Phonics Homework

With the kids in school, my days are quite flip-flopped. My mornings and early afternoons used to be jam packed with schooling and activities. If the little ones were napping, we hit the gas pedal on schooling. Now my mornings and early afternoons are quieter (though mysteriously just as busy), but once the girls come home... Sheesh does it get crazy here, and it doesn't settle down until bedtime. I have to admit some of the homework has been a hard adjustment for us. We've had quite a few late nights.

Yesterday afternoon I was helping little Sophia with her homework. I try to have her at the table so that I can keep an eye on what she is doing. She just needs a little more supervision to make sure she forms her letters correctly and such. Workbooks are also pretty new to her, so there are often questions. Plus the homeschooler in me just loves working with her whenever I can.

She had skipped ahead in phonics, almost 100 pages so there were new instructions. We read them together, "Say the name of each picture, if you hear the short sound of e color the picture." I wanted to be sure she understood the instructions before I wandered away to start dinner so I asked her, "Do you know what the short sound of e is?"

"Sure," she responds. "It's, like, when you don't say the sound for very long."

The Second Day of School

I'd like to be clever enough to come up with alternate lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" detailing our first twelve days of homeschooling, but I'm too tired to be clever :)

On our first day of homeschooling, I was trying to bolster enthusiasm by having a special Back-to-School Breakfast. I splurged and bought juice (we only drink water and milk here) because the packaging read  "nourish your brain." I'm not sure it helped get more math problems right, but it did lead to quite a few full diapers-- I should have remembered this is why I don't buy juice. All day long there was yucky diaper after yucky diaper. Just what I needed on our first day of school. The remaining brain food juice will most likely be dumped down the drain or poured into some mixed drink if I survive this first week of school. The latter option suddenly seems quite appealing. Our first day of school also saw a dumped container of baking powder, many leaves shoved between the screen door and the screen protector, and some raiding of a few upstairs drawers which led to the discovery of our old cell phone stash.

It amazes me how quickly my little ones learn the ins and outs of phones. These play ones don't cut it for Juju who wants a new i-foon (iPhone) so she can play antree burrs (Angry Birds).

Our second day has seen yet more after effects of the brain juice, a bloody nose obtained while army crawling on the floor (which meant blood spots every few feet or so), the dog ran away and Joseph got stuck in the briers trying to follow her and a then slipped inside and drank half my morning cup of coffee. Oy!

The thing is I find myself remarkably calm about it all. We're miraculously getting done with the all our work and despite the chaos, the routine of school has brought a peace to our home.

If you look closely at Bophie's drawing you will see it is a self portrait, complete with the hair bow of which she is particularly proud.

I was blessed to go on retreat for a weekend before this school year began and it has made a world of difference. I was reminded of all those reasons I began homeschooling. It was a lovely weekend and I am eternally grateful I was able to attend. The retreat centered around this scripture:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

This is my prayer for our little homeschool this year, that Christ will dwell in our heart and that we are rooted and grounded in love.

Five Loaves and Two Fishes

Last Sunday's gospel reading was about Jesus feeding the five thousand. The priest praying the Mass gave a homily that has provided me much food for thought (pun intended), especially as I begin the task of preparing for another year of homeschooling.

The gospel speaks about the sheer number of people that followed Jesus out into a deserted place. As evening approaches the disciples notice the growing problem of the hungry crowds and go to Jesus and expect him to solve the problem. They want Jesus to send the people away. Instead Jesus says to them, "Give them some food yourselves." The disciples responded with how little they had. They knew that five loaves and two fishes were certainly not enough to feed the throngs of people that had gathered. Yet Jesus has them bring him their measly portion and then, "he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds."  Not only were all the people fed from those meager portions, but there were leftovers-- baskets full of them. Matthew 14:13-21 was the full reading.

How often we are confronted with what seem to be insurmountable problems. How often we want Jesus to send away those problems, just like the disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowds home. We want him just to take care of the problem without having to give up anything. Instead Jesus wants all that we have no matter how insignificant and inadequate it may seem. He wants us to offer it to him. His blessing, and his breaking of that gift miraculously take our inadequacies and they are used for far more than we imagined possible.

Last week our new schoolbooks were delivered and in all honesty a weight was put on my heart. The task of schooling our children is my "crowd in the desert" problem. Sometimes just getting them all dressed and fed is a feat. In a few short weeks I add the monumental task of academic endeavors and continued faith formation.

