It Doesn't Have to be "The Perfect Halloween",to be the perfect Halloween

I love Halloween!! It's a day everyone gets to be someone or something else for the night. A season to watch creepy movies and scare yourself silly. I like watching neighborhood working together decorating their houses. It is one of my favorite holidays. I even worked in a haunted house when I was younger. I want to pass on the fun and love for this ghoulish holiday to my boys.

The other night I was starting to become very overwhelmed by what still needed to be done for Halloween and projects the boys had due the day after Halloween. Two days before Halloween the pumpkins weren't carved, I had no clue what peanut free goodies I was going to send into school with the boys, I still had one more candy swap gift to buy, and Jordan still wasn't sure what he was going to dress as therefore still needed a costume. I also learn that evening that the younger two still had spelling test the day after Halloween along with a book report. The with energy of the Halloween in the air, my boys have been less than compliant. I was not feeling the love for the holiday, I started thinking "Let's just skip Halloween this year", there was no way I was going to be able to give them the perfect Halloween. Of course, I knew that the things that had to be done would get done; they would take costumes to school for their parties and they would go trick or treating. There was so much I wanted us to do to celebrate and we weren't going to have enough time to do everything.

My kids weren't going to enjoy this holiday, if the memories are of how mom rushed them through carving pumpkins, burnt the pumpkins seeds because she was setting up Halloween Bingo, and had demanded that they "Just pick something to be". Those aren't the memories I wanted them to have. Yesterday, I decided to just let some things go. If the pumpkins didn't get carved it wouldn't be the end of the world, we could still set them out as decorations. No one ever said pumpkins had to be carved before Halloween. Jordan could pick through our box of past year's costumes and create something to wear. I already had my main swap gift, I didn't have to run to four different stores looking for the extra little ones to give to the boys, they would still have a large portion on chocolate candies they could eat. 

It took a lot for me to let go of the "perfect Halloween" and embrace the Halloween that it would be.
I let go of stressing over everything and focused on one simple task at a time. A friend had stopped by with some games for the boys, and it turned out one of the games was perfect for the swap gift I needed. When the boys got home from school and homework was completed we started gutting the pumpkins while I quizzed them on spelling words (I'm a mom, I multi-task). Dinner was ready by the time the pumpkins were cleaned out, so we ate then carved them. During dinner Jordan finally decided what he would be, we already have face paint on hand so he's going to be a ventriloquist dummy. We had about an hour before bed that Jacob worked on his report and finish it except for a bit of coloring that he did this morning on the way to school. Joey had turned in his report last week and hadn't thought to inform me of it. I also chose not to send in any treats this year, the kids never know who brought in goodies and who didn't, plus they will all get lots of goodies when they go out tonight. (This was a really hard thing to let go of, I usually try to make a different creative treat for each boys to take in.)

By letting go of my image of the perfect Halloween and just letting things play out, it all worked out and everything that I wanted to do is done. (We played Halloween Bingo a few times last week, so that counts, right?) If I had held more tightly to when and how everything was done, I would have had myself so stressed out that I would have over reacted when things weren't going smoothly. I know when I'm stressed, I stress my kids out; you can't have fun when you're stress. By letting go of all the expectations I had placed on myself, I was able to share my love and excitement for Halloween with my boys.

Bucket List and Birthday

This week ended with celebrating Jordan's 13th birthday. He and I attempted to watch scary movies Friday night, but 45 minutes into The Messengers we decided it was a bit intense to watch after 9pm and switched to Beatlejuice followed by The Mummy. After staying up late watching movies I was blessed to witness the joy of having a teenager sleep in, Jordan slept in until just about noon.

After everyone was finally up and moving we set out on our pumpkin count walk. We have noticed the last few weeks that many people in our neighborhood didn't have pumpkins on display, so we headed over by the boys' school to the neighborhood behind the school. This is a neighborhood Jordan I walk just about everyday while we wait for the younger two get released from school. I downloaded an app to see how far we walk. It only took us about 45 minutes to walk a little over 1.30 miles and we were able to locate 163 pumpkins; Jacob says he spotted 164, we must have missed one. The boys were not shy about walked up  someone's driveway to get a closer look at the pumpkins to make sure we got an accurate count.

