Our crew on Easter Sunday.  They are getting so big!  

We are waterlogged and flooded in Western Kentucky but so far we haven't had any major damage from the storms at our house.  MSU was closed today, a rare occurrence.  Another round is expected tonight.  I am hoping this pattern ends before our week of camping at LBL in May.

They are DONE!!!

The kids composed entries for their books while in Germany.  They picked the photos and chose the titles.  We tried to keep them up to date and had them nearly done when we came home.  Notice I said "nearly".  Over the last few weeks I have been tweaking them to make sure I catch all our mistakes and then I ordered them...or tried to.  Apparently when you make a book over a period of 5 months things change.  So...I have new software and their books are totally redone yet contain the same commentary and photos (join me as a I moan).  I have lost more hours of sleep than I care to mention, but they are done.  Those of you who are local can see them at the coffee house event this year.  Those who aren't and who'd like to take a peek online can do so by contacting me for an invitation to view the books on blurb.com.  Because these are composed of the kids' personal writings I have decided not to make them open to the public at large.  Send me an email or comment here and I'll get you a link to each of their books and you can see what they thought of life in Germany!

Mental Note

Shopping for bras on behalf of one's 93 year old mother-in-law is difficult.  Taking your 6 and 8 year old boys with you makes it virtually impossible.  I just bought every one in the store in her style and size and left asap.

Teaching All Four

I was warned: "This will be a really hard year" the folks who sell me most of my materials said.  Today was the first day of teaching all four kids full time school.  Wow.  It was an 8 1/2 hour school day.  One has to understand for us this literally means Mom is teaching for 8 1/2 hours- no busy work, no breaks, just one or more kid(s) after another working with me at the school table.  Thankfully Laurel pitched in and fixed lunch and helped Katey with her math lesson.  Lets just say we have some bugs to work out and we have to find more efficient ways to get things done.   Tomorrow we do it all again and we haven't even started the daily hour of read alouds (literature written in or about the time period we are studying) planned in our curriculum.  YIKES.  I am off to bed so we can try starting a little earlier tomorrow.

The New Van in the Walmart Parking Lot

We picked up our van on Thursday.  For the last week we believed the sale wouldn't be able to go through, but we were excited when we got the call Wednesday that the deal was ready to close.  We made the road trip on Thursday and are enjoying a new van.  I am reading the manual trying to figure the thing out.  Who knew you'd have to read a book to operate a vehicle the same make as the one you already own.

On Friday the kids and I had to make a stop at Walmart.  I came out all ready to test the power rear hatch.  To my dismay as I walked toward the van and pressed the button it is wasn't working.  As I got closer I saw a large scratch on the rear quarter panel.  I thought how in the world did we miss this yesterday??  A few more steps and I saw the entire side has scrapes and there's a large dent behind the driver's door.  I literally screamed "MY VAN!!!"  I cannot believe it has been hit.  Meanwhile I continued to push buttons to open and unlock things and nothing was happening.  As the kids and I stood looking at it I noticed...rust.  Okay, I know it takes us awhile in Walmart, but not that long.  It dawns on me.  This is not my van.  I look over a row and see the new van.  Lights flashing, side doors open, and the rear door raised.  I explained myself to the lady who had stopped a few feet away wondering what was going on.  Then we walked one aisle over and loaded up.  Despite being a very rare color apparently there is another Ocean Mist Odyssey in Murray and it needs some body work.  Really funny now, but in the moment as I was thinking I had to call my husband to tell him our day old van had been hit it was not funny and it was NOT a good feeling.

Hiking Hematite

We took advantage of the beautiful spring weather to head out the Hematite Lake and hike today.  We wanted to see how Annie would handle being out in nature.  She loved it.  We joked as she ran ahead of us down the trail at the beginning that we'd be packing her at the end, but she lead the entire loop.  She even wanted more play time after getting back home.  Clearly she is feeling better and her puppy energy level has returned.  We are looking forward to camping and would be out this weekend if the campgrounds had water service.  April 1 starts the season so we are hoping for another pretty weekend soon.  Here are some pics:

Annie gets a haircut

Annie has finally healed from her surgery.  She was able to visit the groomer for the first time.  Here are before and after pics.  Its amazing how much she is playing and enjoying life again now that she feels better and can see!!

Before:

After: