Saturday morning

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning here in beautiful New Hampshire. Don't you love this time of year?

Evan is over at Fairwood--went there last night for a men's leadership seminar that's going through today. I miss him! Friday night is our special time together, but in his absence I had fun watching Kate & Leopold, a charming movie starring Meg Ryan. I made a peach pie yesterday afternoon--the ultimate comfort food. After taking a piece over to Lindsay last night, I settled on the pappazan (sp?) couch in Evan's office with TWO slices of pie and an iced latte, breathed a happy sigh of relief (it had been a long and exhausting day--the kids were finally asleep!), and watched my movie. The kids let me sleep in a little this morning, thanks to the VCR. :-) Evan and Lindsay usually take the kids to Dunkin' Donuts on Saturday mornings so I can have a little break. I've been spoiled! I was afraid this morning would be really hard, but the Lord has been giving extra grace and we're all doing fine. Maybe we'll go hang out at the mall today. That always provides a good distraction--and keeps Tucker corralled where he can't get into stuff!

We started school on Monday! I had grandiose plans of doing all kinds of learning projects each day, using a fabulous book I found called Learn at Home. On Monday Jed was on a roll and we did one project after another for probably 2 1/2 hours. But on Tuesday he hit burnout! I got frustrated, until I remembered things other moms have told me and that I've read in books that you don't have to push a kindergartner and they don't need a lot of structured schooltime. So since then what we've been doing is pulling out the "learning box" which is filled with workbooks and learning games. Jed's Nana (Evan's mom) put it together for him for Christmas this past year, and what a wonderful gift it is. I feel satisfied now if he does two or three workbook pages and we do a project or a learning game. Keeping the other two kids occupied is a challenge, but thousands of homeschool moms have dealt with the same problem, so it is possible!

I joined Curves this week. We had a membership at the YMCA for a while but it was 20 minutes away and we just weren't getting there because it took so much time. So we canceled our membership there and Evan very kindly let me join Curves. I've been three times and really like it. All you have to do is 30 minutes three times a week (you can do more but three times is about all most of us can fit into our schedules!). If all it does is increase my energy level and reduce stress it'll be worth it. But it would be nice if it burned some of that remaining baby fat. :-)

Oh, Evan got his truck door fixed yesterday! Poor guy was getting really tired of having to hold onto his door every time he went around a corner, and of having to attach the bungee cord whenever he got in. It's probably going to take him a while to get over the habit of grabbing the door on corners.

We found another dead mouse the other day. Looks like an animal got this one. It was dead and mangled on the grass. Maybe our cats are going to become mousers after all!

We had Penny and her grandpa over for dinner on Thursday night. What a happy time! My sisters and I grew up with "Uncle Charlie" in our lives when we lived in California. He is a dear man who loves children. All of us kids in the California church who knew him as children adored him. It was neat to see that he hasn't lost his touch with kids. We had chicken pot pie for dinner, and as we were finishing up Uncle Charlie said he was enjoying watching the three little pot pies at the dinner table. I'm guessing Penny got her gift with kids from her grandpa!