Sometimes It's a Little Hard to be Grateful

For instance, when you have a cat who's a great hunter... but perhaps a little too proud of it ... and likes to show off her "trophies" in odd places around the house. Ugh!


We're still alive here by the way. Just trying to keep up with mouse problems, starting school, co-op planning, mosquitoes, editing the new love2learn site (which is not up at love2learn.net quite yet, but I am thrilled to be able to work on once more!), children who manage to lock themselves outside before anyone else is up (Danielle dear, I've got you beat - 8:40 this morning to the sound of the telephone with poor Kate pounding at the back door) etc. etc.

We're good, though. Kate, who's finally getting "formal" phonics lessons (formal meaning practicing some phonogram cards each day and a little handwriting - with stencils or the Red Letter Alphabet book) is taking off and really excited about learning. The kids all were playing with balloons today (another long and slightly ridiculous story if I had the time) and she decorated hers with letters and backwards numbers. It took me a minute to realize that she had copied her numbers from the other side of her balloon (which big brother Gus had obligingly written out for her). I should've gotten a picture of the balloon. It really speaks volumes. :)

Ria and Gus had their first drama group get-together yesterday with some other homeschool friends. It's being entirely organized by several teens and they had a lot of fun. Among other things, they showed a clip from Men of Boy's Town with a really hilarious slow-motion wrestling skit. They broke up into teams and tried acting out some humorous slow-motion segments. The boys group (who naturally did a fight scene - the girls all chose tumbling and dancing and such) got the most laughs hands-down. I never realized quite how good our quiet Gus is at physical comedy!

Though school at times feels like something to be tolerated rather than enjoyed (what else is new?), our new lists and morning table time are working out quite well. Oh yeah, and the gum during morning Math doesn't hurt either.

And those are the sorts of things I can be truly grateful for!