7 VeryQuickTakes

1. Thanks to Jen at conversion diary for hosting these quick takes and also her blog on internet calmness/hurt feelings/craziness. Who knew I would have a chance to use what I learned from that post this very week!

2. Things that make you go hmm....a college where an entire program is comprised of students that qualify for the fee waiver, fee waivers taking two weeks to process, classes being cancelled for low numbers a half week into the semester. We didn't stand a chance.

3. Okay- I need to copy a friend of mine in frugality. She just made muffins with leftover breakfast cereal and applesauce...this just might be the semester of everything soup and everything muffins! But if my muffins smell as good as hers, that is quite alright.

4. For a very fun snack break, eat apple slices and hummus toast while listening to Bare Naked Ladies' cd Snack Time.

5. How is it that one rotten potato can stink so horridly? We have been cleaning out the garage/family room/school room/etc room in preparation for the school year, and I found one lone potato rotting in the far corner. Ugh. This is not on the same level as Jen F's scorpions, but still. It was truly awful.

6. Clue that your 4-year old needs to get de-sensitized a bit: hiding in terror during the middle of the book Where the Wild Things Are. And then sobbing that Max shouldn't have gone away. I had to tell him that the land of the wild things was Max's dream/imagination and that he really never left his room. Even though Boy goes off to preschool three mornings a week with nary a whimper, the thought of sailing to the land of wild things without mommy was just too much for him to process. Personally, the rythmn of the words in that book are amazing, so simple yet so musical.

7. About homeschooling: most families seem to start with a 'school at home' style and then loosen up over the years. We need to do exactly the opposite. I am going to try and do some formal presentation of the material (imagine that!) and see where that takes us. Our charter school doesn't officially start until the first Tuesday in September, but we have been dipping our baby toes into the water for a little over a week. And that school room still needs a lot of work. As I have complained to one of my sisters- if I were Type B, my house would be suffiently clean and organized. But I think I am the worst type- a low-energy Type A who gets amazing amounts of peace by a clean and organized home. So- I suppose I just have to do it and figure out a way to combine storage, pantry, school and family rooms. At least there are no more rotten potatoes in that space!