Run Run Run As Fast As You Can You Can't Catch Me I'm The Gingerbread Mum (Except I Don't Like Gingerbread So Make That The Peanut Butter Cookie Mum)

Stuff of Life Found a fun link to Wordle , which helped me create acool word mosaic out of one of my recent blogs. I just copied the text, pasted it in the box, and based on frequency of words, it created this lovely little picture. You can check out the actual picture in the gallery here. I haven't figured out how to copy the image more clearly to insert it into my blog. Oh the scrapbooking possibilities!

I am a bit overwhelmed at the propect of updating this blog with what's happened in our lives over the past three weeks. Needless to say it's been busy. VERY busy! Here's a brief snapshot: 1) My Orff Course - As part of my Master's Degree, I took my level 2 Orff (Level 1 two years ago was awesome). Bob de Frece instructed with Wendy and Laurel providing Recorder and Movement instruction. The days were awesome. So many fun activities which inspire me to be an awesome teacher and give me tools to create for my classroom. That was the good stuff. The bad stuff - group work. I realize I was probably the kind of kid who had "does not work and play well with others" written on her report card comments. Or if I wasn't then, I am now and I don't know what changed. Actually I do. I am WAY more competetive and this makes it hard to relinquish control in a group setting. Especially considering some people were doing the course for kicks and some (like me) are doing it for our degrees. So people come in with different goals and motivations which is tough to connect. I tried to be positive, at least when in the group situations. But really I was pretty stressed out about having to coordinate so many group projects (4 of them) and feeling like if I wanted stuff done well I needed to do the lion's share of the work. So while Orff level 1 ended with a feeling of I-wish-it-could-last-forever, Orff level 2 ended with a feeling of Thank-God-it's-over! 2) Lactation Specialist - Breastfeeding is the best. Even if it does mean I need to lactate in my professor's office twice daily! That's right - I rented a pump and excused myself twice a day to empty the girls (as I shall refer to them. I once made an off the cuff joke about what they were named, just as men sometimes name their more, um, intimate parts. To my chagrin, Melissa remembered this and told her at the time boyfriend! Ah the joys of sisterhood. For the record, I do not name my body parts, cars or any other inamimate object. And no, I will not tell you what my pretend names were.) It was actually a nice quiet time in my very noisy musical days. My girl Carmen gobbled up the white gold as fast as I could provide it and has the chubby little thighs to prove it! I'm glad for the technology that makes it easy to continue breatfeeding even when away for long periods, but am also so happy to be back to the au naturelle format too - less bits to coordinate. 3) Child Care Extraordinaire! My public thanks to Nana and Grandpa and Auntie Melissa for taking such good care of three busy munchkins! We all crashed at Bob and Libby's house for week one of the course, and Melissa came for three days of week 2. Jim covered the last two days taking on the role of stay-at-home-dad. I never once worried that my kids would be neglected or unhappy or insecure because my family is simply the best (and yes, I am singing Tina Turner's version "better than all the rest" in my head with that sexy gravelly voice of hers) If anything my kids were spoiled for the attention and loved every minute I'm sure. That's okay. Spoiling is a privelege for extended family. And Mummy's always here to ground the munchkins back to the reality of "No we can't eat perogies and macaroni and cheese every day" and "I know Melissa lets you yell and scream when you play with Jonah but it gives me a headache." So much more to communicate, but time to get ready for a day at the beach! Pictures later (maybe today)