Our House

I wrote my post title and totally started singing the song in my head. "Our house...is a very, very, very fine house (fine house)."


I digress...


What I was going to do was fill you in on how we're settling into our house, now that we've been here about a month. We're settling pretty well. There are two main things I'm still having issues with, though.


1) Our master bathroom.


There it is. I've gotten used to the size. I don't mind so much that it doesn't have the huge amount of storage that our last home had. I'm currently not bothered by the lack of a tub. When Scott is out to sea that might be a different story...it's sometimes nice to relax in a hot bath with an adult beverage. I'm not sure how that'll work in the kid's bathroom, but that's my option so I'll work with it then.

Anyway, there are shortcomings to this bathroom that I'm willing to look past. I even thought I'd finally learned how to get in and out of the shower without hitting my head on the top of the shower door. Two days in a row now I've managed that feat! Hold your applause though. Getting out of the shower today I scraped my shoulder and then sitting on the toilet this afternoon I hit my head on the towel rack across from it.

I believe, though, that I'll eventually stop hurting myself in the bathroom. It just may take a few more months to get there...

2) The kitchen...



I actually like our kitchen, mostly. The two things I don't like about it are the corner of the cupboard over the peninsula and the inefficient stove fan.

The peninsula counter was covered with all sorts of tools, mail, stuff we didn't know what to do with for a few weeks. Last week, though, we had some friends over and I cleaned up. Almost immediately I hit my head. (I know. I'll never be able to shave my head.) I would like to keep it clean, however I'm torn by the fact that I keep trying to lean across it for one thing or another...and hitting my head some more! Ug.

As for the fan, it's right above the stove. Seems like that would be a good place to put a fan that's meant to pull up the steam and smoke and what not that's created while cooking. Maybe, if the fan did it's job, that would be enough. Ours doesn't.

I make bacon almost daily. And the attitude in our house has turned to this: "Great. It's time for breakfast. OK. The sooner we set off the smoke alarm the sooner it'll stop." That's what Jace said this morning. He's so encouraging.

I didn't make bacon this morning. On the mornings I do, though, I've begun opening the kitchen window that's above the sink and the sliding glass door in the dining room.



I'd say half the time that's enough, but the rest of the time it still chirps and squawks and hurts our ears. The kids run and open the living room windows and the front door. I finish making breakfast and then we eat without talking until the blaring noise stops, at which point we all sigh. Not exactly the ideal morning routine.

But, aside from these few things, the house is treating us well. Scott and the land lord put up a shed in the back yard and he's working on organizing that and the garage to his satisfaction. During homeschool we're making use of the classroom, and enjoying it. The kids like to play both in their rooms and in the playroom downstairs. They usually only play outside when it involves going down the road to play with their friends, but that's starting to change as well. I just kicked Jace and Gracie out and they're playing Mom and Dad (they're version of Playing House, I think) and enjoying themselves.

Things are fine in our house. Not perfect, but very, very, very fine.

A Few Things...

This is going to be a quickie, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot today and wanted to share. So, here goes...

Even though I've left the house every day this week for one thing or another, including grocery shopping, I needed to go again this morning for three items. I was irritated before we walked about the door and figured that what should be a 15 minute trip was going to turn into much more. It didn't! Twenty minutes round trip. I feel good about that. And now I shouldn't have to run to the store until Tuesday, which I believe is going to be my new grocery shopping day.

I unpacked the last of the boxes. There are two boxes of mementos and one of wine glasses that I left packed and stuck on a shelf. There's only so much horizontal space for things!

Yesterday we bought a new-to-us dining room table and chairs and moved the old one to the classroom. Things are looking really good down stairs and up. I really like our new set. Yes, I'll take some pictures soon.

The moving people came and picked up our boxes of paper and the pile of broken down ones and took them away. They seriously took up at least 1/4 of the garage. Scott's gonna be excited!

Tyler took a 4 hour nap. He asked for it at 9:30 this morning! Who am I to say no...and apparently he needed it!

