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.