A Riddle

What do you get when you cross learning how to make gumbo with watching Nacho Libre?

Gumbo Libre

Ryan is teaching me to make gumbo today, and we're making him watch Nacho Libre.

So, we're calling this day Gumbo Libre Day.

Ryan has never watched Nacho Libre.

I know. You're right.

It IS a miracle we like him.

One of my Favorite Things about Kindergarten:

Letting my little ones sprawl out on the floor next to their mother at the computer.

They relax and then tell me whatever story is in their brain.

I type so fast, I think my fingers might fly off.

I learned this activity while watching a documentary on PBS about educating boys.

Generally boys don't like to write.

So, some times it's easy to think there's nothing in their brain since nothing usually comes out on paper.

This is very different from most girls. Most girls are filling up journals, writing notes and love letters in Kindergarten while the boys blankly stare at their empty papers. It's easy to think that girls are smart and boys are cavemen.

By typing their creations for them, I have found that even little male Kindergartners have vivid stories running around in their minds, and they can describe the pictures in their imaginations with brilliant, creative vocabularies.

Oh how I love their stories!

Enjoy!

Dealing with the Issues

You're invited to learn to compost with us.
Details below!

Issue Number One:

We try every year to have a garden, and we grow a big fat pile of nothing.

E for effort?

That's nice, but I'd rather have an eggplant for my effort.

Maybe the reason why we Hendricks plant gardens but never get any food out of them is because our soil is stupid.

Maybe.

Issue Number Two:

Six people make a bunch of trash. Our family makes so much trash we pay to have two trash cans.

If you asked Aaron what his wife's hobby is, he'll tell ya...

"She loves to make trash."

I'm truly gifted at it. This is another one of those made up areas in my mind where I've won a gold medal. I personally think I should be introduced as Heather Hendrick, Trash Making Gold Medalist, but I can't get it to catch on. Maybe I shouldn't imagine myself getting a gold medal for destroying the Earth. Instead, maybe I should make a huge, red "T" and sew it on the front of all my clothes. I'm so guilty!

Any time I watch anything on TV about reducing waste...about how we're all destroying the Earth...I am overcome with not so great feelings. I want to shout back at the TV...FINE...I know...it's me. I'm singlehandedly destroying the earth with all my stinkin' trash. I want to repent and change my ways.

Solution to Both of my Issues...

LEARN TO COMPOST!!

We Hendricks are going to be composters.

We've asked Thomas Supercinski to teach our family how to compost, and thankfully he has agreed to let us learn from him.

Thomas is a Master Composter.

I'm not sure what that means, but it conjures up images of ninjas for some reason, so we like it.

I think we should all start our compost class off by bowing to Thomas, with our hands together in front of our chests and say, "Master Composter."

Not really. I'll just do that in my mind.

Thomas and his wife Rachel are super smart (in about a billion ways) but particularly in ways relating to the garden. Rachel has answered many of my questions about food...making yogurt...jelly...bread...and probably other things too that I don't remember. The Supercinski's are a wealth of information. I have been extremely grateful for all of Rachel's help.

And...I'm not even kidding when I say this...

They actually get food out of their garden each season.

I know. Get out!

Want to learn how to compost with us? We think it would be fun to have a compost class together with our friends.

THE DETAILS

Compost Class
Saturday, September 19
2:30 p.m.
The cost...FREE!

To sign up, head over to the Supercinski's blog and let them know you are coming! Let us know you're coming too...just cause we like to know those things.

Our kids have to learn about composting in school this year. Got to love any opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Actually we're killing three birds (solving our soil issue, garbage issue and school issue). That's a lot of dead birds. Can you throw dead birds in your compost pile? If so, we're already well on our way.

Thanks Supercinskis! We Hendricks are excited to learn from you in a few weeks!

Because Today Is Wednesday

And the new season of Man Vs. Wild has begun.

So far this season we've noticed that in addition to branching out and trying all sorts of new feces, Bear seems to also be getting naked a lot these days.

He did naked push ups last week. Grossed me out as much as when he slept inside a dead camel.

Last week he ate deer poo. He goes on to explain himself (as if he could)..."Deers don't digest a lot of their food, so you can eat their dookie because what came out the back end is very similar to what went in the front end." Okay, those are my words...but what Bear said was similar to that, and he said it in a British accent. British people can say words like dookie and it sounds so brilliant you feel like you should be taking notes.

