Progress Report 2

It is Tuesday evening. Do you know where your kids are? Because I do know where my kids are and it is not here. I have talked to them twice on the phone and they are just as happy as can be down at the grandparents.

So, Bell, what did you get done today?

Funny you should ask.

That's just what I got on here to tell you.

First of all, I had to drive to another tiny town far far away from my own tiny town; that's where my wonderful chiropractor is located. Were it not for my great affection for this chiropractor, I would not be making this journey. But I hadn't been adjusted in a long time and I needed it. After the adjustment, I got to zip around that far away tiny town to my favorite haunts there. I went to this junk store there and bought a little picture and a book for Christmas (because we just have so few books in this house---what is the deal with all the books? And yet that's the first thing I look at at junk stores and yard sales!). I went to the big famous fabric store and looked at fabric.

Oh man---if this baby is a girl,
I know what we are doing in this child's room.
They have this pink and chocolate brown toille
fabric and coordinating gingham in the brown
and a coordinating pink and brown ticking stripe.
I love it!
Won't that be great for bedding
and curtains and all in the nursery?
Yes, it will!

Then I went to a couple of antique stores. Bought nothing at any of those. I need to hit the ones in College Town tomorrow when I go there. Tomorrow is my official running around day---as opposed to today which was not supposed to be a running around day. Today I was supposed to be cleaning the kitchen cabinets and cleaning out the butler's pantry. Hmmmm....yeah....that didn't get done.

Tomorrow on my official running around day, I will be flying solo in the morning and then meeting my inappropriate friend for lunch and a movie. We are going to see that My Sister's Keeper movie. It looks like it might be a tear jerker though. Should we opt for a funny movie instead?

For those of you keeping score at home, my mother is still in the hospital....or as she used to say "the horse pistol" (and I have no idea why she said that). They are keeping her until tomorrow. I did not go to see her. I called as I was driving past the horse pistol and everything was under control both times I called. They did not want me coming in there. I talked to my dad but in the background I could hear my mother carrying on about all the germs at the horse pistol. So I didn't go.

I'm going to try to get all the stuff I have dragged out put away so that the house won't look like I've, you know, dragged stuff out. And I'm going to do a quickie cleaning on FOUR bathrooms. Sigh. Then I am fixing supper for two----tilapia and rice and steamed broccoli. Easy enough.

And yes, that is Joan Jett singing
the national anthem over there
on the juke box.
What can I say?
She hates herself for loving you.

Is Life a Red Wagon?

Want to see a video that I loved when I was in high school?
And in this video was this guy that
at the time I thought was such
a great-looking guy. I have no idea who he is.
He always looked kind of
Native American to me. And years later, here I am
looking at it and thinking
he's okay, but nothing to get obsessed over.
I don't think I was obsessed though.
Go here to see the video
Life Is A Red Wagon.
Let me warn you
a little 30 second commercial plays first.
The guy I thought was so cute
is the guitar player,
not the dude with the accordion.

Tizzy

Right after I was on here yesterday telling you about my lovely laundry room progress, I got a call that my mother was in the hospital. Not like an emergency or something highly critical, but still, she was in the hospital. She has pneumonia. We thought she had the flu too, and she might have had it prior to yesterday, but as of yesterday the flu test was negative. But even her doctor thought she had it. Her doctor is my doctor too (we love him, he's the greatest!) so I got the stink eye from him for even being there. The other hospital people didn't know by looking at me that I was pregnant so they didn't have anything to say about it. But my lovely doctor did. I told him I was just waiting for him to come around so I could hear what he had to say and I did leave after he did. I really didn't touch anything in her room and used the hand sanitizer like crazy. I was careful. I didn't lick the bed rail or drink out of her cup or anything.

After I got home, I started working on the linen closet. If ever there should have been a "before" picture, I really should have done one of that dreadful closet. I thought about it, but it was just too terrible to photograph. I didn't want to give you bad dreams or anything. That job was not on the list for yesterday, but I knew there was no way I was going to get the bonus room done so I didn't even set foot in there. As it turned out, I did not get the linen closet done either. But I did most of it and I will finish it this morning. I got sidetracked last night from my work by getting myself worked up into an absolute tizzy.
Do you ever do that?
Tell me I am not the only one. And just for the record, this is not my usual pattern of behavior. I don't fly off the handle or get worked up about stuff all the time. But last night, I got worked up into a tizzy. And part of me was sitting off to the side in my mind the whole time quietly saying, "Bell, take a breath. You need to just settle down." I don't know if it's the pregnancy or the hormones (which I only have 4 more days of, praise the Lord!) or if I would have gotten into this frame of mind anyway in this situation, but I really got my feathers ruffled and my nose out of joint. I was on the phone with a couple of different people talking ninety miles per hour. Then I went out to the garden where Lloyd Dobbler was finishing up and I told him the whole deal. By then it was almost 9 pm and I needed to feed us. We were just having big salads. When I was chopping up our little veggies (you know how you chop when you're mad) and still just feeling like I was going to blow my stack, it was then that I realized I needed to chill out. My heart was racing like crazy and I remembered that I am supposed to be monitoring my blood pressure (which I haven't been, but it's been fine) and I knew I would not be taking it at that time. It probably would have blown the blood pressure cuff off of my arm. So I got my little salad and Lloyd Dobbler and I sat down and ate and watched a nice little movie and chilled out.

I'm going to take my blood pressure now and if it is up, I know it is left over from last night's tizzy. I just can't even tell you how aggravated I was. I know now that I was kind of blowing something out of proportion in my head, but don't you ever just get all flabbergasted by a situation? Maybe it is just the pregnancy-hormone combo. And maybe the fact that I'd been awake since 3am added to it.

Okay. I just took my blood pressure. It was 121/84. That's higher than it has been in a while, but nothing like the craziness it was back when I was having those health issues earlier this year. Don't worry, people. Bell is taking care of herself. Bell is not going to do anything to jeopardize the health of this baby. Bell is not going to get worked up into anymore tizzies. Bell is going to definitely stop referring to herself in the third person.

The movie we watched last night was Return to Me. Have you seen this movie? I have seen it approximately 744 times. I love it. It has Minnie Driver and David Duchovany and Archie Bunker in it---what is Archie Bunker's real name? I can't think of it for anything right now. And yes, I realize I am at a computer and could google it right now but I'm trying to get this done quickly. Carrol O'Connor. See there. I remembered his name. I don't need to google anything.

If you haven't seen this movie, it is such a sweet one. I always fast forward to about the fifth scene because I hate the beginning. Once you see it and understand what happens to set up the story, you never need to watch the beginning again. I always start it where he's sitting there with his dog, wearing a blood stained shirt and crying because his wife just died. Don't worry that I've just ruined it for you. I haven't. That's just the beginning.

There are a couple of places where they need their little mouths washed out with soap. Mainly Jim Belushi----when he's all mad and going to go kick the end of the guy he's mad at. And there's one line that I can never say because of the word they use in it, but it is the funniest line to me. And it's so hokey, but it just cracks me up every time. If you have watched it or will, it's when the guy is on the horrible blind date and the obnoxious water woman tells him something is ringing. I don't know why that cracks me up every time but it just does. I think of that when some body's cell phone is ringing in their back pocket and I always have to laugh about it. I know, I have a strange sense of humor.

Okay, lovely reader, I am gone for the day. I'm going to tackle the linen closet and then I'm hitting the road. I'm going to the chiropractor (hooray! finally!---by the way, I slept fine last night, thanks for your concerns, you sweeties) and I'm going to an antique store in that far away tiny town where my chiropractor is. And I'm going to a fabric store to look at options and ideas for the baby room. I've already enlisted my MIL to sew some stuff for that once we find out what sort of baby we are dealing with here.

