As anybody can clearly see, Brandi and I haven't made much  headway in keeping this blog updated. We have many good reasons and time consuming activities that have wholly consumed all available time between the two of us.Last time we posted (aside from Christmas wishes) was May of 2012. A full year later, and some things have changed, and some have stayed the same. We are both finished with another year of schooling, and Brandi has been inducted into an honor society as well.

"Almost, Maine" set

Promotional poster

Princesses, a tiger, & Zombies!

"If I only had a brain..."

I have helped build the sets for "Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels," "Almost, Maine," and "Women of Lockerbie," all presented by Clark State Community College in Springfield, OH. I have had two good semesters, grade-wise, including a 4.0 this Spring. Brandi has just finished running a gauntlet of 20 credit hours of classes in one semester, and so far has another very respectable GPA. As we sit here resting before the next sprint, we are trying to evaluate our effectiveness as parents, homeschoolers, students, homeowners, etc. etc. As wild as this is right now, it will eventually be worth it. As for right now, our schooling has presented us with some unique opportunities for homeschooling. These included getting to see theatrical light shows and being human canvases for a makeup class. The girls loved getting dolled up, and the other students enjoyed working with them. The boys, however, made the best of the opportunity by asking to be turned into "zombies." I've learned a great deal more about theatre than I ever thought possible in such a short time including both on and offstage aspects as well as history and future. We are quite excited about our future with these degrees which we should finish in Spring of 2014.

Um . . . Spring Break?

I'm halfway through my first semester back at college.  I am now officially on spring break.  Sort of.  I have so much to catch up around the house and so much schoolwork to do over break that it won't seem like much of a break.

 In fact, I also plan to get some jammed packed days of homeschooling done with the kids.  I did that last fall in anticipation of going back to school and it worked out well.  We're still on target for finishing our required amount of school time! 

So, now I go to jump neck deep into writing outlines, writing papers, and lesson planning.  Oh, yeah.  I need to clean too!  I'll write more, if I get a chance to come up for air.

Have a great day!

Mondays

Well, I was going to illustrate this post with a bunch of pictures. Apparently, I won't be doing that, because my pictures won't load to the blog. Anyway . . .

Jon has Mondays off work, so for now, Mondays are our field trip and special classes days. This past Monday, we packed our lunches and walked downtown. We ate at a picnic table in the shade of the Town Hall building. After lunch, we had the kids spread out over the courtyard to draw/sketch. The directions I gave the kids were:

1. You can go anywhere in the courtyard.
2. You can lay on your belly, lay on your back, sit, stand, or whatever you want to do.
3. Choose something you like and draw it.

Some chose to draw a fountain or fountains, one included a sibling in her drawing, some chose to draw plants, one drew a horse she saw in the clouds, and one drew three pictures. Most sat up to draw, but one drew while laying on her back. They were all intense. We are getting ready to start an art class together. Our plans are to return to the same place in the Spring and see how much their drawing improves.

We stopped by the library on our way home and checked out and reserved some books we needed for school.

Next Monday we will head to my sister's home for her annual Labor Day cookout.

One of those days

Today was one of those days that nothing seemed to go as planned.

I like a plan.

I NEED a plan.

My family needs a plan.

My family just doesn't realize they need a plan.

This last month has been all mixed up for us. Daddy was away for work (two weeks). We drove to PA to meet up with Daddy and visit friends in MD. We came home and nothing was normal anymore. While Jon was away, we started to more or less follow a first shift schedule. The kids also became accustomed to no one being asleep when they were up. Now that Jon is back we are trying to get back into a semblance of a schedule. First shift doesn't work, because Jon is trying to sleep and then spend a little time with us before heading off to work. Second shift doesn't work, because all our outside activities are based on a first shift schedule.

Jon's days off are spent as family days and then Jon and I end up staying up late to have one on one time. I am so glad he is home!

I've gotten myself back into burning the candle at both ends. Ugh!

