Month: July 2012

We made it through a fabulous first week getting back into our school routine.  Mack seems to have gotten a little more used to the read-alouds and the handwriting…and he even likes it.

I was laughing when I found many, many pictures Mack took of himself with my camera last Sunday morning.  I’ll start with those and then move on to our school pics.

 

 

Some of his pictures remind me of myself when I accidentally have my camera facing myself, and I scare myself at how rough I look.  Funny.

Ruby read some poems aloud while in her bathing suit and standing on a chair.

Molly loves practicing cursive!

Ruby got a haircut one day this week.  Molly helped me with some flashcards while we waited.

Mack practiced writing the letter “B.”  Can you guess what he said these B’s looked like?…..Boys!

He is crazy.  These jeans finally went in the trash this week.  I didn’t mind the knee holes, but the hole he found in another inappropriate place turned these jeans into trash.

We went to lunch at Chuy’s today. It was our first time and there was plenty of decorations in that place to keep the kids’ attention!  And even though we didn’t go on vacation this summer, this picture kind of makes it look like we did!

There you go!  A fun first week of school!  Glad to be back at it.

And another accomplishments of sorts that could go under the title “We did it!” is my memorization of James.  I got the study for Christmas and went through it alone…I thought it was crazy that Beth Moore asked us to consider memorizing the whole book of James.  However, I thought I should try it.  I worked on it for about five months and made it to chapter four…then I led the study with our class and some neighbors, and they held me accountable as I recited a chapter each week.  This coming Tuesday, Lord-willing, I will recite the last 11 verses, and then I will do a little jig on the inside for reaching the goal!  And, just like God, I met with a younger girl this week who (not knowing I had just finished memorizing James) told me she would like me to hold her accountable to memorizing James!  How neat is that?  Obviously, I still have some learning to do from James.

 

Amazingly, we started school this week.  I sensed we would be easing into it, so I picked a week when Josh would be gone for a few days.  That way I wouldn’t have to cook supper.  The kids are good with pancakes, cereal, or leftover pizza.  I just knew I’d need those kind of evenings as we all start to adjust to our new routine.

Let me also say that I grossly underestimated our ability to bounce back into a routine that pushed us beyond making our beds and putting on our bathing suits.

Mack is starting Kindergarten curriculum, and we tried to make it a BIG deal that Monday was his official first day of school.  He seemed excited while we were doting on him and snapping pictures.  It helped that he was decked out in his cowboy clothes, too.  However, when I pulled out LEADING LITTLE ONES TO GOD and told them to listen up, he propped his feet up on the desk, looked at me with a pitiful face and said, “I just really don’t want to listen to this.”

With that said, I plan to come back at the end of the week with some pictures and HOPEFULLY some genuine thrill of being back to putting learning as a priority (as opposed to sun and fun).

Today it was a joy to wake up to cloudy skies and some rain.  I am weary of the pool and sun…we’ve been out in the water and the heat most every day for the past seven weeks.  I am tempted to start school, but I am waiting until the last week of July to officially start.

In the meanwhile, I asked the kids at breakfast what they wanted to do with me today all by themselves right here at home.  See, I have to MAKE myself “play.”  It doesn’t just come naturally to me to say, “Hey, Molly, let’s color together” or “Ruby, wanna play dollhouse?” or maybe, “Mack, would you like to try and figure out how to put some of your LEGOs together (even though you’ve totally disregarded my organizational system that would have allowed you to enjoy your LEGOs instead of just looking at the million and one pieces in that huge rubbermaid container)?”

SO, we’ve had some quality time around this house today.  I was particularly tickled at Ruby while we played dollhouse.  And, really, it wasn’t so much that we were playing together as that she was telling me how to play and what to say.  She was totally stunting my creative juices.  I wanted the babies to cry and be hungry, but she said, “No, Mom.  They are good babies and are just sleeping.”  I wanted the Dad to sit and talk to the Mom on the couch about her day.  She said, “No, Mom.  It’s already 9:30.  They need to go to bed now.”

Here’s where I got a laugh.  In the “morning,” Ruby said that the Dad was going to stay home til noon, but that the babies needed to go to daycare.”

Really?   This intrigued me.  I said, “Ruby, is the mommy working?”

“No.  She is staying at home.”

“Well, Ruby, why are the kids going to daycare?  Can’t they stay home with the mommy?”

She said, very confidently, “The mom cannot get anything done around the house if the babies stay home!”

Well, there you go.  Wake ’em up and ship ’em out if you want to get anything done.  Why did I never think of that??