My Wednesday in Pictures- afternoon and evening.

One of the distractions to our reading was seeing and hearing the tractor mowing the grass.  The cattle egrets like to follow the mower to search for exposed bugs.

The weather cleared enough to put the wet laundry back outside.  (It would then hang up inside over night, be put back out the next day.  The things that weren't dry at the end of the second day would hang up inside over night again, and go back out on the line for a third day.  I miss my washing machine and dryer at times like this.)

I left this dirty child in charge of bringing in the clean laundry.

We have our weekly team meeting on Wednesdays from 4:00-6:00 pm.

After the meeting, I was able to catch a picture of the sunset.  We see lots of beautiful sunsets here!

We ended the evening with a simple supper, clean up and evening chores, and some game time.  I was wiped out by the kids bedtime, and went to bed as soon as I could! 

Caleb and I played several rounds of Blokus.  He's pretty good!

My Wednesday in Pictures- late morning and afternoon

We spent the majority of our morning doing school work, with various interruptions.

Ian is taking a break while he waits for me to be ready to do Algebra with him.

We said good-bye to Scott, another visitor who spent two weeks with us.

We hope to see him back some day!

Our normal recess time is from 10:30-11:00.  It started raining right before 10:00, just when the laundry ladies were ready to hang clothes on the line.

The kids and I spent the time from 10:00-11:00 putting away the laundry from yesterday that was drying inside so that we could ring out the new things and hang them up inside.

Ian folding napkins

Caleb helping to fold the dry laundry

We were able to have lunch together as a family.  Having all five of us here at the same time and no extra people is a rare occurrence.  Our meal was prepared and the kitchen cleaned by our wonderful cook, Mama Lydie.

After lunch, we worked on our history reading.

The kids playing while they listened to me read about WWI.

My Wednesday, in pictures- morning

Yesterday morning, I was awakened at 4:30AM by a loudspeaker making announcements right outside the hospital compound.  I may have had too much time to think at that point, because I decided that, inspired by Stephen's Random Saturday post, I would do one of my own day.

The good thing about getting up SO EARLY, is that I have time to get more done before the day really begins.  I was able to make bread, do morning chores around the house, read a little, and do some e-mail.

And the best part is I was even able to have a conversation with Stephen.  Uninterrupted time together is hard to come by around here. :)  I was forced to take desperate measures and drink some of Stephen's coffee.  (a little coffee along with some chocolate powder and sugar)

Coyote had a little something for us.  He brought it into the house in the evening, and went under Isabelle's bed.  She was not happy- and by not happy, I mean hysterical.
In the morning, the dead rat was still there.  I wouldn't let Coyote in the house, so he stayed outside and ate the rat.  Bon appetite!

By 8:00 it was time to start school.  It was a little depressing to think that my day was just beginning! But I didn't have long to think about it, since we had some company.

Eamon getting one last piece of bread before he leaves for home.

Eamon was here for ten months, volunteering at the hospital.  He stopped by for a visit as he was preparing to go.

Sarah Speer was spending a few more minutes with Eamon before he had to leave.

Then it was time to focus on school.  We have our Bible, Language Arts, and Math.  Some days we finish all of those before recess.  If not, we continue them between recess and lunch.

Caleb is trying not to smile while working on his spelling.

Language Arts- Specifically Grammar.
This isn't Ian's favorite subject, but he has a great attitude towards his schoolwork.

Math is hard!  Isabelle is almost done with this year's book.

While we were doing school work, our laundry ladies came to wash clothes.  Everything has to be washed by hand, and it is a big job.

Drinking the last little bit of Stephen's coffee (mixed with lots of powdered chocolate and sugar!)
I hope he will be able to forgive me.

more to come...

Bon Appetite!

Just like last time, we have a cook who comes to work 5-6 days a week. She cooks lunch and washes all the dishes while we are doing school. The kids think she is one of the best cooks ever!

A special meal.  Pasta & chicken!

Ian

Ian can be most often be found in the yard with his stick.

Isabelle and Molly

More from the first week of school

We continued with about 2 hours of day for school this week. Caleb and Isabelle were always anxious to get started in the morning. They would start doing school before our official starting time at 8:00AM. 

 The pictures are from Tuesday morning  Caleb got an early start, and Isabelle soon joined him.  When they were done with their individual work for the day, they sat out on the porch and played Legos while they waited for us to get started.

I'm sure the enthusiasm will wear off, but it's nice for now.

Today, we had a funny conversation during school.  Ian had to do a "time audit" of how he spends his days.  I took the opportunity to talk to all of them a little bit about time management.  I didn't want to overload them with too much information, so I stopped and asked if they had any questions.

Isabelle: "I have a question.  Do you like this drawing of Coyote?"

Ian: "I was thinking about the different books I've read, and I was wondering...."

Glad to know they're hanging on my every word!