I know God will not give me more than I can handle, but sometimes I just wish He would place a schedule in my hands and tell me to follow it.

I'm out of words for now.

Just a note: Normally, this is the type of post that I would write in my head, be done with, and never put into print. I try not to be negative. It's a constant battle. I told myself tonight that I should just post it. So here it is.

Now I really am going to go. I have to go encourage some children to go to sleep so that I can go to sleep.

Today and Way to Go Birdie!

Last night I remembered some more things that had to be done before I went to bed. I did get the bread started last night. I was still up when Jon came home from work, and I didn't get to bed until after three in the morning. Since I was up so late, I decided to allow ourselves to head out at eleven instead of ten.

I printed off my blog post last night so I would have my list handy. It was a good thing! I decided to check my list and was reminded to have my devotional time. I chose Philippians chapter four for my Bible reading, because I knew I would need it. I actually had planned on reading from the Old Testament, but Philippians four came to mind while I was praying. My mindset today was much better than last night.

before 10:00 am list

We got everything done on my before 10:00 am list. I did make some minor adjustments. Instead of oatmeal and yogurt, we had oatmeal and milk to save time. I also heated water in the tea kettle and used that to make the oatmeal instead of cooking it on the stove and having to watch over it. I nixed the potatoes and carrots so that I wouldn't have to spend the time fixing them this morning. I had planned on putting together some cross word puzzles for the kids to use to practice their spelling words. The links on the site I had bookmarked to do that with just kept taking me in circles last night. I knew I didn't have time to do four different puzzles on my own. I didn't get the children's things ready. I let them do it! Instead of cleaning the whole kitchen I did some dishes last night and this morning. Our dishwasher is ancient and doesn't work right, so we have to hand wash.

10:00 am - ? list

We headed out just after eleven this morning. The children were pretty good about doing their homework and helping out. I was much more at peace about things today. I did call Jon before I headed home and he turned off the oven for me. I fixed mashed potatoes and peas and carrots to go with our meatloaf and bread-and-butter. We still ate lunch around two.

2:30 - ? list

Jon left for work a little later than usual. He was spending time with the kids and forgot to watch the clock. He was still on time, but just didn't get there as early as he likes to in order to get his equipment for the night claimed. I rested while the kids avoided resting. When I got up, I mandated rest time. We haven't gotten back to school. Jon suggested that we do a half day today and a half day tomorrow in order to paint the living room. I'm taking him up on it. We had a late snack. I still need to fix supper after I am done posting this. I'll probably have the children do their chores while I'm fixing supper. I really don't feel like browning the ground beef tonight. I checked the date on the meat an I still have a few days. I'll do that tomorrow.


Way to go, Birdie!

Birdie has trouble with visual perception and fine motor skills. Due to this, her writing is rarely legible. Last year, she could focus to write legibly for about the time it took her to copy two or three words. The word would often be mirror images of what I had given her as an example. Sometimes the word would be up-side-down and sometimes backward.

Following are Birdie's penmanship papers from last week and this week. For some reason, our scanner did some weird things with the pages. I didn't feel like messing with it, so I left them as they were.

Last week, I printed out part of our memory verse for her to copy. I intended to have her do part of the verse each day, Wednesday through Friday. The verse is Matthew 5:14. Everyone had it memorized Wednesday, so I gave them a break on penmanship for rest of our first week back to school.

This is Birdie's penmanship from last week. I was pleased that I could make out some of the words.


This is Birdie's penmanship from yesterday. The verse was on our white board and I didn't make a copy for her. I wanted to see what she could do. I was also pleased with this. I can make out some of the words and this was a more difficult task for her.


Today, Birdie's penmanship REALLY impressed me! Since we weren't at home and I didn't want Birdie trying to copy from yesterday's penmanship (as the others were doing), I had Kitty Kat print out a sample for Birdie to copy from.




Didn't she do a great job?

