Tuesday... one year ago.

Man they look different.. all three have slimmed up in the face.. and grown a couple of inches!  It has been a long year it seems, but yet this year so far is going by much too quickly!

The Great Complaint...

I sat in a group of 8 ladies yesterday.. and while these are not "Debbie Downer" types and I don't know that I have HEARD them complain like this before.. yesterday was like a FESTIVAL OF COMPLAINTS...

I blame it on the time of year.  Even for seasoned veterans (which a number of these ladies have graduated kids from COLLEGE)... this time of year weighs on us. 

We are over the mid year hump (freaked out about what we HAVE not accomplished). 

Our awesome schedule we made on September first has not been used since since September 30. 

It is really time to be evaluating what has and has not worked so we can start planning for next year.

Decision time is coming up in the next two months for sign up for next year (co-ops, music classes, museum classes, summer camps etc)

The kids have the winter blues (and we really don't even HAVE winter here, I can't imagine home schoolers in WINTER)

We are realizing all the FUN we had planned to incorporate into our learning.. just flew out the window and we are simply trying to get the basics squeezed in!

We realize we have "x" amount of years left with each child.. which induces panic attacks.

We compare ourselves to where others are at-- during this introspective check list- we find ourselves greatly lacking.

It is a scary time.. now rest assured.. once the fear, anxiety, hand wringing, mid- year curriculum changes, schedule re-vamping and QUIET TIME WITH JESUS happens.. we are pretty good until May (that is when it truly hits us that our scheduled stop date is NOT GOING to happen)

BUT in the interim... we all complain, and research and come to great mind- blowing conclusions.

I am nearly over my: fear, anxiety, hand wringing, mid- year curriculum changes, schedule re-vamping and onto the QUIET TIME with JESUS part

I truly should START with that part!

Sunday Sum up: Feb 10-14

Truthfully.. Beyond what happened in the past 6 posts... It was just school and life as usual!

On Monday-- Kate and Emily tried out for the choir Spring fest... A talent show/ fundraiser for choir...it is this coming Saturday!

On Tuesday-- Matt had PT as usual and next week they are doing a revaluation and he might be released!!! I have mixed feelings, will be glad to redeem my time and money-- but he is still limping fairly often so I know we will still have to be diligent to do the therapy at home..

On Wednesday--- I got to go have coffee with H-Mama!!!

Who is too busy to blog but stays relevant on Instagram and occasionally Facebook! 

Lol.  I stole her Instagram to me!!!!

We had a great time!!! 

On Thursday--- was the skate party and we got school done--- the older two are studying for their first big TEST!! 

A unit study over 10 weeks!

Silly girl!!

On Friday--- we just loved on each other all day long!!!

This is my shout-out to Dave... My dear hubbie!!!

 

Vroom, vroom...

LWe hosted a bday party for a friend.  Timothy turned 14 and we went to K1 Speedway to celebrate!  They have cars that the boys could drive 45 miles per hour!

It was really awesome... Sad part is that Matt didn't get to ride because if his knee-- still healing and all, so we promised to go back to celebrate his complete healing in a couple of months!  He was a real trooper about it though! 

After the big race we headed to Amy's for food, cake and HOURS of fellowship!!

It was so great!  We had other friends drop by and it was a mad house with 10 kids and 12 adults-- but memories were made and past memories REMEMBERED  and retold!  It was an amazing evening.. 

Valentines Day!!!! 2014

It ended up being a great day!!!

I gave the kids the day off of school-- which Emily looked forward to so much- giving her a day off goes REALLY far-- I need to remember that.  

We started off with heart shaped biscuits from Chick-Fil-A... You just can't go wrong with Chick-Fil-A!

We usually do a new movie for the kids, but this year we gave Matt and Kate the last three City of Ember books and Emily the first Isabella book for American Girls. 

The books were a hit-- they proceeded to all read for the next few hours! 

We headed over to my grandmothers house for a Valentines party and had a great time!  But the funniest was an impromptu tattoo party that ended with Amy on the ground and ALL the kids drawing on her!!

