This evening while I was making dinner Gregory came up to the bouncy seat where Nathan was sitting, gave him a hug, and enthusiastically told him, “Nathan, I love you!” several times.
Yes, Nathan, we’re all very glad you’re here!
From and ad in today’s local paper:
“Time = Money. At a certain point in life, this equation gets reversed.”
Because money = time is something remarkably different?
Hmm….
The days are going by very quickly right now. Nathan is going to be four months old tomorrow (how’d that happen??) and he’s turning into a delightful little guy. He loves to watch Emma and Gregory, and he’s discovered the joys of toys. He’s rolling over back to front and getting more and more stable when he tries to sit up. He has a great laugh and a great smile, and he is adored and admired by one and all. He’s also huge - I moved him into 6-9 month clothes two weeks ago and he’s already starting to get too long for some of his PJ’s. And it isn’t just his length either, he’s a sturdy little guy all around. I’m not sure what he weighs right now, but I’m glad I’ve had two other children already to help me strengthen my back and arms so that I can carry him around comfortably!
Matt got a promotion at the beginning of September and started a new project right around then too. He’s been incredibly busy with work, easily working 60+ hours a week… and then there’s the house. If you’ve been reading the house blog, you know that he’s updating that again fairly regularly and posting his progress. I’m doing very little on the house these days, because taking care of the kids - especially Nathan - takes most of my attention. I’m pretty much useless as far as the house goes. If I do get involved in a project there that takes more than 10 minutes or so, it is guaranteed that I will have to either give it over to Matt or he’ll have to take Nathan so I can finish. It is sometimes frustrating for both of us, as I’m sure Matt would like more help, and I’d like to be more involved… but it just isn’t the way our life is working out right now.
We’ve added a few new things to our schedule too, which is making things busier. I’m really glad we’ve added them though, I feel like we’re much more centered now that we used to be. Here’s our schedule, in case you’re curious.
Monday - Morning prayer (we’re now praying all of Lauds together - at Emma’s request), Gospel reading, School in AM (Math, Latin, Bible, History, Music) then lunch, then working on the house/gardening/chores/whatever needs to be done.
Tuesday - Out the door at 8, Mass at the Chapel at 8:30, grocery shopping, errands. Home for lunch, then school in the afternoon (Math, Latin, Christian Studies, Science, Art)
Wednesday - Morning prayer, Gospel reading, school (Math, Latin, English Studies, History, Practical Skills), lunch, chores/work on the house/update finances, early dinner, then off to faith formation at 5:30.
Thursday - Out the door at 8 for Mass at the Chapel at 8:30. Religion class for Emma, then playtime with the other kids in the class. Then it is off for errands and the library. Home for lunch, then school in the afternoon (Math, Latin, Christian Studies, Dictation/Recitation, Science), then dinner by 6 so I can leave at 6:30 for my Catholic discussion group (We’re very slowly reading through In The Arms of Mary and discussing it, section by section).
Friday - Morning prayer, Gospel study, school (Math, Latin, Saint of the Week, Geography, Nature Study), lunch, then chores/work on the house/collapse because we’re worn out from our busy week!
Saturday and Sunday are given over to working on the house (except for church on Sunday, of course) unless something else absolutely has to be done.
If it wasn’t for the whole working on the house thing, I think this all would be great. As it is… well, I’m really tired of the house being such a pressing concern. It has been the focus of every bit of spare cash and time we’ve had for the last year and a half at least, and honestly, I’m not sure when it won’t be. At this point, knowing what I know now, I would have settled for a heck of a lot less. But now it is way too late for that! Maybe someday we’ll actually get to live there and it might start to seem somewhat worthwhile. At least the kids will remember very little of all this, and hopefully I’ll forget a lot of it too in time.
I can at least console myself right now by reflecting back on last year, because things are a lot better now than they were last year. At least we’re not living in a tiny tin box on wheels with no electricity and no running water, worrying about getting the structure of the house up before it started to rain and snow in earnest. I’m not in the throes of morning sickness and trying to figure out how to keep my kids warm and occupied in said tin box. Yes, things are certainly a lot better than last year!
The kids all have colds again. Nothing too serious, but everyone is pretty tired, snotty and sluggish today. It started on Tuesday and I think today is probably going to be the peak. I hope today is going to be the peak! They are currently watching a movie and even Nathan is fascinated. (well, was, now he’s on my lap and sounding hungry)
We tried the Safeway grocery cart car on Thursday again and it seems that was a bad idea. I wiped the thing down with the wipes beforehand and let it air dry and I also wiped the kids hands after they got out, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Either the wipes weren’t effective, or I missed a spot… but I’ve decided to forgo further experimentation. For now on, the car carts are a banned item in this family!
Math drives me nuts. Everything else is going quite well, but math… it makes me want to tear my hair out! She understand the concepts but she just can’t seem to memorize her basic math facts. We did Math-U-See’s Alpha level last year and I noticed this problem then too. We’ve held off starting Beta in order to try and review this material, but I don’t feel like we’re making any real headway. Right now we’re focusing on +1 through +5 and depending on the day she may get all of them right off the bat or she may (seemingly) forget 10-12 of them. Once I walk her through the series of questions (What kind of problem is it? How do you break it down and do it that way?) she can always figure it out, but the retention just isn’t there. It is so maddening!!