I Have a Busy Day Tomorrow

I already had tomorrow roughly planned out, then something came up. I changed my plans around only to realize that the event that will take us out of the house will not just change how we do school. I had plans of making bread tomorrow. We're out. My lunch plans were dependent on me being home to mess with the bread. We can't eat out. Jon also will need a work lunch. I've got eight pounds of burger in my fridge that I need to do something with. I was going to make meatloaf for tomorrow and brown some. Hmm...pardon me while I think on here. A list, I need a list!

To do before 10:00am

1. Devotions (These will be a must!)
2. Start the bread. Hmm...maybe I'll start this tonight!
   
3. Get ready for the day.
4. Check the dough. Punch it down. Shape it and get it into pans.
   
5. Make sure the children are up and getting ready and feed the pets.
   
6. Fix and eat breakfast (oatmeal and yogurt?).
7. Bake the bread.
8. Make meatloaf with potatoes and carrots around it.
9. Get the bread out. Make sure to put it in the cabinet after it cools a little, so the pets don't help themselves to a treat.
10. Put the meatloaf in the oven at a cooler temperature than normal (300 d. ?).
11. Get together the children's assignments.
12. Clean the kitchen.
    

10:00 am - ?

1. Head out with the children and some of their assignments.
2. Reach our destination and start the children on their school work.
3. Do what it is that I need to do (the something that came up).
4. Call Jon to have him check the meat loaf? I don't want to wake him too early.
5. Come home.
6. Finish fixing lunch and Jon's work lunch.
   
7. Eat lunch by 2:00 pm.

2:30 - ?

1. Jon goes to work. The rest of us take a rest time?
2. Chores
3. Finish school.
4. I guess we'll have to eat supper sometime. Which means I'll have to fix it. Pizza might be quick and easy.
5. Brown the ground beef while supper is baking/cooking.
   

I really hope I have a couple of good helpers ready early! I'm going to need all the help I can get in the morning!

I'd better get started on that list since it's after 12 am already. I'll have to get some sleep sometime soon.

Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

Please pray for me if you feel so led. My attitude about tomorrow is not what it should be. Thank you!

School Isn't Starting Until Wednesday

I had every intention of starting school tomorrow. Then, I went to my sleep consultation appointment. I had to wait a month and a half to get in for the consultation. So, I expected that I would still have quite a bit of waiting in my future. The doctor set up a sleep study and nap study for tomorrow and Tuesday! I go in tomorrow night at eight and don't get done until Tuesday afternoon at four. So, school isn't starting until Wednesday. I guess we'll be doing Saturday school to stay on schedule.

Crunch Time

August is always a busy month for us, but this August seems even more busy than usual.

Next month, we are hosting our Life Group (small group from church) and we still haven't finished our living room. So, along with everything else, we still have to finish the living room. The living room furniture is in the boys' room and our dining room, so really we have at least three rooms to finish.

We just got accustomed to our new, later schedule. Then on Saturday morning Jon called work to see if he could start early to make it easier to do traffic duty at church the next day. Instead of having him start early, they had him switch to third shift for the week. For the week! There went our schedule! However, God always provides. Mr. M. went home that afternoon. Jon is on third this week which makes him available for the visitation and funeral. There is also a rumor at Jon's workplace that they will have a new schedule bid soon. I have no idea what our regular schedule will be now.

So here's a glimpse of today and the next thirteen days:

Aug. 11 - We have to get the younger two girls home from my sister's (South of here) and the boys from my parents' (North of here). Jon has a Stage Right (drama ministry) meeting. Jon works.

Aug. 12 - Mr. M.'s visitation is from 2-4 and 6-8. We figured we would go during the earlier time, since we can. However, Puppy Dog has a dentist appointment at 2:30 in Urbana. Jon's mom also has surgery on this day. Jon works.

Aug. 13 - Mr. M.'s funeral at 10:30 AM, my grandmother's birthday, our fifteenth anniversary, and Kitty Kat's thirteenth birthday Jon's mom has a Dr. appt. and may need a ride?

