I May Have to Be a Super DUPER Blogger!

That's because I may have to do 2 posts per day so those of you who do not care about my house rearrange can skip that post and read the other, more informative post.

Or, you can just leave snarky comments on my one post and I will ignore them. That sounds easier.

So it was day one of the great rearrange. Here is what we accomplished.

We pulled all the books off the girl's bookshelves. We dumped them into the living room floor and sorted them. We filled up 4 plastic grocery sacks to sell/give away. Ah...much better!

Mid-sort.

Then we pulled the empty bookshelves out from under their lofts and put their dollhouses there. That leaves room in the toy room. Well, after we clean the floor.

These will go in the homeschool room closet. After I, you know, clean it out.

Under Sweetheart's loft...

Little Bit's ginormous dollhouse. See? We should have a lot more room in the playroom now!

Then we put all our newly sorted books on our big black shelves in the homeschool room. Then we quit.

Phase one went quite nicely.

Also, we finished our science book today! I love it when subjects start dropping off one by one! I must say, when I was a new teacher I was in awe of teachers who spent the last day of school putting up next year's bulletin board paper before they left for the summer. I was sweating and running around trying to get everything turned in and here they were working on NEXT year's stuff???

But I think I have finally arrived because here I am...4 years of homeschooling under my belt (how is that possible?) and I have next year's curriculum plan all typed up AND my room rearrangement drawn on the white board and we aren't even finished with this year!

So let's not discuss the part where 50% of the people in this family had to tell me they couldn't find clean undergarments this weekend, ok? That hardly seems relevant to my homeschool victory.

A Matter of Faith

We started our weekend off kind of sadly. Sweetheart and I went out Saturday to move the bunnies to the porch (it's too hot now for them to stay in their house all day) and we found Snuggles dead. I was so glad I was with Sweetheart when she made this discovery. It was very shocking as the bunnies are only 2 years old. She immediately burst out crying and I ran to get S. He confirmed what we already knew. Little Bit cried some too but she saved most of her tears for bedtime.

This is the trouble with pets. They break your heart. Or your children's hearts anyway. I felt so badly for them. What really got me were the questions.

Sweetheart said, "Mom--you know it says 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you', right? Well, we (did something nice for someone else that morning) and then Snuggles died!"

I assured her one had nothing to do with the other. God did not "do" this to her. She said she knew that. I told her that the Bible says God knows when even a little bird falls from the sky. He notices and loves even a little creature like that. Nothing escapes Him. And that God was probably sad because she was sad. But, our creation is broken and until the Lord comes back, this is how it will be. That is why we are eagerly waiting Christ's return when everything will be back to how God intended it to work in the first place before Adam and Eve sinned.

Little Bit asked if God was mad that Adam and Eve sinned. She said she was mad they did. I reminded her that we have all sinned and Jesus died on the cross for ALL of us.

Good grief this is deep stuff from a dead rabbit!

Later that day we buried him and the girls painted rocks to put on the grave. (Sweetheart remembered seeing Connie's post and that gave them the rock idea.)

I thought we were all doing OK until Little Bit got out of bed crying and came to lay on the couch with me. "Why did Snuggles have to die? I liked him. I wanted to still have him longer." Oh my heart. Then she hugged me yesterday and said, "I love you Mom. I'm glad I have you." and then...."I'm glad you didn't die." Ah...she is struggling a bit with it all.

I found the verse I was telling them about earlier that day and a hymn to go along with it. They really liked it. Sweetheart said, after I sang the song to them, "that's really good."

There really isn't anything more comforting, to know that even though something terrible has happened, that we are loved by God.

Matthew 10:29-31

 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Part of the hymn: 

God sees the little sparrow fall,

It meets His tender view;

 If God so loves the little birds,

 I know He loves me, too. 

He loves me, too, He loves me, too,

I know He loves me too;

Because He loves the little things,

I know He loves me, too.

There Is No Cure for My Sickness

Well, my brain is at it again. It has gone and thought of new ways to rearrange the house. If you are new here, I have a problem. I like to rearrange. I NEED to rearrange. I do it often.

This time it all starts with a perfectly good reason. But we'll get to that in a minute.

So we're sitting in the living room the other night and I said, "You know, there really isn't any reason to have that sewing machine cabinet in here anymore." (We used to have the desktop on it but now we only have a laptop.)

We don't need this in the living room but it was my grandmother's so it can't go.

And so S said, "Can we do without the TV cabinet too?"

Um, yes. I think we could. I mean, we haven't had TV service in a year and a half. We only use it for the Wii and videotapes. DVDs can be watched on the computer. Hmm.....

So that got us talking about our living room and our new couch (garage sale--$20!) And our need for more seating in here. We need more seating so we can have people over for Bible study and no one will have to sit on the fireplace, the floor, or in lawn chairs. (We've done all 3!) We need more seating so we can be hospitable and have company.

And then I remembered all the pictures I've seen online of homeschoolers who have converted old TV cabinets into school cabinets. That just works out great with my plan for the school room next year. The theme for next year is: OUT OF SIGHT! As in, I want more stuff out of sight. But we're totally going to have an "out of sight" (awesome) year too.

That led me to figuring out what to do with the girls' bookshelves, the TV, the DVD player, the Wii, the small shelf in my bedroom, the plastic drawers in the homeschool room closet, the doll houses, the cedar chest, etc. Yes, it really does involve ALL of that! We have a place figured out for everything... except the antique sewing machine cabinet, which started the whole thing.

Ironic, no?

By the way, all that rearranging....to get more seating in our living room....affects 5 rooms in our house. FIVE. I'm sick.

But at least I'm keeping the same homeschool room this year! Right? Right?

And to Think They Share a Room

For some reason tonight we got to talking about what style of decor we like. Me and the girls, that is. Oh I know what it was---we had been reading Fancy Nancy and Sweetheart remarked that she liked Nancy's room before she made it fancy. To her, the simple and plain room was beautiful. To Little Bit, it was boring.

I told Sweetheart I knew exactly what style she would like. She always says, "I just like things plain--I don't like them all pretty." I wanted to correct that. Pretty can look like a lot of things. So I showed her some pictures of shaker style furniture and Amish homes. Yep. Right up her alley. She loved them. A simple bedroom with a quilt on the bed. Her style all the way. I emphasized that it was very pretty--just not fancy. It's all in the adjectives.

