Only Two Days

...until we leave again. How did that happen??? This week has simply flown by.

Our first adventure of the day was when Joe discovered a baby bird that had fallen from it's nest in the eave of the shed down into the wheelbarrow below. My heart just sank when Joe ran into the house to tell me about it, knowing how devastated he would be if the bird died. I hate things like that, too, and am usually close to tears myself (!), but it's so much worse when your little kid is heartbroken over some little, helpless animal and struggling to understand the why of it all! By the time I got outside tenderhearted Joe was already choking back the tears. "Oh, Mom... Is he going to be okay?????" I was relieved to find that the baby wasn't as new as I'd feared he would be. He had lots of feathers and could flutter from one end of the wheelbarrow to the other, just wasn't quite big and strong enough to actually fly. Nothing appeared to be damaged or broken, and he certainly could make plenty of noise when touched! I used a cloth to pick him up and return him to his nest. NOTE: There will be no comments left on this post about the mother rejecting him and how he's going to die and all of that nonsense--or you are permanantly banned from ever commenting again. And I may come to your blog and spit on you. Okay, so I probably would do that... but you get the point! ;-) The mother was present for the entire episode and was quite vocal herself, watching all of the action. I'm hoping (and have actually prayed several times throughout the day!) that she was just relieved to have her little one back home, as any good mother should be. :-)

RATS. I lost my list. I actually took notes today about all of the hilarious or interesting things that happened around here, but I've lost them. (Are you sooooo shocked, Mom?! Ha!) It's pitiful to have to take notes. But I know me well enough to know that if I don't write it down then by the end of the day I won't have a clue what happened. Hhmmm. Let's see what I can remember...

School was... long, today! It's longer because I have to be sitting next to Katie as she does her work (part of the Cheater's Recovery Therapy she's now going through) and because I am going through all of the work she cheated on and personally taking her through each and every question, problem, and assignment, making sure she's doing it properly. Quite time consuming, but hopefully it will help get us back on track. Kate is hating having to "re"-do so much work and it's taking her twice as long to finish her daily school as before. So now she and Joe get done at about the same time! Ha! Joe... that kid. He'll sit there and daydream or play with his pencil or sing to himself or any number of things, never realizing there's a schoolbook in front of him awaiting his attention. He is sooooo easily distracted. On top of the fact that he "highly dislikes" school and has no motivation (except the negative kind he gets from me and James!) to want to do it. I helped Sam with a few pages today, but never found time to sit down with him and work on his letters and reading.

Sam, however, took it upon himself to clean out and organize the school cabinet. That kid amazes me sometimes. He's just 5, but he can tackle jobs like that so much better than the others! I was surprised at how neat and clean and well thought out everything was--the things we use most often in the easiest places to access and so on. What a great little helper! He started sharpening the 50 or so new pencils he found, but wore out after 6 or 8. Who could blame him?!

Once we finished school I spent an hour or two going through all of the kids' spelling tests and math drills and science sheets and stuff from the past few weeks, making sure everything was graded and then put in the proper places in the proper binders. I wish I could make myself do that once a week like I used to--it's so much easier than having to play catch-up later on!

We had a request today for Tostada Casserole for dinner. (The very "Smith-ish" one, Emilee!) I had planned on pork chops, but the casserole is so much faster, easier, and less messy. So we went with it! We had to gather around the chuchwagon table to eat because the dining table was half covered with the very last of James' stuff, waiting to make its final trek to his office.

Ah, yes! James' office!!! He's got it pretty well under control out there now, though he's totally PACK OUT in every possible place. There is much less space than he had in his last office and he's struggled to find places for everything, but in the end it's probably going to be a good thing. You know how it is: if you have a small office, you'll fill it up; if you have a big office, you'll fill it up. This just means he'll have to do without some of those "unnecessaries." (He becomes offended at that word, however, because everything of his is necessary! Ha!) Anyway, here is a picture from each corner of the room:

My favorite part is the ceiling. :-) It's so pretty... and clutterless! Ha!
And he moved the flag pole from out in front of the house (where you could never see it, strangely enough) and planted it in front of the office. Cute, hu?! It makes him so very happy. And I'm sure Brother VanDeventer will be thrilled to see all of the progress! Seems like this office was a pretty quick and painless process once we got into it. Oh wait... that was just for me. I'm sure James would beg to differ! Ha!

After dinner tonight the kids cleaned their bedrooms up while I cleaned the wood floors, then the whole family went outside and played Bocce Ball. I read some library books to the kids before devotions tonight, then watched 4 sessions (2 hours worth) of Ken Ham's creation seminar while I got all caught up on the ironing. (Yes, Ma, I went a-puzzling last night which meant I had to to a-ironing tonight!) It feels like it's been a good and productive day around here.

Oh, I found some more stories that Joe had written... I'll post them tomorrow if I get a chance. :-)