I'm standing here with my measly five loaves and two fishes looking at the task in front of me and I think it may be utterly impossible. I'm impatient, often quick-tempered, sharp tongued, and easily distracted. I have only two hands to try to keep up with twelve. Can I really do it? I'm tempted to ask Jesus to send the problem away as the disciples did.

Father reminded me, however, that if we bring those five loaves and two fishes to him, bring him the little we have to offer, he will bless it, break it, and use it to accomplish what is impossible on our own. My five loaves and two fishes are painfully inadequate and yet, if I offer them to Jesus, he will feed the five thousand with them. Blessed and broken, with Jesus, we will have another successful school year.

Here's hoping that the leftover baskets will equate to laundry being done and dinners on the table :)

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

 Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day for a picnic. In God's divine providence, it turned out to be the day of our homeschooling group's Annual End of the Year Picnic.

This year Coach Q of The Homeschool Gym came with fun games for kids of all ages. Parachutes, balls, flags, frisbees, tons of organized games for all the kids to play. My girls had such a blast running and playing and enjoying the breeze, the friends, and the activities Coach Q put together.

{happy}

 I was happy to have some help keeping track of all the little ones. Earlier this year we found MK who comes three mornings a week to watch the little ones while I school the older girls. Her help has been an incredible answer to our prayers. She came yesterday and it was so nice to be able to relax knowing there were two sets of eyes on my littles.

With the extra help, I got a chance to visit and enjoy the winding down of our school year. The kids also enjoyed being with friends, making cereal necklaces, face painting, and some older boys even made balloon animals! It was such a fun day for everyone!

{funny}

 Did I mention my girls enjoyed the face painting? Doesn't this just look like a girl ready for the summer?

While not a fan of the face paint, Gabe did enjoy the watermelon. I have never seen a kid so serious about his watermelon. He is certain to get every shred of edible melon, and even then will not let go of the rind. He chose the melon over a popsicle so I guess I can't complain.

{real}

My real pictures should be of the hour or two before we left for the picnic because that was truly an ordeal. Alas there are no pictures of my destroyed kitchen floors, nor of the now faded kitchen mats. There are also no pictures of two little boys in brand new outfits, ready for a picnic at the park, now ruined by bleach stains and crying because of the soap in their eyes.

It seems no matter how organized I try to be, no matter how much effort I put into being ready to go the night before, it is inevitable that some disaster will strike. Yesterday, while I was in the shower, the boys dumped an entire bottle of dishwasher detergent on the kitchen floor. We found that one particular brand of our detergent has bleach (a lot of bleach) in it. We're trying to use it up and in hindsight I should have just thrown it away.

 

 Instead I do have pictures of the little work I did for our picnic. I set up a treasure hunt in the sand of our turtle sandbox, the sandbox that sits in our garage because dh doesn't like sandboxes.

It seemed to be a big hit. Although I suppose I could have had some great reality shots that evening when I had to bathe our boys because they were covered in sand and bathe the girls because they were covered in face paint...

Still it was a beautiful picnic and a lovely start to our summer!

Down the Homestretch

"It is our part to seek, His to grant what we ask; ours to make a beginning, His to bring it to completion; ours to offer what we can, His to finish what we cannot." — Saint Jerome

We are currently wrapping up our year of homeschooling. Subjects are slowly being finished, workbooks thrown away, final touches being put on projects, end of the year assessments are being taken. As mom and Chief Education Officer (CEO), I am evaluating what worked for us this year, what we should improve, and what direction our little school will take next year.

I am, by nature, a perfectionist in many ways. I want all the lessons finished 100%. I struggled this year with my expectation that all finished work be completely correct, and if not, completely corrected. I like every "t" crossed and "i" dotted. In my end of the year evaluations, it is easy for me to see all those t's that not crossed, all the undotted i's. It is tempting for me to fixate on all I had hoped to accomplish this year that either was done hastily, done half way, or completely unattempted. I am again reminded of my imperfections as a teacher, a counselor, and a mother.