Little Bit couldn't think of a word for what she likes but I knew---Victorian. She loves to check out dollhouse books from the library that show Victorian style dollhouses. She calls it "rich." She has been trying to make her dollhouse look "rich" for over a year now. The fancier the better! So I looked up pictures of Victorian style homes for her. Yep. Right up her alley. She loved them. Frilly and lacy and scroll-y. Her style all the way. I emphasized that it was very fancy. But "rich" is really not the right word. She wanted to know why not? Then I showed her some rapper's living room. He's rich, but his decor was not lovely. See Little Bit? Just because someone is rich doesn't mean they have their house looking like you like it. The word you want is "Victorian."

Good lesson, huh? Yeah, it went over really well.

About 15 minutes later Little Bit came into the kitchen with a very worried look on her face and said, "Mommy.....I don't want Sissy to be poor!"

I assured her "simple" did not = poor. She said, "Well it sure looks poor!"

What do you suppose they will grow up and describe their mother's style as? Mercy. I don't even want to think about it. But it involves having a plaid 12 year old couch.

Anyone got a word for that style?

A Friday Tip for You

When I was about 13, my dad was reading a book on mnemonic devices. You know, tricks to help you remember things. He taught me a trick to remember what page you are reading in a book and I have not used a bookmark since.

It's so simple. If you need to stop reading...just look at what page you are on, and reverse the numbers.

So, if you are on page 19.....say "91"' to yourself. When you come back to the book, you will remember!

It really works and it's easy! (Now it does get trickier with three digit numbers but I rarely read books that thick!)

That's my tip for you this Friday. Have a great weekend!

Guarding Our Children

This morning S sent me an article he'd run across. This one made me mad. (Not at S!) I spoke yesterday about how we need to guard against the lies that are out there and stick with what God's Word teaches. It's true. But in light of that article, I think we need to be even more purposeful about guarding our children.

This is subtle, and yet, not so subtle. I guess it depends on how much you are paying attention. While it may appear to just be "two days out of the whole school year", you have to know this is being taught/promoted more than just on these scheduled days. And only 3 children were kept home that day. Three. Out of 350 students. And it isn't like those 3 students aren't going to get filled in by their friends.

We need more than just teaching our children, "God made 2 distinct sexes." This is all being taught to our children (it's NOT just California....and it WILL be in many other places in a few years) in the name of "acceptance" and "anti-bullying." That word acceptance is a buzz word. Watch for it. See what things fall under the word acceptance. (That book was part of the 2 days of lessons.)

I wrote about this trend in public schools a long time ago. (The first year I blogged actually.) We used to do a "multi-cultural" unit in December when I taught 3rd grade. We studied Christmas Around the World and each child was put in a group and assigned a country and at the end of 2 weeks they had to give a presentation on how people in that country celebrated the holidays, complete with food, costumes, etc. Multi-cultural was a big, big thing in the early 90s when i was a teacher. The music teacher had the 3rd graders do a multi-cultural musical. A preacher friend of ours was at the performance because his wife was a teacher and his son was in 3rd grade. After it was over, I remember him muttering about how he was sick of this "one world thing." I remember being totally clueless about what he meant. I got it later.

Community. Acceptance. Diversity. Anti-bullying. Differences. Non-discrimination. Safe schools. Oh people, SO MUCH is being slid under the door under these names. If your child goes to public school, please investigate. Pay attention. I would like to believe, like many seem to, that your children are JUST learning math, reading, writing, etc. at school. But it isn't true. They are parenting your children. And it might not jive with your beliefs. (And even if it DOES jive with your beliefs, I do not think it is their place to teach.)

How can Kindergarten students be expected to see this teaching for what it is? How can elementary students hear this from their teachers and not begin to believe it? How can homeschooled students be prepared to deal with this when they are out from under our care?

How much teaching is required of us in the home to counter-act this? To prepare our children for a world where this is normal? What do we do?

Something to Guard Against

I read an article on yahoo yesterday that I could not get off of my mind all evening. You may have seen it. It was about some parents who are not revealing the sex of their 4 month old baby. They are attempting to raise the child in a gender neutral (GN) fashion.

I don't know why that article stayed on my mind so much. Are they radical? Yes. Many people would not go so far as to do what they are doing--or to allow their sons (they have 2 other children) to shop from either the boys or girls section in clothing stores and decide if they want their hair long or short. But that doesn't mean that many people do not agree with these parents at some level.

So I kept reading and googling. Apparently, some folks think a GN world would be just about perfect. They can't wait for the day when society stops placing biases and limits on people and when others stop drawing a line and saying "choose." I don't think they just want a "third category".....I think they'd like there to BE no categories.

Anyway, as a Christian this topic gets my attention and it should yours too if you are a Christian. I'll tell you why in a minute.

As I googled and read, I began to see some major categories popping up where GN is becoming main stream. In case you haven't thought much about this, perhaps these links will be eye opening.

Fashion. I already have thought about this several years ago. Children go to school wearing standardized dress of khaki or blue bottoms and a polo style shirt on top all their lives. Then, they get a job at Target, or the bank, or wherever and guess what? They wear khaki pants and a polo style shirt! There is precious little difference in how the men and women look at many places of business. The styles of military uniforms have also changed. I spoke about all this here.

But it seems to be going a step further now. Fashion designers are actually designing clothing that is intentionally GN. This means it is designed to be for EITHER sex to wear. Especially where children are concerned as there isn't as much difference in their bodies.  Check out the store sign on this article. Here is a slide show that was interesting.  If you need help figuring it all out, there is help available.

Dorm rooms. I don't remember which college started it, but it has caught on. Now it is PC to offer GN living arrangements. Many colleges are offering this type of dorm. And if you are going to offer living arrangements that are GN, then of course restrooms will follow suit. High schools are already dealing with this. As well as prom situations, homecoming situations, etc. All this is being done in the name of anti-bullying. These students must have a "safe" place. So, we must offer these arrangements. Oh, and they cannot be discriminated against.

Can you follow this path further down the road in your mind? Where does this lead? What will your local elementary school look like in a few years? What will be taught? It's already being taught in many places.

Which reminds me: children's books. Be careful at the library because there are a lot of children's books being written to address these issues. They are also being read to classes in many elementary schools.

