A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

We woke up to a winter wonderland early Friday morning. We had a week of peace. It was incredible. We had lots of normal challenges like illnesses, minor car accidents, freezing rain, too many dishes, kids shirking school work, and arguments over board games, but it was all so simple and . . . normal. Such a blessing! Poor Pixie caught a dreadful cold that kept her away from work one day (did I mention she's working full time at a day care in the 1-year-old room?), and left her weak and shaky for the rest of the week.  We pumped her full of fresh garlic, cayenne pepper tea, various menthol lozenges and rubs, and as many fluids as we could.  She's looking forward to sleeping through the entire weekend. Super Star is safe but struggling.  She's not getting much school done--resorting to sleep as an escape.  She did complete Unit 8 of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts with a good grade and a thoughtful essay, and she went to work, but that's about

Saturday After morning chores, we took hike 2 of 52. We took the same trail as for our first hike. What a difference the snow makes! We came home to enjoy hot chocolate, popcorn, and a movie. Sunday Ladybug and I were late for church as she had a major breakdown that prevented us leaving with the rest of the family.  The good news is that she did calm, and we did attend half of our meetings--which meant I was able to teach my sweet Primary class. In the afternoon we prepared dinner a for a friend who had a baby just a couple of weeks earlier. The icy cold weather left us at loose ends, and the whole family was feeling edgy.  We needed to have Family Night, but it was clear that we would be less than successful if we tried to have a lesson or organized activity.  We decided to turn on the new Book of Mormon videos for a while, and Pixie and Belle helped me work on making a treat. However, Super Star had a serious mental health crisis that night.  Sir Walter

We did not call the police for a single emergency this week. I did talk to an awesome police sergeant who is using personal time to help Brother.  And two officers from the police CIT stopped by to see how they could help us out, so I did, in fact, speak with the police twice. But no emergency calls. And that was a good week! The whole emotional flavor of our house is less charged than it has been in a year, and I'm counting my blessings. Actually, we are all counting our blessings every day.  Our church has changed the children and youth programs this year, and, as I now have 5 children working on children's portion of goal setting and meeting, 3 of those 5 with special needs, I decided our family would work on goals together. So that I wouldn't lose my mind trying to track and support so many kids. Our first family goal (and it's counting for one goal for our youth, too) is to practice gratitude every day for the first quarter of the year.  We've go

We hosted a New Year's Eve bash for 40 teens at our house. I don't have a single picture, but I can promise you that food, dancing, games, laughter, and conversation abounded all evening long, and we had to escort the last 4 guests to the door at the end of the party because they didn't want to leave. :) Brother ran away twice in one day, beat on me for several hours another day, and Ladybug made a valiant effort to tear our storm door off its hinges on yet another day. But we survived, and we had lots of fun babysitting a 13 month old baby boy whose usual babysitter, his auntie, just had a new baby of her own.  Oh!  He thought the vacuum was wonderful! Truly, having a baby in the house is one of the greatest blessings!  Everyone is just a little softer and sweeter because of the baby's presence. The teens took full advantage of sleeping as late as they could each day and staying up as late as they could each night.  Nature Angel and Little Princess wor