child before going home. I found a few cute girl things at Once Upon a Child. It's easier for me to buy used girl clothing, I guess, since I know there is no way we will be getting the use out of girls' clothes that we have gotten out of our boys' clothes! Meanwhile, everyone survived at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Jonathan is calling me his "new mommy" for some reason now. Maybe it's because I now look so rested and relaxed! LOL! Anyhow, it was a great birthday present from Amy to do this with her, and we had a great time.

"One small step for a man . . ."

. . . Many small steps for first-graders and their tired chaperones!

Today was our space field trip to the Udvar-Hazy museum, and I must say it all went pretty well! We first saw the IMAX film "Space Station". We watched that awhile back (with you guys, Aunt Claire?), so I knew where the loud parts would be. Caleb and Jonathan weren't phased by the noise though; in fact, Jonathan was quite entranced. Maybe there is a new phase coming on (goodbye, Lone Ranger?). Then our big group split up into grade levels, and it was time for the first graders to do the scavenger hunt that Elizabeth and I had worked on. The kids were for the most part pretty interested, and one of the parents even commented that she was learning alot! We found all the things, but the display that caught the kids' interest most was the one where they showed samples of old space food. Well, that and the dead mouse that had been preserved in an old experiment tunnel. A guard pointed that out. The mouse's eye was falling out, so you can imagine the excitement! Then it was our turn for storytime, where a worker read a story about the Apollo 11 moon landing. Since we covered that in class, the kids were on top of all her questions! The kids were then able to touch a real space suit and try on space gloves and boots. Then they designed and colored patches for their own shuttle missions. After we were through there, we went up to the 7th floor observation towere, where we watched planes take off and land at Dulles Airport. After about 15 minutes of that, it was time for everyone to go home! Yay! I was so hungry and tired! Overall, however, it was fun, and it went a lot more smoothly than I thought it might! I did come home and take a nice nap....

When we got home, I was thrilled to find birthday messages from both my brother and my Aunt Claire ! Thanks, guys! It hasn't seemed like much of a special day, but I am looking forward to celebrating more completely in Ohio! Tomorrow we are going to drive straight to Young's Dairy, where we'll meet Mom and Dad and also Amy and her boys. Of course, I will get my absolute favorite flavor, chocolate peanut butter. Mmmmmmmmmm. Bob will fly back here Thursday, and then on Friday, Amy and I are going to get away to a hotel in Columbus for a night! We're planning on some shopping, maybe a movie, some scrapbooking, and definitely chocolate! THAT will be my real birthday! And letting me go like that is Bob's real present to me!

Speaking of the trip, Bob took the van in this afternoon. Apparently our catalytic converter will need to be replaced sometime in the future (to the tune of about $1,000). Also, they would be happy to change out our brake pads and rotors for another $500, plus it is about time for our timing belt to be changed (another $1,000). Bob made sure they had turned off the "check engine" light, then thanked them all politely. We hadn't planned on dropping $2500 on the van this afternoon! So it looks like nothing is seriously wrong, and hopefully it will continue doing just fine as we drive tomorrow. Thanks for the prayers! I finished packing last night, so tonight after dinner I'll load up the van. Hopefully we can leave around 9:00 tomorrow morning! Blogging will probably be light for the next couple of days as I relax! : )

Why now?!!

We went to the library this afternoon to drop off all our books and get some new books on tape for the trip Wednesday, and as we drove home, I noticed that the "check engine" light was on in the van. Ack! And since the big field trip is tomorrow until 12:30, that leaves a pretty limited time frame for it to be looked at! We have an appointment at the Honda dealership tomorrow afternoon at 2:00--please pray that there is really nothing wrong!!

We had a good time last night. We ate chili over at the L's house and then watched the first 3 quarters of the Super Bowl there. (Then Jonathan sort of melted down, so we had to come back to put Caleb and him down and watch the rest here!) Everyone here was plenty excited about the Steelers' win, although I am sure that if we were Seahawks fans, we would be mad about the officiating. Whether or not they were acurate calls, there were several that were pretty darn close and could have gone either way, and I'm sure the Seahawks fans feel plenty justified in their anger! We started watching some ice skating during the halftime show, but we did turn back to see a few minutes of the Rolling Stones. We laughed heartily. Has there ever been an uglier group of humanity assembled in one place?! I don't think so! And the way they dance! It was so ridiculous! I can't believe they ever were popular, and it is mind-boggling to think that they still are. At the very least, it is enough to scare one away from a life of smoking, drinking, and chasing women. If that is what you look like after living that way . . . I swear they all look pickled.

Alright, I am going to get busy now and pack. I've done all the laundry, so I'm ready!

A Beautiful Day

The weather today was simply gorgeous! It is sunny and warm--definitely "no jacket" weather, and I was a little too warm in a long sleeve shirt! All that is set to end tomorrow, but it sure makes for a nice February day! We were planning on cleaning bathrooms this afternoon after we got back from Sams and Wal-Mart, but instead I made an executive decision, and we all went outside (except Jonathan who was down for his nap). The boys played football ("Go Steelers" is a common rallying cry around here lately), and I took the opportunity to clean out the minivan. I try to do that before every trip, and it stays that way for about . . . 20 minutes into the trip. Then everything gets all messy, and I never get around to cleaning it again until our next trip! Good thing we travel so often! LOL!

I had my 32 week appointment this morning. Elizabeth was able to watch the boys, so I didn't have to take them with me. Several people at the doctor's office asked about them though! Everything looks just fine. The doctor did say that my glucose test was fine, although I was "near the cut-off". Well, considering it was right after New Year's, I am just thrilled that I passed! I'm not spilling any sugar in my urine or anything, so I'm not worried. Let's see--I'm measuring right at 32 weeks, I've gained 26 pounds so far (and since I have gained between 30 and 35 pounds with each pregnancy, I am right on target for that!), my blood pressure is 114/70, and . . . I guess that's all. The doctor was asking me how I thought the baby was lying, and I said I could feel a big lump up on top, which I assumed was the bottom, and then most of the movements are down lower. I think the baby is kind of on her (?!) side, facing down. The doctor felt around and said she thought the head was down too. I told her I'd never had any problems with a baby not being down, and she said that it would be a shame to make it to my fifth baby and have to have a c-section for a breech. Then she got a thoughtful look on her face and said, "Although, to be honest, someone with your history would be an excellent candidate to go vaginally with a breech baby. We would probably try that." Ummm . . . thank you, I think! LOL! No, I just laughed and said I hoped it wouldn't come to that! That does not sound like my idea of fun!

