Why Yesterday Was Awful and OK--a List for Your Viewing Pleasure

Yesterday was awful because...

• Bee poured a huge cup of water all over the couch, my ipad, the floor, etc. 
• We were still doing school at 8pm
• S had to work on church stuff so he was pretty much disengaged all evening
• Bee won't come when called and I don't like spanking her in public. It just makes every single trip to the store or anywhere 50% harder than it needs to be. 
• Actually right now it's all harder. She doesn't want to get buckled in her car seat. She doesn't want to sit in the basket at the store. She doesn't want anyone to hold her hand. She doesn't want to walk into the house, she wants to examine every leaf in the yard. Sigh.
• It was the first day back after spring break and a wonderful vacation and I just wasn't ready to "be back." 
• I didn't sleep good. My coughing, Bee waking up, Little Bit's bad dream (all layered on top of each other of course.)
• I told the girls I was going to sack up anything in their bedroom floor and they both told me it was good and I sacked up an entire tall paper garbage bag FULL. 
• I had to sweep the living room (we have carpet) just so we could get all the crap in a pile and it took 3 of us 15 minutes to clean it all and we had started the day with the floor clean.

Yesterday was OK because...

• S did Bible stuff with the kids before bed. And Bee sat so proudly between her big sisters holding her Bible and just beaming.
• We got a little refund check and now I'll be able to pay off some more debt.
• We had enough food for supper so I didn't have to go grocery shopping.
• Bee took a nice, long, early nap and we got a lot done on our projects.
• The girls were happy to be back at choir.
• Everyone was healthy and we are blessed.

Not sure I'm ready for today either but at least we can stay home (except grocery shopping-ug) and get stuff done. Maybe we won't have to be doing school all evening. S has a Bible study with a gentleman tonight so he'll be gone all evening, which I'm not looking forward to. Spring Break was probably the most and longest we've been around him ever and I liked it. 

Going to sack up anything from the girls' floor or bathroom again today. Let's see what kind of bag collection I can get going in the garage. 

Off to tackle this day....ready or not...here it comes.

Valentine Boxes

I made sure to take pictures of our Valentine boxes this year but then realized I didn't take any with the girls holding their box.

And THAT'S what I want to remember. How they looked and how proud they were of their box! So I will take those before we leave for our skating party today. But here they are:

Little Bit's Lalaloopsy hot air balloon. Got the basket from Grandma. Bought the doilies and washi tape and balloon but some of those things served double duty for the shirts we made. 

Of course this one is Baby Bee's! Made from a cereal box wrapped in upside down Christmas wrapping paper, painted, construction paper, duct tape. Free.

Sweetheart's cupcake. Bought a paint bucket for $2 at the hardware store. Used a balloon we bought for Little Bit's box and bought tissue paper. Not too bad.

All boxes inspired or copied straight from Pinterest. Thank you Pinterest! They also worked hard on their Valentines. Bee painted 6 pieces of paper and I printed the To and From on top of the painting and cut each sheet up into 9 cards. 

Working hard!!!

Dollar store stickers add the finishing touch. Total cost: $1

And Little Bit opted to do part store-bought and part homemade.

And Sweetheart made all hers from an idea in her American Girl magazine. Will have to get a picture of hers later.

I'm very proud of all the girls for their hard work! And we made Valentine shirts! I'll get pics of those later too!

It's Friday!

Love on your people this weekend!

 

 

Take your car for a spin.

Enjoy some time outside (maybe...brr!)

 

And whatever you do, don't get in trouble!

Have a great weekend!

In Which We Have a Visitor

So I was getting dressed this morning after my shower and suddenly Little Bit burst into my room. She knows she's supposed to knock but she said later, "I wasn't wasting time on knocking!" She was screaming and crying.

"There's a snake in my room!!"

I calmed her down and Bee reached over to hug her. So sweet. I closed her door and put some towels under the gap. Told the girls to let me finish getting dressed and then I'd deal with it.

