In which the price of a season pass went up $13

Since we live so close, I got the girls and I season passes to the local amusement/water park. It's a very cool place and definitely worth multiple visits over the summer months. The girls love it, I can tolerate it, and it gives us something to do for a few hours whenever the girls start complaining of boredom during the summer.

On visits to the park in past years, we've been stuck on the little kiddie rides and in the little kiddie pools because the girls were too short for anything fun. Thankfully, they've continued to grow and now K can ride anything in the park. L, however, is exactly 44" tall. That's exactly tall enough for the bigger kiddie rides, but only if the measuring stick for that ride is placed exactly at 44". And the child stands up straight. And stand still long enough to get a good measurement. And the gate guard isn't being overzealous and decides that she's not exactly at the line.

Trust me, there is nothing more disappointing to a 5-year-old than to wait in a line and to get told at the last second that she's "too little" to ride.

After one disaster of a day where Little Miss had to miss out on some rides, I decided to remedy the situation. I made a trip to the local cheap shoe store and found some tennis shoes with really tall heels. They're white and plain and L wasn't too thrilled about not wearing sandals, but I dressed them up with pink flowered shoelaces and she was okay with it.

To make double sure. I put L's hair up into a ponytail smack on top of her head to make it harder to push her down and get a shorter measurement.

As I explained to K, it's not cheating. There's nothing that stipulates that you can't wear thick-soled shoes or ponytails. And she really is (about) 44" and we're just allowing for differences in measurement sticks.

It's all in how you look at it.

We visited the park again on Friday with our new "not cheating" measures in place. We had L officially measured at the front and the guy said "Oh, yeah, she's way over the mark" and he gave her the coveted "44 inches" wristband so that none of the gate guards had to measure her again. No more last-second disappointments and Mommy gets to add a few more interesting rides to the repertoire.

That was a well spent $13.

Awesome Easter dinner

If you don't have these two cookbooks, GET THEM.

Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader

Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Then make the glazed ham from the Mitford book and the cranberry relish from the BH&G book. Serve it to friends and amaze them with your cooking prowess. Don't panic, they're both very, very easy. And very, very tasty.

So tasty that all you can think about is the leftovers in the fridge. No matter how stuffed you are. You just want more.

My menu this week is going to consist of ham sandwiches, ham and potatoes, ham, ham, and more ham.

It's gonna be a good week.

Getting ready for Easter

First the domestic stuff.

Tomorrow is Easter. Friday night, I asked some friends and their kids over for dinner Sunday night so I spent today getting ready. I sat at the table with a pile of cookbooks because, let's face it, I have never cooked a ham or made any attempt at a traditional Easter dinner. I also thought it would be fun to have a little Easter egg hunt for the kids.

I went to 4 stores in search of the few ingredients I needed and the stuff for the egg hunt. Target was completely out of the reasonably priced plastic eggs (I am NOT paying almost a dollar per egg!). I did eventually make it home with everything I needed and some cute stuff for the egg hunt. Now, I just hope the ham will turn out.

The cranberry relish is in the fridge, the Easter Story cookies are in the oven, I want to get the eggs filled tonight, then it's off to bed because I have to be up, dressed, and at the church (across town), by 7:15am. I have to be ready to sing by 7:15. We'll just have to see about that.

I am looking forward to being there for the Easter services. On Friday night, our church held a Tennebrae service. It was a quiet and intimate candlelit service focusing on the sacrifice made at the cross. It was a perfect time to reflect on the cost of our salvation. Tomorrow, we celebrate the joy of Christ's resurrection.

And that is Easter.

We have a new daughter

I'd like to introduce you to our new daughter!

Her name is Kate.

She loves fancy dresses, especially if they make her look "more mature", and high-heeled shoes.

Her blond/brown/red hair is carefully combed into a short hair-do with bangs because she wants to hide her high forehead.

She's 8, going on 18.

I know she kinda looks like our oldest that I gave birth to, but that little girl disappeared in a cloud of smoke today and this new girl appeared.

