Today is the first day since the kids have been home that I feel has gone somewhat normal. While I know it is going to take time, today I can feel us inching toward our new normal...and it's good.
I was watching Joel Osteen last night with my Gran and honey and he was talking about focusing on the good, not the bad. I am really working on this. It's so easy, as a new home school Mom, heck- as a wife and Mom in general to feel defeated. I have to remind myself quite often that a bad day does not equal defeat. I'm still learning, but I am trying SO hard.
With that being said, this is the first day that I do not feel the need to make excuses to myself about what we didn't get done. We had a rough start to our morning, but I decided that it was not going to dictate how the rest of our day would go. Of course it helped that all 3 girls woke up with smiling faces and in a great mood.
We had a yummy breakfast together without me rushing our morning. Mornings are really important to me. The set the entire tone for things. Still being in all of the public school habits, mornings are a little rough. We are not used to sleeping in until 8 and waking up slowly, having a nice breakfast together, then doing some school in PJs and getting dressed whenever we feel like it, or need a break. This has to be the hardest thing for both me and Halie. We are still setting our new norm, we will get there.
After breakfast we read for a little bit together. It was a nice wake-me-upper for all of us. I had planned to let them play outside (which is one of the things I hope to make a norm in our morning schedule) because fresh air is so perfect for morning minds. When the weather was nice, after I took the big girls to school, Brenna and I would sit out on our back porch and I would have a cup of coffee, or more often a cup of warm tea while she played for a while. It gave me some serenity and got all of those morning wiggles and grumpies out for her.
Then, we got busy with our school work. Em and Halie worked on math. Halie is working on memorizing multiplication tables. She has most of them, but it takes her a while to think of them. Today she made flash cards and we worked on them together for a while. I watched her massivly improve in a matter of 30 minutes. (Score!) Emma is still working on borrowing and the little things. She needs her basics to be really strong before we move on.
We worked on some reading/grammer for a while after that.
I have an awesome Road Trip states study. We are doing that for now until their books come in. THANKFULLY, they were shipped and should be here by Monday. We will make it work until then. The road trip book goes from state to state with facts and activities. We started at Wisconsin today. Our friends just moved there and the girls were very eager to learn about the state. It started us off on the right foot. It was fun.
Now, the baby is down for a nap and the big girls are giggling in the kitchen making clay valentines for family that they love so much. ;) I found a super simple recipe for salt clay and we are on our second round of baking now. They should all be done soon. They look amazing.
I knew this was going to be a rocky transition. I knew that there would be good days and bad. I have been dobuting my decision over the past week, because I have just felt lost and overwhelmed. Today renewed my spirit. I know I am doing the right thing. I can't wait to see how far we go.
That's all for now. :) We are going to go do a bible study on Moses. I am learning that the girls don't know as much as I wish they did about the bible and what an awesome God we serve, so we are going to make it a priority to fix that.
Hope everyone is having a splendid day! Thank you for reading my long post. ;)