Our night took an odd twist when I ended up with Amy and Kirsten for the whole evening!  We shopped with 5 kids in tow (I had MF too) and then ate at a Chinese food restaurant where Brett and Dave met us... It was a GREAT night! 

Valentine skate party...

Every year our home school group has a Valentine Skate Party and it is a HUGE hit!! Emily has looked forward to it for two months!!

She made her own box this year-- ended up needing a little help-- 

 And used my desk... Hmmm!

She lovingly went through EVERY card and happily went through ALL the candy! 

Matt didn't skate of course but hung out with his little bud...(or budette)

And Kate had a great time with everyone and especially Sarah...

 Beautiful girls.... 

AD Players:Diary of Anne Frank

We were invited by friends to usher for the AD Players and if you usher you get to see the play for free-- bonus, you also get free tickets for another play!

The play we ushered for was The Diary of Anne Frank--- it was so good.  I was very impressed with how they handled such heavy materiel.  

It was of course sad... But so inspiring.  To be honest I had not read the book since I was probably Anne's age myself-- 12 or 13... And I wished I had re-read it before the play.  But the most striking thing I realized that as I child I had sided with Anne and reconciled the story with my own "childish" view point.... As an adult I saw it from a whole other viewpoint.. A PARENT.   What fear there must have been for those parents for what would happen to their children.  I can't even begin to imagine.  But I think the true hero of the story is Mr. Frank--- 

Kate's art...

This is a drawing Kate did of a classmate in art--- the girl asked for a copy!  I think that must have been so exciting for someone to ask FOR your work!  She is really growing as an artist...,

Schedule Changes...

Okay... so this year hasn't gone the best.. It HAS gotten better as the year rolled along  I feel VERY comfortable with the curriculum and their way of teaching.  I LOVE the curriculum choice.  BUT

and that is like a HUGE BIG BUT! 

We are still struggling.  Whether its laziness, disobedience, inability, the load, our extra-curricular, how we implement... etc, etc, etc.  I do not know, although I think it is really a combination of all of the above. 

• The kids are struggling with time management (so I have taken a MUCH more active role in directing
•  the kids have been lazy and complacent about a few things and we are working on that
• there HAS been direct disobedience involved and that IS being dealt with
• the load IS a lot and I have read that it is actually the hardest of the four years (which makes me feel better)
• our extra curricular do take up a lot of time and that eats into our school day (we are re- evaluating but really don't plan to CHANGE much mid year and if we work on the time management it will take care of a lot of the problem truthfully
• implementation is where I waver--- I have read, and read and read forums, blogs, articles and I don't think I am implementing it wrong or that the program is flawed.. I think the ABOVE issues cause hiccups IN the implementation .  

So change is coming.

We decided to stretch Year 2 INTO 2 years.  Every week will now take two weeks. I twitched and spent hours/days wringing my hands and this is the best case scenario.

and here is why...

• it will calm us down
• it will give me TIME to teach the interpersonal skills they are obviously lacking
• it will not hurt either one of their credits
• it will space out book buying (which is very expensive-- if you want to donate give me a shout out...
• it will allow us to limit how much weekend/ weeknight work is done ( I don't mind them having homework, but this was bordering on the ridiculous.  I want to redeem our family time.
• it will allow me time to add the hands on stuff --- also time for field trips and deeper study
• it will give us time allow the kids to learn things they WANT to learn!
• it will allow me time to spend more time teaching other skills that I desperately want the kids to have
• it will also allow time for them to experience new things.  I have a speech class I want them in, Kate wants to attempt a theater program of some sort at some point, Matt need to have SOMETHING for himself (we are working on this), Emily would like to do swim or gymnastics or something.....
• and lastly it will hopefully, PRAYERFULLY bring back some of the joy.

