Happy New Year!

Sorry About the red eye. The kids have lovely eyes, really.

Happy New Year!
May Your laundry be clean, fresh smelling and always at hand.
May The God of all Creation smile down upon you - and may you see that Smile.
May the New year never be too busy that you can't breathe
May it be filled with love, joy and happiness! In big and small ways.

Wishing you many God kisses,

and a happy new year!

~Comfy~

Toy Packaging

Toy Packaging by Sara Groves

We're going to be putting Christmas toys together BEFORE the kids get them.
Why?
Toy packaging.
The tiny twist 'ems..
The many miles of tape...
The plastic...hard brittle..unbending plastic.

This song makes me laugh. I heard it on the radio and had to find a copy to share.
Being easily amused, I love the lights!!


Christmas Lights PBL - Sara Groves ~ Toy Packaging from robogeek on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas, Ya'll!

Manic Monday

Other wise titled, "Mom's Cracked".

Sunday night while we were at church, the sleet started. By the time we left church, it was icy in the neighborhood. The Professor likes to drive on this kind of stuff, so he drove us home.

As we drove, we noticed that the sleet and ice seemed to stop. We had pretty good roads until we hit our little 'burb. ICE!!!

Monday, the kids wanted to play in the ice. So I let them. It was during this outings that it was discovered that, despite my previous thoughts, I had 3 children with ill-fitting coats. It didn't stop them from heading out to play. Hats, coats, gloves and they went off sledding and having fun!! So we really didn't have school time until the afternoon.

My giggles started on facebook earlier in the day and continued into school. School work started with Mini-Me working on a geography review. "I can't remember where the coyote lives. Is it the desert or the prairie?"

I tried to have a mysterious, Spanish accent and said, "The Coyote howls at the moon."

"What?"

"The coyote howls at the moon."

Her eyebrows lowered at me, "You're. Weird."

I thoroughly enjoyed her response and laughed.

Then her next question pushed me over the edge.

What she said was "The Grain elevator is in the prairie."

What I heard was "The GREEN elevator is in the prairie."

I started laughing immediately, "The Green elevator is in the prairie?"
Being visual, I could see it! Green = prairie.
"So what? Do they put the silver elevators in the frozen tundras and cold climates?"

"No...The GRAIN elevators..." It's too late. I'm long gone.

"And do they put the blue ones on the coast??"

No, MOM. GRAIN ELEVATORS.

I'm just laughing and laughing -- tears rolling down my cheeks.

She looks at me and says, "You're cracked."

Peals of laughter erupted ...
still makes me laugh.

It was funny.
Still is.

Green Elevators.

*Snicker*

Our Christmas Tree

Sara, atButterville hosted a "Show off Your Tree" event on her website. Linda, at Growin' with it, decided to host a Show-me your tree on her Blog....with the promise of caramel..

Pardon me while I drool.

I'm too late to play along in the give-away, but I promised I'd post pics of my tree. My problem came when I didn't plan on feeling really crummy yesterday.

Our tree has not a great story behind it.
We have the tree that we have purely out of necessity.

First of all it's plastic. I feel no shame about it, either. It's plastic, plastic, plastic - and metal and wood.

The Professor is allergic to real trees...and Christmas is too special to ruin with asthma attacks.

One year we had a really nice big tree. That was before we had J-man the Wookie and long before Mini-e. Come to think of it, I think we got the tree and the Cat at the same time.

Then we didn't have a tree for a year? Or was it two? ...because we had little kids, a cat - and no SPACE whatsoever for a big tree.

Last year I decided to try to find a tree, because the kids wanted a tree. So I chose this little guy and set it on the piano. It worked out great. We stacked the gifts under the tree, it was cute.

This year - we had decorating issues. Our lights didn't want to work. For whatever reason, we didn't get new ones and we're lightless.

I stumbled across the love of blue and silver quite by accident and I really like it. I had bigger plans - but when space became an issue, I scaled down and have opted to go totally blue and silver. I like it. It's very royal and still goes with a denim life style.

Several years ago, we decided that we'd collect snowmen. Which is great, except now I'm constantly on the look out for ones that go well with our blue & Silver theme. One day, we'll have more space to diversify. Until then... having limits keeps me from buying all sorts of snowmen we don't need and probably won't want.

Our Tree topper:

Here's a close up of our current ornaments.
It looks really nice, I think.

Yes, my Christmas paper is Blue & Silver.

So that's our Christmas Tree and decorations. I'm not wrapping a lot of the Kids Christmas presents this year. The Toy Packaging is just too much when there's 4 kids waiting for the evil twisty ties and extra tape to be removed...so The Professor and I will put in a movie on Christmas Eve, put toys together and remove them from the toy packaging -- and celebrate the blessings that God gave us in our 4 kids (and their toys).

Hope you enjoyed looking at our Tree - and the rambling telling of my Christmas Eve plans.

Product of Link Hopping...

I link hopped and "virtually stumbled" upon this video.
It's not to everyone's liking, I'm sure, but I like it. It's my blog and I am absolutely enthralled by it.
Therefore - I post it here.


New Creation from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

I am a Kung-Fu Panda

Or maybe the working title should be: Panda-monium?

Kung-Fu Panda was a movie we wanted to see in the theater, but didn't. So when I saw it at the store for less that most of the $19.99 prices, I snagged it and took it home.

We instantly fell in love with it.

As a general rule, the Denim parents aren't into marital art movies. That's my brother's department. What we do like, however, is a good movie.

To me, Kung-fu Panda has it all. Good animation, good action, great plot, identifiable characters and humor.

For those who haven't seen it, let me give a summary. Po, a panda, works for his dad (a goose) in a noodle restaurant. To the dad, Noodles and food are life. Po, on the other hand, dreams of heroes, being a legendary warrior, and kung-fu.

He doesn't want to tell his dad that the "noodle dream" is not shared. We get the impression that Po doesn't think his own dreams are possible. He's clumsy and big. I found it curious that he's the only panda around.

To keep some suspense, I'll try to keep this short, in case you see the movie (or want me to hush).

Through interesting circumstances, Po is chosen to be the "Dragon Warrior". He is taken in to be trained by a red panda named Shifu (excellently voiced by Dustin Hoffman). Shifu has trained "The Furious Five": Mantis, Viper, Tigress, Crane, and Monkey. Po idealizes the Five. Come to find out, Shifu has also trained the bad guy, a snow leopard named Tai Lung.