So that's my plan for my ordinary day.

I hope that you will have a lovely day.

Don't get yourself worked up in a tizzy about anything.

I'll try not to either.

Progress Report 1

There will be no "before" picture of my laundry room, so I don't know if I should even take an "after" picture, but please let it suffice to say that I have worked my hiney off in that laundry room today. And the laundry room is looking pretty good right now....but all the stuff that I brought out of there and strewed all over the kitchen is NOT looking too good. But I feel like I have accomplished a lot by the tidying of the one room. I'll move on to the next....after this break....

I have SUCH a headache. I have been awake since 3am. I wanted to go to the chiropractor this morning, but my lovely chiropractor had called in sick today (maybe HE needs an adjustment). So I am going tomorrow when he opens at 1pm. I hope I sleep tonight; it's highly unusual for something to keep me awake and I am just not the sweet and lovely Bell that you know and love when I don't get a sufficient amount of sleep. I'm having this strange hip thing...but I know that hip issues of all kinds are common during pregnancy. Usually I don't have issues until I am great with child, but I am learning that this fourth pregnancy is bound and determined to make a name for itself, being different from all the previous pregnancies. At least it's more of an annoyance that a big fat pain---the hip thing, I mean, not the pregnancy.


I am glad that I only had two jobs down on the list for today. The laundry room, while a big job, was more physical than time consuming. The other job on the list is the bonus room, also known as the place where millions of miscellaneous toys appear and scatter themselves about while we sleep at night. No room in the house is "picked up" more than that room and no room is ever in need of it half as much as that room. To say that cleaning it up is a time consuming matter is putting it mildly. Will I get it done today? We shall see. I still have to go deal with all the stuff that didn't make the cut in the tryouts for the New and Improved Laundry Room.

So many times today I find myself thinking,
"Oh my goodness,
it's so quiet and I have no idea
what any of the kids are doing!!!"
and then I remember,
this is No Kids Week!
They are the close supervision of my in-laws.

And then I smile.

Shed A Little Light

Since I have been the voice of doom and gloom
in respect to our country lately, I thought I would counteract
myself and post something that highlights an individual
who seems to be doing something:

Rants and Complaints

Tomorrow my babes will be leaving for a week with their grandparents. This means I need to get their bag packed today. Lloyd Dobbler and Big E won't be home until bedtime tonight. I kind of feel like cleaning house, but I don't really need to do that to the point of wearing myself out because I've got to get some other stuff done in preparation for their little trip. I would have liked to have slept in today since I stayed up waaaay too late last night--but of course Superbaby sleeps late by getting up a little after seven. I always do that (stay up later) if Lloyd Dobbler is not at home. Do you other women go to bed at your normal time when your hubby is out of town? I don't know why I can't. But I don't. I don't feel miserable this morning, but I will be partaking of some caffeine shortly. Just to keep me on the right path.

My mother has the flu. She had it back in March and now she has it again. She thought she had some light form of a heat stroke the other day, but no. It's the flu. And she can't take that big flu medicine (I think it's called Tamiflu) because she had it in March. Did you know insurance companies won't let you have it more than once in 180 days? I think that's the drug people were wanting to hoard and store for a big flu outbreak. So they've stopped that dead in its tracks with their 180 day plan.....just like they stopped the production of methamphetamines by making you sign papers and show your drivers license to buy Sudafed.

Lovely K and I did watch "The Ballet Shoes" last night. Now I am interested in reading these books because I am wondering how close to the story the movie was. It was okay, nothing stellar. There were some points on it that I was not thrilled with, like the constant presence of martinis with one of their borders. I realize they did this to show how unhappy this lady was and that drinking was her solace, but this is a kid's movie, right? There was another point that I kept watching for them to develop but they never did. They seemed to throw this homosexual couple into the mix, but they never eluded that these two women were a "couple" or that anything was going on, but they rented a room together and they always sat close by each other's side and one of them was very feminine and one of them was very masculine. I seriously doubt if a lesbian couple was written into these books that are considered modern classic children's literature. That's that "modern touch" that so annoys me. Why must they do that? The drinking, just like the other, really have no place in a story for children. So now I am interested in reading these books. To see how much liberty the movie makers took. If only Meg Ryan were here, sitting on the floor crying, she could tell me exactly where to locate them in her little book shop.

Wouldn't you love to run a book shop like the one she ran in You've Got Mail? A little shop like that would not survive, as the movie points out. How sad that we are to that point where little businesses like that struggle to survive if they survive at all. There are two empty buildings here in my own tiny town that I often look at and fantasize about various little shops I could run out of each of them. While the idea is lovely, and the places I dream up in my mind are the very type of little shops I would love to have available to me, I realize how difficult it would be for a business like that to stay in business.

Especially nowadays.
And it will get worse.
Everyone will be buying carbon credits from Al Gore and Co. soon. I'm so annoyed at our government right now. And we lazy conservatives Christians are as much to blame as anyone. We find comfort in keeping our heads in the sand. Why aren't we grooming our young people to lead the future? To get in the fight and draw a line in the sand? All these people who act like the Reagan Era was heaven on earth----why is the generation of conservatives who were brought to adulthood and educated at that time more interested in padding their own wallets and holding on to their political positions that doing the right thing? They want to complain about the erosion of our society, but what are they willing to do about it? They are so deep in debt, most of them, that they are slaves to the broken, stinky system that is killing us all. Why don't we have some Mr. Smiths who will go to Washington and stir up trouble? Why don't we stop complaining about it and do something about it? And I don't just mean calling our congressmen. Why don't we DO something? We could learn a lot from the passion and commitment of liberal groups who are successfully pushing their agendas through and cramming them down the throats of an American people who (the majority) claim they don't want them.

I probably shouldn't even open my mouth about any of this. Any one of you darling 1.5 readers could school me on government and political science any day of the week. I have been wrapped up in my own life, having babies and educating my children, that I have done nothing more than vote and complain. That has been the extent of my political life as an adult.

But you know what else?
As much as I love my country and would love to preserve
the way of life that is fading away from the American people,
there is something that runs much deeper within me.
This world is not my home.
I'm just passing through.
My treasures are laid up
somewhere beyond the blue....

Well, well, well....
Lest you fear that your faithful Bell has gotten serious minded and left her usually silliness and triviality, allow me to divert your attention for a moment:

Friday night, it was late, I was walkin' you home, we got down to the gate....

Fourteen bonus points
to the person who recognizes
the song in this title.

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything since Tuesday. I don't know what the temperature has been like in your corner of the woods, but here it has been REALLY HOT. It was over 100° today! I am normally not at my loveliest best in the heat under normal circumstances, but throw a pregnancy into the mix and I really do not enjoy heat. We went to the pool some. My boys have permanently red checks now. Lovely K just turns brown. I don't know if that child has ever had a sunburn. She has her father's complexion. When he was traveling all the time with his previous job, right after 9-11 he was constantly pulled aside in airports for extra scrutiny---and that was when it was first pointed out to me that some people think he has a Middle Eastern look to him. The boys are totally white like me, although Superbaby has quite the bronze tan this summer.

