Quick 5

That time of year when you feel the hope of spring, but try to brace yourself for another wallop of snow.

1.  I think we fared the time change rather easily.  I actually like the spring forward time change better than the fall back one because it's easier for me to convince the girls to do things earlier than it is to convince them to wait an hour to do it later.  Also I decided to take advantage of the time change and change Bria's bedtime.  Until now she's been in bed for the night by 6:30.  But honestly, for the past year, she's played and talked until 7:30 or 8:00.  So with the extra light I decided to move her bedtime to 7:00.  Not a huge difference maybe, but that extra half hour of having to deal with her seems like a lot.  But it may be a good thing, because it's an extra half hour for her to run around and get energy out.  I don't know if she's just tired from having to wake up "early" or if she really IS tiring herself out better, but she did seem to fall asleep faster this week. 

2.  Alaina completed her Liberty Day diorama:

It says "John Adams was the first President to live in the White House. - Alaina Kimble"

Next Friday is Liberty Day, and her class will do a little play with a couple of songs.  Then they'll get to go around to different colonies to sample foods from that colony.  And all their projects will be on display.  Alaina did a research paper on John Adams and I can't wait to see it.  She did the whole thing at school, typing it up in Technology and everything.

3.  The whole school/parent/student thing has gotten so complicated.  Back in my day we did our own projects.  I think.  And I really wanted her to do her own too.  But how much are we supposed to be involved?  I don't know!  So I did help her with her diorama.  She created each element, and I helped guide her on how to assemble it. (Except for the bushes; those were my idea, but then she carried it out.) My biggest fear right now is overparenting.  I don't want to cross the line into doing something for her that she really could do herself, even if it looks like a first grader did it.  But I also want to help. 

4.  Bria hit a milestone yesterday: her First Time Playing In The Toilet.  Lee found her waving around wet toilet paper.  She had given a teddy bear and a large Minnie Mouse a good dunking.  There was quite a bit of water on the floor.  And Joya was distraught that Minnie had to endure such a traumatic event.  Oh toddlers.

5.  There is a website that I found that has changed my life.  It's called Plan to Eat and it's a meal planning website.  The beauty is that you can import practically any recipe you find on Pinterest, then when you put a recipe in your planner it will MAKE A SHOPPING LIST FOR YOU.  That was the worst part of planning.  Not only do you have to come up with meals, but you have to come up with the list to go along with it, praying you don't miss an ingredient.  It's so much easier just to have all the ingredients put into the list, then to delete the ones you know you have.  It's a beautiful thing.  It IS a subscription based thing, and you all know how I feel about spending money.  But I spent money on this.  Just thought I'd share the love.

Last week of winter, people!  Soak it up!