Random comeback post 3

Today we are watching the Lion King. Can you believe my kids have only seen this one time? It's amazing when they are watching something brand new. They are quiet, except when asking questions of course. "Is that the mommy lion?" "Look Mama, it's a baby!" "Is that the bad guy Lion?" "Look at that monkey!" "Is that the good lion?" My kids are so cute, if I do say so myself.

This morning, I also have a smurf baby. She loves blueberries and we tend to have the frozen variety. Once thawed, There is quite a lot of blueberry watery goodness to spread around. Sometimes I wonder why I bathe them at all......

The 11 year old....oh how I love him. He is currently on a mission to find the lid to a Tupperware cereal container. He is *angry*. He has looked in 1 place and it's not there so he should BE DONE. But, **I** insist he use his powers of -reasoning- (he has them, even if he doesn't want to nlbelieve it) and KEEP LOOKING throughout the kitchen. I am just soooooo mean. Lol.

He can be awfully sweet too. The other night there was a.magical "homeschool paycheck" moment here. I was trying to get the house tidied up (and by trying, I mean knitting and staring at the mess *thinking* about how I *should* tidy up). I looked over and there was the Wobbers, with a toddler, an almost kindergartner, and a baby, all huddled in his lap intently listening to the story he was reading aloud to them. ::swoon:: I love watching my children in impromptu moments like that.

Did you hear me say, "almost a kindergartner"? Did you hear the shaking in my voice? She's almost 5. I am going to be completely responsible for teaching a child to read, write and all that other stuff. I purchase some good reading material when the tax refund came in - Sonlight P4/5 curriculum. I hope she loves it as much as I have loved perusing it. I am sure the 3 year old will love the books too. Wobbs was a little jealous that his books weren't as "cool" as the little kid books.

Knitting Retreat

Or, "What I did this weekend."

I visited my knitting buddy. If you remember she now lives 3 hours north of me. We have made a pact to visit each other every other month. In October, I drove to her place. In December, she drove here. And, being February, I drove to her place again. Of course, I should say that my husband drove me there since the whole family went and her whole family comes here too.

We had a fabulous visit. Our 4 year old daughters have known each other since they were born and miss each other terribly throughout our times apart, which is ya know always except for the 1 Saturday every other month. The kids (ok, her kid so far) write each other letters and send pictures in between and always ask when we are going to visit.

I brought an entire bin of yarn and knitting paraphernalia to her house. Yes, a big rubbermaid type storage bin. Yes, just for a one day visit. No, that's not weird.

I had Malabrigo scraps to share and divide up, yarn to wind, and projects to share.

Can I just say it is sooooo wonderful to have a knitting buddy. It's nice for when you are trying to match up yarns to patterns, see if a certain pattern even fits a yarn, or if the gauge seems appropriate or not. It helps when you have projects that are ho-hum or you don't know quite what you feel about them or just want some general input to improve, or knit on, or whatever.

A few things happened with some of my WIP over this weekend and also for future projects.

After joint counseling with my knitting buddy, my Effortless Cardigan has been put on time out. I was thinking the gauges was a little tight on US size 3 needles (3.25mm) and she agreed. I had brought an extra skein of the lovely yarn, so we wound it up. I am going to restart this project on size 4 needles (3.5) and see how I like it then. I am not frogging the size 3 since it is already to the armholes. I am just going to knit a new one and then compare and frog the one that isn't right.

The February Lady Sweater has been frogged. Really, it was too small. How do I know this? Well, she measured me and then to confirm I tried it on. I was knitting a chest size 41. My chest is, in fact, 50 (!) inches around. No wonder it was small. I do not own enough yarn to go up to that size (only 5 skeins, looks like it needs about 7 to do that size). I also don't love the yarn color. I do love the yarn, Malabrigo Worsted, but the color is kind of ho-hum. I now have 5 skeins of this yarn to do something with. I think I might put four of them up for sale on ravelry and keep one for scraps, etc. Unless anyone wants to trade something, especially anyone on a stash diet?