All three kids are playing contentedly downstairs. I know I just mentioned that it's looking good down there. Hopefully that will still be the case when they're done playing!

I balanced both check books. Well, technically I gave up on the one account and drew a few lines and started over at the balance as of the last statement. This particular account, with USAA, is where Scott's checks get deposited and the one we pay all our bills from. Everything else happens in our Focus Bank account. Scott used the USAA account when he was in Connecticut and I obviously didn't keep up with his spending or the random deposits of travel money. On top of that, I haven't balanced it in four months...so I figured it was easiest to count our blessings for not overdrawing and start fresh!

Now, why do we have two checking accounts? Because Focus Bank has a high interest checking account. As long as we have less than $20,000 in the account (they want you to invest it someplace if you have more), check our account online at least once a month, and use the debit card associated with the account at least ten times a month, we get 4.5% interest. Not bad, huh? Go ahead, check 'em out! And, by the way, that account balanced! Woo hoo!

So, I think that's what I've done, along with shower, cuddle, make and eat breakfast and lunch, nibble on some nuts, have a glass of lemonade, take out the recycling and do three loads of laundry. I know...you're disappointed that I haven't folded that laundry yet. I'll go do it now...

Dirty Laundry

I feel like I've been doing a lot of laundry lately. I mean what mom doesn't? Right?! I've been looking into the back yard trying to determine where I want to hang my clothes line. I'm pretty excited about hanging laundry on the line. There's something comforting about it. I probably complained about having to do it when I was a kid, but now, as an adult, it holds some sort of romance for me. Like getting in touch with a simpler time. The reality of it likely won't live up to the day dreamed version, but it will still be a nice option for freshening our clothes!

There are other sorts of things I've been thinking about lately too. Last night we ate dinner on the porch in the back of our house. I was ready to throttle Gracie (in the most loving and motherly way, of course) over eating her dinner. I was highly aware of the houses on either side of me, with their back yard porches. I wondered if anyone could hear me. If so, did they care?

For the last three years I've lived a ways from neighbors. I haven't been concerned with anyone hearing me scold my little monsters. And, without a clothes line, I haven't been concerned about hanging my intimates with teen boys next door. Are these things everyone worries about?

And what about letting the kids play at the neighbors? They actually stay outside and watch their kids ride bikes, run amok, and be silly. Maybe it's because I'm not studying or doing yard work (that's what the parents I've met have been doing) but I don't want to sit outside for hours and watch them play. These other parents have said, "You're kids are very well behaved," and "It's fine if they come down. No problem." But how much is too much? We don't have a bounce house or kiddie pool. Most of our outdoor toys are still in a box. Even once we get them out, our yard is bumpy as all get out and the grass is rough. I don't think the kids will want to play here. So, is it OK to let them play down the road for hours every day?

There are so many things to consider, aside from the placement of the wall hangings, when moving to a new neighborhood. No wonder I'm a little tired out! Well, that and the weather. It's almost 90 today. I'm sitting here, typing, and sweating. I got used to me AC in Georgia. Here in Washington we sweat it out! Maybe I'll lose a pound. Hey one can dream, right?

Getting Here, Getting There

If you follow my blog at all, you know that we recently moved from Southern Georgia to Western Washington via Western New York. It was a long and exciting couple of months.

The last five days of the trip were driving from New York to Washington in a little caravan. Here's what I saw:













Occasionally I looked in the rear view and saw this:
























Sometimes when we'd stop I've even get to see this:






Or this:




And when we stopped at Mt. Rushmore I got to see this:



Oh, yeah, and this too:





As you can see, we had a great trip. We're unpacking and settling in. In fact, I think all the mover's boxes are unpacked. I'm not guaranteeing that everything has been put away yet, but it's all out of the boxes. And I will admit, too, that there are a few unpacked boxes of books that we'd packed up many moons ago when we had to clean up our Georgia home to get it on the market. But those should be unpacked and put on shelves in no particular order in another day or two. Pictures are on our walls. We've eaten inside at the dining room table and outside on the deck, once because we couldn't find the dining room table. But the other time was because we wanted to enjoy the weather!

