This week

is not a normal week. Ian usually works in the office from 8 till 5:00. This week and next week he's leaving at 6:30 and coming home at 8:00 or 9:00. Saturday and Sunday too. I'm lonely for him. The kids are missing him. The grass and weeds need him. And I need him too! Anyway, I want to post pictures of our new kitties (born yesterday morning from their almost six month old mommy), Micaela's ballet, Elizabeth growing, and Asher being a mess. It's hard to do during the day, and I'm just too exhausted to do it at night! My computer needs RAM. It's running so slowly that turning it on, loading the internet and going to the first web page takes about 25 minutes. So posting pics takes FOREVER. Well, I'm exaggerating-it takes about 30-45 minutes to load photos after I get to the blog. Tonight I'm using Ian's work laptop which feels like lightening, but it has no photos. Apparently, I feel the need to justify my picless posts again :)

Anyway, who knew that kitties needed to be spayed at 4 months? I had no idea. The kittens are precious. There are five- one orange and four black. Three black ones are going to be mottled with orange and brown I think. The other is going to be striped. Two of them have a white/grey mask on the face so far. I don't know that I've ever seen kittens so tiny. Gabriel says they're "cute as baby Lizabet." Micaela says we're keeping them all, but I'm giving them away when she's not looking :) Want one, Chas?

Things really aren't that interesting- except for the kitties. We're just plugging away at school. Addition is finally clicking with Micaela. She no longer has to count on her fingers. We're about 2 weeks and 5 or 6 lessons into MUS Alpha. Nathaniel loves Primer. Some days he can count. Some days he can't. Gabey is doing Proverbs for Preschoolers, and he likes it. We're studying Greece, and we've just parked it on myths and heros. They're fascinated. And Micaela and I are discussing how they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So many of the stories have an element of truth that's been twisted! We're learning to classify plants and draw and label their parts. I think that's fun. Nathaniel's really doing well forming letters within mazes or by tracing. Micaela's handwriting is like Nathaniel's counting- creative at best.

I'll post before I go insane. I just keep reminding myself to do one day at time. And then I look at the number of days ahead before he'll be home again for a day or an evening and I get overwhelmed! If I can take five kids five and under to Walmart and buy two carts worth of groceries, I can do anything, right?