We wound yarn. We petted yarn. We loved the yarn. I brought my two shipments from the Speshul Snowflakes Yarn Club for her to see and touch. She thinks the DK is also quite lovely. nice taste.

We both are going to be working up scrappy Tomten Jackets in Malabrigo.

I have suddenly run out of things to discuss. Weird how that happens.

I just love, love, love seeing her and sharing this craft, and kids, and homeschooling stuff.

Oh! That's it.

Have any of you used Sonlight Curicculum? What did you think of it's style? Cost? Were you able to use it with multiple children? Did you buy the books or get them from the library?

I hope you are all having a great time knitting.

Yes, I can craft things other than yarn

Flower wanted to make a "Christmas Tree" the other day. So I pulled out some glue, sissors, and construction paper and we did some crafty stuff. Lovey did them too, but he wasn't hanging around for pictures.

This is Mama Mary and Baby Jesus. Violet is very proud of her gluing skillz. :)
And here she is with her Christmas Tree. (Yes, I just started a sentence with "and". I know it's not proper grammer and I don't care.)

She arranged all those ornaments herself too.

I added this last picture because it made me laugh! It's the "I am smiling so hard it hurts" face!! Hee Hee!

Please don't think it's all crafts all the time around here. It's not. Although lately I have been trying to not give in to the "it's going to be way too much work and be way too messy and it won't be perfect" voice in my head that tells me not to even bother trying to do fun things with the toddlers. Really, if I just jump in and KISS (keep it simple, stupid) everything is fine. I am realizing that my toddlers don't want (or need) some long, drawn out, over explained lesson about what we're doing. They don't need it to be perfect either (and they don't have to be perfect). They just want some simple, creative fun.

Yes, Still Pregnant

I just thought I'd mention quickly that I am still pregnant.

After 3 days of intense cleaning at my house, organizing diapers, re-organizing diapers, finding teeny-tiny baby clothes in bins scattered around the house, ordering around my family to help me, complaining about the house not being clean enough, lanolizing about 12 wool pants/soakers, and fretting over some "things" I still need (a diaper pail for dirty diapers, chux pads, something to organize kid toys in) I am still not in labor.

I really thought all that cleaning would work.

So, instead of being sassy-pants mad about it, I have taken my energy and done something productive - we started school this week. I even kind of got us on a "schedule". I made a big move and decided no more sleeping in till 11 or 12. We have been up at 10 everyday (which I know probably sounds really late to most of you, but that is very early for me and the kids when I am this pregnant.....when not pregnant usually we're up by 7 or 8) for the last 3 days.

Tomorrow (um, I guess that's TODAY), we will be up at 9 to make it to the park to meet some local homeschool families at 10. I am really excited about this. We have lived here for over a year and I still don't really know anyone who lives near us except the midwives I work with. To see any other children or any adults I know we have been driving at least 45 min to 1 hour to the "big city" to visit. It will be really wonderful to get to know some families around here, in the boonies.

Along with getting up at the same time everyday, Lovey has had a nap everyday and I have cooked lunch. I know, weird right? Just trying to make everyone feel a little normal for once. I have been a major slacker with this pregnancy. I need to get it together. Of course, my husband thinks I'm nuts. He knows I will just be laying in bed and nursing when the babe gets here so he really doesn't get why I am going so crazy to have everything be "normal" now when it will change in the next 10 days sometime. I don't know why I am doing it either, but it is making me feel better at least mentally.

I promise to post once the wee one arrives. For now, I am just patiently waiting.

Yes, I am still Pregnant

Sorry for the lack of blogging. Really. I want to blog. I want to connect. (I even got tagged in a meme over at BWYA.) I am just soooo, um, crabby.

