So today it was raining. All day.

It's not that we didn't need the rain. We do need the rain. We really do. It's just that the kids turn into wild children when they can't get outside.

So, by lunch time I was surrounded by four wild, screaming, mini-terrors. It was horrible. I was about ready to scream.

So we made lunch and the munchkins went down for their naps early. Take that tiny terrors!

No, really. They all needed the naps, I think and when it rains they sleep better. So the kids all went to sleep and I came and collapsed on the couch. And I sat here for awhile and watched a couple of episodes of the Waltons. I felt much better.

And the afternoon was much better.

The Television

So, a couple of weeks ago I made a decision to turn off the TV. So, I set a time limit of one hour of TV per day, and Mom picks the programs. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, because the little monkeys weren't really actually watching the programs. The TV was on and it was noise and it was only contributing to the noise that the kids were creating. Second, because I realized that there were better ways to spend that time.

We have been sticking to the schedule pretty well. They get to watch one hour of PBS kids every afternoon. They actually sit and watch the shows. So it's quiet. I also initiated a rule that if they get up and start playing or running around the TV goes off. They've done pretty good.

But, my little turkey DD4 was sneaking up to the toy room and watching videos very quietly while DD6 and I were still working on schoolwork. So, I had to unplug the VCR. HA! Mommy wins!

Anyway, I plan to keep it up. It's working. The girls spend more time reading than vegging. And that's a good thing!

Got up bright and early this morning...6:30. I was quite pleased with myself. I have been making a concerted effort to get to bed at a decent hour these days, and it seems to be paying off.

Errand Day

So, today, I decided that I would bore all of you with the petty details of my life. LOL.

DCB (that's DayCare Boy, for the uninitiated) got here at about 8:30. I think he might have been earlier, because according to Caller ID his Mom called at 8:10, but she didn't leave the message and I was in the attic (which I will explain later) so didn't hear the phone ring. She probably had her DH drive around the block a time or two worried that I was still in the shower, since she doesn't usually bring him til 9ish.

Anyway, I digress.

I got the girls up and made them put on fall clothes for the first time this season. It actually got down into the forties here last night in the DFW area and was quite chilly this morning. That's why I was in the attic, getting down the fall clothes. Exciting, right?

So we ate breakfast and DCB had a snack (#1) and we loaded up to go to Sam's.

I met my friend, Lauri (name changed to protect the not-so-innocent) at Sam's. We are the co-social chairs for out Bible Study class and we are having a party tomorrow night. We went and baught all of the stuff for the party to feed approximately 80 people we spent $120. It sounds like a good deal to me, anyway.

We went to Wal-Mart to buy some other stuff, like mayo and pickles, cause quite frankly, we didn't think we needed 5 gallons of mayo.

Then we drove out to the house where we're having the party. This house is amazing and the owners are so sweet. So, we stood around and talked wedding stuff (the home owner's daughter is getting married soon) for a bit and then headed out.

It was only 10:30 and the library doesn't open til 11 on Fridays, so we headed home. I checked DCBs diaper and the kids had a snack (#2 for DCB). After that we headed out to the Library.

The Library - An Adventure

On the way to the library, I was explaining to my DDs that we were going to take a new approach to choosing books. Before, I would just sort of wander up and down the aisles with the kids and let them pick whatever. And they liked that just fine.

Today, I explained, we would be a little more deliberate and actually visit the non-fiction shelves (shock and awe).

So, following an idea from The Well-Trained Mind, I had each DD pick out one science book, one history book, one art or music book, one hobby book, one biography, and one book of poetry. TWTM also recommends one classic novel and one storybook, BTW, but classic novels are a little hard to come by for a 4yo and we didn't stop at one storybook. We did get Peter Pan and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on CD. So I guess that counts as the classic novels.

I had to return the Junie B. Jones books on tape that we got awhile back. Frankly, although some of the stuff is funny, I just don't like Junie B. Her language and attitude are too easily copied by my 4yo and with good literature available, I just don't want to waste my time.

