Have you ever wondered about the Blue-footed Booby?

I remember seeing pictures of this unique creature but never knew its name. It's hard to look at a picture of one of these and not giggle. I truly believe God has a wonderful sense of humor.

I received an opportunity to do a review on an e-book from The Old Schoolhouse from The Curiosity Files about these unusual birds. The first thing I did was show Z-girl the pictures in the e-book of the birds. The pictures are excellent! Her favorite color is blue so I believe she was smitten. We have done several e-books and this one would be a wonderful one to do this summer during a break and would be a good preventative for the "MOM...I'M BORED". Or in my son's case "mom, I'm boring..heehee" It encompasses every subject imaginable: science,math, Bible,geography,writing,spelling and vocabulary! I know with my daughter a lot of it could even be done independently.

What I especially like about this e-book is that it is easy to use with a variety of ages or in our case developmental levels. There are activities to challenge from the youngest child to maybe an older child listening in about what his younger siblings are learning about. I highly recommend this e-book during a "break" to keep your child interested in always learning about new things. For 6.95 I think it is a bargain for this much potential activity and learning!

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE (Mister In-Between)
Bing Crosby ( written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?

(Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive)
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right

(You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between)

You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between



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This song started going through my mind tonight. A joy ;) of having older parents I have a wide range of songs that enter my thoughts. This is something I feel I really need to keep in mind.

Today I had a really negative experience when someone learned we homeschooled. We have been homeschooling 5 or so years and how many negative comments have I gotten? Maybe a half dozen. How many positive comments? I couldn't begin to count. Also talking with my hubby tonight I realized how positive my day REALLY was. The unpleasant occurance at the grocery store was less than 5 minutes. What did we do besides that in the community? A~man went to the barber shop to have his hair cut. He has been going to the same place since...well forever. (with a few haircuts done by hubby and I inbetween) They LOVE A when we go in there. It is like a scene from the TV show Cheers. He probably asked the barber 1,000 questions and the barber answered every single one of them and in all honesty A~man was probably the most entertaining customer he had for the day. Then we walked down to the coffee shop...another positive....after that we went to one of our favorite shops to talk to our friend B who loves the kids. Why did I let a negative 5 minutes take over my thoughts for the day when I encountered so many positive people today? Heck everyday I encounter so many more positive people EVERY day. With my friends and with casual aquaintences and even strangers.

My prayer tonight is to focus on the positive....instead of letting a few rotten minutes ruin my day. (it didn't ruin my day but hopefully you get my point)

I'm losing...

WEIGHT that is! It has been an extremely slow process that started back in December. I want to be a better example for my son with PWS and for my daughter. Also I think my back/hips would hurt a lot less if I weighed less. Anyone that knew me before kids would laugh as I was a bean pole. My nickname in school was stick. :(  Since Decemberish (NOT a word) I have lost about 14 pounds. Woohooooo! I am down one pant size and that makes me very happy. I would like to lose at least 20 more.

We have had a beautiful spring filled with lots of outdoor time! Here's a picture I took while were walking at one of my favorite local places.

Unconditional Love

I have known what unconditional love is for a long time. Technically. I feel this way toward my parents, inlaws, and of course my husband and children. But ultimately the person that taught me about unconditional love was my son. To this day I remember on my third Mothers Day (it took a LONG time for me to get to celebrate this) I went up to my childrens room to discover A~man had "finger painted" EVERYWHERE...I mean everywhere. Oh and I'm not talking your typical art supplies. I'm sure my jaw dropped to the floor. He was 2 1/2 I believe and this continued until he was probably 7. I have not told many people about that. I have cleaned up a lot of crap literally. ;) It has frustrated me, exhausted me, made me scream on very rare occasion but still I love him to bits and pieces.

Tonight reminded me of that. It has been a LONG day for the hubby and I. For me it was a good day but we spent most of the day outside playing and doing school as we had someone in the house helping finish taking the wallpaper off the kitchen. The kids, hubby and I took off all of it in the diningroom and half of the kitchen. It has taken a long long time! Finally I begged hubby that I wanted it finished and we found some very reasonable homeschool people that finished it. (well we still have to paint but that will be easy)

OK I am off track. At 6:30 we went to Z~girls soccer practice. Originally I was going to stay home and hubby was going to take both kids so I could have a break. On second thought I thought I could manage sitting to watch. ;) Halfway through A~man declares "I need to go to the bathroom." The portapotty was probably 200 feet away. I begged hubby "PLEASE go with him". He was also tired and refused. Finally I just told A~man to go by himself. (we could see it until he went in obviously) Three minutes go by. "uhh hun could you please go check?" "no I'm tired" 5 minutes" You know he's in there picking up the urinal deoderant tablet and he will probably lick it" I bet he just HAS to touch the blue water down below" What if he falls headfirst in there?"    (we have the strangest conversations as special needs parents)  BUT the falling into the urinal comment had me RUNNING to the portapotty like a fool demanding he open the door. He looks at me. I KNOW he has done something. I finally see he has thrown some rolls of tissue in the toilet. I tell him "YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MISTER!" Yes it was minor compared to the other scenarios and less repulsive but I was tired..and at the end of my rope. In the car I kept turning around looking at him and he hung his head. (I sound so mean huh?) We get home and he showers and brushes his teeth. Then comes the nightly question "how many Slick (our dog) hugs do I get?" Can I have 3?" NO "2?" NO "1?" NO!! and then the words a mom cannot resist "can I have a mama hug?"  OF COURSE YOU CAN!!     Who could say no to a childs request for a hug? I so love my A~man and all that he and Z~girl are teaching me.