I don't know how good blogging will be when all I want to do is tell anyone who will listen how much this SUCKS. And I feel super guilty saying that, especially knowing all the mamas out there who have lost children to miscarriage and stillbirth, or who are unable to conceive at all.

I don't mean to sound as if I am not happy about the joy of new life, or that I don't enjoy and just absolutely LOVE having a new baby (because I do).

I am just a super obnoxious pregnant lady in the last month. I HATE it. I am crabby. My body is crampy. My legs hurt. My ass hurts. My crotch hurts. Ligaments pull. I can't sleep. I annoy my entire family. My breasts grow and itch. I can't find a single thing to wear that fits me. I am tired. I get constipated. Hemorrhoids = asteroids (much better word for them: location, location, location.....not to mention that asteroids explode into a firey hell when exposed to the atmosphere, not unlike hemorrhoids). It is next to impossible to get comfortable for more than 30 minutes at a time. Activities I enjoy with my husband (*clears throat*) are just too hard to accomplish (at least from my end.....men have it soooo easy). Seriously. I am just a sulky, b*tchy person.

Now that I have exposed you to the wretchedness that is me in this month, we will move on.

Hmmm? What shall we talk about? Knitting? Other bloggers? My kids? Pregnancy ailments, oh ya, already covered that. Ummm?

Knitting - I am having a hard time controlling the "cast on" urge. So far, so good. But it is seriously creeping up on me.

Bloggers - I found an interesting blog call "N*ked on the Roof" (Yes, he does spell it with the little asterisk, I am sure to deter people fishing for p0rn). It is by this guy that I think is an electrician (his username is morethananelectrician) and he is pretty funny. I am pretty sure he is married and has kids too. I haven't found any faith references. But so far, I am enjoying it. (I'd link to it, but the link is on my phone and I am just too lazy to look it up now or google it.)

My kids - The Wobbs just got back from a week vacationing with my family in PA. He had a great time. We missed him. It was certainly a different dynamic around here without him. Not good, or bad, better, or worse, just different. Today is his first day back. He's been here for about 4 hours and already the kids are all yelling at each other. Freakin' great. And Flower has been throwing up today. Awesome times two.

Homeschool - It is a lot of work, and sometimes annoying work, to help run a homeschool group. I think it will all work out in the end. We had an awesome "end of the year" campout at the other leader's house this weekend. Her family and mine (especially our husbands, bonus!) get along really well. So it did not bother us too much that not a lot of the other families were able to attend. Oh well. Better to hang with a few real people, real Catholics, with real flaws, than to have a house full of overbearing pious people (not that the other families are all like that, but there were some moms I was ok not seeing for the weekend).

Diapers - I need to get my diapers out and washed and ready to go. Any helpful hints out there about washing diapers with hard water? At our old house we had a really great water softener. My diapers always came out just right. I am a little concerned here about things like residue and smell. I hope it doesn't make too big of a difference, or that it is something that is easily remedied by adding something, like Borax or just more vinegar, to the wash. (Speaking of diapers, I need to order some Charlie's Soap for washing....finally ran out of the 5 gallon bucket I bought almost 4 years ago a few months back.)

Divorce - Seriously people. Watch who you marry. Dealing with my husband's ex-wife is enough to make me want to pull out my hair. This custody case is sucking royally (especially since we did this already, 8 years ago, to the tune of 14K). Figuring out placement sucks. And high school, with all it's sports and crap, also sucks. Did you know that practice for sports starts BEFORE the school year starts? And when you live 45 minutes away from the school and the practice lasts for 3 hours, you have nothing to do with your toddlers for 3 hours in a town where you don't live (parks would be ok, except that it's 2000 degrees of Hades outside with 300% humidity.....okay.....maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get it). And ex-wives just suck. Especially when they think the most important thing in their child's life is their "social life". Don't get divorced people!! God never intended for 2 families to have to share a child (or children).