Interesting Epiphany

I had an interesting insight during the ladies' retreat I just went on. There were opportunities at all the meals to talk to different ladies, and I was involved in several interesting discussions about homeschooling, parenting, cleaning, schedules, etc. One conversation was with one lady who has 3 kids (ages 7, 4, and 1) and another lady who has 4 kids (12, 11, 8 , and 4). They were talking about how they feel so guilty because they don't feel like they can spend enough time with each child. One lady said every night she went to bed guilty because it seemed like the older ones just didn't get enough of her time. Then they asked me if I ever felt guilty about this, since I have a large family, and as I thought about it, I realized that, well, no, I never have. (And this is note-worthy because I am someone who can make myself feel guilty for plenty of non-realistic things!) Anyhow, as I reflected on this, I realized that this is a direct result of homeschooling. The older boys get individual time with me in the mornings as we do their schoolwork, and Caleb gets his time as well when we practice his reading. Then they find things to occupy themselves in the afternoon, and I can do things with Jonathan if he would like. He's pretty crabby right after naptime, so we snuggle then, and then the boys usually wander around, in and out, while I cook dinner. But I have the whole day to spend with them, and so I don't think anyone feels left out. It was a good feeling--something to not feel guilty over! LOL--we all need more of those! The other ladies were wondering if their older kids resented the fact that they had younger siblings (they didn't have any evidence, just random musings), but I told them I doubted they thought that since we had also talked about how our kids love to play with their siblings and so on. I think we moms are just really good at overanalyzing our families and feeling guilt where there shouldn't be any.

In a different conversation, another mom (with 2 girls, 1 and almost 3) was feeling guilty about telling her older girl to play by herself sometime--she felt like she should be constantly available, and she asked me if I ever felt guilty about this. Again, I had to say no. I did play more with Nathan and Luke when they were little, to "show" them how to imagine and play with things like Little People, but now Nathan and Luke have filled that gap with Caleb and Jonathan, and I LOVE to see them play with each other. It is so precious to see Luke gently move Little People around, making them talk to Jonathan's people, and so on. And the result is that they can all play together OR by themselves, and that is such an important skill to learn. I told her that she NEEDED to teach her girls to play independently (right now they just cling to her all the time), and I suggested roomtime and other things like that, as well as setting a time limit every day where she did play with them, helping them learn "how" to play. She was so relieved to think that maybe she didn't have to be at the girls' absolute beck and call all day long--well, actually she already knew she couldn't be, since there are things she has to do, but she was feeling so guilty about it! I think our culture is so obsessive about doing things "exactly perfect", but we've lost sight of what actually is best for kids as they look towards becoming productive adults. Is it better to grow up in a home full of siblings where you must learn to share and get along with others, or is it better to have someone's attention devoted soley to you? Is it better to learn how to occupy yourself and play imaginatively, or is it better to have someone constantly there to amuse you? Well, it seems to me that out in the world, there are sadly few postions that allow you to be constantly pampered, amused, paid attention to, etc., so it seems like a kid has a much better chance of succeeding in life if he learns that lesson early on, as a welcome member of the family, but NOT the complete center. And no one should feel guilty about that!

"The Eagle Has Landed"

Well, I am done with the teaching part of my co-op responsibilities! Yay! Today we talked about the moon. The first part was about the physical moon--characteristics, phases, etc.--and the second part was about the space program to the moon. I always find that so interesting, so I love talking about that. We also have lots of little metal diecast figures of the space program (an Apollo capsule, the lunar module, a Saturn 5 rocket, etc.), and the kids really liked seeing and playing with those while I talked about them. Now hopefully they will all remember some part of what I said when we visit the museum next week!

One funny thing happened today while I was teaching the first graders. We were talking about the difference between our gravity and that of the moon, and I was bounding around the room to show how the astronauts walked on the moon. One little boy said in a surprised voice, "Hey! Are you having a BABY?!" LOL! I guess he never noticed before! Either that, or he just thought I was really fat! But since I carry straight out in front, like I stuck a big basketball under my shirt, people rarely don't notice anything! I laughed though. : )

I was so tired again after we got home, and I had a huge headache. After I put Jonathan down for his nap, I took the unheard-of step of actually putting on my fuzzy warm fleece nightshirt and crawling into bed for a nap, instead ofjust sleeping on the couch! It was nice, although my headache is still going strong. I think it's actually one of those atmospheric/pregnancy headaches, since it's been cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy all day, and very windy. Where's a barometer when I need one?! Actually, I think my head could be a barometer, since it seems to be reacting to changing atmospheric pressure!

After dinner tonight we watched half of "My Fair Lady" and had popcorn. I think the boys' favorite part is when they are dancing during "The Rain In Spain" song. They laugh so hard! The L's gave us a new popcorn popper for Christmas, and let me just interject here that we are absolutely loving it! It is tons bigger than our last one, so we only have to pop up one batch for us (6 quarts). It also has this neat stirrer bar thing, and it really does seem to work to keep the old maids to a minimum. Plus, the bowl is not cracked, like on our old one (which really is old--I think it came into the marriage with Bob too, so that makes it over 12 years old!). It all adds up to a much nicer movie-watching experience!

Taking Off Your Mask

"Taking Off Your Mask" was the topic of our ladies' retreat, and the speaker was a woman named Debby Price. She and her husband used to go to our chruch, but then they moved out to Wichita, KS for her husband's job. They have 4 boys too. Both Debby and her husband are children of preachers, although she did say that her family (growing up) never thought she would ever be a speaker at a retreat, since she was not a public speaker by any means! She was very nice and friendly, with a very vibrant walk with the Lord. I was sorry we weren't around when they were at our church to get to know them more.

She gave her testimony Friday night, and then on Saturday she started talking about why we wear masks. She had a handout with 2 circles on it, both being ways to solve problems. The first way is to have a problem, respond and try to fix it (since everyone wants to be in control!). Then you either succeed or fail, but eventually you will fail at fixing some problem. Then you feel anger, shame and fear, so you put on a mask, withdraw, and feel defeated.

