World of Coca-Cola trip

About a week ago I decided we needed to break out of our routine and do something fun and different.

When you're homeschooling, the term used for that is a "Field Trip."

The local children's museum was having a Curious George exhibit, and we decided to go first thing Friday morning.

I printed out directions. I packed a lunch. I got the kids excited.

Then on Friday morning, Robert said, "I just realized ... it's flu season ... the children's musuem is going to be a huge germfest. I don't think you should go."

And so much sobbing and shrieking and sulking and angry faces were heard and seen over breakfast.

However, I had a Good Mom Moment, and was able to think on my feet and come up with a Plan B:

We would visit the World of Coca-Cola Museum.

Even better -- we would ride MARTA to get there!




It turned out to be quite fun. Embarrassingly, I have only ridden MARTA once or twice before, and I rarely go downtown, so it was an experience for me as well. We arrived at one station, and then went home via a different station, so we got to pretend we were City People and did a fair amount of walking. We ate our lunch in the Olympic Park, near the fountain. It was fun.

Oh yeah, and then there was the Coke Museum ...

It was not bad. The kids enjoyed things like seeing the Coke Bear, the 4-D movie (well, it scared Benjamin, but the girls liked it), and the gift shop ... oh, and of course tasting all the different Cokes.

My favorite part (what a surprise) was watching all the commercials. Rebecca eventually -- and literally -- dragged me out of there.

And when flu season is over, we'll make plans to go to the children's museum.

YES!!

I apologize. I really do.

But I so, so, so love it when I feel like I've had a productive day. So please, let me talk just one more time about how helpful Managers of Their Homes was today.

We had not been doing the "MOTH schedule" for a few weeks (intentionally) because we had VBS and dance rehearsals and doctor visits and some other things. But today we got back on it, and again I am just struck by how much we accomplished.

It is 6:15 pm as I type this. This is what we did today:

- Washed all bedsheets in the house and got them all back on all the beds;

- Rachael did one math worksheet and one phonics worksheet

- Rachael and I did both All About Spelling and Easy Grammar together

- Rachael read her American Girl magazine

- The girls and I read two books that we had done Five in a Row unit studies with earlier this year (Gramma's Walk and Miss Rhumphius)

- The girls and I later finished reading The Doll House by Rumer Godden (I liked it more than they did; perhaps they'll like it a bit better when they're older)

- The girls put away two loads of clean laundry

- The kids and I went to the pool for about two hours

- Rebecca and I worked with Perler beads (aka "fuse beads")

- Rebecca, Benjamin, and I played Candy Land (well, uh ... our version of it ...)

- The girls and I made a noodle kugel for dinner (yes, I know that's a strange dinner, but it's like that Bill Cosby routine: "Eggs! Eggs are in kugel! And cottage cheese! And wheat!")

- The girls and I made Monkey Bread -- It's ready to be put in the oven first thing in the morning

- The girls and made pineapple upside-down cake (from scratch -- ooh!) I'll put that in the oven while we're eating dinner

- I read a Mother Goose book to Benjamin before his nap

- I washed a load of towels (although I have not put them away yet)


Not to mention that I also took a 30-minute nap, and got to play the piano for about 10 minutes.

And don't forget, I don't even wake up very early -- usually around 7:30 pm.

After dinner, I'm hoping to whip up some homemade play-doh with the kids -- ya know, the kind where you add Kool Aid to give it color (and a nice smell). I've never done that with Benjamin yet. We'll see. I would love to work out after the kids are in bed, but I think that may be asking too much.

Yes, I feel good. Today was definitely a good day.

Crazy crazy busy week

I wrote last year about how exhausting the week of VBS was. Well, this year was even worse!

I dropped the girls off at church every morning at 9:00 (which, frankly, was somewhat of a challenge in itself). Then I had a little over two and a half hours to run around with Benjamin doing things like:

* Car emmissions
* Grocery shopping
* Benjamin's pediatrician check-up
* Library (twice)
* Laundry
* Returning things to Kohl's (twice)
* Dropping off some resumes at wedding venues (I am a pianist, if you didn't know)


Okay, then pick girls back up at noon, make everybody lunch, home for the rest of the day ....

Except Wednesday.

Oh, and Thursday.

On Wednesday both girls had their dance dress rehearsals at Georgia Tech. Rebecca's was at 2:00 pm, and Rachael's was at 5:00 pm.