BUT as badly I feel this semester has gone--- they have LEARNED so much, really!  I need to get on paper what they have read.. so here goes!  This is through WEEK 11


The Middle Ages by Barbara Hanawalt
The Theme is Freedom by M. Stanton Evens (great read)
Roman de Brut
Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley (still reading)
The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee
Faith in the Byzantine World by Mary B Cunningham
Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett
The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis (I think still reading)
Augustine and His World by Andrew Knowles
The Dream of the Rood (Norton Anthology)
The Parable of the Christ (supplement)
The Song of Roland edited by Dorothy Sayers
Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John Harran
Life IN Medieval Times by Marjorie Rowlings
On the Medieval Orgins of the Modern State by Joseph Srayer
Alfreds Book of Dooms
Viking Tales by Jennie Hall
Alfred the Great and the Saxons
Sir Gawain and the Green Night (Norton Anthology) and C.S. Lewis
Canterbury Tales
Le Morte d' Arthur
The Red Keep by Allan French
Winning His Spurs by G. A. Henty
Magna Carta and Confirmation
Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
Of All the Swords in England by Barbara Willard
The Story of Liberty by Charles Coffin
Men of Iron
Dante's Inferno
The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation by Robert G. Shearer (still reading)
Johannas Gutenberg (bio)
Ink on His Fingers by Louise Vernon
Historical Atlas of Exploration (excerpts still reading)
Renaissance Artists who inspired the World by Gregory Blanch (still reading)
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves by Roy Maynard (certain cantos still reading)



Yeah.  I am not feeling bad about my decision at all.  :0)

Emily's list is of course less but still great for her! This is through week 9... we took a little break and caught up on making people cards, timeline etc and she is reading other non historical fiction.

The Middle Ages by Mary Quigley
Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John Haaren
Tales of King Arthur by Felicity Brooks
Trials and Triumphs by Richard Hannula (still reading)
The Story of the World (still reading)
Aladdin and other Tales
Augustine Farmer boy of f Tagaste by P. De Zeeuw
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Emma Gelders
D'Aularies Book of Norse Myths
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander
Kings and Queens of England
How to Train Your Dragon (for fun)
Castle by David Macaulay
Canterbury Tales  (translation)
The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzyn
The Adventures of Robin Hood ( by John Burrows
Saint Francis of Assisi
Marco Polo Overland to China
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
Men of Iron by Howard Pyle (translation)
Chanticleer and the Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer

Sunday Sum Up: Feb 3-7

Okay.. I am officially caught up!  Hope you didn't miss any if you are reading from a blog roll!


This past week has been very hectic and full!  and not extremely productive on the school side-- things got done, but it was a very light week!

Monday:

choir as usual--

The kids, well Kate and Matt are studying for their unit test over the first 10 weeks.  IT is a 5 page test, with an essay.  They have simply NOT taken a test like this yet!  I am nervous and excited to see how they do.  We have spent a couple of days simply learning WHAT we need to study?  How we pick out whats important etc.  We have been reviewing all our people cards and going over TRYING desperately to hammer dates into our brains (and apparently our timeline books are GOING to become a priority)

Tuesday:


Matt had PT.

We spend a fair amount of time in the car both on Monday AND Tuesdays... with driving to Houston and all over town, both days.  Matt doesn't do the best reading in the car so he loses a lot of time... I am taking the time to get different cards and FIND cards on an APP called Quizlet.  There are already a lot of his lists on the APP. I am filling in what else is needed.  That way he CAN spend time doing review without reading an incredible lot.  We will see if this helps?  Plus it will help as they review for their upcoming tests the rest of the year.

Kate had art.

She finished this still life.. some parts were really good, while others she said were just really hard.  It was really her first still life-- and I told her to feel pretty good about it!  I love the doll in the middle!

Next week she starts a self portrait with chalks... she is pretty nervous and unsure of herself.  The class is pushing her boundaries, which is good!

We went to Starbucks during art before meeting a friend at her house... 

and then Kate had sign class.

Of course you already heard ALL ABOUT sign class this week!  :0)

We got home and watched the Ken Ham/ Bill Nye Creation Debate!!!

