What I know... or at least think I know if I can only remember them.

I had a few rough days over the past week. My guess is that it was inevitable I might hit a low point as I proceed along this path. First of all,my memory and ability to retain dates, times, and places has been completely obliterated. Don't get me wrong, after 4 kids my ability to remember anything was, quite honestly, debatable in the first place. Add the complication of homeschooling and frankly I am surprised that I don't feel compelled to introduce myself to PapaSchnuck in the morning in the hopes he will remind me of his name.
So, after a few missed things - papers, assignments, phone calls, Sunday school snack, coats, cookie sales booth (that last one I messed up the time AND the location), I had a crisis in confidence. If I could not remember these simple things how the heck could I be trusted with the all important development of my children's learning? I mean if I screw up and don't bring a snack to Sunday pre-school, I get a couple of hungry cranky 3 year old's who will easily be soothed with a cookie and milk when they get home, BUT if I forget to teach my kids something they may be destined to wander the earth looking for the edge of it.
Second, the kids were terrible the end of last week and I began to doubt their ability to do this at home. I was giving them breaks on work (mostly for me) and then they were protesting more and more (I certainly learned that it does not help to cut assignments down without good reason). We weren't accomplishing much after our special day off on Monday and things didn't go smoothly after that. I was pretty tired and a wee bit overwhelmed (the puppies, while cute certainly take some time as well), a certain recipe for disaster.
Well, the good news is that the crisis has passed (somewhat) though I must say I have lost my faith in my memory completely and now am double checking everything. Over the past few months things have been going so well , it is not a surprise we had a rough patch. I know that there are going to be times that my kids are going to be grumpy and rebel against my teaching, I know that I will feel tired and cranky and yell at the kids and take my mood out on them. I know there will be days that we will soar and learn; and days we will fight and complain. I know that teaching is not only imparting knowledge but giving them the tools to find the answers on their own. I will soar with the joy that I feel when Jenny reads her stories to me and will still want to stick my head into the sand when they whine about how it is too hard and how they don't WANT TO DO IT ANYMORE!!! Overall, things really have been going well, I need to know that I shouldn't get mired down when we hit a few hiccups, it will pass.
So, we are having a lighter week this year and I plan to revamp a few things for after Thanksgiving and hopefully we will jump through to Christmas on a strong note. Now, if I could just find my recipe for turkey-.....
Happy Thanksgiving all.

Double Trouble

Oh my goodness we have puppies (Yes, more than one).  They are oh so very very cute. 

It has been 15 years since I have had a puppy and it is hard to remember how much time and energy they need.  But hopefully we will be able to put in the time (and energy) now, so they can turn out to be as good as our sweet boy Jake.  So…. what the heck were we thinking and why did we do this?

Our Lab Rescue Dog, Max has been having a great deal of difficulty for the past 6-9 months.  He had storm anxiety which was becoming worse and worse.  This week we had an incident where he got into a panicked state and ended up climbing on my 82 year old father-in-law (AKA Grandpa Bob) twice while the rest of us were out of the house.  He caused some (minor) injury to his arm and that made the decision for us.  We knew that despite our efforts to improve his behavior, it wasn’t getting better.  We had tried medication, behavioral training, aroma therapy (yes I had dog phernomes wafting through the house).  Not only had none of this worked but his anxieties were becoming worse and he was having these panic attacks even when there was no storm.  We made the very difficult decision that we had to relinquish him back to Lab Rescue.  It was a very hard and the kids were heartbroken but we did not want to take the chance that Max would hurt (inadvertently) one of the monkeys and now we had a real injury that couldn’t be ignored.  So we returned him with love and lots of tears, and a letter and the hopes that they can find him a home where he will not hurt anyone when he becomes panicked.

After a mere day in the house with no dog the house did not seem bearable, so, we set up some appointments for yesterday morning, and off we went. 

Well, we went to 2 places and we got two dogs, one from each place and cancelled our third appointment as we simply could not afford (or manage) a third.  They look like brothers but are actually 2 weeks apart.  We wanted brothers but they each had a sibling that looked different than they do and we liked their look so….

Anyway, the busy house just got busier and as for Grandpa Bob, he likes the new guys as well.

"It's too Hard; It's too Much; I Don't Want to Do It."

Well, I never thought it would be going so well but I must say I do get a bit of push back from the kids at various times. The top three complaints are detailed in the title of this post and the children are so able to attach a particular whine that makes the phrase stretch into next week all the while, driving a nail through my head. I have learned it is useless to try to convince them that it is NOT too hard, or too much and that I don't particularly care much about their motivation as long as the work gets done. So, I have adopted a rather novel approach which seems to work relatively well, I simply tell them "OK" and leave them be and move on to something else with someone else. Just like in a store when you walk away from the tantrum it miraculously stops. And likewise, these complaints dry up, tears stop, and eventually the books open up and work commences. I know that there will be a day where my bluff is called and then the consequences of 'no nothing' ( no TV, computer, video games, snacks, desserts, etc) until it is done will ensue as the day progresses but for now, the mere lack of an argument and the knowledge everyone else will finish and they will be left to keep working is enough pressure to bring them back to the table.
Today is a mixed day, we've had some resistance but are moving through our work very well. (Fingerprint Lab was a big hit) We have a few errands to run and the weather is too nice to be inside all day so I will toss them out in the backyard for a bit.
Then it is laundry time, I need to catch up on some I neglected over the birthday weekend. Its just that I don't want to do it....

Happy Birthday PapaSchnuck, Half a Century!

We have had a very busy week, Papaschnuck turned 50 on Friday.  Schoolwork, while completed and done fro the week definitely took a backseat to party and cooking preparations ( Luckily, its all good as that is the fun of homeschool). Lots of family and friends came to celebrate.  Despite a few hiccups (like losing my wallet the day before the party and the cake order getting mixed up), we had a great time and a lot of fun.  Good news,  3 of the 4 Schnuck  brothers were able to come and Grandpa and Grandma Schnuck arrived as well, add in a few friends and voila, we had a party.  Lots of work and lots of food and lots of fun.  And yes, I finally found my wallet.