Sunday, January 31, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up

We had a much less eventful week this week than last LOL. School most days (except Tues, when we had Little Bit's dr. appointment, and Fri when we opted to clean instead). Some rough spots (behavior-wise) as we adjusted to being "back home". Much discussion about the fact that if we're going to travel with Daddy those behavior problems need to not happen. . . We've made a few changes to our school schedule. Little Bit's been pushing her morning nap abit later so that gives us a little more time. So we've added a third "class" each day, but what it is, varies by day. Depending on the day we either have nature time (currently studying butterflies, we got an AWESOME butterfly "bundle" e-book, I'll be reviewing it on the blog after we've used it a little longer), "art & handwriting" in the form of a lesson from the Draw Write Now books, Spanish (for now, just using the Boca Beth CDs and DVDs we have) and music (starting out with Passion Hymns for a Kid's Heart yes, this is vol 4, but we happen to HAVE this one, if we enjoy it (we haven't had a music day yet) we can always get more, but I figured we might as well start with the one we had). So, we do one of those things each day in addition to our Polished Cornerstones and Prairie Primer work.

Near the end of the weeks, the big girls asked me if we could have company over after church on Sabbath. Because of our behavior issues, the house hadn't gotten cleaned back up from our trip the week before, so, I told them that we would skip school on Fri, and instead spend the morning cleaning, and IF they pitched in without complaining and we could get the house cleaned by noon that we could invite someone over. They did good, A1 even volunteered to take the compost out! So, we met our deadline, and they chose to invite Mr. Tim and Miss Tami. Tami works at Daddy's office and often ends up traveling to other churches on weekends, so I warned the girls that they might be busy, but we called and we'd managed to choose the ONE weekend that they were available. So, we had a fun Sabbath afternoon visiting with Tim & Tami. Tami brought a craft project that she and the girls worked on all afternoon (see why the girls love her, she brings them CRAFTS!! AND she doesn't get tired of their endless chatter!).

It seems like every book & website I've read recently has made SOME mention of God's command of hospitality, and now my kids are making sure that I obey that command. To continue with that theme, we started a new week of Polished Cornerstones this week and we're studying "The Hospitable Woman". As soon as the girls heard that, A1 told me "Mommy, WE don't need to learn about that, YOU do!" I told her that yes, this is something I'm learning too, she assured me they would help me learn, I suspect that means more requests to have company over on Sabbath are in our future. Especially since today A1 mentioned "Sabbath is my FAVORITE day because we get to have company!"

We're also finally implementing the tradition I've been wanting to start for a LONG time, and having a special, candle-lit Fri night supper to welcome the Sabbath. We tried it right after we moved, but at that time the girls weren't into it, and it wasn't worth the fight when I seemed to be the only one who wanted it to happen. Now they love it! We turn on some nice music, light candles, have soup (may change that in the summer, but for winter it's a nice easy meal).

And finally, one more "new thing" week before last, one of the things we discussed during Bible time was that they are old enough to start listening to the sermons in church (instead of just playing quietly). Then that weekend we ended up leaving after Sabbath School to go to Grandmom's, so this week was our first week actually using their church notebooks. They were a little bit frustrated because during the first part of the sermon the younger kids sitting near us were noisy enough that they were having a hard time listening, but then things quieted down and it was ok. A1 was also frustrated because she didn't understand everything in the sermon (naturally), but, afterward we discussed it and I explained that they are LEARNING to listen to the sermon and not expected to understand it all right away, and they seemed to feel better about it, we shall see. . .

One last note, Little Bit's new skill of the day . . . she started climbing our stairs today! I'd gone upstairs for a few minutes and left her downstairs with A1 and she was NOT impressed, She often will stand at the bottom of the stairs and cry if I run upstairs without her, but today she actually started climbing the stairs. Only went up a couple steps (A1 was right there in case she fell, which is GOOD, our stairs are very steep!) that time, but then this evening when the big girls headed upstairs for bed, she started following them, so I hung back to see if she'd climb up after them, she did, and went the whole way up! She did have one time where she was so excited (her sisters were at the top of the stairs cheering her on) that she tried to stand up & "jump" like she does when she's excited (kind of bounces up & down) and lost her balance and fell backwards (I was right behind her, to catch her) so we'll have to watch her carefully (obviously, there's also the issue of coming DOWN) but still one more "milestone" reached. The big girls were so excited for her, she just took it all in stride, got to the top & crawled on down the hall to the bathroom like she knew right where we were going LOL.

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