Pausing in the planning to write a post

I'm still knee deep (nearly literally) in homeschool planning. I think I probably have a grip on how I'm going to make this goofy year work and when I'm done I'll share it with you. But doing all this planning combined with being a wee bit compulsive means that not much else has happened, including laundry. I really need to something about the laundry or it will get ugly.

All that to say, there's not a whole lot else going on in my brain these days. (Unless you count preparing to send B. off to school tomorrow. I'm pretty sure there is a good chunk of mental real estate given over to that somewhere in my head.) So I'll share a couple of things with and then I can get on with my planning.

• The little girls never fail to delight and yesterday HG came up to me laughing with a funny G. story. (Remember, I've done a new cast of characters so you can keep straight all the initials including the few new ones I'll be using.) Ever since HGbaby has been here, the little girls, particularly G., have been a little baby-crazy; the dolls which never got a lot of play before are more popular. All morning yesterday, G. was wearing the little sling we have with a baby doll in it and taking care of the baby doll. So G. takes herself over to HG's room and announces, "We have to talk. You are a mommy and I am a mommy and mommies talk together."
• There are certain seasons of the year where I am very glad we homeschool. The back-to-school period is one of them and not for the reason you might expect. Reading people's facebook posts about how much they are spending on back to school supplies leaves my jaw hanging open. Truly, I can't afford for my children to go to school looking at those totals! I have spent less getting my ~13 people ready for school (and that includes the supplies needed for a new freshman living on campus) than some of the amounts for families with three children. I really do inhabit a different world.
• Judging by the amount of typos in yesterday's post (which I will be correcting in just a moment), I need to not try to write when surrounded by children. The quiet early morning hours are far better for accurate keyboard use. Evidently, I'm not as good at typing one-handed (I wrote a good chunk of yesterday's post with L. on my lap asking me nearly constant questions) as I thought I was. 
• I had no idea that the woman who wrote under the name Elizabeth Peters had died. I have read her books over so many years it feels a little as though I've lost a friend. M. and I did think we would need to reread all the Amelia Peabody books again in memorium. On the other hand, I'm very excited to look up some of the authors that were recommended... once I have a school year planned, that is.