By "deal with it" I meant "call my dad."
He wasn't home. Shoot.

I figured it was a grass snake. I started to her room and she said, "NO MOMMY! Don't go in there!!!" I told her I needed to see what it was. She answered, "Ok. but watch out for the claw."

Wait. WHAT??? Now I'm the one jumping up and down. SNAKES DON'T HAVE CLAWS. WHAT DID YOU SEE??

So I calmed back down and figured it was a tree lizard. I went into her room armed with a broom. I moved a sack out of the way. I used the broom to move the blue dress out of the way she told me it was under.

And I saw a face. With eyes. And fur.

NO!!!!! I was out of there folks!!! I came screaming into the living room, "IT'S A MAMMAL!!"

The girls were in the driveway in a split second. I made some more phone calls. No one was available. My dad said he'd be home soon. I convinced the girls to come back in the living room and we got some school done. Then my dad showed up with work gloves and a box. He emerged with this

Yes folks, that is a possum. In our house. In Little Bit's bedroom. Ew. Ew. Ew. When I saw the face, my first thought was possum. And I was greatly hoping it was not a rat.

Turns out Little Bit had heard something and went to see what it was. She caught sight of the long tail unfurling--thus, the snake. Double ew.

The girls are spending the night at their grandparent's house. I've got to figure out a way to make it ok for Little Bit to sleep in that room again. I've been jumpy all day.

Triple ew.

Do WHAT While the Baby Sleeps???

Sleep, you say? HA!

Not me. I call collection agencies and insurance companies and pay bills.

I would really like to have a blood pressure cuff on my arm right now.

Do you work in a billing office? HOW HARD IS IT????

(cleansing breaths)

OK. In good news, I got the vacuum cleaner back from the repair shop. We're $80 poorer, but its a good vacuum and now Baby Bee won't be eating so much off the floor. we won't have to constantly be grabbing things out of her hands.

Babies have excellent fine motor skills when it comes to fuzz and strings and stuff.

School did not get completed today because of my hobby taking too much time.

In other news, I am never, not ever going to W*lm*rt again. There I said it. I KNOW you can save money but it is not worth it. I've been grocery shopping elsewhere and loving it. You just have to be careful because elsewhere has many more choices and you can spend too much if you get carried away. But elsewhere is do-able on our budget if I'm careful.

But today both girls needed new pants. Pants without holes. So we went. And we needed other things like diapers and printer ink, etc. Then the check-out lady proceeded to catch up with her good friends in front of us in line. Like seriously, it was a family reunion or something. They were all having a FINE time talking while I wrestled a crying baby. I finally got all my stuff off the conveyor belt and moved over a lane.

And yes, I was walking out while they were still talking. I have never seen people at a job who are in less of a hurry than checkers at W*lm*rt.

I bet they don't need a blood pressure cuff.

And I bet when they leave there, they start working in a billing office.

I think I need to go play with a puppy or something.

Twenty Twelve

This year we....

• Celebrated my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary.
• Had a baby.
• Rode in an ambulance and had another hospital stay when baby was 2 weeks old.
• Recovered from the last 2 items.
• Started a new school year.
• Figured out (kind of) how to do school with a baby around.
• Became a preacher's wife.

Whew. Can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!

What I already know:

• Baby will learn to crawl soon, then walk. And talk. And school will never be the same.
• School will somehow go on.
• My husband will continue working very hard at a full-time job and preaching.
• I will continue to find ways to make us fit in this house that we don't fit in as well as we used to. Until we move, we're here. And we have no plans to move right now so...we have to fit.
• We have to continue learning to be healthier.
• We must get a grip on ever-changing finances around here and continue working to get out of debt. (stupid hospital stays)
• And most of all, God is good.

Oh and one more thing. I will continue sharing all the fun with you guys in the new year. Thanks for being so understanding of my terrible posting this year.