Another major category is GN language. You know, we must say actor instead of actor/actress, etc. This, of course, moves us into GN Bible translations. Oh, don't even get me started. Read. Be aware. Be informed. The version you love may have been edited recently. Research before you buy because this one is serious. Altering the Word of God to be more "inclusive" and PC??? Not good.

So it seems this is the way our world is going. I cannot even imagine how things will be in 20 or 30 years. Obviously, we must teach about this to our children. God's word says:

 "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27

God created two sexes. Distinct and different from one another. Plain and simple. And because my Lord did this, and said that it was good, I will continue to believe that there should be a distinction. Especially among Christians because if the world is going GN, then we should stand apart from that. What does this mean? It means my girls and I will be wearing a lot more skirts and even when we wear other things, we will make sure to look as feminine as we can. As much NOT GN as possible. It means men should look like men. I know this varies from culture to culture, but there should be a distinction--both in our dress and our behavior!

And I will pray. I do not hate people who are confused about their gender, but I do hate that it is common in our world. Children are hurting, they are committing suicide. They are miserable. They have been lied to and the Liar is deceptively confusing many people. God is not a God of confusion. These people need to know the Lord and Savior. They need prayer.

So as a Christian, I will guard against the rising tide of GN in our world, I will teach my children the truth, and I will continue to speak the truth. God did not mess up. He did not make a mistake.

What do you say about all of it? What should our reaction as Christians be?

Math Blaster Online

Alternate Title: My Children are Better at the Computer Than Me

 Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and Knowledge Adventure at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.


I have long loved Math Blaster. It's been around since the 1980s and I have always heard good things about it. Although I never had the chance to play the really vintage version...we do have some experience with Math Blaster in other formats. For example, we've borrowed a computer CD game of it from a friend and Sweetheart has the DS version. This review is for the online version. Simple and easy. You can access it from any computer and don't have to keep up with a game.

Math Blaster has evolved a lot over the years! The main character is now "Max" and he gives directions and serves as a guide.

I would have been lost without you Max!

Your child gets to first create their own "Blaster Cadet" (character) and name themselves something cool like my name of Emma LunaFlare. They can customize the hair, clothing, and other features. This activity alone can take awhile and is quite fun. Once they are created, you are ready to play!

Customize your cadet before you play. You can edit later as well.

Here is where I must admit that Mom was lost and so I had to just let my child take the wheel, or the mouse as it were, and watch over her shoulder as she expertly figured out where to go and what to do. So obviously, just because it didn't make sense to a 40 year old....does not mean there is a flaw! Once she showed me around I was good to go.

There are a lot of games on Math Blaster and....this may surprise you...not all of them are math games. I think that's important to point out because I would have assumed if my child was spending 20 minutes playing Math Blaster that they were playing all math games. But Math Blaster offers both. Your little cadet can find math games by visiting the Academy and the Job Board. They can play other games in the Space Port. They are all fun, but I thought I'd point it out in case you need to make a rule of how many math games you want them to play before they play the other games.

I was happy to see more than just the four basic operations. This game has fractions, decimals, and percents.

This is a fun way to practice place value.

One thing I was very happy to find out was that there is no chance for my child to communicate with other people who are online. At first we thought you could, but it turns out they can only communicate with their friends. Maybe they'd like to play with their cousin, or friend, or classmate. These people can be added to their Buddy List. The good news is this feature can be controlled and monitored under the Parent Section on the website. We have not used the Buddy or chat feature because I have trained them not to communicate with others online.....but with these safety features in place it would be fine. I was so very glad to find a children's website with some good common sense about that feature!

Yee Haw!! This is my favorite game!

My favorite game is the Alien Wrangler. Basically, you get to ride the mechanical bull at Gilley's except the bull is an alien and you have to answer math problems instead of....well OK maybe it's not much like Gilley's. But it's really fun and is a great drill. You can choose from Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division and then you can choose from other categories inside of that. (Such as "facts up to 16", etc.) This game gets 2 thumbs up from me as a Mom because it gives quick math drill and is fun.

Choices to make it appropriate for your child.

There is also a Math Blaster Blog for the parents to check out. This is a helpful thing as it lets you know what features are new and sort of helps you feel like you actually know what your child is doing while they are on the game. Sweetheart does not need the blog, she just logs on and figures it out as she goes. My bet is your children will too.

Math Blaster does require a membership, but you can add up to 6 children on one account. There are also a lot of things in their Shop on the website such as a downloadable game, the Nintendo DS version, one of the math games from Math Blaster in ipad/iphone format, and much more. Check out the store here. 

I hope this review was helpful! If you take the summers off, or you children go to school and have the summer off, a membership to Math Blaster might be a good thing to give them something fun to do AND keep up with those math skills. If you have any questions I haven't covered--just holla!

A Variety of Matters

Meatless Monday

Well, the frugal grocery trip is complete and I kept it under $100! There is little health food involved in that, but then again we will be eating from our garden and eating beans (not every day) which are totally healthy.
While I was making my menu plan I remembered something. My parents used to buy me a subscription to Quick Cooking Magazine. I got it for probably 4 years so I have a lot of issues. Then they changed up the whole format of the magazine and I didn't like it anymore so I don't get it now. (I think it's called Simple and Delicious now.) But in their old May/June 2003 issue there is a recipe for Bean 'N Rice Burritos and it's good. It's in the section called "Centsible Foods---Fast and Frugal". One of my favorite sections! I thought I'd share it. (thanks Susie Kohler from Missouri)

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ox) diced tomatoes, drained
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups cooked rice
12 flour tortillas (7 inches), warmed
4 ounces processed cheese (Velveeta), cut into 12 slices
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream
In a large skillet, combine the beans, tomatoes, garlic powder and cumin; heat through. Stir in the rice. Spoon about 1/3 cupful off-center on each tortilla. Top with cheese. Fold sides and ends over filling and roll up. Sere with sour cream. Yields 6 servings.

So that's our frugal meal for tonight. In 2003, two of these would cost .89 cents!

Back Home

Getting away for the weekend was JUST what the doctor ordered. I do not feel overwhelmed by the house today. This is a good thing for a Monday! Bills are paid, groceries bought, and the house was pretty clean when we got home. I'm ready to tackle Monday!

