Where have you been Mama Pickles? You know, I wonder that myself sometimes. The past few weeks have been filled with reading, thinking and sewing. And, oh yes, potty training hell. Sweet Pickles just doesn't seem to care that he has tinkle running down his leg and he certainly isn't phased when he walks around the house smelling the the elephant house at the zoo. He's going to be 3 in May and I just don't know what to do with him.

I've been doing a lot of reading trying to figure out what kind of education will be best for the Pickles family. I finished reading The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. It was amazing. Classical education is what I want for my children. Reading through this book made me realize how much knowledge I did not acquire while in elementary and high school. I've moved on to reading The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education by Leigh Bortins. I haven't gotten very far through this book because I have had a lot of sewing to do in the last few weeks, but more about that later. When I finish The Core I have Designing Your Own Classic Curriculum: A Guide to Catholic Home Education by Laura Berquist waiting at for me on my nightstand. As much as I want Dill Pickles to attend school with his peers, I just don't see that as a reality. Sadly I don't think our local Catholic schools will be tolerant of his sensory needs and I just don't feel comfortable with our local public schools beyond kindergarten. Daddy Pickles and I want to explore all of our options now so that when the times comes to make a decision, we will be well informed.

I have been busy sewing weighted blankets for everyone but my Dill! As my mom liked to say long ago when I was young, "The cobbler's children are always the ones without any shoes!" Dill's teacher has asked me to sew a weighted blanket for his classroom and two of his classmates wanted weighted blankets for their homes as well. Busy, busy, busy. I love sewing and I love that I can sew one for so much less than the expensive ones in the therapy catalogs. I'd like to think that mine are a lot prettier too! April is Autism Awareness month and I'm trying my best to put together a tutorial for making your own weighted blanket.

That's what I've been up to these days. How about you? What things in life have kept you busy?

I started The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of 1st Graders to College by Oral Lee Brown last Saturday and finished it Tuesday night. It was a book I just couldn't put down. I really enjoy reading about education a lot, especially administration and reform. When I was still teaching I used to read books on this subject all.the.time. I have a whole box of these books sitting somewhere in the garage. Daddy Pickles and I really should go dig those out.

Finishing The Promise makes me want to read How to Walk to School by Jacqueline Edelberg. I read a review of this book a while ago in some parent magazine and it has been on my list of books to read for over a year and a half now. (Side note, I just discovered that I lost my list of books to read when my computer crashed. I am so sad. I guess I'll just start a new one maybe in a post here so I can always have it available.) How to Walk to School is about a group of parents coming together to transform their failing neighborhood school. This book is available at my local library, but I think I'm going to check Paperbackswap.com for my own copy. I'm pretty sure this is a book I'd like to have on my shelf.

Until I get a copy of How to Walk to School, I started The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I am curious about homeschooling. I always thought I would send my children to a Catholic school, but now I'm not so sure that it would be the best environment for Dill Pickles with his sensory issues. I guess I'm reading this book to learn more information about homeschooling. So far I am really into this book and I keep trying to find ways to sneak away and read it. I really am torn about what is going to be the best type of education for Dill. Hopefully this book will help me sort these things out a little better in my brain.

I used to read a lot before I had kids. When I moved into my townhouse long before I met Daddy Pickles I was trying to cut corners so I never transferred my cable service. I read books instead. All.the.time. That's all I did. I got my news from the Internet, the radio, the newspaper or if there was something crazy insane going on, I walked across the courtyard to my friend's townhouse and watched her TV. I read tons after Daddy Pickles and I got married too. Then came the baby Pickles. My reading time went out the window.

I started reading more last year, especially when Sweet Pickles was in the hospital for so long. I needed something to do in the middle of the night when all the beeping monitors won't let you sleep. I polished off the whole Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Thanks to my sister Sheesh for letting me borrow them. I decided setting a reading goal for myself for the year might help me read more. At first I thought a book a month would be good. But then I thought about it. Twelve books in one year? That's pathetic. I used to read 12 books in 12 weeks. Twenty-four books a year sounded good; that's 2 books a month. Nah. Let's split the difference and say 18 books. Eighteen books seems like a doable goal. If I do more- super! I had better not do less.

January brought Run Like A Mother: How to get Moving and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity by Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell. I loved this book. I started running last year and I stopped for various reasons. I can't wait to get running again.

I also read Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian. I read it for a book club I belong to. One of these days I'll actually make it to a meeting. I can't say it was one I would have picked up on my own, but it was interesting.

February so far is bringing The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of 1st Graders to College by Oral Lee Brown. It's for book club and I'm picking it up from the library on Friday. Anything education interests me. I can't wait to start reading it.