We're eating well and ready to lose the poundage we put on over the last few months. I've been back on Mark's Daily Apple and am stocking the cupboards, fridge, and freezer with Primal friendly foods (minus the goods I bought to make chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for a neighborhood 4th of July party!). I've found a local CSA and plan to visit them personally to learn more by the end of next week.

We've got plans to start swimming as a family, camping, and hopefully fishing. Scott got a bike to commute with. The kids have made friends in the neighborhood.

Life is good. We're getting there. And we're happy to be headed in the right direction.

Today

Today, the second full day of unpacking, I unpacked a measly five boxes. Before you get all up on me about that...I also moved a shelf, did two loads of laundry (which I folded and put away), reorganized two of the kitchen cupboards I had put stuff in yesterday, made the hallway closet neat and orderly, made a grocery list (shouldn't you applaud me for this alone?), went grocery shopping, mailed a bill out, found out the recreational swimming schedule, put light bulbs in a few lamps, plugged in and set my alarm clock (yes, we've been here for 5 days - don't judge), made breakfast, lunch and dinner, and cleaned up after each meal.

Whew...I feel much better about sitting here on the computer now!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. I have clean sheets to put on the bed. :-)

Hopefully, I'll be on again soon, though, to fill you all in on the past couple of months. I'm sure everyone has been looking forward to hearing about everything, from my brother-in-law's wedding to what our new home is like. Let me know if you have any questions you're especially eager to have answered.

This and That

This is going to be one of those posts that gives you insight into my psyche. I'm going to let my thoughts flow and my fingers will hopefully follow in some sort of sensible manner. I know what you're thinking. "Aren't all Annie's posts like this?" The answer? Perhaps so. But this one is intentionally being written in that free-flow format.

So, to begin with, I have to tell you that when I thought of my post title it made me think of two roads that can be found in Washington state. I wasn't going to start by talking about finding a home to rent, but since the title took me there...let's do it.

This-A-Way and That-A-Way are the roads I thought of. I don't know if they're streets or roads or parkways, but they're near where I first lived when I moved West. Scott and I stayed with good friends who offered their guest bedroom to us until we could get a house on base. Now, moving back ten years later, almost to the day, we're in need of more than somebody's guest room and the waiting list to get onto base is over a year - that's if we wanted to, and we don't. So, we've been looking at rental homes for many months but have only begun actually contacting possibilities in the last week. We won't be getting there until the end of June and didn't want to pay for June just to hold a home since we'll be living there for four days at the most.

I, for one, am getting excited about having a new place, and really any place that is ours. It's been wonderful seeing so many family members and old friends, but I'm looking forward to not living out of a suitcase, cooking our meals, and being able to figure out a schedule again. And, we're hopefully getting close to actually renting a place. We have a friend looking at three potential rentals this week and we just found another we're adding to the list today. Fingers crossed that one of these meets enough of our criteria that we'll end up with the comfort of knowing where we're going to call home before we start off on our cross-country trek.

And, speaking of crossing things (the country, fingers) I'm not quite 32 years old. Yes, I've had three kids, but do I really need to cross my legs every time I sneeze? I was in the store a little while ago and heard someone sneeze the mother of all sneezes from an aisle or two over. I said a little prayer that if it was a woman she felt it coming on with enough advance warning that she could cross her legs and squeeze. I don't think men worry about such things. But I do, at least now.

I've been crossing and squeezing for some time now, but a few weeks ago I was surprised by a big ol' "achoo!" peed myself a little. You're embarrassed for me, but laughing at the same time...I know. If it had happened to one of you I'd be much less horrified and more amused, but it didn't. I was doing dishes, sneezed, and actually looked down to be sure I didn't have pee dripping down my legs. Apparently squeezing is not sufficient anymore. I actually went and changed my shorts! From now on - cross and squeeze!

