like a cool spring

For the first time in our lives

we have water - cold clean refreshing water

at our fingertips.

You shoulda seen us dancing around. 

or - maybe not....

It makes me think 

of all the people without even remotely decent water to drink.

I wish I could remember to be more grateful for everything I have!

the week in review - ish

1.

The boys started Taekwondo yesterday.

Of course it goes without saying,

they love it!

2.

As I was filling out their information cards (for Taekwaondo)

I looked up and saw my very dearest girlfriend,

the one who knows pretty much all my ugly

and loves me anyways.

Her boys were going to start the class, too!

So we got to catch up a bit, which was a nice treat.

3.

Finally admitted that our freezer was dead.

Instead of a freezer to replace it, though,

we bought a brand new almost big side by side fridge.

Which meant moving the old fridge

(which now looks really junky...)

back into the kitchen.

It's so weird having a fridge in my kitchen again.

4.

I am officially an old lady.

I covered my flowers with sheets last night

to protect them from the potential freeze.

My porch thermometer apparently read 32 this morning;

I wasn't up that early, so I can't say for sure.

Maybe the kids were just trying make me feel better

about

being an old lady now?

5.

It turns out

That the guy we bought the fridge from

is a budget-conscious builder.

And he is happy to share his tips and subs with us.

He also took us on a tour of his latest house

which he built for $50 a sq. ft.

Which is what we hope to do

(if we build)

and everybody says can't be done....

6.

The big new of the week is

Lexi has gone without momma during the night
for the past two nights.

Wednesday

I was just exhausted all day

after getting up 30 plus times with Lexi the night before.

Poor girl came down with a cold and was having a miserable time.

I was so tired, I wasn't sure I could make it to her 1 a.m. sleeptime

and thought I'd just try to put her to bed early around 11:30.

Lets just leave it at things didn't go well

and I behaved badly

and Daddy woke up and took over.

7.

I still am completely exhausted

and my under-eye bags are bigger than ever.

Of course, 

just 'cause I'm not tending to Lex' during the night

doesn't mean I'm sleeping perfectly.

And even if I were

I suppose it takes more than 2 nights 

to make up for over 7 years of chronic sleep deprivation.

But maybe the end is in sight.

Speaking of the end being in sight,
somebody needs a diaper change...

for more seven quick takes, visit Jen

udderly delighted

I was lying on the bed, shirtless.

When the caladryl on my back was dry,

I sat up to re-dress.

Lexi took one look at me

and laughed delightedly.

"Two!"
 she shouted.
 "Nurse!"

poison ivy

I've got it.

All over my back.

(through 2 shirts ??)

I'd like to say it was worth it

'cause I got the perfect shot.

But

I didn't.

And

it wasn't.

taken walking back from the dam
blissfully unaware that I'd be an itchy mess in mere days

keepin' me humble

So.

I wore my hair up in a clippy today.

Which really is nothing new.

Since it'd been straightened, it actually looked almost cute.

Which isn't the norm.

Anyways.

I was out & about

and my clippy felt like it was slipping out

so I took it out

re-grabbed my hair

gave it a twist and stuck the clip back in

never giving it a second thought.

While at Hancock's

I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a year

Becky

the most put together lady I know.

I pretty sure Becky looks fabulous cleaning her toilets.

We chatted; I left.

I happened to look in a mirror at my next stop.

Ya'll!

My hair was sticking straight up out of that clippy

in the back of my head.

Not a cool, funky straight up

just a 

'dang girl, you look in a mirror today?'

sticking straight up.

Sheesh!

reading lessons

I spend between 45 and 60 minutes a day 

doing reading lessons.

Jeremiah really struggled last year

so we didn't push it.

Consequently he's still learning to read.

I'd decided long ago that I was okay with my kids being late readers.

That's one of the beauties of home schooling;

if a child isn't ready - we can wait

and learning can be much less stressful.

We use the book Teach Your Childto Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Honestly

I don't like the program.

I use it, because, for some reason

it works.

I tried to use my own 'program' based on 

Mommy, Teach me to Read

and it just wasn't clicking.

When I pulled out -groaning all the while - 100 Lessons

things starting clicking.

Slowly

but clicking all the same.

Anyways.

None of that is my point.

What I sat down to say is - I've added a small component

to an already effective program 

and it has really helped.

Flashcards.

When we begin a lesson

we run through the flashcards

(letters written just like the stupid book has them)

of all the sounds Jeremiah has been introduced to.

