Role reversal.

The other day, youngest son had a headache and was trying to watch some TV. His Dad was in the mood to play with the toy plane, however. Youngest son asked Dad to quit flying the plane and be quiet, but Dad disobeyed and flew the plane again. It hit youngest son in the head (it doesn't hurt) and he turned around and gave his Dad a look that looked exactly like a parent would give a disobedient child. Dad's face took on the expression of a disobedient child who has been caught. It was a complete role reversal, just for a few seconds, but it was so hilarious.

Missing the Routine?!

This is weird and I can't believe it, but I miss our routine. I haven't been doing my morning list because the kids are off from school this week and the tempation to take this week off is too great, but at the same time, I miss it. I miss having everything done early in the day and exercising. It's crazy that I don't just do it today anyway, but there is something about the fact that I don't have to, that makes me resist doing it. I looked up when I started my morning routine and it was November 12, so I successfully did it for 6 weeks before Christmas break. I am very proud of that. I can see that my upper arms are becoming more toned from exercising with weights. I think the fact that I have tied my routine to my kids school routine will help us get started as soon as January gets here because I want to get started again. Why don't I just start today? I don't know. I told you it was weird.

One of our favorites this year.

Every year, there are present selections that bomb and ones that do very well. This is something we got for our youngest son. It is a remote control foam airplane that is supposed to be flown indoors. Everyone, especially Dad, is having a lot of fun with this plane. (Except Max! He hates it, poor guy. He hides in our bedroom!) Here it is flying past our entryway.

A Better Day.

So far, today is a better day at work. I am still trying to deal with the new computer system and feeling that everything has changed. It's hard to change after being on the same system for 8 years but I am hanging in there. I'll have my nose to the grindstone for the next couple of days, trying to get my work done so I can take Sunday off. We have some family gatherings on Saturday and Sunday - the last 2 Christmas parties and I want to be able to go and enjoy them and not worry about work. (for once!)

Back to Work.

Today the kids have "play all day day" as my youngest calls it. We don't have to go anywhere and they can finally enjoy their Christmas presents without interuption. Their Dad and I have to go back to work. Joy.

Here are some messages I've gotten from my computer this morning, which will indicate how this morning is going so far.

Welcome. Enter password.
Start downloading information. Please wait ....
.........................................................................
Updates failed. Abort? Retry?
Abort.
Stand by. Turn off. Restart.
Restart. (wait while rebooting)
USB human interface device not recognized.
bong. bong. bong. bong. bong.
(unplug and replug USB human interface device about 5 times with no response)
(sigh)
Stand by. Turn off. Restart.
Restart. (wait while rebooting.)
This time the human interface USB device is recognized.
Welcome. Enter password.
swwooshhshhwwooshhhwoooshhh (sound of dial-up dialing up)
The connection to the server has failed.
Please wait ................................................................................
.............................

One hour and 21 minutes later, I start typing my first report of the day.
Then I get a phone call.
Then my 8-year-old walks in the room and orders a triple decker peanut butter sandwich. Apparently peanut butter is one of your more difficult sandwiches to make and he can't yet do it without tearing the bread.

Sigh.

Merry Christmas.

I hope your Christmas was truly happy. We are taking a little break between events right now and I'm hoping for a nap. I did not get much sleep last night. I didn't get to bed until 2:00 a.m. and my youngest popped out of bed at 3:30 saying that Santa had come. I had to be the meanie and make him go back to bed. This mama is too old to get by on 1 1/2 hours of sleep. Oldest son got up at 5:30 and was going to rouse the house, but thankfully, his Dad stopped him. Finally, at 8:00 a.m. I was ready to get up!

The middle-of-the-night thing is one of the things I don't like about Santa. How are parents supposed to get any sleep? The fact that we do all the work and he gets all the credit really bugs me too. This year, old Santa had a more limited role than he has in years past. This year, all the really cool stuff came from Mom and Dad and Dad finally got the credit he deserved for waiting in the Best Buy parking lot for 12 1/2 hours on the day after Thanksgiving!

Our house looks like it was attacked by a toy-throwing angry mob and I am not going to clean it up. Not today. I'm going to take a nap.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours ... This is Max, wearing his new Christmas jacket and wishing you a happy holiday. (I'm sure that's what he's thinking.)

