I'm the first to admit I'm a big fan of the show.  I love to hear all the kid noise and chaos coming from someplace other than my own home.  Makes me feel sane somehow.  But, last night I just had enough of Kate and her husband-bashing.  (Tune into Jon & Kate Plus 8 if you don't know what I'm talking about.)  I mean, I get Kate.  I get the whole control-freak thing.  I should - People say I'm just like her.  I just NEED her to be nice to the father of her children once in a while.  Is that so hard?

OK, enough venting.  Today was fantastic!  We spent a long time on Math.  I know I saw lightbulbs turning on for the first time ever regarding long division.  I finally pulled the plug on Math-U-See and I'm teaching it mommy-style.  The kids were so relieved to do it my way, they were actually glad to do their math.  Finally.  That Steve Demme really beats a dead horse when it comes to explaining long division.  I'd rather have a frontal labotomy.

Alrighty, then onto the other subjects...whatever I had assigned....oh yeah...They got to finish up their science experiment on osmosis.  We had two cups of baking soda water with a string connecting them.  After 3 days, the water soaked the string, then evaporated, leaving crystals.  Cool.  I'm a geek.

OK, the kids did that and other workbooky things, etc.  Then lunch, then silent reading.  Ahhhh....I love silent reading.  Mainly because of the word "silent."

Afterwards, we headed out to run errands and grocery shop.  We dropped off overdue library books in town, and overdue movies at Blockbuster, then headed out of town to drop off more overdue library books and then onto the grocery store.  Now, WHY do I shop at a distant grocery store, you may ask?  Remember last time when I talked about my cheapness?  My cheaposity?  OK, here's the prize.  My local gas stations are $3.59 per gallon.  Which is great, right?  But, my out of town Kroger gas station is $3.26 and when I use my Kroger plus card that brings it down to $3.16/gallon.  OH NO I DI-INT!!  So, I signed up for the Grocery Game using this zip code in a different county and I can print their list, shop there & fill up supacheap!

So, back to the narrative.  At the store, I run into my long lost friend "MADDIE ROSE!"  Names have been changed...because my children have mispronounced her name as long as we known her.  We had fun catching up.  The loudest two housewives you've heard seen in the grocery store.  Ever.  I ran into another friend from church too.  It was like a big reunion.

Survived the grocery store and come home in time to hand over the little ones to Jonathan and take the big ones to orientation at their tutorial.  I wish I could go there too.  I would totally love it!  So artsy fartsy.  Just a really great group of people and an awesome program.

Oh lordy, I am soooo tired.  I'm outta here.

Later.

I am notoriously cheap.  Sing it loud and sing it proud!  Here's my latest spectacular cheapfest:

1.  For our fall schedule, the following extracurricular activities for my kids are absolutely FREE:  Tap, Creative Child class, Acrylic Painting, Dance, Choir, AWANA, Boyscouts.  Nashville rocks!

2.  Golf lessons: I pay $20 for 8 weeks and they give you the clubs.  Say, whut?

3.  The Grocery Game (check it out online): I subscribe for about $7.50/month for the Kroger list and the Walgreens list and I save over 50% off the shelf price.  I know I've said this before, but my pantry and storage are looking like a 1950's bomb shelter. : )  If you join, tell them I sent you and I can earn some free weeks.

4.  I recently joined MyPoints.com and click on emails and fill out surveys to earn points for $10/$25/$50 gift cards.  One of the offers today was for Vista Prints. They have tons of items you can personalize and pay only shipping.  So today, I ordered several stationary items for the girls; notepads, notecards, address labels etc with their names on it.  Then I personalized a T-Shirt for my son with the name of his movie production company on it.  I paid $11 for shipping for all of it and that was it.  Normally, it would have cost $50+.  Vista Prints also does free business cards with tons of designs to choose from.  I ordered a set for my jewelry design business.  Anyway, that was a little early Christmas shopping.  You know, just cute little things to put in the stockings.

5.  I usually get 2 Sunday papers so I can clip double the coupons.  I am SUCH an old lady. : )

Oh, there's probably plenty more where that came from but I better quit for now.  We've got our evening routine to conquer in time for the kids' favorite show.

