We finished our second week of homeschooling and I think we got about 3 full days completed. Well we went to the zoo, so including that, we completed 4 days. We have been plagued with sickness. Elijah had a fever and was sick about 3 days. Now Isaiah is sick and has been for about 3 days. My goal this year was to finish an entire Sonlight Core in one year. I’m not on a very good track, but the beautiful weather hasn’t been very motivating to stay inside and work. Living in PNW, we take full advantage of sunny weather, if we can.

Homeschooling three has proved to be very challenging. It wouldn’t be if the seven year gap didn’t exist between my first and second. I am doing Sonlight Core 4 with my oldest. We spend about 2 hours just reading together. We are constantly discussing the literature and looking things up as we go, which makes the reading much longer. I am really focusing on improving his reading comprehension this year. I am teaching my two youngest how to read; beginning with phonemic awareness and letter sounds. I spend about two hours with them as well; doing reading, sounds, handwriting, and math. Well that is really only four hours between the three children, but I do spend about an extra hour with my oldest checking up on his independent work. Don’t forget the hour of exercise and an hour of cleanup/chores. So that is still only a total of six hours. What am I doing with the rest of my day? Not like I am blogging or anything. Everything is done a little slower this year because I am pregnant.

Needless to say, last year I was able to clean one room in the house every day. Not happening this year. The house is presentable, but I want to keep up with the deep cleaning as well. I went for a walk with my husband to tell him how overwhelmed I am, mainly because I don’t see how I am going to keep up with the housework. He suggested that we all take on the house Saturday mornings. Mark and Elijah will take on cleaning most of the house, while I do my baking for the week and clean the kitchen and floors. What a wonderful idea! I knew I kept him around for something. Well we can’t start that this Saturday, since Isaiah is sick and Mark has to take down this wall to fit our new wood burning stove which will be installed in nine days. He will be making a mess anyway, so no reason to clean this week. I think the house can go one more week as long as we spot clean.

I am praying Isaiah gets better by Monday, so we can have a normal week. Oh wait I have an appointment with the midwife on Wednesday and I really need to get the kids a haircut which is in Bellevue, so that will be another day off. I think I’ll make that for the week after. I guess it really is impossible to really keep up with it all. One day at a time and remember: Life is School!

2Peter 1:2-8 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of {the} divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in {your} moral excellence, knowledge, and in {your} knowledge, self-control, and in {your} self-control, perseverance, and in {your} perseverance, godliness, and in {your} godliness, brotherly kindness, and in {your} brotherly kindness, love. For if these {qualities} are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is what it is all about!

A good friend of mine said that God gave me Isaiah so that I wouldn’t judge other parents. As a confession of my heart I see this to be true.

My first child was, and still is, text book perfect. Potty training was easy and we didn’t need to bribe him, which was so frowned upon in all of my child development classes. And then there was Isaiah…

We waited until we knew his mylen sheeth was developed. We had open door potty sessions. We watched the videos together, sang the songs and read the books. He would not, however, sit on the potty, not for anyone. He would scream. In fact he would not even tell us when his diaper was dirty. He would rather sit in it all day, even if a rash occured.

So we received lots of advice. “Find his money,” one would say. “Let him go in his underwear,” another would say. Aaahck! Could I actually resort to bribery. Well reluctantly I did. He loved chocolate, so we bribed him with it. But he didn’t care. He didn’t want it. We told him that boys in diapers could not play video games, but he didn’t care. When we let him go without diapers, he went all over the place, while screaming. Then he made a mess on our carpet and walls with his poop. That just was not working for us. I would rather have had him diapers forever than let that happen again. So I took a step back for a while.

We worked on getting him to tell us the truth when his diaper was dirty. We gave him a time out every time he lied to us and he finally complied. However he would not offer us the information. We always had to ask him. In this way, I knew that he did understand what it meant to be wet and pee and poop. I would test him by asking him when he was dry as well, making sure that he knew the difference. So I decided to try again. We sat him on the toilet and he held both his pee and poop for 24 hours. Well that was really scary for us, so we stopped again.

Finally I said, “This is it!” We sat him on the toilet for almost two days. We made it fun for him. We sang songs, read books, blew bubbles. He cried some, but also had some fun; however, he would not go. He held it the entire time. I called my sister, who is a pediatric nurse, to make sure that he wouldn’t get sick from doing. She said that he wouldn’t and that my situation is not unusual. So with that ammo, I refused to put a diaper back on him. I was determined to be the stronger will.

Well he finally went, on the third day, in the toilet. His little bladder was so bloated. I felt so bad, yet relieved at the same time (so did he, I am sure). He realized at some point that we were not giving up this time, so he reluctantly worked with us. After a few accidents, he finally understood that his life would be easier, and dryer, if he used the toilet.

Our struggle, however, is not over. He will not initiate the use. He still protests when we tell him he has to go. He would prefer to hold it until it falls out of him. He will go when we tell him to, but he is not pooping regularly anymore. He holds it until he can’t anymore and we are lucky to catch him at the right time. So the training continues. Did I mention he turned four in September. Ugh!