Seven Things

I saw this at Seeking Faithfulness and then followed her trail to Conversion Diary. (You absolutely must read her idea for a new reality show called "Top Housewife". I would dominate in the trained monkey portion!)

Here are my 7 Quick Takes.

1. We have been calling the baby "Adorabelle" after a character in a book MaddieLynn read. I had thought it was a perfectly precious nickname until the 3 yr. old addressed her as "Door Bell". Not so perfectly precious anymore.

2. Our children think the mail lady has been stealing our mail because they don't get letters from their old friends. Is it bad that I would rather they think that than think their friends have forgotten them?

3. Oh! Joy! Something else for people to discuss when they see our family walking by. "Baby addiction" And this article has some real smart stuff in it. Take this gem, for example.

“It’s really important when you have children to have resources,” Kaslow says. “Not just financial resources but emotional resources.”

Okay, good to know. Hold on a minute while I write that piece of pure genius down... Alright, got it... resources... I hope I can remember that.

4. This weekend we are visiting a Wildlife Park, the kind where you drive your car through and (hopefully) encounter giraffes, rhinos, zebras, and other wild animals. The cost for our family would normally be a staggering $152.55(!), but we are getting in for FREE!!! We are thrilled because we would not be able to attend otherwise. I will try to post pictures if I get some good ones.

And speaking of outrageously high admittance costs, why is the King Tut exhibit so expensive? Are they passing out gold masks? A child's admittance is $16.50, plus $6 for the headphones. This may not seem like all that much for a once in a lifetime experience, but for a large family on a budget, I'm sad to say, it is a deal breaker.

5. Are you avoiding all peanut butter-y foods? I am paying attention to the recalls, but going ahead with our regular peanut butter consumption. How about you?

6. Does anyone use and love Spelling Power?

I have a love/hate relationship with that book. I love the idea of studying the 1000 most used words in the English language, but I hate the sound of my children whining when they take a test each day over new words.

No amount of explaining that it's okay to get some wrong because that will identify which words they need to study and anyway research indicates that the "pretest, study, test" method is most reliable in learning spelling words will decrease the tears when they inevitably get a few wrong.

They always want to study first and then test. Those little scamps don't give a hoot about the research!

7. I'm planning a Valentine treasure hunt for the kiddies tomorrow. I have done it before and it was a big hit. I hide clues around the house, in the microwave, on top of the fridge, etc. that tell them where to go next. The clues eventually lead them to their prize, which in this case is a box of those chalky little hearts with the words on them.

They also requested that I repeat another activity from the past. I have them write what they love about each sibling on a heart. After everyone is through, I pass out the hearts and each child gets six hearts with love notes to keep.