7 Quick Takes Friday (49)

Ooh, yes . . . it's Friday. And that usually means 7QT at Conversion Diary. But there is not one today. But I wrote this before I knew that. I love writing these posts each week. Have a blog? You should join us. (Yes; I'm talking to you.) Anyway, here's my Quick Takes post that's not really a Quick Takes post because there is no Quick Takes post this week.

1. One day last week Agent A kept saying over and over what sounded like, I can't find my butt. I need my butt on. Help me put my butt on. Took me a looooong while to figure out the word he was looking for was belt, and not even a real belt, one from one of those puzzles that teaches you how to buckle, snap, zip, etc.

2. In the car on the way to the gym, Agent E started asking a million questions about going to school vs. homeschooling: Would she have to go every day? (Well, Monday through Friday, yes, unless there's a holiday.) Would it be like the preschool class she remembers? (Um, no.) Would she have homework? (Probably.) Would she take a bus or would Momma drive? (Eh . . . not sure.) If she took the bus, what time does the bus get to our house? (Well, it doesn't stop in front of our house, we'd have to leave the house at 7:30 and walk a block or two to meet it.) 7:30? You mean 7:30 a.m.? In the morning? (long pause) Yeah; that's too early.

3. Anyone else spring cleaning? I'm sort of on this decluttering and cleaning mission . . . so far, so good. The other day I cleared some books off my bookshelf that I've been dragging around with me move to move for like 15 years and finally decided I should just let go. I was quite proud of myself, because I usually have a hard time letting go of books. (Other stuff, not so much.) Then later that same day I came home with ten books from the YMCA's used book sale. In my defense, they were all for Agent E, not for me. Which brings me to #4 . . .

4. Do you find yourself encouraging your children to read the same books (or types of books) you read at the same ages? Or are there some that you "missed" the first time around but now find yourself seeking out for your own children? Two of the books I came home from the Y with were Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. Never. read. either. (Is that awful?) Agent E, however, read (and loved) both of them. 

5. I should clarify . . . the books Agent E is reading are watered-down versions of these stories. They are hardback books, about 175 pages, with lots of black and white drawings. So, the basic story modified for younger readers. They are both from from this series of Great Classics for Children. I honestly have no idea what age/grade level the original works are intended for. (Anyone want to help me out with this? Agent E is 6 and reading well, definitely above a first grade level. And, she can have a conversation about the characters and the plot, so I know she's really "getting" it.)

6. Spoiler alert, if you happen to be the other person on the planet besides me who hasn't read Anne of Green Gables: I asked Eva what she thought of it. The first thing she told me was, well, I liked it, and I like Anne, she does lots of fun things on the farm, but the ending is sad when Matthew dies. (Note to self: Do not ask Agent E what she thinks of a book you haven't read yet.)

7. So, I asked this question on my Facebook page earlier this week, but I'm going to ask it again here: Do you, Dear Reader of This Blog, also have your own blog? If so, leave a link in the comments and I will check it out.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Never Say This To a New Parent (Recycled Edition)

Linking up at The Mommy Mess for Going Green (i.e., recycle an old post). I originally wrote this list of things one should never say to a new parent (or any parent, really) in December 2010, shortly after Agent A was born. I'm both laughing at myself and cringing at the snarkiness.

1. What do you do all day? Unless you want the answer to be “plot your untimely death.”

2. Is he/she sleeping through the night? I had several people ask me this of my exclusively breastfed days-old baby.

3. You hold him/her too much. You will spoil him/her. I’ll spare you my Attachment Parenting rant, nor will I share the myriad evidence that suggests it’s basically impossible to spoil a young infant with appropriate attention and love, and just say this: He is my last baby. If I want to hold him 24 hours a day, I will. And I will not regret a moment.

4. He/she is just using you as a pacifier. To pacify means to bring peace, so yes, I am bringing peace to my baby. Would it be preferable if he were chewing on a piece of rubber?

5. Was this one planned? None of your @#$% business. Besides,

Baby Agent A (~6 weeks)

he/she is already here. Do you really even want to go there?

6. How nice that you have a boy/girl since your other child/children is/are a boy(s)/girl(s). Yes, we were totally thinking of sending our third back if it were the “wrong” gender.

7. Anything related to discipline. No one wants your advice. Trust me.

8. You look tired. Because clearly the only appropriate answer to this gem is, “Thanks for noticing. So, you will be coming over every afternoon to entertain my older children while I nap with the baby? Great. When do you start?”