Shifu and the Furious Five think that a giant mistake has been made in the selection of the clumsy Panda as "Dragon Warrior", by Master Oogway (a very old turtle). As a collective, Shifu and the Five make it a point to let him know. Shifu does everything in his power to discourage him and make him quit. Promising his other students that the panda would quit "or I have failed you all."

Po just doesn't fit in. He doesn't know Kung-fu. He is chided, by Tigress, for thinking that everything "is a joke." Mostly, he's misunderstood because he doesn't fit their picture of what the Dragon Warrior should be. The two biggest issues seem to be that he's clumsy and he's a panda.

In the end, we find out that being himself: good humored and a panda are what really bring him success in the final showdown with the bad guy.

I enjoy this movie. I enjoyed watching it with my kids and listening to them laugh. The animation is fantastic, the voice acting is really quite excellent. I'm a bit surprised at how little dialogue they gave Jackie Chan after all the advertising of him being cast as "Master Monkey" and I don't think voice acting is Jolie's strong suit. But really, those are small points against the movie. If you don't like martial art movies, you might not like this one, but you might be surprised.

There are two lessons to be learned in the movie. Or at least two lessons I can see and tell my kids. I might be the only one to see them. And that's okay.

The first lesson: Be Yourself.
Po, wanted to be "not himself" because he didn't see himself as having much worth. He was comparing himself to The Furious Five who had trained and trained and trained. Whereas, he had not. Po also didn't quite fit in with his dad's noodle dream.

The things that Shifu and the Five didn't like about him, were exactly what he needed to be and have, in order for the final showdown against the bad guy.

Po is given a "Dragon Scroll". The scroll is thought to contain powers that would enable the "Dragon Warrior" to be great. The Professor informed me that this is a nod to some other Kung Fu movies - but it works in this one, too.

Po opens the scroll and sees -- himself. Immediately, They all think it's blank. They think that Oogway really was crazy and mistaken to choose Po as the "Dragon Warrior"
Until his dad tells him the secret to his Secret ingredient soup. There is no secret ingredient.

Po realizes that all he has to do, to fight the bad guy, is to be himself.
At the end, Tai Lung tells Po: "You can't beat me, you're a big, fat panda!"
Po, embracing all that he is says, "Wrong. I'm THE. big. fat. panda."

All he had to do was be himself. This is much the same with God. Me for example...He gave me my quirks. My personality (like it or leave it). My desire to learn, to write.. He's put more desires in my heart - but I don't have to be like someone else in order to do these things. I don't have to be like others that have gone before me. And what's more, others should not expect me to be something I'm not.

To get the job done, I just need to be myself.

I really identify with Po.
I can be a klutz...
I eat when I'm stressed.
I don't fit the mold.
Who knew I was a panda?

Lesson #2 -- There is no secret ingredient. At least, it's not a secret.
There is a secret ingredient in me. But it's really not a secret. More like a partner...and that's Holy Spirit. Without Him, His presence, guidance, teachings, nudgings, I would not be who, what, where I am now.

So, while I talk about (and thoroughly enjoy) the movie's main theme, I have to point this out to the kids. We have to have Holy Spirit in us.

Being ourselves combined with the power and direction of Holy Spirit gives us such potential. We offer what we are and what we have to God and we are capable of fighting the scariest of snow leopards - or whatever else bad guy comes our way.

5 Things I love

Halfmoon Girl passed this on to me. I'm very Grateful that she loves my blog.. we are a mutual admiration society of two. She's a true bloggy friend and we share similar quirks (and the love of quirks).

So What I'm supposed to do is type out 5 things that I love and then tag 5 people. I am notorious about tagging others, so we'll see how that goes.

Since it's the Holiday season, I decided to write 5 things that I love and am grateful for.

1. The Professor.
Seriously, I have to say that I'm most thankful for him. Monday night he came home and cooked dinner so I could go with my brother to see the new Bond movie. The Professor didn't want to go. Then tonight, he ran an errand and came home to find me crying over the pork chops. He asked what was wrong - and all I had to do was point at the radio (with music streaming forth) and he just went about his next task. I could continue on about how he works so I can stay home...but really, He loves me and thinks I'm beautiful. He's God's love on earth to me.

2. Indoor Plumbing.
The Professor's grandfather, now deceased, actually had an outhouse that he used until he could no longer get out there. We don't think of these things very often. I love indoor plumbing. I love that I can turn on the faucet and have water. I love that I don't have to boil water to make it clean. I don't have to boil water to make it hot to bathe in. And I love being able to flush a toilet..and stay inside to potty.

3. Talk Radio.
You can laugh if you want to, I thought of this today. I don't get to listen to Talk Radio a lot any more because I'm supposed to be teaching children when it's on the air. Nevertheless, I'm grateful that they're out there. I'm a Ditto-Head and a fan of Hannity. I admire what they do and the effort they take to do it.

4. Music.
I love music. I am a fan of Harry Connick, Jr. I like Norah Jones. I love the way BB King plays the guitar. I can get lost in the melodies of the classics. I love music.. we shall not get into a discussion as to what is music and what is not - I like what I like. As much as I love music...nothing makes my heart soar like Worship music. Nothing can take my eyes off of the world, the circumstance or myself faster than worship music. Worship music is how Holy Spirit sings over me. To be made to worship is a thrilling concept.

Finally - but not least ...

5. Grace.
God's grace. I am a mom in Grace.
Ya'll, without God's grace - I'm totally and completely nothing.

So there ya go..
5 things I love and am grateful for.

To tag 5 people I'll choose 5 blogs that I love --
with the understanding that there is no requirement to blog -- just sharing some lovin'...

Classic Mama
CoffeeMom (She's already played along...but I don't
care.)
Livin'Life
AppleLeaf
Gang's All Here

I have more that I love - but had to narrow down to 5. So there's a sampling...I could list all the blogs that I love and all the things that I love but we'd be here too long and we all have more important things to do, I'm sure.

Pockets? Who needs pockets..

I like pockets. I like to have pockets in my jammies, too. I like them in my coats. I like pockets in my jackets. I like pockets in my jeans or pants -- if I have no pockets, I'm almost lost. Granted -- Pockets are useful, but optional. This arrived in my in-box to prove it.

A different form of Normal...

Not every day is a fun day here in the laundry pile. Here lately, I've felt like our bad days have numbered our good days. That is the short version.

Then, one day, I remembered something somebody praying over me. The word came forth that, somehow, I'd gotten an idea in my head of how I thought the kids should behave, act, whatever.

