Friday, my SIL called early in the morning to invite us to tag along with them to the zoo. One of the aspects of homeschooling that I really enjoy is the ability to change our plans without filling out paperwork and securing permission from other people who consider themselves more capable of deciding how my kids should spend their day, aka school administrators. We went to the zoo and had a fabulous time. Here’s one more thing about homeschooling that is great: while all the school kids had to load onto their buses at 1:30 to head back to school, we had the whole zoo to ourselves for the rest of the day.

We let the kids feed the giraffes again. The young lady working at the giraffe exhibit was a new zoo employee. She spent the whole time complaining about how rude and unruly the children were that day.

“I’ve never seen so many children in one place in my life. I had no idea this job was going to be like this. The parents did not control them. They broke in line. They were rude. They were loud. They didn’t follow the rules.”

Then she looked at my children who were standing there quietly, not pushing, not whining, not trying to steal money from the donation box, holding their dollars and waiting for their turns.

“Your kids are the most well-behaved kids I’ve seen all day!”

We had a really fun weekend, but I’ll tell you the truth, that comment was the highlight. My children are not always well-behaved. When they are, however, it is good for people to notice. It only helps to encourage them to be well-behaved all the time.

And Abbey only complained about the smell once or twice.

Friday night, we went to a birthday party for my nephew. We ended up watching Happy Feet since it was one of his gifts. That has to be one of the worst children’s features I’ve seen in a long time. It is definitely one of the movies we may never see again.

Another highlight came on Friday night when I learned that Lisa chose my submission as one of her winners for her motherhood writing contest. She posted mine today if you’re interested in reading it.

Saturday morning we cleaned the house and did laundry. That afternoon we had another nephew’s birthday party to attend. May is full of birthdays in our family!! Then, we had to do some shopping at SAMS. Why do people think spray-painted flowers are pretty?

Sunday, I was served the necessary fruit in bed. I sat up while each child presented his/her card. They were so sweet! Karl prepared some cinnamon rolls.

Then, the girls and I had to go to the hospital to visit my grandmother. My mother was staying with her, so we got to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, too.

Gift-giving is so much fun, especially when I have purchased something I KNOW will be a good gift.

After our visit with the matriarchs, we hurried home to pick up the men for church. The sermon was very good, though Abbey was such a wiggle worm I was almost in tears by the end.

Then, we were off to spend the afternoon with Karl’s side of the family. Even though over 30 people were there, it was hard to not think about the one person who wasn’t there. We are approaching the first anniversary of Granddaddy’s death, and it hasn’t gotten any easier to go to his house and not see him there.

After we got the kids in bed last night, Karl and I stayed up to watch a movie together. If you have not seen The Pursuit of Happyness, get thee to your nearest store and rent it. It is a wonderful story. Karl and I were left wondering why there have been some negative reviews of it. I have a few ideas to explain it, but that’s for another post. I’ve rambled long enough.