I do believe I’m finally finding a rhythm in our school day. And just think! It only took three weeks! The first week I felt nauseated, ate little, had trouble sleeping, and had a horrendous backache. The next week, I had sleeping and eating issues, but no back pain. This week, no back pain, no eating trouble (sadly) and less trouble sleeping. I’m still having trouble getting up thirty minutes earlier so I have time to hit the gym – and clean up – before school. There’s something about getting up at 5:30 as opposed to 6:00 that just gets me. Hopefully I can make that adjustment soon, too. Especially since my appetite has returned. 😉

Here are some highlights from last week:

This is a collage of three photos of the pirate ship at our library. The children’s section is getting a much needed face lift. This ship is being built in honor of our wonderful Miss Heather, who died last May.

I hit an all-time distance and calorie burn record in thirty minutes on the elliptical. (But, since I didn’t get up at 5:30, I was about 15 minutes late starting school.) The best part was that I was able to walk out after this.

Our church sponsored a tent meeting to reach the Native Americans in our area. This meeting was a great success and isn’t over yet – a brand new church is being gathered to reach various tribes of Native Americans in our area. If you think of it, please pray for  the Lawton Indian Baptist Church! The Gospel isn’t just an important thing, it’s the main thing!

We began our year with high hopes for our math curriculum. I’ve used Saxon Math for four years and have been very pleased. We had planned on using Saxon again for Lauren’s Advanced Math and Mitchell’s pre-Algebra (Algebra 1/2). When Lauren attempted the Advanced Math, we realized a hard fact: we would have little time for other subjects due to the four + hours that she would be spending on math alone. After prayer and discussion, we decided to try Math U See for her geometry. I have used Math U See in the past for elementary and it just didn’t work. The pace was too slow. After watching sample lessons of this material, however, I think it will work well. Now, why am I switching Mitch? Well, that’s easy: I bought the wrong materials for him! I bought the wrong edition of the text book – or of the test book, answer key and CD Rom – whichever way you want to look at it. My cost would be the same whether I bought new materials from Saxon or Math U See, so we decided to let him use Math U See as well. He was having to spend a lot of time on math last year, so perhaps this will be quicker for him. A huge blessing in all of this was that I was able to sell our Advanced Math materials on Ebay and recoup some of my investment. An added blessing was that it sold in 1 hour! I have yet to determine what to do with Mitchell’s books. I suppose I will sell them, or some of them, in the future. All of this, no doubt, has been part of the reason for my high-stress level the first few weeks. We begin using Math U See tomorrow! {fingers crossed}

Here is a glimpse of what Matthew did last week:

In the first video, he is quoting his first poem of K5 from memory.

In the second video, he is quoting his memory verse for the week, Psalm 139:14.

When I played the video back for him, he said, “I sound like a child!” Oh boy, he keeps me laughing!

I have enjoyed a nice leisurely day today so far, for Labor Day. I have done laundry, written some notes, had lunch with my main man, and am about to write some lesson plans and a grocery list. I hope to squeeze in some reading, too. I’m currently reading To the Golden Shore, a biography of Adoniram Judson and When Comes the Spring, the second book in the Canadian West Series by Janette Oke. I read all of the Canadian West Series when I was a young teen, but Lauren’s great-grandma gave them to her so I’m enjoying re-reading them. I have always liked Janette Oke’s books.

Oh! Last week I celebrated – minus the actual “celebration” –  my 8th year of blogging. Hard to believe I’ve been rambling for that long…okay, so maybe it’s not hard to believe. 😉 By way of irrelevant information, this is my 1,193rd post on this blog.

Thank you for reading. Whether you’re a new visitor or an old friend, I’m so glad you’re here.

With love,