At Mass this past Sunday, The Feast of the Good Shepherd, our parish priest spoke of vocations. He very eloquently reminded us (by pointing out his fellow priests) that God does not call the perfect. That we should not allow our imperfections, our personality flaws, or our inadequacies, to stop us from pursuing whatever God is calling us to do. While this is so very true of the calling to our vocations, and especially the priesthood, it is equally apropos to those of us called to homeschooling. It is very easy to think we are somehow too undisciplined, too prone to anger or impatience, too distracted, too uneducated, too overwhelmed, or just too "not up for the task." We forget that our calling is less about our abilities and more about being an instrument of God's grace. We forget how God uses the lowest and the most inadequate as shining examples of how his grace can work through us. We forget it is about saying "yes" to God's will, not about being able to do it all on our own.

This year has been a year of learning to say "yes" to God in the little moments, because it is all those little moments that add up to our big eternal "yes." I learned to step back from the big picture and ask myself in each little moment, "Am I doing God's will right now?" Asking is this what I need to be doing to serve God right now has allowed me to recognize when I should be saying "yes" in a different manner, when it was time to put aside my own desires. I learned to serve him in changing the diapers, cleaning the spilled syrup, as well as in teaching mathematics.

 Asking each moment has also helped me learn to leave the rest to him.  If in each moment I was doing all I could, then I couldn't be bothered by what I couldn't do. If I was called away from school to clean a bathroom because two little angels (aka 3 year-olds) had gotten into the toilet *again*, I had to do my best to clean it and then return to schooling. I couldn't beat myself up over being unable to do it all. My daily To-Do List is almost always left with three or four items that I just couldn't get finished. Instead of worrying or giving into the temptation to feel more overwhelmed, I have been working on (only sometimes successfully) trusting in God to bring to completion what He feels needs to be completed.

While I certainly was not able to finish all that I had planned for this school year, I trust that my willingness to be at the disposal of God will allow him to finish all that he feels needs to be accomplished as we wrap up this year's educational pursuits.

A Blog Bleg about Math

Bleh, right?

My general question is this, Is it important that your child/student correct all his errors in schoolwork? I know in school you are given a grade and the assignment is finished, but is it an advantage to homeschoolers that they have the opportunity to correct their mistakes? Has this process helped your children make fewer future mistakes? I offer the following as an elaboration on one way this impacts our school day.

Banana has really amazed me in her ability to grasp Math concepts, something clicked with her last year and her Math skills have blossomed. She almost always completes her preliminary work and her Lesson Practice (5-7 questions making sure she grasped the current lesson) with no mistakes. Occasionally I might have to re-explain a topic in a different way, but she always seems to get it.

That said, almost everyday she misses several Mixed Practice questions. Mixed Practice is around 30 questions reviewing all of the concepts she has learned. She misses these not because she is having any real problems. She makes simple calculation errors, or she copies the problem incorrectly, on occasion she even misreads her own handwriting (mistakes a 0 for a 6 kind of thing). In earlier grades Saxon had a front worksheet and a backside that mirrors it so we had a deal, if you get it right on the front you don't have to do it on the back. This system worked wonders for her. Now, though, there is no mirrored problem sheet and I think she needs to complete each problem because they cover different concepts.

So, do you make your children/students correct all of their mistakes? Is it important to take the time to make the corrections and recheck them? Math takes a long time for Banana as it is, and it would be an understatement to say that I have a full plate. As it stands now, I do (mostly because of my perfectionist tendencies), for the most part, require her to take the time to fix each mistake which means she has to redo the whole problem even if it was a simple mistake. I then check each correction which means extra paperwork I have to keep straight.

Am I making too much trouble for myself, is it better to point out the mistake and then move on? I will always require her to fix problems that I think may indicate she is struggling with a concept, but should I require her to fix all the silly errors? If I don't have her correct each problem on her own, how do I encourage her to be neat and precise in her work?

Mid-Semester Progress Report II

Subtitled: Homeschooling with Little Ones, or perhaps Barriers and Baskets

As previously mentioned, each year of homeschooling has brought new challenges. While I have had to entertain little ones in years past, this year new strategies were needed to corral four young children eager to play and interrupt me or their older siblings while we attempt to learn new grammatical concepts or pursue mathematical endeavors. In order to succeed this year, I desperately needed a solution to the question, "What do I do with these rug rats?" (I do mean that very affectionately)

Our newest challenge is under the weather. Poor guy has his first cold.

