You can order personalized Sharpies here, and the quantities are reasonable now! What a cool gift or stocking stuffer! As a confirmed Sharpie freak, mine would probably say my name and something along the lines of:

Put it down. NOW!

U can’t touch this!

Property of the freak

*starts to mull over the Christmas list but isn’t sure everyone would appreciate the gift of Sharpies - hard to imagine*

Yesterday I went to three grocery stores looking for pumpkins for my boys to carve. At the last store, I had given up and was picking up some groceries when a man came out of the back storage area rolling a pallet with a big box of pumpkins on it. I was excited to find them and told the man that everyone was out and asked if that was normal. He said it was not normal. So what’s up with pumpkins in our town? Hmmm…. maybe there’s a carving contest… or maybe someone is doing some serious decorating… or maybe we’ll find out tonight.

I’m not really “into” Halloween but I think there’s something cool about a Jack-o-lantern with a candle flickering inside. We don’t T or T any more, but we do stay home and watch a movie as a family and eat candy (we always get our favorites that way). I don’t like the obsession with evil and death that some people seem to have, but we do like dressing up and we do like candy. Mmmmm… I have my Milky Ways and Reese’s cups in the freezer. Yum!

I just checked and there’s corn syrup on the ingredient list, corn is good for you, isn’t it? I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of corn syrup in our food but I don’t know that there’s a substitute for candy corn. The shocking sweetness. Mmmm. I can’t eat as much of it as I used to, though. Sort of like I can’t lay down on the living room floor anymore. Well, I can lay down on the living room floor, but it hurts when I get up. Sometimes I forget this fact. Darn it, I just googled and saw that tomorrow is National Candy Corn Day. I’m a day off!

I think I ate a few too many candy pumpkins. Ugh. I guess I forget that fact, too.

He hasn’t shown much interest in learning to drive until recently. I decided to go with Virtual Drive of Texas for Driver’s Ed and we’re jumping in - tomorrow we’ll officially start. I’m not sure if the Suburban is a good learning vehicle but the other alternative is a manual transmission. My friend who’s daughter learned in their Expedition said her daughter can drive anything now. It will be good to have another driver in the house. I’m going to go take a few deep breaths now.

A Titanic slide? I don’t think it’s funny.

I just got this in my email tonight and found it over on Julie Bogart’s blog at Bravewriter. I love pretty much everything she wrote so be sure to go read it, but this part really stood out to me:

While relaxed, eclectic and un-schoolers all promote the idea that a child’s interests make for the best learning opportunities, I’ve also found that a parent’s personal educational trajectory is equally important to the family lifestyle of learning. Too often moms spend a lot of energy trying to figure out what their children want to learn (wringing their hands hoping a “real” interest pops up) while they themselves have no idea what they would enjoy knowing or learning. Whenever a mom expresses anxiety over her kids, I suggest she take up knitting. Really.

Pick a hobby, area of study, or latent curiosity and pursue it with genuine vigor (even if it takes away from your homeschool schedule). Live your interests before your kids. Watch the DVDs of the “Story of Painting” right in the middle of your homeschool day, listen to the Lord Peter Wimsey books on CD while making lunch, set up the easel in your dining room and paint during the afternoons while your kids play the X box, hang bird feeders and count the birds that come to your backyard for Project Feederwatch. Be an interested learner with passion for life and your kids will benefit from the run-off.

Amen, Julie - and thank you! It was refreshing to read!

I’m going to try out this trackback thing and see if it works for me - this technical stuff is not my forte’ - I’ll probably mess it up!

I recently had to start paying for a card at a nearby library that before October 1st was free to nonresidents. If my hometown library was funded at the same level as this town’s, and also offered reciprocal services to nonresidents it would be free. Ours offers free cards to nonresidents, but ours isn’t funded as well. Anyway, when they turned off my card, but before I got over there to pay the fee - my Library Elf account marked it as invalid and stopped checking that account - but I didn’t know it.

Today I got an email notice from that library that I had some items overdue - 3 DVD’s, each 5 days overdue. The late fee for DVD’s is $1 per day per item, so $15!! I replied to the email that I had been relying on the Elf to notify me and didn’t realize it has stopped when my card was invalid for one day, and mentioned that it was an expensive lesson. I didn’t ask for anything, just wanted them to know what had happened. I hate having late fees and suffer guilt when I do and felt the need to explain myself, lol.

A couple of hours later, I got an email from one of the library supervisors and she offered to waive the fees if I let her know when I return the DVD’s. Wow! I am very humbled by this and really wasn’t expecting any reply at all. And I’m so very grateful to not have to pay the $15 in late fees (which will be up to $18 tomorrow).

Progress report. The linen closet did get done on Saturday. I am working towards getting the kitchen Kick Start done. Today I did the pantry and all the drawers. The only thing left are the lower cabinets on one side - oh wait, plus the island. I am amazed how much stuff the kitchen can hold.

The mystery. In one of the drawers I found this object and have no idea what it is and don’t feel I should toss it just yet. Here it is:

The confession. I threw away a bunch of those Box Tops for Education I had saved. I have a group that collects them. But they give me a headache. I’ve stopped tearing them off products. Sue me.