Tuesday 10/30

Woke after 8. Had terrible migraine all night. Still have it now at 10:54 but I haven't gotten sick to my stomach which is a blessing.





H and W got up and went to 9:00 mass and then chemistry.





Everybody slept late except R who went to work on the earlish side.





I let B and S watch more TV, ick way too much screen time lately while I got my bearings and took a shower.





J took a shower as well.





Breakfast was English muffins and tea.





Said 2 decades of the rosary. Then I read the next chapter in Kat Finds a Friend. Now B and S are upstairs listening to The Glass Elevator on cd.





J and did part of his review section of FMMA and now he's working on math homework. I'm about to prepare for the Brit Lit class.

I read all about Robert Southwell and wrote up an outline for my class. Headache didn't go away until about 11:30.

Tidied up house and got everybody the very basic rudiments of lunch.

Class went really well. I gave a little lecture about Southwell and had some good discussion going. We broke for scones and then read The Burning Babe aloud. Then we watched the next show in A History of Britian. All about Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Mary had such a terrible life!

After class was over I collapsed. I have been puttering about both in the house and on the computer not doing anything very constructive. My brain feels fried. H ran some errands, W is on the computer. I have no idea where J even is!!!!! B and S have been alternately watching TV, playing and running around outside.

I plan to whip up some kind of pasta dish for dinner and read the next chapter of Sophie's World to the teens. H has Theology of the Body this evening. We also need to focus on costumes for All Saints Day and I've got to come up with potluck stuff for tomorrow's Halloween party as well as All Saints. Haven't planned anything in that regard! I think we might go shopping for all this tomorrow morning then come home and carve the pumpkin. I have a drs appt at 1 and then maybe VT at 2:30; H and W have guitar lessons. Then I'll cook for the potluck. Kids can work on their All Saints costumes.

Monday 10/29

Woke nice and early! Actually felt rested.





S got up early too so we chatted a bit. He was getting excited about planning a chain reaction machine. Made him take a bath and wash his hair.





W got up. H slept in very late. But got up just in time to make it to Spanish class which she is now auditing. There was supposed to be a test today but apparently because she's auditing she can't take.





Said rosary with W, J and S. B came in for the last decade. Very grumpy.





Breakfast - cereal and hot rolls. J dawdled terribly about finishing up his math homework. W worked on his math as well, not very productively.





Did a little mental math with B and S. B wanted to count by 2's, 6's and 3's. Did rounding to the nearest 100th with S. Then reviewed briefly the different phonics rules S has done so far this year:

1. words with silent '-K



2. words with double 'ee's



3. rules for adding -ed and -ing to e c-v-c words as well as words ending with silent e



4. compound words



5. adding -ed and -ing to words ending in -y



6. words with -ay



7. words with -igh

Math tutor just arrived. J did finish most of his homework before she arrived. He had a couple problems he was shakey on. S is drawing cartoons and B has gathered up all her baby dolls and is reading them stories.

I have about 4 loads of laundry to put away right now!

4:34 p.m. - rest of the morning went quite nicely. S spent much of the morning drawing pictures, practicing gymnastics and playing piano. B played a lot with her babydoll. She pretended an old broken walkie talkie was her own cell phone and that she was a working woman with a baby! I was her babysitter and had to take care of her doll for her! She kept saying she had an important conference to go to. Then suddenly she got the bad news via her cell phone that she'd been fired! But it was okay because that meant she could stay home with the baby! Where does she get this stuff????

I made the boys clean up their room some more while I went downstairs and tidied up basement. I got my laundry (mostly) put away.

J and W finished up math with the tutor.

Cleaners came and house looks good now! We ate lunch. B played a lot on Starfall. I don't know what S and J were doing. H and W read through the next chapter in Chemistry.

After shower J and I did some Latin and history. I got very sleepy during it. B and S played outside for a while. H went for a walk and W is playing a new videogame. I'm doing more laundry.

Right now B and S are watching EWTN kids shows.

Notes on rest of the day: well, the kids pretty watched the tube for the rest of the day. Arthur, Wayside, etc. I managed to bake some chicken drumsticks for dinner but that was it! I quickly prepared for RE. J, H and I all went off to do that. W babysat S and B who watched Chicken Run. R came home and helped W with Chem.