The second way involves responding to your problem by trusting the Lord. Then there is either success or failure, but you can be confident that "our character is more important than our comfort", and that no matter what happens, God is in control of the situation. Then you can feel peace and be open about your struggles, walking in obedience. That leads to freedom, and you see your problem as a testimony to the Lord's power and faithfulness.

She said a lot more, but this first part really spoke to me, since we've been struggling so much with the issue of our future, and what we should be doing with our house. I can really see that I am not trusting God to take care of us, but more importantly, I really am not trusting that the Lord will speak to Bob and work in his life, even through potentially bad decisions, to draw him closer too. I really want to know the whole plan--at once! Debby said once, "My future doesn't depend on me fixing it", but right now I feel like that is where I'm at, and I have not experienced peace . . . well, since we moved here! We had a time of prayer Saturday night, and that whole issue is what I asked prayer for. The ladies prayed for both of us, and it was a real encouragement to me. Of course, I went home Sunday, and Bob and I got into a raging fight about what else, what we should do with our house, and I feel like it must have been satanic! Fortunately we were able to talk about some things later, but obviously this is an issue that Satan feels he can use to divide us. Specifically, the issue is "should we sell the house sooner rather than later". Interest rates are going up, and the fear is that there will be a much smaller pool of buyers who will be able to afford our house (and a bigger pool of houses for sale) when it is time to sell (in a another year or 2?). So maybe we should try to sell now and live in a rental until we are ready to move. The only flaw in this plan is that we will be having a baby in 8 weeks, so we aren't really in a position right now to get a house ready to sell, much less pack everything up and move ourselves. So some of the conflict is that we don't have many options right now, and that leads one to look back and question previous decisions leading us to where we are now. But since we can't change those things, that is a pretty counterproductive little exercise, although it does considerably raise the tension levels!

Right now, the bottom line for me anyways is to be open to how God is leading Bob and also to trust that God has us where we are for a reason. I have been praying that God would clearly reveal to us, especially Bob, what he wants us to do, and I'll continue to pray that. But really, what it comes down to is saying, "You know what you're doing, and I trust you, Lord". That takes the pressure off of me! I still would like to experience more of his peace though, LOL!

I'm Back!

I'm back from my retreat, and Bob and all the boys survived without me just fine! In fact, Bob took all the boys to WalMart yesterday. I don't even take all the boys to WalMart on Saturdays! The other ladies were very impressed. They already think Bob is some kind of hero because he can watch all 4 boys. Most of them don't have as many children as I do (well, none on the retreat had as many as we do), and most of them have in-laws or parents close by to help the husbands out. So this has just cemented Bob's "super-dad" reputation.

The retreat was really good. The weather was beautiful, and yesterday afternoon I got to take a nap AND go on a nice walk along the beach. How relaxing! Our retreat was at a place called Sandy Cove, which is on the Chesapeake Bay. It is like a hotel, with 3 buffet-style meals a day and maid service, so it is a nice atmosphere.

The speaker was good, but I will have to write more about what she actually discussed later. We stayed up late last night, and I am just pooped! So . . . more later!

New Courses Offered For Men . . .

I saw this a few days ago, and it made me laugh, so I thought I would post it. Obviously, it is all sterotypical, so it doesn't apply to everyone. For example, both Bob and I hate to shop, so no problems there! And I am the one who will not stop and ask for directions. Bob on the other hand will roll down his window and ask random strangers in the car next to us, while I hide my head in the glove box. I guess I'd better sign up for Class 9. Here at home, I am doing an intensive class of my own along the lines of classes 4 and 5 (laundry hampers and dirty dishes) in hopes that my sons' wives will be the beneficiaries, and my sons will never need these kinds of classes as men! : )

WINTER CLASSES FOR MEN AT THE LEARNING CENTER FOR ADULTS. REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED BY Monday, Jan. 30, 2006

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM.

Class 1 How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays --- Step by Step, with Slide Presentation. Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2 The Toilet Paper Roll --- Does It Change Itself? Round Table Discussion. Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3 Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub? --- Group Practice. Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4 Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The Floor --- Pictures and Explanatory Graphics. Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5 After Dinner Dishes --- Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink? Examples on Video. Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM

Class 6 Loss Of Identity --- Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other. Help Line Support and Support Groups. Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7 Learning How To Find Things --- Starting With Looking In The Right Places And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming. Open Forum Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours

Class 8 Health Watch --- Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health. Graphics and Audio Tapes. Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9 Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost --- Real Life Testimonials. Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.

Class 10 Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks? Driving Simulations. 4 weeks, Saturdays noon, 2 hours.

Class 11 Learning to Live --- Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife. Online Classes and role-playing Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12 How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion--- Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques. Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13 How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy --- Remembering Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Important Dates and Calling When You're Going To Be Late. Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered. Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14 The Stove/Oven --- What It Is and How It Is Used. Live Demonstration. Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.

Quick Update

It's been a few days since I last blogged. Nothing exciting has happened, and well, I'm just more tired! I've been doing so well at exercising every morning, but the downside is I pretty much have to take a nap at about 1:30. Oh well.

Teaching went really well, but I sure was tired afterwards. First and second grade teachers have my utmost respect because I just don't think I would ever have the patience to deal with 20 or more wiggly little kids for a whole day! Three hours is plenty for me! The first graders took longer to do things, so I had activities we never even got to, but better too much than not enough! The second grade boys were pretty hyper, but everyone liked talking about stars, and things went well.

Now I am moving on to the moon for next week! I'm so glad I got all of my handouts done and copied off already, so that is all set. Now I need to make a big poster depicting the phases of the moon, as well as a far-off view of the earth and sun, with the moon in the different postitions. In fact, I should be doing that right now, but you see I always pick blogging over what I really should be doing! LOL! I don't actually have all that much time to get ready before Tuesday. Tonight I have a co-op moms' meeting. I enjoy getting together with the other ladies, especially when it involves dinner! Then tomorrow afternoon I am leaving for our church ladies' retreat, and I won't be back until Sunday afternoon. Yes, that means 3, maybe 4 nights that I don't have to cook! It's the little things that excite me most at this point. LOL! I am looking forward to the time away. I'm not sure what the speaker's topic will be, but the retreat last year was really good. I hope this one will be too.

That's about all that's happening around here. I'll post about the retreat when I get back!

Preparations are complete . . .

