Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Daily Details

So once again I find myself a week behind in blogging.  I think I am failing to include the daily details that make up our life and only managing the big events.  I am also slacking on picture taking which is what helps me to start a post and to remember events to post about.  Who wants a bunch of long posts without pictures?   That's what this one is going to be though, but I promise to find some picture for the next few posts.  Let's see what my foggy pregnant brain can recall from the past week.

Monday we had our friend's youngest son with us in the morning.  He is close to Drew's age (about 4 months younger.)   After he left we headed to piano practice.  The recital is actually today and so they are wrapping up.  We are going to be trying out a new piano teacher this summer because Hannah is not progressing like she could be basically because it is a group class and they seem to stay with the lowest level which is Genevieve since she is a new student.  Another problem is that the arts center where they take their lessons is very inhospitable to the rest of us waiting in their lounge area for the hour lesson each week.  It has been a growing problem for the past two years and Monday's class was the last straw with me.  There are two other families that wait with us.  We are all good friends and so are our children so it is nice to let the kids play and get a chance to talk to my friends as well.  I could use this time to run errands, but I enjoy just hanging out since it isn't a very long time.  With Drew and Isaac in tow, I wouldn't get much accomplished anyway.

So here's what happens very frequently at the art's center, they have a conference inside a room right next to the lounge area and ask us not to sit there.  We move down stairs to the tables.  The kids have more room down there and sometimes get louder because of it.  Then someone comes to ask us to keep our children quieter.  Sometimes it is the preschoolers being loud, but sometimes it is the babies/toddlers.  We always correct the preschoolers when their volume exceeds the appropriate indoor level, and we try our best with the babies/toddlers to keep them calm and quiet but sometimes that is just a losing battle.  This is what happened on Monday, I lost the battle with Drew.  He was screeching because he wanted to go to the water fountain and I had said no.  I was in the process of calming him down when a lady came to the balcony and said we would just have to "keep it down."  "I'm trying to calm him down," I told her.  She replied with some nonsense about not being able to shut their door.  I don't know but I am just tired of them acting like we have a bunch of school aged children who don't know how to be quiet when they are babies and toddlers who are still learning to be quiet and not scream when they don't get their way.  So that was Monday.

Tuesday was the homeschool field day.  This was the first time we were in town to actually go to this.  The girls had a great time playing egg toss, three-legged race, egg & spoon race, and sack race.  Isaac played some non-competitive fun games with the preschoolers.  Drew kept me super busy on the playground climbing much higher than he usually does.  I am sure I looked funny up on the playground chasing him down with Tad in tow.  He did settle down when he discovered the bubbles he could blow on his own and when he ate his lunch, but otherwise was running around with a plastic bat, occasionally hitting innocent children with it.  I told you he was different from the rest of us.  I am not lying when I tell you before Drew, I can't recall one time when my child hit another child...EVER.  This is a new deal for me.  I am disciplining him the same, but with less desirable results so far.  I am hoping this phase will pass soon.  Praying!

Wednesday we did school in the morning and took a meal (that Isaac helped me make that morning for the crockpot) to our friend who just had a baby.  We ate Cincinnati Chili that night that I made.  It is supposed to taste like Skyline Chili if you know what that is.  To our relatively untrained taste buds (in Skyline Chili, anyway) it was pretty close.  The consistency was a bit off, but it tasted close to us.  All four of the kids even liked it.  Hannah was excited to try it since it had vinegar and bittersweet chocolate in it, two of her faves.

Thursday was just finishing up schoolwork for the year and the regularly scheduled German tutoring in the evening.  Perhaps in my failure to post about the daily details, I hadn't mentioned that the children have been getting one hour a week of German tutoring from a German friend of ours (ex-neighbor, actually).  The best part is it is free.  He really enjoys it and offered to do it completely out of the goodness of his heart.  Brian and I enjoy listening to the lessons as well.  He helps them with their homework for German Saturday school during the year, and even though German Saturday school is on break for the summer, the German learning shall go on.

I am going to stop the post here because Friday was just our last CCM co-op/party combo and my ultrasound appointment which is a whole other post.

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