1) My dogs have a fun new habit. They do this as soon as anyone gets up out of their seat sensing opportunity. They know it is naughty. I don’t know what to do about it! They are clearly dumb since they never touch the open bag of dog food in the open pantry or dig through the garbage like normal dogs. They won’t even pee outside. They are total sissy cat-dogs. Don’t tell them I told you that.

2)In lieu of screens, my kids just homeschool all day “for fun”. They do craft projects with their baby brother. They listen to A Story of the World Vol. 4 on cd for *fun* tearing open the package that arrives from Amazon as if it contains the greatest Lego set in the world. Clearly, despite the home education, the boys aren’t all that swift either because otherwise surely they would be more openly hostile without their favorite video games, television and computer time. Intelligent or manipulative. One of those. Of course they were manipulative enough to stay up all night playing video games in their room, thus earning said restriction.

3)In lieu of homeschooling, my 4 year old throws huge tantrums that sound like “How will I EVER LEARN TO READ” screamed at the top of his lungs through sobs while throwing his body on the ground over and over. Why such a travisty? Noah was in a silly mood. I would ask him to sound out the letter “e” and he would respond “tree”. Cute. But not. So I canceled “school” for the day. You can do that when your kid is 4. I did give him a million “chances” and a serious lecture about just giving me a few minutes of his attention to no avail. But when I made good on it, his whole world fell apart. I wonder how long it will be before he stops seeing schooling as a privilege. My plan is never.

4) Childhood obesity’s hidden risk: standing on dresser drawers. Thank goodness I have a skinny lightweight. Otherwise the boy who used the dresser as a climbing gym today would have either broken the beautifully constructed natural pine drawers right off the drawer slides or he would have had the entire 4.5 foot tall 200 lb dresser plus large heavy tv plus dvr plus dvd player plus various dvds come crashing down on him. Or both. So add that to the list why childhood obesity should be avoided right along with increased risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and poor self-esteem. Or at least use wall anchors.

5) Boys without good small motor skills but great imaginations are a tantrum in the making. After fifteen sheets of colored construction paper and many tears of frustration, Noah finally asked if *I* would draw the cool creature in his head. Because I’m such a good artist – a fact every person in my home might quickly dispute. I’ve never had images of anything in my head in my life! Is this a disability? Do I have a disease?

6) Speaking of this, I was watching a recorded Primetime Medical Mysteries (because clearly my anxiety about all things medical needs further compounding) and found out about a disorder where people don’t recognize facial features. Like any good disorder or disease there is, of course, an online quiz. Which I failed. So if you see me walking by, don’t feel obligated to say hello. I won’t recognize you anyway!

Today is Back To School day. In our house that means hubby’s three kiddos go off to school and it also marks the day we officially begin homeschooling for our next school year (we casually homeschool throughout summer but now the big guns are drawn). Usually we do something snarky and fun to celebrate ‘not back to school’ day but I wasn’t in the mood today. Actually I wasn’t actually prepared to start homeschooling as of last night so I had to sort of scramble to make up schedules and agendas and goals for myself, the kids, etc. This year Dalton is in 7th grade, Teegan is in 4th grade and Noah likes to say he’s in Kindy I managed to pull off a great schedule for all of us, a new leaf turned over.

To mark this new leaf, hubby just happens to be out of the house every day for 2 weeks wrapping up with a 2 day trip out of town. Today’s first lesson: This is Mama’s House!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here’s what we got done today:

• I woke and started my new exercise routine and actually liked it!
• Had a light breakfast
• Waited and waited for Teegan to wake up at 10am (!!!!) to start homeschooling the bigger two boys.
• We did Saxon Math for both boys, journaling, spelling, Dalton did a paper on research, we started a geography project and also hung our huge map of the world and picked two countries from the Around The World quilt square swap we are in to locate on the map and learn about – Germany and El Salvador. This also led to a search for various countries (always begins with Vietnam) and then various flags (again with Vietnam). We did some Great Editing Adventure and each boy read an entire biography of a famous American Inventor (Thomas Edison and the Wright Bros, specifically). All of this in 3 hours!
• made HUGE lunch and ate
• homeschool Noah: we read a book, worked on reading (he read his first word – boy was he proud) and did some math tiles (patterning). Then we read another book on the Human Body which he then took and re-read to himself and begged a brother to let him read to them as well. I guess the body book was a big hit. Then he traced a bunch of letters, numbers and pictures in a sudoku book (don’t ask!).
• quiet time
• Daily cleaning: Tuesday = bathroom deep clean
• Nicki time That means checking email and blogging

And here we are. It’s only 4:30. I feel super productive and great about my day. Tomorrow we are doing a crime scene investigation and starting our writing projects. We I am particularily excited about the crime scene investigation now I’m off to Supper Thyme to make 12 meals for the next two weeks which is really fun and enjoyable for me. I don’t have to shop, chop or clean up! Woohoo!