Storms - September 14, 2016

Wednesday- September 14th

It was stormy last night.  When Brinley and Parker went up to bed, they heard a really loud thunder.  It freaked them out, so they decided to sleep downstairs, in the family room.  I helped them set up their beds and it didn't take them long to fall asleep.  It is still storming tonight, so they are sleeping in the family room again tonight.  Anyway, last night was kind of rough for me, because it turns out that our cute little puppy, Forest, is also scared of thunder.  We woke up to his crying 2 times last night.  We don't usually wake up to him crying.  I set an alarm and wake myself up, to take Forest out to use the bathroom, so he doesn't usually get to the point that he needs to cry to be taken out.  Anyway, so he woke up twice.  The second time I was up with him, he was really scared of the thunder.  The thunder crashed and he came racing over to me and jumped in my lap.  It was so cute.  I love it when he runs to me to protect him.  He snuggles up on my lap and makes the cutest little faces.  I love it!  Forest is sooooo.... cute!  So, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  That wasn't fun, but I survived.

It rained a lot last night, but it cleared out when we woke up this morning.  When we went downstairs to do our homeschooling it was sunny and bright.  We had been working for about an hour, when we heard a loud crash of thunder.  We all looked out the window and were a little confused, because all we could see was blue sky and sunshine.  I wondered if something else had made the sound.  Brinley said she would go upstairs to see.  I heard her waking around from room to room, kind of in a hurry, and I wondered what she was doing.  When she came back downstairs, she told us that there was a really big storm coming.  The clouds looked really dark and scary, but you couldn't see it from the side of the house we were on.  She said that she hurried and ran through the house making sure all of the windows were closed.  Then she asked if we could take a break from homeschooling, so she could sit under the table with a show on her phone and headphones to help her not hear the storm.
She has always hated loud storms.  It scares her a lot.  I agreed that we could all take a break and wait for the storm to pass.  Brinley, decided to put blankets over the table and make a tent so she would feel extra safe during the storm.  She is so funny.  I love it.  So we took about an half hour break while the storm passed.  It ended up not coming over us.  It just passed right by us, but it was close enough that the thunder was still loud.  Brinley kept her tent up for the rest of the day, so she could hide if the storm did hit us.  One of the passing storms came over us.  Brinley had a friend over at that point, so they both hung out in her little tent under the table.  While Brinley was hiding under the table, Parker took a Jib Jab break.  He had fun making Jib Jab videos.  He thought it was a fun break from school.

I've quit doing Brinley's K12 as part of our homeschooling.  That program really doesn't work for us.  It causes us way more stress than necessary and really makes homeschooling difficult.  I'm relieved to be quitting it.  I will be calling them tomorrow, so we can arrange to send their things back.

We have a bunch of curriculum books.  We really have a ridiculous amount of homeschooling books.  I'm really happy about that, because it gives us a lot to work with.  I spent the first 2 weeks of school feeling more stressed out than I think I have ever been.  It was rough.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed.  We just kept going though, and I kept hoping that eventually it would get better.  I just kept telling myself that it would.  And I spent a lot of time praying, researching, and pondering ways to make it better.  I decided to simplify.  I realized that I had too much going on.  Simplifying was the key.  I'm feeling much better about things.  I feel like we get more work done, since I decided to simplify.  Before, we had too many things to do each day.  It was so overwhelming and we would barely get through half of it (that's why I was so stressed out).  Now, we finish all our work, plus some.  I'm loving it and the kids are loving it.  I'm glad that I figured it out.  I hope it will continue to go well.

Here's Brinley downstairs showing of her curriculum book.  We were done with school for the day, but she still wanted to work on her math.  She is really good at math.  She seems to whip through it really fast.  I'm glad she likes it.  All of our little ones really like math.

This morning, before we started our schooling, Parker said the prayer for us.  At the start of his prayer he asked that we could spend time learning about our family history and working to learn more about our ancestors, then he went on to say most of the usual things we say to ask for help with our schooling.  I thought it was really odd that he said that, because it's not something we have talked about at all lately and he hasn't been to church or any church activities in a while, so I know he didn't hear it there.  Anyway, so I figured it must have been inspired.  Alissa wasn't with us when we said this prayer.  She was still in bed, so she didn't know Parker had prayed for that at all.  Anyway, Alissa woke up and went to seminary.  When I picked her up from seminary, she said that she felt really inspired today that we need to learn our family history.  She felt that our family history is something that will really help us right now.  I love that both Parker and Alissa got that inspiration today.  I am definitely going to have a spend a few days or more learning about our family history.

It was storming outside again and Brinley was sitting on the floor to play with Forest.  Forest got scared and ran to Brinley and climbed on her lap.  Brinley thought it was so cute, she wanted a picture of it.  It is so cute when Forest climbs on our laps.  I imagine that he will be funny like our dog Mollie was and still climb up on our laps when he is big.  I always thought that was so funny when Mollie would climb on our laps like she was a little dog.  She was so big, it was uncomfortable, but it was also cute and funny.

I gave some of the neighbor kids crocheted hats today.  I'm trying to get more business.  I'm hoping people will see their cool hats and ask them where they got them.  I also, started advertising on Facebook last night.  I plan to make some flyers to put up and make some business cards.  I really hope I can get a lot of business.  I could really use the money.  So far, I've gotten one order and that was from our neighbor next door, Ken Unsworth.  He asked if I could make a star wars character hat.  I had to look it up.  I had never heard of the character before.  I asked him to send a picture of the hat he wants.  He sent me a picture and I am working to get the hat done.  Hopefully I can have it finished by tomorrow evening.

Roger was chillin' with me before he had to leave to work today.  I was crocheting and the witch hat I made last week, was sitting on the counter, so Roger decided to try it on.  Then he took some selfies.  I pulled out my camera and took some pictures also.  I love my goofy Roger.