I start teaching tomorrow, and I just finished pounding my last chip can. I made constellations by pounding nail holes into the bottom of pringles chip cans and covering the outside of the canisters with black construction paper. They look pretty neat, I must say, but I am tired of holding the nail in place! I did 18 of them (yes, we have been saving pringles cans for quite awhile, and I will be thrilled to have them out of the study!), and there are 6 different constellations that I did. I got the idea from someone on the Well-Trained Mind board several months back, and it was a good one! I think the kids will enjoy "star-gazing"' from the comfort of the classroom! It sure beats all the D.C. light pollution anyways. I also found, at the last minute, a demonstration on why stars twinkle, using a bowl of water, a mirror, and a flashlight. I had quite a time hunting up a small mirror, but finally I found one in an old compact. I managed to pry it out using a putty knife, so we're good to go on that as well. I had plenty of flashlights to choose from, though! LOL!

Ed, Elizabeth, Jonathan, and I did a reconnaisance foray to the Udvar-Hazy Museum last night while everyone else was at AWANAs to scout for our upcoming field trip there. The museum is technically free, but there is a $12/car charge for parking! Elizabeth got a hot tip that you can park after 4:30 for free (the museum closes at 5:30), so that is what we did. We had to organize a scavenger hunt for the k-4 through 2nd graders, since they don't get a guided tour, and their hands-on time is only about 30 minutes. There's some neat stuff there, especially if you are at all interested in space, but I hope it will keep the attention of the little guys!

Now all I need to do to be ready for tomorrow is type out my lesson plans in an attempt to be really organized. I suppose I should go ahead and sign off so I can get that done! You will notice that I haven't blogged for several days, but when there is something else that needs to be doing, all of a sudden I am full of words! LOL!

Let the nesting begin!

I still have about 9 weeks to go, but I am already feeling twinges of that nestin ginstinct, particularily with regards to storing up food. Now I know that reading My Side of the Mountain, where Sam details all his preparations for winter isn't helping any, but I do always get this urge to pack away tons of food in our freezers before I have a baby. I say "freezers" because one thing we have is plenty of freezer storage space! We have a lovely big side by side in our kitchen that came with the house, plus a small side by side in the garage that we got from Nana and Papa. Then we also have a big upright freezer in the garage, also from Nana and Papa, as well as what used to be our main fridge, an Amana with the freezer on the bottom, down in the basement. Amazingly, that one is also from Nana and Papa (we didn't just up and take away all their refrigerating devices--they moved into a small retirement village, and we traded our new fridge for their nicer one when they sold their house when we were stationed out in Colorado!). So storage space is definitely not an issue! As a funny aside, a few months after we moved here, some salesman called from one of those places that will bring meat to your door. He asked what kind of refrigerator and freezer we had. I rattled off all of ours, and there was kind of a stunned pause. "Umm, are you an appliance store or something?!" LOL!

Anyhow, I have been busy browning tons of ground beef and cooking and chopping tons of chicken. I've also put an extra meatloaf up, as well as chicken and black bean soup, and from tonight's meal, chili. I also cooked and mashed lots of sweet potatoes so we can make tons of sweet potato biscuits! I have plenty of other soups on our future menu, as well as spaghetti and things like that. I used to freeze a lot of casseroles, but with Caleb being allergic to dairy, there aren't as many that work now. But I think I will still have enough in the freezer by the time the baby is born to feed a small army. Which is good, since that seems to be what I am feeding every night.

Space Update

Well, for the 2 or 3 of you who are wondering, I got everything done last night for my space unit, and we were able to make the copies this afternoon. The price I paid--I went to bed at 1:30. Amy knows from college days that my brain pretty much shuts off after 11:00, so I was not all that productive after that time, and that is why it took me so long to finish! Actually, what happened is that I cut out all my beautiful timeline figures and realized that I made the Gemini, Apollo, and Saturn 5 rocket figures too big, and so all the figures did not fit on my timeline paper! Ack! In my befudled, tired state, I tried to figure out how to make our printer/copier shrink things down, but alas, I could not. Irrationally, I decided that the best thing to do was redraw them smaller right then. Yes! That was my brilliant solution! I finally got that done and the new ones copied onto the paper with the other figures (the ones that were small enough and already fit, LOL), and by that point in time, I never wanted to see anything dealing with space again. Fortunately, the boys all played and cooperated really well together this morning, and I slept in until 9:00.

At Office Depot we made a grand total of 421 copies--I told you I had done a lot of work! It took us over an hour to do so because Jonathan picked this afternoon to not obey in stores. So he thought it was hilarious to dart around display cases, creep around on his tummy, and generally make a nuisance of himself while I frantically tried to keep track of the mountain of copies piling up beside the copier. We actually had to go back out to the car after finishing the copies to "deal with issues", and then come back in to buy the rest of the stuff, like those little metal paper fasteners that you push through 2 pieces of paper and then the pieces will spin. We're using those both for a star project and a moon phase project. I'm happy to say that Jonathan was much more obedient after the intervention. LOL! I felt like a one-armed paper-hanger, though, and I'm sure anyone who saw me thought things like, "Oh, that poor overworked woman, with 4 wild Indians running around all the time!" Ahh well, keeps me humble. I can tell people that the boys are rarely in form like today, but I can tell they don't believe me! LOL!

Moon and Stars

I am up to my eyeballs in space stuff. I teach the first and second graders the next two Tuesdays at our co-op, and the general topic for our unit is space. I'm covering the stars and constellations next Tuesday and the moon and our space program to the moon the Tuesday after that. The mom who taught the first two weeks already covered the planets in the solar system and the space shuttle. When I was back in Ohio in October, I bought a space unit study guide at the teacher supply store, and it has some good ideas, but not enough. So I have been forced to do a lot of things on my own. I've made connect-the dot constellation pages for Orion and Ursa Major. I've made a coloring page about star temperatures and our spiral galaxy (note: spiral galaxies are very difficult to draw. Do not use mine as a model!). I made a constellation matching page wheere the kids cut out squares that just have the stars on them and glue them under the squares that have the stars with the lines all connected. I still have a few more things to draw. It's an hour and a half of teaching for each grade, and first and second grade kids are pretty active, so you have to have a lot of stuff to keep them occupied!