Thankfully I don't sneeze all that often. You know who did, though? Kendra. She lived on 3rd Rob with us freshman year at college. I don't even remember her last name, but we had a little get together with nine of our fellow alums last weekend. It was a great, if not exhausting time. There were a total of 15 kids, seven and under! There were 13 adults, which isn't a bad ratio, but the kids just have so much energy! After everyone left Cathy and I (Cathy was my roommate all four years of undergrad, except for the semester she spent in Ireland) looked through photo albums and reminisced. What a great way to spend an afternoon.

It's afternoon now, actually. The kids are up from their naps. Jace just gave me a spontaneous hug. They're willingly picking up their toys, scattered all over the 1st floor of Grandma and Grandpa's house. I've been asked about going for a bike ride at least seven times while I've been typing this. I guess I should stop typing and go enjoy the sunshine!

Hope your afternoons are filled with hugs, sunshine and willing children as well.

Just a Little "How Do You Do?"

So, how do you do? I'm doing pretty well these days. I feel mostly relaxed and am not worrying (too much) about where we're going to live in Washington in a mere six weeks. I have to admit, though, that I have done a little looking at rental places. I like to look. There's no harm in looking. OK, I've even sent out a couple emails to find out more details on a few places. But I'm not worrying. If we haven't lined up a place a month from now...then we'll talk.

What else have I been up to other than trolling the web for rental homes? Mostly, I've been working. That's right...I'm a homeschooling mama. It's a job! :) And I'm attending my first conference. It's an online convention: The Old Schoolhouse Online Expo. If you're just hearing about this, don't worry you're not completely missing out! You can go in and browse the vendor hall now, without buying your way into the convention! You can also order the downloads that will be available after the close of the expo. And if you're like me, and just getting into homeschooling, you might find these sessions highly informational! I've probably attended about half of them and taken almost 20 pages of notes! This morning I was looking through my notes, getting ready for today (the last day of the expo), and realized I need to weed through all that I've learned and really pick out what I want to work into our lives and what I'm willing to wait on. Even the prospect of that excites me! I'm a planner and am really enjoying designing our homeschool.

That's about it, ladies and gents! Even though I've been in New York for 4 days now, I haven't been running in 16 directions. I took one day to visit all our parents and I've been huddled in the corner with my computer since. Tomorrow should be a relaxing day - finally one without rain - so I'm hoping we can all get outside and enjoy it. And I'll be getting together with some old high school friends tomorrow night. Sunday we're going to see Thomas the Train, that should be fun. But thus far, we're not overloaded. I like that.

One thing I am doing, though, is counting down the days until I get to see Scott again. (Miss you!) He was around during the last move and moving out of the house without him and traveling so much with just the kids has been fun, but so very different. We've been sharing stories with him, but we're all excited to see him again! And, we're under two weeks...yay!

So, that's our lives in a nut shell. I hope you're all doing well today too and maybe you can take some time to listen to the birds outside your door too. That's the melody I have playing right now. That and a truck from the gravel pit! Have a great weekend!

Focus

Ever since I wrote my post the other day (where I ended with this thought, "I'll focus on smiling...smiling is good") I've been been thinking about focus.

I say it often to Jace. He's not very good at it. It takes him forever to tie his shoes. Well, not literally forever, of course. But a long time. And doing his home work...I've started simply saying, "Focus," every time he has an unrelated story to tell or answers a question Gracie asks or starts playing with Tyler. Hopefully eventually he'll learn better concentration. We'll see.

You are probably hearing some frustration in my tone. I can't deny it's there. Things seem not to be going as smoothly as I'd like with our move. Nothing earth-shattering has gone wrong, but just little things that put me off kilter. And Gracie's teacher noted that I looked tired this morning. She's right, but I'd hoped that I was covering that better.

So, I've also been trying to live by my own words, and focus on the ways my marvelous monkeys make me smile. I haven't been doing so well at it, but I've been trying.

