it's the little things

Big Daddy went up to the mountains yesterday to inspect the gear box on a Lola B2K/40 LMP2 car. That's awesome, and all, making money on a Saturday. But the best part of his trip was the turtle fudge and salt-water taffy he brought home!

he knows what I like :-)

And if you don't know what all that B2K/40 mumbo jumbo means, here's a picture of KK sitting in one a few years ago:

This one looks more like the one he checked out yesterday:

what E-man's reading

As part of his (home)school work, I require E-man to read aloud to me daily. Right now he's reading a book which he recently finished reading to himself : The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo. Here's an excerpt:

Despereaux thought that he might faint with the pleasure of someone referring to his ears as small and lovely. He laid his tail against the Pea's wrist to steady himself and he felt the princess's pulse, the pounding of her heart, and his own heart immediately took up the rhythm of hers.


That paragraph gave me the tingles. There, I said it. Laugh at me if you will; that paragraph gave me the tingles. I think I actually squealed out loud when he read it to me. Yeah, I know I'm weird.

our current read-aloud

Detectives in Togas, by Henry Winterfeld. This is a fun mystery set in ancient Rome, inspired by three words found scrawled on a wall during the unearthing of Pompeii:

Caius asinus est.

Which means Caius is an ass. Or more politely, Caius is a dumbbell. The kids think this is hilarious.

whataday

timeline of our visit to GG's house:
(note: all times are approximate. Please do not hold me responsible for inaccuracies in the timeline, as I tend to shirk responsibility in any and all forms.)

9:30 a.m. - Load the freaks in the car, fill 'er up with gas, proceed to Ant E's house.

10:00 a.m. - Arrive at Ant E's house, play with Little Fella while Ant E gets ready to go.

11:00 a.m. - We're on the road!

11:30 a.m. - It's going to be a great day for swimming in the lake, blue skies and white puffy clouds.

12:00 p.m. - Stuck behind a garbage truck. Eeeeewww, yuck.

12:30 p.m. - We're almost to the lake. Hhhhhmm, a few raindrops on the windshield. Hey, look at those dark clouds overhead!

12:45 p.m. - Yay! We're at the lake! Everyone piles out of the van.

12:46 p.m. - Can we go swimming now?

12:46.5 p.m. - No, let's have lunch first, then we'll go swimming.

12:50 p.m. - Thunder. Then rain. Then heavy rain. We all gobble up veggie burgers and corn-on the-cob. Rain subsides.

1:30 p.m. - Can we go swimming now?

1:30.5 p.m. - Go outside and get your swimsuits out of the van. And hey, while you're out there, listen and see if you hear any thunder, okay?

1:31 p.m. - I hear thunder.

1:33 p.m. - I hear thunder.

1:35 p.m. - Kids drag their stuff inside... So, did you hear any thunder out there?

1:35.5 p.m. - (trying unsuccessfully to hide their evil grins) No, we didn't hear any thunder.

2:00 p.m. - Can we go swimming now?

2:05 p.m. - We head down to the lake. I feel a few raindrops. Distant thunder.

2:06 p.m. - In the lake. Aaaaaah, it feels nice. Distant thunder.

2:10 p.m. - A cold rain begins to fall. Kids don't care. They splash and scream and swim and jump and splash and scream and screamandjumpandscream. We have a lot of fun, even if it is raining off and on. I'm trying to ignore the distant thunder. Little Fella shows off some of his swimming strokes. Little Miss clings to her Momma for dear life.

3:10 p.m. - The mixture of coldish rain and no sunshine is makin' me chilly. I begin the process of begging, I mean asking, no I mean ordering the freaks to get out of the lake.

3:30 p.m. - They finally slither out of the lake and we go inside to visit with GG and Maurice.

3:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - The great-grandparents spoil my freaks with cookies, cake, and ice cream.

6:00 - 6:45 p.m. - Ant E and I begin the long and arduous process of getting all the kids and all their stuff into the van and ready to go.

6:46 p.m. - Wave goodbye to GG and Maurice.

6:48 p.m. - Driving back home, we notice the clouds are clearing. And what's that we see? Sunshine.

6:59 p.m. - The van is making a funny noise.

7:00 p.m. - Scratch that, the van is making a distressing noise.

7:01 p.m. - Losing power rapidly, we turn into a church parking lot which is (blessedly) empty.

7:02 p.m. - I get out of the van and see that the transmission has puked its guts all over the church parking lot. (Actually, I just saw a bunch of red stuff on the ground - my husband later explained what had happened: the transmission puked its guts all over the church parking lot.)

7:03 p.m. - I want my mommy.

7:30 p.m. - GG (who hasn't driven in something like ten years) arrives to rescue us, followed closely by Maurice, who is also there to rescue us since all 7 of us can't fit into one car. We pack everything that was in the van into the great-grandparents' cars, including the car seats for the little ones.

8:00 p.m. - Yay! We're back at GG's house! Little Fella is asleep, everyone else is awake. We eat potato chips and order pizza. While we await the arrival of our respective husbands, Ant E investigates education options for Moops, who wants to be a nurse-midwife when she grows up.

9:00 p.m. - My husband, Big Daddy, arrives. He eats pizza.

9:30 p.m. - Ant E's husband, Uncle D, arrives. He, likewise, eats pizza.

