The Tooth Fairy

I was just slightly baffled when my little girl presented me with this scantily-clad fairy figurine for my birthday a couple years ago. Obviously, my daughter thought it was a beautiful piece of brick-a-brack, but my mother had taken her shopping and I really thought Mother had better taste than that. The first thought that went through my mind was, "Surely she didn't mistake it for an angel?!" But it all became clear when my daughter sweetly asked, "How you like your tooth fairy, Mommy?"

I don't know why I didn't recognize the tooth fairy immediately! Now she occupies a place of honor in my bathroom, which is where all scantily-clad figments-of-the-imagination belong!

(Oh. And just in case you wondered, if you saw my Show & Tell about Sits a few weeks ago, my house is not completely decorated with tacky knick-knacks!)

My sister posted a cute story about the tooth fairy visiting her home earlier this week, and that reminded me of an incident from my childhood that I wrote up in my NaNoWriMo memoirs. So here's the "tell" portion of my Friday Show & Tell post:

I lost a tooth while we lived in the trailer-house on Granddaddy's property, when I was in first grade. At our house we didn’t put a lost tooth under our pillows for the tooth fairy to find. Instead Mother had us put it in a glass of water on the table. I don’t know if anyone else ever did it that way, or if that was something Mother came up with… but I’m sure it was to help serve as a reminder to the "tooth fairy" to not forget to trade the tooth for some loose change. So I put my lost tooth in the glass of water and I was determined to watch for the tooth fairy and see her when she came.

(Mother says she never tried to make us believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus, but we did anyway. I believe her, because I’ve done the same thing with my children. You can explain all you want to, but children are great pretenders and can believe about anything!)

As I was carefully watching the glass with my tooth in it, one of my teenage uncles came in. When Mother explained that I was watching for the tooth fairy he said, “Oh! I saw the tooth fairy flying around outside. You better go outside and see if you see her out there.”

So I did.

And would you believe? The tooth fairy took my tooth while I was outside! I never did see her. And mother and whichever uncle it was declared that they hadn’t seen her either! That tooth fairy. She’s a sneaky sort of character.

Bloggin' Blessing

I've seen this little candle on several blogs recently. It seems to be making the rounds... and today it lights up my blog as a special "blessing" from Rachel at A Romantic Porch. I guess the idea is that if someone dedicates it to you, you're supposed to post the image on your blog and dedicate it to some of your blogging friends who are a special blessing. Then you can keep it on your side-bar if you like. I don't know if there is a certain number of people you are supposed to name... but I decided to limit it to three. Otherwise, I'd probably end up listing everybody on my blogroll... which I guess would be okay... but in the spirit of the game, I'll keep it down to these three:

• Dori at A Moment in Time, my sweet sister who has been blogging along with me for several years. We were reading each other's blogs back when no one else we knew was blogging! Her most recent post, about The Tooth Fairy, has inspired my post for Show & Tell this week. You'll have to come back tomorrow to read the story and see what I have to show you about that. (But you can go ahead and click through to Dori's blog to read her cute story! Tell her I sent you.)
  
• My childhood friend, Denise Truesdale, with whom I have recently reconnected through the "magic" of blogging. I am enjoying catching up and getting reacquainted with her.
  
• Farrah at Light in the Sphere who just starting blogging a few days ago, but already has several very interesting posts. She struggles daily with physical challenges but has a such a sweet spirit that she it is an inspiration and blessing to me.
  

Thursday Thirteen - Edition #13 - "B"

Continuing with my alphabet theme, here are 13 things in my life that start with the letter B (in alphabetical order):

1. Back Roads. A fun way to travel.
   
2. Bargains. The only thing I enjoy shopping for.
3. Bees. My dad had honeybees when I was growing up. He plans to get more soon.
   
4. Bible. "I stand alone on the Word of God... the B-I-B-L-E."
   
5. Bike Riding. A family activity we enjoy.
   
6. Biscuits. I have finally learned to make good ones. The secret is baking them at 500 degrees.
   
7. Blogging. A great way to keep in touch.
8. Blue. My car is blue... my favorite color for cars.

9. Books. I have no idea how many I own, but it's well into the thousands.
10. Bookstore. I could live in one. I really could!
11. Brothers. I have 2. My husband has 3.
    
12. Brown Eyes. My husband's are beautiful!
13. Bubble Bath. The perfect way to relax.
    

Favorite Web Stores

"Works for Me Wednesday" has a theme this week. We are all to share our favorite web-stores. Here are some of mine--with links, of course! If I left off your favorites, feel free to share them in the comments!

• Amazon. I suppose this is probably on everybody's list. I like that they usually have the cheapest prices and free shipping on orders over $25. I have even set up my own store-front listing all of my favorite books, movies, and more!
• CBD. A great source for Christian materials, with good prices.
• Deep Discount. I've ordered DVD box sets from them a couple of times, at prices even cheaper than Amazon.
  
• Sonlight Curriculum. This, of course, is where I order my homeschool curriculum... and "just great books."
• Timberdoodle. Another great source for homeschooling materials and fun games for your family. I have gotten to know the family who owns this company at some of my homeschool conventions, and I really admire them.
• A Romantic Porch Boutique. Unique gifts and collectibles.
  

Online shopping works for me!

Half-a-million Business Cards!

Did you ever wonder what 500,000 business cards would look like? Probably you didn't... but I think it's impressive enough to show you, anyway!

Some of you know that my husband is a printer, and when the print shop got in a huge order for business cards recently, he suggested that it might be blog-worthy. I offered to make him a partner on this blog and let him post about it, but he declined. Said I write better than he does. I don't know so much about that... but I promised to post about it if he would take a picture for me. So he did. And there you are!

Obviously, the business cards haven't been cut apart yet. They are run through the press "sixteen-up" which means there are 16 on each piece of paper. And being the good homeschool mom I am... let's have a little math story problem here, shall we?

A customer ordered 500,000 business cards. The printer can get 16 cards on one sheet of paper. There are 19 stacks of paper (what the printer calls "press lifts"). Approximately how many sheets of paper are in each stack?