monday morning already....

and mousie #2, Mr. Squeaky, is nowhere in sight. When I went to bed at the early hour of eleven last night, while the big kids were still arguing what movie to watch, Sam was going to take charge of Mr. S. He must have died, because the box is gone. I am sort of relieved that I didn't have to see it....he was slowing down on his feedings yesterday, he must have missed his sibling.

Camille and Charlotte Claire were the only ones up with me this morning until they got the bright idea to go storming into the bedroom where Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja and Jonathan were sleeping soundly. AND get in a big fight in there, which entailed Charlotte Claire pushing poor Camille off the bed, which she says was an accident, and I told her to say sorry, and Camille sat here saying over and over, "Sorry Charlotte, Sorry Charlotte", and she is the one who fell....

Camille got into the Anti-Itch gel that one of the little princesses left out...a few of them cannot sleep if they have one bug bite.....she washed her hands in it and painted some dvds.....

I think I need to call the dr. about my back. It isn't so bad during the day, but I cannot sleep. I fall asleep okay, being pretty tired when I get in bed, but I wake up at 3 or so and the pain is horrible.....I took 3 extra strength ibuprofen last night when I woke up, and it did take the edge off....as I was finally drifting back off, Miss Camille-who-needs-her-own-room-badly woke up....all she wants is for me to pick her up and hug her, lay her back down and cover her up, and she is fine. She did this twice last night. Right as I was going back to sleep....rrr. I am not so sure they can do anything about my back anyway, I think it is a disc that is a bit out of place. But it could be something awful like a tumor. Suzanne, who is 8, told me yesterday morning that she dreamed my back hurt so bad that I took off my ring and went in my room and died. And she cried in her sleep. Ooh, that was a bit creepy. I honestly haven't said much in front of them about it....and the ring part she must have gotten because I wear my late mother's wedding band on my right hand....so she knew Gramma has her ring off.....anyway, I should probably call....I wonder if I need a chiropractor.....I come from a family of self-diagnosers...I hate going to the dr....

So, Camille has a terrible habit of taking her diaper off these days. Yesterday at church she was out at the playground with the other kids and Evelyn came running in and said she took her diaper off and pooped and it rolled down the slide. Great. It turned out it was just tiny, not a big deal, but after I got her all dressed again, she pooped again, for real....and the kids restrained her from taking it off until I got out there and changed her...potty training? I just asked Suzanne to take her in sit on the toilet....

Kathryn just told me the mouse died when she was trying to feed it last night. She said it was pretty sad....oh well. We tried.

Okay, a question was asked about school attendance, if the school gets on our case about missing days....the elementary/middle school nurse calls here so much, I am sure she knows our number by heart. In high school, it becomes much harder for the kids when they miss school. Most of ours are responsible enough to have good attendance, as they know how hard it is to make up the work, and their grades will suffer if they miss a day. One thing I got a kick out of was this past year, Suzanne had a comment from her teacher on her report card that said, "I am concerned about Suzanne's excessive absences." My question was, what exactly was she concerned about? Suzanne gets all A's, exceptional test scores,and has wonderful social skills. But yet her teacher was concerned. She obviously didn't understand that the time Suzanne spends at home is the reason she is so smart and well-adjusted. I don't just park her in front of the tv here...she is busy playing office or reading stories or setting up forts or coloring or writing books. Not that they don't watch their share of movies, or some public television here and there......her teacher doesn't understand that having Suze here a day a week or so with just the little ones gives her and I a chance to have some special time together. That those days are more than just skipping school. So with letting the kids miss school sometimes, I have found a sort of happy medium between home schooling and sending them to school....we live in a rural area with a small school, everyone knows each other, it is way different than the huge district where I attended school. One of the huge pluses of sending them to school is that there are several other families in our church at the same school, and the kids have those friends in their classes. This is a tremendous help, especially during the difficult middle school and high school years.

Now that our amusement park day is off, the kids are wondering what our special outing will be. Hmm. Where can you take 12 or 14 kids for fun and cheap?

Well, my older kids won't be up for a few hours, just the seven youngest are up....I need to get busy....