This seems to help us move through the lessons more quickly.

The real bonus I've noticed is with the younger ones.

They get the flashcard as soon as it's been added for Jeremiah

but it's 2 - 4 weeks before Josiah and Lily will be

introduced to the sound in our reading book.

(Jeremiah is about 12 lessons ahead of Josiah

who is about 10-12 lessons ahead of Lily)

so that

by the time they reach a new sound in their book

they are already quite familiar with it.

Lexi even gets in on the action

and calls out the sounds she can remember

'eeee' being her favorite.

Speaking of The Beastie,

 she no longer hates homeschooling - which is a huge blessing!

And

speaking of reading lessons

I've got a little girl waiting on the couch for hers

right now.

hi, I'm Mrs. Peters

...Tired

to the very bone

Mrs. Peters groaned a groan...

from Seven Silly Eaters

that was...unexpected

I am not Jeremiah's favorite person in the world.

Never have been - even as a tiny baby he preferred Papa

(which I thought was so unfair!
I  was the one nursing him, for goodness sake!)

I'm really fine with it now, though.

I think boys should prefer their dad,

just not 3 month old boys....

Jeremiah also despises shopping.

with a passion.

So when he kept telling me,
 "This is the best time I've ever had with you!"

with a huge grin on his round little face

I was more than a little surprised.

We were clothes shopping!

I decided to make an evening of it and take him to dinner, too.

Of course, he chose Marketplace Grill.

Ton' was working so we got good service :-)

(Ton' also talked me into letting the boy have a Sprite, 
which was a huge mistake)

I don't know when the last time was

that I took just Jeremiah somewhere.

He prefers to stay home; Josiah always wants to go.

Consequently, Josiah gets time alone with Momma fairly often.

I have a feeling, though,

 that maybe

now that he knows it's kinda fun

he might want to go shopping with me more often.

Then again, he might not..

He'd tried on 5 things - 3 of which didn't come close to fitting

and he told me, "Well, now you know what size I need

 so you can just go by yourself to buy it for me next time."

mmhmm.

Lest you think he forgot all about his deep love for his papa

while spending an evening out with me - never fear.

He wanted to stop at the car wash on the way home

so we could wash Daddy's car for him as a surprise.

That boy does love his Papa!!

and, Jeremiah - Momma loves you!

behind the lens

We don't usually participate in co-op.

Naps

take priority.

This time around, though, at the last minute 

Lana stepped up to be an assistant teacher for a crochet class

so she said she'd be the 'responsible adult'

 if Brandon and Jeremiah wanted to take any classes.

(Thanks, Lan!!)

Needless to say, Jeremiah dearly loves his classes!

Brandon wouldn't let you know if he dearly loved anything

(except his sisters - he's not a bit shy about that!)

but he is enjoying both his 'weapons of warfare' class

 and the photography class he's taking.

These are some of the photos he's turning in to his class teacher.

He still has a few assignments left - people, transportation, and tools.

Some are taken with his camera - a 5 megapixel Panasonic Lumix

and some with my new baby.

As you can clearly see - the boy's got potential!

Action

Animals

Architecture

Creative Lighting

Facial Expressions

Food

Landscape

another Landscape - 'cause he liked it so much, too :-)

Still Life 

Texture
(some of his classmates thought this looked like it'd been taken by a  professional)

 ~

Pretty sweet, huh?!
Great Job, Bud!
 Keep up the good work!!

my best day

Tyler had hoped to take Thursday off from work last week

but it didn't work out - so he took Tuesday off, instead.

Everyone slept in

and I made the most delicious waffles for breakfast.

Seriously ~ they were amazing,

still crispy even after warming in the oven.

I  need to make them again soon.

oh - back to my day.

After
 the scrumptious breakfast

I nursed Lex' - it would be her first time to go over 5 hours
 without momma.

And then we left for the day.

Just Tyler and I .

All by our lonesomes.

We went to Rogers and spent a lovely quiet day together

lazily shopping and eating and talking

and not being interrupted by whining or crying

or anything, for that matter,

except a welcomed text
telling us things at the house were going really well.

If I would've gotten a free birthday dessert

the day would have been just perfect.

As it is

it was pretty darn close.

~

Thanks, Love for giving me just the thing I needed this year.

I love you and am so blessed to be yours.

surprise

The boys went waayy overboard for my birthday!

I sorta figured they'd ordered something camera-related

but I was shocked to find a lens

when I opened my present!!