Ready for a new year!!

**Slapping Forehead**

I blame Carisa!!!

A few weeks ago she put out a sweet call on Facebook for Blogger users to please turn off the word verification. When I saw a picture of what she was talking about, I agreed! Those dumb picture words are SO hard to read and get right. It makes it not even worth commenting!

I quick--in between doing several other things--checked my blog settings and oh no! My word verification was turned ON. I didn't really remember that. So, I turned it off. But, because of the tons of spammy comments I've been getting, I turned on comment moderation.

Now you need to know I have never used that feature before.

So when Carrie told me she had left a comment I texted back, "I didn't get one." I was thinking I would get an e-mail and somehow approve the comment that way.

Yep. Can we still blame sleep-deprivation at 4 months?

Tonight, S was looking at my blog and said, "I guess you've just about lost all your blog readers, huh?"

Betcha can't guess if the glass is half-empty or half-full for him, huh?

I said, "Yeah, I know. You really have to post more often to have readers."

Then....a thought slowly formed in my brain. Let...me...just...check something.....

Oh.

I kind of had a bunch of comments waiting to be approved. Oops.

I'm on it now folks. I'm firing on all cylinders now!!!

(Thanks for the comments.)

(Sorry I didn't approve them.)

(I kind of didn't know where they were.)

(It's not really Carisa's fault.)

The Wisdom of Little Bit

She's been using my camera again. She was experimenting with turning the light off and on in her room to make the dollhouse windows appear like night and day. And this is what I found...in this order:

Still sleeping...

Good morning!

Making Daddy's lunch...

Getting ready for work...

Here's your lunch dear...

Mmwah!

And then....

Wait...what???

What does she know? She's asleep at that time of day anyway!

Ready to Read?

One of my most favorite things I learned in college (besides my excellent grammar), was about reading readiness signs in children. I took a course called "Early Literacy", as my degree was in Early Childhood, and just loved that course. I didn't love all the projects we had to do....but I did enjoy what I learned.

I did my student teaching in 1st grade and Pre-K. Pre-Kindergarten was awesome because we got to wear dockers and Keds in a day and age where everyone still wore heels and hose to teach in. Yep, that's the important stuff right there.

Anyway, at that age (4-5), one of the "tests" they gave the kids was exactly what I had learned about in college. It was called "Draw a Man." They gave the kiddos a piece of paper and a pencil or crayon and asked them to draw a man. (or person) Then they repeated that test at the end of the year. Was it an art test? Nope. It's a reading readiness assessment. I student taught in the spring, but got to go through and look at the beginning of year assessment pictures. What I learned in college certainly held true in that Pre-K classroom.

Basically the research shows that how much detail a child puts in their drawing of a person is an indicator of how ready they are to tackle the skill of reading. For example, if a child just has a big face with eyes, nose, and mouth? Not so ready. When they start adding details such as the correct number of fingers, eyebrows, etc....then they are ready. Also, the presence of a "baseline" is an indicator. That is when they draw a "floor" under their person instead of just drawing them floating on the page.

Now...you want to go assess your children's drawings, don't you? Go ahead! It's fun!!

Yesterday, Little Bit drew a picture for me while we were running errands and it got me to thinking about this again. If you remember, we just completed "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" back in December just after her 8th birthday. She is reading now. And here is her picture from yesterday:

Yep. Research holds true. Because here is a picture she drew when she was four years old:

What a difference, huh? So see, I could have told you when she was four that reading instruction did NOT need to begin when she was five. If her drawing is an indicator of readiness...she wasn't! (We did work on phonics and reading instruction when she was 5, but not hard-core.) The above picture is from a book called "Wiggles" that she wrote. The word "Wiggles" was written from right to left and each Wiggle was drawn with the correct color of crayon. Oh how I loved her ball people.

