Rabbit, Rabbit!

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Rabbit, Rabbit!

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Our annual Earth Day face painting…

Pinterest…

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Pinterest is a neat-looking way to track and organize those articles and posts we don’t want to lose track of.  For some, it’s a new form of art – there are some GORGEOUS collections out there - and if that’s what you’re looking for, you probably won’t find it on our page.
But if you are interested in a random assortment of fun and educational ideas for your littles, be sure to stop by and check us out.  Here’s where we are at:

http://pinterest.com/moziesme/

See ya!

Whirring and Whizzing

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I confess – I’m not doing so well on the stillness thing… 

It feels more like my brain is a blender with thoughts whirring and life whizzing around me.  Definitely not in my comfort zone – I like my ingredients all separate on my plate, thank you very much – or even better, in separate bowls.  And some of these life ingredients seem really strange to me.  But I do trust God has a good recipe up his sleeve.

Anyway – while we haven’t been on here to post for a while, there are a couple of posts of ours elsewhere that I thought I’d link up here while I get my thoughts in order:

Over at The Homeschool Village:

• Preschool:  Alphabet School.  An overview of the alphabet school we debuted here on Mozi Esmé what seems like eons ago – a great starting point for parents of little ones.
• Preschool:  Dramatic Play Center.  Ideas and learning objectives for a dramatic play center in your home.

And at Heart of the Matter Online:

• Can I Do it All?  My thoughts and goals as a payroll mom who is also a homeschooling mom.

More coming soon!  I’m back home again – have been for a while – but still trying to figure out the balance thing.  Thanks for your patience and your prayers for my family.

A Time for the Seasons

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Timer set for 1/2 hour – let’s see if we can actually get a post out today…  Grrrr – checking in 14 hours later after too many interruptions to count!

It’s still fall.  Isn’t it?  I mean, in town, there are still brilliantly-colored fall leaves blending in with the sweet Christmas lights.  December 17th and all.

In fact, I like Esmé’s perspective better.  We were outside yesterday (these photos were all taken yesterday – honestly!) trying to do a You Capture – Outside prompt, taking pictures of leaves and things.  (Only a couple days late in posting – I am the expert in fashionable lateness.)

She asked:  “It’s not fall, is it?  There are still green leaves!  It can’t be fall yet!”


My thoughts exactly.  I mean, there are even rosebuds on the bushes.


Miniature daisies in the lawn. 

(Finding and downloading and reading my camera manual is definitely on my New Year’s resolution list – up from last year at #61.  I must have taken at least a dozen photos and the camera absolutely positively wouldn’t focus on this daisy.  Its Intelligent Auto setting isn’t so intelligent, it seems.)

Even these dandelion-like blowy things.


And our onions – all harvested, I thought – have decided to take on new life.


I’m even feeling compelled to check the birdhouses for eggs.


But, alas, the grape vines and fruit trees are saying it’s winter, even though the blackberry bushes are still on fall.  And a cherry tree never lies, as George Washington taught us.  (I’m guessing Pinocchio was made from blackberry bramble…)

The point though…  the fact that we never finished our unit studies on Fall – and never even started our Thanksgiving unit studies – has nothing to do with why I have blinders on this December against all things Christmassy.  Umm – not really?  Umm – maybe a little?

It’s hard to motivate myself to put together wintry material when I have two folders of perfectly good, well-thought out FALL/Thanksgiving stuff just waiting to be used, and it’s hard to motivate myself to use fall stuff in December. 

So we are taking a homeschool break of sorts until I can regroup and figure out how we will proceed going forwards.

See, since September we’ve been doing this loopy – er, looping – thing so we can cover EVERYTHING I want my daughter to learn before she starts university.  I have this really long list of what I want to cover in a day, and rather than starting fresh with the next day’s stuff on the next day, we just keep at that day’s list until we get it done before we start the next day’s list, which may not be until next year.  

(Don’t you just love saying “see you next year” and so on to people about this time of year?  It makes tomorrow seem so far off, and I am all for anything that creates an illusion of lots of time.)

