This week in the Howerton Family

I find myself today sitting at my kitchen table surrounded by mounds of home school books and I find myself feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed...ok make that completely overwhelmed! You have to do the same amount of planning for one 4th grader that a teacher would have to do for a whole class and then you also have to plan for a 3rd grader and a kindergartner. You want to make sure that they learn everything they need to and that they have a fun year too. I always told myself I would stick to one curriculum to make sure I got everything in and could be organized. This year I find myself using curriculum from 3 different companies! We start school August 25...if you think about it pray for me and my boys as we embark on this adventure in our one room school with their new teacher...Mrs. Howerton. I was so distracted by my planning today that I lost track of time and before I knew it Drew and Spencer had played video games for 4 hours!! I know, that is terrible but, they usually are only allowed to play on Saturday afternoons. Baron and Zach were gone all day and the boys didn't seem to know what to do with themselves and I was trying to get some planning done so I let them play while Nate napped and yes, Nate napped the entire 4 hours...I know, I know I am a lucky lady to have a 2 year old that naps for so long!

In other news...Nate is no longer in a crib. I had to make room for school desks so his crib had to go. We have a bunk bed with a double bed on the bottom that some friends gave us. So, we have a dorm room for boys in our house...when our boys go off to college it will be no adjustment at all, they will move from one dorm room to another. Nate is so stubborn I thought for sure it would be a difficult adjustment getting him to stay in his bed. I don't know if it is because he is in the same room as the big boys and has their example to follow but moving him to a big boy bed has been a breeze. He doesn't get up until I come in and wake them up in the morning. So, I thought surely nap time will be a challenge when he is in there all alone...wrong again. No problem at all, I think he likes likes his bobop (a.k.a. pacifier) so much that he longs for nighty night time when he is allowed to have it. I do think I am the worlds luckiest mom...I have great sleepers. No bed time whines for water, potty, or anything like that. Even the twins are great sleepers. God knew I would be a really cranky mom if I didn't get enough sleep so he granted me kids that sleep through the night and nap well.
One other story about great sleepers. When we came back from furlough 2 years ago after Nate was born I was a bit emotional. I remembered the last time we came back to Romania with a newborn how long it took him to adjust to the time change. I was really struggling this time with my emotions and was worried that a lack of sleep would just push me over the top. Our first night back in Romania I put 3 month old Nate into his crib expecting to wake up with him in a couple of hours. I put him down at 7 p.m. and didn't hear a peep from him until 7 the next morning and that was that. God was so generous to me and aided my emotional recovery by allowing me to sleep through the night. From that night on, he slept 12 hours each night. It was such a blessing from God that I will never forget.
I hope and pray to have some news soon on at least a court date this month. We by law should at least get a court date in September. Please continue to pray.