I made Jon laugh!

Mood-setting media: Randy Travis Worship & Faith

Today was a good day. I made Jon laugh. We laughed together. That hadn't happened since the last time I wrote about it, so you can see it's quite rare. We were discussing the word "sew" and why it doesn't sound like "sue". It was no big deal, but I found his funnybone, which definitely IS a big deal. Gracie was particularly helpful and sweet. Loren installed another window (just one left!) and cleaned the garage. It only got up to 70 degrees, and is currently a beautiful 55 degrees, moony, and foggy. I spent some time on the front steps tonight just drinking it in. If only this were normal here for this time of year! (sigh)

School plans for the year have already changed, just 10 sputtering weeks into it.

I've decided to take Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays off. That way we have a day of rest, a cleaning day (I love Mondays!), and errand/choir day. I'm hoping this will allow us to focus more completely on school when we're doing it, since we won't have to cram it in before going to town.

Instead of writing out weekly assignment sheets from my planner, Toby and Lynae have each been given a folder that will take them through their current "grade" levels. Most of their assignments are spelled out for them, with a couple of pages devoted to "Mom's choice" assignments. All I need to do now is tell them each morning how many assignments I want them to do that day. So far I haven't come up with any reason why it won't work and I'll have to scrap it and start over. I'm a little suspicious.

I've also decided that Jon's going to do very little writing this year -- he'll mostly be reading. It's one of the few things he does without complaint, and he does it well. I figure if I can keep him excited about learning on his own, we can cover written work later on... next semester, next year, or whenever he seems ready to do it without ripping his paper, breaking his pencil, and crying.

Ok, I just deleted a bunch of really dumb stuff. Yet again, I've waited until all is quiet here to sit and write, and now I'm dozing off. I won't try to share what I was thinking... not tonight. If it's worth sharing, it'll come around again. It's time to go find the "good" pillows (a complicated process by which pillows are ranked by size, shape, and pillowcase) and get them arranged just right so I can sleep.