Have I ranted enough for you? I am really sorry. I don't mean to be so dang crabby and complainy. It's all I got right now. I promise I will be a happy, cheery, wonderful bloggy friend once this baby exits my body. I have 5 weeks of technical time left. Maybe I'll go early again and only have to endure 3 weeks. I have been having a ton of contractions, sometimes all night long. I checked (because, well, I can) and I am dilated to 1 (too bad it's not more) and about 50% effaced. At least those contractions are doing something. :)

Grueling Homeschooling

My husband has had the last 3 days off. He and the boy have been working outside making our "lawn" (read the 3 acres closest to the house) look pretty. It's been nice.

Today, dad is back to work for his 3 day weekend. And we are getting schoolwork done. Why, you ask, are we still doing school in June and on the weekend? Let's start at the beginning.

At the beginning of the 2008 "school year" (August/September) I had a baby. We tried getting a lot of work done in the summer while it was hot and unbearable to be outside BEFORE the baby came. It didn't work really well. Once little Lovey was here, we took a nice long break. My husband also started his current job about a month after Lovey was born. Between adjusting to my husband's new job (and schedule, low man on the totem pole got the night shift for 6 months) our "nice long break" lasted until January.

I figured, "Hey, we'll just school all through summer to make up for all that time off." That didn't happen either. We ended up deciding to sell our house (still for sale BTW) to move closer to my husband's job. We moved in the summer, further putting off "catching up" with school.

We got settled in the new house and finally got around to our work (still from the previous year).......and then we conceived again. I am pretty useless, other than growing a baby, in the first few months of pregnancy. As I have said before, it gets so bad that I am literally surprised that I am still alive once all the sickness is gone. I drop weight. I lie around. Nothing gets done.

And here we are.

I feel better, so we've been really kicking butt with the school work for the past few weeks. We ARE going to finish this math book, and the grammar, and then I am just not going to worry anymore. My boy is a good reader. The last time I checked, he was like 4 grades above whatever grade he was in. And when I had to start pulling his face out of books to get him to do his chores, or go to bed, I pretty much stopped worrying about reading and reading comprehension.

So, on the docket this weekend (daily) is: Math, Grammar, Wordly Wise, Snake Report editing.

I AM going to IGNORE my knitting everyday until the school work is done. I AM. Even though I just started the cutest pair of longies ever and they are almost done. I have the will power to act like they just aren't sitting there, calling to me.

And as far as the school work goes, the boy is going to get this done ASAP. We've been doing about 3 pages (front & back) out of the math book everyday. Same with the grammar, etc. Once we are caught up, we're just going to "skip" the grade we're missing and move along. (Although I should mention we are changing math curriculums, so this works fine there as the "next" math book in the new series covers the grade we're missing and the next one, woo hoo.)

I am already getting homeschooling catalogs in the mail and am getting totally excited to order new books. Does this happen to anyone else? The Catholic Heritage one always gets me. Seton too, even though we use very little of their stuff b/c it's very "worksheet" orientated and that just doesn't work for my boy (he'd go crazy if there was that much "paperwork" everyday).

So I sit and dream of more school books, dream of my yarn, and help him figure out 18/3. Good day.

What's your summer turning into?

Critters Come to Us (In which my readers may immediately close their browser window)

My son, while taking his dog outside for his morning "empty", came inside with this:


A hognose snake. How much excitement this little creature caused my boy!! He thought it was the coolest thing that ever happened. Of course he tried to convince me we should keep it. Ha! Not in this life buddy. We took pictures and released it back into the wild as we had a very busy morning (I believe it was Sunday That Dad Works, so I was trying to get everyone to Mass alone. Fun.)

Later, we looked at the pictures and then looked him up online to see what kind of snake he was. We thought he was 2 other species before we decided on the hognose variety. Wobbers was retelling how the snake kept "playing dead" and we found that amongst the description of this snake, so there it is.

Of course I, being the wonderous homeschooling mom I am, immediately assigned him a report on said hognose snake. Ain't that great?


