Weekly Wrap-Up: Like the Old Days

Well, I'm finally around to do a weekly wrap-up!  Despite my house being torn apart (literally- and I'll get to that soon) and being canceled from work, and being extremely low on funds, this week has been a sweet reminder of what I love... my family!  They're wonderful!  This week felt like "the old days" before I worked a bazillion stinking hours a week.

I started reading a book to the girls last week, The Cabin Faced West, and Little Bit just loved it! She braids her hair, puts blue ribbon in the braids, and pretends to be Ann Hamilton 90% of the time.  We went to a nearby vegetable garden to pick some veggies and Little Bit tied a small apron around her waist to collect beans in, just like Ann!  She's so sweet.  She also did her first creative narration and wrote a letter from Ann to her best friend back in Gettysburg.  She thought that was so fun... I typed it, and she is in the process of copying it on paper she stained with tea!  This girl....

Since that book was so loved, I decided to pull out the Little House series.  At first Little Bit said I'll never love Laura like I love Ann. . . can you guess how long that lasted??? Not long; now she's confused.  It's been a great opportunity for me to share with my struggling reader, just how wonderful books can be.  Baby T however is enjoying Laura's stories much more than Ann's!  It's so funny how they are so different.  Baby T also didn't think it would be fun to write a letter, so I didn't make her.

Oh- I forgot to mention that the girls thought churning would be fun when we read about Ann doing it. So, we went over to Grandma's and made butter by shaking it in a mason jar.  Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to rely on them to make our butter every week!  They wimped out. ;) If I can get my courage up, I will try to help them make rag dolls, and we want to try our hand at Johnny cakes.

Bean Boy has had a fantastic week (or so).  Last week we offered to pay him handsomely to pull up all the oak parkay flooring in our main room.  Before we moved in, we knocked out walls to make a huge room, but we've never been able to really make it one room because the flooring is different.  In an effort to move that process forward, we are planning on staining the concrete.  But first, the floors must come up.  We offered Bean Boy the opportunity to "do hard things" and he surprised us by taking us up on the offer.  Further more, he surprised us by setting his timer during his breaks, by being more diligent than we've ever seen, and by being protective of his work (not wanting to share it).  We told him if it wasn't done by a certain time, we may have to "outsource" and he was not about to let that happen!  We offered him 3 different prices. . . X amount (a big number people!) to have it done by Wednesday, X-$25 to have it done by Thursday, and X-$50 to have it done by Friday.  He finished Wednesday!  I'm telling you people- I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WORK!!!  I'm so proud of him.  He's ready to move on to the mulch pile outside, hauling it to the back, and not wanting to share that either!  Who is this kid??

He added that entire section he's got marked off there to the pile!
That was his biggest mound of the week!

Here is the big mound... The chilies thought it was fun to walk on them!

It's finished!!!! BTW there is a lot more floor than I could squeeze into this pic!
 Sorry for the phone pics, but that's all I got!

Some other things that have been going on:

We have caterpillars!  Well... we had caterpillars.  A friend gave us one that is now in its chrysalis. I'm hoping that even though it fell, and I'm scared to tie it up like someone suggested, that it will still get a butterfly.  The other two caterpillars that we pulled off our milkweed plant have mysteriously died.  There are still 1-2 we left outside on the plant.  We totally missed this one making it's chrysalis, but hopefully we'll see some action outside.

While BeanBoy has been hard at work on the living room floor, Hubby got to work on the kitchen floor... we have bare concrete now in our 4 main rooms.  Due to scheduling and such it may take us way longer than anticipated!  Most of our furniture is squeezed into other rooms of the house, and today, everything will be moved out! Crazy!  Hopefully, Hubby can get it all done soon!

Hubby and I are also teaching a summer class to some teenagers/pre-teens.  He is teaching a logic/debate class, and I will be going through the book Do Hard Things with them.  Bean Boy started his lessons early!  We start this coming Wednesday and will go for 8 weeks.  I'm getting excited!

