• We are STILL behind one hour b/c of the time change. We aren't finishing bfast until 10:00 some days!
• Spent the morning going through morning routines and new job cards for the girls. They LOVED it. Showed them each one new job and it got added to their morning routines.
• Madeleine-bathroom trash, Erika-Empty dirty laundry, Dorothy Jo-put shoes away from 2 "shoe shelves". Now.....for follow-up and stickin' to it!
• Girls helped me take my rollers out of my hair; quite the novelty.
• I did Kitchen clean up, while they played outside.
• Walk outside. Spent an hour at Amy's in their yard.
• Home for lunch outside (2 pm!!!!!???&&%^%$ Good grief) .
• Outside play time for the rest of the afternoon. Lots of beaver-dam-building and climbing trees. I cleaned up inside in between squabbles. vaccuumed out van. read a bit.
• At 5:00 everyone stripped on the front porch and at that moment Pete drove up. Of course, they all ran out to meet him in the driveway....yeah, he was thrilled.
• They ate naked on the kitchen floor and then hopped in the bathtub.
• Pete finished up downstairs so I was on my own for baths. Now, I was thrilled.
• Girls wanted curlers in their hair too. I obliged. They colored picture of St. Patrick while I did their hair.
• Read st. Patrick stories for bedtime.
• Tomorrow we're off to St. Al's after Mass St. Patrick's Shin-Dig complete with Irish Dancers and REAL Irish Coffee.

• Dorothy Jo played with the dollhouse and blocks while Madeleine and Erika drew.
• Madeleine went through sight words and did a bit of reading from the CHC booklets.
• Flower Fairy Poem for March
• skip count CD
• Sang bible song at breakfast.
• Read Aesop fable. Madeleine narrated.
• Read all 5 Wupsy tales from Treasure Box books to MED
• Charlotte's Web
• Outside Play. I made lunch and cleaned up
• On the couches for Quiet Time, listening to Rosary CD
• Anne over
• Madeleine's Little Flower Group meeting. Caroline with us.
• ED did bedtime with daddy.

• girls helped make muffins for breakfast.
• Read Peter Cottontail at the table, Primrose flower fairy poem
• Psalm copywork for ME
• Watercolors - mom, MED
• Job day - everyone helped clean up.
• outside to play
• went for a walk
• Ended up in Laurel's back yard-girls frolicking forever! somewhere new! grabbed cuttings of a forsythia - I drew in my notebook. girls collected a few new things that we don't have in our yard.
• ABC, 123 books for Dorothy Jo while ME played with Caroline
• Lunch outside, watched squirrels running in the trees.
• Inside quiet time. Dorothy crashed. ME looked at books.
• More Peter Cottontail, more Wupsy, last couple chapters of Little House on the Prairie.

Tuesday, March 6

• Primrose flower fairy poem in honor of yesterday's "find" in the Miner's garden.
  Erika slept in.
• Beautiful, warm, sunshiny day...so off to Carkeek Park for 3 hours this morning. Poor Caroline....everyone wanted to "do" everything with her! Plenty of time for the playground, hiking, beach-combing and swinging. This did us "good!"
• Home for lunch on the deck and a laying out of our goodies found on the beach.
• A bit of Spring Poetry, and we were ready for some horizontal time in the sun with a chapter or two from Charlotte's Web.
• Michelle and Alice arrived. Girls played outside while Michelle and I prepared for our 1st Scottish dancing class with the young ones tomorrow.
• More outside play.
• Dinner.
• Bath - because of the outside play
• Bed. I'm not even up for stories tonight. Pete's gone and the house is completely trashed, and I have a million things to do with Caroline on my back, unless Bob and Lori will hold her for the evening, but it's tax time, so I doubt it.

Monday, March 5

• During breakfast we talked about what everyone did to put their sticker on their Lenten Path. Very interesting discussion.....these are the times I'm glad we are not rushing about in the morning, trying to get to school on time. We can have much discourse on doing nice things for people even when we don't want to, talk about why flour is white and how someone designed the original sock. Oh yes, and if Vivaldi is dead, then he's in heaven, so he's a saint, so why don't we call him "Saint Vivaldi"? Hmmm, yes, good question. How could you possibly have a conversation with 3 little girls about the definition of "saint" and the canonization process within the Catholic Church at 8:00 am if you were rushing about to get somewhere on time? Listened to Vivaldi - Winter and Spring

• Talked about starting Scottish dancing tomorrow, which led to locating Scotland on the map, talking about Laura Ingalls' great-grandmother, bringing out one of the Martha books, looking at her picture, talking about her hair and how they say "aye" and "naye". Erika wanted to know if we were going to say aye and naye while we were learning how to dance!

• Caroline down for a nap.
• Sang a couple songs from the RL Stevenson CD, Moon, Rain, and read a few others.
• M & E did geo-boards while I read Treasure Box books to Dorothy Jo. Eventually ME wanted to join us too, after they were done with Geo-boards. Much discussion about so many things from these wonderful books. Erika: "Sometimes we don't remember how to be like the Blessed Mother, but then we just have to think to be gentle and do what God wants....that's all. But sometimes that's hard." Ah-hem, (sigh)....really.....what IS there to say after that?
• Lots of reading books on the couch.
• Practiced a bit of signing language with the songs.
• Outside for a long walk. Walked around Miner's garden. Madeleine suggested having a picnic in their yard, so we went home, quickly packed a lunch and had a dandy picnic! Went around their yard and identified Karen's flowers. Listened to lots of bird sounds, girls played hide and seek. Practiced walking in the road by themselves. Reviewed road/bike/pedestrian safety rules. Lots of running around and climbing trees. We were outside for 2 1/2 hours!
• Back in for clean up. Caroline down for a nap.
• M, E played memory in living room, Dorothy looked at books while I chatted way too long on the phone with Michelle. They fought...time to get off the phone.
• Quiet time on couch in living room while I read aloud. Little House, Tom Thumb.
• Snack time - peanuts. Then outside to play. Caroline up.
• Spaghetti and sausage for dinner.
• Need to get house cleaned up.
• Woman at well bible story from Lent book at bedtime.
• Pete read Highlights with Madeleine before bed.

Sunday, March 4

Tonight after dinner Pete read from the Child's Book of Home and Family (Bennett/Hague) the story of Teddy Roosevelt. Which then led to looking at the placemat of all the U.S. Presidents and then putting the CD in of "The President's March"....working to memorize the order of Presidents.

Girl Names

I've spent a lot of time thinking about names for girls over the past 6 1/2 years. I have several of the little booklets that my mother used when she chose names 27-37 years ago. They have her "favorites" written in them.

Here are some of my favorite names that I will never get to use because Pete's not crazy about them. For some strange reason I feel compelled to write them down. I feel like a 16-year-old naming her fictious children with her dreamed-about-husband.

• Louisa - my paternal grandmother's middle name. I LOVE this name!
• Marguerite - my other all-time-favorite!
• Cecilia
• Elena
• Evelyn
• Francine
• Helena
• Lilian
• Miriam
• Philomena
• Eleanor
• Naomi
• Victoria
• Virginia
• Vivian
• Yvette
• Yvonne

These four names have been in our "final list" from the beginning:

• Jacqueline
• Bernadette
• Josephine - my maternal grandmother's middle name
• Patricia - my aunt's name