Bbbrrrrr...

This has been a very cold week. We have entered into hibernation. I think we were home all day for almost 4 days straight and inside all day at that. Now I would expect it to be stressful with 3 kids inside all day, but by God's grace it has been wonderful! Maybe because I'm getting my stuff done and not stressed with having to go places, who knows.

One day we had 3 of Katy's kids over (the twins and Sarah); now that almost was a little stressful as they were hungry and tired and my house is no longer equipped for babies. But my twins arose to the ocassion and each were in charge of a toddler and twin while I fixed lunch. Canaan was mashing bananas for babies and washing hands of toddlers; Ruth was feeding a baby and bringing toddlers to the bathroom. It was amazing. I told them I'd pay them a dollar each and Ruth said, "Thanks Mom. But you don't have to do that." Obviously she doesn't understand the concept of money yet.

School has been better too. Don't get me wrong, we still have some behavior problems but by and large they are understanding that it's just something they have to do. We began a new phonics series by Rod n' Staff and we all hate it. It's traditional, boring and too fast and hard. I am moving Canaan to Spelling Workout A and keeping Ruth with R & S as she is ahead of him. I miss our Phonics Museum and wish I had bought the 1st gr. part to it; but I don't want to spend more money now, so they'll manage. We are loving Story of the World and made the Nile River this week. We also are studying the digestive system. I let them create their own systems and we measured 25 ft. with yarn to see how long the small intestines is. The fun stuff!

I bought (finally) The Well Trained Mind and am moving in that direction while still keeping hold of some Charlotte Mason style of learning. I really like the books for American History that LBC recommends. We finished Richard of Jamestown and Pocahontas. I am really learning so much. I love it!

Now I love the cold, but I do wish the temp would raise maybe 10 degrees so they could play outside. I think I'll just really bundle them up and send them out anyway. Might help if I'd get Canaan's coat from my sister's house though. That's part of the reason they're inside too. Oh well, make a fire in the fire pit.