I have tried many solutions. Fancy toys, play doh, moon sand, switching out toys, playing with the little ones first, finding crafts for them to do. In the end, these strategies left me exhausted and further behind in schooling the older children. The fancy toys lost their luster, the crafts left me with more mess than I could handle, the little ones still cried for my attention when I left, and, honestly, who has time to switch out toys on a schedule? I was still left with a messy house and not enough time to devote to schooling my older students (who, btw, are steadily becoming more independent learners), and an overwhelming sense that I was failing everyone.

Bophie is my ultimate Little People town builder. These toys keep her imagination busy for hours.

My solutions:

1. My philosophy has been simple-- to contain. Contain the little ones and the havoc they seem to wreak on every room they entered. I put up a barrier that corrals them in the family room. They are free to play with whatever they like in that room, but they must stay in the room. I put up gates that block them from escaping to other areas in the house. Yes, they are capable of climbing my barriers. The barriers are placed as a visual reminder to them not to leave the room. They know there are consequences to moving outside their humble confines. I use a Super Play Yard to accomplish this in my house. I pull it out after breakfast and place it between my kitchen and living room. A smaller gate blocks off the other entrance to the room. Both are easily placed and easily taken down so that at the end of the school day my house returns to normal.

Please ignore the laundry on the couch. I wanted to quickly show my gate, no time for cleaning :)

No, I am not suggesting you cage the little ones, but rather find one area in which they can play. Our living room suits this purpose for me. There are enough toys in that room for twelve preschoolers. They may play with all of them to their heart's content. Since school mostly occurs in the kitchen and our first floor school room, I am able to attend to any other need they may have. I just can't have them all over the house. Since employing this system, I have found it much easier to maintain a basic level of order in most of the house. The living room may be a disaster, but I can handle one room.

Before corralling the kids, this room was a disaster every single day. Now I can snap a picture without picking up first.

2. Baskets, buckets, containers, and more baskets. The truth is, the living room being the primary play area on a school day is a necessity not a preference. In my ideal world, the living room would be a picture perfect room to relax, grab a good book, play a board game, or converse with a loved one; not an obstacle course of dolls, rocking horses, balls, and puzzle pieces. This compromise has been accomplished through fancy baskets and containers. Basically any toy that has multiple parts is stored in some type of container, even if it is just a ziplock bag. Experience has shown me that kids are more interested in playing if there is some organization. If everything is just thrown together, they lose interest quickly.

My living room can be quickly returned to an orderly "lived in" but not "ransacked" state in a few minutes using the basket system. In my living room there are bins for Little People (a favorite staple in this house), baskets for Leapster equipment, a basket for books, another basket for baby toys, a bin for the tea set, and a rather large bin for the extra toys that seem to accumulate. Just to name a few. There is even a shoebox in a cupboard for diapers so I have them on hand when needed. I also have one corner dedicated to the few toys that won't fit in the bins, the doll stroller and rocking horse. Each morning the little ones destroy that room, but as I am making lunch, I challenge the older girls. If they can pick up the room before lunch is made, they may have a piece of candy after lunch. It works.

They all delight in a bin of old toys.

3. Some rotation and special toys. I have enough going on in my day that I do not want to put the demands of a toy schedule on my plate. However, there is some benefit to new toys. It is amazing how something new or special will keep the attention of toddlers. The basket and bin system really helps me with this. Even the toys in our basement are organized into bins or baskets or even bags. This allows me to occasionally pull something new out to be played with on a rough day. I may not want to put all the puzzle pieces away on a daily basis, but bringing up the bin of puzzles on a day I need some extra time to teach long division to a Math-despising fifth grader may give me the time necessary. It might be worth picking up all those pieces.

Every house needs a high shelf or closet to store toys that are painful to repeatedly pick up. Toddlers like nothing more than to dump out any nicely organized bin of toys, and so it is necessary to keep them out of reach. Otherwise, countless hours will be spent sorting toys into their appropriate bins. I am fortunate to have a closet in our basement play room and a well-placed high shelf in the play room (it was one of the first updates we made to this house). In the closet and on the shelf I have bins of building blocks, a box of alphabet blocks, a container of stringing beads, a box of counter pegs, giant floor puzzles in bags, you get the idea. These are things that I don't want to pick up all the time. I keep them out of reach and pull them out one at a time on particularly rough days. The kids get a kick out of a toy they haven't seen in awhile, I get a few extra minutes. Pulled out one at a time, these things aren't the chore to pick up.

The shelving in our basement playroom.

