Learning Days

Sheesh - it seems like I wake up one morning and an entire week has passed! How CAN that be? Life is zooming by at an alarming rate and I am running to catch up!

An odd observation, though - ever since losing our home in the fire of June '07, I have felt "unmotivated". I used to be so excited about baking, projects around the house, gardening, and, well, life in general. I just didn't want to start anything, participate in much - just wanted to veg. Until about late November of this year. All of a sudden, it was like an explosion inside of me - I wanted to learn, make, do and "be". Then we went to China, which set me back on my haunches for a bit. Watch out friends - I can feel the motors revving up inside of me - I am ready to rock and roll again!

One of the side effects of this re-discovered energy is that I love to work out on the wii! The littles are only too eager to join in - little rats!

I even made cookies the other night! Well, kind of - I found a good recipe and convinced the teens that "we" needed to make cookies. I offered to clean up the mess when they were done - does that count????

The littles are busy absorbing life.

Apparently no one had ever taken the time to work with our sweet Zabi - she really didn't have a concept of counting or color identification. Her paperwork mentioned that she was resistant to "learning" from adults but would learn things from other children. I believe that that is one piece of correct information - if I try to sit down and teach in a structured, formal setting - I can guarantee myself frustration.

But, if we turn our learning into a game - she soaks up new concepts like a little sponge! I do have a hard time of keeping Chicka from giving Zabi the correct action or response, though!

Over the weekend, we celebrated two birthdays. Hubby's sister and their mom have their special day within a couple of weeks of each other, so we decided to all meet for lunch in Astoria and celebrate. Neither of them were overly pleased when I mentioned to the restaurant staff that they could lead us in a nice, loud round of Happy Birthday! I thought it was a great idea!

Chicka had been begging to go to the beach, so we made time to run down to see the ocean after lunch. It was pretty cold, so we didn't stay long. IBoy volunteered to drive sis-in-law back to town in her car, so he missed out on playing in the sand. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE my Rebel XT camera??????

Another heartfelt thanks to Jennifer, a special travel mate to China in '08, who found and purchased the camera at an awesome price to pass along to me! I am no expert, by any means, but when I can get this quality of a photo without doing anything to the photo past turning the camera on, pointing and shooting and not editing afterwards, I am one happy camper!!!!