Lydia took this beautiful picture of a butterfly on the bush next to our patio.

We started school this week. I left for work on Monday and the children had already started their seat work. Caleb and Lydia are studying ancient history this year. The books Sonlight has chosen are so interesting that Caleb and Lydia kept asking me to read more so we did and now we're ahead of schedule. It is always nice to be ahead so that when scheduled (or unexpecting) things happen mom doesn't feel the pressure to get caught up with school. Our favorite part of school is the read alouds. For the most part we really enjoy the books that Sonlight chooses. Last year one of our books was Seven Sons and Seven Daughters and we ended up reading all but the first 16 pages in one day. My throat was sore and my voice hoarse, but what a fantastic story!!

We spent all day Friday and Saturday cleaning the basement. What a job. It has needed to be done and my mind has not been able to handle it. I think what really inspired me was finding the Home and Garden channel's link to watch full episodes of certain shows on line. We don't have cable and in Warsaw if you don't have cable you get no TV...so we watch alot of videos from the library and things that we can watch online. Anyway, we cleaned, sorted, straightened and threw away so much stuff that my head is still spinning. One thing I found was a box of neatly labeled, small accordian folders that held store receipts from 1998 to 2004. Chris was definately organized. He had also stapled all of the two part receipts together...staples can't go through the shredder. My dear Lydia sat and took out all of the staples while I searched for any house related receipts--we took turns shredding. Next week I'll call Goodwill, but tomorrow, I'm taking a nap!!