4. Lastly, every little one craves a schedule. This one requires you find a balance that works for you. I am not able to follow a minute by minute guide to what should be done. I don't even want to be bothered with an hour by hour guide. I simply need an order or flow to my day. We have breakfast around 8, the girls help tidy the kitchen then begin their schoolwork, the gates are put up and the little ones play through the morning, we pick up before lunch around noon, after lunch I put little ones down for a nap and we finish school, then after 3:30 or so, the girls have some free time and I try to tackle housework. It doesn't go this smoothly everyday, but it is what we strive toward. If I tried to add more, I would be overwhelmed. However, the kids need at least this much to be comfortable. They know what comes next. They know what to do and when to do it. It works for us.

Banana diligently working on Math.

It isn't just my toddlers who needed this. This year is the first year as a homeschooler that I put into place a specific start and end time to our school days. It has been wonderful. In the past, we schooled until Dad was on his way home, or until I felt we accomplished enough, or until one of the girls folded under the workload. None of this was good, dh comes home at a different time each day, some days early others late. I quite rarely was able to accomplish all I wanted to finish any day, and I had a tendency to demand more and more out of the girls. With a set end time, we do what we can, but at the end of the day we're done. The girls work harder knowing they will have some free time. I have some time to recover and finish some housework. We all are much happier. I tend to want to cover more and more material, and this system has put balance back into our schooling.

Balance. That's what it's about for me. Striking the right balance and again reminding myself to do the best I can right now and offering that, and the rest that isn't done, to God.

Mid-Semester Progress Reports

Which has now become a late mid-semester report, and an insanely long blog post...

The beginning of this school year was much like last year. After about two hours of the first day, I was ready to call it quits. I remember that last year (when I only had four children), I felt as though there was too much on my plate. Dh called around lunch time and I was practically in tears. Now, here I am with two more-- boys no less, and four little toddler munchkins. I certainly have moments of chaos, and plenty of moments where I wonder if I can really do it all. After day one this year, I seriously was ready to call it quits. Certainly any alternative was better than me losing my mind and causing those around me to deal with my sharp tongue and frazzled attitude. The more overwhelmed I feel, the more sharply I speak, and then I simply shut down.
That being said, we plodded through, we survived that first week. I gained some perspective on why we chose to homeschool. We put some new boundaries in place (those are a separate post), and plodded on in our education endeavor. Those who look in on homeschoolers often wonder how we do it. Truth is, I wonder how we do it. Looking back at where we started this year and how things are progressing now, I know there has been quite a bit of divine intervention. A friend once told me we have to be empty in order for God to fill us. If we think we are doing a great job, we probably aren't letting God do His job. These first weeks of school reminded me that only by relying on Him will I be successful in any education of our children.

That isn't to say that this has been a stellar semester for us. I am still struggling to get it all done. The housework is suffering, the girls are still playing catch-up, the little ones need more direction. However, we are moving forward and gaining ground each day. I end each day wishing I had more time, but I am learning to number the accomplishments and worry less about the unfinished tasks.

My motto this year has been simple. I try to focus on what I can do in each moment. There are times when there is so much going on at one time that I fear I will lose all control of this house and my children, not to mention my sanity. I try to stave off those overwhelming feelings of inadequacy by saying a quick prayer (I always like, "Jesus, Son of the Living God, Have mercy on me, a sinner." as I breathe in and out), then I focus on tackling one thing at a time. I realize there is only so much I can do, as long as I set about doing what I can, I shouldn't worry about doing what I can't. When I employ this method, I typically find that within a few minutes order is restored.

It hasn't always been easy to do this. The only way I can let go of all of the tasks I leave unfinished, is if I am confident I have done all that I could do. That means that I have to constantly be asking myself, is this the best thing I can do right now to live out my vocation as a wife and mother? Is this what God is asking me to do right now? I have to make sure that I am giving each moment in service to God.

This, by no means, implies that I am working all the time, or that I have to be going each moment. In fact, there are many moments I am serving God better by letting go of work and being attentive to my own need for respite, for prayer, or my children's needs for my attention. Yesterday, I had to let go of the dishes in the sink to sit and rock two little boys who weren't feeling well. This may be easy for some, but I have a difficult time when the house is not orderly especially when dh comes home. I also recently picked up crocheting again. While this seems like the most difficult time in life to pick up a hobby, it is important I get time to myself to unwind. Crocheting is a nice hobby for me, because I like to add prayers to my stitches, so I am multi-tasking-- prayer time in my down time.

