Update.

I took oldest son to the doctor and they did a swab for flu and a swab for strep. Both were negative, but the doctor said his throat looked really bad. She said it is just a 'flu-like illness' and we are to treat it with rest, fluids, tylenol etc. He's really miserable. The other 2 kids and dad just have regular colds, not too bad. I still have the pinkeye, but it's not troubling me much, other than keeping me from wearing my contact lenses. I had to lose some work time going to the doctor, so I'll probably work tonight. We were going to go to my parents house tonight, but we'd better not take our flu-like illnesses over there and share them I guess.

Sick Day!

We are all in various stages of sickness. Youngest son has had a mild cold with no fever this week. Then yesterday, the other 4 of us started feeling kind of bad. I took Cold-Eeze yesterday and got up this morning feeling better except I have pinkeye. (Joy.) Oldest son is the most sick with fever, aches, etc. and I'm going ot take him to the doctor and rule out flu. My daughter had a bad headache last night and a slight sore throat but says she feels okay this morning. I'm not sure when I'll get to the doctor for my pinkeye or if I will go. I won't have time until tomorrow. I've got some old antibiotics from last time and I've already put that in my eye. Hopefully it will work and I won't have to go in. That's the trouble with our doctor situation. I see a nurse practioner in the town closest to us, but the kids see a pediatrician in a town that is a little further away, in the opposite direction, so it's difficult to get us all to the doctor in the same day. I will ask the pediatrician to give me something for pinkeye, but I don't know if she can do that.

In my freezer.

There's a bowl containing a giant snowball.

Taking my own advice.

Last week I was talking to another homeschool mom about the curriculum she's using. She said that the way they made her do the research paper was wearing her out. Her daughter had to write 3 or 4 outlines and a very complete bibiliography and the way it was set up, she had to work on it about 30 minutes a day, every day. The mom just wanted to be done with it. I told her to just take a couple of days, get the whole thing done and not have to keep working on it for another 3 weeks. She took my advice and was thrilled to have the paper behind them. Since we're so tired of this American History unit, we're doing the same thing. We're worked on only American History today and we'll do the same for the next 2 days, trying to get done by Friday. I have the kids making 1 large notebooking page and doing a timeline of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. It's going well and we are through the 70s today. When we're done, we'll have our notebooks to review from and, most importantly, we can start something else! Yay!

A tiny bit.

We got a tiny bit of snow today. The kids have already asked if they can have a 'snow day'. I said I don't know. I think maybe I'll let them have half a day, the morning stuff is mostly chores, and we'll do academics in the afternoon. The chores are there every day, but the snow is really a rare thing these days. Maybe I ought to join them. A good old serving of vitamin D from the sun might help the blahs.

The field trip yesterday was okay. My daughter liked it quite a bit. We took the same tour last year with 4H but it was a bit different because they had different animals there and they actually had a surgery going on and we could look in. I really can't say I enjoyed that part. I won't tell you what that poor kitty was having done. Eeek. Next month we're going to a groomers and the month after that, we're going to get to see homing pigeons. That sounds pretty cool.

Motivational Issues.

I'm still struggling with motivational issues and so are the kids. It just seems like we'll never get done with this American History study. We've all gotten tired of it (probably my fault) and we just want to be done. We are going to finish it this week. I don't know if it is the weather, the short days or spring fever, but none of us feel like doing anything.

Today we're going on a short local field trip with 4H to a vet's office. I didn't sleep well last night and have been up since 5:30 a.m. so my energy is running out. I may need to have some caffeine before I go!

A bunch of nothing.

That's what we did yesterday. We went out to eat and to the grocery. We visited my parents and then watched several episodes of Flip that House. I read about half of the 6th book in the Zion Covenant series. A lot of relaxing and not much else, but sometimes you need that.

Today we need to get some school work done!

A phrase you don't hear very often.

Thank God it's Monday. I'm going to take it pretty easy today. I'll get groceries. We'll do school. That's about it. I'm am exhausted from working all weekend. I need to get everyone's lists printed out and make sure that we do get school done. We've been slacking a lot lately. I may also work on my Cafepress store a bit but probably not. Did I mention I'm tired?

Same as yesterday.