To this, my smart brother said, "Well if the deer poop is a lot like what the deer was eating to begin with, why doesn't he just eat some grass instead?"

Right...

Why doesn't he?

Instead of eating a foragers poop, why not just forage?

And instead of eating the apple out of a bear's poop, why doesn't he just look around for the apple tree?

Sheesh.

Below is something I wrote a couple years ago.

You know what the Hendrick boys (and their grossed out mother) will be doing tonight before bed.

Alrighty.

It's time to talk about this fella.

Oh yep.

Have you seen this show?

Man vs. Wild?

If not, here's what happens:

This man, Bear Grylls jumps out of a helicopter and lands in the middle of nowhere.

He has to get back to safety using only a few survival tools.

Usually those few survival tools consist of a flint, a shoelace and a water canteen.

I have seen this man smack a live fish with a piece of wood, hold up that fish and say, "This will make a tasty meal."

"That's nice," I think. It will. Fish is good. It's low in cholesterol. I'm glad this dirty man is going to get to eat.

But then he says, "Making a fire will be too much trouble, so I'm just going to eat it raw...right here...in front of you."

And then he does.

And then I gag.

Too much trouble to make a fire?

Too much TROUBLE?

It's more trouble to make a fire than to eat a fish RAW?

I would need a million years to wrap my brain around that logic.

Holding the stunned, flopping fish he says, like it's no big deal..."You take one big bite, then stick your hand in the hole, and rip all it's guts right out."

No. No you don't.

No. I want him to stop that.

My family begs me to watch this show with them.

At a rate of about three times per show this happens in our living room:

Bear does something so nasty that my boys start DANCING around the room, high-fiving each other, beating their chests, so proud of their hero and that they have the same boy parts that he has.

I on the other hand almost vomit into the cushions on the couch.

Here are some highlights of his shows that have sent me running out of the room or made me start beating the couch saying, "No! No! No! God please, No!"

He held up a cute little tree frog and said, "There are no poisonous tree frogs in the swamps of Louisiana."

"That's nice, I think."

And then he ate the frog.

And then Bear called that frog, "protein."

No. That was a frog, fool.

It was alive.

If that wasn't bad enough, he said, "You have to kill it on the first bite, or it wiggles all the way down your throat."

I almost gagged when I typed that.

Really.

I've seen him walk up to a dead animal and:

A. shew away the vultures and then start EATING the raw meat right off the bone. I'm not making this up. It was a zebra. And Bear almost threw up. I was practically crying, it was so traumatic.

B. talk about how the meat is too old and so he can't eat it or he would get a disease or something..."Whew!" I think..."I'm so glad he's not going to eat that, because that would be disgusting." But wait...hold the flint...that's when he starts eating the maggots.

The maggots.

He ate them.

Maggots.

I can't get over it.

I've seen this man pee on his shirt while saying, "Man my pee is stinky because I'm so dehydrated." "Gross," I thought. But not gross enough, obviously, because then he took that stinky pee shirt and WRAPPED IT AROUND HIS HEAD.

He wrapped his head with pee.

Stinky pee.

And the shirt was wrapped around his mouth.

Pee.

On his mouth.

And then he talked about how great it felt.

That's when I think, "I want to punch this man." I want to hit him with a stick, while sobbing and screaming, "Stop it! Just stop this! Please, I need you to stop doing these things!"

I've seen him eat LIVE snakes.

And then last night, I almost DIED when he ate a sheep's eye.

I had to type that sentence with my eyes SHUT, and now I am straining very hard to keep from looking up at the above sentence with said eye nasty in it.

I'm sure the point of this show is to do more than just make little boys, their dad, and sometimes Ryan, raise their hands and cheer when Bear does something so repulsive, you want to pretend it's a stunt...a magic trick, or an illusion.

I'm sure the point is to teach the audience how to survive if they were ever stranded in some far away, harsh environment.

But this show has not done that for me. Not at all. Instead, while watching it, I have actually said, out loud, unashamedly, "I hate nature."

It's true. God made it, but Bear makes me hate it. When I see all those mountains, and the snow and him eating maggots, it makes me glad to be on my couch; with my blanket; holding my Sonic cup full of clean, non-buggy water; in my house; in the city.