And a day or two before that.....one of these was "taking a nap" in our gazebo.

I have no idea what kind or type of bat it was/is, but I was pretty darn happy to see it there. Bats eat bugs. And we have a lot of those out here in the boonies.

Homeschooling has been heavy....

so blogging has been light.

I appoligize to my "check-in everyday" crowd.

Up and coming this week on ye ol' blog:

Movie Reviews, "Avatar" and "Taken"

Critter Visit Us

Knitting Block Party

The 8-yrs-waiting FO

Problems with Prayer

Can I really help lead a homeschool group?

Stay tuned.....

In which mean girls exist beyond junior high

Yes. That's right. You can be almost 30 (I am almost 30) and still have Mean Girls around every corner.

Recently, this was brought to my attention in a rather unexpected way. I had forgotten all about "girl world". I had lived through all sorts of hard stuff in my personal life, my marriage, my friendships.

But I never thought a group of homeschooling women would be a threat.

I was wrong.

It's been over a week, and I am still bothered enough that I steam through a shower thinking of the things I would like to say to this woman's face if I ever bother to see it again.

Women are mean. In particular, you can think that you have a very close, secure, and loyal friendship only to find out that it is shallow and meaningless at best.

The details are too much to hash out, although I know some of you would be darned interested in hearing them. If I could muster the strength at this point, I would.

I managed to "turn the other cheek" for an entire week before I blew up at the leadership team of this particular homeschool group. And when I say blew up - I mean it. Verbal vomit. I didn't swear, but I think that's just because it's not as much fun to do that through email (which was how they contacted me).

I am not a fan of email for important communications. It's a very passive-aggressive way of communicating that allows people to combine words and tone that would never happen in real life: "We are so sorry if you're offended. We are not singling you out. We love you. By the way, don't come to Mass. Have a wonderful Christmas!!"

Really?! Can we be a little more 5th grade?

Ugh.

Well, I promise things should be shaping up here around the new year. I am looking into getting a modem for my laptop from my cell phone company. That should spiff things up and get me back to blogging.

For now......you just get random, when I have time kinda stuff.

Sorry.

Posts to Ponder

Please read these wonderful posts. I wish I had written them, or something as meaningful as they seem to me. Alas, I am happy to simply be able to share them with you.

How Would You Know

Your Vote and Eternal Salvation

Why I Homeschool

More Letters From Earthcamp

Why Pro-Life

+JMJ+ Pray For Us!!

On my knees,
H

+JMJ+ Pray For Us!!

As I awoke this morning, a cloud of fear was building around my heart. What has happened in our country?

I drove my two "building school" children to school and my 15 yr. old asked who won the election. When I told her the only words she could think to say was, "That's scary."

She wasn't being sarcastic or blowing it off the way some teenagers in secular society may. She was genuinely frightened at the thought of this man leading our country and even more scared hearing that he had gained that ability.

She isn't the only one.

I, too, am very scared. I could think of nothing other than prayer this morning as I drove back to my home from the school. My husband's reaction has been anger. He is very angry at what has happened. I don't blame him. I don't know why I don't feel angry too.

I am not shocked that this happened, but there is still a sense of disbelief in my mind. I guess I am just so amazed at this man's ability to deceive the people of this nation so easily. Again, my mind goes directly to Hitler and his ability to convince people that he had their common good in mind when he was making decisions.

This morning I am left with these thoughts: What will God think of what we have done? What will be the effect on our country's people? How much more genocide can we endure?

I do not believe that God is vengeful. But I do believe that he listens to what we ask for. I am reminded of an interview that Billy Graham's daughter did on the Early Show. She was asked in reference to Hurricane Katrina by Jane Clayson, "How could God let something like this happen?"

Her answer was the more eloquent than I could have phrased, but makes perfect and absolute sense, especially now - "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

I cannot imagine what protection we, as a nation, are going to lose with this man leading us. I am afraid for all the lives that God himself has created that will be lost to the holocaust of abortion and what protection we are going to lose because of that.

