Shocking Photographs

These are not for the faint of heart. This is how I really live. I'm sorry to say it, but there it is.

We're spending today cleaning the house instead of homeschooling. I am even having the boys clean out the papers under their beds! We've filled an entire grocery-size bag. Two children colouring one sheet each day really adds up! That, and they also bring home papers from church and store little notes everywhere. Then they never look at it again! I keep imagining that mice would love it if they ever found that mountain of sheets.

I'm trying to organize Elf and Emperor's toys and books a bit better. I'm negotiating trades for old board books, wooden blocks, and the surviving pieces of our wooden Noah's Ark set. I took the boys to Wal-Mart (I hate that place!) so that they could spend the allowance they've been accruing on Legos. The Lego company gets over 90 percent of their allowance over the course of a year. However, at 50 cents a week (and they tithe on that AND give to missions), it isn't much.

I think all three of us "won" with our trades. I gave them both a full sheet of homeschool stars for the baby toys. They pay two sheets each if they want to pick an old Gameboy game I've previously traded for cash from Patrick. I gave him $40 for 10 games, which is more than he'd have gotten at Game Stop and the like, but $4 per game is a good value for me, as well.
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Oh, and do you like my attempt at a pancake man? I've been working and working on these since we read Little House in the Big Woods together. I think I've finally got it down! Now about half the time, it turns out well. D took one of the little drippings for the man's belly button.