We were at the library for an hour! And it was so cute. I always let DCB pick out a book or two (he loves books) and he had one of his books with him. Every time we would stop to look at books he would sit down on the floor by my feet and "read" his book. The librarians LOVED that. He also tried to read while walking, but that sort of threw a wrench in his day when he accidentally started following the wrong person. He was headed away from me, but didn't realize it. He heard me call him and turned in the direction of my voice but I guess was trying to identify me by my clothes and walked up and stood next to another woman, who looked a little surprised at her new friend. He was sort of shocked too, I might add. I was standing there stifling a giggle. He wasn't scared, just surprised that someone else actually had similar clothes...

Home Again?

After the library we headed home listening to Peter Pan in the car. We got home and poled out and as soon as I walked in the door I just cringed. TWICE I had walked by the bag of dry-cleaning that I was supposed to drop off this morning. Oops. So, we piled back into the car and headed to the dry-cleaners. It was then that I realized that it was pst lunch time, the kids were hungry and I would have to cook something at home. We headed to Sonic for lunch only to met with at least 50 thug-like teenagers. Apparently the local high school had mid-terms today and let out early. My DDs were in awe that some of the girls they saw were actually allowed out of the house.

So, home for lunch, finally. We ate and everyone is quietly enjoying rest time.

Week-end Plans

We have a church social tonight. Then tomorrow the Bible Study party. And of course church Sunday. Gymnastics class Saturday morning and hopefully, a nice thourough cleaning of the home-front. I always forget how hard it is to homeschool and keep the house clean!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

This last month has been a challenge. Isn't getting back into an organized schedule always a challenge??

Schedules

Speaking of schedules, I have one now, which is a sight bit better than where I was this time last year. As with homeschooling, though, it took some time to get it to where it worked. It seems like it is very easy for a beginning homeschooler to fall into the perfect homeschooler trap, isn't it? I did it. I will probably do it again before this journey is over. This time it was over the schedule.

See, perfect homeschoolers are up before the sun (preferably on their homestead) reading the Bible, making homemade bread, and preparing a huge made-from-scratch breakfast for their family (of no less than 6 children).

I did the homemade bread thing last year. I still love homemade bread. On special occasions. For a snack. My loaves never turn out "sandwich size."

So this year, it was the up before dawn thing.

Oy.

I am, by my very nature, a night owl. I always have been. I can get up early if I have to be somewhere, but if my only pressing obligation is hanging out with a bunch of cranky, over-tired kids, well....let's just say I'll hit the snooze button.

Anyway, I was bound and determined to be up at 6, do my quiet time, eat breakfast, see DH off to work, and get the kids up at 7, to start school at 7:30 a.m.

We did it for two weeks. And we were all exhausted, cranky, MEAN, over-tired, and frustrated.

So I moved the schedule back one hour to 7 a.m. wake up for me. And what a difference it has made. We are all in better moods (most days), and school is much less of a battle for me and my night owl DD6. DD4 is a morning person, but she still gets up at around 7:30. DD6 gets up at around 8:30 and we start school at about 9.

And you know what? It works for us. We finish up school around noon or 1. Usually breaking for lunch. We mosey through the work. We have a rest time, and we all feel so much better on our "body approved" schedules!

A New Philosophy

I love Sonlight. I have loved Sonlight currculum since I first laid eyes on it 2 and a half years ago. I love it!

No, this is not and ad, but if you want to check them out you can find them here.

So, this year we are doing their Introduction to World History, Part 1. Personally, I am fascinated by this stuff. The Egyptians, the Roman Empire, the Greeks, etc. Amazing stuff.

And I feel like DD6 is getting a great education. She is very happy about school. She likes school. So many of her peers do not. But, she does.