On the way home from our walk we stopped at the store to gather what we needed to make gingerbread monster cookies. Luck was not on our side as there was no gingerbread cookie mixes/dough to be found, we opted for sugar cookies instead. The boys chose some chocolates to use to decorate with and some frosting tubes; as we don't have any dyed frosting at home and our dye-free sprinkles/food dyes are expensive. Once home we realized the gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter is at Grandma's house, and switched to using Halloween theme cutters. They cut their own cookies as well as decorated them. Anything went, they wanted to stack chocolate and then coat the chocolates with frosting...sure, they wanted to load their cookies with icing...sure. It was their creations they could add whatever they wanted to them, with the understanding that whatever they put on them they themselves would be willing to eat. The boys did great and used just about all the frosting and their cookies were very creative. Some of them looked so sweet, you could have gotten a cavity just by looking at them.



He received some Aero shirts,
pajama pants, cologne, iPod charger,
& a gift card for Barnes & Nobles

Saturday evening Jordan headed out to stay the night at his cousin's house, Joey built a Lego rollercoaster, and Jacob and I played board games.

Early afternoon Sunday we went to pick up our store bought cake to take to Grandma's and were surprised that is wasn't even close to what we had ordered. We had ordered a basketball themed cake, what they tried to give us was not only the wrong team, but wrong colors, and the wrong size. We have order many cakes from them before and have never had a problem. Needless to say we didn't take the cake.
*The store called me and will be giving us a gift card for their mistake.

Sunday was our birthday celebration with Grandma and Papa, although we did not indulge in any of the birthday cake we did finish off all the cookies we made the day before. It was a really low key celebration, Jordan opened some presents and the boys spent most of the day outside playing (burning off some of their dye induced energy from the cookies). Joey and Jacob preformed a birthday song outside for Jordan with the use of a guitar and some "drums"; Papa helped them construct a stage to preform on. Jordan, Grandma, and I did some shopping and exchanged some of Jordan's birthday shirts. Mostly I spent the day in the basement clearing out some of the stuff the boys and I have been storing there. We ended the day with a bonfire that the boys had split some wood for before heading home.

Clearing out some of our storage has me motivated to tackle the boys rooms and move some furniture around and go through the toy boxes. That's my plan for most of today. Also trying to figure out were we can rake some leaves so we can jump in them, we have mostly pine trees around us.

Today I Offically Have A Teenager!!

He's a fan of Minecraft, so I made him a creeper cake.

Today I officially became the mother of a teenager. It still feels like just yesterday they placed my 9lb 6oz baby in my arms. I'm so very proud of the young man Jordan is becoming. Although 13 is a big deal, we're keeping things simple. We usually keep birthdays small and make sure to incorporate our birthday traditions. We started the day with donuts for breakfast (this is a tradition Grandma started when we lived with them), we do this for all the boys birthdays. Every year I bring the boys something special to school for lunch and  have lunch with them. This is one of my favorite traditions we have, it gives me time with my birthday boy without the other brothers vying for my attention. This year I was a bit worried that Jordan would think he's "too cool" or "too old" to have his mom sit with him for lunch, thankfully that wasn't the case. I was able to meet some of his new friends while he shared his pizzas and cupcakes with them. It's kind of funny how many people suddenly want to be your friend when you have a couple pizzas sitting at your table :) Jordan loved the attention and pointing out only his buddies would be joining us.

We had a small party just the four of us with dinner of his choice (more pizza of course), a cake made my mom (and ice cream of his choice), and opening presents from us. Part of his present from me is visiting a haunted house, since last year's gift of a haunted hayride was a flop; but we have to wait to have a babysitter before we can go. I pulled out the scrapbooks (the ones I have finished) and flip through them and I told the boys what Jordan was like when he was younger. He's gets to stay up late and watch a movie (of his choice) with mom, I think he's going to make me watch a creepy, scary, things that go bump in the night movie (I don't do well with spooky movies).  Maybe we'll watch Friday the 13th, seems he's 13 on Friday :P

We'll have another small party over the weekend with the grandparents and a store bought cake, ice cream, and of course more presents.



2 Rick Riordan books
The Kane Chronicles

Sketch pencils, charcoal pencils,
 sketch pads, and art portfolio.

Duck Dynasty Fuzzy PJ pants.

Will Work For Screen Time

Like most moms I spend a good amount of time doing household chores. I don't require my boys to do chores, but they are expected to clean up after themselves. My take on "chores" is that if something needs to be done, then do it. They also don't receive and allowance for two reasons 1. you shouldn't get paid for what you should be doing anyways. 2. I honestly can't afford to give them money for helping with anything above what is expected. Usually they are pretty good about helping when asked (even if I have to ask more than a couple time). However they seem to be slacking a bit lately and there are some things I usually do that they could help with.

