I've been busy lately. Would you believe that I only downloaded (uploaded?) our pictures from Colorado yesterday? I have had something of a procrastination bug lately. Really, for the past 35 years or so, but who's counting? I'd show you some, but we took our smaller camera, and I just don't like the quality enough to post them. We will definitely be taking the Nikon to Disney World, and we leave a week from today. L, the boys, myself AND my Mom!!! Yippee skippy doo! I love the World. And I love packing. I think I have a sickness. Speaking of which, have you guys seen that PBS show Windsor Castle, A Royal Year? My favorite part is where the maids are packing for the Queen and they individually wrap all her clothes in fresh tissue paper, so it won't wrinkle. It is utterly awesome, and I'd really like to spend some time with those maids.

Other things I've been doing lately include canning copious amounts of tomatoes. I made a years worth of pizza sauce, and for days the house smelled very much like an Italian restaurant. I also made tomato sauce and Italian flavored diced tomatoes. I would like to make some more diced tomatoes, but alas, my little tomato man has run out of tomatoes. Can you imagine? I also canned salsa, peach salsa, peach jam, peach butter, and chicken stock. I am a domestic goddess. In the meantime, my stove is giving up the ghost. After spending hundreds of dollars to fix the self-cleaning oven (which, by the way, wasn't remotely fixed), my warming drawer, warming zone and favorite burner have broken. So a new range is on the horizon. Obviously, I've been trying to talk L into a Lacanche, but alas, I've been unsuccessful. The other day, I was telling him about my dream if we were to stay in this house, which is to knock out the dining room and extend the kitchen. I would double the refrigerator size to one of those ginormous commercial ones, double the pantry, build a giant appliance pantry where all my toys could live (and work plugged in without necessarily having to travel to some countertop somewhere) and, naturally, have a 6 burner Lacanche or La Cornue stove with a majorly powerful hood that was (gasp) actually vented to the outside. He laughed and rolled his eyes a little, but hey, it's my dream, and I can stock it with a 25k stove if I want to. So there. That's the great thing about dreams, no?

H1 started official homeschool kindergarten a few weeks ago. We've been going a little slow to start with, so that Hatchling and Mommy can both ease into things. So far, so good. We signed up for our local homeschool co-op on Thursday, where H1 will be taking some kindergarten thing, Spanish 1, Storytime Crafts (where H2 and I will be helpers), and Historical Heroes. Hatchling is very excited, and his new (to us) Buzz Lightyear backpack with attachable lunch box is the highlight of his recent life. You know, until we go to Disney World and he gets his light saber, which he's been saving for all summer. H1 has assured me that although school is not always fun, he never ever never wants to go to one of those "desk schools." I have no idea where he came up with this name, but that's what he calls them. While we do school, H2 alternates between watching Mouse (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and coloring and jabbering as if he is answering questions. And they both have to have a sticker at the end of school each day, or else. H1 likes math, but he doesn't like reading (he's doing really well, but concentration isn't so much his forte) and he hates writing (though he's made HUGE strides already, so I'm thinking this is going to get better for him soon). So there's our school update. And now I must leave you and do other things.