Indoor Fun

It's really almost too hot to play outside in the afternoons. Our small window of spring and acceptable outdoor weather is closing fast. Last week it was cool in the mornings and we did take advantage and spend a lot of time outside. We've enjoyed our back patio this spring and with no rain, S has been home a lot to enjoy it with us. (Grass isn't growing) But we are fast approaching the time when parks are out of the question unless you like scalding your skin off on the equipment, getting sunburned, and roasting while you observe your whining children for signs of heat stroke. Parks in Texas in the summer? Not so much.
So we have the blessing of a pool and obviously we will be swimming a lot this summer. But what to do after that? We are going to be in this house a lot. It's been so nice having the kids spend hours outside that I'm really dreading us all being indoors every day.
That makes me glad that we aren't done with school. We might as well be doing school as you can't go outside! Still, it's almost time to rearrange the toys, make some more homemade play dough, and brainstorm a list of "Things You Can Do Besides Bother Mommy."

So I wanted to ask what you do in the summer when it's too hot to go outside?

And also....our garden is producing tomatoes now and in about a week I am going to be overrun with them. I have never canned anything in my life. Help!! What do I do with all the tomatoes????

Do you have any help for me and my tomato problem?

I would appreciate your help on these 2 matters.

Thank you.

Back Home

We went away for the weekend! It was the trip we were supposed to take last month but then my dad decided he'd rather spend 6 days in the hospital. So, we went this weekend. We invited a friend and she brought her 8 year old niece who, may I say, was perfectly delightful? Seriously, she was so good and pleasant and not at all a bother and didn't even annoy me like other people's children sometimes do. (Oh, admit it. You get annoyed by other people's children too sometimes.) She was wonderful and both girls played well with her and no one whined one time about being left out.

And...Little Bit must have forgotten to pack her tics because we spent the entire weekend tic-free. She fell asleep Saturday night without a peep. Tonight wasn't bad either. Oh, it's been nice.

Now it's good to be back home and dive into our regular life again. My parents keep too many sweets around and I ate too much. Now I'm back home where if you want something sweet you can eat a graham cracker (or 3) with honey on it.

I have my frugal grocery list made for the week, plans to get car repairs done, hopefully picking up Sweetheart's glasses this week, and school to get done. And after a pleasant weekend away, I feel ready for all of it.

Hope you had a good weekend too! See you tomorrow!

Frugal Day at the House Revised

So, I updated the checkbook yesterday and paid bills.

Aaaannnnddd....today you get a FRUGAL POST!!!

We talked about this a few weeks ago and it's still on my mind. Especially after helping pay for the eye doctor's vacation. It's time to put our summer frugal plan into action.

By the way, before I start in on this, I read an article on yahoo yesterday that irritated me to no end. I wasn't the only one. The commenters were all irritated too. We're going to have ground beef at our barbecues instead of steak...and, we're going to work in our own flowerbeds and we're going to forego our $5,000 vacation so we can save money. WHAT?

I promise my tips will not be that ridiculous.

First of all, Kim over at Life in a Shoe hosted a linky for the best bean/lentil recipes the other day so I saved some of those for future use. I am not afraid to admit to you, my dear readers, that I am not entirely sure what a lentil is. I googled it. I know what they look like, but I have never bought one or cooked a lentil to my knowledge.

However, I plan to make meatless meals a regular thing around here. I know that's one way I can cut way back on our grocery bill. Sweetheart said she is moving to China because she does not want to eat beans and lentils. I told her that was fine. One less mouth to feed. (Just kidding.)

Also, while looking over those recipes, I was reminded how important the crock pot will be this summer. Turning on the oven seems to heat our whole house up for several hours after I am finished cooking. Our electric bill cannot afford that.

Next, I am going to jump OFF the organic bandwagon for the rest of this month. I'll go back to my former ways of buying what is cheapest. Then, when things are a bit better, I'll seriously consider what items we can afford to go organic on and which we cannot. At this point, organic is a luxury.

The last thing that will help is to eat from our garden. We don't have much out there, but I need to hunt up some new ways to use what we are growing so we can make the most of our "free" food!

So, for my kitchen, my plan is:

1. Cook a meatless meal at least once a week.
2. Use the crock pot to save on the electric bill.
3. Stop buying, then seriously scale back, the organic purchases.
4. Eat from our garden.

I realized that third goal might make me seem a bit like the annoying family in the yahoo article. I am so sorry if it does. We have only been buying organic for less than a year and I do believe that it is good for our health and therefore worth the money. But it's only worth the money when you have the money. A month or so of non-organic foods will not decrease our life expectancy by that much. What I can't afford in organic, maybe I can make up for by buying local produce. That would be healthy and cost-effective.

So....that's my frugal kitchen plan. Now it's your turn. I know I gave no notice of this link up, so don't feel badly if you can't participate. But honestly, do you really have that much to blog about on a Friday? I would love to hear some more frugal tips for the kitchen. Food is a major money sucker and I need all the help I can get!!

So hop on and share how you plan to, or ARE, saving money in the kitchen!

Doubts and Reassurance

All this went through my brain in one day--today! No wonder I'm tired.

First of all, I'm helping administer a standardized test for our homeschool group this week. I'm giving the test to some 1st graders. I have 3 of them, all boys. Actually one of them is officially in Kindergarten but his mom decided to give him the first grade test.

Well. (Here is where I remind you that Little Bit is in first grade as well. She is not testing.)

During the first break, one little boy whipped out a pretty thick chapter book to read. Then the Kindergarten kid broke out a Harry Potter book. Um. Really?

'Cause MY first grader can't........(you see where this is going right?) Oh dear the anxiety. I didn't freak out, but I was supremely glad she was not in that room.

We'll get back to that in a minute.

The other thing that happened is I've been all whiny and upset about NOT being done with school when we normally are. I KNEW this was going to be a concern when I chose to follow the Sabbath Schedule. I KNEW I would need reminding of the fact that we have taken 6-7 weeks off during the year so it is OK that we are not done yet.

It's really hard when all around you hear, "we only have 12 more days" or "nine more days" or whatever number of days. Everyone is counting down to the end and we have five more weeks. I am not used to this. It is my first year to not follow the normal schedule.

Remember that.

So here was my conclusion on these matters at the end of the day.