The problem with looping is that means we do math maybe once a month.  See?  Big problem – because Esmé’s natural pace of learning is faster than that, so I’m still trying to get her to count to 9 when she can do her 9x multiplication tables.  And I’m trying to get her to write the letter “C” when she is sounding and spelling out words already.

Though in her own fashion, of course.  This completely-self-motivated sounded-out “butterfly” from about a month ago is just so classic – I grin whenever I see it.  Which isn’t often, since it is buried under a mountain of fall-themed printables that we haven’t touched yet.


As I was saying, I am reconsidering the whole loopy thing.  I’m trying to come up with a short daily list that includes the math and handwriting and Bible (and everything else I want Esmé to learn before she starts university) – so we can get that done quick and then let the themed stuff (book themes, geography themes, beginning-letter themes) take as long as it wants.  Because the themed stuff really does have a mind of its own.  I’ve been hesitating on this, because isn’t that themed stuff the fun stuff you SHOULDN’T be cutting out?  But I’m killing my kid with the “C”s – she is definitely ready to move faster.

That being said, we really do have a couple of Christmas posts lined up.  Just trying to be fashionably late on them is all – and I think we’re just about there… 

Though you know, if we do the overdue Months of the Year-themed post instead – that we were working on in September – it might actually be useful to some of you, because isn’t January a perfect month to study the Months of the Year?

Maybe I should schedule our Christmas posts for NEXT year?  Maybe I should just do all my posts that way?  Is there really a happy sense of fulfillment in timely posts, folks?  Please tell me – I’ve never had that experience… :)

ABC and 123

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Just a quick hi to anyone coming over from Mozi Esmé's Feature Yourself Friday at ABC and 123.  Nice to meet you!



If you're looking for a great source of learning ideas for your young ones, ABC and 123 is it - a collection of some of the best in the blogsophere.

Why, Oh Y?

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We recently did this little “beginning sounds” activity, which should have been a piece of cake.  Put the correct “beginning sound” letter on each picture…

And it was a piece of cake.  Until we got to watermelon.

“Wuh, wuh, Y!”  Over and over.

No matter how many times I corrected or swapped letters, that’s where we ended up.  (It doesn’t help that I have a daughter who is always right.)

Totally understandable.  How do you explain the crazies who made up the English language and developed the alphabet?

Makes one want to start over from scratch with a brand new language that MAKES SENSE.  Where Kuh-kuh-K really is for cake.

We're Back!

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And getting into a schedule.  Expect us in full form as of August 1st...  (That'll be my last month of vacation while we hopefully get the new schoolhouse in workable order and line up the fun stuff for next year.)

In the meantime, we've got a couple of giveaways for you.  Getting them out later today!

Is it a…

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…practical joke?

Jane here again.

Our Dora day wasn’t quite the success I’d planned.  Seems she’s not quite as entertaining as Miss Esmé’s high demand makes her out to be.

And while I DID check a lot off the To Do list, the list grew over the course of the day.  (Strange how you notice the carpet needs shampooing when you actually vacuum it, huh?)

On the virtual side of things, my one BIG goal was to get through my emails and at least sort them out.  I didn’t make it, but I was down to a little over 100 by the end of the day.  Yahoo!

So I was shocked to see several hundred MORE unread emails in my inbox this morning.

First thought – one of my blogs has been discovered and I’m getting hundreds of comments!

Seriously – I thought maybe I accidentally signed up on an overactive forum, or maybe all those FlyLady emails I haven’t been getting all of a sudden came through.

Nothing doing.  All those emails I went through and deleted yesterday somehow REAPPEARED in my inbox.

So, it seems Yahoo has played a practical joke on me.

I mean, there must be some humor in it somewhere.  Right?  I’m still looking.

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.  Sorry, follks…

Since I’m not getting around to any nice exciting posts, I’ll at least stick a picture in this one for Esmé fans.

We’ll be back – after I get through the emails [again] and pack for the camping trip…

Randomness

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Esmé's Mom here...

Let's organize our randomness, shall we? I've got several housekeeping items to get out of the way, so let's list them out in one post...

