Conspiracy

Sometimes I think the world is conspiring against me, keeping me from doing schoolwork with the kids. This morning (the first morning back to school after Andy left), I had every intention of waking up at 6 a.m. and getting a good half hour on the treadmill and a shower before waking the kids up at 7.

That didn't happen.

Instead, I ended up with 2 kids in my bed last night (and while I love snuggling with them, I never end up sleeping well without my space to spread out). Instead of waking up at 6, my alarm didn't go off and we all woke up at 8:30. That put a kink in things :)

Then, as the kids were brushing their teeth, one of them told me that the sink was plugged up and wouldn't drain.

When I pulled up the lever to let it drain, it did - into the cabinet and onto the floor below. Yes, the pipes were pulled apart. This put another kink in my timeline for this morning.

After cleaning up the mess, I tried to assess the damage. The pipes just need to be screwed back together (I think) and the draining lever thingy (technical term I'm sure) needs to be fixed because it's stuck in one position. Plumber, however, is not one of the job descriptions that I have on my long list of qualifications. Where is Jeff (my brother, the plumber) when I need him? A zillion miles away like everyone else that I know :) I am sure that I will figure it out when I can look at it without "help" from the kids.

Anyway, I left the kids with instructions not to to touch the sink or they would spontaneously combust (slight exaggeration) and I decided that we needed to start schoolwork and I will deal with plumbing later in the day.

Nick has decided that he doesn't want us to get anything done. He has gone up the steps twice and turned our lights on and off in the school room. He has crushed goldfish crackers all over the the playroom floor. He has tattooed his body with purple marker and screamed at the top of his lungs that he doesn't want to be in the play room.

I was giving Ellie her spelling test, Kate was asking me to help her with her math problem, and Lexie was wanting me to read the instructions to her phonics. All of this, while Tori was sreaming and Nick was running upstairs. Total insanity!!!

This isn't going well. As you can see, the one thing I didn't finish this weekend was putting a schedule together. Not that I would have been able to follow it today anyway....

So, we have finished language arts, math, virtues, and poetry. They're now watching "Bonjour Les Amis" while Ellie is working on her French workbook. Tori is sleeping peacefully :) I have a moment to sit in peace and quiet.

Ok, so my peace and quiet was interrupted by Lexie showing off her strength by breaking our brand new pencils into pieces. She's now sitting on her bed.

I am going to make some lunch and hope that after we eat we are still sane enough to do history and science.