Robin's Nest

  Two days left in September and we are still working on nouns and pronouns. I thought we might move faster but it isn't happening. Writing seems to be a chore that none of the kiddos enjoy. I've tried different avenues but without much success. I remember neighbors from my childhood forcing their kids to write the same sentence 100 times. I felt bad for those kids. In the long run it only made them bitter about school, but their handwriting was really good! I need to unpack my adjectives... some days I really, really miss the free babysitters! Heck I miss the paid babysitters!  Life goes on and the trade off is worth it in the long run. At least that is what I keep telling myself. The youngest has been up for a while now this morning and very excited. Although not excited enough to work on workbooks or the computer. I purchased two Tab A tablets, one for each girl to do schoolwork on but it seems I gave one a password and I cannot remember it. Now I cannot even find the table...

Well it is Monday, and the chaos is already at full throttle. My granddaughter arrived at 0550 and the girls here were up at 0450. It doesn't matter what time I get up they either beat me awake or join me within 10 minutes. School will begin in about 10 minutes.  Rebellion to follow shortly. Workbooks will be started and the technology will go dark for at least today. I would love to have it go dark until after the holidays. However that would be difficult when I hide in this little bedroom and blog. Going back to the washer incident this is my washing machine impeller. Not sure why but everything gets stuck on this thing and pokes holes in it. Okay maybe screws and nails do not need to be washed, but really should they poke holes in the plastic this easily? That said I forget to check pockets every now and again. Every time I forget it happens. There are a total of ten holes in the impeller. I already do not like HE machines, but when the house burned down and things had to be rep...

  This morning started with a roar! At 0450 number 10 bellowed for some chocolate milk. Not only that she was ready to get up! Therefore everyone shall get up. I opened the door on the east side of the house to let out the bigger dogs and the music was still blaring from somewhere across the fields. No room to complain as I have dogs that bark incessantly when the phone rings, a car comes in the drive, a bird flies too close to the yard or a fly gets out of line. Really though how can anyone stay up that late?! Oh well, people move out here to get away from neighbors that complain.  Our new neighbors all enjoy late nights it seems. Those to the west and those to the east. They also enjoy 3 and 4 wheel toys to race up and down the street. Not so good for the dogs and their security. It makes them very nervous. Today we had planned several things to include, going to town, setting in the pool liner in the big pool and starting to switch the water from one pool to the other. Howe...

  Not sure why everyone was up at 0330 this morning but they were. Well everyone except DH. It is nice to get an early start but even that was a bit early for me. Number 10 is ready to lose a baby tooth and that has her super excited! Especially since my granddaughter who is 14 months younger has lost 6 already and the tooth fairy showed up even with covid on the loose! I did some of the cleaning early but it is sometimes pointless with kids up that early. You don't get time to enjoy it before they proceed to change the scenery.  The gift projects are coming along slowly. The dishcloths and scrubby pads are cute I am sure they will be liked. Today I start the slippers. Yes, slippers for all in this house and some for gifts. Then I will move on to hats. Last night I turned in early so I did not get a to do list ready for today. My mental notebook doesn't work right lol. So a paper list is best. finally, number 10 is settling down 4 hours after getting up. I'm exhausted! DH j...

Today was our first day back in the workbooks. It went well for the first 3 hours. By then all patience was gone for all of us. We did get three days worth of pages done in several sections. We will still have to work a little tomorrow and Sunday to make up for 2 days of fun. After the day at the park and an impromptu sleep over we had another day of appointments and me hitting a dog, that belong to a person was who in need of mental health services before I hit the dog. That was just the beginning of the craziness! After DH had his appointment for the pre-op review I was minding my own business, driving cautiously as I was about to make a turn. Near the side of the road was a woman and a dog. As I slowed down, wary that the dog might run out in front of me, it lunged and ran into the road and I promptly hit the brakes but hit the dog. I opened the door to get out and the dog jumped up and ran, the lady started screaming at me hysterically. I had just hit her dog so it made sense for a...

Today we gathered with our friends in the park for an "outdoor" day. the original plan was to have everybody here but it started raining out here and that would mean 10 more people stuck inside, 7 of them under 9.  Just saying the park looked better. It was not raining in town so off we went with hotdogs and chips to join our friends and make a ton of new friends at the park! It was a beautiful day and my friends just acquired 3 new puppies, which they had planned to bring for my dogs to use as chew toys! Unfortunately we went to the park instead, so they did not get to meet. We arrived about an hour before they did and the kids made fast friends with other kids in the park. When their friends arrived with three, 8 week-old puppies every kid was a friend! We played and we ate hot dogs and I discovered that my 10 year-old enjoys sharing the latest gossip that she hears in the park. Today the majority of the kiddos were with dads. In fact for that first hour I was the only adul...