I'll be working all day today, but I thought I would pop in and blog. I finally got to the library yesterday to get the next book in the series I'm reading and I'll read that while my work is transmitting and downloading, so working today won't be that bad. I've still got a few Heath bars left ... ;-)

Yesterday at the library, it was interesting because they said I had a bunch of overdue books but I was pretty sure I had returned some of them. I had. They had taken them from me, not checked them in properly and then put them on the shelves. I went and found them on the shelves to show them and they took the fines away for those books. This is probably the 6th or 7th time that has happened, but I'm getting smarter about it now. I go check the shelves myself. The library is a great resource, but it can end up costing quite a bit if you don't watch out. Not nearly as much as buying the books though!

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Work, work, work.

That's what I'll be doing this weekend. The mom's night went okay. We played Trivial Pursuit and then just talked and ate and had a good time. I guess that was the point. Anyway, it's back to real life today, doing medical transcription.

Whew.

I've been having computer problems all morning. It was running so slow that it would let me type 2 letters or so and then I'd have to wait. The digital dictation that I listen to was getting stuck and repeating itself. I couldn't blog. I couldn't email. Ooh, it was awful. Then my husband came home and fixed it and also brought me Heath bars. Ahh. Things are better now. I'm going to try and get some transcription done before the other homeschool moms get here at 6:00 p.m. No school today but sometimes life just intrudes. We may do some things over the weekend to make it up or we might not. We are looking at going later into the summer this year than we have years past, but you know the kids get bored in the summer anyway. The 2 older ones say they won't mind a little school. My youngest said he doesn't mind as long as it is science and art. Hey, it sounds good to me. Every year, we are moving closer to the learning as a lifestyle instead of the school model that we started out with.

Freezing Rain.

We're stuck at home. We didn't get to go skating or to the library game night. I really wanted to go to the library because I finished my book ight and haven't have anything to read all day long. It's terrible to be in the mood to read and have no book! I'm reading the Zion Chronicles series by Bodie Thoene and I just finished the fifth one last night. Next time I even think we might have wintery weather, I'm going to lay in a supply of books and Heath bars.

Hopefully, we'll get to venture out tomorrow. I need to pick up a few things before the mom's night tomorrow night and maybe I'll get to the library and get that book!

It looks like ...

we might be in for some bad weather today. I'm getting the laundry done this time in case the electricity goes off! I hope it doesn't. I'm a wimp when it comes to that. I like my comforts, my microwave, my fridge, my laptop, the heat pump ...

The plan for today is to do a bit more work on the house and get school and work done. Hopefully, we will be able to get everything done we need to. We've got skate night and game night tonight if the weather is good, but I kind of doubt we'll go at this point. I guess we'll see. Even the meterologists don't know for sure.

I've been trying to write a bunch of things, but my writing ability seems to be kind of off-kilter this morning. Things aren't coming out right and I seem to want to do a lot of ... dot, dot, dots, which ... I guess ... means I should get back to work and not blog too much today ...

...

I spoke too soon.

The new dog has not had a good day today. She's had 2 accidents in the house and now is trying to intimidate Max, which I won't tolerate. He's the number one dog around here, in my opinion and she can be the number 2, if she stops going number 2 in the house, that is. There is a reason we don't get puppies, a reason all our dogs have been older dog adoptions. We don't want to have messes in the house!!!!!

Anyone want a dog?

Sorry regular readers.

My blog seems to be kind of boring this week. We are cleaning and getting ready for the homeschool mom's meeting on Friday. I have let myself get more worked up over this than any other event I've ever had at my house. I've been more nervous than I was with any of the four home inspections we have had for adoption/foster care. These ladies are all good housekeepers. I've known them for 3 years almost and none of them have ever been to my house, so I've allowed it to become nerve wracking (racking? however you spell that). We've cleaned the walls, floors and ceilings, inside, outside, underneath. One reason it was such a big job was because we still hadn't moved my husband's office back after we did the living room floor. All that stuff was crowded into the kitchen and we had to do some moving as well as regular cleaning. The kids and my husband have been absolutely great, very helpful and not complaining. The kids have an ulterior motive, they want to have the whole homeschool group, including kids, over soon. My husband's just being nice.

We didn't do any school at all today. We worked and then we did Awana and now I'm gearing up to do a bit more work on my job tonight. We seem to be taking a lot of days off this winter, but we'll just go a little bit longer in the summer. It won't hurt us. I need to get back on the ball tomorrow and at least get American History done so we can be done with that and start something else!

Reading the Carnival of Homeschooling.

The carnival is here this week. In the carnival I found my new favorite quote:

"Many are schooled but few are educated." Thomas Moore.

I'd better get very busy today. I have a lot to do.

