We went back to school this week. CC generally takes a long Christmas break, but this is the first year that break fell mostly after Christmas and I must say I think I prefer it this way. It was really nice to have an actual break…sleep in…read books…reorganize closets. The only problem is that I kind of enjoyed wallowing in my hibernationess and I’m not ready to be a real person again. I know I can’t complain because we only have three crazy days a week, but those three days feel like an Olympic sport that starts in the wee hours of the mourning and has to be executed perfectly all day long until late into the evening. It would help if I would actually go to bed at night instead of getting sucked into reading a good book….scratch that, they aren’t even “good” books, they’re fluff books that I should have outgrown a long time ago. I feel like I deserve it though because I’m on my sixth reread of Secret Garden and Door In The Wall for CC.
The whole “no electronics” thing is holding strong around here. I think the key was having enough other activities they could do instead and now they don’t even ask for them. We made a family “bored jar” so now if they tell me they’re bored, they have to go pick something out of the jar (which they do on purpose because they like the stuff in the jar). January has been super mild here, so the kids have been playing a ton of football. I am so secretly thrilled, I can barely pretend to be mad about the muddy and destroyed clothes they sheepishly apologize for as they try to stuff them in the washer on the downlow. I also discovered that you can get wiggly kids to sit still for literature if you let them weave while you read. We are studying the industrial revolution this week so we were doing a weaving craft with yarn while talking about the cotton gin and power loom. Lo and behold no one wanted to put it down and they all kept doing it while I read our King Arthur book. I think I’m going to get crochet hooks and yard for everyone. Might as well put them to work…cough…I mean, not that I’m taking any ideas from the industrial revolution.
Meanwhile, Jim is scheming how to legit build a food factory in the barn. I want long stainless steel tables and a commercial kitchen, our little kitchen can’t keep up with the amount of food we go through. We opened our last jar of applesauce, the jam is all long gone. The tomato sauce is quickly disappearing, the salsa is down to the final jars, and it’s only January. I clearly need to do better. At least we still have lots of pickles?