So, I was trolling the local library online card catalog a couple of weeks ago for homeschooling books. Like any profession, I like to stay up-to-date on what's going on out there. I look at it as teacher in-service. Training days for the teacher side.

I found a book called The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I put it on hold and checked out a couple of other homeschool related books.

One was Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto. A very interesting look at public education. I hadn't really given it much thought until I read his essays, but he made some very strong arguments for a complete upheaval of the current public school system. It had never really occured to me that in Public School no noe really taught me how to think. I just regurgitated whatever I thought the teacher wanted to hear. And then, coincidentally (or not) I was sitting near some teachers at one of the girls activities and they were talking about grading strategies. They were middle school teachers and were talking about the fact that they each had upwards of 140 kids that they are teaching this year. One, and English teacher, remarked that for the first 8 weeks or so, she reads each and every paper each child turns in. After that she just reads the essays of the really smart, well-written kids (to make sure that they do not start to back slide) and the essays of the really poor writers (to make sure they show some improvement. The rest she skims the introduction paragraph and the conclusion paragraph and grades on that. The other teacher remarked, "Yeah, the good kids get even better, the bad kids get a little better, and the average kids stay average." How sad for the average kids!! But, what more can one adult do when faced with 140+ kids EVERY DAY! What kind of ratio is that?!?

The other book, well, it was more of the same information that I already have. Nothing new. So nothing worth mentioning.

I got The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM)a week later. What a fabulous resource! I must admit that there is a ton of discussion in homeschooling circles about the different philosophies and ways of homeschooling (HSing) children. There's unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Literature-Rich, the list goes on and on! Til now, I have been reluctant to read too many HSing philosophy books for fear that I would "just love" the new philosophy so much that I would want to completely change our direction.

What a relief it was when I fell in love with TWTM, and I realized that Sonlight (SL) uses a very similar approach. Not exactly the same, but close enough for me!

I love the approach of having my first grader memorize, which was taboo when I was in school. We didn't memorize, we "looked it up." Ha! TWTM also employs phonics for teaching reading. I had already used this successfully with DD6, but was chastised for it, as that is not the current accepted practice around here. I love how the focus changes ever so slightly as the child ages from memorization to deeper thinking to logic to rhetoric! I love the early foreign language exposure. I love (almost) everything about it.

And I love how I can employ it right alongside SL. As much as I love my library, I cannot fathom digging through the tremendous numbers of books there to fond books for DDs schooling. I like having everything arrive at my doorstep in one box and using the library as a supplement! And TWTM works for this purpose. I love it! I feel like I have finally found my HSing groove!

DH Turns Around

And I just have to share this. I knew from the time I was pregnant with DD6 that I wanted to homeschool. It was about that time that public schools in California really headed down the moral slippery slope and I just knew that my local schools would eventually head there as well (I was right, it's starting). That bothered me.

So, when DD6 turned 4 I ordered a PreK program for her from Calvert. It was a quality program, but not a good fit for either of us. We hated it and it was a beating to do school every day, so eventually we stopped and she "unschooled." Can you even call ditching Prek unschooling?  We were much happier, but DH wasn't convinced. I can still remember vividly the knots in my stomach every time we talked about "school." He just wasn't seeing the progress he thought he should. Knowing what I know now, I should have asked what it was he wanted to see, instead I did a lot of crying, thouroughly convinced that DH would force me to enroll DD6 in PS K the next fall.

Obviously, he didn't.

I found SL that spring through a message board. Up until I had found SL, I was planning on buying Calvert K and mucking through it. Like I said, It was a good, solid plan. Nothing wrong with Calvery AT ALL! I AM NOT KNOCKING CALVERT! It just wasn't a good fit for our family. I convinced DH to let me order SL and away we went. We finished the K year strong and I think DH started to turn around.

Now it's a full 180. He is sooooo pleased with the girls progress now. DD6 reads at a 2nd - 3rd grade level (a bookworm like her Mom) and DD4 is showing solid progress in ABCs and 123s. And we are HAPPY.