Here's a report on how our holiday has gone so far. Yesterday, we went to see the movie "Night at the Museum" which is excellent and I highly recommend it. It is rated PG because of 1 bad word, but it is very cute and funny.

This morning, we watched the weather report and it said that there might be snow on the day after Christmas. The 8-year-old said "Finally, we're going to get the snow we deserve."

Yesterday, same son couldn't find his shoes when we were ready to go to the movies. I tried to talk him into wearing his sister's old shoes are only a size too big, light blue and white athletic shoes. He said they were "girlie". I said that they were blue and white and nobody would think they looked girlie. He said "If they've ever been worn by a girl, they are girlie." I guess it has girl cooties on it from then on. Who knew?

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

The Carnival of Homeschooling, Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve and the last day!

The Carnival of Homeschooling is at Principaled Discovery. Take a look.

My kids are counting down to Christmas and now it has gotten so close that they are saying it is Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve. It is so funny when they do this. They are finishing their last day of school before the break today and the undercurrent of excitement is running high.

I'm working and trying to get used to the new computer program and only going at about half my usual speed. I hope it gets better. The lack of progress is frustrating!

That's it for today, our last day of our normal routine for a while. I hope it won't be too difficult to get started back in January.

One last thing; can anyone recommend a good independent study high school program? Please!

Still schooling.

This is my "motivating mama" list, with all my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday things marked off with a big purple marker.
It feels good to have it all done early in the morning and I have more energy from the exercise too. Of course the kids want me to not get it done, but so far, I have, every day.

We are hanging in there and finishing this week of school. Two more days. When I got up this morning, there was a tiny little moment when I thought 'let's just not do it today' but I drank some coffee and got my resolve back. I think keeping to our regular routine for the last few days before Christmas is actually helpful to them and to me, to help keep them constructively occupied. Otherwise, I think they'd just be so excited and not know what to do with themselves. So for these last 2 days before the weekend, we're doing our routine. I'll probably print out some Christmas-y worksheets for them today, to help it not seem quite so bad, LoL.

Can you believe it's the 19th?

The excitement is building. I sometimes enjoy it and sometimes wish to avoid it, you know what I mean? I'd kind of like to take at least 1 Christmas and go somewhere warm with a beach. No shopping. No crowds. No cold. Ahh. Maybe someday.

Anyway, back to reality. I was going to share a picture of the gingerbread house, but I tried about 6 times and couldn't. I don't particularly like the new blogger. Anyway, the gingerbread house has now been halfway eaten and no longer looks like it did, but at least they took a quick picture before attacking it. I wish I could show it to you. Apparently, it was pretty tasty; the gingerbread house, not the picture.

Uh Oh.

Everyone in the house got up feeling pretty bad today, except youngest son and I. He was sick earlier this week and my back started hurting about an hour ago. Apparently, that's the first sign. Great. At least, hopefully, we'll get done with it before the festivities begin again this weekend. We are proceeding with school, though, despite it all. We are making a book of Christmas traditions around the world and we also made a gingerbread house from a kit that I got on clearance at Walmart, so it hasn't been a totally wasted day. I'm taking Cold-Eeze and hoping for the best!

Need a little Christmas, right this very minute.

I can't seem to get in the Christmas spirit this year. It may be because I had to work today. I got to see 2 wonderful Christmas performances at church today, the first by the choir and the second by the pagent committee. (I worked in between.) Both were very nice. I just don't feel it. I guess I will eventually. It'll happen whether I'm in the spirit or not, won't it? LoL. I have one more gift to buy and then I'll get ready, somehow. I'm going to try and find some Christmas printables on line for the kids. We're doing school until Friday, so I guess I'd better get ready.

Not very many days left until Christmas!

It's coming next weekend! I still don't have all my shopping done, none of the wrapping is done and my house is kind of a wreck. As a Christmas present to myself, I'd like to have the house clean! I'm going to add more housecleaning chores to my list this week. I'm going to make the kids do a lot of the wrapping, except their stuff, of course! I've been making a lot of lists in the last couple of weeks, just trying to keep up with everything.