My only hope is for prayer. Prayer is the only answer I can think of, the only chance we have left. I pray that God shows unfathomable mercy on us. That His forgiveness washes over each and every one of us.

I believe that in the coming years the "change" these people were hoping for, some of them claiming to be Christians and Catholics, is going to be so distorted from what they thought that even they will be able to see the evil this man is surrounded by and the evil he has brought upon our nation. I worry that by then, it will be too late.

I am also reaffirmed in my conviction that homeschooling is the right path for my children and family. Taking full responsibility for what my children learn, especially in the area of religious studies, ensures that they will be taught the fullness of the Catechism and the true teaching of the Church.

I pray for those Catholics and Christians alike who voted for Obama with no real understanding that they were doing the devil's work. It is his work that has created the gap and hole in Catholic teaching and understanding of the Catechism and his work that has lead other Christians to believe that it is OK to go against the will of God.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph pray for us! We need your intersession to survive these horrible sins which we have brought upon ourselves.

~H

Why I do Montessori

As I was sitting here, reading away over at Candy Rant, I suddenly noticed it was far, far too quiet.

My eight year old was holding the baby and watching Star Wars, Episode III (his favorite). Said baby was asleep. But the usually audible musings of my toddler were not to be heard.

I turned around to find her with the Basic H sprayer in her hands as she calmly sits at her table. She is squeezing the trigger. I lean back a little so that I can see her table at an angle where the sunlight illuminates it. What do I see? Lots of little liquidy puddles.

"Wet," I say.

"Whet, whet, whet!!" she says back.

Oh boy.

We clean up the table with some paper towels and I proceed to inspect the rest of the living room. Wouldn't ya know there's a lot of "whet" all around - on the ottoman, the table, the floor. Ooo-wee, fun, fun, fun.

I gotta finish setting up my Montessori shelves.

~H

Better Today

We are well into the school day at this point. What works and what doesn't? Is it really that hard? No, actually, it's not.

Keeping a boy on track is by far a trial from God Himself, but I am up to the challenge. It is a never ending battle of "Keep you head looking at your work, and for Pete's sake, sit up and stop trying to lie down." The many, many excuses have branched out today: "I wasn't being distracted Mama, I was itching." "I'm so thirsty! Why can't I get a glass of water?" "It is a sentence: A pirate flag!" Um, no dude. That's like saying "A house." is a sentence.

But still, we are doing better today than we have been. We are at the beginning of Week 5, and hopefully we will make it through. The joyous thing about this week is I have suspended all "regular" religion studies, meaning our textbook pages, etc., for a week of fun-filled studies of Our Lady and the Assumption. Friday, of course, is the Solemnity of the Assumption. We will be going to the noon hour Mass, which will be presided over by our Bishop. It's so nice to hear him speak. It will be a wonderful celebration and finale to our coloring pages, bookmark project, and crosswords about Our Lady that we are doing this week.

It's amazing to me the way that He works out the smallest and largest of details in my life to make sure everything runs just the way it should. Yesterday, I was worried about getting the school week started on time since we have numerous appointments going on this week, two in the afternoon alone today (midwife and then my husband has a Christian Men's Group he attends). Not to mention the laundry I have allowed to pile up all week and all the "new to me" diapers that need washing in our special soap (so as to remove all residue and soap build up their previous owners may have unknowingly left behind - my babies have super sensitive skin).

Normally, I would be completely sad and miserable to wake up and find myself late for an appointment with my midwife, as I cherish all the time I get to spend with her. This morning, however, it was truly a blessing in disguise. When I called to reschedule my appointment I was told that it actually worked out better that way since they have a woman in labor there right now. Missing the appointment leaves me free to start (and hopefully finish) the laundry and personally supervise school work for the day, instead of having to leave it in the hands of my 8 year old and his big sisters while I am away.

