Stuff That's Happened

My mother-in-law is probably my most faithful reader, so when I received her email last night asking me if I was OK because she hadn't seen any blog posts lately, I knew I was in trouble. It's been a little busy around here lately. Nothing all that out of the ordinary, just Life. Here are a few samplings...

This past weekend, we rearranged the house. Again. Honestly, I've hated living here the last year and half because of that For Sale sign out front. With the ever-present possibility that this may not be our house for long, it's been difficult to settle down and make it our house. But I decided that I'd had enough of that. I'm just going to pretend that sign isn't there, and, really--who am I fooling anyway? No one but myself. Perhaps the sign will come down soon. Not that it's doing any good. I know, I already said that in so many words.

We had already done some rearranging at the beginning of the summer. The boys welcomed summer in their over-sized bedroom, otherwise known as the playroom. The problem with this room is that it's over the garage and thus is deathly hot in the summer and frigidly cold in the winter. I didn't want them to suffer another unbearable summer in it, so we moved them in with Audrey...back in to the room that was originally theirs in the beginning.

Although we tolerated this arrangement for the summer, things had to change. The problem is that Audrey enjoys an audience, especially after the lights are supposed to be out and little children are supposed to be dreaming of sugarplums. So it was a fight every night to get the three of them to sleep. We considered moving one of the girls back down to the guest room; however, the guest room has slowly but surely become of the Room of Homeschooling Mom. I am not ready to give up MY room.

So we moved Audrey into Alex's room. Alex was actually the one who suggested it, so she's OK with it. And she promised she would be firm with Audrey at bedtime! We moved the queen bed from the guest room to the boys' room. Now when I tuck them in at night, I call them Grandpa Joe and Grandpa George, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference for those of you who have not read that in a long forever. We then spent an afternoon stealing a daybed/trundle bed from my brother-in-law's house (he's moving) for the guest room, which was much too crowded with the queen.

To make a long story short ('bout time, you're saying), I love my new Homeschool Room the Guest Room now. So much space, and the daybed makes a great reading area. In fact, Alex spends an hour or so in there every night after we bed the little one down. That way Audrey is already asleep by the time Alex goes in.

I know...waaay too many details. In other news, because we spent all weekend NOT cleaning the house, NOT preparing our Sunday School lesson, NOT planning for Bright Futures, and NOT planning for our new homeschool unit, I was very stressed out by Sunday. In fact, had it not been raining, I was willing to give up my afternoon of volleyball to get home and get things done.

That's when it dawned on me.

I am a homeschooler.

I can do whatever I want.

So I decided that I would take this week to plan things, clean things, prepare things, and take things a little more easy. It would not, however, be a week off entirely for the kids. They have had to do their core work, but it's been almost all independent work for them (translation: no work for me), and I'm not counting it as school (translation: checking the boxes on the attendance forms). Of course, it's already Wednesday tomorrow and I haven't cracked open a single lesson plan on Ancient Greece, but we'll get there. We've had other things going on anyway.

In case you haven't been watching the news, we've had a little rain down here. Thankfully, we have had no more than an old leak in the skylight, but it was a little scary to watch the water rise. The pool level got all the way to the top, but I was able to hook the hose up to it and siphon some out so our patio and then living room would not get flooded. Of course when I mentioned the siphoning on Facebook, I got some snide remarks about acknowledging modern times and purchasing a pump from Home Depot. Well, 1) I did not want to haul 4 children to the Home Depot in the pouring rain, and 2) I will not spend money on something I will not use again; the pool level has never gotten that high before.

Today the sun has been shining, and life has resumed Normal. For us anyway. We made our usual jaunt downtown this morning for Bright Futures and enjoyed a new book on tape during our journey: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede. All of the kids (well, minus maybe the Princess) are thoroughly enjoying it and can't wait to hear more next Tuesday. After, we stopped at a new mall downtown that I've always wanted to visit. Turns out not to be as exciting as it promised, but we indulged in a wonderful lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.

Tomorrow will be some more independent schoolwork for the kids while I begin that planning. And then, because our church flooded on the first floor, all Wednesday night activities are canceled. I think I have a little plan, though, that will make the kids happy. They love sleeping in my room. More than that, they love getting in my bed and watching a movie and then sleeping in my room.

I noticed Meet the Robinsons mysteriously appeared on our DVR, so apparently at least one of the kids wants to watch it. Since TravelDaddy's place is empty this week, I think we'll have a little slumber party in my room tomorrow night. But, Shhhh! It's a surprise. I think I'll begin to send them to bed and then start setting up the mattress (they can't all fit in Daddy's spot!). Then I'll start popping the popcorn (and, yes, I'll allow them to eat it in my bed--don't worry, TravelDaddy, I'll change the sheets), all the while dodging the questions, "Mommy, what are you doing? Mommy, who is that mattress for? Mommy, why do you get popcorn? Mommy, mommy, mommy..."