Snowy Spring Surpise!

Snack J found a brown and black catepiller

out by the chicken coop this morning in the snow. It was curled up and he wouldn't touch it so i carried it inside and we had a science preschool moment. 

Baby C thought it was the cutest thing in the world and kept making "awwww,  ohhhhhhhh" high pitched squeals.

After we made a habitat for the newest family member....

Snack J quickly found his magnifying glass to investigate.

(Gotta love Sid the Science Kid)

I have a ton more posts to do, but I'm saving them for a reward for cleaning my room, which has been doubling as a storage room since I disembled the office in my front room.  Wish me luck!

Saturday morning long run!!!

I just ran 5 miles this morning with Linnell. We kicked out 10 min. miles. What's cool is that I had so much fun talking with her that I felt like I could keep on going!  I might just be able to handle this half marthon training after all! (We'll see if I say that on my 10 mile run ;o) I just bought new shoes from Peak Performance yesterday and they were great at fitting my feet, and determining what type of shoe I needed.  The run this morning was like running on air.  Can't beat that new pair of running shoe feeling! I had started to feel shin splints coming on, so I knew I couldn't postpone the purchase any longer.  I did spend 90$ on a pair of asics stability shoes, more than I've every spent on shoes in my life, but still cheaper than a gym membership, and so far I'd have to say worth every penny. 

I have to say one of the coolest things is to go running early in the morning as the sun rises, you feel at one with nature, it's like a little secret that most of the world doesn't get in on, because they're still in their beds. Of course I'm not doggin sleeping in, that's also one of the greatest things in the world, but every once in a while you got to try waking up early and getting out into nature. Thanks Linnell for showing up! I probably would have crawled back into bed if you wimped out, cause I was up most of the night with Snack J.  But that's another story :o)   

babies don't keep

BABIES DON'T KEEP

Mother, oh Mother,
come shake out your cloth,

empty the dustpan,

poison the moth,

hang out the washing

and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house

is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery,

blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little

Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done

and there's nothing for stew

and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing

will wait till tomorrow,

for Children grow up,

as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep......

~Author Unknown ~

Is this working?
oh, awesome!  I've got my mobile blogging service to work finally. 
now I can text a blog entry whenever my kids say something cute
or post a picture taken from  my cell directly to a post. 
That's kewl. 

Classic Book Review Charity Style...

So I have discovered a new way to get my reading in while doing laundry, organizing, scrubbing the kitchen, and getting dinner ready:  My MP3 player with free downloaded books from http://www.librivox.org/ .  I chose to start with the above 3 books: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights. It's been a couple weeks since I finished the Wuthering Heights, the last of the 3.  I 've been pondering on them, and while there and many interesting morals, the outstanding theme for me in all three of them, for this reading, has been the manners and proper language of that time, early 1800's.  All three books have the characters placed in the upper middle class. While none of them had proper titles such as Lord or Lady, they all had servents and did not participate in day to day household duties as meal prep, laundry (which is why we should be easy on ourselves when we can't get it all done, those really rich people have maids, cooks, gardeners, nannies) .  One of the distiguishing differences between the servents and their masters,or upper and lower classes were their language and manner. The lower class had a coarseness about them, I just googled the definition of coarse manners and it was exactly what I was trying to say: Of low, common, or inferior quality. Lacking in delicacy or refinement: coarse manners. Now in America, the land of the free, there is not an official class system.  There are divisions between rich and poor, but there are no laws keeping people in the place they were born. Everyone can choose how they act and speak.  I feel that polite manners are becoming scarce, the type of language that shows refinement and thoughtfulness are becoming a thing of the past. It is pervasive in the media and communities.  It doesn't mean we have to follow along, we can be make a change in ourselves against the tide of ignorance.  I have made an effort to increase my thoughtfulness and politeness in speech and actions for the past two weeks.  I have been surprised at how NOT natural it came. I tend to think of myself first instead of helping others first, and it takes concious effort to change. But that is the last point I wanted to bring out, is that we CAN change, that's what's so beautiful about this life and this country, we have the freedom to carve out our own lifestyle and increase our capability to acquire refined manners in action, thought and speech.  (and do our own laundry, cook our own meals, raise our own children....;O)

Monday morning breakfast....POP QUIZ

Sissy Sue decided to quiz Snack J this morning over scrambled eggs and toast.
What's your favorite number?   --------TWO!!!!! Snack J yells triumphantly
What's your favorite letter?------------K!!!!! (yelling in similar fashion)
What's your favorite shape?-------------Oval!!!!! (2 hours later Snack J told me he changed that to octogon which has 8 sides
What's your favorite parallelogram?----------Uh, oh, ah, mmmm, I don't know.(phew, there's something left for me to teach my 3 year old ;o) Diamond I promped him...I hope that's a parallelogram, I'll have to google it....:o)
Sissy Sue promptly stated her favorite parallelogram is a rectangle. 
Well I was so pleased with the stimulating conversation over breakfast this morning that I forgot to do gospel study, we'll have to try again for lunch time. 

best ten minute break...worth the watch!

You might have heard about this story, but I thought I would share it.  Here is a link to her blog
http://stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/