Good news!

We got some really good news tonight. I don't know if I'm allowed to share it so I won't, but trust me, it's good. ;-)

School on the back burner.

Yes, school is on the back burner again this week. I'm working on deep cleaning.* My husband is working on finishing the last little bits of the remodeling of the living room that we did, moving the last of the furniture back in there. We did do school yesterday, but we just did the bare minimum. We did US History and notebooking, chores, exercise and that's about it. I had plans to start a geometry math unit with the younger 2, but didn't get around to it. I'm trying to get all this stuff done this week and get my work done so that I won't be rushing around this weekend doing it and for some reason I'm having more fatigue this week than usual. I might be coming down with something? I don't know. Anyway, I keep plugging along, trying to get about a million things done.

We've been studying about the civil rights movement in our US History. The other day for his notebook page, my youngest drew a picture of a person on a bus and captioned it "Rosa sat." He's a minimalist when it comes to writing, LoL.

*I'd like to point out why cleaning is mentioned so often on this homeschool blog which is supposed to be about homeschooling. First of all, starting to homeschool means having your kids around all the time, which means that more dishes get dirty, the bathroom is used more often, etc. The house is just messier when it is lived in so much. It also means that there are a lot of homeschooling supplies around now, which means clutter. Secondly (or thirdly, whatever), is that I hate to clean and I want a clean home, so it is on my mind a lot. I think about it and blog about it way more than I actually do it!

Yeah,

Simply April was right in her comment below. The little dog has gotten into our hearts and is going to stay. She hasn't had an accident in the house since last Thursday and if that hadn't resolved, she would have had to go. Fortunately, she seems to have caught on. I'm sure that going from living with a single retired elderly woman to our family was a big shock, meeting all our dogs, cats and kids and the fact that we have a man here and she's scared of men, all led to her being kind of weird when we first got her. She's calmed down, is much less fearful in general and is even warming up to my husband now. She's a sweet little dog. She's half chihuahua and half pekingese.

The dog has actually taken over one of my most dreaded chores and does it with such joy and exuberance that it is a sight to see. She wakes up my daughter every morning. It's hilarious and wakes my daughter up in a good mood, which is a nice change. ;-)

Okay.

Today has been okay. I still haven't decided what to do about school this week, whether to take a spring break or not. I don't think we will. I just think we'll add a few extra cleaning chores to the lists, maybe change their morning lists completely to decluttering and cleaning their rooms. That will bring joy to their lives, won't it? I have promised to take them out for pizza and a movie next weekend if they help me out this week.

My goal is to get everything deep cleaned and then paint the kitchen but I don't know if I'll get that part done. Wish me luck!

The dog is doing better. She hasn't had an accident in the house for several days and she seems to be continuing to mellow out. The only thing is if my daughter goes somewhere, the dog whines continually until she gets back - no fun for those people who are left at home and have to listen to it! Last night we went to a family dinner and just took her with us. It was just easier. Things are looking pretty good for her to stay at this point. (knock on wood!) Good thing, because I've already made a mouse pad on cafepress with her picture on it!

Working on the house ...

We did do school, mostly, this week. I did let the kids have 2 snow days and during those days, I was getting a little bit of work done on the house. Yesterday, I worked on stripping the no-wax finish off of the kitchen floor and reapplying it. I had no idea you could do that, but I found that Armstrong makes products for rejunenating their floors, bought them at Lowes and used them yesterday on half of the kitchen. They work really well. Our kitchen floor certainly needed to be rejunenated. We've been in this house for 10 years and boy have we made a lot of messes on that floor. Today I hope to get the other half done.

The dog seems to be doing a little better. She hasn't had an accident in the house in days. She kind of growls and snaps at my youngest sometimes, if he tries to pick her up or if she has a chewie and thinks he is going to steal it. She also goes psycho when we leave the house. We've been putting her in the bathroom but she whines and scratches the door trying to get out. She's scratched some of the paint off of the door! We need to get her a crate, so she will be more confined and hopefully more peaceful. Our hope is that maybe we'll manage to handle her personality and she'll continue to mellow out. We got spoiled by Max being so easy to get along with. He has occasionally growled at our youngest too and also has made a few messes in the house, although it's been a long time ago. Maybe there is hope for her yet.