So what have you guys been doing while I have been wilting in the heat? Have you been laying in the floor crying over the death of celebrities? Ed McMahon was very old, so that wasn't really a surprise. Farrah Faucett had been fighting cancer for a long time (and I've always heard it called "renal cancer" until yesterday, everybody and their brother were saying "anal cancer" and I just thought that didn't sound as nice) so that wasn't a surprise either. Michael Jackson was a surprise. I always feel sorry for these people who never really have a chance of normalcy. Listening to them discuss his life on the news last night, it made me think of Judy Garland. She was a celebrity from a very young age and her life was very tragic too. People just use them and I'm sure they wonder if anyone ever really loves them for themselves or if they are just trying to get money or fame or something out of them. I think of his immortal soul---Jesus Christ died for the sins of these people, just like you and me. I wonder what he knew of that.

AND I wonder at our country---with all that is going on in the world, let's just focus on the death of a celebrity who had messed his life up to the extreme. Never mind countries on the verge of war all over the globe. Never mind that Congress is sending our very own country to hell in a hand basket with some of the garbage they passed this afternoon. Never mind all of that. Let's talk to somebody who knew Michael Jackson intimately, like his cleaning lady from 1987.

Lloyd Dobbler and Big E are camping with the Scouts tonight. I am fixing to go downstairs and watch a girly movie with Lovely K. It's "The Ballet Shoes" based on the famous books by Noel Streatfield. I must confess, I have not read the books. I just know that they are classics. And I remember in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan tells the lousy clerk at Tom Hank's bookstore about them as she cries. I used to watch that movie about once a week. This was at the old house when I was on a good schedule and I had kids who napped each day. I actually ironed each week and I would put in that movie and iron clothes while it played. I also love The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart--that's the original version of the movie. And then there's the musical version of it with Judy Garland called In the Good Ole Summertime---it's good too as long as you don't think about Buster Keaton as you watch it because you'll feel sorry for him. I have both of these movies if you are somebody local and you would like to borrow either one of them.

I should really get down there and get the movie started. This is "Girls Night In." We watched some princess movie on Disney earlier (while we lounged around and ate supper). Now Superbaby is asleep. Time to make popcorn or eat the frozen cheesecake bites that I bought for us. What is it about Girls Night In or Out that means you have to have cool snacks? I made the guys peanut butter cookies to take with them to the great outdoors.

Oh yeah---
before I forget to tell you---
I know something you don't know.
Nay-nay!

Moods and a Recipe

Moods

by Sara Teasdale

I am the still rain falling,

Too tired for singing mirth--

Oh, be the green fields calling,

Oh, be for me the earth!

I am the brown bird pining

To leave the nest and fly--

Oh, be the fresh cloud shining,

Oh, be for me the sky!

Texas Caviar

1 can fiesta (or Mexican)corn, drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2-3 tomatoes, chopped

3-4 green onions, chopped

1-2 avocados, chopped

½ cup oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

garlic powder or salt to taste

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least one hour to allow flavors to blend---also good served immediately at room temperature.

This mixture “weeps”, so stir it up and pour it into a colander to drain some of the excess liquid before serving. Eat with tortilla chips.

Fly Me To The Moon

Hello, Dear Reader.
It is Tuesday morning as I am writing this.

Is it Tuesday morning
as you are reading it?

I hope you are having a lovely day already. It's going to be a hot one here. We have our last ballgame tonight, a make-up game. I enjoy the kids playing ball, but I also enjoy the ending of the season. Especially as hot as it has been at the ballpark lately.

I did not, in case you were wondering, get any fabulous tomatoes this weekend. I had to buy some at the grocery store for a salad and to make Texas Caviar. The ones at the grocery store are never as good as the ones you get at fruit stands. And the ones at the fruit stands are never as good as the ones you grow in your own backyard. It will be a while before we have our own; our tomato plants are still young and small. I do have blooms on my squash though and we have eaten most of the sweet peas already. Everything else is growing though we are in desperate need of rain. Lloyd Dobbler keeps watering everything and I just don't even want to see our water bill.

Did you have a lovely Father's Day weekend? We did. Sunday after church, my family came over for lunch. We had a nice meal. And then later we went over to the Popsicles' house to swim. We ended up staying there until dark, eating super. That's where I took the Texas Caviar, thinking it would be a nice snack for us as we sat around. Mr. Popsicle whipped out about three hundred hot dogs and grilled them. The kids swam and swam and swam and we all just had such a relaxing, peaceful time.

Someone asked about the gift we (the kids and I) gave Lloyd Dobbler. I hesitate to even tell you, but I will do so in the briefest manner. We gave Lloyd Dobbler a puppy for Father's Day. I thought it was a good idea and the kids were just wriggling with excitement. We wrapped up a bag of Puppy Chow and a cute little collar as his present and in his card was a picture of the actual puppy. She won't be ready to be away from her mother for two more weeks. So anyway, that's what we gave him.....and let's just say that he was not at all happy with his gift and plans on not accepting it. So that's the deal with the gift.

The other thing I did for him that day was not a success either. I made his favorite dessert, a coconut cream pie. I tried a new recipe because he never liked the one I made before. This one looked attractive enough, but it just tasted so bland to me. He said it was fine, but I think he might have just been being nice. It's annoying to go to the trouble of making something only to have it turn out tasting not even as good as one of those pies you can buy frozen at the grocery store. sigh.

Last night my father-in-law came in on the last leg of his little motorcycle journey. He had been on the road for 12 days, on his bike, riding around looking at stuff and visiting people. He had gone to the Smokies and through West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and then here. He had grown a little mustache while he was out on his "man trip." My mother-in-law won't like that, I know, and he said it would probably be shaved off as soon as he reached home. He left this morning after breakfast.

At breakfast we told the kids of their upcoming trip which was news to them (I thought they had surely overheard us making plans). They will be going to their grandparents for a week. The grandparents will come and get them on Sunday and they will bring them back on the 6th of July.

I know Lovely K and Big E will be fine.
And Superbaby will be fine,
he loves to go and do things....
but he has never been away from me that much.
He is Mama's Boy.
Especially when tired or hurt.
And he is just three,
however grown up he may act and seem.
So I hope he will do well being away for that long.

They will miss being here for the 4th of July. I don't think I've ever missed a holiday with my kids; that will be strange. My mother is not very happy about them being away because she has invited all of her family to her house for the 4th. And that was the first thing that Lovely K said when she realized they'd be down there then--she didn't want to miss that. But they can't be in two places at once and this was the only time that was going to work out for them to go for a week (between ballgames and Scout outings and doctor's appointments). And I know my mother realizes that they get to see them much more than my in-laws just because they are near by.

I plan on getting the school year ready to go while they are gone and starting school when they get back. Everyone keeps looking at me like I'm crazy when I say I am starting in July. I just want to get as much done the first semester that I can, before the baby is born. And we might as well be doing school when it's too hot to go outside without risk of heatstroke. This will give us time to take breaks and all that. Some people school the whole year round. I'm not doing that, but I don't think it's so very scandalous to start our year a little early. I have a friend who starts in July every year and they are finished with school usually in March. To each his own.

Well, we are supposed to be at the library right now. I just can't get my act together this morning. I am dressed, but a big chunk of headache is preventing me from fixing my hair and putting on a happy face. I feel like laying down. I did so much housework yesterday (from about 2pm to 10:30pm). Got a lot done, but I was dog tired by the time I hit the hay last night. Maybe that's what this is, a carry-over of that tiredness. Plus having to get up and fry sausage and eggs and stuff for the crew this morning. I made decaf coffee for my father-in-law so I didn't get much out of the half a cup of that that I drank. I think I will lay down for a few minutes. If I fall asleep, wake me up in about half an hour, okay? Thanks.

Did you know tomatoes are in the ragweed family?

What is the deal with tomatoes this year?

Is there a shortage? Is Chef Boyardee hogging up all the good ones? Was it all the rain this spring that has delayed things? Or are the produce people in my tiny town just mad at tomatoes and trying to teach them a lesson by ignoring them.

