*NOTE: If Courtney S. reads this (you know who you are!), please leave a comment so I know you’ve found the blog. Thanks!)

**ANOTHER NOTE: For some reason I never published this post till now, even though I wrote it days ago. Sorry. Thanks for reminding me, Fran!

I’m just going to toss these photos up here and not bother with captioning them, just because I am tired of sitting at this computer. My kids are tired of me sitting at this computer, too!

We also have lots of pictures of the kids with their friends from camp, old and new, but I didn’t feel right about putting pics of other people’s kids on the internet without their permission. Not everyone is as comfortable with having an internet presence as I am. So yeah.

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, the first time without Brian and the kids, the second time without Brian. I’m tired. I missed my family! And I missed sleeping in my own bed (made me think perhaps my bed is a bit of an idol for me…hmm…).

I thought I’d toss up a few pictures of my travels for you.

If you looked at our dirty laundry pile, you’d think we were a family of twelve. I won’t post a picture of it, to save your delicate sensibilities. This lack of available clothing has forced my son to wear outfits that do not include sweatpants and sweaters. Today, for instance, he is wearing a cotton turtleneck and a pair of fleece pants. Both are too small for him. He has well-fitting clothing in his dresser and closet, but those things have buttons, snaps, and zippers. Too much trouble. Instead, he is going for the “last night I added 4 inches to my arms and legs” look. But that’s fine. We homeschool. I am happy he is out of his pajamas.

The laundry crisis has not really affected Miss Prissy Pants. She recently received a massive load of hand-me-downs from a friend, straight from their dresser drawers to ours. Our girl can wear the knees out of any number of flowered, striped, or solid pants and has a turtleneck shirt for every day of the week. Plus, I had just gotten her a new package of underwear, so she is totally good to go. The clothes came just in time, too. I had, just the week before, cleaned out her wardrobe and sent a bag to a different, smaller friend and I wondered what she was going to wear from now on.

Seeing how I don’t do laundry anymore.

But wait! I am actually washing clothes right this very minute! Drying them, too. Isn’t it fun to do laundry? I mean, you can type away at the computer while you are doing housework. What could be nicer? Maybe listening to sermons while you do the dishes. But you still can’t do that from the couch.

Am I lazy?

Ahem. Don’t answer that.

My washer and dryer are silent now. Off I go to continue making dirty things clean and clothing my family. A mother’s work is never done. Or something like that.

These books are getting my son to read on his own. I love them for that.

Guess who is soon to follow?

If you haven’t read these books, you should go to your library and get one. They are fun. Plus, if you read them, you can be in on the inside jokes. Then you’ll be cool, like us.

Not that you shouldn’t be able to see a scene like this in any household with small children. But I like to attribute our homeschooling to our love for our children. And our love for silliness.

Other things to note:

• snow still present in the yard.
• art project in the window.
• lots of books on the messy [well-used] bookshelves.
• blocks.
• toolbox full of Legos.
• laundry not put away.
• Carcassonne game on the end table.
• boy-kid sitting on the arm of the couch, which is forbidden.
• girl-kid wearing shorts (see #1).
• homeschooly outfits worn by the children (would you send your kid to school looking like that?).
• oh yeah, and the hat quite willingly worn by Daddy.
• although I didn’t check with him about his desire to have this particular photo posted on my blog for all to see.

Our family is fun.

the intergalact[?] poem

it’s not a lot to me;
there’s no pictures in this one.
on the back there is,
but not today.
the pictures we will write in,
in 15 years;
in 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 years.
the days turned into many and many and many more years till it was Egypt time.

“I’m making a poem,” Acadia announced. Several times. Then she “wrote” this poem on the back of a drawing she’d done. (She makes words by doing the wavy lines kids call writing.) After she “read” it to me, she said, “Isn’t this one cool? It has Egypt in it.” She loves talking about Egypt and Pharaoh, for some reason. I am not sure what it is about it that appeals to her so much. I mean, it’s fascinating stuff, but she’s 4.

Racing past me down the stairs, Acadia yelled, “Quick! Run! Oh, the humanity!”

I can’t give home schooling credit for this one. They’ve been watching Animaniacs.

And she can spell and write her name now, as you can see!

Our answer to the question, “What have you been up to lately?”

…But we all know what it really is.

A squirrel dining station.

These pictures (taken by Lisa) offer evidence that it is not the innocent chickadees who are gnawing through my wooden spoon and the seltzer bottle to which it’s attached.

Note: If you would like a feeder of your own like this, the instructions appear on the Family Fun website. I, of course, did not follow the instructions to the letter. I consider directions, recipes, and rules of all sorts as merely a guideline for my yankee-bred, leatherman-usin’, crazy-for-homeschoolin’ creativity. So there.