The other night at dinner DH says, "So, tell me more about this Classical Education." I almost fell out of my chair. But, I did tell him about it and he was impressed. And he is totally on board! What a relief! In fact he wants to take Latin right along with the kids. And hear all about what they are learning, since we both discovered that we didn't learn very much at all in school.

At least we know that we really don't know, right?

I have been away for awhile.

Partly because we were bust finishing up the school year, partly because I needed to cut back my computer time, and partly because for the first time in my life I really found a plan for getting and keeping my house sorta tidy, and that just takes time.

The CHCHC worked wonderfully for me. We had a garage sale and made over $100. That was nice. We donated the excess to the Humane Society for their garage sale, so we get to write that off. It felt good to get all that "junk" out of the house. While the house doesn't stay as "neat as a pin," it does stay a little tidier. And the girls are getting better at picking up after themselves which has made all the difference in the world.

I am looking forward tot he next CHCHC to get to all of the things that I skipped in the first one. This one should be much easier.

We finished our first true year of HSing last week. DD6 finished Core K from Sonlight. She is a strong reader and loves school. She is happy to hav ethe break though. I am too. It's nice to have the mornings free again.

DD4 wants to start playing soccer. So we'll be signing up for that and will be starting in the fall. Whee!

Ummmmm.....did I miss anything? I guess not. Now that summer is here I hope to be a bit more consistent.....

Today was a terribly busy day here in Cherry Limeade land. We were hoppin' so to speak. We had church (more on that later) then we came home and ate lunch. Then we settled in to what we seem to be spending every free minute working on....the bathroom tile. The good news is that all the wall tile is up. We have about 95% of the floor tile done now too.  So,we will most likely finish up next weekend, grout and all. So that is GREAT news!!

After working in the bathroom all afternoon DH headed back up to church for student choir practice, and the girls and I went grocery shopping. Record time of 33 minutes, I might add. After we finished at the store I dropped them off at church for their choir practice. Then I headed home to pick up and work on my CHCHC schedule a little more. I think I have finally come up with a working schedule...I relied heavily on Amy's (Dandelion Seeds) Boot Camp instructions for creating a schedule, which helped immensely!

So with that out of the way, I think I am ready. It's funny, because I realized just how much "free time" I really have been taking....and still have. I mean, with my day clearly laid out in front of my eyes I am really suprised how much time I really do have....and that is with all of my "Need tos" done. Less computer time than I have been taking, but more time for my home and family, so that's a good thing!

I don't know if I will get to wash the car tomorrow or not, but I can definately clean it out and vacuum. I also want to go to Auto Zone and get some leather conditioner to take care of the seats...so they don't get nasty and crack. But, since I have to be in th house while the DCKs are here, I probably won't get out to wash the exterior until Saturday. Oh, well.

Now, on to the church issue. We are going to be experiencing some vast changes at our church. A new vision and some tangible changes...The vision was announced today and the changes next Sunday. It should be interesting since the Pastor was adamant that these changes will happen and will not be argued and we can not continue to cling to the past ways of doing things. Ouch! I know he stepped on some toes this morning. There's bound to be some fallout.

And on a semi-related note...Have you ever felt that you were actually worse off in your relationship with God by the time you leave church? Lately I have been feeling that way. It seems that there is a lot of politicking going on. Sadly...if people can't put on their big girl panties and get over their personal feelings about whatever pet ministry they have they may have a first row seat for the demise of a 100 year old church. It should be an interesting ride...

So I am sitting here during quiet time listening to a lovely little robin sing outside my window (which is open to let in all of the wonderful pollen....errr, spring air) and the quiet and solitude is broken by a scream and lots of banging.... Erg! I have two 2 year olds napping here people!!

So what to my wondering eyes should appear but two suburbans full of high school age girls bearing loads of presents for their new-mother-friend next door. Sigh.

