week 2 in pictures

sunday: absolute chaos! first day back after being gone for 10 days, putting away our christmas stuff, and 2 extra dogs! I love how dogs always have to make themselves a part of whatever it is you’re doing.

monday: we were all curious to see what would happen if we threw a ball for all 3 dogs. it was honestly, quite hysterical. ginger, who is ball-crazy and totally single-minded about fetching, was totally baffled by roscoe and dakota’s behavior. they would run after the ball, so she would kind of hang back, trying to figure out what was going on. dakota would grab the ball and run off with it. roscoe would grab it, take a few steps and drop it. ginger just ran around, looking confused, trying to figure out who had the ball, where it was, and why they weren’t bringing it back! eventually, whoever had it would drop it, she’d grab it, and bring it back. we laughed a lot.

tuesday: layla’s first ballet class! she’s the 5th from the left, looking down at her feet. I had SO much fun watching. layla liked it, but said it was hard and it hurt! they did a lot of stretching and flexibility stuff.

wednesday: every week, at micah’s preschool, they do a different letter, and wednesday is show and tell day. he brought layla because this week was “L” week. she was so happy to go. I love this pic because, if you look closely, you can see that they are holding hands. awww…

thursday: SNOW DAY!!!! we got enough snow to cancel preschool for micah, so I let layla have the morning off and they played outside all morning! we don’t really have a ‘hill’ to speak of in the yard, but they were determined to use the sleds. they also requested the sand toys to make a ‘snow castle’.

friday: working on math.

saturday: a gorgeous, clear-skied, frosty morning. the sun was makign the snowy treetops absolutely glow!

and a couple of skinnies this week: 1. micah made ski poles out of tinkertoys, so then he needed skis. flat wood blocks did the trick and he spend the evening ‘shooshing’ around on the wood floor. 2. layla’s wolf that she drew on the white board.

book shots:

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first day of school

so, we started school today. this is a big deal because it is OUR first day of official homeschooling. you know, here. at home. most everyone reading this is already aware of the fact that shane has been homeschooled since first grade, but that he has spent the majority of that ‘school’ time, with my mother as his ‘teacher’. this was a fine arrangement, she was willing and more than qualified, and he was learning. but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being my mother’s current cancer issues, it had become clear that it was time for me to take over. AND,with layla being 4 now, i really wanted to do a little bit more preschool stuff with her. being a little bit of a chicken flake, i (with much urging from my loving husband) decided the best route to go would be with a packaged curriculum. i figured it would be the most time-effective way to cover what we needed to cover, and be somewhat dummy-proof, but at the same time, having the option to supplement with as much

homemaking 101... ponderings, ramblings... the usual.

so i've been analyzing lately (because that's what i do) why i get so frustrated with myself, my shortcomings in the areas of housekeeping and organization, creativity, cooking, etc. it would seem that i'm trying to live up to the expectations of june cleaver, or my grandmother, or something equally unrealistic. no, i don't expect to push the vacuum and baste a turkey in heels and pearls, (besides, i have the roomba , remember?), but i do expect more of myself than i have been giving currently. why? i've been doing what i usually do when i have an issue i want to know more about; i check out every book the library has on the subject (organization problems anyone?). there are a LOT of books out there written by homemakers, for homemakers with a lot of different slants on the whole subject. interestingly enough, the view that disturbs me the most is not the one that suggests that God has decreed it so that women have no other calling than to be wives and mothers (alt

how to make a bad situation worse:

around 7:30 on thursday evening, we had a situation like this: not a good scenario. about 2 hours later, we were in this situation: awesome, right? so how do we get from point A to point B? like this: see the awesome metal ‘edge of death’ on that bowl? yeah. that’s the weapon. in my effort to speedily get the bowl under layla’s face, I actually HIT her in the face with it, and the edge SLICED her upper lip open. yup. right open. it was NOT awesome. I freaked out, of course. she’s still in the middle of feeling terrible. dave was not home yet from a meeting. yeah. mom is majorly freaking out. fortunately, dave walked in the door just as I was sending the “GET HOME NOW!” text. it wasn’t really bleeding a ton, but it was obvious that this was not a band-aid situation. so I called my dad to come and stay with the boys while we took her in to the ER. it’s very nice to have an older kid, so we didn’t have to wait for him to get there before we could leave. but not knowing how long it

project life 2014–week 11

sunday: stayed home from church with 2 coughing/sneezing kids. got to play a rousing game of headbanz with a cat cemented to me instead. monday: I took this out my parents’ kitchen window. I was doing some cleaning there and my dad went outside to do some yardwork. suddenly it started DUMPIMG hail. typical of my dad, he kept right on working, whilst hiding under the trees. tuesday: getting started on layla’s science fair project. this is her grand plan. two pots of lettuce seeds. one will be watered with water, the other with sprite. we’ll see if there’s a difference. wednesday: driving between the upper and lower totem lake malls… both sides of the street are lined with thunderclouds and they are in bloom right now! so pretty! I used to drive this route home from work every day about 7 years ago, and always try to make an excuse to go back around this time of year because it’s so awesome. also wednesday: hello spring! which of course meant: thursday: we had some time between dr

what to eat?

warning: this may turn into a rant. I’m confused. I don’t know what to eat! I know, that sounds really stupid. but honestly, I’m so confused right now about the whole what to eat thing. I’m not an idiot, and I’m certainly not ignorant as to nutrition concepts and the science of how the body uses food. and yet, I am so confused. there is so much conflicting information out there as to what is actually good for you . some say no carbs, some say no sugar, some say no red meat, some say no dairy, some say no eggs, some say no grains, some say no alcohol, some say no caffeine, etc. etc. etc. so obviously, you can’t ascribe to all of that or you would eat NOTHING. I also know that cutting out carbs is the most idiotic thing you can do. your body needs carbs to function. wonder bread, however, is not a good source of the carbs your body would prefer. as far as red meat goes. hello, protein and iron! but hard to digest. a lot of red meat puts a lot of wear and tear on your digestive sy

rachel's continued ramblings

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