Still busy, busy, busy around here!

Roman Centurion Helmets

1 -
Charlotte is almost 5...5! That means that I have been blogging (or not blogging all that often) for more than 5 years. She's very excited to be having a pool party a week from tomorrow. I think it should be fun, too. The good news is it doesn't require too much out of me. Grandma will make some sort of cake, and other than writing a check and providing juice boxes, all I have to do is enjoy the pool. (Okay, there's the small matter of addressing and mailing the invitations that haven't been hand delivered...)

Simba, who wanted petting, not photographing

2-
In our super busy life right now (I am spending at minimum 15 hours per week in the car/in town) I was kind of lamenting that the girls weren't going outside to play very often at home. That all changed recently. Sadly, one of our two outdoor cats died, and we ended up getting a new cat. The girls named him Simba, and they pretty much are driving me crazy asking if they can go outside and play with the cats. On the plus side, they are finally getting outside regularly without me forcing them to go. On the down side, I know that eventually the novelty will wear off.

Rapunzel (for Charlotte) and Tinkerbell (for Eva)

3-
I really do enjoy many things about girl scouts. I think it is good for both of my girls, and I enjoy working with the girls (I'm usually pretty exhausted after meetings, because Daisies and Brownies are so hyper!) but last night hubby just delivered the last of the fall fundraiser stuff (nuts and candy) last night, and on Monday, I have to drive 1 1/2 hours with some other leaders to cookie training...Cookies start in January...that means I have two months between fundraisers. Our troop does need the money (patches are expensive, books are expensive, and some of the families have trouble even paying the state registration fees.) but I'd like a little bit of downtime between them. To be fair, I probably should have delivered the candy several weeks ago, but oh well.

Eva as Tinkerbell

4.
This is supposed to be our last week of quarter 1 for school. Things are not quite going according to plans. I don't know why I am surprised by this...I am very glad that most subjects I didn't plan out by weeks, because those that I did plan like that, I am behind in. Okay, I am behind in the ones I didn't plan out by weeks, too, but I don't feel like I am! I should finish up at least 2 weeks of science today, and Eva has a lapbook that she needs to finish up - we haven't made about 1/2 the mini books yet, but if we put our minds to it, I'm sure we can finish that up. History is a subject I didn't plan by weeks, but I had a general plan. I think there are 7 units in Connecting With History Volume 1, so I had figured on doing 2 units during 1st quarter. I'm not even halfway done with unit 1, so it looks like I probably will be carrying some of it over to next year unless I really get my butt in gear. Besides the running around all the time portion of this year, I have to admit that IEW's Primary Arts of Language is the other reason we are behind in everything. It is great - I love it, the girls love it, but it takes time - as in most of every morning. Probably 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day by the time we do the reading lesson together, play the games for 30 mins, Charlotte does her work page, Eva does her writing page, and Eva and I do All About Spelling. I guess that morning section also includes some work in their Handwriting Without Tears workbooks, but that's a pretty minimal amount of time.

Charlotte as Princess Belle

5-
Hubby offered to buy me a nice new bookcase for my birthday, but in the end I decided that it was too much money. Now I am looking around my house and kicking myself for saying that - it probably was too much money, but the books are piling up. So, my new mantra involves some nice bookcases when we get our tax refund in the new year...and maybe a new recliner, since the one we inherited from hubby's grandma keeps having random screws pop out of places.

At the park with Bubba, the pug who loves hugs...

6-
Speaking of furniture, I have a seam that has come out of a leather ottoman, and a rip in both of our couches where the back cushions attach to the back of the couch (thanks to our dog lying on top of the cushions) and I have absolutely no knowledge of upholstery repair. Any tips on what to do? I'm wondering if I can sew them all, but I know that my SIL had sewed the rip on one of the couches before for me, and it came out. My other idea is slipcovers. If there is a slipcover over the rips and seams that are coming out, I won't notice it. Of course, slipcovers aren't exactly a dime a dozen. I really should go see if I can find a youtube video on repairing upholstered furniture.

Older pic, but someone is having a growth spurt again.

7-
With about a zillion things to do this month, I decided it was about time for me to host Thanksgiving again. Actually, it worked out better than I thought it would. The preschool has the week of Thanksgiving off entirely, and I had scheduled to take it off, so other than the Christmas/Birthday pictures I have scheduled for the 21st, I have the whole week to cook and clean.