Wednesday:

This was the day we went to THE GIVER... which was tons of fun.  But after the play we all met to eat at The Hobbit Hole... don't ask me HOW we have missed going to the restaurant so far, it has been on our list forever and it just came together this week.  So the kids had a great time and Kate certainly enjoyed all the artwork on the walls!

Thursday:

Matt had PT.

We came home and did school for a little while.

Then we left for our Bayshore Homeschool group... 

This is Emily concentrating so she CAN go to BSCH!!!

then came home and headed out to Arcola to pick up a treadmill from my Mother-in-Love's house...
to help with Matt's PT. 

Friday:

Wake up at 7:00

breakfast and started our day at 8:00

PT at 9:00-10:00

My Ladies LUNCH OUT at 11:00-12:30

errand and back home to do a little school and Keepers of the Home at 2:00-5:00


and back home to get the kids settled and hand out assignments and left for my OTHER GIRLS NIGHT OUT at 5:30.

Got home at 11:00 with another kid in tow and got to bed after 12:00

WHEW.

I hardly have ANY pictures from the ENTIRE week!  I will try very hard to do better next week!  I really want these pics and sums up for my own memory and a way to keep track of things.

Saturday, Saturday... catching up blogging

Whew... almost caught up!


I had the privilege of staying home ALL DAY SATURDAY.  It is always so nice and it was the first time in a while-- I had last weekend that I had no real agenda, but still had errands and such... but yesterday I went NO WHERE! 

Dave took Matt and a friend to see the new LEGO MOVIE-- which they said was great!

The girls and I stayed home and worked on the house... they had a bunch of lazy hours. It was a pretty good day.

Although the reason it was the best day of the week is not because Emily had such a great day-- but because she basically had ZERO responsibilities on her.  I did have her fold laundry while she watched TV... I am not a fool.  :0)

But truthfully I needed a day without confrontation.  A day without having to FIGHT.  A day without having to convene or manage.

I cleaned... I got a HUGE stack of stuff outside -- that I refused to bring back into the house, Dave put it in the van and I will drop if off at its various NEW HOMES over the next week.

After the movie.. Dave left to go work on a project and Matt ended up going home with his friend, so it really WAS just the girls and I again! 

I finished my wreath I was making for Valentines Day-- yes it gets to hang up for like 7 whole days!

It was a pretty calm day overall-- Dave got home around 8:00.  The girls went to their rooms around 10 and Dave and I got to watch a few of our TV shows... yeah!

Friday, Friday.... catching up blogging.

Today was a very unusual day for me.. I got to go out TWICE with friends! 

In one day.  :0)

 PLUS had Keepers so I got to visit with Brenda too. 

It was an awesome day!  and to be honest I needed it.

Emily and I have been going round and round and I was pretty burned out.  But I got a little perspective talking to Brenda, Amy (my friend) and of course Dave.  I have a little better battle plan..
I know it seems like I make a lot of plans and I hope that you don't think all these plans fail!  The plan is for how things are going THEN and when that changes, so does the plan!  Hence, lots of plans.  Every season, every time change, every schedule change, every "new" kids stage.. gets a new PLAN OF ACTION

What bogs me down is the "plan" working or even sometimes failing, and a new stage creeping up on me and REALIZING I need a new plan!  It is that "in between" plans time that gets to me.  Maybe because I haven't gotten to the point of being able to recognize it sometimes, so I start feeling discouraged when something isn't working an THEN BOOM I realize need to change the plan.  I always feel better once I have a new strategy!

We are going back to our original plan for Emily, with a few tweaks.

I am going to try to week out a few food items, that I think might be a culprit of a few behaviors.

*nitrates ( I have no problem with a few--I know that are not good , but am not at a place that I can or want to worry about everything food wise.  However I do feel the need to limit.)

*red dye  (again, a little is okay.  But we are going to limit-- and at the least keep a watchful eye)

*any beverage beyond water ( I am putting the whole family on a beverage fast (nothing but water for the next 50 days)    We shall see how we all fare.

