I started my summer job this week: babysitting an only child Tuesdays through Thursdays. It is not for the faint of heart! Because, among other things, I have: --pitched for softball practice --baked snickerdoodles --pulled the girl around the hardwood floor on her blanket (it's as good as a tilt-a-whirl) --run through the sprinkler --ridden a bike over the lawn --played quarter soccer (fun game, I might have to write instructions for it someday) --and floor soccer --and I've waitressed stuffed animals for "McCece's Diner" about five times. --Oh, I was chef twice too. I'm telling you, this girl has to be the most active little girl on the planet! She can sit still, but only when she's drawing or writing. She can't even sit down during commercials - she feels the urge to get up and do cartwheels! I am not kidding, really! Oh, and we played Charades today. 'Twas fun. A couple of hers were hard - once she was the playground lady, and it took me f

A long time ago (two years, in fact), I used to write bite-sized opinions of books I'd read. Now I just read them and rate them out of 5, in half increments. Maybe I could revive the old practice and make it into a blog?.... A friend from the RI just got a gift card to Barnes & Noble and wanted ideas on how to spend it. Here's what I said: Persuasion, and Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen); the Complete Father Brown (G.K.Chesterton, actually anything by him is going to be fun); Eternity in Their Hearts (Don Richardson, good missions book); the Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling, great to read to children); Parker Pyne Investigates (collection of Agatha Christie short stories starring said character); Rose in Bloom (my favorite of L.M.Alcott's); and Abolition of Man (C.S.Lewis - another of my favorite writers). Enough to start with? :-P Oh, the "Light and the Glory" books (Light and the Glory, From Sea to Shining Sea, Sounding Forth the Trumpet)

As you mey (or may not) know, I want a purple PT Cruiser eventually. When I actually get my own nice car. But, in the meantime, I am perfectly content with driving friends' black PT convertibles. With the top down. *big grin* This was at said friends' party for their little girl, who turned one! She's adorable, honestly. Has the cutest little dresses, too. AND, we are holding an Academy for Tree Climbing in our front yard, with the pupils being little girls ages 8, 6, and 5. You'd be surprised how well these short kids can climb. (Better than I could at their age!)

Last Saturday, I was over at a graduation party for a friend from church. While there, I learned that: 1. He has an autographed photo of Chuck Norris; and 2. I am well acquainted with the third-cousin-twice-removed of the first man to walk on the moon! (No, really.) (That last person is the kid who was graduating, of course.) ....and this is the hundredth post!! But I didn't learn that at the party.

Sunday night: church. Pretty much self-explanatory, but it was really interesting. All about beginning anthropology. Monday night: 4-H public speaking contest. I didn't compete this year, but my sister did; instead I helped announce a couple of the sections. Tuesday night: 4-H demonstration meeting for my club. We always do one a year, at which everyone demonstrates something-or-other about their project for five to eight minutes each. Not bad, really. We had ice cream and cookies afterwards, too. Wednesday night: youth group. Good stuff. Played fire-and-ice (or knockout, whichever) afterwards; of course, I was out first time every time. :-P Thursday night: babysat three children, all under the age of seven, for several hours. I must have played ring-around-the-rosey ten times, not to mention the walk we took and all the other stuff. 'Twas a lot of fun though, even if tiring. Friday night: finished up my long essay for homeschool. (Well, it's supposed to be for h

As promised.... pictures of the graduate! I changed the tassel only after my cousin reminded me to. :-P Of course I couldn't just skip it, so I went ahead and switched it over to the other side. The other funny thing: the kid dubbed Q (on this blog, at least) yelled to me that I had to "chuck the hat". So I did - I threw it as far up in the air as I could. I had no worries about trying to figure out what cap was mine, considering the dearth of 'em at my graduation ceremony. *grin* More photos forthcoming, if my computer cooperates later!

My party was fun... there were friends and cousins all over the place, and I stood up the whole time... tiring, but wholly enjoyable! Some friends came from their house an hour away to see us! (They were going to an aunt's birthday party too, in our general direction.) And my wonderful aunt on my dad's side drove hours and hours and HOURS to get here, no kidding! She had to drop off her oldest son on the other side of her state before she even started heading here! No pictures yet, though. I promise, I'll have 'em up before the week is over.... :-)

Announcing My Homeschool Graduation "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 A Homeschool Graduation for THE READERSIS will be held on June Ninth, Two Thousand Seven Two o'clock P.M. My real-life ceremony slash party will end at five, so the cyber party begins at six o'clock P.M. (Well, that's almost what my cards said...) So come to my (cyber) graduation party! I shall try to get away after my little shindig to post pictures too! And in case you're REALLY bored this Saturday, you can get me a cyber gift! (Similar to cyberbucks.) My wish list includes: USB jumpdrive laptop battery plastic drawers (5, on rollers - the kind that are always in the Meijer ads) [Diversion - a Meijer store is just a Wal-Mart dressed in red. And they spread only through five Midwestern states. Got it?] [Continued...] small bookcase digital camera battery iron with auto shutoff ta