Pet peeves

Probably everybody has at least one pet peeve. Nadia's biggest one is that she wants her plate cleaned in between eating different things. Her plate gets washed multiple times in one meal most of the time. Even if only ONE tiny spot of the plate has a crumb or ketchup or water on it, the whole plate is deemed unworthy of being used unless the plate is cleaned. Heaven forbid if you asked her to have a sandwich AND pretzels on the same plate. Sometimes she gets a napkin and puts the other food on the napkin to avoid cleaning the plate. I would say her next two biggest pet peeves would be if her clothing gets wet (and I just mean the tiniest drop of water) she wants to change clothes and she doesn't like it when Ian wants to play with her All The Time. I keep telling her that it won't be long until Ian is mostly playing with Oliver and she'll be having plenty of time to play by herself. Oliver does not like his hands or face to be messy while eating. You think this would inspire him to use utensils instead of his fingers. Nope. I wash his hands and face multiple times every meal, and he also goes through a few napkins at every meal. I wash his hands and face far more times a day than I ever washed the other two kids. Thankfully he usually doesn't mind if his shirt gets wet when I'm washing his face.

One of Ian's pet peeves is things not being done in the way they are usually done. It really upsets him if we eat our main meal at noon instead of at 5:00pm. We often do that on Sundays. He used to always get really upset when his clothes got wet. That hasn't been an issue lately. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not washing his face any more or because this doesn't bother him any more.

If I had to pick my two biggest pet peeves, I would say they would be clutter (things not being put in their proper place and also just having too much stuff) and certain noises. Ever since I was a child I haven't liked the sound of other people chewing. It doesn't bother me when I'm also eating because then I can't hear their chewing. However if I'm sitting on the couch and someone next to me is eating or chewing gum, I have a desire to plug my ear; if I start chewing a piece of gum that also solves the problem. I also like to turn the fan off as soon as I get out of the shower because the sound of a fan in a bathroom really gets under my skin. I have certainly had to deal with more clutter now that we have kids, but I'll take a messier house, if it's because kids live here!

The time it was the hardest for me to deal with clutter was when I got home from the hospital in 2012. After spending about 18 weeks in either a hospital room or Ronald McDonald room, I had a hard time coming back to clutter as those environments were extremely stark. The kids were complaining a couple of weeks ago about cleaning up, and Oliver loves to make messes; so I took a LOT of toys to the basement. I have to say the kids haven't seemed to miss them at all, and it's been a lot easier to clean up and the house looks less cluttered. Probably at least some of them will come back up in the late fall when the weather gets cold, but during the months when the weather is nice and we spend more time outside, I doubt they're going to miss them.

On a totally unrelated note, yesterday I took a quiz online regarding what type of homeschooler you are. My top three were Unit studies education (25), Montessori (25), and Charlotte Mason (20). My lowest was traditional education (negative 23). I thought I'd share in case any other homeschoolers read my blog and might enjoy the survey. :)

P.S. Oliver walked all the way across the rope without ANY assistance from an adult today for the first time. Way to go, Oliver! (see first pic)