Friday, September 30, 2011

Hmmm...over a month since my last post, it must be time for...

Quick Takes Friday!

The "no, I haven't given up blogging completely...I've just been running around tearing my hair out" edition!

1.
I thought about figuring out the new Quick Takes template, but I just told the girls to eat breakfast so we could start school soon (an hour later than our regular schedule, but I have a strong opinion that you should let sleeping children lie.)

2.
Charlotte (my almost 5 year old) is going to be the death of me.  She is WAY to creative for my own good when it comes to getting into trouble.  I've heard that moms with boys have to make all sorts of rules that they never would have come up with on their own because of creative misbehavior, but Charlotte seems to be doing that very well as a rather rambunctious little girl.  Of course, right now I am having trouble coming up with one of the better examples.  The most recent, however was I had to state on the way home from grandma's house last night "Charlotte, we do NOT throw dog treats or anything else in the car...particularly not at my head while I'm driving" (pretty sure she was just trying to throw the treat at our pug dog Bubba, who was in the passenger's seat...)

3.
I thought having an exchange student last year was going to kill me with trips into town, but now I know that's just not the case.  THIS year might do it, though.  At least with softball season, there was an end in sight, and musical practice ended late enough that hubby was home to help with pickup.  This year's schedule for my LITTLE girls requires:  Monday, leave home at 12:30, get home at 4-4:30 (Charlotte has preschool for speech therapy from 1-3:30).  Tuesday, stay home except for one Tuesday a month when MIL has an appointment in the city.  Wednesday, leave home at 12:30, get home at 8-8:30 (again, preschool 1-3:30, then CCD from 6-7:15, of course I have to set up for my class, and to drive home and back to town would take an hour...so we just hang out in town all afternoon and evening.)  Thursday, Girl Scouts so leave home (theoretically, if I ever get better at being on time for it, which I should, since I am leading Daisies and Brownies this year) at 3, get home a 5-5:30.  Fridays at home (TGIF!!!) and then church Saturday night or Sunday morning.  And I get to keep this up for a whole year...and this list doesn't include anything irregular.

4.
Not so impressed with the speech therapy so far.  I don't blame the speech pathologist, but when I signed up, I was told that sometimes it would be group speech and sometimes it would be individual.  Well, Charlotte hasn't had any individual time that I am aware of, and there are a ton of kids in her preschool group that get speech.  Plus, half the time when I ask her if she had speech she tells me not today.  I am dragging her to town twice a week to preschool pretty much only because she is supposed to get 20 minutes of speech therapy each day she is there.  Not happening, I'm getting slightly annoyed, but on the plus side Charlotte enjoys preschool (although I do have to hear that some other kids got to paint TWICE and she has only gotten to paint ONCE!)  We will have to see if I decide to keep her in preschool all year, or if I pull her out at Christmas.

5.
Eva is doing very well...still very bossy with her sister, but her school work is all very good right now.  I was about to pull my hair out reviewing Math-U-See Alpha with her, and I wanted to finish the last 5 lessons before we moved on, but honestly, I couldn't take it anymore.  So, Teaching Textbooks 3 came in the mail the other day, and she's done all of lesson 1 well.  I am enjoying the fact that I don't really have to do anything!  I do think she is going to need more math drill with it, so I am thinking I should give her mad minutes or something once a week.  Anyone know of a free printable math worksheet site that would work for this?

6.
Corn harvest has been off and on so far - I think they are still doing wet corn (I really try to keep on top of farm details, as you can tell!) which means that I am not seeing a whole lot of hubby right about now.  I guess that's okay, as I am sure he'll be home more in the winter, when no one else wants to work (of course, he'll still have to feed the cows, but if he is just feeding, it only takes 5-6 hours a day, instead of 12.) Speaking of cows, here's a picture of our old bottle calves Flower and Daisy. I think they are even bigger now. The other day the girls asked when they were going out of the feedlot (or, going to the packing plant to become beef) and it's going to be in the next month or so. The girls don't seem too upset by it...I'm still pretending they went to a happy cow farm where they will live forever...but that's the suburban girl in me!

7.
Most exciting news in my life? (Yes, I am a dork...) Kindle books are now available to borrow through the Across Colorado Digital Consortium.  Of course, our local tiny library (where Eva and I are spending about 5 hours per week) doesn't participate, so I'll have to go get a card from the nearest city big enough to have a decent library/WalMart/fast food/whatever else you can't find out here in the boonies.  Until then, however SIL has a card number, and has welcomed me to use it - I think you can have 8 items out at a time, and she doesn't think that me getting a book here or there would push her over the limit.  Of course, I'm pretty sure with an 8 item limit, I would be pushing it most of the time, but I blame that on getting stuff for the girls.

More quick takes at Conversion Diary