But see? The man is floating on the page. And there is very little detail. They say children draw those ball people because the head/face is an important feature they notice about other people and when they look down, they see their legs. So those are the parts that get included first. You will often see "feet" or "shoes" be added and also details on the head, before other details begin to emerge. Oh I just love analyzing children's drawings over time!

Of course, it's just research and there are plenty of children who probably blow this theory right out of the water. But, it's really fun to watch over time as their drawings become more detailed and mature and their reading ability climbs with it.

Have fun looking back at your child's drawings now!

Redeeming Alexander's Day

You know that one, right? The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad kind? Mine started off like that.

BUT...I was determined that the morning need not set the tone for the whole rest of the day.

I didn't sleep last night. No reason---just because I woke wide awake at 3:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. I finally got up and ate some cereal. I could have washed the dishes or balanced the checkbook or any number of things at that hour I was so awake. But I chose to go back to bed. I finally, finally drifted off to sleep a few minutes before husband's alarm went off. Sigh.

I weighed all the courses of action I could take. Get up and make his coffee and breakfast and lunch like usual? (He was getting up an hour earlier than he usually does ON TOP of losing that hour of sleep this weekend). Or lay here and try to get back to sleep? Hmm. He's getting up early. He can make the coffee and grab some toast. I think he has enough cash in his wallet for lunch.

I guess you know what I chose. But it was 7:00 before I went back to sleep. And then I woke up at 8:30. (which, really, is 7:30--you know?) Great start to the day. The girls got up before me and were playing on the Wii. The kitchen was a mess and I didn't know what we had for breakfast.

(On a side note, we cleaned house this weekend, but the kitchen didn't seem to make the cut.)

So I sent them to get dressed and I took a shower. Now it was 9:30. I'll make pancakes. Shoot. No baking powder. I have a tiny bit of "just add water" mix they can have and I'll find something else. Not enough. Oh look! Just enough Bisquick! Add milk. Add eggs. Huh? Oh man. Little bugs in the mix. I hate those little things. Wonder what else they are in?

So, I had to pay for breakfast while we ran our errands. Not what we needed to do. But I'm still determined to make this day good.

Errands are run. We have lunch and supper for today and breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. Picked up medicine for S. Back home. It's 11:15. There is still time for this day to turn around.

After lunch we will do school. We will START with Bible. There hasn't been enough Bible around here lately. Then we will clean the kitchen. And update that checkbook. And do some chores around the house. I will have the girls sweep off the back porch and tidy up before Daddy gets home. We will watch a show together tonight and maybe eat popcorn.

Just because the morning started off poorly doesn't mean the day is going to go downhill. I mean, sometimes it does. But today is NOT one of those days.

Because I say so.


And this picture makes me happy. Little Bit, nearly 2 years ago, helping Daddy in his wood shop. See all her Handy Manny tools in her tool belt. Cutie. 

Afternoon School

So the other day I experimented with running the errands in the morning and putting school off until after lunch. It worked BEAUTIFULLY!! I didn't nearly pass out in the grocery store and school still got done. We've continued the trend this week and we've been able to eat at home because Mama still had energy. This morning we did a Target run and I paid bills while the girls are enjoying the beautiful weather outside. But it's almost time to come in...

Anyway, I mentioned on Facebook about how afternoon school went great and all my homeschool homies start admitting how they've fallen asleep while reading aloud in the afternoons. Cracked me up!! I have never fallen asleep during school! Now don't get me wrong, I slept through most of the fall but I called school off first! :) I just thought that was funny. Anyone else doze off while teaching? (Also, if homeschoolers can achieve the results they do with obviously sleep-deprived moms at the wheel....just think what we could do with enough sleep!)



Looking forward to a field trip tomorrow and S is going to join us! It's about an hour and a half away from home so it'll feel like a mini vacation. Can't wait! AND...we have a date night this weekend too! (With a gift card!) It's going to be a great weekend!

