Cleanliness is next to godliness and lemon leap day celebration

1. Some quality time in my youngest girl's room, going through clothes and toys to get rid of everything that she is too old for now. With the other girls, they would just pass things down, but then it all ends up in the youngest's room with nowhere to go. So we found new places for lots of things today. Her room looks much better already. (Now if I can just get the vacuum cleaner up there, we'll be in business.)
   
   
2. I spent some quality time cleaning in my office today, too.
   
   
3. To celebrate Leap Year Day, we made a lemon cake and spent the evening watching a movie and eating cake.
   

Country living, baby girls and their grandpa, scrapbook time

1. Nine deer and five turkeys just outside my office window
   
   
2. Watching home movies of my dad playing Ring-around-the-Rosie with my girls (back in 1997)
   
   
3. Some time to work on a scrapbook about my dad that I started on Saturday at Rita's house
   

Wordless Wednesday #45

Good grades, Indian Creek

1. Finishing the grading for the tests before class, and the grades were good
   
   
2. Watching a movie from when the kids were little, playing in Indian Creek
   
   
3. "Indian Creek" by Alathea
   

Visit from my mom, deer, singing parts

1. Just hangin' out with my mom
   
   
2. Deer playing in the pasture and the woods, chasing each other in big circles in and out of the trees
   
   
3. Singing with the girls
   

Music for a Sunday

1. "Holy, Holy, Holy" arranged by Robert Farlee for the organ voluntary
   
   
2. "Matilda" as sung by Harry Belefonte
   
   
3. "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Heard" by Roger Miller
   

Fixed without any effort on my part, scrapbook day, dinner date for seafood

1. Having a problem fix itself (with one of the home movies I'm trying to copy from video to DVD)
   
   
2. Scrapbook day at Rita's house with my mom
   
   
3. A dinner date with my husband, to a place slightly more romantic than Long John Silvers
   

Gifts

1. Dinner with my mom and my girls
   
   
2. New body soap and lotion from my mom
   
   
3. New candles from the girls and my husband, and some Hitchcock movies, too
   

Tear-free statistics, sunny space, números españoles

1. Another test for my university students with no crying
   
   
2. A great parking space in the sun
   
   
3. Knowing my numbers (and my plurals) tonight at Spanish class
   

Wordless Wednesday #44

Piano trio, horse lover, math lovers

1. I've been recording old home movies from video tape to DVD. One of the movies today had a scene of me playing the piano with my two oldest girls when they were one and a half and three. My middlest girl (the 18-month-old) would throw her hands in the air and say, "Go!" in this little tiny Minnie Mouse voice, and I would play a song as fast as I could while the oldest would play nicely on the upper keys and my quiet, shy middlest girl would bang loudly on the low keys. It had me laughing so much when we were actually doing it, but now, just thinking about it still makes me laugh out loud.
   
   
2. We were watching the movie Flicka this evening, and the best part is watching my oldest girl's face as she watches the pictures of the horses running.
   
   
3. My baby took her first algebra test today and did really well. I'm so proud of all my girls for being so good at math.
   

Algebra II, Mexican lasagna, deer

1. My oldest got two more algebra tests back today. She has a solid A in Algebra II, and that doesn't even count all the extra programming I'm making her do so that she won't be bored with math.
   
   
2. Mexican lasagna for lunch, and then sending my husband off to work
   
   
3. Lots of deer in the pasture this evening
   

Music from the "organ church"

1. "Maestoso from Partita on All Glory, Laud, and Honor" by Michael Burkhardt
   
   
2. "Offertorio" by D. Zipoli
   
   
3. "The King of Love my Shepherd Is" by Sir Edward Cuthbert Bairstow
   

Video to DVD, paperdools, tater tots

1. Watching my wedding video (now on DVD) with the girls.
   
   
2. Having some alone time with my husband while the girls played with their paperdolls.
   
   
3. Tater Tot casserole
   

My girls

1. Another great Spanish lesson. The people in the class actually clapped for my oldest twice because she was so brilliant.
   
   
2. My middlest had another great week and another perfect spelling test. I think she has had perfect scores in spelling for close to 100 straight school weeks.
   
