A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

This was a hard week. Brother was verbally difficult--challenging any and all parenting decisions, talking back, making threats, etc. Beowulf had a couple of times when he needed to be restrained. Toilets clogged almost every time someone used them. I didn't have meal plans properly in place. Theo bit The Duke when The Duke ran away from my sight and ignored my calls to come back when I had my hands full of 3 other small people.  He was teasing the dog, and I didn't get to him in time. Alongside a number of false accusations (I did not argue with her.  She was upset and scared and had every right to be.), his mom declared me unfit to watch her children and pulled them from my care within the hour.   We need to decide what to do about Theo. Honestly, 8 babies full-time is too much for us. We've been debating and praying about what to do about too many babies, and if I look at it without the hurt and sorrow of the accident and accusations, it is a blessing that we're d...

 I'm not posting pictures of the rashes, but we've got Hand, Food, and Mouth Disease here.  All eight babies and 3 of my own. Some have had light rashes and hardly any fever; some have had dreadful rashes and have been utterly wiped out by the fever.   We didn't know what it was until everyone had been exposed several times, so we just rolled with it the best we could. But it did make for a looooonnng week. And a low-energy week. When we did anything, we read, but we rested most of the time. *The teens and I had mini-Symposium 4 days. *The younger kids and I read Joan of Arc and Mary's Garden . *We've stayed devoted to Hans Brinker , in spite of the agonizing chapters about Dutch history and geography, and now we're near the end and the interesting adventures of the Brinker family. *We've read several more pages of The Children's Book of Virtues .  It's funny to see the kids' faces as I read a story that applies to one of them in particular. :) ...