lewis, the last babel, and my little babbler

How is it possible that a whole month has gone by since I last posted? Easy. I'm so busy. A whole bunch of new things have started this Fall for me, and while exciting and challenging, are also extremely busy. (Do you see a theme here?) For the first time in my life, I'm relying on things like a "calendar" embedded into Thunderbird. I have always dutifully hung up a calendar on a fridge, and put things like doctor's appointments, birthday parties, and deacon meetings on it, but these days, my calendars are more complex, practical and VITAL, and I don't even have kids in sports or orthodontics. So, what's going on?

I am directing two home schoolers from our church in their American Lit class & Spanish I class. I hand out assignments for the entire course, and we meet once a week two hours. I'm beginning to think that that time period is actually impossible to cram all of the review/preview/discussion that needs to transpire about their week's work of worth; but we make a valiant effort. The neat thing is that my students are, for the most part, bartering for my services -- and I have loved it! One of them barters for house cleaning. If they paid me cash, I probably wouldn't turn that money around to get my house cleaned, and sadly . . .I still wouldn't have the time to clean it! I also get some babysitting, and a few meals per month.

Another new venture is auditing a college class that meets at our church once a week in the evenings. It's a Lewis/Tolkien literature class & it is right up my alley. I'm being challenged, and any time I may have wasted before is non-existent now. :-) I used to laugh at my grades in college because it seemed that semesters when I maxed out my hours and worked a lot, I ended up with a better outcome than semesters when I took fewer hours. I guess it forces me to get really, really organized.

With all of this going on, I decided to step back into cooking some freezer meals, so I did that this last weekend. I LOVE the feeling of looking in my freezer & perusing 21 options for dinner tomorrow night. The time required on the front end is totally worth it to me.

The family in general is doing very well. Josh (& co) has just signed a contract on another investment house close by, and I can't wait to see the transformation this house undergoes. While it needs less work on the outside, there's much to be done on the interior. Plus, the place is bigger (ranch on full basement). If the master bath were a tad larger, I'd consider trying to move. The girls are thriving. Rachel is deep into the parroting stage now where she tries out new words every day and learns at least one new one per week. Here's her list:

shoose (shoes)

biyy (bye)

hii

papa

dadee

mo-mee

chees (just a plain old s sound)

bu-bow (bubbles)

ba (ball)

bay-by

bo (bow)

ah-duh (all done. She used to say ah-ba, but now has the 'd' sound in there. She also uses this frequently & correctly to let me know when she's all done eating.)

ni (night night)

uh-oh (usually it means that something has dropped or spilled)

shisha (sister)

mimi (for the first time this week! This is Mima, of course, but every time she says it she also points to herself twice -- some layered meanings there for her)

go

doggy

eggies (her cutest word, as far as I'm concerned)

And Kate is getting bigger every day, but today she had a couple of times where the 3 year old in her just couldn't help but come out. She pointed to a miniature Buckingham Palace guard I have haphazardly sitting above my sink (think souveneir) and said, "Look at that badger." HUH?? You mean soldier? "Oh yeah, I know it's a soldier." That "dg" sound must crossed some wires in her brain, I guess. Little later on, she asked to see which Chronicle of Narnia I was reading? She looks at the cover and says, "Oh, it's the Last Babel, Mom." (shake of head, slight laugh) BaTTle, honey. "Oh." :-)