   
3. My baby is doing so well in high school algebra, and especially for a sixth grader. I'm so proud of her.
   

Happy St. Valentine's Day

1. The twentieth anniversary of the day I met my husband
   
   
2. Staying up late last night to do some laundry
   
   
3. Green M&M's
   

Wordless Wednesday #43

Warm rain, Lincoln's birthday, today in French

1. A warm day with rain, but not enough wind to cause problems for my drive to work
   
   
2. Thinking about the parties my friend Dana and I would have for Lincoln's birthday
   
   
3. A French lesson where I had to say "d'aujourd'hui" a lot
   

Wordless Monday

Singing and driving

1. Hearing my kids sing at choir practice this afternoon.
   
   
2. Being able to go to choir practice myself this afternoon.
   
   
3. Spending two hours with my two youngest working on Bible studies for their Friends Club.
   

Great guys, family meals, organization

1. We watched 8 hours of the sixth season of 24 today. My back is a bit stiff, but I enjoyed the story so far. I love Alexander Siddig's and D.B. Woodside's eyes and voices, and I love seeing them in a show together.
   
   
2. In between all the TV watching, I managed to cook some healthy meal for the family, and we sat down to eat at the table instead of just vegging in front of the TV for the entire day.
   
   
3. I had a chance today to do some organizing again in my office. It was fairly clean for a while until I unpacked a bunch of boxes, so now I'm finding places for the leftovers.
   

Good week, lazy Friday afternoon, good books

1. The kids had a good week in school in spite of the Mardi Gras holiday.
   
   
2. I was able to get in a nap this afternoon.
   
   
3. I was also able to finish Great Expectations. I thought I remembered the story from the movie I saw as a kid, but I was still somewhat surprised. I'm glad I read the book.
   

Good grades, nice office manager, a rockin' table

1. I finished grading the first test for my college students, and the grades were good. No one failed, and most everyone made an A or B. Tests are so much easier to grade when the students do well. Also, I love giving back the tests for the very next class because they appreciate it when they don't have to wait, and it's especially nice when the grades are good.
   
   
2. I am finally making some progress in getting the kids transferred to a different office for the orthodontist. Hooray!
   
   
3. My oldest and I had a great time at our Spanish class this evening. We sat at a table with a couple who were from Canada and both knew French, so we spent the evening trying to figure out how the Spanish compares to our French. My oldest and Frank are also the two best students in the class, so our table "rocked."
   

Mexican food, candles and hearts, shipping issues resolved

1. Chicken Mexicali for lunch
   
   
2. A Valentine's gift from my youngest
   
   
3. The guy at the Goin' Postal store in Murfreesboro who is always so helpful
   

Super Tuesday, Mardi Gras creekin', a great dinner date

1. My husband and I got up early today and went to vote together. Since we met because of an Iowa caucus, it always seem like a very romantic thing for us to go together to vote.
   
   
2. Really warm weather after a big rain! The girls went down to the creek today in their swimming suits to celebrate Mardi Gras!
   
   
3. A dinner date with my brother.
   

Grandpa Appreciation Month, Demon Sister braces, goldenrod eggs with just the right amount of toast

1. My oldest is celebrating "Grandpa Appreciation Month" again this year. She celebrates by being left-handed on even days in February. (My dad's birthday was on an even day in February, and he was left-handed.) She got tons of work done today, much more than I expected, because she spent all day reading and typing on the computer so that she wouldn't have to write anything.
   
   
2. My oldest is also celebrating her position as a "Demon Sister" by getting red and purple bands on her braces.
   
   
3. We had just enough bread for Goldenrod eggs for supper.
   

Friends, food, football, and oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies

1. Friends at church
   
   
2. My husband made chili for us for the Superbowl
   
   
3. My middlest and youngest made oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies to try out their new cookie scoops from Grandma
   

No shadows from our groundhog, healthy big plants, vacuuming from an unexpected source

1. A beautiful day in Tennessee, but as far as we can tell, our groundhog stayed in the shade today. Happy Groundhog's Day!
   
   
2. I re-potted my two biggest indoor plants today. I'm looking forward to seeing them both thrive.
   
   
3. My husband vacuumed the basement for me to clean up my potting soil mess and a couple of weeks worth of foot traffic.
   

Getting over this cold

1. A day with nothing pressing to do but sleep, to try to get over this cold
   
   
2. In spite of the naps, I managed to watch a movie on the new surround-sound DVD player
   
   
3. Feeling well enough by supper time to actually fix supper for the girls