Free Chicken

I need some free coupons...

Reminder

Don't forget the snapfish deal ends 7/31.

Also check out http://www.artscow.com/ for more free print offers

Kmart for cheap toys, last day is this Saturday...

And a milk sale -buy milk from CVS 5 gallons over time and get the 6th free with your card. On average it is 2.79 each and it will keep track of your gallons and ring up your 6th free. Much cheaper and for the TG Lee brand...

Food Freebies

Free Mocha Mondays through August 3rd. Free Mocha coffee iced or hot 7a-7p At McDonalds

Tomorrow 7/10, Chick fil A dress up like a cow and get a free Value Meal

Through 7/14 print a free Arby's Roast Burger coupon when you buy a small drink . You can substitute for a regular roast burger.

FedEx Just Brought

My free quart of Glidden Interior Premium paint in Deepest Aqua.

So what should I paint??

Hi

We are all well here, finally!!

* Attention K Mart shoppers, get there immediately for some amazing deals on toys. They are doubling coupons this week (so free deoderant, shampoo, hair care, feminine products, tea, and cheap wet wipes, cleaner, q-tips and much more)
BUT the best deal to be found is in the toy section... 50% off clearance toys and they are clearancing out a ton. It is like a treasure hunt, look high and low on each aisle to find the deal. I can tell you I have finished Liv and Ethan's Christmas and birthday for pennies. Also I stocked up my birthday stash with HSM3 DVD games, Littlest Pet Shop, Ponyville, and Shake and Go racers.
examples of prices:
Shake and Go crash race track- originally 69.99 clearance 37.99, 1/2 off that makes it 18.99
Littlest Pet Shop Town (big Playhouse)- after clearance 9.00
A leapster for 15.00
Leapster games for 11.00
Ponyville play house- 7.00
Ponyville Purse Play house- 7.00
Little pet shop- 2.00
Diego Dino Mountain Playset - orig 69.99 now 18.50
Handy Manny Fix it radio & TV - 6.50 each
HSM a variety of gifts all 2.50-5.00
Games for 5.00

And lots of 2.50 birthday or treasure box items...
If it is not in the budget now, you can lay a way it! Also take in your 5/50 printable coupon for more savings...

Did Ethan Die?

Guess who you do not want babysitting your children?



It is okay, that I am typing this, he is in bed with a sore bottom and a kiss

Did Leisa Die??

Well almost...

I think I have the swine flu.. that's my story and I am sticking to it! All the children are better, which is great except I have been laid low. And you ladies know, a sick, as in swine flu sick, mom and unsupervised hellions does not make for a quick recovery.

In fact when I stepped out of my room I immediately had a relapse upon seeing the house. And then my husband immediately started feeling bad after I heaped all my sick fury onto him...


But now, I am feeling a little bit better. I used some guilt with the older two. Your poor dieing momma is laying on her death bed and no one cares about momma. they both chime in, we love you , we care about you. If you loved me you would never have let the house become a pig sty... and on and on that went for a while... and then I made some chore lists and now everything is tidy again..

Ethan is taking swim lessons and swimming like a fish, yay!! He has become quite a little potty mouth. He will be my cusser, I know this. He already has the vocabulary of dammit, and hell. Which he likes to use in context with a little sparkle in his eyes. So, I laid down the law 2 days ago, no more cussing! Well of course he had to see if momma was for real. Sometimes I am not the most consistent (shocked aren't yall?) Anyway out I pulled a bar of my homemade soap and I ran it down his little pink tongue. At first he drooled a little and then he swallowed and said it tasted good. Little punk, so next time I need to run it over his teeth so bits stick right?? Next time came later that day and once again I tried the soap...he liked it, and willing stuck his tongue out for the punishment. Fast forward to today, he used dammit during breakfast, so out came the tongue, but I decided to use a dab of the dawn dish soap...yeah baby, he was drooling and frothing, demanding water... he can have water as soon as he gets through hearing the lecture on not having a dirty potty mouth that momma needs to clean... Well he drank his water said he would not use bad words and promptly walked into the next room and whispered dammit to his sister Livvy. First of all I thought he was smarter than that. Liv will sell him out in a heartbeat! So I hear, MOM, Ethan said "DAMMIT." At this point I want to say DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, and roll around on the floor and kick around abit. But I don't and I go in get the offending child and pull out the Dawn and start over with my lecture as he foams and froths at the mouth... then he went to swim lessons...