*apples  ( I am going with the Feingold mentality on this one, got apple juice to put her Natural Calm in and I think I am undoing the GOOD of Natural Calm-- I am NOT sure, and never really noticed it with just APPLES, but feel like I am seeing a difference with the juice so we are going to try it.  I haven't decided about tomatoes yet.

And that is all for now food wise.

I am starting her on PEACE AND CALM today actually.  We are putting a drop on each foot and I am going to put a drop on a cotton ball near her desk in the school room. 

She is also going to do Epsom Salt bath soaks--- it wont hurt her and may help with the "little" bit of nitrates or red dyes that she still be getting...

So that is it, that and Rainbow Looming of course.  My new go to  (EMILY CALM DOWN) method.  :0)  Keeps her busy! 

• It is great hand/ eye coordination. 
• It is following directions and
• Logic (reading and interpreting those visual directions)
• It is good for her eyes.
• It is a creative outlet
• It is pretty darn cheap! 
• She practices kindness by making them for people
• She learns about "other people" by wanting to make them "their" favorite color 

WIN, WIN!

Thursday, Thursday... catching up blogging

This week Matt had therapy and they kicked it up a notch...

He started using the bench press.

and they upped his reps for most of his exercises.

At one point after the bench press, his therapist asked how he felt and Matt replied that His arms actually hurt.  The therapist replied, "Collateral Damage".  I had to explain that to Matt.  :0)

Matt's endurance has improved a lot! He is walking better--- unless he is really distracted or very tired.

We are shifting from going 3x a week to therapy to 2xs a week (which is nice schedule wise) but still doing it 2-3x a day...

So right now it is definitely something that is eating at our time! 

We started out 1with 12 sessions and we are on number 9, but he has asked for 4 more.  :0(   So going to 2 a week means we have 4 more weeks of this.  SIGH. 

Wednesday, Wednesday... catch up blogging. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Today we went to see The Giver play at Main street Theater... they did a terrific job!

If you haven't read the book--- I encourage you to go do it.  There is such sadness and disbelief that "our" world-- well the world we know now.. could ever become such a place!  But while we have never gone to this length, there have been multiple times in history, in various parts of the world that people have gone to extremes.  AND we have allowed it to happen.

So I believe that beyond studying history (those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it) we need to think about the NOW and what our society is doing, is capable of and the direction we are moving.

This country is going in a bad direction!  I believe that God is in control.  I believe that there are cycles in history where things gets bad, bad, bad and then there is revival.. and the cycle goes on, but it is still hard to imagine that things have been this bad. ALTHOUGH they have, multiple times.

I think because of our technology and knowledge that MORE people have makes it looks worse.  We SEE it happening.

We see the result of gene mapping and DNA manipulation--

* parents aborting fetuses that have a Down Syndrome gene
* parents choosing the sex, eye color, etc of a baby
* sperm banks that allow you to "choose" perfection
*cloning
*stem cell research

We see the results of MEMORY--inability to study the past

*textbooks "leaving" out historical events
*whole countries acting as if historical events didn't happen (hello Holocaust)
*revisionist thinking

We see the results of SAMENESS---

*all roads lead to God mentality
*equality issues (feminism, money, Affirmative Action, School uniforms, Common Core)
* redistribution of wealth
* United Nations (One World Order)
* less recognition or encouraging of innovation
*intolerant tolerance towards Christianity (shaming us into a shared mentality of belief system)
*tolerance in general (shaming us into believing or approving things we don't believe in)

We see the results of LOSS OF CHOICE---

*over regulation by government
*health care inability to decide for ourselves
* parenting (loss of parental control to choose for our kids)
*Home Owners Associations
*taxes
*misuse of separation of church and state-- religious intolerance
*abuse of number of laws


We see the results of LOSS OF FREEDOM/ CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT
*Patriot Act
*overreach of judges
* again regulations (where you can stand, when you can smoke, what you should drink and eat)
* FDA
*EPA
*gun control
*social services
*health care (i.e. doctors asking do you have running water, do you wear seat belts, do  you have gun in home etc.)
* parents unable to be in with daughters for exams (no laws for minors on abortion etc)
*abortion
*limit of births (not here currently)

We see the results of

Tuesday, Tuesday... catch up blogging

Kaitlin is so many things... She is brilliant, kind, talented, beautiful, wise (usually), thoughtful... I could go on and on.  BUT sometimes I almost forget she is a kid.  She is 15.  She hasn't had a ton of experience dealing with what we will call the "outside" world.  Out of the bounds of MOM AND DAD are in charge.  But we are working on it and feel like she is learning lessons all the time!