What would you add to this list?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Top Ten {Tuesday}: Momma's Kindle Favorites

Linking up once again with Angie at Many Little Blessings for Top Ten {Tuesday}. Today I'm sharing what apps/books I have saved as favorites on my Kindle.

1. Bible. I actually have two of these in my favorites: YouVersion (which I prefer, but you need an Internet connection to use) and a copy of the ESV (not my favorite, but the only free, complete Bible I could find . . . and sometimes I want to read when I don't have a connection, like at the Y).

2. Books. I include whatever books I am currently reading here . . . right now it's Intentional Parenting (for an upcoming book review) and 2000 Kisses a Day.

3. Calendar. I don't use this calendar per se (no appointments, notes, to-do's in it), but I keep it accessible in case I want to quickly check a date on something. And, sometimes I literally cannot remember what day it is and I need an easy reference.

4. Disney Hours. This app shows the WDW park hours (including magic hours), as well as show and parade times, for any date you put in. I added this to my favorites when we made yet another Disney trip earlier this month, and never removed it. Since we don't usually go too long between trips, I just decided to leave it there.

Agents with Duffy earlier in March

5. E-mail. Love having a super-quick way to check both my personal and my blog e-mail.

6. Evernote. This is my primary method of creating blog drafts, as well as keeping track of the pages on the blog (i.e., the tabs across the top; check them out hint hint) so that I can update them easily. Any edits I make here automatically sync up with Evernote on my laptop.

7. Facebook. The only think I don't like about this app is that I can only access one newsfeed. So, I can see my entire personal newsfeed, but I can only see my own page profile, not its associated newsfeed. 

8. Kindle FreeTime. For Agent E . . . she has tons of books and games loaded on "her" Kindle that she absolutely loves. I'm always on the lookout for new apps to complement what we're studying in School With Mommy. I wrote about some of them here.

9. Silk. I use this mostly to browse my own blog homepage . . . every day I scroll through the Blogs I Love list and click on any new posts that have popped up since my last check. Other than that, I don't do a lot of Internet surfing on the Kindle; I prefer to wait until I have my laptop out.

10. Weather. Specifically, The Weather Channel app. (Agent E has this one on hers, too. She's weirdly obsessed with the weather. It's one of the first things I check every day, so she probably gets it from me.)

Do you have a Kindle (or similar device)? What features do you use most often?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Posts That Never Get Written

I've written previously about blogging topics that never come to fruition. In addition just simply never getting around too it, as was the case with this list of abandoned blog ideas, there are three main reasons I end up not writing about a topic that pops into my head, even if I really wanted to and initially thought it would have made an awesome post.

1. It's no longer timely. Truth: Momma is a good-intentioned procrastinator. I will never be one of those bloggers who has it together enough to write about current events or something trendy or controversial and generating lots of responses. (Well, there was that one time, sort of.) Mostly, though, I just end up debating the issue in my own head until it's too late to do much about it.

2. My thoughts are often more snarky than encouraging or informative. This is what sparked this short post, which has consistently been in my top-ten most viewed since the week I shared it. Sometimes things sound a lot better in my own brain, and I stop myself before I spew them out. 

3. I simply cannot remember what I wanted to write about. This is the biggest reason by far. I wish I could just turn my brain off when I'm driving, showering, nursing A in the middle of the night, or otherwise unable to jot something down. I've started keeping a dry erase board on the refrigerator so I can at least attempt to write cryptic notes to myself if I happen to be home and able. Most of the time, however, these snippets of great potential just disappear, never to be recalled again.

Do you have posts inside your head that will never be published for these (or other) reasons?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

What We're Really Doing, Plus a Book List

A recent conversation with a homeschooling friend led me to this conclusion: Although my initial reaction to describing our homeschool "style" is to go with child-led, interest-led, or some version of that, in reality when it comes to method what we are doing is a series of really long unit studies simultaneously.

Now, the "child-led" component is still a big part of it, as we (Agent E and I) always discuss options for what we want to study together and make mutual decisions as to what comes next, but . . . yeah. We are Unit Study People.

This is pretty much our strategy: We pick a few central topics, and organize our "school work" around them for a few months, then move on to new topics. In doing so, we incorporate our chosen subjects into reading, writing, science, math . . . even field trips. (Of course we add other things in from time to time as well, such as current holidays, random science experiments involving household items, or information specific to upcoming travels.)

