Playing Catch-up

I will attempt to make this short. Having a three-day weekend can really mess up a school week. I'm still playing catch-up today. Thursdays are typically difficult anyway, as we are all recuperating from Wednesdays (our busiest day of the week).

First of all, last weekend was a lot of fun. We had Kent and Kradan and their kids, Jordan and Logan, over on Saturday. They live a little north of Atlanta -- a good hour's drive from Newnan. We provided lunch and they brought a delicious dinner. In between time we played about a hundred rounds of Ponce -- a card game that can best be described as Group Solitaire. We hadn't played it in a long time, so it was a lot of fun. The first game involved nearly all of our kids. We all crammed around the table and slammed cards down left and right. Then, we shooed the kids away and played just the adults. By the time we were done, my head was swimming with dancing cards.

Meanwhile, Kathleen and Jordan, thick as thieves, plotted a sleepover. We invited Jordan to sleep over here and Kade and Konner got to go sleep over at Logan's house. Hmm. Who got the better bargain? Let's just say it was A LOT quieter at our house than it may have been at Kent and Kradan's. Jordan went to church with us and fit in nicely in the general chaos of our household. Kathleen and Jordan TRIED to arrange yet another flip sleep over, where Kathleen stayed with Jordan and Logan stayed with us, but -- ALAS! -- the adults all felt that we were done. The girls have decided to write to each other in the meantime.

It was so nice to have Keith home for a three-day weekend. As it turns out, he was able to get time off from both of his jobs for MLK. We mostly just took it easy on Monday. Keith worked out in the backyard a little and I tried to get a jump start on the laundry. Ha! You'd never know it by the way the whole house looks today.

Keri Lynn finished Algebra I this week. She's started in on finishing her science course. She's trying very hard to finish the last of her curriculum for ninth grade and then will jump into tenth grade work -- hopefully by March. We're always playing catch-up, it seems. But this year has been a turn-around for us in that we've completed more of the school work for the year than we ever have before. Working on one or two subjects at a time works well for us, I think. And A Beka continues to be good steady curriculum.

Today, we'll make our weekly trek to the library. Our favorite librarian always works the counter and lovingly gives us a hard time about the number of items we check out. I always try to get some kids' books for history that corresponds with wherever we are in our group history session. Then, Kylie gets the latest American Girl book. Kathleen gets a couple of those books written like diaries of various girls in various historical eras. (She'll talk you to death about whatever book she's reading.) Keri Lynn is reading a lot of historical romances right now in the Christan genre. Kristofer likes books about dragons and adventures, of which there appears to be a lot, but it's still tricky to find appropriate ones. After a lot of urging from me, he finally got into the book Hans and the Silver Skates where there are absolutely no dragons. He absolutely loved it and said, "Mom, you always know which books to pick out for me!" Kade and Konner get books about motorcycles, jets, tractors, etc. then they go play games on the library computers.

Connie, one of the ladies that watched Keva on Wednesday nights last year, but then went on to work with Junior High kids was telling me how much she likes Kristofer. She said, "I think I just might have a little crush on that boy . . . " and then proceeded to tell me how sweet he was. She just joined the Bible study that I rejoined on Wednesday nights. It will be a good opportunity to get to know her better.

Kristofer reported after Impact, the Wednesday night youth group, that he has been nicknamed "Trigger". He has been learning the ropes as part of the tech team, but has itchy fingers when it comes to flipping the slides and turning on/off lights. So the youth pastor renamed him "Trigger" for "trigger-happy." Kristofer was pleased beyond measure and was grinning about it again this morning.

Tomorrow, Keri Lynn and Kristofer head off to McDonough, Georgia for a choir festival. They'll return on Saturday in time to attend a meeting to get to know the new youth pastor candidate. Sunday morning, they'll be off again, along with Kathleen to go to California to 1) celebrate their Great-Grandma's 90th birthday and 2) for Keri Lynn to get her braces off! A very exciting trip all the way around. They're scheduled to return home on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Time to get going!