More quick takes at Conversion Diary!

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

she hears from worried parents about how pop culture and the bombardment of product advertising are making their young daughters focused on their appearance and being sexy, starting with girls as young as 5, and how that sets them up to believe it is fine for boys to see them as objects. ...[T]he sexualization of young girls disrupts their ability to develop meaningful relationships with peers, disrupts their ability to be empathetic to others and from developing normal sexual relationships later in life.

It has seemed like a rather LONG week, but then again, I can't believe it is Friday today...the paradox of adulthood...

1-
This week we stayed home. VERY unusual for us...usually I can count on us visiting my in-laws at least once in a week, but after we spent last Thursday with them, we decided to stay home on Sunday, and they ended up coming down here on Tuesday to celebrate new SILs 22nd birthday, so we didn't even have to travel.

2-
This weekend we are not staying home...on Saturday afternoon we are planning on taking the girls to stay with grandma overnight. Hubby and I have been hoping to have a movie date all week because...well, hubby loves to sit in a movie theatre, and I would like to see the movie Julie and Julia. It was playing last weekend in MILs town, and this weekend in ours...the schedule worked out best for us to see it here and the girls to spend the night with grandma. Then, on Sunday we are going to go shopping in a town about 1 1/2 hours away after church, then DH has a Knights of Columbus district meeting in a town 1/2 hour away from the shopping town, then we will go home by way of MILs house (which really isn't on the way at all, but I guess we should pick up the kids).

3-
Story time at the library started for Eva this week. She enjoyed it as much as ever. Unfortunately most of my friends kiddos are in the earlier story time group, and Eva is in the later...so I get to hang out at the library with a bunch of moms that I have very little in common with. Fortunately, I can spend some of the time wandering around if hubby is off work and comes too...if it's just me, I'll be sort of trapped into hearing all of their conversations because they all sit in the kids play area with their little ones, and of course, Charlotte is too young for story time (I did point out the irony that if Charlotte had been premature, she would be old enough to be in story time to one of the librarians...dumb age rules...)

4-
I finally am getting back to menu planning after a LONG time off...it just seemed like too much work to plan out a menu, but honestly, this week with a menu plan has gone VERY smoothly. We have moved things around and skipped a few meals that were planned out, but being able to look down and see what our meals are supposed to be today and tomorrow is so nice, and not doing the last minute "what do you want for dinner" thing at pretty much every meal is much less stressful than having to ask the question as soon as I have finished making each meal...

5-
Hubby changed the heading picture of the blog last night...with a picture he took last night while I was off at Bible study. Eva, being the goofy kid she is said that instead of "cheese" she should say "Hail Mary!" since they were getting ready to pray.

6-
About two weeks ago, I went through all of the girls clothes, and at the time I asked hubby if I should just pull out their shorts and tank tops and put in their winter clothes, and he thought I should put in their winter clothes but also leave in their summer stuff. Well, this week it has RAINED and RAINED and RAINED...so, naturally, Eva came out in a long sleeve shirt and pajama shorts the other day to go outside. I should have just put away all the shorts while I was feeling ambitious, because I sure am not feeling ambitious this week.

7-
WE HAVE HARDWARE!!! Our kitchen cabinets have been an ongoing project since we bought this house (in November 2005). We could afford the house because it was unfinished...of course, we don't really have the skills to finish much of anything...but apparently we have the capability for living a very long time with things unfinished. There were almost no doors when we moved in...and we hired some guys to make doors to finish the kitchen and laundry room (we have 31 cabinets with doors and 15 drawers...I think there were 7 doors with hardware on them when we moved in) but to save money, we didn't have them stain or install them...so the unfinished cabinets sat in the garage for quite a while. Then hubby came up with a system, and eventually we had doors and drawers everywhere. Well, then we lived with some doors and drawers having hardware, and some not. When I had my Bible study group pretend they were home buyers to see what our priority projects should be, they all agreed that the lack of pulls on some, but not all of the cabinets was a big eyesore. So, this weekend, hubby drilled and I helped put on drawer pulls and cabinet handles. They look sooo much better now, it makes me wonder why we waited this long to do them.

That's it for me this week, but there are more quick takes over at Conversion Diary!