7 Quick Takes Friday

*1*

The kids have been clamoring for their Legos and Playmobile back. The Pod People expedition unearthed a bin of each, which we bleached and they smell just fine. Having resided on the porch instead of in the house probably made a difference too. I'm such a housewife, getting all excited over a utility tub in the laundry room. The 3 younger kids have spent hours and hours and hours in front of the fire place building and creating and wondering where the remaining 2 billion Lego pieces are (apparently, they inherited my odd and uncanny ability to inventory and track seemingly senseless bits of information like that we used to own 459 Lego bodies and 423 Lego heads and we currently only have 37 bodies and 12 heads, so where, oh where are the rest?! Most likely, sad to say, gone, but not forgotten.....).

*2*

TonightPatchyFog
Lo -27 °F



We survived another blizzard this week. We survived shoveling by hand (in the midst of Snowblowerville) our driveway. Below zero temps had our nature loving, outdoor junkie children begging to come in from snow removal duty to guzzle down boatloads of coffee laced with syrup, steaming cups of tea and huge mugs of hot chocolate. Cub's new fav movie quote, done TimAllenesque...."Whoa, Santa's got a buzz!". Probably unchristian of us to laugh as long and hard as we do, but he does it deadpan. Another offspring with brilliant comedic timing.

*3*

Homeschooling is a verb; this week anyway. WWE rocks. Switched Cub to a Math 3/4 workbook from Sam's. Same work as Horizons but he doesn't finish feeling like a math dope, so bonus. Have to make some decisions regarding Feche-Boy's Math- Life of Fred, Teaching Textbooks or Jacobs. Any opinions or thoughts or reviews? Please leave me a comment!!

*4*

This weeks Read-Aloud was The Big Wheel. Late 19th century. I love this period in American history. You get the sense that anything can happen, anyone can succeed, there are marvels and opportunities around every corner. I've done enough history reading/research to realize that Manifest Destiny wasn't all it was cracked up to be from the Natives pov and that's another, much longer blog post, waiting to be written. That aside, it's a great read about Mr. Ferris, his Big.Idea and a sweet courtship.

*5*

My suspicion has been confirmed. Our house had been filled with the oddest disparity of items that landed in one of 2 camps: valuable, expensive and difficult to replace collectors items or WalMartesque junk. (-esque is my new fav ending). I am stunned at the value of some of what we owned. Stunned at what WalMartesque stuff cost. Egads. Yet I am ever more grateful for Google. Without it I would be wondering idiotesque the aisles of Walmart, pricing items. Hail Google!

*6*

Watched Because of Winn Dixie this week. A fun little flick. Truly family friendly it speaks to the bitter sweetness of life- sweet and sour, joy and sorrow all mixed up together. It was a gift from the "Ghosts of Christmas" and it is a great movie about loss, longing and growing beyond sorrow. Speaking of which, the Month of Movies post did have some movies with questionable content. We watch with remote in hand.

*7*

We signed up for Library Cards today, the first we've had since stepping foot on Territory Soil 6 years ago. We had a huge library and our small village a small one, and we just didn't want to pay the fee for an in-town one. We bit the bullet and did it today and then KB and I went back and loaded up with books on birds, astronomy, cooking, food, robotics, Rome and Greece plus a couple of Books on Tape and some DVD's. Within minutes of being home, once the groceries were off-loaded, the kids were on the floor in the living room, pouring over books, bibliophiles, one and all.

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