So -- when that memory came back to me the other day, peace followed.

On a random trip to w*l-m*art, on our way out, I started looking at the uniqueness of my kids.

Mini-me dressed up for her day.

Mini-E dressed up like a 'pincess' for her day.
It's a wrap around skirt from a dress up kit.
What you can't see under the jacket, is the sleeve lace that was on her arm.

J-man, the wookie, had too much fun being incognito.
Seriously, TOO much fun.
You can tell it -- but he's giggling.

And G-man, the superspy, likes using the rarely used 5th door of our van.
In his camo, he practices his spy moves by going over the back of the seat.

So, in order to break the imaginary molds I some how created, we've got to embrace the uniqueness of the individual.

Of course, being a quirky mom helps - but I've got to remember to embrace my uniqueness, too.
It's made me wonder what this might do to our schooling... I wonder how many more books will I end up owning.
Then I realize, I don't care.
I love books.

I was disappointed...

I admit it. I was disappointed when I went to bed last night.
I really went to bed wondering if I hadn't prayed enough. Wondering what God was up to. I do not understand why God would want the ideals in the White House that the president-elect brings to the office.
I still wondered what was going on this morning.

While I look with my eyes and wonder what's going on...
There are a few things that I don't wonder about.
God is still on the throne.
His Kingdom never has elections, he is always on the throne.
I am a citizen of His Kingdom.
His Word is TRUE. Prov. 21:1 is still true. Psalms 24 is still true.
I still love my country.
It's still the greatest country on the planet.

And this: I never have to wonder about this:

Mighty To Save...

I woke up with the chorus and bridge to this song playing in my head...




He is Mighty to Save -- Even Mondays. EVEN ELECTIONS!
Our God is Mighty To Save!
He will be elected!
Hallelujah!!

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the Risen King

Studying for a report..

Mini-Me is studying to find information for her first ever report.
The curriculum only gave her a photo-copied encyclopedia page. Granted, it's all about teaching her the basics of research and information gathering. I don't have a problem with that.

She has a problem with it.
She doesn't have enough information to use her own words to write the report.
She keeps asking me, "Mom, what about plagiarism?"

The curriculum mentioned it, not I.
She learned about it on Arthur, not from me.
I sighed.

I explained that I wasn't really concerned about it because of the information given to her with the curriculum. I told her that she'd be adding words and thoughts as she wrote the final report to go from one point to another.

But as we talked - she wanted to know more about her subject. More than just a photocopied encyclopedia page can tell her.

The subject is George Washington Carver. He is one of my favorite people to read about. There's a Mott Media book about him, that I thought I owned, but I don't (but will). I wanted her to hear about the scientist that had a relationship with the God who created the peanut and sweet potato.

I had to trust the library to give me something.

I searched via the internet and found a couple. One is written kind of in prose for easy reading. One is a graphic novel kind of thing. Our librarian with a really cool name, showed me three more in our local library (usually our little city library doesn't have much of what I want.)

She's enjoying the books and I'm thrilled. Quite by accident, we discovered a treasure.

"Mom!! Listen this: 'Moses and Mary Carver taught George and his brother Jim to read and write at home.'" (I'm paraphrasing.)

She beamed at me. "He was home-schooled, just like me."

I restrained from happy dancing. It was hard.
One thing about it, she'll never look at a peanut the same again.
And I'm quite okay with that.
Excuse me while I happy dance.

Incentives...

We have developed a few incentives here in the Laundry Pile quite by accident.

When Mini-Me was a little, little kid, she wanted a Pogo-stick. I told her she could have one when she turned 5. Thinking she'd forget. I forgot that she had the memory of an elephant - she got a pogo stick when she turned 5.

I accidentally developed the watch plan. When you could tell time to the quarter hour, I'd buy you an analog wrist watch. So far, Mini-me and G-man both have wrist watches. G-man absolutely LOVES his. Mini-Me remembers sometimes to wear hers - but she loves having one, nonetheless.

I just developed the gum-chewing incentive. When you turn 5 (J-man) you can have chewing gum. I made that one up just on Thursday.

Then on Friday, I think, I discovered another incentive. It's interesting what the kids actually come up with for their own incentives.

You see, we have Zoo Tycoon. We have the complete collection where you can add a Marina and Dinosaurs in addition to the regular zoo type of critters. Well, G-man has been wanting to play and wanting to play - but he had to develop better reading skills. He thinks he's developed enough and asked to play. So I consented.

Merrily, he started in on becoming a zoo tycoon.

Well, this got J-man very interested. (We've watch some little rascals movies lately - I'm impressed by how much my J-man looks like Spanky. I may have to change his blog name. I digress.)

(Sorry)

See, J-man .. I mean Spanky, thinks he can do anything that G-man can do. He came hop/skipping into the room..

"Mom! Mom! Can I play zoo tycoon??!?!"

"Well, bubby, you need to be able to read to play the game."

"I want to do school work."

Gotta love a good incentive.

The writing on the hand....

Just for you Linda, Jane and Toby --

I just love you guys. I tried to recreate...

When you don't have post-it notes available, what's a better thing to post a note on but your hand?

Geography Fun...

Maybe the bears in a previous post were bent on world domination, inspired by our geography game. We were studying the North American region of the world. The game, as suggested by My Father's World, said to have circles for each country.

I made cards - we're to look at the card and guess where the country was by putting a marker on the circle for that country. Let me just say, Mini-Me caught on really fast.

The first time they used whatever counting things we could find. I realized that the countries needed some sort of color to differentiate and help distinguish the countries from each other.

Here's what one looked like after I colored the countries:
I thought it would be fun to use M&M's as markers for the countries - because then we could clean up the game by eating our markers.
But knowing how much the kids wiggle - and how easy it is for M&M's to be scattered - I used magnets and a cookie sheet. This is my game 'piece' - and what it looked like without colors.
It was a fun way to learn the smaller countries of Central America.

Mini-Me won the game, by one marker.

We all won in the end, because we all ate M&M's.

Geography rocks.

Sopapillas

Sunday, we tried something new. We tried to make sopapillas to go with dinner. It was an interesting concept. I took on the project, as the Professor was making his own nachos variation. I looked up some recipes on line and barged right in.

I mixed up the dough - and had two batches. The second batch actually worked better than the first. Rolled out the dough - it was much like dumplings. :-) Fried Dumplings. We needed enough to go around - so I cut them into squares.

