Art lessons and General chaos.

So lately we have been so busy it's like we are swimming upstream with our pants full of rocks and not in a good way. Let's see we have the kids engrossed in school, Hubby working more hours, Mrs. F's daycare open for business, Youth activities once a week for 4 of the 5 broodlets, Science experiments, music lessons,art lessons, reading reading reading, Not to mention the daily chores we all love. I still haven't been able to open my business, funny thing about capital is that you have to have it and spend it to be able to run a business. It seems like there are so many more important things that need our money and my business just is not a priority.

Farty Papa is still loving the job. He talks about retiring there and how he hopes the salary will be one that we can live on comfortably and enable him to do just that. We are just hoping for good things when he meets with the Big Boss in a couple of weeks.

We don't hear much from Textman anymore. He is 16 with a job and a girlfriend , not to mention he doesn't get much encouragement to visit us from his "other" family. Me being an evil stepmother and all. *sigh*

Miss Teenage Argumenative is up to her eyeballs in school and work and she is struggling with balancing the two. So much so that she had to have some disciplinary help this past week which she was not at all thrilled with. I am hoping that she will soon be able to juggle both and be successful but FP and I told her squarely that if she can't find a happy medium she won't be able to continue with her job. School comes first. She is loving her social life right about now though. I love that she has BFF's now. She was never able to have that when we lived so far from civilization. Aka Minnesota. So aside from a minor setback regarding scheduling her time she is doing well and seems to be as normal a teenager as a teenager can be normal. Heaven help us.

MacGyver2 has discovered he loves to read. It is an amazing thing when a child discovers that love. I checked in on him tonight and he was zonked out in his bed with his Dads' flashlight on and a book butterflied on his chest. Yay Leven Thumps! He is currently between two books. Harry Potter 1 and Leven Thumps. So now I need to find study guides for both to enable him to use them as his literature picks for school. I am thrilled that he is loving school and his desire to read makes life in the schoolroom so much better for him and for me. YAY!

Sketch has just blossomed this summer. He is still timid when asked to read out loud but his reading comprehension is awesome. His writing is better as is his spelling and he continues to improve daily. He discovered he actually likes to read. He hates to write. LOL. He is intimidated by spelling and how the english language just isn't spelled how it sounds. So we are just reinforcing his spalding phonics and the rules and keeping the pressure off of him as best we can. He loves math , art and science. He and his brother Walker TR were thrilled to find out that we are having an art major friend of mine come in once a week and teach the children art and music. I think we are all excited about that.

I love the idea of outsourcing some of my lessons. It takes the pressure off of me to provide the inspiration for art projects and lessons and allows me to let someone else help out. My friend is excited to come do this and the kids love the idea that someone other than Mom is going to teach them. Iv'e decided that I am going to investigate homeschool co-ops in my area and see what they have to offer. Who knows what will come of it but maybe they have curriculum at a discount . I am a self professed curriculum junkie.

Moving on to Walker TR. He is probably the most excited about school next to Superman ( who isn't officially IN school yet.) He is the first one up everyday and he eats breakfast before the rest of us bleary eyed suckers can even say good morning. It was funny , the other day WalkerTR was eating cereal when I came out, he said a chipper good morning and proceeded to say" I'm eating now so I don't have to worry about it later when we start school" LOL! It should be noted we eat breakfast everyday and it is in no way a special occasion. I just grinned and refrained from telling him that he was SUPPOSED to have breakfast before school and that is how we have always done it. Excitement tends to make one take leave of their senses temporarily and none more that Walker TR. Two days ago he was really sorry he ate his breakfast before Mom got up. Mom made dutch babies with ham. Needless to say he had two breakfasts that day. He makes me giggle.

Superman was THRILLED to "do school" He learned the letter one and two and colored an octopus. He got to write on his dry erase board and "read" a book or two. He liked silent reading time. I think he felt big like the other kids. He continues his infatuation with Little Miss Princess and its a good thing. For now. LOL.

I think that wraps it up for the family. I didn't really update about me but honestly im just trying to keep up with these freaks. I love my freaks.

More later
Mrs. F