Just a note too... not sure how we've done it, but the kids have not turned on the brain drainer all week!!! PTL!

Hopefully I will have time to share about Baby T's Angry Birds birthday party (what a blast!) and some things I've been inspired to do with our almost 12 year old!!!  Even when things are at their worst, God is good.  There are blessings to be found. . . if I'll just take a moment to find them.

Have a good weekend!

The Rain

Today, it rained.
The roads flooded, and I was worried we would get stuck.
Pre-algebra tests make me think more than I want to!

Our kitchen has been in shambles since last week.  We are repainting the cabinets and now don't like the colors...and can't find a matching color for the walls.

My kids are driving me crazy.
I got in a fight with someone who means a lot to me... the fight was over when they stormed off, I have no closure and don't expect to ever get it.
I no longer have trauma at work, which makes me sad.

We need more money.
The house is a wreck.
The toilets are dirty.
It is still raining.

But, as for me and my house, we will praise the Lord.  He reigns. . . even when it's raining!

Lost

I feel lost.. You guys probably all think I'm lost as I haven't posted in quite some time.  It has been a whirlwind of drama, sickness, and emotions here, and I'm quite lost in it all.  I don't even know where to begin. . .

Perhaps we should start with the flu. . . the girls both were diagnosed with Influenza B about 2.5 weeks ago!  They ran HIGH fevers (we got up to 104.8!) for several days before their mean, nurse, Momma decided to take the to the MD.  I convinced him to swab for flu in addition to the non-necessary strep test he did. . . and, 1 point for the mean mom. . .though I wish I had been wrong.  They were down and out of school for over a week. It's a sad thing that when you homeschool, flu, or any illness, is like a reprieve.  We are slooooowly getting back into the swing of things!

There have been some wild changes around here.  First, as a means of preventing burn-out while I deal with the demands of our daily life, we have enrolled Bean Boy in Classical Conversations... If you haven't heard of it, it is a college prep homeschool program.  He goes to "class" once a week, and completes assigned assignments at home the rest of the week.  We went to class to preview for next year.  I ended up leaving him for the day and he had a great time.  His teacher invited him to join this class where it is.  She said some wonderful things about him (my heart skips a beat) including that he fit in to this class well, and was at their level.  Sigh.  WARNING: I'm about to brag about my kid on here, cause I dare not do it in front of him!!! He basically skipped a grade, 2 in math! This Challenge A is approximately on a 7th grade level, and he does the Challenge B math which is pre-algebra.... AND, I've always been so worried about how he would do as far as keeping up with the rigorous amount of work a program like this has, but I've seen something odd in him... something I don't recognize.  I think it is called motivation AND determination!!! It is challenging for him, he's trying to learn to focus, and plan, and get all 6 hours worth of daily work done in 6 hours, and while it is taking him a lot of time, he has not despaired and has kept an amazing attitude.  I'm so proud!  :)

One other BIG change, one that breaks my heart, is that my hospital lost it's trauma certification.  This means no more trauma drama for me.  It does truly break my heart.  I finally found an area of nursing that I enjoyed, and I had previously thought that to be impossible.  We are still an ICU, but we will no longer have trauma ICU patients, just medical surgical.  It's not what I enjoy, and I feel like I have to start all over again learning, but it is what it is.  The hospital is appealing, and we should know by September what our status is.  I'm greatly disappointed   I no longer get excited about going to work, which makes the over time I am working all the more difficult.   I am grateful for the time I had doing it, and am hoping that our status will be renewed in September.

I miss writing on my blog. . . but as you can see, life seems to pull me away.  I do find this very therapeutic, whether there are readers or not.  I hope to get back to posting at least on the weekly wrap-ups, but I'll post as I can.  Life is such an adventure! Being lost is hard, but not the end of the world.  God knows where I am, even if it's not in a great place, He won't lose me!