Aren't they pretty? I know, not really, they're just dough.

In my reading on the subject of sopapillas, I found someone's wisdom that said to make sure the oil was HOT enough...otherwise you're just boiling the little dumplin's in oil. Since we tend to be a bit ren. faire - ish, that brought a giggle to me.

Dumpling invaders!! Drop the Hot oil on 'em!!

I was really glad the little kids were asleep.

They are supposed to drop to the bottom:
And then pop back up. I loved this part. It was just fun. That was the other thing I read, you had to have enough oil for them to bob to the bottom and pop back up.

I realize I'm easily amused. I can't help it - it was fun.
The recipes I found on-line mentioned nothing of the cinnamon and sugar that made these fried bread thingys into sweet stuff -- so apparently sopapillas are fried bread and essentially, I made cinnamon toast.

After they puff up, which doesn't take long bobbing in that hot oil, I scooped them out and dumped them in a cake pan with cinnamon/sugar mix (that the Professor mixed up for me.)

Then we have this final product. They were quite the hit - even without honey.

I was really glad I tried this with the Professor around. I would not have tried this experiment with the little kids around.

It was good for the day though.

Massing on the border?

I never know what I'll find sitting on the table. Hmm...sometimes I forget what's on the table, but that's another post for another time...

I'm not sure if this is good or not:
They look like they're getting ready to stage a great undertaking. A raid on the Skittles factory, perhaps?

They're not too far from Strawberry Shortcake...maybe they're after her recipes. I've heard they're 'berry' good.

I'm rather wondering, if a plastic bear attacks you, how would you fight them off? Then I remember, I've got Jman and his plastic bottles. :-)

My new bracelet...

This is what I bought at the fun night that Mini-me and I had.
J-man was not doomed. He's quite fine. He's lovely in fact.

The Blue one is new, it's the one I knew I had to have.
The silver one was a gift from my hubby a Christmas or two ago.
I am now not without either one.

Not exactly gentle persuasion...

The other night, I took Mini-Me with me to a launching of a business. A friend makes jewelry and we were going to have a party and celebrate her going into business.

Jewelry.
Women.
Jewelry.

J-man saw us getting ready and found out where we were going and told us that he wanted to go, too.

He was sure of it.

We pointed out that there would be jewelry. Women. and no kids to play with.

He was just certain he had to go. Not certain enough to stop playing Lego Star Wars - he wanted to finish the level.

Really, you don't want to go. It's girly.

No -- he intoned -- I'll be doomed if I don't go.

I admit it.

I laughed.

He still didn't go.

You find what you're looking for...

No Sweeter Name...

Some Things Work - Some things DON'T

I don't know what's going with Bloglines. I realized that not all of my friends posts are coming through my Bloglines subscriptions....and it's driving me to distraction.

I spent part of yesterday's down time working on putting the blogs I read and follow into Google Reader. I'm not used to Google Reader, and don't find it as user friendly as Bloglines - but at least it's got all the blogs showing up!! Now to scroll through them to find the NEW stuff that I haven't read and making it think I read the old stuff - which I did when it was new.

Yes.

This is sad. I agree with you.

I've been in a sinus haze though, so I'm allowed.
Today I have antibiotics. Tomorrow should be hazeless.

I haven't had as much time to blog and read blogs - but, by golly, when the time comes, I want to be able to at least READ what you say.

Random Nonsense from The Laundry Pile...

First off, I'm laughing at the comments from those of the OCD persuasion. The Offending Encyclopedia has been fixed. Do I need to post a picture to prove it?

Our weekend was quiet. The kids and I were attacked from some sort of allergy "thing". So school work was sporadic. J-man was discovered to have an earinfection. Friday, I decided I didn't feel good. So I sat. Well - and scrapbooked a bit. I'm waaaay behind. I had pictures from 1998 (!!!) that needed to be put in a book. Journaling was important for those pictures, because the memories were fading.

I found pictures from the Christmas where we got our very first Nintendo. The Original Nintendo. Then I found pictures when My brothers got the Super Nintendo. Then I found pictures where they got the very first Gameboys (The ones without the backlights and no color.) . It was fun to travel back in time to remember.

The weekend was fun. Nice and quiet. We took naps.
The Professor decided it was THE weekend. It was time.
THE weekend for the kids to see "The Empire Strikes Back".
Personally, I'm disenchanted with the entire franchise. I keep seeing so many plot flaws...and I used to like the movies. Maybe it comes from having seen Star Wars over and over again.

My 4 year old can hum the theme.

Han Solo is still the movies saving Grace. Yoda was giggled over much, I'd forogtten how fun he was when he first met Luke. The kids thought the movie interesting. G-man really was in Awe of the whole thing.

After watching Han Solo (who rocks!) get encased in Carbonite, I told him that the kids would now have to see how the original series ends. They couldn't just wait to see Han Solo get released. Han Solo really keeps the movies together for me.

After enduring the endless questions -- and comparisons to the Lego Star Wars game - The Professor wasn't sure the kids would ever watch Star Wars AGAIN. EVER.

He relented and let them watch "Return of the Jedi" on Sunday.

After watching-- this is the video that keeps replaying in my mind.



The Kids made the comments that Lego Star Wars is much funnier than the actual movie. I have to agree.

That's why I'm grateful that there are people on YouTube who do stuff like the above.

And that was our weekend.

Washed by the Water...

Ya'll, it was a morning.
I woke up grumbly. I did not get to peacefully (see: leisurely) awaken. At my own pace. I'd gotten up with Mini-E last night and I wanted a wee bit more sleep.

And.... um...

Truth be known -- I was a little trepidatious about facing a school day. Which, now looking up the EXACT meaning of the word, makes me feel silly.

1. A state of alarm or dread; apprehension. See Synonyms at fear.
2. An involuntary trembling or quivering.

Yesterday the big kids were not feeling quite themselves, they have stuffy noses and sore throats. So School in the afternoon was not accomplished. So I had reservations about today.

Then Mini-E decided she wanted to boss me...
and that's NEVER a good idea when I'm tired and sleep deprived. I don't respond well.
At. All.

So I was grumbly.
Very.

I visited a few blog friends. When I arrived at Growin' with it...Linda had chosen the following as the song on her playlist. I gotta tell you -- it completely changed my grumbly mood.

I am washed with the Water.
Gotta tell you, that will change your perspective.

