homeschooling fun.....

Jonathan is measuring things for math. Suri is four feet long, he says. She just looks at me with that See What I Put Up With face, sighs, and goes back to sleep.

It is cold here today, very cold. The snow has stopped falling, and the sun is shining on it. It is 1 degree right now ,with wind chill, it is -12. It is chilly in here, too. My coffee got cold before I finished it:)

Sebastian and Linnea (two-year old twins), and William, 4, are coming over in a little while to play while their mama goes to the hospital to visit my sister's new granddaughter. My sister has seven daughters, three are married, two are engaged. She has six grandchildren now. This new one is the first for her daughter Janet and her husband Joe, her name is Vivienne. Janet is the same age as Mirielle, they grew up together and are good friends. Anyway, Susan is dropping her kids off here for a bit to visit her new niece.

Yesterday the kids had the day off from school, so I took the little girls over to the rec. center to swim. We stayed in that water for a really long time, almost an hour and a half. They were already tired because their cousin Danielle spent the night Sunday night, they stayed up too late and got up too early. Char and Camille's room was already pretty messy, as they have too many toys, but oh my goodness...they played dress-up and dollies, which required getting out five or six strollers. Sam said, "You kids get out here and watch some t.v., you have been playing nicely for way too long."

After the pool, my sister-in-law came over with her two youngest kids for a bit. Some lunch, some coffee while they played...

Samuel wanted to go see the movie, "The Lone Survivor". He was supposed to go with his friends last week, but there was a miscommunication, and they went without him. So I took him last night, with Kathryn. Samuel had read the book, so I already knew a lot about is, since Sam likes to talk about what he's reading. I was hesitant to see it, because of the intense sadness. It was based on a true story of four Navy Seals who fought in Afghanistan, and, only one survived to tell the story. Sam thought it stayed true to the book for the most part. We all were wiping away tears. I think I was the saddest, knowing that Sam is leaving. I know he is no seal, but he is Army Infantry, so he will most likely see some action somewhere. I don't know how he can watch a movie like that and STILL want to ship out to boot camp, but then, I am his mom:)

We did enjoy the movie, if one can "enjoy" watching a doomed mission unfold. It's like one someone writes on Facebook that their grampa just died, and it gets 34 "likes".

But we enjoyed out time together, and talking about it on the way home. When we left the theater, it was so bitterly cold out, I couldn't stop shivering. I think it was partly the emotion of the movie. We stopped at McDonalds for hot decaf coffee for the ride home.

Joseph had watched the younger kids for me, as all the other older girls went to girls' fellowship at Emily's house. The sink was overflowing with dishes, and there were toys everywhere. Oh well. The kids were happy though. They said that Joe was really nice to them. That's the important thing.

The princesses stayed home from school today. It was simply too cold to send them. It was below zero, and they are so little. Just because the state/school/district/powers-that-be think it's okay for small children to be out and about in extremely cold weather doesn't mean it's smart. The older kids have more sense, and don't worry me as much.

When they woke up, Camille wasn't feeling well, but is fine now. I think she was sore from swimming yesterday. She felt all achy, and was rooted to the couch in her snuggy blanket. But believe me, they were pretty thrilled to be home today!

Jonathan has abandoned his math and is making smoothies for them all, oops. He loves learning about weather, he thinks it's funny that it is 18 in Oslo, and only 1 here. He said it's 41 in Paris, so it's not that cold for Dad. So he IS learning stuff:)