I'm not a teacher....

just a mom who desperately needed her oldest to be busy for a while...

Have you seen all of those blogs out there that encourage sorting/tactile/shapes what-have-you learning? Me too. I had a list of all the things that I needed to make this preschool activity happen.



But then I realized that the Halloween version had several problems:

- I don't own dried black beans and am too cheap to buy them for only this use. I do not like beans Sam I am, and I will not eat them anywhere.
- I would eat candy corn if it was in the house and this poor little mouse would never find her buried treasure.
- All the other brilliant cute things that should be in there, I'd have to shop for. The point was to keep her busy, not create an errand for me.



So, I improvised. We have popcorn kernels, alphabet beads, and colored beads.




I pulled out alphabet beads to spell Madeline and a bead of every color. She had to scoop through to find them and put them in a special canning jar. I am sure there's magic educational names for this, but...


This kept her busy for a full 45 minutes. Hallelujah! It was messy, but for some reason our dog likes to eat popcorn, so no clean up for errant kernels. All the materials are reusable. Happy day.

A day in the desk trenches

This is the first piece of furniture I bought for our new house. I previously had concocted a desk out of bottom tier kitchen cabinets and a piece of plywood. I longed for a surface that said "me" and would look pretty in one of the front rooms. ........ This is not the pretty I had in mind......


The little organizer at the back seemed a good idea at the time.... when I saw the desk in the catalog....with nothing on it.....but I seem to have reduced my surface area by half. This is standard on my desk.. coupons in the wrong place, a dumping ground for half started projects, and bills to be mailed.



What organizational skills do you find work well for a desk? Can you hear me calling for help?????


.... sigh, back to the bills, before preschool ends, before nursing begins, while the laundry spins....

Sara Evelyn

..... Friday, September 24th.



named for my favorite childhood book, "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sara is the lead character. If you have girls and haven't read this, sprint to your nearest bookseller. It is awesome. I still have my original elementary school copy- safely stored out of reach. The girls can have the new fancy schmancy copy.

Evelyn is my mom's middle name and I have loved it for years.


Madeline has been a model big sister and really loves to hold the baby. She can often be found kissing the top of her head or saying "She's cute!"

Our first Sunday at church as a family of four. If we had actually gotten a picture of us as a family of four, we never would have made it to church.