For the moon week, I didn't have to do as much drawing. We're going to be learning about the phases of the moon, so I need to make a model moon to use with my globe and a light. That will also demonstrate eclipses. There is already a moon phases activity in the activity guide I bought, so I just have to make copies of that. I do need to make a big poster of the moon phases for everyone to look at though. I did make a timeline worksheet that involved quite a bit of drawing. I'm going to glue a line with dates on it onto black construction paper for all the kids. I drew pictures to correspond with Sputnik, Yuri Gargarin's first space flight, the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, the launch of Apollo 11, and the moon landing. The kids will cut out the pictures and glue them under the approriate dates. You can imagine that took me forever, since I am not an "artiste"! Ahh well, I poked around on the internet, but I couldn't really find little drawings like I wanted. I am trying to get over to Office Depot tomorrow afternoon to make all the copies I need, so that's why the big push tonight to finish it all. Whew!

For our "fifth week activity" (where all the grades do something special together), we are going to the Udvar-Hazy Museum , which is the annex to the National Air and Space Museum that is by the Dulles Airport. There are lots of space things exhibited there, and a lot from the early years of the space program, so I wanted the kids to be somewhat familiar with the terms. We will all see an IMAX movie, and my grades will have a little demo time where they can touch some parts of a space suit, etc. We need to come up with a scavenger hunt-type activity for them because they don't get a guided tour--only older kids. So I guess I'll be a tour guide as well!

Now, on to the making of a Latin review worksheet. I've been making one up every Friday, and the boys have enjoyed doing them. Well, maybe "enjoy" is too strong of a term! But since we're doing it all orally during the week, I figured they need some written reinforcement each week. Goodnight!

Piano Lessons

Yesterday was the first piano lesson for Nathan and Luke! You may remember that back in November we watched Anthony's dog Ned for him while he and his family went down to Texas for Thanksgiving. Our reward (and we really earned it, since it turned cold and snowy right after they drove out!) is some free piano lessons from Anthony! Anthony has developed quite the clientele of students AND a great reputation, so we were pretty happy to be able to get some time with him.

Nathan was very excited about starting lessons, and Luke's reaction was also typical of him--"Piano lessons! Oh no!" This is because 1. piano lessons are something new, and 2. he doesn't already know how to play the piano, therefore he might possibly make mistakes. But he had a really great time (they both did), and Anthony didn't scare Luke at all! LOL! So all afternoon the house rang with the notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The keyboard has never seen so much action!

Bob never had any sort of music lessons growing up, so he told the boys before they went that he wanted them to show him what they had learned. They were pretty excited about the idea that they knew something Daddy didn't, so they were very anxious for him to get home so they could "teach" him. They even worked it out between themselves--"Luke, I'll teach Daddy this week, and you teach him next week." "Yes, but I'l be there in case you forget something." We are well on our way to being a musical household! LOL! They were both eager to practice after doing their chores this morning and before starting schoolwork. I can only hope the enthusiasm continues, and I have to give credit to their great teacher! : )

A Good Holiday

We had a good day yesterday, although we didn't get much accomplished. Nathan made us cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Before you get all excited, let me just say these were not Elizabeth's delicious recipe, or Quiverof10's recipe, which has won rave reviews from the ladies on the Well-Trained Mind boards (we'll try those sometime!). They were, however, ones that an 8 year old boy could make by himself, so that made them quite delicious! I'll try to remember to post the recipe at the end of the post.

Bob was home, but we had a regular day of school anyhow. I felt like we've had to take some unexpected days off for doctors' appointments and such, and since we didn't have anything special planned, it seemed like we should go about our daily routine. Bob mainly played around with stocks online and paid our bills, contributing some Latin derivatives to the discussion at various points.

The highlight of my day was being able to go to the monthly meeting of the Ashburn Christian Home Educators support group (ACHE). It's always so nice to get out of the house and socialize with other women, especially ones with whom I have so much in common. I went with Christine, so I knew someone already, and another woman from our homeschool co-op was also there. The topic for the evening was "Classroom Organization and Time Management". The biggest thing I came away with was the knowledge that I am really pretty happy with where we're at right now, and with how I keep track of what we do and plan our days. I picked up a few practical tips, but I don't have a lot of unresolved angst about wishing I was better organized in the classroom! It was kind of funny--there were a lot of women there with 2 or 3 kids, the oldest being just 5. So Christine and I, with our oldest kids being the advanced age of 8, were like the old pros! That felt so odd because I know I am NOT the expert on homeschooling. I guess, practically speaking, that I AM more of an expert than someone in their first year with a kindergartener! Still, it felt weird. It was a good time of fellowship, with lots of great food. I ate more than my fair share of cheese spread and crackers! : )

Here is the recipe for the cinnamon rolls that Nathan made. It is straight from the Jan./Feb. 06 issue of Quick Cooking.

2 tubes (8 oz. each) Pillsbury crescent rolls
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk

Unroll crescent dough into a rectangle. Seal seams and perforations. Combine the sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough. Roll up jelly roll style, starting with a long side; seal edge. Cut into 16 slices. Place rolls cut side down in 2 8 in. round baking pans coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and milk, drizzle over the warm rolls.

Most Practical Christmas Gift Award

Last night, the boys were down in the basement, watching TV. Bob was on the computer, and I was trying to figure out what I was going to teach for co-op on the couch. At around 8:15, our electricity went off, so Bob went down to rescue the boys, while I searched my brain for where a flashlight could be. Then I remembered that we had bought cheap little flashlights for all of us at WalMart to put in our stockings for Christmas! I had never opened mine, but had stuck it on top of the bookcase in the family room. Yes! It was still there! And with that meager light, we were able to find 4 of the other 5 little flashlights, plus the big rechargeable one that was in the van. So everyone had a flashlight, and everyone was happy. Since it was bedtime, everyone just got their pajamas on and went to bed, instead of staying up late and watching football. That made Mommy happy! The power came back on at 11:30, which woke me up since I could now see what lights I had missed turning out, as well as hear the TV in the basement. It's been windy today as well, but not so bad, so I don't think we'll need all our flashlight power tonight. Too bad, since I have located even another one! Ahh well, I am still amazed that we could find so many of those things when we needed them. Believe me, that rarely happens around here!

Four Things

Several days (weeks?) ago, Pam over at Ramblings and Other Things tagged me, and I never got an extra minute to do it. But now we're done with school for the day, the house is clean (since Bob's sister and her family got back from their cruise last night and stayed here again before going back home this morning), and we're having left-overs for dinner. SO . . . . .