The RE class was fun. Dr. T taught the lesson but then we played a saints bingo game that I have and it wound up being quite fun!

Came home and got little ones to bed. They want R to put them to bed because he's reading them Wayside series again. J read the next chapter in Mystery of the Periodic Table. But then he stayed up really late watching Narudo on the computer downstairs.

R, W and I stayed up until midnight watching October Sky which was an excellent movie but right around 11:30 it triggered a migraine.

Friday 10/26

H and W got up at 5:30 a.m. to take breakfast and go to 6:15 a.m. teen mass. My alarm went off at 5:25 but I turned it off. The next thing I knew B was in bed with me and it was 8:19 a.m. Holy cow, I haven't slept that late in ages. Very dark, gloomy, rainy weather. Wonderful for the drought and sleeping late!

Got up quickly and got J up. He had St. George Club today. That's 9 o'clock mass, talk with Fr. D. and then since it's raining they went bowling.

Took shower, finished addressing postcards, gathered library books. Went to Starbucks and got breakfast, then library to pay incredible fine for late books, then post office to mail off postcards. Kids helped me stamp and mail them. Then we stopped at Great Harvest and bought cheese bread and challah. Came home, B and S got books out on gymnnastics and starting trying out different things.

J is home now with bunch of boys; playing downstairs.



H and W must have gone to Chemistry early. Did W tag along?



H and W came home and ate. Nice visit with I. The St. George boys came to play so we had a slew of young gentleman running around the house and playing pool downstairs. B went over to neighbors house to play. She's had a regular playdate there at 3 every Friday for several weeks.



S went over to Joseph's house to play. St. George boys went home. J is playing on the computer. W has been on the computer as well and practicing guitar. Now he's outside in the rain wandering around the backyard. It has been a very gray rainy day all day.



B came home. We watched Angel Force on EWTN and now she's watching recorded Wayside school shows. H was trying to nap.



H and W are going to see movie Bella tonight.

9:18 p.m. R just got home. I sat at the PC for a couple of hours whiling away time researching how to start up a school. Really I'm thinking more of a resource center type thing. That's been my daydream the last couple of days. The kids have been giving me their input.

For dinner, I made broiled fish. We had the challah from the bakery and applesauce to go with it. B had strawberries. W practiced his guitar some more. He loves to play that thing! W wanted to say the rosary after dinner since we hadn't said it earlier. W, B and me said it, J started but then left after the first decade but H joined us on the 3rd. After that W took a shower. I read B a couple books from the library. Then S came up and said he wanted to learn to draw. He got the drawing bug yesterday out of the blue. He showed me a cartoon picture he had copied. Pretty good! I found Mark Kistler's site on line and S tried to draw the rocket pencil of the 1st lesson. I kept telling J to practice his pieces for the recital tomorrow. He's great with one but not so hot on the other. But right now R is reading to them all from Wayside. Actually they all decided to get in their PJs and then daddy would read to them.

10/25 Thursday

Woke early - worked on ideas for novel. Took a long time for everyone to get down for breakfast. Never got rosary said. Hoping for lunchtime after math tutor leaves. Spent a lot of time this a.m. making phone calls, looking for things, chatting, waiting for R to leave. He's going to see his mom. S kept playing Greensleeves on piano. We looked it up and saw a version written by Henry VIII which amazed S. B and I spent a while looking for a veil for her wedding costume.





H got up early for mass and Spanish. She wants to audit the course and take it for real next semester. She's getting a C- in right now which the teacher didn't think was bad and thought she could pull it up to a B but she feels like the course goes so fast and she doesn't have a good enough grasp on it as it is.





W and J worked on finishing up math homework. B and S and I went downstairs. B wanted to do mental math first. We wound up working on the white erase board adding numbers up to ten. Then I did the next mental math with S which was writing out numbers and identifying place value of different numbers. We also worked on rounding to the nearest tens. He liked it.





Then S and B and I sang songs. Kept getting interrupted by the phone. After that we reviewed -igh sound and S did short exercise in LLATL on ight words. Fill in the blank. B and I reviewed 5 words she'd learn so far. Me, jump, said, look and ride. I went over all the phonics rules for each and we sounded them out. Then B wanted to knit, we got out a kit but it was too complicated and I couldn't find my 1st grade OM teachers book for simpler instructions. S wanted to paint which was amazing because he never wants to paint. So we got all the paints out and he started working then B joined him. S got out the Cartooning book and started teaching himself how to draw faces.