I NEED some nice red tomatoes.
It's the middle of June, people!
What else are we supposed to be eating?
And there won't be any tomatoes from my garden
for a long time.
So what's the deal?

I stopped at my regular little produce stand today after driving on by for two days (because I could clearly see they didn't have tomatoes) and went all the way in to see if perhaps they had decided to start hiding the tomatoes in the back. They said they would have some tomorrow. So I flipped over all their tables and rolled their watermelons down the street.

No, I didn't.

But a woman without tomatoes
is not really responsible for her own actions.
I could have done those things
....but I kept myself under control.

I took the babes to Mr. Popsicle's pool today. We met my friend and her children there. It was the perfect day to be poolside. It was 100 degrees today!!! (where oh where is that sheet that I printed off of JP's tricks that showed me how to make the symbol for degrees?) We were there for several hours. The kids are so tired. They should all pass out tonight very easily. They are excited that The Chronicles of Narnia movie is coming on Disney tonight. Lovely K has seen it already (I think we took her to see it at the theatre) and Big E is big enough now to see it (I think). Superbaby will probably fall asleep after gorging on popcorn anyway.

And I will probably be reading my second Grace Livingston Hill book which is now about three days late. I'm surprised the library ladies haven't called to frown at me over the phone. "We know you have our book, Bell," they will say. And honestly, I have thought of going to the library every day this week---but I haven't made it yet (my mother always said it's the thought that counts!). The summer reading program is underway and we haven't even signed up yet. Somebody needs to kick me.

Tomorrow I will be getting ready for Sunday. I am having my family over for lunch for Father's Day. I am making a dessert I have never made before so I have to make it tomorrow (so that if it turns out horribly I can get up Sunday morning and make a banana pudding to save the day!). And I have to shop and buy stuff--like TOMATOES. I already have my list made. I think I made it that morning that I was doing everything else.

I haven't told you what I am getting Lloyd Dobbler for Father's Day because he sometimes reads stuff on here. I don't want to spoil the surprise. It's going to be a miracle if the kids don't burst open and tell him before he "gets it." You'll be hearing about it, believe me. I'm grinning just thinking about it. And I'm expecting him to grin too.

And now I would like to give a great big shout out to my lovely friend who helped me this morning (and you know who you are!). I so appreciate the generosity of a good friend. I needed help and my friend just helped me without batting an eye. And what did she get out of it? Nothing but a tater tot casserole recipe.

Now as I am sitting here tomato-less, I am thinking that not cooking is sounding like a great idea for supper. And pizza is sounding really good. Since I missed the pizza party last night, maybe we'll just have an impromptu one of our own right here.

Oh, Papa John, where are you?

Busy Bee

I'm wondering if it's because I haven't had to take the morning sleeping pill....oh, I mean Progesterone....for a couple of days, but I have felt like a new woman today. Keep in mind that I am not a morning person by nature. Even as a baby, I wasn't, to hear my mother describe it. It's like I just need to be left alone for a while and then I'm fine. And my most productive time is usually in the late afternoon/evenings. That's when I come alive and want to do stuff. But today I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or something because I was not my usual un-morning, slow-starting self---

or maybe it's the fact that I spent night #2
sleeping in the guest room with Lovely K
who has been certain
that she is going to die from gas pains.
I started her out in her bed last night
and I laid down on the floor beside her bed,
thinking once she went to sleep
I'd get to return to my own bed.
Well, that wasn't close enough for her.
She needed to be touching me
in order for my presence to be a comfort.
So we headed back down to the guest room
for another restless night of interrupted sleep.

--One might think I'd wake up grumpy and tired (like I did yesterday) after a second night of this mess. Yesterday was a stinky morning indeed with one of my babes trying to see what they could do to get kicked out of this family. We don't kick people out, but we sure have to make life difficult for those who try to buck the system. So after a stinky morning, I took Big E to my father and took the other two with me to College Town in search of a maternity swimsuit which we did not find. We only went to a couple of stores. It was so hot---and I am already getting that zero tolerance for extreme heat that comes with pregnancy.

I did purchase this night gown that I will be able to wear
this whole pregnant summer.
It is made from this great, unique material.
It's the perfect nightgown for me,
like it was made just for me.
Maybe that's why I woke up
such a nice person today,
the nightgown.
So anyway, I did some more vacuuming with the lovely new vacuum that is now my friend. I mopped the kitchen and the downstairs bathrooms. I did laundry. I stripped beds and am washing the bedding right now. I've got all the stuff laid out to make those chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that I love. They are going to by the alternate dessert on Sunday for people (like my kids and probably both of my brothers who hate coconut) who may not like the coconut cream angel pie that I am going to attempt to make for the family meal on Sunday when the fam comes here for Father's Day.

Maybe I've got a little bit of that "nesting" thing going on. Last night I cleared out my closet of some clothes that I won't fit into until I have this child and loose a pile of weight. I also went ahead and hung up all the maternity clothes, even the winter ones, so that they are there at hand. I have a little pile of small maternity clothes (like size 6) that are too small for me now. They are probably from the first pregnancy (where I started out tiny, if you recall). Know any tiny pregnant person? I'd be glad to pass them along. It's just a handful of things. And one dress that isn't sooo tiny but I'm just tired of it and don't want to wear it again. So I'm not going to. But I have been sorting through stuff, wanting to get things done, organized, cleaned out. I know that I'll need to do it know while there's no school and no big belly hanging off the front of me. I need to seize these moments and be glad to have a little "nesting fever" early on.

Guess what?
Lloyd Dobbler was busy yesterday.
Busy on the Internet ordering me a camera. (and there was much rejoicing) He finally found one that is not the super deluxe (super expensive) one that we started to buy, but does have all these great features and abilities that he wanted. He's the technical guy, he cares about the details. I just want a functioning camera that I know how to operate. The camera may be wandering down country roads on its way to my house at this very moment. Or not. But by this time next week, it should be here with us, linking you and I, dear reader, with visual stimuli. I know that your heart is racing at the very thought of that.

So I need to get my busy-morning self in the shower. I can never do a bunch of housework if I've already showered and gotten ready for the day. It's better to stay yucky and jammied to get the work done and then get dressed and lovely. So that's where I am now. I can make cookies and iron a mountain of clothes after I get myself cleaned up.

Oh wait, I wanted to ask you if that blue grass Stairway to Heaven is cracking you up? Sometimes I am so not in the mood for it and I just skip over it, but sometimes I do listen to it and it makes me laugh. And then did you notice Dolly Parton further down the list singing the same song as a strange ballad? That was so odd to me; I just had to tack it on there to share with you.

Right now I'm bopping along to "Come and Get Your Love!"

I enjoy the music.

Oh, one more thing. I wanted to tell you what I overhead the yesterday. The boys were playing this crazy game they play with multiple nerf-type balls that sends them back and forth between the front and back doors. They paused and Big E tells Superbaby "if we get three babies out of Mama" (that was his exact phrasing and it just cracked me up, especially since we know and I have told them that there is just ONE baby) and if it was a girl and two boys, then we would name the first boy Jackson Pauly and the second boy Sammy Brookford (Sammy is the name Superbaby has come up with for a boy) and the girl would be Grace Joaquin. He mixed in names that are on the list but he added some of his own ideas there. Where did he get Brookford? And Joaquin for a girl?

I am now afraid
of what he will someday name his own children.

