Updates

First off, THANK you to folks commenting on Emperor and Elf's blogs. Incidentally, G has a blog, too, about Pokemon, which you can find by hitting my profile. He has a lot of trouble writing. I'm giving him help with remembering the capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and the idea of common and proper nouns. It kinda steams me that he's going into eighth grade and can't structure a sentence, but it isn't the school's fault he has autism. Many mixed feelings. I know they're trying. I always wonder though if he could have had a better outcome if we were really rich. You know, hire an ABA therapist to practically live with us and send him to special private school? Then again, I think it really forces you to learn certain "social skills" when you have to live with lots of siblings and share the last cookie. That's what I tell myself anyway, but I wonder what if... Well, I think we do that with everything concerning our children. Anyway, Pokemon is his new thing and he wants to collect eggs and what-not. Then he hatches them like a Mama chicken!

I had been a bit leery of the whole Pokemon thing, and I still don't like it, but seeing as how my boys are 14 and 13 and have been asking for YEARS can they have them... I just gave in. They need to make decisions about "questionable" things themselves as they grow up. I know one mom of 11 kiddos tell me, well, I let my older daughter bring home awful music with ungodly lyrics so long as she listens to it on headphones. Once you pass a certain age with your kids, it needs to be about maintaining your RELATIONSHIP with them more than the RULES of the house. That there needs to be a BALANCE between respect for your home and respect for the fact that the kid is becoming an adult.

I don't mean to say that my boys will have girlfriends alone in their rooms anytime soon! Though I do know parents who have allowed that with their adult children and then been surprised that pregnancy happened "somehow." I'm not talking about silly extremes like that. I mean more that you can't have as tight a leash on a 16-year-old as you did on the kid when he was five. So in any event, I have given in on the Pokemon but the Harry Potter is still not happening...

We're trying to get back into something resembling a new normal. I want the children to be able to play, but they can't all play at once. One of the big kids has to stay in and help me. That big kid always winds up to be Patrick. I can always count on him, so I find myself counting on him always. Which isn't fair, but when you have little kids crying and something that *MUST* be done a certain way for safety, you just tell the kid he has to deal with it and he does. If we had family nearby I would ask them to take Patrick somewhere for a trip. He ought to go somewhere special for a bit and have a break. He told me awhile back his dream vacation would be to see a mountain, so that he can see how big it is. And I told him for this hypothetical situation that he could have all the money he wanted on the vacation, too. Go figure. But he says that he has to be able to TOUCH the mountain, so that probably costs extra.

Elf and Emperor are getting a bit stir-crazy. They're either getting along famously, or literally slugging each other. I've employed the "how Jesus treated his brothers and his mom" talk too many times to count. In the old days, we just thwacked the kid on the head a few times and didn't have to resort to emotional manipulation. But I enjoy being nice most of the time. You know... because my ideal is family harmony?? We're working on it. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact we're not going anywhere or doing anything. I know they're not busy-busy people, but just a trip to the store or church a couple times a week helps. In fact, I'm sure some of the nit-picking on each other (no, not literal... yuck) will stop once I'm back at 100 percent.

In other news, we've been very blessed with a ton of catalogs this week for homeschooling stuff. It's a shame they all seem to come out in June or July instead of December or January when I have money and buy stuff. But I LOVE looking through catalogs. Mmm. There are so many wonderful things out there I just NEED need NEED to teach my children or they just won't be educated adults... I could spend about a billion bucks on this year's stuff alone! Unfortunately no one sells the "time to teach the lesson mega-pack" complete with the "distraction-free" option. If someone finds it, let me know because I am willing to spend on a good brand-name for that product. I'm sure it's one of those things that make you wonder how you ever lived without it, once you have it.

I have a new science catalog. Mmm. I could dissect cow eyeballs and everything with the stuff it contains. But I will stick with the curriculum I already have for the year. We're still on the first unit, on the human body. TOO BAD my own human body got in the way of my teaching! And here I'd been teaching the children that intestines go INSIDE the body. Looks like we had to learn the exceptions before learning the rules LOL! Anyway, soon after the human body unit is over (and it's taking forever...), we will do one on weather. The great thing is, when I looked in the science catalog for good Christian books on the subject, it sold several. I was able to reserve two of these at the library for free.

I'm also looking through the CBD homeschool catalog. Ever make a wish list from catalogs like that? Then you go online and find that there's even more stuff not listed, that's even better than the stuff you originally wanted?? And it's on sale? So you want to buy a bunch of stuff??

I *twitch* had better stay away from that right now, at least until I find that "mega-pack" of time. Have a good day, folks, and God bless ya!