Also...planning to finish Sweetheart's curtains
*found rugs for around $20 each for the girls' rooms
*hoping to hang some wall art up in Little Bit's room
*more than anything--I want a clean house!

I Just Have One Thing to Say

I feel big. Really big.

Whew.

Gonna roll myself to bed now. See you in the morning!

Sleep is Like Food

It's that important, I've decided. It's my answer to everything!

You're grumpy at your sister? You need to get to bed earlier tonight.

Math is too hard? You need more sleep?

Mama is not feeling energetic? I NEED TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!!

Little Bit with her big bear. :)

Sunday I was kind of concerned about myself. I had been so out of energy all week. I was like 38-weeks-pregnant-tired when I'm only 24 weeks. That concerned me. I know I'm older this time, but man! I should feel better than this!

So I thought I'd call the doctor on Monday if I still felt that way but Sunday night I slept through the whole night and felt great all day yesterday. We did school, we had a Keepers at Home meeting, and had someone over to dinner last night and made it through all of that just fine!

Then last night I lost over 2 hours of sleep again. Which is why I did not get up with S this morning to make his coffee/lunch/breakfast and see him off. Which is why it is after 9:00 and we haven't had breakfast. But it's OK because if I don't make up that sleep I will not make it through the day. We're just on a different time frame than the rest of Texas today. I'm uh...on California time today. Yeah. That's it.

Just gotta have a beach frame of mind today. School hasn't started yet? It's all good!

In other news, I picked up my sewing machine from the repair shop yesterday so now I can work on the girls' room re-dos!! Yay! And tomorrow starts husband's vacation. He's going to be re-doing OUR bedroom. Can't wait. I'm looking forward to a relaxing retreat/nursery/mis-matched-space-for-a-while. We'll see how good I am about getting school done with him here working on the room. I know we'll be off-schedule for the rest of the week but that's OK because obviously I'M PRACTICING TODAY!

Yeah, that's it. We're practicing.

Top of 2011

Here are some of the top posts for The Family Revised:

Keepin' It Real: Homeschool Organization

This was a fun event with a linky that we did back in 2008!!! Wow! That was a long time ago. I think it's awesome that me, a blogger with "disorganization" as one of her most-used tags, has a top post about organization. Not sure how helpful it is, but the title falsely lures people in. Mwah ha ha!

I Can't Even Concentrate on the Furniture

This was a fun little rant I had about Craig's List. Not at all sure what brings people to this post, but there you go.

Our School Room 2011-2012

Well, technically our school room didn't make it to 2012. Alas, it is no more. It's Little Bit's room now. Well, it was lovely while it lasted and served it's purpose well while we had it. I hope people get some inspiration for their own homeschool spaces when they visit this post.

Our NEW Homeschool Room

This one was part of the Not Back to School Blog Hop so that explains why it is a top post. It was the first year we had our homeschool room in what is now Little Bit's bedroom. I understand. I LOVE looking at pictures of people's homeschool spaces!!

Curriculum Choices for 2011-2012 School Year

So....I'm starting to get the idea you people like me to talk about homeschooling more than anything. Hmm. Maybe I should be more of a "homeschool blogger" instead of so random and eclectic? Not even sure my brain is capable of that!

The First Day

See? Another homeschooling post. Hmm. Look at my little babies!!

On Our Shelves for the School Year

Another year's curriculum post. It's obvious that people do a lot of searching for ideas before each school year starts.

And finally, one that is NOT about homeschooling!!

Neglect

(no picture because I was preaching!)

I'm very glad to see this post in the top 10. I hope it an encouragement. I had no idea it was often visited.

And now, I'm going to throw in one of MY favorites-just because.

Seventeen Years of Sleep

Thank you, blog readers, from the bottom of my heart, for coming here to visit. I just love writing here and sharing here and reading comments and the whole thing! It's been fun for the last 4+ years. Looking forward to more blogging and sharing with you in 2012 (obviously with more emphasis on homeschooling?).