We have a strict no electronic policy Monday-Thursday. Yep, no TV, DS, IPods, or computer (unless it is school related and mom approved educational) . Which makes electronic minutes a great currency.

I posted a Work for Hire sign and some tasks that need to done. They are given 48 hours to claim a job before I'll pull them. Every job lists what the payout will be upon completion. The more time consuming the higher the payment; 30 minutes for putting away everyone's laundry and sorting all the socks. Every job is first come, come first serve. They must complete all their homework before starting a job. They can choose whichever jobs they would like or none at all, there are no consequences for not taking a job. If they don't complete their job within 24 hours of  choosing it, it will be reposted for the remaining 24 hours so the other boys to have an chance to earn the minutes. Also if they need to "hire help" from a brother, they have to pay that brother half the minutes for the job.

When the boys came home from school Jordan was the first to notice the opportunity and snatched up the job with the highest payout. The other boys soon followed. While they were all busy doing their jobs I actually enjoyed a hot cup of coffee while I sorted the paperwork from their backpacks. After a quick check from mom to make sure they completed their task the best they could, they receive a "mom money" for the allotted amount of minutes.

I had the whole kitchen to myself to prepare dinner, the boys were quickly burning through their minutes earned. Joey was disappointed when his time ran out halfway through a race he was playing. He said "Don't turn it off, I'm taking another job!!" I HAVE TO FINISH THIS RACE!" Luckily today there were enough jobs, so he could earn more time.

Thanks to the boys helping out we were able to finish the evening duties early and had some extra fun with mom time. Jacob saved some of his electronic minutes so he could have me play a video game with him.

While I don't really like any electronics on during the week, I can live with it knowing it will not be an everyday opportunity. They don't have to use their time earned that day, they can roll it over. The boys were excited about earning electronic time, they wouldn't have jumped at the chance to clean the litter box otherwise. It was like they were "getting away with something" by playing the video games during the week. However everything is all caught up and they'll have to wait for more job to be posted before they can earn more time.

Linked up with Our Busy Homeschool for Sharing What Works.

"Batty" for Apples- Bucket List Update

After visiting the cider mill last weekend, we have apples galore. To tackle our abundance of apples we did a couple of our apple themed bucket list activities. For snack on Friday we took turns bobbing for apples. Figuring it was gross to bite an apple after someone else had already tried to, we only put a couple in for each person. They had so much fun with this that spent more time re-bobbing for their apples than actually eating them. After they managed to splash most of the water out of the bowl it was time for some peanut butter, raisins, and actually eating their snack.



When we originally made our bucket list we had hoped for an Indian Summer. However with the temperatures dropping in the evening like they have been it looked like we weren't going to get to do our "bat hunt". Rather than write it off, we switched it up a bit. I grabbed what I could find of our black construction paper and made our own bats. At twilight we went up to one of our nearby parks and while they boys were busy putting ductape on the back of the bats I ran around the park "hiding" them. It had gotten dark quickly and we resorted to using flashlights to search for the bats. We started out with 18 bats, but were only able to find 12. Somehow the others seemed to have flown away.




We used a decent amount of apples up by making apple pies. They boys couldn't decided what kind of top crust they wanted to make so we made two pies. They were really into it from the peeling the apples to laying the top crust. We forgot to tinfoil the edges and one of the pies was a wee bit crispy on the edges. Jordan did an awesome job with his lattice top and made sure to remember the foil this time. We enjoyed our pies with Papa and Grandma the following day.

Measuring Up

I love pumpkins and all the creative ways you can incorporate them in simple math lessons. Yesterday, after the boys got home from school we did a couple simple math lessons seems I had just remember to take the pumpkins out of the car. First, we estimated which would weigh the most and the less by just looking at them. Then I grabbed a five pound bag of sugar to help them in estimating the weight of each pumpkin. After comparing the weight of the sugar to each of the pumpkins, the wrote down their hypothesizes. We dug out our scale to get an actuate weight. Next we guess if we were about as wide as our pumpkins  After measuring our own waists and measuring  the width of each of the pumpkins, we were proud to say the pumpkins were much wider then us.

