I've just gotta share

If you wanna have a beautiful day today, you've gotta visit Ree.

You'll be glad you did.

you're welcome.

Found!

Charles Eisenhower Tips (a.k.a. Karle) is safe at home! He was found by none other than yours truly about a month ago.

I would have updated you sooner, but Karle's mission was Top Secret. Even now, the details are sketchy...Karle is happy to be back, but not eager to divulge the horrors which he certainly faced while he was missing.

After some well-deserved R&R, he got right back to work saving the world (or whatever it is he does).

Karle's friends threw him a welcome home party, boy did they have a blast! There was dancing and drinking and...and I don't know what else because I wasn't invited.

In fact, technically I don't even have the proper clearance to be looking at these pictures, so don't tell anyone I showed them to you, ok?

Here's E-Man and Karle on one of their training missions. You know, just a little nudge from behind... and I could have gotten an even better picture!

Red tailed hawks

Living on 5+ wooded acres, we see our fair share of birds. Cardinals, wrens, blue jays, tufted titmice (titmouses?), woodpeckers, owls, and many more.

Lately, we've seen red tailed hawks almost every day.

Several times, we've watched groups of them swooping around in large circles over the trees. One afternoon in the woods, Little Miss watched one intently and added a new word to her vocabulary - hawk.

Moops has been finding little tufts of rabbit fur in the driveway, she thought maybe a cat had been catching them. Today we saw one of the hawks perched in a dogwood tree right above where she's been finding the rabbit fur. Poor little bunnies...

The hawks are just amazing to watch, especially when they come down close so we can get a good look. The one we saw today dropped out of the dogwood, flying just above the ground for 20 or 30 feet, before perching in another tree. What a treat.

I wonder, though, a hawk wouldn't swoop down and snatch something as big as one of our ducks, would it? hope not.

smooooch!

Happy Valentine's Day everybodeeeeee!

And thanks for the candy!

home school, or CLOWN school?

little sister + big sister + makeup = FUN!

The neverending story

Moops is a reader. When she finishes one book, she reaches for another. She reads upon waking. She reads for school. She sneaks into her room during school time to read. She reads in her spare time. She reads inside and outside. She reads in the car. She reads at bedtime. She reads after bedtime.

I'm beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss book.

She never stops. She just. keeps. reading.

Here's a list of what she's read over the past two months-

• The Princess Bride
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Inkheart
• Inkspell
• The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
• Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
• Charlotte
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• The Anne of Green Gables series
• The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook
• Diet for a New America
• The Fallacy Detective
• Julie of the Wolves
• Where the Red Fern Grows

And now the polar opposite...

Here's a list of what I've read over the past two...ok, four or five months-

• The Memoirs of Cleopatra

aaah, to be 12 again with time to read...

It's Potty Time!

Without going into too much detail, I would like to announce that Little Miss did *something* on the potty today!

How exciting!

My baby is growing up!

I think I'll curl up into a ball and cry...

just kidding...kinda...

She talked and talked about the potty afterwards.

I moved one of her favorite books, Once Upon a Potty, from the living room to the bathroom shelf... where it will sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...

Our current read-alouds

Between the flu and the holidays, we did precious little schoolin' in December. Feeling that we were falling behind, I spent January focusing on getting "caught up" and I must admit, I let read-aloud time slide. It really had become a chore, what with Little Miss squeeeeling and all.

This week we finally finished The Golden Goblet. Little Miss was quiet for the most part during reading time, let's hope that continues.


We just started D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. This is so much fun! One of my favorite memories from middle school is learning about the Greek gods and goddesses. This book is a wonderful introduction for the kids, with beautiful lithographs.




And we're going to continue where we left off with The Mystery of the Periodic Table. The kids actually had to ask their slacker mom to start reading this again. I'm so glad they like it, and I hope they'll also enjoy Archimedes and the Door of Science, which will be our next science read-aloud.

Guess what Moops did

While we were making guacamole one night, Moops decided to plant one of the avocado pits in an unused flower pot. Then she placed the pot in the kitchen and promptly forgot about it. Time passed, and it continued to sit unremembered amidst a pile of papers, junk, odds and ends. Someone even covered the pot with a pencil box.

One day, much to her surprise, Moops spotted a sprout peeking out from under the pencil box! The avocado had managed to sprout, despite our complete lack of care. Touched by its desire to live and grow, Moops lovingly removed the pencil box from atop the unfortunate avocado sprout, promising to care for it.

Within a few days, the sprout had righted itself and was searching in vain for some sweet sunshine.

A week later, it is continuing to grow and thrive in the laundry room (which, oddly enough, is the brightest room in the house).

Now if I can keep my black thumb away from it, the poor little thing might actually become a tree some day.