What we've been doing...

Things have been so crazy busy here. But then again, when are things not crazy busy here? I feel like I'm always a few steps behind. Whether it is with the laundry, the cooking or the school work, always behind. But slowly I am learning to let go and relax a little bit. Because this is what life is. It is not perfect. That would be boring. It is messy, as it should be. It is full of excitement, stress, and busyness. But it is good. And isn't that what matters most? Life is good. Even on the bad days, it is still so good here. :)

Brooke: Ah, the teenager. She should be getting her license this spring and we are so excited about that! Life will be a little bit easier when she can drive herself to a few things. Right now we are running to Alexander twice a week for Speech practice. That is a lot of time out of the day, but she just loves participating in speech. She is looking forward to their first meet next weekend. School is going good for her. Her grades are great and she seems to be managing her school along with her once in a while cleaning job, Speech, and violin practice. I remember those busy days!

Emily: School is going good for Emily. It is just the usual. We are quite excited about a new guitar teacher for her. He actually comes to OUR HOUSE!!! Does it get any better than that? A very nice young man who seems very excited about teaching guitar! He told her if she practiced really hard on what he taught her last Monday that he should be able to teach her a Taylor Swift song at her next lesson. Now that got her practicing hard this week! Emily is also continuing with violin lessons once a week. But next year she will probably have to choose one or the other. It is quite expensive for all these music lessons!

Grace: School is going so wonderfully great for Grace this year. She is just having such a great year. Holding her back this year is a decision that I think we will never ever regret. She is confident and feels smart! Her grades are great this year and it has helped her so much! She just started piano lessons last week at my neighbor's house. She is really excited about that. I think she just really likes having something just for her. It will be interesting to see if piano is something she really likes and will practice.

Sophia: I hate to admit that school has been pretty nonexistant for Sophia this last few weeks. I do try, it just seems so easy to get busy with other things and put off her work. Which really isn't fair since she always wants to do her schoolwork. So that is something I need to work on this week. She is working in three workbooks right now. One on lowercase letters, numbers, and alphabet games.

Allison: For Christmas, Allison received some cute little workbooks that I have been trying to work on with her. Fun things, like coloring, cutting, folding, and pasting. I haven't done much with her these last few weeks either. Okay, I promise to work harder with the little ones! I need to get back to story time with them to. My goal is to read to them 20 minutes a day, either before naps or before bed. I know that is not much, but it is a good goal time for me!

Lydia: I have scheduled in some signing time video time in the morning, in hopes of making myself sit with Lydia and Sophia and Allison for a half hour a day so they can learn more signs. Lydia is at that perfect age to start learning the signs. She has taken a couple steps here and there, but is nowhere near fully walking yet. We can wait for that, she is quick enough already!

I have been reading "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson to Emily and Grace in the afternoons. It is a great book and I highly recommend it for a read aloud. There are more books after this one, too. I think this book is what leads up to Peter Pan. Some days we can't stop reading, but most days I end up reading for a while and then falling asleep!

Well, that about sums it up for us. I'm off to bed, goodnight!!