Does Your Mother Know?...

Well ladies, this doesn’t happen very often, but I saw a movie last night that I think every woman needs to see! Yes, it’s Mamma Mia! Don’t be scared. This movie is 100% pure untestosteronated (yes, that’s a home made word, y’all) fun. Lots of dancing, singing, skipping, flirting, and celebrating being a frilly, silly, emotional girl. It made me so happy to be a woman, and so happy to have daughters. I always pictured a house full of wild boys when we set out on the parenthood path, but instead I’ve got a house full of girls, and as dumb as this sounds, it took seeing a movie like this for me to finally figure out what an honor it is to have them around.

So….

Grab your mother,

Grab your friends,

Grab your sisters,

Put on a costume, fire up your ABBA tunes, and get ready to unleash your inner Dancing Queen!

Oh. But first? Two warnings:

First- Do not. Take. A. Man. With. You. He will roll his eyes, tell you how gay and lame this movie is, sigh, and wear a glazed expression throughout the whole movie and in short, he will spoil your good time.

Second-When Pierce Brosnan looks as if he is going to sing, close your eyes, plug your ears, and hum. It’ll be over soon, darling, and then you can get back to the girly fun…

Why are you still sitting there?! Leave the kids with the husband, and go, girl! Go!

What Keeps Me Up At Night...

Kate



Mary



Ella

Keller

School Year 2008-2009:

Here, finally, is the plan for this year. The books are ordered. The crayons are waiting in the closet, and the pencil sharpeners are lined up on the shelf.

Keller:
Math-Singapore Math, Speed Math for Kids, Creative Problem Solving, Calculus by and for Young People
Reading-Books on his level and interest, library books corresponding to our history studies
Spelling-Spelling Workout
Writing-Journal, Improving Cursive, Narration, Dictation, Letter writing once a month
Grammar-Winston Grammar, Capitalization and Punctuation
History-Story of the World Vol. 2
Science-Experiment books and books from the library (Human Body, Plants, Simple Machines)
Geography-Mapwork from Story of the World, and Smartglobe
Art-
Art appreciation-Artistic Pursuits
Art instruction-Art Adventures at Home
Gospel-Picture Scriptures, Gospel Art Kit, FHE, Family Scripture Study
Music appreciation-Classical Kids on CD and DVD
Latin-Latin Primer
Memory Work-Scriptures and poetry
Logic-Relying on Reason, Mind Benders
Manners-Manners, Please!

Ella:
Math-Singapore Math, Math-It
Reading-Books on her interests and level
Writing-Journal, copywork, Handwriting Practice Workbook Manuscript
Spelling-Spelling Workout
Grammar-English for the Thoughtful Child
History, Science, Art, Gospel, Music Appreciation, Memory Work, Geography and Manners-Same as above!

Mary:
Math-Sneak into Keller and Ella's math manipulatives (teddy bear counters, unifix cubes, coins, etc.) and scatter them around the floor!
Reading-Beg mommy to read you Go, Dog, Go for the thousandth time!
Writing-If there is a pen or marker ANYWHERE in the house, find it and "write" on the walls!
Manners-Work on not screaming "MIIIIINE" whenever anyone has something you want in their hands!

Kate:
Socialization-Be cute and smile at everyone. Make everyone realize that life is a treasure.

A Really Really Big Announcement...

Ssshhhh! Don't wake her up...'cause this girl is...



FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!

Let's all hope I didn't just jinx it by announcing it too soon...It's almost been a week though. I just couldn't contain my ecstasy.

A Buffet of My Thoughts

It's like going to Chuck-A-Rama today. You get to pick and choose which one of my random thoughts you like and want to chew on for a while. Enjoy the smorgasbord of confusion:

First off; Okay, we get it!! Football is serious. Practice is every evening from 5:45 to 8pm. Except Sundays, thank goodness! Otherwise: "IT'S GOD OR FOOTBALL, PEOPLE!!" If your son is puking, and he doesn't feel up to tackling, or you run late for a practice because you can't locate your son, expect a phone call from the coach. Toto, we're not in soccer anymore.

Next; Why was Henry VIII such a butt? Seriously? Six wives? Focus on something besides producing a male heir you doofus. Like maybe appreciating your awesome first wife, Catherine of Aragon who was like, the smartest woman alive at the time.

Third; James and I have read these amazing books. They are called For Men Only and For Women Only. They are companion books written by a husband and wife team. I've always thought that I understood men pretty well. But. Holy cow was I wrong. Seriously? My jaw just dropped. Especially while I was reading the chapter called "The Visual Rolodex". James was equally astounded. We kept asking each other "Is this true??" I highly, highly recommend these books. I've always felt that James and I had a fantastic marriage, but these books opened up a whole new world. Give them a shot.

Next; I turned 32 on the 4th. Happy birthday to me.

Next; camping is a lot less fun, now that I'm the mom and not the kid.

Next; If you do not own a window squeegee you need to take care of that, and fast. I bought this little beauty a few months ago, and kids, cleaning windows is a blast now. And so speedy. And you don't even need soap! And there are really no streaks!! And you don't waste paper towels!!! (Inhaling, exhaling). Just go buy one, okay?

Next; my blog is really really dumb.

Next; You know what is making me really sad right now? The fact that my family is hostile to homeschooling. It's dangerous to rant on your family on your public blog, but I'm gonna anyway. Apparently, a couple of my family members ambushed James and staged a full scale intervention. They think that homeschooling is a bad idea. They think he should make me stop. You know what bugs me the worst? It's that they didn't come to me. (Okay, I'm kind of glad they didn't). But seriously, it's like they're scared to ask me anything about it. They don't ask what we're studying, they don't ask how it's going, they don't ask where we get our materials...all of the stuff that people usually ask...and they are just silent. And this is my family! It's like they're afraid to ask, because then, they might have to think it's cool. And if homeschooling is cool, well, that's gonna change the way they view their whole world. They might have to open their minds. (They think that their minds are already open, because they are liberal democrats, but their minds are closed to anything that they don't agree with. Like homeschooling. Just to name a random example.) They might have to admit that they were wrong.

Next; I hope that the above rant doesn't kick me out of my family.