Charlie's time at the farm and getting organized

BB and Poppy had a great time with Charlie while we were in Destin.  I had actually planned on taking him with us to the beach this year, but they talked me into letting them keep him.  They said again and again what an easy baby he is.  He just goes with the flow.  They took him out to eat once a day and he did great at the restaurants and sat quietly and ate what he was served.  And now that he's 1/2 way potty trained, it's easier than ever for them to keep him.  And we all know how he's a wonderful sleeper and never fights going to bed.  My sweet gentle giant- I love this baby!

Going fishing with Poppy-

They have a game camera on one of the trees outside that caught Charlie putting out corn for the deer-

I did it!!!

And it worked!

BB texted this and said, "Here he is eating his FOURTH pancake."  :)  Life is good at BB's.  :)

He loves to sit and tinker with blocks- he kept himself very occupied they said-

Thank you BB and Poppy for keeping Sharshee.  He had a blast!  

It's "get your curriculum in the mail" time in homeschool land and it is so much fun!  I keep walking around singing "Christmas in Dixie."  :)  This was in our mail TODAY.  I confess Marc did call from work last week and say "Um...are you ordering...A LOT...of stuff from amazon?"  Why, yes I am.  Throw it in the tuition budget.  :)

We got some more history books.  We are circling back to ancient history this year (we are on the 4-year cycle).  We already had TONS of books- remember one cubby was full of ancient history-

...but I had to get a few more- the top right one is Founders of Freedom- the title got cut off.  

Marky grabbed this one and started reading it at lunch- I bet he will get through these before I even get started this fall.  

And I fallen in love with these Glenn O Blough books for science.  I am becoming more convinced that I don't enjoy any new books the way I do the older ones.  These are written in a beautiful yet easy-to-understand way.

We are also just trying to organize in general.  Before we left for the beach I totally organized all the kitchen drawers and LOVE it- I know where everything is now!  You want a paperclip?  Did you want plastic or metal- large or small?  I can find one now!  Now I only have the entire rest of the house to do.   At least I started!  :)

One last thing- we know how Tucker loves his "lighting hat"- 

He's lately been talking about how when he grows up he's going to "be working underground in the darkness- but I can see because I'll have my lighting hat."  He wants to be a miner.  Julia drew that this morning.  Tucker came and got me and said, "Mommy!  Look how beautiful- I love it- Julia made met his amazing picture of me as a miner!  Thank you Julia- oh I love it!"

Last week the older two were able to go to an amazing catechesis program called Totus Tuus.  It was run at our church by college students and seminarians.  They children learned A LOT and went to Mass every day. When I picked Julia up on Wednesday I said, "you will have to miss Thursday and Friday because we will be at the beach."  She said, "oh- then I should write them a thank-you note right now."  Sweet, sweet Sissybug-