Hooo Boy!

It's HOT. It is Africa hot... Sahara, shortly before the monsoons actually let loose, hot... yep. That hot. Whew.

Today was a great day, aside from the heat. The boys did an hour of math, and stopped then only because I insisted that we STOP. Enough, already! Let's do something else.

We did phonics in the tub with washable crayons on the walls.

We played in the water with the neighbors.

We made wf brownies (which aren't half bad) and a wf shortcake.

Now we need fresh berries. We had to dump the strawberries because they grew incredibly long, thick hair overnight. Seriously, we went to bed and they looked fine. We woke this morning to find 1/2" hair on them! Sticking straight up like pins in a pincushion! Being the good homeschoolers we are, of course, we watched it most of the day before throwing out the berries. It was over 2" long by five this evening. Creepy stuff.

Mr. FedEx man did not come visit me today. So sad. *sniff* But that means he will surely come tomorrow! Yay!

James read most of A Quest in Time, more of Jolly Robin, and perused the new books from the bookstore. His reading is just amazing, and I am tickled beyond words that he loves to read so very much. He's also thoroughly enjoying the lined paper I bought at the curriculum fair, and is begging to learn to plot points on graphs!

John showed me today during phonics that he knows a great deal more than I (once again) gave him credit for knowing. What a smart little guy (some might say "too smart" if he's already capable of outwitting us...) He's reading VC, CVC, VCC words now on his own. It's a brave new world, indeed!

Jacob can pounce. Yessiree, pounce. Like a stealthy, slightly chubby tiger with no regard for the effects of gravity, he lunges and snags like the most revered jungle dweller. I made the mistake of not guarding my wf brownie closely enough and *fwomp* it was gone! Took a while to get the chocolate from all those fat baby crevices, but he thoroughly enjoyed the spoils of his victory. What an introduction to solids, eh?

A few thoughts to share from today's reading:

"Love is not a retreat from the hard things of life but a citadel from which to gain strength to meet the complex problems of a public and private world." ~Robert N. Rodenmayer, author of I John Take Thee Mary, A Book of Christian Marriage

"...they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls." ~Screwtape, in a letter to his nephew, Wormwood

The quotes are in no way related, just things that caught my attention while I was reading. Homer was left neglected today, but perhaps he and I will get a chance to chat tonight.

And so, can you believe I've actually blogged before midnight? I'm going to round up tomorrow's pages and worksheets, then go hit the blogosphere.

Have a great one!
Dy

PS- Had a bit of a scare there! You cannot use the "back" button from the new "preview" screen (which doesn't open in a new window automatically, I found). Using "back" will take you BACK to the DASHBOARD! *gasp* ACK! But just as an FYI, you can then hit "forward" and it'll bring you back to the writing screen, text intact, blood pressure back down. :-) Thought I'd share.