Reality Check

I think I am going to start posting a series of "articles" on "reality check"...or a recap of those days that don't fall into the "1 in 10 Perfect Homeschooling Day" category :).  It was one of those days when I went to bed thinking, "I just didn't do enough!!!!!" but as I have told myself other days, "at least I did devotional and family reading."


I woke up in the morning, excited to go to the temple with a dear friend. I showed up on her doorstep at 5:30 am.  Noticing the darkened house, I wondered first if I had missed her and then if I even had the right friend!  Come to discover after awakening her with my soft knock that she had meant for us to meet at 5:30 pm.  Simple mistake, right :)?  To my delight, she invited me in and we enjoyed a couple of hours of chatting while her kids awoke to a surprise visitor and I had my "cup of love" filled :).

I was back home a little before 8, but that meant I spent the entire time before devotional cleaning up breakfast and rooms and getting little girls done with "Basics."  Devotional #1 ended up starting a little after 9 am after I had finished berating a child for rotating laundry without hanging up the nice shirts.  Kudos to my 11 year old that she was doing her own laundry, but I was in a hurry and handled it a little abrasively.  Nice way to start devotional, mom :S.

We gathered, "sang" our two Articles of Faith we are working on (one for Primary and one for my 8 year olds Activity Days goal), and I generated a little discussion on motivation, giving examples from their activities the past few days:
-what motivates you to exercise?
-what motivates you to work?
-what motivates you to study languages?
-what motivates you to fight?
 With the exercise example, we talked about their different reasons.  A couple of the kids did it so they could check it off our daily chart of things they have done.  A couple of them did it because they wanted to be healthy and stronger.  "When the chart is put away, which of you will still be exercising?" The kids acknowledged it would be the ones who did it because they knew what they would get out of it.  I praised them all for exercising, whatever their motivation, but challenged them to look for motivations and reasons that would last. One of the kids brought up our discussion of the previous day when we talked about animal-like motivation (food, stimulus and punishment) verses the freedom and independence that comes from motivation by true principles.

All this was interspersed with pokes and prods on the couch, fighting over leg room, and my baby Spooner babbling, wrestling, and distracting, of course :).

I then read an article from "The Friend" about the necessity of acting on faith and that God works with those who work.  I asked them if they had any videos or examples of people who were motivated by good things that they wanted us to watch.  We headed upstairs and watched my 13 year olds favorite "I am Mormon" about an older gentleman who designs roller coasters. 

We wrapped up with me sharing with the kids how one of my friends had commented about the light that they brought with them when they played with her children at her house and I told them how proud I was of them that they were motivated to be good friends and do good things.  It was a good closure because one of the kids was angry because of something I said while we were watching the video and it brought a better feeling in at the end.

We sang a song and had reflection time and then it was time for Devotional #2 for my oldest two!  I had forgotten to organize our patriotic song that we always sing as a gathering tool for the Pledge of Allegiance, but I hurriedly called all the kids together for the Pledge.  As the little ones left, I tried to recap why we do the things we do in our devotionals and "core" stuff for the week in our home to hopefully help the older ones feel less like the hoops it seemed they were thinking they were.

We finished listening to Uchtorf's talk that we had started on Monday, with them listening for a quote and a question to ask.  The quotes and questions generated some good discussion for a bit and then we tied in the Stephen Palmer article  and Doctrine and Covenants 121 that I had challenged them to read the day before (since they had seminary and temple trip so I normally don't do a devotional with them that day).  I was able to ask them how I can help them to find truth and feel safe as it refered to in Uchtdorf's talk and they told me that they like clear expectations from me and less nagging (although they said it more nicely than that :)...).  We finished with a short reflection on "what motivates a good leader" and then sang a hymn and said a prayer.  Reflection time came next and then family reading!

We were only able to read one short chapter of "Little Britches" before I felt we needed to let the older ones get to their studies. It was already 10:45 and after eating an early breakfast, the kids would be ready for lunch soon.  Kel (16) had requested a half hour of math to make up for previous days, but all he got was 15...and a divided 15 at that. It was one of those days when the kids were excited to do all sorts of great things and wanted my help...and I felt like I just kept saying "no" :S.  I hate days like that.  Lily and Hyrum wanted a piano lesson, Hyrum wanted help with Cub Scouts, Drew loves to chat about ideas, and Kel wanted some help running through a music piece for his choir.  Sigh.  Tova pitched in for me with Kel, Kel saved some of the sandwiches from burning when he saw I was overwhelmed at the stove, and the other kids did a great job cleaning up.  Thank goodness for family work!

Making soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for 12 people (with veggies!) always seems to take forever and it was after 12 by the time we had finished and were off to try and super-clean the house for a house-showing at 2.  I had visiting teaching to a friend's house at 1, so I wanted to get it all finished up by then so I could enjoy the visit while the kids watched "The Magic School Bus" and didn't mess up the house :).

I came back in time to straighten up the laundry room, pick up the kids and head to the park while our house was shown.  It was a beautiful day and it also gave my Drew (13) a chance to drop off and pick up books from the library for he and Tova.  I love seeing what my kids pick up!  Drew grabbed the next in his series "Ranger's Apprentice" and Tova's collection included a mystery or two (her latest craze) and Anna Karenina. (Her "Killing Sacred Cows" on finances wasn't there :(.)  We also grabbed some beans from the store for a recipe Tova was using for Young Women's that night.  The day was gorgeous and the kids loved the time at the park.

After picking up a friend for Drew to play with on the way home, I was able to listen to the rest of "Henry the V" (awesome proposal scene at the end!) and start "Othello" while trying a new recipe for the quinoa bag I picked up at the store.  I had never really tried it much and wanted to give it a go.  The three little girls put themselves in a bag, little Spooner (2) wandered around doing I know now what, and the older kids played.  (The oldest two were at show choir rehearsal.)  It was a quiet time which was good because I had to use some "cliff notes" to figure out what was happening in Othello at first (horrible play!).

A quick dinner was followed by the parting of the ways to Kel's dance performance for a mutual night in Layton, Drew's meeting as a president for his youth group, and eventual separating of the ways for others to Activity Days, Young Women's, and 11-year-old scouts.  Hyrum (10) got to practice babysitting while the little ones watched "Emperor's New Groove"...the safest and best way to babysit them.  I enjoyed being able to support Kel in his dancing and we came home to Quinn just finishing up scripture and reading time with everyone else. 

I didn't get downstairs in time to pray with Hyrum before he fell asleep, but caught Drew and Lily.

When I crashed into bed, I thought: well I didn't really teach much today! :S I didn't get with Tova about her chapter on Ecology other than a brief discussion earlier as she had been reading it and my cool science lesson was still undone with all the craziness of the day.  Other "I didn't do"-s started going through my head before I stopped myself.  What did I do? I asked. 

After reflecting on all that I mentioned above, I decided that I would take the almost 2 hours it took for devotional and reading and call it awesome. The others were icing on the cake and sometimes you need to just embrace the season...and ours is called "selling the house and pregnancy" right now.  Science will come.  We discussed, I studied, they reported on their own studies and learned on their own.  We still have Thursday and Friday! :)