Thoughtful Thursday: Updates

I've been really off-track on my themed days over the holidays.  And finally, I catch myself with 3-1/2 minutes to put towards blogging and I'm out of thoughts for Thoughtful Thursday.  It's kind of one of those days.  So I'm going to use it to give a little update, I suppose, on where each of us is at here at the beginning of 2012.  For the record...

C: Working like a crazy man.  We all miss him terribly, but we know it's for our benefit.  If he could somehow squeeze in a nap at work before coming home, I think we'd all feel better.  :)  But he can't, so most of us try not to be too obnoxious in the evenings between his coming home and those few moments before his bedtime.  It doesn't always go well.  Somewhere in the middle of all this, he keeps cooking for us.  The other night, I was craving a milkshake.  Only seconds passed between the words falling from my mouth till the blender was whirring away as he whipped up a hot fudge shake with bittersweet chocolate shavings.  I'm spoiled.

S: The hat drive was extended till this weekend, so she's back to knitting a bunch more hats lately.  Some of them are pretty crazy designs, so we'll be able to easily recognize her creations if we ever see one on a person's head.  Meanwhile, her only real mistake lately was dyeing a stripe of her hair nearly black without permission.  I tend to be fairly forgiving when it comes to hair-stakes because I've made so many of them myself (especially as a teen).  And it grows out eventually.  If that's the worst she's doing, we're okay.  Overall, she's a good girl with a fairly good head on her shoulders (most of the time).  I have high hopes for her.

H: Lego-mania continues.  Also, flag-football practices and games are starting back up, as well as a community homeschool P.E. class twice a week.  I keep telling our nearly 12-year-old son that pretty soon it'll be hard to keep the ladies away.  He'll be so buff and fit!  He blushes, giggles at the thought and says it'll never happen.  He struggles with self-esteem issues, so I try to make sure and build him up when I get the chance.  He's finally catching on to multiplication better and better and yesterday he actually replied to my comment about how fast he completed his assignment with, "Yeah, that's because it's easy math."  Easy and math are two words I never thought I'd hear coming from him in one sentence.  Yippee!

Z: After finishing up his USA lapbook -- work he loved, by the way -- he's been trying to return to the rhythm of everyday school.  Every time he starts to get frustrated, he takes a bike ride.  Let's just say that his bike is getting lots of mileage since January 1.  But considering alternatives, I think taking a bike ride when he's frustrated is a good option.  He's going to be doing the homeschool P.E. class with his brother as well.  I hope that works out alright -- they can be really competitive at times (times like 24/7).

J: Finally, she's back in dance!  After only begging to return to dance class for a year or so, I spotted a Living Social deal for a local dance school and we gave it a shot.  It seems like a good fit, so we'll probably continue her there after the deal is over.  I like that it's much closer.  She's taking jazz lessons, which was one of three offerings and by far the most popular class there by the headcount.  She already made friends with another homeschool girl in the class.  Hopefully dance and homeschool P.E. will get her sleeping better each night, too.  She still has yet to come back to our room except one night she came in late at night briefly to ask if she can sleep in Daddy's spot next time he travels (per usual) and I said that of course she could.  That's as much for me as it is for her.

O: He was the only one to actually cheer when I told the kids I got them into the very popular P.E. program.  This kid was made for sports in mind and body (some sports more than others considering how petite he is).  He is just thrilled.  I cheered a bit, too, I'll admit, because that's two hours a week when four of the kids will be well-occupied for a few months!  Woohoo.  Oh, back to O.  So he and J are neck-and-neck in this whole reading thing.  He's much better at memorizing words and she's much better at trying to sound them out.  One way or another, they'll both get there and then it will be a huge sigh of relief.  Readers are so much easier to teach (till their lessons get harder than what I know).

As for me ... I'm just plugging away at daily things.  Couponing is starting to get fun and C absolutely loves it.  He said we've saved probably about $300 for groceries over the past month by his estimates and watching our banking trends.  Our dining out bill has gone down, too, thanks to coupons.  Love it.  School is going well.  I feel tired a lot, but I think that's life and probably being out of shape.  I'm just too tired to do much about it.  It's all good.  And I love chatting it up with God whenever I can -- OH! I'm trying my best to read through the Bible this year.  I've always wanted to, so I stopped making excuses.  I'm following one of those plans laid out on paper where I can checkmark.  Yay.  Let's hope I hear some good stuff in the process.

That's it for now.  Those are my thoughts this Thursday. :)