In one day, she

1. Changed her hairstyle to cover up something about her looks she doesn't like.

2. Decided that more grown-up dresses were exactly her style.

3. Picked out church sandals with "high heels" and a more grown-up look.

4. Changed her name from her full name that she had always insisted on to the shorter nickname she always professed to hate.

K has always been rather a tomboy preferring boy-style shirts and shorts. She refused to wear dresses or bows, often picked the "boy" toy for her Happy Meal, and chose sports over dance. Of course, her favorite color has always been pink and she does have a lot of girly traits, but they never stood out.

Until today.

Today was one of those days when I blinked and my little girl is suddenly becoming a young lady. Am I ready for this?

And there are further ramifications of this transformation besides the fact that I have to re-do the personalized pin I made to wear to K's softball games. As a result of K's gushing over the grown-uppishness of high-heeled shoes, the youngest is now insisting that her church sandals also have high-heels.

Lord, help us all.

Homeschooling stuff

Yesterday we had a little get-together with some homeschoolers. And by little, I mean a crowd. Our Bible study class has something like 9 homeschool families, plus we had some others come. Some that have been homeschooling and some that are looking to begin next year.

It was really a lot of fun. We stood around chatting about field trips and things, but mostly it was about curriculum. If you've ever even looked into homeschooling, you know that the volume of different curriculum options out there is staggering. overwhelming. terrifying. You find one and the next thought is "What if there's something better?" So you keep looking. You smile at the strengths and groan over the weaknesses of each one. You add up the prices of all the different parts. You sit up nights poring over websites for products and trying to find reviews. You call every homeschooler you know and ask what they're using. You essentially drive yourself and your significant other crazy trying to make a decision. Any decision. About anything.

The whole curriculum thing was the absolute scariest aspect of beginning homeschooling and every year I go over the decision again. Should I stick with the same thing? Change it a little? Change it a lot? What is going to work this year with this child is this situation?

So far with K we've done-

Kindergarten - Math and Language Arts/Social Studies at a university-model school, science at a nature center, reading and basic skills at home

First grade - A Beka DVD program

Second grade - A Beka traditional program (same curriculum, but I taught it)

Third grade - A Beka DVD program

Next year, I will have a 4th grader and a kindergartener. I'm 99% sure that I want L to do the A Beka DVD program for the first few years. It has worked very well giving K a good academic foundation and has helped her do well with homeschooling. Trust me, K did *much* better with the DVD than when she and I were working on our own together. I think the DVD will do the same thing for L.

My big question for this next year is for K. She has requested dropping the DVD stuff. She wants more literature, more independent learning, and she wants to take a class. I promised her I would look into it and so I again find myself mired in the curriculum swamp that sucks in every homeschooler each spring. In some ways, it brings back those feelings of panic that overwhelmed me when I first started considering homeschooling. In other ways, though, I'm not that same green, reluctant newbie who wandered around her first curriculum bookfair in a daze. I know a little more now and I'm a little more confident that I'm not going to completely fail as a teacher and ruin my child.

Ok, some days I'm a little more confident.

Some days I'm absolutely sure it would be easier to stick her on the next yellow school bus that passes our neighborhood. But then I remember that brings its own set of issues.

So for awhile I'll be researching curriculum options. I'm actually kind of excited about it. We even talked about putting together a co-op at the meeting yesterday. If you told me that four years, I would have laughed. Then told you to go find your brain because you had obviously lost it somewhere.

These are a few of my favorite things

I have a lot of things I'd love to write posts about, but I can't seem to concentrate enough to write a real post on any of them. So I've written little blurbs about 5 of them, wrapped them all up under the neat little category of favorite things, and posted them here for your viewing pleasure.