There was a suggestion in the Math-U-See newsletter over the summer to do review with cards and to focus on the ones that are wrong one at a time, having the child build it, write it, and say it. This is all well and good if there’s some consistancy… but what do you do if it isn’t always the same problem(s) that are the troublemakers?
And should I be holding back on starting the next level? It seems like it makes further work a lot easier if you know your basics cold, but the constant drilling is driving both of us up the wall. I’m glad she knows how to do it, but still I know from personal experience that this just isn’t enough. Some things just need to be memorized!
I think for now I’ll continue with the drilling, but I’m going to make a few changes. On Mondays and Wednesdays I’ll have her drill herself, and whatever she misses or doesn’t get to in a set period of time she’ll have to do as copy work instead of recess. (Yes, recess, we’re very school-ish around here in some ways!) On Tuesdays and Thursdays when we do school in the afternoon because of morning Mass and errands we’ll do some sort of math game. I tried math bingo yesterday and that went over pretty well. On Fridays I’ll do the flash cards with her and evaluate how it is going.
At some point this stuff has to stick in her brain, right?
We’re supposed to be doing math right now, but Emma started reading Gregory and Nathan Bible stories while changed my baby spit-up covered shirt. How could I interrupt this to do addition flashcards??
I love watching the sibling relationships develop, and I think homeschooling is so wonderful for helping this along!
As you can probably guess, I’ve been rather busy recently. But it’s a good sort of busy, so at least there’s that.
School is still going well, and we’ve decided to change our schedule somewhat. We’re now going to Mass and a short religious instruction class on Thursday mornings with several other homeschooling families. I’m trying to figure out if we should also try to go to Mass with them on Tuesday mornings as well. There isn’t a class on Tuesday mornings, but still it would be nice to go to Mass more often and good for the kids to see each other more often as well.
Matt is working away at the house, and he’s started to blog about it again too. I haven’t been doing nearly as much as I’d like or feel I should be doing, but I’m having a hard time finding the time and energy to do much. Having three kids, homeschooling, cooking, laundry, helping with the cleaning, taking care of the garden, etc, etc, doesn’t seem to leave much time for construction. I’m not happy about it, but Matt seems to be understanding… although I’m sure he’d like me to be doing more.
We’re getting the house painted in a couple weeks, and we’re trying to figure out a color. We know what sort of color we want (warm tan-ish color with a cream-ish trim and a red-ish accent color and door) but we’re having a hard time with the paint chips. We keep finding something that looks like it is what we want, but when we buy it and put it on the house, we find that it isn’t what we thought it was going to be. It is a frustrating and expensive experience! So far we’ve found a main color that is too mustardy, one that is too peachy, and another that was too light. The light one will probably be the trim color, so at least that helps. There are supposed to be computer programs that you can use to help with this, but if you can’t trust the paint chip, I’m not sure why I would trust the program to show me the accurate color.
Living with extended family is still going well - at least on our end. I think we’re getting a little loud and obnoxious at times, but such is life with little ones. I do sometimes find myself thinking about my first roommate experience, where everything seemed to be going along just great until I moved out… at which point my roommates proceeded to tell me everything I’d done wrong for the entire summer. Not that I think that would happen here - we’re all a lot more mature than that! - but still, there are times when I think that perhaps things are going a little too well. *grin*
We’ll just keep plugging away at the house and hopefully we’ll be out of the way before too long. It is very nice to not be solely responsible for all the cleaning, and to have an extra set of hands to help with the kids - Nathan especially. It is much lovely to cook dinner while someone is holding him rather than having him fussing in the sling, backpack, bouncy seat etc. I’ll definitely miss that once we’re in our house!
And those car carts at Safeway are germ-ridden, pestilence-spreading vehicles bent on infecting every child with every cold virus known to man.
Grr. Now I have to figure out if I’m going to be mean mommy or not. Maybe I’ll go to Savemart this week.
I’ve been starting to hear this niggling little voice that says “shouldn’t you be potty training Gregory? After all, he’s going to be three in December…” to which the rest of me says, “NOO!!!! Like I don’t have enough to do right now! And he’s only barely starting to get interested! And he only wants to wear underwear and doesn’t want to get anywhere near the toilet, which sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!”
I decided to do a little test last week and I bought some training underwear for him. We put it on and he was all excited, but didn’t want to go anywhere near the bathroom. The inevitable happened, and he was rather freaked out. I had a hard time not laughing about it all, because it was just what I expected. So, back to diapers (thank goodness!) and now that I’ve read what Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer has to say about potty training I don’t even have to feel guilty about it. Yay!
Don’t you love it when things just fall together?
In our morning prayer (we pray part of Lauds together to start our school day) I noticed that today is the day the Church celebrates Mary’s birthday. In our Bible study we read the section where Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth and proclaims the Magnificat. In music, we talked about Bach, and when I looked at the Bach pieces we own, I found Bach’s Magnificat in D Major. I quickly burned that to CD and we listened to it while Emma worked on a coloring activity. I also found a fun piece on YouTube that showed an orchestra and choir performing part of the piece. We enjoyed this a great deal, and it was exciting for Emma to see the various parts of the orchestra in action.
So, I’d like to say that I coordinated all this in honor of our Blessed Mother… but I’m not that organized. But it worked out well anyways, didn’t it!