Mercies Are New Every Morning...Lamentations 3:23

After going to bed last night I prayed this prayer. That the Lord would grant Turbo and I new mercy the next morning, because if it was anything like yesterday morning and subsequently the day that followed, Friday, April 15, 2011, would be the end of us...ALL!

Turbo has been aruging with me a lot on doing school work. Unfortunately/Fortunately for him, he thrives in a scheduled enviornment. So one little deviation from a set schedule and it throws him off his rocker! So yes, I will be living in schedule for the rest of my life...until that day when he is waiting at the end of a long aisle waiting for a beautfiul bride. It will be that day when I hand off my unending lists of schedules to her and wish her luck as I board a yaht ready to set sail for the Caribbean.

But I digress...

After the blow up, which really didn't seem to EVER end, I made new plans for the kid. It was that same story; different tune. He has a new plan for school. He has a new plan for the morning. He has a new plan for EVERYTHING.

New morning...yes, grace and mercy was restored to this home.

A new seat came in the mail yesterday that will help Turbo immensely while sitting at the table. I had to take away the special chair with the foot rest because Tank thought it would be super cool to climb up it and then even cooler to climb on top of the table, and cooler still to stand on the table. Bye, bye chair, take your place back at Nana and Papa Manor.

So when the new seat arrived, along with a new chewie, R.I.P. old chewie (WHERE EVER YOU ARE!) I could see a light at the end of the tunnel! New plans, new chewie, new seat....nothing can stop us now!!!!

The Legend of the Easter Egg

This week, after we are done with our Three "R's", Turbo and I will be reading a book called, "The Legend of the Easter Egg". I found a Lap Book Unit on www.homeschoolshare.com that offered free printables and short lessons. They chose a verse from the Bible as the memory verse for the week, but I decided to have Turbo work on a different one, found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and He rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures." I found a song that goes a long with this from Songs for Saplings that I downloaded the entire album for that has a verse from the Bible for each letter of the alphabet and special holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. They even have a verse about honoring your mother and father. He listens to that one A LOT!

Anyways, this morning while looking at the verse written, I had him listen to the song. He knows the song because we listen to this album in the car quite often. But I took a video of him singing it, and when he realized I was recording him, he really hammed it up! Take a look!

My Perspective Photography Photo Shoot

I had the opportunity to take photos of two special little girls this weekend! Peyton will be 3 and Raegan will be 1. Super cute girlies!!!

TOT School: "NANANANANANANANA" (aka BANANA)

Tank finally said a word that resembled the object that he was wanting/pointing to!!! Although he says the word without the "B", he certainly has the "NANANANANANANaNANANANANANA" down pat!

The GRRR Factor

This morning, after a few days off of school, Turbo struggled getting back on task...as if I didn't expect it. We started out pretty good using our BOB books, and handwriting practice. When he chose to either do spelling or math, he chose math. When I opened the page, he immediately was turned off. Screaming, "I CAN'T DO THIS!!! I HATE IT!!!" Expected. "I don't feel good". Expected. "I'm hungry." Expected. "I don't like school!" Expected. Everything that was said and done was expected.

I sent him to his room to figure out how long he was going to argue about doing school. When he figured out that it would take longer to argue then to actually do the work, he gave in and came out to do his school work.

The cycle started over.

And over.

And over....

The proceeded for 8 cycles of this. GRRRRRRRRR!

Finally, in frustration, I sent him to his room. He was SUPER ANGRY at this point. I sat at the table and prayed...."LORD, TIE MY HANDS AND HOLD MY TONGUE CAUSE THIS BOY IS GONNA GET IT!!!!!!!" Then I heard the most peculiar sound. He was jumping on his bed. But not in fun, but in frustration and in anger! He was jumping HARD! After 30 seconds it stopped.

He exited from his room breathing hard and was visibly out of breath. He sat down and said, "May I please have a snack while I do my math?" I quietly got up, peeled him an orange and put it in a bowl while he went to work on using the number line for addition and subtracton facts. He completed 19 problems in 4 minutes flat; without a peep.

When questioned about him jumping on the bed, he said, "I knew it would make me feel better." (Proprioceptive impact)

Now, he playing on the kitchen floor with his new Lightning McQueen car in a happy mood. Disater averted. The Grrr Factor eliminated. Ideas on how to reinforce his bed frame commencing.

TOT School: Sick Day

Yesterday was an easy-going day as Tank was down with a fever. Pretty sure it was teething, but a sick-day was declared, nonetheless. A bit of brotherly love while enjoying a movie. Poor lil' Tank. A bit of a fever. But nothing a bowl of fresh raspberries and apple juice can't take care of. We couldn't let the day go by without a bit of playing. Tank is intrigued with Connect 4. He will happily sit anywhere and rhythmically put in the playing pieces. Fortunately, we had some entertainment out of our window for most of the morning. The complex is cutting down some cottonwood trees outside our place because of the destruction the roots are playing on the pipes. Watching the huge trees come down with the trucks, lifts, chainsaws and machines was mesmerizing for Tank.