Even with the older three kids back in school this week, I've been soooo busy.

With all this great weather, I've started spring cleaning in earnest. Opening windows to air out - Cleaning out drawers and closets - Consolidating items left out of season in the kid's cubby - And hopefully before the weekend I can start on the yearly "thinning of the toys". I swear, Cassidy's Barbies and the boys action figures have been hooking up after the lights go out, purely to reproduce and stage a coup.

Connor also had his special ed and psychological re-eval on Monday, which is was nearly a whole day event seeing as how I got terribly lost trying to find where we needed to go. Picture me driving around East Syracuse looking for a road that seemingly didn't exist (no sign!) and a gas station that had a phone book. All of this because I rushed out the door so quickly, leaving the address on the dining room table, and my cell phone on the kitchen counter.

The evaluations went well though. We'll wrap them up today with a home visit later this afternoon with the special education evaluator. But in the end, he scored lower than I think any of us expected him to. Its a very weird feeling as a mother, hearing his scores. In that, I wanted him to evaluate poorly enough that the CPSE would have fewer arguments at the next meeting to negotiate him out of attending an integrated classroom, as they did last year. But I also wanted my baby to score well because he is so smart! I know other moms with special needs kids will understand my personal conflict.. and know just how terribly difficult to verbalize.

The crochet project? It grows. No pictorial updates however, because it hasn't grown that much. I did get quite a lot done last night while watching There Will Be Blood with Richard. We didn't like it. Incredible acting.. Incredible. But the movie itself? Ehhhh. Mostly, I've gotten so little done because there was this thing called the Pennsylvania Democratic primary going on. Between watching cable news, reading my favorite political blogs, and spending some time making calls for Obama - crafting took a back seat.

And now we get to the part where you say, "I was told there'd be a giveaway?" after reading my rambling update which clearly doesn't match the title of my post..

I'm reading I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. I love essays, particularly ones that make me laugh out loud. But additionally interesting, is that Sloane creates dioramas capturing the scenes in many of her essays.

As Cassidy is recently obsessed with creating dioramas, we love to look at Sloane's flickr album where you can see them take shape a piece at a time. Plastic spoons as subway seats and a hazelnut as a turd. Maybe I'm odd in that craft geek sort of way, but find it very interesting.

And now for the giveaway.. I have an extra copy of the book, sitting here on the desk, ready to ship out. Getting it is as easy as leaving a comment here. Nothing else. Just leave a comment by Wednesday April 30th, 2008. I'll use the handy number randomizer to pick a comment and send the book along for your reading enjoyment.

Good luck!

Around a year ago on this day..

• Someone find my tinfoil hat please.. - 2007
• Weekend Update - 2006