Monday! Monday! Monday!

Starting off the day with delicious cup of coffee...Make that 2 or 3 of them. I try to get up at least 30 minutes early (preferably an hour) before waking the kids just so I can sit and enjoy my coffee in silence. It's even better now that it's darker in the morning. I'm sorry, but there's just something wrong about waking up before 6am and being greeted by blaring Sun that's obviously been up for much longer than you have...I prefer the gentleness of dawn just beginning to roll in.  Watching the Sun come up with a steaming cup of coffee is one of the most relaxing things ever!

 Now, let me introduce you to my coffee babies. My Senseo and my Tassimo. Both make excellent cups of coffee! I use the Senseo when I'm in a foamy frame of mind. Nothing (cheap) out there makes a better cup of foamy coffee! I especially love using 2 pods in the 2 cup setting. I always get a nice strong cup of coffee with a delicious foamy crown. I use the Tassimo when I either just want pure coffee or I'm in a Starbucks mood (I use the Starbucks T-discs...Excellent!) I also use the Tassimo when I feel like making a specialty drink such as lattes, cappuccino's, hot chocolate or teas. Both machines have a place of honor on my counter and are ready to produce at a moments notice and I do use both!

And yes, I also own a 12 cup drip and a French press! I just think John would kill me if I tried to leave all of my coffee machines out on the counters! Don't tell him but I'm thinking about adding a Keurig to my collection just so I can experiment with all the flavored coffees they have. That would be the only reason though, because I've tried the Keurig and it sucked as far as producing a good strong cup of regular coffee on it's own. I'm not going to buy one brand new but if I see on either deeply clearanced or find one on Ebay that someone is trying to get rid of, I might pick it up.

Ian and Matthew start soccer this week! I'm more excited than they are but considering they'd stay glued to the computer monitor if I let them, I'm not surprised. They just are not into being outdoors! Or doing anything that does not involve hitting "enter" on a keyboard... I got lucky and they're on the same team again. It means I don't have to live in the car twice a week because of conflicting game practices, rush from one practice site to the other or end up stuck in a soccer field because both boys have make up games alongside the original game which meant 4 games in one day! Whew!

Ian's had gym every school day since school started and after the first week he started coming home dragging limbs and complaining about how much he ached and hurt and had to be sick and could he skip school. Especially in the mornings after waking up. After a few sleuthing questions, I had to inform him he was suffering from that strange malady called "exercise" and that his muscles were in shock and that he better get used to it, lol! He didn't like that too much.

As for Matthew, that boy is going to surpass Ian on the growth chart soon! Even though they're 2 yrs (23 months to be exact) apart, he not only wears the same shoe size, shirt and pretty much same pant size, he's already 3 lbs heavier! Ian told him on the first day of school to let him know if anyone bothered him because, being the "big" brother, he'd deal with it. I had to bite my tongue to keep from stating that next yr, it might be the opposite. Here they are getting ready to leave for school. See what I mean? Ian is wearing the glasses. He's 12 and a half and Matthew is 10 and a half.

After I get the older boys to school, I've been trying to spend some time with Connor in learning mode before he demands to wake up Rowan. Working with Connor on his ABC's and numbers is harder than I thought! Between his eye rolling "you tell me"s and just not cooperating when he doesn't feel like it, I'm tearing out my hair! I really admire teachers because I know without a doubt that I don't have the mind set to ever be one. Anyhoo, it's slow going, or seems like it is. Mostly because he'll take 1 step forward then 2 steps back and then suddenly doesn't remember anything. I just have to keep plodding along knowing that inside, he is retaining it even if I don't see it.