So ... on Wednesday, when I went to pick the girls up at church at noon, I packed Rebecca's costume and hair bows, brought a cooler with lunches for everybody, we ate lunch at the church playground, then drove straight to Tech, had Rebecca change, sat through her rehearsal, had her change back, we all drove home, then Rachael got her hair and costume ready, her friend's mother came and picked her up, and she went to her rehearsal, then they went to the Varsity for dinner, and Rachel got home at bedtime.

Whew.

Then on Thursday I had to come home and make brownies to bring to the VBS evening cookout, and then we had to go to the VBS evening cookout, and ... well, now it's Friday and everything over. Except that the girls' dance recitals are tomorrow, and Rachael's is in the morning and Rebecca's is in the evening, so ... well, it's not quite over yet, is it?

I get the impression that some parents live like that all the time. Thank goodness we don't.

Meanwhile, here is Rebecca at her rehearsal:


She looked a little like Cindy Brady, I thought.



Here she is with another girl in her dance class.



Rachael instantly made friends with the other girl's older sister, who she had never met before.



And of course Benjamin wanted to get it on all this too.

Another boring "What We Did Today" post ...

People either love these or hate these.

I'm mostly writing it because I always feel like I never accomplish anything and maybe it will help me feel more accomplished if I write it down.

Hopefully not too many of you will hate it. :)

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I have been getting a late start in the morning a lot lately and I hate it. Robert has been working late (I mean, hours late) just about every night for a couple weeks, so maybe I can partly blame it on that. It's hard for me to get up and going in the mornings.

I have a routine that every Thursday morning I strip our sheets the minute my feet hit the floor, so I started with that, and then got in the shower. Thursday is also trash day, but this was one of those weeks when I was on top of things enough to get the trash out on Wednesday. Yay for me!

I think it was about 9:40 am when everybody was dressed, beds made, breakfast eaten and table cleared, teeth brushed. Oh wait, Benjamin is using the potty this week, so he didn't get dressed. :)

We started "schoolwork" today with a Math-U-See video lesson. These are about 5-8 minutes long. If you're familiar with the program, we are in Alpha, Lesson 24, which is subtracting from 10. Rachael did the lesson worksheet, then went back and did some review pages from earlier lessons, which was her own idea. She also likes the timed tests, so I used the worksheet generator to make them for her and Rebecca.

Next I gave Rachael 4 new library books and told her to take them to the couch for "DEAR." (In school-speak, this is "Drop and Everything and Read." Rachael knows this term from books and from visiting school last year.) I set the timer for twelve minutes, and Rebecca and I did some Explode the Code phonics pages together on the couch.

After that, Rebecca got interested in something in her room, so I did some "All About Spelling" with Rachael. We just got this a couple weeks ago, and she seems to really like it. We sat on the couch to do stuff with the magnetic letter tiles, then to the kitchen table to write some of the words.

Everyone was getting hungry, so we had a snack of cheese cubes.

Then Rachael did her Explode the Code by herself -- only one page today (she is in Book 5), and then wrote in her journal, which is really copywork of something she dictated to me on an earlier day.

Then we did our Five in a Row unit. Today was an Art lesson, which is always a favorite. The book this week is Miss Rhumphias.



We talked about two things today -- how to show wind in a picture, and how to use multiple mediums. Rebecca used paint and mosaic stickers to show a windy picture. Rachael used paint to make a background, and when it dries, she'll draw in something with marker.

By then it is about one thirty in the afternoon. Gosh, I'm not very time-efficient, am I? None of this was as smooth as it reads. In-between all this I'm helping Benjamin use the potty, breaking up fights, putting the clean sheets back on the bed, getting the mail, and throwing in another load of laundry.

Now it's time for a late lunch, which we have in the backyard. At about three, I bring Benjamin in for a nap. (First we read Mother Goose, then Goodnight Moon, as always.) Then the girls and I read a chapter in one of the "Kit Kittredge" books, and then we all have we call "Room Time."

Actually, it doesn't sound like very much, but I feel worn out.

A stay-at-home day

Sadly, we don't have too many stay-at-home days.

Actually, the sad part is not that we don't have them more often, but that we don't have the option for them very often. The girls have weekly dance classes, and we all attend a weekly Bible study. Add to that things like grocery shopping, our Endless Doctor Visits, and occasional rehearsals for me, and we're all running around more than I would like to.

But today it was was raining, and we stayed home, and it was nice.

This morning we made cut-out Christmas cookies. Benjamin got his own wad of dough and had fun playing with the cutters as well.

Rachael did her ETC (phonics) and is supposedly doing her math right now.

