A Productive Morning

This week has been a pretty good one so far! On Monday we had a good school time, then went to a friend's house for a potlunch lunch with the moms from my MOPS table. Yesterday's "big outing" was a walk to the park with our friends Sarah and her kids just before dinner. I also enjoyed visiting with two long-distance friends on the phone. I don't really like to talk on the phone all that often...it seems when I am on the phone, my kids decide to behave like wild hellions. However, they did very well yesterday while I talked with my very pregnant friend Megan (has the baby arrived yet, Megan?!), and then I got to chat with Monica in the afternoon while Arden was napping.

Today has gone so well, though not entirely according to our normal schedule. No matter; I love that we have this flexibility! I didn't wake as early as I would have liked, but I did manage to finish my quiet time before Tobin came downstairs at 6:30 a.m. I couldn't blame him for his early wake time when I realized what the problem was--he had a splinter in his hand that he said he got last night during our small group meeting! Poor guy! Maybe he didn't realize it was there. He certainly never complained about it last night. Anyway, after our little "surgery" this morning, he was much happier and settled himself down to color while I worked on some writing. Arden joined us soon after that and kept busy with some puzzles, so I was able to finish the Day Three quiet time for the Commission study. Woohoo! Only two more days' worth of quiet times, and I am FINISHED!

We spent an hour and a half at the breakfast table this morning!! In addition to our usual Bible story, AWANA verse review, and home school verse review, we ended up having a long conversation based on a newspaper article I had read as the kids finished up their cereal. A man in our city grabbed a 7-year-old girl who was on her way to the bus stop and shoved her into his car. She screamed like everything and attracted the attention of a lady who was passing, who then followed the man in her car. He realized she was not going to stop following him, so he stopped and pushed the girl back out of the car and sped off. Praise the Lord the girl was unharmed--I can only imagine how thankful her parents were that the woman had stopped to help.

Well, with this on my mind, I again began talking with the kids about strangers and so on. We've had discussions like this before, but you can never drive the point home too much, I don't think! Charis was so sweet and earnest, telling me that if she saw someone trying to take a child, she would go up to him and say, "You let him go! I'm going to call the police!" Her words were brave, but her little body was trembling just thinking about this scary topic! Of course we then discussed that the best thing to do is NOT to talk to the bad person trying to take a child, but to RUN screaming for Mom or Dad or any other trusted adult! We "rehearsed" various scenarios, and I do think Tobin and Charis get it. Charis expressed some reservations about kicking someone, knowing that that is unkind. But I quickly dispelled those thoughts, telling her that there is definitely an appropriate time to kick, punch, and scream, and we are certainly not going to be upset if she does those things to try to prevent someone from taking her. It's a scary thing to even think about, but I was glad for the opportunity to talk with them about it again in the safety of our home. I assured both Charis and Tobin (and Arden, too, but I'm not sure if he was listening...he was too busy stuffing his little cheeks with cereal) that we don't need to live in fear, because God and His angels are watching over us, but that we do need to be careful and safe.

Whew! I couldn't believe that it was already 9:30 a.m. by the time we finished all this discussion! The morning just flew by. I did our Sonlight reading while the kids finished munching cereal--they kept deciding they were still hungry. :-) I put the boys in room/play time after that so Charis and I could do some of her schoolwork. She did lesson 10 in her math book, a handwriting practice page, 2 pages in her Developing the Early Learner workbook, and some phonics dictation. She's been learning about the suffix -y, and today we practiced spelling words with the short vowel sound and one consonant. She remembered to double the consonants at the end and spelled bunny, fuzzy, kitty, and penny correctly.

Then we went out to the garage, where the kids rode bikes/scooters around while I jogged 1 3/4 miles on the treadmill. Then I mowed the front and back yards, which took a grand total of about 10 minutes. I love living in Las Vegas! The kids continued to play well while I fixed lunch, and then it was time for me to shower. I let the kids watch a Magic School Bus DVD that we got from the library, and they learned about ant hills and bee hives while I showered and then vacuumed the upstairs. Yay! It was filthy up there! I tend to neglect that area because it's usually not seen if people drop by the house. ;-)

Arden went right down for his nap. We have a new nap routine around here. Since Arden began his escape routine again recently, I started lying down in Tobin's bed so I could keep an eye on him. He usually falls asleep within 15-20 minutes at the most. During the time he's nodding off, I usually doze myself, and it's surprisingly refreshing to at least be able to rest my body, even if I don't get fully asleep. Meanwhile Tobin fell asleep in our bed with no problems--hallelujah! I haven't been making him nap every day, instead letting him occasionally take a stack of books/magazines to bed to read while a timer goes for 60 minutes. Then he can get up and play, as long as he is QUIET during his REST TIME! We did that yesterday, and he did pretty well, but since he was up so early today, and we had small group last night and AWANA tonight, meaning later bed times, I told him he must nap today, and he was amazingly agreeable!

Now Charis is painting in her paint-with-water book while I catch up on some computer work. I feel good about what we've accomplished so far today and am feeling so thankful to be a stay-at-home mom!