Where have the Last Three Years Gone?

It has been almost exactly three years since I've posted on this little blog of mine. Three years in which so many changes have occurred, so much craziness has gone on, it is hard to know where to start.

This blog has always really just been for me and those who feel like reading about my life and my weird brain and the things that come out of my life and weird brain. So, as I have no specific agenda that drives my writing, and because I'm a creature that thrives on order and analysis, I shall spend the next few blog posts catching up on the occurrences of my life the last three years--for good and ill.

After that....who knows?!

Books January - February 2015

Fiction
1 - 2 - 3. Uglies, Prettties, Special - Scott Westerfeld
4 - 5. Land of Stories books 1 and 2 - Chris Colfer
6. The Swish of the Curtain - Pamela Brown
7. Maddy Alone - Pamela Brown
8. Golden Pavements - Pamela Brown
9. The Blue Door Venture  - Pamela Brown

Fiction for my Kids (not counting picture books)
1. Haffertee Hamster - Janet and John Perkins
2. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Barbara Robinson

Nonfiction
1. One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voscomp
2. 102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum - Cathy Duffy

7 Quick Takes (vol. 36)

#1 - We've been off work this week, and I immediately came down with a terrible cold. It's been cold outside, so snuggling inside has been a good option for most of this week. Snow, well, that's laughable. While the rest of the east coast seems to be under mountains of snow and ice, we got maybe half an inch on Monday (the girls were off school that day--President's day).

So they cancelled school for Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, we got about 30 minutes of a light dusting.

So they cancelled school for Wednesday.

Thursday was really cold. Like a high of 15 or so. So they cancelled school for Thursday.

And apparently (because admittedly this is a large county) there is still ice on the roads in some places (but not in town where we are), so they cancelled school for Friday.

To make up for four days of missed school. Kids have a half day of school on Saturday. Which is a joke because we've done Saturday school make-up days in this county before, and the kids will watch movies and do nothing of significance.

Did I mention we're off duty? Yeah...we are. And I'm glad. 

More possibility of snow next week though. Maybe we'll manage two weeks off in a row!

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#2 - One thing I've been doing while we're off (well, I started a few weeks ago, have just been finishing pieces this week), is doing a major overhaul of our house. We live in 400 sq feet. And while I'm not anti small-house living, it definitely does require some serious planning on furniture arrangements, etc. I finally got sorted through some areas that I've been avoiding doing for awhile. And then I made a list of what needed to be done to rearrange, remove, and create some more space in our little home.

13 item list. Which a few items of which were possible to do one step at a time, but most of which required moving Item A to point B, moving Item C to Point D, so that I can then move Item A to Point D....you get the idea.

End result, I love it. Two big pieces of furniture are now gone, a chest that was in our room has been moved out of the room, thus reclaiming some serenity space for my bedroom, and a new bookshelf is now in the kid's room, designed for storing toys in a better manner.

Everything feels a little more breathable, and I feel good with the large boxes of miscellaneous items now gone. Still have one more area to sort through, and then comes the next tasks of putting in some major work on catching up on my scrapbooks so I can get rid of the boxes taking space in my closet. Once I've caught up on these last few physical scrapbooks, I'm switching to digital only.

Goals!

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#3 - Also on my list to do this week: edit one paper for a grad student.

Several hours later: check.

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#4 -  This past three weeks (shift), has been crazy. Starting with jet lag fighting for about 10 days, combined with Zander's birthday, Valentine's Day, training sessions, and now I'm tired. I'm having a hard time registering that it's only been a month since we were in Thailand. Feels like a lifetime ago.

Oh, and did I mention that my daughter has been making steady plans about what she's doing the next time we're there? :)  bwa ha ha....the travel bug gene has been activated!

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#5 - Been doing some research on kindergarten. Cause my baby is old enough to start kindgarten this year. That fact frightens me. So, my main focus with kindergarten, because in reality I don't necessarily believe kindergarten is necessary, But on the flip side, Blue wants to be in school. So, hey, why not. Reading and writing is definitely on her priority list, so there's not reason it shouldn't be on mine.

Unschooling, while something I've considered, is not my style. However, Before Five in a Row has been fun this year, so I think we're going to take the Five in a Row route instead. I like the idea of learning to read with "real books" instead of readers that have no real story and get boring after the first time. I figure Five in a Row--with it's use of great kid's books, should be a good help in that regards.

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#6 - And there's my Baby Z, who is rapidly grown out of Babyhood and into Toddlerhood. His language skills continue to explode, and his sense of humor is hysterical. Everything is "funny" or "silly," and he looks for every opportunity to make people laugh.

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#7 - Two year old Birthday Party. Spoiled greatly. Apparently living in a house full of girls leads to much love.