it was a doozy…

I should’ve known it would be a rough week when Monday morning came and Olivia had a wad of gum wrapped around her braid.



Seriously, how does this keep happening?



Am I really that negligent of a mother?  don’t answer that…






A wise mother would probably catch on the night before when while tucking her daughter into bed, she noticed an extra minty smell in the air.  But not me.  No, no, I naively suspected toothpaste and an extra diligent brusher rather than gum.



If anyone ever wonders why I am always suspecting that the kids are up to something, it’s likely because of nearly a decade of these sort of shenanigans.  That much time can turn any relaxed sort of person into a detective, always looking around for clues.  I guess I needed a break and just ignored the warning signs.  Either that or I was distracted.  Both are very likely.  It certainly isn’t a drop off in the amount of messes and trouble my kids seem to find.






Isaac had a very rough week.  He’s stuck in a rut of bad decision making including choosing not to do his homework, or his chores, and generally misbehaving. 



He spent a fair amount of his time stuck thinking things over in his room.  This year, I’m done with giving all the extra chances over misbehavior, disrespect, and poor attitudes. Behave or don’t.  Just be prepared to live with the consequences.








Elaina has been giving me a run for my money.  I’m chalking it up to her impending birthday.  Age 7 was hard for both of the boys too.  Since it is practically unheard of for any of my kids to skip out on an opportunity to keep things interesting around here, I’m betting that she just knows it’s her turn.


If this is a small taste of what puberty will be like with her, then I’m totally in over my head. 


I seriously don’t know how I am going to survive all four of these kids going through a constant succession of hormonal fluctuations…





Elaina and I have been working through the stack of Mo Willems readers, which are so fun. She begrudgingly admits to enjoying them sort of a little.   She still hates to read, but is making steady, albeit slow progress.  Her summer reading challenge, which was technically over September 1st, is only one square away from completion.  That has been a big motivator for her, so if it works, we may keep going with the concept.  This girl is all about rewards…


She also lost another tooth this week!  She almost has a scary smile now, only one of her front teeth is left surrounded by holes on all sides, up and down.  It’s a good thing I didn’t plan corn on the cob in our menu this week!







We actually got a lot of school done this week, despite the bad attitudes.  In our journal time the kids wrote about their flubber making experience from last week.  The rest of the week we did different activities learning about the word abstract.  On Friday they did Pick-a-Word poetry which was fun.  They each wrote down a name, a location, an animal, a tool, a verb, and an adjective on little scraps of paper and picked them out of a basket.


Lots of giggles ensued when they shared their silly poems.  Isaac wrote about a mouse with a blouse named Benjamin Franklin.  Good stuff here at the Sanchez homeschool!








By the stats in my planning book, we just completed day 55 of school.  Something about that number doesn’t seem right.  Surely we should be on 80 by now…




I tried my hardest to skip this week of preschool, but Olivia wouldn’t have it.  She finished off her horse activities and we filled her week with random things. 








Today I gave her a pan full of baking soda and colored vinegar with an eyedropper and let her have her own “spear-ee-ence”.  That kept her busy for 30 minutes while I worked with the other kids.







Earlier in the week, I shared all about our favorite math games.  Elaina is still waiting for her new math book.  I should have it tomorrow, but I think we will end up waiting to start it after Thanksgiving.






I cooked a lot more this week than I have been.  We finally got our Sams Club membership and that has helped a ton.



I made Chili Colorado, Homemade Pizza with Salad, and Beef Stew.  This time I didn’t screw up the biscuits…







For fun, Olivia helped me make Magic Mouse for dessert one night.  All the kids liked it except for Olivia.  I think she has some texture issues like me…



Saul is working this weekend so we will just hang out and try to stay warm here.  Sunday night is our church Thanksgiving potluck.  Next week should be lots of fun getting ready for turkey day.  It’s still up in the air whether or not we are going to attempt any school.



I’m betting on no.