Harrumph!

Ok...so I haven't forgotten all my readers out there...really...I just can't seem to work in the whole computer time on the schedule these days. You needn't feel ignored. I actually neglect to check my email some days too- much less do anything else on the computer. INSTEAD...I've been:

- teaching school to the kids
- being on duty with Fairwood
- reorganizing our entire family schedule to work in training times for the kids on chores
- going to a Bible study
- being pregnant
- dealing with blood sugar issues and various other ailments
- teaching Sunday School- which doesn't take up much time during the week except some key computer time
- and the one day I tried to post last week, I couldn't get a single page to load on the screen, thus I was forced to come up with an alternate activity- more scheduling efforts

On the side I have been cleaning up after our resident monkey (Jeff) who just this week got himself stuck on the bookshelf halfway up the wall in the living room, climbed a book case in his closet and discovered all my sewing supplies and threw them all over the room (think mass of tangled thread and stick pins everywhere), and emptied the almost full vaporizer onto the bedroom floor. He also is obsessed with a puzzle lately of shapes. Unfortunately the morons who made the puzzle didn't make the circle an actual circle and neither is the square a "true" square, and the triangle actually only fits one way into its slot. Thus I am force to frequently unstick his puzzle pieces because rather than turn them around until they go in smoothly, he insists on pounding them in, jumping on them, or anything to make them smash into the slot the way he wants and then he cries because he can't get them out. Arg! We should burn that puzzle...except he really does like it.

Rachel has taken to the tearing up books stage and that has left me with the repair job. She also loves to dump out toys and pick them up again, but she always seems to tire of the routine on the dumped out part and not on the picked up part. Hmmm....WHY???

James is intense as ever- especially when telling stories. Here's a good example:

This is James imitating the frozen fish in "Ice Age". For those of you who are not familiar with this famous pose, he is quite similar to the real thing. The funniest part about this pic is that when he was telling the story, he actually made this face for about 30 seconds straight and remained totally oblivious to all the hysterical laughter round about him.

Jonathon is doing well. Schooling is going good too. He has learned to sound out words and is flying through his reading, feeling successful and for the most part enjoying it. He goes back and forth between being very creative (attaching a jump rope to his box of chalk and saying that is his electricity box and he is going to go wire things), to ridiculous (hide his shoes and socks in the leaf pile..or was it the dirt pile...or maybe the sand court...he can't remember- but we do have to find them!) to sweet ("I'm being as good as a flower...and a tree!). Anyway, he's interesting these days and I'm having a good time teaching him all sorts of things.

Brandon and I are doing well and gearing up for a Thanksgiving trip South. Yayah! We are planning to be gone for about a week and hopefully see plenty of family and friends while there. So...with that in mind..once again I have LOADS to do and I should be off doing them and not involved in such frivolities as blogging...although it does keep you in touch and there IS value in that...ok...see ya.