I'm so tired.  I got 3 hours of sleep last night.  It happens when I neglect to organize and put things away for 3 days in a row.  I couldn't handle it last night and spent a few hours getting things organized again.  So I was dragging today, and I need to go to bed ASAP.  Too bad I can always find something else I'd rather do than sleep.
I don't think Joseph was feeling very well today, either.  He spent most of the day sitting or lying on the couch wrapped up in a blanket.  This is definitely not like him.  He wasn't feverish, though, and didn't have any other complaints.  I guess we'll see if anything else comes of it.
We had a fun, relaxed day of lessons, although we should have been a bit more urgent in getting things done.  As it was, I was helping kids finish various lessons right up until 9:00 PM tonight (with an hour break or so while I fixed dinner).  The boys had Tae Kwon Do as well as piano lessons this afternoon, which put us further behind our schedule.
We're studying the Revolutionary War, and have been talking over the last couple of days about the differences between European and Indian styles of fighting, and how that carried over into how the Revolutionary War was fought.  Then we got talking about how perhaps the National Guard is the modern equivalent of the Minutemen.  And that led into me telling them about the L.A. riots back in the '90's and how the National Guard was called out.  Which of course necessitated me explaining the history behind the Rodney King case and everything that followed.  I pulled out an old photo album in which I had put a bunch of pictures I took several weeks after the riots when it was finally safe enough to drive through certain parts of L.A.  What strange times those were.
That's one thing I like about homeschooling-- we can take time for detours.  (Of course, if you're also a little uptight like me, it can also cause a bit of anxiety to be put off my "schedule.")
On a totally unrelated subject, I recently downloaded the soundtrack to "Big River" onto my ipod.  This was a favorite musical of my family's when I was growing up.  It amazes me so much to listen to this soundtrack for the first time in probably 17 years and discover that I still have all the words memorized.  I hope this means that all the things that seem to slip through my brain like sand through a sieve are actually retained somewhere, waiting to be unlocked.  :-)  I still love the music, although it makes me laugh to think about our whole family on road trips listening to our well-loved tape of "Big River" and all of us, kids ages 2-18, singing along with the likes of "The Dadgummed Gov'ment."  So funny, yet, really, so inappropriate.  :-)  I think we were very careful to self-censor ourselves when we sang that song.  At least I know I was.  :-)