And my heart just breaks. I have watched this couple next door go through this pregnancy. I know the girl. She is the grand-daughter of what was once a very close friend of ours. Her grandmother passed away last year. The grand-daughter, now Next-door neighbor boy's live-in girlfriend...refuses to acknowledge us. If we come outside she runs inside. Embarassment probably. Fear that we would judge, probably. Sigh.

Anyway, there's more to the little saga. Dh and I have been trying for over 9 months to have a third and it's just not happening. I am so beat up by it. Every time he brings it up I just want to cry. For a long time he (DH) didn't want a third, but I did. And when he finally came around my body stopped functioning normally. The doctor seems unconcerned and offered to put me on fertility drugs, but frankly, I don't want to go there with two healthy kids already. I mean, if we didn't have any I might try it. But, I mean, I already have two....and a third just seems so out of grasp right now.

I still think that DH's heart isn't in it. He still sees kids as somewhat of a drain on our resources...he wants to retire early and he thinks that won't or can't happen if he has another kid after he turns 30. He really want to get "fixed."

And here I am spilling my guts on a blog. Don't get me wrong, I love my DH and I know that he would love a third as much as I would. He just has this "timeline and it has put so much pressure on me...ugh.

Anyway, watching this baby develop by the ever-increasing size of the girls belly has been hard enough. But the people in this house just...well, they fight constantly. And loudly. The house is utter chaos. I know this because it spills out into their yard all the time. And they will be raising a baby in that. I know I shouldn't judge and I shouldn't be bitter, but why? Why does the poor unwed teenager next door and her drop-out non-working boyfriend get to have a baby and I can't.

So I am having a pity party, I guess.

Please God, don't let me get bitter about this. As much as I want to understand why this is happening, I don't. And I hate it. I hate feeling this way. Please help me Father. Help me to have peace. Help me to be gracious...

He says that he doesn't want to be associated with that group.

I don't blame him.

Even if the majority are really good, Godly men, they let some in this time that are not. And if they got in because they lied then there is a real integrity issue here, you know?

And he doesn't want to deal with the politics and attitude.

The attitude of publically supporting the leadership and privately undermining it.

I hate that.

I am an AWANA leader. I teach Cubbies, which in my opinion is the single most undervalued AWANA ministry there is.

We are regularly treated like glorified babysitters. Ugh. It drives me crazy!

So we have this one kid. His Mom was a Cubbies leader until she flaked out in November. Said she couldn't handle getting the kids to the church every Wednesday, it was too much, etc. She has a history of doing this. She'll agree to do anything you ask her to do and then back out when it most inconvenient. So she left two wonderful Cubbies leaders in a lurch with their class, as were supposed to have 3 leaders per class to maintain a semblance of a ratio.

Anyway, I digress. Her son hasn't been to Cubbies since November. So tonight she shows up with him in tow and drops him off with the explanation that she is going to a new deacons wives meeting and that her son has no book, no uniform, and it's just for tonight anyway....have fun.

Gee thanks lady. I really just irks me that she can't bother to bring him up until there is something in it for her. And then we are just childcare. He won't be back.

So, I cornered my Director and made it abundantly clear that we would not have a recurrence of this from her or any other parent. Neaxt year I will be calling MIA families to check their status and inform them that we have a waiting list and that their spot will be given away.

If I could do it all over again I would have sent him down to childcare. Poor kid was totally lost and I had to take time away from my regular attenders to get him up to speed and even then he was miserable. It's just really sad.

So anyway...my next post is about the deacons, cause I need to vent.

I have a message board that I frequent (not Sonlight, although I do frequent that one) where I am really starting to feel picked on. I have a feeling that this woman thinks I am secretly insulting her every time I post something because I swear that she follows me around and replies in a really mocking tone (I know, it's hard to tell tone online...it just feels mocking) and negatively to everything I say. It's gotten bad enough that others have noticed. They have asked her to clarify her position in the posts but she never replies to them...I think it's because she doesn't have anything constructive to add, she just doesn't like that I do things differently.