J finished his math and then listened to music on the computer. W keeps practicing Smells Like Teen Spirit on the guitar. Sounds pretty cool. J is now with the math tutor.





I am starting lunch right now. Want to: read aloud at lunch, say rosary, watch October Sky movie (dreary, dreary weather out). Also, I am going to have an official reading time this afternoon. W needs to work on chemistry. But he can read as can J their science books. I want to read aloud next OM fairy tale and a couple more Bible stories to B and S. I also want to review Latin and History with J this afternoon.





We have to bring breakfast to the 6:15 Mass tomorrow.





H starts her first SAT Prep course this evening.



I forgot about the teen rosary this afternoon. H and W went to it. J and I watched first half of October Sky, a movie about a coal miner's high school son who became enchanted with rockets after Sputnik.

In the evening I read the next fairy tale from OM to S and B and also the next few bible stories on Isaac and Rebekah.

Wed. 10/24

11:25 a.m.





Woke late, 7:15. Cloudy, rainy day.





Took a while to get everyone moving. S and W took showers. W led two decades before breakfast. We planned our day. H is interested in learning phil and Theology more systematically because of last nights Theo. of the Body class. W practiced lots of guitar.





After breakfast. S and B played on Starfall.com and pbskids. J practiced piano (has recital this Sat.) but didn't do his math.





I read next chapter of Sophie's World to teens. Made outline of what we're learning.





Worked with J on Latin. Made paradigm flashcards. He reviewed some vocab flashcards and then translated 5 sentences. Also we did study questions on Clovis for history. H took shower and read CCC. W worked on Latin on computer for 45 min.



2:52 p.m. Went to noon Mass. Said the rest of the rosary on the way home. H and W went out to get pizza for lunch. S had tuna, I ate the last 3 chix taquitos. Took a shower. Took S to VT all set to have a reading lesson w/B while we waited but she wasn't there again. I thought maybe there was just a mix up last week, but why isn't she there this week???????? Strange. I am going to e-mail her. I hope nothing is wrong.



Guitar teacher is here. I told J to work on his Nanowrimo workbook before I left. Need to hunt him up and see what he's doing. He also needs to do his math homework.

W helped J with math. I think it had to do with coordinates. J decided that he wanted to try to write a page a day (double spaced) M -F as his goal for the Young Writer's Project. He's got a story in mind which sounds pretty cool!

Took B and S to gymnastics. S and I went to costume store and bought Halloween costume supplies. Haven't quite finished yet. S is going to be Harry Potter and St. John the Evangalist. Don't have the St. John costume together yet. B is going to be a bride and St. Veronica. Need to work on both costumes. J has everything he needs I believe.

Picked up J at chess club. Came home and made bacon and eggs. Took W to CLC. H was had a babysitting job. Came home and made more bacon (turkey kind this time). Kids played on computer and dressed up in their Halloween costumes. R came home. Made him bacon and eggs. Said prayers. R read Wayside to kids. S read me a chapter 2 page chapter from the book.

I assigned Mystery of the Periodic Table to J and Uncle Tungsten to W.

I read a bit of Joan of Arc. I am going too slowly through that book, need to read more. R and I talked late into the night about religion and stuff. Didn't get enough sleep!

Wednesday 10/17

11:01





Been a chaotic morning. Woke late, got really involved in planning Am. Studies for next year and didn't get anybody up until almost 9! They've been staying up so late at night. Bad habits rearing their ugly heads!





Said 2 decades of the rosary. Really hard getting everyone settled. Had spat with H over college and her not working hard enough on her studies. I just don't want to spend all that money so that she can have a good time but not really work at her studies. So I told her the ball was in her court. If she wants to go to a private Catholic away college, she's has to make good grades in her high school coursework. That must have left me in an irriated frame of mind. Then poor B is constipated so she's been suffering great melodrama from this. I wound up putting her the tub. Then when we went downstairs to start school, we uncovered the garter snake that's been living in our basement. W tried to catch it. I lost my temper badly about everything, basically motherhood. Then I calmed down and said we were just going to play. But B wanted to put the sundials out again (didn't do it yesterday because the pool table truck was parked in the driveway most of the morning/early afternoon.





