Weekly Wrap-Up August 29

We started our week busy, and ended it quieter (much as I love visiting friends, I like quieter).  As you may remember (if you have nothing else to do but keep track of our schedule, hee hee), we were at my parents' house last weekend. And it was the weekend-o-seeing all our old friends. So, we continued with that theme and spent Sunday afternoon visiting my friend Vicki and her girls.  Little Bit had great fun on K & E's bouncy horse, it was fun to see her using it, that horse originally belonged to my friend Jenni, whose girls are a little older than my big girls. When Jenni lived in Northern VA, my girls LOVED that horse anytime we visited. Then Jenni moved to Kansas City, and since her girls had outgrown the horse, she was looking for a new home for it. Even though my girls were really too big for it by then too, I was still hoping we'd have another baby SOMEDAY, so I took the horse. And then, since Vicki's E was the right age to enjoy it, I loaned it to them. When I was pregnant with Little Bit, (and Vicki was pregnant with K) Vicki asked if I wanted the horse back, but honestly, we just do not have room for it in this house, and E loves all things horses, so I said they might as well keep it at their house. So it was fun to see Little Bit enjoying "our" horse, hee hee.

Little Bit also enjoyed the corn on the cob from Grandpa's garden. The big girls thought it was terribly unfair that Little Bit could eat corn on the cob and they couldn't (too many loose & missing teeth this summer, hee hee).  Mama cut their corn off for them, but they still found it terribly unfair, hee hee. Little Bit thoroughly enjoyed it though. And it brought back fun memories of the big girls at that age, chowing down on cold leftover corn on the cob at the airport as we were waiting to fly to the west coast with them.

Monday was another busy day. The girls spend a good part of the morning in Grandpa's garden picking raspberries, blackberries and tomatoes. Then we ate a quick, late breakfast and headed to another friend's house.  Laura was their Kindermusik teacher when we lived in Maryland. And her girls are 8 & 5 and also homeschool, so the 4 girls have great fun together. Laura also has an 11 mo old boy, so in another year or so Little Bit will have a playmate at Laura's house too. And for now, Little Bit had great fun exploring baby boy's toys, hee hee.  They have CHICKENS, so  the girls all had fun collecting eggs and generally torturing (err loving) the chickens (shudder).  And having a tea party (beautifully hosted by A, Laura's 8 yr old). Later we went for a walk and the girls played in the woods and stream. A1 got thoroughly soaked and muddy (thankfully, even though I'd warned them that they might have to ride home in wet clothes if they got wet) I DID have one dry outfit in the car, so she could change.

I had to share one more corn picture, because I think it's SOO funny. Little Bit is definitely the drama queen of the family, even surpassing her sister, A1.

Tuesday we headed home. And spent the rest of the week getting back into the routine of HOME!! School, chores, fun stuff like that. I'm hoping to get all of us (well, the big girls and me) back in the habit of daily chores, etc. So that, when we go to Williamsburg in a few weeks we can continue with a modified chore schedule while we're there (we're staying in a friend's time- share so there will be a kitchen and such and we'll hopefully fix most meals there rather than eating out so much).

I decided in light of how long we've all been out of the habit of daily chores (beyond the bare minimum), the girls could use some extra incentive to get back in the habit of doing chores w/o a million and one reminders (which has been pretty frustrating to me the last month or so, they do their chores, but only if I remind them every step of the way and that defeats some of the purpose of it all. If I have to call them in and remind them 3 times to feed the cats, I really could do it myself faster and easier. But of course, one of the main reasons for chores is teaching them the skills AND responsibility.

We all like Schleich animals, so I thought that would be a good incentive to use (and healthier than the ice cream treats I used last time we did this). So, we started on Wed. If they did all their chores on Wed without reminders (beyond necessary ones, I don't expect them to know when I'm going to go start lunch, or even notice that I've gone to the kitchen to start lunch, so I tell them when I'm going to fix lunch, BUT if I have to say it repeatedly then it becomes a reminder), they could either choose a small animal or wait and combine days to get a bigger animal or set. They both chose to wait. And both earned their first day on Wed.  Then they needed to go 2 more days (Thurs & Fri) without reminders to earn their second "prize". Which they also did. We were at Target this week, so they checked out the Scleich animals there and both decided they wanted a set of horses that I told them would take 4 "credits", so they're half way there. Today begins a 3 days "earning period", and then we'll do a 4 day "earning period" which will take us till next Sunday, when they'll get their horses (if they haven't missed any days). Next we'll go for a 5 day period which will take us to the next Fri, and then we'll probably stay at once a week for awhile, and see how it goes . . .

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS Sabbath! Not too hot, not too cold, sunny, couldn't ask for better weather. And all summer, our pastor & his wife have been "hosting" unofficial picnic potlucks at a local park. Anyone who wants to is welcome to come. The girls LOVE it, and I figured w/ such perfect weather, we really should go, so we did. Little Bit fell asleep on the way there, and Rodney decided to stay in the car with her so she'd get a decent nap, and the big girls were busy talking various people into telling them stories, so I got to just sit and have adult conversation for awhile, it was nice :o)

And so, today, we begin a new week, with nothing planned but school and chores and such. Ahhhh . . . gotta love weeks like that :o)