January

Blogging is a strange thing. It supposes that I have anything to say. Even further than anything I would say is of any value enough to write or for anyone to read. I know this is not true. So I'll admit that I'm here tonight to surface from the abyss and log that I do indeed still exist in these nights, days, weeks, and months that can blend together into one long string of laundry, poop, snotty noses, and restless/intermittent (at best) sleep for everyone involved.

January has been a month of colds and fevers but I really can't complain. A: In His mercy the Lord spared me and my little prune (at least that is the size of the baby according to thebump) from any of the sicknesses. B: We never got anything resembling the awful flu I've heard so much about in the news but it really seems we haven't been free of tissues and cold medicine for a month.

A couple of positive things have happened. First I gutted the play room and organized everything into sterilite plastic bins. My husband bought these super industrial gigantic shelving units made out of steel for our basement and lined two whole walls with them. One unit holds all our stored clothes in size-labeled bins. Another unit holds all Christmas/Easter/Fall decorations. Another unit holds all the toys in their bins. The last unit is overflow for clothes and also holds our suitcases for travel. Our basement is now clean and orderly!

The toy room holds minimal toys now. Legos, blocks, and a few Star Wars and super hero toys. When they tire of these we will bin them up and bring up a couple new bins. I plan to do this once a month or so. The challenge is getting them to realize that I won't go down into the basement every day when they think of a toy they want to play with. They will have to be creative with what is out and be excited for when other toys come. I will allow them to make requests and maybe even take turns choosing.

Another reason I did the play room thing is that we're hoping to being phasing out the play room. We have 4 rooms upstairs. 1 guest room, 1 nursery, 1 play room, and the boys' room. Eventually we will either have a girl that will need the play room or our boys will become too many and I will move a couple older ones into the play room. So sooner rather than later we will begin phasing that room out.

I'm also making some changes in homeschooling. Good grief, if I had a penny for every time I had to make changes. But I'm learning this is not a sign of failure in previous methods, but of the constant cycle of growth and change. My kids grow and change, I learn more about my growing and changing kids and am better able to perceive their needs, etc.

I realized the curricula I was using for my oldest is beyond his ability. He's not strong enough in the fundamentals to be able to do the tasks independently. So I bought the Christian Light first grade Learning to Read, Reading, Language Arts, and Math. My sister has a son that had to be brought home because he had failed first grade. It was not his fault and the circumstances were awful. My sister bought the CLE stuff and did two grades in one year! He is now back in school where he should be and getting all A's! I plan to work double time to get him where he needs to be so that by fall he is on track with his second grade work and on his way to working much more independently. The thing is, he's so curious that I was letting him just be a sponge in his memorization and listening without drawing him into learning to read really efficiently himself. But I know he CAN do it and I know he's READY to do it, I just did not have the right tools to get him there. It's my all or nothing attitude and his lack of confidence and wanting to know how to do something without learning it that have prevented us from getting where we need to be. I'm so thankful for my sister and good friends who know me well and give me little pushes in the right direction.

Now if we could just get some warm weather for crying out loud and if this nausea would pass...but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. And I wouldn't want my way anyways.