Glee makes me ohsohappy!

Yeah, the music from Glee makes me ohsohappy! I'm listening to one of the cd soundtracks and feeling happy even though I feel oogy right now. My allergies are just kicking my butt today, every time I sneeze, it feels like my ovaries explode! :( Despite that slight complication, I managed to get two rooms cleaned and overhauled today, 6 loads of laundry washed (seems like my kids like to hide dirty clothes at the foot of the bed under the covers, and in closets - ew), dinner made, and a trip to the library on top of it all.

Yesterday my middle child asked me about 9-11. I wasn't sure what to tell her, so I chose my words carefully. She promptly told me, "I don't believe people can be that evil." So together, we watched a video on youtube of the towers falling... and she sobbed openly. After we watched it, she said, "Mommy, I wish you hadn't showed that to me now. I want to un-know it." My heart broke for her. Now she wants to learn all about it, the events leading up to it, and what's been done about it since it happened... she checked a book out of the library today that was written to explain the tragedy to kids, and she read halfway through it before she wanted to discuss it. I answered as well as I could, and when I couldn't find the words, she called her Grandma to ask questions. I'm glad she's so curious about everything and that she takes the initiative to research and learn, but at the same time I am so sad that she had to learn about this. Frankly I'm sad to live in the kind of world where something like this even happened... and I remember that morning as I raced to get my oldest child from the babysitter's house (Bud was 11 months old then): "What kind of world have I brought my child into?" I keep my kids pretty sheltered - that was part of the point of my homeschooling them - I could control what information, music, tv, etc went into their little heads. I could pour in all the good they could hold, and there would be no room for the bad. Unfortunately, I know it's not possible. I guess I just want to keep them innocent for as long as I can, since I know that once they hit the outside world without me, they're not going to be innocent for long. Our culture pretty much sees to that even just sitting at home in front of the TV. I hate having to distract them when there's an inappropriate commercial or something on. I protect my kids, and I am unapologetic about it.

My stepdaughter got on a plane this morning from Germany, headed towards US soil. She was supposed to call us as soon as she got here, but so far we haven't heard anything from her. I am hoping that she's okay and will call us soon - I told her to call no matter what time it is, and it's 11 p.m. now.

On a lighter note, my 4 year old is totally in love with Justin Bieber! HA! All 3 of my girls love his song "Baby." Our summer playlist is as follows so far:

1. "Baby" - Justin Bieber
2. "Bulletproof" - La Roux
3. "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
4. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" - Cyndi Lauper
5. "If We Ever Meet Again" - Timbaland f. Katy Perry
6. "That's Not My Name" - The Ting Tings
7. "Funhouse" - Pink (clean version)

Every summer we have a certain set of songs that the girls want to listen to repeatedly - so far it's these 7. In all fairness, all 3 Glee soundtracks should be listed up there too, especially Vol. 1, since it's particularly Rachel-heavy and they LOOOOOOVE Rachel, lol!

The moral to this whole story/post? I have AMAZING kids. Even when I complain about them. ;)

Got the ball rolling

I finally have the ball rolling on this whole school thing, though I'm not sure I like it. My husband heard from his sister (who works in our county's school system) that the school she works at has a gifted and talented program for advanced kids. Well, when my middle baby was in first grade during the 08-09 school year, her testing showed she was off the charts for a first grader - she read at a fifth grade level (actually the teacher said she probably read even higher than that, she just didn't have time to keep testing her). The class shared a "reading box" - a box of books that they were supposed to read when they had completed work and had free time. My child had her own box, since the other box of books was too easy for her. The teacher said she was worried about my daughter getting bored, since she completed all her work (correctly) way before the other kids got done. She's been homeschooled this last year, and her appetite for learning has just been voracious. I had the girls reading The Secret Garden, which is 5th grade level reading. We did tests and everything for that, and she was still passing her older sister in the work we did. she has done leaps and bounds more in math, as well, and I am still teaching them both French & Spanish. My husband thinks the G & T program would be good for her... I am undecided and want to keep them home, but at the same time I don't want to deny her such a wonderful opportunity... so I have been calling the admin building for a week. Finally got in touch with the woman in charge of the program today, and so a week from today at 9 a.m., she will take the Naglieri test to see if she gets into the program. She wants to go, but at the same time she says she doesn't want to leave me. For every reason she finds to go, she finds one to stay home. I told her not to worry about it until we find out whether or not she makes it in. She wailed, "I'm gonna fail!" I assured her you can't "pass" or "fail" this kind of test.

My oldest daughter keeps asking me to take her shopping for a training bra. She is 9, will be 10 in a few months. I don't know why she's in such a hurry to develop and grow up - I suspect that since her almost-15-year-old sister will be here in 27 days, she wants to be like her and wear a bra. She went to the bookshelf this morning and got the "Care & Keeping of You" American Girl book that I bought when she started needing deodorant. She's reading the section on developing chests... I don't want to discourage her from learning about it, but I know it's making her Daddy VERY uncomfortable! She keeps wanting to ask me stuff, but he's in the room so she says she'll ask me later.

So. On to subjects that I know how I feel about, lol. Gardening, yay! ;) I now have three green something-or-others in the lettuce pot, 6 lavender shoots, and the two thyme shoots are still the only ones in the pot. One of Lulu's Sweet William flowers began to sprout this morning, so of course she's out of her mind with excitement. She also has 13 greenish things in her pot of Chinese Lantern flowers. :) I need to go out today and get some things in the ground, too.

I've been doing laundry like crazy the last few days. I discovered that I actually find it soothing to sit and fold baskets of laundry... except for fitted sheets, which make me want to pull my hair out. I (literally) have done 15 loads of laundry in the past four days. Every time someone dirties something, I grab more stuff to be washed and take it downstairs to the machine. I am starting to think I may be addicted to doing laundry, as I can no longer stand seeing dirty clothes ANYWHERE. Or maybe I'm addicted to the smell of the clean laundry - I guess that makes more sense, lol. I just know I feel calmed when I sit and fold the clean clothes. Speaking of which, I need to go get some out of the dryer, and take down this basket of dirty stuff that just popped out of nowhere this morning... heehee....