He has not made me excited about survival. My boys love it. They talk about Bear Grylls like he's a super hero. They would wear, WWBD bracelets. They make lean-to forts called, "shelters" in the back yard, in their bed room, and in the school room. If they are hungry and we're out running errands, they will talk FOREVER in the back seat about all the nasty things they could eat that they see on the side of the road, or in the floor at Target. I've heard Hayden say, "Man Versus Wild Man would eat this." I can say, "Put that down" without even looking back to see what he has. I know it's gross without turning around.

Before watching this show regularly, if you would have asked me if I would survive in the wilderness I would have given you an unsure, "I don't know. Probably."

Not anymore. Instead of honing my survival skills, Bear has taught me that if stranded in the middle of nowhere, I would do one thing:

DIE

I would die.

No question about it.

First I would cry.

And cry.

And cry.

And if a bug even touched me, much less got into my mouth, that would be the end of me.

If someone said, "Now make a fire, with no matches or lighter," I would laugh so hard, I would pee on MY shirt, but not on purpose, and I would certainly NOT wrap my head with it.

No. I would cry that my shirt had pee on it, and I couldn't change my shirt, because I only had a flint and a water canteen, neither of them sufficient for shirt replacing.

I would sit on the ground, after wrapping myself in my coat and cry...and then a bear would eat me.

Bear Grylls has taught me to stay home. He has taught me not to venture far from a highway.

Bear Grylls has taught me to never pack light. And where do you buy a flint? I'm getting one sewn onto my leg or something.

And what about his camera man?

How does camera man not at least GROAN when he sees Bear squeeze a big Elephant Poo into his mouth, so he can "rehydrate" on the pachyderm's poopy liquid?

How does one keep silent when witnessing someone squeeze Elephant poo juice into their mouth?

How?

How does the camera man not say, "Dude...seriously. I'm going to hit you if you do something like that again."

And what about his wife?

If Aaron came home from being stranded in some awful place, but told me he wrapped his head in pee and then ate maggots to survive, I would stand far away from him, tell him I loved him in sign language, blow him a kiss, but then demand that he go swim in a pool of gasoline, set himself on fire and then get his teeth ripped out at the dentist.

Welcome home, honey!

Incredible

Aaron's mom sent this to us. If you have kids, I think they will be as fascinated by this as mine were.

Last night I called the boys downstairs to watch the video while I finished up the last 10 minutes of dinner.

My plan was to be dishing out the soup into bowls and finishing setting the table while they watched the movie Grandma sent.

Forget the soup.

This was amazing.

From Aaron's mom:

"It shows a young sand-painter...Her subject is World War II -- young love, separation caused by war, death, and memories of the past. The piece begins with the radio announcement of German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and ends with the words 'You are always near us.' "

The boys and I were in awe. Art moves this family.

I was in tears, even though I know nothing of war. Aaron and I watched a movie not long ago about young Russian soldiers yanked up and thrown into war without any training. Tragic and painful to watch.

Right in the middle of the movie Grandma sent us, Aaron rounds the corner, looks at the computer screen for a minute and then says, "What is this? Jerusalem's Got Talent?"

Way to break the beauty of the moment Honey.

And no. But you're close.

Ukraine's Got Talent.

He can be so annoyingly funny some times.

You'll look at your sandbox outside differently after you watch the movie.

Hopefully our kids will too!

Trying Something New

This summer I learned to do about a million and one cool things...like make yogurt, jelly, bread, can salsa...that kind of neat-o stuff.

I feel like I'm getting the hang of all these new things I'm doing and this new way of life where the food is healthier but takes a little more effort.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to keep up with all this once school is going and blowing. So, I'm reworking my schedule. During the summer, with no teaching or structured learning going on I could make my yogurt any ol' time I wanted.

Not now with my whole morning filled with schooling my kids.

I've enlisted the help of some college girls to come help me sporadically when I bake a bunch of bread or do any of the other tons of things I've been doing this summer in the kitchen. Those girls seem to be excited about jumping in with me on these new projects. I'm excited about getting to know them better as we stir bowls of dough right next to one other.

Besides getting school done on Mondays, I have two goals...

Bake a bunch of junk to eat off of all week. I'm making 6 loaves of bread today, one loaf of banana bread and a pan of banana muffins. We'll eat the bread with dinner and it will be a healthier snack for my kids in the afternoon. Homemade bread with homemade jelly on it...um...that will make you happy, and maybe fat. The banana bread and muffins can be for snacks too, but more so for breakfast.

