Daybook for Sunday, April 11

Outside my window... the garden is planted! All we need is to get a few more tomato plants and some cilantro. Chris did an awesome job putting up the fence to keep the neighborhood cats out!

I am thinking... that I really need to get myself kicked into gear on homeschooling prep. Yes, we're going easy-does-it and gentle and slow with Kindergarten - because it's Kindergarten! - but I would really like to organize my basic plans ahead of time, as well as get the house as organized as possible and purge as much as possible. I think I need several large chunks of time to devote to this... without children around. Or with other adults helping, at least, with the kids around. I may need to commit to doing this on some weekends while Chris takes the girls outside, or maybe I will get our teenage neighbor to come play with them on weekdays once school is out while I do some organizing. I think a well-ordered, non-cluttered home will assist with a peaceful home learning environment.

I am wondering... if one is expected to tip the carhops at Sonic and if so, how much. I have noticed that if my drink total is $1.06, some of them will keep the whole dime, and others will return my change of four cents. Four cents is a pretty lousy tip... as my mom would say to my dad regarding his tips to the bag boys at the grocery store, "I'd rather you give them nothing than a quarter - at least then they think you just forgot!" Anyone know if you should tip the Sonic carhops? Hmm, maybe Wiki Answers knows...

I am thankful... that our chickens are apparently done molting now. We have been getting four or five eggs each day over the past week! The sunshine and warmth are doing good for the hens. :)

Learning at home... We planted our garden on Friday: three types of tomatoes, crookneck squash, basil, dill, fennel... and our strawberries have been coming up and spreading like crazy. We also have our blueberry bushes and fig tree looking good with blossoms and buds... We will also add some rosemary, another variety of tomato, and maybe some peppers and green beans.

And the girls' marigolds are coming up nicely... at some point, we will transplant them into our Mary garden.

From the kitchen... we'll make some loaves of oat bread on Tuesday to take to a friend who had surgery last week. One night, we'll have bratwurst in celebration of Pope Benedict's birthday this Friday. Caroline has said that a trifle sounds good for celebrating her baptism anniversary (once I explained to her what a trifle is, that is!).

I am reading... Along the Alphabet Path lesson plans from Serendipity. And the latest New Beginnings from LLL.

To live the liturgical year... we are into the 50 days of Easter now, and we are using theGarden of the Good Shepherd sticker activity to mark each day until Pentecost. We read a relevant Bible verse each day along with it, and I would love to do these "Good Shepherd's Garden Parties" each week, but I think overall, I will save them for next year. We did make a snack last week that was listed for one of the parties, and the girls thought that was neat. We are singing Easter songs and rhymes at Circle Time (including our hymn of the month, Jesus Christ is Risen Today) and will continue through Pentecost.

One of my favorite things... Can I do two instead of one? Here are two things that I think, if combined, would result in mellow loveliness:

Wine and Emerson Hart

I have not tried them in combination yet, and cannot, as you can see that the wine bottle is empty (although I did drink a Guinness while listening to it the other night...). I swear I did not set up this photo... I just saw them sitting together on the kitchen counter and thought, "Ahh, now that would be good!" and so I took a picture. The CD case is laying there open because the CD was playing in the kitchen CD player, and the wine bottle... well, it has been sitting there for a week now, because the recycling won't take glass anymore, and so there it sits until Chris gives up and throws it in the garbage, I guess. The CD has been traveling with me from the car to the stereo to the kitchen CD player all week (as Caroline says, "Do we have to listen to that in the van every time we go anywhere? It's a nice song, but you listen to it every time!"). I bought it online and have been listening to it since it arrived in the mailbox. Yes, I bought a music CD... I really don't remember the last time I did that. 1999, maybe? I have not been disappointed with my purchase. While the whole CD isn't exactly mellow - some of the songs are pretty upbeat in their rhythm - it has a mellowing effect on me. Cecilia and Caroline can be screaming at each other, Cecilia hitting Caroline (her new favorite thing to do) and having a tantrum (her other favorite pastime), and if this CD is playing, I'm just in a bit of a trance-like state, nice and relaxed. Must be his voice. Or maybe if I play it backwards I would notice subliminal messages about relaxation ;). Anyway, what prompted me to buy this album was hearing an old song on the radio a few weeks ago, If You Could Only See by Tonic. I hadn't heard that song in awhile, and I looked it up on Youtube and was listening to it repeatedly (although not quite as obsessively as I was with Cry for Help). Am I the only one who uses Youtube to listen to songs? I was honestly surprised with myself for not recognizing the music video, since I watched waaaay too much MTV back in the 90s during high school... I guess I had gone off to college when this one was popular. So I started listening to a few other Tonic songs there on Youtube, and then came across a solo song by Emerson Hart (he was the singer in Tonic)... and there you go. I liked his songs enough to buy the CD. Here's a sample song to show you how awesome it is (warning to people such as pregnant moms with those hormones that make you cry easily - you'll bawl, so listen to it another time! It is a beautiful yet depressing song that gives me chills each time I hear it - I have managed to not cry, though!): I Wish the Best for You. And now I'll stop rambling. Maybe I should go write a review on Amazon or something.

I am hearing... Um... Emerson Hart. What else would I be listening to? ;)

I am creating... hate to say it, but not much right now. A garden, I guess? I'd like to start creating some rough lesson plans for next year.

Around the house... laundry, as always. And I really would like to organize some closets and shelves and such. Having nine closets in the house plus cabinet space in the laundry room has its disadvantages as well as its advantages...

We also rearranged the little play kitchen area. It is now more like a "home living center" in a preschool or Kindergarten classroom. My idea is to keep all the kitchen stuff in there along with the other make-believe house stuff, like the baby dolls and their clothing, the doll cradle and doll high chair, the dress-up clothes... I may put the doll stroller and toy shopping cart in there as well, although I don't want it to be overcrowded. Already the new presentation has encouraged the girls to play there more frequently.

A few plans for the rest of the week... La Leche League meeting on Monday, volunteering at the Mother's Morning Out on Friday. Friday is also Pope Benedict's birthday, and then Caroline's baptism anniversary is on Saturday. There is also a family "lawn party" event at Chris's work on Saturday, so we will take the kids to that. They have a dinner program also, with child care, but it lasts from 7-10, and I don't think the girls would last that late...

A picture thought I am sharing... what, the empty wine bottle and CD case weren't enough? ;) Okay, so here's some cute ones of the kids and the chickens!

Sally and Chicken looking a bit evil... "Let us oooooouuuuuuuut!"

Cecilia eats her "gate" snack - the gate was a symbol on the Garden of the Good Shepherd this past week

Caroline makes a "word bird house" - this is a book from the library that suggests making your own house to keep spring words in. She decided to do this randomly, and so we went with it. More learning at home!