Our week

When I posted on Monday, I was having that crazy, busy, woke-up-at-4:30am-day.  And as exhausted as I was, it was kind of nice to have gotten up so early.  Things were accomplished.   We went to the church softball game--it's such a nice time of fellowship.  Here's a couple of pics of Steve:

 

And he's off....

Tuesday, I was up bright an early again.  It's amazing how much laundry one can get done before the kids are up. LOL  Sue came over with her kids around 10am, so that we could go walking.  As it gets warmer, the walking has to take place earlier!  We did our usual hour, and then a kid swap.  I had the boys this week (they're the older kids), so I was able to run to the grocery store while they played Bionicles.

Steve worked late on Tuesday, so the kids and I had a casual dinner.  Not that we're fancy on any other day of the week, but when Dad's not home, it's more like every man for himself! 

Wednesday I was up early again!  The kitchen floor got washed, laundry was hung out on the line...the day was off to a great start.

Maddie had a bit of a rough time with her math, though.  It wasn't pretty.  The fact is, Maddie, while being a fabulous kid, with an amazing number of wonderful qualities, is not a scholar.  Reading is not fun, although she's getting much better, and she just doesn't "think" mathematically like her brother and sister.  And, if I can say this without sounding like an insufferable git, I was REALLY good at school in general.  Schoolwork came very easily to me, and honestly?  It makes it harder for me to understand how in the world basic long division could be this much of an issue.

One of Maddie's problems seems to be recall.  When she was learning to read, it was the same way.  You'd sound out a word with her 5 times, and then she'd see the word, and have to sound it out again.  It's like her brain never said, "Hey, this word looks familiar!"

And that was what was happening with the long division.  Same process, 20 times.  And each time, it was a struggle for her to grasp what came next.  She was crying, I was getting upset--mostly frustration.  How do I help this kid?  She still doesn't know (KNOW know) her math facts, and I was thinking I was going to have to completely change her math curriculum, and put her back into basic addition!

Those of you who know Maddie, know that the one thing she doesn't like is CHANGE.  She cried when her sister got glasses, because she looked DIFFERENT.  Sigh.  So when I mentioned perhaps getting her a different curriculum, she lost it.  Ay yi yi.  More on this in a moment.

Wednesday night was a nice family night.  (I think? LOL LOL)

Thursday was Steve's day off.  He and I headed out for an hour long bike ride (I had already been up early, doing <shocking> laundry and dishes).  Then we went to visit my mother-in-law in CT.  She needs a hip replacement, and is in a considerable amount of pain, so we didn't stay too long.  We don't get to see her very often, just due to crazy schedules.  She lives with Steve's brother and his daughter.  Their house is--and honestly, I'm not trying to be mean here--very dirty.  Stale smoke, lots of clutter, general messiness, gross bathroom.  It's kind of always been like that.  And it really grosses Steve out.  If we lived closer, I'd offer to come clean once in a while.  But we ended up stopping at a McDonald's on the way home, just to wash our hands and faces.  We got lunch, too.  We all changed our clothes once we were home, and they went straight into the laundry.  Sigh.

Once home, I put Steve to work.   Do you have hardwood floors?  Y'know how you need to put little felt pads on the bottom of the chair legs?  And they're always coming off?  Or getting dirty looking? (Cat hair is wonderful with those things.)  Well, ours needed to be replaced, and Steve had said that he would do it.  I reminded him, "You have to actually clean/wash off the bottoms of the chair legs, so that the sticky felt pads will adhere correctly."  Well, he didn't think the cloth (or whatever) was doing a good job, so this is how he cleaned them:

That's right, he SANDED the bottoms with a power tool. LOL

Then he went out to wash my car--what a treat:

Don't you love my sweet ride?

The kids were being silly--here's some pictures I took:







On Thursday night, I had a director's meeting in CT.  Lots of fun and good food (Supreme Banana Split Cake--Oh my).

Yesterday I was up at 5:45--let me tell you, this getting up early is catching up with me.  I was TIRED last night.  Of course, if I went to be earlier, that might help.

I went out for a bike ride before Steve left for work.  On the way home, I saw a big snapping turtle.  It had dug a hole, and was sitting in it.  I immediately called Steve on my cell phone (he had seen the turtle before, and told us about it), and told him to get the kids and their bikes.  I was very close to our home, so it wasn't a long ride.  What a fun way to start our school day!  Which went well--Maddie sat down and zipped through her math like nobody's business.  Who is this girl?  And if she's my daughter, who was sitting here crying about math on Wednesday?????





 Note that Eli is still in his cammo pajama pants, and Patience is wearing one of Steve's t-shirts--she hadn't gotten dressed yet, either!

This weekend is Steve first full weekend working at Wal-Mart.  He worked all day yesterday at Roto Rooter, came home and slept for a few hours, worked all night last night at Wally World, came home and slept for 2 hours (thank goodness he didn't get a call right away), is now at a job for RR, will sleep once his shift is over at 4:30, and work all night tonight at WM.  Then we teach Sunday School in the morning.  He is a hard-working man.

I was up at 6:15 (I slept in this morning! LOL), and made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip muffins--YUM.  Of course, I had to exercise, because those babies are 7 Weight Watchers points EACH.  I made the boys breakfast, then once the girls were up, I helped them make over-easy eggs.  Maddie wants to be able to make them herself.

Today is the last day of May, so I have several Pampered Chef catalog shows to close up.  I'll go out with the kids later to pick up some payments.

In other news, I finished reading the new Miss Julia novel by Ann B. Ross.  I've also been working on my cross-stitch this week.  It only takes me a few years to finish a cross-stitch.    Oh, and Go Celtics!  I don't really follow basketball, but it's always fun when the home team makes it into the finals!

I'm trying something new for dinner.  We love shepherd's pie, and we love BBQ meatloaf.  So I'm going to make the sauce for the BBQ meatloaf, and let the hamburger for the shepherd's pie simmer in the sauce, and then make the shepherd's pie with it.  YUM.  Steve is skeptical, but I know he will love it.