Later.

Hope you haven't been holding your breath for the last eight months!  I'm feeding this blog to my new facebook account so I seem to have found my mojo.

We have schooled all Summer.  That's just how we roll...my poor kids.  Good news is they don't seem to mind.  We keep it fun. 

Our Fall '08 schedule is cranking up and I'm really excited.  Now, even little Ava is on the board for extracurricular activities and I practically need a spreadsheet to keep up with all our comings and goings.  As usual, we will live in our minivan:

Mondays:  Acrylic-on-Canvas classes (Bailey/Olivia/Ella)

Tuesdays: Creative Child (Ella/Ava), Tap (Ella), Boyscouts (Bailey)

Wednesdays: Homeschool Tutorial covering History, Music, Art & Drama (Bailey/Olivia)

Thursdays: Golf (Bailey/Olivia), Dance/Hip-Hop (Olivia/Bailey), Choir (Bailey/Olivia/Ella)

Fridays: I MAY be teaching Acrylic-on-canvas classes and jewelry design classes at my home in the afternoons.  TBD

Sunday afternoons: AWANA (Bailey/Olivia/Ella and possibly Ava)

Once we get going with this (September) I will figure out when to schedule our library days.  Now we have a 2nd library in a nearby county we love to go to.  May have to alternate weeks or something. 

Today the kids and I discussed the upcoming Science Fair.  We were talking about theories they could test etc.  My son wants to do something with water and capsized boats.  He's really into moviemaking and has recently seen Jaws and The Poseidon Adventure.  Boys seem to process that intense stuff better than girls.  I never, ever got used to watching any type of disaster movie.  I was definitely born in the wrong era.  So anyway, little Steven Spielberg is wanting to either capsize something or blow it up.  And, of course my Olivia Jane wants to grow things and make the world a pretty place.  It will be interesting to see this evolve.

The kids worked hard today.  They memorized Eph. 4:29 which is our school verse for the year.  Got a lot of "unwholesome" words flying around these days and I'm determined to nip this thing in the bud.  Bailey and Olivia played a math game using flashcards and quizzed each other for a bit.  Then went onto math worksheets, grammar workbook, spelling words, cursive practice etc. 

For lunch, they helped me put it all together and we ate like pigs.  I don't know why some days we have too much food and somedays there's not enough.  You can never predict their appetites.  Or mine.

After lunch they went onto silent reading.  After they finished up all their work for the day, I had a nervous breakdown when I hurt my foot on one of the 15 million toys lying around on the floor.  It was like a giant storm cloud rolled in and all four kids braced themselves for the worst.  They got to work quickly cleaning up the mess; living room, hall, playroom and stairs - yes stairs!  When it was all done they were FREE -- oh, except for the laundry.  The never ending laundry.

Ok, but after THAT they were free.

More later. No, really.  I mean it.

Hey folks, sorry I've been AWOL.   I've been sick.  My parents were in town for a visit, etc. etc.  But, alas, here I am.

We had a wonderful birthday party for all four of the kids this past weekend.  All their friends from Lifegroup came and we hosted it at a local "inflatables" place.  They all climbed, jumped, slid, screamed etc.  (Myself included)  It was a blast.  Instead of gifts, we did a book exchange.  I know that buying four gifts all at once would totally stink, so that's how we handled it.  I just tell the kids that the party is their gift and their friends are coming to celebrate them and that's plenty.  Amen?

Besides, the new books they get are always so cool.  And the friends get to go home with new books as well.  We had so much fun planning the goodie bags, too.  The kids learned how to budget as we shopped (at dollar tree) and we ended up spending only $1.00 per guest.  Amazing.

Now that the grandparents have left, we are back to school as normal.  It was a tough day getting back into the swing of things.  Tough for me too.  AND...I travelled across town for my daughter's dance class only to realize it had been cancelled due to the holiday.  We ended up at a local indoor kids' playland for about an hour so they could unwind for a bit.

