Highs and Lows

    Writing on a Saturday this week so I can remember what a good couple of weeks we've had. (Nevermind the 6th grade English/sentence diagramming that is hurting my brain.) We try to do highs and lows at the dinner table a few times a week. If we do it every night, it gets old and someone will say something snarky like, "My low was when my brother hit me in the stomach and now I have a bruise and I'm going to get him later."

    So here are our highs and lows from the last two weeks. The days go so fast and I forget to write here! 

Highs:

- Beautiful fall weather here in Kansas

The mornings are cool so we are happy to do school work until it warms up some. The afternoons are then perfect for going to a park, riding bikes to the library, or swinging out in the backyard. We've planted our tulip and hyacinth bulbs, and I'm trying to coax some grass to grow in our shady yard. My Mary garden still looks pretty; I'll hate to see the color go in a few weeks. Last week we took a drive with John to a local  lake after dinner to get some fresh air and see the sun set. 

- New Skills

I pulled the trigger and bought a small laminator for flash cards and other miscellaneous items in the school room. Nothing in the house is safe now because THAT is a fun little toy for Mom!

I'm also trying to teach the boys a few life skills this year since we have nothing but time and no reason not to. This week's lesson: button sewing. It was no small coincidence that I scheduled this activity for the day we visited Grandma, the queen of sewing. Even the 6-year-old got the hang of it. I was surprised how much they liked sewing. It definitely could have had something to do with the wielding of tiny little swords.

- Funnies

The first grader is an accidental comedian. He's a wiggly little guy with an active imagination: a perfect recipe for blog fodder.

That brown lumpy thing is supposed to be a "yam" in his Phonics workbook. Our general routine is for him to say the picture out loud, and he's pretty good at figuring out the pictures. This time, he didn't skip a beat as he announced that it was a "Robot Potato!" Before I could stop him, he'd added several arms and legs to his Robot Potato. LOL

One of his spelling activities this week was to write his spelling words on black paper with a white crayon. He got right to work with his words and as soon as I was distracted by a brother, he added his own Halloween flair to the page. It's a Halloween "BOOOOOB!!" And I'm definitely just realizing it now that he misspelled wet. 

- Visiting Grandparents

My parents live out in the country, a veritable paradise for four boys. After school on Thursday, we drove out to their house and spent a day outside with Grandma and Papa. Highlights were definitely the bonfire complete with hot dogs and smores and then the combine rides the following day. Corn harvest is in full swing in their area, so we hitched a ride with a friend of my parents' as he harvested one of his fields. On the days that I sometimes wish the boys were in an actual school building, I need to remember how amazing these little opportunities are for us as a family.

LOWS

Luckily we don't have many lows, and I wouldn't want to share too many uglies anyway. But, they do happen. 

- Motivation 

Mondays are hard for us. I snapped this pic of my 10-year-old suffering from a case of the Mondays.

And I found this gem under the 3rd grader's desk as I was straightening up the other day. I have no idea what he was referring to but I feel like my answer would definitely have been, "Yes, you have to. Also, the "d" should be capitalized and you need a question mark after 'to.'"

- 6th Grade English

Listen, I got a minor in English but I'm having to re-teach myself this stuff and it might kill me. Let's just say that my oldest and I are spending a lot of quality time together with this subject. 

Thanks for reading!