Have a happy New Year everyone!!

It's the Time of Year to Lose the Dining Room Table

A young friend sent me a message on Facebook this morning. She has her first apartment this Christmas and needs a Christmas tree skirt sewn together. So, she's coming over today after she gets off work.

This is going to cause me to get my hind parts in gear and find drag out set up my sewing machine. I need to do this anyway as last night I started printing out all the patterns and tutorials I had pinned earlier. Time to get going! I don't actually have the budget to go spend money at Hobby Lobby this week, but I should be able to get started on what I have around here.

7 and 3 years old. Aww.

The only problem is, there are a few things I want to sew for the girls. How to sew on these things and have them not see? A few years ago we had a desk in our room and I just locked my door and sewed in there. I could sew after they go to bed at night but honestly I go to bed right after they do! Hmm. I'll have to think about that one.

4 and 8 years old. Sigh. 

I also have several other craft things to do for presents that involve hot glue and scissors and scrapbook paper, etc. All I'm saying is....we aren't going to be able to find the dining room table for possibly a while.

Do you craft for Christmas? Where do you craft? Does it get worse before it gets better?

Running, Lack of School, and Ice Skating

Sometimes there just is no catchy title to pull it all together, you know?

We have been running errands this week every single day and I am SICK of it!! I hate going, going, going. But, the good news is...I found an outfit for the Christmas party!!! I know you are relieved. I went to our Keepers of the Home meeting yesterday and whined about how hard it is to find clothes and the other mom gave me a non-maternity shirt to try. It wasn't my size but it was pretty and I said I would try it on. It fit. And I like it. She's not getting it back. However, it's silky which equals cold in my mind so lucky I found a maternity cardigan to wear over it. So...the whole outfit cost us $16. Thank you Lord!!

Other than running to stores looking for maternity clothes, we've had a doctor's appointment, dry cleaning runs, we have piano today, and need to get gas and go buy hay for the rabbit as it will be freezing tonight.

It was 30 degrees when we woke up this morning and I would really like to just stay home.

And because of all the running, and my friend Kathy said it would make her feel better to hear how other people were not accomplishing a whole lot in school....we aren't. Yesterday I think each girl got 2 subjects done. Needless to say my ambitious plan I outlined, printed, and put on my clipboard is not working out. December is ALWAYS like this and it really is better to just take off this month rather than kill yourself trying, but I feel like I must keep going as we only have 5 months until school will be over for quite some time around here! ACK! At least we are staying home this morning to get things done.

Also, we went ice skating. This was a first for the girls. Our church had a Christmas party for the children  (which included a lesson) at a local ice rink. They really did very well. I was super impressed!

My girls are in pink. 

Ice skates only make Sweetheart look even taller. Ridiculous. 

So, in summary. I'm tired of going places, I have clothes to wear to the party, we need to get more school work done, and my kids can ice skate.

None of which have anything to do with your day. Enjoy!!

P.S. I feel like I should sound more thankful than this post does. 1. I am thankful to have a car to run errands with. 2. I am very thankful for the outfit to wear that did not cost much. 3. I am thankful to be homeschooling my children EVEN when we get behind. 4. Ice skating rinks are really cold.

Calling Off All Plans

Sweetheart got sick last night. The puking kind. My stomach doesn't feel so good either. I went to the store at 6:30 this morning to buy Lysol, Jello, instant mashed potatoes, and applesauce.

We will not be worrying about school today. If we get some done...fine. If not....fine.

We will be washing hand and spraying everything in sight.

We will be resting.

It's Friday. Thankful to be home and able to take care of things.

It's December and I Refuse to Panic

I have no Christmas gifts. I know some people are finished or nearly finished with their gift buying.

I have feelings about those people.

But I have nothing. But then again, I never do this time of year. However, sometimes I have some gifts made already.

