Not breaking our stride.

All of us, except my oldest in Mississippi who took a much needed day off (according to him) went ahead and worked yesterday.  My job offers holiday bonuses and my husband's job pays triple time, so we couldn't turn that down, so I talked to the kids about it and they had no problem with going ahead and working.   School seems to be going well.  We took a nice long break and now everyone is fine with getting back to work.  I love that they are having to do chores again, how bad is that?  If you remember from last year, we have a chore chart and the later they get up, the more chores they have to do.  It's supposed to serve as an inspiration to get up, but it doesn't work all that well and they get up at about the same time - maybe a little earlier - look at the chart and know they have to clean.  It's great.  I do try to wake them up about once an hour, telling them to get up and reminding them of the consequences of not getting up, but it doesn't work all that well.  For them. (Muah-ha-ha!)  

Anyway, the new routine seems to be falling into place.  We have had to make some minor adjustments to the school schedule and clarify a few expectations as we have gone on (now starting our second week).  Oldest son reports that this semester is difficult.  He's got Spanish, algebra and music theory, (he's minoring in music) which he describes as trying to do algebra without knowing the basic numerals or having any background in math whatsoever.  I believe that he can do it though.  Interestingly, he's also playing the piano in music theory class.  I had no idea he'd do that.  If I had, I would have put him in piano lessons with his sister all summer.  I think that would have helped a lot as she is learning the notes, learning to sight read and becoming familiar with the keyboard. 

And here on the home front, no one is complaining about algebra II or geometry or the workload we have assigned so we may need to ramp it up a bit, LoL.  We'll see, I guess.  With my daughter, she only has a few things to finish up and with my son, his main thing is his dysgraphia/dyslexia so we are focusing on writing, spelling and literacy. 

Zoey.

As for new routines, I decided that since the weather is nice, I would take my coffee outside and get a little quiet time/nature time in the mornings and a little visit with the cats, Zoey and Zelda..  This, unfortunately did not work because of the darn new puppy.  She is the MOST hyper dog I have ever seen and she wanted to bite my hands and feet, which did not make for a peaceful meditative time.   Sigh.