• Christmas 2014

    Well, I believe it was a fine Christmas at our house. As I type this at about 10:30 PM, Christmas night, the girls are all in bed snuggling with one new item or another. As I take my last listen to my favorite Christmas songs, I’ll share a few details of our holiday. Christmas Eve was a blur of trips…

  • Final Countdown

    Happy Christmas Eve, eve! It feels like I should say, “Man, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has really flown this year,” since I think I say that each year. But it’s especially true in these years when we’re on the short side of the holiday cycle. In those years where there are nearly five weeks between the holidays, I…

  • Holiday Cheer Notes

    Nine days out, the holiday tension is getting thick at our house. Shortly after our tree went up, the girls began making presents for each other and putting them under the tree. They were mostly paintings and drawings, but everything was placed into a gift bag or wrapped in a box so they looked like any other gift. They decided…

  • Fun With Editing

    Over the weekend C. brought home a story she had written in class with instructions for the weekend. We were supposed to read it with her, then rewrite it to take out grammatical errors so she could record it in class on Monday. Which is a good thing. Her story, which was based on the Nutcracker, featured one very concerning…

  • Early December Notes

    Man, have we had trouble getting the girls to put Christmas lists together this year. In years past, we normally had detailed lists from all three well before Thanksgiving. Followed by daily updates. This year, though, has been much harder. L. gave us a list about a week ago. C. and M. both started lists, but they kept disappearing or…

  • Thanksgiving Notes

    So, I’m putting this together beginning at 10:40 Sunday night. Christmas Vacation is on TV. The tree is lit. A Bell’s Christmas Ale is at my side. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year. Man, the holiday weekend went by fast. It seems like minutes ago we were out to eat on Wednesday night, watching basketball on…

  • Halloween Wrap Up

    Worst Halloween ever? As far as the weather was concerned, I think the answer was a resounding yes here in central Indiana. It was just a nasty night. It was cold, wet, windy, and miserable. Temps were in the mid–30s, the winds were gusting at close to 30 MPH, which made the steady rain come down sideways. There really was…

  • Six

    Lost in the rush of the weekend and baseball is the obligatory birthday post for L., who turned six on Friday. She had a nice birthday. I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or if the teacher rigged the drawing[1] but she was also the star student in class last week, which meant it was all about her all…

  • Girl…

    Our girls have a stupid new game that is driving us crazy. It all began back in late July, early August. We went to the mall one Sunday to try on new shoes for the school year. With all the local schools set to begin, the mall was packed. I spent most of the time making sure our girls stayed…

  • Some Kid Stuff

    After that two day, mini-week to begin the school year, we’re diving right in this week. Five full days of school. An athletic event every afternoon or evening. In the next five days we have two kickball practices, two kickball games, and one soccer practice. We could add another event, too, as we’re still waiting to hear when L.’s soccer…