I'm scared of it

but they've been messing with it a bit.

hubba hubba

this wasn't with the new lens - but Brandon took it and I love it!!

this was taken by the old dog run (clear on the other side of our property)

and this - is one of my faves!

thanks, Guys!!! I love you all!

confession time

Ever since we bought the new dryer

I have been using a whole dryer sheet

instead of my usual half.

What would possess me??

One lonely sample sheet of Bounce came with the dryer.

One of the little boys nabbed it without my knowledge.

Every time I walked in their room

I smelled a fabulous smell.

How could their room smell so clean?!

Using my super sniffer, I figured it out

and

stole the sample back.

I used that sucker for four loads;

1/2 sheet each - twice!

And ever since

I've been using up whole dyer sheets

so I could buy me some Bounce.

oh, the irony

So

I'm putting together the activity sets for the preschool swap

and Lexi is playing with my clothespins.

my regular clothespins.

Does anybody else see the irony ??

We get so hung up 

on trying to offer our children all the 'right' educational experiences

and all we really need to do

is include them in life. 

real, regular life.

there's a new blog in town

Brandon got a digital microscope for his b-day

(that's why your comment got deleted, Kaylana)

You may have seen it; I accidentally linked to it recently.

anyways.

The kids have all had quite a bit of fun with it

and it's led to him starting a blog, Guess the Thing.

He going to post a couple of close-up photos every week

and wants ya'll to see if you can figure out what they are.

Then the following week, he'll share the not-so-close-up pictures

that correspond with the previous week's close-ups

and a few more new pictures.

Sounds fun, huh??

so gather up the kids and head on over

and play

:-)

speaking of new blogs....

Several months ago

I started another one for my crafty stuff

since this blog was in danger of turning into a 'look what I did' site

instead of a family scrapbook.

Most of ya'll probably already knew that

but just in case somebody missed it

and cares

I didn't want ya to feel left out.

makes a momma's heart happy

By chance
we both pulled into different spots 

in Aldi's parking lot at the same time.

I was running in to pick up a few groceries;

he was heading over to Marketplace to work.

He could have pretended he didn't see us.

He could have waved hello and walked the other way.

But he didn't;

he smiled real big

and came over and gave me a hug.

I do love my boy!

that crazy little Lex'

So.

I'm trying to get the girl to sleep.

She's so tired.

But man, she's a fighter!

I left the room for a minnute

thinking that

maybe

without me in there

she could finally succumb to sleep.

Then

I could hear what sounded like Bible pages rustling.

Okay.

How can I spank her for getting a Bible??

I went in

 - it's dark, mind you -

and I could barely make out her figure next to Papa.

Oh, that's so sweet.

She's lying next to Daddy reading the Bible.

And then

I smelled a very faint perfume-y scent.
what??

She had gotten up
(she's a quiet li'l bugger when she wants to be!)

gone to the bathroom 

grabbed my box of tampons

(accidentally didn't buy the unscented this time)

took the whole box box and got back in bed.

Reading the Bible - my eye! 

a little bit of lately

This is my favorite shirt on Lexi right now.

I can't even tell you why ~ I just love her in it!

That it only cost 25 cents at a yard sale is a bonus.

School is in full force

bu there's still plenty of time for playing.

Josiah kinda tends toward laziness.

Needless to say, that's not gonna fly

so I've been having him stick close to me.

He's learned how to rinse the dishes, then stack them

before loading into the dishwasher.

This is his first load - pretty good, huh?!

Birthday Season will be over soon.

The little ones sure love buying gifts for their bubs!

I'm still on page 16 of my manual

but I'm not as scared to use the camera.

I'll be thrilled when I can finally shoot manually

but I'm quite happy with results of the auto settings for now.

(some of the above pics were all taken w/ my point & shoot)

chill pill

My mind races in 37 different directions

every time I put a baby to sleep.

One of the directions its often going

is

school.

I can't really do school the way I'd like to.

It's just not possible.

I'm coming to grips with that

and trying to find a balance between what I want to do

and what we absolutely positively have to do.

Sadly

more often than not

what we really end up doing isn't even a compromise;

it's the bare-bones minimum.

And I hate that!

Anyways

back to one of my 37 trains of thought....

I haven't worked on scissoring with the little ones.

(that's what Josiah used to call cutting - which makes perfect sense!)

I need to make up some worksheets.

Straight lines for Lily

curvy for Josiah

zigzags for Jeremiah....

