State of the Household Address

It is Sunday afternoon, and the little ones are in the basement with Daddy watching football, throwing balls, rolling cars, and/or playing on the computer. (Yes, Finley is a computer whiz. More on that later.) Reanna is with her mom for the weekend. I am in our finished-out-attic-space bedroom, as far away from the rest of the family as possible and still be in the house, for a little peace and quiet. Allow me to zone out for a minute....

(pause)

Ah. That was nice.

I have been operating in that constantly overwhelmed state of being that most mothers slip into now and again. Perhaps it is all perspective. I am too tired to figure it out, though. And honestly, the hardest part, and one of the contributing factors is that disjointed lack of ability to concentrate fog that hovers around my head. That last sentence didn't make any sense. Whatever. Can Omega-3s clear this fog? I'll move on. (I sound like president Bush, don't I?)

Back to the State of the Household. Perhaps if we take it point by point...

1. Reanna/School. Going well, I think. I line out two or three weeks of work in advance for Reanna, and she does the work. Not too exciting for either of us, but I think it is working. I am sure that most of the the stuff she is reading in History and Science is not going to stick, but I haven't felt too concerned about that. After all, I didn't need to know most of that info, and forgot a lot of the dates, places, people, and scientific jargon over the years. Most of the time, she works ahead of schedule, which allows her free time later in the week.

I am a little discouraged Reanna doesn't get too much hands-on/real-life learning, but I don't have the time or energy for what I would consider ideal. For the most part, I try to look for teachable moments outside of the books that relate to her studies. In science, she is beginning to study the animal kingdom (I think), so we went outside to the compost bin where a huge garden spider has woven her web. I caught some bumblebees that were flying nearby, and forced them into the spiders web. Finley and I enjoyed watching her wrap up the bee in her webbing and inject it with poison. Reanna was fascinated, but I don't think she would admit to enjoying the spectacle. She has taken to baking a weekly batch of cookies. She experiments with the recipes and allows Finley to 'help' her.

We joined a group that has scheduled field trips for every Friday of the school year. We went rollerskating a few weeks ago. Although there were so many kids there and it was impossible for a newcomer to actually meet anyone, Finley and Reanna enjoyed themselves. Finley was fearless in her little plastic Barbie skates. She went right out into the middle with the big kids all on her own after Reanna had skated with her for a while, and picked herself right back up after falling several times. Reanna won a glowstick necklace in a contest.

2. Finley. In an attempt to keep Finley occupied when Reanna needs help, I let her draw on the white board. I have learned to make her wear an old t-shirt of mine in order to avoid marker stains on every piece of her clothing. I recently realized that if Finley is to learn to read, she will also need to know lower-case letters, so I introduced those to her last week. I hope I don't confuse her too much.

I have been a little concerned about her interest in TV. If she gets bored, she like to ask if she can turn on the TV. Most of the time I tell her 'no.'

Finley also loves to play computer games. Once the computer is on, she knows to click on my name to log in. She then will click on the 'e' to get on internet explorer. (I am thankful she can't type yet.) I help her pull up the pbs-kids website, where she maneuvers all over the website playing the different games. In one game, she has to pick out the requested letter in order to help build a wall to keep the big, bad wolf out of the house. In another, she helps Cookie Monster sort fruits and vegetables into different colored bins and learn about the food in the process. Amazing. A useful tool... in moderation.

3. Joe. He threw his first full-on tantrum this Friday, complete with flopping on the ground, almost-throwing-up-I'm-crying-so-hard crying, and resulting snuffing. All because Mama wouldn't stand and hold him. Mama wanted to sit down. Apparently, that's not okay.

Joe is also an extremely picky eater. I wonder if he has some food allergies. He refuses cookies, peanut butter, mayonaise... No sandwiches, no rice, no meat. He subsists off smooties with vegetables snuck in, bagels (with cream cheese), apples, bananas, grapes, cheese, beans, and pasta.

And I love hearing him learn to talk. If you haven't seen the latest video, click here.

4. Misc. I am beginning to wonder if it is possible to have more structure around the house... It seems that if I could work up a sort of schedule for the kids (especially for Finley), that might alleviate some of the 'games' Finley and I play. 'Can I go outside?' 'Not right now.' ' Can I paint?' 'Not right now.' 'Can I watch Mr. Rogers?' 'He's not on TV.' ... (Shyla?)

I remember once after Finley was born, I decided I would make a cleaning schedule. I worked it out so that I would do laundry certain days, vaccuum certain days, and detail clean one room every week, so that the whole house would have a good cleaning every month. I didn't make it through the first week. I sweep under the kids' beds when the fuzz is about an inch thick and creeping out into the hallway.

5. Chris. He works hard most days, packs his own lunch, cleans the kitchen every night, and rarely complains about my movie picks. He's a good man.

6. And though there are only a few of you that I have let know the details, I have been working on a little book. I am excited about it. It is a concept I have carried around in my head for two years, and finally started on the artwork for it in July. Woohoo!

So there. It's hard work, but we're gonna stay the course.