Tonight I scolded them a lot, for being too loud, too rowdy, too much like kids. I finally realized that and stopped yelling. Soon after Jace asked if he could come cuddle with me. I love that. He's less than a month from turning seven. While he was snuggled next to me and we were watching the other two little ones frolic I was reminded of one of those pictures where everything is blurry except the subject's eyes or gentle smile. Tyler and Gracie were laughing and jumping and playing. I heard them and saw them, but they were in the background. My focus was on the prickliness of Jace's hair as I pet him and the way he giggled at his siblings.

That's how I'm going to try to stay positive over the next several days, maybe weeks, while our lives are upside down. When I feel like screaming at the kids or the guy driving like an idiot ahead of me I'm going to try to take a little snap shot in my mind. And I'm going to blur all the junk that's not important or positive.

Here's an example from today: I don't have a stove in my room. I thought I did. I was wrong. I bought groceries thinking I did. There is a full kitchen that everyone staying here can use. The key doesn't work. I tried to make breakfast there this morning and it didn't work. The receptionist said she'd be sure it was fixed by tonight. It wasn't. I was frustrated. At the end of the day though...that's all background. We ate food from the microwave and no one starved. In fact, we had a fun little picnic style dinner. Focus.

So, apparently while I continuously remind Jace to focus, I need to remind myself just as often. Feel free to jog my memory every now and then if I seem a little uptight to you. A little shout out could go a long way in helping me think positive and appreciate the beautiful children and wonderful life I have.

Life On the Run

OK, I'm not really on the run. I am, however, hiding out in a hotel. Our house is full of boxes and tomorrow they'll all be loaded on a truck and hauled to Washington. The kids and I have another week here in Georgia until we leave too. We were eating dinner tonight and I realized that next week we'll be eating dinner in South Carolina! Cool, huh?

But before we leave there's stuff to be done. Like laundry. That's what I'm doing now. We lucked out with a room near the laundry room. After last night, which I'll tell you more about in a minute, I put the kids in bed early and moved myself into the hallway to do laundry, pay bills, and listen to another session of the Schoolhouse Expo. Oh, and eat half a candy bar. Don't judge me.

So, more about last night...I intended last night to be a relaxing intro to life on the road with only one tub of toys, one room of space and all that fun stuff. We hadn't even been at the hotel for half an hour when Tyler jumped from the bed to the window seat and cut his head open on the sill. We stopped the bleeding but I wasn't sure if stitches would be required so we quick grabbed a bag of books (luckily we hadn't unpacked anything yet) and went to the ER.

(Side note: our insurance is infamous for saying that we need to be sure we call for authorization on the way to the emergency room or within 24 hours of going to ensure payment. I called and the call taker scolded me for not going straight there! I wish she'd been the one to answer when I called back today...I would have let her know that the ER didn't think they needed to rush, so the extra minute or two I spent on the phone with her didn't make a difference in Tyler's treatment. Buy, anyway...)

We spent 3 1/2 hours at the hospital. We read every book in the bag, most of them more than once. We walked. We talked. We had a vending machine snack. We walked and talked and read some more. When we finally saw the doctor all went well. He said he'd glue it up and send us on our way. Just before we walked out of the hospital Jace looked to me and admitted, "I think I should have remembered what you always tell me - that I shouldn't teach Tyler to do bad things because he'll try than and not do them right." I knew he was the first one leap from bed to window, but I hadn't seen it or said anything about it! Ah, the guilty conscious of my beautiful boy.

When all was said and done, I tucked the kids into bed just before 10:30! Jace and Gracie were all tired today, but both had a good day at school. Tyler and I had a good day at the house, while the packers finished up. They got done earlier than expected and we took a little nap together. Precious.

So, here we are...night two at the hotel. Putting the kids to bed early went decent. Tyler went right to sleep. Jace hit Gracie with a doll and Gracie kicked Jace in the face, but they are all snoring by bed time! Sigh.