Aug. 14 - Jon has a chiropractor appointment.

Aug. 15 - Jon goes back on second shift. Jon works.

Aug. 16 - We will probably have to go to all three services at church, if Jon is in a skit. Jon works.

Aug. 17 - Jon works.

Aug. 18 - I have a sleep study consultation at 8:45 AM. Jon works.

Aug. 19 - Jon has a dentist appointment at 4(?) We have a combined birthday party with our Life Group for the whole family at Young's Jersey Dairy. Jon's niece's birthday (15).

Aug. 20 - Jon's younger brother's anniversary (10th).

Aug. 21 - party for the above anniv. ? It may be moved to the 22nd.

Aug. 22 - Puppy Dog's seventh birthday. Jon works (?).

Aug. 23 - Birdie's eleventh birthday, church, and I think this is my week for nursery duty (if so, we attend all three services). Jon works (?). **I have a Sonflower Scouts leaders' meeting at 3PM.

Aug. 24 - first day of school, Jon's niece's birthday (3?)

Those are just the events we have written down on our calendar. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

I'd better get to work!


**edited after receiving an e-mail.

A New Schedule

Our "normal" schedule just wasn't working very well. It didn't work well during the school year. It hasn't really worked for us this Summer. So, after finding out that Jon wouldn't be going back on first shift, I decided to try a new schedule. First shift people will probably think we're insane. We might just be.

So here's the tentative schedule:

9:00 AM Mom up, devos., shower, and get ready (7:00 on Sun. and Thurs.)

10:00 Kids up, devos., shower, get ready; Breakfast (8:00 on Sun. and Thurs.), Dad up?

11:00 Chores, Dad up?

12:00 PM School

1:00 Clean up and fix lunch.

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Dad goes to work, School

4:30 Snack

7:30 Finish school and eat supper

8:30 Free time, homework, evening chores, and family time

11:00 Kids to bed (10:00 on Sat. and Wed.), Mom prepare for tomorrow

2:00 AM Mom to bed (1:00 AM on Sat. and Wed.)

3:00 Dad home and to bed (?)



We plan on getting/making some thick curtains for the kids' rooms to block out the early morning light.

Today was our first day trying this schedule. I just came up with it last night. It didn't go too bad, but the boys did get up too early. Hopefully, with time we'll all adjust.

So, what does your schedule look like?

August

Tomorrow starts a new month. (Yes, I have a knack for stating the obvious.)

Today Was Better Than Yesterday

I think a big part of today being better than yesterday was that I started my day out with God. The pets woke me and I had to take care of them, but none of the kids bothered me until I was done with my devotions. I take that back. I sent two girls back to bed. Puppy Dog came to our room while I was praying and laid down beside Jon. P.D. was quiet though and let me do my devos. without interruption. I went back to sleep after my devos. LOL

When the kids all started to congregate in the dining room, I told them that we were having cold cereal for breakfast. Some time went by and they started fussing about really being hungry. Apparently, I have catered to them too much this past winter. It only took a small verbal nudge to convince them to fix their own cereal though. I came out while they were fixing theirs, fixed mine, and added some banana slices to everyone's bowls.

Lunch was Sloppy Joes, baby carrots, applesauce, and milk. We used Manwich, because it was a good price this week and Jon wanted it. I used two pounds of ground beef and two cans of sauce. We had enough left over for Jon to have enough for a sandwich at work later this week. The buns were also storebought. They were on sale and I had a coupon.

Jon took the rest of our leftover chili, a yogurt, and some pop for his work lunch. He usually drinks water and eats some of the fruit that his workplace keeps out for employees as well.

The kids and I had yogurt for an afternoon snack while we waited for our bread to cool for supper. I also made rolls for tomorrow.

Tonight's supper was egg salad (homemade) sandwiches (homemade bread), baby carrots, cottage cheese with pineapple rings, and water. We had enough egg salad for Jon to have a sandwich later.