Then my brain started to think and my heart started to sing...
I am washed by the water! Seated for Kingdom purposes.
This day can not get me down --

Even when the rain falls,
Even when the storm comes...
Even when the kids wake up at 3am
And have lofty ideals of being my boss...
I am washed by the water.

That Rocks.

There are no pictures with this YouTube...it's just a song to sing.
It's the song I was singing last night - and can't get out of my head...

I'll post the lyrics under the "video".

Knowing You - From Passion

Knowing You
All I once held dear
Built my life upon
All this world reveres
And wars to own
All I once thought gain
I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now
Compared to this

Knowing You, Jesus,
Knowing You
There is no greater thing
You’re my all, You’re the best
You’re my joy,
My righteousness
And I love You, Lord

Now my heart’s desire
Is to know You more
To be found in You
And known as Yours
To possess by faith
What I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh to know the power
Of Your risen life
And to know You in Your suffering
To become like You
In Your death , My lord
So with You to live and never die

OCD Test

Just how long would it take you, before you had to change this around?
You know, before it would BOTHER you so much that you had to stop what you're doing to set things right??

I may have accidentally stumbled on an OCD test.
I should title it "Just how OCD ARE you?"

I think it took Mini-Me about 5 minutes.

I had G-man put the book up for us. Mini-Me was doing grammar and we'd gotten the encyclopedia out for an example ('cause that's what she's learning about - encyclopedias). Mini-E Decided to try and tear it while I was rearranging things to unearth the rest of the encyclopedias.
So, G-man came to the rescue.
He didn't notice that he put it in upside down, he didn't care. He save the book and went his merry way.

I didn't notice until I was walking by it much later and thought, "That'd be a funny blog picture."
So I grabbed my camera and got down on "eye-level" with the books.
Maybe that's when Mini-Me noticed it.
I dunno.

Math lessons. I gave Mini-Me hers and sent her to the chair with a clip board, pencil and work sheet. She got all snuggled in while I taught G-man about tally marks.

Mini-Me put all her stuff down, got unsnuggled out of the chair, and decidedly righted the upside down book.
"how long did it take you before you noticed it?"
"I noticed it a long time ago, but it was bugging me, (emphasis hers) -- so I fixed it."

Yep. I think I've found an OCD test.
So...how long would it take YOU?

I did it!!

I bought my first Christmas present of the season!!
It's a gift of love...it's a gift of necessity...

Mini-E will wait until J-man the Wookie isn't looking and take his Woody, Buzz Lightyear & Bullseye dolls. Claiming, "MY cowboys." as she secrets them away.

I had hoped to purchase them before the prices were jacked up for Christmas, and failed, but I still purchased a Jesse and a Woody doll for mini-E.

Hopefully, there will be a bit more peace in the Laundry Pile.

Maybe it will come after - I get over the fact that I've. bought. a. CHRISTMAS!! PRESENT!!!!

A few things said around the Laundry Pile

Sunday, we had the pleasure of hosting my father in law for breakfast. The Professor cooked. I found these sausage links from Banquet that you just brown and serve. Which is awesome for me, I'm terrible at cooking sausage. I typically burn the outside and the inside is still pink.

My mom says I should cook them slower.
.
.
Who wants to wait that long?

My father asked J-man if he wanted some sausage.
J said, very sincerely and emphatically, "No. They spicy all the way down."
Which, to interpret means, They burn all the way down. Which also means - they're too spicy for him.

It's become a favorite phrase. Spicy all the way down.
....

Yesterday, we started our school the way I always want to - with our Bible reading.
This year, we are studying Matthew. Which should be fun, it's the Professor's favorite book in the Bible.
I was beginning to read, reminding the kids of what's happened before. G-man interrupted me, "Mom!!! You're preaching the gospel!!"

I had to grin.
At least he seemed happy about it.
....

We went with my mom to see my grandmother. My mom's mom. My kid's great-grandma.
Mini-e was in a great mood. She spent some time talking to my Nina.
Nina asked her, "What's on that rug over there?" (She meant the picture ... a bunny. It's an easter bath mat she keeps at the foot of her chair.)
Mini-E walked over and picked something up and took it back to her.
I just rolled, "You asked her what was on the rug! She brought it to you."
We still don't know what it was.

So Nina went over to pick up the rug to talk about the picture. Mini-E identified it correctly, "A Munny!!" (Which is bunny in her language.) They talked for a minute more until Mini-E declared,

"MY Munny."

She knows what she wants.

....

Yesterday, we went to a hobby shop to get some clay. I like the stuff I see at the stores, but with my kids I don't want to spend all the money to get the really expensive kind. It would bug me if they ruined the Sculpe*y stuff...so I hunted out self-drying regular clay.

On the way in, I realized how scruffy I must look.
I had cut off jeans on and a t-shirt with a hole in it. I thought that the jean shorts didn't look bad unless they're coupled with the hole-y t-shirt.
I commented, rather absentmindedly, that I had a hole in my shirt.
"Yeah," said mini-me, "It looks like it's right where your... I mean MY belly button would be."

Hmmm...

Note to self - work on toning exercises.

.......

How to tell....

When the 2-year old is doing something she's not supposed to be doing...

1. Quiet.

2. Quiet.

3. Hiding under the table, with all the chairs pushed in.

She had the box of ointments and medications.
She's not supposed to have it.
She knows she's not supposed to have it.
Which explains why she's under the table.

Gives me a new meaning behind the old submarine phrase, "Run Silent, Run Deep"

I Heart Homeschooling..

I don't know what's up with Blogger. My posts are not behaving normally. So if this goes bonkers, I'm sorry. I don't think it's my fault.

Now to point of my post. I really have one tonight.

I really love homeschooling my kids. There have been days this first month of school, that I've wanted to chase down the school bus on it's way to the school. But I realized the other day that I love homeschooling them.

Where else can you do math like this:


We've been studying the states. Since we've kind of covered American History, we've been spending more time memorizing the names of the states and their location on the map.
I used The Professor's projector and made a really big outline map and hung it in our entry way.

Then I found G-man, Captain Lego, himself singing and dancing a song he made up about the states he remembered.

He did throw me for a loop. He told me, "Where's Mars? We should study space!" I was caught by surprise because we studied space! And I even blogged about it! He didn't remember.

It was really hard to fight that "You're doing something wrong feeling".
Needless to say, We'll probably be studying space. :-)

This year, I've begun teaching J-man with a K-4 curriculum from ABeka. We focus on nothing but phonics and math, which is VERY basic at this point. He's already catching on to the math stuff really fast.