On the flip-side, I have also become aware of time-killers. For me this is often computer time. I have had to offer up computer games that tend to suck me in and eat up countless hours. I have to try to save social media until after school hours. I have also had to settle for good enough on housework I have typically done more thoroughly. I am also finding myself spending a little more on convenience items. I opted to purchase this year's saint costumes rather than make them. While I enjoy the creative outlet, at this stage I need projects without deadlines. Again and again I find myself asking, is this best for my family right now? Is this the best thing I can do with this minute?

If I offer up to God each moment, each minute, and I focus on what I can do right now, I find myself less overwhelmed with all that I need to accomplish in a given day. My To-Do list is never ending, I am never going to finish the laundry, there are always going to be more dishes to wash. There is always going to be another subject I would like to delve into with the girls, more to teach them, or more to explore with them. However, if I give them each moment, if I work hard right now, I am amazed at how much I can accomplish (or more accurately, what God accomplishes through me).

All I have to offer to my children, my husband, my family, God, is right now. I can offer this moment. I must chose right now, each moment, how best to serve them. If I am doing this, I shouldn't be worried about what I couldn't do.

"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
— Francis Of Assisi

Wednesday Afternoon

In Pictures

Just call him Scooter. Our little Gabe is finally on the move. He isn't crawling, he puts his arms down, moves one leg back and scoots-- everywhere. His current favorite scooting locations are the fireplace to see his reflection (and leave lots of fingerprints that drive Dad crazy), and the dog's water bowl (must be a boy thing). Don't tell dh he is wearing his Baby Legs (dh calls them leg warmers, the girls call them his caterpillar legs), they are really handy for diaper changing, and I think they are cute!

The girls are schooling outside this afternoon. It is unseasonably warm, but forecasters are calling for a cold front. So we are taking full advantage of the sun and warmth. This is, after all, reason 326 for home schooling.


In case you missed it, here is a close-up of little Bophie. This is what happens when Mom is too busy to help in the morning. A dress two sizes too big. I think I put those pigtails in on Monday and her hair hasn't been brushed since. Most of all the shoe choice. Not only mismatched, but in typical Bophie fashion, the shoes are on the wrong feet.

My Pencil Dilemma

It's Monday morning in our home, after clearing the breakfast dishes and getting myself a second cup of coffee, it is time to get back to school-- Mondays ugh. I printed off a cute pumpkin activity for Bophie to keep her out of my hair as I begin Math with the older girls. Math and Monday, not a favorite combination in this house.

My dilemma? Inevitably, as soon as I want to get down to task, neither girl can find a pencil. I am an organization junky. I strive to be sure there is a place for everything. I have a pencil basket to return pencils when finished. The only pencil in the pencil bin this morning was a nub of a thing with no eraser and all of an inch long. BTW, it is not a nub because I work my children to the bone. It is the way it is because some of my girls get too much of a kick out of sharpening the things. The eraser is missing because other girls chew on anything they get their hands on.

I buy pencils by the truck load. Last week, I pulled out at least a dozen new pencils. Where do they go? Are they eaten? I wouldn't think my cooking was bad enough my children would resort to eating pencils. Still, this morning, no one could locate a decent pencil. Last week, I gave each of them two of my favorite mechanical pencils. I let them choose a color so they could keep track of the pencil. Banana chose blue, Bear purple, Bophie of course chose pink, and I was left with orange. This morning, none of those eight pencils are in the bin. They even lost my orange pencils!

Being the frugal (dear readers know I am cheap) mom I am, I purchased hundreds of pencils when the school supplies went on sale in September. I have a secret stash of pencils, some traditional number two's and other coveted mechanical pencils. I know this morning I could pull out new pencils for everyone. I could replenish the stash again. I could get everyone to work, but how long will my stash last under such conditions? If I put out 20 pencils today, will there be any there on Friday, let alone next Monday?

So, here I am at 10 AM, asking myself what to do about the pencil problem, when it occurs to me that there must be other more important things to dwell on... I think the next time I'm out, I'll buy a thousand pack of pencils (do they sell such a thing?), then maybe I won't care when there are no pencils to be found. I am also making sure my favorite mechanical pencils get a new home, safe from grubby, pencil-hungry girls.