 Dec 2009

Well last Tuesday she learned a big one.

She is taking sign language at a deaf church across town.. in a not so great part of town.

It is at night so its dark in the parking lot--- you get the picture.

I was going to drop her off--- watch her get safely inside and run to get Emily something to eat.  But when I got there I saw two cop cars sitting parked in the driveway.  I called Dave and he said they weren't there last week and it really concerned me that something was wrong- or extra unsafe.  So I got her inside and went over to the police officer and he explained that the HPD meets with the deaf community every other month and has a get together-- they teach a lesson, then have a fellowship time.  VERY awesome!  So the officer invited Emily and me inside to the meeting, so we joined them.

 

April 2010

 

ALL that to get to this... at 8:30 when Kates class was over she WENT OUTSIDE to look for me.

Yeah.  I had a conniption, then Dave had another one later!

We had this big talk about how dangerous it was, she had a phone, she should communicate from inside the building blah, blah, blah.

In the end we told her she had to write 2 paragraphs on WHY SHE SHOULDNT HAVE COME OUTSIDE.

So this is what I received from her a few days later.  WEIRDO.


Q: Should I have stepped outside:

Objection 1: I should have stepped outside of the Wood haven Baptist Deaf Church because I could see our red van.

Objection 2: The parking lot consisted of people I knew from my class.

Objection 3. Believing in the Lord and believing that the steps of men are pre ordained and known to the Lord, it can be argued that I was pre-ordained to step outside of the building in accordance to the Lord's will, if only to understand a lesson.

Dec 2011

Reply to Objection 1: I had to step away from the door to see the van.  I should never have stepped outside in the first place whether I saw our van or not but should have contacted mom and waited for instructions from inside (inside was underlined).

Reply to Objection 2:  I have only know the people of my class for two weeks and know little to nothing of their character.

Reply to Objection 3:  While I believe the Lord DOES know all and knows the steps of men, I also believe in the factor of free will in men, meaning I acted of my own will.

Oct 2012

Conclusion:

Stepping outside the building was wrong.  I should have stayed inside of the church and waited for instructions via the phone.  While not in direct disobedience to spoken directions, common sense would have detected unspoken directions and followed them.

 

FREAK....

She handed me a second paper that she said were just two real paragraphs in case the first thing didn't go over well.  Ya think?

 

Nov 2013

So we were over at my sisters when she handed this in and Amy of course got in on the chiding for having gone outside anyway!  So Amy said to Kaitlin, "What WOULD you have done if something HAD happened when you were outside."  Kaitlin replied, "Well I would have screamed..."  and she stopped and cocked her head and slowly AS YOU SEE TRUTH DAWNING LIKE A LIGHT FROM THE HEAVENS ABOVE..... She said, "The other people outside were deaf, they couldn't have heard me scream."

 

Feb 2014

AND LESSON LEARNED, right there.

Monday, Monday... catch up blogging...

I just want to say that I am RETRO blogging this entire week!  and a week full of mostly retro pics!


I have to note that there are at least 14 more "Mondays" of the choir year.  I love having the girls in choir.  I love visiting with all those women!  I really do... but it is still hard to be gone all day, every Monday!  I think it is one of the best decisions we have made, truthfully.. but still it's hard. 

I think if I were a more organized person it would be LESS hard.  I KNOW that if I were a more organized person it would be less hard!  So trying desperately of ways to make the day go smoother.  I mean while I am THERE it is pretty good, minus a few Emily issues.  But it is the getting ready (i.e. having been to the grocery store so I can pack a lunch!) and knowing I won't be home all day doing "x" that gets me.  If more things were kept up at home, I wouldn't mind being gone!

