It is very close to insanity...

Late Friday night, this Dad and Mom...

will be driving these five munchkins...

and the dog...

to Maine, my birthplace.

That is a 20 hour drive... ONE WAY! We will drive straight through (minus a visit with a cousin in PA). We have always drove it in one day. We leave at night and it makes it so much easier. As long as we are loaded up on coffee and soda. I have made it a two day trip only once, when I drove by myself (with three boys and a dog).

It really isn't too bad and it's great quality family time! See that? I am giving myself my annual pep talk!

Here are some things we don't leave home without when we are taking road trips:

1. DVD player with a couple new movies (this year, UP and Monsters v Aliens) and our old faithfuls

2. Nintendo ds x2

3. HEADPHONES...a must for this momma sanity

4. coloring books

5. crayons/colored pencils

6. paper

7. stickers

8. books

9. Tag reading system

10. Tag Junior reading system (for the girls)

11. lots and lots of snacks...

and lots of caffeine for Dad and Mom

Am I missing anything??

I am not sure if I'll get time to blog while I am there, so if not...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Back at it...

This is our third week of being back in school. Because the boys are so close in age, I have never had to deal with two year olds while trying to teach. The first week was ruff. The biggest obstacle is that the girls don't understand inside voices yet. I usually ended the school day with a huge headache. My friend, Brooke gave me a great idea about putting a table cloth down on the floor and having them play on that. I have enough "educational" toys to keep them busy for a while. They actually do very well staying busy, but we are still working on their loudness!

We took a lot of time off this summer. I don't teach school all year around, but we usually are reading or doing math a few times a week. Well, not this summer. I was so busy getting ready for Ethiopia and then once we were home, I was just trying to wade through the sicknesses that kept plaguing us and figuring out life with two more kids (I am still working on the last one). I was so worried that I would have a reteach a lot of spring semester because we didn't follow up in the summer. I couldn't believe that they have retained it all and we are making our way through the new school year. I am so proud of them. They are doing very well. Isaac and John are actually really putting forth the effort and working more independently this year. Praise the Lord!

This is our new school room. This used to be a two story entryway that my father framed in so he could make our old school room into the girls' bedroom. Didn't he do an amazing job? We love it!