Adorable Eye-Pillows From My Friend Donna at Blessed Nest

(Think birthday gift for sister in law.)
Click on pic for more.

Daddy Teaches Hopscotch

I love that people from Arkansas say, "I appreciate ya" before they hang up the phone.

The Weekend Started with Wildflower Bouquets

Our garden is showing a teensy color, modeled here by Luke.
Liam is hanging tough with Mama and Leila on our park trip.

My favorite tree is in bloom and lining streets all over OC.

Check out that lens flare! My first ever.
Her favorite

(because they're pink of course).

xo
G

You must see

A Biggie

Our CPA told us yesterday that I needed to start a home business in order to write off more taxes to offset our rental properties. So I was thinking and dreaming and wondering last night. A few ideas were starting to simmer...

Then today we were stunned with the jarring possibility (by way of gentle mention by Luke's principal) that we might need to start to consider some type of long term care for Luke possibly in the next 6-7 years. At five Luke is very strong and as he gets older he'll obviously get stronger but I never wanted to really think about what that meant in terms of care. Rob and I are determined to make that the absolute last resort. At age 7 the Regional Center will probably drop funding for Luke's therapy because statistically if children don't make strides by 7 then the therapy is considered "not-optimal" for that particular child.

The reality however is that we are blessed and indeed the likes of which so many of the world can only dream. I need to keep that foremost in my mind lest I do in fact lose it.

Makes Me Want to Move to Wyoming (a must-read)

Hiking on the Back Bay and Before a Date with Daddy

Lots of Plants in This One

I love color in the garden but could never boast of having a green thumb. So when there are spots of color that spring up anywhere near the vicinity of our home, its coincidental.
But I'm going to take the credit thank you and I'm ruthless with the creatures who dare to invade. Today it rained and rain means snail hunting. I made hot cocoa and animal crackers for my assistant.

I'm going to try another basil plant this year.

And that means fresh basil for lunch.

• Liam had his tongue clipped today and was a trooper but the doctor said he was a little underweight. I'm going to take him in again next week just to be weighed and to see if we need to supplement his diet.
  
• The third phone conference with Dr. Jerry is tomorrow at a whooping $(*&#@^!! an hour. It would be fantastic if we could actually see great strides in Luke and not become homeless in the process.
  
• Can you think of any product with the exception perhaps of nasal spray and bean salad that haven't been marketed using Disney princesses? We (I) was suckered into pink princess toothpaste only hours ago.
  

Mother's Day is a day for realizing there are things more important than world-class abs.

• Thank you, Bet, for raising a man who makes his wife feel like a princess on Mother's Day. (How does he do it? Men, repeat after me. Shoes.)
• Paint sample cards can be used to make a child's memory game.
• New favorite children's book

which says of May, "Sing praise around the apple tree when blossoms stir with honeybees. Above in branches robins nest; below, the earth wakes from her rest."

• She has the same cheeks I did at 2.

• And he's going to have her eyes.
  

• Priceless treasures from my two eldest:
  

And apparently, this is what we'd look like as pigs:

Goodnight, lovelies.

We Love Those Park Discoveries That Include Ducks

Reading about the social benefits of homeschooling:

Carole Seid and Charlotte Mason Because Childhood is Soon Gone

Saturday was spent with Liam at a Carole Joy Seid seminar.
I am so giddily excited about the literary journey I'll be taking with my children as they go through school. The quality of the schools where we live are far below our aspirations for the kids so we're taking responsibility for their education in our own hands. As a result, I may be spending more time here.

        THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
        The earth, and every common sight,
                  To me did seem
                Apparelled in celestial light,
        The glory and the freshness of a dream.
        It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
                Turn wheresoe'er I may,
                  By night or day,
        The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD by Wordsworth

xo
g

On Food

Leila (seemingly all in one breath):
"Messages sounds like sausages doesn't it?
I like sausages hot...but...not freezing.
Blueberries are freezing...but not pecans.
I want to say pecans like this, 'peekins'."