Got something on your mind?

I do....

Oh, wait...that's just a butterfly on my head. Drat, I thought it was something bigger.

Really, I've been quite busy scrapping. My poor desk is piled a mile high awaiting my next set of digi-prints from Walgreens to prove just how busy I've been! Believe it or not, I'm about five layouts shy of actually finishing a whole year's scrapping! Too bad it's last year and I've not even STARTED on this year yet. Sigh....

So why, you ask, am I blogging when I said I was gonna be blog-breaking to scrap? Hey, I've been sneezing my fool head off for two weeks, drowning my sorrows in Benadryl, nasal spray, and the awesome Cinnamon Spice tea Kelsey got me for Mother's Day...and I got bored. I needed some cyber-relief from sitting in front of a desk full of paper scraps. So I'm here, blogging about just about nothing just to say I didn't completely "skip" most of the month of May.

Oh, and Pete won the name game, by the way. He's not giving in this time around, so girl #6 shall be Kasey-something. Probably Kasey Dawn, but we're not totally dead-set on that one yet. I just like the way it sounds, and something that comes to you in a dream can't be all that bad, can it?

One too many hobbies?

Something's gotta give, and I'm afraid that for the time being, it will probably be my blogging. I can't keep up with two creativity-sapping hobbies at once, my brain is simply not able to bear the extra weight right now. I've been finding myself trying to compose scrapbook layouts and journaling to go with pictures....and I come up with blog posts. Granted, they're scattered and ODD blog posts, which is why you're not seeing most of them, but it's a major distraction!

I'm so far behind on my scrapbooking that I'm just not even going to comment on how much I really do *need* to get done not to be buried under yet another sea of pictures. So......

I'm taking a blog break for the summer to focus on my scrapbooking! I'll be back, but for the time being, while the girls are busy playing happily in the backyard (and in the soon-to-be-purchased wading pool that they've been clamoring for since the weather warmed), I'm going to have to resign myself to sitting at the desk downstairs next to a window that overlooks their backyard activities. It's time to get some scrappin' done, y'all!

I hope you all have a pleasant (and not TOO hot....especially you, Tina, since you have to manage without air conditioning!) summer, and I look forward to doing a whole bunch of blog-catching-up when I return! Oh....and for those of you who are wondering, the "end" of summer for me will be heralded by the newest little one's entrance into the world, sometime between the first and middle of August. Pete will be taking leave for a few weeks and I plan on doing not much at all, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to sit, surf, and blog! For the record, the little one still does not have a name. Poor thing, we've tossed around so many names that I'm not even sure we have a LIST! Pete's still adamant about the name Kasey, and I'm still not thrilled with it. She may end up being a Kasey, she may be a Kendall, a Payton, a Jenna, a Moriah, or maybe even a Benji if Grandma has her way....

See you sometime in August when I have a birth announcement to make! Happy Summer!

Just your average Monday.

It's Monday. I've lost my voice AND my mind. Which one do you think I will miss the most?

Apparently, my mind....because now I can't even write! WHY, you ask? Well, DUH....I already told you my voice is gone. What am I supposed to say with no voice?

Back to the "lost my mind" deal again......methinks I've had enough cold medicine for today!

Smile!

It's the weekend!

That is one BIG binder!

Seriously, folks, aside from some of the ginormous training manuals Pete has brought home over his Army career, I don't think I've EVER seen a 3-ring binder THIS big and THIS full! Wowsers! Somebody at Sonlight has done a TON of homework for my benefit (oh, and for others too, but I'll let them be thankful in their own time), and believe you me, I am forever grateful!!! This big, huge (yes, Pete, I redundified myself again--oooh, and made up a new word!) binder holds the Instructor Guide for Sonlight's Core K, the Instructor Guide for the kindergarten language arts course, the schedule for the readers, plus the Instructor Guide for kindergarten science! There are also numerous activity sheets in there as well, and if the nasty glares I'm getting from Morgan and Jamie when I tell them that "no, we can't start school today, Mom still needs to get acquainted with umpteen hundred pages in my binder!," then I can pretty well guarantee that they'll LOVE all the wondermous goodness that's ahead for us in the next school year! Just LOOK at this thing!!!!! Isn't it HUGE???? It's bigger--well, fuller--than the binder I had for Jon and Kelsey two years ago when we did American History in Depth for high school!

I'm just in awe. It's enormous. This is "Momster Binder" sitting on my cluttered (I'm still working on that) desk next to my poor, pitiful little Home Management Binder, which I assure you, is no lightweight itself!The inside.....just getting to Page 1 seems intimidating, except for the fact that my entire year is already planned out for me day-by-day, and I just LOVE that! No more planning too much and not getting nearly what I'd like to do accomplished!

Oh yeah....the other "meat" of the Core K program--the BOOKS!!! Wonderful, glorious BOOKS!!! All grade-stickered (hence the pink spine-labels) and covered in Contact Paper for their protection (and my peace of mind--these babies have got to last through three more babies)!

Speaking of the aforementioned Home Management Binder, I've tweeked a bit from last year. Wait, strike that. TWO years ago. I figured the title page needed a bit of updating since the pictures I had on it were, well, OLD. Besides, we've added another face. I like to do my section title pages in scrapbook style--it gives me a little boost to actually USE the binder since I do like it so much once it's done to my standards! Notice I left a tag to put our [still unnamed] unborn little one's picture on once she arrives? Hey, leave no stone unturned! The scripture at the bottom is the same as it was on the page I replaced, Proverbs 31:27.I also added a section for my own studies (notes from sermons I want to look further into, study handouts from Bible Class, other stuff here and there) and a journal! Streamlining! Woooohooo!

This may seem like a boring picture to you, but for some reason, it inspired both Pete and Kelsey to laugh at me and how.....over-organized I am trying to be. Huh? I don't get it. What's the big deal about colored index cards and wet erase markers to write on my page protectors so I don't have to print out page after page after page? Sheesh, give a gal a break, willya?

Now that I've got Morgan and Jamie planned for, it's on to planning for Kelsey. Easy, for the most part, since she wants her entire senior year to be on computer. Switched-On-Schoolhouse it is! Lesseee.....Chemistry (again--Apologia seemed to just be too in depth for her), English 12, American History (again--Pete was NOT thrilled that she seemed to retain nothing about US History from a few years ago, so this is by his insistence that she take it over), Family Sciences (ooooh, a fancy title for "home ec"), Art, Civics, and still an elective or two to figure out. It is all about to come crashing down around her just how close she really is to graduation, considering we're attending our homeschool group's graduation ceremony for this year's grads TONIGHT. Wow. Next year (good Lord willing and the creek don't rise....whatever that means), it will be Kelsey in a cap and gown! Heehee.....we'll have to do a kindergarten graduation too!