School Stuff

There's so much to write, but it's also so late -- I just got home from my Moms' Night Out for our homeschool support group, which was lovely. So, I'll have to be brief. In short, we started lessons again today (I don't like saying, "we started homeschooling" because I think we've been doing that since birth, and I don't like saying "We stated school" because it sounds so formal)but anyway, we started. I had visions of starting off with a Special Breakfast, but when I got to the kitchen, Tim announced he'd made oatmeal, and who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth> :-)When we eventually sat down to read and do a few things together according to my nicely planned schedule, I would say overall things went well. I can tell nothing has changed as far as my need to be VERY flexible with Ian and my plans. And, we got some extra grace today because my friend Virginia brought her toddler over to play with Caroline for an hour or so, so she occupied both of them while we did some math and spelling (in the driveway, with sidewalk chalk). This was a good thing, since Caroline had already created her typical chaos in the house with more than usual vigor this morning: example: dragged a chair over to the closet shelf, stood on it, grabbed the box of paints, announced, "I NEED RED!" opened the jar of red paint, and slathered it on the craft table (and then on my white pants). My blood pressure was on its way up! However, our new morning chore system fared quite well in its maiden voyage. More on that in another post.
If you can, please think of and pray for Tim tomorrow (and Friday). He is taking the Ph.D. qualifying exams, and he has to pass in order to continue in the program for another 2-3 years (how's that for a reward ;-)). These are super rigorous, and it's not that he doesn't know the material or hasn't studied his tail off, but just that he does have issues with test-taking anxiety that sometimes cloud his otherwise brilliant brain. This is Round 2 for us with these exams, and it's now or never as far as passing goes. I really can't pray that much about it myself; I'm basically telling the Lord, "You know what has to happen; it's up to You."
So on that note, I'm going to go make sure he gets to bed at a decent hour. And me too, since we already have a field trip planned for tomorrow, to Homeschool Day at the Texas History Museum.