One problem we've stumbled upon was his insistence to hold the pencil incorrectly. He prefers to hold a pencil in a fist-like grip. On top of that, he seemingly can't decide what hand in which he wants to actually do the holding of said incorrectly held pencil.

I was a bit flustered that day. I really don't want to not teach him. It's really not an option. He wants to learn and I should grab hold of that opportunity. I don't have to teach him to write, right now. Which would be okay - with the exception of the ABeka curriculum that will follow. Writing is rather important.

like I said, he wants to learn. The standard store pencil grips were not working. They cushioned the fist-like grip.

So I did a search on "how to teach a kid how to hold a pencil" looking for tips from which I could glean. I found an internet site called Draw Your World, the produce the "Draw Write Now" books. Moreover...that's a fun word to say. Moreover, They sell pencils and pencil grips!!!

So I bought some.

They arrived. I"m so thrilled.

We'll spend some time, paused in the progress of our school, and work on Letter recognition and pencil grips. I love homeschooling for this exact reason! We could not pause in a school setting to work on these things. Granted, an experienced teacher would be able to get him to grip his pencil without the fist, but this sounds like more fun.

I heart Homeschooling.

The Dog is SPOILED

I thought our dog needed a new food. He didn't seem to like the Iam's small bits I had been feeding him. So I tried something from Purina. It seemed like the bits would be small enough for Shih-Tzu mouth.

I was wrong. Really, it would be better if the chunks were smaller.

Or I could just let Mini-E sit and do this:

Hmmm... decisions, decisions..

Nothin' to say...

And I'm still sitting here.
I was going to blog. Reason 1: I had a few moments. Reason 2: I hate leaving a blog post up too long. It's almost like I stopped to think and forgot to start again.

So now that I'm sitting here, I've forgotten what I was going to say.
So do I dare say "nothing" anyway??

Probably not. :-) Especially since I just remembered I'm distracted by the kid's cartoons. Which is currently "Martha Speaks".

Of course, I'm distracted by my own cartoons.



I used this song today in our review of the 50 US states. :-)

I'm not sure they're ready for this one, though.



But we might play it as we study Cultures and countries.

Surprised by a Teachable Moment...

G-man is reading quite well. Finally. It clicked at the end of school last year and the beginning of the school year this year. So he's reading everything.... well, every sign.

On the way home from a doctor's visit - he was reading the signs "That says 'do not enter'. Why does it say that?"

'cause it's an off-ramp - not an on ramp.

It's really difficult not to compare the learning curves set by each child. Mini-Me was reading voraciously by the second grade. So G-man is a bit behind where she was in second grade. It's funny to hit this stage with him because I honestly thought we were going to just skip it.

Apparently not.

We had to stop at the stop light, and he was looking out the window.
"What's a 'smoke shop'?"

"Um. It's a place where you can buy cigarrettes, cigars and the like."

"To Smoke?"

"Yeah. People smoke them." I can't remember exactly what was said next, but I commented, "It's not exactly healthy."

From the back seat, came the authoritative voice of Mini-Me, "What do you mean 'not exactly'?"

Surprise.

A teachable moment.
I am the child of smokers.
My mom only stopped about 7 years ago when she had a massive heart attack that nearly killed her.

I've heard so many people talk about how they "pray for smokers" -- as if smoking causes their salvation to be questioned. or as if the smoker needs our pity or God's mercy any more than non-smokers. That philosophy rather irks me.

To present this topic carefully, inserting the love of God, was my desire.
I just didn't expect to have the conversation in the car. At the stop light.

So I had to explain to them that it's not healthy. That it can make your heart, throat, lungs sick. But it doesn't make everybody sick. I made sure that even though other people may smoke, we love the person. I don't want the kids to grow up with the notion that smoking is evil or wrong...which leads to judging of the person.

It was just a funny conversation to have at a stop light.
I wasn't exactly ready for it - which proves the point that teachable moments are often surprises.

I'm probably in for some more now that G-man is reading signs in the van. Every car ride could be a teachable moment.

mom-sized pat on the back...

Maybe it's just me, but I think that Mom's need little affirmations. Things, instances, words, happenings, whatever the case may be, that tell us we're doing the right thing. I'm sure Dads must feel the same way.

Our kids are cute. We love them to pieces.

Then there are the days that it's good they are cute.

I think Homeschool moms & dads have extra pressure on us. The stress to make sure our kids are growing spiritually, characterally (I just made that word up) and educationally.

I claim two instances that happened yesterday as pats on the back for me.

We have been reading, at night, one chapter from AA Milne's "Winnie the Pooh." It's a dog-eared copy that I've had for years. I love this book. Especially the run-on-sentence in Chapter 9.

So we've been reading, as the kids are settled in bed, each night for the past few, well - at least 10 days. We did have to skip one day because everyone was so tired that sleep had to happen instantly.

I've been thrilled to hear laughter coming from the bunk beds. I'm even more thrilled by a 4 year old's desire for me to continue the story.

So on Sunday, I dusted off an old VHS of the Disney movie "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh". The big kids hadn't seen it in FOREVER and they had completely forgotten about it.

While they watched, the just made me so proud by uttering comments like, "I remember that from the book!" or "That was in the book!"

I was dancing a victory dance in the kitchen.
They were so happy about the movie and the book that we had to watch it again right away.

Then that night, G-man made an observation while I changed Mini-E's diaper. You see, the kids have had some sort of stomach bug. G-man has had something for the past 10 days. We've prayed and cleaned, now we're waiting it out.

So after his observation, I asked him (seizing the teachable moment) "Why don't you come pray over her?"

"But I don't have my prayer language, yet."

I explained that he didn't need it. That all he had to do was put a hand on her and pray over her to be healed. So, like a teacher, I was giving him step-by-step instructions.

First you put your hand on her. I thought of her stomach - but he chose the forehead.

Then I was going to tell him sort of what to pray but he looked at me and said, "I got it." in that kind of "I-can-take-it-from-here" tone of voice.

SCORE!!
Happy dancing on the inside.
I am doing things right!

On top of that, he prayed good.

I loved it. In fact, I'm still loving it. Obviously, I'm blogging about it. But it made me so happy. Those moments that we get to steal away, those God-kisses that we get to let us know that we are doing good as parents.

Totally patting my self on the back for noticing and giving God the glory.

Is. 54:13 (Amp) My Children shall be taught by the Lord (and obedient to His will), and great will be their peace and undisturbed composure.