I washed the sheets and did a load of laundry and we cleaned up the playroom, which was a disaster area. Is there anyone else who often has a room go from Perfectly Tidy to Disaster Area in less than thirty minutes?

We ate mac and cheese for lunch (yuck, not my first choice, but we have practically no food in the house) while watching Little House on the Prairie. We had read a few of the books together and then got Season One of the show, and we really like it.

Our "book study" for this week is Jan Brett's The Wild Christmas Reindeer. We already read it today, and hopefully in a little while I will muster up some energy to make Reindeer Cookies with pretzel sticks for antlers and M&Ms for nose and eyes.

Recovering after VBS

The girls went to Vacation Bible School at our church last week. It was a good thing. Rebecca was reluctant, but I think she enjoyed it. They liked the songs a lot, and they enjoyed seeing their older friends (and adult friends) throughout the day as teachers and helpers.

But man, did it wear me out! We were late every day, no matter how hard I tried to leave with extra time. Then I barely had to run an errand or something with Benjamin, then it was time to go get them again ... then some days one or both girls seemed to need to "decompress" a bit and were cranky ... oh my gosh, I'm glad they did it, but I'm so glad it's over.

Yeah, yeah, I know, "you get used to it when it's a regular thing." Well, maybe. But I think I would just self-combust after a few weeks of that.

This morning we are recovering.

Rebecca slept til 9:40 am. I lifted some weights while watching Hannah Montana with Rachael. It's almost 10:30 am and I guess I need to shower and get dressed when I'm done typing. Our "big plan" of the day is to go shopping for a friend's birthday present. That's enough.

Just another one of those posts about our day

I usually talk about cleaning the fridge; today my Big Accomplishment was clearing out and vacuuming out the van. Mmm ... much nicer!

The girls both went to the dentist today, which thanks to our great dentist, is a fun, easy breeze for both of them. The big challenge was keeping Benjamin away from the sink, and listening to his screams when I took him away from it.

Rachael colored in a picture they hung on the wall and entered in their "Coloring Contest."

After that we went to School Box. Rachael wanted a journal, Rebecca wanted a dot-to-dot book, and I bought two Geoboards, which the girls worked on in the car. I remembered that I had a coupon for a free Creation at Cold Stone Creamery because yesterday was Benjamin's birthday, so we got that and split it four ways.

Since we got home the girls have been playing school for hours and I've been rushing around trying to clean up. I cleared some things out of my desks, made a give-away bag, that kind of thing.

Apparently Rachael is the kindergarten teacher and Rebecca is a student. Rachael wrote the schedule on a piece of paper, and every now and then I hear her announce, "Okay, class, line up!" or say that it's snacktime or mathtime or something.

One time Benjamin got into their room and Rachael brought him to me and said, "Nursery teacher, one of your children got out."

Rachael's Journal

One of Rachael's favorite gifts when she turned six was an Ariel Journal that a good friend of mine gave her.

This morning was one of those slow, difficult mornings for me to get up, when I'm grateful to God that I don't somehow have to get Rachael on a bus down the street at 7:10 am. So Rachael wrote in her journal while she waiting for me to wake up:

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MAY 5 2008

HI IM RACHAEL AND I DONT MIND IF I TELL YOU A SOREO TODAY
TODAY WE ARE GOWING TO CVS TO PRINT OWT PICHRS THEN MICLS BY SUM SCRAP BOOKING SUF THEN WR GENU SPRED OT EVFTHING AND S.B.

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And she's right, that is exactly what we're planning to do today ... um, once I get showered and dressed.

A nice full day

I'm not sure what happened yesterday -- and I'm afraid it might not ever happen again! -- but I had an unusual burst of energy and we had a great day and got all kinds of things done.

Rachael and I had a "piano lesson" before Rebecca woke up. She learned a piece out of the Faber Primer and we did the duet. Later in the day she was playing the same song and singing the words with it.

Rebecca and I worked together on an Usborne Math Sticker book.

Rachael played with Legos before we left to go to a homeschool Lego Club, and then Rebecca played with Legos after we got home. Interestingly, neither girl touched a Lego while we were actually at the Lego Club.

I read to both girls a chapter from the Fairy Realm series, and a chapter from a Junie B Jones book.

At the Lego Club, the girls did crafts while the boys did Legos. (That was not the rule or anything; just what the kids chose to do.)

Rebecca made a few construction paper "prize ribbons" and Rachael made the front and back cover for a book called .... Tinkerbell and Friends? Something like that. After the Lego/craft time, we had lunch together and kids played outside for a while. It was fun; it was our first time, and we'll hopefully do it again.

