Beautiful Rainy Day

  On this beautiful rainy day, I am tired.  Have been for a few days now.  Not sure what the trigger is, but I find myself pulling away again.  Guess it's time for a small retreat.  We have had some wonderfully busy days recently.  We have enjoyed the company of some fun people.  I am so grateful that God has given me such neat friends and family. 
  School has been a bit off this past week.  Well, I could tell it was coming.  For the past month or so, I have been allowing the kids to do their seatwork at their own pace with little to no urging from me.  Unfortunately, in the past couple of weeks, more prompting has been occuring daily.  The more I have to pull, the more I feel anxious on the inside.  I find myself more easily agitated and the kids more unruly.  We have not been doing any exercises in the morning and I can tell it!  The boys are very active and seem out of control.  When we were exercising first thing in the morning, they were better able to concentrate and stay on task.    So I told the children today after our Thanksgiving break (for which I am soooo grateful), we would be returning to our schedule.  I believe things will move back to a more peaceful roar as we get back to our schedule.  It's always good to go off the schedule to see the value of it.  It really does help to have some sort of schedule for us anyway.  We use a flexible schedule.  One that we can float with and see where we have been and where we are going. 
What does our schedule look like, you ask.  I'll show you! 
                    8:30-9:30  Prayer, pledge, exercises, memory verse
                    9:00-9:30  Megan works on seatwork independently and boys
                                    work on Bible, Spelling, and Lanuage
                   9:30-10:00  I go over Megan's Bible, Spelling and Language 
                                    while the boys finish up seatwork including Math
                                     facts
                  10:00-10:30  BREAK and team chores (laundry and dishes)
                  10:30-11:30  Group Activities:  Depending on the day of the
                                     week, it could be Spanish, Science, Health,
                                      States book, or Art with the most recent read aloud
                   11:30-12:30  LUNCH and team chores
                   12:30-1:30   Math  and any seatwork not finished
                     1:30-2:00   BREAK and team chores
                     2:00-2:30   Quiet reading in room (quiet home!  ahhhhh)
                                       Hasn't happened this way for a while.

  So as I said before our schedule is flexible, depending upon the day and the attitudes of all involved.  It's an interesting journey.  It helps to re-evaluate the journey and the goals for the journey.    Thanks for listening!  God bless you all!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!