The Risk of Risk

The game Risk says on the box for players 10 and up. The age limit is not merely a suggestion, it is a warning. Here's why:

Today my 8 yr. old begged me to play Risk with him. His older brothers, who he usually plays with, were busy watching a movie so I decided I should try. Now, I kind of learned the rules a few days before when I was suckered into a previous game with the same kid and the 10 yr. old. I learned the basic game play (or so I thought, since we lost the instructions years ago) and I even learned a rule that is definitely the creative genius of one of my own children: if you sacrifice one of your foot soldiers, you can tele-port any of your armies to anywhere else on the board. (This earlier game ended prematurely due to a fight and help from the baby grabbing at the pieces). So I thought, sitting down at the dining room table, I had a pretty good handle on the game as we embarked on the mission of "Total World Domination." And it would count for Social Studies too, right? Little did I know that soon I'd be feeling more like Alice slipping down the rabbit hole, wondering what game I was really playing and getting a lesson in the values of common sense and logic, or at least what happens when it all goes out the window.

We started the game off rather peacefully. He was blue, I was red. We each put down a guy (foot soldier) on our turn, trying to claim all the countries in a continent so we could get extra guys. Then my deceivingly docile opponent suddenly started gathering enough guys to get horses and cannons. I followed suit and tried combining my guys to trade for the more valuable pieces (I have no idea if this is part of the real game but it made sense to me so I went along with it). Eventually he put two cannons together and traded for the single golden horse. Then he started grouping his armies together into Asia, clapping with glee and hopping with anticipation. My competitive nature was sparked into mild action. Maybe I should start pooling my resources too.

Up to that point we had only faced-off in small battles, losing a guy or two. I learned quickly that his objective wasn't to gain territory, but to get the Risk cards that give you extra stuff if you can get your guy onto a specific country. Then the tele-portation began. He started killing off his foot soldiers for the privilege of air-lifting his giant army around the board, swooping up countries on his cards and gaining more, and creaming me in battles because my armies were more spread out and no match for his mammoth collection. I tried to start moving my troops to converge together but I refused to take advantage of the tele-portation option and moving an army from country was very slow. Eventually he settled in Australia, setting up a guard post in southern Asia. Most of my cards were for the Australian countries so I knew I had to battle him to gain access to them. But he had the golden horse and enough cannons to fill the small island continent to it's beaches, it wouldn't be easy.

Then, disaster hit. I ran out of cannons from my supply pile. I asked, "What do I do if I run out of cannons?" He replied by pulling out all the yellow pieces for me, placing a yellow cannon arbitrarily on Greenland and saying, "Now you have to get to this cannon and then you have to wait two turns before they become your allies. Then you can get them all you want." Wow, this was news to me! Allies, huh. "You also can't kill your allies," he added. O.K. so now I had twice the troops...well, in a few turns I will.

Just then, my 3 yr. old decided she wanted to play too. "You can be yellow," I said, hoping she would be happy with that. "I want a horse!" she demanded. I gave her one of the yellow horses. I was sure I wouldn't need it. How long could this game go on anyway? "No, a blue horse!"

Luckily my 8 yr. old accommodated and handed her a blue horse from his infantry. I guess he was pretty confident in his defense system. Next, he ran out of cannons so he pulled out the gray pieces and added them to his supply. He placed a gray cannon near his other pieces and I had to remind him that he couldn't use it until he jumped through the same hoops I did to get my allies. Soon we had a very colorful game board but my armies were still too spread out. I kept trudging along, trying to collect a mass of soldiers to invade Australia. The 3 yr. old was irritably taking pieces from both sides, making her own army, not on the board. The baby had joined us too and is now old enough that she can reach things on the table. She kept stealing my cards.

I began trying to figure out how we could end this game as quickly as possible, no matter who won. Then, suddenly, without warning, my son sacrificed another soldier, moved his empire-sized army out of Australia and plunked them down in front of the largest mass of my armies I had at the time, in China. "It's time for the final battle," he declared.

Oh, O.K. I thought. Good we can end this once and for all.

"But my armies are all over the place," I said.
"Just sacrifice one guy and you can move all your armies to battle me," he replied. Well, that would have been helpful to know earlier on.

