Monday, January 03, 2011

Joy amidst the chaos

Sometimes it's hard to find the joy amidst the chaotic life of homeschooling with 4 small children. It is a lot of work, and sometimes it's hard to "stop and smell the roses," if you will.

Today we were back to homeschooling after a couple weeks off for the Christmas holiday. I set my alarm, hoping to get up before the kids. But Mary Clare still woke up before me, and the baby needed nursing just as his big brother desperately wanted Mommy to get out of bed and make breakfast for him!

We got only one subject done before phone calls started happening, tummies started rumbling for lunch, and the kids started fighting. So off we went to grab some lunch and grocery shop. Shopping was at Wal-Mart, which is always a bad idea for me with the kids. At least one is usually in melt-down mode by the time we make it to the grocery section and today was no exception!

Steven Joseph was trying to escape the cart, grabbing things off shelves, and throwing things out. At one point he threw out a big tub of sour cream which splattered all over the floor. He climbed on the spinning grocery-bag holder and kept trying to run away. I knew he needed a nap and rushed through to finish our shopping trip. I saw a friend in the check-out line (doesn't that always happen) who suggested I try grocery shopping online! Steven fell asleep on the drive home and the girls helped me unload.

We got to work on the rest of their homeschooling subjects, even learning some Latin mass parts today! Of course I saved the hardest subjects for last...Mary Clare's phonics lesson ("Sound Beginnings") and Ellie's reading lesson ("100 Easy Lessons"). We had a quick lasagna dinner ourselves since Daddy wasn't going to be home for a bit, and then got back to work to finish up the dreaded last subjects.

I had to laugh and get a photo of the scene. Ellie had been in my lap struggling to read some new words, whining away. Mary Clare was correcting her phonics quiz, wearing Steven's hunting earmuffs to drown out the noise. Thomas was happy as a lark propped up in the exersaucer, and Steven was letting his toy car (for which we just bought new batteries) drive all over the exersaucer and wearing only a pull-up diaper. The schoolroom was, and is still, a total mess with every shelf, table, and cubby needing to be totally cleaned out. I took a photo with my phone, then left everyone in the chaos to go take care of the mountain of dirty dishes that awaited me.


I was grinning from ear to ear at the funny scene. Thrilled that at least we finished our schoolwork today. I love my life homeschooling these wild kiddos, even in the chaos!

1 comment:

Catherine said...

I'm glad to hear you could laugh at it all! Sounds a bit like our day too. :)

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