1.  All that stuff yesterday about curriculums? Today I reviewed a book that helped me put things into perspective.  It's all about my primary goal in educating my daughter.  Take this quote:

I don't want children who are just productive members of society.  I don't want to encourage my kids to strive after mere happiness either.  In the short window of opportunity I have to impact their lives, I want to raise spiritually fulfilled kids who are productive members of eternity.

And I'm giving my copy away!  Interested?  Check out my review and enter the giveaway at Winning Readings...

2.  Interested in some educational books?!  There are lots of preschool giveaways included in this Curriculum CleanOUT!






3. I received some homeopathic products for review that we've finally (unfortunately) had a chance to try out (By the way, I haven't been a huge homeopathic fan in the past, but when we moved to malaria-prone Mozambique, Esmé was six weeks old, and the best option we found for malaria prevention and treatment at that age was a homeopathic option. All three of us used it, and none of us had malaria in the 18 months we were there, though many around us did get malaria.)

It's a little scary trying to figure out what OTC meds are okay to use for small children, and in what dose. With the news that cough meds are taboo, I was very interested in Boiron's homeopathic options for cold and flu-like symptoms in children. They are purportedly natural, kid-friendly, and with no overdose risk.

Well, Esmé's had her share of cold symptoms lately, and I must say she's been enjoying her "medicine!"  I've had to set the timer so we can space the doses out far enough, because she will keep asking for it.  Anything that makes her happy and is comparatively good for her while she's sick makes me happy!

Check out http://children.boironusa.com/ for more information.

4.  I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning’s online curriculum for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own (not pre-worded for me like this disclosure :), so be sure to come back and read my experience with Time4Learning’s educational program. Click to find out more or if you would like to apply to be considered for a review.

I've got more random stuff, but Esmé is busy with the kitchen sink sprayer at the moment, so I've gotta go do damage control! Later...

Changes Ahead...

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Esmé's Mommy here.

Wow - just when I think things are under control in one area, I find out I'm way behind in another. Know what I mean?

That Tot School post that just went up with Monday's date on it? I've been working on it since Sunday, but just haven't found the moments to squeeze into get it up until now. And it didn't even take that long in terms of total time

I've been meaning to write a post about the direction of this blog for a while (like since New Year's Day when I was going to write about all my resolutions?), but living life always trumps blogging about life for some reason.

The fact is, I love blogging, and I've had a dozen ideas for blogs I want to start, but so far I've managed to kick myself in the backside before doing so (except for that Winning Readings book blog, which has grown way too fast all of a sudden). I need new projects like a hole in the head. But I REALLY want to start a devotional blog. And a weight loss blog. And a vegetarian cooking blog. And a Project 365 blog. Not because I like cooking (I detest it). Or am any good at photography (though I blame it on the camera). More because I find motivation and accountability through blogging.

Well, I managed to last through most of January without starting any of that stuff, so I think I can convince myself to put it off for another year. Because I really don't have time. REALLY! (Still trying to convince myself.)

But I do have a few brainstorms I'd like to incorporate on THIS blog. So here's the schedule I'm outlining for myself.

• Sunday: Mission Sunday
• Monday: Motion, Matter, Mitosis, and Me
• Tuesday: Tiny Talk Tuesday
• Wednesday: Wordless Wednesday
• Thursday: Learning Spaces
• Friday: Fashion Friday
• Saturday: Tot School

I'll throw in other stuff here or there as I feel compelled. And life will continue to trump blogging, so I'm not gonna stress if I miss out here and there. Because one of my biggest resolutions is to be "present." Not thinking about how to blog about the event, but actually ENJOYING the event.

Mission Sunday. We're gonna mix this up a little. Instead of just random links, Esmé and I will focus on a specific country each week. We'll find it on the globe, learn a little about the language and food and religion, and find a blogger in that country who we can say hi to! And we'll give you a link so you can say hi, too...

And we'll be doing something here locally, too! We're starting right at home - we've found some yummy muffin recipes we're going to try - and first we'll bless Pappa with them to make sure they're edible; then we'll start "Operation Know Your Neighbor" and sharing some muffins with the neighbors, too. It'll take a few of weeks to get through the immediate neighbors...