1. I realized that the Tourette's actually has affected our school progress. It isn't the only thing, but I started adding up all the times she has had to take a break, or go lay down. All the minutes spent crying and complaining about the tics. All the adjustments to the schedule I've made because she was having a bad day, how hard it is for her to concentrate sometimes.....it has affected her learning. Stupid tics.
2. What we were doing for reading just wasn't clicking along. So last week we started a whole new approach. It's too soon to see results, but I feel confident in our direction. So she isn't reading anything but emergent readers? Check back with me in a few months. Soon. Everyone walks at different times. Everyone reads at different times. In a few years, you won't be able to tell who learned first. I've said these words to parents 100 times. Today I'm listening to myself.
3. Her tics have been so much less in the last 3 days it's not even funny. So today during school when she complained and couldn't do it and her tics were bad...I let her go lay down. Not to play, mind you. Lay down or do school. She chose resting. But when that was over, she was fine and dandy.
So I decided we've gotten into some bad routines lately. A few weeks ago, she honestly couldn't make it through school. Not so today. After supper I had her come finish her work, which caused her to miss playing with her sister, which resulted in many tears. I said, "Maybe tomorrow you'll do your school work when it is school time." I think our really rough time with the Tourette's is coming to an end (for now) so it's time for Mommy to crack the whip.

And that is what I concluded about that.

The other? It was solved when I was peeling potatoes tonight and realized/remembered that in a few weeks every public place will be crowded and filled with all the public school kids who will soon be set free. And that I won't WANT to go anywhere. So we may as well still be doing school, huh? I realized that here at home with my family is where I'm happy and that we don't have to have the same schedule as anyone else. So no more stressing/feeling rushed about ending this year.
My cousin said it best on Facebook today (where I was whining):

Your pace, your space, no race.

I like it. And that is the story about how I both freaked out and talked myself down about 2 different things today.

The End.

Spring Ain't the Only Thing in the Air!

So it's prom time. And banquet time. And formal time. And springdance/endofschoolyear/whatever time.

What I'm saying is, a lot of people are posting pictures on Facebook of young ladies dressed up for these events. Lovely, beautiful young ladies all fancied up.

I have yet to see a dress that I would let my children wear.

They are ALL too short. All of them. I feel like such an old person when I say that. I understand that is what is being sold in the stores right now. I really do. I've been shopping.

I also know what the Bible says about modesty.

You know...side note here...I've thought about this a lot lately. The real definition of modesty is not "covering one's skin" but "not seeking to draw attention to one's self." Some folks dress SO completely different than the rest of the world that they truly are drawing more attention to themselves by their dress. I know that isn't really their intention, but I think their plan is not working. Of course, that doesnt' mean you should wear what everyone else is wearing so you will blend in. No. It doesn't mean that. But neither should we seek to look NOTHING like the rest of the people we are around.

There is a middle ground. Not a compromise....but a middle ground.

There has to be a way to be modest (cover what needs to be covered) while not making yourself look like you came from some other time period. I like this website because they show how you can alter dresses you buy at the store...sometimes very easily. I saw a poor girl at a restaurant this weekend who could have used some of these tricks. I was embarrassed just looking at her.

Of course, this website doesn't have solutions for the current hemlines. I certainly hope they start going back down soon. Are you kidding me? I haven't seen stuff this bad at least! Here's one a little more mainstream. Still not working for me. Have you seen this stuff where you live? These dresses are way too short!

Man, I'm old.

But thanks to the Internet, I believe we can dress for different occasions and still maintain our modesty. It may take more effort and more money...but I think it's worth it. We got our swimsuits in the mail today and I couldn't be more pleased with them. I prayed about finding swimsuits, y'all. I really did. I wanted to honor God and I wanted to swim and have fun this summer. And I wanted my girls to not feel like freaks on the beach. We got these. Mine is SO comfortable.

I wish modesty didn't take so much effort, but it seems that it does. Have you taught your daughters what modesty means AND why we should be modest AND how to go about that? It's a lesson they must learn while they are in our homes. I just might have to interview mine and see what their answers are. I may still have some work to do myself.

You Get Cereal Today

That's what I'm telling my kids. And sorry blog readers....that's probably what you are going to get too. A Monday post. With bullets.

• I just remembered the "bug man" is coming this afternoon. (pest control) That means things have to be picked up and somewhat orderly. Yikes. Wish I had remembered yesterday!
• I need to pay bills.
• I'm helping administer a standardized test this week for our homeschool group so we actually have to be up, dressed, and coherent at a decent hour some this week. Yikes.
• That means we need to pick out all our clothes for the week today. Including finding shoes.
• Little Bit fell asleep in just 30 minutes last night!! We had a friend over for dinner Saturday night and she mentioned Natural Calm. I had read about Kid's Calm in all my research lately so I was interested. Anyway, she brought some over last night and we had Little Bit drink it before bed. Boom! Asleep in 30 minutes. Thank you Lord!!
• I hope to sell some curriculum this week. I need to get some money back for all the curriculum I need to buy for next year and all the money I gave to the eye doctor last week.

I hope you and your family enjoy that Caribbean vacation, Mr. Eye Doctor.

I'm just saying it would be nice to get some money coming in for all the stuff I have in that homeschool room. And clean out a bit!

And of course, there is school, laundry, the ever-lasting picking up, and even one errand. Monday.

But I'm thankful to be healthy, home with my children, taking care of my house, and the beautiful weather outside.

Also, Carrie mentioned she had started reading my blog from the beginning. Like...in 2007 when I wrote deep posts about everything on my mind and had zero comments. She said it was "funny." Still waiting for her to clarify that. Hmm.

Failure Is Not an Option

Well, my magnificent plan to get everyone tired so they would fall asleep at a decent hour failed. Sweetheart fell asleep between 9:30-10:00. Too late for me. She always reads in bed, but she's usually asleep by 9:30 and that's actually too late also. She's been sleeping later in the mornings and I don't want to get into that routine.

Of course, it probably has been difficult to get to sleep in our house what with all the screaming at bedtime. I've learned that just because Little Bit had a great tic-free day, that has nothing to do with bedtime. Sigh. She fell asleep a little after 10:00.

So my new plan is to just wake them up earlier each day by about 10 or 15 minutes until we are back to getting up at a decent hour. I will not fail!

