"Nothin' In My Noggin"

It's been hard for me to get in the habit of writing before church on Sunday, but, now that we are on the late schedule it doesn't seem to happen if I wait until after because everyone wants there turn on the computer and the day is waning so quickly by then.  Luckily :( I had a 7:30 meeting this morning, so I am ready early and have a few minutes to myself.  The most exciting thing about our week is that Robbie has some temporary work for Jordan, scrapping at the Retirement Home construction site.  He's very grateful for the work and drives in with Fred in the mornings, so that solves the car issues.  He's still searching for other work, but so far has not been successful.  He'll just keep trying.  This little interlude at least helps him feel like there is a purpose to him being here and not in school.

Lily and Sophie have been spending hours with the cupcake book Ben and Renee gave us for Christmas, planning and dreaming about which birthday "cake" creations they want me to make.  Some of them are pretty intense and very darling, but I had to inform them that I would make whatever they wanted for our family party, but I was not going to that kind of work for their kindergarten class.  They have dejectedly accepted the fact that they will take suckers or something easy there.  I know, I'm a mean mom, but you should see this book!

All of my children seem, suddenly (well not so suddenly for Abe) to be experiencing Piano stress-itis.   Fred is always in favor of pulling everyone out because it is such an expense and he sees no sense in it, if the kids aren't enjoying it, but he supports me because I think it's important.  I do feel bad that it seems to be a burden, but I have never heard anyone (after they are older) regret those years of training, but many who wished that they had stuck it out.  I think maybe I need to research some really fun arrangements of great music to help bring back the "outlet" a little.

Abe's class starting cursive handwriting last week and will transition completely by next and he is STRUGGLING.  I have never seen another child hold a pencil like he does (with all of his fingers).  He has hardly any range of motion with that technique, but when I try to help him learn to hold it differently he ends up in tears.  I need to read this "Mind at a Time" book faster for him; it really is so interesting.

It was so much fun to get the "Nielson" pictures from Dad this week (I especially loved the umbrella one on the beach;).  I need to do something with all of these ancestor pictures that I am accumulating for one of my Personal Progress 10 hours projects.

I'm looking forward to spending another day with my children at home, since tomorrow is a holiday.  Fred still has to go in to work because he is so swamped right now and Jordan will go in but the rest of us will have a day together and everyone is finally feeling better so that will be nice.

I loved Becky's workchart last week.  I had to admit her phrase about her children being self sufficient in their responsibilities was so enticing. I'm tying to figure out how to incorporate that into my family's routine and make up my own chart.  I really loved the stars incentive.  We've kind of gotten away from our job charts over the holidays and need to get back on track and I'm always looking for new ideas to keep things fresh.  I have a wall in my dining room that I am wanting to make into a kind of Central Intelligence and this would be a good addition to that designing process (then Fred gets to build it for me :)

I'm sorry, I read through this and it feels like it should just read, "blah, blah, blah, blah blah"--it would be shorter-- but there is just "nothin' in my noggin".