I obliged and piled all my people, horses, and cannons together in a final face-off. All that was left was to count the cannons and see who had more points (at least that's how I decided we'd judge the winner...why not, if anyone can make up new rules, right?). I counted by 10s (cannons), 5s (horses), and 1s (foot soldiers) and even including his golden horse (20 points), I came out ahead.

"You won!" I announced. Yeah, we're done. That was a ride I'll have to think twice about before I get on it again.

Mr. Miyagi's School for Defensive Drivers

"Man Who Catch Fly With Chopstick Accomplish Anything"

What do you do when your obstinate teenager informs you that she is 15 1/2 and can now get her driving permit?

My husband and I discussed this new development in our child rearing career. We had already decided long ago that with this particular child, in order to keep her from getting her licence at the deadly age of 16, we would not fork over the gobs of money required to get her through Drivers Ed. She would therefore be compelled to wait until she was the ripe old age of 18 and hopefully have a few more brain cells for making wise driving decisions once she was left alone behind the wheel.

But that means we get to teach her how to drive, unlike my parents who passed that white-knuckling experience off on a professional (even when my instructor requested they practice more with me). So when daughter-dearest asked for her first lesson in driving I let her drive down a neighbor's long gravel driveway. She misunderstood my comment that it wasn't like driving the tractor (meaning, the foot pedals were different) and didn't turn the steering wheel tight enough as we exited the driveway, almost taking out the neighbors mailbox. She argued with me that she didn't turn the wheel because I had said it wasn't like the tractor and she thought I meant the steering. I'm not sure what she expected, but she kept arguing that her failure was my fault. Well, once that was over, I brought the matter up with my husband and we decided that the "Wax on, Wax off," method was the one for us.

So, on a sunny Saturday when she asked for her first official lesson, Daddy got out a bucket, soap, and rags and said, "Here you go, wash it." Incredulous, she looked at us like we were out of our minds.

"I'm not washing the car," she said.

"Oh yes you are, if you want to learn how to drive it," was my reply.

"You're trying to do that 'Karate Kid' thing, aren't you." She got us, but that didn't change our minds. "I'm not going to do that stupid movie," she snapped.

"I didn't know you had watched it," I said. "But regardless, that is your first lesson, so get to it. The weather's nice, it's an easy job. Come on. Just do it." It turns out she hadn't seen the movie but was aware of it.

"No," was all she said.

Later, after my husband washed the car and thus postponed her first lesson for another month or so, I discussed with her the reason why we wanted her to wash the car. First, she needs to show that she can take care of a vehicle before we let her drive it. Washing the car was just the beginning. Later would come oil checking, tire changing, and whatever else my husband would cook up in auto repair. Secondly, she needed to show us that she could be obedient and listen to our instructions. She has a long history of arguing with us every time we ask her to do something. If she isn't willing to listen to us and execute our instructions without questioning us or trying to find a reason why she shouldn't do it, then she is not ready to have control of a giant hunk of metal flying down the road at 35-50 miles per hour.

So that is where we stand. I hope she swallows her pride soon so the lessons behind the wheel can start soon. I have a feeling she's going to need all 2 1/2 years of practice.

Day 8

9:00 My alarm wakes me up, but only just before the 3yr. old enters my room. She tucks her baby doll under my arm and watches me as I stretch and try to wake up. Eventually I get up and follow her out to the kitchen. The 5, 7, and 13yr. olds are up. I get them breakfast and help my husband with the last of his preparations for work. He leaves and I start my own breakfast. My stomach is growling like crazy. That salad from last night was not enough.

10:00 I've eaten and read one chapter of a new book. It was difficult, with the 3 and 5yr. olds flanking me on either side with a barrage of "Look at this," and "See Mama," and "Where do you want to go on my maze?" and finally, "It's the Death Star Portal," but I finished it.

10:30 The 7yr. old and I go upstairs to read a story from his reader. I wake the baby up so she'll hopefully go to bed at a decent time tonight. Then I snag the 10yr. old to read a chapter in "Charlotte's Web." I keep falling asleep though so when he's finished, I lay down on the upstairs couch. It feels so good. I'm just going to lay here for 5 minutes.

11:30 My 15yr. old wakes me up, saying "Why are you sleeping?" My neck is sore from using the arm rest as a pillow. I've been asleep for about 20 minutes. Luckily the baby has been totally content pulling Lincoln logs from the bin that was sitting next to the couch. I call the 11 and 13yr. olds upstairs to read and ask the 13yr. old to also watch the baby while I shower.