Special Delivery

Hello peeps. How are you? I hope you are safe today where ever you are. Lloyd Dobbler called a little while ago to ask how the weather was here. It is sunny and beautiful. He had just gotten out of a huddled mass in some big tall building in downtown Nashville while they were under a tornado warning. Funny how that drama can be there and here you would never know it. Perfect sunny afternoon. My big fat box of loot came from Rainbow Resource today. Hooray! I have been digging around in it. In a way, I feel like there's not much to our school year, but that's because I have taken great pains to simplify it as much as possible. If I just stick to what we have and do it thoroughly, we will be fine. I think I made wise choices. I think the kids will really enjoy some of the stuff we will be doing this year. I think Charlotte Mason would be proud of the steps I have taken to get closer to her philosophy of education. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for a moment.

I will share with you the two grammar books I have ordered for us this year. Lovely K, who will be in fourth grade, will be using Simply Grammar by Karen Andreola. Big E, who will be in second grade, will be using English for the Thoughtful Child by Mary F. Hyde. These are very Charlotte Mason books---very. And for someone who was never taught in this manner, it feel sometimes hard to take very many steps in that direction. One of the reviews on the Amazon site there (for English for the Thoughtful Child, I believe) says so much of how I was thinking. We want that certain jargon, that sort of workbook that you blaze through and feel like you are accomplishing stuff just by checking it off, never mind if you learn anything or not. That was kind of my whole experience in public school. You get it done, make sure you have the right answer, and that's it. Did you really learn anything? I guess so, I got a good grade, didn't I? These are slow down, let it sink it, really learn-and-think-about-it type of books. More old fashioned, but very solid. No fluff or busy work. Or I think Charlotte Mason-ites call that "twaddle."

The babes may be going to my in-laws next week and that will give me time to plan out our first semester (if I'm not shopping--must go antiquing!!!-- and out happily skipping through meadows by myself all the time that they are gone!). Still haven't decided about our home school co-op. Pray that I will have wisdom in that decision. I am bracing myself for another big year of major life stuff. I don't know how it is at your house, but adding a person to the family is always major life stuff around here. I've done this before, schooled while pregnant and had a baby in the middle of the school year. But then I had only one student and it was lower grades, less intensive (not that we are INTENSE now). And then there was the year of building the house. No stress there, right? With a new baby to boot. I think this past year has been the most "normal" year we have had for schooling without major life changes or construction or parents with major health problems. This year was financial/legal stress and praise the Lord that is settled and over.

I ordered some fun (yet educational) projects for this winter, some hands on stuff. Lovely K will be learning some calligraphy. Got the supplies for that. Big E has two crafty-boyish sets (it'll be good for him to learn to follow directions!): one is making and painting your own little army guys and the other is assembling this little wooden plane. These things will be great for cold, nasty days when they can't go out. These fall under the category of Life Skills with Charlotte Mason. Lots of stuff falls under that category. I need to find someone to teach Lovely K how to knit and do stuff like that. I can't teach her what I don't know.

I am pleased so far with the way the school year ahead of us is shaping up. But you know what? It occurred to me that I'm not finished with THIS school year. I haven't sent in our grades! Mercy me.

If a task is once begun
never leave it 'til it's done.
Be the labor great or small,
do it well or not at all.

Let me get on that.
Ta-ta for now!

Stairway to Heaven

Saturday afternoon, after Lloyd Dobbler worked outside in the sun all day (so that he was exhausted and his blood sugar was confused), we took the babes to my mom and we headed to College Town in search of a vacuum cleaner. Last week on Facebook I asked in my status line one day who was in love with their vacuum cleaner and got quite a bit of feed back. Some people are passionate about their vacuum cleaners. I love getting feedback from people. That's one of the things I like about Facebook. It's this whole "community" to itself, like a whole other world or something. I really enjoy the friendships I have re-established on there with people who I might never have connected with again.

Anyway, we decided because we were so tired that we were heading to ONE reliable place: Sears. Forget shopping around. We were very happy to see my little cousin working there.

This cousin is one that I babysat for
a couple of times when he and his brother were small.
He is also one that my own Superbaby is similar to
---that Type C personality,
always perky and funny and ready for a party.

After we left and I remembered thinking on a number of occasions that Superbaby is like him, it made me wonder if that's what Superbaby will be like when he is a young adult. It's so hard for me to picture my kids as adults. I just can't get an image at all. I see Lovely K being very similar to my mother-in-law. I see Big E being like so many of the family that I just wonder what paths he will take (he is such a sweet guy!). And Superbaby is just so full of life and craziness and joy---what is he going to be? A game show host? And now with the fourth bun in the oven, I just wonder what this child will be like. (The waiting is the hardest part---do I need to play that Tom Petty song for you?)

I was so impressed with my cousin's knowledge. I had to ask him if he was just making up this information that was rolling off his tongue, but he said they are required to watch all these videos and learn to operate everything they are selling. He is a very intelligent guy anyway, so he was just spouting out the information. There was also this guy there who has worked in this kind of stuff for like thirty years and he knows it all. I mean, he knows every product and all its features and he has helpful opinions and information. He was great.

Here is my big fat gripe about the situation, though. These guys work entirely off of commission and we were not allowed to purchase our vacuum cleaner from my cousin because we are related. I am related to him; my husband is not. Still couldn't buy it from him. I found this very annoying. I can see immediate family but that should be enough. Especially if they are working entirely on commission.

I was so annoyed about this.

So anyway....we bought a vacuum cleaner. I will be using it for the first time this morning once the lazy heads all drag themselves out of bed. (Lovely K has been up since 6am; she got sent to bed early last night.) I think THIS is the one we got---if not, it's very similar. I hope I am going to like having a canister. Haven't used one of those in many moons, but I think it will better suit my needs and my house. My floors are so sad right now. They will be overjoyed to hear the purr of a new, powerful motor that is coming to spiff them up.

After we left Sears, I was asking Lloyd Dobbler who we knew that we could fix up my Sears cousin with. He's such a nice guy. He would be so much fun. And he has really blue eyes (like my Superbaby). Of course Lloyd Dobbler said with a sigh, "Don't try to fix anybody up. That never goes well." But that's not entirely true. I have played Cupid sometimes to success. My cousin may have a woman for all I know---I didn't ask about that. I was too distracted by beltless motors and retractable cords and powered attachments.

We went swimming at Mr. & Mrs. Popsicle's house again on Sunday afternoon. The kids just have SUCH a great time there. They have all three been jumping off the diving board for two weeks now----wearing an inter tube-type float, of course, but this is progress. Lovely K jumped off once with no floats (that was a big accomplishment). Superbaby, of course, charmed his way out of about three or four Popsicles (Brown Cow Jrs. are the thing). He just goes to Mr. Popsicle as far away from mommy and daddy as possible and says "I fink I need a nudder popsicle." And then Mr. Popsicle lives up to his name. My kids are completely enchanted with him.

The last two Sundays Mr. Popsicle has whipped out a watermelon for us all to eat. I have never been a big watermelon person (unlike my mother) and I don't know if it's this pregnancy or what, but I have jumped in and eaten watermelon just like I was a watermelon person. I'm thinking it's the pregnancy or else he just happened to buy the best watermelons ever grown since the dawn of time.

This just in: I used the new vacuum on the stairs and I am so pleased. It did a great job and it was so easy. My stairs will be regularly vacuumed! This is going to be a very good thing. The carpet on my stairs is so happy now. I think I hear it humming. Or is that the 7o's music from the TV?

