Yay! We sold our Envoy SUV. What a blessing from God at a good time. We had a pleasantly busy and productive morning, the kids and I. Now it has settled down to a quiet time, so I thought I would write while I could, as it is going to get busy again very soon. 
    I love when I've gotten enough sleep and am able to rise cheerfully with the children in the morning. I am learning, slowly but surely, not to stay up till all hours trying to 'get things done', because all it does is put me off to a tired, headachey, late start the next day. Then, while I'm trying to catch a few more winks, the babies are able to get into things and undo it all. Vicious cycle. Which I'm trying to break. I couldn't believe it: last night me and Richard were in bed at 9:30. That is an amazing fact in itself. Then this morning the kids and I got up & ready early. I got a lot of housework done. Now they've had lunch & baths & are down for naps. 
    Gabriel is doing his schoolwork here beside me, working independently on his math. I'm happy he is now big enough to work on his own half of the time. Doing his worksheets, writing, math, spelling. Of course, the other half of the time is my teaching time: listening to his reading, reading to him, looking up & learning history and science together, teaching him piano & music theory, doing activities. But this quiet time when the babies are napping is his 'busywork' time. He is able to concentrate better. Often, we do our reading in the evenings, after the babies are in bed. It is like 'our time'. We like to play games, too. His current favorites are Uno, Checkers, and Concentration. I want to get Parcheesi (Parchesi?), too. I think he'd like that one.
Gracie got a little one-on-one ABC time this morning too. She liked that. We made lots of A's, B's, and C's and then looked for all the ones that were the same. For about half an hour after I left, she was still there with her paper and a blue crayon(blue is her favorite color), trying to trace the letters. I still am working on James' workbook with him too, even though he goes to preschool. I want to be the one to teach him to read. He gets so excited when he does it right. I hear this shriek, "I DID IT, MOMMY! WOOK!" Speaking of his "L's", if he's not able to say them by next year, I'm pleased that they have speech and hearing testing at his preschool and have a specialist right there at preschool to work with the kids who need help. He's 3 1/2, and sometimes I wonder if he's hearing the sounds properly. I have a sister who had deep earwax issues with her hearing at age 3, maybe he does too. 
Well, it spent the morning snowing. The kids were SO excited. They begged and begged to go out in it. We dug into our winter box and I bundled everyone up. They headed out the back door and I got all geared up to get my floors done while they were outside. Not so. Bang! Bang! Boo Hoo! "I want in, Mommy! I'm cold!" (Well, if you'd leave your mittens and hat on....:D) "Aw, come on, guys, you've only been out there five minutes. You're fine, go play for a bit longer, come on." Finally, after another five minutes of that, I took pity on them and brought them all back in to the warm house. So much for that. I need a big barn out back for them to play in during winter! Big loft and haystack and swing, set up a playhouse in there. Yes, a barn. That is the answer. I'll ask Richard to build one this evening. :D
Okay, I am hearing strange bumps and bangs from my "sleeping" children. They must be "sleepwalking". Ha Ha. Something tells me there's a 3 year old behind it.....Signing off for now!