Rainy Days and Gardenin' Catalogs

I had to put this on here because there is just something so beautiful about new maple leaves. They're so soft and the wind just seems to sigh through them, whispering... Not like the ocean waves sound they make in the summer wind, which is also lovely.

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My sweet youngest son just brought me some grape Kool-Aid mixed with Mountain Dew to help my stomach feel better. Ah, the stomach flu- the gift that keeps on giving. It's my second go 'round and it's worse than the first time- but still nothing at all like that horrible swine flu from the '70s. Now why on earth would anyone want to bring that wretched decade back. I mean really, don't we have enough problems?

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Now same son is wreaking havock with my Total Gym. Yea, I have one. Watched too many episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger last year and couldn't resist the easy payment plan. Plus, I figured maybe if I used it enough I could do those spinning-kick-the-badguy-in-the-head maneuvers. All I've noticed is slightly bigger biceps, but I still haven't watched the DVDs and I just have cleared out my office enough to leave the thing set up all the time. When it's put up in its convenient foldy position, I never use it. All told, it's a decent piece of machinery.

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Ok, so out of all my gardening catalogues, I picked the number one today. It comes from Plant Delights Nursery out of Raleigh, North Carolina. (You know, where Barney went after he left Mayberry) Anyway, even though they don't sell any veggies, their catalogue is the most informative and entertaining one I've ever come across. The Website is http://www.plantdelights.com/ Do yourself a rainyday favor and get put on their mailing list. You won't regret it!

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Another great thing to do on rainy days besides drink coffee and look at gardening books with your daughter is to read aloud. I know, the easy thing to do (especially when one is feeling icky) is to just watch TV. But, TV can happen any time. I read aloud to the kids for hours yesterday and they loved it- they'd missed it. I've been having them read aloud most of the time except at Christmas and it's been a couple of years since we did a big book together. Well, that's excepting the Bible and school-type books- we all take turns with those. And thank the Lord, we still like to play together. When Dad's home, we usually play cards or video games as a family. But when he's at work we still like to play with the toys like the action figures and HotWheels and stuff.

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It's about time to record another of Shakespeare's plays. We haven't done one of those in a while. Maybe Hamlet or Julius Caesar... Hmm. They're a lot of fun- like an old radio show. Coming up with the stuff to do sound effects with is a challenge.

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So, decisions about school. Homeschool that is. Keep it up with the Charlotte Mason Method, which has worked pretty well, or shock their systems with straight ABeka this year? Which is very time consuming, but very thorough... Yea, that and college have me "praying about things". Charlotte Mason works best for the broke homeschooler. ABeka is so flippin expensive! And it's not like we get $8000 per child for education per year like the public schools do. But, know what? God ALWAYS provides just what we need each and every year. It's been truly amazing, lemme tell ya. With absolutely no funds for it most years, somehow we have always had exactly the materials and resources that are needed for our studies.

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Well, as I feel really yucky right now, I'm gonna get away from my computer. I haveta say, I still don't like FaceBook all that much. But, I'm getting more used to it. At least I finally found where my Wall was hiding. I had messages from last year on there. ((blush))

Oh, shoot. I also need to say, the Art Renewal Center (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/contents.asp) has an amazing collection of art that you can download and use for your screen saver or t-shirts or whatever. It's from all over the world and well, it's just great.

Ok, also before I go... A story about my Mom. Mama has always been a very tidy person. Like my husband and my daughter. But, she had real slobs for siblings. Like my husband and daughter- see, we're not really slobs, just easily distracted... Anyway, she had to share a room with her sister who would rather be reading than cleaning. So, she'd write "Judi's Dust" on her sister's half of the dresser. Just like a sibling- instead of being nice and dusting the whole thing, she only dusted her half. I wonder if Mom was the one who used to write "wash me" in the dust on my car... hmm.

Ok, so it's not that great of a story. BUT Mom won't tell me any, so I had to use one her sister told me. So, c'mon Mama! Tell some stories like Uncle Mark does for Lori or I'll just ask your sister... You know how she embellishes... like the time you snuck out the window to be on American Bandstand and your Dad just happened to watch the show that night; which you said never happened but Aunt Judi insisted was true. Mmmhmm. Naw, I promise I won't get icky like that, after all I'd hate for my foibles to be in a BLOG. I can see it now, my daughter M starts a BLOG and tells about the time... eegads. Not pretty.

More later. I'll probably have to do my planting in the mud since it looks like it's gonna rain thru June. That ought to be entertaining. I'll see if I can borrow a working camera for that.

God Bless America and Israel and the entirety of the former British Empire and Japan. According to my previous school, the sons of Japeth including Japan plus Israel only amount to 14% of the world's population. It'd be great if all of us except the 144,000 were outta here in the catching away. It could happen. With God nothing's impossible, remember? But, I'd not wish the tribulation on anybody. So, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today and you don't have to be here for all that crazy stuff. Global Warming indeed. I wonder how they'll explain the rest of it... "Um, folks, this was just an unfortunate instance of movie magic gone terribly wrong." "Um, folks, that was just an unfortunate case of genetic engineering gone terribly wrong." "Um, folks..."

Well, I'm really outta here this time. Have a great day everyone!