H showered and I have no idea what else she's been doing. (she told me later she'd been working on Spanish).





W practiced guitar, did some math and goofed off, besides catching and releasing a snake.





J practiced piano, did some Latin and also some math.





At some point earlier, S did read to me from his reader. I just read this to B.





We are leaving for noon mass in about 25 minutes.



3:06 p.m. Before mass I read B the book 12 Ways to Get to Eleven, which is a fun adding book. We were late for Mass (again!) BUT the priest was 15 minutes late so it turned out okay. H was really sad and cried on the way. I feel paradoxically too hard on her and too easy at the same time. Mass was very uplifting. Remembered to finish saying the rosary on the way home.



Got home, showered, did history with J on St. Benedict and Pope St. Gregory the Great.



Took J (and B) to VT but Dr. Malhotra wasn't there! Did she cancel or tell me beforehand????? Very unlike her. But I did a tiny bit of reading with B while we waited. I always bring her little reader with us just in case she wants to do a little one on one reading with me.



H is learning the theme song to Beauty and the Beast on guitar. The guitar teacher is here now. W's lesson is over. W's making himself a sandwich then hopefully he will now do Latin or math homework.

10/16 Tuesday

10:39 - got up at 7. Finished reading The Wife of Bath's tale. Got everyone up at 8:15. S took shower. Said 2 decades only. . . .sigh. Put on laundry, unloaded dishwasher.



At breakfast read the story of St. Margaret Mary Alocoque. H and W went to mass and chemistry.



We put out our sundials again at 9:30 and shaded in shadow.



J - practiced piano and did a little Latin.



S and B sang songs, did mental math. S told time from classroom clock. B did number sentence houses for 8 and 9 in her ML book.



S did some VT and spelling words on white board and a word search for spelling words. Read just one page of reader before the new pool table arrived. Right now all is chaos because the workman are putting the table together and B, S and J are really excited. R is home from work today.

Had Lit class. Everybody discussed the Canterbury Tale they read and then we took a sparknotes quiz. Watched next show on dvd series, Black Death. Very interesting.

After class I started my own timeline of Brit History which I was supposed to be doing all along. then took shower. Didn't make it to Curves. Got Chinese carry out for dinner. H went to her Theology of the Body for Teens class at church. W didn't want to take the course.

I am reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle to B. R finished reading Spiderwick series to S. J is still working away on Rolf but is also rereading Encyclopedia Brown books. W fooled around on the computer. R and I watched the last two episodes of The Office. Now were are all caught up with the rest of the world.

Monday 10/15

Woke at 7:00 - put on dishwasher, tidied up a bit, started laundry. House is a wreck!!!! Heated up rolls for breakfast. Got kids up: W, J and S all showered/washed hair. R went to work early.



Read All of a Kind Family, said two decades of rosary. W working on math, J too. Didn't do any math homework for tutor, Yikes, how'd that happen????? S and B school - sang songs, worked with telling time with S. Reviews adding -ed to words ending in -y, introduced new spelling words and reviewed capitalization and punctuation rules. S did loose lens exercise with reader, read two pages. Also did Brock string exercise. B played with Montessori objects and beginning sound cards. Also wrote capital and lower case Fs in her MLbook.



Made trail mix for snack. Tutor got here 1/2 hour late. Still working with J at the moment. Then will work with W. Need to check with him. B, S and I are going to do sundial project now.

Had lunch; completely forgot to say the rest of the rosary then! Worked a lot with J after lunch. Latin, Classical Writing. H and I sat and worked through her lesson in Spanish then she made vocabulary cards. She also prepared her lesson for tonight's RE class. I took shower. W was suppposed to be working on his chemistry. He got a 66 on his last chem test. He is flunking out of the class. I spent time trying to organize things for J and riding on W to keep working. He also did some Latin. I just have to keep better oversight for those two kids! J read his history and practiced piano. I read for my RE class.

We checked our sundials twice more before I took them in as it was getting dark.

Made penne alfredo and italian sausage. I just sliced up some apple for a side dish. Ate out on the porch. Read about St. Teresa of Avila. to everybody at dinner.

J, H and I all left for RE class. The boys were rude and disruptive in class but I still think they listened somewhat. J is completely quiet in the class.