My other goal on Mondays....

Make a huge pot of soup for supper. That way, we can eat off of it for lunch most of the week. Snacks and lunch are still the two areas where we're not eating as healthy as I want to be eating in this house. Lynsey and Kirby gave me the soup and baking day ideas.

School is done today. We had a few glitches, but overall it went beautifully. Either God is really merciful even over the details of our lives and totally in control of Hudson's sleep schedule and personality or I just have the happiest, sweetest baby ever. All of those things are probably true.

Today as I was walking out of the library, I saw myself in this huge big glass near the entrance to the building. There I was...

Wearing my peasant skirt.

Brown glasses.

With my four kids.

One of those is a cute brown baby.

I had my huge tub of library books on my hip...

And I was on my way home to finish homeschooling my kids and start making yogurt.

WHO THE HECK AM I?

I'm a full blown hippy.

I used to make fun of people like me.

As of right now I haven't smoked pot but let's admit it...at the rate I'm going I probably will. Kidding...maybe.

Hope you still want to be my friend!

By the way....my house smells really great right now.

If I get as big as a house, you'll all know why...it's the homemade bread.

Hope your first day of school was as sweet as my house smells right now.

First Day of School

School starts today! If you're new here, we home educate our kids. If you want to know why we homeschool, I wrote about our choice here in an earlier post.

Whether you homeschool or not, we hope your first day back is beautiful and filled with hope for a bright, new year of learning.

Leftover Books

We sold about half of our books at the book sale last Saturday.

We were glad to see so many books go to good homes, but when you have about 2,000 books if you sell half of them that means you still have a lot leftover!

When Aaron brought the books back, I couldn't believe there were so many great ones still in our possession.

We will have another book sale when it gets cooler. We'll advertise it in the paper, and hopefully get rid of the other half of these books.

Until then, if you missed the book sale and want to come look at the books in the garage you are welcome to buy them that way. Just email me and set up a time to come. I recommend coming in the evening. It can be pretty hot out there!

Why Does It Have to End?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I love vacation.

We've gone on several mini vacations this summer.

This week we headed to Brenham to spend the week with our family.

I didn't want to leave!

That's how you know it was a great vacation.

The boys swam.

We ate farm fresh eggs every morning and grass fed something or other every night.

Kirby and Charlie came up and stayed a couple days.

We canned 88 jars of salsa.

Get out of town!

We also began the daunting task of putting dates on the calendar for the upcoming coupon class tour.

We had so much fun laughing with our friends and family.

I loved spending time with my sister-in-law.

Isn't it an extra blessing to have a sister-in-law you would choose as a close friend even if you weren't related?

I was thinking today about how much I love Lynsey. I think I would have been her roommate in college.

That says a lot, doesn't it?

She taught me so many smart things and cooked the most delicious dinners for all of our families every night we were there.

Talk about a great vacation for this mommy!

Aaron and I stayed up late every night watching Arrested Development and talking about important things like this upcoming school year, this new church we're a part of...the good parts and the hard parts (mostly for me...I wonder sometimes if anything is hard for Aaron). We talked about ways to love each other better this year, to live out some of the things God is putting in our hearts...wow...

Vacation is good for the soul.

I'm already ready for another one.

Time Away

Posts will be few and far between this week.

We're in Brenham

Laughing with friends

Making 60 jars of salsa

Loving our family

Sitting with my sister in law

Snuggling my nieces

Swimming three times a day

Watching my brother work the land from sunup till sundown

and

Feasting on larger portions of things like

land

trees

breezes

lazy afternoons

stars

space to spread out

So far I've learned that boys fall asleep faster at night when they have been outside all day.

If You're Looking for Hudson

You can usually find him in his special spot...

The kitchen drawer.

He likes to take everything out.

Then put everything back in...

Including himself.

Then he starts his very important job of "taking out, putting in" all over again.

His little personality is bursting out lately.

It cracks us up that he's exactly like the books describe the baby of a family.

Loves attention.

Can be hysterically mischievous.

Will do anything for a laugh.

Knows he can find someone in this house to do exactly what he would like done.

Someone is always a sucker for his incredible cuteness.

Just look at him.

You know you couldn't resist either.