The logic of being 4.

J-man is a hoot. I'd almost classify him as my class clown.

Yesterday, we discovered, quite by accident, that the PS1 games we own will play on the PS2. This morning, he got up before 5:30 because he wanted to be FIRST awake.

First awake around here means that you get to pick first for the TV. We allow videos first thing in the morning because the kids start their mornings at 6. I choose not to start my morning until actual daylight can be seen. So that means, 7am, most of the time. This morning, he would not be lured back to blissful sleep.

So we got up and made muffins for breakfast. I wish I could say that I started my day THEN, too. Because we'd be finished with school by now. We ran an errand, looked up some stuff on the internet, talked with the Professor.

Finally school came. He wanted to do numbers first.
He was doing really well counting and identifying numbers.
I congratulated him.

He looked at me and said, "Yeah, when I was a little kid, I couldn't do that."

Tuesday was really hard for us, school-wise. So THAT just melted my heart and made it all worthwhile.

I like this song...

Really.
I like this song.



After watching it a bazillion times, the movie is on my nerves. no matter what, this song still makes me stop and listen. So I post it here, because it was on the video again for the bazillion second time.

But whatever we do, we should Shine! Our Shine should be a Divine glow...and it should SHINE.

Doin' some weeding..

Anyone know what this is?

I don't, but it nearly took over my flower bed.

Two Sundays ago, Mini-Me wanted to ride her bike and/orRollerblades. I don't like to let the kids out in the front by themselves, especially to ride in the street, so I decided it was perfect time to weed the flower bed. It's on the side of the house and easily ignored. I thought the neighbors might appreciate the sprucing.
Besides, whatever that plant is, was really taking over the flower bed. Nearly smothering out the marigolds that we had planted.

I don't remember planting anything that said "Ground Cover" or "Borg-like tendencies" (you know, to take over and conquer. 'you will be assimilated'.) It was really funny. It had so many little sucker roots on it that I'm not sure I got it all. We'll see.

As I sat there and pulled this "weed" from the flower bed, I had this huge joke in my head. I just thought how funny it would be to blog about the flower bed in it's current state. Then talk about the fact that it's been neglected because of the tomatoes. (Only partly true. I told you, we can't see it unless we walk around to it.) So the blog would be a funny post about unfaithful.

Or so I thought.

The Holy Spirit started to show me the spiritual significance of the weeds. How neglecting the flower bed for the tomatoes created a messy flower bed and other unforeseen entanglements.

Spiritually, I put my fingers in my ears.
I wasn't sure I wanted to hear this. Even if it could preach.

Holy Spirit is a gentlemen, He stopped talking. I"m pretty sure He was standing there smiling at me. I could just tell.

I already knew what He was talking about. I just didn't want to hear it about ME.
I was thinking GENERICALLY. Not personally.

When we neglect one thing - for another - no matter how important that 'other' may be, weeds might grow up. *Sigh* That could preach. *whimper*

It took me a bit before I went back to revisit the conversation. What if He talked about Blogging?? What would I do then??

I did learned something, though.

God can turn a lesson out of anything, but you've got to be willing to listen.

To pull out the weeds, you've got to get your fingers dirty.

Once the weeds took over, some of the marigolds were choked. I'm not sure they're going to make it, even after the weeds were pulled, and they were set free.

All it all, it was a good experience. I kind of laugh about it now. I know Holy Spirit is, I think He finds me amusing.

Even as amusing as I am, I'm on the look out for weeds. I don't want good plants choked out because of weeds that might sprout up when I'm not looking.

A new meaning for Map*Quest

In a homeschooling house, it IS possible to separate the school from the other aspects of life. Around here, we can, but it's not necessarily fun. Or blogworthy. :-)

We have been studying Geography. For the groundwork, we have been studying maps, map language, and how to read/write maps.

On Saturday, we needed to purchase pants. What a better chance to try out our mapping skills - than at the Mall?? We took the Professor who took over the orienteering lesson. (It's one of his skills)

Here he is doling out grid paper and pencils in front of the "Directory".

He told them the number of the store we sought.
He told them what they needed on their maps.

And right about that Time J-man needed to find the potty.
Incidentally, the nearest one was down the escalator.
So down we went.

And came back to find this:

And this:

They had to write the legends down. They needed to note landmarks such as telephones and escalators.

We managed to find the store we sought.
There has been some discrepancy about who's map was best, but we managed to get to the store without too many hitches.

Of course, the Professor didn't bother to tell them that there were little folded maps of the mall right there for them to take.

And they didn't notice.

It's Saturday!

It's My Blog-o-versary! I've been blogging for 2 years!
Time To Celebrate!

I numbered the comments on a previous post about this auspicious occasion. Then I took those numbers and entered them into this

Random Integer Generator

And got this:

Here are your random numbers:

5

Timestamp: 2008-08-23 12:40:53 UTC

I'm not sure what UTC stands for - but it's about 7:40 here in The Laundry Pile.

According to my list,

5 = Coffee Mom!!

WooHoo!

Happy Blog-o-versary To me!!

Plant markers...

I cleaned out a flower bed and wanted to mark where something was planted.
What a better thing to use??

I admit it. It looks like a really weird, flower tombstone.
The nice thing, I won't have to worry about wondering what's there.
I thought about using a stick to mark the flower but sticks get pulled up or taken away.

Forks, they stay where they're put.

A moment to Worship...

I love waking up to a song in my head.



Just let it soak in.

Knight Unassuming

Just in case you might not know, This is The Professor. He's a professor by day, a gamer at night, and always my Knight in Shining Armor.

In this picture, you might not see the glint of his armor. Or his valiance. But it's there.

Today, we discovered that we needed 2 new pair of shoes. G-man and Mini-E were both complaining of feeling pinched. Since I needed to pick up some flea preventative, we headed to the shoe store. (What? You don't buy your shoes and dog meds at the same place??)

I should have said, since we were going out anyway, we'd stop at the shoe store first.

The very nice, very patient man measured their feet and, yes, they both needed shoes. They were both wearing shoes that were too small.

I think it's the challenge that comes with summer. They wear sandals all the time. And then suddenly, they need sneakers. Or tennis shoes, as we call 'em.

It took us nearly an hour at the shoe store, between waiting for help and then getting fitted. We were going to pick up lunch and take it to the professor and then go pick up the stuff we needed to pick up.

