Long time, no blog

Busy, busy, busy. I have had a crazy week. We have been busy with homeschool Latin, planning, first Saturday, cleaning and other various tasks and errands. This running a business and homeschooling is going to get tricky. I have had to have "news free days" over the last week just to keep my sanity. I don't know how regular my blogging will be. We were supposed to start Latin classes at Old St Mary's this week and something crazy happened and no one returned phone calls about what the decision was on time, place, etc. So we started Prima Latina here this week and are now on Lesson 2 plus finished all pronunciation. I tried to go over what conjugating and declensions today and they flipped out. We will need to scale that back a bit. I'm dealing with issues the boys teachers have had(no raising hand, calling out, etc) and I need to find a consistent way to handle this. I can tell I will also need to do something fun to make this stick and keep their interest long term. Now that we aren't traveling for Latin class, I need to come up with a long term schedule. Sticking it in various places isn't working. I have to, have to keep my kids on a schedule down to the half hour from morning until bed. Even for weekends. So that is my project this week. Make Latin fun, finish schedule and somewhere in there, make some money to pay bills. This is daunting.

So crafty!

This weekend, Mr. Thorn started a craft project with the kids. He never revealed to me(during all our years of marriage) that he was a master at the art of camp crafts. So they are all busy making lanyards. It is not 100% peaceful but they are all busy in varying degrees. My youngest was getting tired of the same colors and project so I created a monster by introducing her to the art of the friendship bracelet. It's been years since I did these so we haven't figured out how to keep it laying flat but I hope in the end, it will stay flat....maybe. Here are some instruction links in case you want to try these at home.

Friendship Bracelet

Lanyards

If anyone has been making these as of late with their kids, keeping the threads from twisting during knotting is something of interest to us. Ha. No one on the Internet has issues, or so it seems.

What blog?

Yow. I spent the week swimming with the kids, taking kids to the dentist(not named Crentist) and getting business in order. My new fabrics are piling up and I wasn't "cutting" them and they felt sad. So now that my back is a bit burned, I have to try and get dressed in something presentable for the evening. I am missing family game night. Snif. I have been so busy I haven't really been following WYD(except for the blog coverage). I'm trying to keep everything in order between God, family and business and I am probably failing but maybe I will at least get a smiley sticker for effort.
This entry is proof I am spending a lot of time with kids AND in the sun. My brain is mushy now. Oh, and Samantha, I did watch the special on the History Channel called "Hillbilly". Oddly enough, right after that post. It was insightful and entertaining.

It's an "Anything Can Happen Day"

Summer is not going as smoothly as one would hope. Taking children who are very used to routine and throwing them into a vacation situation is not always the best thing. We have so many appointments that it has become a full time job. Therapists, doctors, mentors, specialists and case workers have taken over our lives. There is a "chance" one of my sons may qualify for a summer camp and that, I'm sure will throw us further in this tailspin. Do I think it is all worth it? Honestly? No. There comes a point when we have reached a "therapeutic threshold". When my kids can't be kids and when summer is a chore, it is time to step away. My business is suffering, my patience is waning and the kids are in a fishbowl. We have one more week of intense appointments and then it goes to therapy only for a bit(unless summer camp comes into play.) Forget trying to put our house on the market right now. The painting and repair work will take many months and we just don't have that kind of free time right now.
I think it is time to put this all in God's hands. Everything looks overwhelming right now and I can't do everything. I could use a really holy person with the ability to bi locate to help me. But then they would be off doing amazing things for God and not in the practice of helping a frazzled wife with special needs kids and a rocky business outlook. I have to take all three to the pediatricians today. In Cincinnati. Alone. I'm very much looking forward to evening when I know all this will be over.

Painting with kids

I spent the day teaching the kids to paint. There is a new product called "liquid watercolors" and while they are cool, I need to fine tune my instructions on craft projects. Sometimes crafts become an occasion of sin for me if I blow my stack. Lets put it this way....they are SUPER pigmented. I purchased some bleed paper that allows the color to have a batik effect and also blend the colors as it is very fibrous. To make a long story short, the paint bled through everything and was way to dark since I did not add water first. Next time, I will know. Best part was the kids had fun and it cleaned up easily. If I have time later, I will share photos of our projects. We attempted underwater scenes first and florals second. Supposedly these work great on coffee filters. I'm worn out after that and lunch time. We got our Latin text books today! Don't know if I am up for that. My goal is to teach them all rosary prayers by heart by the end of summer.

My favorite summer tonic!

Nothing like a tall Blue Moon in a frosty pilsner with a slice of orange! Served with bah-bee-que, yum.

If you haven't tried one, order it next time with anything grilled on a hot day. Report back. You have your orders, now go!

Ah, summer....

Is there anything better in the summer than roasted corn? Perhaps sweet tea or a rum and coke? I need summer all year. It is best for the senses.

An adjustment period...

Ok, wow. Sunday afternoon and I'm realizing this summer is going to take some work. I haven't had the time to blog much as life took over and my usual morning and evening blog time are now filled with tending to kids and having to closely monitor my son who is going through drastic med changes. Respite has been here twice and my husband and I got to go for a nice dinner last night. I think it is good that they will be here a lot over the month of June since my oldest needs extra supervision, even in the house. He was so bad earlier today that he had to leave halfway through Mass and felt so bad having to do so. I need extra prayers for him.

I also feel that I am stuck in this spiritual holding pattern right now in so many areas. It feels like I'm not going forward or backward but I'm not real crazy about being stuck. I have to trust God is allowing me to go through this for a reason but with all the drama and garbage here locally, I'm just plain burnt out. Just being honest. I keep telling myself this won't be forever and so I take comfort in that but it's the daily "stuff" that gets to me much more. I need to work on the things with my kids that I said I wanted to do. My oldest wants me to work on Latin with him because they no longer teach it at their school. If I was more proficient, I would consider helping with that at school but I am just so-so. I also need to get this vacation planned, reservations made and be done with it. I'm trying to do Florida on a budget without compromising the relaxing/kid aspect and it's challenging.
On another note, I hope to get my morning coffee and blogging back, somehow. All the kids home has caused me to shift my focus and schedule and so about the time I get used to that, they will be back in school. We did get a small 10 ft pool for the kids and I will probably take them out there this afternoon. I have respite here tomorrow and they can do that for me while I work. I miss visiting my favorite blogs. Life kind of took over and I will need to adjust accordingly.

Dignum et iustum est...

Ack!

My internet has been bonkers for 2 days. We lost it for most of today and it was in and out yesterday. I'm still here, just a little crazy. My youngest had kindergarten graduation in the hot, hot sun today and the kids are officially out of school. I'm cranking out the last of our designs for 4th of July and so the next few days will be freaky. I should be my normal self again once I get the hang of the summer with kids again. We are putting a pool up tomorrow so that will be something for the kids to do.

I need to check my blogs tonight after the kids are in bed. Whew, I'm tired.

A light at the end...

I'm getting "unburied" with my workload and things are looking up. I spent this whole week catching up and if all goes well, I will be able to take one of my last mommy days, before school is out, shopping! There is much going on here spiritually and instead of trying to sort everything out, I am going to let God lead me. I am sure I need some down time from work this summer and my kids need me too. No pregnancy yet, another month has come and gone. I still have faith and trust.
More orders to finish tonight and I am looking forward to spending some family time this weekend.
All of our favorite shows are over for the year(24, Smallville, Supernatural) so hopefully there are some good movies coming out. It is starting to feel like summer...