Worth Salvaging?

This entire week, I've been unsuccessfully trying to rise us up from the ashes of... well, a variety of things - sibling discord, momma burnout, upper respiratory infections, too much fun, another mini-van fender bender, household chaos. Really par for the course, all of it, but it feels extra intense and overwhelming at the moment. My innermost desire is to stay in my pajamas, brew a cup of tea and get under the covers with a good, but not too good, book. But there is homeschooling to do, often an argument to mediate, and laundry, dishes and groceries and planning for dinners or not planning for dinners and then trying to improvise one from something like a lemon, a can of tomatoes and a carton of tofu. We're out of tamari (soy sauce) AND garlic which does not bode well for hastily improvised dinners. I hear the voices starting to rise upstairs. Would it be wrong to sneak out the back door until the argument subsides?

Lucy truly nailed our whole problem earlier this week. After a big tussle over who would get to jump on the rebounder (mini-trampoline), I got frustrated and left the room, saying I can't homeschool if they are going to argue constantly. Lucy came downstairs and said, but momma, you usually just remind me of something else fun I can do and that helps Jasper and I move on and stop fighting. And I realized what was different this week: not them, but me - that sweet momma groove of cheerful redirection is eluding me... Hopefully on its way back soon.

Lucy at 6 and 3/4 yrs old

This is Lucy who is so wise.

this and that

Nutcracker Prince, Tchaikovsky, Mouse King, you get the picture...


Not Lucy's usual reading material...

Back to nature. The sunshine sent us running outdoors to the secret garden for some frosty fun.

Back to Homeschooling

We've gotten back into as much of a groove with homeschooling as we're likely to get into for now. We have added lots more activities to the weekly schedule. After weeks of being virtually snowbound, I was eager to get out and about, and I think the kids were too, judging from the kinds of (mis)behaviors I was observing (being driven nuts by) . And then a week of musical stomach flu didn't help matters. But we did manage to paint our "town board" above- it was a group effort and it is going to be used for some school stuff with Lucy. Fun!

And now we're considering a couple mornings a week of preschool for Jasper, Lucy is in Northwest Girlchoir and will be taking classes in pottery, book-making, and drama in addition to circus. And we're going to do more Seattle Homeschool Group playing - we went to the Park Day today for the first time in a while and were pleased to see lots of familiar faces. I had nice conversations and Lucy got to play with other kiddos she is beginning to be friends with. Jasper just does his own thing but enjoyed the fresh air and exercise.

If you haven't ever watercolor painted in your jammies with a 3 yr old and a 6 yr old, I recommend it. Make yourself a cup of coffee first though (decaf for me these days).

Lucy made a doll and Rob made a carrot cake - yum!

Why We Go To Port Townsend

Here are some choice pictures from our trip to Port Townsend. I have not included shots of Jasper's bloody head after he took a tumble from the couch onto a coffee table on New Year's Day. One 911 call, one ER trip and one stitch later, we were back home enjoying the scenery. I"m glad we had all that R & R because since we've gotten home, I've had one, now two, kids down with good old gastroenteritis... stomach flu, my friends, ain't pretty. But Port Townsend was... We are quasi back to homeschooling as energy levels allow and will blog soon about that.