My mother-in-law just called. She is on her way here from Indiana and she is not going to spend the night with us. She will be here around 1pm and she's going to leave as soon as she can to get back to her Sweet Home Alabama. She is anxious to get home. Plus no one is Alabama will be able to water her plants for her after today so there's a race against time. Big E will be disappointed; he wanted her to come to his ballgame tonight. She doesn't much care for our ballpark anyway. At least I don't have to feel bad about serving left overs tonight. We have some "good" leftovers and I hate not to use them. So since it'll just be us and we'll be sprinting out the door to the ballpark, I see leftovers in our future.

I am so excited! My Rainbow Resource order is supposed to show up today. Ya-hoo! Why does new curriculum excite me? Why does a new, pristine planner just thrill my soul? I assure you, these feelings die down dramatically after a day or two of schooling. But today they are exciting and new and I will enjoy them to the fullest.

I must go now and get myself dolled up to great this wonderful delivery!

Over the Edge

Three cheers for Peace Hill Press. These are the people that publish Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World curriculum. We will be moving on to Vol. 2 this fall. I told you I ordered it this week (I think it was Tuesday night, to be exact) and it came today: the text and the two copies of all the student pages. (I didn't order the activity book from them because it was a much better deal at Rainbow Resource.)

I am SO GLAD I ordered the student pages. I didn't do that last year. I just ordered the activity book and had to make my own copies of the student pages for my students. This is going to be so nice. They are all there, holes punched and everything. All I have to do is put them in a folder. This past year I was making copies as we went, sometimes not having a map or a page copied when we needed it. I hated going to the library just to make copies. This is so easy. And I think it was about $10 each for the entire year's worth of pages. I think that is well worth it. I'm so thrilled. Can you tell?

This is just one small way
I am trying to make school
and life in general
easier on us all
during this pregnancy.

I asked a friend for some advice the other day---this is a friend who I don't know as well as I would like but we just have a hard time getting together, but she is someone who I think highly of and whose company I greatly enjoy. Anyway, I asked her for some advice and she sent me this message that was just so nice and so exactly what I needed to hear. This may sound ridiculous, but she was telling me a lot of the things that I often hear myself telling other women (young mothers, new mothers). It was just so nice to hear it being told to me. I could have hugged her! I mean, reading her words was like a deep breath of fresh clean air. Invigorating. Refreshing. Encouraging. I don't know how else to explain it. She even quoted back verses to me that I have used with others but seem to forget when it comes to applying them to myself (do you ever do that?). The verse from Isaiah that says He (Jesus, the Shepherd) will gently lead those who are with young has just been running through my head a lot since reading her encouraging words for me. I feel like I am in that place right now. I don't need deep Bible study right now or anything demanding on my life. I need to be gently led and how lovely that I have that Gentle Shepherd to lead me along plain paths, directing my steps and showing me the way.

"His yoke is easy and His burden is light."

And now let me yell about one thing: Why can't people just be honest?!?!?! I just got off the phone with someone who does this to me all the time. I can tell she just doesn't want to do this thing, but instead of saying "I don't want to do that" she has to make this whole big excuse of why it will not possibly work and it's totally beyond her control (which, by the way, is just a bunch of bull because her "excuse" doesn't hold water at all!). I know she just doesn't want to look selfish by simply saying that she doesn't want to do it, but wouldn't that be better than telling this big scam of a tale that makes her look like a liar? Isn't honesty the best policy?

Could you tell that was yelling even in lower case letters? I declare, if I don't get off of these hormones pretty soon, I am going to end up in a fist fight with someone. Talk about mood swings---and it's the medication, I know. It says basically that it will make you crazy and moody and so tired that you better not drive the car or the Bobcat. And it makes me get SO AGGRAVATED when I do get aggravated. What would normally annoy me has me YELLING at my 1.5 dear readers who do not deserve to be yelled at. Everything is to the extreme. And don't say it's just the pregnancy. It's not. I've been through this three times already. I was not like this. It is the stupid hormones.

Oh boy. Door to door sales man. Just what I need. Let me go attend to this.

Monster Trucks and Phones in the Bathroom

We had more rain last night!
My garden is so happy.
My grass is so happy.
And I am so happy
because Lloyd Dobbler is not outside
watering either of those things right now
and running up a ridiculous water bill.
So everyone is happy here.

Last night when it was raining cats and dogs, I decided to take a nice relaxing bath. The kids were all asleep and Lloyd Dobbler had gone to pick up a trailer from a friend and make a pit stop at the store. So I got into my nice warm bath with my Grace Livingston Hill book. I had been in there a while when the telephone began to ring. Sometimes I will bring the phone in with me, but I hadn't done that last night, so I just decided to let it ring. Whoever was calling me at 10pm could just leave a message. I wasn't going to break my neck getting out of the tub to get there in time for them to hang up. About two minutes later, the telephone rang again. I stuck to my same plan. I figured I could go downstairs and check the machine when I got out of the tub. It was a minute or two after this that I heard Lloyd Dobbler coming into the house. When he made his way upstairs, he said he was so glad that I was soaking in the tub because that justified my not answering the phone. He had been the mystery caller---calling from the truck in the pouring rain because the battery on his garage door opener was dead. So he had to run through the rain.
But he's a better man for it.

Do you take the telephone with you

when you climb into a nice, relaxing bath?

That kind of goes against the idea of the relaxing,
peaceful escape of the bath. You don't want to be fending off
telemarketers and chatty friends when you are having
a Calgon moment.
By the way, I am still enchanted with the bath pillow
my lovely children gave me (with my help) for Christmas.
One of the best gifts ever
---I think this every time I take a bath.
One of those little luxuries in life
that just makes things lovely.

Lloyd Dobbler had to take my van to work today. This leaves me with the monster truck should I decide to go anywhere. I do need to go pay a bill in town....and it's at a drive through.....which means I will need to think about what I am doing. Have you ever tried to drive a monster truck through a small drive through? Not to mention I will have to dangle one of my children out the window to reach down to the little drawer that opens out to take your bill and your money---wonder if there will be room for the little drawer to open
once I squeeze that monster truck in that narrow space?

I kind of like driving the monster truck. It is so big. It's hard to park or to tell if you have run over someone or not, but it also gives you this feeling of power as you drive. You feel like other drivers respect you for your size....maybe even fear you if they are in a something like a mini cooper or a VW bug. You know you could drive right across the top of them.
Not that you ever would.

Let me tell you what I have done
in the kitchen this week to restore
a sense of beauty in there.

I have put a cloth tablecloth on the table.
My kids know when I have a cloth table
on the kitchen table, they better not be
laying down a half-eaten banana
or a stack of papers or a toy or a shoe on that table. They respect the cloth tablecloth.
So I have donned the table with one of my favorite faithful tablecloths, a green ticking pattern (made so cheaply thanks to Sir's Fabric) with a country-ish lace-ish runner down the middle and in the center of that, a vase of hydrangeas from our bushes out front. Just by doing this, the kitchen seems like a nicer place. People aren't dumping miscellaneous stuff on the table. A more pleasant, homey, summery atmosphere is created with this simple change.

I think keeping the dining table clutter-free
will require me to post a samurai warrior on guard around the clock.

I don't have to cook supper tonight. We are going over to eat with some friends. Woo-hoo! I think I will make the cookies I have meant to make all week.
Have I shared with you my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies recipe?

Where is that Speedy Delivery Man?

I did it.

I ordered all of our school stuff for the 2009-2010 school year
(all except one book that I hope to pick up
in person at a conference in July).
I have been toiling over this
for days. Thinking about it constantly.
I even wrote this big
long post talking about some of the choices
I made, but when I got
to the end of the big lost post I thought,
"Who would want to read this?"
And so I didn't post it.
But the educational loot is ordered
and I can't wait to get it,
to pile it up on the dining room table
and just smell the newness
and plan our school year.

