Happy Labor Day

While many people took the day off today, the kids and I continued on with school. Since we have a vacation coming up in just a little over a week, I wanted to get as much schooltime in as possible before we leave. Brian was home, and it was nice having him around. He grilled us some great steaks for dinner. Since we aren't really drinkers, we don't have much experience with wine, but on the recommendation of a friend, we marinated our steaks in a dry marinade mixed with equal parts water and red wine. It was awesome. Of course, the bottle is going to sit there waiting till the next time we are in the mood for steak....

Joel and I are reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at bedtime right now. He does such a great job of listening. He can usually remember what we read in the previous chapter. I don't remember any of the others being still long enough to listen to an entire chapter of a book at this age. Of course Emily was beginning to read already by the time she was 5, and rarely asked me to read anything to her after that. Halle tends to read to herself at night, as does Noah. I'd love to read to all 3 of them at once, but it is anything but peaceful when I try that!!

Tomorrow night is the first meeting of the local home educators' group in Napa. I'm looking forward to going. I haven't met any other homeschoolers yet; I sure hope I make some good contacts at the meeting. Hopefully there will be some parents of girls around Emily's age.

It feels good to be getting ready for bed with a house that is mostly in order. Brian did a lot over the weekend to help get it that way. One thing we did a few nights ago was switch seating furniture around between the family room and the living room. We have a combination living/dining room which used to have our denim sectional in it. I always felt very cramped/crowded.... there was no floor space and the back of the sectional was just a few feet from one side of the dining table. We moved it into the family room and moved in the leather sofa and loveseat, plus coffee and end tables. With those two seating pieces on a diagonal, the room is much more open. And both rooms are staying a little cleaner. And that's a good thing.