It was the best of times it was the brokest of times...

So, this week kinda stunk a little bit.

We overdrew our account and had to do some juggling financially...not always the most fun to endure.  I think the worst moment was when we realized we ran out of coffee and couldn't afford to get anymore until payday....you know it's bad when you can't even buy coffee!

So, this week we stayed pretty close to the homestead and made due with what we had.  

We ran out of dog food mid-week, which the dog didn't really mind since we just made him rice and eggs and toast and he got lots of leftovers...I think he was kinda bummed when Sean walked in the door with the bag of food under his arm.

However, this is an upside to this whole story.  We ran out of coffee and I let a couple of friends know and received three containers of freshly ground coffee from three different individuals, on the same morning...all just willing to do whatever they could to help.  And then today, we were hoping a check would go into our account and it didn't...but, my husband was peaking through some stuff for our taxes and at the bottom of a document was a check for $80.63 that was sent to us months ago.  Six months ago to be exact...to the day.  And the check was to be voided after 6 months.  You can't tell me we don't have a God who looks after us (even when we're boneheads with our money) when a check is provided on the day before it's to be voided.  Dang He is a good daddy!

So, that was the blessing today...financially.  This week we were also blessed with wonderful attitudes from our children.  People so willing to help and love us it was ever so slightly overwhelming.  We were released from leading one of our groups and Robin learned how to use Facebook (I'm not quite sure if it's a blessing yet, but so far it's kinda fun).

School was fulfilling this week.  Robin learned how to read clocks.  He's memorized a poem about a catepillar by Christina G. Rosetti.  He knows the difference between common nouns and proper nouns.  He learned about how his diaphragm works and where his spleen is located and he learned about DNA....my head hurt after this week.  The kiddos spent most afternoons working out with their daddy, and Robin could express to me that when he's breathing hard his diaphragm hurts.  Pretty cool stuff.  Oh, and he learned he really liked to dance to a song about cows called "Udder Chaos."

It's now Friday night and we're still hanging out on the broke side of life so we went to church, got lots of hugs and laughs and then headed to the grocery store to stock up on a couple of necessities.  Each kid picked a cart and Sean and I spent a decent amount of time racing each other through the grocery store.  The kids had a great time and they have no idea we're broke...or actually they know cash is tight, but we've been provided for and we can still enjoy each other's company.

I told Sean multiple times this week, "I'd rather be broke with you, than rich with anybody else."  Tonight he smiled at me and said, "Well, you got your wish!" 

H :)

Little moments of genius...

It's been a whole week since I've blogged!

So, brief catch up from last week...

• Monday was crazy...see Monday's blog.
• Tuesday my mom had surgery, got rid of a pesky gall bladder.
• Wednesday we went to the library and attempted to catch up on school.
• Thursday....I have no memory of Thursday...maybe it didn't happen...
• Friday, we had two ministry meetings and church and we did science stuff somewhere in the middle.
• And the Packers won this weekend!  That's the only thing that matters!!

Which brings us to today.

We got through all of the curriculum...we had a field trip to get my hair cut and they learned all about spinning chairs and how to sweep up hair.

We had a discussion at lunch time about the difference between Jello, jelly and gel (as in hair gel)...really important to clear that up today....it was decided that a peanut butter and gel sammich wouldn't taste very good.

And finally, I had a moment of genius.  Robin and I read a couple of books and then Katie asked for her favorite book, "Olivia."

Katie has memorized "Olivia."  There are lots of words in the book that Robin can't pronounce.  When you put the two of them together, Katie fills in for the words Robin doesn't know...and I just get to sit and watch!

And there you have it....my moment of genius! :)

H :)

Monday, monday...

This is now the third Monday of our homeschool adventure for the Wrestlin' Rhino's School for Misfits, and so far they are getting progressively worse.

Last Monday, I found it quite challenging to get Robin to stay focused...

Today, I found it quite challenging to get him to stay seated...

He wanted to play football after lunch, I said, "No, let's do some history and math and then you can play football."

"But I'm tired of school today mom...I already know enough!  I even know what 100 plus 100 is."

I said, "Okay, what is 100 plus 100?"  He said, "One hundred and two."

I said, "Yeah, let's get back to work."

Later we sat down to read and both small ones asked for a piece of chocolate.

Since I'm never one to turn down chocolate I said, "Sure, but you gotta get the little Dove chocolates out of the pantry."

They thoroughly enjoy reading and later quoting to me the sayings on the inside of the Dove wrapper.

Today, I read the inside of Robin's candy to him, it said, "Your smile lights up the whole room."

He looked at me with a big smile....with teeth and lips covered in chocolate and said with garbled chocolate breath, "Well, does it?"

I just said, "It sure does buddy..."

H :)

Lessons learned today at the Wrestlin' Rhino's Homeschool for Misfits...

Okay, honestly, I carried a post-it in my pocket and jotted down all the things I would have posted today had I had anytime to get on Facebook.

So, here we go...

• Monday's stink when you start the day off wearing Tuesday socks...

• A shower washes off the morning grumpies...

• You are not allowed to eat breakfast naked...

• Children look funny running naked to put on clothes so they will be allowed to eat breakfast...

• Robin is too distracted if he forgets to put on underwear under his pants...

• John the Baptist is not Grandpa...

• The book of Luke is not about Luke Skywalker...

• According to Robin, "All pencils are special, but only one has my hope in it..."

• It's fun to crawl on the ground and move things with your head...

• Mom gets really mad when you throw pencils...

• Per Katie, "Mom, I will control Rock, Paper, Scissors....so, you be scissors and I'll be rock, okay?"

