Weekly wrap-up

The last smatterings of sun might actually allow us to finish getting the deck painted!!! I primed the stairs and lower deck earlier this week, and painted the stairs and a portion of the lower deck yesterday afternoon. Supposedly rain is in the forecast for tonight, so I'm debating about whether to go any further with this project today. The weekend should be clear though. The darn dog keeps looking at me as he walks over the newly painted area while I'm sitting here typing on the computer. He's like a kid who is doing something he knows he probably shouldn't, and keeps their eye on Mom to see what she's going to do about it. Now he's gone to go lay down - I think he's figured out that I'm not inspired to do anything but type this blog entry! LOL!

The kids finished their summer of swimming lessons yesterday. The instructor and I were talking about how much N. has progressed over the summer. Her skill has greatly improved, but more notable than that is the increase in her confidence. N. is asking to continue with swimming, and is conjuring up fantasies of competitive swimming and a future Olympic debut ("Mom, if I improved this much in just a couple of months, think how good I'll be in a few more months!!!"). LOL - who can stand in the way of that kind of logic? In his final lesson, A. put his whole head in the water three times on his way across the pool! That was his big progress for the summer - well, that and the fact that he'll apparently swim to the side if he falls in fully clothed. *wink*

Our second week of school went really well. N's attitude was soooo much better than last week, and she agrees that it takes less time to get it all done if we're not arguing about it. She's taking a lot of pride in her work, too. The handwriting took less time, and we were able to do extra math this week with me doing the writing while she dictated answers to me. History has been fun this week, and I think we've all learned a lot. My world geography skills aren't the greatest, so I'm enjoying studying small areas at a time and making mental connections. I can't remember if I mentioned last week about how disturbed I was to realize that the cradle of civilzation (the Fertile Crescent; Mesopotamia) lie in what is present day Iraq. How sad that the area continues to be a place of such unrest. Anyway, the kids learned about Egypt, the first writing, and the early Jewish people. We packed a lot into this week because I accidently placed a hold on a dvd too early, and it was due back to the library before we were going to get to it. The dvd was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and the kids LOVED it. They're suckers for a good musical, so this was right up their alley. We've been talking a lot about what lessons the story of Joseph and his brothers can teach all of us (about parenting, sibling rivalry, faith, "power" - this was an interesting one because A. was talking about how powerful the Pharoah was, so we talked about power that comes out of respect vs. fear). A good week overall.

Oh, we also finished a book this week that the kids enjoyed (N. in particular) - Whittington, by Alan Armstrong.

Now we've started Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling (same author who wrote Minn of the Mississippi that we read a few weeks ago). Hubby remembered seeing the movie of Paddle-to-the-Sea as a kid in grade school, so I did a quick library search and sure enough they've got it. I've put it on hold now, too.

Off to go rescue a super-villain from behind the bookcase!