Mom's New Hairbrush. Take One.

The Cast of Characters



One ratty, 1.5+ year old hairbrush that had a "comfort" gel handle that mysteriously began to get squished out after the first week of being owned. (Through no fault of its own...simply that it's Stretch Armstrong-like feel proved too tempting for a two year old.) It has since been bandaged with toilet paper, Dora bandaids, surgical bandaids, tape, and now is currently wrapped in bandaging tape.

One fabulously put together and perfectly coiffed Mom

Annie: a spunky, sassy, 3.5 year old with lots of dramatic flair
and a messy mop of blonde hair





One shiny new hairbrush

Annie: Mom, why did you get a new hair brush?

Mom: Because somebody squeezed all the squishy stuff out of my old brush.

Annie: Oh, I'm sorry. (Big smile) But didn't you know there was a monster in it? I squeezed all the monster out.

Mom: Really? I had no idea there was a monster in my brush! Thank you so much, Annie.

Annie: No problem, Mom. You're welcome. (Begins to head out of the room, but turns back around to say...) Glad I could be of help!





P.S. Just have to add that after I took Annie's picture she said, "That's a good one!" Good grief, that girl is cute!

Speaking of homeschooling....

Thought I'd give you a heads up about a really cool site. It combines two of some of my favorite things, homeschooling and freebies!

Each week they send out an email containing what that week's freebies are going to be, and all you have to do is go to their site and download them.

http://homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

I honestly cannot remember.....

The last time I had a whole afternoon to myself. I'm trying to think back to a time...surely there's been a day in the last year, right? For the life of me, I cannot remember one though. Anyways, this past Saturday, Bo took the kids to the zoo, and I got to stay home...ALONE! Now, normally, I'm all about getting out of the house and being with the family, but I had a ton of work to do that just wasn't happening with all the kids home (or should I be honest and say with two 3 year olds at home?)

See, I somehow managed to get myself into a brand spankin' new homeschool co-op. Teaching two classes. Me. I know I've homeschooled for 9 years, but I am no teacher. There's a world of difference between schooling your own children on your couch and around your kitchen table and standing up and teaching a lesson to a group of someone else's children. I've done the preschool VBS thing, but that only requires a weeklong commitment, so again...world of difference. And believe me when I tell you, preschool is my ultimate comfort zone. It's the only age group with which I am fairly competant I can appear more knowledgeable than my students.

Fortunately, one of my classes *is* preschool. We'll be doing Before Five in a Row/Five in a Row, which should really be a lot of fun. We'll basically read a different book each week, and do a couple activities which tie in to the story. The only real challenge here is to have enough activities so that each one is *rilly* short and *rilly* sweet, cause kids that age have *rilly* short attention spans.

My other class will be a little more challenging. It's for K-4th graders (BIG age difference--non-readers & readers, spellers & non-spellers) so that alone presents a challenge. I'm basing my lessons on Galloping the Globe, which is a basic geography course. We will be covering the continents and the larger countries within them, as well as the major bodies of water. I hope to have quite a bit of activities and different foods to keep it interesting. (I will hate if it I find out the kids hate my class....and I'm realizing that I may have issues if I feel the desparate need to be liked by 2nd graders!)

Anyways, it was a nice change of pace to have a quiet house for the whole afternoon. I sat and lesson planned and drank several cups of coffee. I think I could get used to this teaching thing if it means I can request more of these planning days!

My Beautiful Torment

Look at this amazingly beautiful pear. It, and many others just like it are growing in my back yard. I wake up disappointed each day though when I see so many of them laying on the ground. I feel them on the tree, and they just aren't ripe. I've googled the tar out of "growing pear trees" and other searches like that to try to figure out how we can enjoy this blessing right from the yard. I've read that the pears don't ripen on the tree, but that once it begins to feel soft by the stem is the perfect time to pull it off. Then, to speed the ripening, you can place it in a paper bag. I assure you...I am out there checking these pears everyday. They still don't feel soft AT ALL. Still, I pick some, and try the paper bag trick, but still...no edible pears.

