***Blog Catch Up***

I'm having some image browser/ upload problems so hopefully I can figure that out but in the mean time... Happy New Year! We've been home for almost a week now and Tommy's back at school. We watched The Emperor's Club for motivation before he went back! Kathryn and I were sick over the weekend but we seem OK now, we checked out the new McPhail Center* on Saturday- it's so nice, I attened a new book club last night at Peter and Laura's house- we read A Thousand Splendid Suns- I loved it- and I pretty much hated Kite Runner.

In todays Strib there was an interesting article about people who've vowed not to buy new this year- I really like that! It just seems so wasteful- all the stuff we aquire without even thinking about it. Our biggest consumption is eating out! We're getting better- thankfully neither of us likes to shop recreationally, but we can be guilty of adding random stuff to the Target cart. So without being too stringent we plan to pursue this- our big exceptions will be food, household necesseties (toilet paper, etc) diapers, and Kathryn needs (which she doesn't really have other then food and sometimes clothes.) We have enough clothes, toys, books, and household knick-knacks. As for books- interlibrary-loan has been awesome and if the wait is too long then off to 1/2 Price Books. I'm not sure we'll make much of a differnce - again b/c we don't buy that much to start with but it seems like a worth while challenge. So be prepared for a year of homemade goodies! (one other exception- TPs birthday/valentine gift- already ordered and it's AWESOME) Oh, I suppose another exception would be if we wanted to sell (we don't, not planning on it, but if) then we might have to buy, buy, buy.

Finally, perhaps I'm the coolest mom around or the last to know but The Current
has an online stream of kid's music. We've been listening all day and love it! I'm also excited about THIS. I think it looks very fun!


*If our benefactor is reading (without sounding greedy) Kathryn would really benefit from their early childhood music classes and if you wanted to cover tution, Kathryn will be even smarter in the U.K.