When I walk past this precious child in his favorite spot in the kitchen I can't help but think...

I wish every house could have a baby in a drawer.

Our Little Ham

I came back here to edit this post in case you are searching for Cinderella Rock information and got sent here by dear ol' google.

The play got shut down.

I think it was a scam.

Lots of people in our town lost all their money and have not been refunded.

Email me for details if you are thinking about letting your kids audition for this play!

hendrickcrew@gmail.com



Our craziest son will be in his first ever play this weekend.

It's called Cinderella Rock.

Hayden couldn't be more excited.

It's funny how different all these little ones are in our home.

I keep hearing Anson and Ashton saying things like...

"Hayden...you know there are going to be lots of people watching you, right?"

They sound terrified. Even Hudson has looked concerned.

To their terror, Hayden responds..."Yes! I'm going to be FAMOUS."

At Life Group on Wednesday, he shared his thought process with some of us...

"Maybe the newspaper is going to be there, and I'll get to be in the newspaper."

"Maybe I'll be on TV."

During his audition he had to be alone in a room with a grown up. He sang. He danced. He said some lines.

I had no idea how this was going to go. I had no script to practice with him. They didn't really say what Hayden would be doing during the audition...we had no idea what to expect.

When they called me back into the audition room, the first thing the lady said was "Well...he's definitely not shy."

Nope.

He isn't.

I could write more at this point about all the stage moms at the audition with their daughters...

But I need to pray more or something before I do. Right now...I just want to be mean and laugh.

Maybe some other time I'll describe that scene.

Book Sale...This Saturday!

Don't forget!

The Hendricks are hosting a huge book sale:

Saturday, August 15
12-4 p.m.
828 Tanglewood
Bryan, Texas

While the book sale is going on outside, the Apels will be hosting an open house inside. Their house is for sale. People can see how cute it is on Saturday.

Here's the scoop on the books...

We have somewhere between 1-2 THOUSAND books to sell.

Most were from an elementary school in Humble.

The rest were from a local teacher here in town.

Most books will be 50 cents.

Most of those books are elementary fiction. There are some nonfiction. Lots of junior high/high school fiction. Almost all of these are hardback books.

All easy readers will be 75 cents.

Books that will be $1 include:

Classics (many of these are books listed on the Sonlight reader list)

Contemporaries (Harry Potter, etc.)

Scholastic Books (Magic Tree House, some Nate the Great, Junie B. Jones, lots of popular books)

Abeka Readers

DK Books

Magic School Bus Books

Captain Underpants

Over 400 of the books we're selling are the uber popular, $1 books. The rest are great too...but I just want to stress that we have a lot of the very popular books to buy as well.

We have enjoyed growing our library and our hope is to provide an easy, one-stop shopping place for other families (and teachers) to grow their libraries as well.

No pre-sales. If you show up early, you'll be put to work putting the books on the tables, but no one will be "rung up" until noon.

If anyone is planning on camping out the night before on the Apel's front yard...you might let them know.

Hope to see you Saturday! Please spread the word!

Today I Turned Old

Tonight I had the perfect opportunity to spray someone "accidentally" with the sprayer on the sink at church.

I didn't.

I really wanted to.

I wanted to see their shocked face.

I wanted to laugh.

I wanted to see all that water not in the sink.

I almost did it.

But I didn't.

I could have easily pulled the trigger, but I paused...I thought...I did not spray them.

I think this is what getting old feels like.

I don't think I like it.

Need A Second to Think

Know what I'm doing right now?

Give up?

I'm trying to figure out a way to NEVER put the boy's laundry away ever again.

I know there is a way.

Yes...I've tried making them do it, and they do.

But I'm getting more and more irritated that their clothes are upstairs and the laundry room is downstairs.

Wouldn't it be the best if I could wash clothes and then put the kid's clothes away in the laundry room?

Who said your clothes have to be in your own bedroom? Who said that? Did anyone?

I'm super sick of climbing stairs.

I'm even more sick of sending kids upstairs to their bedrooms to get dressed and then them coming downstairs looking like little funky dressed goobers.

Know how many times I say, "Only wear things you've seen me put together for you?"

About three times a day.

I'm reworking the laundry room right now figuring out how to have their clothes in there.

I can fold them.

I can put them up as I fold them.