Back to Math lessons...

Friday's Food for Thought

I am really enjoying this Friday quote post. Today's quote has to be one of my all-time favorites. It is from a prayer book I found at a used book store, the book is probably one of my favorites as well.


"You may dazzle the mind with a thousand brilliant discoveries of natural science; you may open new worlds of knowledge which were never dreamed of before; yet, if you have not developed in the soul of the pupil strong habits of virtue which will sustain him in the struggle of life, you have not educated him, but only put in his hand a powerful instrument of self-destruction."
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

This is my life...

And I truly do love it!

Today, the house was absolutely destroyed. Toys, paper, crayons, books, all strewn over every room in the house. There were blankets and towels piled high to make their way through the wash. Banana was in the study working on a Math lesson. Bear was in the kitchen working on Science. Bophie was sitting in the living room "reading" a book. I am again trying to get a grip on time management and complete more than I could finish in three days.

As is typical, it is in a moment of chaos that I find JuJu has a stinky diaper. I move into order-barking mode. I remind Banana to focus on her lesson. I ask Bear to continue her work. I instruct little JuJu to round up the wipes. This is after all one of her favorite tasks, taking second only to putting things (not necessarily garbage) into the trash can.

I ask (ok bark) to Bophie to please go fetch a diaper for me from upstairs. The response, "Can I please finish my chapter first?"

This from my 3-year old holding a board book-- and did I mention SHE CAN'T READ!

Wound Ever So Tightly

I was telling a dear friend the other day that I feel a little like a guitar string that just keeps getting tightened, and tightened, and tightened. I am wondering when I might just go plink and break in two. So far I am hanging in there, although I'm really hoping the tightening will subside soon.

Despite the rough start to my sister's last week, she ended on some good notes (pun intended). Her recovery from LVAD surgery has gone really well. She still has a long road, especially with a transplant looming. Right now we are all just so thankful this surgery has gone as well as it could.

Our first week of school could have gone better. My poor children had to deal with a mother who was dragged kicking and screaming from an all too short summer in which only a quarter of the "To-Do List" was finished. To add to that, this mom is riddled with anxiety about how she will pull off the second semester of school with two new little ones. Her response to the anxiety is to push, push, push for a really successful fall semester. If the first week is an indication, we are in some real trouble.

Not only is this mom suffering from these emotional woes, she is hormonal. Seventeen weeks pregnant hormonal. You know, the tired of looking so fat, constant headache, can't get comfortable, overtired, and still suffering from morning sickness hormonal. To add to those physical woes, she has an ear infection in her right ear that is now making its way to the left ear.

The guitar string continues to tighten...

On top of these, this silly mom was trying to be super-cool, fun mom and signed her two oldest girls up for fall soccer. Banana is at her first practice right now. Monday and Wednesday evenings now include scarfing down dinner (a dinner I am hard pressed to find time to cook) and heading off to practice. Bear's coach called tonight and her practices are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. So now we get to scarf dinner (assuming I actually make dinner) every weeknight for the next eight weeks. What was I thinking?


I must have been thinking how cute these girls are in their soccer gear :)

From my Inbox This Morning

Congratulations! Your dossier has been delivered to the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

Now we wait... hopefully only a few more months.

In other news, Missy's surgery went well, but she is in for a long recovery. The next two to three days are especially important. Please keep those prayers coming.

We are on day 3 of our new school year. My expectation is just to survive this year, there is so much going on that I don't anticipate it will be one of our better years. So far days one and two reflect that. I already need some motivation-- even with my low expectations.

End of the Year Picnic

Yesterday, our homeschooling group had a year-end picnic. The girls had too much fun. We have a homeschooling dad in the area who runs a homeschool gym program. The group had him out to organize the games for our kids. It was such a nice time. The kids played hard, the moms had an opportunity to talk with only little ones underfoot. It was the perfect celebration of the start of summer.

Here are the kids with the parachute. Who doesn't love playing with a giant parachute? Bophie found her best buddy and the hula hoops... Juliana, sporting a Donald Trump comb over, tasted (I really mean wore) her first popsicle... Here's a group picture of all the kids. Don't they look tired after playing so hard... I know I was quite tired.

School Year Wrap Up

Today is our first official day of summer. The breakfast dishes are cleared and the girls have a few minutes to play before we get ready for Mass. You'll never guess what they are playing. They are pretending it is the first day of-- SCHOOL!

