Friday has come and gone, as it is now midnight, and I thought I'd go over how our first week back to school went.  Surprisingly well, I'm happy to say.  Though by Tuesday, everyone acted like they had forgotten everything they've ever learned, by today, they had gotten used to the idea of more structured learning and did very well.  It's only about 2 hours of structured learning but they needed a whole week to adjust to a new a.m. schedule.  The hardest issue for me was the absolute fatigue I experienced yesterday but after a good night's sleep, that has almost abated.

Now, my goal is to look back at the week and see what I need to adjust.  For one, while I try not to have the boys both doing math at the same time, it doesn't always work out that way.  I sit between them and ping-pong back and forth, assisting where needed.  Most important for me is to know what the boys will be learning before they start it.  At least, I need to know how to explain it and not be unprepared - duh!  I was embarrassed today because I couldn't remember how to add multiple fractions with different denominators and I couldn't find the method Miquon uses.  Alec was growing impatient and that didn't help.  We opted to wait on that for another day but I should have been more prepared.  I've already done the Miquon series with Chad but I'm a mess when it comes to fractions - it's always a new day for me where fractions are concerned.  I could ask my dh for help which he freely gives but I think I sometimes don't want to admit I can't do it.  Silly, right?  I need to study my Miquon manual more but that stinkin' manual doesn't really give the answers.  It gives the method!  No quick fixes there.

I'm happy to report that Carmen is doing her reading lesson with good cheer and doing well.  She needs my undivided attention, however, so I need to work with her either before or after math with the boys.  Got to work on that one.  Carmen is such a twerp, though.  She fusses about counting numbers and then this afternoon, she presents me with a paper on which she's written the complete alphabet, followed by numbers 1-100.  I asked if she copied that from a chart - "No, Mom, I got them out of my head."  Nicely, done, kiddo!  So, o.k., I know she can write and count to 100 but only when SHE feels like it.  Can anyone of you relate to this situation?  Like I said last time, stubborn as ...

This week also found us picking up and delivering a sofa to a charity for Todd's folks, celebrating our first day of school with a visit to the toy store, watching Daddy pour concrete for a post to support our new deck, stacking 2-1/2 cords of firewood that was dumped unceremoniously in the driveway, keeping the tomatoes watered, experiencing the hottest days of the year, followed by immediate cold and overcast days, perfect for taking long walks over our hill.  We saw two Lear jets parked at our tiny airport and today, one of them flew over the house, several times, touching down at the airport in between loops.  We got a photo as it swooped low over the deck.  And we now have scheduled "Model Building Hour" on Thursday from 11:00-12:00 pm, with Daddy.  The boys are SO excited about this.  With Todd's new schedule, he can actually spend daytime with the kids, doing daddy things.  We've acquired several models of subs, boats, airplanes and whatever and the boys will be learning model building.  I also started reading aloud, "The Story of the World" by Susan Wise Bauer (author of "The Well-Educated Mind), a 4-part series on the history of the world.  Chad has read the series already but Alec is really interested and Carmen covers her ears but I ignore that and concentrate on Alec.  I haven't started calligraphy yet and I'm still researching a Bible study for Chad.  And yes, we did pray every single day.  That's probably the most important thing we did!

So, there you have it.  I hope the week went well for you.  I am pleased and thankful for the Lord lifting me up and giving me strength.  It happened to be "that" time of the month this week which meant difficulty sleeping and a constant headache, even with Advil.  But that's gone now.  Praise the Lord for blessing our week!

Update on Todd:  Thanks for your prayers for his MRI.  He did fine in the tube (the MRI machine) and the test results verified mainly what we already knew.  Bless his heart, he said, "It could be worse!"  His pericardium (the sac over the heart) shows some scarring, some adhesion to the heart and some fluid.  This test will need to be analyzed and then we'll know more how to proceed.  Surgery is the cure for this but when to have it is the issue.  He may not need surgery for a long time, we'll see.  He says he's been feeling fine.  God is good!