This picture was taken up in Maine last month. Chloe and Tucker love dogs and couldn't keep their paws off this one.

I'm grateful to report that my back is completely better now. It resolved itself with a good night's sleep and I didn't have to go to the chiropractor. God is good!

Last evening we were cleaning up after dinner, enjoying the company of our good friend Clyde, when suddenly the house shook with a loud BOOM! We all ran outside, thinking maybe a car had hit the house. Derrick, our friend and neighbor down the street, called a few minutes later saying he'd heard it too and wondered if we knew what it was. We told him we were as mystified as he but call us if he learned anything. Well, bless him, he checked into it and found out that an unexploded ordnance on the grounds of the nearby Air Force Tracking Station had been discovered and duly exploded. Get this--the bomb (or whatever it is) has been there since the fifties! Jed was a little scared at first but then he thought it was pretty cool, especially when he learned it had been there since just after World War II!

Out of the mouths of babes

Yesterday at breakfast Jed, our resident enthusiast for anything military related, proclaimed, "I'm so glad America is fighting in Iraq so I don't have to be scared that they'll come to America and hurt us!"

Also at breakfast yesterday Chloe noticed the fog outside and said, "When it stops foggying [this word took several tries for her to pronounce clearly] we can play outside."

The other morning I woke up with inspiration for a blog that would be titled something like "You know it's going to be a rough day when..." I'll try out a few here.

1. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up to one of the kids hollering at you that the cat has thrown up on the living room rug (barely a foot away from the hardwood floor).

2. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up to the announcement that Tucker has taken off his very stinky, messy diaper and is running around upstairs with nothing but a shirt on, sitting on stuff and such.

3. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up and can't find your glasses on the nighstand. Being blind as a bat, you flounder helplessly. Later, after you've put contacts into your sleepy, scratchy eyes, you discover Tucker absconded with them and hid them under your bed. Thankfully, they're still intact and unharmed, unlike Evan's, whose got mangled beyond repair recently by aforementioned toddler.

Just a few fun things that have happened recently. On a more cheerful note, Jed started Drama Kids yesterday. It's a fabulous drama program that helps kids with elocution, being comfortable in front of an audience, finding an outlet for their love of acting, etc. He was bubbling with excitement about it yesterday afternoon when I picked him up. It's so nice for him to be able to channel all that role playing into something really constructive (not that what he does in dressing up isn't constructive, but you know what I mean!).

We're hoping to buy a bunkbed for the boys this weekend. If it all works out I'll post a picture. Tucker is so ready for a bed, and with his crib and Jed's full-sized bed their room is pretty crowded.

I'm putting off the inevitable. I did something to my lower back (or my expanding belly did) that has suddenly made walking extremely painful this afternoon. Since sitting brings relief, I'm trying to think of everything I can to blog about before heaving myself into the kitchen to fix dinner. Think I'll wait till Evan gets home and enlist his help. :-) Maybe I'll go catch up on some e-mails now. Wouldn't that be a novel idea!

First day of school

Today was Chloe's first day at Chestnut Christian Preschool. We had a bit of a traumatic start, witnessed by the back-to-the-camera shot. But once she got there and saw the "pretend food" and had Jed play with her a few minutes, she was fine. When I picked her up two and a half hours later she told me she'd had a great time, though of course a little while later when Jed asked her if she loved preschool she scowled and growled no. Oh, well. I think she had a lovely time. The teachers and program are fantastic, and I'm proud of my girl for taking such a big step. :-)

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Thank you, Aunt Lindsay, for providing hours of fun with your discarded wig.

SO sorry for wasting y'all's time every time you go onto my blog hoping that maybe, finally, there's something new to read. Things have been super busy around here lately! The biggest events were starting school, my sister Kristi's visit, and our long weekend in Nova Scotia, all of which I shall elaborate on forthwith.

I was really enthusiastic about teaching Jed at home this year. He is in first grade now and "official" with the state of NH, so we really got down to business. I had a great time perusing websites and catalogs researching the best curriculum for him. So I was rarin' to go on August 21 (we started extra early so we can take off the month of January after the baby is born). Jed was excited at first, but halfway into the morning he started to balk at all the work. Let's just say day 1 was not a walk in the park, but things have gotten a little better since then. Some days he declares he hates school and I have to push him every step of the way, others aren't quite so hard. Some days I wish he could spend a week at a "regular" school just to show him how good he has it!

For those of you who might happen to be curious, we are using Horizons reading and phonics (which actually has yet to come), A Beka math and Health, Safety, and Manners, Horizons penmanship, Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory for Bible, history, and science, a book about animals, Veritas Press's geography, The Story of the Orchestra, and a simple program that teaches basic piano to 4- to 6-year olds. It does look a bit ambitious, but my mother-in-law, a retired schoolteacher and very wise woman, recommended that we do the basics--Bible, math, reading, and penmanship--every day, then assign a day of the week for the other subjects. So far that's working out well, though Jed is always ready to quit before we're done. Oh, well, he'll get used to it soon enough, I hope!

And the other recent event was having my sister Kristi visit for almost a week from Washington State. We had a lovely time together laughing, playing with the kids (who all adored her), watching movies, visiting our grandma, going to Strawbery Banke, and so on. So glad she could come out!

Last weekend we went up to Nova Scotia for a whirlwind trip to help Evan's parents wrap things up with their recent move. Lindsay and Mom and Dad put on a very successful yard sale on Saturday morning, and we were able to move the rest of their stuff from their old place to their new. Most of it had already been moved, but there was a bunch of stuff for storage that Evan was able to help them take care of. Evan loaded up their old piano, which they had bequeathed to Lindsay, as well as some of Lindsay's and Darren's stuff from storage into a U-Haul truck which we brought back down on Monday. But the time wasn't all about work. By 1:00 on Saturday afternoon we were home free, so we all (well, Evan and Dad made a detour to the dump) headed to the beach nearby. The weather and water were gloriously warm and we all had a fabulous time playing in the water. We had a chance to go to their church for the first time on Sunday and meet their wonderful pastor and other friends. The whole weekend was a really happy family time, and I was reminded once again that I have the best in-laws in the whole world!