Happy Halloween!

Like a Snow Day with No Snow

Today - at two days beyond my due date with my third child - I have reached a peak in the emotional ups and downs which characterize the feelings of awaiting a childbirth. I mean, really, these days are total freebies. It is like a snow day - you thought you had assignments due and meetings to attend, but then everything got canceled and you are home with 24 free hours. That is kind of how it is around here. This was "supposed" to be the early days of sleeping and nursing and getting to smell the new baby, but instead we are just waiting. There are no more clothes to be washed or car seats to be assembled. Tonight we even threw away our homemade October calendar, with the words "due date" scribbled on last Thursday. Before us stretches the great unknown. Yet I am now trying to think of these blank November days as freed up calendar days in our "box-it-all-in" human mentality and enjoying every unexpected free day with my mother, husband and two (out of utero) great kids.

Lowering The Bar

When the kids are sick and mom doesn't feel so hot either...

The laundry can wait.

Clean floors will happen another day.

Frozen pizza will do for dinner.

Martha Stewart will be a continual dream.

The TV will be our friend.

Every tear will be accounted for.

Every request will be nurtured.

Every hot cheek will be soothed.

I will nap with my little one because he needs me.

The computer will rest.

And we will all, eventually, be well...

and probably better off than before.

Candy Math -- A Halloween Tradition

If you are going to be trick or treating this year, I wanted to post this now so that you can gather some supplies if you like.

I make myself feel better about all that candy consumption by turning Halloween into an extended, hands on, math lesson for my children. This can take on a number of forms. In the past, we have counted, sorted and graphed our candy. We have used bar graphs and line graphs and venn diagrams. You can do addition and subtraction, and even division as the candy is shared. Since Halloween falls on the weekend this year, I may have Dad sit down with the oldest and do a little Excel lesson to expand our candy graphing, too.

We are not quite un-schoolers, but often I find that our homeschooling works best when we can take what we are doing in real life and make it fit our curriculum. We will wind up skipping many of the graphing lessons in Saxon Math because we have already covered the material with candy math.

Last year, B-Mama discussed Halloween etiquette, and I will surely be talking to my children before hand about kindness, respecting lawns, and thank yous. I will also take Red's advice and give my kids a real meal before trick or treating and tell them how candy on an empty stomach can make you feel. I think our "Health, Safety and Manners" course will come to real life as well!

Must Read!

We are all so busy trying to figure out how to fit it all in, but maybe if we put first things first...

two recent blog posts to consider, first, simple but deep time management advice at Fallible Blogma

and, in order to follow that advice, we may have to let go of some things...or everything? Ponder what Laura has to say about being a quitter.

One more Phanatic!

While I am from New York City (and don't you forget it!), this is one area where I have allowed, over time, my husband's loyalties to win out. Up until now, this has been friendly, as we graciously congratulated the Giants on the Super Bowl will and my family expressed joy that PT got to be a little boy watching his team win the World Series. This year, though, I don't quite know how to feel. I have never had to root against the Yankees to support the Phillies, but I don't like the idea of a house divided. My husband is like a kid about it, no team is really established until they have beaten the Yankees, he spent $15 on a World Series Program at a newstand this week, oh, and do you all know about the poetry?

Go Phils!

World Series Game 1 begins tonight. Even baby Claire is ready with her first Phillies tee.

Go Phils !