I can also stand right there and watch them pick their clothes out. No more traveling up and down the stairs in an "outfit" just to hear their mother say, "Sorry. I don't think so."

My head hurts from what I've organized so far.

I needed a breather.

I'm going to make this work.

Uh huh.

I am.

Anyone seen this kind of set up in any house besides the Duggar's? I mean, I'm like 42 kids short of what they have, but can I still do this?

Aren't Boys the Best?

I know I don't have any girls to compare my boys to, but it's hard for me not to wish every home had one of these crazy creatures inside it.

Tonight is Hayden's very first friend sleepover.

A few weeks ago, he spent the night for the first time ever with someone who wasn't a family member.

Jax Bacak

I want to kidnap this kid.

But we live right around the corner from his home, so I'm pretty sure his mom would find Jax really quick.

Tonight is also Jax's first non-family sleep over.

I explained to the boys tonight that they are now bonded for life because they shared each other's first over night, friend sleep over. I made a big stinkin' deal about how exciting this was...how cool it was to be each other's first friend to sleep over. Apparently, this kind of thing is not nearly as exciting for boys as it is for girls. I was expecting us all to jump around in circles together or make certificates after I made a big deal out of their first sleep overs.

Instead...they shrugged me off.

Boys

I always wanted a bunch of kids.

It wasn't until a few months ago that I realized something...

All my kids will have friends.

Sometimes that will make for lots of little boys running around our house and tooting in the back seat of my vehicle.

I know it sounds dumb, but I never thought about this idea before. When you have four boys, it feels like you already have your fair share of dirty, loud crazies in your life. Add to those crazies their own dirty, loud friends, and wow...I can't even imagine what the days ahead of me will look like.

Boys

I'd take another dozen or so.

Look at those cute indians up there. They spent all evening making their bow and arrows, deciding what tribe they were in (the Chero-tees) and fighting in the front yard. While helping them with their head dresses I also said, "Whoever is pooting the cheese needs to knock it off."

That's life with boys.

Book Update #2

We don't use Sonlight, but if you do...I just looked over most of the Sonlight reader lists and we have about 20 of the books on those lists.

They will be on the table labeled "Classics."

Just FYI

Book Update

As I go through more and more boxes, I'll try to give an update on the books I'm finding.

So far...

A BUNCH of Agatha Christie books

One big, full box of readers

and

for homeschoolers...

English Teacher's Manuals and Student Books from Rod and Staff Publishers: The Building Christian English Series

Your One Stop Book Shop

Exciting News!

We Hendricks are hosting a HUGE book sale!

(While Kirby and I are teaching women how to legally rob grocery stores, our husbands and children will be selling fantastic books on the other side of town!)

Saturday, August 15
12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
828 Tanglewood Drive
Bryan, Texas

Recently, Aaron bought between 1 and 2 THOUSAND books from an auction, and 375 books from a local teacher.

Why?

Because he's ridiculous when it comes to books.

And I love books too, so I am not a good balance for him in this department.

If Aaron said, "I spent all of our rent on Jack in the Box tacos," I'd be mad.

If Aaron said, "I spent all of our rent at Barnes and Noble," I'd say...

"OKAY!"

He did not spend our mortgage payment, but I'm just sayin'.

Humble ISD (Houston area) auctioned off the books from their elementary school library.

We could not pass them up.

We love books in a weird, we probably need counseling sort of way AND we know too many other people who do as well.

Our goal...

For book lovers, homeschooling families and teachers to be able to grow their libraries in ONE stop for really cheap.

You'll pay less than buying these from the store or online.

The only place you could buy books for cheaper than this is probably a garage sale, and to find this many good ones, it might take you five years of garage shopping.

Here's the run down of what we have in our possession...

Between 1-2 THOUSAND books from the Humble ISD library. We haven't finished counting these yet. We're working on it. That's a lot of books to count and sort, and our garage is smokin' hot right now. Prices may go up the longer I'm out there sweating my face off.

We have TONS of elementary age fiction

TONS of middle school/high school/young adult fiction

Lots of nonfiction for elementary/middle school/high school

Classics

Lots of history

Some coffee table books

Some easy readers

Most of those will be FIFTY CENTS EACH.

We have a huge box of homeschooling workbooks we might give away for free, or for almost free.

The only books that will be more than fifty cents are the three hundred books we bought from a teacher. Hers are too new and too perfect.