I am a week down on school but I have used our down time to give the kids some other jobs that do not usually get accomplished. Cleaning rooms, and organizing type stuff..

I am home for the fourth and will probably go out to Rhonda's for fireworks..

So nothing amazing going on, no grieving since I am not dead, I should be back in peak form just in time for school to resume next Monday ;)

Oh and are any of you guys thinking about the after 2 waterpark passes? I am contemplating it...

No Taxation with CRAPPY Representation

WARNING SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DO NOT LIKE POLITICAL CONTENT & RAVINGS FROM A LUNATIC HOMESCHOOLING MOM....YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.....

Sometimes I just wonder why bother!! I mean I am a busy woman. I have three kids I run a household, educate my children, and try and keep my budget balanced. I DO not have time to babysit the weasels in Washington! It is their job to listen to US and vote the way we decide.. Yet once again I feel under represented and helpless in this downward spiral of government. I can scarcely believe how quickly we are trading in our liberties as long as big brother will take care of us..

Do you wonder once the middle class is gone, who will pay for all these debts... Yep, that's right one of those future tax payers is asking for a sippy cup as I sit here and type..

I wonder how I will answer my kids when they ask, "why did you just sit by and go along with such absurd spending??" Will I say, "Well we didn't want to have financial hardship, or suffer, so we pushed it back on the future generations.."

Ughhhh.. as you can see I am so tired of having to be vigilant and try and keep up with all the sneaky, back room policies that each party is trying to push through..

I mean for real, do we need a UN treaty to protect US children?? NO, the constitution and state laws do a fine job. Leave the International courts out of our home, thank you!
Do we need an enviornmental program that will destroy 2 jobs to every one it creates? NO, we are in the midst a a recession, please don't cripple our economy any further. Most Americans understand green, and get it already.
Do we need bail outs and government owned private industry? No, let them fail, that is what happens in America. That is why we are a land of opportunity. We all can succeed or fail, we are free to do either. Ever heard refined by the fire? Well no one became great being sheilded and protected from harm. Out of the great trials have come some of our brightest moments in America. No one strives for excellence if their is no fear of failure or hope of success.
Do we need government to provide our generosity? No, America is one of the most merciful and giving countries on the planet. We send aid all over the world in the form of the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army and millions of other privately sponsored agencies. How many of us feel like we are doing our christian and patriotic duty on April 15th??

We have indoctrinated our children, yes, you and I have been given a sorry education. One that we continue to finance yearly with our tax dollars, yet we have no say in the quality provided. American's don't know their history. Our kids do not know history, except for the drivel they watered down in the public school system. But I bet half of them can tell you who was voted off American Idol, or the latest Hannah Montanna lyrics. How about who is Speaker of the House? Who becomes president if the President and VP die? What are the three branches of government???

Okay, I am sick and tired and tired and sick and 2012 is just around the corner. Yay, we get to start this all over again. I think I am hoping for a Palin/Romney ticket?? And before I hear that she is not qualified, let me just say my chicken, Sparkles, could do a better job up there than those weasels! For goodness sakes we need someone with some common sense..Here..Here..

So I am going to :

1. Teach government and more specifically the Constitution, inside and out next year.

2. Change my voter registration to Independent. (and no I do not believe in aliens)

3. And work long and hard calling my representatives in Congress to let them know I am making it my job to get them fired in the next election, see you at the park ;)

CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN NOW!!

Let them know your feelings on CAP AND TRADE, and the UN Treaty of the Child. Cap and trade is being voted on today.

If you don't call and talk to your rep.'s office they can't vote to represent you.

Educate yourself and call....now...

The Circle deadline is tomorrow...

and I called and got the information on how to transfer.

This may not seem significant to you, but I have been with Circle since Maddy was a kindergartener. There is comfort and safety and loyalty all mixed up in my feelings towards Circle.

And then there is my wallet... and Circle is VERY expensive. It is 9 times more expensive than the other umbrella school I am looking at and they offer the same services I would be obtaining from Circle...

I really like HOUSE, the Circle co-op, and want Olivia to attend again, so I think we are going to take this year off, and then enroll Liv with Circle next year so she may go to co-op and Maddy can stay with Crossroads...

Why do I not feel great about saving all this money???

Circle has done a wonderful job of earning loyalty and making you feel like a family..

I'm sorry Linda ;)

I have decided to design my own homeschool curriculum...

after 5 years of using sonlight I feel I have a gift for putting together curriculum pretty well.

So I have decided to use Dr Quinn Medicine Woman as a spine to our American History study.


