Wanna know a secret?

Real Gil and I love to keep secrets from our kids. It's why we don't make out on the couch. Just kidding. That's not the kind of secret I am talking about

I'm talking about this kind of secret...


Oh yeah, baby!

On Sunday, we are ripping the link off of the countdown paper chain which has been hanging in our kitchen for the last two weeks. The paper chain represents days until we leave on our annual family vacation to Palm Springs, where the children get their yearly swimming lessons from Daddy*, where one set of grandparents have nightly sleepovers with our children, and where Real Gil sneaks in a few rounds of golf. It's a great week of hot weather, pool parties, and long naps.

But this year, we've added two days onto the front of our trip. To go to Disneyland! And one grandma and my little sis and her hubby are coming along for the fun too. The children are clueless so I'm packing princess dresses and ugly walking shoes covertly. If you are going to run into our children in the next few days, don't mention this unless you want me and Real Gil to egg your house (and blog about it afterwards).

I will certainly keep you all updated on how this goes. (Duh. That's what I do best. Make annoying videos of my children for you all to watch, thank you very much.)

Until then, here are a few links I've enjoyed this week. By the way, I know I'm getting a little more "bold" in the articles I'm choosing. I suppose this is because I realize I have opinions and I figure you are okay with me gently pointing to them. Feel free to disagree, and heck, tell me all about it.

• Wow! An amazing article about a family struggling with twins who both happen to have autism.
• Here's my controversial one. :) Take it or leave it. As we have watched it snow here many times this Spring, I readily admit that I stand in the non-global-warming camp.
• I know I'm a bit prudish, but I don't know of a mother out there that approved of the recent dancing number eight-year old girls did as part of a national dance competition. Here's one mother's take on it.
• Kinda nerdy, I know, but here is a link for free assessments, if you are a homeschooling family with children that are good at acting like they understand stuff they really don't. :)
• Shaun Groves is a new favorite for me. I don't even know his music at all, but his blog is great. This article was rich and short and honest.
• Uncle 'Keve will be home from Afghanistan in about two weeks, with three happy family members standing at the base airport in Okinawa when he gets off the plane. Wish I could be a fly on the wall...in the meantime, here's another Marine, like Uncle Steve, who seems to use humor to cope.
  

I pray your weekend is full of sweet memories and perhaps a good surprise or two thrown in for good measure. I'll let you know how ours goes next week.

Resting in Christ Alone,
Karen

*We do not have very strong views on many things, but even the words "swimming lessons" cause me to panic. I think this might have to do with the swim lessons me and The Twin received as kids...throw me in water and to this day, I may or may not start crying for arm floaties. Anyways, Real Gil is understanding and - good for me - cheap too, so we go the homeschool route. He and Grandpa teach our children every summer for one week in Palm Springs. We have them completely fooled. They think the are just playing in the pool and before the end of the week, they are usually much-improved in swimming. Now if Real Gil can just get me to take off the arm floaties and try some of his swimming strategies...