Came home, R was working on chem with W. S was watching Harry Potter II movie. B was putting herself to bed! She'd gotten into her nightgown. She announced was tired. I made her brush her teeth and then read her a chapter from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Said prayers with her. Now it is very late 10:01 and S is still up! But the movie will be over in a couple minutes. Then it's off to bed with him.

J needs to finish Rolf up. Let me go find him. I need to read more Cantebury Tales.

Recap of weekend 10/13, 10/14

Sat. - No piano lessons. Curves. National Basilica for 2 hour mass. Stood the whole time. B and S were great! Beautiful ceremony led by bishop. Planned for school. Read Canterbury Tales.
Evening H had her friend Emily visit. R and I watched movie, Marty.

Sunday - I went to 10 Mass because I still don't have substitute. R made breakfast at home. R watched football games. I went to Michael for craft stuff and then did a quick shop at grocery store just for dinner. Read more Canterbury Tales. Really dislike Wife of Bath story. J and S played at Joseph's then H, W, J and S went to teen youth mass at 6:00 p.m. made sandwiches for soup kitchen afterwards. I read stories to B including OM story for letter F. She also colored picture for coloring contest and played with beeswax.

10/12 Friday

What a great day!



Only got a decade in this a.m. Went on a nature hike with Waldorf group. Beautiful day. B was in much better mood than yesterday morning. H and W got up early and went to 6:15 a.m. Mass. I couldn't go because R's not here. He's coming home tonight.



Bought lunch at Whole Foods and then went to tennis. I am a rotten tennis player but I still like playing it. J went with Manuel to Mattie's birthday party. W came home after tennis and played computer game. H lost her wallet this a.m. but police called. Someone had turned it in. However, it must have gotten run over because all the cards, etc are bent/chipped. Ugh! But at least no one stole anything which is a miracle!



R gets in around 5:30 or 6:30. S is busy picking out klezmer tunes on recorder. He really has a gift for music.



I love days where the weather is lovely and we spend hours outdoors.

10/11

Didn't say rosary, boo hoo! Another snake in basement! This one slithered into the little pump closet when I tried to stop it with a broom. Will stuffed the bottom of the door with old blanket. Have no idea if that will contain it. Maybe they come in through the pump closet??????

Took S and B on Claude Moore Colonial Farm Fieldtrip.

J and W did math with Mrs. Boyd.

In p.m. worked with J on Latin, history, and Classical Writing

B & S played all afternoon: screen, played outside, played with neighbor, gymnastics

W did some Latin, he's not working steadily enough on that, no momentum there. He practiced guitar a lot and played his new computer game, whatever it is!

H????? Don't know what she did all day at all!

Read The Red Shoes from Hans Christian Anderson to B & S also the story of Abram from Bible.

Read more about Sir Lancelot to J. He practiced piano and then read lots of Rolf. Told him to finish by Monday. S started writing a lovely little piece on piano.

Went to Curves finally. First time this week! I am really enjoying Joan of Arc by Twain.

10/10 Wednesday

10:53


Said decade at breakfast


Read from Book of Marvels about Grand Canyon


W and H took their chemistry test


J-piano practice, lesson and half of math, Latin translations re: accusative case also vocab review.


B and S - sangs songs, S read two pages in reader, played outside.



Went to noon mass. Came home, made grilled cheese for lunch. Worked with Josh on his Classical Writing. Took S and B to VT. B read a little in her reader but then tired of it quickly. Saw Jeanmarie Devolites Davis coming out of the building! Told her I was going to vote for her. She said thanks very nicely!



Came home, told J to read his history lesson. Took a shower. Norm the guitar teacher was here. W practices guitar all the time, H never. Maybe we need two guitars? H was working at piano though practicing music for her choir event this weekend.



Took B and S to gymnastics. S and I went to Starbucks as is becoming our routine, while B was in her class. He talked and talked about music. While he was in his class B and I ran to Marshalls and got her some fall clothing which she direly needs. J went to chess club. Picked him up on the way home. H got dinner for us, roast chicken, fresh baked bread and fruit salad.

Yummy. H just took W to CLC.



B, J and S are in front of the tube now. I'm chillin'! 7:40 p.m. R is in California for the week.

H called me from where she was waiting for W's CLC to be finished. She wanted to know which Canterbury Tale to read. She's got the Miller's Tale.

