moo ?

I'm still blogging about our homeschool, and I have two in high school at this point. I do agree that it can be somewhat of an unrealistic picture, because I try not to get bogged down with any potential struggles. On the other hand, I'm not necessarily shouting about the things my children excel at, either. It's more just a wrap-up of what we're studying, what books we're using, field trips, stuff like that. Which maybe makes it not useful to anybody but me...I've found that I'm really happy I wrote it all out the first time around, because it makes going through it again the second (and third!) time much easier!

We stayed at Cabana Bay (check out that link, because I shared tons of photos of our experience!), and I can't recommend it enough! I'm a huge retro freak, so that was part of it for me, but we got a family suite, which had plenty of room for our family of seven and included a kitchenette, which was a huge bonus. And the hotel itself was just so nice. The pools were great, there were things to do during the regularly scheduled afternoon storm, and everyone there was so nice. Plus, the proximity to the park and the shuttle were amazing! Seriously, I loved it, and there is a part of me that is truly sad at the thought that I'll never get to stay there again!

We were just at Universal for the first time in June. I don't have a lot of advice, because we only had park tickets for one day, but you definitely want to get park to park tickets if you like Harry Potter...we loved the Hogwarts Express so much, we rode it twice each way! You're in for a real treat...it was literally the best time of my life!!!

That's the machine I just got, and I LOVE IT! I can't believe how much coffee it makes, and it's so nice and hot. My oldest two children love it, too...we go through quite a bit of coffee every morning. ?

I worked at Target right after I got married, and as the store operator, during downtime, one of my jobs was repack. I became a professional. Underwear that looks brand new in an unopened package...might not be. And people in stores try on underwear. You can hope it's over their existing underwear, but there's no guarantee. And there's a store employee just like me, whose job it is to make it look like those packages have never been opened and nothing ever removed from them. Just something to think about when you're getting precious about buying underwear. I always, always wash new underwear before wearing it. On hot. No exceptions. You just never know.

You should just do it! I started wearing hats a few years ago. And now, a few other women in my church wear them sometimes, too!

This is interesting to me, because my chid with dyslexia (not formally diagnosed, but informally "labeled" by a special ed person at our local school, who has children with dyslexia herself), froze, and couldn't answer the question, even though my other children all answered immediately.

I blog about everything, including homeschooling...I try to do a weekly wrap-up during the school year, and I also write about summer school, field trips, and reading lists. I also write about fashion, food, and family stuff. You get a little bit of everything on my website! :) http://amandamarkel.com

I like Philip or Albert. Also, Princess Charlotte is very poised for an almost-three-year-old. Her waving was beyond adorable. And big brother George managed to look rather stately at his young age! Such a beautiful family!!!

1. Woke everybody else up so we wouldn't be late for church. 2. COFFEE 3. Went to church. 4. Got a hair cut. 5. Ate the lovely lunch dh made. 6. Played Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp while watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on Twitch.

I don't really care what men do with their facial hair, but I have run across the whole "real men have beards" things more than once, and that seriously irks me. Your manliness is NOT dependent on your facial hair, and you don't get to judge other men based on theirs.

These are some of my all-time favorites. Every few years, I read them aloud, and we all enjoy them like it's the first time we're hearing the stories!

"Is it weird to...?" Most likely. But don't sweat it. We're all weird in our own ways!

It's super easy to homeschool in IL, in that there are basically no requirements. On the other hand, it's up to each district whether or not they allow homeschoolers to participate in things like sports, and our district gave us a firm "no" on that, which was disappointing. Property taxes are generally higher in the Metro East, and IL can be a bit of a disaster when it comes to politics, but we still like living here. We lived in MO, too, but that was before we started homeschooling, so I can't really say anything about that. There are tons of great museums/activities in the STL area, and there are plenty that have events specifically for homeschoolers. Lots of our neighbors work at SAFB, and they all seem to love it. Let me know if you have any other questions that I may or may not be able to answer. :)

Definitely appropriate. We only had to watch it once for it to become one of our favorites. Just two weeks ago, my daughters (ages 13, 10, and 5) begged to watch it on a Friday night.

I feel that way almost constantly when we're studying history. It does tend to repeat itself. Constantly. And not necessarily in the good ways.

All right, I'll be weird and share the story of Albert (my children think I should write a book about him, btw). When I went away to college, I missed my dog, a black poodle I had had since I was 10. I got it into to my head to go looking for a black Pound Puppy at Toys R Us, because I knew they had made black labs, at least, and I wanted something to remind me of her when I was away from home. Well, I couldn't find one, and I wasn't really interested in a different stuffed animal, because I really loved Pound Puppies (I had when when I was little), so I let it go. And not too long into my freshman year, I met the man who would become dh, and we started dating. Hanging out in his dorm room, I discovered that the stuffed animal he had brought to college with him was...you guessed it, a black lab Pound Puppy. His parents had given it to him when he was a toddler and the family dog died, and he kept it all those years and brought it to college with him. The following spring, he was going on choir tour over spring break, so he gave me his stuffed dog to remind me of him while we were apart, and I've had it ever since. He didn't have a name back then, so I named him Albert (I had a thing for using names that ended in "Bert" when I was in college.) The dog has been a fixture on the bed ever since. When dh is out of town for work, I put the dog on dh's pillow, kind of like he's guarding me, but mostly to take up some of the space dh leaves behind. And I've made up stories about Albert to amuse my children ever since they were small. Too many allergies in our family means we can't have a real dog, so Albert has taken on quite a personality, and we all love to add to his, if you'll pardon the pun, "tale." So, yes, I have a stuffed animal on my bed. And he does happen to have a personality. And while I don't play with him exactly, sometimes when I'm stressed, I like to rub his ears, because they're soft and smooth, and made even softer and smoother over the last almost-35-years of being loved. I'm a weirdo, but that's hardly the only reason. I don't really care to be mocked for it, though, or told I'm immature, so if you could keep that to a minimum, I would appreciate it. ;)

I am always tempted to answer this question (it does seem to come up here semi-regularly), but I really don't need to be told that I'm weird or immature, so I never do.

Seconding Charleston. We took a family trip there a few years ago (in the summer...really, don't go in the summer if you can avoid it!), and everything about it was AMAZING.

I believe it's a pound. I know this because once I accidentally dumped the whole two pound bag in because I wasn't paying attention. Those were *not* good.

This is the recipe I always use, and everybody that's ever tried them loves them. I love messing around with the various mix-ins...I almost never use nuts (younger ds is allergic), but I've done every kind of chip and dried fruit imaginable!

Hoping I'm sharing this right to address the bolded, not just for you, but for anybody who wonders. My understanding is that heart attacks can present very differently for women than for men, and this video shows what it might look like when a woman suffers a heart attack.

Unless the two of you have met irl, there's an irony here that's amusing to me. :)

I am so very sorry.