Not school at home

This thought wandered into my head as I lay in the dark waiting for First to fall asleep. Not school at home.

And I took a deep out breath. I've been pushing it a bit, trying to make things school at home.

Let me just say that pushing First's bedtime to 7:30 has worked out wonderfully. Now each boy gets some one-on-one attention while they drift off, which is nice for them, and for us. While one of us is in with Kinder, First has been hanging out on the couch in the livingroom reading his comics. (We are pretty much operating on a one parent-two kids/one parent working system most of the time.) By the time we come out to be with First, it's usually 7:20 or 7:25. We read with him for a few minutes and then he gets in bed at 7:30. By this time, he is yawning and fuzzy and quite ready for bed.

The comforters have been working out well, too. Worth the money. Whether it's snuggling in for the night or making their beds in the morning, the one layer is much easier for them to manage than the three of sheet-blanket-quilted cover.

Back to daytime.

Form Drawing has been interesting. First is particularly interested in making his own pictures/images out of the forms. So far, he's made a butterflies and a sun. For our purposes, for now, I've decided to let him. He has to follow certain rules about using only block crayons and making his forms from top to bottom and using one, fluid motion, as much as possible. But, once he's practiced the forms we're working on, I'm letting him make his pictures, even in his Main Lesson Book.

Today, after making banana muffins for snack and doing Form Drawing, we drove Cap to the Uni and from there, took a field trip. We drove back roads to Millburn, to visit the Whole Foods there. It was a nice drive. The leaves are starting their autumn change and although it wasn't a New England back roads drive in fall, it was very pretty.

We're going apple and pumpkin picking this weekend and our extended family on my side will be joining us. We're going here: http://www.peacefulvalleyorchards.com/ We've invited them over for an early dinner afterwards. I'll be making braised pork with scallions, ginger and garlic, teriyaki chicken, a salad (we'll be picking up our Purple Dragon share Saturday morning), rice, and a chocolate cake for dessert.

For the last few nights, I've been going back through our old copies of Living Without and dogearing recipes. I came across one for chocolate cake and frosting that sounds really good and chocolate chip cookies, too. I thought the family gathering was the perfect reason to bake the cake sooner than later. (They'll be my guinea pigs.) Hence, the field trip to the Whole Foods. We have a WF in town, not a five minute drive away, but it is a small one and their GF selection is correspondingly small.

I found everything I needed except for sweet rice flour. I'm going to substitute white rice flour and hope for the best.

By this afternoon I was feeling crappy. As if I had PMS again, like I did last week. Except I got my period on Sunday and so should not be feeling this way. Pre-menopausal loop-de-loop maybe? Inexplicable rage, short fuse, big yawns...Cap took the kids to the comic book store. They love going. I did a bit of Lesley work and then delved into cooking/the kitchen which is what I did just before getting my period. Whipped up a chahan (Japanese style fried rice) for dinner, re/labeled our pantry storage containers, and after dinner, mixed up and threw in the ingredients for a GF loaf in the bread machine. It's starting to smell like fresh, baked bread :-)

After a shower, I am feeling human again. Bedtime was smooth and cozy (see above :-)

Look at me, I'm all smiles!