A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I'm not going to write about a particular day in our lives . . . I write about our weeks all of the time, and the details are there.  Here is just an outline of how our days can/do/should go. I get up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 am --depends on the last time Baymax wants to nurse for the night. Sir Walter Scott also gets up then--to either get ready for work or to take his turn driving the seminary car pool. Rose Red also gets up then to get ready for seminary. By 5:30 I'm settled in with a snack and my scriptures for my morning devotional time, Rose Red is out the door to seminary, and Sir Walter Scott is either gone with her, or having his own morning devotional time before going to work.  On a working day, he leaves by 6:10 am. Until 7 am the house is supposed to be quiet, but sometimes the little boys wake to go potty and have to be put back to bed or I can hear Pixie's shower water running.  Whatever the case, I spend the early morning hours gettin...

After several weeks of living with our current schedule, we're moving our Monday library day and Brother's therapy appointment to Tuesday.  With Ladybug's therapy on Tuesdays and the parent educator visits on Tuesdays and church youth activities on Tuesday nights, it just makes more sense to cram all appointments into Tuesdays and leave Mondays free for school . . . except for Jaybird's weekly visits, but those only last half an hour, and he comes to our house, so we can still do school without changing those up. But this Monday we still had to return books to the library, so Dad ran them over for us while the rest of us did school. Morning meeting  continued as usual.  Nothing new added or taken away. I found out via the girls' character sketches that their years of narrations and creative writing have not helped them become good essay writers.  That is not their fault--it is mine.  I returned their papers to them unmarked and announced that we'd be addi...

After finding a coloring book available for review, and securing Super Star's promise to write that review, I pressed "send" and handed the book off to her. Here's what she wrote: Whatever Is Lovely is an uplifting, engaging coloring book full of unique pictures.  It is filled with large and small details.  After each page is an inspiring quote, hymn, or poem.  If you are looking for an easy-going, finish-it-quickly kind of coloring book, I don't suggest this one; the pages are large and filled with lots of tiny lines, dots, flowers, leaves and other details that are satisfying to spend time and thought coloring. I color in Whatever Is Lovely every night.  I love this coloring book!  FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

On Saturday Nature Angel got to model for a church friend who is working on publishing his first children's book.  She spent over 3 hours being photographed and videoed so that the illustrations of his main character (who looks exactly like Nature Angel) will be what he wants them to be. She came home exhausted--no fanciful imaginings about the glorious life of models for her! But she has the promise of receiving a copy of the book when (and if) it is published, and if it doesn't get published, she'll at least get a privately printed copy of it. Too fun! Somehow, between illnesses and a heavy church schedule, we managed to have our family Valentine's Day celebration on Sunday .  Exchanging our handmade cards each year is a major stress, but it is also one of our most rewarding family days.  I still catch kids going through their bags of valentines and feeling loved as they look at each one. As Monday was a holiday, and the library was closed, we ...

Monday was our getting ready for the week day: Therapy for Brother Morning meeting A couple of hours of cleaning for the big girls and me (we haven't had a chance for a proper Saturday cleaning session in several weeks!) A library run during which we returned 43 books but brought home 67 more! A visit with JayBird that went very well A date for Dad and Mom (we did a little run/walk and ran errands, but we did it alone, and the kids made and served dinner, so it counts as a date) Evening reading as a family--we finished Pride and Prejudice on Sunday night, so we began Standing Lions (the kids are mad because they wanted me to read Emma next, but I'm purposely not reading it aloud to get them to read it on their own) Tuesday was a productive day, but I ended up in a dreadful mood of gloom and despair that I really struggled with.  I know that my mood began with Rose Red's disrespectful behavior and unkind words, and it only got worse when I spent over an hour on ...