Phonetic spelling and adorable little pictures! Can’t I just shrinky dink my kids for a day or two? I’ve been really aching for that time when my kids were munchkins. It was hard, yes. And it was exhausting, yes. But it was a BLAST!!! And the four of us were a crew, you know? It was us against the world! So much fun!

Mark and I were organizing photos over the weekend and the ache just got stronger. They were so adorable! I really and truly haven’t a clue - not one clue - how they just ZAPPED into teens and a pre-teen. It was like some magic spell or something!

And this morning, I came across something that made the ache palpable - the most adorable and sweet schoolwork done by a darling Kindergartner, named Mike. He is the son of Erika, otherwise known as Plain Jane Mom. His creations are here: Fun with the alphabet and crayolas. Go look really quickly, and then come right back here! I’ll wait….

Is that kid great, or what? “Wios” - I LOVE IT!!!

I think Kindergarten and First Grade are two of my favorite school years - I just love those little munchkins. I love it when their little eyes light up, and you can almost see the light bulb over their head as they begin to read their first sentences. And I love how they work so hard and so carefully at forming the letters in their special handwriting notebooks. Love it, just love it.

It is a precious, eye-opening time in a person’s life - discovering the wonder, beauty, and excitement of the written word. Absolutely precious.

I better just hush up with this right now, or I’m gonna start boohooing - or I might have to walk up to the school to read to the kindergartners, and I’ve got work to do today here at home. The craving gets so strong sometimes, I can’t believe it. A little while ago, I noticed out my window that I could see the little toddler play equipment in the neighbor’s yard and it almost made me run over there, begging to play with her adorable daughter.

Work to do, I’ve got work to do. Must not think of munchkins. No munchkins.

wah! but I love them, I love munchkins!

GET BACK TO WORK, MRS. LISA!!!