Morning all! I woke up at 5am for some awful reason! This was after falling asleep at 1am. So today might be slow going for me. -head home this am to let plumber in the house -discuss with plumber how job is going, time frame for finishing it up, and about payment. -come back to parents' house to do school with kids and nephew -hang out until nephew gets picked up and then see what the rest of the day has in store for us

I've been overweight most of my adult life but I'm also quite fit. Diets don't really interest me but proper nutrition and different type of exercises do. I would not have thought anything of that conversation other than a convo I'd enjoy being in. If those women are into fitness and diet it makes sense they would talk about it. Slim women need to stay fit and eat properly too. And our society shoves diets down our throats so I don't find it odd when anyone talks about them. Had I been uncomfortable though I would have just left the table or changed the subject.

I have mixed feelings about it. Its broken into 3 parts. I absolutely loved the first 2 parts but really didn't enjoy the third part much. But this is how I often feel about King's books. He can write a fantastic story but always falls short when he's trying to end it. Then I think about the miniseries and really feel that the only part that wasn't depicted properly in it was the beginning when everyone was becoming ill. That part of the book effected me greatly because King can really get down to the core of what disturbs people. It fell short on the screen. But the rest of the story was pretty dead on in the miniseries so I got to a point where I just wanted to watch the miniseries again instead of finishing the book. I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed it if I hadn't seen the miniseries so many times before. I didn't find it dated though.

He he. Yes a typo but I certainly remember dreading through books in school. I didn't enjoy reading until I was a freshman in college so much of highschool was spent skimming books and rushing to get them done the night before needing to talk about them.

I'll have to think of some and get back to you. I've been on a nonfiction kick for a long time so nothing is coming to me right away.

Only problem with overnights at grandparent's house is that the kids are too excited to sleep! Usually they are in bed by 7:30. Here we are and it's 9:14 and all of them are still awake. They are at least lying down but they have a case of the 'I need to ask you just one more thing.'

This week I finished Stephen King's The Stand, which I've wanted go read for a long time but there were always other books I put ahead of it. I also finished Murakami's After Dark. I can see myself going on a Murakami kick. His style off writing is fantastic and the weirdness of the book was just up my alley. Reading reviews that say this was one of his tamer books makes me excited to read another. The next will be Kaftka on the Shore. I'm into chapter 3 of The History of the Medieval World and I know already I'm going to have a hard time getting through it. Not because I'm not enjoying it but because at the end of the first chapter all I wanted to do was dive deeper into Constantine's rule. I love details and this book is going to make me want to godown too many rabbit holes! I'm also dreading through Dr Wright's Kitchen Table Math since I threw out the curriculum and am just building math concepts through games and books. Our read aloud now is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe so that is the last book on my night stand. We'll be reading the entire series which I'm looking forward too. I kind of just want to be done with this one since I've read it so many times. The rest I read as a child but don't remember much about them.

I'm jealous!

These are awesome! I want one. http://www.instructables.com/id/Giant-wooden-Lego-men/

The plumber is here!! Yay! All instructions and such have been discussed so I'm gonna load us into the car and head to my parents' house! It will be a day filled with board games, reading, and hanging out with the grandparents. In a few days my house will be put back together and I can only hope and pray that nothing else comes up!

Not sure what we're doing today. It all depends on if the plumbing job actually starts or not. He'll be here around 9:30 so once again I get to wait impatiently for him. Until then I'm going to shower, read, and clean up downstairs a bit.

:grouphug: that is such a difficult situation to handle in the first place. Topping it with a trip to the hospital for your nephew and it seems somewhat unreal. Praying for you sister, nephew, and the rest of your family.

My brother and I decided to share a room for a few years in order to turn the other room into our Lego room! It is one of my best memories as a child. We spent hours in that room. Each Lego type had its own lands and we would make scenery to go with that groups lands. So I say do it!

I wouldn't want to go to Paris either really. I can't say I'd hate it but there are so many other places I'd rather be going. I would have a really hard time paying the airfare to get to any of the places I want to go though!

Well you've just convinced me to stay in as much as possible until after the baby comes. The only real thing I can't control is if dh brings it home. He's around children ALL day at work so I just have to pray he won't bring it in the home.

Feel better. The flu sucks! I'm thinking of just skipping all non-family events until after this baby comes because I couldn't handle anyone in my family coming down with the flu before that. Although I haven't heard much about flu in my area so maybe it hasn't hit bad yet.

