"A Wink and a Smile"

and no one around to say it to. That drives me nuts. So here I go, trying as quickly as I can to blog my thought down. Goodness knows how I always have something going on in my mind, but half the time I forget to write it down, or say it to someone, then the thought is lost for weeks. Hopefully what I jot down is coherent. Today's EPIPHANY ... I do NOT want to send my girls back to the school they are in. I registered them (just in case) back in February. At the time I did not want to deal with people asking me a lot of why questions. Some days I am still not sure as to all the whys. I want my girls to love school, and have some fun at the same time. They do have good days ... sometimes. I dislike number grades in the early years. It has already made me feel like I put more pressure on my girls to get above a 93 (an A). Someday in highschool and college, they will feel that pressure to get good grades, but I want them to learn foremost, and not just aspire to get a certain ...

What can I say about {C} ... All my girls are smart cookies, but this one is "BLOW YOU AWAY SMART!". For a little thing, and I mean little (23 pounds fully clothed), she talks a lot, has a huge vocabulary (speaks full sentences), and is quick (she gets jokes and things I don't think a typical 21 month old would get). Even with all the "big girl" things that she does, she is still MY little baby ... loves her hugs, and wants her Mommy. It seems that everyday, around the 4:30pm time, she is ready to climb back into my uterus. That can certainly make for a difficult end to my day with trying to get to activities, do homework, or make dinner. Someday I will miss all of this ...

"I think I am getting BROWN eyebrows!" The other morning after {M}'s shower, she happened to catch a glimpse of herself in my bathroom mirror. She was quite excited . I didn't want to upset her by saying that her brows looked brown because they were WET. For some reason, this child has always wished for colored eyebrows. She was very excited last year when some makeup from her dalmation costume made her look as if she had some. Silly girl. I am pretty sure those brows will darken a little with time, but if all else fails, I guess our Daddy can certainly get his hands on some brow pencil ;)

It almost felt like a business trip (something I have never been on). I left on Friday after lunch, and headed to Memphis with 4 other ladies (who I really don't know very well). This was quite an accomplishment for me ;) Of course this was a Catholic HS'ing conference, so majority of the materials that I saw were "Catholic" based, but there were some secular things. It was nice to get some hands on feel for them. Some of it I was impressed with, but some I was really, really disappointed in. I know that some of the curricula is made by homeschooling parents, and because of lack of funding, the "prettiness" factor is not there (lack of color and eye catching characteristics). Not that I think that makes material "good", but I think my girls would appreciate that after coming home from their out of home schooling. I was grateful to hear about 7 different workshop discussions. Some included a newcomers one, a Charlotte Mason talk, HSLDA , teaching th...