Motion, Matter, Mitosis, and Me. It seems like everywhere I turn lately, I'm tripping up against how important science is for preschoolers. We've been churning out and burning out on printables and worksheets lately, and I'm looking for an alternative. Esmé loved the science stuff we did in our recent book reviews, so I'm planning to put together at least four science activities each week - in physics, chemistry, biology, and human health/anatomy. Fun and basic stuff, though I don't shy away from big terms. Check this out if you'd like ideas, and let us know what ideas you've got or posted about!

Tiny Talk Tuesday. I love how this meme helps us document Esmé's growth and cutisms! Nothing new here.

Wordless Wednesday. An easy post and a fun way to meet other bloggers.

Learning Spaces. I've mentioned our school house before. Sadly (or not so sadly from another perspective), the little 12x16' house is wrapped and boarded up at the moment, since Pappa is overwhelmed with other work, and the jobs keep coming in. But in considering how to set it up and decorate it, I looked for examples of play/schoolrooms online, and I didn't find too much that I really liked!

So I've been doing more research on it, and want to focus on difference aspects of learning spaces each week. I'm going to wait on this one until the Motion, Matter, Mitosis, and Me feature is well underway, but if any of you have previous posts about your own learning spaces that I could borrow, or if you'd like to do a guest post on the topic, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Fashion Friday. As long as Esmé stays fashionable, we'll keep this coming! We'd love to see others join in with Mr. Linky, too!

Tot School. You may have noticed we're not focusing on letters anymore. Esmé's got the alphabet downpat, and I'm using a curriculum now. I think the alphabet school concept has served its purpose (and well) for us - and we are putting it on hold for now. We'll leave the links up on our sidebar so others can reference them, and at some point, like when I'm done with this curriculum, I'll reevaluate if we go back to letter themes.

In the meantime, I'll just be posting snapshots of some of the activities we've done, though I can't disclose the entire curriculum, of course! And we throw extra stuff in, too...

So there you have it - the focus of this blog - for now! Until it changes...

Randomness

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Esmé's Mommy here.

I'm tired.

It's hard work to break all your new year's resolutions in one week. (I love lists, so I've got a long list, you know. More on that later.)

And I think I've succeeded - after a late 2:30 p.m. lunch trip to Taco Bell this afternoon when I decided I couldn't make the 1/2-hour drive all the way home without some sustenance.

Bet you thought we'd quit blogging! We actually have plenty to blog about. In fact, I was seriously ready to start a new blog or two with the new year. But that didn't happen as planned. We haven't had a good post in so long that we've been feeling the need for a grand comeback, and we just haven't had the time.

So we'll just say hi for now and let you know we're still here and have lots to blog about...

Let's see - just a quick summary of the past week or so.

New Years with the cousins in Portland! Lots of cousins...

Back home late on Sunday.

Four days of work this week (instead of just two).

A car that broke down this week - that is probably not worth fixing. (So it's the SUV for the moment, which is great as long as I don't look at the fuel gauge. A CD player, cruise control, rear window wiper - all the foreign luxuries I'd forgotten existed...)

A broken card reader on my laptop - so it's a bit of a hassle getting photos off my camera. And the laptop needs work done on it before the warranty expires, anyway.

A split lip on a two-year-old.

A fun new curriculum - both at daycare and at home.

A printer that's out of ink - and we've got to print out next week's curriculum before next week!

A jam-packed book review schedule for the next two months. Mostly on the other blog, but you're seeing its effect here.

Another schedule. That's sort of working, as long as I ignore all the things that didn't make it onto the schedule. Like blog-related stuff.

And lots of resolutions. Including blogging resolutions. All broken.

I'll stop there for now. I've got a two-year-old who needs to come out of the bathtub before she wears out her voice singing "I'm a birdie that flies" while maneuvering her sting ray through the air.

At least we've broken through the comeback barrier...

Cruel?

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I'm a cruel mom!

It says so right there on page 20 of the October 2009 issue of Parenting (which only arrived last week, for some reason).

Yep - 63% of moms say I'm cruel...

I am bewildered.

Here's the question: "Is it cruel to make your preschooler follow a vegetarian diet?"

And 63% of moms say YES!