Sticking with a measuring theme Jordan help Joey with making pancakes for dinner and the measuring of the ingredients. Strangest thing happened the exacted sized measuring cups they needed seemed to be missing (I wonder where they could have gone...hmmm) and they had to figure out which ones to use as well as how many times they would need to use them. They managed just fine with the little hiccup thrown their way and we had some very delicious pancakes. Although my fork kept disappearing during dinner, they claim to have no clue where they all went...LOL

We also made popcorn balls, again they needed to measure out the ingredients (by this time the all the measuring cups had magically reappeared). Having never made popcorn balls before, it could have turned into an interesting mini adventure. Thankfully it turned out rather uneventful. (Yay, no burnt fingers this time.) We found a recipe that explained about how long to do each step, as we don't have a candy thermometer. They look like popcorn balls, however they are still really gooey three hours later. They were gooey, but good. We were thinking that if they hardened up some we could make them for the cub scout Halloween party we had signed up to bring treats to. 

 
 
 

On a side note, while we had the scale out to weigh the pumpkins we weighed ourselves. Jordan was ecstatic that he has FINALLY passed the 100 pound mark; most of his peers had passed it a few years ago.

A Day at the Cider Mill

We have had a busy weekend full of fun. We reached our weekly goal of 18-20 hours outdoors as part of our 1000 hours outside challenge. Despite getting a late start we spent 21 1/2 hours outside (not including the time the younger two spent outside for recess at school).

One of the boy's teachers had told her class that the space station was suppose to be visible just under the moon. For three nights we tried to spot it, the boys even got out their telescope; the night sky did not cooperate and we missed it. While we were out in the dark we figured we'd grab the flashlights and mark take a flashlight walk off of our bucket list. We walked about a half mile, but the boys had more fun thinking of neat flashlight poses for me to snap pictures of. We had planned to do our "bat hunt" while we were walking but there were none to be found. I think we may have to tweak our "bat hunt" for our bucket list.

We also thought we try to beat the crowds and visit a cider mill early. While there are five cider mills within a ten minute drive from our house, we switched things up this year and checked out one about an hour and a half away. The ones near our home are nice and have plenty of things to do while there, however we have visited them many, many times. We managed to get to the cider mill/ apple orchard a half hour after they opened and there weren't many people. I really like there were so many activities included in the admission. Our first stop was at the haunted house, which was suppose to be less scary during the day. The other day we were talking about how old they needed to be before I would take then through a good scary one and they were disappointed they had still had many years to wait and felt they were ready now. After going through the haunted house this weekend the younger two have decided they don't want to go to another one until they are about 27...lol.

The set up of the area made it easy to go from one activity to the next. The boys used hand water pumps to race rubber ducks, then tested their navigational skills walking through the labyrinth. Jordan and Joey quickly got ahead of us and easily found their way to the exit. Jacob and I had a harder time. Jacob being so trusting thought we just had to follow the posted arrows most of which lead us to dead ends. Jordan came to our rescue once we almost made it to the exit. Next to the labyrinth was the fire truck rides. Our ride took us around the pumpkin patch and we started scoping out which pumpkins we wanted. While waiting for a wheelbarrow the older two played on the inflatable bungee run and Jacob played on one of the many playgrounds. They were really fast about picking out their pumpkins (not like when we go looking for a Christmas tree). Of course they had find the largest one they could and we ended up needing two wheelbarrows to carry them. (When we got home we weighed them. They're good sized pumpkins - 19.4lbs, 24.6lbs, 29.2lbs, and 36.6lbs.)

After dropping the pumpkins off in the van and a quick juice box break we went back in and played a few holes of miniature golf before heading toward the hayride. On our way to the wagon Jordan spotted the much awaited "Corn Crib" (this is one of the main reasons we went to this mill). Although the corn pit was not as deep as we were expecting this was one of the boys favorite activities. (This would be great for kids with sensory issues.) After many attempts to pull them from the corn we headed to the hayride. The hayride took us all over the place including near the corn maze we had been looking for as well through parts of their haunted hayride (this time the little guys didn't get scared).

The corn maze was also one of our favorites. Instead of just letting you wander the maze (although you could if you wanted to) they had checkpoints to search for. The boys were very excited about which was the correct way and it was like herding kitten to try and keep us together as a group. Not far from the maze was a playground for older kids and they spent some time there while I updated everyone via Facebook on all the fun we were having. Playtime came to an end when a bee chose to sting Jacob. After treating Jacob's sting we set about picking our own apples. We only bought a 1/2 peck. There were more apples on the ground then their were on their dwarf trees. This was the first time we've picked from dwarf apple trees, the boys said they prefer the taller trees. It was nice that it was easier for everyone to reach the apples, but the boys like having to climb to get the apples.