One of our most used resources is the public library. Other than the Internet (a post of its own, coming soon) I cannot think of anything more valuable to a homeschooling family, especially one that is pretty much winging it and making up curriculum on the fly.

At any given time, we have anywhere from 15 to 40 books checked out. We (meaning I) find it easier to check out a ton of books and renew them once or twice rather than trying to get to the library more frequently. Especially when Agent A sees every visit as an opportunity to participate in a fun new game called Toddlers Run Wild at the Children's Room While Trying To Topple and Destroy As Many Things As Possible. 

(Side note: Our library's limit is 50 per card. So, in theory, between our two cards—I have one and Agent E has her own—we could have 100 items at once. Not that I'd be able to even carry 100 books in/out of the library and still wrangle three Agents in the parking lot and to the car, but the option is there.)

Following is a list of our current stash, organized by subject. You may have noticed I write about books a lot on this blog and often make lists just like this one. The reason is two-fold: First, I enjoy seeing what other homeschooling families with similar-age children are reading, so I figure others might as well. I'm always looking for new ideas, especially when it comes to chapter books for E. Second, this gives me a record to share at our end-of-year homeschool evaluation (required by the state) of the kinds of books we're using.

Our current themes are dinosaurs, space, and the human body, so those are listed first. I've also included a list of chapter books Agent E is reading, as well as some early readers for Agent J. Finally, sometimes we end up with random, just-for-fun titles, either on purpose or because Agent A stuck them in the bag.

Dinosaur Books

My Favorite Dinosaurs by John Sibbick and Ruth Ashby

Paleontology: The Study of Prehistoric Life by Susan H. Gray

Triceratops by Daniel Cohen

Stegosaurus by Daniel Cohen

Ankylosaurus by Daniel Cohen

Math Adventures: Digging for Dinosaurs by Wendy Clemson and David Clemson

Space Books

Scholastic Discover More: Planets by Penelope Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris

The Planets by Gail Gibbons

Venus by Adele Richardson

Space! Venus by Ruth Bjorklund

Galileo and the Telescope by Yoming S. Lin

Math Adventures: Rocket to the Moon by Wendy Clemson and David Clemson

Seeing Red: The Planet Mars by Nancy Loewen

Mars by Elaine Landau

The Sun by Allison Lassieur

Discover the Stars by Cynthia Pratt Nicolson

Human Body Books

The Human Body by Seymour Simon

The Respiratory System by Darlene R. Stille

Look at Your Body: Lungs by Steve Parker

My Brain (My Body) by Sally Hewitt

The Circulatory Story by Mary K. Corcoran

The Little Brainwaves Investigate . . . Human Body by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar

The Big Book of Bones: An Introduction to Skeletons by Claire Llewellyn

Chapter Books for E

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie by David A. Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery at Monkey House by David A. Adler

A to Z Mysteries: The White Wolf by Ron Roy

Mermaid Tales: Danger in the Deep Blue Sea by Debbie Dadey

Early Readers for J

BOB Books (Set 1, books 5-8; Set 4, books 3-4) by Bobby Lynn Maslen

Cinderella's Countdown to the Ball by Heidi Kilgras

Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? by Eleanor Hudson

Just for Fun

A Second Is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time by Hazel Hutchins

How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague 

Christmas Storybook Collection  by Disney Press

A Magical Christmas  by Disney Press

Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure by Lisa Marsoli

My Little Pony: The World's Biggest Tea Party by Jennifer Frantz

What are your kids reading?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

p.s. I'm linking this post up at both Christian Mommy Blogger Fellowship Fridays and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up.

Sleeping Like a Baby

When pregnant with Baby #1, Dear Hubby and I researched cribs and crib mattresses as if world peace hinged on our decision. Of course, we also had a bassinet for our room, where we figured she might sleep for "a few weeks, maybe" until we moved her across the hall to her own room, because . . . that's what parents do, that's what parents need, that's what babies do, that's what babies need.

Baby #1 (aka, Agent E) had a different idea.

Read all about how she turned our nights upside down (in a good way) over at Connected Mom.

Book Review: 20,000 Days and Counting

Today I'm sharing another BookSneeze® book review. My previous reviews can be found here.