This is Little Bear's plate from supper. As the youngest, he got the priveledge of having the heals of the bread. The younger three children tend to take turns eating the heals. If they fight, then I get them.

I assigned How-to reports to three of the children this week. Kitty Kat decided on "How to Make Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies", Froggie chose "How to Make Meatloaf", Monkey chose "How to Make Chocolate Tea Bread", Puppy Dog chose "How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies", Birdie wants help deciding, and I haven't heard from Little Bear yet. Did you catch that five children are planning their reports when I only assigned reports to three?

Kitty Kat decided to use the recipe on the back of a sugar package. I tried to dissuade her, but she wouldn't budge. I let her try the recipe without interference at first. She would ask my opinion from time to time.

One of those times was when the "dough" was supposed to be ready to go in the fridge to chill. It looked like quick bread batter. I went through the ingredients with her and double checked the measurements she used. It turns out that she measured the milk before adding the lemon juice to it (as a replacement for buttermilk). I had told her a day or two ago to first put the lemon juice in and then to finish measuring the milk. Apparently, she forgot. She also confessed to having the milk a little over the mark on the measuring cup. Add that to the fact that the eggs we have right now are extra large and there was definitely too much moisture. I had her add a little extra flour a 1/4 cup at a time to get a better consistency. She added 1/2 cup and we decided to try it.

I let her work on the cookies alone after the "dough" chilled. I came to help her check on them when the first set was ready to come out of the oven. The cookies were a little burnt. I helped her get them off the pans quickly and then the kids and I ate those cookies as a bedtime snack. The oven temp. was at 400 degrees and she baked the cookies for 7 minutes. I checked and she had followed the directions. I then proceded to help her by getting the rest of the cookie "dough" onto the pans and she added the cinnamon sugar. I made the cookies bigger than the recipe called for, left the temp. the same, and had her time them for 5 minutes and then reset the timer as needed. She ended up with enough nice cookies that she can take them to her small group at church tomorrow evening and leave a couple for Jon to have later. She will be trying a different recipe before writing her report though. I tasted the raw batter and it tasted just like the batter minus the bananas of a banana bread recipe that I once made from a recipe on the back of the same brand of sugar. I have never made that recipe again because the banana bread turned out bland.

The kids were in bed before 10pm tonight. I actually sent them to bed before 9:30 but I had to fuss with the boys to get them to stay in bed. Once the boys were in bed, they fell right to sleep. I did have to go upstairs to send the girls back to bed a little while ago, but I think they have settled down. Hopefully, they will get enough sleep, because we are going to be at church a lot tomorrow.

Rough Day

bacon, egg, and cheese onion bagel

Thursday night we were up late, so I let everyone wake up on their own. I also didn't fix breakfast or brunch or whatever you want to call it until everyone was up and downstairs. Yes, that's right, the girls are back upstairs! So, we had our first meal at about 1:00 pm. That was not a good start to the day! We hoped that the day would get better after everyone's tummy was filled with the bacon*, egg, and cheese bagels and orange juice we had. The day did not get better.

Jon had a family ticket to go to a Cincinnati Bengals vs. the local Sheriff's Association basketball game at an area school. He was going to take the kids to that while I went to see my niece in the musical, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. The kids were so rotten yesterday that Jon decided they wouldn't go. If you know Jon, then you know what a big fan he is of the Bengals.

We had our next meal, vegetable beef stew with biscuits, before I left to go to the musical. The stew was planned for earlier in the week, but our plans had changed. I would normally make homemade biscuits, but there was a very good deal on biscuits at Kroger this week. We got four four packs of ten count Pillsbury biscuits for $4.00. I sent Kitty Kat to make some biscuits and she pulled out a can. I had totally forgotten about the canned bisuits. LOL We drank tea with our meal. Kitty Kat makes most of our iced tea and yesterday's was no exception.

