General Update

I'm sitting outside on a beautiful, sunny day, watching Kenna enjoy the simple pleasures of a bucket full of sidewalk chalk. Charis is in the middle of her piano lesson, the boys are enjoying some rare time on Dad's computer playing a game, and Lucan is amazingly still asleep after 2 1/2 hours. He had a rough evening and night, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. All signs point to more teeth...and from past experience, we know this is never an easy time for our little guy.

Perhaps next weekend I'll be able to write up some more notes from our convention sessions, but for now I'll just blather on while inhaling the soft scent of the honeysuckle bush by the driveway. Not so pleasant is the occasional wasp that hovers precariously near my face; I suppose that's the trade-off that comes with spring.

Kenna has abandoned her driveway artwork in favor of a sidewalk stroll. She is holding Charis's purple umbrella to shade herself from the sun. It clashes nicely with her orange shirt and green pants--she needs an "I Dressed Myself" sticker today. Oh, to be three again! Why worry about schedules and what's for dinner when there is a neighborhood to explore?!

This week has been a good one thus far. I was somewhat dreading the necessity of starting up our full school schedule again, but somehow Sonlight must have known that spring is here--our reading assignments have been very light. Of course, the fact that I opted to skip science altogether this week may have something to do with that...hmmm. The kids did some electrical experiments yesterday afternoon with Ted while I was at the dentists getting my teeth cleaned, and Charis and Tobin did an internet search this morning to find out what bag worms are and decide if what was hanging on our bush was a harmful sack of parasites or something friendly. (The jury is still out on that one...they don't LOOK like the pictures online, but our neighbor was quite certain, so out they went, just in case.)

Anyway. So we've done some science, but not the assigned reading. I love being able to choose what learning paths we pursue! The kids have done very well with their independent work, and our read-aloud times have been very satisfying. We just finished A Little Princess yesterday. I LOVE that book! I was glad that Tobin got so into the storyline; he was not at all thrilled about a book with the word "princess" in it at first. Arden was not very excited about the whole thing, but the rest of us enjoyed it. The story went perfectly with our current character quality study, compassion. There were numerous examples of times Sara showed compassion to those around her, even when she was a person who desperately needed compassion herself. Good discussion times!

In other news, I've begun a new exercise program, P90X from Beachbody. While I can't get too enthused about the worldly perspective on health and body image, I have to say I'm enjoying the program thoroughly. (Don't get me wrong--it's nothing terrible, but the instructor is definitely pleased with himself, that's for sure!) I needed something to get me going again. I had fallen into a lull with the other workout DVDs I was borrowing from a friend, and since I haven't purchased running shoes since before Lucan was in utero, running has been out of the question until I can make an appointment with a shoe store and get fitted with some proper foot gear. So when a few acquaintances started talking to me about this program, I did some looking into it and took the plunge with Ted's full support. He has even done 3 of the 6 workouts with me, only neglecting the days when he has his own strenuous workouts on base with the mandatory PT program. His help has helped me so much--there have already been days when I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep instead of getting out of bed at 4:30 a.m., but so far we are 6 for 6 days!! Only 84 more to go, LOL!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us, full of fun church activities. Friday afternoon the kids and I have a field trip to the Sunwatch Indian Village, and then in the evening we host our monthly Family Community gathering. Ted will be doing the kids' devotional time. Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon we'll be at church rehearsing for the Kids Street Live program that will be on Sunday in between the two services. The older kids have birthday parties to attend on Saturday as well, so I'm sure we'll be ready for a day of rest come Sunday afternoon!

Next week will be a bit of a spring break, as if we haven't already had some spring breaks with the grandmas in town and other things going on! But the kids will be joining with the homeschool co-op to take their first ever standardized tests. Testing will happen Tuesday through Thursday mornings, and then Charis has a field trip on Friday that I will blog about later. (Going to school in a one-room schoolhouse in an 1800s school setting!) So there is simply no point to trying to get any schoolwork done next week, in my opinion, LOL.

Well, Lucan is now awake, so it's time for his late lunch and some practice test sheets with the older kids.