Oh, wait...I did happen upon one pear that seemed to have softened enough to cut up. Unfortunately, that suspicious brown spot on the skin was exactly what I was hoping against hope that it wasn't...a worm. The inside was....YUCK! The cold weather is coming, and I fear I'm going to lose all the pears to either dropping on the ground, or not being ripe before the frost sets in and does them all in.

I had such vision for these pears. Pears with chocolate dripped over them, pear cobbler, pear salad, pear muffins. *sigh* Anybody know anything about pears?

Forever Family

This week we celebrated Forever Family Day. One year ago, this past Tuesday, Ellie was placed in our arms for the first time. Just like the births of Clay, Mary, Sam, and Annie, I will never forget the moment Ellie was handed to me. The following day, she officially became our daughter, but just as the child you carry inside of you is a part of you much sooner than their birth date, so is the child that you carry in your heart for so long before an official document declares she is yours. We cannot fathom our family without her in it.

I had planned to post pictures from last year as well as Tuesday's pictures, but I can't yet bear to post them again. Her pain and fear was so raw. I don't want to make light of it. Please feel free to follow the link to our adoption Journey To Me site if you'd like to see those, but I just can't post them here. I will share some pictures though from Tuesday, which also happened to be our first day of school (since Sam was fighting a virus last week when I had planned to start.) Annie and Ellie are doing "preschool" with me (using Before Five in a Row, for any other homeschoolers who might be checking this out.) This week we're reading The Runaway Bunny. We were talking about some of the pictures we saw in the book, and Annie said she saw the Mommy Rabbit. When I asked Ellie if she knew what a baby rabbit was called, she thought for just a moment, and then answered, "Tiny, lil rabbit!" Brilliant, huh? We made scarecrows and put them in the garden, or should I say the spot where one day I hope to have a garden.

To celebrate our Forever Family Day, we went out to PF Chang's and then back home for cake.

And now, just to see if anyone's paying attention...we'd like to share that we've started paperchasing again; this time for our son. More details to come!

Who's afraid of heights?

Another Colorado "must see" is the Royal Gorge." This is absolutely spectacular! You enter the park on one side of the gorge, and you can walk or drive across the suspension bridge. There are things to do on both sides, like an incline railway, petting zoo, an aerial tram, and whooo boy...the sky coaster! Bo didn't think I would even walk across the bridge, what with my fear of heights, but I really shocked him by saying that I would *love* to ride the skycoaster.

Enjoy the pics!

Manitou Cliff Dwellings

One of the great things about moving to a new area is getting to check out all kinds of new places. Last weekend, we headed down to Manitou Springs to see the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Here's some background information I took from their website to give you some background:

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings is a rare historical treasure. Preserved under a protective red sandstone overhang, authentic Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago, await you here. There are no "Do Not Touch" signs. You are free to touch and even go inside these fascinating architectural remnants of an American Indian culture that roamed the Four Corners area of the Southwest from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300.

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings is located in Manitou Springs, Colorado, at the foot of Pikes Peak, the mountain that provided the inspiration for the writing of, America the Beautiful. The dwellings are open seven days a week, year round, except for Christmas Day and Thanksgiving. During the summer months, Native American Indians - descendants of the Ancient Ones - demonstrate their living culture through traditional dances handed down from generation to generation.

Next to the cliff dwellings is a three-story Pueblo-style building that houses the Anasazi museum and a Southwestern gift shop. This structure was faithfully designed and constructed in the architectural style of the Pueblo Indians, descendants of the Anasazi.

It was really neat to go to a dwelling as old as this, and yet be allowed to climb up into it and see the rooms where people actually lived.

After our time there, we started to drive up into the mountains a little, but were dissuaded from going any further by the tornado warnings that cropped up for our immediate area :) Nothing came of it, but there was a good bit of rain, so we didn't even get out and walk around the quaint town of Manitou Springs, but I know it's a place we'll head back to again.