I am in utter disbelief that I'm about to have a 3, 5, 9 and 11 year old.  It does go fast.  (Sometimes, I wish it would go just a BIT faster)  However, during church this past Sunday, I jotted down some goals for my almost 9 year old.  I am going to write her a letter for her ninth birthday and share my "vision" with her -- of course she can feel free to add -- but I just want her to know that I see wonderful things for her future.  I told her that we are winding down her childhood as she moves from this place into her "tween" years and there are some things she needs to work on and accomplish as we go forward this next year.  For whatever reason, that jargon really works with her.  She wanted to know if she could hang the list on her wall to remind her of the areas she needs to work on.  That's my girl!

Allright, I'm toast yet again.  One day this pace will slow down.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I will be selling my jewelry creations at a booth on Valentine's day.  Much of my attention and free time has been on this endeavor, which is another reason for my blog-neglect.  I will post pics soon.

Later.

There, I've gone and looked up the spelling!  And, to soothe the curious mind, I offer the following tidbit:

Definition of God bless you

God bless you:  Interjection used especially when someone has sneezed. In this situation, "God bless you" is more or less equivalent to saying "Gesundheit."  In German "Gesundheit" means "health" (and "sanity"). Wishing "good health" was once thought to hold off the illness that might follow a sneeze.  "God bless you" came into usage to prevent the escape of the soul from the body, which was thought to occur with a sneeze. (Soullessness was believed to cause ill health.)

Now, pupils, close your books and take out a sheet of paper.  Just kidding.  So, has anyone seen my SOUL?  I seem to have misplaced it.  Ha Ha.  Next subject.

My entire family has gone to lifegroup this evening and I am home "resting."  Maybe tomorrow I'll be back to my old self.  Next subject.

You know, I really love oxygen.  In fact, I'm a big fan of breathing.  It's my #1 favorite pastime.  You don't really know what you've got til it's gone.  I thought of a new invention one night while waking up, gasping for breath.  I would like to take two drinking straws and shove one up each nostril, past the septum and well into my sinus cavities.  Make it a neon, bendy straw.  Forget the breathe right strips, vaporizer, menthol, saline, steroids and pseudoephedrine.  That's for wimps.  Let's get some O2 into this girl, STAT!

Having said ALL that, now you know that I will let nothing stand in the way of my favorite activity.  Honestly, the only ONLY thing that works when I get a cold is sudafed and lots of it.  Which is GREAT for breathing but leaves me drooling, growling and snarling at anything that passes.  What REALLY cracks me up is when I have to go buy more.  BOY -- do they have that stuff on lockdown or what?  I mean I sorta feel like I'm pulling my car up to the corner and rolling down the window.  Looking both ways for cops, etc.  The problem is I usually have all my kids with me so it's worse -- I'm like the CRACK mama bringing all her babies to score some.  Of course it doesn't help that I have bloodshot eyes, dry cracked skin, red runny nose, no makeup AAAAHHH.  Next subject.

Just so you all know, the one day when all my kids behaved in public was a total fluke.  The following day was crazy.  ALTHOUGH, I just remembered that they did really well when we took Ava in for her 3 year appointment.  We're going to have her hearing tested and then possibly a speech evaluation to help determine if there is an issue.  She's still very very frustrated when trying to communicate.  I was a little down about that, but I'd rather get her whatever she needs so she can be the fabulous grownup she will become someday.  She'll probably be involved in public speaking or something with a twist. : )  Aahh!  Now there's my sunny disposition.  I wondered where it was.    (gosh, I really like the winky guy the best.  I just realized that I never use any other emot-icons)  Next subject.

OK, I'm bummed that my husband's bowl didn't sell -- but we had 55 visitors which made him feel good and one question and even one watcher.  OOHH a watcher!  My hunny is SO talented with the bowl making.  It's amazing, really.  He likes to point out all the flaws and I always turn and say "Hun, this used to be a TREE and now it's a BOWL!"  He has some of his stuff on display around town, but I know it would make his day to sell them consistently.  We may try a 35-45 price range on some of his small pieces and see what the interest would be. 

Oh man, I better go lay down.  This wore me out! (seriously, don't give me that look!)

Later.