Other than that, I'm grocery shopping today. Doing laundry. Cleaning a bit. All the really exciting things 40 year old moms do with their Saturdays. It's funny but it never occurred to me growing up that my parents would WANT to be doing anything different than what they were doing. I mean, I knew sometimes my dad wasn't in the mood to go to work....but they seemed really content sewing and mowing the yard and watching the news. They were parents, for goodness sake. I wonder if they ever just wanted to wake up on a Saturday and go to the mall, see a movie, go shopping, go out out to eat, go to the beach, etc. (You know, my former Saturdays)

But those days, while nice, bite you in the butt because when you get home you still have laundry, and dishes, and grocery shopping and bills to pay. I need to have a talk with teenagers because they think they have it bad but really, it's us 40 year old moms who need to be complaining.

Don't you think? If they don't believe me, I'll offer to switch weekends with them sometime.

As long as I have a car.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Thanks for the e-mails checking on me! Several folks were concerned that maybe I had taken down my post on my church for a reason. Fear not! Blogger took it down for me. I think my Super Blogging was too much for them to handle. **coughcough**

Actually, I heard rumors they will put the posts back up. If not, Carrie tipped me off last night and I copied and saved the whole post. So if they don't....I will.

Now, I'll have to get back to you on an actual post for today because it is now lunchtime and I'm in the middle of a "must tire my children out so they go to sleep earlier" day. Ever had one of those? Swimming is on the agenda for sure! And housework. We'll see how it goes. My prediction?

a. it works and at the end of the day I have a clean house, sleeping children, and a load of towels going in the washer.

or

b. some of the house gets clean, wet swimsuits and towels will litter the bathroom floor, and mom will fall asleep when she should be cooking supper while the children run through the house screaming and full of energy.

It's a toss up really.

Inquiring Minds...

So I mentioned something about our new church in my Weekend Trivia post on Sunday. Some of you were curious about that. Let me tell you, it's a good story.

You may not know, but we've been at our church for our whole lives. Yes, there was a 2 year period where we attended somewhere else (which was a very encouraging time in our lives and much needed), but soon came back "home" and that was 7 years ago. It's home. It's family. We love the people there.

However, our church no longer resembles the church we grew up in. So many changes have taken place over the last 15 years that it's hard to even remember how things used to be. If you were to compare the worship services of my childhood with the worship services of today, you would not see one single similarity. And it's been grating on us.

I'm not saying change is bad. I'm not upset because I prefer things to stay the same. It isn't that. But the changes have been coming rapid fire specifically in the last 5 years or so and some of them really caused us to stop. And study. And we realized at some point that we truly, biblically, did NOT agree with many of the changes.

That's a game changer folks. You want to put the song lyrics on a slide instead of using the hymnals (early 90s)? OK. I can hang with that. Small change.

You want to do things that God's Word says not to do (although I believe they do not think they are doing wrong)? No. Can't do that.

So that left us in a bad place. Loving the people there and still earnestly desiring to minister in that church....but having a horrible feeling in the pit of our stomach every Sunday morning. At first, in the name of unity, we hung on. Yes, we disagree but we can handle it in order to stay and minister and do good in that place. After all, WE aren't specifically doing the things we disagree with. But we are sitting there while they are done.

Sorry I'm not being more specific, but I'm really NOT about bashing our church. We love that church. I'm just trying to tell you our struggle we've been going through.

Here's what really got to us. We can handle it. S and I. We can sort out what's right and what's wrong and take the good and leave the bad. But we have 2 little girls sitting next to us who cannot. We realized that they are growing up seeing the very things we disagree with. And it is their normal. And we don't want that to be their normal.

Also, we are facing down Sweetheart entering 6th grade in August. Which, at our church, means you go to the youth group. Only we don't want our children in a youth group. We have many concerns about that. "Just keep her with you" wouldn't work either because our adult classes are not Bible classes but rather discussion groups and there isn't much learning in that setting. A lot of opinions, but not much truth. That's not a good setting for a 12 year old.

What to do?

We've lived in this town our whole lives. We've visited every church we would consider going to. We were out of options. And then one day I met a friend at the park.

As I was driving to the park, I passed a church I had never seen before. Hmm. I mentioned it to S and we looked it up online. It looked interesting. It looked very small.

We visited. We liked it.

Get this. The church we visited does not have Bible classes. I had heard of this kind of church before, but never been to one. Family Integrated churches do not have Bible classes either and it's for some of the same reasons. They believe the father...the parents...are to teach their children. Not hand them over to someone else to do it. That's one reason.

And we found that actually really refreshing. That means no youth group. No handing my 12 year old over to a youth minister for her spiritual training and Bible learning for 7 years. Just families coming together to worship. Together.

We have felt very welcome there. We have enjoyed visiting. We haven't placed membership yet as we still have some commitments at our old church. Soon. And before August (and the impending youth group decision) which was our very earnest prayer. God is good.

I hope I haven't sounded negative in this post. Some trendy things are just trendy and some trendy things are wrong. We came to that conclusion through study. It is not a decision we take lightly.

But we are very thankful for what appears to be the answer to "Lord, where do we go?"

And for those of you struggling with where to go to church, I encourage you to keep praying. I understand why so many families are deciding to home church. I really do. Anyone else struggling with this?

Being Home

I love being home. Some of you understand this. Some people HATE being at home. I do like to go places, I'm not whateveraphobic. But there is nothing like waking up and realizing I have nowhere to be. Maybe I just went too much when I was working. Two year old Sweetheart used to wake up and ask, "Where we goin' Mama?" every day. It always floored her on a Saturday if I said, "No where." She didn't understand that crazy talk.

But she and I have definitely adjusted from our former life. The girls never want to go anywhere. They are the biggest homebodies ever.

Home is the best place to swim! So thankful for a pool this year!

So you might think my house would look better. I know. I'm confused about that one myself.

I'm gonna tell you something--I'm anti-co-op. You know homeschooling co-ops, right? Some folks swear by them. I have several friends who are involved in 2 different co-ops on 2 different days every week. They ask me to join all the time. I told them they are starting to sound like Amway people. I am not interested in your pyramid!!!

Cognitively, I understand that a co-op is a good thing. And if the girls even knew what a co-op was, they would be all over it. Well, Sweetheart would anyway. She would LOVE it. I know she would. But I would not. I don't want to teach. I don't want to send my children to someone else and then teach other people's children. I did that for 11 years. I know it's different. I know I'm there with them. But I don't want to. (whiniest voice ever)

I don't want my schedule dictated by someone else. I don't want to have to be somewhere on time. I don't want my kids bringing home germs. I don't want school. Even if it's only one day a week.

