1 month, 1 week and 3 days.  That's how long it took of basically doing nothing educational for Hitman to realize that he missed it.  Right before the holidays we had gotten to a point where Hitman had every excuse under the sun of why he couldn't possibly finish his work... so, I decided not to do any traditional schoolwork in December.  Starting with his birthday on November 27th - we began studying Christmas.  We read Christmas books, watched Christmas movies, worked on some Christmas lapbooks, studies Christmas symbols, sang Christmas movies... we did no "real school".  Now... sure I snuck things in, like comparative math when we were shopping, some writing (have to write those lists), etc... but we really relaxed over the Holidays.

The change started when I saw him CHOOSE to watch educational programming on the discovery Channel or Animal Planet.  Then the question of, "Mom, what are the laws of physics?".  Then, "When are we going to start learning again?" (A question that was so well timed as to make milk spew out of my husbands nose!)

And so we've begun schooling again in earnest.  We've found age-friendly information on the laws of physics, we're learning more about the Puritans (still in Joy Hakim's Making Thirteen Colonies), still working on Spelling and Geometry... but this time Hitman seems to understand that he is capable of doing this work... and he is learning it not to achieve a grade - but because he wants to learn! 

In other news... remember that house that I had written about?  You know, the one that I had been trying to sell for 3 years?  Right after Thanksgiving I received a call from a lady who was interested.  She said that her grandson had burnt their home down playing with fireworks over Thanksgiving.  They decided to buy it!  We gave her our asking price (and we were fully prepared to go substantially lower)... as it turned out, their insurance money covered almost what we were asking... we were only off by $3K.  So... I am no longer paying 2 mortgages and they  have a home that they are happy with!  Furthermore... we were able to help them out with furniture as we had all of my old furniture sitting around from my single-mom days. It was decent furniture - just no longer my style. 

I ordered my Flylady calendar.  This is my year!  I am going to get organized, cook better meals and take better care of my family!  Hitman and I have come up with a daily list of chores for him to do.  I have been lax in that area - not wanting to assign too much to him because his homework used to take soooo long... but, he no longer has "homework", he is capable of putting away dishes, cleaning a bathroom and folding laundry.  I am slowly learning that although I am the keeper of the home - I don't have to do it all!  There is a difference between being the keeper of the home and being someone's housekeeper.  It is my job to train my family to take care of themselves.  Wow... talk about your major AHA moment!!!

I wish you all a very Happy New Year and pray that it will be your best yet!

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