The good news

Today we had orthodontist appointments. F. had been having the whole treatment (expanders, braces, etc) for the past year, so this was a regular appointment for her. At the same time, I was taking E. for an evaluation. Her teeth look pretty good, but I wanted to be sure they were fine. The good news is that nothing needs to be done for now. There's always a possibility of needing something later, but she certainly doesn't need all that F. is having done. It's a big relief because A. is certainly going to need a lot of work eventually. I figure the whole thing is a trade off for E. after all the horrible cavity work she had done as a toddler.

lefties

My mom is left handed, so I've always wondered if any of our kids would be lefties. It looks like I. is going to be left handed. I keep forgetting to tell my mom about it, so I thought I'd just post it on my blog as a test to see if she ever reads this. :) If she knows about it next time I talk to her, then I'll know she checks in here.

accomplishments and birthdays

Today I started off just wanting to crawl back in bed, but I didn't. First, I actually did my day 3 workout, so I have now accomplished week 1. Also today, I did a couple of little fix it jobs that have been waiting for Norm to have time. One was getting our new microwave (new in January, that is) into position with its trim kit. The other one was fixing a curtain that had fallen down. One of the brackets for the rod has been down also since January. It's a good thing I got N. that handy cordless drill for his birthday. ;)

Both T. and I. are totally obsessed with the idea of their birthday. Ever since I started planning E's birthday party (she turned 9 last week), they have been asking every day if it's "my birday?" They know they get cake and ice cream and presents and friends to come play. They will go over the whole list every day. T. has even learned to say that her "birday" will be in July when I remind her that it's not yet. Not that she has a clue what July means, just that she's heard me say it so many times.

Today's workout went much better than Monday's. I am totally amazed that my body actually gained something from a single workout, but today I ran farther in the jogging intervals and felt better when I was done.

How crazy am I?

Crazy enough to take six kids (my own five and a friend) to the Dallas Museum of Art. Of course, four of the six kids were not really a problem. I'm sure you can guess which two were the problem. A homeschooling friend had organized for us to go see the Turner exhibit as a homeschool group, which was awesome. We actually got to see it for free. But two year olds aren't that interested in art--unless it's the kind they draw on the walls and furniture themselves. Still, things were going ok until A. reached out to touch one of the pictures. I had talked to all the kids before the tour started about not touching anything, not even the walls, but she was so interested, she just forgot. The docent doing our tour was very nice about it, but A. spent about the next 20 minutes clinging to me as we went through our tour. Of course, at the same time, I'm trying to keep I. in the stroller and carry T. Fortunately, our docent was nice and also really interesting. She did a great job of talking to the kids at their level and keeping it interesting for them. She picked a few paintings to highlight, rather than overwhelming them with everything. Then at the end, she took us back to the beginning so that we could go through at our own pace to see anything else. The kids would like to go back to the museum. I need a few days to recover before I think about it. :)

exercise for the terribly unfit

A friend posted on her blog about how, despite being a great biker and swimmer, she wanted to take up running, so she's doing this couch to 5K plan. I looked at it and thought, wow, I think maybe I could do that. It'll be hard, but I can do it. So, today I did day one. Ouch! I am so out of shape it's not even funny. I mean, considering that I haven't done any regular exercise since I got pregnant with the twins, it's not surprising, especially since that pregnancy included ten weeks of bedrest. Anyway, despite wanting to quit half way through, I made it through the workout. Now there are just 26 left to go. :)

Pony and cheese anyone?

T loves, loves, loves macaroni and cheese, but in typical two year old fashion, she can't say it correctly. So she asks for more "pony and cheese, pwease."

F on Easter morning. She got her hair cut a couple of weeks later, so it's much shorter now.

I and T together. It's such a relief to have them cooperating with some picture taking for once. Maybe we're past the hardest part.

E on Easter morning.

T on Easter. It was hard to get a picture of her without an absolute cheesy smile, but this one was cute. The others were cute, too, but in a really silly way.

Obviously picture taking has gotten more fun for I. He used to run away screaming, and here is is laughing at the silly sounds I was making to get him to look at the camera.

A on Easter, trying not to freeze!

Lockhart's Lament

This is a really fascinating article on the horrible way that we teach math. It doesn't really matter, ususally, whether we're talking about public school, private school or homeschool, math is mostly taught the same way. After reading this, I think it's time to find some "math classics" and find out a little more for myself.

writing

F has been a great reader for many years now, but I've always had a hard time getting her to write more than a sentence or two at a time. When she was just starting out, a lot of the problem was that it took so long to write each word because she was new to the mechanical process of putting the letters on the paper. But even when she got so that her handwriting was better, she just didn't enjoy writing at all. She didn't like writing on paper, dictating to me or using the computer. I haven't pushed too hard on that one because I figured that if she kept on reading good books, a certain amount of writing skill would come with all that reading. Now she's writing a story to give to E. for her birthday. The last time I asked her, she had written over twenty pages, typed. She has a story within the story going. I am amazed. Her punctuation needs work, but her vocabulary, word usage and grammar are really quite good. It just reminds me that kids are learning all the time, whether we teach from text books or just by living life.

We are the homeschool kids...

This is a funny parody of "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." Check it out. http://dpenguin.com/blog/?p=498