On the way home, Rachael really really wanted her own Bible, so we stopped at Family Christian and got her one. She was very excited about it. We were lucky to find a pink Princess Bible that came with fabric markers, and when we got home she colored in the picture. Wow ... I never knew a Princess Bible was an option when I was a kid! :)

The girls dug for earthworms outside in the afternoon. Rebecca said they found two.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but maybe that's it. I did a load of laundry as well.

I know I didn't mention Benjamin at all ... he just kind of goes along with what we're doing, entertaining himself with something. Lately he's learned to get the carton of half and half from the fridge, open it and drink it, and I swear he says, "Mmm, good!"

Yes, you'll be making a note not to drink coffee at our house. Actually, we use the half and half to put in our oatmeal, so you might not want to eat oatmeal here either.

Move Over Rachael Ray ... Here comes Rebecca!

Rebecca informed us several weeks ago that when she gets big, she wants to have a job making food.

Rachael immediately asked, "Will you own a restaurant, or be on TV?"

"Both," Rebecca said simply. (Actually, it sounded like bowf.)

Saturday night Robert invited over an old friend from our wedding, Mike, and as luck would have it, I had ingredients in the house to make Sopapilla Cheescake, a new recipe my SIL had sent me ... um ... about a year and a half ago.

So Rebecca and I had a reason to go ahead and make it!

And it was gooood ... it was one of those foods that, if you don't go into a Sugar Coma or have a heart attack on the spot while eating it ... well, it's gooood ...

As we were all eating, Rebecca smiled, looked around the kitchen table, and announced, "You're welcome, everyone, for the food!"

We almost looked like normal homeschoolers today!

This morning I was thinking we actually looked like a "normal," traditional homeschooling family. :)

I woke up (I slept later than usual and was very groggy this morning) and found Rachael sitting on the couch, reading The Berenstain Bears and No Girls Allowed out loud. She continued to read when I sat down next to her.

A couple times she hesitated on a word and I told her what it was. After I did this about three times, Rachael said very patiently, "Mom, sometimes I just get a little confused about where I am and just need a little more time."

She finished the entire book.

[Just for the sake of honest disclosure, she has heard this story about 5-6 times before.]

Stephanie will be so disappointed in me, but I looked up what Reading Level the book was. I couldn't find that exact title, but the BB series appear to be listed at a third grade level. (Rachael just turned seven a couple weeks ago.)

We all stayed in the kitchen after breakfast. (That's what normal homeschoolers often do, right?)

Rachael printed several coloring pages off the Internet from the movie "Enchanted" (with my help.) She put them in order, colored them, made a front and back cover out of pink construction paper, and trimmed another coloring page and taped it on the cover. Right now she's writing words to go with the pictures, while everybody watches "Wiggly Safari." (Ooh, and that's also like "normal homeschoolers," in that it's no TV til the afternoon, and "educational TV" ... ooh, and the kids are going to the zoo tomorrow, so we can say it's a Unit Study! I didn't even think of that!)

As Rachael was working on this (which of course was totally her own idea), she exclaimed, "I've got a big morning project today!"

Rebecca dug out a few maze books and a book called "Summer Skills" that has real colorful workbook pages that she likes a lot and worked on that in the kitchen as well, some with my help and some without.

[BTW, a lot of times people ask if unschoolers can, should, or do use workbooks. The best answer I've ever heard is: Yes, but we use them the same way you would a coloring book.]

Meanwhile Benjamin found a small rubber ball he was bouncing around in the kitchen, and he was pretty happy.

Our interesting, full, unschooling day

I was just reading last night that, to be a successful unschooling family, you need to live an interesting life. Today seemed like an interesting day:

While I was getting breakfast ready, I laid several flashcards of the 220 Dolch Sight Words on the table and suggested the girls play a game together where they each take turns taking two cards that they can name.

This quickly evolved into the girls using tracing paper to trace several words onto a few pieces of paper in a sort of random design, then xeroxing it, decorating the words with markers, then setting up a store "selling words," complete with store sign and price tags.

At 10:30 am we all went to a toddler music class. Technically it's Benjamin's class, but he mostly just looks around, sometimes tries to reach the light switch, and wants to be held. When I handed him a scarf to dance with, he shook his head no. The girls like the class even though it's for one and two year olds. They see themselves as helpers.