I left to go to the musical with a heavy heart knowing that Jon was missing out. I'll have to be sure to take someone with me next time I go to something like that. There were long periods of time when I was by myself and I didn't know what to do with myself. My mom, nephew, and niece were there too, but Mom and my nephew were helping with costumes and my niece was running around with a cousin. There was also the trip from Springfield to Urbana and back alone in the car.

I got back and was swarmed by kids and pets. The pets are still acting like I was gone too long.

While I was gone, Jon and the kids snacked on some battered shrimp and Girl Scout cookies. When I returned, we had hot dogs and jalapeno brats with leftover chili, applesauce, and salad. We only had six hot dog buns, so some of the kids had their hot dogs cut up and had leftover rolls to go with it. Little Bear didn't want to eat his salad. He asked if we could put it in the fridge for the next day, and since he asked nicely, I complied.

Once again we got to bed late.

*I saved the bacon grease to use later in the week.

Where have I been?

1. Jon and I recently found some of our friends from college on Facebook. Needless to say, some of the time I used to spend on blogging has now gone to Facebook.
2. Jon's second shift schedule still has us out of sorts.
   
3. I think we all have Spring fever. The kids are going crazy, making more messes than they help clean up, fighting, testing us, I could go on and on.
4. There for a while, I was struggling with being optimistic. Since I'm supposed to be "Optimistically Walking in God's Sight", I really didn't want to bring my pessimism to this blog. I actually considered starting a new blog just for fussing on, but that would have defeated the whole purpose. Wouldn't it?
5. Due to some or all of the above, we have found it very difficult to get school done in a reasonable amount of time.
   
6. We are all downstairs for the winter, so we're are most likely experiencing cabin fever.
7. This past weekend we were busy. I'll do another post on that later.

What am I going to do about it?

1. Catch up with friends but try not to neglect other friends in the process.
2. Um...I guess the kids and I will have to go back to a first shift schedule. It will be tough, but it looks like it is necessary.
   
3. I've got to get the kids into a rigid schedule where they don't have time for messing around. Of course they don't have time to mess around now. They mess around and their responsibilities and relationships suffer. The weather has been nice the last few days. We need to enjoy it before the snow comes back. More outside activities are in order.
4. Things are looking a little brighter. I've recently come to the conclusion that two of my children have Sensory Integration Dysfunction (or Disorder if you will). Everything seems to point in that direction even the early intervention and special needs pre-school experiences before we started homeschooling. So, there is hope of finding some way to help them academically and behaviorally (or at least understand them better). I've also been reading up on allergies. I know we all have at least some allergies. Jon and I have decided to do an elimination diet to check for food allergies. We know that Little Bear is at least lactose intolerant and the kids are affected by red dyes. We suspect that there may be more food sensitivities. I was going to have us start the diet Monday, but changed my mind. Sunday afternoon I realized that we have several dozen eggs and other items that would go bad if we didn't eat them before the diet. So, we are going to try to finish what is in the house. When I shop, I will only purchase things that we will be able to eat on the diet. So, next Monday will be our start date. It's a good thing that we changed the start date, too. My birthday is this week and it would be awful difficult to not eat cake and ice cream. LOL
5. I need to get the children back on a fairly rigid schedule. That means I have to be on it, too. Ugh, we all despise change, but this will be for the better.
6. I'm hoping that, with the warmer weather, we'll be able to move school back upstairs to our school room. It should be easier for the children and I to focus. I also want to get outside more.
7. It is now past midnight here in Ohio and I am starting to type in a dyslexic manner. So yeah, the post about our weekend will have to wait. Please excuse any typos. Tonight my typing is off. Last night it was my handwriting. Even Jon noticed when he got home that my writing was odd on a page I had handwritten. It got so bad that I just gave up and went to sleep. Yeah, I'm going there now before no one can figure out what I'm trying to say.

Good night everyone!