Having done just about everything there was to do it was time to get our cider and donuts and head home. On the way towards the Country Store we bumped into "Johnny Appleseed", had another stop at the corn crib and a couple turns in the bounce house and a ride down the giant inflatable slide. Once we finally made our way to the cider and donuts there were not many open tables as it was later in the day and it had gotten busier, we had our snack picnic style. Once back at the van we realized we missed the petting farm and headed back to feed the goats. The petting farm was short lived, after about 5 minutes Jacob got stung by another bee this time just above his lip. After five and half hours and two bee stings it was time to call it a day.

I was very impressed with this mill and I believe it was worth the drive down to it. We will definitely be visited it again next year. Being a  single mom, I have to watch the cost of our outings and this one was worth it; it pretty much balanced out to about a dollar per person per activity. In the van on the way home Jacob stated he's not going back next year, because this one had bees that stung him. If they can control their bees maybe he'll come back.

Making Progress

Progress reports came home this past week. I was both pleasantly surprised and not so pleasantly surprised at how my boys have been doing. I was really looking forward to receiving their progress reports to see how they have been adjusting academically to their new schools.

 Jacob had always been in the top percentile in his class, when his report showed that he wasn't I started taking a closer look at his assignments that he has brought home. The system the school uses for the second graders is different than I'm use to. Instead of letter grades they use 1-3 scale, one being that they have a good understanding in the subject and three being they need some improvement. Jacob had mostly 2's. What really confused me was some of the comments next to his scores. For reading he's only receiving a 2 and the comment is that he needs practice to read a level; Jacob reads at almost a fourth grade level. I have saved all his assignments and tests he has taken from his first day of the school year. All his papers (in all subjects) have an A, with a few B's thrown in there. I'm seriously wondering if the teacher made a mistake and was looking at a different students grades when she fill out his grade thus far. I have sent her an email to see about setting up an appointment time to review his grades, because the grades shown do not reflect the work Jacob does are the knowledge he has in those subjects. That was not a pleasant surprise, I hoping that there was an error somewhere and we can straighten it out. Jacob was very upset that his report was not close to the highest possible; he worries a great deal about his grades.


Joey had a progress report that I was pleasantly surprised with. He has earned A's and B's, and a C+. This is huge for him!! He has struggled so much in the past, and worked hard to earn C's. There aren't even words to describe how proud of him I am. He's still working hard to earn the grades he has, but isn't struggling. He has asked me to meet with his teacher to discuss the behavioral portion of the report. Not surprising to me the teacher reported that he still needs some improvement in this area, this has been an ongoing learning process for Joey. Joey feels he has done very well with completing assignments and hasn't been talking out of turn in the class; and would like his teacher to tell me this as it is not reflected on the progress report. Overall, I think the switch in schools was exactly what Joey needed.

Jordan, the sly child; when we went to his conference he told me that I didn't need to go to the table set up near the front that they were just handing out each kids list of teachers, actually they were handing out the progress reports. While his grades aren't as well as I know the could be, I wasn't surprised by them. The school (like many others) has a parent portal set up, where I can check in on his grades as well as grades received on assignments (or any missing assignments). I'm very grateful for this program, it appears that middle school aged children seem to forget to bring a lot of papers home. I have stopped in a couple times already and spoken with some of his teachers for various reasons, so I wasn't too shocked at his grades. He has some work to do to pull a couple of his courses back up to where they should be. I think before basketball tryouts begin, his grades will be back to honor roll standards.

After seeing their progress reports, I conclude that all 3 of them have adjusted rather nicely to their new schools and seem to be on the right track. Especially Joey, I have seen a HUGE change in him and his confidence level. I now feel that I had diffinately made the right desion my switching them.