I placed one of my orders on Tuesday
and I placed the second one (the big substantial one)
just minutes ago.
Do you think it will come today?
Should I go stand by the mailbox?

I'll give it another day.

I am always excited when the new stuff comes.
I also love it when the stores all have the school stuff out for the beginning of the school year. I love school supplies. And what a time to stock up! You can buy folders and packs of notebook paper for like ten cents each. You can find new gadgets each year that you never even knew you needed until your eyes fall on it there in the store and it's like a shaft of light shines down from heaven: "Must have the glow-in-the-dark staple remover/address book!"
I need to go through my drawers now
and see how much stuff I have that I haven't used yet.
I need to clear out stuff in every room of this house!
I need to get a big black garbage bag and start loading it down
with stuff for Goodwill.
Last night I got into a mood of this.
Cleaned off counter tops in the kitchen and butler's pantry. We are like magnets for all kinds of paperwork and junk mail and worthless junk of every kind. It just amazes me. I threw away so much stuff, but there's still so much. I wish I was one of those neat orderly people who threw stuff away and never had issues with clutter. I do throw stuff away but there's always more.
And it accumulates.
Boy, does it ever accumulate.

I measured the width of the boys' beds today
and stood around in the bonus room
picturing different arrangements for that room.

I can't wait to find out the sex of this baby.


Guess what?!?!

It rained here today.

Hooray!!!
We are so thrilled.
We have been praying for rain.
And we got this amazing summer storm. Thunder, lightening, strong winds, the whole bit. It just blew up out of no where (well, not exactly---we had warning---Lloyd Dobbler called and told me how terrible the storm was in Nashville and how it was headed our way). The sun was shining and everything looked like a beautiful day. Then it struck out of no where. The skies grew scarily dark and the wind started blowing so hard. Then the rain came. The power even went off. It was a great storm. My kids were so enthralled. It prompted me to go downstairs and make a cup of tea and read the first two chapters of the Grace Livingston Hill book I checked out from the library.

Yes, you heard me.
Grace Livingston Hill.
I had never read any of her books and I thought I would just see what the enchantment with her writings are. This first one I am reading is one of the first ones she wrote and the foreword said the lack of polish and plot development would be obvious to her readers.
What a thing to write in a foreword!
"If you read this author's work before,
you will notice that this is not some of his best stuff."
Remind me not to have that person write a foreword for my novels.

You know what else amazes me about books written in generations past? The treatment of African-Americans. Not really the treatment because, at least in this book, they aren't actually involved in the story, but the way they are referred to and just some of the generalizations made about them. Already in the first two chapters she has made a statement or two in passing that just caused me to groan. Maybe that's just because things are so radically different in this day and age. But you read things like that and you realize how unfair things have been in the past.

This is why we cannot read the books about the Bobbsey Twins. I think I talked about this to you last summer when we were reading the first one of those books. They (the Bobbsey family) have this housekeeper that lives with them and she is a black lady, but it just kills me that they make her talk like Uncle Remus when the rest of the people in the book spoke perfectly normal. They made her say dumb things or seem simple-minded, like the children would have to explain to her elements of the mystery they were solving. It was just so insulting. I would read what it said and then just translate it into normal words for my kids; I didn't want to read that sort of ignorant speaking and degrading characterization to my kids. They wouldn't get it.
I don't think they have any idea about racism.
They wouldn't even understand it.
And I am glad about that.


We are just enjoying such a lovely ordinary day here.
This is what I love about summertime, days like these.
We can be lazily productive.
Everything is more relaxed.
Less pressure.
And then a fabulous summer storm
to make the day even cozier and more enchanting.
How lovely.
I hope you are having an equally cozy, peaceful day.

No Longer

I love Dan Fogelberg. I think he was an amazing song writer and he had a great voice. I love many of his songs. And I love the song Longer. It was one of the songs at our wedding. I think it's a beautiful song. I just got so sick of it this week hearing it every time I got on this site. I can't bear to hear it again. So it's gone. I hope the song understands. I hope it realizes that we just need time apart. I still love it and I hope we will always be friends.

I also added the song Coming Around Again because I was thinking tonight about how things do go in cycles. Life is a circle. Don't imagine that I was thinking profound thoughts. Far from it. It was just that we had kind of moved away from Veggie Tales. I remember when I could sing every word from every song of all the Veggie Tale videos we had. But Lovely K and Big E had kind of moved out of that phase. Guess who is moving into it? Guess who is enchanted with the Veggie Tale videos now? Superbaby has loved Larryboy for some time now, but he just recently fell under the spell of the rest of the characters in the vegetable bin. I was fixing supper tonight singing along with "What's Up with Lyle?" and "We married Vikings. What do know? The terrors of the sea!" The Lyle video was always one of my favorite Veggie Tale videos. I love the show-tune feel it has. So we are back among the Veggies now. And I'm sure when the new baby is about three years old we will be breaking out the Veggie Tale videos again.

That's okay.

I like to talk to tomatoes.
A squash can make me smile.
I like to waltz with potatoes
up and down the grocery aisle.

Okay, I have a confession to make. I wore a maternity top today. It's a cute little one I picked up recently and it's not one I'll be able to wear throughout the whole pregnancy. It's made for those gals who never get that big, you know.....or for early pregnancy for the rest of us. But I did wear normal pants with the top. Buttoned and zipped and everything. And I wasn't in pain. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of these bigger sized clothes that had gotten too big for me. I am glad to have them to wear in this transitional period. And don't think that I am busting out all over. I'm not showing all that much. I wasn't in shape before I launched into this pregnancy so this is a first for me. Always before I had a relatively flat stomach so it was obvious when I started showing. It's not so obvious right now with my little cushion. But it'll get obvious. Don't worry.

I hope you are having a lovely day, Dear Reader. Soak in the sun. Hug your loved ones. Eat some chocolate. Enjoy the day. Smile. Be thankful. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

NPR and All That Jazz

Why is it that the ONE radio station I would like to pick up is so impossibly hard to pick up anywhere inside my house? And especially in the summer---occasionally in the winter we can pick it up if someone holds the end of the antenna in their teeth and a roll of aluminum foil in their hands. But it's the one station I want to have playing in the background. I can't pick it up lately for love nor money! Why is that? My car can pick it up. Why can't my house? We can pick up about 47 NPR stations all around where that station is on the dial---and a very annoying jazz station that I think it the main thing coming between me and my BBN. Stupid jazz.
Lloyd Dobbler said there's some other kind of antenna we can get that should pick it up (we already have one rigged up that obviously is NOT working for the ONE station that I want it to work on!!!). But that antenna is like $70 and if I paid that and it didn't work, I would just have to shave my head and sit in a pile of ashes.
And I realize I can listen on-line to this radio station, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I want it pouring out of the speakers in every room in my house while I am busy with other stuff, making a lovely, peaceful, helpful backdrop for the craziness of our lives. This computer is upstairs in my bedroom. I can't crank out the radio to the rest of the house from here. And I can't just sit here all day.....or can I?
I love this station. It plays songs I will never hear anywhere else, songs from my childhood, recordings that you can't purchase anywhere. They play Al Smith. They have The Sugar Creek Gang in the afternoon and Children's Bible Hour with Uncle Charlie. I love this radio station. There's one guy on there who talks about the ministries of the radio station and he really annoys me. Even the sound of his voice has begun to annoy me. But he's not on there much. Most of the deejays have these peaceful voices like they are hold overs from radio in the 1950's. Anyway.....I'm just saying....I wish I could pick up this station on the radios in my house.