With that, I've moved my clothes to the dryer and taken a seat on the infamous window seat and turned on Survivor. This is the life...maybe not the life, but a good life! I'm not saying to want to live on road permanently or anything, but for a week or two...well, that I'm looking forward to.

Not Me! Monday...Last Days Home

If you're not familiar with MckMama...go check out her blog! She's a bundle of energy fueled by faith and passion and her stories evoke every emotion. She covers a variety of topics so there's something for everyone....including her weekly Not Me! Monday posts.




What is Not Me! Monday? Well, it's a carnival of fun where we have permission to deny anything we're willing to (not) admit to the world! So, join in or get a laugh at everyone else's expense!

As for me...well, the week is off to in interesting start. Yesterday while I was sweeping and mopping I apparently stepped on some shards of glass from several months ago. That was the last time I broke anything. After finding that it's painful to walk with glass in your foot I didn't sit for the vast majority of the afternoon and evening. I didn't stick scotch tape, duct tape, and glue on my foot. I certainly did not put a slice of bacon on my foot. I'm not still wondering how I'm going to remove the last stubborn pieces. And, in light of all this, I'm not considering giving away all my clear glass and purchasing only colored glass from here on out so that it can be seen! Nor am I thinking about boycotting sweeping and mopping...obviously this is a sign that I shouldn't be cleaning, right?

Today I didn't run to Wally World for printer ink only to find that I purchased the wrong ink. I'm not going to go back to WalMart this afternoon to return the incorrect cartridge and get the right one. I live half an hour from WalMart...I wouldn't go there twice in the same day!

I haven't fed my children pancakes three times in the past week. If I had I would have a good reason...like we need to get rid of the syrup and pancake mix.

I'm not feeling overwhelmed by moving. I'm not sad to leave Georgia. I'm not excited to go on an exhausting road trip. I'm not going to be so very thankful to land on Grandma and Grandpa's door step in a few weeks.

In all honesty, this week and next are going to be full of things to deny! No doubt about it. I'm not sure if or when I'll take the time to report back on here, though...so be patient with me. And in the meantime, there are plenty of other denials to enjoy over at MckMama's!

Checking In

Hello everyone. I feel like I should post something. I'd been on quite the schedule of one or two posts a day. I know you must all be wondering if I fell off the Earth. Well, I didn't. As we all know, the Earth is spherical and you can't just fall off. I relearned this lesson this morning on the way to school.

The Gracie asked if we could listen to "that CD that rocks?"

Jace translated, "Yeah! Can we listen to Montgomery Gentry?"

"Why surely. I hardly ever turn them down."

After we yelled along, uh...I mean sang along with Now You're Talkin' we listened to a few others and then Back When I Knew It All came on. In case you don't know the song, there's a line in it that says "back when the world was flat and Mama and Daddy didn't have a clue." (Boy am I glad they didn't grab onto the second part of that line to dissect this morning. It's only a matter of time...) So, when Troy and Eddie sang the chorus Gracie laughed and said, "That's funny! He thought the world was flat!"

Jace piped up to explain, "There was a time, Gracie when people believed the Earth was flat. But everyone knows now that it's a sphere." And there ya have it.

Now that we all know I could not and have not fallen off the Earth...what have I been doing? Obviously I haven't been blogging!

Well, I've been making lists. Lists of things we need in New York, in DC, on the road, in various hotels. Lists of things to do before we leave the house and leave the state. Lists that can be checked off, lined out, crumpled up and tossed out. I like to feel accomplished. Lists help.

I've also written the Kral Chronicle, a family newsletter that I put together for my mom's side of the family. And I've been reading about homeschooling. It's still something that I'm excited about. And the kids are thrilled, which brings me great joy!

We were at the library yesterday and there were some girls there who are homeschooled. They were just visiting with each other and conversation turned to school. One of the other girls asked if Gracie went to school and she said, "Yes. I go to Grannie's Play Place. But next year mama is going to homeschool us." I couldn't resist smiling. I hope she still says it with such warm feelings in six months!

