Friday, January 29, 2010

Martin's triumph

I am proud to announce that Martin finally conquered a book of some meat and substance. This is a huge step for him and I am glad he finally followed through. I have been working a little harder on pushing my kids in their weaknesses and to also help them to stop whining about stuff that is difficult for them. I am doing the same thing to myself really. Whining is much easier than conquering and dividing. So.........Martin read "I, Juan de Pareja." He worked for weeks to get through it but the triumph was he followed through and finished it. He has had the tendency to start and not finish books and it is much easier to listen to them then to strengthen his reading muscle. He begins his next read, "Adam of the Road," this weekend. It is an accomplishment to me that he finally took me seriously and did it! My weakness is not following through either to make my kids do what is assigned and push them a little more with their weaknesses. Sigh. Focus, focus, focus.

Homeschooling moms are experts at whining. We can say the curriculum didn't work or we didn't finish but the real reason is we didn't make the effort to do so. I'm pushing myself in this way too. The curriculum is there and written as a tool and it won't work if I don't take the time to use it. I used to say that when I spoke at Homeschooling conventions, that the buyer should beware and not buy things because they think it will magically solve all their problems when the problem really is a lack of willingness to actually study and use the curriculum. It won't do the work for you. Practice what you preach Karin

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Ha! Not sure what to talk about

Today.............managed to get everyone up fairly early. Ingrid insists on getting up earlier all the time and the teens would sleep till noon if I let them. The phone rang this morning sometime after seven and......I ignored it till I realized it wasn't Charley but my good friend Cindy. Her car was dead and hubby left for work without his cell...........so...........I got a taste of 7:00 traffic. Boy, my heart goes out to everyone there as I would rather not go through that every day. It wasn't too bad but there is a lot more traffic then the rest of the day. Glad they got to school/work on time.

When I got home, my back was hurting worse than ever. It dawned on me thanks to some facebook friends that I need to find my cute little maternity belt already. Never thought I would need that as I am resisting even getting out the maternity clothes at all yet. Those days are numbered. My tummy attempts to peak out of my shirt as it is now so I suppose to spare the general public I will have to search out the clothes that I almost sent to the Seminary Clothing Bank. Hmmm.......

The rest of the day was consumed by Matthew's Ortho appointment and shopping for Cecilia's bday. She asked for this IQ Sphere ball which I didn't know the name of it till someone from Loopers helped me out. It does not look exactly the same as the piano teachers but I am sure she will like it just the same. Phew. That problem solved. I also found her the most awesome Trilby. I think that is what it is called. Anna would love one of her own but it only came in little girls sizes. She will be pretty styling and I can't wait to give it to her. Her bday is next Thursday. The only other thing she asked for was a folder for her Writing Road to Reading class. Time for a new one. Hopefully that won't be too hard to find.

After running around decluttering, I am hoping to play another round of Yahtzee with the kids this evening. They had a lot of fun the last time. TTFN!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Quick intro

I am taking the plunge of starting a private blog. Several reasons which don't have to be stated. I do need to hunt down some people's email addresses to add but will stay up some other night messing around with that. My title is in honor of LaRena and my private joke which carries some meaning. I will most likely only allude to any of that. That is for us to know and you to most likely not find out.

It is late though so will sign off this thrilling intro to head to bed. Nighty, nighty and that IS what I meant.