January 11

I am feeling so excited and refreshed about everything that was accomplished today! Like it's the first day of the new year all over again :) We have been trying to get our schedule for homeschooling worked out and it has been very challenging with all the kids -- definitely a lot different than just homeschooling one child. Caleb is a joy to work with for the most part. He loves his worksheets and he loves his computer lessons, too. He's a pretty easy going kid most of the time and that is certainly helpful. Kalyn, on the other hand, is frighteningly (is that a word?) like me -- determined to do things her way or not at all. Because that's who she is. I am trying my best to push her in the right direction, and use that strong willed nature for her benefit.

Side Note: I have to give some praise to my super supportive husband, because I get these ideas in my head about what I want to try and he pulls all the stops to make it happen. Yesterday is usually when I want something done, so he does his best to get to it right away :) Love that man! He put up this awesome white board from basically floor to ceiling right by our desk area. He framed it out and it turned out really nice. The kids and I both love it :)

So, on this new board, I wrote out a good morning note to Kalyn and Caleb, and listed their assignments on the board. Since Kalyn doesn't particularly care for worksheets, but LOVES to write on the board, I am trying to take advantage of that for the subjects that are frustrating for her right now by putting those problems on the board. She did so great today! Wonderful attitude, almost all the correct answers, and didn't complain when I made her correct the wrong ones. She's doesn't like to be corrected or critiqued either. Another personality trait that I am quite familiar with! Haha! She gets it honest! I am so proud of her. She got right to work on her assignments as soon as we came back from Caleb's speech therapy and completed them quickly. Her journaling assignment was to write about what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said she wanted to be a teacher of lots of kids so that she could talk all the time and be the boss. She said that she would give them recess six *x* (times) a day. Can you tell she loves multiplication? I thought that was cute but I did make her erase it and actually spell out "times". Attention to detail :)

To top it off today, I was able to take the older kids to the public library, which they absolutely LOVE! I had no idea they'd get so excited about getting 5 books to take home. I think the school library only let them check out two. I also made a quick trip to Kohl's to return something and I found a cute pair of pants for $4.00. Gotta love deals like that! As great as all of that was, the icing on the cake was coming home to a clean house with freshly mopped floors. My babysitter, who is an amazing mom, is now coming to my house, instead of me taking the twins and Kagen to her house. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about letting someone else take care of my housework while I am sitting in the same room, but I must say, I think I like it! I just hope we didn't scare her away :) She said she'd come back tomorrow so I guess it wasn't too bad. I could sure get used to this! I was so happy to have all of my work done today that I decided to make a big dinner and a new dessert to celebrate. Now that's something my husband could get used to :)

This post is a lot longer than I had originally planned so I better wrap it up with a picture for my P365 :) This is Kalyn showing me that she finished all of her work. She's getting Chloe away from the board since she erased the note on the bottom. Please forgive me for the awful glare on the white board but I don't feel like editing today. I am going to catch up on my shows!