Read more Sir Lancelot to J. Read Why Noah Chose the Dove to B and S. J read more Rolf.

I started reading Mark Twain's Joan of Arc.

Here's my reading schedule. Brit Lit reading: F, S, Sun, M. T, W, Th other reading. I still want to spend 10 minutes a day in spiritual reading. I am hoping that starting off with just 10 minutes will make it happen and then somehow I can expand on that.

10/9

Slow start. It is always hard to get going in the a.m. after a 3 day weekend.



Said rosary.



J - practiced piano, took math test and did next lesson, reviewed Latin vocabulary and studied accusative case.



W - read Knight's Tale and studied Chemistry, practiced guitar



H - went to library to read. She just read Sparknotes but found really interesting site on rules of chivalry.



B and S - songs, mental math, B worked from reader, S - VT and read from reader. I read them both Bible story - Tower of Babel



B & S Played on computer and watched tv while Lit/Hist. went on.



In class we learned about Edward I and II, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce of Scotland and Llewellyn of Wales. Discussed Chaucer and Knight's Tale. We decided each teen is going to read a different Canterbury Tale for next class. 4 kids are doing the Robert Southwell unit study while Peter and Katie are doing Shakespeare. Peter picked Hamlet and Katie picked Much Ado About Nothing as the plays they will focus on. Really good class this time. Lots of discussion. These kids know a lot of stuff!!!



I want to make dinner on the early side. 5:30 or so. H and W need to take their chemistry test this evening. I also want to read Sophie's World to them. R has been reading Sean Spiderwick which is all about fairies. I think I'll read English fairy tales to S while R is gone. B I've just been reading picture books. She hasn't been interested in any chapter books lately. Must remember to read to J and also have him read Rolf.

10/8 Columbus Day

Recap of weekend



Sat. - J and S had piano lessons; H went to choir and then shopping. She was gone most of the day. B watched tv, etc. Friday was good for her though, she played with kids at tennis then at the neighbors houses all afternoon and evening. I went to Curves.



I went shopping for R's dinner, so I got grocery shopping over with. I read lots of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Made flank steak with garlic wine sauce, mash potatoes, caesar salad.



Sunday - we went to 10 o'clock mass. though H went to 8:15. Then breakfast. Came home, tidied bedrooms. Took B, S and J to a talk given by author of books on classical music. That was cool. Came home and relaxed. The car H drives got a flat. R filled the tire. R and I went out to dinner for his b-day. We were supposed to go with friends but the have the stomach flu.



Hmm, just had words with H who is mad that I put her clothes in the dryer which weren't supposed to go in there. I have told her before to put up a big sign if she can't keep an eye on it herself so that no one else goes in but she didn't. She has basically hogged the laundry room all weekend. Then she said something really snotty to me about it. Ugh, teenagers make me so mad. So inconsiderate and self-centered.



R was going to take whichever kids wanted fishing today, but the weather looks a bit overcast and icky. Math tutor is coming today but instead of math with J and W, she's going to help W study chemistry. W got a zero on one quiz and a 53 on another and he has a big take home test to do tomorrow. He is not enjoying chemistry.

R took only B fishing. The other kids weren't interested so it turned into a father/daughter date. J and S did lots of screen, played outside, etc. Very relaxing day for me. I decided to just take it easy. Read lots of The Knight's Tale but didn't get it finished. H was out in a.m. learning to change a tire. W read and also did some chemistry with tutor. H went to a party and was gone all day.

Evening - watched some of more of the Office with R.

Oct 5th, Rick's birthday

Wow, it's 11:56 and I feel totally groggy. I just haven't enough sleep all week and it finally caught up with me. Got up for 6:15 mass this a.m. That was great but I simply can't exist on 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night!!!!!



Came home from mass and felt so out of it. H went to a SAT II chem class. W came home to do the rest of his chem homework. Everybody else slept in. When R came down at 8:30 everybody was still sleeping. W, B and S gave their cards to R. S started crying because R didn't read the card right. He's in one of his hypersensitive moods. Ugh. J didn't even make a card. I notice he is really super moody and it is also lack of sleep because he stays up so late reading. I have got to get that under control.