You may laugh or think I have really lost it and have been at the bar all night but let me just tell you in the season and a half we have watched we have touched on topics of:

* Woman's suffrage
* The Civil War
* Slavery
* racism
* The gold rush
* mining
* Union and big labor
* Indian relations
* General Custer
* Cheyenne Indians, Dog soldiers, & their culture
* The railroad
* The Flu epidemic
* Cattle drives
* KKK
* The orphan train
* western justice
** and the list goes on and on....

These are all topics we have and are covering in our actual "curriculum". And they have put a real face on the struggles and what life may have looked like in that period. Of course with a smokin hot mountain man named Sully to guide poor Dr Quinn and kiss her when she needed it ;)

This series has opened up alot of dialogue about this time period that I am sure we would never have discussed. The KKK episode was hard to watch and made me feel such anger and injustice. I know about racism but Maddy had not ever witnessed it in a dramatic form. It is one thing to read about it, but quite another to have it layed out in one of your favorite series.

It helps that Maddy loves it and that she will finish all school work and chores diligently so she can watch it every night. I love when the kids have currency!!

Well look at convention next year for my booth, Homeschooling with the Quinn method

A Ethan Funny

Ethan has the cutest way of asking about himself right now. He refers to himself as "me". So he will say is...me sick, is me going, where was me at... I know I should correct him but it is so darn sweet....

My sweet boy has also learned how to lie. I noticed a sharpie marker drawing on my wall in my bedrooom.
Me: Ethan did you do this?
Ethan: As sweet and innocent as can be he said no, Livia did it..
Me: I called Liv in and asked her, "did you do this?"
Liv: No, she is rather insulted I would think a 6 year old would color on the wall
Me: Ethan did you do this tell me the truth...
Ethan: wide eyed and still proclaiming innocense, "No, Maddy did it"
Maddy please come in here...
Maddy: I did NOT do that, Ethan did. Of course I know he did it!!
Me: Ethan, it is wrong to tell mommy stories, did you color on mommies wall?? I am giving him my most serious mommy stare down. You know the one that can discern all wrong doing...He is starting to cave under the stare, but he gets an epiphany....He looks up with his big eyes getting wider and whispers... "the aliens did it................."
Me:biting the inside of my cheeks to contain the laughter I feel coming...Maddy and Liv are snickering.. He is still looking at me innocently trying to judge if I might be ok with the alien answer...it got pretty boring after that.. some talking, a spanking and some more talking...about how aliens shouldn't lie to their all knowing mothers...

Licking Toliets at Walmart....

will give you the plague, so that must have been what my kids have been doing....

Liv is better, Ethan is in the midst of the croup, and Maddy came home from VBS yesterday throwing up?????????????????

Ay,yi,yiiii you can find me down at the bar if anyone is looking!!!

Lots of Pictures

I am overdue for some pictures so here is Trinity's VBS and the Methodist VBS

SICK

How yucky is it to be sick in the midst of summer.

Liv has the croup. Last Sunday she started in with blood shot eyes, fever, and a sore throat. Then a few days later she had a barking cough and felt like she couldn't get enough air. Wednesday we saw Dr. C who said "croup" and started her on steroids and respiratory treatments. Yesterday she seemed much improved and the fever was gone. Last night she woke up again coughing , and a fever and she has proceeded to sleep on the couch all day today...

Ethan is trying to decide if he is sick. He had a fever and a sore throat this morning, but after some advil he has played as usual all day.

So pretty much it will go like this.. Liv will get better over the weekend and then Ethan will be sick all next week so I can miss 2 full weeks of a good night sleep and have to wash every blanket and sheet in the whole house, again....

The joys of motherhood..

My cousin Amelia is down and staying with my mom. They are playing at the beach today.

Well that pretty much sums up our week. I am still schooling Maddy and we are on track, and this weekend I think we are hunkering down and watching the next 3 Dr. Quinn discs.

Summer

Summer is here and we are as busy as ever. I love the lazy pace of summer, even as busy as we are, it still feels like "summer".

* the first week of June we attended the methodist VBS it was themed "Paul in Rome." This is one of my favorite VBS's. They have dinner for the family and then the kids go to their class. Maddy attended Mega Sports camp and learned the "Hoedown Throwdown."

* We are schooling full time in the afternoons after VBS and before swim team. Olivia started Sonlight Core 1 and Maddy has 10 weeks left of Sonlight Core 4. We are taking a break in October for 2 weeks and then 6 weeks off in November & December. We are currently reading Charlottes Web with Liv and The Great Turkey Walk & The Terrible Wave with Maddy.