12:00pm Lunch. The shower warmed me up enough to stop being so sleepy.

1:00 I round the older boys into the dining room for a "Charlott'e Web" lesson. Asparagus is one of their vocabulary words so I show them a bundle of asparagus. None of them will try it. I take a couple bites of a stalk and decide I don't feel like such a vegetably vegetable right then and hand it to the baby. She starts in on the spear end and decides she's not too fond of it either. I'll have to bake them later with lots of butter and salt.

2:00 The 7yr. old comes crying to me in the dining room right after the older boys have evacuated. I don't remember what it was about. I take the opportunity to sit him down and do a page of math. He asks, "Is this so I can get a turn?" He means on the computer or Xbox. I say, "sure," even though that wasn't my intention. "You can have it tonight when we go to scouts." The 5yr. old here's the word "turn" and comes running to do a few pages of handwriting and math.

3:00 I remember we have to leave early today for some errands before swim lessons so I wake the older boys from their TV trance (they put on "Puss in Boots," while I wasn't looking) and tell them to get ready to go. I get the baby down for a nap so my 15yr. old can focus whole-heartedly on her seminary while we're gone.

4:00 We head out the door. This is our last day of swim lessons for the year. We'll start up again in January next year. It will be nice to have our Monday and Wednesday  afternoons back (the only days we're actually home to homeschool).

6:00 We're home just long enough to drop off the 7, 5, and 3 yr. olds and grab a quick dinner. Our friends needed help getting two of their boys to scouts tonight so they've been dropped off as well. The older one is 16 and enjoys talking to my 15yr. old a lot. She turns into a much more friendly big sister and actually watches her younger siblings jump on the trampoline without making any of them cry or scream.

6:30 We leave for scouts and Young Women's. I leave the baby home with Grandpa. I've been taking her to scouts with me all along but her bedtime gets messed up each time so I'm hoping her bedtime will be better if I do this.

9:00 We get home and get almost everyone up to bed. The 3yr. old is wearing underwear again. Just two more days and we can start potty training in earnest (we'll be on Spring Break from our Parent Partnership). I let her go to bed with it. We'll see how she does.

10:00 Everyone's in bed except the two oldest and baby. The 13yr. old is still working on that case. He's varnishing it tonight. Maybe that means he's done! I think the baby is going to go to sleep but she perks up after a little snack. I put a couple of potatoes in the oven for our dinner and decide it's time to work on my blog.

11:00 My husband and the 13yr. old are doing push-ups together while the baby makes comments. The 15yr. old goes to bed.

1:00am The baby has finally, finally fallen asleep. She threw a fit just before because I wouldn't give my water cup. I gave her a sippy cup but that wasn't what she wanted. She's funny.

Day 7

9:00am  I finally wake up. I tried setting my alarm to get up earlier but I just kept hitting snooze. I was dreaming that the play my oldest two are in was already upon us and my 13yr. old, who is playing Egeus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," knew none of his lines and my 15yr. old, who is designing the backdrops, had not even begun painting them. Wew, glad that was just a dream. I roll out of bed, determined to get the 13yr. old to work on his lines, soon. My husband is already up and almost out the door. Only the 5yr. old and 7yr. old are up so far. The 3yr. old slept in, surprisingly. But she's awake when I go upstairs to shower (my master bath is still unfinished after 8 years so I get to shower in the kid's bathroom). She waits patiently in the bathroom and then asks about the steam on the mirror while I'm dressing. We have a nice science lesson on the water cycle.

10:00 Everyone except the baby has been woken up by me. We rush to find shoes, (we don't bother with socks for the younger three), gather lunch food, and get the guitar, ukulele, piano book, the script for the play, and some activities for the younger kids to do while they wait for sibling's classes at our Parent Partnership.

10:30 We head out for our Parent Partnership. It's a beautiful day outside so the little ones and I spend it at the playground and we hardly touch all the baggage we brought. We end up sticking around an extra half hour after classes to chat with other families.

5:30pm Home. The 3yr. old is asleep so I leave her in the van unstrapped. The baby has been sleeping since we left the school and is now awake but a bit cranky. I nurse her while the boys get themselves snacks. I hear the 3yr. old in the garage crying and send the 10 yr. old to get her. She's sitting in the van demanding that I help her out. Luckily, the baby is finished and I'm able to go out and bring her in myself.