I am amazed at this because they have been absolutely dragging this week wanting to finish. I am one of those crazy homeschooling moms who require we finish all the lessons in our schoolbooks before quitting for the summer. You can blame that on my overly active perfectionist tendencies, but my girls acted as though they were going to explode if they had to do one more math page. Now here they are pretending they are back in school. They are practicing their state capitals and geography, and fighting over the flashmaster.

The flashmaster was a new purchase this week. Another homeschooling mom suggested it when I told her how much trouble I was having with flashcards. This little machine has them all so I can't lose them, and I can check the girls' previous sessions so I don't have to monitor them. What really sold me though was when this mom told me what a great drinking game the little machine makes. Goodness knows I am always up for a good drinking game. Truly the thought of dh doing multiplication facts after a couple gin and tonics makes my summer.

This year we made the switch to a virtual school in February. I have been really pleased with their curriculum and asking myself why I waited so long. We only enrolled Banana, but Bear wanted so badly to join in on her lessons we enrolled them both for next year. It seems as though next year is going to be pretty busy for us, so I am thankful the school decisions are made so early this year.

I am not pretending this is the first day of school. I am too happy it is finally summer. There is so much to do. We are changing around all the bedrooms in preparation for Joseph. I have some major weeding out of stuff to do (hopefully before our parish rummage sale). VBS, preparing for next years Little Women's Hospitality Program, a few small trips, and spending some fun time with the girls. Here's to the lazy (I hope--OK I am dreaming) days of summer.

A Proud Mom

Yesterday was our homeschooling group's annual Speech Meet. It is a forum for the children to get a little public speaking experience. It has always been one of my favorite events and this year proved to be one of the best yet. There was singing, a little dancing, funny poems, tongue twisters, prayers (in Latin no less), and more.

Last year Bear worked for months memorizing her poems, she looked forward to getting up and reciting them. When the moment came, she froze. This year, she worked even harder. She memorized two longer poems and worked on saying them slowly. When the moment came, she froze. Then she took a deep breath and delivered them beautifully. She spoke slowly and clearly and gave one of the best recitations of "The Puffin" I have ever heard. Of course I am biased...

Banana did equally as well. She is becoming a pro at this. I was a little more worried this year because she chose two very lengthy poems. We had memorized the first in the fall while working on American History and I was afraid she would switch the stanzas since we were so late in beginning our review. She delivered beautifully. Her second recitation was "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" which is often called "The Daffodils." It was a most fitting poem for such a nice spring day and though she had to quickly learn the last stanza this week, she did a fantastic job.

The moderator (me), on the other hand, was not so adept at the whole public speaking thing. Dh confirmed my suspicions at home last night that I had managed to overkill a joke-- I just couldn't let it go. Those dear children and their families were subjected to my poor sense of humor, my talking too fast, and general uncomfortableness with a microphone. At least the food and coffee were good, and the kids were entertaining.

Peeking into my living room

Last night all the kids were tucked in bed, some of them were actually sleeping. I came downstairs to my living room to relax. I sat down on the couch and then it hit me. I was surrounded by toys-- overrun by toys.

I turn to dh and say, "Remember when Banana was just learning to crawl and I insisted there be no toys in our living room? Just look at us now, eight years and four kids later." You can file this away with all the other stupid things I said before we had kids. I figured they had a basement playroom for their toys. If they wanted to play, they could go there.

I had this crazy notion we could still have adult space, that the kids wouldn't invade every aspect of our lives. I certainly didn't foresee the day when I would allow my space to be invaded so I could get 15 minutes of peace and relative quiet. Yet, here we are. My living room has been taken over. I have two little ones who won't play more than 15 feet away from where I am, and two older ones who need to be schooled. The only option is to allow them to have the toys close by so I can get a little school done. Now I am allowing them to invade my space not for my own peace, but rather to give me time to tend to the other children.

The thing is, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I didn't foresee that my kids would invade every space I had. I didn't know how trying that would be sometimes. I also didn't know how deeply I would grow to love those invasions.

P.S. I can't believe I am actually posting a picture of my house looking like this... I don't know why it is so hard, it looks like this any day we are trying to get some serious schooling done. If I really wanted to embarrass myself I would show you my kitchen :) I promise come 4:30, it will be picked up, but all those toys will still be tucked away in my living room.