DITL - February 23

Monday came early today. I lay in bed, waiting for the alarm and when it went off, proceeded to lie in for another half hour. When B got up to shower, I got up as well.

I got my winter things on and with the dog, went out for a 20 minute walk. Sometime between last night and this morning, I managed to strain a hip flexor. I figured my walk would loosen it up. Not the case however, and I've been trying to ignore it all day.

Once home, I went about getting ready for my day. I spent half an hour pulling schoolwork while having my morning coffee. At 8:30 I made R his breakfast and checked that K was getting out of bed. I got the laundry well under way, cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed.

At 10:30 I was ready to begin our schoolish stuff. K was using an Usborne Art book and making some really nice watercolour paintings and R was creating with Lego. I felt bad about interrupting them for boring school stuff, but I am flexible! I am adaptable! Ok, I would like to be those things. In reality, I feel the pressure (self-induced, but no matter) to accomplish some bookish, schoolish things. It makes married life that much better. R was happy to leave his Lego in favour of some read aloud. We're reading through some of this year's Silver Birch selections. After his reading, we tackled his math.

At 11:30, I took to the kitchen to get lunch ready. Lunches are bigger, family affairs since B has been working from home. We enjoyed lunch together while B filled me in on his day so far. We cleaned up and rebooted the laundry, again, before getting to our books. K and I did her math lesson. Really, she's fairly independently working through her second Saxon level this year, but I like to read the lessons. Her math is at the point where my math developed gaps. It's a weird feeling to be learning alongside one's 11-year-old. I went to R's room with his French book. He practiced some work from L'Art de Lire 2 while I scribed and he built with Lego. I was thinking how fortunate I was to be able to teach and learn with the kids. Not many teachers can say they have the luxury of teaching while lying in bed and watching their students keep their kinesthetic selves busy creating with Lego.

On Mondays, we have a standing skating date at the local rink with other homeschooelrs. R packed the hockey bag and we were off. An hour of skating made it a little more difficult to ignore my nagging hip flexor, but it was a nice time with friends. R plays hockey - although a less vigorous version than he would like - while the rest of us skate around. It's a nice time of chatting and exercise for us moms and the kids certainly get their share of networking in.

After skating, we headed to the local cafe for a treat. My espresso based treat - White Mocha Latte - might explain why I yammered B's ear off when we got home an hour later. After we were in and settled, the kids and I did the last half hour of today's school work (K's L'Art de Lire, history cards, symbols of Quebec/geography page). R and I sat down to get into his book, Gordon Korman's 'Swindled', before I had to make dinner. It's a very exciting book, so we put dinner off as long as possible. The kids had leftovers and B and I worked together to try out a sloppy joe recipe. I'd never had and B had been a good 15 years since his last sloppy joe. I cleaned dinner up while everyone else ran off to get into their own activities. R needed to re-tape his hockey stick and K went to recharge her introverted batteries with some alone time in her room.

As soon as the dishes were done and the final load of laundry drying, R and I finished his book. K got back into her painting. Hopefully I'll be able to snag these latest creations and get them displayed. They're quite engaging.

So here I am at the end of the day, taking some time to get to email, messages and phone calls. I've sent R off to shower and K is packing up her art supplies. The kids will be in bed around 9 and I will putter around before turning in; maybe some knitting or a movie with B. So, there you have it. Not a very exciting day, but somewhat typical of a Monday of late. I feel as though I accomplished quite a bit on my mental list.

♥Bonni