Because it's MY blog and I can do what ever I like! Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Things I Like

1. Phineas and Ferb - The girls started watching a cartoon called Phineas and Ferb a little while back. After watching it with them, I've come to the conclusion that it's a throwback to the time when cartoons were just *fun*. Nothing gross, rude, offensive, or inappropriate. Just cute fun. Mr. at Home and I laugh just as much as the girls do when we watch it.

Why, yes, we do DVR it. And watch it after the girls go to bed. No, we're not weirdos. Hey, *you* watch shows like American Idol and Dancing With the Stars.

I'm just sayin'.

2. iPhone - The most awesome thing I never knew I couldn't live without until I actually got one. When my friends and I are trying to plan a field trip, I can whip out my phone and check the weather, get hours and information for our destination, calculate directions and drivetime, call ahead for advance tickets, and double check my calendar to make sure K doesn't have a softball game scheduled for that day.

Because her softball schedule *automagically* appears on my phone.

Because the league syncs our team calendar with our family calendar that syncs with my phone.

It totally blows my mind. Technology ROCKS!

3. Steak - Mr. at Home announced that he arranged a babysitter for Friday night and we are going on a date! WooHoo!! He asked if I wanted sushi or steak. Hahahaha! That's funny! One day, I might decide to brave the sushi, but for now my mouth is watering for Mr. at Home.....uh, I mean the steak. Yeah. The steak.

4. Carowinds - Last year I decided that our change bucket should be devoted to saving for Carowinds season passes. We've been dutifully adding our pennies and nickels for awhile and we counted it all out on Tuesday. The girls and I sorted the coins, then stacked them, then rolled them. It was a great lesson in money and counting as well as a great practical lesson in saving and rewards. We managed to save *almost* enough for our passes, so I took it down to the bank today and ordered the passes online. Hello, Summer 'o Fun!

5. Reuseable shopping bags - Way back when grocery stores asked "Paper or plastic?", my mom would usually choose paper because she always said it was stupid to get a million bags as those plastic ones couldn't hold as much. I agree. I toss the plastic ones under the sink until I can't possibly cram another one in, then I cart them off to the store recycle bin and cram them all in there. I really prefer using the larger reuseable bags that hold more. Now that I'm doing more menu planning, I make fewer grocery store runs so it's a little easier to remember to bring the reuseable ones with me. Today I did a major grocery trip (thank you, Harris Teeter triple coupons!) and I came out with 5 bags.

*5*

It's a whole lot few trips to bring in the groceries in the rain when you only have 5 bags. 5 very heavy bags, yes. But only 5.

Just like this list.

Reorgs don't just happen at the office

It all started with a bottle of glue.

And a table.

I put the craft cabinet in the dining room because that seemed to be the most logical place. Unfortunately, that put the glue too close to the table and you know how THAT turned out.

So the craft cabinet had to be moved. We needed a new place for crafts. Maybe the playroom? But there’s carpet in there and that could be bad. So that left the breakfast nook that was currently serving as my office. It was already full.

Well, actually, my desk would work better in the loft where K did her school so I could have a convenient place to work on school stuff. And if I did a little rearranging, there would be room. That would move the desk and a set of shelves out of the breakfast nook, but L’s little desk was still in there. That would need to go in the playroom. With a little bit of rearranging in there, too. That ought to leave enough room for the card table and the craft cabinet.

But the shelves from the breakfast nook made the loft too crowded and they weren’t exactly fancy enough to fit in up there. They would however work fabulously in the little closet with the trash can where I wanted some shelves to store extra paper towels and stuff.

Did you follow that?

1 desk upstairs to loft
1 desk upstairs to playroom
1 set of shelves upstairs to loft THEN downstairs to closet
1 table to the breakfast nook
1 craft cabinet to the breakfast nook

So now I have the furniture moved, but there’s still lots of stuff to do to finish the reorganization. I have some things to find a place for, stools to put together and new organizational containers to hang for the new “craft room”, and plenty of cleaning to make it all DONE.

Well, okay, DONE until something else comes up that necessitates another reorganization. Hopefully, the “something else” doesn’t have anything to do with glue and new furniture!