Our week

This week our book tradition has been kind of lame.  It's been such a busy week that we haven't done very well at documenting what we've done or even reading a book every night.  I'm actually trying to remember all that we did.  We read Room for a Little One and then we decided that since the book is about the animals in the stable that we would do something nice for someone's pet.  One of our good friends has a dog that has been sick lately so we got some bones and gifted her dog bones for her dogs this Christmas.  We also read Christmas Morning (one of my favorites!) as we started our Secret Santa tradition last night (more on that later).  The other book we read was Bear's First Christmas.  We usually choose a baby in our neighborhood or ward who is having their first Christmas and give them a copy of the book with a note describing our favorite things about Christmas.  We took our book to church to give to the family we chose but they were not at church today so we will need to make a trip to their house this week.  We also participated in a cub scout service project but we still have to finish that this week.  

Besides that we had homeschool.  I took these pictures from last week.  I go through cycles where it seems like everything is going well and then it just isn't and I get discouraged and question why I'm doing this and we have to regroup and figure out how to make things work again.  This week was a regroup week.  We took things more slowly and realized that the boys really do need us to be very structured or things begin to fall apart.  This week we were pretty picky and strict about planners being written in and signed and school work being checked and subjects being reviewed, etc.  It is hard for me, especially when I am not very good at executive skills, to keep things so structured but every time I loosen up and let things be more free I find that the boys struggle in their work and we have to spend an entire week reviewing and going over skills,etc.  Homeschooling is hard!  I find that I really enjoy the freedom it brings us and that is also the same thing that drives me bonkers about homeschooling.  Bleh.

Last week we learned about the solar system so we studied planets and moon phases and constellations.  The boys loved doing art projects last week.  We also discussed how various constellations got their names and then I had the boys make shapes with their bodies and took pictures of them, then printed the pictures off and they made constellations out of their body shapes and for their writing assignment they got to write up stories about how their constellation got it's name.  They enjoyed that and came up with some fun stories.

Other things going on this week are Piper going potty and business stuff.  I have never done any really potty training with any of my kids.  I find that when I try to push them or do potty training that they fight against it and have accidents and such so I generally just let them do their own thing.  The boys potty trained themselves and were all potty trained before or right at three.  They were a breeze.  Piper has been going potty in the toilet for at least six months but any time I try to encourage her to be serious about it she refuses so I just keep letter her wear diapers and we cheer for her when she goes and don't make a big deal out of it.  This past week she has shown a lot of interest in going potty in the toilet.  I've had this chart on the fridge for months and months and a My Little Pony sitting on the fridge for her when her chart filled up and some days she would want to try to go potty to get a sticker but most days she just didn't care.  This week she got serious and decided she wanted that toy so she has gone pretty consistently.  I wouldn't say she is potty trained but if she keeps going at this rate she will be pretty soon.  She finally earned her toy and today went the entire day with a dry diaper (a first for her!).

Business this week has been busy and consistent.  Mike finished his finals and got his grades (he's got a 4.0!) so he was home this week.  He still has research but he has been working a lot of cutting things out and helping to ship things.  We had a lot of orders to fill this week and were able to get them all done.  Our last order ships out tomorrow and I'm grateful to be done with the Christmas rush.  This Christmas was way more smooth than last year.  We planned really well and had a good stock of things so we mostly just had to sand and box things up.  We got a last minute request for the Snowflake, AZ temple so Mike spent all Saturday designing and cutting it out.  It turned out awesome.  I am so impressed with his work on these temples.

Finally, our Secret Santa is going well so far.  The boys are terrible at keeping secrets and we pretty much all know who is doing what but we try to pretend like we have no clue.  I had to snap a picture of the funny "gift" I got from my Secret Santa.  It says, "Mom can have Dad do your laundry and help with school."  Ha, ha.  Poor Mike.  I got coupons like this last year where my Secret Santa would give me permission to make Mike do work for me.  Pretty tricky if you ask me.