Four Things-

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life: research assistant for the human engineering lab at Wright Pat (summer before starting college), paper-grader for Dr. Braithwaite's advanced math classes in college, American Heart Association research fellow at Wright State, and now, the most challenging and on-going, mother.

Four Movies You Would Watch Over and Over: Pride and Prejudice (BBC version), Hello Dolly, Apollo 13, Anne of Green Gables

Four Places You Have Lived: California, Okinawa, Colorado, Ohio

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch: Design on a Dime, Househunters, . . . . ummm . . . any of those HGTV shows about fixing up houses to sell . . . . sometimes I like to watch Whose Line Is It Anyways--that show can be so funny, although it can also be pretty crude . . . you can tell I'm reaching here! I just don''t watch that much TV. Before babies, I was a faithful ER watcher, but I haven't seen that show probably in 7 years now.

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation: Korea, Germany (our space-A honeymoon adventure), Telluride, Florida panhandle

Four Websites You Visit Daily: Claire Bug, Powerline, Hotel California (although I must say my brother has been less than prolific of late!), and the Well-Trained Mind general board

Four of Your Favorite Foods: chocolate . . . anything chocolate, but especially that which also includes peanut butter, or is dark chocolate, Chili's fajitas, Colonial's pizza (in Cedarville), my chicken enchilda casserole (can you tell that I crave Mexican foods while pregnant?!)

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now: in Ohio with my parents and Amy, browsing in a library or bookstore without kids, cross-country skiing in Colorado (well, I'd have to not be pregnant, too!), getting a full-body pregnancy massage . . . . ahh, makes me relax just to think about it!

And now, I've noticed that my home-schooling friend Beverly has also been too busy to blog much lately, so I am tagging her to do this little quiz!

Long Day

We left the house at 9:30 and got back home at 4:15. What did we do? Well, Jonathan and Caleb both had doctors' appointments, we ate lunch at Wendy's, and we went to the commissary. And if you don't think that should be an almost 7 hour day out, then you obviously don't live in Northern Virginia!

Jonathan had what should have been his 2 year well-baby appointment, although he is now over 2 1/2. He is healthy and normal, although very small. That should be no surprise to anyone! He got 4 shots today, 2 in each thigh, so he is not a happy camper now.

Caleb's appointment was because he needed new prescriptions for all his allergy and asthma meds. I am getting tired of going in all the time for these appointments, so I wanted to communicate to the doctor that I needed more refills on each prescription. Well. Not only did I NOT communicate that, somehow I also miscommunicated the fact that I needed new prescriptions for all 4 of his medicines. After waiting forever for our name to called in the pharmacy line, I discovered that he only gave me new prescriptions for Zyrtec and Albuterol, not Singulair and Flonase. I almost cried. So now I will be going back for another appointment in less than 3 months, because that is how much of those 2 medicines I think we have left. Every time I have an appointment there, medical care immediately becomes the top reason why I absolutely do not want to stay here any longer than I have to. I can not communicate with the doctors there, and it is so incredibly frustrating.

We went to Wendy's for lunch, and my jr. bacon cheeseburger with no cheese indeed had cheese on it, so it was then that I started to wonder if maybe the problem isn't me! Maybe I speak a very garbled form of English but just don't realize it!

Anyhow, we are now back from the commissary, home from all the rain and traffic on 66, and I have $457 worth of groceries to put away. So I guess it is going to be a long night too! The one thing I did do right today was start a roast and vegetables in the crockpot this morning, so praise the Lord, dinner is already taken care of. *weak cheer*

Books and Movies

Last night, the boys and I watched "Caddie Woodlawn", which I found on DVD at the library. You may remember that we finished reading that book aloud a few months ago, and the boys really loved it. When I brought it home, I told Bob that I am always so hopeful about movies taht come from books, but usually I am so disappointed. No matter what this one was, it would be good for the boys--either it would be just like the book, and they would love it, or it would be totally different, and they would learn an important lesson about how the book is usually so much better.

Well, this movie definitely fell in the second category! Nathan's first comment was "She doesn't look anything at all like I imagined her to look like!" LOL! The movie wasn't a bad movie at all, and maybe it would appeal if one hadn't read the book. But the book is so interesting and humorous, and the movie was nothing like that. I guess I will never understand why directors feel they need to arbitrarily change around characters, plot details, and so on. There were so many changes in this movie that added no value! People died who did not die in the book, and for no reason, really. Events happened in completely different orders, again for no reason. The thing that bugged me the most was how they changed the actual character of one of the main characters in the book. Robert Ireton was the Woodlawns' hired man. He was from Ireland, and he loved to play his banjo and sing funny songs, and tell funny stories. In the movie, however, he was an incredible bigot who spread terrible rumors about the Indians, almost massacred a bunch of them, and tried to keep little half breed boys out of the house! Umm, no. There were random townsfolks with those sort of attitudes, but not Robert Ireton. This book and movie is based on a true story--what if you were a descendent of his, and this was how a movie portrayed him, with absolutely no evidence to back it up?! That really bothered me. When we finally reached the end of the movie, Nathan said, "Why didn't they just make the movie like the author wrote it? It was a GOOD book!" I agree.

That got me thinking--what movies out there are good and faithful adaptations of the books from which they come? The only one I can think of that I have actually seen is the BBC production of "Pride and Prejudice". That miniseries perfectly captures how I imagined it should be! I haven't seen the new movie, so I don't know for myself how it compares, but I have my doubts. It's not 6 hours long, for one thing, so I know they chopped out a lot and changed around some lines. I haven't seen "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" either. I know there are some differences, but it sounds like they tried to be pretty true to the book. Directors (or whoever is in charge of these things) should not assume they could have written a better book, and so so completely change things that the final movie product bears no resemblence to the book!