This morning Big E came into my room first thing to tell me that he thought he'd left some little treasured toy of his outside last night. He then proceeded to recruit his little brother and they both went outside to find this toy. I don't know how long they looked. A few minutes later they were riding bikes in their jammies. Lovely K heard them and instead of lolling in her bed reading, she got and went out to ride her bike in her jammies also. So I made a quick, unhealthy breakfast that they love---cinnamon rolls---and balanced that with three glasses of milk, and I went outside with them. We all sat on the front steps in the lovely cool morning and ate our breakfast. It was very nice. I need to pay attention for more little moments like that, just to do something a little different and just to sit and enjoy the company of these little people who will not be little forever.

Big E finished his math yesterday! Wa-hooooo! I'm so glad. Lovely K has five pages left to do. Then we will just cruise through the rest of our history, which we enjoy, and we will have lovely leisurely days for the rest of the summer. Or so I hope. I ordered some of our stuff for the coming school year yesterday. The big chunk from Rainbow Resource was going to be ordered last night, but I keep hesitating. I don't want my pregnant brain to pull a fast one on me. I don't want to place my order only to find out I have left out something important. So I am making a list....checking it twice.....thrice even.... I have just done so many dumb things lately, forgotten so many things or done stuff halfway and then just walked off totally forgetting I am in the middle of something. You should see the look on Lloyd Dobbler's face when one of these events happens. I imagine it's the look that crazy people get from their caregivers.

I hope no one is looking at you like you are crazy today.

Oh yeah---last night Lloyd Dobbler tells me
that he hasn't ordered the camera yet.
He's still toying with getting the super deluxe model.

Sigh.

Why must he torment me in this way?!?!

Love Shack?

I finished reading The Shack and I told you guys that I'd tell you what I thought of it when I was done. Hmmmm. And now I am sitting here trying to decide what my thoughts are about that book.


There were times when I was reading it when I was thinking "I love this book!" And there were so many times when I was reading it when I was making a list in my head of people I knew who would throw the book into the fire if they read it. I would not recommend this book to anyone who was not a believer, grounded in their faith and doctrine. If you know what you believe and what the Bible says, you can note the things that are "wrong" and just get on with the story. It is a great story. But my fear is that people who are not believers or who are completely ignorant of the Bible will read it and take it as something other than a work of fiction. Some people can read things and not fall hook, line and sinker for whatever it says. Some cannot.


It was like my brother the other day telling me how much he enjoyed reading those Davinci books that were so scandalous a while back. He enjoyed them because they were so well written and contained excellent elements of suspense and mystery. He was saying he didn't understand why people in the church (or should I use the term "evangelicals" here?) were so upset about them: they are FICTION. But at the same time we know some people will read them and think that what they say is true (like about Jesus having a child).

I don't want to get into what the things were that I had problems with. You can read it if you want to see for yourself. It is a very well-written story. It does cause you to think about the humanity of Jesus Christ and the relationship of the Godhead. And let me just say that Mrs. Pregnant-and-hopped-up-on-extra-hormones cried a couple of times in the book. The whole part about the daughter Missy will just break your heart because you know that it is a very real situation for many parents and how horrid it must be in reality. But Mrs. Pregnant-and-hopped-up-on-extra-hormones can tear up about anything right now. Cried at the wedding Saturday. Cry at commercials. I remember when I was pregnant with Lovely K and I happened to be watching The Price is Right one morning and I just cried when this lady won the Showcase Showdown because she seemed poor and so thrilled and grateful to be winning the stuff. So yes, I cried at certain points of this book.

Isn't this the WORST book review ever written? I'm having a hard time thinking about the book at this moment. I'm sitting here listening to the sound of my boys running circles in the bonus room and the Association singing "Never My Love" and I'm wishing that I'd gotten shower when my eyes first opened at six o'clock. Because heaven forbid that those boys of mine sleep until some late hour like seven. I think it's because the sun rises at two o'clock in the morning now that they are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so early.

Or it's this house.
The kids all slept later at the old house. We moved here and Lovely K and Big E were in Alabama with their grandmother for a few days. Starting the very first morning here, Superbaby woke up at 5:00 am. Imagine my surprise at this change in behavior. And he kept getting up that early for a long time. So I guess he is sleeping in later than he did. But as one of you pointed out yesterday, they don't really "sleep in" by most people's standards.

Speaking of the bonus room, which has been the "play room" for us in this house since we moved in----I am trying to figure out how to configure things this winter in anticipation of Quarto's arrival. My MIL made this suggestion when she was hear Friday and I didn't like it at first. But the more I think about it, the more I like it.

The idea is moving the boys into the bonus room
and leaving their room for a nursery for the first year or two of Quarto's life. I always had "a nursery" in the other house. When Superbaby was born, Big E and Lovely K shared the other bedroom at the old house so that Superbaby could have "the nursery."
I do like having a room just for the baby.
I put the four thousand year old brown chair in there
(I have nursed all my babies in that comfy chair
and I love it even if it does look pitiful)
and it's great to be able to go in and
close the door and do whatever
you have to do
in the middle of the night with the baby without
waking up the rest of the family.
So that's shaping up like a plan.
The bonus room is a large room
and would easily fit the boys' beds
(as bunks or as two twins)
with room for everything
that is already in there anyway.
And the curtains we made
for that room look masculine
---the print is like old world maps.

This arrangement would have all of us sleeping on the
same level
in the house and leave the guest room for visitors.
I'm thinking this will be what we do.
Now I'm hoping we have all the
pieces to the baby bed left and that I can find
a second hand brown Jenny Lind-style
changing table to replace the one we've had
(because it has given up the ghost).

We have so much we want to get done this summer.
We hope to finish the
"family room" in the basement.
Lloyd Dobbler is now acting
like he wants to get
the deck built off of the back porch
(I would prefer getting
all the INSIDE stuff done
before pouring time and energy
and money into that).
There's a piece of furniture
for Lovely K's room
that has been waiting in the basement
to get painted for two years
and I would really like to
get it done and in her room.
I wish I had done it myself
when I first bought it.
A less-than-perfect paint job
would have been better than
a two year wait and still no furniture.
We have repairs to make
on the house with the money
we finally got from the contractor.
I'm sure there are 157 major things
I'm not even thinking of right now.
But funny how my top priority has become suddenly
moving the boys beds and changing their room into a nursery.

I always loved having the nursery ready
a month or more before the baby was born
because I would just go in there and sit
in my ugly brown chair
and read or journal or just sit and feel that new baby
tap-dancing on my innards.

And see, now I am excited about having "a nursery." I can paint it and decorate it and fix it up for this new baby. That'll be fun. So while I'm homeschooling six days a week and going to the doctor every third day this fall, I'll be pouring all my spare time into that.

No really, that IS the fun part for me and I will enjoy it.

Has anyone noticed
the Laverne & Shirley theme song?
Or the Air Supply songs?
Where else can you go from Canon in D
to TV theme songs
and Air Supply?
Talk about changing gears.

And I hope those songs with "ordinary" in the title are not
horrible songs. I haven't checked them out myself yet.
I just tacked them on there yesterday when I was short on time.
If I ever put up a song that just makes you NAUSEATED,
feel free to tell me.
I might remove it.
Or I might just explain to you which button to push
to skip to the next song.
Ooooh.
I just heard song #16,
the first Ordinary Days song and I like it.
It's this odd instrumental.
I do like it.

Okay---I'm getting in the shower now.
We have to get on the "finish your math" treadmill
again today. Sigh. I need to get all cleaned up
and pretty for that.
Do you other moms do the hair
and make up and the whole bit
every morning, even on days when you know
you aren't going anywhere?

Just wondering.