I'm not feeling the crafty this year.

I do have a lot of gift ideas pinned. We'll see if I can find my motivation soon.

We have decorations up around the house, but no Christmas tree yet. Honestly I'm a bit concerned about getting a real tree with the huge drought we've had. Will it ever make it until Christmas? I guess we just will avoid the fire hazard and not put lights on it. I hate putting lights on anyway.

I am, however, ready to start our "Names of Jesus chain" tonight. Here is the link. I found it through Carissa's site.  (More great ideas on that post!) I'll be honest. I never even heard of Advent until I started reading blogs.  It's not something I grew up doing. I really don't even know where it started. But I like this chain because you just look up the verse and learn the name of Jesus each evening. We are going to color these ornaments also to go along with it. Kind of wish I had a separate tree to put them on. Hmmm.....

Have you found your December motivation? Are you feeling crafty? Are you through with your shopping and willing to admit that to me even though you know how I feel about you? Where do you stand on Advent? Can you believe it's December?

The Day I Became a Nag

You know sometimes you stay home all day and get school done?

And you know how you and the kids just camp out in the living room with school books scattered all around and maybe someone snacks on the box of Froot Loops during school and leaves them out and you also decide to be industrious and fold a load of clothes in the middle of the floor while your child reads to you?

And you know how the living room looks after several hours of that?

Yeah. Well.

Then suppose you remember you are supposed to take husband's clothes to the cleaners today so you round up the kids and get everyone in the car leaving the living room in it's current state?

Yeah.

And then you know, your house alarm goes off while you are gone but you don't hear the phone call on your cell phone so they call your dad down the street and he and a police officer come to the house and determine no foul play was at hand?

(How they determined that is beyond me because it LOOKED like a ransack, I'm telling 'ya.)

That's so embarrassing, isn't it?

Don't you just hate that?

Sigh. That's it. I'm a hardcore MOM NAG from now on. PUT THAT UP. ARE YOU FINISHED? WELL THEN? DO NOT DARE LEAVE THAT BOOK THERE. ARE THESE YOUR SHOES? WHO LEFT THIS OUT?

Good grief.

From My Head Today

• Thank you everyone for your congratulations yesterday!
• I spent the last 2 months struggling with worry and I plan to blog about that some next week. 
• I am approaching full-on panic mode about the state of our house and how we cannot possibly have a baby in this disorganized place. 
• We've only been getting the bare minimum done in school the last month and a half due to all the napping (mom's, not theirs). But next week I plan to add subjects back in that have been sorely neglected. 
• Our previous plan of 6 weeks on/1 week off is out the door. We've got to get as much done as we possibly can because when May rolls around....the current school year is over. 
• Our camping trip was fun and Little Bit's birthday will be fun too, but what we really need after all this fun, is a payday. Does anyone feel me?
• Speaking of which, today I need to go buy her a birthday gift. 
• There is only 1 1/2 more weeks of school before Thanksgiving!
• I do not have one single, solitary Christmas gift purchased, made, or decided on.

And now I have a question. 

I did not do a baby registry for either of my other babies. It seemed presumptuous to me. (Mind you, baby registry was pretty new back in 1999.) We needed everything and knew I would appreciate anything anyone got us. We had a shower with Little Bit only because we were at a new church and the education minister's son and his wife were having a baby. We were both due near the same time and were in the same Sunday school class so how could they leave me out? I didn't need a baby shower, but we got lots of diapers and handmade blankets and nice things. 

THIS time....I have a question. Do I register? Do I just make a wish list on Amazon? Because I don't want a lot of stuff. I feel very differently about what we "need" this time around and we also don't have space for a lot of stuff. And even though I don't want a lot of stuff, we um...need some things. I'm not saying we're going to have a shower because I have no idea. But I know people will ask what we need and so....do I tell them I'm registered or what? That feels strange to me. What's the word on this? What's proper these days? I am way out of touch.