Pink

While Nathan and Luke were at co-op, Caleb, Jonathan and I went to the outlet shops in Leesburg. The Book Warehouse store is closing, so I thought I'd see if I could get any bargains, plus I wanted to see if the Carter's outlet there had any bigger pajamas, like for Nathan. Well, the Book Warehouse was quite a disappointment--everything good was quite picked over--and I didn't find any big sleepers either. But I did buy a few baby girl things. And boy, was that weird! I hadn't realized how much I really just look past pink things. My eyes are only drawn to the blues, reds, and greens on the boys' side of the store! After spending awhile looking around, I can say that bubble gum pink is not my favorite. I do like purple though, even purple flowers. The pink stuff was what was mainly on sale, so I tried to get stuff that was white with pink flowers or whatever on it. That makes it sound like I bought tons of stuff, but that is not the case! I bought 2 little newborn one piece footed things, two 3 month things like that, a little onesie that is 6 months, and a 9 month Christmas outfit that was really on sale. Still, it felt very odd to be carrying up all that girl stuff, so I did ask about their return policy, and it is pretty liberal--no time limit! I won't be washing all that stuff until I see for sure a little girl! lOL!

The Difference Between Hymns and Choruses

When we were out here visiting and househunting, and we went to Reston Bible Church, their worship leader read this to us all one Sunday, and we thought it was so funny. I actually tried to find it on the internet when we got back home, but I never could. I was happy to see someone post it today on the Well Trained Mind board, so I thought I would share it with you all now, if you haven't already seen and read this.

The difference between hymns and choruses

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

"Well," said the farmer, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns."

"Praise choruses?" said his wife. "What are those?"

"Oh, they're okay. They're sort of like hymns only different," said the farmer.

"Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.

The farmer said, "Well it's like this: If I were to say to you, 'Martha, the cows are in the corn', well that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

Martha, Martha, Martha Oh, Martha, Martha, MARTHA
the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows,
The COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, in the corn,
Corn, CORN, CORN, COOOORRRRRRNNNNNN;

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing three or four times, well that would be a praise chorus."


Amazingly enough, on the exact same Sunday a young, new Christian from the city church attended the farmer's small town church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

"Well," said the young man, "It was good. They did something different, though. They sang hymns instead of praise choruses."

"Hymns?" said his wife. "What are those?"

"Oh, they're okay. They're sort of like praise choruses, only different," said the young man.

"Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.

The young man said, "Well, it's like this - If I were to say to you, 'Martha, the cows are in the corn', well, that would be a praise chorus. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wonderous ear by and by
To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.

For the way of the animals who can explain?
There in their heads is no shadow of sense,
Hearkenest they in God's sun or his rain
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.

Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight,
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.

So look to that bright shining day by and by,
Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn.
Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry
and I no longer see those fould'd cows in the corn.

Then if I were to do only verses one, three and four, and do a key change on the last verse, well, that would be a hymn."

A Few Random Thoughts

I haven't blogged lately, but that's just because, well, nothing exciting is happening. Pam tagged me again to answer a few questions, which I WILL do, but I just haven't yet. I'm a procrastinater after all, I guess! Here are some random thoughts:

1. We have been eating a terrible diet the past few days. I haven't cooked! We had grilled tortillas Saturday night for dinner and frozen pizzas Sunday--what is the world coming too?! Monday we will be back to our regularily scheduled dinners. Also our regularily scheduled exercise. (*Update: I actually started this post Sunday night, but just to let you know, yes, we had a perfectly normal, healthy dinner tonight. It was well-received. LOL! And I rode the bike for 20 minutes in the morning and rode the Gazelle-thing for 20 more this afternoon. Whew! Now I don't feel like such a slug!) I did have my glucose tolerance test on Friday. Maybe my terribly unhealthy diet is a suble rebellion against that. Hmm. I should know the results by the middle of the week.

2. I did some scrapbooking this weekend! Now I am only a year and 5 months behind! Wow! Thanks again to Pam for motivating me to get going again by sending me some pages that already had borders on them.

3. Bob's sister and her family came Friday night and spent the night. Bob got up early Saturday morning to take them to the airport. They made it onto their cruise boat, and they fly back Thursday. We had a great time staying up late and visiting with them. The cruise talk really put a bee in Bob's bonnet that he wanted to go on one too. Unfortunately the next year is pretty much out, since I'll be nursing a baby, but we're tentatively planning to go November 2007. Anyone else in? LOL! Nothing like planning ahead, I always say!

4. Nathan and Luke had dentists' appointments this afternoon. I had been concerned about one of Nathan's permanent teeth, his upper right incisor. It is really small. The x-ray showed that, in fact, it is really small. LOL! There's even a name for it, but since I didn't write it down, I can't remember it. The gist of it all is there is nothing to do now, but when Nathan is an adult, if it bothers him, he can get cosmetic dental surgery to build it up to a wider size. This is great news, because now I don't have to worry about seeing an orthodonist, dealing with United Concordia, etc. Yay!

5. Bob left this afternoon to drive up to his sister's house in PA. Her custody trial is tomorrow afternoon at 1:00. Please pray! Bob will drive back leaving early Wednesday morning.

I guess that's it for now!

A Year-End Meme

I've been tagged by Pam with an interesting set of questions. I'm kind of doing this off the cuff, without thinking over my answers much, so we'll see how I do . . .

1. What did you do in 2005 that you had never done before? Cooked a meal at my house for my in-laws--they had never visited us before last February, although we've been married now for over 12 years.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Hmm, as a rule, I don't make New Year's resolutions. I always want to exercise more and eat in a more healthy manner though, and this past year I have had good months for that, and also bad months! I have been using whole wheat flour more often, as well as milled flax seed, so that is a start.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I can't think of anyone right off the top of my head . . .

4. Did anyone close to you die? Well, the L's lost their baby in July, right after we found out we were expecting. That was a very difficult time.

5. What countries did you visit? No countries this year, other than in books. Sigh.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? A clearer sense of what we should do after Bob retires, and where we should go, if anywhere.

7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? July 22, when I had a positive pregnancy test.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Hmm. This is really a tough one because I am not really in a position right now to achieve big things. I made a great cheesecake on my first try? I organized the garage so we could fit both the van and the Pathfinder in there? I guess I'll have to stick with "I fed and clothed and taught my family for the year, and they all know that I love them"!

9. What was your biggest failure? Well, I never did potty-train Jonathan even though he showed lots of interest twice this year. I didn't take away his pacifier either, so next year will probably be more difficult because of those things, LOL! Also, I never got the boys (and me) on a consistent cleaning schedule. I'm trying again this year though (hey, maybe that's a New Year's resolution!).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Well, we were all so very sick after Bob's family visited us in February--I thought we would never all get better! It was a bad pneumonia thing. I think I broke a rib from coughing, because it hurt so badly for so many months after. By June, I could finally lower myself back down to the bed without wincing! And of course there was my pregnancy rash thing a few weeks ago. Praise the Lord, it has all gone away now, and I'm not itchy. Funny aside though--now, whenever Jonathan isn't feeling quite right, he'll always say he's "itchy". I guess he heard me complain too often, LOL!

