It was a Tuesday, but it felt like a Monday. Yes, it was that rough. I am feeling ok physically, but knowing that I have another big weekend ahead, and wanting to sneak in a few days of school, I'm mentally maxed out. I should have just taken this week off like I had planned before Justin broke his arm. I did reset our schedules for the next 3 weeks, where we need to get 2 weeks worth of "school" aka, part of our required "180 days of instruction" done in order to be totally done by the first week of June. I don't think it feels like much of a break to do it this way, but I'm not sure what else to do. Of course we don't have to do our normal workload on these days, and I'm toying with the idea of just finishing up the last few weeks of this history volume and not starting the next one yet. I'm just feeling burnt out and want to do other kinds of fun schooling like art projects instead of a huge workload of stuff. That's the beauty of homeschooling for sure: tailoring it to how everyone is feeling, including the teacher. I'm not worried about getting enough content in or finishing this or that book or even finding enough to fill all those 180 days. We are finishing up our first go around with Classical Conversations memory work, so we'll spend the last 8 weeks or so reviewing that. I'm not sure how close we will be on their grammar books, but they can pick up where they left off if need be next year. Their writing course will finish early. Math is the same thing, pick up where they leave off. (Gotta love the mastery type of teaching that isn't based on a grade but on ability, and the curricula that is based on a rough age/grade range and not a strict grade.) Anyway, it's just very hard with Abishai right now, and when I feel the pressures of outside events, like concerts and conferences, and keeping up with things like the blog (which is not necessary, I know), and the daily stuff, it's a lot. I am overwhelmed on most days. I take frequent breathers and give myself lots of pep talks, but they hardly sink in on some days like today.
So, we'll cut lessons short this week and give ourselves a breather. And then we'll enjoy some family time at the homeschool conference on Friday, and yes, we will drag our non homeschooler with us because we are a family, not an education method. I volunteered to help at one booth for a couple of hours, so that will be fun, and tiring of course. And thank the Lord, literally, we do have a week between this one and the 4 day kid stuff sale I'm selling Lilla Rose at. I thought the weeks were back to back. Phew! Tomorrow will be better, although it's Wednesday, our busy day. Thursday we will rest. And Friday and Saturday will be teacher enrichment days. And back to Sunday! Woot! Woot!
These next few blog posts might be a little late in coming because I like to post my blogs in order and the concert/event vlogs take a bit longer to do, especially with my recent picture and video uploading issues. So I worked on the concert vlog a little bit every day, and the continue to write the daily blogs as they happen so I don't forget those days. Just a side note. And this post is overlapping with the concert vlog because part of Monday was concert related and then I wanted to post any non concert pictures separately on this post. Clear as mud, right?
Oh, and today was Gary's birthday, and since Leah is in Austria, it feel to the staff and us to do something for it. They took him out to lunch at his "favorite" restaurant,El Rodeo. Ok, actually, it's not his favorite because he's not into Mexican food. But it's close to church and as staff member Laura Dingman put it, "It's efficient." Bwahahahaha!!!! That fits both Gary and her personalities to a "T"! It's a great restaurant and yes, they are quick with food, and reasonably priced and less than a mile from church. Then Jared went to the Kroger deli and picked up fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and garlic bread for dinner. We don't normally purchase food like this because it is expensive that way, but I hadn't planned on doing anything for the birthday and we hadn't been to the grocery store yet this week. The kids ate leftover chocolate birthday cake from the staff party, too. Keturah made a card and Justin made a name plate out of Lego saying "Gpa", although Abishai destroyed it before I could get a picture of it. For Benaiah's gift, he actually got dressed and sprayed cologne on himself after lounging around in his pj shorts all day. Lol. I teased him, and Keturah, that they'll get dressed when Grandpa comes to dinner but not for regular dinner? Justin and Abishai were still in pjs though. #homeschoolerdresscode Oh, I almost forgot! Jared used Outlook and had it send 1 email every 1 minute that read something like one year for all the years that Gary has had so far. So for 62 minutes, Gary's phone went off every minute with the "You've Got Mail" chime. Pretty funny! Aaron, Shauna, Everly and Nora Facetimed in during dinner as well. That sounds like a great birthday to me!
Ok, pictures now.
 |
| Uh, this is how a teenage brother babysits his preschool aged brother. Cheater! The best thing Benaiah said was "At least he's contained!" Yes, you've blocked him in, good on you! And hopefully he won't mess up all your stuff while you are napping. Our wifi got messed up the other day and we haven't been able to sign into the PS4 account to get onto YouTube, so when Abishai requested his Lego videos, getting on Benaiah's computer was the next best thing. Benaiah did actually play with him a lot today. It was more of just teasing Benaiah because we all needed a break from Mr. Energizer Bunny. |
 |
| Dinner with Grandpa Johnson for his birthday! |
 |
| When we got home on Monday from Ft. Wayne, it was almost 50 degrees out! I made everyone go outside for awhile for fresh air. Of course Abishai was loving that! Socks, too, likes having his buddy outside with him. I think we do need to make a shorter (like less than one foot high) fence around where the dog poop goes because Abishai almost stepped in the pile trying to get to the neighbor's dog. Whoops! |
 |
| Here's Abishai, just taking a little sun bath, on a rock, examining a rock, and in his favorite pjs, and no shoes. Living the life. He also learned how to play hide and seek!! He even hides his face, counts to ten, and says, "ready or not, here I come!" And then he goes, "Hm, is Mommy in here? Noo.... Hm,...is Mommy in there? No...." So cute! |
 |
| Best buddies playing fetch. |
 |
| Abishai decided to be bold (when is he not bold?) and stand on his bike and lean slightly over the cross bar of the playground. I was afraid he was going to tumble over it! But he wouldn't repeat the moment on camera, little bugger. |
 |
| Hm,....I know this is a lyric in a Christian song, but Justin said he made this out of Kinex because it's some YouTuber. Ok, then. |
 |
| When you are up early with a preschooler because Momma is gone, you end up with a migraine and take naps with the preschoolers books and big vehicles. Bwahahahaha! |
 |
| Justin had a particularly rough day today. At one point he said, "I'm just tired of humanity!" Yeah, me, too, kid! He had a headache most of the day and he's found that if he takes a bath, it helps with the headache and stomach queasiness. He took two baths today, that's how bad he felt. Abishai was concerned, and when he saw me get a piece of bread for Justin, he wanted to hang out with Justin and eat a piece a bread, too. Sweet! |
 |
| Yesterday it was 50 degrees F; today it was below freezing! We had snow in the air again, on the first day of spring! Of course! Jared found it laughable. I still think it's normal to still be cold with a possibility of snow for half the year like NH and PEI have. It's only hear in Indiana that they think snow should only come in December. I remember getting ready for sunrise Easter services and wearing sweats and heavy winter coats in NH, even in April. We are anxious to spend more time outside because of Mr. Loud Preschooler running through the house. |
 |
| Speaking of loud, he figured this out today on this own! Banging pot lids together! I had to stop him after I joined him for a bit because of Justin's headache. |
 |
| Keturah rearranged her doll's "room" again and put it INTO her toy chest instead of on top of it. I asked her if her doll ever changes out of her pj's, and Keturah said she doesn't really. Like girl, like doll! |
 |
| Not sure why and how Abishai had this idea, but he wanted to line up all the little cars up on this towel. And it's always a parking lot, always. |
 |
| The buses and fire trucks lined up, too. |
No comments:
Post a Comment