Homeschooling, hunting, chocolate and friendship

Mmmmm....Black Tie Mousse Cake

You superwomen out there, here's a question...How does one homeschool children with a toddler in the house? I literally cry almost every day in frustration, and seriously, do they have medication for homeschooling mothers (or their children?) All kidding aside, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm still trying to get the hang of this home learning thing and need to set aside some time to get my act together. I feel as if we're doing almost everything every day but in random order. Oh, there was that week just two weeks ago (that would be week two of school) where I realized at the end of the week that we hadn't done science once. How does this happen? I forgot an entire subject!??? This is my brain on half sleep, 13 month old cutting three teeth at once, cold turkey weaned from a bottle, too much coffee kind of days. Oh well, we're getting it figured out slowly, and I see my character flaws raising their ugly head every day. Why did I harp on quotation marks with my 5 year old dd for 45 minutes, in between my 13 month old screaming and crying, and feel totally frustrated at the end of it? It's (and by "it's" I mean I am) so retarded. God is good and patient, even when I'm not. In the midst of all that I'm so thankful to have nights out with friends! That very "quotation mark" day I was so blessed to go to Olive Garden and have Black Tie Mousse Cake (yum!) with my bff Jennifer and two of her friends from church who are both oh so nice!! It was good for my soul to laugh about anything and everything with them and eat chocolate at the same time.

I love you too, buddy!

My big boys--love them so much

Ryan doing a little "school" in the woods---learning about trees and bark

In other news, my dh and ds roamed the hills of eastern Oregon for a week bow hunting for the elusive elk (the elk won.) I loved hearing their stories when they came home and seeing my son's eyes light up talking about all that he experienced. I know they'll be memories he'll look back on fondly. I've been having him dictate a story telling me about his experiences. The highlights at the beginning (and I'm only partly kidding) were blowing a Coke can up with a pellet gun and getting to play his GameBoy every day. I reminded him about building a shelter with Daddy, learning how to start a fire with flint (and extinguish it), feeding a momma deer who came into their camp every night. She would let Ryan get about 2 feet from her!

Ryan's friend, the momma deer

So sweet. I love boys and their stories.The boys are home, we're almost at the end of another week and fall is rushing in. I feel it in the cool nights as my open sliding glass bedroom door has been open less wide, getting the paper in the morning and feeling that chill, the beautiful, warm afternoons that make me feel guilty for hanging onto summer so strongly. I'm a baby about winter, and I complain about it far too much. I'm so sorry to everyone who has to listen to me whine. I'm really going to try to just enjoy each day and ease into the cooler weather with more grace than complaining. I'm looking forward to trying all the yummy soup recipes I've been collecting, making bread again (it's been a while), moving from iced to hot coffee (can't do it just yet) and enjoying fun memories with my family and friends. Happy Thursday!