Did I Really Just Hear That?

When Elijah reads words he likes to use them in a sentence. For instance he might read the word big and say "Like...that chair is big".

Today while reading he came to the word bud. I about died laughing when he looked at me and said "Like...so what's up Pete? Watching the game having a bud".

If your wondering where on earth that came from, you can see here.

Blogs

I've had this post about blogs floating around in my mind for sometime. The blogosphere is sure an interesting place, and I'm sure there are many students studying it for thesis papers and such. I've been thinking a lot lately about my blogging habits and I've come up with these general rules that apply to me:

1. If I know you in real life I will read your blog. It doesn't matter what you write about, how often you write ect.

2. Anonymous blogs tend to be more interesting. There is something about remaining anonymous that allows a writer to express themselves in such an honest way. Although, I hope people realize that nobody is truly anonymous. I know of two doctors who thought they were blogging anonymously. One (my favorite pediatrician blogger) was outed in pretty devastating way during a malpractice trial, the other was contacted by a business that he mentioned in his blog.

3. I like blogs with strong opinions, even if I don't share them. Only if the writer is intelligent though.

4. I like debate. I love blogs that have great debates and discussions going on in the comments. Real debates, not insults. This goes hand in hand with number three because the debates tend to happen on the blogs with strong opinions.

5. I love to see people blog about things they love. A blogger can make just about any topic interesting if they have a passion for it.

6. I don't like ranting. Occasionally, sure. With good reason, fine. But I've removed several blogs from my bloglines simply because I couldn't take the constant ranting.

7. I don't like to see a lot of clutter on a blog. And, unless the blog averages over 50 comments per post, it bugs me to see advertisements. That's just my personal opinion.

8. I want to see the blog specifics somewhere in the blog title or blogger profile. I like to know right away what the purpose of the blog is, and who is writing it.

9. Pictures really are worth 1000 words. I love to see picture posts. I also love to read lists, and reviews (movies, books or products).

10. If the blogger is pregnant, I want to see a ticker! :D

Those are what I came up with. I would love to hear your thoughts on blogs. What draws you to, or repels you from, a blog?

Happy Easter

We're headed to the UP right after church but I wanted to post a quick pic of the kids. I hope everybody has a great day celebrating the resurrection!

Spring

According to my calendar, Spring started yesterday. Way up here we certainly don't have anything budding or blooming yet but as I looked out the window I did see some evidence of Spring... forgotten toys emerging from their hibernation in the snow. It's something.



This hat I made for Sadie turned out so cute I had to share a pic.

Haircuts

There is no way I'm going to pay to have four boy's hair cut, so I learned a long time ago how to cut their hair. It's usually quite the hassle though, so I always end up putting it off until they have quite the mop tops going on.

Before:


About one hour (and one tiny little nick on the ear) later:

10 Months (and 1 day)

Yesterday, Sadie turned 10 months. Now we're not so much counting up as counting down until her birthday. I can't believe she will be one in two short months, but I love seeing her grow closer to toddler every day. She was at the doctors on Friday for thrush, which thankfully we seemed to have nipped in the bud pretty fast. I know from experience how frustrating thrush can be. I was almost going to wait until today to bring her in but decided I didn't want to give it two more days to spread.

The funniest thing is that she already knows that Spiderman is an important toy in this house. She rarely gets a chance to touch any of the Spiderman toys but when she does she gets all excited and breaks out this big goofy smile because she knows shes got something good. Then she looks around to see if anybody notices yet because as soon as they notice it will be taken away.



And I guess the masses spoke, and I will make a tote to give away here. I have to find some cute fabric for it first, but look for it soon.

Ideas Please

I'm ready to sew something else to give away on my blog. I'm just not sure what. What would you like a chance to win?

More Smocking (and Sam)

This may be Sadie's Easter dress instead, I haven't decided. I like the smocking better on this one, but I like the fabric better on the first one. I also like the pantaloons with this one, since Easter is so early this year, I don't know if I have enough fabric left to make them for the other dress. I fall asleep at night with dress ideas floating before my eyes.




I realized I haven't shared any pictures of spiderSAM lately. He recently had a cold that triggered some asthma attacks, but he is now back to climbing the walls...literally.

tsk tsk California....

A judge in California recently dealt a huge blow to homeschoolers in that state, essentially making it illegal.

Regardless of what you think of homeschoolers, even if you would never homeschool yourself, I hope you believe in liberty and the fundamental parental right to educate your children how you see best. I hope you believe that every parent has the right to pull their child out of school and educate them at home if they deem it necessary.

If so, please sign the Home School Legal Defense Association's petition. You do not have to be a homeschooler to sign it. Please send California a message that America stands behinds the freedom to homeschool.

Sadie's Tornado

Sadie's hair naturally forms a peak on her forehead which the boys refer to as her "tornado". They often come and mess the hair up to fix the "tornado". Speaking of hair, notice where Elijah cut a big chunk of his bangs.





When I went to photobucket to upload the picture I found they added all kind of cool editing features. So I turned the picture into a cartoon.

Math

Isaac finished up his second grade math today. His third grade math should be here any day now. We're having a little cake to celebrate because, like I told him, finishing a whole math level is a big deal! I know I have raved about it before, but we really like Math-U-See. Multiplication, here we come!

Bullets

• March! Way up here it doesn't look, feel or smell like Spring yet, but March just sounds so much better than February doesn't it? I was so happy to change the calendar today.
• I almost had a heart attack earlier when I clicked on my blog address and got a message "this blog does not exist". Thank goodness it was just a mistake in the address! My heart stopped for a second there. I downloaded a program awhile back that will turn your blog into a book. I think I need to go finish that because I do not want to lose all my archives if something ever does happen. The software is blurb.com for anyone interested.
  
• You know it's time to start removing pictures from the hard drive to CD when you have pictures from last March in the March folder. I uploaded some pictures today and afterwards while clicking through the March folder I went right from a picture of my pregnant belly to a picture of a 9.5 month old Sadie. Funny.
• Elijah told me yesterday that I make food taste good. Now, from his reaction to most of my meals I think he was schmoozing me (totally his personality) but it was still nice to hear.

Mr. Spidey, bring me a dream...


This is me hard at work with a little snuggle bug to keep me company. Notice the little spiderman still in hand. That is never far from him.