One of my all-time favorite blogs is back!  GO NOW, enjoy...breathe...relax...be inspired...

Jewels

• I just realized that our crepe myrtles never bloomed last month!
• Yardley has a new scent--Lemon Verbena--I bought a bar and am looking forward to trying it out (price compared to homemade soaps and other boutique soaps is pretty significant!)
• Our 5-year old has fallen in love with the Boxcar Children book series.  I am reading two chapters each night.  He cannot wait to learn how to read.
• I bought a lemon-blueberry scone mix from Gooseberry Patch, then lost the directions...the packets are not labeled...what to do? 
• I love buying school supplies right now--22 cents for 24 Crayola crayons, 10 cents for spirals, 15 cents for a pack of glue sticks, 10 cents for pocket folders...
• We have to start printing and matting Lamb's photographs for the Fair soon...
• I almost have Pilot weaned (the one right before bed is THE hardest to stop!).
• My boys have managed to break two of my Duncan Phyfe dining table chairs...I have no idea if they can be repaired...
• I am going through a serious Anne of Green Gables obsession--it's ALL that I want to watch, LOL!

Protected Post

Stonyfield Farms plain yogurt, drizzled with local honey, with 1/4 cup of banana nut granola sprinkled on top--YUM!!     Great for breakfast, too!

I read the following post this afternoon and it simply resonated within me.  If you, too, want to be inspired, read on:

http://captivatingwoman.com/archives/love/patient.html

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old Catholic lady named Irena, who lived in Poland. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids.) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most of course had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Read more about Irena Sendler.

I found this book for 99 cents at a thrift store last week--and thought it was interesting that it had the original price tag on it in pounds (no pound sign on my computer, so I'll use a capital "L"):  L5.99.  It was "half-price book" (and household items!) day, so I only paid 50 cents (I'm assuming they rounded up, LOL!).

I am really enjoying reading it.  It has been years since I have read Shakespeare (looking forward to re-visiting some of his work this year with my 14-year old!).  From Shakespeare's Silvius, in As You Like It:

What is it to love?

It is to be all made of sighs and tears;

It is to be all made of faith and service;

It is to be all made of fantasy,

All made of passion and all made of wishes,

All adoration, duty, and observance,

All humbleness, all patience, and impatience,

All purity, all trial, all observance.

Our three-year old, Lion, was playing with this ketchup package and suddenly cried, "Look, Mom, a tornado!"

I have been enjoying catching up on my favorite blogs--I cannot explain my fascination with reading blogs, LOL.  It's like reality television--actually, BETTER than reality television!  I love it. 

It wasn't our modem--it was our connection outside!  Suddenlink was here around 2:00 (he replaced every outdoor connection) and I have had an internet connection ever since.  I am so happy.

Now that I have spent this much time off-line, I am hoping that I can have some self-discipline about how much time I spend on the computer.  I am really, really bad about reading blogs for an hour at a time.  Or, sitting down to research something, but getting distracted with a zillion other thoughts that make me chase rabbit trails (and I never do finish the research I came to the computer to begin!).

I also realized how many times throughout the day I come to my computer--for banking, looking up phone numbers, checking the weather, finding curriculum, etc.  The computer is such an asset...that is, if I can use it more as a tool and not as my sole entertainment! 

Except for blogging--I am looking forward to becoming a regular again!