But then I looked at the gas gauge.
First things came first.
While at the gas pump, I noticed something missing from my wallet. In fact,Two somethings. My ATM/Debit card and my driver's license. Two things my wallet should never be without.

My plans were threatened. They were in jeopardy of being shot down in a horrible massacre. If I had to drive all the way home, I was not leaving the house again until Saturday.
Then, I called the Professor. I explained the situation.

I probably whined a bit.
I'm only human.
They were great plans!!

He was willing to drive over to pay for the gas, but allowed me to put it on the credit card, instead. (because I thought it silly for him to drive over to me.) Then he had us come pick him up. We went to the bank where he let me use his atm card. We had lunch. We took him back to work. He let me keep his card and I was able to finish my errands.

He was my knight in shining armor today.
I even thanked him for being so.
He said, "Well, I try."

Today he did more than try, he succeeded.
He's my unassuming Knight in Shining armor.

The Day the Boy Stood Still

Was a Monday.
Technically, I guess I should say, "The Day the Boy Sat Still".

He barely moved.

Superman can be felled by kryptonite.

G-man, by a stomach bug.

He's feeling better now. I just had to record the even for posterity.

Signs of learning

J-man is in K-4 this year. We made the decision to go ahead and start teaching him things...and he really wants to learn.

The other day, I was talking to the kids about the Bible lesson we were studying, and he got right in front of me and said, "Talk to me, too."

So I try to have his school with him all at once, at least here in the beginning, so that he can be done for the day. The first 5 lessons in ABeka Phonics and such is the Letter "I" and learning of colors. I remember playing color games with my other kids.

So we got our color signs out, and he went on a color search.
I sent him to his room for the color green.
The color black was the hard one.
Then I asked him where this little Kingon figure should go, and he agreed with me that the uniform was mostly black. so there ya go.


I was a bit surprised when he qualified the Yellow #2 pencil as Orange. Until we added it to an orange group. The yellow #2 is actually orange.

See the brown dog? I told him that the brown dog was lonely and could he go find something else brown for the brown dog.

He looked at the brown dog. He looked at the Red lady bug and he put them side to side.

Problem solved.
No more loneliness at all. For either one.

I was laughing.
Class was dismissed.

Carpe Degrium...

Juggling Paynes over at Homes Spun Juggling has coined a new phrase. "Carpe Degrium!" It means: Carpe Degrium /Car' pe De gree' um/- seize the educational opportunity!

I thought maybe our seizing of educational opportunities were going to be those weird things that typically happen to us. Like finding dead cicadas as we go into office building on Speech Therapy days. Or picking up pinecones (same location). I thought I had it good with the tomatoes I was growing in the back yard. All the kids tasted and only one appreciated the fine taste of home grown tomatoes. Mini-E is much more like me that I care to admit.

Mini-Me started a bug hunt. She started desiring to catch a butterfly to study it up close. But then the butteflies flew away from our really hot weather. It didn't help that the Professor mowed all the clover in the back yard.

So I was surprised when she took an interest in this fella.
See, Mini-Me typically has an aversion to insects of any kind. I'm sure this guy has an aversion to children, too. If he didn't before - he sure will after this.
She was careful and cautious and he was basking in the sun. I'm sure he thought he'd just sit and rest awhile. Silly grasshopper. He's lucky the cat stays inside.
Her only problem came when she accident had the lid upside down. That was quickly remedied and the grasshopper was caught.
We transferred him to a glass jar to better view our captive. I looked up on the internet and found a diagram of the parts of the body for grasshoppers. And she sat down to draw him and study him closer. I was really proud of her.

Here's the picture she drew:

My favorite one was the view on the left. Of course, I've always thought that grasshoppers had funny little faces. She mixed colors - she used creativity and she asked me questions that I had no answers to.

The main one: Is this a boy or a girl?

Um.

yeah.

How 'bout that.

we looked it up and we think it's a girl, but we're really not sure because we let him/her/it go before we could really research closer. I was going to have to pick him/her/it up to find out - because girl grasshoppers have pincer looking things on the end of the abdomen for laying eggs. She was afraid I'd her him/her/it and I could reach in the jar to grab him/her/it with Mini-Me sitting next to me sucking in air everytime he/she/it moved. So I think Mini-Me will call the grasshopper "She" and I'll call him "Lucky."

I drew the line at Mini-me giving the insect a name.
We have enough pets.

Today we cleaned out a flower bed on the side of the house and found a preying mantis. It was cool. She kept at him until she caught him. She took him in and drew pictures of him and then let him go back in the flower bed.

She said, "Mom, will we be studying bugs in homeschool?"

I was proud. She's thrilled about bugs! I told her, "The nice thing about homeschooling is that you can study whatever you want."

She's thrilled. I'm thrilled. This is the first time she's shown an interest in something - I mean, other than a passing interest. So I'll get us something to aid her in her study of insects and we'll study them in Science.
This is Carpe Degrium.
It's fun.

Some Forkin' Fun

My two year bloggy anniversary is coming up, as you can see by the nifty little widget on my sidebar. Yep, it's been two years since ThoughtfulMom suggested I try blogging at Homeschool Blogger, instead of Yahoo360.

I've met some awesome people who have become friends. Friends that I would gladly add to my facebook list. So, 2 years have to be marked by ... something.

This is an important occasion...I mean, not as important as some things going on ... and certainly not as eye opening as others.

*blankly stares at that last line*
Okay - it's not important at all.

I've been trying to figure out what in the world I should give away - because I want to celebrate.
So that means, in the blog o'sphere, that I get to give away something.

I want it to be great.
I want it to be awesome.
I want it to come from my comfy little heart..
I thought about painting something and I could not think of anything to paint.
I thought about crafting something and the same problem arose.

So -- what else can I give away??
Then I got an ingenious idea.

Or maybe it's just absurd.

There's really only one thing that would work...
That's right.
It's the only thing that makes sense...

To me...and probably to Toby and CoffeeMom, too (It might not make sense to you -- but you can read the start of all this here.)

I fully intend to throw in some chocolate and/or something school related, since I'm in the midst of school start-up. It won't just be the forks. :-) honest.

So -- if you think you might want to celebrate with me, leave me a comment and let me know.
On my blog-o-versary, we'll pull your name out of a hat - or maybe do the random-number-generator thing.

If you win, I'll mail you my celebratory forks and whatever I manage to collect.

If you don't want to be put in the random drawing, but want to tell me how absurd this all is, that's fine, too. I don't mind a bit.