6:00 The 11yr. old is cooking the tacos tonight, with lots of help from me. Everyone is starving and I get them snacks but finally have to say "no more, we're about to have dinner."

7:00 We finally have dinner. My husband comes home just in time. We eat but of course there are a few who don't get with the program (the same ones who ate snacks right before dinner) and decide late that they are still hungry so it takes a whole hour.

8:00 I take the 3yr. old up for bed while the munching stragglers finish their meals. Everyone else follows me upstairs and makes enough noise to make putting the 3yr. old to bed impossible. After half an hour of reading stories, she informs me she's still hungry. I go downstairs to get her a slice of cheese and a cup of water. I give it to her and tell her to stay in her room. We read scriptures with everyone else, and the 3yr. old joins us when she's done with her cheese. So much for bedtime.

9:00 I've put the 3yr. old back in bed and start bedtime with the 3 younger boys. My husband takes his dad to the grocery store. The boys ask for a story so I get a library book I've been meaning to read to them, "Cock-a-doodle Dudley" by Bill Peet. It's kind of long. My husband calls me from the store to see what we need. Even though we just went there on Saturday night, we still need more supplies.

10:00 Everyone but the oldest two and baby are in bed. I send the 13yr. old upstairs to read that WWII novel. I can't wait till he's done with that. The 15yr. old works on catching up on her seminary. I give the baby an assortment of food from dinner to make sure she's well fed and will hopefully sleep well tonight.

11:00 My husband is back with lots of clearance Easter candy. I immediately start in on the peanut M&M's which are terrible for me. My taco salad must not have been enough for me either. I bribe the 13yr. old, who is done reading, with more candy to empty the dishwasher that was supposed to be emptied by one of his brothers. Then he and his sister go to bed. The baby is still up, happy as can be. Daddy entertains us with old videos of New Kids on the Block. I'm so glad I thought they were stupid back then. They dance like girls! We move on to Boston's "More than a Feeling", Toto's "Rains down in Africa" (because we started singing all the songs about rain to the kids after scripture study tonight) and finally Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'".

12:00am The baby's still up. We watch TV and I put gobs of books on hold at the library for upcoming classes I'm teaching at our Co-op. She finally falls asleep around 12:50. Hope it lasts.

Day 6

8:00am My 3yr. old crawls into my bed and goes back to sleep. I don't mind because she's back in diapers for the moment. I didn't encourage her over the weekend because we had church, traveling, Easter, and traveling back yesterday.

9:00 Ooops. We slept in. My husband hurries to the shower. The 7yr. old woke us up, asking for breakfast. I roll out of bed, rouse the 3yr. old (she's still wearing her Easter dress too), and get them both breakfast. A few other children show up, the 5, 10, and 13yr. olds. The same ones as usual are still in bed.

10:00 Daddy has left for work. I start thinking about breakfast for myself. Our geography buddies call and cancel, but I still have my mom time, just on the phone. After that I help the 7yr. old with his math and Explode the Code. The 13yr. old is working on his Rasperry pi case again. I talk him into reading his WWII novel for a while.

11:00 The 7yr. old gets a half hour on the computer so now the 5yr. old is anxious to do his work. We get math and a full letter's worth of pages done in his All Aboard book. Then he gets a turn and I wake up the baby, the 15yr. old, and the 11yr. old. I read the rest of the Mercury lesson in Apologia to the boys.

12:00pm Lunch. I send the 11yr. old upstairs to read "Sea of Monsters" and try to start the 10yr. old on his math but he doesn't like the smell of my salad dressing so he gets to play with the baby while I eat.Then we do his math until he inexplicably begins crying. He leaned down to kiss the baby and his face started hurting. I help him limp through his last three problems and since he's still in pain, I give him motrin. He lays down on the couch while I work on math and grammar with the 11yr. old.

1:00 Even though it's supposed to be done by the older kids, I load the dishwasher. We forgot the milk cup I had just filled on the counter yesterday when we went to my parent's house.  It was almost solid by the time we got home so I dumped it out into the sink last night, but it's making the kitchen have a sour milk smell so I've got to get these dishes out so I can wash it down. The 3yr. old is having issues so we put on "Super Why" for her.