I thought cruelty had to do with things like spankings, or time-outs. Or hiding the ice cream at the bottom of the deep freeze. Or rationing the trick-or-treat candy. Or not letting her date until she's 21. Or making her help with the chores.

But tell me how keeping meat off the table is cruel? Please? I don't understand. My kid eats what I eat. Is it cruel to lower her risk of heart disease and cancer? To make the environmentally-friendly choice?

Believe it or not, she hasn't been salivating over the McNuggets and fish sticks. And she can make her own dietary decisions when she can buy and cook the food herself.

Can we please reserve the word "cruel" for actions that truly deserve it?

Thanks.

(If you won't let your daughter date until she's 21, that's your choice. No judgment from this corner.)

Off my soapbox now...

Commercial Break

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Esmé's Mommy here with a newsflash...

We are going to take a commercial break for the weekend!

It'll be fun, promise! Kinda like the Superbowl commercials. And we'll throw in a few goodies while we're at it.

So hang around; we'll be right back with our regularly scheduled programming after these messages...

Let's start with a few links:

1. Totally Tots - a totally terrific site for moms of tots with all kinds of resources. We are totally going to be snagging some of their tot Christmas activities - they've got one for every day in December through Christmas! And guess who's featured there today? Seriously?
2. Remember the cool giraffe we made during "G" school? You can find it here at One Million Giraffes. There are some really creative giraffes on that site - join in the fun and submit your own! By the way, Esmé is totally in love with giraffes after that week. Whenever she sees one, it gets picked up and carried around for a long time - toy ones, that is. It's no wonder the giraffes are the most bedraggled in our Noah's Ark sets.
3. I'm guessing most of you already use a form filler tool for online forms, but what about all those giveaways you may be entering where all the data has to go in the comment section? I discovered PhraseExpress recently, and it's terrific! You can set up "shortcut" keys to enter text you use all the time. For instance, all I do to enter my email address in the comment section is type two keys, and it fills my email in for me. And it automatically recognizes text strings you type in all the time, so it'll prompt you to tab and fill in the rest of the string after you've started typing it. It's FREE to download. (and I am getting nothing for this promotion - I just love it and wanted to share! Public Service Announcement and all that.)
4. Did you know that yesterday was National World Toilet Day?! How on earth did I miss this? It would have been perfect for potty practice...
   

7 Fragments

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Let's organize our randomness, shall we?

Esmé's Mommy playing along with

and

and even

this time and giving you 7 fragments of STUFF...

1. I’m sitting in the car in front of the house while Esmé sleeps in the backseat, a bag of Bugles in her embrace. I’ve tried taking it away, but she wakes up when I do, and naps are a beautiful, rare, thing right now. It is raining cats and dogs, so if you’re looking to adopt a 4-legged creature, come on over.
2. Speaking of four-legged creatures, Flamey was about to disown us this week due to a shortage of Fancy Feast canned food. I finally convinced him to speak to Pappa on the phone and remind him to bring some of those cans home. This morning he (Flamey, that is) ate two full cans of the stuff – his normal ration is half a can at a time.
3. If only Technorati was as easy to understand as cats are. Somehow we have a 430 rating for this blog (I think that’s good), while Winning Readings sits at a pretty rating of 1 (I think that’s bad). There’s probably enough conversation about this going on in the blogging world, so I’ll drop it for now.
4. This week has been a most incredible week of giveaway winning! Thank you, thank you, all you giveaway hosts and Mr. Random.org! In total, we've won 8 adult books, 10 kids' books, 2 kids' DVDs, 1 Christian music CD, a $25 B&N gift card, and a box of Cheerios. WOW! (Some of these were multiple books in a single giveaway...)
5. And two giveaways worth special mention - both won over at 1+1+1=1 - thanks, Carisa! First is the Brainy Baby Animals DVD, which Esmé absolutely loves. She would watch it OVER and OVER if I let her. I like it too - it's got information in it that I didn't even know...
   
6. And the second giveaway, I am absolutely ecstatic about! We've got one year's worth of Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum! If you haven't already figured it out, I LOVE their curriculum and can't wait to start using it! If you've got a kid between the ages of 18 months and four years, it is definitely worth checking out.
7. So how do the FTC rules work here? In exchange for an extra entry, I said I would blog about the 1+1+1=1 giveaways if I won, so I guess I better disclose that. But I'd be thrilled to post about them whether I had gotten the extra entry or not...

