Why is it more tiring getting home from vacation?

This past week between getting home from the convention and writing an ebook, I’ve been a mess.  The only thing that has kept me vaguely on track was my Illuminations (affiliate link) schedule.  It’s been a true life saver.

I’ve started writing my first ever ebook to sell!  “How to teach your kids to study the Bible,” what’s funny is as I’ve started writing this, I’ve thought of about 3 other topics to write on in that genre.  Jeff was kind enough to watch the kids for a few hours on Friday night as I banged away at my keyboard sitting at Barnes and Noble.  I’ve been adding a page or two here and there every day this week.  I’m hoping to get another round of serious time to write next week.

We went downtown to see a wonderful rendition of “Much Ado About Nothing,” probably my second favorite Shakespeare play, it was the first one I ever saw in theater class and it was a lot of fun to see.  I’d love to go see it a second time, but I don’t think the kids would put up with that one.

Monday we started back into the grind and bother of school, and the kids were both ready for it and not wanting to get started.  I introduced them to our new grammar program, Applied Grammar, and they enjoyed it a fair amount.  It starts off very simple and is slowly introducing the parts of speech.  I like it because I don’t have to buy extra worksheets, but can integrate the materials I’m already using to teach grammar.

From there we started on our new writing curriculum, using writing idea tiles, another one that I’m going to love, I can tell.  It gives you a framework for paragraphs and has really helped my kids’ writing improve in just the week I’ve been using it.

Xerxes was our big focus this week in history, and we looked into him in several different ways.  We’ve build our Hellespont bridge, but I still want to do a Battle of Thermopylae simulation.

Science was all about the brain this week in our Anatomy text book, and we’ve been having fun trying out different ideas from the book on fooling our brain and testing it.  And of course the ever popular, build your brain with play dough. Anything with play dough is a big hit.

We finished up last night with an early Mother’s Day celebration, and gave the kids a present which is going to make my life easier.  They all got the Nook Glowlight for school.  This saves them either using MY Nook or having to buy 3 copies of the book they’re all reading at the same time.  This morning they’ve all been wandering around reading their Nooks as they walked.  It makes me very very happy.

And just for amusement’s sake, my dog seems to be convinced HE should be the one sleeping in my spot on the bed.  You should have seen the glare he gave me as I came in.  Silly dog, you’re only 10 pounds, I have no problem moving you.

All in all, it’s fun for me to see all these check marks on my Illuminations schedule, it makes me happy.

Check out more Collage Friday posts over at Homegrown Learners.