Running the Race...

Well today was a good but busy day. The older boys and I caught up on any school work that they might have missed during our illness. We had managed to stay caught up; however, there were a few assignments not finished and a little extra reading. We combined that with today's assignments. It made for an extra long school day. The boys were very cooperative, and we completed all assignments to put us back on schedule. While the older boys worked with mom, the "young uns"did their assignments and played alphabet games. I love to watch them work together, and they seem to get along very well. Mandy and Nate are really starting to pick up on letters and letter sounds. I think they both will be reading by this Spring. Mandy is very happy about this (she was fluently reading in Chinese), and she cannot wait to be able to read books by herself again. Nate is equally as excited, but he acts like it is no big deal. It is fun to see him read words that he recognizes, and then he realizes what he has done.

Mia started her first dance class this morning. She was so very excited,and we had no trouble getting her to go. Brad took a break from his busy work schedule and took Mia to class(mom was teaching the others). I know she must have had a great time. She was singing and babbling at me the minute she came in the door.Mandy's first dance class was today as well. Her class was scheduled later in the day,so Brad took another break to take her to the afternoon class. Isn't he a terrific daddy? He did inform me that I would have to at least take Mandy next week. He was the ONLY guy in the place :). Both girls came home showing mom and brothers what they had learned in class. Mom thought it was all so much fun...the boys moaned that now they would have to go to dance recitals. The girls and I lovingly watch all of their baseball games... I think it is a fair trade don't you?

Mom spent a good portion of the evening trying to bring cleanliness and order to our crazy house. I still have a lot of work ahead,but I am able to see progress. I don't think I mentioned the added fun that took place last week. We were all still sick but recovering when our heater went out. It wasn't exactly a prime time for it to go out either. Not only were we sick but the temperatures outside were in the teens. We managed to fill the house with space heaters and stay warm enough. We had hopes of making the heater last another year, but we had no such luck. A replacement was ordered and put in before the week was out.

Do you ever feel like you can't win for losing? Yesterday we woke up to the noisy,churning sound of our sump pump going off in the basement. We usually hear it often if there are heavy rains,but yesterday we had snow flurries with only a small amount of rain. What was up? Well... the sewer line apparently is backing up into the basement. So, we called a plumber. The guy refused the job because he didn't want to find a way to get his equipment down in our basement(Let's just say he won't get a good recommendation from us). There aren't many plumbers in our small town, and not any willing to go down in the basement. It isn't a large space and not an easy task, but you would think someone would like to make some money. Brad is going to tackle the job himself. We are praying that he can make the fixes without having to install a new sewer line. Oh boy, the joys of owning a 100 year old house!

Enjoy the pictures of our "dancing" girls ...