Getting back on track...

is not easy. We've skipped altogether too many "school" days in the last week. Ooops. Somehow, time has just been getting away from me. So today, I gave Cyrus a math assessment in his book, and thankfully, we can skip ahead a bit. He did catch up on his ETC, finishing (finally) Lesson 5. Tomorrow we'll get a fresh start! Cassia worked on matching shapes in a mermaid coloring-&-activity book, and worked a little in her Code book. Cyrus did write a great entry in his journal about snails! It was inspired by time spent out front, ripping out the last azalea and putting in pansies. We found a half a dozen snails, which both kids found absolutely fascinating! Science? I think so. Speaking of science, we're abandoning the Animal Encyclopedia for now, and instead are going to just focus on nature studies. I got 2 great blank books for nature journals (plus I have an old blank book for my own nature journal). When the weather turns wet and wintery, we'll move on to human anatomy, etc. I have discovered that the children are much more interested in plants and animals they see first hand than in reading about them, and coloring pictures.

Speaking of seeing things first hand, my mom drove the kids and I to Cyrus's class today (as my car has an oil leak - yaaay), and we were looking for hot air balloons, since there's usually 1 or 2 around on clear mornings. Well, this morning we saw 3, and boy, we got a good view! There was apparently no wind up there, and they came down right next to the highway we drive on. The kids were in absolute awe at how huge they are close up, and just beautiful too - all deep rich colors. We were late to class due to stopping for a few minutes to watch, but it was worth it! It took me back to my childhood, when hot air balloons used to fly over our house on weekends, and one day, one came down in the field across the little street we lived on.

That was our excitment for the day. The rest of it was pretty ordinary. We did the aforementioned homeschooling, gardened a bit, did a little housework, I had algebra... Oh, and on the job front, the good grocery store offered me fewer hours at lower pay, with no benefits, so it's a no go. So, if you hear of a good part-time secretarial job that pays pretty well, let me know! I'm getting really frustrated with being out of the house every evening and never having weekends to do anything with my family. The pay isn't really worth it. Enough already, though, right? Other than work, things are good, so I can't really complain too much!