IT'S FRIDAY!!

Snack - I "bought" a Whirley-Pop off Amazon by using gift cards I earned from online searches using Swagbucks a while back. It's so much easier than shaking a pan back and forth over a burner for making kettle corn. Anyway, we've discovered a kettle corn combo that we really like. It's one batch of regular kettle corn mixed with one batch of cinnamon crunch popcorn. Yum!!
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Taxes - Did them last week. We owed this year. It's the first time ever, but we knew it was coming. When some states held back refunds last year I decided we needed to have less withheld. We depend on our refund for buying curriculum and need to know it will be in our hands when it should be. So, Tim changed our withholdings ... and we sent a check to the state. Next year we'll pay federal too, but it all comes out in the wash. I think I'm going to miss getting a big refund check though. Getting it spread out over the year in a regular paycheck just isn't as much fun.

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February Syndrome - It's alive and well! I'm tired and impatient. The kids are either whiny, bickering, crying, or disobeying. Basketball will be done in two weeks. Not that I'm counting.
Mow - I got to mow the lawn earlier this week, first time in months I've had to do it. I'm really going to miss that job once we return to apartment life!

Movies - I've watched three in the last week. Goodbye Solo - knew nothing about it, didn't really like it, waste of time. The Cove - not necessarily a big animal rights activist, but this movie was disturbing, definitely worth watching. Gifted Hands - remember when Ben Carson first separated twins, have read a couple of his books, loved the movie.

Class - I really want to teach another bargain shopping class, but life is so busy! Part of me thinks I should wait til after we move. The other part of me has a craving to do something outside of the house and without my kids. Plus, I just love chatting about stretching a dollar. I'll have to decide whether to bust one out soon or just wait.

Tooth - Each of our boys has lost one this week.

Reading - Devon started reading a few months before turning four. While I realize that's earlier than a lot of kids, I never brought it up in conversation because it just doesn't matter. Plus, I just can't stand "mommy competitions". You know what I mean? It's where women feel this burning desire to prove how their kid is just so amazing. Drives me batty! No two kids have the exact same skills or develop the ones they do have at the same rate as every other kid in town. Devon, for example, read early ... but he's in speech therapy. He's always been good at anything requiring agility and coordination ... but his impulse control leaves something to be desired. It all comes out in the wash.

Anyway, that's a tangent. My point was about reading. I understood when people would be surprised at hearing him read while he was three and four, but it blows me away how many people are still surprised at his reading skills. After all, he's closer to six than five.

Time out, lest someone be offended. I realize a lot of kids have various learning disabilities that make that skill hard to develop. That's totally fine and understandable. I'm not criticizing those kids. I'm just talking about your average kid without any medical diagnosis that would make reading difficult.

Maybe my frame of reference is skewed because I don't have other five year olds to compare him to (Silas had comparable skills at five years old and he's not in a traditional classroom filled with other five year olds), but I'm wondering why it's shocking that a kid who is more than halfway through kindergarten can pick up a book and read it, read the packing of the items on a store shelf, or read signs that are posted on a wall. Is that truly uncommon now? If so, then I think that's kinda sad. If not, then maybe it's just a fluke that we keep running into people that think it is. So, clue me in. Do the five year olds (those without learning disabilities) in your life know how to read beyond "see spot run"?

Update - I just heard from someone whose child went to a public school in Oregon. She said they started reading in late kindergarten and tackled it more seriously in first grade. If that's standard across the state, then I now understand the comments about Devon. I thought kindergarten was the year public school dove into reading, but it sounds like I was wrong and that it's more of a focus in first grade. Now I know.
Sarah - A couple weeks ago I got to have dinner with my friend Sarah. We hadn't hung out in ages and she was the only one who accepted my invitation to hang out at Noodles & Company. Lucky her ... she got a free dinner, thanks to a BOGO coupon I had. Three hours of chatting and eating was great!

Nap - I very rarely nap. However, I came home from church on Sunday and konked out for three hours. Felt so good!

Kid #4 - Nope, I'm not preggo. However, we did get to spend a chunk of yesterday with a little man who was the fourth kid in the house, a cutie that Naomi wanted to be in charge of. Evidently she's not aware I've been changing diapers since I was in grade school and don't really need her supervision, but that's all right. The kiddos doted on him and I got some baby snuggles. Fun times!