Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Day with the Boys

Well, I thought I might try just writing about today.  I have other things I still want to add, but maybe it would just be easier to do a little bit more often.  We'll see.  I really need to learn how to upload/download pictures from my camera myself which would make this much easier.


Today, Rebecca went to work with her Daddy.  She was scheduled to go a couple of places with her bracelets to sell.  (For anyone new to my blog, you can read more by clicking on Wholehearted Bracelets in my sidebar.  In a nutshell, Rebecca has been making and selling bracelets to raise money for babies needing heart repair.  She started this shortly after Eliana was born.  She has donated all of the money to Duke Children's Hospital.)  She will be making another donation soon to Duke during their big radiothon.  We'll be doing a short interview similar to last year on Feb 12th.  If anyone is interested in purchasing a bracelet before this date - please email me or just post on here.  We'd love to send one to you. 


With my morning helper gone, I wasn't sure how the day would go.  She helps soooo much and often lets me get a little more sleep.  I went to sleep early which was a good thing.  Eliana had a rough night last night.  Her little bottom is red and obviously hurting - though I'm not sure why.  She woke a couple of times crying (and I think this was the cause). 


My first glimpse of morning was when Daniel came in EARLY to tell me that the playroom door was locked.  I knew that - I locked it after they'd gone to sleep.  I had been trying to clean/organize the room and having it open just invited help that ... wasn't all that helpful, if you know what I mean.  Thankfully, he left quietly and I slept a bit more with Eliana beside me.  She woke up soon after and played in my room for awhile. 


When I got up, I decided we needed to make the most of the day.  (Actually this was probably decided the night before from reading some posts on the FIAR board.)  We all got up and had breakfast, did a little cleaning and then started with our schoolwork.  I wanted to see if we tried to stay on task (all of us - including me) if we could make good progress.  We did!!!


The 3 younger boys got almost all of their schoolwork done before lunch time.  It's amazing what having a free morning will do for you!  (We've had morning therapies for each of the last three days.)  I think this was our most productive day of the week so far!  :-)  I was very encouraged.


What made a difference?  Well, me staying off the computer except for short times while giving Eliana a morning bottle.  If I can stay focused, it really helps everyone else to do the same.  When I wander off (to read the computer), they do as well.  I knew that with one of my helpers gone, that I couldn't afford to be a slacker today.  I also think it helped to have a couple of extra hours in today that we haven't had on M, T or W.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for our therapies.  I think that they are incredibly helpful and am very glad to have this benefit.  They do make schooling a little more challenging though!


So, what did our day look like?  We started with morning devotions.  Nothing calm and quiet - we did have 4 boys and one very active little girl in the room.  I do like starting our day though focusing on and talking about God. 


Next, Daniel did his listening therapy, Joshua and Isaiah did seatwork (math, handwriting, research) and Christopher and Eliana played.  Then we would switch off with each person having some time to play with Eliana alternated with working.  For our unit studies, J and I are doing Cowboy  Charlie, a true story about Charles Russell.  Joshua read an extra book on the Wild West today to go along with our lesson and they watched a movie this evening too.  Daniel is "rowing" the Snowy Day.  Christopher is working on various things - Uncle Eric studies on government, Movies as Literature (writing a paper), geometry, etc.



Eliana took a long nap after lunch (which was nice since her night was a short one).  While she napped, I worked on puzzles with Daniel (as part of his Little Contenders work), started supper, did various other work with the boys, did some laundry and cleaning too.



Tonight a friend came over and helped me start tackling the playroom (again!).  We visited a fabulous children's museum last week and seeing the centers there really made me want to do something similar in our  playroom.  It was so much fun to play in these areas - and so easy to clean it up to since everything had a neat and labelled place to go.  I've bought some things to help organize.  A girl can dream right?


Well, that's it for our day.  Tomorrow should be another slower day.  We have no place to go and no therapies.  Hopefully it will be another fun and productive day.


Blessings,


Leslie

7 comments:

  1. Staying off the computer seriously makes my day go twice as good!!! Especially if i stay off in the morning!! Sounds like you all got alot of school and what not done today.


    Your fridge is awesomely loaded with magnets!! Do they have a special purpose?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been catching up on your blog posts this morning. I love all the pictures of family, friends, SNOW!!! :o)

    Congratulations on leading another little one to Christ-I'm sure that makes your heart sing.


    And I'm waiting for pictures of the new and improved playroom....in time. :o)


    Take care!

    Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  3. To get my blog into google reader go to my right hand sidebar, scroll down until you get to the orange feed logo, if you click on it a "subscribe to my feed" page will show up...and then click "Add to google reader". You can also subscribe for email updates (just scroll a tiny bit more and input your email, you'll get nightly updates)


    Hope that helps!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great day! I love to read posts like this. It was also a kick in the pants for me because I'm needing to get off the computer more and be more focused. I've let that slip the last few days.


    The bracelets are beautiful! Our youngest has had brain surgery twice at Duke and we are always supportive of Duke Children's. That and Ronald McDonald Houses!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes - we do have a lot of magnets! A lot of them are from our travels. We purposefully travelled our state for 3+ years and bought a magnet at each site we visited. (Plus some from out of state too.) It's just a fun thing we do as a family.


    There are also magnets that are toys (leap frog fridge magnets), mirrors (Eliana loves this one), craft projects (Bible verses, scrapbook frame, etc.). The right side of the fridge is covered - almost. lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd love to see what you are doing with the playroom. Will you post some pictures when it's done?


    BTW, I'm advocating for a new RR boy, Peter. He has PH just like Ralph. Breaks my heart that I can't just go get him!!


    Much agape,


    Stephanie

    www.ralphcrew.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stephanie - I'll definitely post pictures. I should have taken a before as that would have really wowed everyone - NOT!!! It was the most colossal mess! Continually.


    Still working and hoping to make some progress soon.


    Will pop over to your blog to check out your post. My heart is continually on these little ones too. Praying and praying and praying for these precious children to come home!

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from friends!!! Thank you for taking time to leave a comment!