Weekly Wrap-Up, Week 6ish

We actually only did school work for 2 days this week, but it was still week 6 so here we go!

We enjoyed the rest of our weekend with Hubby's brother.  We love the people at the congregation we were at and so that was also fun seeing all of them again.  And Arkansas is beautiful so we enjoyed being in the "country" and seeing the beauty of God's creation.

Sunday afternoon after a lunch and early afternoon service we got packed up and headed to my brother's which we will call The Farm from now on.  I have too many brothers to try to explain which one they are every time I mention them.  The brother and sis-in-law on The Farm are the ones with a daughter that is 6 months younger than #4.  Anyway, my brother raised and butchered a pig that we helped pay for some of the costs so we had a bunch of pork waiting for us there.  I thought it would take us longer to get to their place so we arrived in enough time to go to their evening services.  We weren't planning on attending church again so we were all in our travel clothes, but I think God knew our hearts.  We enjoyed seeing our family, even if it was only for a few hours.  I continue to be thankful that we are close enough to my brother and his family that we are comfortable crashing at their place any time.

Monday morning we headed home.  Once we were home and got the car unpacked we immediately piled back in the car to go shopping for a new washer.  I had done the research and knew which one I wanted, but I wanted to look at it first and make sure.  It was everything I thought it would be so we went ahead and bought it.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I wasn't prepared for it to take several days for the washer to come in.  Regardless, it didn't come in until Thursday.  Hubby got it all hooked up and I started washing clothes immediately.  Two weeks without doing laundry meant we were all getting low on the pants we had left to wear!  Ha!

Out with the old

In with the new

Tuesday was a cloudy, rainy day and I did not want to do school at all!  But I pushed through and we got everything done.  Since I knew that we were only doing school work for two days I didn't attempt IEW and just did language arts with the older two again.  We started in the middle of the IEW book with #2 this year so I think I'm going to start back up with #1 on her IEW book next week even though that makes about 4 weeks between papers for #2.  She has less to get through than #1.  I continue to be impressed with #1 and #2 and how they are getting their independent work done.  They are still getting done by Wednesday with everything usually.  #2 is more apt to stop working about an hour before lunch, but she sits down in the afternoon to finish what she needs to get done.  And now that we're 6 weeks in, they have taken several tests and proven that they are retaining the knowledge of what they are working on by themselves.  Very proud of them!  #3 seems to having a problem grasping the concept of reading to herself.  She is so used to reading to me that when I mention reading on her own she looks like she doesn't understand what I'm asking!  We're starting the Book-It program next month though and I'm hoping that will prompt her to read on her own since I won't be letting her count the books that she reads to me.  Mainly so that she'll have to read on her own!

Random sculpture outside of Stennis Space Center

Thursday we went on a field trip--our first one since May.  We had a lot of fun.  So much so that I'll have an entire post just about the trip!  And #3 lost another tooth.  I don't know how many she's lost.  Hubby tried to convince her that she only got 50 cents for her tooth since she's lost so many, but she was having none of that.  $1 it is!

Today was spent shopping and cleaning.  We're having about 35 people from church over here tomorrow for a Mystery Dinner.  More about that next time.  I don't want to give anything away!  Right now we're getting ready for family movie night.  Dessert is this--caramel covered chex.  It is really good!

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Daddy of Girls

I wanted to share a conversation Hubby and I had this morning so y'all can get a glimpse as to why I love this husband of mine so much.

As Hubby was getting ready to go mow our lawn I told him he ought to take #1 and start teaching her how to mow the lawn.  I never grew up mowing our lawn when I was a kid, but then I had four brothers as well.  Now, I'm all for the "traditional" roles of men and women when it comes to what the Bible says our roles should be, but as for "the men should take out the trash and mow the lawn while the woman cooks and does laundry" mentality, neither hubby or I think that way.  Not that I'm not happy to have him mow the lawn while I do the laundry, but we do it because that's what we've decided works best, not because anyone else thinks that's how we should do things. 

So imagine my surprise when Hubby answers me by saying that he doesn't need his girls to mow the lawn for him.  I laughed and told him that even if he didn't need the help it would probably be a good life skill for them to have. 

At which point he comes back into the room he had just left to put his shoes on and told me that if his daughters have husbands who won't mow their own lawn then they (he and said husbands) were going to have problems. 

I laughed again and said that I was talking more about if our girls were ever out on their own and had their own lawn to mow.  To which he raised his eyebrows and said that that is when they would call their Daddy to come mow the lawn for them. 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Daddy of girls in a nutshell.  And now I'm off to eat dinner cooked by Hubby and #2.  He mows and cooks!  I'm proud that he's all mine!

Mother's Day Surprise

It's been a long time since I've lived close enough to my Mom to actually be with her on Mother's Day.  Which is a bummer because I am extremely grateful to have her as my Mother,  but since becoming a Mom almost 11 years ago, I've been able to celebrate the fact that I'm a Mom now.  It really is the greatest job in the world!

I've been told I look a little like my Mom!

Unfortunately, Hubby is out of town today and has been for a week.  So even though he ordered some flowers and chocolates for me, he wasn't here today to take me out to dinner or anything.  Not to worry, I was planning on taking myself out!  Until my darling girls informed me this morning that they were going to take me out to lunch.  You might smile at this, thinking that I would have to give them money to take me out, but that is not the case.

We give our girls an allowance every month.  $1 for each year of age.  They take money out for tithing and savings, and then the rest they can do whatever they want with it.  We use the envelope system for them so they always know how much they have, but they don't actually have to keep track of it.  The thing is, they very rarely spend their money.  When we first started giving allowances they spent it pretty quickly.  But it didn't take long for them to realize that spending all they had immediately on junky toys or things that didn't keep their interest long wasn't satisfying for them. So now they save their money until they have something they really want to buy.  Plus, about a month ago the girls all cleaned the church building and got paid for it.  Half of what they earned they put into our Disney fund, but the other half went into their spending money.  So when they said they wanted to take me to lunch I knew they had plenty to cover everything.

So we went to my favorite restaurant where I was told to order anything I wanted.  Then we ordered fried ice cream which is one of my favorite desserts.  (Dessert was on #3.  She doesn't have quite as much money saved up as her sisters!)  They weren't even going to let me look at the check, but I informed them that I needed to help them figure out a tip.  They had even thought to get their money and bring it with them, so they proudly pulled the money out of their wallets and paid for our lunch.

And I am very proud of them.  They knew taking me out for mexican food would be one of my favorite things to do.  They planned and executed everything just the way they needed to.  I feel special and loved knowing that they were willing to spend their hard earned money that they've been saving on me.  So today, on Mother's Day, I'm thanking God for giving me four of the best girls He ever created!