2:00 The 11yr. old and 10yr. old are having a nerf-gun war upstairs while I help the 3yr. old do mazes and make snowflakes with the 7 and 5yr. old. The 15yr. old does her math. I'm not sure what the 13yr. old is doing. He keeps going out to the garage with wires and a file and at one point I did see him burning something with a lighter at my kitchen counter.

3:00 The baby gets fussy and decides she needs to nurse. I try to read while I feed her. She falls asleep and I  deal with the 3yr. old who has put on underwear, then an old (but still in pristine shape) ballet costume of her big sis's, and her purple princess dress (which we call her ballet dress because she wore it to the Nutcracker this Christmas). She tells me she has to go potty, but she's already gone. I get all that upstairs in the dirty laundry, while taking a phone call from a solicitor, and discover a suspicious puddle upstairs. I clean that up and tell the solicitor "No Thanks."

4:00 I wake up the all-male crowd that has become zombies in front of the TV (watching "Princess Sofia", mind you) and tell them they'd better get ready for swim lessons.

5:00 We have swim lessons but my 3yr. old decides she's done 15 minutes into it. Afterwards, in the locker room, she refuses to let me put a diaper on her (it's all I have, I didn't bring any underwear, or "un-wear-dah" as she puts it) so I have to force it on her. Then she won't put her shoes on.

6:00 We finally make it to the van (where I pass a mini-van whose inside windows, all of them except the windshield, are completely covered with stickers and the sticky outside edges of the sticker sheets, and I think, at least I don't have that problem, this week) and she throws a fit about being buckled in. I'm starting to worry that when she turns 4, she's going to be worse, not better, as I hoped.

7:00 My 13yr. old has asked for chicken nuggets for dinner but he and three more of us are Gluten-free so I have to make half of them from scratch. It takes me a while, the whole time the 5yr. old is trying to get me to stop and make him soup or salad. The tator-tots and french fries I threw in the oven finally come out and he's satisfied for a while.

8:00 The chicken nuggets are done. My husband finally came home (it's discount day at the Goodwill and he can't not go). Those of us who are Gluten-free scarf them down and we start Family Home Evening. This time, the little kids aren't the problem, the older kids think they're all comedians. It's hard to have a spiritual lesson when you're yelling at the kids to stop being obnoxious.

9:00 They've all finished their ice cream. The 11yr. old is still working on his. It had to be replaced after the 7yr old started doing raspberries and didn't think about where his spittle spray landed. The 3yr. old began drinking hers and spilled it down her front. The baby who's been happy until now unloading the DVD shelf, is fussing and looks like her mouth is full, but we didn't give her any ice cream. I swipe her mouth and pull out a slobbery lump of play-do, dropped when the 5yr. old was using it earlier to make molds from his chocolate Easter bunny's packaging tray.  Thank goodness for bedtime.

10:00 My husband clears the floor for his nightly Room-ba routine (he got it for $30 at the Goodwill a few weeks ago). The baby usually likes to chase it around as it vacuums but instead she scoots to me where I've joined my 15yr. old at the computer. I got an email from her seminary teacher saying she was substantially behind in her lessons and that she would have the next two weeks to make up. The baby is acting tired so I nurse her to sleep while I go through the lessons with my oldest. This happened last year too. Next year, with no baby to keep us up, she and the 13yr. old (who will be a high-schooler by then) will go to early-morning seminary. She claims she'll do better with an in-person class. We'll see.

11:00 The 15yr. old has gone to bed, the 13yr. old is reading another chapter in his WWII book and I am working on this blog. Maybe I'll get to go to bed by midnight tonight!

Day 5

8:00am My 3yr. old comes to my room. I hurry and get her on the toilet. She did pretty well but her underwear is a tiny bit damp. She decides she wants to wear a diaper. I put one on her because she's in charge of this. I get her a bowl of cereal and put on "Barbie Spy Squad," then crash on the couch.

9:00 I wake up surrounded by several more kids and my husband on his way out the door for work.
I get everyone who is awake breakfast and get myself breakfast.

10:00 My 10yr. old wakes up the baby and we read a chapter of "Charolotte's Web" while I nurse her. Then I read with my 7yr. old while the baby plays. The 5yr. old and 3yr. old make forts around us.

11:00 I wake up the last two sleepers, the 11yr. old and the 15yr. old. They get breakfast while I do math with the 10yr. old and 7yr. old. My 13yr. old has resumed his Raspberry pi case project. I interrupt him and send him to read the second chapter of "Charlotte's Web." My 11yr. old practices piano.