I'm not sure if we are going to do school this week. I'm having the homeschool group here for the first time and we've got to get our living room renovation mess cleaned up and get my husband's office moved out of the kitchen and back to its corner of the living room. I'd also like to paint the kitchen. You know how one renovation project always leads to another ... We may let this be our spring break or I may do school as usual, or, I may give them handouts and assignnments they can (hopefully) do on their own. We'll just see how much we get done this weekend.
There's nothing like having people over, especially people who keep meticulously clean, beautiful homes, to make you want to get all your projects done.

Please excuse the spelling in this post since blogger's speller is not working.

This dog is stressing me out.

I feel like everyone in the family is waiting for ME to make a decision about whether she gets to stay or not. We've said from the beginning, that she's here on a trial basis. Although, where we will take a not-totally-housetrained dog who snaps at young children and demolishes bathroom doors, I don't know. My only thought was that the original owner might take her back and try to give her to someone else? I feel bad, but she does tear things up when we leave the house, snaps at my youngest (even when he does nothing to deserve it as I witnessed tonight) and sometimes doesn't seem to be housetrained (although nothing bad in that dept has happened since yesterday, mainly due to close supervision.)

Trouble is, we've all really started to like the personality that she has MOST of the time. She's sweet when she's not going all psycho. Her name that she came with was Freckles, but I've taken to calling her Freakles.

Can dogs be bipolar?

Help.

Tonight.

I'm still having the problem of feeling tired and out of sorts and not motivated to do anything. I think maybe I've got cabin fever or something. Some kind of mid-winter blahs. I did get up and do quite a bit of cleaning today, even though I wasn't thrilled to do it, I just did it anyway. Then this evening, the kids and I watched Supernanny. I really like that show. I think it's amazing what she does for those families. Tonight there was a mom on there that had a very difficult time hugging her kids and telling them that she loved them. Supernanny emphasized family bonding and doing things together and took all their TV and game remotes and laptops and made them play together. After it went off, I was inspired and the kids and I played a hilarious game of charades for about half an hour. We all have to fight the tempation to isolate ourselves from our families in our own homes with technology.

Better today, thank goodness.

My day got better yesterday. The ice melted in time for us to go to a valentine party with the homeschool group. We declared it a snow day since the county schools were out and let the kids play in the snow. It's funny, but almost every time we cancel school, we do something that could be counted as school, like this party. I'm sure that tomorrow, schools all over the country will be having valentine parties and counting it in their attendance records.

The new dog is still here. She's been having 'accidents' every day but yesterday, after the one I blogged about, we put her on a leash and now someone (generally my daughter) is with her every minute. So far, this has worked, but it's kind of difficult. My daughter has to get a dog sitter when she goes outside, takes a shower, etc. It's kind of like one of those baby classes where they give you a baby doll or an egg or a sack of flour and you have to pretend it's a baby except this is more real. She really has to be fed and she really poops, she also snuggles and truly loves my daughter. Having this dog this week has been kind of a nightmare. My daughter is way attached and I cannot tolerate the messes. If we have to give her away we won't do this again.

My oldest son had a computer game that would not play on his computer for some reason. Yesterday, he used the knowledge that he had gotten from the day before yesterday's computer lesson and figured out how to fix it so that now it plays on his computer. He told me more technically, but I didn't understand it. Something about a hidden code. Isn't that cool? So he did a little computer application yesterday, even though we didn't officially have school.

Last night, my youngest son got on the computer, on the PBS kids site and was playing a game from the show "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman" and was doing a lot of reading and science-y kind of stuff.

You know the more I think about this, the more tempted I am to count about 1/4 of a school day for yesterday ... ;-)

A movie review: Last night I watched The Pursuit of Happyness. Good movie. I really, really felt for that guy as he tried to take care of his son. Of course, it has a bit of bad language in it, they all do for some stupid reason, but it was a good movie. At times I felt like it was just too much like real life. I could really fell his frustration so much.

My bloggy friend Lisa is in the hospital, so please everyone send her prayers and warm thoughts. Get well soon~!

Some days are like that ...

I got up this morning and the electricity was out because we had an ice storm during the night. I got up, tried to turn on the bathroom light and was unsucessful, then decided to just use the bathroom in the dark. Unfortunately, someone had left the toilet seat up, so I fell in. A few minutes after this, I had the awful realization that without electricity there is no coffee. I then found out that the chocolate donuts I had wanted for breakfast had already been eaten. A little while after this, the new dog pooped in the middle of the new laminate floor.

