Homeschooling a Houseful

Today is Wednesday....I am loosing steam.

7:39 PM, May. 6, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

I like Mondays. It is a new beginning, I am not behind on anything, ready to tackle the week...by Wednesday I feel like I am loosing some of that momentum.

4:00 up and having my quiet time.
5:00 time for ministry again. I really gotta get ready for the board meeting. I am gonna have to carve out some extra time to do that. But not today, cuz I really want to scrap so
5:45 I continue working on my power layouts while watching Dancing with the Stars....wow, what a suprise that was. Oh, I start a load of a laundry of course. You may wonder why on earth I start my laundry so early in the morning. I hate having laundry take all day. It is the one thing I just haven't been able to get over. I have learned how to slow my day down in so many other ways, laundry, I just haven't gotten there yet. Plus, my teens know that the machine is always available for them to use in the afternoon.
6:30 Clean up my room, and head upstairs to get all my littles out of their beds.
6:55 The kids have their breakfast and I am out the door to the gym. We are members of the YMCA and it is less than 10 minutes from our house. Oh, Heide works there too, in the child watch center.
8:45 Back home to get Heide and take her to work, Hilarie goes along for the ride. The price of gas is sure creeping up again. What is up with that? Had to put gas in the car after dropping off Heide.
9:15 Shower, and get going on school with the boys. They add did good with their independent work again, so today we spend extra time on some weak areas they have. Quite a few interruptions this morning with the littlest of my littles. That is always to be expected and the children at the table know that they are to keep working while I handle training and retraining. :)
11:00 History and Bible with the children. We have been learning some simple catechism questions and I am always surprised at how much they remember, even Hilarie, age 3, remembers some of them.
11:30 Joshua makes lunch and we do our clean-up before we eat. I like the house tidied up whenever possible before we sit down to a meal. So, before every meal we all work together and tidy the dining room, living room, hallway, Hilarie's, room and then the boys room. Takes all of 10 minutes usually and actually stays clean about 30...because everyone is at the table eating.
12:30 After lunch chores are getting done and today this includes emptying every garbage can in the house. Tomorrow is garbage day so we also take the cans and recycling bins to the street.
1:00 I go to the bread store and get 10 loaves of bread on my way to get Heide from work.
1:30 School time with James and Hilarie. They are just too cute.
2:30 Tator tot casserole for dinner tonight. Hilarie puts the tator tots in the pan while Jonathan is browning the hambuger. It takes about 30 minutes to put it together with my helpers ( I could do it in 5). I find that if I do the prep early then it is a pleasure to have little hands helping. While we are in the kitchen Joshua and Jacob play on the Wii. It has been cold and damp and we have had several days where the children haven't gone outside...so today I had to turn the Wii on. Each boy will get about a 30 minute turn.

Dinner was a hit, as Tator Tot Casserole always is. I think only one child doesn't like it.

It is 7:30 now and Dan just took Hilarie for a drive. At about 6:45 she began having an "itching episode" (for lack of a better name). I guess it is a reaction...but we have no idea to what. When this happens, she itches intensely. She is in pain, she cries and just wants to be held but she is so uncomfortable holding her even seems to hurt. This is something we have dealt with since she was 6 months old and these episodes used to be daily, several times a day. The real bad episodes come less frequently which is a blessing but they are so painful for me as a mom. The thing now as she has gotten older that is really difficult is that I expect her to still be nice. Let me explain, I know she hurts and it is unbearable. This is very likely something she will have to deal with her whole life. I don't want her to think that it is ok to me demanding or rude just because she doesn't feel good. I keep lots of cold water right by my side when she is like this and tonight at one point she yelled I want a drink. I actually withheld that drink until she was able, through her tears, to ask for a drink, please. She did it. Golly it was so hard for me.

Well, I am turning off the computer for the night now. Busy day tomorrow with....wait. I am not going to tell you. You will have to check back tomorrow to see what my definition of a "busy" day is.