* We are in week 4 of no TV. It has been one of the best things I could have done from a school standpoint. I no longer fight with the TV to keep their attention. And once the lure is gone, there is so much more time freed up. We do have netflix and Dr Quinn Medicine woman has been our family treat in the evenings. I will be so sad when season 6 comes to an end....

* Liv has the croup so I am home with her giving breathing treatments for the rest of the week.

* My garden is in it's final death gasp... the heat and rain have been too much for her. When it is finished I will dig and grade up the whole thing and put down 8-10 square foot gardening boxes.

* and what is on my bedstand... The backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.

* I'm contemplating getting in the camper and meeting up with the Humston's...

* And in general just enjoying summer....

Dino Baby

While in Georgia we bought Ethan a baby dinosaur webkinz.
Unaware

that this would become something very special to him..

He says "it has love" which he explains by showing the heart.

in the last 3 days he has carried it around and slept with it at night..
and I just think it is sooooo cute!!

A Slow and Gentle Push!

A few weeks ago in Sunday school Maddy was involved in a conversation regarding God and answering prayers. She argued, to her credit, that God answered all prayers, Yes, No or maybe!

The question was a yes or no question. It asked did God answer the prayers of the church when Herod had James, brother of John, put to death?

Maddy said, "yes" it just wasn't what the church wanted as an answer..

Well the Sunday school teacher came to me and wanted me to review this answer with her. As we all know it can be unnerving as they get up in age and start having their own take on theology and then repeating it in Sunday school.

For the life of me I could not find the error in her reasoning. Logically I knew God answers all prayer. I have tumbled it around in my head, I asked her teacher if he thought the answer was wrong? To which he just smiled and said she was right. Yet there has been an air of expectancy around what I needed to discuss with her.

Well I had put it out of my mind for the last two weeks, and I woke from a dead sleep with an epiphany! Maddy wasn't wrong, I needed to hear this not logically but spiritually. I have had a difficult time since this fall reconnecting spiritually. I am sure some of it is from anger at my prayers not being answered the way I wanted it. I was going through the motions at church, at home but not really feeling. Keeping everyone at arms length and avoiding too much interaction from the church body. I mentally still want to not be there but am feeling the pull spiritually calling me back.

So my prayers were not unanswered, just answered in a way I didn't want. So do I choose as a toddler to throw my fit? All along not seeing the bigger picture? It is much easier to talk theology than to have to walk in it.

Little House Series Part 1

This will be a series of posts on ways to "green" up your home and checkbook at the same time. In an age that is more enviornmentally conscious, chemical conscious and unfortunately wallet conscious how do we, so to speak "have it all"?

Well if you no longer had to purchase your laundry soap at 5-9.00 a bottle every week, or could use soap that cost .09 a bar, supplemented your grocery bill with home grown pesticide free veggies, and the list goes on and on. Would this help?

This will be a summer long weekly posts on alternatives to buying high priced green products. This is common sense from "Grandma's Kitchen." Cause' grandma was green before green was cool...

Free Garden

A garden can be as expensive or as cheap as you want to make it..

Visions of raised beds dance in my head, and I think do they really cost that MUCH???

Only if you are not handy, and by handy I mean resourceful. Pallets are free, and a great source of wood for a raised garden bed, or compost pile. You can go to lawn mower shops or look by dumpsters to find often new pallets for free. Lawn mower shops carry the really long pallets that have 2x4's on them. You just need to have a way to get them to your home.

Then pull them apart with a hammer and crow bar, and assemble with nails. They can be any dimension you need. A straight saw will work if you have one, and if not you can take it to Lowe's and ask nicely if they would be willing to cut it to your dimensions.








Now that you have your bed assembled, till up your patch of dirt by hand. For weed control snag some papers out of the local recycle bins, wet them and line them on the ground. Now for some good dirt! Craigslist often has listings of people offering fill dirt for free pick up. If you live in farm area ask local horse farms if you can dig in their manure pile for some OLD stuff. It needs to be dry and crusty looking.




For your next planting time you will want to compost some soil to fill your beds. This is still free, use yard clippings that people have bagged and are on the corner on trash day. Add veggie, & egg scraps, and any bunny,chicken,cow, or horse droppings to it. I will post more on making a compost bin in the future.