I cannot say day 1 was chaos, but I can say it could have gone smoother. I stuck to one section then a break. It was crazy hard to get them back into the books. So Day 2 will not get a break until 2 sections are done. Doing what I could with my two before adding the third was definitely a good decision. Not sure these pictures will do the early morning sky any justice but here they are. The sky was like black velvet and the stars twinkled so bright! I took advantage of the quiet and made a fresh pot of coffee. The two bigger puppies had run off together when I opened the door for them to potty. I am trying to be okay with it when they do that. It is dark and I don't imagine they go that far but it is dark so I cannot tell. The morning started off with a beautiful sunrise for day one. Of course #10 had already got up to turn the sun on so I was not alone. Then I discovered that my son's cat/kitten was missing... well I certainly should send help to look for the little darling......

Three months before Christmas and only 2 months before Thanksgiving. That is not much time to manage all the things that need to be done before then. There's voting to do, gift lists to make, gifts to make, decisions about decorations and school on top of all that. We can do it. I'll just call "Bob the Builder".  He and his team get everything done! Usually in a 20 minute cartoon setting to boot!  Today my daughter returns to work after 4 days with a sick baby. Never did figure out what was wrong with the baby but it went away so time to move on. She is almost 9 months old and a plump little thing! Takes after her gramma. Yesterday the girls agreed to stick to the workbooks diligently for two weeks to see where we could get. Of course today will probably change their little minds and they will revolt. My granddaughter will be here too and she has been giving her mom grief over doing anything but math. She loves addition and dislikes subtraction... a natural born hoard...

As the day progressed today I was willing to throw the towel in and call it quits on homeschooling. The youngest fought tooth and nail to not do her workbook at all! No coloring either! No way was she doing any schoolwork without a trip to the store for a toy! Shouts of "you promised" could be heard resonating with each refusal.  For the record I did not even agree, much less promise! This child is one who repeats what she wants to happen with enough enthusiasm to convince herself that it must be going to happen. Therefore hoping to convince me that I promised. Today was recycle day also, so I was going to town just to empty those out of the van if nothing else. Both girls have been on overdrive all day. We did finally get the workbooks done although it left me emotionally exhausted and not feeling very "parenty". As I sit to type this I have a whining dog at my feet. It never ends some days. With the recycles out of the car and the kiddos dropped off to my daughter...

  After an extremely busy day Friday I vowed Saturday to be a stay at home and watch a movie day. Or maybe take a nap day. Neither thing happened for me. But I did limit  leaving the house for a day. I should correct that and share that I did leave to go to the general store for a green pepper. However #10 ran to tell Auntie April that we were going to Dollar General... So we did go there because Auntie April did need to go to get a few things. On our way home we did stop at the general store and get some peppers. As I prepared the ingredients for "stuffed bell pepper soup" and put them in the instant pot I readied my list for the morning. My thoughts were interrupted by the tone of a text message coming through. It was #8 she is having trouble with reality again. Her perception of the world is that everyone is out to get her. She has never really gotten past her mom just leaving them when she went to prison the last time. She bounces between two states Missouri and here tryi...

  Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity starting at 0400. My grand-dog spent the night and since she has a habit of peeing indoors at home I was on my toes for any movement in the night that might suggest she needed out. It came at 0350, My reaction was delayed but we made it out by 0400. My babysitting charge was due to be dropped off by 0530 so I had a decision to make... stay up or grab a few more winks. I chose the latter and to my surprise I awoke again at 0630 with no extra kid. A quick call to the mama revealed that the baby was sick so no work this morning and also I had said I was driving to her that morning. Oops! Well it all worked out in the end. As I readied myself for the day ahead I reminded DH that I needed to pick up some prescriptions at the base and he would have the girls for a bit. The response indicated that I needed to find adequate childcare for my time away. My older daughter and the homeschool group had a trip to the space museum planned for 1100 but she s...

Yesterday I thought perhaps I should redo the placement tests for the kids. In reality, we just went with what public school said their grade levels were. I was really excited when I looked in the teacher's manual that there was a "readiness" worksheet for the second grade math book. I already knew that with #9 there would be some challenges just based on being on the spectrum. Plus with an IEP in public school I was kept apprised of where she was in each subject according to them. With the youngest I just went with the grade level that the school planned on putting her in. So after 3 hours of testing the oldest and her struggling through with tears and determination, I set up the table to begin with the youngest... and abruptly stopped and packed up the car to run to town. I received a call that my meds were ready for pick up. Luckily my daughter said hey bring them by here and I will conduct the test. I took advantage of that and also advantage that I could steal 10 ext...

Good Morning! Ever have one of those days that doesn't go quite right but it's okay? Yesterday was that for me. It started out with the plan to just straighten up the cat 4 tornado mess in the kitchen (see pics below) then my daughter called. She found a museum of interest to her and invited us to go. So we agreed to come to her house, not in an effort to avoid the mess, just to go do something spontaneous.  My goal in the kitchen was to clear one counter at a time and get the dishes tidied up. All the dishes were completed and the bottom picture was a clear counter when we left.  Before I go to town I have to feed the animals, water the garden, check on the cat and empty the litter box and get the trailer ready for the day. If it is going to be warm that means opening the windows and shutting off the heat if cold then of course making sure it stays warm. So when I left we were ready to go to Parker to this museum without any worries of what we were leaving undone. By the time...