I'm not sure what other book I will read when I finish The Promise. Diagnosing Jefferson by Norm Ledgin has been going back and forth from my dresser to my night stand for almost 5 years now. Maybe it's time I finally read it.

My sister Sheesh loaned me The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. I loved the Percy Jackson series so I'm sure I'll like this book too. Geeze. I need more hours in my day.

How about you? Do you have any reading goals for the year? Have a great book I should add to my to be read list?

I just read the funniest book I have read in a looooooong time. I was laughing out loud so much, Daddy Pickles came into the bedroom and asked me what I was smoking. When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, The Worrier, The Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget Buyer, & Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never Be had me laughing so hard I cried. I marked passages to read to Daddy Pickles so I could show him that I'm not that loony. There are other moms out there who think and feel the *exact* same things as me. Gosh, there are so many stories in her book that I want to tell you about, but then I'd be afraid I'd spoil it for you. Run to your library and get this book. Now. You will need it. It will make you smile and be happy to be a mom. Amazon even has it for Kindle. I'm not an affiliate, I just want to make it easier for you to get to this book. Go. Now. Do it. Push all other books to the side of your nightstand and give this one a read.

My goodness. I didn't post a darn thing in December, huh? I guess that's what you get when you wait until the middle of November to start sewing a birthday present and 4 Christmas presents. Every year I say I am going to start sooner. Go back and check my posts if you don't believe me. :) And each year I don't. Hrmph. Maybe one of these years I'll learn my lesson.

I have ben composing lots of posts in my head; do those count for anything? I'd like to post about the awesome capes, shirts, crowns, masks and arm cuffs I sewed for Christmas for my sons and my nieces. I also need to get around to documenting the Christmas books we checked out of the library so I know for next time. I guess I'll need to get right on that because most are due tomorrow.

And I've also decided I just need to take time for me. I love Daddy Pickles and my little pickles with all my heart and soul, but I just need to make some time for Mama Pickles. My sister gave me the book Run Like A Mother for Christmas. I've only read the first chapter or two, but it is already kicking me in the butt to start running again. I ordered new running shoes yesterday because I'm sure my pair from February are just too worn out as they have become my daily shoe.

I'd also like to clean up our diet. Daddy Pickles and I keep trying to eat healthy food and we succeed it at for a little while. Then slowly, bit by bit, all the junk ends up in the house again. I have no willpower. I don't. No matter how hard I try, if it's there, I eat it. Daddy Pickles promised me that he will stick to it this time. We're starting off slowly. No more store bought cookies in the house. I'd like to move on to chips and the like next, but Daddy Pickles wants me to cut out my Diet Pepsi. I don't know about that. I don't drink coffee so that's my morning joe. Who knows. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Chronicle Books is having an awesome promotion right now- Celebrate the Haul-idays! All you have to do is visit their web site and find $500 worth of books you'd love to have on your shelves at home. Post the list on your blog and BAM! You're entered to win all of those books. You can win my list too! Just post a comment on this post and if I win, you win my list too! Hurry. This contest ends December 10th.

Here are the books I'd love for the boys:

Duck! Rabbit!

Monet's Impressions

Creature ABC

Stereobook: Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs Roar, Butterflies Soar!

I Know a Lot of Things

The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas

Eric Carle's Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar

N is for Navidad

And to Name But Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue

C Is for Caboose

Tools

Art Up Close

C is for Construction: Big Trucks and Diggers from A to Z

The Elves and the Shoemaker

Walk the Dog

The First Christmas

The Hanukkah Mice

The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Decks: Trucks, Trains & More, Ages 3–5

One Too Many

Zoom

Around the World with Mouk

The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Deck: Kindergarten Skills, Ages 3-5

Big Rabbit's Bad Mood

Magritte's Imagination

B Is for Baseball

Tony and the Pizza Champions

The Big, Bigger, Biggest Book

Oh you can't forget some books for mom!

Every Day's a Holiday

I'd Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper

Dirty Little Secrets from Otherwise Perfect Moms

The Little Book of Saints

Don't forget to post a comment so you can win all of these books too! You can also go here and see all of the other blogs participating in this awesome promotion. See one with a great list of books? Leave a comment for them as well!

I love books. I often wonder if it is the teacher in me, or was it my love of books that lead me to be a teacher. Anyways, I picked up a few books to help me out with teaching Dill and Sweet Pickles about our faith. I just love paperbackswap.com and half.com for books. Nothing like free or cheap new and used books. These are my newest books. I already read The Catholic Home a few weeks ago when I got it from the library. I liked it so much I had to buy it.