Do you think Abraham Lincoln ever struggled with this?

I've been MIA around here lately (here being my blog, not my home) and I finally figured out why.

It's not because I have nothing to yammer on and on about. Not because there are no adorable pictures to show of of my adorable children. Nor is it because I'm enjoying the springlike weather so much that I'm frolicking outside every chance I get (I'm still too much of a hermit to do that for any length of time and yes, I realize that's horribly pathetic - you can send chocolate if you'd like).

It's because I'm homeschooling with a toddler. An extremely active one. And an absolutely huggable and kissable one. Yet one that needs a lot of "reminding" that he is not to hit, scream, whine or use the word "please" as a way of begging when "no" has been clearly heard at least 38 times if not more. Throughout the day. Except for naptime (God, thank you for naptime) and of course, bedtime (amen).

Not only am I trying to homeschool with a wonderful toddler, I'm trying to be organized, creative and serene at the same time.

What I've realized is that takes every single brain cell in my body to do. When they are exhausted (yesterday, it happened at about 10:14am), the rest of the day is spent with me trying not to eat all the chocolate floating around in various corners of my humble abode.

So today, in the spirit of organization, creativity and serenity (and a desire to update the 1.5 fabulous readers of my fallow blog), I will be attempting ("attempting" is much less intimidating than saying "I will be" and I don't know about you, but that helps a wee bit with the serenity goal) to have an Abraham Lincoln "observance" here today.

We'll be breaking out Ingri d'Aulaire's Abraham Lincoln book and that other book on Lincoln my daughter removed from my creative "To Do on Lincoln's Birthday" pile and is now missing from my view as I sit here serenely typing this post. We'll also be doing a Lincoln word search and playing with Lincoln Logs. I was going to attempt to make a Jelly Roll to represent a log, but that idea was encroaching upon my need for serenity (and threatening my unstable waistline) so I axed it. Swiss Rolls sounded like a great alternative, however, I failed to be organized enough to have purchased them beforehand. Which means I have no creative snack to accompany my Lincoln observance.

So as you can see, at this point, all 3 of my goals are in jeopardy, and it's only 8:05am.

And my sweet, adorable and "forgetful of reminders" toddler is still in bed.

Sympathy in the form of comments are always welcome. And so is chocolate prayer.