I mowed around my garden bed today. Now I need to haul my friend's rototiller over here and start on another one, which means hauling in more dirt before The Skipper starts fishing for 2 months straight (meaning he will use our truck every day and I won't have it for packing stuff around). I can fit a lot of things in our mini van, but don't really want manure in it. It already smells like boy sweat half the time, I don't need the aroma of livestock feces as well.

Why I started my first post in months talking about that,I don't know. I think my new daisy template got me thinking about how happy I am that Spring is here, which led me to thinking about how satisfying it was to smell freshly cut grass and position the kids' crooked red picnic table in our garden area, picturing happy picnics on hot summer days. Isn't selective memory a wonderful thing? I will choose to forget that often outside picnics result in " MOM!!!! Wilson stole my sandwich" " MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, so and so said that there was an ant on my sandwich and now it is living inside of me!!!"

What have we been up to lately? Lots of hockey, which is now giving way to baseball. School has been mainly real life living, and not too much book work . I vow to do better...next week. We have started on an Owl lap book, and next is Giant Pandas. We have met the kids' grade expectations, and now we can do what we want and fill in some gaps. I think it is time for our annual spring trips down the local frog pond to watch things progress and to laugh at Mom (that would be me) jump sky high as a garter snake leaps out to attack my ankles. (ok, others say they are just slithering across the path, but it seems planned to me).

I am looking forward to a quick trip to a sunny spot in our province at the end of the month for a home school convention. Since I am a book lover, conventions excite me- all those new books waiting to be browsed through...sigh...

n X rated book from the library called Simply Crafting: Crafts for Poor People. Yah, a little misleading, wouldn't you say??? Funny, I presumed it would be a crafting book for frugal people, not a sac religious, weird, disgusting, psychedelic guide to I don't even know what! It was so totally strange. I took the book back and need to call the librarian about it, as it should have a label or something. It was sitting in our library pile with the kids books before I thumbed through it, started muttering to myself, realized what I was looking at, and threw it across the room. The Skipper got a good laugh at my face anyways. Sort of like the time he caught me hunched over, studying an art book. I was looking at one side of the page very closely, which had the Mona Lisa on it. From his angle, it looked like I was extremely interested in the large picture of Michelangelo's David, which was on the other side. He laughingly suggested that maybe he did not want such a person teaching his children art, while I blustered around my mouth full of sandwich. Getting back to the craft book- it seriously needs to come with a warning.

Still here? Wow. You must not have any other breaking news to follow.

Daughter update:
Still at her dad's. Came down for 3 weeks in March. Very into her social life there, and doesn't seem inclined to move back. As she said about dating and such " Dad, doesn't really like it, but he won't stop me." When I suggested that I guess if she was determined, I couldn't necessarily stop her either, she emphatically replied :"Oh yes you would!" Sometimes being the stricter parent sucks. I still am praying. I have some nights when I just sit up and read because the tears are way too close, but am still clinging to God's promises. She is such an awesome girl, and I think God has great plans for her- she has a great sense of humour, is so good with people, and just shines sometimes, but it is gonna take some hard knocks to bring her walk with the Lord back. This is spoken by her mama, who learns the hard way too! I think her discovering this for herself is going to be a good thing as she needs to experience God personally, not just through our teaching, etc. It is just incredibly hard to not be able to be in control and have her listen to my amazing words of guidance!!!

Dog update:
Wilson ate his another plunger today. so gross. We are now out of plungers. How much do you want to bet that someone plugs the toilet before I get around to buying another one? Ok, well I don't gamble either, but I am just saying, the odds would be good.

Desperate for a more pleasant, mature, less sarcastic update:
I ordered Laura Story's Blessings CD the other day. Looking forward to that arriving. The words to the title track are incredible and ring so true.

Now it's your turn to update:
Please tell me what you have been up to! I miss those days of blogging when we were almost daily updating and encouraging each other.