I haven't been posting as much lately because we've been busy, busy, busy. One day this week, for art, the 2 younger kids decorated the glass doors with Window FX markers. It looks cute, I think. It takes about 3 washings to get that stuff of the windows, but it's a small sacrifice to make for great art.

Yesterday, for school, we took a field trip with our homeschool group. This time, we went to the Kentucky Center for the Arts for a Stage One production of The Chronicles of Narnia. It was very well done. I want to see the movie now. Our field trip also included a trip to the Krispy Kreme donut store and on the way home, we stopped at KFC for some snackers. My youngest son pronounced this field trip as "delicious".

A few things.

Last night, my daughter asked what we were going to do today and I mentioned that we had a dentist appointment. Youngest son yelled "Field Trip!" LoL. I guess he doesn't mind going to the dentist?

A couple of days ago the youngest 2 decided to open a hotel in their room. It was called the Icey Inn and it cost something like 14 cents to stay there. My youngest son told me later that he was the butler/bellhop, also know as the "but-hop".

It's been a pretty good week around here. For the most part, school and work are getting done, preparations for Christmas are proceeding. I still have about 3 gifts to get and then we'll be ready. We are going to do school right up until the 22nd and get in as many days as we can. At the current time, I'm not planning on actually doing school on Christmas day, but we'll see how much whining there is around here before then ...
just kidding.

Lost Links.

With the new template for my blog, I've lost the links to the blogs I read. Please comment so I can get them back. Hopefully when I add them, I won't lose my whole blog again!

Now that I'm back ...

I guess I should blog! We are in the midst of preparations for Christmas, doing school and I'm adjusting to a new computer system at my job, so it's been pretty busy around here. As the excitement builds for Christmas, it seems to get more and more difficult for the kids to get their schoolwork done, but we keep trying because we want to get done some time this year, LoL. We are still working from the same checklists I made back in October and I am still doing my morning routine every day. It's been how long now? Almost a month I think? Maybe only 3 weeks, but that is still a record for me. I'm thinking of making the kids lists and my list a litttle more stringent in January when we come back, adding at least 1 new chore to everyone's list. I'm sure that will be popular!

That same old Monday dilemma.

School or no school today? I'm supposed to go with my mom to get her shopping done, but I'm debating whether to make the kids do at least some schoolwork before we go. If we do Mondays, we finish school on May 18. If no Mondays, June 15. It wouldn't actually be the end of the world if we had to "do school" most of the summer, really, at least for me. I'm not sure what to do.

I'm so glad to have my blog back though. I think probably it was my fault. I've been blaming blogger all weekend, but I think maybe, when I was trying to add something else, I accidently deleted half of the blog template. Whoops!

Back!

I think I've finally got my blog back! It had disappeared and I couldn't log in all weekend. Finally, I changed templates and that appears to have fixed the problem. Thank goodness.

Friday, December 8, 2006.

I never know what to put as a title on my posts, so often I just want to put the day of the week or the date. Usually, I think and think and try to come up with an appropriate title, but today, I'm just putting the date. It's Friday. There's not a whole lot going on. I'm going to do some online Christmas shopping before the kids get up and then I am going to work and then possibly go to the grocery. Exciting, huh? One of my children is grounded at the present time for excessive whining during school hours. Youngest son, of course. I think he just can't believe that being cute won't get him out of doing school. He's grounded until he gets through today's school work. If he doesn't do today's school work by 3:00 p.m., he's grounded for the whole weekend. I was proud of him last night. We went to my mom and dad's house and they have cable TV (we don't) and youngest son went into the playroom to play where he wouldn't be tempted to watch TV, since he was grounded. I thought he was pretty mature about it.

I guess I'll get started now. Have a good day, ya'll.

It's snowing!

My youngest has been hoping and praying for a snow day and this may be it. It looks like we are in a snow globe, big snowflakes and lots of them. When the kids wake up, I'm going to take them outside and take a picture. I hope that it snows enough to do at least a little sledding. We got a new sled last year and it hasn't been tried out yet.

School today? I don't know yet. It may be a snow day!

The Song.

