Mother’s Journal ~ June 15, 2012

Little Prince, Princess, and The Duchess “bonding” in the middle of the floor.

In my life this week…

We have had the pleasure of spending time with my brother and his family this week! They traveled a long way from the other side of the U.S. to see us and Drama Queen has literally been counting down the days, every single day, for twenty nine days before their arrival! It was well worth it. My kids love their little cousin, who we’ll call The Duchess, and I think she was pretty taken with them, too. =) Princess and Drama Queen both love to be “big sister” but it was Little Prince’s first experience with me repeatedly asking him to set a good example! I think he did well for a first try. We were all sad to see them go.

In our homeschool this week…

Here’s where I laugh hysterically. At myself. For still trying to do a little school while we had family in town. Silly mommy. ; )
We did accomplish something, though! We finished our history book (Mystery of History) and after a little bit of review we’ll consider that done for the year. We finished another chapter in our science book so we’re that much closer to being done with that one, too. And Princess amazed me by speeding through a whole TON of math! On her own initiative!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Are you planning a summer reading list? If you need some suggestions you should totally check out the Top Ten Tuesday linky this week! Many of them are top ten lists of favorite books!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

In addition to seeing my brother this week, we had the pleasure of seeing some friends in a dance recital over the weekend. On top of that, this was also an orthodontist week. Princess got some good news though — she’s almost finished with braces. ALREADY!! They’re making a few minor tweaks this month and if all goes well there won’t be anything left to tweak next month! She’ll spend a couple months more in braces after they stop moving teeth to let the teeth “settle in” and if that goes well (and there’s no regression) then we move from braces-land to retainer-land! Yay!! We’re all very excited!

My favorite thing this week was…

So hard to pick. Truly.
Watching my niece and kids play together. Chatting with my brother and sister in law.

 

Things I’m working on…

Oh my goodness.. where do I begin? Let me count the thousand ways…
~I’m about a third of the way through editing my ebook. Then there’s proofreading, formatting, photos, etc, etc. Phew!
~I’ve been busy this week so I haven’t been able to finish the cleaning binge I began last week. But we have been keeping the kids’ rooms cleaned and picked up and the school area tidy, and so on. We’ve done a pretty good job of keeping up with what we’ve already completed and we need to finish the rest of it over the weekend.
~We’ve been working on one specific bad habit this week: setting things down and not putting things away when we’re done with them. I’ve made a point to not only say “Put that back.” or “Throw that away.” (as I have always done) but a complete sentence that includes the thought process that we need to change. “When we have trash, we throw it away. Throw that away please.” “When we take off our shoes, we put them away. Put your shoes in your shoe rack please.” Now I’m switching to fill in the blank, “When we have trash we? _____” Guess what? Most of the time I don’t have to finish and most of the time they go do the fill in the blank without my telling them. HOW ABOUT THAT?? We’re going to keep working on this!

I’m cooking…

Oh my word I made the yummiest cookies and you’ll never believe what’s in them! These yummy cookies are gluten free, egg free and white sugar free. (OH YES THEY ARE.)

 

I’m grateful for…

Safe travel for my family. Fun times. Cool weather. Goodbye hugs from the little Duchess (and a painting she painted for me.) Laughs with my brother and his wife. Chocolate. Guacamole. (Not together obviously!) A dad who changes flat tires. A husband who replaces bad tires. A new mailbox (a HOUSE took out our old one. True story! They replaced it though.) =)

I’m praying for…

Wisdom and providence. It’s on my mind a lot right now. Pray that God leads the way, provides direction and resources.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

For more Homeschool Mother’s Journal posts head over

to the iHomeschool Network and browse around!

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

9 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chareen
Chareen
June 15, 2012 8:35 am

Popping over to say hello from the Homeschool Mothers Journal.

Gosh an e-Book ! How did you do that ?

I’ve been homeschooling for a long time and still fall into the trap of trying to homeschool when we have family come from far to visit. One day just maybe I will recall that that does NOT work.

Let me know when you slay the bad habit of putting down instead of away. We are working on that too 🙂

Hope you have a great weekend ahead.

Blessings

Amber
Amber
June 15, 2012 6:29 pm
Reply to  Chareen

Thank you, Chareen! I’m squeezing in a few minutes a day to work on the ebook. Slow going! But hey, it’s GOING. That’s better than I’ve done in the past….

Yes, we’re still working on slaying that bad habit but I am hopeful that we can at least improve it greatly. We’ll see. =)

Marlene
Marlene
June 15, 2012 8:55 am

soooo, how did a house take out your mail box? was this in one of the recent storms?

I am so excited for the “What’s in the Bible” Facebook party!!! We love their creations! :o)

Amber
Amber
June 15, 2012 6:26 pm
Reply to  Marlene

Someone was moving a house, a big house, down the road. Our mailbox didn’t survive. (No worries, they were very nice about it and bought us a new one!)

Judy @ Contented at Home
Judy @ Contented at Home
June 15, 2012 2:02 pm

Isn’t it wonderful when cousins can get together? I love watching my kids playing with their cousins!

I think it’s awesome that you’re working on an ebook–something I’d love to do someday! Between homeschooling and diaper-changing, I’m not sure if it will ever happen, though! 🙂

Amber
Amber
June 15, 2012 6:25 pm

I understand! I’ve been saying I was going to write something for YEARS. Probably at least six. But now that my youngest is.. SIX (<--coincidence? I think not)... I'm finally starting to see this through. =)

Jamie {See Jamie blog}
Jamie {See Jamie blog}
June 15, 2012 6:19 pm

Silly mommy. 🙂
It’s hard enough to do school when my husband is home; never tried with house guests!
And you’ve been busy, busy! And now have me craving some homemade cookies. 😉

Amber
Amber
June 15, 2012 6:24 pm

Haha! No, we didn’t actually have company here at our house.. they were at my mom’s so we tried to do school and then head over to my mom’s to visit. But trying to get the kids to focus? Notsomuch. Not when they knew there was a cousin to go visit and play with. =p

Sharla
Sharla
June 15, 2012 10:10 pm

So glad to hear that you had a good visit with your brother and his family! I love the idea of putting it in full sentences instead of just “put that away” or pointing at the misplaced object. I am going to give it a try.

All the best to you on your ebook. I know that when mine was at that point of putting on the finishing touches, it was a lot more work than the actual writing of it! But you’ll get it done and it will be worth it.

9
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x