I had the afternoon to myself today. Yup-me time. I so needed to get out of the house. It's been a stressful and busy few weeks, so to be able to get out without the kids in tow was refreshing. Where did I end up going? Barnes and Noble of course. I lost myself in books and magazines and coffee from the cafe'. Did you know that Barnes and Noble gives homeschoolers a 20% discount on all books for educational purposes? However, I always manage to get the rude cashier that has no idea about homeschoolers. When I went to renew my card, he asked for all kinds of paperwork from the "school system" to prove we were homeschooling. Like he would even know what it meant. Despite my homeschooling ID card, he just wouldn't give in. This was just before Christmas and the store was packed. I threw a tantrum that caused the manager to come over. She quickly remedied the problem and I was able to get the discount on all $100 of my purchases. The cashier threw the form at me and told me to fill it out another time. I politely told him that, no-I would rather do it now. He was quite annoyed that I held up his line. I was quite annoyed that he was rude.
Today (I got the same cashier), he asked me for photo ID when I gave him my Barnes and Noble Educator discount card. I told him that it was not policy to ask for photo ID, he abruptly told me that I wouldn't get the discount without the ID. Since I was paying with my bank card that had my name on it-I really didn't see why he needed more ID. So what did I do? I stood there and said nothing and gave him the blank stare and just blinked. He was so uncomfortable because he didn't know what to do. "Photo ID please" he continued. I stared more. I blinked more. Then I swiped my card thru the machine. "The name is verified on the bank card," I said.
"The receipt is in the bag," He said.
My very nice purchases today include Hobby Farm Home Magazine (my new favorite), a Vegetarian cookbook (we're not vegetarian but I wanted some recipes), The Backyard Homestead Book that I've been wanting and a book for my daughter that was on clearance. Total cost-$39.00 with my discount.
Then I stopped at an educational store called "Up With Learning." I bought this really cool calendar set for Tae to help teach him his numbers, days of the week, and month. Besides, it comes with little weather tabs that he can add on to tell us the weather. Everymorning he checks the weather forecast and then tells us all what we should wear according to the forecast.
This would be the reason for my stress. My husband had surgery on Monday. He had his other Cochlear implant placed and stayed overnight at the hospital. He'll probably growl at me for posting this picture on the blog too. Thanks to all my co-workers who took such good care of him. As you can see-he is ever so thrilled that I am taking his picture of his head bandage. Not to mention he had a slamming headache and was annoyed with everything. Love you honey!
My garden is just gorgeous. The Bleeding Hearts are in full bloom.
The deer have been busy grazing at the Hosta salad bar.
The birds are busy building nests like this one.
We are finding lots of pretty blue eggshells from the nests.
The Columbine are a beautiful grape color.
My Azalea bush was so bright it looked as if it was on fire. It needs a trim very badly after it is done blooming. It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.
The garden is all planted except for my gourds and loofah gourds. I picked those seeds up today and will plant them this weekend. I planted Marigolds throughout the whole garden to discourage bugs and pests on my vegetable plants.
This is not Marijuana although it looks like it. It is growing beside our pond and is called a May Apple. It gets very large and overhangs the pond.
The bullfrog is huge!
And is enjoying the murky green water.
This is not a garden hose. It's a garden snake sunning himself on the warm rocks by the pond. Snakes are very beneficial to the garden because they eat small rodents. Their shedded skin also makes a very cool item to look at under the microscope during our homeschool lessons.
See her little head peaking out. 
Tae has been working on his writing. He LOVES dry erase boards and workbooks.
Osmosis boy is pretty much teaching himself these days. I'm amazed at how much they absorb at this age and how fast their development is. Our pool is being opened tomorrow. It will be at least another month before we can swim but the solar cover will warm it up quickly.
Next week we have a field trip to Quonset Air Museum. We are enjoying the days as our formal school year comes to an end.
The kids also had Art Class Homework from last Monday. They had to search the house and find 5 things that they thought were art. 
She even printed the pictures and then cut them out.
And then pasted them into her sketch book. She labeled and drew the pictures next to the photographs. She also chose my fall patterned quilt that my sister-in-law made for me and the loved the patterning on the bottom of an egg carton. She also picked out a wood emblem from her dresser.