Then we went through the bank drive-thru and to Jiffy Lube to get an oil change. The kids got to watch some Barney while we waited for the oil change. I'm pleased to see that Rachael is close to seven and still enjoys Barney and has no disdain for it. Benjamin is twenty months old and doesn't seem to have any real interest in TV yet.

Rebecca (age four) has been telling me for days that she hasn't had candy in a while, and we need to go to the candy store. Both girls brought their purses, which have several coins in them.

I know Rachael knows that four quarters make a dollar. She knows how to recognize all the coins, and how many cents each is worth. I know Rebecca also knows at least some of that.

Anyway, we head to Fuzziwigs at the Avenue. Rachael has just enough money to buy a pack of lemonade-flavored Hubba Bubba, and Rebecca has just enough to buy three big gummi/jellied dolphins. I also buy some Jelly Belly jellybeans for all of us to share.

Since it's lunchtime by now, we go next door to Johnny Rockets, which we've never been to before, for burgers and fries and flavored sodas. We all get cherry flavored soda(in retrospect, I should have gotten vanilla.) Rachael said it "too much cherry" and we were able to exchange it for a regular Coke. I wasn't thinking, and got too kids' meals as well as something for myself. Way, way too much food.

The people in the booth next to us had a German Shepherd under the table and I asked if they would mind talking to the girls about it. They were both very nice. The blind man looked to be about twenty years old and said he went blind about six years ago after surgery for a brain tumor. He said most blind people prefer to have a cane instead of a dog, because having a dog is such a big responsibility. But he said that, for him, it's been great.

When we got home, I put Benjamin down for a nap and me and the girls had "booktime," where I read aloud to them on the couch.

Rachael picked Snow White out of her Disney Treasury book. Rebecca picked a Sesame Street magazine. She pointed out to me a page in the middle of the story (of about 3-4 paragraphs) that she said she was able to read to herself yesterday. I asked her if she wanted to read it to me now, and she said no.

[I have the feeling she is learning to read but prefers to keep it kind of private for now. For example, there were two days about a week ago that she got my paperback copy of Anne of Green Gables, announced that she was going to read her book now, and then sat for about five or ten minutes looking at it. That must mean significant to her.]

Then the girls went down the the playroom while I'm sitting here typing and Baby Ben continues to nap. Rachael just drew a picture called "Stagestruck" to send to SS magazine in the hopes they will print it.

This weekend I got the Disney movie Cinderella out of the library, so maybe we'll watch that later. We watched it about a year ago and Rachael was scared of the cat. But, she told me, she's older now and maybe it will be okay.

In addition to that I somehow managed to wipe down the fronts of several kitchen cabinets and do two loads of laundry. (Although the laundry hasn't been put away yet, so I guess that doesn't quite count.) Mondays usually tend to be my most productive days.

Cinderella lives here

Rachael is playing at being Cinderella today. She set up a "bed" for herself by the fireplace and is cleaning the house ... sweeping the floor, putting things away, etc, without me even saying anything.

So this is a good game for me! :)

It's also a good game for Rebecca, who gets to throw things on the floor when she's done with them and say, "Cinderella will take care of it."

What's funny is that I'm supposed to be the Evil Stepmother, and it's hard for me to be mean. I keep wanting to say things like, "Oh, thanks, Cinderella, it looks great!" but that doesn't sound very evil, now does it? I keep having to do the George Costanza thing of following the opposite of my instinct.

To use schoolish terms, we've been doing a "Cinderella Unit Study." We were talking about how the Disney versions are different from the original version, and that prompted me to check out a whole bunch of Cinderella stories from the library, including the DVD CinderElmo. (Which has Kerri Russell as the Princess, Kathy Bates as the stepmother, and French Stewart - from Third Rock - as the dog who becomes a coachman.

If you like humorous fairy tale satires, check out CinderEdna and Chickerella.

Productive Day or not?

It helps to think of each day as having its own personality.

I'm constantly going back and forth between trying to be ultra-efficient and get plenty done, and letting myself relax a bit and just do whatever comes up. And I tend to judge my worth as a person by how much I accomplished or whether I'm doing enough.

I ALWAYS feel like I'm not doing enough.

My husband is an ultra-doer. He is never without his clipboard with his to-do list. His idea of a good weekend is cleaning out the garage or spending 3 hours doing yardwork, so I feel like next to him, I seem really lazy!

Anyway, it occured to me this morning that it helps me to accept that the days are different and both are good in different ways.