ALL Scholastic books, Magic Tree House, and AR readers will be ONE dollar.

Pretty Insane.

Please help me spread the word to your friends, families, new teachers and homeschooling families. The sale on August 15 will only be advertised on my blog and through local teacher and homeschool loops.

We want our friends and this community of readers to have the first chance to buy these books in one spot.

We will sell what is leftover on August 15 at another sale that will be advertised in the newspaper.

These books are fantastic, and we're excited to have grown our own home library, and just as excited to help other people grow their libraries as well.

Hooray for reading!

Please spread the word!

The Scent of a Woman

At the gym yesterday a show was on TV.

I honestly never watch TV during the day, so I'm totally out of the loop on daytime television programs. I was going to try to link to the show or the article but can't find it because I have no idea what I was watching.

The show was a combination of "news" and current trends. By "news" I do not mean the real news. By "news" I mean updates on things like Michael Jackson and high heels.

Apparently a survey was taken of a whole bunch of men.

The survey revealed that the most attractive fragrance a woman can wear is vanilla.

Why?

Because when women smell like vanilla it reminds men of baking.

Of course that drove the women nuts on the show. I laughed. No matter how far women think we've come, most men still have an attraction to this idea of a woman at home baking something.

Funny.

Last night I was telling Aaron about the survey.

I told him that the survey revealed the most sexy smell to a man is vanilla.

Of course he said, "So did you come straight home and put something vanilla on?"

No. I didn't. I told him I don't really want to smell like a cinnamon roll.

Aaron said something like, "That's fine. I would much rather you smell like bacon. That's the sexiest smell to me."

Gross!

We laughed because it was obvious a woman made up the survey. If a man had made it up bacon and gravy would have been two of the choices.

Single ladies...

Aaron is convinced you should wear bacon or gravy perfume. The boys would be chasing you down.

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Laura linked to a great product in the comment section. I thought it was so funny, I needed to bring it up here.

Aaron...if this ends up in my stocking this Christmas, I'm going to do something mean to you in your sleep. I'm thinking a baby poo mustache. Be very afraid!

Sounds Peachy

I made 18 jars of peach jelly today.

18 jars

While pureeing a mountain of peaches, I imagined myself getting another Olympic Medal for a competition that does not exist.

I've imagined myself being awarded Olympic medals, with all the ceremony...tears in people's eyes...the works for several make believe events.

Like...

Getting to your vacation destination with four small children and realizing you did not forget ANYTHING. Nothing. I won a gold for that.

Every time I do laundry all day and every sock has a match...yep. The national anthem plays in my mind and people cry for me. I say, "every time" like it happens a lot. It doesn't. It happened once. Yes, I know it's sad, but that day ranks pretty high up on my list of favorite days.

Why can't they award Olympic medals for things that actually matter...like being able to open and shut the dryer door without the dryer ever turning off.

All the moms are cheering.

I can hear you.

After I won my medal today, and I finished imagining what the commentators were narrating over the award ceremony I started thinking about peaches.

You know how tomatoes that you buy at the store don't taste anything like tomatoes that grow in your garden?

They are so different, I have a hard time calling both of those things tomatoes.

That's how I feel about peaches.

Peaches in the store taste like dirt.

Peaches from Fairfield taste like candy.

Aaron drove all the way to Madisonville Sunday to buy me some Fairfield peaches.

He loves me.

We have eaten them until we're sick.

The entire top of my mouth has sores on it from all the acid.

I've pooed more in the past 24 hours than I have in the last 3 months.

But will I stop eating the peaches?

No. I won't even slow down.

If you've never eaten peaches...the real ones...then I bet when you hear the phrase, "sounds peachy" you think that means "sounds like hairy blah."

How sad.

When I hear, "sounds peachy" I think...

It sounds "marvelous"..."divine"... like "Jesus made it."

Fairfield peaches from Cooper Farm are worth the 45 minute drive to Madisonville.

They sell them Wednesday-Sunday at the gas station on I-45.

Check out this farm's website. If you are not from around these parts, they give a list of locations where they sell their peaches here. Yum!

I love peaches, and I love my money going to local farmers.

I also love this peach jelly, and all the frozen peaches that will go in my daily smoothie...and the peach cobbler Brooke taught me how to make.

I will also like Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream on my cobbler.

But, you already know that.