And that drives me nuts! I hate it when someone is so in love with their way of life that they think that anyone that does something different is ALWAYS wrong. Like the Mom on Wifeswap last night that seemed to think that public school was the only right way to school. Sigh.

Anyway, she's a really permissive mom and I am not. I use discipline. And guess what? It works for us, but if I post something to that effect or if I post about the struggles that I have with the daycare family that I have that is also permissive she automatically takes it as a personal insult I think...I have nothing against that style of parenting, but it is a struggle to try and basically raise a child whose parents allow her to run their house when i am not like that. I love what I do and I love the family, but I struggle with some of the things they let their child do...

So, I think I will have to bow out of that particular forum. It makes me sad because I have been a member since 2001. That's 5 years of posting and developing relationships there. And I have to leave now because someone has chosen to take my struggles with another form of child-rearing as a personal affront.

Yes, I have her on ignore, but it is causing drama on the board and I just can't bring myself to see that....

Sigh.

We had a much needed rest this weekend, Dh and I. On Saturday we ran a ton of errands, but we had a lot of fun! Of course, I enjoy spending time with him, so I always have fun when he's around. And best of all, I got to go clothes shopping! Thanks to some VERY generous friends we don't have to buy the girls new clothes this year...or next probably... so there was room in the budget to buy some for me, which was nice since mine are starting to look a little worn...

And then yesterday, my wonderful parents decided to take the girls for the afternoon and give us some time to hang out just the two of us. That was nice since he has been travelling so much lately that we haven't spent a lot of time together...

We had initially planned to go eat lunch and then go to a movie, but after lunch we decided that there just weren't any movies out that we were passionate about seeing, and we'd rather not risk seeing something mediocre and wind up feeling like we had wasted the time and money.

But, we couldn't think of anything else to do.

So, we ended up house shopping. Which is shocking when you consider that we are not in the market... Or weren't.

Anyway, we haven't really loved our neighborhood for the past few years. We have had some really nasty people move in around us that only seem interested in stirring things up and making life in general miserable for everyone. So, the idea of moving has always been a positive one. And now we are in a financial position that would enable us to buy a larger house, which would be nice, not necessarily because it would be larger, but because I know more about what I want my house to be like, KWIM?

When we bought our current house we really liked it and it was a major step up for us going from a 25 year old house to a 3 year old house. No maintenance, more space, nice neighborhood. Two kids later and trying for a third, another bedroom would be nice. The maintenance isn't bad, just normal wear and tear. The neighborhood is the pits.

And the floorplan is just not convenient to me. We have tiny closets...very little storage...the rooms are designed funny, in a way that there is just no good way, or only one good way to place furniture...

But I like the open floorplan, and I like that we are across the street from the church.

So, we decided after much deliberation, that while it would have been nice to get up this morning and call the realtor to list this house, that it just wasn't feasible...this house is not market ready and we have some minor debt that we feel we need to pay off. So we made a list of the things we need to do to get this house in shape and a plan to pay down the debts. Hopefully by May 2007 we will be moving into a new house!

Of course, as I pointed out to Dh last night...you just never know what God has up His sleeve, so I am interested to hear from Him on this as well. I also noted that the worst thing that could happen is that we wind up with a house we really love, the neighborhood could get better, and we would be dbet free aside form the mortgage. Then we just stay and pay off the mortgage and when we do move we'll have a better down payment to offer!!

Today is supposed to be sunny and in the 70s. I love it. It feels like spring already. DD6 is finishing up school and DD3 is having the rare treat of being able to watch a movie during school time. I think she needed the treat, as much as I have been pestering her about pottying these past couple of days, what with looking for the barrette and all.

I need to be more disciplined in my cleaning efforts. There are areas of the house that stay reaslly clean, like the kitchen and the LR, and the toy room. And the rest....well, it doesn't. And that really bothers me, that there are areas of the house that are messy. I don't like them messy, so why do I let them get that way? Probably because it is easier to just shut the door.