Speaking of giveaways... just a reminder that we've got two giveaways right here:

• Custom Stickers (ends 10/26)
• Custom Postcards (ends 10/27)

And if you're interested in Christian books, we're giving away a slew of them at Winning Readings:

• Stretch Marks (fiction - ends 10/31)
• Though Waters Roar (fiction - ends 10/31)
• The Transformation (fiction - ends 10/31)
• A Measure of Mercy (fiction - ends 10/31)
• Surviving One Bad Year (nonfiction - ends 10/31)
• The Blue Umbrella (tween fiction - ends 10/31)
• Already Gone (nonfiction - ends 10/31)
• Love is a Battlefield (fiction - ends 11/15)
• The Last Word (fiction - ends 11/15)
• Watch Over Me (fiction - ends 11/15)
• The Longview (nonfiction - ends 11/15)
• The Jewel of His Heart (fiction - ends 11/15)
• The Fence My Father Built (fiction - ends 11/15)
• Emmy's Equal (fiction - ends 11/15)

And more to come!

(If you're a follower here at Mozi Esmé, leave an extra comment over on the Winning Readings giveaways and I'll give you an extra entry. But keep quiet about it - it's a special deal just for you...)

Random Update

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For some reason this didn't get picked up by the feeder, so republishing...
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Mommy's on one of her OCD schedules again, with her day packed from 4 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., no exaggeration. Which means that she is behind before she starts and ends the day 6 hours behind schedule and leaves me no time to blog. Though I AM learning lots about billy goats...

So I dumped my glass of chocolate milk on her 3-page schedule this afternoon. We'll see what she does NOW...

Anyway, I am very sad now. Even though I have a chocolate milk mustache.
See, Ouma and Oupa are gone, and I can't can pears from our orchard with Oupa anymore.
And I haven't been to the lake or river in over a week now, so I can't play in the water.
And it's been a long week since I was last at church playing in the bubbles with my friends.
In fact, I've been on slave duty cleaning toilets all week. (Not to mention building my schoolhouse by myself and raking up all the leaves, but that's another post.)
I think I'm gonna just hop on my 4-wheeler and drive to town. While Pappa's otherwise occupied with his iPhone.
And in town I'll round up a game of air hockey with Uncle Jaques. Now we're talking!
Gotta go take a bath. I'm gonna try to keep my mustache intact even with the bath. Checkin' in later with all my fashion tips...

Unpacking

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Look what's in our yard!
Somewhere in that container is our king-sized bed, which Ouma and Oupa are going to sleep in when we get back from Portland, and we're leaving bright and early tomorrow. Gotta go!

(We do have a Fashion Friday post scheduled, so come on and link up with your kiddie fashion shots tomorrow...)

Randomness on a Nonrandom Day

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If I follow the memes correctly, I should be saving up my randomness for Friday. But we're into making blogging faux pas here lately, so I'm not going to stress...

Esmé’s Mommy here, hijacking Esmé’s blog again. Not that you’d notice since I’ve been the one doing all these book reviews lately.

Just wanted to say hi, or maybe to procrastinate since I technically have no time to write, with all our stuff from Mozambique arriving any moment and my in-laws coming on Friday.

So, the bad news: alphabet school is officially on hold, since I’ve had to pack up most of our school stuff to make room for everything. I’ll still try to get some kind of “school” in… Besides, it will take me a month or so to get "F" adventures posted at the rate I'm going...

The good news: we have a new school/playhouse going up! A little 12’x16’ building with a loft in our yard. I can’t wait to get it set up! I am looking for schoolroom ideas, if any of you parents have schoolroom posts up that you’d like to share.

I also wanted to share that I AM HUNGRY! I’ve been doing the Weight Watchers thing since Saturday. I survived Saturday, but was ravenous Sunday morning, so ended up eating all my daily points by 11 a.m.! I sat through a birthday party that afternoon and survived all the way to Monday, when I went over my daily points by 12 noon. Now that I'm back at work in the morning, I suffer through hunger pains through the morning and feel a little better now in the evening. But I am SURE something is terribly wrong with my points calculations – it just isn’t right to be so hungry! That scale better have moved inches!

