Dishes, I vanquish thee.

I think it has been three or four weeks since my Facebook fast and I LOVE IT. Seriously. I do feel less stressed and I do feel more engaged with my children. I told someone that when I would see the red message notification I think the happy part of my brain lit up. By simply not going there I skip that step...so I don't really miss it. Ah...Heather, you social butterfly you. Because Lent will end at some point I have been thinking about my long term relationship with Facebook and think I may try to ditch it except for the occasional check for baby pictures and news from family and REAL life friends. That means no scrolling to read what classmate I haven't seen since 1995 is eating for breakfast. How will I survive?!? I think I will manage. Plus, I enjoy that people don't know the mundane things I avoid doing all day. Maybe that makes my life look more exciting...you know, the mystery. It will leave people thinking, "Oh yeah, Heather...she must be doing amazing things!"...even if in reality that means keeping caught up on dishes. Oddly, this past week I have just done them. For some people this is not an issue but for me. I don't know what it is. I know my friend Molly understands. Regardless, I am enjoying not having to talk myself into doing them. I like that I have a window over the sink that looks out onto the street. I can spy on the neighbors across the street. This morning I was amused to see some of their friends had had an old, decorated toilet planted in their yard with a sign reading, "Cancer Stinks!". I don't know if they do this everywhere, but in Moscow if you get this in your yard it means you have to PAY them to remove it. That is how they raise money...black mail. Jon just muttered, "I hope they don't put it in our yard". I should have taken a picture of it before it disappeared.

Last night, I took the kids to the science fair where we wandered the aisles of McDonald Elementary School seeing what the other children had done. The boys did a science project on the effects of water temperature on ocean currents. I made the mistake of telling them they could each do their own next year. Uff da. It was fun to go though. We saw Sevrin's favorite teacher, Mrs. Arlint, there with her husband and two children. We also ran into a lot of other people we know from Moscow. Despite feeling antsy at times about being in Moscow, I love the community for my children. No matter what Boise throws at the school district I know that parents and teachers here will band together to provide an excellent teacher for my children. There is no school tomorrow or Friday and tomorrow afternoon we will go to school to see the boy's portfolios. There will be childcare provided, so we can go with each boy individually to see what they have been working on. Very cool.

Have I mentioned what I did last Friday night? Kris Wallace from the MPTC group invited some of us ladies to a Pure Romance party, aka a chance to get out of the house and have drinks and food uninterrupted. I am not going to explain WHAT we passed around...needless to say, there is a lot of variety in the world...if you know what I mean? haha. No, I am not talking about a joint either. haha...just realized that sounded like that too.

Have I mentioned how well Iris is reading and how easily she seems to understand mathematical concepts?  We aren't going for genius here, but I am okay with normal. I struggled so badly in math that I am pretty aggressive about teaching the children foundational math skills to build on. We are so fortunate that none of our children, yet, seem to have any sort of delays. At this moment, at least two of the boys are immersed in books they have checked out from the library. I love that they love to read.

Josiah is going to the Math Circle tomorrow which is put on by the high school math club as well as a professor from UI. Last time they did some crazy challenge where they had to follow the lines of shapes without lifting their pencils. Or something like that. Tomorrow they will be learning some game, Nin or Nim? I think. Depending on the weather I think we will either go on a bike ride or go to the Palouse Discovery Science Center in Pullman.

On another random note, my aunt sent me an email informing me my bio mom is getting some sort of results tomorrow regarding a tumor she has in her throat...or somewhere around there. We are hoping it is benign. The doctor had called my aunt to see if she could be there when my bio mom gets the news, she doesn't think he realizes she lives in Montana.

Apparently, I had a lot of words to get out tonight. Jon should be home in about 15 minutes from work, so hopefully I won't attack him with a slate of words.

Good night world.