I cleaned half the weekend, like move furniture and vacuum and sweep-- kinda clean!  I didn't finish, but I got a good start!  I need to really SPRING clean.  But I haven't got the time to do it all at once so I broke things down into sections and hope to hit them here and there. 

I KNOW in my head and in my heart that if things were more routine, our house would run better. I mean not only is that common knowledge but I have particular people in my  home and their personalities run best on routine.

Dave is so much better when we have a routine.  He functions better all around.  It is not HIS routine, but mine that helps.  Whether this is because obviously if I am in my routine and things are getting done.. he has undershirts folded in his drawer or dinner on the table when he walks in AND that works for him. OR because the just the order of routine works for him period---I think its the latter.

If I always had his undershirts in the a basket at the end of the bed (never folded and put away), he wouldn't CARE... but he would do better knowing they are there.  But when one day they are folded in his drawer, one day they are on the folding table, one day they are in a basket..... it causes his routine to stumble.. WHO WOULDN'T!  

Kate does better with routine because she is a little obsessive and it helps to curb that.  If we are really pushing or routine she is less inclined to go off on an art bender or whatever obsession she is currently on.  She can put aside what she is "enthusiastic" about in the moment and do "x", "x" and "x", because it is a routine... but when we are just FREE FOR ALL... she doesn't do anything without being asked because she is in her own world.  :0)

Emily does better with routine because it 1. limits the number of times she has to change course or switch gears in the day (which is always a problem)  2. helps her feel in control because she knows what comes next (and helps her need less control in other areas)  3. gives her a sense of calm, the less anxious she is because we are in routine... the better our days flow.  and 4. it helps me be able to parent her because I can calmly say "Emily you know we always start math after lunch, of course you can't "x""... and she can't argue if it  is the routine, but if one day I let her do one thing and the next day another SHE FLOUNDERS and asks, and gets mad when I need to say no... etc.

Matt-- well Matt just likes things to go one way and although he can switch gears easier than Emily... it still takes effort.  If he knows ahead that something in the day will be out of the norm-- it is NO problem at all.  He just doesn't do well with last minute changes or what he thought was going to be happening and there is suddenly a change.  Don't get me wrong-- he never throws a fit or anything.. but you can see that he has to mentally shift gears and gather himself.  (he is a little like me on this one.--- just give me a minute and let me recalculate!)

SO.. lots of reasons to be better at routine than I am... but yet I struggle, daily, hourly!  BIG FAT SIGH.

I am going to finish some of the more visual house cleaning today and I have lesson plans that MUST be done... then grocery store and getting ready for the week is paramount!

Sunday Sum Up: Jan 27-31

Monday...

Choir of course.....


How do you learn about Ockhams Razor if you are my nerdy kids?  By examining quotes from Spock and Sherlock Holmes of course.

Tuesday..

It was our snow day / school day !

Wednesday..

Later that afternoon we had our ALL OF A KIND FAMILY bookclub!

The girls dressed up like the kids in the book--- to celebrate Purim.

We ate Matza ball soup, Matza crackers, latza, challah bread and drank grape juice.

We learned about the lower east side and saw some pictures of THEN and NOW.

We played a game with pennies-- the girls in the book had to dust really well and would find 12 buttons if they dusted REALLY well!  The girls took turns hiding pennies...

We had a great time and all the girls REALLY seemed to enjoy the book.  It was a winner! We are reading Mary Poppins next!

Thursday...

Matt had physical therapy and we were supposed to finish up our book club for The Giver, but a migraine knocked me out-- rarely do they send me to my bed for 16 hours straight but this one did!  So Thursday kindof became the lost day.

Friday..

the kids just did school most of the morning.. that afternoon we had a Keepers of the Faith meeting...

and more school afterwards.


NOT our best week, or our most productive week... but things got done.