Wednesday 9/19

Woke early, but still very slow moving this a.m.





Will came down and was being all anxious about how much work he had to do. Didn't get the kids up until 8.





Said rosary - we didn't say it at all yesterday. Then I made a big breakfast of bacon and eggs. That took a while. Got interrupted by a phone call about Little Flowers/Blue Knights. H went to 9:15 Mass on her own. Read next chapter in the book of marvels. Phone call lead me to write up e-mails and do business so didn't get started with circle time til after 10:00 or so.





J did lesson in math, very short circle time which turned into a brainstorming session on how we could all learn to interrupt each other less. Big problem always and seems to be escalating. That turned into a family wide (sans Rick) meeting. I wrote up 12 rules for the family that we all agreed on.





S did word scramble for spelling also some cursive practice. B had me dictate some sentences to her.





J practiced piano. He also finished I Marched with Hannibal. We dashed around trying to get out the door for noon Mass. I forgot I had zilch gas in the van, so B wound up staying home with H while I took the boys.





Home again, made various sandwiches and ramen noodles for lunch. Becky was listening to some Christian rock video on youtube H had put on for her. A bit adult for B.





During lunch read the story of Creation to S, finally. Have been meaning to do that for 2 weeks!





W worked hard all morning. He did 30 minutes of Artes Latinae, he wrote a paragraph for Seton English, he worked on his flash animation project and also practiced for his guitar lesson. H took it easy.





J and I did Classical Writing. We finally edited his first retelling of The Fox and the Crow. We read the next story, The Good Samaritan, and I picked out 10 spelling words for him. He has to correct his Fox and Crow story and paste it into his workbook and write out spelling words.





Now it is 2:18 and time to take S to VT. B is coming along and I can read to her.



9:02 Well I forgot the book to read to Becky so we looked at home magazines at the VT's office. Came home, sent out yet another e-mail about club business, then gather B and S together again to go to Gymnastics. H and W were having their guitar lesson. Josh got another book in the Pendragon series from Amazon. Rick must have bought it for him, so J was off reading. I asked him to please load the dishwasher while I was gone.



On the way to gymnastics we stopped and got gas. I suddenly couldn't remember if B had actually eaten anything all day, so I went into the store there and bought a bag of doritos. The kids munched on them heartily until I realized they were going to gymnastics and had this horrible vision of them getting sick from all that jumping around just after doritos.



Got there just in time. B ran into her class. S and I walked over to Starbucks for a tall, skim, decaf, vanilla latte. Sigh, I am an addict! Came back and Sean read 1.5 chapters of Wayside School to me. It was great. He really wants to read. He struggled a lot and I know he knew some of the lines from having the book read aloud to him, but he was really reading too. We ran into a family that used to homeschool but now doesn't. My kids have always clashed a bit with these kids and what do you know they were trying out the gym class S is in. S went into his class. When it was over he came out in tears, this same kid from this other homeschool family had one upped him in some contest but S thought he cheated (wouldn't put it past the kid, frankly) but S gets his nose out of joint so easily. He is so insecure and he wears it on his sleeve. He cried the whole way home, raging at the world. I thought maybe he was hungry. We picked up J from chess club. He'd had a good time.



Came home, J had not loaded the dishwasher. Very put out with him. Quick fed S hoping he'd get over his terrible funk. Crockpot bbq chicken and rice (H made) and baby carrots. H rushed W off to his CLC. Rick working late again. S was so blue during dinner, I asked him what we could do to cheer him up. He wanted frozen custard. B and I went for it and I let him watch a tv show. Came home and fed him frozen custard. Said prayers, added a new thing where everybody says what they are thankful to God for, for that day. I said the fact that S read me a whole chapter and half, he said 'not dying'. That was as good as it got for him, I guess. The funny thing was that J had snuck some food during prayers and when we asked him what he was thankful for he got this 'caught red-handed' look in his eyes and mumbled 'food' through his stuffed mouth. Cracked everyone up.



B and I took care of Hermit the Crab and got ready for bed. Read her some Surprise Island. H went to get W from CLC. Rick just got home. J has been listening to Strong Bad, gotta go get him off the pc.