New Game

Brent began the learning of checkers last night. He was thrilled to be taught, but got tired quickly. His favorite part was being crowned and getting to be king. We may have confused him some ...trying to explain strategy and all, but he handled it really well. Considering that the age that is appropriate for that game is 9, he played well. He enjoyed jumping dad's pieces and getting 'quarters'...what he called the pieces.

On sunday night before bed, we taugth them pick up stix. They really enjoyed that game. Clayton even got into that one....he got the black stick, which you can use to pull out the stick you want next so it's not touching the others. Clayton picked up on pick up stix quickly. But then again, so did Brent. He figured that since clayton got the black stick to use, he'd just use his fingers to do the same thing. Clever boys!

All for now!

A New Week

Wanted to give all an update on our upcoming week! It's another busy one, but we'll manage like we always do. Today, this afternoon, I will be filling in for Diana at Slender Lady. She will be back from California tomorrow, but back to work on Thursday. Anyway, today I'm working from 230 til 7, and then tommorrow morning from 7 to 830. The boys will go with me...will be a long day for them, but they will manage. They like it there. Terry is hoping to get off early enough to come pick them up and take them home to start dinner. :)

Tommorrow after I finish work, the boys have Tuesday School, then tomorrow evening we have a Parents as Teachers activity. Thursday is gymnastics and then Thursday night mom and dad will be here for the weekend.

That fills us up for the next few days! I probably won't be online much but will try to keep up the blog and answer emails as much as possible.

Better go for now...Clayton just climbed on the couch by the coffee table and knocked off a coffee cup...with coffee in it! He came running to me saying, "I'm so sorry mommy...I didn't mean to!"

Enjoy your week and God bless!
Amanda

wanted to share one of my pics from the botanical gardens! the boys will be going to hannah's tonight for the weekend. they will be going to the pumpkin patch and having some fun.

brent fell last night in gymnastics and hurt his wrist. apparently he was doing a handstand and his arm buckled underneath him. the teacher said she heard it pop, and he just laid on the mat and screamed. anyway, they iced it and although he said it was still sore after class, there was no bruising or swelling. and this morning he is playing just like nothing happened. hasn't complained once of pain or soreness. will watch it and let hannah know so they will watch too. but i'm sure it will be fine.

not sure what we will do this weekend with the boys gone. tg's fall picnic is tomorrow so we will most likely go there for a while. but i told terry that we have never had a weekend where we could do nothing while the boys are gone. so i told him last night i wanted to just do a couple things and then watch football all day! it will be our only day the whole season to do nothing but watch football. then sunday we will visit another church and pick the boys up in the afternoon.

nothing much else to say. hope you all have a good weekend. will send more pictures next week of our vacation. love to all!

Is that a chicken house??

We were driving across town the other day...going to gymnastics, i think....and we drove past some people putting up a metal building in their back yard. brent popped out with, 'hey mom, it looks like they are building a chicken house like we did. but i don't see any chickens.' what a creative mind....now all metal buildings are going to be chicken houses to him! just thought i would share.

aj

Family update

We are doing well....trying to get life back to normal. However, I'm also trying to figure out what 'normal' is anymore! We try everyday to do school, but some days we just play games and read books and call that school. For now I know that is okay, but we will have to get more organized and scheduled before too long.

We are looking for a new congregation to worship with. That is going very slowly as we've not been home much to visit other churches. But we have some time and are doing what we can. It just feels a bit weird to not have a 'home' church right now. As a friends recently put it, we are nomads.

Terry just started back to work after a week off...it looks to be a long few weeks as everyone else is trying to get vacations as well.

I have been working out at an exercise place in here in Perryville and loving it. I'm out of the habit right now, since we've been gone, but am trying to get back into it this week. I'm not sure how much I"ve lost recently, but I'm continuing to exercise and just remain positive about it all.

Brent is now 4 1/2, going on 15. Somedays he is so much of a little boy, and other days he has so much teenager in him, it's hard to deal with. He asks questions of us that I wouldn't think a 4 year-old would think to ask, let alone understand the answer. Every night when they go to bed he wants to have a talk with one of us. The questions/conversations range from "What makes engines work?" to "How do we get electricity?" to "What are germs and how do they make us sick?" That is just the tip of the iceberg. We try to answer everything honestly and do the best we can to help him understand.

Clayton is growing like crazy...mostly in height! Now that we have his anemia fixed he seems to be more like the boy we had when he was a baby....up early, full of energy, and a cutup! He tries to do 'school' with me and Brent...and we are taking it slowly. He struggles with sitting still for more than 2 minutes and would rather play with me than sit and do workbooks....even one page. But we continue to play games and use every non-school method I can think of to help him learn. He is picking up on many of the math concepts we've been working on with Brent, he just doesn't show it as openly as Brent does.

Well, better sign off for now. Will try to keep this up more consistently to keep everyone informed on how we are doing.

Love, the Schafer's