I feel so good confessing that. It's not a popular opinion. And you just go ahead if you enjoy your co-op. I'm not anti-YOU being in a co-op. Just me.

Sweetheart and her cousin Gnat enjoying some time in the front yard.

Home is where it's at. We get up when we want. (We get up at the same time BUT if needed, we can sleep later.) We eat when we are hungry. We take breaks. We get housework done. We go barefoot. We lay around and read. We take care of things for Daddy. We answer the phone. We help the neighbor with her dogs. We go on walks. We swim. We learn. We do school work. We watch Netflix. 

Ahhh. I love it.

We do go places, but with gas like it is, I try to limit that to a few times a week. Today is a stay home day.

The mama is very happy.

Carrie, this is Little Bit playing "Princess School" with her dolls. :)

I Was Looking for Another Way to Spend Our Money

I Spy a Problem
Last Sunday afternoon we went bowling with the girls. Sweetheart asked me who was winning and I pointed up at the TV screen. She sort of shrugged like, "and?" I told her to look in the right hand column of the screen and she could see who was winning.

But she couldn't see it. OK. Walk up there until you can see it.

She got half-way up there before she could see it. Aaaaaaannnnnddddd, so we are going to the eye doctor today.

I sort of felt badly because homeschooled kids don't get regular vision and hearing screening. Then I realized that she had screenings every year she was in school. Also, in 3rd grade I printed a chart off the computer, measured our kitchen floor, and screened her vision just like they do in school. And it was fine. So, this problem has come up in the last 2 years.

Oh well, we'll see what they say.

A Tic Update
We are adjusting to life with (daily) tics. Little Bit has been sleeping in the living room. Honestly she could sleep in the kitchen sink if it would help. Last night it only took her 45 minutes to go to sleep and she didn't have a melt-down of frustration. So, that's improvement. School has to be done in increments. And my eardrums might burst from the screaming. But other than that, things are OK.

I am trying very hard to stay home as much as possible this week so she will not feel the need to hold her tics in. I like staying home anyway so this works for me. But the eye doctor cannot wait. Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Hannibal, Face, Murdoch, and B.A.
I think my sister feels sorry for us that we do not have TV. Every holiday she buys S a DVD of an old 80s show. Last month for his birthday he got season 1 of The A-Team. We've been watching it.

May I just say that the show is completely unbelievable? I mean, I watched it as a child so I loved it (and honestly it's still enjoyable) but wasn't the show actually made for adults to watch? People must have been very gullible in 1983.

Or maybe they were wooed by the explosions and stunts? Anyway, it's better than reality TV.

I haven't had a lot of sleep lately so I'm lost on how to tie this much random together. Sorry for the sudden end to this post. Summary paragraphs are being accepted in the comments section. Thank you.

Some Unlikely Characters

If your kids are anything like mine, they are very familiar with "Bible characters." Abraham, Joseph, Peter, King David, Ruth, Paul....these are names we know well at our house.

But the Bible includes a few characters that we had never learned about. They are tucked away in the book of Proverbs. For the last few months, the girls and I have been studying one of these characters. His name?

The sluggard.

Proverbs has many verses about him. We get to know Mr. Sluggard through these verses. All we did is read a verse each day, talk about it, and then they illustrated it in their journals. (You can click on the pictures to make them larger.)

From Little Bit's journal:

How long will you lie there O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
The neighbors have come to stare in amazement that the sluggard is still in bed---forever!

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
This diligent man is mowing his yard while his lovely wife brings him a drink. On the left, the sluggard is wondering why he doesn't have a pretty wife to bring him a drink.

So what does he do about it? Why he lays in bed and dreams about the things he would like to have.

 These next ones are from Sweetheart's journal:

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
I think this is the first one we did as it was so easy to understand.

Sorry, this one is blurry.

 The verse, "like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to they eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him" was harder for them to understand. The point is, he's irritating. I had them dip their finger in vinegar and rub it on their teeth. We talked about the smoke in our eyes while camping. Then Sweetheart drew the above picture of the sluggard hired to do a job and the boss coming back to check his work. On the left, she illustrated the vinegar and smoke references.

Her take on the diligent man versus the sluggard. Mr. Diligent married the woman of his dreams.

Mr. Sluggard just sits at home and dreams of a wife.

They have really gotten to know the sluggard through this. I believe that's why he's included in Proverbs---if you get to know him--you'll recognize him when you see him in real life. He's become part of our daily language.

Me: "Girls, let's pick up all this stuff in the living room. We don't want your dad to come home to this."
Little Bit: "Yeah, he'll think the sluggard has been here!"

They have pointed out things that look "like the sluggard did it" (done lazily and not well). We have said, "Let's __________, because we don't want to be like the sluggard!"

He is a warning in scripture against laziness. He's a good character to get to know.

There are others in Proverbs. The "strange woman", "the fool", etc. We'll be studying those as well. I believe that by getting to know these characters, our children (and ourselves) are guarded against becoming like them.

You should try it! Study the sluggard with your children. You can make it as simple as drawing in a journal. We had to google a few things--such as a "stone wall" so that they could understand what to draw when the sluggard's wall fell down. It was so simple to do but has made an impact on their lives.

Here are the sluggard verses for you to study with your family.

Weekend Trivia

Did you know....

• that I used to wonder if I was really the mom of a "special needs" child? But that I don't wonder anymore?
• that I am concerned about giving enough attention to Sweetheart even though she seems to be handling things well?
• that my house is actually pretty clean?
• that we have a new church and I really like it?
• that I got to take a nap on Mother's Day so it was the best day ever?
• that we went swimming today? (Texas, remember?)
• that it took Little Bit 1 hour and 45 minutes to fall asleep tonight?
• that it took the exact same amount of time last night?
• that Sweetheart has an eye appoitnment this week because we discovered last weekend she can't see too far in front of her?
• that I wasn't planning on spending money at the eye doctor this month?

I'm off to bed alone :( (S is sleeping on the couch because Little Bit fell asleep in here and we aren't moving her!) Looking forward to a great week even though I must be the world's most boring blogger because I've lost 4 followers in the past few weeks. I may need to talk to my family and tell them to step up the fun a notch so I'll have more material to work with.

Ready to Start Over

It's Friday and the house is a wreck. BUT, we have folks coming over tomorrow night so it must be cleaned. I can't wait to start the new week with a clean house!