12:00pm People start getting lunch (those who had breakfast more two hours earlier). I help my 10yr. old do some grammar. The 7yr. old never finished his math. I got out our Math-U-See cubes to help him with two-digit subtraction but he wanted to build with them instead. The 5yr. old joined him and they are still working on their table-top forts. Now the 11yr. old has joined them. I remember why I never get those things out and why we stopped using Math-U-See as a curriculum in the first place.

1:00 I bully the 15yr. old into working on her geometry some more. I get out the geometry text book I checked out for her as a reference book but she refuses to look in it. I get some laundry started in the washer. I can just barely open the washer door but if I don't fold the clean laundry (which covers the laundry room floor) I won't be able to open it for the next wash so I'd better make time for that sometime today.

1:30 The 11yr. old reluctantly works on his math, ratios, and finishes all but the last problem before he claims he is done. I help him make himself lunch, then make myself lunch because I am starting to get cranky. I see that he hasn't finished but I want to have our "Charlotte's Web" lesson before it gets too much later. The 15yr. old has finished her math and is claiming she can't do her seminary (an online religious course she is supposed to be doing and hasn't done for at least a week). I look at the course web-page and figure out she needs to do the lessons consecutively to gain access to them. She's not happy I'm making her do this.

2:30 I research pork and protein to help with the discussion I am planning to have with the boys and check my email. The 15 yr. old has done 3 lessons in seminary.

3:00 The three older boys and I sit down to work on "Charlotte's Web" vocabulary from Novel Thinking and then discuss the first two chapters. The baby falls asleep.

4:00 I help the 11yr. old finish his math, then the 7yr. old finish his, without the use of the Math-U-See cubes. The 7yr. old reminds me I owe him some prizes for reading so we get the prize box. He picks out two plastic frogs that he gets to color with permanent markers. The 5yr. old sees that and wants one too. I let him pick one and then we sit down to do some of his work (that he hasn't touched in weeks). He does a few pages from Sing, Spell, Read and Write's All Aboard book, Handwriting without Tears, and his Singapore math Kindergarten Activity Book A.

5:00 I get out the permanent markers and lay newspaper on the table for the 7 and 5yr. olds to color their frogs. I check phone messages from yesterday (I have to page the phone because it's buried under some papers on the side table) and check my email. The baby wakes up. She's not happy with me but I peel and cut potatoes for dinner. The 11yr. old finishes his grammar and handwriting and gets on the computer to work on Scratch.

6:00 The potatoes are frying and I've rolled out butcher paper in the hallway while the 5yr. old and 7yr. old take turns playing Minecraft. The 10yr. old and I draw a semi-proportionate diagram of the solar system. The baby keeps scooting over the inner planets, krinkling our paper. The 13yr. old is checking out his new Raspberry pi that came by Fed Ex this morning. The 15yr. old comes down with a collection of origami cranes she just folded.

7:00 We've got the planets all drawn and colored, except Pluto. We ran out of room. The 15yr. old and I spend almost an hour taping the long roll of paper up in the hallway, cutting holes for doors and light switches. I decide we should have moved it down so we re-position it and now we have room for Pluto!

8:00 My husband comes home from work. The potatoes are half eaten and have been heated up again so he and I eat some. I make alternative dinners for all those who don't like fried potatoes.

8:30 The 15, 11, and 10yr. old go upstairs to watch the second half of "Lord of the Rings". The 13yr. old didn't like the idea of watching it in parts so he's going to watch it all tomorrow morning. The 5yr. old makes more planet drawings. There is now Bobland Planet just past Pluto. The baby and 3yr. old sprinkle the floor with markers.

9:00 We clean up the markers and shoo the little kids upstairs to get ready for bed. I help the 7yr. old brush his teeth, forget to help the 5yr. old, and leave my husband to finish bedtime while I work on the 3yr. old. She's wearing underwear again. She wears it more at night than during the day. We count all the days on her calendar then read "Happy Easter, Biscuit," her current favorite, which consists of me reading only as fast as she points to the words. This is all her idea. She's finally in bed.

9:30 I console the 7yr. old who is quite distraught that he doesn't get to watch "Lord of the Rings". I try to explain to him that he'll get to do many other fun things that his older siblings didn't get to do because we had little kids when they were teenagers and that he'll eventually get to watch the movie too. He isn't convinces and I leave to his moaning loudly.

