When I took the blue tabs and my service pin off my den leader uniform for laundering, I put them in a safe place. It’s so safe, I can’t even find them. This might be a time for cussin’ because I need them for tonight, but I just don’t like profanity. It’s really weird to me - my father had the mouth of a sailor yet my brother and I never cursed. Sometimes a word will cross my mind, but saying it out loud is very difficult for me. In the book I’m reading, the following quote pretty much sums up my feelings about it:

My mother didn’t like to hear profanity, and she certainly never spoke it. She had always told us that swearing was the sign of a lackluster vocabulary and, worse, a stunted imagination. “There are so many interesting words to use, alone or in combination,” she said, “that I don’t know why anyone would fall back on one-syllable obscenities.”

What she said!

I was looking around this Movies In The Classroom website yesterday and thought it was kind of fun. I think it has a lot of potential - not many movies are listed there. I found a study (created by Disney) based on the movie National Treasure that looked fun, we might give it a whirl. I also found a site called Teach With Movies . It looks pretty good, but it’s subscription based and I will have to try out the samples before I would pay the fee.

From the first site, I found this listing at the Edmonton Public Library of books that were made into movies. I have this “thing” where I prefer to read the book first, if I know there’s a book. One exception I made was “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” because when I first heard of the book, none of my libraries had it. So when I was in Blockbuster and saw the MOVIE (that I didn’t even know existed) on the shelf, I snapped it up. Today I picked up the book from the library (maybe it took being made into a movie to get it there?).

We love movies around here but don’t like all the junk in them, so we’re what I consider to be pretty selective. I’m sure we’re way more liberal than some, though, LOL! We have a DVD player with built in TV Guardian - but it only censors language. There’s something I just heard about that I am going to investigate further that sounds pretty cool - it’s called Clearplay. It edits out language, sex/nudity, and violence on a movie by movie basis. It looks like there are different levels of each that can be selected and to keep updated, you have to have a subscription. I’m going to have to do some research - that sounds great to me! Although I imagine those Hollywood producers don’t like their “art” being messed with, as a parent, I’m sure steamed when a movie would be great but for one or two scenes, or the language peppered throughout. I am thankful for these devices and the people that develop them.

This weekend marked the one year anniversary of my Lasik surgery.  I’m still in awe over the results.  A few days ago I was driving to the store near midnight to get some medicine for our son and I was thinking how amazing to not need glasses to do it.  Before the surgery, at that time of night, my eyes would have been resting from my contact lenses so I would have been wearing glasses for a midnight trip. 

Swimming last year was much more enjoyable - before I would either have to wear my contacts and worry about losing one (they cost $100 per eyeball) OR I’d take them out and not be able to see my children well enough to know if they were okay… so I usually kept them in and had to be careful.

The only thing I wasn’t prepared for on surgery day was the smell of burning flesh during the lasering process.  Fortunately it didn’t last long.  And the valium helped.   

Last week I publicized some examples of the treachery my 3yo wrought upon us. I thought that perhaps I should also record some things that are good:

~He shares candy and toys with his brothers pretty well (the problem is he expects them to share and their stuff isn’t always suitable for a 3yo.) But it’s pretty sweet that he thinks of them.
~He can melt my heart with his sweet smile and dimples.
~He gives us a good excuse to go see G movies like Curious George without appearing strange. I think he’s George’s twin. Only cuter.
~He still calls me Mommy, while his brothers just call me Mom – I hope he keeps it up awhile longer.
~He still likes to snuggle and I hope he keeps that one up, too. While we snuggle we whisper back and forth. If I say, “I love you so much!”, he replies, “I love you too much!”

So little guy, Mommy loves you and is so glad God gave you to us. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.

We had a little ice over the weekend - the roads were only bad on overpasses, but the trees were pretty with their light coat of ice.

I drink coffee in the morning. Every morning. I admit, I’ve never liked hot tea. But I did try some that I liked the other day - Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red Rooibos tea. Yum! Takes the chill off on these cold afternoons when I don’t want the caffeine. I rather like the lion drinking his cup of tea on the box.

Tomorrow I’m taking the kids to see a performance of The Alamo at Casa Manana (I don’t know how to make that little squiggle over the first n!). It will be Texas History day! I just have to remember to get everyone up and out of the house by 9 am so we can find our homeschool group. I must remember The Alamo!

My 3yo:

~got Sharpie on my bedspread. I thank God for google and get it out. There are downfalls to being a Sharpie addict - this being the biggie.
~picked apart a blob of Silly Putty into a bunch of pieces and strew them about on his brother’s bed and the carpet. None was stuck to anything. Thank God again.
~decides to feed brother’s hermit crab. Dumps half the bottle of food in the tank, followed by a bunch of water, turning the food to a mushy mess. Tells me he drank the crab’s water. I pray that the conditioned water won’t harm the kid. And need to figure out how to clean gravel.
~there’s lots more, but these are the ones that come to mind first. I’m convinced this child runs his guardian angel ragged - maybe there’s 4 or 5 of them assigned just to him.

I have also decided that I need to have the Poison Control number in a prominent place because of his ability to climb on things. “Up high” just isn’t good enough sometimes. This triggers a memory for me. When my oldest was 7 he came to me and asked if he could take a vitamin. In one hand was the bottle, in the other was the child-safe cap. I asked him how he got the bottle open. His reply, “I read the directions”. I think I won’t teach the little one to read until he’s 16.

My 3yo is much more, shall we say, adventurous than his three older brothers. The days are filled with daredevil stunts (by him, not me!) with me following behind trying to keep the child alive to see another day. I’m pretty whipped right now and although he’s still awake I just did some self-medicating with Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate mixed in hot milk. When I was pregnant with him I prayed for a laid-back child. Anyone who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor clearly doesn’t know Him too well. Excuse me while I go catch the naked child to get him in his pj’s!

Check out Tim Hawkins‘ website for some clips - he’s a homeschool Dad. Here are some older clips (be sure to check out the “It’s a Guy” video. Newer stuff here (we bought this DVD for our family for Christmas). We are quoting him quite often around here. We also got to see him in person last year and I hope we can catch him again.

Proverbs 17:22a ~ A joyful heart is good medicine

Be sure to get a daily dose!