I love organization. I love how it looks, how it feels, and how it is so convenient. Sometimes it even smells nice. I like shopping for cubes and boxes to organize my stuff into. I like they way they stack and sit. It's all so tidy and beautiful.

Along with those cubes and boxes I like having a day timer/planner/datebook/brain. I like filling in the little boxes with information with a red pen. What I don't like is how quickly it becomes diorganized with little bits of paper and how I have to transfer the information year after year. I don't like that if I drop it, my brain is at the mercy of the wind, muddy feet, and sticky hands.

This past summer I was introduced to a PDA or two. I thought at first they were silly. A little more information about them filtered into my thick head and I went off in search of the nearest PDA dealer. I scrutinzed the PDA's in their shiny plastic packaging. I tapped, turned, and twiddled with them. I read the fine print. I asked the overgrown, hairy, young  salesman to give me more details. He regaled me with vast amounts of data I didn't fully comprehend. I walked away to ponder the PDA further.

After a couple of weeks of staring at them, Dear Man told me to just buy one. If I didn't like it, I could always take it back. So purchase in hand I began to acquaint myself with the finer points of pocket sized organization. By the time I got home I was enthralled! I could get rid of my day planner, all those pieces of paper, and I could snyc the whole thing to my computer and see everything there as well. It was glorious!

Two days later I took back the middle of the road PDA to upgrade to the super-de-duper, it does everything but wash the dishes in the sink, PDA. No longer did I have to decide if I needed to pack around my day planner, which more often then not I would leave behind because I was only running to the store, only to discover that I needed it after all. I didn't want to pack around a grown woman's diaper bag in order to keep it with me. My new PDA fits right into my small purse with ease. It weighs almost nothing.

Now along with all the organization, I also love books. Which I try to keep organized on the shelves. Whenever someone would talk to me about e-Books I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. Who wants to sit at their computer and read a book? That's not very cozy.

Now I get all of the above and I can read an e-Book or listen to an audio book while waiting in the Dr.'s office. No more packing along a book that I have to remember to pick up, or once again the need tote along a lunch bag on steroids to put the book in. I can read it in bed without having to keep the lights on, disturbing Dear Man. I can curl up and sit anywhere I want to.

I feel so free! So organized!

In the interest of my readers' health, I tried to post last night, but I was having issues with Photobucket. So, if you're still breathing, Mariposa, (and I hope you are) here are a few pics from July:

Emily learned to sit up! Sort of. Then she decided crawling was much cooler, so now she crawls, but still doesn't sit up on her own! But at least she can keep up with the gang! (more crawling pics next time).

I woke up one morning in the middle of a book party. Do you see Emi - she's really devouring that book - she just can't wait to start  homeschooling!

Here are the girls hard at work cutting strawberries (with butter knives) for strawberry shortcake - Yummy!  We whipped up this homemade treat for a company dessert, then had the leftovers for breakfast the next day :)  What? It was totally healthy!

(PS - See that microwave sitting on my table? Adam hung it over my stove and now my counter space has nearly doubled! Whoo-hoo! He is becoming quite the handy guy.)

Pinocchio was our read aloud last month, and Ezekiel loved it! He kept picking it up himself to look through (hey, I've heard a lot of smart people read up-side down), and asking to read it, which I thought was funny, because he mostly ended up like this when I did:

(Please pardon my appearance in the above picture.)

And finally, the girls have also been really into pioneers lately - we've been reading both Little House on the Prairie (I don't really need to link that, do I? Who HASN"T heard of them?) and the Kirsten books in the American Girls series. Inspired, Arianna asked me to do her hair like so:

I think she looks right cute. And old! She's six now you know. But more on that next time. :)