a little time

the past week has been a rough one.  the flu made its way into our house, leaving me on the couch with the rest of the little ones.  in fact the only one who made it by without getting sick was lily.  she sat with us each day.  smiling, playing, just hanging out, not complaining one bit.

just being here, not rushing out the door by 7:30 in the morning arms full of backpacks, lunches, home work, permission slips, was simply wonderful.  we were miserably sick.  literally not moving an inch all day.  no one ate anything but toast and occasionally fruit.  but, it slowed us down and gave us the time together that we desperately needed.

we are now on the final days of our antibiotics and aside from a few coughs here and there. we are all well.  school is out for the holiday and we will be heading up north to visit the north pole, santas workshop, and hopefully play in some white snow.

the past few days have been challenging.  maybe because we were all home for a week, then had to go back to school, a big change in routine,  there has been a lot of fighting.  its mainly, luke, my oldest and most challenging.  he has not been all that nice to his siblings.  telling logan that he is not cool.  he calls landon a baby.  i have tried sitting with him and explaining that the things he says are hurtful, and he does not seem to get it.

so, we made a new list of house rules.  everyone participated.  there is a copy in each room to avoid any and all confusion.  follow the rules and you stay in freedom land, disobey the rules and its consequence land.  today was our first day on board and things went pretty smooth.  no one wants to be in consequence land.  there have been a few 'do overs' where they have acted out a better way to respond and act in the situation, but its working so far.   we will see how it goes over the next two weeks with us all home.