Shorts

No, we’re not wearing shorts yet here.  Although the natives’ habit of putting on shorts (with sweatshirts and socks and sandals) when the temperature hits 50 degrees is somewhat amusing.  I just have a few quick things to say, so these will be little shorts.
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Technology often makes me feel dumb these days.  I’m getting old, I guess.  The new systems are not intuitive to me, and I find myself getting frustrated because I’m trying to download an audiobook for the kids for history, and CAN.NOT.DO.IT.  Poor Michael is the real sufferer, though, because he has to field my irritated (not at him) phone calls, talk me down, and explain the thing I have to do, which turns out to be simple but not intuitive. 
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Naomi tends to be our pickiest eater these days.  The other day I made a new dish and then insisted that she actually put some of it on her plate and taste it.  “Hmmm.  It’s actually good!”  Moments like these are good for humility.
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We started some seeds last week, and now I feel like Toad in the Frog and Toad story about the Garden:  NOW SEEDS, START GROWING!  Some of them are!  And I find myself wondering about the other ones – Were the seeds bad?  Should I start them all again?  Maybe they don’t have enough heat?  Of course, we’re nowhere near the 2-weeks mark that ends the possible germination time for most of them, it’s just that the overachievers who have started early are giving the others a bad name.  Isn’t that just the way of overachievers?
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Some of my kids are competitive, some are anti-competitive.  Naomi wilts under competition, and for Hannah, it is her life’s blood.  At their homeschool PE class, they had a fitness test, and Hannah got the most jump-ropes in 45 seconds (68, pretty impressive!), but she did NOT get the most sit-ups.  So now she will be practicing sit-ups.  Simeon may have the competitive drive, too.  He wants me to buy him a jump-rope (“the thin kind, Mom”) because he didn’t get as many jumps as others and he wants to practice.  Healthy competition is good…I just hope I can help them keep it balanced on the “healthy” side!
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Somebody brilliant thought up the idea of making freezer-to-crock-pot meals and then others started posting their own recipes.  Why have I not thought of this before?  On Saturday I put together 6 meals to put in the freezer and then transfer to the crock pot on the appropriate day.  I got the idea from this woman, who put up her five favorites on her blog.  Once I figure out what ones our family likes, I will be making many more of these! 
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We have a crisis brewing.  Lima’s head is coming detached from her body.  I think I’m going to have to get a new body and put it on her, I’m just not sure if that will totally wreck her in Tess’s eyes.  St. Rose of Lima, pray for us!