These are the things that run through my head.

What is the matter with me?

I mean. Really??

My kids are always making tickets.

or collages.

            

Why just this morning, Lily cut up a playing card.

Granted, she got fussed at for it, 

because it was formerly part of a whole deck,

which is rare around here.

One of my huge pet peeves

 is their paper scraps all over the floor.

And I was worried about them acquiring the proper cutting skills??

Sometimes

I just need to take a chill pill.

graduation 2011

"Are you sentimental?"

She'd asked innocently,

wondering if perhaps

she was a touch too sentimental about the whole thing.

I, without a thought, answered, "Oh, yeah."

"Your first one's the toughest, though," I added

as her eyes brimmed with tears and her voice got shaky.

Then

I sort of felt bad for not being more sentimental;

being a veteran graduator and all has hardened me, I guess.

As I was nursing Lexi later,

I began making a mental list of the things that needed doing.

(I sometimes envy those with kids graduating

from 'regular' school - all they gotta do is show up)

Then I started thinking

about what pictures we might want to use in Tony's video.

I haven't taken many pictures of Tony lately

I'll need to get better about that.

I thought back to different things he's done in the past few years

and regretted the lack of photographic evidence.

A kazillion hours spent working on his sister's house

and not one photo.

Darn!

That was pretty much his entire summer last year.

and I have no record of it

save the one in my mind

and we all know how reliable that's been lately.

So

I went further back in my mind

picturing photos that we do have.

I got to one taken in the playroom in Ft Smith.

TJ and Tony were laying on a pile of pillows

and T was reading to Ton'.

A Hardy Boys mystery, I think.

And my chest got heavy

and my throat started to tighten up.

My eyes began to sting a little.

I had to stop that thought train right there!

Maybe I'm not as tough as I thought.

I'm not ready to graduate another baby!!

another quilt

Remember this - when I got to hold an angel?

Well, that little angel baby has a new quilt

only

I didn't make it for her.

Lynnet did;

and I hijacked her blog to post about it.

silly little Lex'

I'm sure this is one of those

'you had to be there' stories

but still

I want to remember, so I record.....

Lexi always answers,"Nine!" in a very sing-song voice

when she's asked her age.

"Lexi, how old are you?"

"Nine!"

"You're nine?"

"Yeah!."
"And you still wear diapers?"
Lexi looks down,

"Yeah!"

She always smiles when she says, "Yeah."

"And you still drink momma milk?"

Lexi looks over at Momma.

"Yeah!" :-)

"How old are you, Lexi??"

"Nine!"

repeat repeat repeat

It really is quite hilarious

mixed emotions

~

I'm not sure if I'm happy

or

sad.

Mostly happy, I think.

Tyler put Lexi to sleep this evening.

I kept busy sewing

so I wouldn't cry.

But I'm done sewing now

and the tears are threatening to flow.

my son, my teacher

another post about sleep

Odd, I know.

For someone without much authority on the subject

I sure write about it a lot.

hmm.

Anyways.

Lexi Girl fell asleep

on her pillow tonight (this morning...)

not nursing.

Now,

she has gone to sleep 'unhooked' before

a couple of times

- rocking -

when the well's run dry,

but this is the first time ever

in her whole 19 1/2 month life

that she has fallen asleep in bed on her own.

I was right next to her, of course.

Using my own quilt, because she wouldn't share hers.

Do you have any idea

how difficult it is

to lie there

in the dark

feigning sleep, but not falling asleep??

I

if I may brag a bit

am a master at that.

awww

I walked in the playroom this morning

and saw this

while it should have been cleaned up last night,

I'm kinda glad it wasn't.

Made me smile.

(The rest of the mess didn't make me smile, though...)

It made me think of this

Awww

Two little sweeties

tucked in with love.

and the winner is....

Rebekah

But wait!

There were two Rebekahs in the drawing

which one was it??

~

To determine the winner of the fabulous crayons

we colored pictures of what everyone said they would draw first

if they won

Everyone got in on the action

even Dad

We folded all the pictures in half

and put them in a bucket.

Lily closed her eyes real tight

and pulled out

the dog

Congratulations, Rebekah!!

I'll need your mailing address

~

I just reconnected with Rebekah

thanks to the wonders of modern technology and social media.

She's got a sweet little family

(or big family, depending on your perspective)

and blogs about them

and the food they love over at Rebekahs Family Food and Fun

~

thanks for playing, everyone