Today was our first day of the 2007-2008 "school" year.  We started with Psalm 103; I read it aloud to them and we memorized the first verse (well, I don't know if they have it memorized, but they each repeated it back to me several times).  I was near tears trying to work with Matthew; he is just as resistant and unmotivated as all previous years.  I know 75% of it is my fault, as is the other problems I see with Matthew and the girls as far as attitude, discipline, etc. goes.  I feel I have made many homeschool improvements and self-improvements over our homeschooling "career", but with Matthew they seem to "fall on deaf ears". 

Shane needed me to go to the post office for him, so when we finished Bible, history (the fouding of Islam), and Botany(leaves), the girls and I set off.  However, when we got there, i discovered that the employee who won't  take Shane's bank card as payment from me was the sole worker at the time, so we had to take the package(a guitar he had sold on ebay)all the way to Shane at work, so that he could get it sent off on his lunch hour.  While we were there, Shane handed me his paycheck from one of his four jobs--I am married to a hard-working provider!--and asked me to take it to his bank to deposit.  After the bank transaction, I realized it was one o'clock, so the girls and I stopped for lunch at  Taco Bell and I called Matthew to let him know he needed to fix "lunch for one" for himself. 

  After bean burritos, with library material to return that had been in the van since we had gotten in today, we headed for the library.  We returned our books and DVD's, and I treated the girls and myself to about an hour of library time.  Having just finished Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, which, by the way, I recommend to anyone who enjoys classic English literature, I looked in adult fiction, but nothing appealed to me.  I feel I need to be into another novel, but we have enough at home for me to choose from. (Thank you Hancock County Public Library book sales).  And I have enough to keep me busy with my job as my children's mommy and teacher and wife to Shane.  Miss Tiffany let the girls choose a few unexpected prizes for the reading program and gave Meghan TWO TICKETS TO THE STATE FAIR THAT SHE HAD WON IN THE DRAWING.  Neither Shane nor I are into the state fair, and don't particulary want our children in that atmosphere, so Shane is going to give them to people at work who do enjoy the fair.  The girls had also each earned coupons for free dessert at MCL Cafetiria, and tickets to the Children's Museum haunted house in October. 

The funny thing about the library trip is that it is next door to the very post office we started out at on our journey!!!!!  Not what you would call a normal homeschooling day, (or would you?), but I enjoyed the "running around" and the library break.  Maybe I needed the break from the trials and tribulations of watching Mattew try to get away with much less than I know he is capable of. 

Meghan made a cover for her botany notebook decorated with a Venus Fly-trap next to an apple tree.  She is doing a great job in Alpha-Phonics, "I already know how to read this.", but says she is bored with science and history, although I don't think the work is above her.  I think maybe she is just not accustomed to being "lectured"; much of our botany and history is me reading to them all out of the same text and asking them questions. 

Rachel is a dream to homeschool!  She is motivated and things like reading and "school" work just come easy for her.  Maybe that's why I get so frustrated with Matthew; he is a lot of work and I want things to come easy for me. 

Charlie and the boys were over for their last day in Indiana Saturday.  I cried before they even came over just knowing that they would be going back home and it will probably be awhile before I get to be with them or Karen.  It seemed to signal the end of my "summer vacation" also.  Trips to Tennessee, time alone and with just Shane, are over for now and have been replaced with my "job".  Not that I don't like homeschooling(I do like homeschooling, don't I?).  I don't know what it is.  A lot of prayer and attitude adjusting and priority realizing are in order for me.  One of my priorities is getting Meghan bathed and Shane fed so TIME TO END THIS ENTRY!  Let's hope I get a smile on my face tomorrow!

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