Hmm...in reviewing my post I noticed that I mentioned the rigid schedule thing twice. It must be important, so I'll just leave it as is. I really am going to bed now. 'Night!

A Little of This And a Bit of That

First, Lucille at Who's Going to Tell You? wants to know if she should keep blogging. She says she will continue if she gets fifty comments. She did not specify that the comments had to be from fifty different people, but wouldn't it be neat if she did get comments from fifty different people? I've started her off with ten comments. I'm just ornery that way. LOL So, everyone head on over to Lucille's place. I'll wait. I need to change around the loads of laundry anyway.



Second, I don't think I mentioned before that Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey are in a Christmas play the Stage Right drama group at our church is putting on. The play is (if I have it right) "Scrooge Revisited". Jon got the lead part of Scrooge. The girls are extras in a scene or two and are the great-great- great...granddaughters of Scrooge in a modern day scene. The girls had their lines memorized for their audition. Jon, on the other hand, has a total of ninety-nine lines to have memorized. He is finding that it is a lot harder to memorize lines now than it was when he had less responsibilities.



Third, things have been crazy around here.

The two aforementioned girls had to be at church every day but Friday a couple weeks ago. Sunday: we had morning and evening services and activities. Monday: the girls and I had Sunflower Scouts. Tuesday: Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey had play practice. Wednesday: Baby Bear had his Wed. night class; Puppy Dog, Monkey, and Birdie had children's choir; Kitty Kat and Froggie had small group; Jon had Men's Fraternity; and I had Teacher Training. Thursday: we had homeschool P.E. Saturday: our church had their Fall Festival and Trunk and Treat.


This past week was all mixed up.

A week ago Saturday, Birdie was playing ghost in a sleeping bag after I warned the kids to put the bags away before someone got hurt. Birdie tripped and chipped four of her teeth.

A week ago Monday, I dropped the other kids off at Mom's and took Kaycie to the dentist. Jon met us at Mom and Dad's and we ate supper with them before the girls and I had to run off to Sunflower Scouts.


Last Tuesday was election day so we tried to focus on the elections. The kids and I went over to Jon's Mom's place and picked up her pop cans (to recycle) and ran her vacuum. We took all our cans to the recycle center and then picked up lunch. We ate lunch at Jon's workplace. It was a nice day so the kids and I played games (i.e. Mommy Says instead of Simon Says) on the lawn while we waited for Jon to get off work. When Jon got off work, we went together in the van to go vote. The kids did great! They only got riled up when one of the poll workers started encouraging them. The workers were bored and enjoyed the lively chatter of the children. After we voted, we went shopping and then picked up Jon's car. The evening was spent watching the voting results, watching an online video about how the voting process works, etc.


Wednesday Birdie had an appointment at the E.N.T. doctor. Monkey, Kitty Kat, and Froggie stayed in the reception area and read. The boys went back to the examination room with Birdie and me. They all behaved well at the doctor's office.


Thursday the kids had their homeschool P.E. class and I got a chance to talk with some of the other homeschool moms from our church. We also had to run some errands.


Friday the kids and I (my mom came too) went to watch Jon at a forklift rodeo. As the day's events ended, Jon was in first place in the masters division. Jon's supervisor invited the children and I to go eat with them afterwards at Lone Star.


Saturday was the final day of the rodeo. We went again hoping that Jon would stay in the top six. During the final half hour, he was knocked down to seventh (I think) place. Needless to say, he was very disappointed. Jon stayed for the catered award ceremony while my mom, dad, the children, and I went to Frisch's. We then went back to our MESSY :. ( house for pumpkin pie that my mom had brought.

We also were getting back into our early rising routine this past week and dealing with the time change. Our pets are still messed up over the time change.

The children were really trying my patience this last week or so. They have been fighting and arguing, talking back, grumbling, complaining, deliberately disobeying, and making messes without cleaning them up. Between our busy week and trying to fit in school we didn't have much time to keep up the house. When we were working on the house, it was like we would take one or two steps forward and at least five steps back. I'm still trying to find the optimistic side of things.