Now for something to put in your free garden. How about some free seeds? Wintersown offers free seeds with a self addressed stamped envelope. Walmart has seeds for .20 cents a packet, and Home depot will offer buy one get one seeds. Your best bet may be to invest in heirloom seeds from a seed swap, and then save your seeds for next planting. Children can get free seeds here.

So let's recap. Free raised bed+ free weed control+free dirt +fertilizer+free seeds= free food!

A small garden can make a big difference on your grocery bill.

Toffee Apple Dip

Apple Toffe Dip
1 - 8 oz. block softened cream cheese
3/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 pkg of a 8 oz. bag of Toffee Bits (you find this beside the choc. chips)
6-9 Granny Smith Apples cut into wedges for dipping
Mix together with until smooth - cream cheese, sugars and vanilla. Fold in toffee bits and refridgerate for at least 2 hours, the longer the better the flavors meld. I cut the apples just before serving to prevent them turning brown and coat them in lemon juice.

photo courtesy of yourhomebasedmom.com

What does 36.00 get you nowadays?

How about:

10 Jars of Hellmans Mayo
8- boxes of Graham Crackers
1- Gallon of Milk
4- Grands Biscuits
2- Juicy Juice Apple Juice
4- Boxes Duncan Hines Brownie Mix
2- Bottles of Glass Plus
2- Green Giant frozen Vegetable Boxes
3- Vidalia Onions
1- bunch of bananas
2- Cucumbers
2- Loaves of White Mountain Bakery Bread
2- Hidden Valley Ranch bottles salad dressing

The total was 36.00 with 99.00 in savings...

Best deals ** .24 Glass Plus, .75 Grands biscuits, .84 Ranch dressing, .99 graham crackers, and 1.50 Mayo., .50 cents green giant frozen veggies.

Check out Southernsavers.com for more weekly deals and printable coupons...

**There is quite a few Kashi, cascadian farm and another organic brand on BOGO at Publix and matching printable Q's
**5lb sugar is on sale and with a food lion printable it drops it to .99-1.29 a bag
**Food lion also has 2.00 off meat Q that you can use when buying publix meat.

AND DO NOT forget to go to KRAFT.com and print your coupons, and then go to coupons.com and print another copy. Both sites will let you print 2 copies so you should have 4 coupons per item....There are alot of good Q's out right now for summer.

Things that make you say, What The ??????

The indignation, you know that rooster doesn't want to wear a cape!

Chicken Diapers, Yall?

Let me introduce you to the newest member of our coop.

This is Dreamer

She is a sweet 12 week old Red Star

She is also been the victim

of

coop bullying

I found her being chased and pecked violently this afternoon. She has been here 2 days with no

incident.

I got to her before any damage was done physically.

But mentally who knows? Being bullied can hurt a young ones self esteem.

And now I have found her checking out the cat's watering bowl,

and just chilling in the kitchen with me while I was making dinner.

She's really sweet, and really scared of being in the coop.

One of the older hussies decided to make her the target, and let me tell you chickens do succumb to peer pressure.


Why even sweet little Sparkles was pecking this poor baby!



When you put her in the coop she paces by the door and cries..

So


Maddy has moved her into a large dog crate in the school room..



and I am wondering?




Where can I find some of those chicken diapers?

Mother's Day

My three blessings!
I sit typing this in my fresh cleaned house. Today was wonderful. My angels finished cleaning my car, which looks fabulous and my house. I start the week all fresh and shiny. All the laundry is completed and even the upstairs is clean.

YAY!!

I love a clean organized home to start my week off.

I spent most of the day with my BFF, and I just want to say what a wonderful mom she is. It has been really cool over the years to see our friendship grow and blossom into being like family. You know your like family when you can't hide your bad traits any longer. She knows them all and still hangs around.. Happy Mother's Day BFF!!!!!!!! I think your one of the coolest mom's I know!

And here is a glimpse (to prove she exsists for Tiff) since she won't willingly pose for a picture.

Need A Laugh?

Do yourself a favor and GO, right now here, and read the post .

Then follow the link at the bottom and read the next post.

You won't be sorry!

I love reading him..............

Time Out Friday

* Ok, I am giving myself a time out. We are going to do all the little projects I need accomplished for my sanity. I pulled Mike's spotlight out last night and continued weeding the garden until 10. Crazy, I tell you! So I am getting my house clean, my car clean, and all the little things that are bugging me.


* I am taking Maddy to the Ped today for a earache and acne. Since we started swimming her face has gotten sooo bad. I feel sorry for her and the dermatologist appointment is not until June. I think the chlorine is drying out her face. Unfortunately she is the only child in our group to really have acne yet...

