Sunday Afternoon

I can't believe it's already Sunday afternoon again. I'm not sure I'm ready to head into another crazy week. This one will be a busy one (again). There is something on the calendar every day in addition to school. We'll push through though. I've had a few people asking about Grace's braces. Well, she didn't get them. She got sick on Monday and still had a fever on Tuesday so we had to reschedule. She has an appointment for this Thursday now. She is excited and is thankfully feeling better. This little cold has run through all three kids now so hopefully this week everyone will be back to normal. I seem to write best with bullet points so here goes--

• Hannah and Grace went away for the weekend, they were gone from 4:30 on Friday until about 4:30 today. I missed them and I'm happy to have them home. They are both worn out but had a great time. I honestly can't believe how much I was able to accomplish with them being gone. I read an entire book and a 1/4 of another book, I cleaned both bathrooms, the kitchen, my bedroom, and vacuumed the whole house, and even got the bills paid. With them being gone I didn't have to talk to them, listen to them, or cart them here, there, and everywhere. Joe and Ollie hung out quite a bit and I read to Joe a lot as well. He and I have started reading a series of Star Wars books that a friend recommended. The first one is Jedi Apprentice and so far Joe is really into it.
  
• The book I read was Room. It was so good!! I highly recommend it, it took a bit of getting used to because it's written from the point of view of a 5 year old boy. Now, I'm reading the third in the Mercy Falls series by Colleen Coble. These are christian fiction mysteries and I really enjoyed the first 2 and so far the 3rd is really good as well.
  
• I have a busy week ahead and as much as I want to have school be the only thing going on in our lives that is nearly impossible to make actually happen. This week we have co-op on Monday and theatre later, Tuesday we do school, babysit for a few hours, and then I tutor, Wednesday is school and a mother daughter book club that is meeting at our house and pick a friend's daughter up at school and theatre, Thursday Grace gets braces and school and I tutor, and finally....Friday is just school.
• In the midst of the busyness I do feel like I am getting into a good routine as far as getting to the gym and meals and even school planning. I've decided to spend every Wednesday while the kids are in theatre at the coffee shop next door with my laptop and co-op stuff and plan then. There just isn't much time at home during the week.
  
• I have come up with a plan for dishes each weeknight--we will all rotate. Ollie is going to cook and do dishes on Wednesdays so I don't have to worry about not being home while the kids are in theatre. There are 5 of us, so we each take a night. Joe will need a buddy and we'll rotate that as well.
  
• In addition to my science and art stations I've also set up an ongoing puzzle table. I just took all of the picture frames off of one of the tables in the living room and there will be a puzzle always out on that table. Joe and I both seem to function better when we've had some puzzle therapy time. We did a baseball puzzle last week and this week we are working on a sewing puzzle.
  
• I have been wanting to play Yahtzee for weeks now. The only problem is that I never think of it when there is time to play it. I think of it at times like now when no one can play it with me. Maybe I'll get the game out and put it in the middle of the floor (the freshly vacuumed floor) and then I won't forget.
• I taught the elementary class at church today and about 10 minutes into the lesson I was supposed to be teaching I knew it just wasn't working. This lesson was supposed to be a big review of everything they had covered this quarter and they usually play a fun game and get candy and all of that. 2 out of my 4 kids wanted nothing to do with a game and I didn't have any candy. I started in anyway but like I said, it was pretty boring and I was losing them. So, we did something a little different. We came up with a story for helping them remember the books of the New Testament. I did this in youth group a long time ago and still use the story to find my way through the New Testament. Wanna hear today's story? Of course you do--

MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, and JOHN were ACTING as ROMANS. They joined the "CORP-THIANS" and went out to explore GLACIERS. But first they went FISHIN' for FLIPPER. Then they saw the COLLASAL VESSEL "ONIAN." 1 and 2 of the pirates named TIMOTHY, TIED US, I mean them up and filled them with FILED LEMON. Then HE BRUISED his knee and JAMES came along and fixed it. 1 and 2 of the pirates named PETER let them go. JOHN O., JOHN T., AND JOHN 3 made a RUDE REVELATION, "the glacier melted."

• Cute, huh?
  

Okay, time to let you peeps go back to your exciting lives. Hopefully I'll be able to post pics of Gracie with bracies later this week! :0)