So this a.m. I've just been puttering around mainly. Did some laundry. B and S have been watching Arthur, playing on the computer and practicing gymnastics. S practiced some card tricks but then got mad at J cuz J knew the secret of his card trick. J and I did a little bit of Latin but then I started to fall asleep. He's been really resistant about rewriting his composition, so I've decided to chuck that and we'll start anew on Monday or maybe Tuesday since Monday is Columbus Day.



Dave came by to see how the gardeners did yesterday. The yard looks terrific.



Would it be wimpy to bow out of tennis lessons today? I feel so run down and I feel like I have to save my energy for tonight because we're hosting a teen movie night, planned many weeks ago. I'd rather nap! It is very muggy out and I think I'll wilt in this weather. I am kind of praying for rain. The mosquitos are out in droves. I just don't want to play tennis today! Waaaahhhhh!

Oct. 4 Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Went to bed late and then B woke me up at 4 a.m. with bad dream. She crawled into bed and tossed and turned. I finally moved her back at 6:30, fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 8:30!



Very slow morning, but we got going around 10:00. Actually W and J finished up math homework before tutor came at 10. H got up late too. she hasn't be feeling great and went to take her Spanish test at the college.



B and S: sang songs, did mental math and math problems with pebbles. Sean did sequence patterns on white board. S read from his reader.



Took shower, made chix nuggets for lunch. Then I packed up stuff for Little Flowers/Blue Knights meeting. Had a great meeting. We learned about St. Francis had a little lesson on bird songs and made bird feeders. Then we did our first run through of the play. Several kids were missing though. Then snack then outside playtime. it is quite warm today. Feels more like summer.



J was supposed to be reading Rolf and practicing piano while we were gone but his friends mom picked him up while we were gone for a playdate. W had plans to do Latin and composition. Don't know if he did while I was gone. H came home from class and promptly went to bed. She's really feeling under the weather.



I just ate a big bowl of ice cream so I'm off to Curves to work it off. I'm so tired though . . . . I must go to bed at a decent time tonight!



I also would like to read to W and H from Sophies World again. And read to J from Sir Lancelot. Didn't do that last night.

Did go to curves and made a nice dinner but I didn't get any further reading done.

Wednesday 10/3

Bad night! Stayed up late with R who was doing time for work. I watched several episodes of the Office. Very hooked! Then woke very early and couldn't get back to sleep.



Said 1 decade at breakfast.



H - showered but don't know what else she's been up to. She left early to go to mass at church where she can go to confession beforehand.



W - mostly practicing guitar and did some Latin too.



J - practiced piano and read Rolf



S and B - circle time, mental math, 3x tables, Becky did her own little math project. She drew a boat on the ocean and inside the boat she putting little number sentences to solve. She said that if she didn't answer the problems the boat would sink. Then she sat and copied all the number sentences over on a sheet of paper and answered them. This was entirely self directed. We also retold the story of the Golden Key and she practiced writing capital and lower case Es. S did VT and read two pages from reader. I gave both B and S spelling tests and both did well. I did this at the white board. S also practiced writing numbers correctly.



We took a little break while B put on a puppet show for us with the little spoon angels we made yesterday. Very cute. Next we wrote a letter to our foster child Michielina in Kenya. S is especially taken with learning about Kenya now. He is trying to figure out how to print out a family picture from the computer so we can include it in our letter.



But now it is time to get ready for Mass. Rec. 11:36

Went to Mass; came home, ate lunch. Had the usual mad rush to VT, guitar lessons, gymnastics, chess and CLC for W. Crazy! Rick came home in time for dinner though and helped make it. So it was nice to have a family dinner on a weeknight.

Tuesday 10/2

Got a good night's sleep! Hurray!



Woke, got laundry rolling, unloaded dishwasher. Read some Canterbury Tales. Got kids up, J showered. We said the rosary and read a letter from our sponsored child in Kenya.



At breakfast I read some about the Grand Canyon from BofM. W and H left early to go to Mass and chemistry. They were nervous about a test. After breakfast circle time, sang songs. Talked about Feast of the Guardian Angels. did mental math and some VT. The story in S's reader was about Guardian Angels!!!!!! That wasn't planned at all!



We made angels out of spoons, paper, glue and yarn. S. listened to Greensleeves on the keyboard and figured out how to play it. J did 2 lessons in Math and read a chapter in Rolf and the Viking Bow.



While digging through stuff found a library book about kitchen angels by Tomie de Paola. We read that. S and B really enjoyed it.



