Now That's Better

I have to admit that last week was rough. I wasn't quite prepared for our first week back to school. We managed to get it all done anyway, but the rest of our home life suffered and I was meeting myself coming and going all week. Then we tacked on a string of later-than-usual bedtimes for the kids and the resulting cranky attitudes, a busy Saturday of catching up around the place, a full day on Sunday of worship services, and a Sunday afternoon sewing project with church friends. Mama was pretty whipped by Sunday night. 

But thankfully we got off to a better start today. I prepared everything during the wee hours of the night, and we were ready to hit the books right after breakfast and chores this morning. The new chore charts were a fun change for the kids and the on-time bedtimes made a huge difference on the cranky meter. Duh. I learned with my first child that bedtime is the axis around which all moods revolve. So I'm not sure why I need to periodically remind myself of that law of nature the hard way. Now I just need to get my bedtime back to a good place and we'll all be perky.

Today we enjoyed filling in characters on our giant wall timeline. We fill it in every few weeks and review our history as we post those characters up there. To be quite honest, I grew up thinking of Bible history and world history with two different sections of my brain and they never really connected well. So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to refresh my learning alongside the kids. That timeline is one of our very best learning tools. 

For fun we are listening to audio recordings of American Tall Tales. Beethoven is our composer study for music appreciation, and we are just starting a very cool art curriculum I found called Artistic Pursuits. It's going to be great, I can tell! For geography we are working on a lapbook about Ethiopia. Math is going well for everyone and we always enjoy science and nature study. Nature study in the great outdoors is cancelled for now and we are studying through the windows. I know some of you up north suffer through the snowbound months of winter, but we do our suffering in the summer, when swarming mosquitoes could easily carry off a small child. 

Hopefully we will stay on track and finish this week out strong. My goals for tomorrow include getting back on my menu plan so I don't have to scour my brain for a supper idea at 4pm. That never works out well. I also must tackle Mt. Laundry before it takes over. If we can get those two things accomplished in addition to school we'll call it a success!