The Things I Struggle to Resist

Everyone has their thing. Some people are into cars. Other people are into their houses and decorating or cleaning them. Some people are into clothes or accessories. Some people love crafts. Some people enjoy hobbies and tools. That thing... your thing... is difficult to resist even when buying another item is an indulgence you really should resist. All of the other things are easy to resist, because you just aren't that into them.

For me, cars are just a way to get around. I don't much care what kind of car it is or how it is decorated or cleaned. I love our home, but home decorating and cleaning isn't really my strong point (just being honest here). Clothes are just something to wear. I want to be warm and to feel marginally attractive, but as long as I have two decent pairs of jeans and enough t-shirts, socks, and underwear to make it until the next wash day that's enough for me. Occasionally I will get into a craft of some kind (crosstitch, cricut, many educationally related craft projects), but those are usually relatively short lived.

My weaknesses are books (for myself and for the children). When I am going through a book phase I do the bare minimum on the blog and eat, breathe, and sleep books every moment I am not engaged in child care. The instant download of a new kindle book to my iPhone is dangerous and I will absorb one or two series (3-8 books) in a week. Fortunately, at that point, sanity returns and I put books aside for a while.

The library gets me through the summer months, but Scholastic book orders are dangerous to me during the school year. I have to struggle to get my monthly wish list for the kids down from $60 to a slightly more reasonable $20-$30.

And so that is why it surprised me that I fell in love with a jacket of all things at the mall this weekend. My parents had both children overnight (happiness and joy and much thanks). My husband and I went out for dinner and then headed to the mall to sit in a bookstore and enjoy some leisurely quiet time in public. I got distracted from our main goal (of some peaceful time) by a need to replace the jeans I had literally worn until they had holes in them. While shopping for jeans I discovered this amazing jacket. It was light and compact and fit me beautifully. The cuffs fell right at my wrist and the neck fit perfectly without being too long or short when zipped all the way up. And it was so warm. It was stuffed with goose down.

And I had been wanting a jacket. I only have a winter coat, but no jacket. For the past several years during a fall trip to a park, the rest of the family would pull on jackets and I'd struggle into a bulky long winter coat. Of course, this beautiful, warm, lightweight, perfectly fitting jacket was prohibitively expensive and so I reluctantly put it back on the rack. I went and found some jeans. I insisted that we pop back in and drool on the jacket some more on the way to the bookstore but then I put it out of mind.

As I sat in the bookstore browsing books on homeschooling (a story for another day) I vaguely noticed that my husband disappeared for a while and then came back. On our way out I asked him to grab my sweater from the bag the new jeans were in because the night was chilly. He reached in and pulled out the jacket. He has gone back and bought it for me while I was completely distracted at the bookstore.

And so, for once, I find myself in the odd position of being incredibly excited about having some new clothes. (And very thankful to both my parents for watching our children and my husband for being so thoughtful.)

So what is it that you struggle to resist? :-)

Scholastic Teacher Express eBook Dollar Sale - Code for $10 free

Scholastic has a Teacher Express store where you can buy teacher's resource books in eBook format. The books usually range from $5 to $25 dollars each. They have books targeted to preschool all the way to books targeting high school. They cover a wide variety of subject areas as well.

Through September 20, 2011 they have 849 of their eBooks on sale for $1 each. I think it will combine with the coupon code 10THANKS for $10 off your order. You can actually choose $10 books for free without entering any payment information at all and immediately download the books in pdf format. You do need to create an account with them.

I haven't actually placed my order yet, but I have 45 books in my cart so far. I may need to narrow that list down a bit before actually placing my order. They seem to do this sale once a year. Last year I bought 20 or so books and have enjoyed them.

The Weekly Review: Week 27

Post I Found Visually Amazing

I came across 21 Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped at cracked.com. I loved the images and the true stories behind them. They really are extraordinary pictures of some amazing things.

Sibling Moment of the Week:

Typical school mornings involve getting the children dressed and fed in pretty quick succession. They tend to be underfoot the entire time we're getting ready. Then we drive first Ava, and then Michael to school. Yesterday morning I went downstairs to make some oatmeal for breakfast. I didn't really pay attention to the relatively leisurely time I was having making breakfast until I realized half an hour had passed, the oatmeal was cooked and had cooled and there were no children attached at my hip. I eventually found them together in Michael's closet with some toys and flashlights playing sleepover. I do love the joys of independent sibling play.

Ava Names a New Kitty:

Ava has her mama kitty and her baby kitty. She has recently discovered Hello Kitty. She likes Hello Kitty bandaids and a Hello Kitty shirt she was gifted as a beloved hand-me-down. I noticed though, that she calls Hello Kitty, "Hello." When choosing a bandaid she requests "Hello." When picking which shirt to wear, she wants the one with "Hello" on it. It is difficult to figure out how to explain to my 2 1/2 year old that the character's name is "Hello Kitty" and not simply "Hello." It sure is cute though. Too bad we had to ban the bandaids. As it turns out, her skin reacts to the adhesive with huge red welts.

The Weekly Michael

Michael read the first Bob book to me tonight. I am so proud. He's been spelling for a while now. If I help him sound out the individual phonemes he can instantly tell me the letters that go with the sounds. Every time he's on the computer playing with the paint program he switches into font mode and tries to spell something. A few days ago he ran in the kitchen saying, "Mama, come see! I made zoozoozoo!" Sure enough, he had typed in exactly that.

At the easel today he wanted to write boom. I asked him what it started with. He said, "B." And then he attempted to write a "B". Then I told him that two letters together make the "oo" sound and asked him if he knew what two letters do that. He responded "O" "O" and proceeded to add two Os to his word. Finally he put the "M" on as well. I am amazed at how good he is at this stuff. (Of course, "boom" looks more like "doom", but he tried.

Projects of the Week:

1. I figured out how to add both audio and video to the site.
2. I completed two hours of continuing education credit. Both hours were on Childhood Apraxia of Speech topics.
3. I created a short screening tool for my own use with the kids that tests each phoneme in initial and final position using only 22 CVC words and administered the screening to both children. I am using the results of the screenings to decide what to work on next.