* Tomorrow I am going to SWR training refresher. By Ethan's vocabulary you would think I know how to SWR just fine... But I need a refresher on how to teach children to SWR.


* And I am sure while I am gone my family will be doing all the things on my mother's day list.
*clean out my car, wash and vacuum, weed my garden, clean their rooms, build a compost
pile. I love Mom's day weekend, there is no NASCAR...so Sunday is fair game for
projects.

Shut-Up!!

I am going to date myself here but that's okay I think all of you are older than me anyway ;)

Do you remember the Twilight Zone episodes on primetime TV? There was one about a woman who somehow was granted the power to make everything stand still when she said "shut-up". She used this power when her kids were driving her crazy or other things like that. Well one day she was grocery shopping and a nuclear war head was getting ready to hit, you could see it in the sky and she said "shut-up" and then she was the only one trapped in a frozen world by herself. If she undid it they would all die. I always thought I would get all my family in our car and drive somewhere safe and then undo it... selfish aren't I?

Anyway the reason I told you this enthralling story is I need to make time stand still and catch up. Everything is out of order. My house is in disorder, my garden is in disorder, my car is a wreck, and I am behind in school, and church obligations.... I just want to scream ................SHUT-UP..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loser Thursday

**Ok, so I COMPLETELY & UTTERLY forgot about Holes. We were supposed to be in Orlando for the Rep play and I forgot!

*I am 3 days behind in reading and have Art,Writing Club, and swim team this afternoon before I can try and read 45 chapters to Maddy.

* Our A/C unit died on Tuesday night (the downstairs unit). It was the motor and we went 2 days with no air in the mid 90's. I know there are some who will not sympathize with me... but, I just told the kids in honor of Cinco de Mayo we were living like the mexicans during that time... They were not impressed. So, while the new motor was being installed my upstairs unit dies and needs a new motor. Needless to say the kids are sleeping in the living room at night for a while...

* I went to publix last night and felt like a criminal walking out. My bill was 140.00 and after coupons it reduced it to 49.72. I had 6 boxes of Capri suns for free. 6 boxes of Eggos for .25 a box, 4 -5lb bags of apples for a 1.50 a bag. .49 sour cream, .19 mahatma rice, and the list goes on and on. I had a FULL cart of groceries. I kept expecting to have a siren or the manager come over and take me away. You should feel sorry for the people behind me in line. It took her 10 minutes to ring up my coupons. In the parking lot I kept thinking, load up your groceries before the manager comes out for my grocery booty. Arrrgh- matey!

* Ethan will be going to preschool in the fall. He loved it, and Ms Shawnie has another peanut allergy child that will be attending. I don't know why that makes me feel better, but it does. I will pick him up before lunch daily. Oh, my baby!!!!!!!!!!

* Ok, I am off to take a shower the a/c is cranked and I am cooool today....

Weekend Update

* My sister was down with her adorable baby bump, and we spent the whole time either by the pool or registering for the baby.

* I sadly ignored my garden for the last week and now I am in weed city. I have green beans, tomatoes and squash , and my onions are almost golf ball sized. I plan on weeding this week in my spare time...

* My yard is getting me down, I want to plant so many things but I don't have the time or funds at the moment.

* We are catching up on some reading since we played all weekend. Today I am going to preschool to see how Ethan reacts to it. I am conflicted about sending him for 2 years since he will be a 3/4 year old this year and a 4/5 year old the following. I am not uncertain about the school we LOVE Ms. Shawnie. Also I worry about his allergy and if the teachers would catch a reaction early with all the other children they have to watch. Mike wants him to go, he thinks it would be good for him to be active while I am schooling the girls. I don't know....

* Liv surfed in the pool this weekend, pics to follow.

* I am thinking about taking the girls to D.C. this August for a week. My sis's man works for Mariott so they get really sweet deals on hotel stays....

* Ok, I am off to do school, go to preschool, and then weed, do more school, and math tutoring. I am reading Madeline with Liv for FIAR. I think we are going to do a lapbook on the body, and maybe an Eiffel Tower project. On a funny note, Ethan asked this weekend if my Dad's TV antennae was the Eiffel Tower. He amazes me with his memory. We had only read Madeline once Friday and he remembered us talking about the Eiffel Tower.

* Coupon deals this week- free schick razors at publix, Marzetti croutons .50, check out Southern Savers for a complete list, they are on my sidebar.