What’s happenin’

We are slowly but surely getting used to the new routine.



I say “we” very loosely because truthfully I think everybody but me is already adjusted.






Both of the boys are waking up and getting ready for school without any problems.  After much begging and pleading, they have been allowed to walk home together (and without me) twice.  It’s only about a half a mile to the school, but I still get very nervous.



Isaac had a couple of emotional weeks, mostly due to being tired.  You could tell by the end of the day that he was done in and didn’t put up any fights about going to bed by 7pm.  This last week though went much smoother and I think he is doing very well.  He is making friends, getting great reports from the teacher, and completing all of his school work.  I love hearing about his day in the evenings – he’s still so funny and always has a story to tell.






Nate’s adjustment is going pretty well.  HIs afternoons are not as smooth as they could be yet, but we are trying to give him plenty of transition time after school to re-focus and relax a bit.  He is learning the hard way what happens when you lie to your mom and your teacher about homework…hopefully it doesn’t become a habit for him.  Nate was tested and placed in a “gifted” language arts program a few times a week. I’m hoping it challenges him as it is his best subject.  I'm super excited to see how different teachers can motivate and challenge him in ways that I was unable to.  He is such a bright kiddo!



Both of the boys are fascinated with MineCraft right now.  It’s a good motivator too for getting school work and chores done.






The girls and I are LOVING our days together!



Overall our time is really laid back and fun.  We officially started the new grade level (and our new school year count) last week.  Elaina has started 2nd Grade and Olivia is continuing PreK. 






Elaina had her first day at the Arts Academy this week too.  She was sooooo excited!  They are continuing to learn Early American History through integrated, performing, and visual arts.  This enrichment program is right up her alley!







Olivia is finally ready to start back with her letter-of-the-week curriculum.  We took most of the summer off and she just did misc. theme work.  It was getting confusing for her to learn a new letter and then also spend so much time focused on a specific different sound for speech, that we put aside preK and just focused on speech.  Now that she is in individual therapy it seems easier to incorporate both.  We are starting letter R this next week, and I have a loose and flexible plan to be done with LOTW by the end of November.  After she turns 5 in December, if she is ready, we will start reading lessons then.  I’m certainly not going to push her into reading, but both of the boys were ready at this age so why not try it with her?





My mom helped me re-organize the school room to make it more functional for the girls.  We purged through curriculum that needed storing until the girls need it, and packed away toddler age toys that Olivia has outgrown.  The new set-up gives each of the girls their very own cabinet full of grade/age appropriate school activities as well as their current curriculum and daily workbooks.  I’m hoping that now we can keep the table cleaned off so that it can be a more available work station for all of the kids.





While I was in the mood of re-organizing things, I made a daily planner for Elaina to help her learn to manage her assignments and her time better.  I think it needs a little tweaking still, but overall it is working well.  Elaina really likes to have choices so this set-up allows her to choose the order she completes her work in and the time of day she wants to do it too.  She is almost always done by 10:30 though because she is highly motivated to get ‘er done and get on with the day. 










I’ve been horribly boring in the kitchen these past few weeks.  I guess it’s time for a fresh infusion of recipes to try…



We don’t have anything new or exciting on our planner this week, which is fine by me.  I’m still sort of dragging my feet to get acclimated to our new routine.  Partly because I’ve been sick for almost three weeks, and partly because I just miss the boys so much.  I’m determined to give it more time and choose to keep giving myself the “pep talk” about why we are doing this and all the positive observations we are seeing so far.  I definitely do not feel any peace about it and daily have to lay it a the foot of the cross.  My good friend told me this: just because it’s hard doesn’t make it wrong.  I think I’ll keep stewing on that for a while.