Things can only go up from there, right? The electricity did come back on. The kids got to have a short sledding session on the snow/ice that was rapidly melting and now I've run the dishwasher and started laundry. I was very upset this morning that I hadn't done any laundry yesterday, in case the electricity was off for several days and we didn't have clean clothes.

Anyway, I'm off to work now.

Homework not good for kids.

I knew this. Here's the article. My kids would have a couple of HOURS of homework when they were in public school. I read about it on Why Homeschool. It's just not worth it. Thank goodness we have choices.

Nothing.

That's about what I did today. I had big plans to get a bunch done today and I just didn't. I hate when I do that. I went to the grocery this morning and then I kept procrastinating and then it started snowing and the kids (my helpers) went out to play in it and now it's 6:00 pm, dark and cold and I don't want to get up and start doing things. Blah.

Oh well, the kids are happy because we finally have a little bit of snow.

My super powers.

I can often guess what time it is even if we've been out in a park, away from clocks. I never wear a watch, so I guess this is a good skill. This ability is not functional inside Walmart, though, because I might be in there for hours. Anyway, my kids have always been pretty impressed with this ability.

Tonight, when we left my parents house to come home, we were talking about how cold it was. The kids were wondering how cold it actually was. One guessed 4 degrees. I said, "No it's not that cold. I think its probably around 26." We got home and checked the temperature and it was, 26 degrees exactly. They were so impressed. My oldest said, "Wow, Mom's a clock and a thermometer."

Trying to sleep.

Last night I didn't have too much luck. I could hear sounds from everywhere. Someone was snoring. The new dog was whining. Someone else was talking in her sleep. Someone else couldn't sleep and has recently learned to whistle, so he was practicing. Finally, just as everyone settled in and I drifted off to sleep, the outside dog started barking. On the front porch. Which is just outside our bedroom window.

I can feel a nap coming on this afternoon ...

Proof that we really are crazy.

Here it is. We got another dog, making 3 dogs, 3 cats and 1 lizard. We actually planned it too. When we got Max, our first-ever indoor dog, we were not prepared for how crazy our daughter would go for him. She wants to hold him all the time (He's not a lap dog!) and she drives him crazy. Not to mention the fact that he's 6 years old and how is she going to cope when something happens to him? We decided that another dog would help diffuse the love and provide comfort in the future. We started looking for a young female dog, 1-2 years old, a mutt, already spayed, already house trained, smaller than Max and okay with kids, cats and other dogs. We finally found her yesterday.

The house training part, we're not so sure about though, unfortunately. Despite being taken outside about 100 times yesterday, she wouldn't go outside and went in the house. This morning, though, we've had 3 successful events outside, so we're very happy. I guess maybe it was the stress of moving houses, trying to get used to 5 new people, not to mention that every time we'd take her out, the outdoor dog and all 3 cats would gather around and stare at her. It would be hard to do something so personal with all that attention, I would imagine.

Anyway, she's here and if the potty training thing works out, she can stay. I'm thinking of designing some items on Cafepress with her picture on it. She's got quite a face, you gotta admit!

Hey, today really IS Friday.

I don't know why I'm so happy about it. I do work Saturdays. I guess it's just an old habit from my public school and regular-work-week days. It also has to do with our homeschooling system, our work lists and the freebies. Most of us save our freebies for Friday so we have a shorter day most Fridays. I didn't this time, but that's another story. I haven't felt good all week so my freebies got used very early. Tuesday, I think.

Anyway, it's Friday now.

This is the view from my kitchen window. Zoey, the calico, thinks this is her special place to sit and gets annoyed when Xena joins her. You can see it on her face, can't you?

I kept thinking today was Friday ...

but it wasn't. Darn it. ;-)

We went ahead and did school despite that depressing realization (that it wasn't Friday). We are reading through the last book of The History of US. Today's chapter was about the 1950s including the Korean War. I don't think I ever realized how quickly we went back to war from WW2 to the Korean War, although I guess I should've known since my Dad was in the Korean War and my uncle was in WW2.

We also did a lesson from the book on drawing called Drawing on the Right Side Of The Brain (or something like that.) It was very interesting. It emphasizes good drawing as a teachable skill instead of a magical talent, so maybe I'll even be able to learn to draw well. Could happen, I guess.

After school, we went to the library and the skating rink.

My younger son has had a very whiny week this week and has been a pain to deal with. The older 2 think that he can't remember public school well enough, having only been to kindergarten and a few weeks of first grade. They think we ought to give him a public school experience at home, make him get up early and sit at a desk for several hours, having to ask permission to go to the bathroom, etc. I'm all for it as long as I don't have to be here to hear the whining. Maybe we could get a substitute teacher that day!