(If you are a blogger and interested in how you can get free books to review, click here.) 

20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course for Mastering Your Life Right Now by Robert D. Smith is a quick read about making every day intentional and purposeful. Sort of a life-is-short-count-your-blessings-and-don't-waste-time-sweating-the-small-stuff guide.

Much like how I felt when I reviewed this book, I came away from this reading wanting to like it more than I did. Still, there were a few good points.

Best take-away message: Become your own problem. Why? because if you are the problem, you have the power to solve it.

Second-best take-away message: Motivation as a myth. Instead of trying to psych ourselves up to "do better," we should focus on productivity, and motivation will naturally follow. In other words, don't wait for this mysterious "motivating" feeling to come along; just do it (no matter what "it" is) and the cycle will continue.

Honestly, though, the suggestion to calculate the exact number of days I've been alive ("count them up, don't count them down") simultaneously intrigued and disturbed me. (Of course, I couldn't resist: 14,763 at the time of this writing. If you're curious, and don't feel like adding, use this easy-peasy calculator.)

Also beginning to think I'm choosing the wrong kind of books. None of the ones I've read recently have wowed me.

Or, I'm just too wishy washy to do honest, thorough book reviews. Sigh.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Note: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

My Fifth Wordless Wednesday: Lending a Hand

7 Quick Takes Friday (48): The One With All the Illness

Linking up at Conversion Diary. Be sure to stop by Jen's post and leave some comment love. Then check out a few of the many bloggers who participate each week. Have a blog? Join us.

Just in case this blog was starting to err on the side of too many kitty-cats-and-daisy-petals kind of posts, I thought I'd share a few of the less glamourous highlights of recent days.

Alternate subtitle: How in the Heck Do People Who Rarely Leave the House Pick Up So Many Freaking Germs?

Warning: Do not read if you are grossed out by puke stories. It's not terribly graphic, but some folks may just not want to think about it, ya know?

1. Two weeks ago in a Quick Takes I wrote that we were fast-approaching yet another Disney adventure. I even made a snarky comment comparing its potential to our last Disney trip, which didn't go exactly according to plan. Ha! Clearly the universe decided, I'll see your barking cough, bloody nose, and multiple ER trips and raise you one randomly puking kid 24 hours before you are due to leave. Take that.

Being silly with Russell and Dug

2. Yep; Agent J threw up Friday morning at 8:00; we were planning to leave Saturday morning at 8:00. She had stopped completely and was mostly okay after about six hours, but didn't eat much the rest of the day. Friday afternoon we decided to go ahead and cancel our reservation for Saturday night, and postpone our trip by 24 hours, knowing full well we might end up calling back to cancel the whole thing. Of course, she woke up Saturday morning totally fine, acting completely normal, and we could have easily left on schedule. Instead we spent the extra day at home cleaning and finishing packing. We spent Sunday through Wednesday at the happiest place on earth without incident. (Well, without any recurring or new illnesses. There was plenty of Agent-induced drama, par for the course.) Returned home and had (relatively) normal days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

3. At about 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, Agent A woke up puking. A lot. I happened to be lying next to him at the time, so overall it was a mutually joyous experience. We both changed pajamas while Dear Hubby took care of getting laundry started, taking two stuffed animals that received a hit to the "spa" and cleaning the surrounding carpet. (So grateful he was home and not out to sea.) I sat up in the rocker with A for the next hour or so, and eventually we both fell back to sleep, but later experienced two more similar episodes. Needless to say, we canceled all plans for Sunday. Luckily, Agent A mostly recovered by early that afternoon.

(Tip: If you have a child in diapers who is throwing up, the last thing he is going to want to do is lay down to be changed. We opted to keep Agent A in pull-ups for the rest of the night and into the next day; much easier to change him standing up that way.)

4. Monday Agent E had a pretty rockin fever, and spent most of the day in bed. She didn't have much of an appetite, but her primary complaint was being hot and tired. It took her until sometime Tuesday afternoon to start her round of sickness. (Note to self: We need to find a better carpet cleaner.) She was fine by bedtime, but the next morning, just when we thought she was cured, she threw up one more time, for good measure. 

5. Tuesday night, just before bed, Agent J came down with the same intense fever, but thankfully was able to sleep. (I camped out in the living room with her and Eva so I could be accessible to both of them and still hear Andrew when he woke needing a milk fix.) Wednesday morning the fever was still hanging around, and we spent most of Wednesday afternoon with our good friends from Pixar (Monsters, Inc. and Wall-E, to be exact).