I recently got a comment from Butterfly Bob on an old post. When I wrote the post, I didn't expect him to ever see it, but I'm glad he ran across it. And looking back reminded me of how blogging used to be. Back in the days when I wrote because I felt inspired. (Or is that just the way I remember it?)

I feel too busy to be inspired lately. I know it's a faux pas to whine about lack of blogging inspiration on your blog, but that's the way it is. After two years of blogging, I'm entitled to some faux pas, the way I see it. I need some writing challenges, folks. Like the Scribbit contests that seem to be on hiatus but have inspired me to write creatively in the past.

And I know another faux pas is to change your blog theme or niche or whatever you want to call it - you're supposed to pick your spot and stay there. I think we've gone all over the place here at Mozi Esmé. From mommy blog to mission blog to toddler activity blog to book review blog to who knows where... I keep telling myself this is not a book review blog, but every time I see a review copy offer of a book I really want to read, I'm like a kid in a candy store - I just have to have it!

I'm not sure where this blog is headed right now. It looks like we are settling into Oregon, I'm working part-time in a consulting job indefinitely, Esmé is becoming one of the most brilliant toddlers I know (when she gets enough sleep) who will soon be able to take over her own blog, and I'm drowning in books.

So we'll keep going along in an unknown course on this blog. Isn't the suspense exciting? Thanks for coming on the ride! Gotta go...

Looking Ahead

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Esmé's Mommy here.

Life is spinning faster than I can keep up with! Yesterday was my 36th birthday, and there seem to be a lot of changes coming along with it...

1. I have re-entered the working world, at least temporarily. Last week I started a consulting job at the nonprofit organization I used to work for before Mozambique. That should keep me busy 4 hours a day at least for the next month.
2. I just won a Weight Watchers membership in an online giveaway! On my birthday, no less! I am very excited about getting started with that...
3. My schedule is jam-packed with book tours on this blog for the next two months. So I am rushing to get all the reading done!
   
4. Tomorrow Esmé starts daycare/preschool while I'm at work. My biggest worry is getting us all up and out the door in the morning. A friend of ours just re-opened her daycare after two years, so Esmé knows her well already and will be her first kid. It's a great setting, with bread-baking, tomatoes to pick, chickens, cats, and a bunny to hang out with, plus lots of fun and educational stuff to do. And it's quite close to my consulting job, too.
5. Speaking of school, I'm convinced that homeschool is the way to go with Esmé - I suspect traditional school would only serve to hold her back. I know she's only just about 29 months right now, but at the rate she's going, she'll be handling kindergarten material when she's 3. Once she's mastered a skill, she loses interest and is on to the next thing. So I'm struggling to come up with a curriculum/set of activities that keeps her engaged and doesn't slow her down. (Don't remind me that she's just a kid and needs lots of playtime! She gets that!)
   
6. Speaking of which, we've been on "F" adventures for a LOONG time - since the end of June! They are done; I just need a few moments between book reviews to get them documented and up on this blog. Then I can FINALLY focus on "G"! Though I need to come up with more creative things to do - science experiments; acting out history & Bible; etc. since she has totally mastered the colors and shapes and counting stuff and seems bored by it.
7. Ouma and Oupa are coming from South Africa to visit for a month. They'll be here next week! And Auntie Ann from Cambodia will be around sometime this month, too.
   
8. And our STUFF has made it to Portland from Mozambique! Still some paperwork and payments to get through before it gets here, but we sure hope it will be soon, since we need a bed for Ouma and Oupa to sleep in! And maybe a few seats to sit in. I don't think the bouncy castle will do it for them...

In the midst of all this, I am really wanting some time to just reflect and visit other blogs and come up with something profound to write on this blog. It's just not coming to me, though!

So please forgive the lack of profundity for the moment; I'll at least try to post photos regularly, and inspiration just might hit me one of these days. Or Esmé might start posting all by herself without any assistance from me.

7 Fragments...

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It it time to round up some of those loose thoughts floating around my head...

