Jan 16 '07
Today is more about life as a homeschool mom, and not so much focused on the upcoming move.
We were supposed to have an ice storm come through last night/today. We didn’t. However, our temp is going to hover at freezing through tomorrow, with the “feels-like” temp hovering around 26 or so – those are both day & night temps.
As such, to prepare for the ice storm, we (read:I) did 3 loads of laundry last night, pulled the sleeping bags in from the garage, located all the blankets in the house, the kids built “warm forts” to huddle in, and everyone (except me…) bathed in case we lost power & thus lost hot water. (fortunately, we did not lose power, so I can bathe today!). We also discussed that, in the event of ice on the roads, Dad would be staying home. Of course, the ice did not materialize, so he went to work, leaving one very forlorn 6 yr old at home, quite upset with me that the ice went away already and Daddy went to work. Oh, if only I could control the weather…..
Today, then, has been a hectic day. The laundry all got folded last night, and all put away except the hang-up stuff. It’s still waiting. Today I have had chaos. Lovely chaos, and I am reminding myself to cherish the little blessings that are the kings of chaos in this house.
What chaos?, you ask…? Well. Let’s take school – convincing 2 young boys that yes, despite the fact that they were shivering, we were doing school today. We’re still on a light schedule after our return from the holidays, so I didn’t expect too much fuss. I got Caleb situated with his math, got Timmy started on his, and then was reminded by the boys that there was still the matter of the dog poo in their room. Oh, right.
Cleaned that up, frustrated with the dog who has gone out many times this morning yet not found the courage to do her business out in the cold and instead came in to the warmth of the boys’ carpeted floor. Frustrated I didn’t catch her in the act so I could have at least scolded her for it. But thankful that it was an easy mess to clean, and thankful for the little steam vac that we have, which does such a good job on these types of things.
Returned to the school room to find Timmy doing the coloring puzzle that was the “after you are done, color this in to find a hidden message” – he was doing it one answer at a time. I redirected him to complete all the answers, then color the puzzle. Oh, okay.
Caleb piped up that he was done with his math. I check, find he’s done one column of the problems, and direct him to finish the other column. “Are these the same?” “yes, dear.” “But this one has……..” …sigh…. So I walked him through that and reminded him of the math rule he was working on, and he settled down to work. Timmy finished his, and asked if he had to simplify the fractions; I answered yes. (Well, what he said was: “do I have to see if there’s a same number that goes in both of them….you know, like 6 and 12; 2 goes in 6 and in 12…..”).
Math out of the way, the boys moved on to handwriting, and I tried to eat something really quick before Zach woke up from his nap. Having Zach around, school takes on a very informal approach. We call it the fire-drill approach. The boys have free play in the mornings until Zach goes down for his nap, about 3 hrs after he gets up. When I sit down to nurse him, the boys do their school reading for the day and know that school work follows. When Zach is successfully laid down, we do our seatwork and I try to find food for me before the lunch rush after school. So, I did that, and just in time – Zach woke up, the boys finished their handwriting, and lunch officially began.
I try, not often successfully, to have all 3 boys eat the same thing for lunch. Today I tried spaghetti-o’s. Zach ate some, Caleb ate some, Timmy refused. Okay, no problem. Ramen noodles coming up. So, for the next 30 minutes I shuffled between feeding Zach in his highchair, boiling water for ramens, adding the ramens, making hot chocolate for Caleb, who was done with his lunch, turning off the ramens, rescuing the spaghetti-os before they got fed to the dog, getting marshmallows for Caleb’s hot chocolate, putting in Timmy’s hot chocolate, serving the ramens to a now starving 9 yr old, dishing out marshmallows to Timmy’s hot chocolate, and, oh yes, there goes the timer – time to check on the ice cubes.
Oh, didn’t I mention the ice cubes yet? We’ve only been checking on them every 30 minutes since 10:30 this morning. You see, my husband the scientist decided the boys (read: me) should put ice cubes outside and see if they melt. He instructed us to put one in the laundry room and one on thr front porch. Just to be safe, we put 2 in each spot, plus one inside for a control. And, knowing he wouldn’t be happy with just a yes or know answer, we (me) decided to time each and see which melted fastest and which melted slowest. So, every 30 minutes we check and then chart the results. So far, very minimal melting on the outside ones, and we’re at 3 hours & counting.
In the midst of this chaos, I also put the dishes away that were clean, and talked to a dear friend on the phone. I will, as soon as the boys are settled with their science video, put away the laundry & do the dirty dishes. Oh, and I started a loaf of raisin bread in the bread machine as a surprise for Q. It should be done by the time he gets home from work.
Well, sounds like the video has their attention and now I need to do those afore mentioned other jobs….’till next time,
Frazzledly yours,
TexasHeather