Yes; I'm talking about you, cat

6. The cat threw up on Wednesday as well . . . on the end of the bed, right on Agent J's favorite blanket, at 6:00 a.m. Just for a little added bonus awesomeness. Thanks so much, Agent C.

7. By Wednesday evening, Agent J had managed to hold off on the puking, although she was still working the fever. (Can you say heat rock?) She ate some fruit and a muffin just before bed and slept all night (another campout for Momma and the Senior Agents) with nary a peep. Woke up cooler and happier and we were finally in the clear. Typical Agent antics prevailed for the remainder of Thursday. Yeah!

Have you battled sickness at your house this winter? How do you (and the kids) stay sane?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Cats and Kids: A Birthday Tribute To Agent C (with lots of photos)

Today is our cat's birthday. Cinnamon (aka, Agent C) is ten years old. She's lived with us for eight years. We adopted her from an animal shelter in March 2005. She had been returned by her previous family, along with her "sister" cat with the request they go to separate homes. (Pretty clear why . . . poor Agent C had this huge cut across her nose/face where the other cat had clobbered her.) 

Happy Birthday, Agent C!

So, Agent C became a part of our family just over a year before Agent E came along. When we brought Eva home from the hospital, the cat was not sure what to make of this new curiosity. Of course, we eventually added two more of those "creatures" (i.e., Agents J and A). Each time I imagined Cinnamon rolling her little kitty eyes at me, as if to say, really people? another one?

Following are some photos we've accumulated throughout the years. Notice the almost-complete absence of Agent J. I'm not sure why this is, although I'd venture to guess the cat figured her out pretty early on and stayed clear.

Toddler Agent E and Agent C

Stay away from my food, kid

What? It's cozy up here

You mean this isn't for me?

Agent E (age 4) practicing her baby-holding skills

Apparently the cat wasn't snug enough

Found you!

Agents E and C cuddling on the couch

Checking up on the cat after her journey from Italy to Virginia

I love this cat

Sidecar co-sleepers: Not just for babies

Nap time

Buddies

As I'm drafting this, the Agents are next to me at their art table creating a birthday banner and decorations. Later today we'll be making and eating cupcakes in Cinnamon's honor. The (human) Agents can't wait.

Do you celebrate pet birthdays at your house? 

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Top Ten {Tuesday}: Meal Planning

Sharing this over at Many Little Blessings. Be sure to stop by and check out Angie's post and the others linked up there. If you are a blogger and would like to join the link up, please see this post for more information.

One of the many "organizational" things I keep trying to convince myself I'm actually going to do one day is to create (and stick to) a two-week meal rotation for dinners. Consider the following list my brainstorming out loud. Imagine the usual appropriate side dishes (salad, bread, vegetables, potatoes, rice, etc.) where applicable. 

1. Beef and Bean Casserole. My fall-back meal. Easy, toss it all in one pot, everyone likes it. (The recipe made its way into a previous post, if you're curious.)

2. Chicken. Usually just lightly breaded and cooked in the oven. I can make a pretty good curry, too, but haven't for a while.

3. Chili. For some reason, Agent E will not touch this. On chili nights, she gladly has peanut butter and jelly instead.

4. Fish. Tilapia, to be exact. I know; boring.

BLW in action: 6-month-old Agent A enjoying
some pizza in Bari, Italy (May 2011)

5. Kabob-less Kabobs. The same meat and veggies cooked separately and without the use of a deadly sharp object.

6. Pasta and Meatballs. Whole wheat pasta and homemade meatballs. Store-bought sauce. (I used to love making homemade sauce, and intend to again someday, but for now convenience wins.)

7. Pork Chops. On the grill if Hubby is around, in the oven if not. (Side note: They are in the oven right now as I'm typing this draft.)

8. Tacos/Burritos. We could probably make these healthier than we do. The processed side dishes are what gets us. I need to come up with better alternatives.

9. Tater Tot Casserole. Yes; this is as bad for you as it sounds. And I should probably remove it from the list. But, alas, I haven't.

