What a Wonderful Morning!

It's cold this morning, but dry and breezy. Another laundry day! I got to visit with Gram and Aunt Linda a bit before breakfast. We're so looking forward to their trip out in April! Aunt Linda said she'd be happy to help James plant flowers, and that absolutely made his day when I relayed the news. Then Smidge brought me a book and climbed in my lap. That's all it takes to redirect my attention. We sat and snuggled and laughed our way through Old MacDonald Had A Farm. (This should never have been made into a book. It must be sung, and the children don't like to hear me sing. Who made this into a book???)

The boys are enjoying big mugs of yogurt and hot, buttered toast, while I take a break from hanging the wash and reading to Smidge. When they're done, we'll work out in the yard some, then come in for hot chocolate and stories. We enjoy productive days we can spend together. Days in the car aren't so much fun, but days at home, working and tending, have become quite joyful.

Then it's down to the basement to find our math blocks. It's time. (It's past time, but we've made do pretty well without them thus far.) I've found the videos and the workbooks, but have yet to find the blocks. (Where's the adventure of packing them all in the same box? Organization is for wimps.)

The boys' lessons are going well. I haven't blogged much about the homeschooling, as it's just a part of each day. That's how it goes sometimes. Not every schooling day contains an "ah-ha" or a "eureka". Math, reading, history, Bible, nature walks and read-alouds. It's good, but makes for dull blogging (yeah, like our stove issues make for riveting reading...) I'm digging around for some good memory work, and hopefully I'll find our Latin materials today while we're working in the basement.

I've been trying to convince Zorak to bring up one of the big bookcases to hold the schooling materials, but bringing more stuff upstairs before the house is done just isn't high on his list of Things He'd Like To Do. It ranks right up there with starting over on the house, and having to listen to small children chant songs on CD. So I think today I'll just bring up a little one. Library books on top, school books on the shelves. That'll do nicely, and won't require a ton of heavy lifting and hauling when the time comes to finish the school room.

Oh! We've made a change of plans on the order of things, too. When we finish the master bedroom, we're going to do the foyer next, rather than the fourth bedroom. It's the initial visual impact. And it smells like dog. So, Balto gets a dog house outside and we get a nice foyer. This is good for our mental state, as well, because now the finished (and lovely) walls of the dining room frame the nasty foyer and act as a focal point of Ugly. We made the switch in plans as much out of practicality as out of mental health. The more we finish, the worse the old parts look. This will be great, and leaves us with only the fourth bedroom and the school room to do before the WHOLE HOUSE will have been redone. Not bad. Not bad, at all.

Hmm, I hear giggling. There should be no giggling when you have yogurt in front of you. I'd better go round them up and redirect a little bit. Have a lovely Wednesday! And as always, kiss those babies!
~Dy