• The kids new names are "Don't Robin!" and "Katie Knock it Off!"

• "Poop first, talk later..."

• Even if you spill 7-Up on your spelling list...you still have to finish it.

And that was Monday...

H :)

Day three and four of homeschool....the Wrestlin' Rhino's

Robin has decided our school name is the Wrestlin' Rhino's.

We will now be referred to as such....until next week when we're the ducks, or the cows, or chickens, or giant panda's....or whatever else we read about.

Day three was a little chaotic.

Friends were here for most of the day.  They are also homeschooled...so I had one first grader, two kindergardner's and one pre-pre-schooler....whew...that's a mouthful.

Anyway, we did bible together, Katie held her hand over her mouth for most of it since she couldn't seem to stop yapping.

We attempted some math and handwriting....and trying to keep everyone occupied was hurting my brain so I gave up and we resorted to art time.

They each got a magazine, scissors, glue stick and blank paper and they could cut and paste away to their little hearts content....and they did.

They spent two hours giggling, cutting, and sticking crazy pictures together....it was great and I laughed hysterically.  I don't know what we learned, but since they cut up ESPN magazine they are now very familiar with the Gatorade logo.

Then we played ukulele, guitar, the drums and had a dance party with Aretha Franklin...

And that concludes Wednesday.

Thursday was Thursday...

Multiple interruptions, meetings, phone calls and no one listening.

At one point in the afternoon I'd told Robin to quit throwing his pencil and Katie to pick up her paper scraps so many times I started keeping track on the abacus....and neither one was listening.

So, Robin had to stand with his nose on the wall and his hands behind his back until Katie finished picking up her stuff...it was a joint discipline...my favorite kind.  Who doesn't love a good double-whammy?

The afternoon was spent finishing up math problems and reading....and featured Robin eventually performing Dr. Seuss in a French accent...

We learned it takes Robin about 14 tries before he can properly announce the word "bureau".

and...

Katie REALLY likes cutting up paper.

That concludes Thursday and the Wrestlin' Rhino's school of misfits....Katie's working on the school cheer.

Later tater...H :)

Day two of our homeschool adventure...

Overslept again....that's going to be a nasty habit for me to break....but I woke well rested and ready to go today.

Read 1 Corinthians 13 again, we'll probably do that every morning this week over breakfast and chocolate milk. 

Today he wrote in his journal about patience, since love is patient.  His picture was of himself waiting patiently for his turn to talk to me while Katie finished what she was saying.  He understands how that is showing love to his sister and to me.

He wrote a letter to his daddy.  This was the entire letter: "Dear dad, tell the pilot to be in Alcatraz or Transylvania.  Love, Robin"  I'm thinking that's code for something.....like, the dog barks at midnight....

The roads were icky and we were running low on time, so we looked at art around the house instead of a trip to the library.  We chose a picture of sunflowers and roses my grandmother had painted several years ago. 

We talked about color and light and shadows and then he drew his own picture, complete with shadows.

We spent time in my old anatomy book from college. 

We used Katie as our model to understand where the clavicle, humerus and scapula were located. 

We also checked out her spine and looked at cool pictures of cadavers. 

He ate that up. 

We talked about x-rays and muscles and the joints of the hand and ankle and how his body is put together.  And then he drew a picture of the muscular system. 

Math kicked my butt...

Katie and I played dominoes... and then I watched her neatly set up and then destroy piles of blocks. 

I watched how Robin tapped his pencils to count and drum out solutions to his math problems. 

Sean took the kids sledding, P.E. points there.

I called my grandmother and told her about her painting we had used for our "art class"....she loved it.

We had lunch.

We danced.

I untangled fairy wings from a skill saw...

We put meatballs in the crockpot for dinner.  We worked on handwriting.

And the day flew by.....can't wait until tomorrow.

H :)

First day of homeschool...

I woke up a little late so I hustled upstairs and freaked out Robin.  I said, "Robin, hurry, you are gonna be late for school!"  It took him a few seconds to catch on.

We had breakfast together and did a bible study on 1Cor. 13, we talked about what love is, and what love isn't. 

He drew pictures and and wrote sentences. 

He did a spelling list.

We had recess....and it involved Star Wars battles and poptarts...

We worked on his handwriting....he perfected his letter "e" (which we'd been struggling with for a while at school) and I realized half the problem was that he held his pencil the wrong way.

Threatened to tape his fingers to the pencil in the correct place.

Robin taught Katie the Ten Commandments....and he learned how to spell commandments.

I'm waiting for my curriculum so we worked on some math worksheets, he did problems on the whiteboard, we played with flashcards, and made patterns with blocks.

We had a Lego fight....Robin won.

We ate lunch...hot dogs, cheezits and chocolate milk.

We played PIG with the nerf basketball and hoop...I won....neener-neener.

We sat and he read me two books, it took him 45 minutes and that's the longest he's EVER sat and read to me....it was amazing!

We played guitar....or at least I did, they listened.

Currently working on what we'll do tomorrow.  I still didn't get everything done I had planned on accomplishing today, but I've heard such is the life of the homeschool mom....you can pretty much say that everyday. 

Tomorrow we'll do more handwriting and math and reading and maybe we'll look at how bones are constructed or check out rhinoceros' (maybe I'll learn how to spell rhinoceros')  And check out an art book. 

I managed to still finish up two loads of laundry, make dinner, put away clothes, get beds made, a few good talks with Sean and play in the Olivia House with Katie. 

There's a peace in the house today....it's that peace that comes when you finally just buck up and do what God has asked you to do....even if it's hard and requires more than you thought you had in you, more than you thought even He had in you.....and it's totally worth it.

H :)