J finished his crossword puzzle in Latin wkbk. We also covered study questions for Genseric the Vandal.



After lunch we had Brit Lit and History. We watched the movie Becket. Too much sexual innuendo between that and Taming of the Shrew last week I feel like I am corrupting innocent sensibilities. We discussed very hurriedly the study questions for The General Prologue.



B, S and J watched waaaayyy too much tv all during Lit and then afterwards as I went into zombie mode on pc and then took a long shower. Everybody begged for pizza for some reason We usually have that on Thurs. So we got pizza. Ate on porch. I read chapter of Sophie's World to H and W.

Cleaned up kitchen. Read Bible story to S and B and some Sir Lancelot to J. Also read next fairy tale from OM to B and S.

H has been studying Spanish. she has a test on Thursday with an incredible about of memorization on it. R is reading S Spiderwick.

Oct 1 - Feast of St. Therese of the Little Flower

Lots of religious feasts this week. Today is St. Therese, tomorrow is the feast of the Guardian Angels, Oct. 4th is St. Francis of Assisi and then on Friday it's Rick's birthday. Well, that's not a religious feast exactly but close!



This week I would just like to focus on establishing my new housekeeping goals and doing things revolving around these feasts. Also, I'd like to get academic stuff done simply by doing as much as we can in the a.m. what happens, happens and I'm not going to sweat what doesn't happen! H and W had very busy weekends and I think didn't get enough schoolwork done. I completely forgot that Josh had math homework and forgot to remind him. So he's got lots to do before the tutor comes. I keep forgetting he's with the tutor now. I'll get them all up at 7:30.



Religious stuff - read from Seton 1 Religion about the angels, find beads so we can make sacrifice beads. We are just up to Noah's Ark in the Bible. I'm thinking of doing a Waldorf Style drawing of Noah's Ark on the chalkboard downstairs.


Circle time - new songs for October. Hail Holy Queen and My Grandfather's Clock. We are also going to read poems about time from Live Ed and Journey Through Time. J will have mostly math, some Latin and he's got to rewrite The Good Samaritan. We''ll do history tomorrow.



2:49



Did circle time. Did 3 x table with Sean, mental math and then went over adding patterns with B. Did a little VT with S. Also did a little reading with both S and B. Made S do copywork which caused a meltdown. S was in a bad mood all morning after that; provoked a nasty fight with J. Then kept obsessively doing gymnastics because he wants to be as good as B. Constantly asking me to look at him and then tell him how good he is.


H went to Spanish and then is running errands. W did math homework and then math with tutor. J did the same. J did a little Latin afterwards in his workbook but he wasn't focusing so I said he could stop. The cleaners were here and that always feels so disruptive. We watched some old Michael Jackson videos and then B played on Noggin for a while. People ate lunch when they got hungry. I started reading a book on Moms with ADD. Feel very ADD today!


B and S pulled out old Dance, Dance Revolution and want to set it up. W is practicing guitar. J is reading upstairs. I think it's Dilbert.


Right now I need to 1) put laundry away 2) go to Curves 3)pick up R's medicine 4)come home and prepare for RE tonight as well as make dinner.

10:12 p.m. Well, I did all of the above listed except make dinner! Yeah the kids wound up eating ramen noodles and hot dogs for dinner.

I'm very proud of myself for going to Curves today. I really, really didn't want to go. But I did and I feel good!

S is really starting to cartwheel correctly and he figured out how to doing the flying back flip like B so he's soaring about his gymnastics. He worked on it all day with great intensity. The kids also played on the Dance Dance Revolution. I didn't do my usual limits on screen because basically I was too preoccupied with other things. Tomorrow will be better, excep the kids have screen time while I have the teens Lit class.

J, H and I went to RE. I am so glad that Dr. Tony is teaching and I'm just assisting. He's great. So learned and devout. And those rowdy PS boys need a man to direct them. But inspite of their rowdiness they are asking good questions. They're good kids. J is reading Rolf and the Viking Bow. Rick is home and doing his time for work while W works on chemistry. H is upstairs working on her chemistry. B wanted to read a bit more out of the First Steps reader after I got home, so she read a page. She's feeling pretty good about this reading business!

Now I have to read The General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales so I can actually discuss it with the teens tomorrow.