Of school, sickness, and staying sane

Wow. It's been a month already.

I had thought that things would be more settled, more relaxed by now. Guess I guessed wrong.

It's been pretty wild.

First, our school started Aug. 3rd. Jerry and the boys got home on the 5th so you can imagine the ensuing chaos trying to get school up and running.

We are doing the K12 program this year for 4 of our kids and since it is part of our state's public school system you have to follow that calender...makes for a real pain in my derriere, but other than that we like the program.

K12 incorporates a lot of the same materials and literature that we had with Sonlight. We loved Sonlight, but it just became too difficult trying to manage multiple cores and schedules for all our kids levels. I am not the super organized type of home-schooler either and felt like we were starting to fall behind so we decided to check out K12 last year.

There are things that I love ( it's free and I have to stay accountable) and things that I don't love (following their schedule, tests, tests, and MORE tests!) about the program. We have one teacher assigned to us as a family and she calls once a month to check progress and is available for any questions from me or the kids throughout the school week.

Someday, if things ever slow down maybe we'll switch back to a more traditional mode of home schooling...then again, it is kind of nice to be able to raise my eyebrows and ask in my most menacing voice, "What will your teacher say?" to any potentially slacking, sluggish students...

Isaiah is starting school this year too, but not through K12. We usually let them start out at their own pace the first year and make sure they get a good basis in math and reading. I have used Teach your Children To Read in 100 lessons for the last 3 of my kids and I love it for it's ease of use and effectiveness.

The second contributing factor for all the craziness around here is we've been hit with one virus after another since the guys got back. Not so great for creating those wonderful, first moment memories.

I came down with something last week and was bed-ridden for 4 days and am still not feeling back to normal. Mikayla, Caleb, and Damian had it the week before and were thankfully feeling better when I got it...it was a horrible- fever, nausea, intense cramping, diarrhea- you pretty much lived in the bathroom, if you can call it living. poor Gabe started with it today.

I am very thankful that my parents live close by. My mom helped with bathing and dressing the little ones and my dad brought supper most nights; Jerry took care of everything else-he's pretty amazing!

We are still waiting on all the labs from Kidus and Biruk and if they come back with anything we will all get tested.

Thankfully, none of the upheaval seems to be having too great an affect on Kidus and Biruk...they remain the same happy-go-lucky little boys whether their mommy is smiling at them from across the table or staring vacantly over their heads from her sick bed.

The twins continue to get into absolutely everything! Kidus is often the ringleader although Biruk is right there doing his fair share of damage too. It's been fun watching their personalities emerge. It's not been fun cleaning up after them.

They are getting better with obedience though and now if we say "no" they usually will listen and they are getting less pouty about it too.

Kidus watches everything and you can count on him trying his hand at whatever it was you were doing the minute your back is turned. From soap smeared all over the bathrooms to leaving trails of q-tips and band aides in his wake he is one busy kid. He also loves changing his clothes and would go through 6 outfits a day if I'd let him. Kidus likes things in their place though; at night he lines his shoes up neatly against the wall and he's an expert at folding laundry. A little training and I might just have a great helper one of these days.

Biruk, on the other hand, is like a tornado coming through. He's usually in a good mood and he's got a great chuckle. He likes to tease and pester and he can get pretty mad at times too. Yesterday he whacked Bella over the head with a stick... it reinforced her opinion that we need to sell them to her aunt and uncle.

Every morning after bath time I take first Kidus (upon his insistence) and then Biruk, set them up on my bathroom counter, get out the q-tips, the oils, the solutions, the band aides and set to work dousing, slathering and pasting.

Upon completion I have 2 very happy, shiny, soft, moisturized, little boys who smell like walking apothecaries. They have ringworm and we've been treating it with vinegar; so far it seems to be clearing it up. I will take them to a dermatologist if it doesn't but though it was worth a shot trying to clear some of their fungal issues naturally first.

Kidus and Biruk continue to chatter to each other in Amharic quite a bit. They have acquired some English, but not as much as I would have thought...I think it's because they have each other to speak to.

There are times when they say something and laugh like crazy...I have no idea if what they are saying is appropriate or not, sometimes I get more than a little suspicious!

We've picked up bits and phrases from them though we won't be trying out any of it on our Ethiopian friends any time soon. I'll never forget the time my mom went to pick up my 4 yr old sister from asilo (Italian preschool) and the nun, so proud of her newly acquired English, pointed to a tree and in perfect imitation of my sister said,"Twee!"

We let the boys swim the other before-we-got-sick week. They loved it!

Here's hoping this next month is a little calmer!