They made me listen to it again last night. I took the kids to the library for that party and the youngest 2 made me listen to Alvin and the Chipmunks. Now it is going around and around in my head: "squeak, SQUEAK, squeak, squeak, squeak squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, SQUEAK, squeak, squeak, squeak (something about a hula hoop) .... Christmas don't be late".

If you hear of me going completely crazy, you'll know why.

A couple of things.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up. I always enjoy reading these. Here it is.

I've been enjoying getting downloads from The Homeschool E-Store. Right now they are giving away free Christmas notebooking pages to download and print.

I'm hoping to actually do some of the Christmas unit today. My motivation for doing that part of school has been nonexistant. Sigh. At least the basics are getting done, right? Last night our library had a trim the tree party, so fortunately, other people are helping me deal with my lack of creativity and enthusiasm this year. The kids had fun anyway, and we came home with about 10 new ornaments.

Back to Work and School.

Yesterday I went shopping and the kids and Dad put up the Christmas tree so no one did any work or school. Today, I printed out a list for each child and the mama list and I've already done all of the things on my list. I love that I'm staying motivated. I hope I'll be able to continue. I don't have much of a track record with exercising or cleaning my house, but with this list and the promise that if I don't do it, the kids don't have to do anything, I'm motivated. It's a good feeling to get that all done in the morning, first thing, and not have to worry about it later. It's done.

Christmas Shopping.

I went Christmas shopping today. All by myself. I went to a bunch of stores and came out with most of what I had planned to buy today, but whew, I don't think I want to do that again for a long time. I'm very much in favor of on-line shopping. It is so much easier, quicker and less tiring for the feet. I did enjoy getting to play whatever music I wanted to on my new CD player in the van and not having to listen to the chipmunks Christmas song, not even once! I'm going to turn on some nice music here in my office tomorrow, sip some hot chocolate and get on-line and finish my shopping. No more fighting the crowds for me.

Staying Motivated.

I am still using my morning list to stay motivated. I've lost count of how many days it has been now, but, other than weekends and holidays, I've been exercising and doing light cleaning in the mornings, getting the dishwasher and laundry going every day. I normally might get to all of this stuff throughout the day (except exercising!) but I'm trying to establish a habit of getting up and getting it all done first thing so that I don't have to worry about it all day long and won't procrastinate about it. I'm encouraged about how it is going. I've noticed that I feel better when I exercise and that makes me feel motivated to keep it up.

Shopping.

I can't believe it, but I'm thinking of shopping around for a new curriculum. I've been a big KONOS fan and I know it works, but there is so much work to it for the teacher and with my job, my cafepress store and my general lack of enthusiasm lately, I've found it very hard to make the herculean effort of planning that it takes. I have to read through the material, make a shopping list, make a list of books at the library to get (which they frequently don't have) and plan all the crafts, experiments and activities and sometimes I don't know the information and then have to find a reference book so that I can learn about it first. When I feel up to it and excited about it, it's a wonderful curriculum and I know the kids learn a lot. We went to see Happy Feet last night and thhey were discussing the emperor penguins, rockhopper penguins and leopard seal from the movie very knowledgeably last night, because we studied Antartica last year. I don't know whether to get a kit or something to help with KONOS and still use it, or to try and find something easier or maybe just do a Christmas unit this month and then get back into KONOS next month. I won't make any rash decisions but I think I'm going to start selling some of my extra books on ebay to start raising money to do some shopping.

December is here!

Can you believe it? I can't. We're going to a Christmas party with the homeschool group today and the kids are very excited about that. I'm glad because I don't have to do any school with them. Isn't that shameful? I have not been able to get motivated to do any of the Konos activities and we have been just doing the basics for a couple of months. I'm thinking of doing a Christmas around the world study this month to incorporate the holidays and the geography that we are supposed to be studying.

Part of the reason I have not been motivated is that our China adoption fell through. We are not going to be able to adopt from China because they changed the requirements for adoptive families between the time we applied in March and now, so I've been pretty depressed over that. It's hard to get enthusiastic about school when you're depressed about something else. Its as simple as that. I'm sure I'll pull out of it and I am getting excited about Christmas so that's a good sign.

Now if I can get over the backache from picking up trash on the highway and stop walking like that old lady character on laugh-in ... I'll be just fine.