Fall Fun Bucket List Update

The other week during our nature walk we collected some items from along the trail. Mostly acorns, some leaves (at different stages of changing colors), sticks, twigs, small pebbles and even a couple feathers. This weekend we used our assortment of "cool nature stuff" to create nature pictures. Our pile of stuff in the center of the table, they quickly determined what it was they wanted to create. They all came up with different ideas. Jordan made a nature scene, Joey created a picture frame, and Jacob made UOLO (suppose to be YOLO, but he insisted that it was a U for YOU. It was his masterpiece I wasn't going to argue with him.). I went with a picture of us walking off the path at the nature center. There were so many acorns and Jacob was curious as to what exactly was inside them. He was surprised they were so hard to open, he figured he should be able to do it easily because squirrels can do it. :) He tried cutting them with scissors and sent a few flying through the kitchen.  After Jordan took a hammer to it for him, he was disappointed that it was only a tiny little nut and it didn't like appetizing.

We had a rough start finding a family book to read. Most of the classics we have already read or seen the movies for. Also Jacob doesn't like books where the girl is the main character or there are too many girls in the story.  I have had a difficult time finding new books to share with my boys. We settled on Spy School by Stuart Gibbs from our librarian's recommended list. They love playing spy games, so hopefully this book will live up to their expectations. We got a good start on the book this weekend, completing the first four chapters. A plus to this book compared to the one we chose for our summer bucket list, the chapters are much shorter and the story line moves along quicker.

We also tackled make caramel apples. Some really neat ideas had found their way to me and we incorporated them in what should have been a simple activity. We cut our apples in halves and dug out the centers using spoons so they could be filled with caramel and later sliced into smaller wedges. I heard about making our own caramel by heating condensed milk, figured it could something fun to try. Not being able to track down the post I saw it on, I researched some different methods. The stovetop seemed liked the easiest route to go, with the exception of  if the water didn't cover the lid of the can at all times it could cause it to explode. So I boiled the water, then dropped in the cans, and turned the heat down. Unfortunately I was a little worried about an explosion occurring in my kitchen and turned the heat down a bit too far; we basically ended up with really warm condensed milk. Figuring all is not lost and dumped some in a bowl and tossed it into the microwave. The kids liked watching it fizzle up and stirring it back down. However we just weren't getting the caramel coloring we had hoped for. After filling some of our apple halves with the concoction and set them in the fridge to chill, I came up with a brilliant idea. Instead of cooking the milk in the can on the stove, I would just pour it into a saucepan to cook, that way I could see when we got the color we wanted. It worked out pretty good, there was more of a brown coloring but it thickened really quickly. Jordan held onto the apple halves as I attempted to get our gloopy caramel into them. It was a bit challenging and being so focused on the task at hand I forgot that I had just removed it from the stove and used my finger to smooth out the caramel. I managed  to give myself a nice 2nd degree burn along the side of my finger and underneath my nail. OUCH!! So I took the opportunity to teach the boys the proper way to treat a burn. (Teachable moments happen all the time). After dinner we tried to slice our apple halves, the caramel was too hard and sticky to cut through so they at them as they were. The caramel made in the microwave tasted more like caramel, but the stovetop one looked and felt more like caramel. I think we'll stick to the store bought caramel from now on.

 

It's Been A Very Long Week

What I've heard from many other parents this week, my kiddos aren't the only ones who have been "off". It has been a week filled with many melt downs, tons of attitude, and very little patience. We did have some brief moments at least once or twice a day when everyone was in a good mood. I managed to make it to Friday before I started having an attitude with all the attitude in and around our house. My many attempts to pull everyone out of their funk were short lived. We attempted our soda geysers again, and when they still didn't work correctly the boys were very vocal about their disappointment. It was a long week.

It has been a week full of the boys looking for reason to ague. A week full how unfair everything is. A week full of raised voices. A week of shoving. A week full of blaming everyone for everything that has gone wrong. Although there was no "major issues" this week, everything was seen as a major issue or injustice. It was a week were they all seemed to feel like the universe was out to get them (on Friday I was starting to feel like the boys were out to get me). It was a long week.

A week of spills on the freshly cleaned floor. A week of snack grounded into the carpet. A week when the garbage bag split. A week that every dish in the house was used every day. It was a long week.

Also it had been a week full of season illnesses. A week that was thrown out of routine. A week full of restless nights for most of us. A week with more assigned homework. 

Finally there is some peace in the house. Finally they are sharing. Finally the grumpy one for today is hiding out in his room reading and/or drawing. Finally the shoes are put where they belong. Finally the homework is completed. Finally everyone caught up on lost sleep. Finally it is Saturday. It was a long week.


How did everyone else's week fair for them? Did you also have a long week?