Life as a Yowler

Today we woke up to lots of snow. Yay! That was actually sarcasm. I’m not ready for snow. Brandon counted six cars in the ditch on his way to work this morning. The schools had a snow day today. The bummer about homeschooling is that my kids didn’t get a snow day. I’m trying to stay ahead of the game since we have lots of RVing coming up this spring. The kids did not take it well. A normal Monday is tough for Joah. After coming off the weekend, he is usually a sassy grumpy little monster. After coming off a four day weekend he was an absolute terror. He pushed every button I had. After he threw himself on the floor in the fetal position crying out  about how school won’t help him out in life,  I found myself asking him “would you like to join a new family? You’re dangerously close to being sold.” His response: “yes. Yes I would love a new family. You make my life hard and and steal all my fun. A new mom would be perfect.” Let me remind you that he’s six. I was reminded how much I need the Lord. Seriously, I cry out to him every single day.  After I had calmed down I said “look Joah. I’m done arguing with you. You know it’s your job to obey me. You also know it’s my job to teach you, and your job to do your school work. You can choose the right and change your attitude and do your work, or I can force you to. You are about to lose privledges and you are about to be thrown outside into the snow.” At that point Brielle chimes in “oh mom, I would love for you to throw me out into the snow. Please mom please! Throw us in the snow!”  I admire every single teacher out there. I can barely handle two students. You deal with entire classrooms. Bless you!!!!!

I decided to break and take the little angels outside for awhile. I told them they need to run and run and burn every ounce of energy they have.

I don’t normally dress Joah in pink coats. It only happens when he forgets his coat at church yesterday.

“Caed, can you stop catching and eating snow flakes just for a minute so mom can take a picture?”

“But mom, they taste just like water and I like pieces of water.”

We came inside and ate lunch.

And guess what….sweet little Joah was back. He focused and completed his school. As long as he has the perfect combination of food, sleep, and play he is a gem.

When Brandon got home from work, we set up the house for Christmas. We usually chop down our own tree. We were going to yesterday after church. We were so bummed to find out that our usual tree farm is not open this season. We debated for awhile what to do. There are obviously lots of other tree farms. We decided to just take a year off. Isla is at the worst possible age for a Christmas tree. We went to Walmart instead and bought a small pre lit tree that I could put up on a stand out of her reach.

The finished product…..it looks a little bit like a $25 tree from Walmart. The branches are so flimsy we had to leave off the ornaments. The kids think it’s beautiful though and that’s what counts.

We made a fire and set up all the Christmas decorations including the pitiful tree.

We have several toys….a nativity, a train, and some books. I only get them out once a year at Christmas time.

There were a few disagreements over who should drive the train….Joseph or Santa. Brielle solved the issue. She said “boys, Joseph is better at driving donkeys than trains.”

We couldn’t have this snowy day without making Chicken noodle soup for dinner. We love soup in the insta pot. In fact, I have planned for a different soup every night this week.