7QT: April 4, 2014

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{affiliate link} thredUP… have you heard about it? Of course you have. Everyone is talking about it. It's like a really good quality secondhand store online. What's not to like? Well, my natural skeptical nature says "Plenty, I'm sure"! So, I looked and looked and couldn't find anything that I was even remotely interested in for myself, but I am a terrible shopper so don't be put off by that. Lots of lovely ladies have found great deals on beautiful outfits for themselves. I hate to shop for myself but I love to shop for the kiddos. Since the potty train will be pulling into our home station just as soon as it gets consistently warm, I decided to load up on beautiful summer dresses for Cupcake. (I find dresses are so much easier to potty train in. I just couldn't get my boys to wear any… that's why they took so long. KIDDING BOYS!!! :)

Anyway, still skeptical me was expecting to be disappointed but I am pleased to say that each of the dresses I ordered was precisely as it had been described with the exception of one. One of the dresses was a Gymboree summer dress that was listed in like new condition, but the elastic ruffled sleeves had obviously been stretched beyond belief (either that or the elastic was too cheap to hold up for regular wear and tear). When I tried it on Cupcake, the bodice hit just above her belly button. Being handy with a needle, I was able to fix them…just not my opinion of "LIKE NEW". Maybe it was a defect that was missed since they aren't likely actually trying these on real children during their evaluation process.

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I have decided that when the time comes, I'm sending my daughter to Ireland to find husbands and get married because I want to see this happen in person one day…

Look at all the pretty Irish boys dancing!

~3~

Karen's post last week brought so much peace to my heart the other day. I can't stand people in the middle of the journey giving advice. I personally hate to give advice and feel very uncomfortable when asked "How did you homeschool your kids?" I'm not done yet! Not even with one of them, so don't ask me that right now. But people like Karen, Auntie Leila, even my own mother-in-law who have finished the course with at least one child are the ones who can look back and be a light, an inspiration to those of us still on the journey.  Go be inspired!

Now that I have a daughter in college and a high school senior who has taken classes,  I've seen some of the fruits of our relaxed homeschooling. I look back and recall the worries I had over the years, the ways in which I questioned myself, and wondered if what I was doing would work out.
So, here are some of the questions I used to panic wonder about, and the answers I've observed...

~4~

And speaking of Karen Edmisten… she alerted me to something my book budget really didn't need to know about. Amazon has Matchbooks {affiliate link}. What are Matchbooks, you ask? You can purchase a Kindle version of a physical book that you purchased from them for only $2.99 (or less if the Kindle price is normally less than that). So, for example, The Professor's Latin book {affiliate link} is a qualifying book that we purchased for him. Now, we can go get the Kindle version and he can just take his Kindle with him when we go to the orthodontist instead of lugging a big huge book. Awesome sauce!

~5~

It's spring in Texas and that means storm season. Fellow Tornado Alley residents, stay safe! Did you know there is a weather radio app for your phone? I'm trying to decide if we need to replace our old weather radio that died or if this will be enough. What do you think? We've already cleaned out the garage enough to be able to fit both cars in case of hail and cleaned out the master closet as a storm shelter. If you want to see some amazing photos of what a Texas spring storm looks like, check out this link.

~6~

Creepiest spam comment I've seen in a while…

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Um… no. thank. you.

~7~

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So close, Tricksey Spammer. So close.

Playing along with Jennifer and the cool kids.