Guess i'm not too faithful with blogging at times... not that i don't have things to talk about, but i think sometimes i find it hard to put my thoughts into words ~ or probably (more likely) i just don't take the time to do it. Usually when i sit down and start, it comes along just fine.

So my little girl did really well yesterday ~ the only exception being that the dog got too noisy and ruined her nap. After a bottle she was fine anyway, until about 1/2 hour before her mom came to pick her up and then she was getting impatient/restless and a bit grumpier.

Sure, now that her mom is quitting her job, she's finally getting settled here ~ lol ~ but we all knew it was a matter of adjusting, and i really don't think her mom will regret being home with her precious little daughter. Maybe she'll find something part time, or maybe she'll wait until her child(ren?) will be in school?? And either way, it is rewarding for us to see how she came around and has warmed up to us all. Yesterday the kids really had her laughing and goofing off... just having fun with her. We haven't gotten a ton of "school" done recently (although we have done some), but the kids are learning "life" which has value beyond just book knowledge.

I read something the other day that i know i've heard or read before, but it was good to read it again... in homeschooling, our desire is not just to "fill a bucket" but rather to "light a fire." Another line I read a while back was "we're not teaching subjects; we're teaching children." It's hard for me to keep both these things in perspective sometimes. So when I'm thinking "you guys should be doing your school" and i look at what they are doing... reading books, writing stories, etc... sometimes i just have to smile and let it go at that. Even so, Reagan finished his math book (the one he started in October or so??). He's ahead of the others by more all the time. Janique is into the book that Reagan just finished, and so far she's doing well with it. Darwin is about half-way through it. Brenden has made good progress this year since i've started doing a lot of it with him. He gets distracted so easily that it takes him a LONG time to do it alone. Eventually though he does need to learn to maintain that focus on his own, so we're working on that too.

I've been feeling some stress lately... and i'm surprised at how much it's affecting me. Crazy little issue really ~ NOT worth the stress it's been causing. My watch battery died, so i took it to the jewelry store where Jonathan bought it (like 12 yrs ago or so) and where I always take it for new batteries. There was nothing wrong with the watch when i brought it in, but after they changed the battery, the clasp wouldn't hold shut. It was REALLY mind boggling... I was stunned, and told them right away that it wasn't holding. We checked it out (the lady who changed the battery insisted she hadn't touched anything but the battery), and there was a big gap where it should hold shut ~ like 1/16". I wondered if something had fallen off, but nothing was missing. She offered to try bending it to fit, and i let her try (thinking she "should" know what she's doing), but she said she couldn't get it. After much confusion, they offered to send it to their watch maker... to which i (almost reluctantly) agreed. Nothing was mentioned about who was going to pay for it. So yesterday Jonathan picked it up for me... and it cost him $30!!! Their watch maker (with "35yrs of experience") apparently couldn't fix it either, so he replaced the entire clasp. They returned my old clasp in case i wanted to keep the chain for a spare. So, when he brought it home last night, we looked at the old one, we looked at the new one... figured out what was different/wrong and then Jonathan went and bent the old one back into place to fit perfectly fine! Hello??? So at first I thought we'd have them take off the new clasp and put the old one back on, but the truth is, I don't trust them anymore! (Did i mention... a few years back when i had my battery replaced, they put in an old used battery... it died within days, and when i went in about it, they didn't want to believe that they had just replaced it because it wasn't the kind of batteries they used ~ i've never had anyone else replace the batteries, so they must have taken someone else's old battery and put it in my watch ~ unfortunately i hadn't kept the receipt, but they did finally replace it anyway, and i save my receipts now). So this morning i carefully removed the new clasp, put the old one back on, and i'm planning to return the new one and ask for a refund! I'm not obnoxious though, so we'll see how far i get...

The other issue that's nagging is some family relationship stuff... i finally addressed it briefly by email today so we'll see if the other "party" is willing to talk about it now or not. I've pushed it aside long enough, hoping it would just clear up and become a non-issue, but it's not going away. It's actually snowballing some... or maybe more like Jean Lush (think it's her) talks about the pot getting too full and boiling over?? (i'm trying to deal with it before it boils over because i can tell it's getting fuller). Besides "not going away" it seems to potentially be interfering in a few other family relationships. So it's time to deal with it!

Back to everyday stuff... tomorrow is our last day to babysit this little girl. I think we'll miss her. Lol... i was commenting about it being her last day here (tomorrow), and asked Darwin if he'd be glad for us to be done babysitting... (until the next job ~ lol). His comment was something like, "I enjoy babysitting so much that it's distracting me from doing school." Whew! I thought that was pretty good! It will probably be nice to have a little break again though. The other lady never called me back, so i'm assuming she's found someone else. Whatever...

So i guess i haven't said much about the adoption stuff yet... guess it'll have to be later in another post. And i didn't proof-read... i seldom do... so ignore the mistakes unless they are really bad (in that case let me know ~ lol).