The views from where I sat earlier today:

Avril, asleep in her sling.

Every eight to twelve months, I inherit my husband's old cell phone. He'll get a new one, so I'll get the one he just finished with. This little switch of ours is something Dwayne anticipates with great joy. I know this. It's the main reason I agree to switch phones with him in the first place.

Dwayne talks about the new phone he'll get for weeks leading up to the exchange. When the time comes, he brings home his new gadget with boyish delight, never seeming to have any trouble adjusting to the new technology.

I, on the other hand, look forward to this switch like one anticipates getting her teeth cleaned. New phones always present me with a serious learning curve. It's days before I return calls, since I can't figure out how to check my voice mail. It's months before I program necessary phone numbers into my phone's memory. I can't seem to find time to sit and type in names and numbers. It's about a year before I realize how to take pictures with my phone and then, inevitably, by that time, it's time to switch phones again.

In the picture above, Dwayne is programming his number into my phone's favorite five, whatever that is. He chose an icon that looks nothing like himself, so I get to laugh hysterically when he calls me and this man's face pops up on the screen.

Listen to a good book with your preschooler.

I confess. I grow tired of reading out loud. Gasp!

But, I've found a terrific way to get around this. I have started borrowing books on CD from the library. We snuggle up in my bed before naps or a night time and use the cheap boom box I've had for ages to listen to a chapter or two at a time from a good book.

Dwayne will often agree to listen with us, giving up some of his precious sleep time. More than anything, I think he does it because the back-scratchers are always handy on the bedside tables (you can see part of one in the top right-hand corner of the photo above) and Norah will scratch his back while we all listen. Side note: Dwayne's "trained" her to scratch his back since she could stand behind him on the couch or next to him as he lays on the floor. Here's proof:

Norah's two years old, if that, and she's scratching his back. In Dwayne's defense, Norah has never expressed a desire not to do this, so I think it is pretty sweet.

Originally, I got the idea for this from The Well Trained Mind, but I was a little hesitant to introduce yet another story to Norah in addition to the Laura Ingalls Wilder book we read out loud almost everyday and any other little books we read here and there. I honestly wondered if Norah could remember two different novels, chapter after chapter, without getting confused or tangling the plots. I waited a little, giving it some thought, until one afternoon when Norah begged to watch a movie after just finishing an entirely different one earlier that day. It occurred to me that she is obviously very capable of following and remembering two story lines in one day; she does it all the time with movies!

If you are interested in what books to listen to with your preschoolers, there are suggestions in The Well Trained Mind. That list includes unabridged recordings of books like Peter Pan, The Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web and Alice in Wonderland. It was easy for me to find The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, so that is where we began. I've already put in a request for the next book in that series, so we can begin listening to it when we finish this book on CD.

I've also been using The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease for more ideas. He says something interesting about young children and their ability to listen to stories. He explains that an average first grader may only be able to read 350 words, but that same child's "listening vocabulary" actually "approaches 10,000 words." Trelease asserts that parents who do "Frequent reading aloud of 'controlled vocabulary'...insult to the listening vocabulary of your child."

So, children's story books, like the famous Dr. Suess titles, are most ideal for kids to read when they are practicing reading out loud for themselves, but parents can feel free to chose a book the whole family is more likely to enjoy when it is time for those preschool kids to listen. And, parents can do this without fearing that their little ones kids won't "get it."

Norah and her baby Annabelle

May she have daughters
of her own to care
when she is old
and I am gone.
I should have loved
to care for her once more
as I did then
long years before.
I was a mother young
and she- my child.
Caring was joy. So when
she is old and I am There,
may she have daughters
of her own
to care.

-Ruth Bell Graham

Save your bottle caps.

I've been saving our bottle caps for over a year in a gallon ziplock I keep in a deep kitchen drawer. We've used these for several sorting, estimating and counting exercises. Today, we made a list of the types of caps and their totals. We plan to use the information to make and color a simple bar graph.

Very Easy Beef Stroganoff

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion
1 can cream of mushroom
½ cup of milk
2 cup cooked noodles
2 tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup sour cream

Brown beef with onions, drain the fat. Stir in milk, noodles, butter, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Uncover and simmer for approx. 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Heat through but do not bring to boil. Serve immediately.

Happy Anniversary, Dwayne.

Dwayne and I were married on April 14, 2001. Today is our 8th wedding anniversary.

Train our love
that it may grow
slowly...deeply...steadily;
till our hearts will overflow
unrestrained and readily.

Discipline it, too,
dear God;
strength of steel
throughout the whole.
Teach us patience,
thoughtfulness,
tenderness, and
self control.

Deepen it
throughout the years,
age and mellow it
until, time that finds us
old without,
will find us
lovers still.

-Ruth Bell Graham, Wife of the famous evangelist Billy Graham