Week 31: In Which Mom has to say "Sorry" to the Kids

(We are currently listening to Around the World in 80 Days and every chapter begins with "In Which..." I like that. I especially like the chapters "in which Passepartout learns X." I love Passepartout.)

I haven't had time lately to do weekly updates since spring break, and here we are on week 31. We have been dragging the last few weeks--really dragging. Aside from one really great field trip to the National Zoo, there are no fun activities on which to report or cute pictures to reflect the idyllic nature of our homeschooling journey. It hasn't been very idyllic, frankly. I didn't take out my camera at all. The house is a mess, piles of library books are everywhere, Littlest Pet Shop seems to have taken over the family room, and there may even be some towels in piles upstairs where they were once left wet. Now they probably stink. (Thank God for baking soda and Lynelle who told me to put it in the laundry!) Okay, so before you think that it's all doom and gloom around here, let me share some photos of our wonderful day at the zoo...

Future Land's End Models

fun with the misters...

Matty's hair covered in mist...

Can't go to the zoo without a visit to the elephants...

sugar and spice and everything nice...

Our friend Isaac with his little Brother.

I'm quite sure this meerkat has a British accent.

So aside from the zoo, things had been sort of glum around here, with Mom really feeling uninspired to do lessons, the result of too much running around (especially on weekends) and not enough time to feather my nest and plan and care for the process. The trickle down effect meant that everyone else was pretty uninspired as well. It happens. I was about at the point of "chucking it in" and letting myself say that we've done so much this year already, it wouldn't be horrible if we quit here, but I said to myself, "Self--finish well!" This is a value that I try to instill in my children, and since it would not be wise to abandon the philosophy when it pertains directly to them, so we had a family meeting. Over dinner one evening this week I apologized for my attitude and modeling for them a poor spirit of leadership. I informed them of how I felt it so important that we "finish well" and not give up. I also reminded them of the wonderful break and vacation we have coming up, and how much more we'll appreciate it when we've run the race to the finish line. (In case you didn't know, this kind of speech is known as "preaching to the choir.") Before bed at prayer time we asked God for the strength and courage to push through and finish well.

Thankfully, the following morning was a complete turn-around, and attitudes were different. We ended up having a very successful school week and accomplishing more than I had hoped in a very timely fashion, leaving lots of free time for the kids to pursue other things that they have been wanting to do.

So...the plan is to complete Tapestry of Grace up through week 33. We will take a week off, clean up the house and school stuff, take our vacation, then over the summer we plan to continue math and language and any remaining reading that is assigned for weeks 34-36.