Where has the year gone? (I don't really need an answer, I KNOW where the year has gone.) So we're heading right back into the holiday season again, and I'm determined to hang on to EVERY shred of my sanity. With my "buy low, sell high" philosophy, Christmas should be a breeze. Plus, I cancelled it. Remember?

Lydia is in 3rd grade now and is becoming a bit of a math genius, if her MAP scores are to be believed. How this is possible being the spawn of 2 people who couldn't balance a checkbook to save their lives is beyond me. She's also an excellent reader. This does not surprise me. Books are our friends. Her current obession is a booked titled, "Emily Upham's Revenge or How Deadwood Dick Saved the Banker's Niece". She's been working on it for about 2 weeks now. She reports that she is currently on page 160.

Genevieve is getting big, literally, surpassing her peers in weight and height, where once she was such a peanut. She likes to dance and sing and read books. Lydia brought home a box full of new books for her from the neighbor's house yesterday. And that, my friends, is what raising decent human beings is all about, is it not? One sister, being thoughtful and procuring new books for another? My work here is done. Just kidding.

We've got dance class, Girl Scouts and in January - skating lessons for them both. We've got 2 trampolines in the backyard by a stroke of good fortune. Anyone need a trampline? Brand new? You can have it for a song!

Early snow showers are making everything kind of pretty today. Although I question my ability to get through the winter with a smile on my face if winter is going to start 6 weeks earlier than normal. Pray for me.

In other housekeeping news, literally, Lydia left something strange and juicy in her room and now we have an invasion of fruit flies. In October. With snow on the ground. Help.