Last two months

The last two months of 2013 will be a bit less hectic for us because both co-ops are done, soccer is done, ladies Bible study is almost done (just one more session), and basketball doesn't start until January. One thing we are adding into our schedule is for the kids to attend the free workshops at Lowes and Home Depot. Paul took Nadia to Home Depot today to build a ship. I told her that she needs to hide it when she brings it home, as it will be either a Christmas present for Oliver or a birthday or Christmas present for Ian. Next week Paul is scheduled to take both Ian and Nadia to Lowe's to make pull back cars. I thought we'd try both programs out and then decide which to do again in the future. Both stores offer this free program once a month. These two months will work well for attending these programs, as we won't have soccer or basketball games on Saturday mornings. We're going to trade places when Paul and Nadia get home. Paul will stay home with the boys while I take Nadia to the mall. I am going to get new tires for Paul's car and while they are installing those tires do a little shopping, such as a new watch for myself as mine died a couple of weeks ago.

At the end of August I set goals for the last four months of the year. I thought now that we only have two months left, I should do a check-up. Looking at the goals, it seems we've accomplished half of them thus far. We still need to work on teaching Ian to wipe and to write his name. I haven't started teaching the kids Spanish yet. I really need to get motivated to help Nadia stop sucking her thumb in bed now that she has two wiggly teeth. I don't want her sucking her thumb with permanent teeth! I haven't weighed myself lately, but I doubt I've lost any more weight. I am having a hard time getting motivated because my clothes fit me (#13). We took the training wheels off of Nadia's bicycle (#12), but she cannot ride it without Paul or I helping her. I still need to work on my cleaning routine (#14).

We're doing well with eating vegetables (#2) and having Nadia use lowercase letters (#3). Nadia is coming along well with her behavior during the worship service (#4). I have submitted 11 applications for Paul for next year thus far (#7). Hopefully soon he'll start getting invitations for phone interviews. I've been doing a much better job of taking videos of the kids lately (#8). Nadia is coming along with adding, subtracting, and counting coins. She's almost completed three chapters of the first grade math textbook. I haven't been working with her on counting by 2's or 5's. Nadia is on step #17 of the Level 1 spelling curriculum and step #9 of the Level 2 reading curriculum. She hasn't been too faithful at practicing the piano lately. I am very pleased that the kids are watching far less television, and I am being careful to limit how much time they spend on the iPad each day (#11).

One that was on my list in January that wasn't on my list two months ago was regarding my photography skills. I am happy to say that I have not taken a single picture in automatic mode since Labor Day. I was so unhappy with the pictures I took that day at Lake Tobias, that it motivated me to use the manual mode ALL the time. I'm getting better and better at knowing what ISO to use, etc. I did sign the kids up for a Christmas mini session (15 minutes) with the photographer who took our pictures in August because I have had the hardest time getting a nice picture of all three kids together. I want a close-up to use for various things such as a new necklace for myself. The necklace I have now contains a photo Wendy took in August 2011. Another goal from that list was to work on the months of the year with Nadia and Ian, and we have begun to do that. They both can sing a song that goes through the months. They also can sing another song that contains the ten digits of my cell phone number thanks to an iPad app. As a side note, I have decided to make my list of goals for 2014 MUCH shorter. The list this year was too unwieldy!