So, that's life on our front. Hope everyone reading this (and even those that aren't) are having a lovely week and have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Ready, Set....GO!

Once I started thinking about homeschooling I started thinking about schooling year round. Shh...don't tell my kids! They're excited about homeschooling, but I don't think they be thrilled about doing it all year...unless they don't know about it. And, I'm sneaky.

I quickly decided that our first few units would be based on things we're up to this summer. I wasn't sure when I wanted to start them, though. Part of me still thought I should wait until the fall. See, even I have a hard time breaking out of the "box" sometimes. Different scenarios kept swimming through my head, though, and I have finally decided to start sooner...like now.

Well, not right now...my pupils are in bed. But I will be doing things here and there to work our way into our new roles gradually. We're all excited, but we've never had a student/teacher relationship and I imagine that'll be a little awkward every now and then until we get the hang of it. Here's what I'm planning thus far...

Tonight we worked on number order with Gracie by putting our new Wildlife Explorer cards into the binders. Every month we get a bunch of cards to add to the ones we already have. They don't come in order. The binders are organized into eight groups and there are varying numbers of cards in each group. Tonight Jace found all the Group 1 cards and organized them and Gracie got interested. So, Jace and Gracie worked together to organize the Group 2 cards. I put in my two cents every so often (Jace was a bit bossy in his helpfulness) but they did pretty well together. During this little exercise they were dealing with three digit numbers, practicing team work, and Gracie learned the definition of digit...at least we told her what it meant. We'll see if it stuck tomorrow.

We're going to St. Augustine this weekend and have started learning a little about the city. (I learned a good lesson here. I should pre-read any books I plan on reading with the kids. Even though I found a book about St. Augustine's history in the juvenile fiction section of the library there was a rather detailed description of how a Spanish conquistador tied up and stabbed 200 French explorers. Nice, huh? Thankfully I saw it coming and summarized.)

We're going to do a slow study on horses before Memorial Day weekend, when we'll be visiting with my brother-in-law and his soon-to-be-wife, who have horses.

For Gracie's birthday we're going to incorporate a trip to a butterfly garden. A unit on Butterflies is being planned. I'll probably start some of it in New York while we're there this summer. It'll overlap a bit with our unit on National Monuments and Landmarks. We'll be visiting Washington DC and (hopefully) Mt. Rushmore during out move this summer. I have some reading, coloring, and other activities the kids can work on at hotels and in the van to learn about what we'll be seeing and get excited to see it! Both of these units we'll finish after settling into our new home in Washington.

I probably won't get into a solid, daily schooling routine until August. By then, though, we'll have had some time to see how we work together as a homeschooling family.

What do you think?

Be Nice To Me

I gave blood today. I remember my dad used to come home with heart shaped stickers that said "Be nice to me I gave blood today." How come I don't get those? Hmmm... I do get smiley face bandages wrapped around my arm. So, that's cool...I guess. But you should be nice to me anyway!

Aside from letting you know that little piece of info, I also wanted to say welcome to all my new followers!

"Welcome!"

I do believe the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 is still going on at 5 Minutes For Mom. (It is...I just checked.) But even when it's over and you can't add your blog to the list you can still weed through the 1000's of blogs that are already there and find some new e-friends. I know that I'm excited to get new followers (including my husband...a special hello to you) and I'm guess that other bloggers are too. I've been taking a few minutes each night to go back to the UBP post and visit a few new blogs...some catch my eye and others don't...but it's great fun.

Another little tid bit I'll let you in on is that the kids and I are heading North earlier than originally expected. I just filled out the withdrawal form today at Jace's school and we'll be in New York by his birthday. He's one very excited little boy! Oops, sorry...big boy! Now we just have to decide what his cake will be this year.

Here's a look at years past:

Whale Shark (6)

Monkey (4)

Trucks (3)

So, what will happen for the big 7? We don't know yet...but it'll be something fun. No doubt about it!