Funny Max Picture.

My daughter took this one, no surprise there. Can't you just picture what he's thinking, "Did you not notice that I am a BOY dog?" Oh the indignity.

Rough Weather.

We had some very rough weather around here last night, even tornado warnings, but we're all okay. The youngest member of our family, who is a bit scared of storms, slept through the whole thing, so that was good. Max climbed up in the bed with me until it was over, but he made it too. I'm ready to get back to winter-type weather for a few more weeks. I'm not fond of these storms.

Notebooking pages for WW2.

We finished studying about WW2.

I think my kids know more about the war than most people now. They made notebook pages, which turned out really well. The thing about notebooking is that they now have a scrapbook of their studies to look at and show people and when they look at it or show it to their grandparents, they're reinforcing the memories. ;-) We've got one more book in the Joy Hakim History of US series and then we'll be done with American History. After that, I plan to do a world geography study. I may add some science in. I need to look at the curriculum book I have for world history and see how much science is in it (probably a little, but not enough). I also want to do an art study. I'm not an artist, but I got a book out of the library called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and I want to try a few lessons from it. As this American History study winds down after 7 months, I'm starting to feel the need to revamp what we're doing a little bit, can you tell? I've quit trying to go with the regular school calendar and plan it for next year, if I think of something I feel like we need to add, I just go ahead and add it in now, while I'm thinking about AND while I have some enthusiasm for it. If I just write it down for next year, then next year when I'm planning, I'll think "why did I want to do this?" or "how was I planning to accomplish this?" My memory is not what it once was!

I didn't get anything done on the home improvement front yesterday. I feel better today, but today I have to work. Blah. Besides, it's raining and who wants to do anything like that when it's raining? Not me.

And another one ...

All three kids are now sick, with what I believe is just a cold. I just went through a checklist to see if I thought it was the flu and I don't think so. They don't have really high fevers or chills, body aches, etc., just runny noses, sneezes and mild fevers. Still, it's not fun. We are behind in our school, so we're doing a half day today. Nobody feels great, but we can manage half a day. I really wanted to get up today and feel great and get a lot done. I wanted to paint the kitchen but I got up feeling kind of horrible myself so I don't know if I'll get anything done besides school. It's very frustrating!

Another one sick.

Our youngest is getting better, but now our girl is sick - runny nose, sore throat, fever. No fun. I went to town and stocked up on Tylenol, Cold Eeze and Fruit Breezers and she's hanging out on the couch in her PJs today.

Today's Project.

My daughter and I collaborated on making this wreath today which means, it was my idea and I offered suggestions for how to do it, but then she did it her way without using any of my ideas. It turned out cute though, didn't it?

The Green Glow.

My youngest son and daughter are currently having to share a bedroom. They have chosen a color scheme of blue, purple and bright green. A few weeks ago, we picked out some green fabric to make curtains and instead of asking my mom to sew them, I decided to do it myself. It was my first effort at making curtains and they turned out a little crooked at the bottom hem, but the kids don't mind. They say they'll pull them to the side. The day I made them it was cloudy, but a couple of days later, the sun came out and we noticed that the sun shining through the curtains makes everything in the room glow with a weird green light. This picture is of the door of my older son's room, across the hall.

One sick today.

We had one sick child today. I could have predicted it really. On Monday when we went to the baseball museum, our guide had a terrible cough and I just knew some of us would come down with it. It turns out it was youngest son. He had a headache all day yesterday and then began with a runny nose and fever today. I'll probably be next but I can't deny the little guy snuggling when he feels bad. He's almost getting too big, so I enjoy it while I can. I still made him do a half day of school. We're studying WW2 and so close to the end that I just want to get it done, so I had him listen to the chapter reading and do a notebook section today. Then we watched a History Channel show on the production of war planes for WW2.

The rest of us carried on. It was a light day of work because everyone has 3"freebies" on their list - 3 things on the list each week that we don't have to do - and we usually save them for Friday. I need to do a few record keeping things tonight, check everyone's attendance lists and write the supplemental materials we've used for American History in my oldest son's record book before I forget. We may start reading a novel about WW2 tonight. It's called Number the Stars. I got it out of the library and it's a very good book but I'm kind of ready for this war study to be over so I may not read it. We're ready to move onto the 50's and then get done with history so we can go into our world geography study.