Day one Hundred and Three

Today was our homeschool play day with our group. We try to meet the first Friday of every month.

There are lots of boys.

While the boys did a lot of this (while I cringed), the moms had a chance to talk. I'm so thankful for this group.

Cheers to Friday!

Day One Hundred and Two

This is just something that Aidan does with his legs when he's at his desk.

I love it because I used to do the same thing (and still do.)

Day One Hundred and One

This week we started a chicken-sitting job for some friends while they travelled back east. The boys are floored and it makes me so anxious to get chickens of our own (hopefully this spring!) Aidan is in charge of scooping out the poop and dirty straw from the laying boxes. He's a champ at it already and feels so responsible. He listened very carefully to the directions. Dominic and Simeon both got into the chicken run and fed them their snacks of oats and lettuce and helped fill the chicken feeders. A perk of the job is that we get to keep all the eggs! Yesterday we brought home eleven and today we had six. It's a fun project and we're learning a lot.

I feel some quiche will be written into the meal plan in the near future.

Day One Hundred

Today didn't go quite as smoothly as Monday, but it was still a good day. We got a new bird-feeder. The boys spent their lunch time sitting just like this.

Day Ninety-Nine

School started with a bang today. The kids were eager after a long break. Over the Christmas vacation, I worked a bit on finding some new things for Dominic to work on. We ordered a few Kumon Skills Books so he can work on some of the following things:

1. Sitting still.
2. Staying focused on a task for more than 2 minutes
3. Fine motor skills.
4. Patience.

I can't say enough good things about these books. We got a book of mazes (pencil control), tracing (he works on making lines as he would when writing), and a book of cutting (he loves this as some of them involve creations that he can keep. The picture is of a set of combs. Not exciting to me. VERY exciting to Dominic. He also cut out a train. All of the books are colorful and exciting and we can do one page or a few pages (if he wants to). The pictures are very nice and he giggles at some of them.

In addition, we started doing math together. Day one was a success.

The other thing I'm focusing on more is spending alone time with each of the boys every day. I started out well at the beginning of the year, but I let things slide.

Oh, and one more thing. If you happen to have a jealous older brother who wants his own mazes (or just a kid who needs something new to do), this is a GREAT site for free printable mazes of varying difficulty. I'll probably just use this site in the future, rather than buying a book of mazes.

MAZES HERE!

Cheers to switching it up!

Day Ninety-Eight

I stayed home from church with the two younger boys. We ate lots of popsicles. Popsicles make sick kids feel better...at least temporarily.

The rest of the day flew by.

And tomorrow...it's back to school! We've had a long break and I'm hoping that's a good thing.

Day Ninety-Seven

New Year's Day.

Ugh.

I spent the night in my bed with a feverish five-year old. I cared for him in any way that I could. I didn't sleep much, but I was glad to be the one who was there for Dominic, the one who was caring for his every need, putting cold rags on his burning forehead, making tea at 3:00 in the morning, and rubbing Vapo-rub on his chest at 4:15. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The whole family slept in a bit after a long night. JJ spent his night on the couch...by the fire...without interruption. I'm not jealous. Nope. Okay...a little bit.

Morning came and the sun to wake us up. I rose and remembered that it was New Year's Day and Aidan and I had a little race to run. We both ate a piece of toast, had a bit to drink, and drove to Avery Park in Corvallis to join a rather large group of runners to run a 5K.

Aidan and I ran with another family. We walked when we need to. We finished together in 34:43. He said he had a great time running his longest race yet.

Cheers to a new year and a big pot of coffee!