Nifty. His plans are always better than mine. Still, I forget that on a regular basis. Going with the flow instead of fighting it has proven to be simpler and more graceful today than ever.

Now, if I can just get my smart little man to say, "It was a pirate flag." instead of "A pirate flag." everything will be just fine.

~H

School, School Go Away, Come Again Another Day

This appears to be my 8 year old's mantra these days.

We began school about 3 weeks ago. He is miserable. I, apparently, have concocted some kind of medieval torture device and have sentenced him to hours upon hours of painful misery and woe every day. How heinous of me.

He, in turn, is giving me hell. The absolute absurdity I have for expecting him to complete assignments in a timely manner before allowing him to have fun. What was I thinking?

We have tried it a few different ways. My favorite approach - complete work daily in each subject for the required amount of days each week, which in our case is 4 days. Four. That's it. Well, he can find many an excuse or reason that we need to take "breaks" all day long for that. "I'm hungry." "When can we have a snack?" "Aren't you tired, Ma?" "I should go feed the dog." "I need to get dressed." "But I have to pee." "But, but, I'm starving!!" He can go on forever.

So, I read some books. I found some other approaches. I discussed these with him. No, not like, "I allowed my 8-year-old to control me and decide what and where and when we do things." No, I just told him I think we might try something else....whadda you think about it? So we (I) decided to allow him to try and manage his own time, since having me manage his time was causing him such undue pain.

I gave him a list of all the work due for the entire week - looking something like this:

Math: p. 10-17
Reading: Read "Blah, blah, blah", answer comprehension questions on p. 270; and read a book of your choice and write a book report on it
Spelling: Week 3 words, go over list with Mama to make sure you understand definitions, complete p.6-7, write list words 2 times, once in print, once in cursive, take test
Grammar: p.5-8
Religion: p. 10-15, and complete sheet for St. So and So saint of the day for (whatever day it is)
Science: p. 30-35, get Mama to help with any experiments that come up
Social Studies: p. 280, week 3 day 1 & 2 activities, plus Map Skills p.8-9
Handwriting: Week 3 lessons 1-4 p. 15-18
Wordly Wise: p. 19-26

This isn't the exact list, and I may have forgotten something, but it's something like that.

I gave him the list and told him, "You have until Friday evening to complete this. You can do a little in each subject, each day. Or, you can do all of a couple subjects each day. You can get done on Wednesday, or Friday. Just as long as it is all done by Friday evening. If it's not done, you are grounded without food until it is completed."

He thought this idea was rather cool. He promptly spent the entire day Monday and Tuesday playing with friends. On Wednesday, he did some handwriting. On Thursday, he did the Map Skills book and some Grammar. Friday, he whined and cried all day about how he wasn't going to be able to complete everything in one day. I reminded him that I suggested on Monday and Tuesday that he do some work before going out with his friends. He whined and cried some more. I had apparently just chosen a different medieval torture method for this particular week. He tried to get some of the work done.

Then, when dinner rolled around and he didn't get any, he cried and complained about how hungry he was and how it was MY fault that he couldn't finish the rest of his work. Obviously. When I asked him what he meant, and this is good, he told me that since he can't do science without me and I have to help him with his spelling words, and I have to allow him on the computer to finish his social studies, that I was impeding (Ok, that's not the word he used) his ability to complete his work. Little bugger, I was ready and willing to help you many a day this week during the daytime to get your stuff done. I even told you, "I have time today to help you with your work." You chose not to do your work, and I am not staying up all night to help you just because you are not done.

Well, he didn't like that one bit. And he didn't get dinner either. Eventually, I got sick of the whining and sent him to bed.

The next day he got it done. I don't know if the hunger actually played a part in it, or if he dreaded the thought of an entire weekend spent on his bed.

We did the same thing the following week, allowing him to try again at managing his own time. He was convinced he could do it, learn from the err of his ways, and manage to get dinner the following Friday.