10:00 I try to convince the 13yr. old to go read his WWII novel now so he isn't up so late.

10:30 "Lord of the Rings" is over and the three watching it come down for second dinner. I would think they were Hobbits but they're much more noticeable.

11:00 They have all gone to bed. The 13yr. old is reading now, upstairs. My husband and I start to watch "Spiderman," (2002 version) because I promised my 7yr. old we'd preview it and decide if it was OK for him to watch.

1:30 "Spiderman" is finally over. We've decided it's actually pretty tame with only one intense fight scene at the end. Bedtime. Yeah!

Day 4

5:30am The baby wakes up. I go upstairs to nurse her and fall asleep sitting up.

7:30 I wake up. It's daylight but I don't have to be up for another hour and everyone else is still asleep so I go back to bed.

9:00 Aaaah! I've slept in. Now we have only a half hour to get ready for our Parent Partnership. I hurry to wake everyone else up. The 3yr. old is not in her bed, and it's dry! I throw on clothes, find the 5yr. old clothes, and grab some granola bars and oranges for lunch. The 3yr. old shows up from Grandpa's house. She is still dry and has already gone potty. Great!

9:40 We're running late. Everyone else is in the van except the baby who is still asleep and my 10yr. old who is frantically trying to finish a sketch for his clay class. I get the baby up, give her a bottle and some raisin bread and strap into the van. The 10yr. old has to finish his drawing of his Pinewood Derby car in the van.

10:08 We arrive at the Parent Partnership. Wew! Just a little late. Now I put on make up, eat breakfast, and change the baby's diaper (I put her to bed fully clothed, same with the 3yr. old, the night before). We're here for the rest of the school day while my kids take classes varying from Woodshop to Robotics to Volleyball to a Harry Potter class. We start off rocky when my 3yr. old has her first poop and didn't realize that too should go in the toilet. She spends the rest of the day in a diaper. It's kind of cold but we spend most of our free time at the playground. I do manage to get my 7yr. old to do a page of math and read half a reader story while we sit in my 5yr. old's Kindergym class (he threw a whopper of a fit during class back in January so I get to attend all his classes with that teacher for the rest of the year. Lucky me). And my 13yr. old's new coat from Christmas, which has been missing for three weeks, finally shows up in the lost and found. And added bonus, my 11yr. old's backpack, which he left in his minecraft class last week, is retrieved as well. It wasn't too bad of a day.

4:30 We get home from Parent Partnership. It's been a long day. Everyone is hungry so instead of getting dinner ready, I make them or help them make snacks. I get myself a snack too and read for a few minutes.

5:00 The 11yr. old, having finally gotten his piano book back (it was in his backpack), has been asking for help on his new pieces. I help him.

5:30 I start dinner. Then I nurse the baby and read the beginning of Lesson 3 in Apologia Astronomy. The baby falls asleep.

6:00 With the chicken in the oven, I sit the 7yr. old down to finish his reader story. I have the 11yr. old and 10 yr. old each peal two huge potatoes for mashed potatoes. Then I read the first chapter of "Charlotte's Web" with my 10yr. old.

7:00 Dinner's almost ready. My husband is home but he immediately starts fiddling in the garage, along with my 13yr. old who is still working on his Raspberry pi case. The 15yr. old is working on geometry online. She copped an attitude about it but I reminded her that she can't go anywhere unless she's closer to being caught up (she's almost two months behind schedule). She worked on it for a little while. I guess she doesn't really want to go anywhere this month. The baby wakes up.

7:30 We have dinner and while they eat we have Family Home Evening (it's a family night that we usually have on Monday's but with the derby preparations, we moved it to Thursday). I show them pictures and tell them the story of Easter and the days and events leading up to Christ's resurrection. We end with root beer floats (because I don't like the idea of having a bottle of root beer in my refrigerator that might leak). I am told by my 13yr. old that we should have more Family Home Evenings like that one, that are a story, and not a lesson.

9:00 Time for bed. But the 13yr. old still won't go to bed. Everyone else goes semi-willingly but he just can't stop working on that case.

11:00 The 13yr. old finally goes upstairs to read his WWII novel. My 15yr. old is reading in her bed.

12:00 The baby finally goes to sleep. Her late nap combined with last night's outing have messed up her bedtime.

1:00 I'm finally ready for bed myself.