I need to work on that. Discipline. 

After yesterdays visit from the paramedics and visit to the ER for DD3 who decided to swallow a barrette...today was a breeze. We did school and laundry. We went to church tonight and that was nice. I love my church.

Now I am sitting here watching True Life, a show on MTV. I knw, what's an almost 30yo woman watching MTV for. Actually it is a good indicator of where poplar culture is headed. I work in 10th grade at church and as MTV goes, so go the students (it's sad, and another entry all to itself). This episode is about couples dealing with jealousy issues. The one couple that struck me most was a 19 or 20 yo guy and a 17 yo girl. The girl boy both have issues with jealousy...he is in colloege, she is in high school. She likes to spy on him and he likes to go out and party and honestly he was behaving in a way that if I caught my DH behaving I would be LIVID. So she really had reason not to trust him. But the real question to me was why were her parents letting her spend weekends at this boys dorm in another town?

I know that kids will lie and tell you they'll be somewhere and then go elsewhere...but I swear, if I had an inkling that one of my girls was doing something like that I would be calling the other kids parents and asking for her. "Oh, you'll be at susie's house? Okay." Then at 10 o'clock I'd be calling Susie's house and speaking to her Mom and Dad....assuming, of course that I hadn't spoken to them ahead of time about my dd spending the night. Of course, there's also the cases around here where other kids Moms have lied for the kids so....even that's not foolproof, I guess. Sigh.

Dh is back from his conference. He got back yesterday. I really can't put into words how hard it was having him gone over most of the weekend. I feel like we had zero downtime. On the other hand, everything went well and he is home now.

Right now it is quiet time at our house. QT is a good thing. We have been tomato staking and it has indeed made a difference in the girls behavior, but it is exhausting for me. So, I enjoy QT, when DD6 goes into the front room to watch a quiet movie and DD3 lays down for a "rest." The DC babies are napping and I can have quiet and time to think.

We got our gas bill last week. This probably isn't news to anybody, but we got slammed! Our bill has gone up 50% in a year, and it has been unseasonably warm here this winter. So we turned the thermostat down a little more and everyone wears socks and shoes and sweaters all day. I was really taken aback at the cost of gas. It was just outrageous. It also appears that there is no end in sight since the cost of oil continues to go up, so the cost of gasoline will as well. Hopefully, with the new job DH will be able to stay home and work in the home office which will save a great deal of money, not only in gas, but in food and wear and tear on his car.

Today we did the usual routine around here. I got up with DH (we were late today since he was soooo exhausted still from his trip) and had breakfast. I did a little Bible reading until the first dcbaby got here at 8. We played and I fed him breakfast. Then the other dcbaby arrived and we played some more. The girls woke up at around 8:45 and got dressed, ate their breakfast and brushed teeth. We did school (Sonlight K) and after some difficulties over reading was really smooth sailing. DD6 doesn't like reading, which is fine, but the issues we were having were with obedience. We are really working on correcting some heart issues.

After school, it was time for lunch and off to quiet time. I am currently working on some laundry.

The sonlight forums are currently down, which has led to some withdrawal pangs for me. That seems like the only adult contact I get during the day, so when they go down well...it isn't pretty. WHat did we do before the internet??

I think that today has been going better. I made a decision today to start tomato staking the girls. They are generally well behaved, but especially my DD6 has some attitude issues that I want to help her with. We have had more than our share of whining and eye-rolling lately and I for one am ready for it to end. Wish me luck!

Now, for a question. I know that I read somewhere that someone here tomato staked kids that they had for daycare? How do you do that exactly? I can't swat the dc kids...so what kind of immediate consequence did you implement? Did time out work for you? I am trying it. One needs it more than the other to be honest, but I think they could both benefit....Any suggestions would be appreciated.