February 4, 2012

Outside Temp: 25 F (it was over 50 most of the day... we opened the house and aired it out for about 3 hours, until it started getting cold)

What I cooked today:
Burgers and Potatoes: I asked and this is what Katie wanted.  Easy!  I laughed, since I was prepared to make something big and time consuming... Nope.  Just burgers and potatoes.

Update:
So, Allen and Connor both wanted to say Grace tonight, instead of Patrick or me, which was fine.  Allen's Grace consisted of:

"Thank you God for this food... and for making it smell so good."

Connor then said his Grace, which was:

"Thank you Lord for giving us the resources to enable our mother to make this wonderful meal." 

I had to hold in my snicker.  I mean, really, what 10 year old kid uses words like 'enable' appropriately in a prayer to God?  I loved it!  I asked him after dinner to repeat it, just so I'd remember it to write it down here, and he could repeat it word for word.  I think he'd been working on that all day. 

Today was a pretty good day.  We spend a lot of time cleaning, in preparation for the people who are looking at the house tomorrow.  Patrick kept asking me how we could produce so much dust in just 5 months.  I laughed and said that if he was willing to help me clean sometimes, it wouldn't get so bad. 

We boxed up the homeschool curriculum, since we'll be moving soon anyway, and we aren't currently using it.  It was kind of hard for me, since I was really enjoying homeschooling the kids.  But I still firmly believe that at this point in their lives, going to Geyser is better for them.  I struggle with some things, especially when I see their work come home and I know they can do better, but because I'm not hanging over their shoulders, they are allowed to slide (a little).  The school is great, please don't think I'm complaining about the school.  I'm just struggling with the fact that I'm not really involved in their day-to-day school work anymore. 

On the flip side, I'm not involved in their day-to-day school work anymore!  We never have the complaints about "Mom, I don't want to do my spelling or my English or my math" anymore, since they almost always finish their work in class.  Which means the time at home is much less stressful and more fun and happy.  And we still have some great conversations over the dinner table.

Tonight (after our awesome Grace), Connor asked for the salt, and when he said "thank you", he said it in a voice that reminded me of Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels.  If anyone has seen the movie, where Steve Martin is sitting at the dinner table, and he asks to use the restroom... Oh my goodness, I almost choked on my dinner, I was laughing so hard.  Then I turned to Patrick and just said the movie title and repeated "thank you.", which resulted in Patrick laughing so hard he almost spit out his drink.  Then, the kids started saying "thank you", thinking that was the joke... which only made us laugh harder.  I'm not sure if they would appreciate the awesomeness of that movie yet.

I also got to do the first and second readings for church today.  (for my non-Catholic friends, church always has 2 readings and the Gospel, which is always read by the priest.  A lay-person, i.e. me, usually reads the first two readings).  I still struggle with speaking in public, just like 90% of the world, but it's just a great group of people in our church, that I wasn't all that nervous.  Okay, I was a little nervous.  I was just so happy that the church has accepted us into the community!  Our family gets to do the reading for the rest of the month, so I'll probably be up there next Saturday, too!