Things that are cool...

I just thought it would be fun to not only update on what our fam has been up to lately, but to make a list of the cool things we're enjoying right now... I think a few of you who read this might find it interesting for your kids who are the same age... So here goes:

1) The Library - I think this is one of my favorite aspects of our democratic government! First of all I LOVE to read and learn new things so I'm constantly finding new books I want to read and some I love so much I decide I want to buy them. So I here's how I work it: I look on Amazon.com for the book I'm interested in and then they give me a list of several book suggestions that are similar to the one I was researching. I write down the titles and get on the library website and put them on hold. Then the library emails me when my books are ready and I go pick them up. It's awesome! I bet I make trips to the library 3-4 times a week. I get to try the book for free!! How cool is that!

2) Mary Pope Osborne (the author of the Magic Treehouse series) - I love the way this woman writes! If you haven't discovered her historical fiction for kids, you need to check them out! Then you can branch out to some of her other works... Our favorite right now is her "Tales from the Odyssey" series. If these books had existed when I was in college I would have enjoyed reading Homer's Odyssey so much more!! We've been reading several chapters together every night and we are all loving the adventures! These stories have had such an influence on modern literature and it's wonderful to be able to read them together and have them make so much sense to the boys.

3) Family Dinner Monday - Friday (courtesy of Jeff's new work schedule for 2010) - For the first time since Jeff's worked for the FAA, we've been able to have dinner together every school night! I've always had a sit-down family dinner with the boys, but Jeff has always had to work. But since January that's all changed and I'm so thankful! Now he works Saturday and Sunday nights only, leaving the week night for us! We are all so happy!! This is where we all touch base and talk about our days and discuss what's going on in each of our lives. Every time I see one of those Swanson TV Dinner commercials where they talk about how important family dinner is and they say something like "kids who eat family dinners every night are less likely to do drugs" or something like that, I just start feeling all smug because WE DO! So hopefully it will do all the things for our family that the commercials say it will:)

4) The Rhyming game - One of my favorite things to do is sit and snuggle with my boys but they don't always want to sit still to talk, and sometimes we run out of things to talk about... so the rhyming game is the solution to this little dilemma. After I pick up Will from school, we always snuggle on the couch and talk about his day, and when that's finished (usually about 3 minutes later) we play the rhyming game where one of us says a word and the other has to say a word that rhymes with it. It's so simple but this can last for a LONG time which means a LONG snuggle time-- Score! Sometimes we'll shake things up and make it the opposite game instead. But either way, I'm happy because we're snuggling:)

And that's what's cool in our life right now:) Now seriously, go check out the Mary Pope Osborne books if you haven't already!