Randomness before Thanksgiving

Can you believe it's the end of November because I sure can't.  I used to say the days drag, but the weeks fly, but these days, the days fly and the weeks pass by at super speed.  Life is crazy.  We did get a little breather at the end of Dan's first quarter.  Actually he had so much of a breather, that he's having trouble getting back into the 5-9 groove - 9-5 is so much easier :). 

 

Reports cards were good.  Everyone (including Dan) made all As with 1 B.  Allie's teacher resigned recently.  She's had a sub for two weeks and won't have her new teacher until the second week in December.  It's really effected her school work.  I don't think we'll be seeing the AB honor roll this quarter for her.  She's all over the place with her grades.  As things are evening out with Jaelyn, it's making me consider homeschooling all three next year.  I must be insane :).

 

I'm sure there's more news I've missed, but I can't think of anything else out of the ordinary.

 

We had planned to go to Busch Gardens for Thanksgiving to see the lights, but it's starting to feel a lot like winter.  The predicted 31 degrees was just too cold to chance.  Instead, we went back to Abingdon Thanksgiving Tradition and went to Medieval Times.  It was a lot of fun to cheer for our knight and eat with our hands.  Caden even loved the roasted chicken this time. 

 

 

This service dog cracked me up.  He was a good sport to wear his crown :).

 

I decided to put up our tree today.  It was a little bit crazy, but it's up.  I'm excited about Christmas.  The kids have never woken up in their own beds on Christmas morning.  My parents are coming to visit after Christmas.  It's going to be great to stop for a week or so and spend time with them without having to load up and drive for 2 days there and back.  Unfortunately, Dan won't be able to stop, but hopefully he'll be able to take some time off.

 

 

Guess what song!

Sent from my iPhone

Good Day Thanks to Broken Glasses

I was sad that we didn't get to visit the Botanical Gardens while my parents were here.  When Allie's glasses broke a week ago requiring us to go into DC to Ft. Myer to fix them, we seized the opportunity to make it a day trip to sight see.


 

The mums were beautiful!

 

I bet this 1000 chrysanthemum display is gorgeous now that it's had another week or so to fully open.

 

The Botanical Gardens is on the end of the National Mall near the Capital.  We didn't go in it, but we did pose for a picture out front ;).

 

I love all the birds hanging out on top of Grant's statue.

 

I've developed a love of sculpture gardens.  This one was outside the Hirshon Museum.  There's another garden next to the Natural History Museum, but we were to tired to visit it on this day.  Next time.

 

 

The kids also seem to really enjoy looking at the sculptures.  They do, however, have issues with all the naked people :o.

And last but not least, we finished up our afternoon at the Natural History museum.

 

 

 

I'm glad Dan was able to take off a Saturday to have fun with us.  It's exactly what we needed!!!

Missing Grandma Molly

 

Today marks 3 years since I held my Grandma's hand and said goodbye.

Randomness

Dan worked last weekend and I had to get out of the house with the kids.  We went to Leesylvania State Park to collect fall leaves for a leaf man project.  It was chilly and super windy, but we had a wonderful time.  The park is really pretty.  We'll have to go back.  There were miles of hiking trails.

 

The kids volunteered to pose for this shot.  It's not quite as cute was when they were 2, 3, and 4, but still sweet.

 

 

I don't think I ever shared this picture.  My mom is clumsy and tends to trip and fall when walking in a straight line on smooth surfaces.  We have a step down into our living room, and I was worried about her falling.  Jaelyn made a sign to hang from the ceiling at eye level, and I left a message on the floor in painter's tape.  It worked because she always watched her step.

 

 

Today is day 44 of homeschooling and officially the end of the 1st quarter.  I am so glad to be 1/4 of the way through.  It has been rough and tough, but we've done it. 

The Grandparents Are Gone

My parents left yesterday morning {Insert pause and long, sad sigh}.  We actually didn't do a lot.  DC was closed the weekend they got ... (I sat down to blog on Wednesday - that's as far as I got.  The story of my life these days.)

Anyway, to back up, we spent most of our time hanging out at the house and a little bit of time shopping.  Okay, a lot bit.  My mom has been looking forward to the shopper's paradise we live in. It was so good to have someone here visiting.  Our household feels very stressful all the time.  Part of it is the drama that engulfs school every morning and part is me just not having the time (or the energy) to get things done like I like to.  I felt like I could slow down and breathe for the first time in a while.  I cut back Jaelyn's school work to the big 3 (reading, writing and arithmetic).  My mom helped with school leaving me free to get some house work done.  I even cooked real meals since I had people other than kids who are happy with chicken nuggets or scrambled eggs to feed.  Dan even gave up his free day (which isn't really free.  He has no class, but he still spends 12-16 hours at school doing work) to see a movie with me.  It was a good visit.

On the school front, moving and kids is just hard.  Caden has been saying he doesn't like school.  I've talked to his teacher.  She says he's doing fine with his work and seems to have friends.  We just don't have the good friends that only time can bring.  Allie also seems to be struggling.  Hers is school related.  I've seen more Ds and Fs than I care to admit (although her averages are As and Bs, I don't get it).  I was so involved at her last school, but I don't know anyone at this one.  It's hard to feel like I'm on the outside here.  I keep telling myself  "it's only a year, it's only a year, it's only a year."

I keep telling myself that with Jaelyn too.  I am all over the map with her.  On bad days, I want to send her to school and never ever ever consider homeschooling again.  On good days, I want to bring Allie and Caden home and teach them all. I'm insane, I know that.  This week has been a really good homeschooling week.  I think last week's break and different teacher helped us both.  She's been calm and polite.  It's been a real joy to work with her.  And she's learning.  One night, while reading, she pointed out a word that didn't end in -ly (an easy give away) and said "that's an adverb."  We spent 3 days on adverbs....it finally sunk in :).  Last night, she said something with "either/or" in it and said "hey, either/or are conjunctions" (yesterday's lesson).  It's these little nuggets that I need to hold on to.

In order to make our day more peaceful, I'm continuing to tweak our schedule and try different things.  I've been cramming a lot into each week.  I'm backing off.  I've decided to only do social studies or science, not both in each week.  We've also gone to a very structured day.  If it were me, I'd start with the hardest subjects and move to the easiest and get my work done, boom, boom boom, but that's not Jaelyn.  She needs a written schedule (Spelling 9:40, Reading 10:15, snack 11:00) and she sticks to it exactly.  If she finishes one subject with 7 minutes left, she plays for 7 minutes instead of starting on her next subject and I am learning to be okay with that. She's already asking me to homeschool her next year.  She is adamant that she doesn't want to go back to school.  We shall see.

The Grandparents are Here

My parents came last week for a visit.  It's so good to have them here.  We don't get to see family enough.  Travelling home is hard with school in general, but this year, it's going to be especially tough.  I'm not sure when we'll get to go home next. Anyway, we haven't done too much with Jaelyn home during the day.  I did plan an easier school week so we could get out a little and do some shopping.  It's just really nice to have extra people here.  I half joke that it feels like Dan is deployed only I have to do his laundry and we don't get family separation pay.  He's never had a job that kept him at work from early morning to late, late evening six to seven days a week before.  I know he's exhausted, but he's doing great.  He's gotten As on all of his papers and assignments so far.  His first quarter is wrapping up.  3 more and ILE to go...keep praying, because I think it's only going to get worse.

I haven't had my camera out much this week, but I did take it when we fed the fish one afternoon.  I love that this bridge and the lake is literally 100 footsteps from my back gate.

My mom dropped the bread bag in the lake...oh, Mom!  And I can't believe I'm sharing this picture, but it is kind of funny.