I'm loving this author of the month challenge already. I'd never heard of murakami before so while at the library I merely picked a 2 of his books of the shelf without looking at suggestions here or reading about theplots. I'm almost done After Dark and am thoroughly enjoying his writing style. I also picked up Kafka on the Shore and will read that this month as well.

I made homeschooling more enjoyable by throwing out the math book! It was getting done and ds was doing fine with it but it was boring. So now we play math games, read math books, and just talk about numbers and patterns. It doesn't feel like school because it's fun and all 3 of my children are learning in the process at the same time rather than working with them individually. My not even 2 year old can count to 10 because of sitting in my lap while playing games with his siblings. He can do puzzles above his level because he works on pattern games along side of us. All I do is follow a rough scope or sequence of where they should be at by the end of the year and find games according to that. For reading we just read and talk about what we read. I ask questions while reading regarding to bigger vocab words and help them figure out how they can guess the word depending on the context of the surrounding sentences. I'll add grammar in by asking how they could make a sentence more exciting or interesting for the reader and explain what types of words they are adding to the sentence (adjectives usually.) We do mad libs a lot! They act out stories with their toys. We don't do science or history formally because they all have interests that I just help them explore deeper.

Meh. I have very little interest in all the new technology. I find it creepy that a parent would track their child on GPS or knowing that abusive people can use it to keep tabs on their significant other. But I also think it could be quite useful in certain instances. My friend learned that one of his employers was stealing from the company through GPS tracking and had the evidence to fire him without dispute when the guy tried to say he was being discriminated against. The tracking saved his company thousands of dollars in future thefts. So really, like everything else, it has more to do with who and why they are using it than the product itself that I find creepy.

Well plumber isn't coming today because the snow is worse where he is and his children are expected to get an early dismissal because of snow and he didn't want to start the job just to have to leave to pick them up an hour or so later. He'll be here first thing tomorrow morning! So now my entire day has changed. Here is the new list. -read for 1 hour -clean my bedroom -clean/organize downstairs closet -clean kitchen -make sure the kids and I are packed for tomorrow's overnight -remind dh to call bank about our locked account -pay bills -relax and enjoy the snowy day with the kids

Glad that is in the past for you. I felt like a single mom when dh was working 60+ hours a week and I still needed to work part time to pay the bills a few years ago. I reached my breaking point with that and basically told his boss that if things didn't change I'd be working and dh would be at home with the kids. That scared boss just enough to make those sort of hours never reappear. However, 50 hours a week is even too much for what he is paid so I'm nearing my breaking point again. Only thing holding me back is dh still has faith in his employers and the potential there. They are still recovering from the hit they took during the recession so I'll wait a bit longer before expecting a job change. There are a few positives to his job. We all get free martial arts training and cardio workouts. They are generous when he needs time off for a baby. And it's an incredibly secure job for him. He's been there for over 12 years and they've had to lay everyone, except for him, off twice, including their own children. He also loves his job which is hard to come by so I can't take that for granted. I know if I worked I'd just tolerate any job.

I heart the snow!! The kids were so excited about the snow that they shoveled the driveway this morning(it didn't snow enough for that to be needed but it was cute so..) My nephew didn't come today because of the snow so I'm not doing any school work at all today! -impatiently wait for plumbers to get here. Silly dh doesn't know when they said they'd be here so I'll be anxious until the job gets started. -pack the dogs, the kids and myself up for our overnight. - straighten a few small areas up that could get in plumbers way - read and play with children till we can head to my parents' -enjoy a day with sil, parents, and a bunch of kids!

I'm due in the beginning of Feb and I wish I could sit in jury duty for the day!! I'd even enjoy the 2 day trial. I absolutely love being able to sit and read for hours waiting for my name to be called. I actually had jury duty early in pregnancy. But I have a huge support system in the area so having a relative watch the kids and feed them dinner that day was a huge plus. If I didn't have that I would not want to do it in the third trimester and would ask for the exemption. I'm also not very uncomfortable in my pregnancy anymore since I figured out what was causing my back aches. So if sitting for long times was an issue I'd get the exemption.

My day is done! I'm going to read till I fall asleep. Tomorrow should be much easier day since all I have to do is school and pack the kids and dogs up for our overnights at my parents'. My sil and her kids will be their tomorrow too because they are having work done on their house. It shall be an easy drink coffee and chat with sil while the kids run each other wild kind of day.

What a wonderful challenge!!! I can't join in until next week though because our plumbing is getting redone starting tomorrow so I'll be out of the house for a few days while they work on that. But come next week, I'm taking this challenge. Perfect timing since I'm in nesting mode as I eagerly await this baby's birth.