Past few days

I've rearranged our school schedule a bit.  The independent math/piano thing just isn't working out.  At least, not when the boys have a recital in 16 days.  And none of the boy are very good at finishing a math assignment without spending about 85% of the time staring into space...  So for now I'm practicing and doing math with each of them independently while the other reads.  This is OK, but it does mean we're not done with piano and math until 11:00-11:30, which puts the rest of our lessons in a bit of a rush if we're going to be done by 3:00. 
We haven't been real successful at starting right at 8:00, which is part of the problem.  It is usually more like 8:30.  I'm not sure what the answer is to that.  I don't want to start waking them up at 6:30, but when they stumble downstairs at 7:00, they just don't get their stride for the morning for about an hour or so.  I guess we'll keep working at it.
The good news is that the drama and tears over piano and math has lessened dramatically.  It's definitely the right thing to do them both first thing.
We've had a good few days.  Joseph is doing really awesome in swimming.  He only has 2 more lessons until he finishes his month commitment, and I don't think he'll want to continue, but I'm really proud of him for how he's handled things this past week.
Ben and I had a long talk last weekend about what our approach should be with the boys in terms of organized sports.  I never played team sports at all-- track, cross country, and gymnastics is all I did, and those are individual sports even if you are on a team.  I have no idea if there is a lot of positive benefit for boys in being involved in team sports, beyond the physical exercise aspect of things.  The boys just don't seem all that interested.  But maybe that's because they haven't had a lot of exposure to various sports.  Maybe there would be something they really loved that would add something to their lives, if they had a chance to be exposed to it.  I just don't have a lot of motivation to keep the boys really busy in sports.  Sports are not important to me at all (again, beyond the physical health aspects).  But maybe they are important for boys?  I told Ben it has to be his call.  He played organized sports all the way through high school.  He hated some of it, and liked some of it.  I'm hoping he will be willing to take this part of parenting on.  I'm tired of worrying and stressing about sports.  I'll drive the boys where they need to go, but I need him to be in charge of working with the boys to decide what they want to do.
I found out about a youth running club in Cedar Park for kids 8-18.  Cross Country in the fall, Track in the spring.  Maybe they will want to do that next year. 
I always looked forward to when I'd be able to go running with my boys, and now I can't do it...  :-(.  I really want to get a hand cycle so I can go biking with them around the neighborhood.  Then if they wanted to run, I could bike with them.  But those things are so pricey!!  $2000 is about the cheapest I've found anywhere-- even used. 
Today we went to the lake park with our homeschool group.  It was so fun!  The weather has turned and we're having amazing, beautiful fall weather-- temps in the 70's and low 80's.  So nice!  It was really fun to see all those little boys (and one brave girl!) running around and wading in the lake and catching crawdads and baby turtles and climbing trees.  This is a great group we have and no one wanted to leave even after 2 hours when we really had to go.  Well, it did take Mosey a little while to get into things.  He's a little more hesitant in joining in with this group-- probably because he's the youngest.  Still, it surprised me a little, since he's so outgoing and is not intimidated at all by older kids.  So he hung around me for a few minutes and complained about how bored he was and how there was nothing to do.  So sad...  :-)  Soon enough, though, he saw how much fun everyone else was having and decided sitting with the grownups talking was even more boring. 
Monday night we got our Halloween decorations up.  We played Halloween music and now we're all decked out.  Joseph and Brigham still don't know what they're going to be.  The deadline for giving me sewing projects is fast approaching, though, so they better figure it out quick!
That's about it for tonight.  Tomorrow is Thursday, our busiest day.  I better get to bed!