I love new dresses too! The girls on Easter Sunday.

I also can't wait to start over a new school year. I really, really want to reorganize the school room for the new year with my new curriculum that I'm going to buy in a few months.

I'm ready for "new". Can you tell? I like fresh starts.

I love starting over. I love planning for it. I love cleaning for it. I like it all.

(But I'm staying focused on this year until we are done!)

I also got a NEW, complimentary copy of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine in the mail yesterday and I can't wait to sit down and read it cover to cover. Inspiration!

Looking forward to a clean house, friends over for supper, my new magazine, and the new school year.

What are you looking forward to?

One Last Fix

So....with the week we've had with Tourette Syndrome, and the unfruitful doctor visit, I took a trip to the bookstore.

I came home with this:

I read about it on Heather's site, OMSH. As soon as I saw it, I gulped and scrolled down quickly. Look away! I do not want to read that book!

But I bought it last night because:

1. S has diabetes.
2. Little Bit has TS.
3. Mommy is too squishy.
and suprisingly,
4. Miss Skinny-Minnie Sweetheart is probably the most hard-core sugar addict in this house.

We all need to get off the white stuff, is what I'm saying.

I'm only 15 pages into it and I just asked S to pick up a Twix for me at the store. I can tell I better eat it before I read any further.

Yes, I really did. It's sitting here beside me right now. Right by my new book. I love myself.

I was telling my friend about the book today and her high-tech self whipped out her Kindle and looked it up and found a book about getting children off of sugar by the same author. She's seriously looking at it for her son.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted. Just as soon as I wipe the chocolate off my face, I'm going to start reading.

No One Can Tear Up a Week Like Us...or a House

Sorry I wasn't here yesterday. I NORMALLY blog every day, mind you. We've been having a time of it over here with the tics. But last night? We all just went to bed...no drama, no tears, no tics, no wailing or gnashing of teeth.

It was very nice.

I started a journal so I can figure out all this stuff and also made a useless trip to the doctor today. See, I called my friend K so I could ask her some questions. Her 12 year old son has autism and she's a freaking expert on this stuff. I wanted to know what to ask for at the doctor's office. We aren't going to do meds, so that leaves diet. Now, where to start with diet? Well, I would like to start with some data please. K told me to ask for a "nutritional panel" and also a lot of other acronyms which I wrote down and googled and I was all informed and ready for the doctor's visit.

We got into the room and the nurse asked me how to spell Tourette Syndrome.

Not a good sign.

Sigh. The doctor pretty much just told me we need to go visit the neurologist. I explained I just wanted some help with nutrition, etc. He said the neurologist could help me with that.

I paid a co-pay for that! I knew going in it was a long shot, but I figured whatever we could get done through our regular doctor, covered by insurance, would be good.

Oh well.

So my next stop is the bookstore. Gonna become an expert on this stuff, is what I'm going to do.

In other news, my house is totally crapped up. We're amazing around here, what can I say? Actually, the homeschool room floor is glorious and it only cost me $4. Go Sweetheart! I have 20 bucks in my purse....I wonder how much work I can con these children into doing?

Just kidding. I need that 20 bucks. I will have to just get to work myself. I'm planning to fill large sacks full of stuff and set them out by the side of the road for whoever wants them. Save myself a trip to the thrift store. I can't wait. I need SPACE around me. Not stuff. Sheesh, we have so much stuff! I was thinking about all the families who lost their homes last week in the tornadoes. I'm not wishing for that type of stress for our family, but I did find myself thinking that if we did have to start over....I would SO carefully guard whatever came into my door.

I need space.

So far this week has been, in the words of Little Bit, "The worse week ever!" It has been pretty bad. But today we have hope and fewer tics so I will get off the computer and quit researching for a while and try to make some space in my house.

Because nothing makes a bad week better than a clean house. (or so I hear)

Worrying in the Middle of the Night

Does anyone else do this? I know the Bible says not to worry, and I try really hard to not. But sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and absolutely every single thing I've been concerned about comes to the front of my brain and they all seem like completely insurmountable problems at 2:00am.

For example, last night I woke up and worried about money. We blew through some cash this weekend on various things (almost all of it necessary) and for some reason I started tallying up the amount we had spent and freaking out. FOR SURE we were out of money and would have NO MONEY to pay our bills in the morning. I very nearly got up to balance the checkbook just to assure myself but that seemed silly. I really did want to sleep.

This morning, of course, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had seemed in the night. The bills are paid.

I worried about other things in the night. The Tourette's around here is bad right now (the worst its ever been) and it is stressful. I thought about getting up to research more but again, I wanted sleep. Little Bit was sleeping on a mattress in our room last night and every time she moved she banged into our world's loudest drawer pulls. That wasn't really helping the sleep.

I can't even remember all the things I was keyed up about last night but none of it seemed important this morning at 7:00. Why? Why do I do this? I feel totally wide awake but I must not be in my right mind because otherwise things wouldn't seem like such big problems. I almost need someone to shake me and say, "What are you doing? Go to sleep!"

I bet I ground my teeth down several centimeters last night. Hate that.

All that wasted worrying when today I have actually accomplished a lot! I don't have to cook supper tonight as we are celebrating  my husband's and dad's birthdays tonight. That gives me like, an extra hour and a half to my day!

So, does anyone else wake up freaking out sometimes? And yes, I prayed. A lot. And I did fall back asleep. Several times. Sigh. I decided after S left for work the best move I could possibly make was to go back to bed.

It's like that Robert Frost poem:

Two choices stood before me in the morning
And I---I chose the one less vertical.
And that has made all the difference.

Weekend Trivia

Did you know.....

...that when someone with Tourette's suppresses their tics all day that they come out in a firestorm at the end of the day?

....that maybe the only way to get that to stop is to get in the car and drive around at 10:00pm?

....that Little Bit and I counted 37 flags on our drive?

...that I found out an Epsom salt bath can help with tics? (haven't tried it yet)

....that some of the smartest people on earth are those who are dealing with health problems and disabilities and have researched and learned things for themselves? (parents on forums = smart!)

...that my husband turned 41 yesterday?

...that diabetic chocolate cupcakes are pretty tasty?

...that we got almost every room in the house clean yesterday? (yes, some doors were still closed)

...that I'm not ready for Monday?