This morning before he left for work, Jon told me I really needed to enforce a mandatory nap time "right now". He gave them all a talking to as well. The kids were already at each others throats before 6:30 am this morning! The kids have been watching preschool programs this morning ever since breakfast was over. They're not allowed to mess around or the T.V goes off. The girls won't take a nap anymore, so this down time is about as close as we'll get to naps. I was hoping the boys would fall asleep, but they're not. They are close though. We might just have to start our school day with story time. We've really got to get the kids back into a better routine.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll end it here. I'll have another post up soon with yesterday's creative writing assignments.

Our Schedule: General and In Detail

The best schedule we have found since Jon has been on first shift is one in which we get up early and go to bed early.

5:00 AM - Jon and I get up and ready for the day.

5:30 AM - Jon wakes the kids while I fix breakfast and pack Jon's lunch.

5:30 - 6:30 We eat breakfast and have family devotions.

6:30AM - Jon leaves for work. The kids get ready for school. I help the kids as
needed, check e-mails, check for blog updates, review my lesson plans for
the day, and gather the materials I need for teaching. The kids and I do our
morning chores.

8:00AM - 3:00 PM School

3:00 - 3:30PM Clean-up from school

3:45 - 4:00PM Jon comes home from work. The kids finish any schoolwork that wasn't finished during school time.

5:00Pm Supper

6:00 - 8:00PM clean-up, chores, family time, and bedtime routine (kids in bed at 8:00PM)

9:00 PM Jon and I go to bed.

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Before we started back to school, I wrote out a very detailed school schedule:

8:00AM Prayer, Pledges, Praise, and Bible

8:30 Social Studies/Science

9:00 Language Arts/Health and Safety/Art

9:25 Break/Snack

9:35 Spelling/Vocabulary

9:45 Penmanship to Praise

9:55 Creative Writing

10:00 Wisdom Words

10:30 Math

11:30 Reading

12:00PM Lunch

12:30 Read Aloud then Boys' naps

1:00 Spanish (1st Semester)/French (2nd Semester)

1:30 Learning to Love Literature (Froggie and Kitty Kat)

2:00 Mon. - Music, Tues. - Etiquette, Wed. - Homework, Thurs. - Sewing, and Fri. - Home Economics

2:30 High Way to English Grammar (Froggie and Kitty Kat)

3:00 Break/Snack

3:10 Afternoon chore time

4:00 Physical Education

5:00 Supper

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While the kids and I thrive on a schedule, the above schedule is a bit too strict. The set times for starting and finishing subjects doesn't allow for finishing early or continuing with something that needs more time. Here is the general schedule we follow for school. (If we are starting late, like today, we adjust our times accordingly.)

8:00AM - Noon The Weaver Curriculum, Vol. V subjects, Math, and Reading

Noon Lunch

12:30PM Read Aloud then boys' nap

1:00 For the first couple weeks: finish Math and Reading.
In the following weeks: add in the rest of the subjects listed in the afternoon in the above schedule.

3:00 Finish school except for P.E., "homework", and music/instrumental music, if music didn't get done earlier (Jon is teaching Froggie and Kitty Kat to play the saxophone. I'm teaching Monkey to play the flute. The others aren't quite ready for doing anything but playing around with their toy instruments.)

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Over the summer, our church took a break from the regular Sunday evening and Wednesday evening programs. Those will start back at the beginning of next month. When that happens, we will be getting to bed later on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Any school day after a late night, we will either adjust the start time for school or add in more rest time during the day.

Actually, our whole schedule may be changing soon. Jon's work place is supposed to be doing a rebid for positions. He will have to go with second shift this time, because we can't afford for him to stay on first shift. First shift is great for family life, but terrible on the finances. When Jon is on second shift, I usually stay up until he gets home and winds down. When his shift changes, we will adjust our schedule accordingly.