10:00 p.m. - Once again, we begin the long and arduous process of packing all the kids and all their stuff into the car.

10:30 p.m. - We hit the road, leaving KK behind with Ant E since we can't all fit into the BMW.

10:32 p.m. - Little Miss is asleep.

11:50 p.m. - We finally arrive home.

11:52 p.m. - I deposit Little Miss, who is still asleep, into bed. Simultaneously, I am informed that the dogs have chewed up part of the door frame to the laundry room door in their (successful) attempt to escape their day-long confinement. They also left a few messes for me to attend to. But luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as what Clyde did last Christmas.

1:00 a.m. - I finally make a graceful crash-landing into bed, where I have a nightmare that makes the van disaster seem like a picnic. I dreamt that my washing machine died! Oh, horror of horrors! I was so glad to wake up.

I actually finished another book?!

I recently finished reading The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller. This is one of the books Moops had to read for Lightning Literature; and since I had never read it before, I felt compelled to read it now if only for the sake of being able to discuss it intelligently with her. I had no idea it would make such an impression on me.

Sap that I am, I was nearly brought to tears at the thought of having your one year old child suddenly go deaf and blind. But then, I loved the descriptions of her early, Charlotte Mason style education with Miss Sullivan, spending hours outside learning. And thanks to her benefactors, she went on to have an excellent classical education. She was just an amazingly bright child, and really blessed by so many people.

Hers is a story that will stay with me.

Fine Art Friday

"My Fireworks"

Little Miss ~ July 7,2007

comments from the artist:

"Fireworks very, very scary."

"Fireworks very pretty, too."

"I likie fireworks."

(virtual nod to MFS over at Mental Multivitamin for first introducing me to Fine Art Fridays)

I actually finished a book?!

I finished The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith, a few days ago. I just have to say that I found the protagonist, Precious Ramotswe, to be an immensely likable character. At every mention of her little white van, I felt a strange sort of kinship with her. Smart, funny, bumbling at times, it was fun to watch the only lady detective in Botswana solve her cases.

While I don't want to bore you with a full-fledged review, I can't help but share some of my favorite tidbits.

Mma Ramotswe on pumpkin:

She stopped. It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.

Mma Ramotswe on men:

...All women in Botswana were the victims of the fecklessness of men. There were virtually no men these days who would marry a woman and settle down to look after her children; men like that seemed to be a thing of the past.

Mma Ramotswe on, constipation?

...She felt terribly sorry for people who suffered from constipation, and she knew that there were many of them who did. There were probably enough of them to form a political party--with a chance of government perhaps--but what would such a party do if it was in power? Nothing, she imagined. It would try to pass legislation, but would fail.

I think I'll pick up the next book in the series, Tears of the Giraffe, when I return to the library.

seein' stars

Today's celebrity sighting:

Uncle D!!

That's right, Uncle D, we saw you today! You were driving away from your place of employment just as we were leaving the supermarket. Moops is sure you were going to get a latte or something from Starbucks. But I know you were really going after one of those free cookies in Kroger. Well, that's why I was there.

beating head against the wall...

So I guess it's too late now to decide that I want to re-read the first 6 books before July 21st, huh? What was I thinking? I told myself, No, I don't need to read the first 6 books again, that's crazy. But for some reason, I woke up today wanting to re-read them all. Really wanting to. But short of sending all 4 kids away for the next two weeks, it ain't gonna happen. Oh, well.

Of course, Moops has re-read the whole series. So I guess she deserves first shot at reading #7... that gives me a little extra time, but not much. Hhhhmm. What to do, what to do?

Hey, come to think of it, I really only need to send Little Miss away for a couple of weeks. The older kids could take care of themselves while I read non-stop. So what d'ya think? Adopt a cute little fairy-nymph for a mere 14 days? Any takers?

On second thought, never mind. How could I survive a fortnight without my sweet little muffin?

happy independence day!

Well, we had lots of fun today. The kids rode horses this morning. Moops and KK look so grown up and sure of themselves riding Nina. E-Man is quite the little rider, as well. Ant E the Younger commented on how much progress he's making. Little Miss got to ride Nina and Taz today, and she sat on Kodak's back! Even Little Fella got in on the action, riding Taz in the pasture.

Then we came home and cleaned up the kitchen so KK could make the 4th of July cookies she's been planning:

Happy birthday to the good old pink-white-and-blue!

Now it's time for fireworks!

random thoughts

Weather. The weather was d-lightful today. Overcast, cool. While Little Miss had her nap this afternoon, my eldest was nice enough to keep an eye on her while I took a 30 minute walk outside. Alone. Just me. There was a coolish breeze and just a hint of mist in the air. The sound of the wind in the leaves was a refreshing balm for my ill-used eardrums.


Whining. Don't like it. At all. Little Miss whined from the time we got home from riding until she fell asleep. And the whining resumed when she woke up. Urgh. I think she had a bit of a tummy ache, so I guess I'll forgive her. This time.


Muffins. It is possible to eat too many banana-chocolate chip muffins. Did that over the weekend. Now I feel like a tub-o-lard.


Books. Went to the library book sale this weekend. Got some books, of course. Among my faves were a three volume hardcover set of Horatio Hornblower from 1939 and The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which was on my list of fiction to check out some day. It's my bedtime reading for now. Interesting, but no real brain power required.

nighty-night.