Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow! What a winter. We have been non-stop with school, had multiple illnesses, some of which have taken us to the hospital, and here we are with the snow still on the ground, but thoughts of warmer weather on our minds. We have traveled, played, and worked our way through months of bitter cold (yes, I think it has been lots colder this year than I remember from years past). I look to the end of this month as hopefully showing signs of the spring to come.

The latest big events involve DD. She has just turned 5 years old. Where have the years gone. She is reading at about a 1st grade level (untested) and should test at close to a 2nd grade level by early summer. She surprises me every day with the things she can read by herself. She seems to like math too (something I'm very pleased about). She was truly disappointed when she realized she had completed her handwriting book for the year. I have had to create or find replacements to finish out the year. She still misspells her name from time to time, but as most of you know, we didn't give her the easiest spelling to learn and she gets it right most of the time. I also think she is going to be quite the knitter. She just started learning, but her tension is really good and once she gets past the first stitch in a row just speeds right through faster than I can keep up. I realized quickly that she needed her own needles instead of using her brothers as shown in the picture.

The boys seem to progress faster than I can keep up, and then will get stumped on something that you would think was relatively simple. But they get it all with practice and I am very proud of them. They read at a good solid 4th grade level and math is on track for their age. Writing still stumps them much of the time. You would think a Capital letter was a foreign object, LOL. But I'm sure they will overcome this in time as well. We are working hard to be ready for assessments in early May and then celebrate with a fun and easy summer. They also moved into Wolves in Cub Scouts. They don't seem to really understand what that means, but again, they will get it in time.

DH continues to work too hard and I feel like I don't work hard enough (except for those days when the boys really don't get it - but those are very few and far between). It seems no matter how hard DH works during the day, he always feels like he should be doing more. I really have to work hard to get him to think "home" not "work". Maybe some day he will get that they don't pay him to work past 5 o'clock.

Hugs to all, and help me think spring, OK?