Miscellaneous Musings for the Day

What we are doing: Being outdoors! It's nearly 70 degrees today. We finished our ITBS testing and have been reveling in fresh air.

What We've Been Watching: Backyard Habitat on Animal Planet. Problem: this is creating extreme Yard Envy. I look out at my gloomy impossible back yard full of garage, broken swing set and three enormous "weed" trees, reflect upon my inability to grow anything but dandelions, and have a pity party. *I* want a cool bird habitat with a pond for frogs and salamanders and a hummingbird garden with cardinal flowers and trumpet vine. *I* want bird feeders that keep the grackles and starlings out. *I* want goldfinches and orioles and bluebirds, butterflies and chipmunks and deer (as long as they walk gracefully by, and not munch or leave calling cards) Wah!

What We've Been Reading:
Out loud, we are reading Adam of the Road. I began the utterly, exquisitely perfect North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh this morning. I am rationing it, the way one does with a box of Godiva chocolates. All of it at once might make me drunken! At least it's calorie-free. I can't possibly blog my favorite passages as I'd have to type in the entire book. Tedious. Just go get it. :-)

Breaking News of the Day:
SimplyCharlotteMason.com just released their new, graded studied dictation exercises for spelling. I downloaded the sample and it looks terrific! I can hardly wait to have studied dictation/spelling simplified at my house--no more hunting up passages with the "right" words, it's already been done! See here: http://simplycharlottemason.com/progress/index.php/spelling-wisdom/