Last night, I was up late getting ready for today. I made a little schedule for guidance.  I baked banana bread, got all the books together and figured out where everyone needed to start and put them in little stacks at each kid’s place on the table. I showered, did the dishes and collapsed into bed around 2:00 a.m. Then I was too excited and nervous to sleep! What a silly goose! I’m with these kids all day, how can I be nervous around them? Well, I was, I don’t know why. Finally, sleep arrived.

I woke up excited to start the day. Hey, that doesn’t happen too often! I got ready and found my dh unloading the dishwasher - a lovely sight to see! I sliced the bread, made scrambled eggs, juice and hot chocolate and everyone came in to eat. After breakfast, the kids got ready and they said they wanted to “walk” to school, so we walked all the way from the hall to the dining room. I told them how my mom used to take a photo of us girls on our first day of school so I got the camera. After they sat down, I said, “O.k., let’s take a first day photo!” Two kids dove under the table and Alec did his best “I’m so bored” look! Very funny guys! So I got a silly photo and a slightly better photo.  If we ever fix our photo card, I might just post them.

I really want to start each day with prayer and not get out of the habit, like I do every year. We prayed for our day and for homeschoolers around the world (that means you, my friend!) We thanked God for the blessing of being able to be home to learn. And we prayed for children in public schools, as well.

Chad and Alec started with the top of their stack of work and only needed me a little, here and there. And then, there was Carmen. She is at Lesson 85 of 'Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and she really dislikes the stories in it. I find them annoying myself but they help reinforce the words she is learning and I try to make it fun and interesting. But she cries and whines until we get a few sentences into it. We discuss what she’s read and what might happen next. Finally, she settles down and is laughing by the end of the story. This has happened a lot and today was no exception. She was REALLY whiny and it was all I could do to persevere. Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not being cruel or anything. She knows this stuff, she’s just stubborn. She sits and acts like she doesn’t know something, crying and all but then, suddenly, she’s reading the whole sentence without problem. Stubborn as mule, this one. At one point, when she was carrying on, I was being calm and keeping my cool but I looked over at Chad and he did his usual “shrug” which means, “I don’t know why she’s doing that.“ I later looked over at Alec and he shrugged, just like Chad. It made me laugh out loud because I’ve never seen Alec shrug like that (you had to be there) but it was just what I needed. It was a great relief that I never had to yell at Carmen today but I was firm that she should finish the story, a paragraph at a time, and I encouraged her that she could do it. If I give in, she’ll just get more stubborn. This is more about character than the reading lessons, know what I mean?

Once we got through the story, Carmen enjoyed working in a simple but wonderful manuscript practice book that I got from Rod & Staff. It’s perfect for her and will help her to improve her printing. Plus there are lovely pictures to color and she loves to color. She ended with some math and playing with Cuisenaire Rods.

We had a good laugh when Alec was working on cursive writing. I bought a cursive writing practice placemat years ago and that’s what my kids use to learn cursive writing. They practice one letter a day and as they learn more letters, they start writing words. Well, today, Alec’s letter was “n”. After writing it all across the page, he came up with a word to write, using the letters he knows: "fin" (don’t ask).  So, he wrote "fin" several times across the page. I didn’t help him with this but I knew what word he chose. When he showed me his page, I grinned, and then started laughing. Remember, this is our first day and he’s still unfamiliar with the cursive alphabet. What he wrote was, “fjn fjn fjn fjn” all across the page. The letters were perfectly formed, unfortunately, he mistook the dotted cursive “j” for the “i”. It was really funny, though he didn’t think so but he took it well. And rewrote the word correctly.

God truly blessed our morning. I am so thankful. Tonight, at dinner, I asked my kids what the best part of their day was (a question I often ask) and Carmen and Alec both said “school!” I was so happy to hear that! After all my fussing and procrastinating, I realized that I really love my kids and want to give them the best learning opportunities I can. My attitude just got side-tracked, maybe too focused on me.  I wrote on the bottom of my schedule, "Focus my day on my kids."  I had asked God to help me adjust my attitude.  He is truly amazing.

It appears that the Lord also grew weary of my whining about the weather. Since Saturday, it’s been as high as 88 degrees here and as high as 82 degrees in the house in the afternoon! The wind has been howling, however, but it’s a warm wind during the day. I actually went out for a walk along the river front yesterday in short sleeves, no jacket! A first for this year, I think. I am enjoying this brief heatwave. Thanks, God. One more thing … Todd is having his MRI tomorrow (Tues), a test that will determine the damage to his pericardium (sac covering his heart). If you read this early, please pray for him, he has to lie still for 2 hours in that machine. Not fun. But he won’t be alone - God will be right there with him. Thanks for your prayers.