03/12/12

1.  And... Monday strikes again.  I have two boys that seem to be allergic to Mondays.  After a pep talk last night about school, it was still a bit of a struggle today.  Daylight Savings Time did not help.  6:30 is early for anyone, but really, really early when it feels like 5:30.  But, I am learning.  When one child was hiding upstairs for more than an hour after he was supposed to be starting his lessons, I didn't yell.  I didn't threaten.  I lugged myself upstairs, sat next to him, gave him a hug, and somehow managed to talk him into getting started.  I really do think I'm getting the hang of this no-yelling thing.  (Calling to my kids when they are upstairs, or across the yard does NOT count as yelling!  :-))

2.  Mosey had TKD today.  Natasha was there, which normally makes things a lot more fun for him, but yesterday he cut his foot in our backyard-- right on the ball of his foot in a place where a bandaid will not stay.  And then he had the grumpy instructor which didn't help.  I've tried to analyze this particular instructor.  There is nothing unpleasant about her, she's actually not even grumpy.  But I have never, ever, ever seen her crack a smile.  She is the most unsmilingest person I have ever known.  It's sad!  I wonder what her story is. At least during TKD I could vent a little with the two other homeschooling moms there.  And it's good for me to realize that my kids are very normal and that we are doing a lot of things right, even though they're not perfect.

3.  This afternoon was a bit of a fiasco.  On our way down to UT to drop Mosey off at speech, there was terrible traffic.  Why?  No idea.  Maybe an accident, but if so it was too far down the freeway for me to see anything.  So we got to speech 15 minutes late, at exactly the time Joseph was supposed to be AT his flute lesson.  Mosey ran inside and I skedaddled down the road to get Joseph to flute.  5 minutes later my phone rings.  It is the receptionist at the speech place informing me that there are no therapy sessions today because of spring break.  Ugh!  No one told me!  I didn't even know it was UT's spring break.  But I was on my way to drop Joseph off (also late), so I couldn't turn around and get him right away.  Poor Mosey had to sit there for 20 minutes until I got back down to the building.  Oh well.

4.  We just finished listening to Tom Sawyer, and are starting Huckleberry Finn.  What fun books for kids my boys' ages.  And so fun for me as an adult 20 years older than I was when I first read them.  So many subtleties I doubt I got back then.  Boys sure haven't changed much in 150 years, or however long it's been.  :-)

5.  This evening Joseph and Brigham went with Ben back to that park area that we went to yesterday.  I'm dubbing it the boulder park.  Mosey didn't want to go, opting to stay home and read a book while swinging on the disc swing in the backyard.  The boys came back so excited!  Joseph found a deer antler (he wanted to know if he could sell it somewhere for a lot of money-- any buyers out there?), and Brigham saw a copperhead snake.  That makes me a bit nervous.  Ben would love to have a house with a yard that borders one of the many open areas around this part of town.  And I love the idea of my kids having places to roam around and explore.  On the other hand, venomous snakes scare me, and there are plenty of them around here.  Our little neighborhood is far enough from the green belts to be at a lower risk of snakes, and it's an old enough neighborhood that we don't have any scorpions or centipedes, either (don't I make moving to Texas sound great?).