A Day in the Life . . .

Thursdays are busy days.  I woke up this morning at 7:30.  Bob had to go somewhere else this morning, instead of downtown, so he didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn like usual, so he was still around.

At 8:40, Anna, Jonathan, and I left.  The 3 littles were still sleeping because of the all the outside play in the snow/ice yesterday.  It wore them out!  We drove over to the McC's house to pick up Joel.  He and Anna have German class Thursday mornings.  The teacher is an older German lady.  Anna has really learned a lot this year.  We are really hoping it works out to take a space-a hop to Germany next year to visit the C's (the ones we visited in Hawaii in Feb. 2014), and then she could really practice!

After we dropped them off, Jonathan and I continued over to where we meet up with the other kids we carpool with for his math class.  One girl we pick up at her house, and as we waited, her mom came out.  "There's no math class today!"  Oh.  Oops!  I did know that--the teacher is away at a family funeral--but that nugget had passed right out of my brain as soon as I read the email.  If I don't write things on our big family calendar on the wall right away, then it's hit or miss as to me ever remembering them again.  I have apparently donated a lot of brain cells to pregnancy, lol.

So, Jonathan and I mailed off a card at the post office and dropped off a book that was due at the library, and then I took him home.  I printed off some answers for questions we were going over in my biology class later because I hadn't been able to find them.  I was going to print them off right before class, but hey, this was even better.  And since some time had been freed up, I texted Christine to let her know I would pick up Joel and Anna this morning.  Usually she does, but she was having a procedure done this morning, and it was going to be tight anyways, so it was providential that I didn't have to drive Jonathan to math class.  I left, picked them up, dropped Joel off at his house, and  picked up Daniel in his place to take him back to our house for biology.

Caleb commandeered my phone during class and took bad pictures of everyone as they were obviously hanging on my every word.  Mine was blurry, so I deleted it.  Ha!

Everyone looks so thrilled!  Actually, it was an interesting class.  We normally have lab on Thursdays, but since we cancelled Rivendell on Tuesday, we were going over questions about the chapter, which was on the respiratory and digestive systems.  Oh, I found the pages I was looking for (and had already reprinted) as soon as I opened my textbook.  Never fails (even though I had looked in my book last night . . .grrrr)!  It was a good week to cancel class because there weren't any real labs I was planning on doing, and the chapter also was not filled with completely new information or anything.

The girls are supposed to have gotten started on their schoolwork while I'm teaching, but instead Thursday mornings have morphed into baking day.  Anna makes whatever sounds good to her, and the boys happily sample whatever it is at lunchtime.  This morning she and the other girls made chocolate chips cookies and these crunchy apple things.  She has discovered at a young age that the way to a guy's heart is through his stomach, lol.

After lunch, Mrs. R. comes to do Spanish with Caleb, Jonathan, and Gabe.  While they're in the basement doing that, I start helping the girls with whatever school they need help with.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we do our "couch stuff", including Bible reading, praying through Operation World, reading Story of the World, working on memory work, and doing First Grammar Lessons with the younger kids.  But Thursdays we don't usually do that.  Often Elena is over to play all afternoon, and the girls do their own little school with her.  They are so fun together!

Eventually it's time for me to work with Micah.  My goal back in January was to get him to be reading confidently, and we have worked diligently.  I did a lesson of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons faithfully each day.  And he dragged his feet more and more and more.  It was taking literally an hour to do one lesson.  We were both dreading it.  It culminated on one Wednesday where he would not sit still for more than a second at a time to even look at the words to read.  He bounced around, and eventually I gave up and told him I was going to order him a Phonics Museum workbook (what I used for almost everyone else, since I bought the kit for Nathan way back when), since this book was not working.

Well.  He pitched a HUMONGOUS tantrum.  "DON'T BUY ME ANOTHER WORKBOOK!!" he shouted (from the bathroom, where I eventually dragged him) for oh, probably an hour.  It's ironic, because "another" implies he has other workbooks, and that's not really true, lol.  He is using Saxon 1 for math, which is technically a workbook, but he likes math and doesn't think of it as a workbook.  It's just "math".  He has a little handwriting workbook, but that's really it.  We do most things orally for kindergardeners around here.  But he was past the point of logic, so we just ignored him until he petered out, and I didn't bring up reading again for a few days.

On the Saturday following the Big Tantrum, I called him into the study to show him my teacher book, so he could see the things he would be doing.  Faith wandered by.  "Oh, I remember that book!  That was fun!" she said.  Micah:  "I changed my mind.  I want to do that book.  Did you order one for me?"  Me:  "                    (*mutter under breath . . . .*)               "

So I ordered a workbook for him and also one for Drew because why not.  Drew is actually interested in learning to read right now.  And Micah hasn't been minding doing it because it's back in the beginning, just doing letter sounds, which he totally knows.  I've tried to skip ahead pages, but he never wants to skip any.  Diligence is good, but it's too bad this is the one area the quality is really coming out in . . . So we shall see how he does when we start blending and actually reading again.  The good news is that he's doing great in math!

I work with Drew some on his phonics as well.  I need to order a math book for him too, or at least search through my archives in the study to see if I already have one, but I never remember.  [*Pause to look right now, since I'm in the study, and thinking about it . . .Nope, doesn't look like it.  Make a big sticky note reminder for the computer screen so hopefully I'll remember to order one sometime in the near future . . .*]  I have the best of intentions of reading some of our read-aloud, but instead, I lay down and fall asleep on the couch.  In my defense, someone woke me up in the middle of the night by crying (never could figure out who or even why), and when I went back to bed, I had a hard time falling back to sleep.

I wake up to the surprising sight of a naked cherub streaking across the family room.  It turns out that Grace had read to her while she sat on the little potty for awhile (nothing produced--she and Micah are in cahoots as far as frustrating me, lol), and she always strips naked to sit on the potty.  But then Drew needed to poop, so she and Grace vacated.  But there were no more diapers left in the package in the living room, so she streaked around while Grace went out to the garage to get more, and Luke took care of Drew.  Verity decided she liked the nudist freedom, however, so she was in no hurry to get a diaper back on.  But now that I am awake, I take care of that.  "We are not a nudist colony" is my motto!  She wants her leotard on because she always wants her leotard on. If just wearing a leo was an indicator of future gymnastics success, she would be on her way to the Olympics!  She does have some good 24/7 coaches around here.  Verity was doing sit-ups with Grace today with her feet under the couch.  It was so cute!  Anna and Grace have these elaborate exercise/core strength routines that they do every day, so she is just following along!

So that was our day.  Bob came home early, again because he wasn't downtown, so we got to go on a walk together.  After a quick dinner, he and the 3 boys all went to Civil Air Patrol.  Now it's time to do that read-aloud I put off earlier!  

It's really a wonder we get anything at all done during the day.  I always laugh heartily at the people who think that because we have a big family, we must have a super-organized schedule.  Oh yes--down to the minute, as you can see!  Hahaha!    Well, it is fun, for the most part (giant tantrums aside).  Never a dull moment, anyway!