Williamsburg

This weekend begins Homeschool Days at Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. I'm so excited to say that our family will be attending them all! We will be taking several guided tours and classes geared toward families and 5-7 year olds.

Micaela and Nathaniel are sooo excited because we've been studying so much about the colonies. Asher is soooo excited and I have NO idea why :) He's been telling everyone about when he's going to go to 'uhginia' and 'that burg place'. Gabriel doesn't really want to go, but can't be left out of anything.

The kids all have colonial garb- well, they have garb. Elizabeth looks a like red riding hood :) They didn't have infant colonial costumes and she HAD to have a costume. Micaela does seem to belong more in Massachusetts than Virginia, but she chose her look and is very excited to wear it. Nathaniel and Gabriel are both dressed like little colonial men- think Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and such. Asher looks like a colonial captain with a long tail coat uniform (the tail is actually so long it's probably ankle length!) He's adorable. They're all adorable.

We leave on Saturday and will have to drive around 11 hours to get to our resort. God has really blessed us with this trip- everything has been so affordable so far. Right now I'm avoiding packing, so I'm blogging when I'd rather be in bed. I think I'll go to bed now and pack the rest of the kids, myself, the toiletries, and the food tomorrow.

I PROMISE to take pictures while we're there, Maxine. Let's hope the camera has no problems this weekend.

A Short Little Praise

Louby only made two messes today: she threw the contents of her kitchen box all over the newly cleaned play room and she shredded up a brand new head of lettuce while I was putting groceries in the car :( Oh well, it was still only two!

Asher wore his coat today on our 40 minute drive to Sam's, through Sam's, 15 minutes to the office to pick up something from my Dad, 25 minutes back to Walmart, through Walmart, and then home and all the way into the house! He didn't even take it off till he got to his room- where I found it later on the floor buried under a mountain of blankets and hot wheels :)

Oh, and Ian passed his Level 3 tests today! Two of them so now he's officially (I guess) a certified Level III UT technician for anyone who knows what that means. AND he comes home tomorrow afternoon! They're driving tonight to Baton Rouge and will be getting home sometime in the late afternoon. YEAH!

No subject- just stuff

Well, this has been an exhausting two weeks. Ian left two Sundays ago, and he'll be back on Saturday afternoon hopefully. Today is Thursday, so I've basically begun to count hours- right now I'm saying 54. Just kidding it's not quite that bad. I've not had time to shower daily, so I haven't exercised at all. Last night I stepped on the Wii and was happy to see that I've not gained a thing, but I haven't lost anything either.

I've accomplished a lot- I've done taxes, budgets, grocery shopping, made school lists, workbooks, and we've done 8.5 days of school so far, moved furniture, cleaned light fixtures, polished cabinets, and washed untold numbers of pee pee sheets and blankets. At Ian's request I researched mortgage refinances again, and I've started the process. Hopefully if everything goes the same as is written on my papers we'll pay off the car in three months and the heat and air work for the room addition within 18 months and wrap the 80/20 mortgage into one mortgage and lower our house payment by 160.00. Unfortunately we have to have a new appraisal because ours is too old. We're hoping that the value has stayed the same or increased. If it goes down we're probably out of luck.

I really don't have too much intersting to say. Micaela and Nathaniel have been such big helpers. They have blessed me this week with their cooperation and effort.

Elizabeth has been a one year old happy go lucky monster- she's thrown board books in my breakfast skillet (full of food on the stove), blown up bananas in my microwave, pushed every power button she can find, collected tons of clean folded laundry to throw on the dirty laundry pile in the laundry room, eaten food out of a pot on the stove and smeared it all over the counter and the oven, and everything else I'm trying to forget.

Asher has such a deep antipathy for his coats that he takes them off whenever I'm not looking and tries to run around in 27-35 degree weather in short sleeves. This morning he did it again, so I'm forcing him to wear his coat all day- zipped, buttoned, and hooded. He's miserable, but maybe on our next five minute car ride he'll keep his coat on till we get back in the house.

Gabriel and Nathaniel gave each other black eyes, and all the boys have scratches on their face from I don't know what, so the children look abused. But I can honestly say I didn't do it :)

Did I say I'm ready for Ian to come home? I miss Ian, and I love Ian, and I so appreciate all the things he does for me and with me at the house day to day. I can't wait for him to come back!