Josh is exhausted, being a senior today is very different than when I was a senior. He's taking three AP Courses (college courses). He's gone about 12 hours a day to school and then has homework every night and a very part time job on top of that.

He came in the kitchen this morning, looked half dead...running late...no time to eat breakfast at home so luckily I still had blueberry muffins left, I wrapped a couple in a paper towel and off he went.

Hang in there bud, you're doing great!

Bento Today:

homemade chicken salad
homemade blueberry muffin
chex mix
cucumber flower slices

I had promised Mer that she & I would make blueberry muffins after school today.

She did almost all the pouring and mixing and the house smells so yummy...which could be a problem. I can hide the muffins but not the wonderful smell and Josh will be home soon.

I'm thinking I should hide these so there will be some left for us to eat.

Yesterday, I made a double batch of pumpkin muffins. I put them in a large green bowl on the kitchen table, they looked so pretty.

Josh...read-teenager...comes in the door and announces, "I knew it, you've been baking and by this afternoon there is one lonely muffin left."

I can't say he ate all of them but he did manage to put away most of them...but where...and why doesn't he gain ten pounds like I would...sigh...oh well. I'm just glad he liked...er...loved them.

Today's Bento:

turkey, cheese & mayo sandwich on wheat cut into a flower
homemade blueberry muffin in hot pink striped muffin cup
cucumber slices cut into bear, elephant and rabbit shapes
nut and dried fruit mix

Mer loved everything except the dried fruit. Must have been this particular mix because she generally adores it.

Today's Bento:

peanut butter & strawberry cream cheese tortilla's cut into triangles
red grapes
homemade pumpkin muffin

came home empty

Today's Bento Lunch for Mer

daddy's grilled chicken (her very favorite) cut into strips
fresh strawberries and grapes with strawberry fruit dip
wheat bread with strawberry cream cheese on it cut into little flower shapes
two homemade mini brownies

Yummm! I love making her lunches, they are so fun and pretty to look at when I'm done~

Mer gets a list of spelling words each week, she gets tested on them on Friday's.

I've been using the fluorescent colored index cards, cutting them in half and writing her spelling words on them. I stick them up around the house in area's at her eye level...one on the bathroom mirror, the back of the front door, the refrig door, and various other places so that she will see them all week long and continously be exposed to the words and the spelling of them.

When she comes home from school she can't wait to see where her words are for the week!

We save the prior weeks words and she tapes them into a "spelling spiral" to keep for review, again, more word exposure...use and discussion about them between her and I.

Josh submitted his application to A&M last night, now just to wait and see. The hardest part.

We've settled into the school routine, it took a bit of adjustment for all of us. Mer is was complaining of being very tired every day which is unusual for her, we understood very well why after meet the teacher night. She's in a progressive learning room and it's wonderful! She has a fantastic teacher who loves to teach and it really shows, we expect that Mer will do very well.

J is adjusting too, all of the courses he's taking are AP so he's still learning how these particular teachers teach, test, quiz and what they expect.

I've been re-analyzing every aspect of my life. Everything that I do...being a wife, a mom, chef, maid, organizer, shopper, etc. I want to do everything perfectly but I've finally accepted that I have a tendacy to put things off until I can do them perfectly so jobs, idea's and many things I want to do go undone.

Now, I just start doing. It doesn't matter if I get it done perfectly, at least it's done. I can worry about perfecting it the next time around and it won't be such a big undertaking since I've already worked on it some.