Monday felt like a productive day. By 9:00 am I was pleased to see that I was showered and dressed, bed made, everyone fed (except me, oops!), dishwasher unloaded, had actually cleaned out and scrubbed the shelves inside the fridge (!), and I had just put in a load of laundry.

Yes, 9:00 am is hardly early, but I do have three young children, and for me this was doing well.

At 9:40 am all three of us were the out the door for the girls' dentist appointments, after that we hit the library and Chik-fil-A for lunch. (I had a coupon, so lunch for the four of us was less than five dollars, yay.)

Now today, on the other hand...

At 9:20 am I was still unshowered, in my pajamas and glasses, and finally sitting down to have a cup of tea and Eggos while Baby Ben rummaged around in the cabinets and the girls watched "Waiting for Guffman." [Um, you let your four year old and six year old watch R-rated movies?? Well, they only watch the ending, and anyway that movie is extremely tame for being rated R.]

It's 9:45 as I type this, and I'm not sure when I'll get around to showering and getting dressed. I don't think today will be a laundry day. The only tangible things I've accomplished so far are making the bed, unloading the dishwasher, and bringing the trash to the curb (with Rebecca's company). So hey, I guess that's not too bad either.

We bought a steam vac just in time!

This would have been funny if I were, say, watching in on TV instead of living it.

Saturday evening I went to a free outdoor concert behind the Art Place with Rachael. A friend that we were sitting with offered me both a Milano cookie and some hummus, which are two things I normally love, but for odd reason I frowned slightly and said no thanks. "I must have had a big dinner," I said. "I'm just not hungry."

That night at around 11:30 pm I woke up and tossed my cookies.

A few hours later I heard the same lovely sounds coming from my husband Robert.

And again. Me.

And again. Him.

And it's hard to remember much of anything after that ... I felt so horrible I could barely talk or get out of bed. I remember feeling like I wished I could die, I felt so awful.

I know my mother came over to watch the baby while my dad took the girls to his house.
I remember having a temperature of 100.4.

Then ... I remember being told that Rebecca had started throwing up repeatedly at my dad's house, at which point the girls came back home.

At one point I remember lying in bed while Robert suddenly went running to the bathroom holding Rebecca and saying to her, "Get Doggie out of the way!"

Then ... a little while later I heard more hurling coming from the girls' room, followed by someone's voice saying, "Oh, now Rachael's throwing up!"

By some miracle we managed to get everybody, including the baby, in bed for the night by about seven. Rebecca only threw up once in the middle of the night.

Today we are much better. As usual, the kids have more energy than we do. The temperatures and hurling has thankfully stopped, but now we feel ... weak. Robert weighed himself and said he lost six pounds.

Our happy, productive morning

Some mornings I'm able to get a lot done. I'm not sure how, or why some days are different that others.

Keep in mind, of course, that "get a lot done" is relative. I remember once hearing a mother of young children say, "These days I'm impressed with myself if I've showered and cooked dinner!"

This morning at breakfast I had the sudden urge to clean out the entire fridge. I started unloading the food and pulling the shelves out, and Rachael (age 6) asked to help. She took the food out, scrubbed and rinsed the shelves, then sprayed cleaner and wiped down the inside of the fridge.
In the middle of all this, Rebecca (age 4) appeared in the kitchen. "Can I help too?" she asked.

Wow, did I luck out this morning!

So Rebecca helped take the food out of the refrigerator door and put the food back when we were done cleaning.
It was very fun. And I love it when the fridge is clean.

While I showered, Rebecca made this card to mail to her friend Griffin:

By 9:30 am not only was the fridge clean, but the dishwasher was unloaded, the trash was brought to the curb, a load of laundry was put in, and me and all three Beans were dressed, in the van listening to the Indigo Girls, and arriving at The Playroom.

If you live in the area and have kids, you should really check out The Playroom:

http://www.theplayroom.us/

We were there for two hours. Both girls jumped on the trampolines, jumped off the tower into the foam pit over and over again, walked on the balance beam, and played in the inflatable castle.

Rebecca went into the toy room for a while and played with the dolls.

Baby Benjamin liked the wading pool full of plastic balls, the huge bouncy balls, and all the toys.

I myself found jumping on the trampoline very therapeutic.

Went home and had eggs, sausage, and toast for lunch. Baby screamed that he wanted a nap immediately. The other three of us piled into bed and read a couple books. And bed felt so good that I stayed there for a while as the girls ... well, I'm not sure what the girls did ... they were in the room, maybe coloring or something ...

WAAH! WAAH! WAAH! WAAH!

That never lasts long enough ...