Quotable Sunday: Back to School!

This year, for the first time, both of my oldest kids will be going to school! DS11 is returning to her school, but as a middle schooler, and DS4 is all signed up for VPK! That makes tomorrow the first day of middle school AND the first day of preschool! Yikes! Today's quotes are therefore a reflection of back-to-school. First up, the funny quote:

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. ~Edgar W. Howe

Anyone out there feel this way? Personally, I love my children being home with me to the point that I'd almost consider homeschooling, but there are those days that I wish there was no one running across the floor so I could get it clean and keep it that way for longer than 10 minutes. Also, there is something to be said for occasional quiet. On a slightly more serious note:

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. ~Aristotle

This is one I hope we can all remember tomorrow morning when we're waking up much earlier than we'd like to be waking up. Then we'll need to remember it again each evening as we engage in our nightly battle against homework. So far, the work with the summer math packet has actually been fairly positive, as she's realized that working with mixed fractions is not nearly as difficult as she thought. One day, all this effort will pay off, right? Last but not least:

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have given his life. ~Ernest Renan, Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse, 1883

This quote blows me away when I realize that it was written in 1883, and that all of the knowledge that existed in 1883 is easily obtainable to my children through the wonders of the internet. The vast ocean of knowledge that our children swim in is unprecedented in history. With this great power, of course, comes great responsibility (~Peter Parker). What will my children be able to accomplish with this amazing foundation of knowledge to build upon? It really puts those hours spent correcting math homework in perspective. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really looking forward to the first day of school!

Quotable Sunday: Candles!

Today, my friend and Party Lite consultant Morgan Carroll is coming over to throw a candle party at my house. In honor of this, I looked for some candle quotes for my fellow candle lovers. I found some really nice ones, as candles are not only lovely in and of themselves, but also make a lovely metaphor.

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
--James Keller

Burn not thy fingers to snuff another man's candle.
--James Howell

Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.
--William Arthur Ward

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
--William Shakespeare

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

I think these are all great, and I'm having trouble choosing a favorite this week. Which do you think is most uplifting?

Quotable Sunday: Grocery Shopping

Today is that wonderful day when Hubby and I pack all three kids into the minivan and drive to WalMart so we can do our grocery shopping together as a family. Why do we do this? Obviously, because we are crazy. Normal women would just go do the shopping themselves, either during the week with the two children that are at home or on the weekend, using the hubby as a babysitter. In our family, though, we like to do everything together. So, in honor of our special brand of lunacy, I bring you the best grocery shopping quotes I could find. Enjoy!

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.
-- Erma Bombeck

A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist.
-- Franklin P. Jones

Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another checkout line.
-- Ann Landers

If you change lines, the one you just left will start to move faster than the one you are now in.
-- O'Brian's Law


When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It's a whole different way of thinking.
-- Elayne Boosler


I don't remember my mother ever playing with me. And she was a perfectly good mother. But she had to do the laundry and clean the house and do the grocery shopping.
-- Patricia Heaton

I think that last quote is a great example of why we do this crazy thing and go grocery shopping as a group of five. If we can share these simple things and make a game of the weekly errands, that's just one more bond that we share as a family. My three year old is learning about things like "serving size" and "added sugar," my eleven year old is learning about budgeting decisions, and the baby just loves being carried around in his Moby.