Can you finish this story? Not the exact same result, no, but very close to it. Here we are, it's Saturday, and we're still doing school work. Lame. Annoying. I hate having to pester him to get it done, feeling like a nagging, well, nag all the while wishing he would just get the "work hard, play hard" attitude his father has.

Next week, we are back to daily lessons. Daily whining. Although, all whining will promptly be encountered with chores, chores that I hate like cleaning the toilet, hand-scrubbing the kitchen floor, vacuuming the stairs, picking up dog poop, and loading the dishwasher. We've done this before also, and it works quite well. The only problem is when he decides chores are better than schoolwork. Uh.

I'm not really going anywhere with this, other than I need a place vent and complain about my dear, loving son turning into a monster every time I bring out the books. The ironic part - he's darn smart. It's not really hard (not so easy he's bored, I've adjusted the subjects so they're all from the grade level he's at in them). He just doesn't want to do it and figures getting me pissed off will get him out of it. If I didn't feel called by God to do this for my family, there are days I know I would just give up. But I know it is best. I know He knows best. And eventually my little one will figure out this is the best thing for him.

~H

A New Year

I realize it's the middle of July. All major superstores have the school supplies out. With the humidity it feels like it's 180 degrees outside. My poor A/C has been pushing it to the limit everyday (and we love you for it!). The departments stores apparently think we need winter clothing at this point - because obviously if you don't stock long sleeve shirts, sweaters, and pants now, we'll all forget they're necessary by the time it actually gets cold in December.

So, I am hopping on the bandwagon. School starts at my house tomorrow. Yes, you heard me right, tomorrow. Am I a little lost? Maybe. Have I succumbed to the Secular Media's skewed view of the world? Possibly. Or, more likely, am I just sick of everyone and everything shouting out to us, "Stop enjoying Summer! Stop relaxing and laying around! There are things to be done! Prepare for the "Big Freeze"! Buy your notebooks - because you won't be able to find them once school really starts!" and decided it was time to do something with it instead of against it.

Anyone who knows me is thinking I really have lost my brain right about now.

Really? Really, it's that I am 8 months pregnant. I have a baby due August 29th. I do not want to do school with my 8 year old in September or October. So we are starting now. When the baby comes, he can have a two month break. I reasoned with him that it would be a more normal temperature AND be some kind of hunting season and he would have loads more fun being outside then than now - when it's 180 degrees outside.

Of course, he's no dummy. "But mom, !!??, all my building-school (what he calls regular school) friends have the summer off. There won't be anyone to play with in the fall. !!??" Look buddy, I am not going to overwhelm myself with teaching while I am trying to establish nursing. "We can just take those months off, too. I know you don't want to be too busy. And you're tired now. I don't want to start school." Too freakin' bad kid. You're not getting a five month break, and I am not going to stress myself once this little one comes.

So, tomorrow it is.

It feels nice, actually. I went through the bookshelves and took all of last year's stuff down and got out the nice, clean, shiny workbooks for this year and displayed them ever so carefully. I packed away last year's lesson plans and replaced them in my binder with the fresh, crisp paper of this year's lesson plans. I planned out five weeks worth of studies, complete with a devotional story for each morning and Feast Days of the Saints added in for our "Summer" school days. I am calm and ready to go.

Hopefully, my body and mind cooperate in the next few weeks so that we can get things done. I can't be falling off the wagon and into "I'm too pregnant to do anything but lay here and complain" world if I want to be able to have him focus (just a little Lord, is all I ask) and do some work. He'll gladly be lazy with me and allow school to fall to the side, all the while telling me, "It's OK Mom, I know you're tired. Go back to sleep. I'll watch the baby (2 year old) and give her some cereal." He's a good kid, and a good big brother.

Good intentions and prayers will fill the next few weeks at our house, giving way to a (hopefully) wonderful beginning of 3rd Grade for my Wobbers.

~H