It's been a week? Are you sure?

Time flies when you're having fun, apparently. And we've sure been enjoying having Hannah home for a week!

Books I've read this week:
"A Change of Heart" by Claire Sylvia - the true story of her heart/lung transplant and how it changed her life. This was for our RS book-club. Claire Sylvia talks about her belief in things like cellular memory and how the heart is so much more than just a pumping machine. Interesting ideas.

"The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. I liked the baby book better than the toddler book. I read the baby book after my fourth baby was born and it really made a difference for me. Maybe I'm a slow learner, but I did learn some interesting things about newborns and how to calm them that I'm hoping will make life easier this time around (two weeks left!!!!). I thought the Toddler book was okay but I don't usually have a problem with toddlers and tantrums (they can have them or not - I don't care much) so I wasn't really that interested in what he had to say. I'm sure it could be very helpful if it addressed a particular problem someone is dealing with.

"Libertarianism: a Primer" by David Boaz.
I read this book mostly out of sheer curiousity...since I wondered what is Libertarianism and where does it fit on our current politic spectrum? I have read or heard bits of other people's ideas about libertarianism in the past (mostly negative, I think). As I read through the book I felt that I agreed with the majority of the ideas, although there were some that I really didn't. But I did feel that most of the things I had heard in the past were untrue stereotypes from people who don't really know what they were talking about.
In placing it on the political spectrum I would say that it probably fits most closely with what our country's founders had in mind in terms of limited government involvement in our lives. So if you're a raging constitutionalist than this book would probably speak volumes to you!
I thought the book was pretty well-written. The author addressed each topic fairly thoroughly. I thought the book flowed pretty well and held my attention. If you are the slightest bit interested in politics, you should give this one a try.

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Other things we've done:

All the kids have been reading maniacs. It's so fun. Our current read-aloud is "Fantastic Mr. Fox" by Roald Dahl. Hannah insists that I've read it to them before, but since I don't remember it I'm enjoying it for the first time, again. Whoa. Am I getting old? I've got a stack of other read-alouds to get to.

Because Hannah had no school, we pretty much had no school. The kids are working on a creative art project today. We traced basic animal shapes onto paper (cat, dog, fish, etc) and the kids have collected various seeds, leaves, flowers, bark, etc. from the yard to use to "color" in the shapes. It's looking awesome right now!

Hannah went horse-back riding this morning. Fun stuff! We were able to get a saddle to fit her...for free. Definitely can't beat that. She has been a huge help around the house and has enjoyed a week of free time. On Wed. she had a marathon quilting class and made some really good progress. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Kenna is learning to hold still while I change her diaper (a little bribery goes a long way), and she enjoys throwing it away afterwards as long as her achievement is accompanied by plenty of clapping! She is in love with Logan and follows him around quite a bit. I think he likes it. :-)

Brynne has learned about 10 songs from her piano book. I thought of an interesting way to help her learn the rhythm of quarter, half, and whole notes, plus quarter rests. Songs sure sound different when you know how long to hold a note and when to be quiet!

Logan did an interpretive dance for me. He put on some Zelda music (Zelda is an old Nintendo game, but has a pretty nice soundtrack that Josh has put on CD for the kids to listen to), and pounced and prowled his way around the living room and all over the couches. Very entertaining. I've started Logan on his reading program. He has completed the first 7 episodes and is doing very well.

Josh has been working as hard as ever and spending time finalizing memorial service arrangements for Saturday. He was re-elected as president of Friends of the FB Library. No surprise there. This is one of his favorite community groups to be involved with.

I have been making one very long shopping list for my last foray out of town for awhile. Stocking up on baby goods and other things this weekend and then I'm ready for that little girl.

My friend Ju sent me a link to an online version of the game Krypto. Hannah was practically pushing me off the computer to have a turn. It's a great math game! We also discovered this math game that I think we'll order for the kids, too.

We still don't have a name chosen. We have a small list of names that we mostly like but we're not feeling anything strong. That was how it was with Logan. At the hospital we looked at the list and decided that we liked none of them. Josh suggested Logan, I agreed, and he was named!

It's mostly been a lazy week for us, but since we've all been recovering from colds that's probably just what we needed!