Brown paper packages tied up with string

Things keep coming in the mail. I did almost all my Christmas shopping online, mainly from this place called Vision Forum, (which is a really funny conservative Christian catalog that sells all these outdoorsy "boy" toys and then these modest long dresses and women-of-the-faith dolls for girls).

I'd love to mock them for segragating girls and boys so strictly and for acting like playing with sticks and guns is more Biblical for boys than it is for girls or something; but at the end of the day, my kids made their entire Christmas lists based on that funny magazine, so I can't make too much fun I guess.

We also got a lot of stuff from Amazon because Matt paid some yearly fee to get free 2-day delivery and that is definitely paying off. I love stuff coming in the mail in 2 days! I have yet to walk into a store to buy Christmas presents and I'm almost done shopping! But, another place we just ordered from is Abeka. I'm sorry, because workbooks should go against everything I believe in regarding education, but lately Claire has been loving anything that she can do independently, so I figured a few spelling and cursive writing pages a day might give us both a little needed space.

And since Sammy knows his alphabet sounds, I went ahead and ordered these tiny reading books for him that have short words in them like "cat" and "sat" and all that good stuff. He read a whole one tonight, so I gave him a sucker. Not wise probably, but he and I have such a tenuous relationship regarding him letting me teach him things, so I decided to try something that would make it really fun from the start. And what is funner than a sucker? To Sammy, probably nothing. Except maybe being allowed to say "fart" or something. He would get a kick out of that as well.

This did not come in the mail, but my fabulous Aunt Becky and Uncle Rich came down Sunday and brought me this great hutch for my dining room. Storage! Hooray!!! I may paint it or stain it or probably leave it exactly how it is all distressed-looking. The possibilities are endless.

***Warning: Matt is out of town this week, so I may only be posting things between tomorrow and Friday that sound like I'm in emotional duress, but don't worry: I always bounce back within a week or so. We won't talk about how I spent the entire morning with Claire cleaning our old condo so that we could show it to a realtor and her client this afternoon. We won't talk about how they walked in and out in about 5 seconds and acted liked they hated the whole thing. We won't talk about how Sammy is about to run in the back door screaming that Claire has hurt him. We'll just talk about how I'm going to Jason's Deli with the kids since it's "kids-eat-free" night. California club: here I come!*****