The Saturday 7

1. We did it! We survived our first week of homeschool! It actually went really well. The girls were over the moon excited and cooperated very well. And I enjoyed it more than I expected to. We were done by noon every day, which concerns me that we're not doing enough, but I really think we covered all our bases. And a lot of the math and english we did this week was review/super easy. Levi did about as I expected. There were times that he played by himself, but there were also many times that he climbed on me whining for me to play with him. And he watched way too much TV. He was not interested in any of the busy boxes I set out for him, so I'm going to have to get creative. The girls' old school is starting on Monday and it's going to be hard for me to see everyone's first day pictures. I'm sad that the girls are missing out on time with their friends and I'm mourning the time I would've had alone with Levi. Instead of the one on one time he would've been getting, he's getting even less of me. :-(

By day two, she was doing school in her robe. Haha. #homeschool

2. I slightly sprained my ankle this week while trying to be a good homeschool mom. We were in the backyard searching for different kinds of habitats when I stepped in a hole and went down. I don't want to overstate my "injury," but I do think it was worse than just a "twisted ankle." I managed to hobble inside and ice it for a while, but it still swelled up and bruised.

Attractive, eh?

Fortunately, it only hurt badly for one day. By day two I could pretty much stop limping and it only hurt if I turned it a certain way. By today (day 5) it really only hurts if I sit cross-legged, which is annoying because I never realized how often I sit like that! Oy. This wouldn't have happened if I dropped the girls off at school and came home to sit on my couch. 😉

3. Levi has suddenly started stuttering in the past few weeks. He used to say his name clearly . . . and once. He refers to himself in the third person, so he'd say, "Wee-vi hungry." But now he says "Wee-vi vi vi vi vi vi vi vi vi hungry." Really, it's every word he starts a sentence with. "Fi fi fi fi fi fi fi cup" (find cup). Do you think I should be concerned? I think I'll give it a few weeks before I decide to worry. He's also improving some of his words. Until this week, he always called me "mah-yee" and Justin "da-yee." About the same time he started stuttering, he started very clearly saying "mommy" and "daddy." So maybe his brain is busy perfecting/learning new words and is tripping up in other ways.

4. Next weekend is our annual Labor Day camping trip. I'm not sure if I'll get my blog posted before we leave, but I am planning on a special mid-week entry about how my fear of bears started. I'm not sure I've ever shared before, so get ready for a truly riveting tale of fear, despair, and life-long phobia!

5. I read a book this week, but I'm still five behind in my goodreads goal. I've just been in a slump lately. Nothing sounds interesting. I've started a couple books and given up on them. I'd rather just scroll through Pinterest and watch Hawaii 5-0. Maybe once I finish this season I'll get back to reading. I've also been trying to be diligent about going to bed at 11:00 so I can get up at 8 to have some quiet time before we start school. With Netflix, I can see how long each episode is, so I can prepare. But with books, I have no self control and will keep reading until I'm done - which is usually midnight or later.

6. I'm despairing over Lucy's picky eating habits. I've been doing tons of research and have come to the conclusion that I'm just going to have to be mean. And I don't know if I have it in me. Because I struggle with the same things she does. I just want to binge on carbs and dairy and sugar all day every day. The only reason I'm any healthier than her is because I force myself to have self control. She's not going to do that, so I'm going to have to do it for her. But I don't even know where to start. What is a healthy breakfast for kids? Right now she eats 2 frozen waffles every day. I tried to buy multigrain waffles and she refused to eat them. What do normal kids eat for lunch? How do I even start to incorporate vegetables? My research says I have to eliminate all snacking and any beverages other than water. But what kind of life is that? No snacks? I'm going to force her to eat food she doesn't like for every meal then deprive her of snacks as well?? I just don't know if I can do it! But, at the same time, she's 8 years old, average height, and can't get her size 10 pants buttoned! I never struggled with my weight until having kids. I don't know how to help her. Ugh. It's so depressing.

7. A few more pictures

Snacks and TV in mommy's bed

Crazy monkey has figured out how to climb to the top of the rope.

Not feeling super confident in my curriculum choice when one of our first assignments in this book has a spelling error. (In the parentheses.)