Friday night. End of a long week. Not bad. Just long.

On Monday I was feeling an incredible need for a break, a day off from school, something different in our routine. Then it hit me that we are in our fifth week of school, so no wonder I’m feeling it! Thank goodness for Labor Day!

It’s hard dealing with the attitudes that come up. Even now, laying in bed typing while they get ready for bed. The sass. The bickering. It’s exhausting. I don’t know what to do with it.  I keep praying.

I envy my husband’s ability to fall asleep. And makes me somewhat jealous. I’m pretty sure I could stay awake for three days and not fall asleep as quickly as he does.

Activities are pretty well in full swing, except for a few more things that get added in next week. Learning how to most efficiently manage all the dropping off and picking up this year has been a little more challenging. With only two in ballet, two doing other activities, and some new activities thrown in for some….it’s quite the juggling act. And in years past, I’ve always gotten groceries during ballet classes. But this year that just doesn’t look like it’s going to work and that really threw me for a loop. I think we’ve finally got a workable system. The next couple of weeks will be a good test.

One of my big things this year (and I think I’ve already mentioned it) is handing over more of the housekeeping responsibilities to the girls. This is imperative if we’re going to do all the things they want to do/we think are important for them to do and do school and me keep any shred of sanity that I may still have. It’s been a challenge. There are so many things that it would be so much easier to just go do myself, but I keep pushing them to do it and keep doing it until it’s done right because I know it will be worth it in a few months when they get it down. If this plan is successful, maybe next year I’ll be brave enough to hand over the cooking too.

I changed out Emma’s grammar program this week. Which reminds me, I’ve had good intentions of doing a “back to school” post with what planning and prep look like here as well as what we are using this year. I know pretty much everyone is already back to school, but maybe I can do that next week.

Anyway, I have been faithfully devoted to Rod & Staff grammar for as long as Grace has been using it; so, several years. And both of the older girls have struggled through it quite a bit (the younger two not having been in it long enough to really struggle), but it’s simple in concept and very thorough, so I’ve stubbornly stuck with it. But every day is drama and Emma was really, really struggling so I prayed about it and put out a question on Facebook and a request on our home school e-loop and came up with Shurley Grammar for her. We are only one week in, so it’s hard to say, but it seems to be huge improvement. It’s very teacher-directed, which I’m not typically a fan of, but if it works for her, then it’s worth more involvement on my part. As I was praying about switching and trying to figure out what to do, I had an epiphany of sorts. It occurred to me that Emma does much better when something is read aloud to her. I began to think of the subjects she enjoys and does well in, and they are all read aloud. It was an incredible moment for me. I even looked back at her standardized tests and confirmed that she does well with “listening”. Which is a little interesting when you live real life with her, because half the time it doesn’t seem like she’s listening at all, but apparently she is.

We went and visited what we have dubbed “Mahner Farms” today. It was a wonderful, two hour break from life and the only two hours of the day (up until 7:30) when I didn’t feel like crying.

Tonight was date night. Oh, what a glorious gift. Things have been hectic here the past few weeks. Obviously, my life is full with school and stuff for the girls. Matt recently hired a couple more guys and that has drastically changed his role at work (in a good way), but it has applied more pressure to him to sell jobs and use his time a little differently. It’s been an interesting transition period for both of us and it’s affected our communication and such. It was good to sit on the patio tonight and talk about those issues and the other little details of family life that need to be hashed out.

I think that’s it for me. Getting up early to run 7 miles in the morning. We deviated a bit from our running program this week. We both needed a little break.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!
Sara