11. What was the best thing you bought? The 5 double bookcases from Sams! I still absolutely love these, and I love rearranging and ordering my books on them!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My cousin, James, who graduated from Air Force pilot training. That merited a huge family reunion down in Texas!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Bob's sister's husband. They are going through a messy divorce instigated by his affair, and he is being such a jerk about custody issues and well, everything. The custody hearing is next Tuesday, actually. Bob will be going up there to support her, and we would appreciate your prayers.

14. Where did most of your money go? Well, our house payment, I'm sure! LOL! We took a big trip to CO this summer, but that was a TDY. We got a great deal on our room in Texas, so that wasn't as bad as it could have been. I have bought a lot of books this year, although most were second-hand !

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Having another baby. Also our trip to Texas. I was so excited to see my brother and his wife, and their new home, as well as my aunt and uncle who we rarely get to see! And my parents were there too--it was wonderful! I'm still excited about it! : )

16. What song will always remind you of 2005? Hmmm . . .I'm drawing a complete blank here. I can't think of a one.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

I would say a) about the same b) MUCH fatter, due to the presence of another human being in me
c) Monetarily I would say about the same but spiritually I would have to say FAR richer! (I'm stealing your answer for that one, Aunt Claire!)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercised.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Snapped at the boys over little, inconsequential things.


20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? We spent it at the house of very good friends, with other good friends from our Bible study. We ate and talked while the kids played. It was very fun and relaxing.


21. Did you fall in love in 2005? With my husband again. As we talk through all these possibilities for the future, I'm glad we'll be in it together.

22. How many one-night stands? Well, none. Never!

23. What was your favorite TV program? I guess "Design on a Dime", since that is the only one I really ever watched this year! That is on in the afternoon while I exercise. Otherwise, I am not a big TV watcher, and I rarely do it.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No, I can't really think of anyone I hate. People I don't care to associate with on a regular basis, but not hate.

25. What was the best book you read? This year, I would have to say Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick. It really challenged me to see what I really worship (security). Also, this isn't the best written book (readss like you're at a seminar!), but Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs really illuminated some problem areas of our marriage, specifically the patterns in which we respond to each other, and how to break that "crazy cycle".

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Beethoven's Wig CDs. The kids love them, and hey, I do too.

27. What did you want and get? The Message Bible and Climbing Parnassus

28. What did you want and not get? I can't think of anything.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Besides the Lone Ranger and some new Veggie Tales, I can think of no movies I watched. LOL, I'm not much for visual entertainment, am I?!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went back to Ohio right after it, and I went to the ladies' retreat at my old church with my best friend Amy. It was so much fun! I was 32.

31.What one thing made your year measurably more satisfying? Cell phones! We finally got some the end of May. Wow, what a difference!

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? Pregnant. Comfortable. Not caring a whit about what the neighbors think if they see me getting the mail in my sweats (and wearing a plastic tiara, LOL!).

33. What kept you sane? Knowing that the Lord has a plan for my life, and that he loves me unconditionally.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Umm, the Lone Ranger? LOL, see #29!

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Gay "marriage" and the relentlessly negative portrayal of pretty much everything by the liberal mainstream media.

36. Who did you miss? My family and Amy. And I was so sad to not get to see Pam when we were out in Colorado. She and Bill were gallivanting around Ireland, lucky ducks!

37. Who was the best new person you met? My civilian OB doctor! Seriously, it took so long for the approval to come through--I didn't think it would ever happen!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005. Enjoy where God has placed you right now. You don't have to assume you'll stay there forever, but while you are there, make the most of it. See what there is to see! Impact people!

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. This is from Tree 63's song "Blessed Be Your Name". It's the whole first verse and chorus, but I really love this song.

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name


Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name


Every blessing you pour out, I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord, Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name.

Ahhh . . .

. . . that sound you are hearing is the sigh of contentment as we get back into our regular schedule! We started school back up yesterday after 3 weeks of break, and it was nice. It turns out the boys remember their Latin vocab pretty well. They've lost some speed on multiplication facts, though. We started a new handwriting program for them, Handwriting Without Tears, and I think I am going to be very pleased with it. Luke in particular has picked up some terrible habits, so hopefullyt his curriculum will help with that. Nathan is learning cursive. He's been just doing a big handwriting workbook, but I think the new approach will be better. I've heard good things about this program, especially as it relates to boys, so we shall see if it lives up to what I've heard! Handwriting is definitely a weak link here, so pretty much anything will be an improvement!

I started going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Caleb again. We started this in September, but he really wasn't that interested, and it wasn't making much of an impression on him so I stopped. Since then, he's become a lot more interested in reading himself, so I think it will go better this time around. He's also doing the first pre-Explode the Code book, and he's having alot of fun with that.

We're in the middle of My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George as our read-aloud. We are really enjoying learning about how to make acorn flour, bathe with slippery elm bark, and in general survive in the woods. Fascinating! I can't believe I never read this book when I was young, but it is definitely a book with a lot of appeal for boys.

I think that is a good, albeit brief, update. It feels good to be back in the routine. Sometimes I wish AWANA and co-op would not start back up! I'm not that motivated to get back into those things right now! But since I am teaching this unit (space) at co-op, I guess I'd better get on the stick.

Happy New Year!

I tried to post this last night, but somehow the post disappeared into nothingness . . . oh, well!

We did get over to the L's house New Year's Eve, and we had a wonderful time! Our whole Bible study was there, and we had lots of great food, so it was a fun night. We counted down at 9:00, and then we left after 10:00. Bob and I stayed up until midnight though!

The daily devotional from Dec. 31 in My Utmost For His Highest really spoke to me in light of my previous ponderings. I guess we'll always look back and wonder if we made the right decisions, but Oswald Chamber's words were comforting to me:

At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the
future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays.
Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of
yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and
He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of
spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get
into a shallow security in the present. . . .

As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of
impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive
thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel
will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is
true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can
transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the
future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.
Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step into the Irresistible Future
with Him.