homeschool, dancing quail,and self discipline

Tuesday went well. We actually accomplished a lot. Jackson is feeling much better, and he had no fever at all yesterday. Also, he was back to being a wee bit obnoxious, so we know that he is on the mend.
Savannah finished doing the final editing on a book that she has been making for science. It is on Mammals, and she has drawn pictures and diagrams of about 30 different mammals, as well as writing down pertinent information and statistics about each one. She has been working on this for awhile, and it was nice to see the finished project. She is especially pleased with it. We got through math, Latin,Spanish,reading, handwriting,language arts,and chemistry. Not too shabby. We got Savannah to her art lesson, and Austin to his Jiu Jitsu- (Race better look out.......He is really getting good!). Because he had been sick,Jack had to sit out of Martial Arts today, and hang out with his sister. Having everyone at their various activities, I had 2 whole hours to myself-GASP!!! It was glorious. I BROWSED. Do you remember when you could BROWSE?? It was WAaaaaayyy back before you had children. Very therapeutic.
We ended our day out at Thomasina's for dinner. I took a look at Savannah's art sketches, and am so amazed by what she is doing. She has been working with shading, contrast, and shadows. I will have to figure out how to post some of her drawings. Thomasina fixed the most amazing curried Quail with an apple glaze, baked potato, salad and biscuits!! Delish! And before you begin thinking that this meal was too formal.......You have never seen my kids eat anything that they are allowed to pick up with their hands. Those poor little quail bodies were dancing, doing jui-jitsu ("oooo LOOK! I've got an arm-bar!"), singing and flapping their little bony wings,trying to fly away. And there was more than one round of the old song, "Hey, Bird Dog get away from my quail", and all of it's various unfortunate misinterpretations. It was fun. It was loud. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I spoke my youngest son's name. He redeemed himself just before heading out the door by going to Aunt Thomasina and saying, "Thank you for letting me stay, everything was delicious." And then cutting his eyes over at me to be sure that I heard that. I have lost all control.
We did not get home until after 9:00. Austin still felt that he had to get a work-out in ,(this has to do with those goals that I posted waaayyy down below for Jiu Jitsu class). He was in the basement doing pull-ups (with a 5lb weight on his waist). I was helping Savannah and Jack with the bedtime routine. I walk through the living room, and there is Austin in the floor, doing SIT-UPS. After a bit, I went upstairs to read to Jack, and tuck everyone in. Austin was finishing up his Chemistry work for the day (glad he remembered, cuz I didn't), and then explained to me that he still had to read his Bible, before he would be turning out the light! Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you Martial Arts coaches, from the bottom of my heart. My 13 yo is learning SELF discipline. I am so proud of him. Maybe he can help his mother.
I read the book that Jack wanted. It was one about animals and he drifted off to sleep with the sound of my voice reading,"they use their teeth to rip the flesh from their prey". "sniff", "sniff", my baby's growin' up. Savannah and Austin were still sprawled out on their beds reading when I came downstairs. I am pretty sure that MY light went out before theirs did.
Melissa