10. Turkey Meatloaf. Made with the stuffing baked in. An Agent E and Agent A favorite.

And . . . that's only ten ideas, not enough for a two-week plan. We often have leftovers, but rarely enough for a complete meal the next night, so the Agents and I usually finish them off for the next day's lunch. The only other thing I can come up with is stew, which is simple (hello, crock pot) and I love, but for whatever reason have not made in probably three years. And I should probably just be realistic and add "pizza or takeout" to the list because we inevitably do this at least once every two weeks.

What does dinner look like at your house? Do you have a plan or just wing it?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Momma's SITS Day

Hello and happy Wednesday to all of you! Today is an exciting day for Momma: My SITS day!

What is SITS, you say? It's a place for bloggers to find support, resources, and new skills, as well as grow their audience, all while supporting fellow writers. And it's 40,000 members strong. Follow this link to learn more.

A big welcome to all of you visiting from SITS. And to all of you who are regular readers. And to all of you who stumbled upon this page randomly and were really trying to get somewhere else.

Agents and Tigger

A little bit about me: I'm a Navy wife, married for almost ten years, and a stay-at-home Momma to three Secret Agents, ages 6.5, 4.5, and 2. A few weeks before my oldest was due to begin Kindergarten, I had this crazy idea to homeschool instead. I drink coffee every morning. I eat too much chocolate. I get more excited about trips to Disney than my kids. (Side note: I hit "publish" on this post from inside a Disney resort.)

I encourage you to poke around and read some past posts. (Although that early stuff is . . . yikes. Tell me I'm not the only blogger who'd like to virtually shred her beginning days?) Anyway, in the sidebar you'll find some popular posts around here, as well as a list of topics I write about most. I also contribute to Connected Mom, and all of the posts I've shared there can be found under the tab at the top. Please, kick back and stay a while.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

p.s. Stop by and visit me on Facebook, too.

7 Quick Takes Friday (47)

Happy Friday and welcome to March! Linking up another Quick Takes post with Jennifer at Conversion Diary. Be sure to stop by her page and offer some comment love.

1. Soon we will be embarking on yet another Disney escapade. If no one sounds like a barking seal most of their waking hours, and no one starts randomly spouting blood from their nose, and we end up in the ER fewer than four times, it will be more of a success than our last Disney venture.

2. I asked Agent A what he wanted to do on our upcoming trip. He wants to see Pluto, Pooh, Ferb, and Snow White. He told me, "I sit on Snow White's lap. And kiss her." (Imagine a super cute 30-second video here illustrating just that. I couldn't get it to upload.)

3. A few weeks ago on my Facebook page I commented that I had taken several books out of the library for me, ones I had heard about again and again in my little Internet circle of AP/gentle parenting. In all honestly, they weren't that great. Well, one was a pretty good read . . . even when I disagreed with the author I still felt like I understood what she was getting at and she'd be a nice person to chat with over coffee. One was entirely too "I'm so smart, here's some science-y stuff." Another (which folks I know just raved about) was actually quite boring . . . one of those books that is like 250 pages and could have been 25 pages. The last one I could barely stomach . . . I kept choking on psychobabble. So disappointing. Give me a classic Dr. Sears any day.

4. Homeschooling-wise, we're still very much into dinosaurs and space here. We're adding some books/lessons about the body as well. That was supposed to be our next major topic, probably beginning around early April. Instead, Agent E decided she wanted to get started now. When I tried to put it off, thinking we already had more than enough to work with for now, she told me, "but you said in School With Mommy I can study whatever I want. And I want to learn about the lungs and the brain." Sigh.

5. Do your children like to clean? Mine are fascinated by it, and I plan to take full advantage of this. They love to dust and wipe down windows. I even had all three of them following me around the house last week as I cleaned the bathrooms. I think I need to transition some cleaning responsibilities to them before they get older and realize it's not all that exciting after all. 

6. The Agents and I spent some time earlier this week looking at photos from past Disney trips. They look so small. Here are a few of my favorites:

Senior Agents (ages 3.5. and 1.5) with JoJo and Goliath
(Walt Disney World, fall 2009)

Agent E (age 4) and Agent J (age 2) admiring the castle
(Disneyland Paris, summer 2010)

Agent A (age 8 months) meets his first princess
(Disney Magic, summer 2011)

7. Are you looking forward to spring where you are? It's actually getting colder here, not warmer. Ugh. (And by "cold" I mean like low to mid sixties at least a few days this week. I've lived in Florida too long. I've lost all perspective.)

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.