Our fun and busy week

Every Sunday, I tell myself that the coming week is going to be a slow paced week, but it never happens. So, I've come up with an interesting solution. I work and play hard all week, and then on Saturday, I just relax. That's what I did this past week. Every day I had two or three major things going, and life got really busy. But then, on Saturday I just read all day, and didn't feel bad at all. This is our week in an nutshell:

Gillian worked hard every day finishing her school work, as well as mom's homeschool assignments. She practiced her piano three days out of five, and made jam on her Activity Days. We went to the library, and Gillian filled her bags full of fascinating books. Beside reading Hardy Boys with dad every night, and reading her own chapter books at night, here are some of the other "fun"books she read to her brothers or to herself.
Beside homework and reading, Gillian was able to play with her two best friends on two different occasions. Here are some pictures of Gillian and Mary making fruit bowls for their siblings, and then eating popcorn while watching a 20-minute episode of Curious George.

Jefferson is really enjoying drawing. He has a great imagination and patience. I'm amazed at his creativity while using the computer or paper to draw. Here are some of his latest creations (he was very adamant about putting in my blog a drawing that he made of Papa's favorite car.)

Volcanoes erupting

Weapons of War

Jefferson and James skating

Besides drawing, Jefferson enjoys learning about various things, especially how things work. This week, however, he was so excited when I showed him the area in the library that contained all the science books. He checked out many fun books about volcanoes, space, knights, animals, and many more. The topic that had way more books in Jefferson's bag than any other was snakes. He checked out 13 books about snakes. Looking at them and then reading them gave me nightmares. Jefferson, himself, was fascinated by all the pictures and facts.

This past FHE (Family Home Evening), I taught a lesson on family history and journal keeping. I wanted Gillian to write more often in her journal. However, it was Jefferson and James who were very interested in keeping journals. I didn't expect this interest by my boys, especially from James, who can hardly write his name. Nevertheless, I went the next day with my boys to Target and had them pick their own journal. They have written every day. Although, Jefferson writes phonetically still, you can understand it quite well. As for James, let's just say I'm happy he reads it to me instead of asking me to read what he wrote. It's fun though to see the boys being so zealous about keeping this commandment.

James has been busy with his Pre-K, his friends at playgroup, reading books and taking care of Charlton. He is doing well with his reading, and has enjoyed working on memorizing numbers to 20 and the whole alphabet. To facilitate this kind of learning, I printed a few connect-the-dots pages. James had such a good time connecting the dots and then coloring those pages, that for the rest of the week he kept doing more and more. I think he has done around 30 pages.

We've also read a bunch of books, and he has especially enjoyed reading about dinosaurs, knights and the Titanic.
He has also helped me with Charlton and chores around the house. One day, he wanted to help me cook, and so I had him pull up a chair next to me. When he saw me use the rolling pin to chop some nuts by hitting them, he wanted me to stop. When I asked him what was going on, he said that the tool I was using (the rolling pin) was a smoother and is used to smooth dough for pie crusts, and not chop nuts. I thought that was funny.

Charlton is making me a happy mom. When we happen to stay home, he takes two naps, each two to three hours long. When he is not sleeping or eating, Charlton has enjoyed being with his brothers and sister, and their friends. He does manage to eat while playing some times.

This week, Charlton has hurt himself a couple of times. The last time this happened, he scratched his face on the cement outside. Gillian was so concerned about him, that later when Elijah asked him how Charlton was doing, she sighed and said with a concerned tone, "Oh, father, this boy is acquainted with grief." Later in the evening, Elijah and I couldn't stop laughing at our dramatic and so well spoken daughter of ours. Here is a picture of the boy acquainted with grief, who just loves to smile, regardless of his grief.Elijah's weeks are always busy. Besides working hard at his job, fulfilling his calling, and being a fabulous dad and husband, this week he attended two church meetings, visited the temple once, watched a movie with me, helped me with the dishes and dinner in various occasions, started and finished one Hardy Boys book to the kids, and took care of the yard. I'm grateful for Elijah and for all his hard work.

My week has been very productive as well. Besides doing all the fun things as a mom and homemaker, I've been able to finish two books and start a third one this week. I watched three movies, which is dramatic change for me who watches a movie a month. I entertained a friend of ours from Virginia who happened to be in Concord for a reunion. I made homemade bread for a friend of mine who just had her baby, and cheesecake for a friend who moved to a new house. I homeschooled my kids after their school three times out of five days. And I wrote in my blog six days out of 7. A pretty good week, if I should say so myself.