This week--stamina

Overall this week was pretty good.  I spread the kids work out to fit in in 4 full days of work with one day to finish whatever we didn't get to in the 4 days.  The problem is that right now is that we are commuting 1 hour to church and homeschool events.  The weeknight activities are not too bad except they take away from my cleaning time which has to happen in order for us to able to get started in the morning so I have to do it and then I'm a little tired and cranky.  But the really hard one is our Friday morning homeschool group-- I love the ladies in it and the kids are all nice and the activities have been good, but in order to make the drive worthwhile and in attempting to save time I do my weekly grocery shopping afterwards and take #4 to his eye appt. down there.  We have to leave by 7 or 8 a.m. depending on when I decide to schedule the eye appt- before or after -- we then get home at 3 or 4 or 5 p.m. and the last thing any of us wants to do is schoolwork or piano lessons after we've carried in all the food, been in the car and in the store and it's Friday.  So we pretty much lose a whole day which wouldn't happen if we only lived 15 min. away because we'd just come home and finish up whatever we needed too instead of going on a monster shopping trip.  As a result nobody finished everything this week and science and piano lessons once again fell to the back burner for the girls.  The boys got their lessons and science discussion, but not the girls.  It just may take more stamina than I have to get those things done.  Also, the girls got all their algebra, latin and piano practicing done, but they did not finish their easier assignments like journaling, required reading, and workbooks. 

I really wish we could move sooner. We haven't even started on our house yet-  the builder's agent has said each day that he would have the bid ready and we still don't have it.  It is so hard to wait, and it is so hard to commute- but there really isn't anything for us up here anyway-- we'd have to commute either way, so I guess I can happily and patiently wait.  Each day needs to be savoured and enjoyed, but I would like to move.

Anyway,  we did have group time each of the 4 days and "boy time" - younger kids stories, history and science 3 days this week.  That was pretty fun.  After our long break from Spanish we reintroduced it and I think the kids finally realize they can say stuff.  Our new stake has a Spanish ward and when we move out there I would like to get involved and find opportunities to speak Spanish with real people.  I think I know how to teach Spanish now and I think the kids will continue to learn more especially if we can find some opportunities to use it.

Also our new electric piano keyboard and colorful ukeleles came this week.  The four older kids are all going to take the ukelele class we signed up for.  The teacher is awesome and has some really great music.  I'm glad everybody is excited about it.  The kids love the keyboard, especially my oldest.

Soccer is over so we got a lot of much needed cleaning done in the yard.  I have been throwing away all sorts of random things instead of trying to put them away-- it just takes too long.  It feels good to get rid of stuff in my way making my life difficult.  I wish it was easier for me to do so, because most the time I don't, but I think that will have to change just like I don't really naturally like to clean, but I do it because otherwise I can't do the things I need to.  I will get there.  It's easier now too, because I know we'll be moving soon.  I love having full trash cans!

So that's that.  School ran pretty smoothly, we just need to be even more organized, start earlier and endure to the end-- keep going til we finished.  I think I burned out a little early this week just cause I wanted to clean instead of teach.  I need to keep my priorities in mind and make sure I teach instead of clean in the morning.  But I know we are on the right track even if we are moving slow, and that just may be the case until we can move and not have to spend so much time on the road.