Esmé's Mommy playing along with

and

and even

this time and giving you 7 fragments of STUFF...

1. I REALLY want to play golf. Not that I can play - I think the last time i kept track of my score it was like 64. On a 9-hole course. But I was just thinking the other day that I really want to play.

Couple of problems. First, my clubs are on the ocean somewhere. Second, I don't think anyone would want to play with me. It's rather burdensome playing with someone who is holding up everyone behind you. But I still really want to play!

2. Speaking of the ocean. We were kind of expecting our stuff to be here from Mozambique by now. But at last check, it left Hong Kong and should be arriving in Portland on August 25th. Not sure how it will get down here.

Yeah! It'll be like Christmas in August!

3. Now my rant. Douglas County librarians, take note...

I checked out a book that was in bad condition. Water damage; part of the front cover torn off. The damage had been noted in the book by a librarian. No problem - it was still readable, and I really enjoyed that book.

While in my possession, the book sustained a little more damage. I admit it. It was still readable. It's certainly not something that happens to the books I check out as a general rule. I consider myself a reasonably good library patron who loves books and who happens to have a two-year-old who also loves books.

After I turned the book back in, ahead of the due date, I might add, I received a bill in the mail from the library for $19. Huh? Like I said, the book was badly damaged before I checked it out.

I head to the library, hoping for reasonability. I'm given an option - I can buy a new book to replace it, rather than pay the $19. I ask if I can just give them a badly damaged used book, since that's what I checked out to begin with. Absolutely not, they say. Of course, they want to be reasonable. How about if I just pay $9.50, or half the bill?

I order a "like new book" from bestbargainbook.com. $0.72 plus shipping of $3.99. It's cheaper than $9.50, and I do like my library privileges.

Beware of bestbargainbook.com. The book I got was indeed like new, only with a big black mark across the bottom - I assume intentionally put there to indicate that it was NOT actually new.

I'm a little nervous to take it to the library. And I am extremely annoyed. Because while I have this block on my library card, I am not able to renew or check out books. And the book I had on hold for months that just now became available to me has now been passed on to another patron, and I won't be able to get it for another few months.

So, my dear Douglas County librarians, take note. I am annoyed. I liked you. I really did. Now, if I could take my business elsewhere, I would.

There. Now I feel better. And yes, I admit it's petty.

4. I guess I don't quite feel better yet.

I just want to say that those "You are posting comments too quickly! Please slow down!" messages that WordPress gives when I leave two comments in a row are really starting to bug me. I don't care if it takes you a little bit of time to process my second comment - just don't accuse ME of being in the wrong.

It was funny at first. Now it's annoying.

5. I got a handwritten note from our mail carrier that we probably need to get a bigger mailbox. LOL! I do love all the review books I have been getting.

6. In the spirit of disclosure that has been sweeping through the blogosphere, I want to set something straight.

If I don't like a book, I will be honest about this in my review, regardless of whether the book copy was provided by the publisher or author.

However, as much as possible, I limit my book reviews on this blog to books I recommend. If I wouldn't recommend a book to you, I won't post about it here unless I'm required by agreement with the publisher to do so.

ALL of my book reviews, good or bad, are posted on Goodreads.com, and possibly on other sites such as Amazon.com.

Just to clear up any confusion by people wondering why I say I LOVE all the books I review!

7. Rural life has its pluses.

We've been loving the wildlife around here lately! We went out on Uncle Jaques' boat this week, where Pappa and others wakeboarded amongst the Canadian geese. A doe and fawn came down to the lake to drink as we watched. On the drive home, in addition to stacks of deer, we saw a bandit-faced racoon family with babies... And we've had some deer turds in our yard, though I've yet to see any actual deer.

And we finally managed to make it to a local (Glide) farmer's market. Not much there if you're into great deals, but who can resist pumpkin pies being sold by a kid? And zucchini cookies, banana bread, and lemon tarts? And fresh peppers, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, and blueberries. And fresh BLUE chicken eggs - not brown ones.

And that 8,386-acre forest fire? It's pretty much contained - they are just finishing up mop-up efforts for now. The highway was opened last weekend.

So all is well in our little corner of the world. Have a blessed weekend!